Major General (Retd.) B.C. Khanduri (91) who died due to age-related ailments in Dehradun on May 19, 2026. From soldier to parliamentarian, Union Minister and twice Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, he carried into public life the bearing of a military officer and built a reputation around restraint, integrity, and
administrative rigour.
His national imprint was perhaps strongest during his tenure as Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways in the government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
A former army officer, Khanduri served as Uttarakhand chief minister twice — from 2007 to 2009 and again from 2011 to 2012. He was also a prominent BJP leader and represented the Garhwal constituency in the 16th Lok Sabha.
Prataprao Jadhav, Union Minister of State (IC) for Ayush and Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare launched the Ayush Anudan Portal at Kartavya Bhawan, New Delhi.
The portal is developed by the Ministry of Ayush under the Ayush Grid initiative marking a major milestone in streamlining the submission, processing, approval, and monitoring of funding proposals under various Central Sector Schemes of the Ministry.
The Ayush Anudan Portal enables organisations and institutions to submit funding proposals online through a structured and user-friendly interface, thereby eliminating dependency on manual and paper-based systems.
Integrated with the NGO Darpan Portal, the platform facilitates seamless authentication and verification of applicant organisations, ensuring enhanced institutional credibility and streamlined validation procedures.
One of the key features of the portal is its scheme-wise application management system, enabling proposals to be categorised, processed, and monitored according to the specific requirements of different Central Sector Schemes of the Ministry.
The platform also incorporates a real-time application tracking mechanism, allowing applicants and officials to monitor proposal status at every stage of processing.
The portal can be accessed through the Ministry of Ayush’s MAISP (My Ayush Integrated Services Portal), the Ministry’s single-window digital initiative, or directly through the Ayush Anudan Portal link.
As India and Norway deepen bilateral engagement during the visit of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to Norway, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), GoI signed a series of important agreements with leading Norwegian research, academic and industrial organizations in Oslo on 18 May 2026.
The Memorandum of Understanding between DSIR/CSIR and the Research Council of Norway (RCN) seeks to promote cooperation in research, technology development, innovation and capacity building.
The IAF said Squadron Leader Saanya has achieved a historic first by becoming the first woman officer to earn the coveted Cat-A Qualified Flying Instructor (QFI) qualification.
It reflects the remarkable progress women officers have made in recent years across fighter, transport and helicopter streams, as well as in testing, training and leadership roles.
The Category-A Qualified Flying Instructor qualification is one of the highest distinctions in the IAF’s flying training stream. It is awarded to instructors who demonstrate exceptional standards of flying skill, instructional ability, sound judgement and operational maturity.
A QFI plays a critical role in shaping future military pilots. Their job goes far beyond teaching someone how to fly. QFIs train young aviators to make quick decisions, maintain discipline, build situational awareness and operate safely under pressure. They evaluate trainees, correct mistakes and help prepare them for the demanding realities of military aviation.
Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region and Communications Jyotiraditya M. Scindia launched the Rs. 175-crore “Coffees of Nagaland” mission, a major initiative aimed at transforming Nagaland into a premium specialty coffee destination under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for a developed Northeast.
The cluster-based Coffee Value Chain Development Mission seeks to build a globally competitive coffee ecosystem in Nagaland by integrating plantation development, post-harvest processing, branding, exports, tourism and capacity building.
The mission adopts a cluster-based approach with two pilot coffee clusters identified in the state – Tuophema village in Kohima district for Arabica coffee and Ghotovi village in Niuland district for Robusta coffee.
Minister of State for DoNER- Sukanta Majumdar
Nagaland Chief Minister- Neiphiu Rio
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) removed the investment fluctuation reserve (IFR) requirement for banks maintaining capital charge for market risk under the revised investment portfolio framework, while allowing existing IFR balances to be recognised as Common Equity Tier 1 capital after transfer to reserve or profit accounts.
Viyona Fintech has secured NPCI certification for its technology and certification framework across multiple critical payment infrastructure layers, including UPI Acquirer, UPI Issuer, IMPS, and Interoperable Banking Mobile Banking (IBMB) integrations.
With this milestone, Hyderabad-based Viyona joins a select group of fintech infrastructure players building end-to-end payment orchestration capabilities aligned with National Payments Corporation of India standards.
The completion of both UPI Acquirer and UPI Issuer capabilities gives the company the ability to participate across multiple layers of the UPI ecosystem from merchant acceptance and QR acquiring to customer-side issuance infrastructure.
