Incumbent mayors were defeated as the polls were held for 161 municipalities and 27 regional districts on Saturday.

An Indo-Canadian was elected mayor of Fernie while another person of Indian origin was re-elected as Williams Lake’s top city official as municipal election results were declared in Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia. A third Indo-Canadian was elected the Mission city’s youngest mayor without a contest a month earlier.

Incumbent mayors were defeated as the elections were held for 161 municipalities and 27 regional districts on Saturday across British Columbia, where South Asians account for 9.6% of the population, according to the 2021 census.

Harshan Ramadass, better known as Harsh, the Fernie mayor-elect, has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Bangalore University’s Visvesvaraya College of Engineering and an MBA from the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. He arrived in Fernie in 2011 to work with a resource company, and his daughter was born there.

“I am deeply honoured to be your next mayor, and I look forward to working with our new council and the entire community to turn that vision into action,” MyEastKootenayNow quoted Ramadass as saying.

Ramadass, who served on the city council for four years before entering the mayoral fray, said that, having grown up with limited means in India, he knows what it means to stretch every dollar and plan for the long term. “That mindset never leaves you — and it’s exactly the discipline I bring to how I think about public money,” Ramadass, who has worked in mining, automotive, and manufacturing sectors in the US, India, and Canada since 2003, said on his campaign website.

Surinderpal Rathor, re-elected as the Williams Lake mayor, was first elected to the city council in 1993. He served seven consecutive terms totalling 21 years, before becoming the mayor in 2022. Rathor arrived in Williams Lake in 1974 after immigrating from India at the age of 21.

Jag Gill, another Indo-Canadian, became the youngest Mission mayor a month earlier by acclamation and without a contest on September 18. He was first elected to the city council in 2018, the youngest to do so. After two terms on the council, he sought the mayor’s office.

Gill did not expect to win the election without a contest. “I wanted an election. I wanted to keep knocking on doors, put my eight-year record and my vision in front of this community, answer the hard questions, and ask people for their vote,” he said in a letter to the community.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

Chandigarh, City-based advocate Ajay Jagga on Sunday urged the Centre and the Chandigarh Administration to intervene urgently to prevent the proposed auction of nine heritage furniture articles associated with Chandigarh and designed by Swiss-French architect Pierre Jeanneret in France on October 25.

In a representation to the Ministries of External Affairs and Culture and the Chandigarh Administration, Jagga sought immediate verification of the provenance and ownership of the articles and requested that the auction be put on hold pending the inquiry.

The auction is scheduled to be held by Paris Oise Encheres in Chantilly, France.

According to the details provided in the representation, several articles are described in the auction catalogue as originating from administrative buildings in Chandigarh.

The items include a set of two Senate Committee chairs, a pair of Avocat armchairs, an Avocat sofa, a bookcase, office cane chairs, a demountable administrative office and a filing cabinet described as being in the style of Jeanneret.

The representation also lists two Easy Cane chairs whose provenance is not specified in the supplied catalogue details. Another item, a teak table, is described as having been specially commissioned for the dependencies of the Palace of the Maharaja of Patiala.

Jagga said the catalogue descriptions warranted immediate verification by the competent authorities, including examination of government inventories, disposal records, transfer documents and permissions relating to the removal of the furniture.

He urged the Ministry of External Affairs to use diplomatic channels to approach the concerned foreign authorities and auction house to seek a hold on the sale until the ownership and provenance of the articles were established.

He also sought appropriate police action wherever evidence of unauthorised removal, misappropriation, theft or illegal disposal was found.

In his representation, Jagga referred to an earlier communication dated September 25 regarding Chandigarh-linked heritage furniture and said an auction had nevertheless proceeded on October 10.

He called for a coordinated mechanism to identify, trace and recover Chandigarh’s heritage furniture that may have been removed from the country and offered for sale abroad.

The furniture designed by Jeanneret forms part of Chandigarh’s architectural and cultural history, and articles associated with the city’s administrative buildings require careful examination before their ownership and movement can be established, the representation said.

The proposed auction includes estimates ranging from 6,000 euros to 45,000 euros for individual lots, according to the supplied list, he said.

