Following rigorous technical assessments, five African countries have successfully stopped the spread of polio, marking an important milestone in efforts to protect children from this virus and advance towards eradication.Teams from the Independent Outbreak Response Assessment (OBRA) conducted separate assessments between January and June 2026,
reviewing disease surveillance, laboratory and epidemiological data. They concluded that transmission has been interrupted in Burundi, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Congo, and Uganda. Based on these findings, the WHO Regional Office for Africa confirmed the closure of these poliovirus type 2 outbreaks.
The closures reflect years of sustained government leadership across the five countries and the dedication of health workers, communities and partners. Assessments of outbreak response quality, population immunity, disease surveillance performance and vaccination campaigns confirmed the successful interruption of transmission.
However, these achievements must not lead to complacency: the risk of poliovirus reimportation remains, as demonstrated by the recent detection in Madagascar following its previous outbreak closure, underscoring the need to sustain high-quality surveillance and strong population immunity.
Outbreak closure is a country-specific technical determination based on evidence demonstrating that transmission associated with a particular outbreak has been interrupted.
Closure process includes an independent review conducted by an Outbreak Response Assessment team, followed by a technical review and decision by the WHO Regional Office for Africa.
Odia poet, essayist, and former scientist at CSIR-IMMT, Ashutosh Parida will receive this year’s Sarala Puraskar, an annual literary award given by the Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust (IMPaCT) , the charitable arm of Odisha-based industrial house, Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys Ltd (IMFA).
His poetry collection ‘Bishwas De Pruthwi’,
published by Prabha Publication in year 2024 was adjudged as inspiring compendium by IMPaCT.
The award ceremony will take place in Bhubaneswar on October 25, wherein the writer will be presented with a citation, copper plaque and award amount of ₹7 lakh.
On 23 August 2023, India’s long journey to the Moon reached a defining moment. Vikram descended through the silence of space and touched down gently near the lunar south polar region, making India the fourth nation to achieve a soft landing on the Moon—and the first to reach this unexplored frontier.
The Pragyan rover rolled onto the lunar surface, carrying India’s scientific curiosity into a new realm. The landing site was named Shiv Shakti Point, and 23 August was declared National Space Day. On 23 August 2026, India will celebrate its third National Space Day,honouring an achievement that transformed a distant dream into a proud national milestone
India and Singapore are set to deepen cooperation in semiconductors, digital connectivity, fintech, green hydrogen, healthcare and industrial parks, while working to strengthen trade in agricultural and processed food products, as the two sides seek to give greater momentum to their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
The areas of cooperation were discussed at the fourth India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR) in Singapore , attended by senior ministers including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce & Industry
and Electronics & IT Jitin Prasada, along with their Singaporean counterparts.
The Ministers noted the progress achieved under the ISMR pillars, such as significant increase in UPI-PayNow Connect transactions, implementation of the pilot for registration of Indian generic medicines in Singapore; export of litchis, mangoes, cherries
and plums from India to Singapore.Other progress areas evaluated by the two sides included approval of Indian establishments by Singapore Food Agency for export of processed poultry products to Singapore, development of the National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) for Skilling in Chennai, organisation of the 4th Singapore-India Hackathon in Singapore,
forthcoming rollout of the Green Lane Initiative for Semicon, green hydrogen supply chain development; and opening of Singapore Business Federation office in Bengaluru.
The Himachal Pradesh Forest Department signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business (ISB-BIPP) to unlock the state’s estimated ₹22,600 crore untapped forest and pastoral economy potential through science and technology-enabled governance.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Dr Sanjay Sood on behalf of the Forest Department and Executive Director of BIPP, ISB, Professor Ashwini Chhatre on behalf of the institute.
The findings have been compiled in a joint publication titled “Counting Green Wealth”, with maps generated for seven species, including khair, bamboo, chir pine, amla, wild mango, sal and rhododendron.
According to the inventory, five major bio-resources alone have an estimated ₹22,600 crore in untapped value. These include amla at ₹8,700 crore,
pine needles at ₹5,500 crore, wild mangoes at ₹4,800 crore, sal seeds at ₹2,400 crore and rhododendron flowers at ₹1,200 crore.The MoU covers four broad areas: development of forest economies and community enterprises, creation of a Forest Intelligence Platform, development of a grazing portal and pastoral database,
and training and capacity building for Forest Department personnel and producer companies.
Razorpay, India's Omnichannel Payments Platform for Businesses, today announced the launch of the Multi-Currency EEFC Account, enabling exporters and international businesses to receive payment settlements directly into their Exchange Earners' Foreign Currency (EEFC) accounts in the original transaction currency.
With this launch, merchants can receive settlements in USD, EUR, GBP, AED, and SGD directly into their EEFC accounts through Razorpay's banking partner ecosystem, eliminating the need for immediate conversion into Indian Rupees (INR).
The recovery in southwest monsoon in July helped kharif sowing to reach closer to normal levels, partly easing some of the risks to the farm sector. About half of India’s working population depends on agriculture and allied activities.
