Not seeking mediation on border dispute: Nepal FM

Kathmandu is focused on establishing Nepal's claim on the Kalapani-Li-pulekh-Limpiyadhura trijunction and is not "asking for mediation" by third parties, Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said here on Sunday.

A targeting in the name of demography

India is on the cusp of a demographic upheaval. Fertility rates across the country have been falling for decades and are now on or below replacement levels. We will soon have to shift from the challenges of finding jobs for the youth bulge to preparing to care for an ageing population.

The Demographic Change Committee may become a platform to institutionalise the targeting of minorities. 

Testing times

GDP data reveal some strengths, but they will come under strain

The GDP growth data released on Friday simultaneously portray recent economic strength and reveal some reasons for worry. The provisional estimates of GDP growth for 2025-26 have been pegged at 7.7%, which is marginally higher than the 7.6% predicted by the government in February. This suggests that March, the first full month since the West Asia crisis erupted, did not see enough of an impact to affect the full year's growth. 

From borderland to India's strategic resource frontier

Within days of one another, official platforms of the Ministry of Mines cast several northeastern States in a similar frame - as repositories of strategic minerals and untapped potential. Manipur was described as a "quiet mineral frontier", Arunachal Pradesh as a "resource-rich frontier", while Meghalaya and Mizoram were portrayed through comparable narratives that emphasised the hidden wealth beneath their hills. Governments routinely publicise natural resources and development opportunities, and such descriptions would ordinarily attract little attention.

Critical mineral ambitions must account for the people, land and history of northeast India.

Missed call

India must brace itself for a deficient southwest monsoon

The southwest monsoon reached Kerala on June 4, three days past its normal date and four days behind the India Meteorological Department's own forecast. This is the first time since 2015 that the agency has misjudged the onset beyond its margin of error. A late arrival, in itself, is no calamity. The date on which the rains touch the Kerala coast has little statistical bearing on how much falls over the four months that follow. 

How ICMR is rewiring the health ecosystem

The roadmap to 2047 will be shaped by advances in digital health, bio-manufacturing, and sustainable development, with a strong emphasis on capacity building and global collaboration. 

India's pension scheme lags in terms of coverage, contribution

The Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) the Government of India's flagship cash assistance scheme for the elderly under its National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) – is in dire need of a revamp as it remains frozen in time, since 2007, both in terms of the sum of ₹200 it offers per person per month and the roughly 2.2 crore beneficiaries it covers. The States and Union Territories (UTS) add their own contributions, ranging from ₹150 to 2,000, on top of the ₹200 offered by the Union government for the 60-plus age group or the ₹500 it offers for the 80-plus category. 

The Ordinance question before the SC

The Collegium's acceptance of an Ordinance that creates four additional judges' posts raises questions about judicial independence, security of tenure and the appearance of detachment from the executive; court has taken a calculated risk by staking its independence on the goodwill of the government and Parliament. 

Bangladesh to raise issue of 'push-ins' in BGB-BSF talks

Bangladesh said on Sunday that the issues of alleged "push-ins" by India and border killings will be discussed at an upcoming meeting between the heads of the two countries' border guarding forces.

The 57th edition of the biannual Director Gener-al-level border coordination conference between the Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) will be held in New Delhi between June 8 and 11. 

India, Indonesia review bilateral ties as Jaishankar meets his counterpart

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's expected visit to Indonesia, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his Indonesian counterpart Sugiono held the 8th India-Indonesia Joint Commission meeting here on Sunday. 

Efforts on to establish Al ecosystem for the judiciary, says CJI

Observing that the Supreme Court has consciously approached technology as an aid to human reasoning rather than as a substitute for independent judicial thought, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said that considerable emphasis has been placed on developing "Swadeshi jurisprudence". 

'Detailed NFHS report will provide a broader picture'

Union Health Ministry sources addressed criticism directed at "missing" indicators, such as anaemia, sanitation, and coverage of clean cooking fuel, in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-6 factsheets saying those are being monitored through dedicated national surveys and administrative data-bases, and were not "duplicated" in the preliminary release. 

Russian strikes kill five, hit nuclear storage facility: Kyiv

Russia fired waves of drones and other munitions at Ukraine on Sunday, killing at least five persons and damaging a nuclear storage facility in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukrainian officials said.

Homo erectus fossil yields secrets long thought to be beyond genetics

Radiometric dating techniques have confirmed that multiple human species had coexisted on the earth at various points

While the Human Genome Project in 2003 provided humans with a sense of unique identity, later studies showed the presence of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA in the modern human genome

A recent study on enamel from Homo erectus teeth has revealed a protein variant never found before in the genus as well as another variant present in Denisovans

It was known that the Denisovan genome contains DNA from a much older species of human lineage and the study, while not conclusive, points to Homo erectus as a possible candidate. 

Pyroprocessing: heat shows the way.

Pyroprocessing is a way to change a solid material physically or chemically using high temperature. It is a dry process and very energy-intensive. The three sectors that use it most are cement-making, metallurgy, and nuclear power.