The National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSS&LUP), a Nagpur-based ICAR institute, has prepared India's first soil texture map, offering digitised soil classification at hectare level nationwide. Soil texture depends on the proportion of sand, silt and clay.
A new global drought resilience architecture was unveiled at UNCCD COP17. It includes the world's first Drought Resilience Index (DRI), which measures a country's ability to anticipate, prepare for and withstand droughts using AI-powered analytics and vulnerability mapping for data-driven planning. It also includes the Drought Resilience Investment Facility (DRIF), a global financing platform to scale up drought-resilience projects.
A survey has recorded 165 butterfly species, 37 of them endangered, in Dehing Patkai National Park, Assam. The park spreads over 234.26 sq km in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts and is one of the surviving stretches of Assam Valley Tropical Wet Evergreen Forests. It forms the core of the 937 sq km Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve.
India aims to set up its own space station by 2035, and ISRO has approved the first module of the proposed Bharatiya Antariksh Station, called BAS-01. The station is planned as a 52-tonne facility in low-Earth orbit at 400 to 450 km altitude, able to host three to four astronauts for three to six months.
India received $30.7 billion in gross Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in April-June 2026, the highest in at least 15 years, nearly 46% above the previous quarter and about 15% above April-June 2025. Net FDI for the quarter was $7.8 billion, the highest since June 2022.
Ten days after both Houses were adjourned sine die on August 13 at the end of the Monsoon Session, the Lok Sabha had not yet been prorogued. The gap is usually two to four days, though the two sometimes happen on the same day; it was 28 days in 2015 and 20 days in 2021.
Tamil Nadu has amended its law to safeguard government appointments made over the past 15 years under the Persons Studied in Tamil Medium (PSTM) quota. The 2010 law reserves 20% of direct recruitment vacancies for candidates educated in Tamil medium. The change follows a 2025 Madras High Court ruling involving 84 serving employees who had claimed the 20% preference.
Tamil Nadu announced new industrial parks and worker accommodation in the State Assembly. ₹130 crore will fund housing for over 2,500 workers at the SIPCOT Industrial Park, Gangaikondan. A 2,570-acre clean and renewable energy industrial park will be built at Mudivaithanendhal, Thoothukudi, at ₹1,390 crore, and a 1,294-acre electric vehicle manufacturing park at Sillanatham, Thoothukudi, at ₹774 crore.
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