Air India Chairman Rajiv Bansal has been appointed as the new aviation secretary as part of a major top-level bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the Centre on Wednesday. K Rajaraman, additional secretary in the department of economic affairs, has been appointed as secretary, department of telecommunications, a personnel ministry order said.

There is a significant difference of opinion within the government on the draft e-commerce rules put out by the consumer affairs ministry, a top government official said on Wednesday and flagged concerns that continuous change of the policy causes a great deal of uncertainty. The official said that unnecessary fear is created that the government's current e-commerce policy is hurting small traders. "There is a significant difference of opinion within the government on the draft Consumer Protection (e-commerce) Rules put out by the consumer affairs ministry... Continuous change of the policy causes a great deal of uncertainty," the official said on the condition of anonymity.

Extended rounds of negotiations having failed, farm leaders now reckon that their best chance to pressure the government lay in defeating the BJP in the coming assembly poll, particularly in UP, observes Virendra Kapoor.

Pfizer and BioNTech SE on Monday said trial results of COVID-19 vaccine showed that it is safe and produced robust neutralising antibody response in children aged five to 11 years, and they plan to seek regulatory approvals as soon as possible.

Pragmatism and flexibility is a virtue. An untethered and short-term approach to policymaking is a flaw, argues Mihir S Sharma.

From powering mobile devices, US chip designer Qualcomm has tied up with Ola Electric to power its electric scooters. Qualcomm is providing the key 4G connected octa core android platform which provides connectivity, computing capabilities and enables rich immersive displays with power saving software.

Attendees at the 2021 Met Gala in New York showed us how to make a bold hair statement on the red carpet.

Banks' bad loans might cross Rs 10 lakh crore by the end of this fiscal, mainly on account of slippages in retail and MSME sectors, a study said on Tuesday. "NPAs are expected to rise to 8.5-9 per cent by March 2022, driven by slippages in retail, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) accounts, besides some restructured assets," the study by industry body Assocham and ratings firm Crisil said. The study titled 'Reinforcing the Code' said the Gross Non-Performing Assets (GNPAs) of banks are expected to cross Rs 10 lakh crore by March 2022.

The NHRC said that it has received several complaints regarding the ongoing farmers' protest.

The pressure on Delhi mellowed Lucknow's ruling dispensation's initial enthusiasm to try and draw electoral mileage from the developments in Afghanistan.

Not only has the Mudra loan mela generated no jobs, it has frittered away trillions of taxpayers' money and it's time to bury the scheme, argues Debashis Basu.

When it comes to performance and affordability, how do these Indian headphones fare when compared popular international brands like JBL and Sennheiser?

In fact, the Taliban apparently collects about 10 per cent as cultivation tax from opium farmers and 15 per cent as heroin tax from laboratories and smugglers that smuggle narcotics into Pakistan. This, by itself, is a revenue stream estimated at USD 250-300 million.

With Narayan Rane, the BJP looks to expand its footprint in Mumbai and Konkan. But a perceived self-goal by him may have galvanised the restive Shiv Sena cadre and voters to coalesce around their party. Dhaval Kulkarni reports

The Centre has shared a set of parameters with all states and UTs to enable service providers and monitoring teams under the national COVID-19 vaccination programme to identify any fake COVID-19 vaccines so that they are not administered in the country.

In order to have protection against drone attacks, all the three defence forces including the Army, Navy and Air Force have signed contracts for acquiring DRDO-developed anti-drone systems.

In a short span of time, with the help of Amazon, Cloudtail was able to devise a model that could protect it from the vagaries of online retail business.

Last year in January at Amazon's flagship event Smbhav, Infosys Co-founder N R Narayana Murthy had to shorten his keynote speech from 20 minutes to about five because the event was delayed by 1.5 hours. "I will try to finish it in five minutes, because I am not used to delays," said Murthy, while addressing hundreds of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) about building businesses that last. In the audience was Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Murthy referred to Bezos' prediction that the 21st century will be the Indian century. "That confidence enhances our enthusiasm," said Murthy. The relationship between Murthy and Bezos dates to 2014, when Prione, a 49:51 joint venture (JV) between Amazon and Murthy's venture capital company Catamaran, was formed.

Walmart, the world's largest retailer, is tripling its sourcing from India to about $10 billion a year by 2027, said Judith McKenna, president, and chief executive officer of Walmart International, the segment which includes the company's operations outside the US. "To achieve this, we are growing our sourcing team in India," said McKenna, during a fireside chat with YourStory founder Shradha Sharma at Converge@Walmart, the flagship event of Walmart Global Tech India. "Walmart has a 20-year history of sourcing from India and already exports more than $3 billion worth of Made-in-India goods each year to 14 markets worldwide." McKenna said the company has expertise in processes such as international standards and demand forecasting that businesses need to get ready to export.

AY.12, a sub-lineage of Delta which is driving fresh cases in Israel, is being seen in many states in the country but the numbers need a closer examination, INSACOG, a genome sequencing consortium, has said in its latest bulletin.

The ministry of civil aviation has eased the rules regarding drone operations in the country by reducing the number of forms that need to be filled to operate them from 25 to 5 and the decreasing the types of fees charged from the operator from 72 to 4.

Union minister Narayan Rane on Tuesday defended his remarks against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, saying he hasn't committed any crime by making them.