The total estimated value requires reconciliation with the overall figures mentioned in the representation.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

With over 75 % of its components sourced domestically, the vessel can tow ships in distress, provide medical aid and support disaster relief missions.

India’s push to expand private-sector participation in warship construction received a boost on Friday as the Indian Navy commissioned Samarthak, the country’s first multi-purpose vessel built by a private shipyard, at its Karwar base in Karnataka. Built by Larsen and Toubro (L&T), the vessel has more than 75 per cent indigenous content.

Vice-President C P Radhakrishnan attended the commissioning ceremony, where Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Krishna Swaminathan highlighted the vessel’s role in strengthening India’s defence manufacturing capabilities. Karnataka labour minister Santosh Lad was also present.

Samarthak is the first of four multi-purpose vessels being inducted into the Navy. Constructed at L&T’s Kattupalli shipyard in Tamil Nadu, the vessel was designed and engineered in-house at the company’s Warship Design Centre.

Swaminathan described the commissioning as a significant step towards Aatmanirbharata, or self-reliance, and underlined the importance of greater domestic participation in building the Navy’s fleet.

“This is the first major or big warship contracted to and constructed by a private shipyard to be commissioned into the Indian Navy,” he said.

Designed for a range of operational and support duties, Samarthak will help the Navy test indigenous weapons and sensors, operate unmanned autonomous systems, and conduct maritime surveillance and patrols.

The vessel is equipped with a dynamic positioning system that enables it to maintain its position at sea. It can also launch and recover targets used during naval exercises, making it a platform for testing weapons and sensors under development.

Swaminathan said such capabilities would help shorten the time required to move new technologies from the prototype stage to production, an important consideration as naval warfare evolves rapidly.

Beyond testing and evaluation, Samarthak is designed to support other ships at sea and sustain naval operations across widely dispersed areas of interest for extended periods.

Its heavy-towing facilities, medical infrastructure and firefighting equipment will enable it to assist vessels in distress and respond to emergencies at sea. The ship can also undertake humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions, besides supporting the evacuation of non-combatants from crisis-hit areas.

Swaminathan said the vessel would strengthen the Navy’s operational readiness and help turn emerging technologies into deployable capabilities. It would also support India’s ambition to act as a first responder and a preferred security partner in the region, in keeping with the national vision of Mahasagar.

The Navy chief congratulated L&T’s leadership and workforce, along with the Navy’s warship production teams, micro, small and medium enterprises, equipment manufacturers and other industry partners involved in the project.

He also called for lessons from Samarthak’s construction to be applied to future projects, with particular emphasis on improving build quality and reducing the time required to build ships.

India’s push to expand private-sector participation in warship construction received a boost on Friday as the Indian Navy commissioned Samarthak, the country’s first multi-purpose vessel built by a private shipyard, at its Karwar base in Karnataka. Built by Larsen and Toubro (L&T), the vessel has more than 75 per cent indigenous content.

Vice-President C P Radhakrishnan attended the commissioning ceremony, where Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Krishna Swaminathan highlighted the vessel’s role in strengthening India’s defence manufacturing capabilities. Karnataka labour minister Santosh Lad was also present.

Samarthak is the first of four multi-purpose vessels being inducted into the Navy. Constructed at L&T’s Kattupalli shipyard in Tamil Nadu, the vessel was designed and engineered in-house at the company’s Warship Design Centre.

Swaminathan described the commissioning as a significant step towards Aatmanirbharata, or self-reliance, and underlined the importance of greater domestic participation in building the Navy’s fleet.

“This is the first major or big warship contracted to and constructed by a private shipyard to be commissioned into the Indian Navy,” he said.

Designed for a range of operational and support duties, Samarthak will help the Navy test indigenous weapons and sensors, operate unmanned autonomous systems, and conduct maritime surveillance and patrols.

The vessel is equipped with a dynamic positioning system that enables it to maintain its position at sea. It can also launch and recover targets used during naval exercises, making it a platform for testing weapons and sensors under development.

Swaminathan said such capabilities would help shorten the time required to move new technologies from the prototype stage to production, an important consideration as naval warfare evolves rapidly.

Beyond testing and evaluation, Samarthak is designed to support other ships at sea and sustain naval operations across widely dispersed areas of interest for extended periods.