Ravikanth Yarlagadda, Chairman- Viyona Infotech
Google and Blackstone have announced a new artificial intelligence (AI) cloud venture that will provide access to Google’s custom AI chips, known as Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), to outside customers.
Blackstone will initially invest $5 billion in the project, which aims to bring 500 megawatts of data centre capacity online by 2027, with plans to expand further over time.
TPUs are AI-focused chips developed by Google for training and running advanced AI models. They power several Google AI products, including Gemini, and are seen as an alternative to Nvidia’s GPUs, which currently dominate the AI chip market.
Google has already signed massive deals with AI firms like Anthropic and Meta to give them access to its TPU chips, as it pushes to expand its presence in the fast-growing AI infrastructure market.
Blackstone is the world’s biggest alternative asset manager, with over $1.3 trillion in assets under management, and the largest global provider of data centers.
The Reserve Bank promoted Gunveer Singh as Executive Director (ED), the central bank said in a statement.
Prior to this, Singh was serving as Chief General Manager-in-Charge of Department of Payment and Settlement Systems of the central bank.
As Executive Director, Singh will look after the Department of Payment and Settlement Systems, the RBI said.
Singh has over three decades of experience in the Reserve Bank having worked in areas of payment and settlement systems, banking and non-banking supervision, risk monitoring, government banking and other areas.
He has also served as a payment systems expert at the Central Bank of Oman.
Singh is a Chartered Accountant and a Cost and Works Accountant.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was presented with the historic 11th-century Chola Copper Plates by authorities of Leiden University during his official visit to the Netherlands. The return of the priceless artefacts marks a landmark moment in India-Netherlands cultural cooperation and heritage restitution.
Known as the Leiden Copper Plates, the royal charters had been preserved for over a century at the University’s Asian Library. The collection consists of 21 large and three small copper plates bound by a bronze ring bearing the seal of Chola king Rajendra Chola I. Five plates contain inscriptions in Sanskrit, while sixteen are inscribed in Tamil.
Another set of plates, carrying the seal of Kulottunga Chola I, also contains Tamil inscriptions.
The copper plates are regarded as one of the most valuable records of the Chola Empire, detailing its administration, taxation, land reforms, irrigation systems, and trade practices.
The inscriptions also highlight the dynasty’s religious harmony, recording the grant of Anaimangalam village for a Buddhist vihara established by the Srivijaya rulers of Southeast Asia. Historians believe the plates provide rare evidence of strong maritime, diplomatic, and cultural links between South and Southeast Asia nearly a thousand years ago.
Along with the artefacts, Leiden University will also hand over archival records, metadata, and related correspondence to India.
To ensure greater consistency with the Basel Pillar 3 disclosure requirements, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released draft norms on commercial banks’ capital adequacy with the aim of reducing information asymmetry and promoting comparability of banks’ risk profiles.
The Union government has notified new fuel standards for petrol blended with up to 30 per cent ethanol, the next step in the government’s push towards higher ethanol use in transport fuels as it looks to cut crude oil imports and expand its domestic biofuels ecosystem.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) notified specifications for E22, E25, E27 and E30 fuel blends, according to a Gazette notification published last week. The standards cover “admixture of anhydrous ethanol and motor gasoline for usage in the positive ignition engine-powered vehicles”.
The BIS notification, however, only lays down the technical specifications required for such blends to be introduced in the market; it does not mandate immediate nationwide sale of E30 fuel.
The move towards higher blends comes as the government readies for the next phase of its ethanol-blending programme beyond E20, after advancing the deadline for 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol from 2030 to 2025-26.
In recent months, the Centre has also begun evaluating the feasibility of higher blends such as E85, even as it assesses whether India’s fuel retail and automobile ecosystem is ready for a wider transition.
World Bee Day is celebrated globally on May 20 to raise awareness about the critical role bees and other pollinators play in sustaining ecosystems, ensuring food security, and protecting biodiversity.
The date for this observance was chosen as it was the day Anton Janša, a pioneer of modern apiculture, was born.
Today bees, pollinators, and many other insects are declining in abundance. This day provides an opportunity for all of us – whether we work for governments, organizations or civil society or are concerned citizens to promote actions that will protect and enhance pollinators and their habitats, improve their abundance and diversity, and support the sustainable development.
