Author: IND Media

The kite festival in Hyderabad held during the month of January every year is a crowd puller. | Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL Sankranti arrives as a pause at the start of the year — a festival rooted in harvest, homecoming and shared rituals. It is remembered through simple, tactile moments: kites cutting through winter skies, fresh muggus traced at dawn, journeys back to villages, and meals shaped by the season’s first produce. For many, these memories form the emotional grammar of Sankranti, carried forward even as celebrations shift from fields and terraces to apartments and city streets. Nandini Reddy |…

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer joined Bangladesh’s Adviser Sheikh Bashir Uddin in signing the U.S.–Bangladesh Agreement on Reciprocal Trade. Photo: X/@USTradeRep. Bangladesh on Monday (February 9, 2026) secured a reduced 19% tariff under a trade agreement with the United States that would exempt some textiles and garments manufactured with U.S. materials, interim government chief Muhammad Yunus said.In an X post, he said Washington had “committed to establishing a mechanism for certain textile and apparel goods from Bangladesh using US-produced cotton and man-made fibre to receive zero reciprocal tariff in (the) U.S. market”.Mr. Yunus, known for his pro-U.S. stance, said the…

NEW DELHI: Amid the Budget discussion that started in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman called out DMK member P Wilson for his claim that Tamil Nadu was ignored in the Union Budget. She highlighted various initiatives unveiled in the Budget for the poll-bound state and observed that “sweeping statements like these without any basis, linked with the budget which has been presented only eight days ago, is not right at all”. Participating in the debate on the Union Budget in the Rajya Sabha, DMK and AIADMK also targeted each other over the announcements and projects for…

Social media platform Bluesky is experiencing a massive influx of users, with its user base now exceeding 16 million, as prominent figures and organisations exit X (formerly Twitter) amid concerns over upcoming terms of service changes. Bluesky, from its official account, confirmed today that 10 lakh people have joined the platform in just the last day. Notable departures from X include the Center for Countering Digital Hate, The Guardian, and former CNN anchor Don Lemon. Bluesky’s website attracted approximately 1.2 million visitors on November 6, surpassing Meta’s Threads website visitor count of 950,000, though Threads maintained higher app usage. The…

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday made it clear that it “will not allow any impediment in conduct” of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in any state. The observation fell from a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that West Bengal was deliberately indulging in derailment of SIR. He apprised the bench that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has filed a fresh affidavit detailing the alleged unruly behaviour of state officials. The affidavit has some “alarming facts. Violence has been instigated by their (state) leaders. It…

Thane: The Thane Crime Branch Unit 4, based in Ulhasnagar, arrested three men and solved 12 cases involving fraud and robbery targeting senior citizens across Thane and Mumbai. Police also arrested a jeweller who allegedly helped dispose of the stolen items.During the operation, officials recovered 130 grams of gold jewellery with an estimated market value of Rs 16.99 lakh. The police, however, did not reveal the total cost of the gold or ornaments siphoned.The arrested individuals were identified as Raju Prakash Chavan (48) from Wadala, Ramesh Vijaykumar Jaiswal (49) from Chembur, and Sanjay Dattaram Mangde (53) from Chembur. A fourth…

New Delhi: Delhi currently has 8,998 EV charging points against a requirement of 36,177, leaving a shortfall of 27,179, or 302%. Delhi govt has set a target to increase the total number to 16,070 by the end of this year.The situation is similar in neighbouring NCR districts. At present, Gurgaon and Faridabad have no public EV charging points, against requirements of 20 and 26, respectively. Noida has 69 charging points against the required 150 while Greater Noida has only three and needs 13 more. In Ghaziabad, there are 126 public charging points as opposed to the requirement of 450, leading…

Bengaluru: Due to sustained govt efforts and increased parental awareness, cases of worm infestations among children came down drastically over the last few years. Ahead of National Deworming Day on Feb 10—when children in schools and anganwadi centres are administered deworming tablets—doctors said that while pinworm infections were still seen, soil-transmitted helminths such as roundworms and hookworms reduced significantly.”We rarely see cases of roundworms, hookworms or tapeworms anymore. Roundworms caused serious complications, including intestinal obstruction, and hookworms were a major problem as each worm would suck 0.5 ml of blood daily and lead to anaemia. Hookworms were common among barefoot…

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) is staring at a tough summer, as the gap between the city’s growing water demand and stagnant supply continues to widen. The water board added nearly 50,000 new connections in the past year, but the city’s total water supply has not increased, intensifying pressure on an already stretched network.According to HMWSSB, domestic connections have surged by over six lakh in the past decade, from eight lakh in 2016 to 14.2 lakh by the end of 2025, driven by rapid urban expansion and a housing boom. Yet, water supply has remained…

Chennai: Union railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday rejected Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin’s charge that railway projects in the state were delayed due to the non-release of funds by the Union govt, reiterating that land acquisition by the state govt was the key delaying factor.In a series of posts on X, Vaishnaw also dismissed the charge that Union govt was not sanctioning new railway projects to TN. “Budget allocation to Tamil Nadu has increased more than 8.5 times since 2014, reaching ₹7,611 crore in 2026–27,” he said adding the Centre continued to sanction new lines, doublings and…