National

Sundeep Bhutoria, Chairman, Chaltabagan Durga Puja, with diplomats and consular corps from Britain, France, Estonia, Guatemala, Germany, Italy, Sri Lanka and Ukraine Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], September 27: On the World Tourism Day, in a heartfelt celebration of heritage and community, the timeless lanes of North Kolkata witnessed a unique confluence of cultures today. The Chaltabagan Durga Puja pandal became a bridge between worlds as Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Consular corps from across the globe immersed themselves in the profound spirit of the festival, experiencing the fading, poetic charm of a bygone Kolkata. The delegation, representing a tapestry of nations including the United Kingdom, Estonia, France, Guatemala, Germany, Italy, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine, was welcomed by...

New Delhi [India], September 27: India’s free trade deal with EFTA goes live in October 2025. Piyush Goyal says it’s just the start, India’s economy is flexing, and the world is lining up. India’s Big Play: FTA with EFTA Mark your calendars: October 1, 2025. That’s the day India’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, takes effect. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal dropped the news at the UP International Trade Show, and it landed like a thunderclap. This isn’t just paperwork. It’s India telling the developed world: the shop is open, and the shelves are stacked. After years of negotiation, the deal was wrapped up in March 2024. Now it’s execution time. Why It Matters? India already locked FTAs ...

Kochi (Kerala) [India], September 27: When empty social gestures often overshadow genuine compassion, Ajit Ravi chose a different path. In 2015, while serving as Superintendent of the Fire and Safety Department at Cochin International Airport Limited, he launched the 100 Life Challenge — a mission to support 100 lives through unwavering personal sacrifice. What began as a project to fund critical heart surgeries for the underprivileged grew into a wider initiative covering medical aid, education, and essential services. For 100 consecutive months, Ajit donated 100% of his post-tax salary for eight hours of work to charity. Even during the turbulent pandemic years, when salaries were uncertain, he ensured that his contributions never stopped. Rooted in the principle of Individual Social Res...

New Delhi [India], September 27: India didn’t just mark World Tourism Day 2025; it flexed. From global tie-ups with Netflix to digital overhauls, the Ministry of Tourism put sustainability front and center, aiming straight for Viksit Bharat 2047. Tourism as a Power Play World Tourism Day 2025 wasn’t a token ribbon-cutting. Delhi’s event, themed “Tourism and Sustainable Transformation”, brought in heavy hitters across government, academia, and industry. The clear message: India wants to play offense, not defense, in global tourism. Chief Guest Shri Suman Bery, Vice Chairperson of NITI Aayog, didn’t mince words. “Tourism is not just about leisure; it is a powerful instrument for economic transformation, environmental stewardship, and social inclusion.” Translation: stop treating tourism like...

In a historic development to prove the technological capability and the efforts put in by a country to be self-reliant, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched  Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) 100 per cent indigenous “Swadeshi” BSNL 4G network stack. This was a monumental milestone that places India in the list of a mere five countries in the world, including China, Denmark, Sweden, and South Korea, that have the entire end-to-end capability to design, develop, and bring into deployment a homegrown 4G mobile telecommunication infrastructure. The introduction, which coincided with the commissioning of more than 97,500 new mobile 4G towers around the country, is a new step in digital inclusion. The Swadeshi 4G stack is a robust creation of a joint ecosystem of government and corporat...

New Delhi [India], September 27: India just reminded the world who’s boss in food. At World Food India 2025, over ₹1 lakh crore in MoUs were signed in two days. Numbers like this don’t lie. Ambition? Check. Scale? Check. Global leadership? Absolutely. PM Modi Declares India the Global Food Leader at World Food India 2025 On 25th September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the fourth edition of World Food India at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. His message was blunt: this summit isn’t a networking event. It’s a statement. “World Food India has emerged as the event of context, content, and creativity. India’s unique strengths, its diversity, demand, and scale give it a decisive competitive edge in the global food economy,” he said. PM Modi toured the exhibition pavilion, inspecting in...

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 27: BIG FM, one of India’s largest radio networks, has announced its association as the Official Radio Partner of the IndianOil New Delhi 2025 World Para Athletics Championships. The prestigious event is scheduled to be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium from 27 September to 5 October 2025. Organized by the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI), the championships mark the first time this global para-athletics event is hosted in India, bringing together over 2,500 para-athletes from around the world. This landmark event underscores India’s commitment to inclusivity and sporting excellence. Through this partnership, BIG FM will leverage its extensive reach across metros and regional markets to build excitement, raise awareness, and spotlight the inspir...

New Delhi [India], September 26: India’s statistics engine just got a major digital upgrade. At the 29th CoCSSO, MoSPI unveiled new portals, an AI-powered website, and project-tracking tools designed to make government data sharper, faster, and future-ready. A Conference That Actually Delivered For once, a government conference wasn’t just talk. At the 29th Conference of Central and State Statistical Organizations (CoCSSO), the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) put action on the table: new digital products aimed at making official data easier to access, standardized, and AI-ready. The lineup included a redesigned MoSPI website, the National Metadata Structure (NMDS) Portal, a brand-new infrastructure monitoring platform called PAIMANA, and pilot use cases of artif...

New Delhi [India], September 25: India just pulled the trigger on a big move against cyber fraud. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND) inked a deal to swap fraud data in real time, and it could change the game for digital payment security. (DoT-FIU MoU) When you think about cyber fraud in India, it’s no longer about a shady caller trying to get your OTP. Today’s fraud rings are slick, tech-heavy, and multi-layered. With India’s digital economy booming, the risks have multiplied. DoT and FIU-IND decided enough was enough. On September 25, they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to finally link telecom intelligence with financial intelligence. In plain English: phones and bank accounts will start talking to each other. Fraudsters wo...

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], September 25: Jubilee Hills has always been a tricky patch of Hyderabad. Affluent blocks rub shoulders with middle-class colonies, and the people here are sharp, vocal, and impatient with empty promises. This year’s by-election is more than a contest over one Assembly seat. For Congress, it’s a test of whether it can still make a mark in the city. The party is relying on Mynampally Hanumanth Rao to carry that burden. Hanumanth Rao isn’t new to high-pressure battles. Nearly ten years ago, while heading BRS’s Hyderabad unit, he pulled off what many considered impossible. In the 2016 GHMC elections, the party went from zero corporators to 99. That was not luck, it was planning, discipline, and a sharp sense of the city’s pulse. People still talk about how he mov...