Modi flags trust amid turmoil, Takaichi underlines: 'Build ties as brother, sister'

Positioning Economic security and energy resilience as the defining pillars of the next phase of their bilateral ties, India and Japan Thursday unveiled a raft of initiatives in this direction amid shifting geopolitics and global energy disruptions owing to the West Asia crisis.

These include a joint roadmap on economic security, a new framework on mobility, and an artificial intelligence (AI) partnership.

From strategic stockpiling to AI ecosystem, roadmap is rolled out

In the wake of global energy supply disruptions, India and Japan Thursday came out with a joint statement on energy resilience during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, expressing their shared intention to work together as responsible powers and major energy-consuming countries in Asia.

Govt looks at stricter

rules for VPN providers:

Office in India, appoint compliance officials

The Centre is working on an expansive legal framework to curtail virtual private network (VPN) providers that could require them to establish a local India presence and appoint key personnel to serve as a liaison with the government, The Indian Express has learnt.

This comes after a controversial directive in 2022 by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In) which required VPN service providers to store a vast amount of customer data, including their names, email IDs, contact numbers and IP addresses.

Modi and Takaichi discuss West Asia crisis, Ukraine conflict

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi weighed in on a host of global and regional issues, including cross-border terrorism from Pakistan, Gaza rebuilding, the ongoing Ukraine conflict, Strait of Hormuz and West Asia crisis and the situation in South China Sea and East China Sea.

In the joint statement released after the summit talks, both Modi and Takaichi stressed "the importance of securing free and safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, maintaining stable supply chains for energy and other essential goods, and upholding international law". They also stressed advancing the comprehensive plan to rebuild Gaza and live up to the commitment of ensuring a two-state solution.

Govt brings stem cell, gene therapies under Central licensing ambit

The Central government on Thursday amended the Drugs Rules, 1945, bringing stem cell derived products, gene therapeutic products and xenografts under the ambit of the Centrally Licensed Approving Authority (CLAA) framework to enhance regulatory oversight of new and emerging therapies.

Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, certain drugs and biological products are under joint regulatory supervision of the Central and State regulators. These include vaccines, large volume parenterals and r-DNA based medicines.

Delhi-Tokyo ties face the future

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's visit to India this week comes in a time of growing uncertainty over the US approach towards China and the Indo-Pacific. While the first Donald Trump administration adopted a confrontational policy towards Beijing and invested in building regional coalitions to contain its rise, Trump 2.0 has favoured transactional one-on-one engagement over coalition-building. The Pentagon's decision to revert the Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) to its original name, Pacific Command (PACOM), the 2025 National Security Strategy's narrow conception of core US interests in the Indo-Pacific, and the recent Trump-Xi summit have all fuelled concerns about Washington's reliability as a long-term partner for Asian countries wary of China.

Trump's Quad retreat opens door for India, Japan, Australia

The Quad was not intended to be solely an American project. The intellectual foundations were laid largely by Japan, particularly through the vision articulated by Shinzo Abe.

Birthright citizenship survives, but immigrants remain vulnerable

In a 6-3 ruling, the United States Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional commitment to birthright citizenship, thereby affirming the Fourteenth Amendment to the American Constitution. Under its terms, any child born in the United States (except for those of foreign diplomats), regardless of the citizenship status of the parents, is deemed to be an American citizen. The decision, from a Supreme Court that has given the US President a series of legal victories, came as a major blow to Donald Trump, who has been railing against this constitutional right.

Sanae Takaichi's visit: What India and Japan can do to boost their business ties

A Statistic often cited to illustrate the underperformance of India-Japan business relations, despite the otherwise flourishing strategic partnership, is the number of Japanese companies operating in India -1,500. Thailand, in contrast, has around 6,000 Japanese companies.

Of the 1,500 in India, just 1% account for over half of all business. And most of this business, in turn, comes from a single sector-automobiles - thanks largely to the early commitment to India by Suzuki Motor Corporation in the 1980s.

Reliance on coal soars as weak rains drag hydro output by 19.5%

The Country is leaning more heavily on coal to meet surging electricity demand this summer, as rainfall deficit has squeezed hydropower output. Hydro generation fell 19.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 13,361.96 million units (MU) in June, down from 16,593.07 MU a year earlier, according to data from the National Power Portal.

At the same time, coalfired generation climbed to 117,677.69 MU in June 2026, the highest for the month in the past three years. That was 13.9% higher than June 2025, 3.9% above June 2024, and 14% higher than June 2023.

New withdrawal rules, same PF contribution rates

The Ministry of Labour and Employment has notified Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 2026, in line with the Code on Social Security, replacing the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 1952. The recent decisions taken by the retirement fund body, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) regarding partial withdrawals, streamlining of withdrawal categories, have been incorporated in the new scheme along with an explicit mention about mandatory and voluntary contributions above the statutory wage ceiling.