One of Mumbai's biggest real estate redevelopment projects of Bombay Development Directorate's (BDD's) chawls (large buildings divided into many separate tenements, offering cheap, basic accommodation) has taken off in Central Mumbai, opening up a Rs 20,000-crore opportunity for real estate companies. It is expected to drive down real estate prices in Central Mumbai by up to 25 per cent, forecast real estate experts. Spread over 92 acres in Central Mumbai's prime localities of Worli, Lower Parel, and Dadar and consisting 195 four-storey houses, the BDD chawls were constructed in the 1920s.

Crisil Ratings on Wednesday said a broad-based recovery is on for India Inc currently, and upgraded its credit quality outlook to 'positive' from the earlier 'cautiously optimistic'. The rating agency said the credit ratio, which illustrates the number of upgrades to downgrades, rose to over 2.5 times in the first four months of the fiscal, as compared to 1.33 times in the second half of FY21, it said in a statement. The rating agency said it has also done a study of 43 sectors, excluding the financial sector, accounting for 75 per cent of the overall Rs 36 lakh crore in outstanding debt, which shows that the current recovery is broad-based.

The pandemic has led to the International Finance Corporation massively ramping up its impact investment in the country - its largest client nation globally - at $1.7 billion as of June, a 51 per cent rise over the past 12 months, the largest developmental lender into third world private sector said on Tuesday. This is nearly half of its investment in the whole of South Asia since the pandemic, which touched $3.8 billion as of June 2021, it said. "Our total commitment to India, which is our largest client country globally, at the end of June stood at $1.7 billion representing an increase of over 51 per cent from last year," IFC vice-president for Asia and the Pacific region Alfonso Garcia Mora said in a statement.

Anti-sabotage checks are being carried out and patrolling has been intensified across the city, including on the Yamuna river where patrolling is being conducted on motor boats by the Delhi Police. Anti-terrorist measures are being carried out in view of threat perception and intelligence inputs, they said.

A multi-layered security cover has been put in place to secure the historic Red Fort from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on the 75nd Independence Day on Sunday.

A gated community in Sholinganallur in Chennai has emerged as the second major Covid-19 cluster, seen as different from the first one at Kilpauk which was a religious gathering.

Faulting previous governments for not taking adequate measures to economically empower women in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said his government was constantly creating an environment in which women self-help groups can connect villages with prosperity as he released Rs 1,625 crore as capitalisation support fund to over four lakh such groups. In a virtual interaction with the women self-help groups (SHGs) under the "Aatmanirbhar Narishakti se Samvad" (dialogue with self-reliant women) initiative, Modi said in a changing India, opportunities are increasing for women to move forward. The movement of woman SHGs has intensified in the last 6-7 years with over 70 lakh of them working across the country, a figure over three times more than earlier, he said, adding over eight crore women are connected with these groups.

Indian Sellers Collective (ISC), a trade association of micro and small enterprises and family businesses, on Wednesday urged IT veteran NR Narayana Murthy to cooperate in the Competition Commission of India's antitrust probe against Amazon for alleged anti-competitive practices. In 2014, Murthy's Catamaran and Amazon had formed a joint venture, Prione Business Services. On Monday, the partners announced that they have mutually decided not to continue the JV beyond May 2022. ISC thanked Murthy for deciding to end the joint venture with Amazon.

IMD has decided to increasingly use cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in forecasting, both to avoid such glitches and to counter the disruption of normal seasonal patterns as a result of climate change. It has formed various internal sub-groups of senior officials and meteorologists to decide on how best to use AI and ML in predicting cyclone intensity, and in making short-range weather forecasts (those valid for up to three hours) as well as long-range forecasts.

Like on Pegasus, like Covid, there have been no answers from the government about why the situation on the economy and India's future is where it is today, notes Aakar Patel.

Lok Sabha on Thursday passed two bills before the proceedings were adjourned for the day amid continuous protests by opposition members over the Pegasus spying row and farmers' issue.

The stimulus package announced by the government for the revival of the pandemic-hit economy has been found to be "inadequate", according to a Parliamentary panel report. The report of the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector has noted that in the process of economic recovery post-first wave of the pandemic, the second wave has even more vigorously ripped the economy particularly the MSME sector. "The committee observes that the stimulus package announced by the government for the economic revival from the pandemic hit economy has been found to be inadequate as the measures adopted were more of loan offering and long-term measures instead of improving the cash flow to generate demand as immediate relief," it said.

"A first step in this direction is the new project launched by Kerala to eradicate extreme poverty. A survey, that is being conducted as part of it, will be completed within four months," the CM said.

Building 6 conventional submarines is one of the Indian Navy's most important weapon construction programmes.

The government has no plan to print currency notes to tide over the current economic crisis triggered by the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed Parliament on Monday. To a question on whether there is any plan to print currency to tide over the crisis, the finance minister said, "No Sir". Many economists and experts have suggested to the government to print more currency notes to tide over the difficult economic situation with a view to support the economy ravaged by the spread of COVID-19, and protect jobs.

First lady Jill Biden cheered her countrywomen to an upset victory over the French in the debut of 3x3 basketball at the Olympics as President Emmanuel Macron watched on from the sidelines.

'An armed helicopter equipped with counter-drone systems will provide the airborne counter-drone capability and flexibility needed to protect India's critical assets.'

'You will still want to take all the necessary precautions, which is the right thing to do.'