Its heavy-towing facilities, medical infrastructure and firefighting equipment will enable it to assist vessels in distress and respond to emergencies at sea. The ship can also undertake humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions, besides supporting the evacuation of non-combatants from crisis-hit areas.

Swaminathan said the vessel would strengthen the Navy’s operational readiness and help turn emerging technologies into deployable capabilities. It would also support India’s ambition to act as a first responder and a preferred security partner in the region, in keeping with the national vision of Mahasagar.

The Navy chief congratulated L&T’s leadership and workforce, along with the Navy’s warship production teams, micro, small and medium enterprises, equipment manufacturers and other industry partners involved in the project.

He also called for lessons from Samarthak’s construction to be applied to future projects, with particular emphasis on improving build quality and reducing the time required to build ships.

“Even a very successful maiden achievement can give us useful pointers to strengthen our efforts in the long term,” he said.

Addressing the vessel’s crew, Swaminathan said they had a responsibility to establish high operational standards and give the ship its purpose.

The commissioning marks a further step in the Navy’s collaboration with domestic shipyards and industry to develop indigenous technologies and strengthen India’s maritime manufacturing base.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

Cabinet clears the sale of the Centre’s 30.48 % holding and LIC’s 30.24 % stake, with regulatory approvals still pending.

IDBI Bank shares dropped more than 7 per cent on Thursday, reversing part of the previous session’s rally, as investors reacted to the proposed acquisition of a 60.72 per cent stake in the lender by Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings for about Rs 53,000 crore ($5.5 billion).

The stock fell 7.54 per cent to Rs 83.62 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), it declined 7.48 per cent to Rs 83.62.

IDBI Bank shares had surged 9 per cent before the announcement on Wednesday, adding Rs 8,086 crore to the bank’s market valuation.

Fairfax Financial Holdings will acquire a 60.72 per cent stake in IDBI Bank for about Rs 53,000 crore ($5.5 billion), in what would be the largest foreign investment in an Indian bank and a major milestone in the country’s long-delayed banking privatisation drive.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved Fairfax subsidiary M/s 10955230 Canada Inc. as the strategic buyer for the government’s 30.48 per cent stake, valued at about Rs 26,620 crore, and the 30.24 per cent stake held by state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), valued at about Rs 26,440 crore.

Fairfax, led by Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa, will pay Rs 81 per share, higher than the benchmark fair value of Rs 75.99 determined by two independent valuation agencies, an official statement said on Wednesday.

The deal marks a major milestone in the long-delayed effort to privatise IDBI Bank and reduce state ownership of commercial enterprises.

The sale process began in 2022 and faced a setback earlier this year when initial bids fell below the government’s reserve price.

The transaction still requires approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which will conduct a “fit and proper” assessment, as well as the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and other statutory authorities.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

Highlighting the operational rationale behind the move, Logitech stated that establishing assembly capabilities in India is rooted in a market-driven strategy designed to enhance operational agility and supply chain resilience.

In a significant expansion of its global footprint, Swiss technology major Logitech has officially commenced manufacturing operations in India. Partnering with a local electronics manufacturing services provider, the company has set up assembly operations at a facility in Manesar, Haryana. The move marks a major milestone in Logitech’s 45-year history as it seeks to deepen its engagement with the rapidly growing Indian market.

In an exclusive interaction with The Hindu, Delphine Donné, Vice President and General Manager of Personal Work Solutions at Logitech, alongside Sree Chenincherry, Chief Supply Chain Operations Officer, detailed the strategic vision behind their India manufacturing foray, the role of artificial intelligence in personal workspace hardware, and plans to integrate local production with their global supply chain network.

Highlighting the operational rationale behind the move, Chenincherry stated that establishing assembly capabilities in India is rooted in a market-driven strategy designed to enhance operational agility and supply chain resilience.

“For us, it is a market story of how we get closer to the consumer to build our operational agility and resilience,” Chenincherry explained. “India is an important market for us with immense potential. We have a mandate to get closer to customers here and serve them better.”

The Manesar plant has initially begun production with Logitech’s personal workspace solutions, starting with webcams, before expanding into pointing devices such as mice and keyboards. Rather than viewing the partnership as a standalone agreement, Logitech views it as the foundation of a broader ecosystem engagement.

