No need to worry about US Section 301, we will tackle it... confident of a good trade deal: Goyal

DAYS AFTER the Trump ad-ministration proposed 12.5% tariffs on India and 53 other countries after a United States Trade Representative (USTR) trade investigation under Sec-tion 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974 declared that these coun-tries failed to impose a legal prohibition on "importation of goods produced wholly or in part with forced labour", Com-merce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said Sunday he didn't think there was any need to worry about Section 301, and that "we will tackle it". 

Rock marks, game boards: Wildlife trail leads to prehistoric past in Aravalli

FOUR MONTHS ago, a wildlife trail through the rocky outcrops of the Bhondsi stretch of the Aravalli forests in Gurgaon led wildlife enthusiasts to a stone surface marked with dozens of carefully carved cup-shaped de-pressions, geometric grids, and a large foot-shaped engraving.That spot has since been identified as a cluster of ancient petroglyphs (images or designs carved or engraved on rock), possible stone game boards, and stone tools-part of a wider archaeological pattern emerg-ing from the Aravalli belt where, researchers say, evidence from multiple prehistoric phases ap-pears to survive within the same landscape. 

Among global capitals, Delhi ranks second in bird diversity'

THE DELHI Bird Atlas, released on June 5, which claims to have mapped the distribution and abundance of bird species across the city for the first time, has placed it "second only to Nairobi among the world's na-tional capitals in bird diversity". The atlas cites the rare mix of the city's geography, including the northern edge of the Araval-lis, proximity to the western Hi-malayas, the Yamuna and Sa-hibi floodplains, and its location near the Central Asian Flyway (CAF) - a key bird migration route stretching from the Arctic down to the Indian Ocean - as the primary reason behind the bird diversity.

India, Indonesia deepen cooperation in defence, maritime security, infra

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Minister S Jaishankar and his Indonesia counterpart Sugiono held bilat-eral talks on Sunday as the two nations agreed to advance cooperation in defence, maritime security, digital connectivity and infrastructure. The two leaders also discussed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's likely visit to Jakarta next month. Jaishankar co-chaired the 8th India-Indonesia Joint Commission Meeting with Sugiono in New Delhi. 

Want to resolve border issues with India via diplomacy, says Nepal Foreign Minister

NEPAL WANTS to resolve the border row with India through diplomacy as no problem is too large if both sides sit across with an "open heart", Nepal Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal said in New Delhi on Sunday, talkingto reporters just before concluding his two-day official visit to India. 

For survivors of SC trafficking, plan focuses on consent, dignity

THE SUPREME Court last month said that considering that the "existing vacuum seriously impairs the fundamental rights" of the victims of trafficking for commercial and sexual exploitation (CSE), it was "left with no option but to pass de-tailed directions" by framing a Victim Protection Plan. This will operate until Parliament enacts a law on the protection and rehabilitation of victims of CSE. 

Why energy tankers are using risky dark fleet ploy to cross Hormuz

FOR YEARS now, ships involved in sanctioned and illicit trade have "gone dark" to avoid detection-that is, switched off their automatic identification system (AIS) transponders to make themselves virtually invisible to authorities and other vessels. This dark shipping practice has largely been limited to the "shadow fleets" transpor-ting sanctioned Iranian and Russian oil. But as the US-Iran war drags on, for energy tankers looking to sail through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, avoiding detection is increasingly becoming a necessity. This has brought this risky tactic out of the margins. 

Amid global shocks, activate growth drivers within domestic control

The expected slowdown in major export destinations, could reduce opportunities for goods exports. Also, the two 'good luck' factors that supported growth and kept inflation benign last year have turned adverse

Facing stress, economy will need a leg up

THE INDIAN economy grew at a healthy pace in the fourth quarter (January-March) of the last financial year (2025-26), despite the conflict in West Asia that had begun to cause widespread disruptions to global energy markets and trade towards the end of the quarter. GDP growth has been pegged at 7.8 per cent for the quarter by the National Statistics Office, driven by a buoyant services sector. This takes growth for the full year to 7.7 per cent the highest in the last three years. However, at 8.9 per cent, nominal growth was the lo-west. It was also significantly lower than the 10.1 per cent assumed in the Union budget. 