RBI officials emphasised that the rise in the consumer price index based inflation, above the central bank’s 4 per cent target, to 4.45 per cent in July from 4.38 per cent in June was mainly due to supply-side pressures. While this uptick was fuelled by food and beverage prices, core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices,
remained unchanged, reaffirming “the lower pass-through of cost pressures”.Central bank officials also highlighted that financial conditions are characterised by high credit growth, comfortable liquidity and softening G-sec yields, backed by a rebound in capital inflows.
Forecasts by different agencies indicated that gross domestic product (GDP) growth is likely to have eased to a four-quarter low of around 7.2 per cent in the June quarter, from the 7.8 per cent seen in the March quarter of FY26.
In a relief to importers, the Union government has revised the conditions for the import of duty-free raw sugar, removing the October 31 deadline to process the imported sugar and sell the refined product in the domestic market.In a gazetted notification , the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) modified the previous August 20 order
which required raw sugar imported under the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) to be processed into refined sugar sufficiently in advance for its sale in the domestic market by October 31.
Under the revised condition, the imported raw sugar must be converted into white or refined sugar and sold domestically within a period not exceeding two months
from the date of filing the Bill of Entry, which is the customs declaration filed by an importer for an incoming consignment.The import cut-off of October 31 remains unchanged.
The decision came after the industry raised concerns over the earlier October 31 deadline. Shipments from Brazil, a key potential source for sugar imports,
take around 40-45 days to reach India. Port handling, transportation to refineries and other import procedures add further time before the raw sugar can be processed. Once the consignments arrive, refiners also need time to convert the raw sugar into white or refined sugar and release it into the domestic market.
The Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), has released the “National Report on Deep-Sea and Distant-Water Fishery Resources of the Indian EEZ”, presenting a comprehensive assessment of marine resources and ecosystems to support the sustainable development of India’s Blue Economy.
Released as part of CMLRE Silver Jubilee celebrations, the report brings together nearly four decades of oceanographic research and three decades of systematic surveys conducted across India’s 2.37 million square kilometre Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The document assesses fishery resources while also emphasising biodiversity conservation
and sustainable resource management.The report examines resources across the mesopelagic or “twilight zone”, extending from 200 to 1,000 metres below the ocean surface. These waters contain species such as lanternfishes, deep-sea shrimps and cephalopods, while their vertical migration plays an important role in the ocean’s biological carbon pump
and global climate regulation.
It also provides an assessment of demersal resources along the continental slope beyond 200 metres, including deep-sea shrimps, perches, scombroids, flatfishes and eels. The report further compiles information on distant-water species such as tunas, billfishes, sharks, oceanic squids and Antarctic krill.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports announced the National Sports Awards 2025.
The National Sports Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports.
Based on the recommendations of the Selection Committee chaired by a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra, the Government has decided to confer awards on the following sportspersons, coaches and entities under various categories.
In Uttar Pradesh, the 140-year-old ‘Parichha Dam’ in Jhansi has now received international recognition. International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) has recognized the historic dam as a ‘World Heritage Irrigation Structure (WHIS)’.
Parichha Dam will also receive ‘WHIS Award-26’ during the 26th ICID International Congress
and 77th International Executive Council Meeting to be held in France in October. The department received a letter from ICID on August 13 informing it that the 140-year-old Parichha Dam in Jhansi would be presented with the ‘WHIS Award-26’ during the 26th ICID International Congress
and 77th International Executive Council Meeting in Marseille, France, on October 14. Department officials have been invited to attend the ceremony.
Located on Betwa River in Jhansi, Parichha Dam has played an important role in irrigation system of Bundelkhand for nearly 140 years. It is a key component of Betwa Canal System,
which supplies water for agriculture to drought-prone areas of Bundelkhand. Parichha Dam is 1174 meters long and stands about 16.8 meters above the riverbed. It has 318 steel gates used to regulate and release water as required.Parichha Dam also supplies water to Parichha Thermal Power Project, which has a power generation capacity of 920 MW.
NITI Aayog has released a report assessing India’s regulatory framework for professional services and benchmarking it against select foreign jurisdictions, with the aim of identifying challenges and policy measures to strengthen the sector and unlock the potential of India’s skilled workforce.
The report, titled “India’s Services Sector: Insights on Regulatory Regime in Professional Services”, was launched on August 10 by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Ashok Kumar Lahiri at a meeting of the High-Powered ‘Education to Employment and Enterprise’ Standing Committee.
NITI Aayog CEO Nidhi Chhibber and Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) Secretary Saurabh Garg were also present at the launch. Senior officials from central and state governments, industry associations, academia and other stakeholder groups attended the event.
SpaceX launched 27 Starlink internet satellites into low Earth orbit on Saturday, marking the 100th Falcon rocket mission of 2026 and another milestone for the company’s rapidly increasing launch cadence.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the satellites lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 3.25 am EDT (12.55 pm IST).
The mission was the 99th Falcon 9 launch of the year. The only other Falcon mission in 2026 was carried out by a Falcon Heavy, which launched the Viasat-3 F3 telecommunications satellite in April.
Reaching 100 Falcon missions this early in the year highlights SpaceX’s aggressive launch schedule.
However, the company still has some way to go to match its annual record of 165 Falcon launches, set in 2025. All of those missions last year were performed by Falcon 9.SpaceX’s satellite ambitions extend far beyond the current constellation. The company has said it wants to launch 1,00,000 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites in the coming years.