“We wanted to work with multiple ecosystem partners because we have a diverse portfolio of products,” Chenincherry added. “Our approach isn’t simply asking a partner to build and deliver a product. It’s about helping them elevate their process, quality testing, and manufacturing standards to meet our global benchmarks.”

While the immediate focus of the Manesar facility remains catering to domestic Indian demand, Logitech acknowledged that utilising India as an export hub could present a viable long-term opportunity once local capabilities mature.

The commencement of local assembly complements Logitech’s existing commercial and research and development (R&D) presence in the country. The company operates a major R&D hub in Chennai, which serves both global product development and localized enterprise requirements.

Donné emphasised the structural advantage of combining local production with R&D and commercial operations, “Ideally, as an operations person, you want to be close to R&D and close to the market. This gives us the best of both worlds. When we started in Chennai, it was very much focused on quality control and software. Today, it has evolved to hardware engineering and built-in AI optimisation for our global product line.”

The Chennai center also enables Logitech to customise firmware, authorisation protocols, and hardware configurations for Indian enterprise clients, particularly across Global Capability Centers (GCCs) and large corporate deployments.

The push into local manufacturing comes at a pivotal juncture as artificial intelligence transforms human-computer interaction. Donné noted that the explosion of generative AI and remote working models has elevated personal workspace peripherals from simple input devices to crucial interfaces connecting users with digital AI agents.

“In the age of AI, hardware solutions have never been as relevant,” Donné said. “We are the main point of connection between users and digital systems. Our hardware acts as the extension of a user’s hands, eyes, ears, and voice to provide commands to AI tools, while simultaneously serving as the eyes and ears of AI agents.”

Logitech currently holds a dominant position in the Indian market, commanding over 40% market share in the mid-to-high-end computer peripheral segment and 75% market share in webcams. Donné revealed that Logitech is experiencing strong growth across both its consumer and enterprise (B2B) verticals in India, propelled in part by the rise of quick-commerce delivery platforms and expanding enterprise IT investments.

Sustainability also remains central to Logitech’s operational roadmap in India, they said. More than 80% of Logitech’s Personal Workspace Solutions portfolio is manufactured using post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic, alongside low-carbon aluminum and 100% recyclable cardboard packaging. The company is actively pursuing a target to halve its global carbon emissions by FY30.

“Elevating the capabilities of our ecosystem partners is crucial here,” Donné remarked. “Molding standard plastic is straightforward, but doing so using 80% PCR plastic while maintaining identical quality, texture, and structural integrity requires advanced technical standards. That is the differentiation we bring to our local manufacturing partners.”

When asked about addressing counterfeit products in local electronics hubs, Donné acknowledged the industry-wide challenge, noting that Logitech relies on continuous market monitoring alongside strong brand storytelling and product tracking technologies to preserve market integrity.

Looking ahead, both executives expressed optimism regarding Logitech’s expanding footprint in India. “We have never been as excited about the potential of Logitech in India,” Donné concluded. “Between manufacturing, AI transformation, B2B opportunities, and new product innovations, this is really a new beginning for us.”

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

The Nagastra-1R batch comes a little over a year after Rs 158-crore emergency order placed post-Op Sindoor, as forces rush to plug drone gaps.

The Army has inducted 450 indigenous Nagastra-1R loitering munitions, its largest single batch of such ‘kamikaze’ drones till now, as it scrambles to build a bigger precision-strike arsenal after Operation Sindoor.

Loitering munitions hover over a target area before diving into it with their warheads. The Nagastra family has already been battle-tested. Defence minister Rajnath Singh said earlier this year that Nagastra drones had hit terrorist targets with precision during Operation Sindoor.

The drones are made by Nagpur-based Solar Defence and Aerospace Ltd (SDAL), earlier known as Economic Explosives Ltd. The Rs 158-crore order was placed in June last year under the emergency procurement (EP) powers given to the armed forces after the hostilities with Pakistan last year.

SDAL in a statement on Tuesday said that it was the only one of four firms in the trials to meet all operational parameters. The contract required it to be delivered within a year. It took a little over a year.

