It has been almost three decades since the efforts to pitch groundwater against surface water began in India by a bunch of researchers and academicians, with the sole aim of proving that the former (groundwater) is better than the latter (surface water) for meeting India’s growing water demands.
When the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2025 results were released on July 2, few expected Himachal Pradesh — which ranked at a modest 21st place in 2021 — to leap into the top five. While Punjab and Kerala retained their leading positions, it was Himachal’s 16-rank jump that garnered headlines.
The Vibrant Gram Sabha and Panchayat NIRNAY portals are key digital initiatives launched by the Government of India to modernize rural governance. Designed to boost transparency and encourage active citizen involvement in Gram Sabha (village assembly) meetings, these platforms replace the old paper-based processes with efficient, real-time digital systems.
The Scheme for Transformational and Advanced Research in Sciences is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and the Department of Higher Education, established in February 2019. It operates with the main aim of promoting translational, India-centric research in sciences, to be implemented and managed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. The scheme functions to support socially relevant research in the following six basic thrust areas – Physics, Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Nanosciences, Data Sciences & Mathematics, and Earth Sciences.
India has the largest youth population in the world, with approximately forty percent of the global youth present in the country. This is often referred to as a ‘youth bulge’, which helps a country foster economic growth and innovation through the efforts of a young workforce. However, it also leads to high competition for resources and opportunities.
Bharat Maps is an integrated Geospatial Portal of the Survey of India, the National Mapping Agency of India, functioning under the Ministry of Science and Technology. It is officially the web-based GIS (Geographic Information System) portal of India, and it does offer a common and standard geospatial data repository accessible to government agencies, businesses, and individuals.