Rain & fertiliser shortfall can be an opportunity

INDIA'S FARM sector grew by 4.2 per cent in 2024-25 and 3.2 per cent in 2025-26 on the back of two good monsoon years. Rainfall for the country as a whole wa was 104 per cent of its long period average (LPA) in 2024 and 110 per cent in 2025, with the southwest monsoon season (June-September) alone registering nearly 8 per cent surplus precipitation in both years. This year, the prognosis isn't great due to an El Niño, expected to return after a strong event from around June 2023 to April 2024. Global models indicate a weak-to-moderate El Niño developing in the current monsoon season. The India Meteorological Department has already forecast a below-normal monsoon, with overall rainfall at 90 per cent of LPA for the four-month season. 

Policy is undoing what science built. That's a challenge for Cotton Productivity Mission

Had India continued on the production trajectory between 2002 and 2014, cotton output in 2026 would have reached 65.3 million bales. The actual figure in 2025-26 is 29 million bales. The gap is the accumulated cost of a decade of policy failure 

NFHS-6 data on child nutrition has sobering warnings

THE HEADLINE from NFHS-6 on child health is heartening. Stunting - children who are too short for their age-has declined nationally from 35.5 per cent to 29.3 per cent. That is a substantial improvement and deserves recognition. However, read in full, NFHS-6's child nutrition story presents a more complicated picture: National gains are uneven, several large states have deteriorated, and key drivers of child nutrition re-main deeply concerning. 

Bangladesh & Turkey agree to strengthen defence, political ties

BANGLADESH AND Turkey have reached an understanding to form a joint ministerial level committee on defence and foreign affairs to strengthen bilateral political cooperation. The decision was announced Saturday after a meeting between Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who arrived in Dhaka on a three-day visit. 

‘Forex measures, FII bond tax leeway could attract $60-80 bn'

DEPENDING ON how they are executed and the final guide-lines, India could see inflows to the tune of $60 billion-$80 billion from the various measures announced by the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday to attract foreign capital - from the scrapping of capital gains and with-holding tax on foreign institutional investors' (FIIs) investment in government debt to concessional windows to boost foreign currency deposits and loans - according to Devang Shah, Head of Fixed Income at Axis Mutual Fund. And while these steps appear adequate, there remains space to take more action, if needed. 

Why Andhra Pradesh plans to let data centres buy & distribute own electricity

DATA CENTRES, the massive facilities that power artificial intelligence (AI), are among the largest consumers of electricity in an economy. As the Al boom drives up the demand for computing power, governments are increasingly being forced to re-think how these facilities access and procure electricity. The Andhra Pradesh government, which has lofty AI ambitions for the state, has announced a first-of-its-kind policy move to address this issue - let data centres function under the tag of a power distributor by granting them a deemed dis-tribution licence (DDL). 

Nvidia, SK to detail chip cooperation plan

NVIDIA AND South Korea's SK are expected to announce a plan for cooperation between the two companies on Monday, with the boss of the US chip-maker saying that the ongoing memory shortage would per-sist for "quite a few years". 

OPEC+ decides on fourth oil quota hike since Hormuz closure

London: OPEC+ agreed on Sunday a fourth increase in its oil output targets in as many months, even though the US war with Iran is still preventing several of the group's members from pumping more. The war has cut oil flows via the Strait of Hormuz, creating the world's biggest-ever supply crisis as key OPEC+ members including Saudi Arabia have been unable to supply customers in full since the end of February.

'Indian cos got far less govt support than Chinese peers in 2005-24'

New Delhi: Indian firms received significantly lower government support than their Chinese counterparts during 2005-2024, according to an OECD (Organisation for Econ-omic Cooperation and Development) report. OECD MAGIC Database of Industrial Subsidies measures what firms actually receive (not what governments disclose), covering 525 of the world's largest manufacturers across 15 key sectors over 2005-24, through three instruments: grants, income-tax concessions, and below-market borrowings (cheap state-bank loans). 

Why Kerala and Bengal face Nipah with varied outbreak risks

IN JANUARY, two healthcare workers at a private hospital in Barasat, West Bengal, tested positive for Nipah virus. Investigators traced the outbreak to a 55-year-old woman who had consumed raw date palm sap purchased from a local vendora known food-borne spillover route also seen in Bangladesh. She later died of acute respiratory distress syndrome and multi-organ failure.