The order is a follow-on to an earlier EP contract for 480 Nagastra-1 drones, inducted in 2024. The first 120 were delivered to the Pulgaon ammunition depot in June that year and the full lot came in by December.

The Nagastra-1 carries a 1-kg warhead, can strike targets up to 30 km away and stays airborne for an hour. If it fails to find a target or the mission is aborted, it can be recalled and recovered by parachute for reuse.

The IR variant has a 360-degree gimbal camera, an optional thermal camera for night operations, encrypted video and telemetry links, and a reusable launcher. The company claims a strike accuracy of 2 metres and over 80% indigenous content.

The induction comes as the armed forces race to plug critical capability gaps. A defence ministry document has itself acknowledged that domestic industry could not supply niche drones, counter-drone systems and loitering munitions during Op Sindoor.

The armed forces have since inked EP contracts worth around Rs 30,000 crore, largely for drones, counter-drone systems, radars and electronic warfare equipment.

SDAL, meanwhile, is developing the Nagastra-2 and Nagastra-3, with heavier warheads.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

Known as the “Mangrove Army”, the group was recently praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat address aired on September 27.

An ‘army’ of women, many of whom have lost their husbands in tiger attacks, are now fighting to save the Sundarbans in West Bengal, the world’s largest mangrove delta and home to more than 100 tigers.

Known as the “Mangrove Army”, the group was recently praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat address aired on September 27. The women plant mangrove saplings along riverbanks to protect their villages from cyclones and help conserve the fragile ecosystem.

Namita Kayal, 45, a resident of Lahiripur, a remote island in the Sundarbans, lost her husband to a tiger attack in 2021. He was killed while catching crabs in the creeks inside the forest. Her sister-in-law, Anita Kayal, lost her husband in a similar attack in 2017.

The two women now work with the Mangrove Army, planting mangrove saplings along the riverbanks that separate their village from the forest inhabited by tigers. The group provides them with essential household supplies in return for their work.

“My sister-in-law and I have both lost our husbands in tiger attacks. They were the only earning members of our families. Now, we both work for the Mangrove Army. We receive ration and other items for planting mangroves on the muddy banks. There are many others in the group like us who have lost their husbands in tiger attacks,” Namita told HT over the phone.

The group that is now called the ‘Mangrove Army’ was formed in 2009, after cyclone Aila devastated the Sundarbans, by Umashankar Mondal, a government schoolteacher in West Bengal. He brought together around 200 village women to plant mangrove saplings along riverbanks. Over the years, the initiative has grown to include around 600 women, of whom approximately 120 have lost their husbands in tiger attacks.

“Since 2009, we have planted more than 1.3 million mangrove saplings along the riverbanks of 12 remote islands, including Satjelia, Kumirmari and Choto Mollakhali. We have been working silently all these years, away from the focus of mainstream media. It was only in July 2023 that we officially named the women’s group the ‘Mangrove Army’. It was recently highlighted by the Prime Minister,” said Mondal, secretary of the Purbasha Eco-helpline Society, the non-profit organisation behind the initiative

The women, ranging in age from 25 to over 60, wade through knee-deep mud along riverbanks to plant thousands of saplings every year. They do not receive wages for their work but are provided with essential supplies to support their families.

“In return, we don’t get any money. Instead, we receive everyday items needed to run the family — rice, dal, cooking oil and spices. Sometimes, we also get sarees, sanitary napkins, seeds to grow vegetables, fish fingerlings for our ponds and chickens for poultry. Recently, the society organised free eye-testing camps, and those who needed spectacles were provided with them,” Anita said.

In his Mann Ki Baat address, PM Modi praised the women for restoring the mangrove forests despite the personal losses they suffered.

“In the Sundarbans of West Bengal, some women are setting an inspiring example of the special bond [that humans share] with nature. These women are growing and restoring mangrove forests. Many of these women lost their husbands in tiger attacks. After losing their husbands, they got support for their livelihood from the Sundarbans. The mangroves they had planted have now become a natural shield for the villages. They are also earning by planting these mangroves,” Modi said.

The Sundarbans comprises around 102 islands, of which only 52 are inhabited. The remaining islands are home to national parks, tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries. The region is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Mangroves serve as a natural barrier against cyclones, helping protect coastal settlements from storm surges and strong winds. The Sundarbans also acts as a buffer for Kolkata, located around 100km to the northwest, against cyclones originating in the Bay of Bengal.

