Checks in place, in next batch only one firm with member stake: Govt

Underlining that its newly created fund to support deep tech companies had adequate safeguards to deal with conflict-of-interest situations, the government Friday said that in the second cohort of firms selected, there was just one of 13 in which a selection committee member had a stake.

Expecting FCRA Bill, Cong issues whip for MPs; Opp allies to follow

Anticipating the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the House and the likely introduction of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 on August 10, the Opposition Friday took the first step to ensure that all its members are present and the numerical strength of the bloc can be on show.

House panel calls for new satellite to monitor forest fires in Himalayan region

Flagging Gaps in monitoring, regulation, and management of forest fires, a parliamentary standing committee has made a slew of prescriptions, including prioritising the launch of a geostationary satellite for round-the-clock monitoring. The recommendations were made in a new report - 'Forest fires in the Himalayan Region, its adverse effects and mitigation measures' - tabled in both Houses of Parliament on Friday.

Oil companies reject E20 contamination claim, say pan-India testing shows quality as per norms

Three Public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) on Friday issued a joint statement rejecting contamination claims on ethanol-blended petrol.

According to the statement, intensive and large-scale testing of ethanol-blended petrol supply chain showed that samples for E20 fuel-80 parts petrol and 20 parts ethanol from across the country had moisture and chloride content within prescribed limits, with only a couple of isolated incidents of higher elevated levels coming to light.

India identifies 27 places in Arunachal by standard names on official map

With China repeatedly renaming some places in Arunachal Pradesh, India on Friday formally identified 27 places and geographical features in the state by their standard names on the official Indian map.

"Identifying them formally on the Survey of India map of Arunachal Pradesh is aimed at facilitating their accurate recognition and better awareness among the public at large," an official statement said.

Maharashtra bans 114 literature items 'linked to terror outfits'

The Maharashtra government prohibited the publication, circulation, possession and storage of 114 literature items which allegedly spreads extremism and promotes radicalisation, and are linked to terror outfits including the Islamic State.

Stating the banned literature promotes radicalisation, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Friday, "The main concern was radicalisation. Through these material, there was an attempt to promote radicalisation. In some cases it talked about how to make bombs and how to stage violence. "The banned literature items include magazines, articles, social media posts, audio and video files.

Corporate investments look up, but reveal weak consumer demand

Last Week's GDP column looked at the data for the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which hit a 23-month high in June. The IIP maps changes in the volume of production in Indian industries.

Most of the growth in industrial production was being used for making capital goods, infrastructure goods and intermediate goods (that is, unfinished goods that go into making other goods). At the same time, the IIP growth in use of consumer goods remained weak for the better part of the past year, especially the past quarter.

This suggested a lingering weakness of consumer demand in the economy.

New cybersecurity threat? Concerns over unpredictable behaviour of Al agents

In Recent weeks, four separate disclosures involving OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and the UK's AI Security Institute (AISI) have raised fresh questions about how Al agents are tested before deployment.

The AISI, a government-backed research organisation that evaluates the safety and capabilities of frontier Al models, disclosed Tues-day that Al agents powered by Anthropic's experimental Mythos 5 and OpenAl's flagship GPT-5.6-Sol had engaged in unauthorised actions during cybersecurity evaluations designed to assess their capabilities.

Food Security Act amendments will hurt the poorest

The argument is that it will reduce the variation in per-capita entitlements within the Antyodaya category. This is like reducing the salaries of peons on the ground that it will reduce wage disparities between peons and chowkidars

Import diversification is not the whole solution

Ultimately, every arrangement India counts as protection deserves one question: What would have to go wrong for this arrangement to fail, and does it fail for the same reasons as the one it replaced?

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pak sign defence deal amid West Asia crisis

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a joint defence agreement in Mecca on Friday, wedding Sunni Muslim US allies alarmed at a regional conflagration that has brought Iranian missile fire onto Gulf oil ex-porters. Iran and its allies have been firing on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, and blockading their energy shipments, since the US and Israel attacked it on February 28 in a major escalation after years of regional tumult.

Trump signs orders to limit US birthright citizenship, despite Supreme Court ruling

US President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Thursday in a new but narrower attempt to curtail birth-right citizenship, once again challenging a provision of the US Constitution even though the Supreme Court rejected his previous effort.

Protecting Indian cos' outward FDI part of model BIT review: DEA Secy

Ensuring the rising foreign direct investment (FDI) by Indian companies is protected is an "entirely new dimension" the government is seeing in its negotiations even as it continues its review of the model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), Economic Affairs Secretary Anuradha Thakur said on Friday, adding that it will soon be sent to the Cabinet for approval.

Solar manufacturing push: Govt weighs PLI for local polysilicon production

The Government is preparing a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for polysilicon manufacturing as it seeks to deepen India's solar manufacturing value chain and reduce import dependence.

Polysilicon is a key raw material used in solar photovoltaic (PV) modules and India currently relies completely on imports for it.

Land requirement for small N-reactor could be reduced by a third: DAE

Land Requirement for 220-megawatt electric (MWe) small nuclear reactor units could be reduced to less than a third, subject to radiological impact assessment, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) told the Parliament on Thursday.

"The present typical land requirement for 2x220 MW PHWRs is about 330 hectares. The possibility of reduction in land usage up to about 90 hectares, subject to radiological impact assessment, is being evaluated," DAE said. This comes as the government opened up the tightly regulated civil nuclear power sector to private participation last year, drawing interest from global nuclear technology suppliers from Russia, the US and France.

'UPI's growth needs money, small payments won't face MDR'

Any Potential Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI may apply to only a small fraction of transactions, a senior payments industry official told The Indian Express, with more than 95% of transactions facing no such fee. The source added there is no link between India-US trade talks and any potential fee on UPI transactions.

In 2025-26, only 4% of person-to-merchant (P2M) UPI payments were greater than Rs 2,000. However, these 4% of transactions made up around two-thirds of UPI payments by value.