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I am beginning to feel quite like ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’, who was destined to be ignored. For, I was sceptical last week about the India-EU free trade agreement. Now I am equally sceptical about the India-US trade ‘deal’, which actually a sort of statement of direction about the way to an actual deal. But I have reasons for that.Reason No. 1: Trump’s Exaggeration and U-TurnsThe very first reason for the scepticism about the India-US lovefest is that it was announced by President Donald Trump, who, in the past six months, has, in his whimsical way, executed any number…

An optical colour composite image of the viewing field taken from the PanSTARRS survey. The yellow cross-hair indicates the position of the star. | Photo Credit: DOI: 10.1126/science.adt485 When a sufficiently massive star runs out of fuel, its core collapses and triggers a supernova, a dramatic explosion that scatters the star’s outer layers into space. But scientists have long suspected that sometimes, the explosion fails and instead of a supernova, the star just… disappears.In a recent paper in Science, astronomers have reported observational evidence of such a star in the Andromeda Galaxy, dubbed M31-2014-DS1.The star was a supergiant about 100,000-times…

HyderabadStudents of Resonance Junior Colleges registered an outstanding performance in the JEE Main 2026 Session 1 examination, with 63 from the college securing above the 99 percentile, and over 505 getting the 99 percentile in different subjects.The performers, along with their parents and faculty members, were felicitated by Purnachandra Rao, Director, Resonance Educational Institutions (Telangana & Andhra Pradesh) on Friday.Mr. Purnachandra Rao highlighted the effectiveness of Resonance’s structured curriculum, experienced faculty, and personalised mentoring system. The top five students are Samriddh Bhattacharya, Revanth Vangala, Saketh Reddy Bommadi, Buneti Adithya Reddy and Settipalli Anwitha Reddy, a press release said. Published -…

The tragic collapse of the Mujpur-Ghambira bridge in Vadodara, Gujarat, which claimed 20 lives, has cast a harsh light on the state’s crumbling infrastructure and official negligence. Despite repeated warnings from locals and even internal assessments acknowledging structural risks, no action was taken until disaster struck. This in-depth ground report by The Hindu’s Abhinay Deshpande uncovers the systemic failures, community grief, and political fallout in a state where at least six bridges have collapsed in the past four years.Reporting: Abhinay DeshpandeVideo: Abhinay Deshpande and Vijaukumar SonejiScript: Shikha Kumari AEditing: Tayyab HussainVoiceover: Vishnoo Jotshi Published – July 25, 2025 10:42 am…

Budget 2026 has initiated, albeit limited, some important shifts in India’s approach to financial-sector reform. There are proposals to introduce a market-making framework for corporate bonds, develop total-return swaps and bond-index derivatives, establish an Infrastructure Risk Guarantee Fund, and recycle Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE) real estate assets through dedicated Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT). But all these reflect an implicit recognition of a deeper structural problem: Indian banks are shouldering risks that functioning markets absorb elsewhereOverburdened balance sheetsWhen Indian banks struggle, weak governance, political interference, and poor risk management are the usual explanations. Each contains some truth. Taken together,…

Sri Lanka’s Pathum Nissanka, left, shakes hands with Australia’s Steve Smith after the Lankans won the T20 World Cup cricket match on February 16, 2026 | Photo Credit: AP Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka on Monday (February 16, 2026) described his team’s win over Australia in the T20 World Cup here as “one of the best performances in recent past”. Swashbuckling opener Pathum Nissanka struck a belligerent 52-ball 100 to power Sri Lanka to an eight-wicket win and secure their place in the Super Eights. “One of the best performances in recent past. Happy about the way first innings went,”…

The sounds of the forest deepen; the rustle of bamboo, the rhythmic call of drongos and somewhere ahead, the faint alarm call of a spotted deer. A few turns later, as we round a bend, a tiger appears, reclining beneath a sal tree, its striped flank rising and falling in slow rhythm. For a moment, all sound stills. The forest holds its breath.I am on a safari at Bandhavgarh, with Guljar Singh, who has been exploring these forests for years. “The forest changes with every rain,” he says as we drive past patches of grassland and sal thickets, the sunlight…

Few public intellectuals in the country command attention across ideological lines the way Shashi Tharoor does. Whether one agrees with him or not, his writing compels engagement, and his arguments invite reflection. That is why his recent article on Pakistan in a national newspaper is particularly disappointing. Not because it lacks goodwill or rhetorical finesse, but because it rests on false, make-believe assumptions.Tharoor begins by stating that for more than two decades, “the trajectory of India-Pakistan relations has followed a grimly familiar pattern: cautious overtures, hopeful summits, and then, inevitably, a terrorist attack that derails the process”.STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS…

Pruning to let more light into the canopy often reduces one-sided flowering. | Photo Credit: Kevin Saunders/Unsplash – Gayatri ChandrashekarShrubs and trees often flower and fruit more on the sunlit side because the planet’s energy budget on that side is different.Sunlit leaves capture more usable light so they photosynthesise more and make more sugars and starch. Buds and young fruits need that carbon supply to form and grow. On the shaded side, on the other hand, the leaves make less carbon so the buds stay vegetative, the flowers abort more often, and small fruits drop more easily.Well-lit leaves also produce…

TUDA Secretary N.V. Sreekanth Babu and experts from KfW and ICLEI South Asia taking part in a meeting on transforming Tirupati into a climate-resilient city, at TUDA office on Friday. | Photo Credit: K.V. POORNACHANDRA KUMAR Tirupati Urban Development Authority (TUDA) on Friday (February 20) held a meeting to work out the details for a mission to transform Tirupati into a ‘climate resilient city’, and the KfW Development Bank, which executes international development cooperation for the German Federal government, came forward to implement the project.Notably, TUDA Chairperson C. Divakar Reddy had announced a plan to transform Tirupati into a “city…