However, the region’s mangrove cover remains vulnerable. Data from the Forest Survey of India (FSI) show that while the overall mangrove cover in the Sundarbans increased marginally between 2019 and 2021, the gains were largely driven by an expansion in open mangrove cover, which primarily includes plantations.

According to the FSI’s 2021 report, the total mangrove cover in the Sundarbans, including very dense, moderately dense and open mangroves, increased from 2,112 sq km in 2019 to 2,114 sq km in 2021. The moderately dense mangrove cover remained unchanged during the period.

Tiger attacks, meanwhile, continue to pose a risk to people who enter the forest to earn a living. Senior officials said such fatalities have declined over the years. At least 15 people were killed in tiger attacks in 2018, while no deaths were recorded in 2023 and one was reported in 2024. Some deaths may go unreported when villagers enter the forest without permission.

For Namita, the Prime Minister’s recognition has brought long-awaited attention to the women’s efforts on the remote islands.

“The Prime Minister himself flagged our work. It came as a huge achievement for us who work on the remote islands trying to save the Sundarbans and their villages,” she said

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headlines edited)

Jiwarajka’s auction house, Volte Una sold the piece in a new format that only puts up a single work of art for sale.

A 2002 acrylic on canvas by modernist Tyeb Mehta was sold at auction for ₹69.1 crore, setting a record for the artist. The sum surpassed the ₹61.80 crore achieved for Trussed Bull at a Saffronart auction in Mumbai in April 2025.

“A Tyeb Mehta at ₹69.1 crore is a world record for the artist, and among the highest Indian artworks sold at auction. It shows what Indian modernism is worth when a museum-grade work meets serious buyers.

“Wealthy Indians are finally realising that art is a serious asset class, and store of value,” said Tushar Jiwarajka, the auctioneer who made the sale.

Jiwarajka’s auction house, Volte Una sold the piece in a new format that only puts up a single work of art for sale. The single-lot format focuses on works that are not readily available in the market and collectibles that may surface only once or twice over several years.

Jiwarajka showed the works to collectors in Mumbai, New Delhi, New York, Dubai and London before opening the bidding on October 11 for a 12-hour window. The bidding started at ₹33 crore, Jiwarajka said. The sum includes a buyer’s premium of 15%.

“One of the earliest Rickshaw Pullers that he made,” said art critic Uma Nair, “was in 1961. It was a monochromatic work and sold at a Christie’s sale in 2004. The solitary figure was a symbol of labour as well as alienation. Tyeb never let us forget that what we are looking at is a sign of bondage. Tyeb believed that human struggle deserved to be at the core of his practise. This sensitivity of the artist resonates even today.”

Mehta, a modernist Indian painter, was a contemporary of Maqbool Fida Husain, Akbar Padamsee, Francis Newton Souza and Sayed Haidar Raza among others, and an early member of the Progressive Artists Group formed out of the JJ School of Art in 1947.

A witness to the gory realities of Partition on the streets of what was then Bombay, Mehta’s preoccupation with the human condition, and the violence that is part of our social fabric, permeated many of his early works. His style and subjects evolved over the decades, moving from expressionism in his early works to the minimalism of his later pieces.

At the turn of century, Mehta’s 1995 work, Celebration, sold at auction for ₹2.19 crore; a few years later, his 1997 work, Mahishasura, sold for ₹10.9 crore, making him the first modernist painter to achieve those sums in a public auction.

Since then, Indian painters have crossed the ₹100-crore mark: earlier this year in April, an 1890s Raja Ravi Varma oil painting, Yashoda and Krishna sold for ₹167.2 crore, while last March, an MF Husain work from 1954 fetched ₹118 crore at a Christie’s sale.

Mehta’s latest record-breaking work revisits the figure of a rickshaw puller whom Mehta has painted several times starting in the 1960s. However the figure itself, as well as Mehta’s use of colours, and utilisation of space on the canvas changed over the decades making each work unique and distinctive.

“The rickshaw is not a simple means of transport but a sign of bondage, and the slave sitting near it is naked Man, staring into meaningless space, enduring his existence,” Nissim Ezekiel wrote of Mehta’s 1961 Rickshaw Puller, when it was exhibited at the Kunika-Chemould Art Centre in Mumbai in 1970.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

Light has become more than a means of observation; it is a way to intervene, test, and uncover cause-and-effect relationships, said Nishith Gupta, professor of Biological Sciences at BITS Pilani.

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”, has brought renewed attention to using light to investigate fundamental biological processes. These include memory formation, feelings, and behaviours relevant for neurological and psychiatric disorders, as well as processes involved in infectious disease.

For Nishith Gupta, professor of Biological Sciences at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad, and founder of the Intracellular Parasite Education and Research Labs (iPEARL), the recognition has a personal significance in his own scientific journey.

Mr. Gupta’s decades-long collaboration with Hegemann at Humboldt University of Berlin, where Hegemanna is Hertie Senior Professor of Neuroscience, helped extend optogenetic approaches beyond neuroscience into his study of Toxoplasma gondii, an intracellular parasite that infects humans, mammals, and birds.

Optogenetics enables scientists to control selected cells or biological processes using light-sensitive proteins.

The Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine stated: “It all began with Peter Hegemann’s curiosity. He wondered how Chlamydomonas, a single-celled alga, is able to swim towards a light source. In the early 2000s, he and Georg Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, an algal protein with unique properties, found on the surface of the cell. When it is illuminated by blue light, a channel opens through the protein. Charged ions then flow into the cell, creating an electrical impulse. They found that regardless of which cell they put the protein in, those cells became light sensitive.” In 2005, Deisseroth showed that introducing channelrhodopsin into rat neurons allowed blue light to trigger nerve signals. In 2007, he showed light-based control in mice.

In contrast, Mr. Gupta, Mr. Hegemann and others used light-regulated enzyme adenylate cyclase, which converts adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the primary energy of a living cell, to produce cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate (cAMP). This molecule acts as messengers, helping transmit signals within cells.

Put simply, the researchers showed that light controls the enzyme, the enzyme produces cAMP, and cAMP helps regulate what happens inside the parasite (Toxoplasma gondii): how it enters cells, moves, and exits cells. This landmark study was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 2013.

While Mr. Deisseroth, Mr. Hegemann, and Mr. Nagel’s optogenetics “solves one of humanity’s great mysteries, how our incredible brain works”, Mr. Gupta, Mr. Hegemann and others’ found light-regulated signalling to investigate parasite’s lifestyle, and infection.

Mr. Gupta says that working alongside Hegemann in Berlin, with their laboratories in neighbouring departments, was an important part of this scientific journey. Joint funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) supported their collaboration.

After Mr. Gupta relocated to India, Mr. Hegemann continued to support his research through Mr. Gupta’s Wellcome Trust–DBT Senior Fellowship project at BITS Pilani. Researchers from his team continued to visit Hegemann’s group in Berlin.

For Mr. Gupta, the Nobel Prize awarded to Mr. Hegemann and his fellow laureates underscores the far-reaching consequences of fundamental research. A protein that evolved to help an alga sense light has become a tool for probing the brain, investigating infection and understanding how cells function. He says the broader lesson is that technologies developed to answer one biological question can open entirely new avenues of research.

“Light has become more than a means of observation; it is a way to intervene, test, and uncover cause-and-effect relationships,” Mr. Gupta says.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

Tamil Nadu Energy Resources Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar urged the Centre to expand the Green Energy Corridor III project to more regions of TN.

India recorded its highest-ever annual wind power installation of 6.05 GW in 2025-26, and the figure is expected to be surpassed in 2026-27, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi said on Thursday.

Inaugurating the eighth edition of Windergy India at Chennai Trade Centre, Joshi said continued growth in the sector would strengthen the foundation for achieving the target of 100 GW of installed wind power capacity by 2030. He said a strong project pipeline and supportive policy framework would help India scale up wind energy.

Tamil Nadu Energy Resources Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar urged the Centre to expand the Green Energy Corridor III project to more regions of TN.

The Union Cabinet approved Phase III of the Green Energy Corridor scheme on September 30, with an outlay of Rs 1,86,405 crore.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)