A series of deceptions were at the core of the plan to conduct stealth military strikes across the Line of Control. This included aggressive diplomatic moves to isolate Pakistan and a military configuration that suggested air strikes as the preferred mode of action.    Top government officials told ET on the condition of anonymity that the operation by special forces personnel on September 29 was preceded by moves such as […]

Pictures taken on Norfolk beach capture a body with human-like features Mystery find at Great Yarmouth has the skull of a man but the tail of a fish Debate rages online over possible explanations for the eerie discovery A man claims to have found a mermaid washed up on a windswept Norfolk beach. If it’s true, she had deserted warm tropical waters to swim among the oil rigs, fishing trawlers, […]

Love that wonderful earthy smell that comes with the first rain of the season? Known as petrichor, this ethereal essence is a medley of molecules that rises from thirsty soil soaking in the long-awaited drops of rain. If you wish you could capture the wonderful scent of wet earth into a bottle, an old city in Uttar Pradesh made that possible a long time ago. The perfume of petrichor is […]

A giant dinosaur footprint measuring 106cm long and 77cm wide has been found in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. The ancient footprint as big as a fully grown person was discovered by a team of Japanese and Mongolian paleontologists. The fossil, which researchers claim could be the world’s biggest dinosaur footprint ever found, belongs to the Titanosaur, a long-necked dinosaur and could have been more than 30m long and 20m […]

The country needs to build 2.3 million (23 lakh) toilets every month – or a formidable 56 toilets every minute – to meet the government’s target, the report said. Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mega Swachchagraha campaign, that aims at building a toilet for every home till by 2019, lagging far behind its target? A survey carried out by Down to Earth Hindi magazine claims even Modi’s own Varanasi constituency […]

Public health concerns and the collective good should overrule all arguments for responsible drinking that most governments in the world In striking down the Bihar Excise Act which bans the sale of liquor across the state, the Patna HC has set the cat among the pigeons. By being cheeky in challenging the ban as a violation of basic tenets of the Constitution, the judgement calls into question whether arbitrary and […]

I was in Bangalore a week ago and while discussing potential places for a day trip, I suggested Nandi hills – as a girl who is unsure of her surroundings in an alien land, Nandi hills seemed like a legit suggestion. Soon after my suggestion, I was stared at dangerously and things had come to an abrupt halt inside our apartment, and everyone had the same reaction to “Nandi Hills” […]

With the deadline for Indians to disclose their hidden black money under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) 2016 finished on Friday, reports suggested that the total amount declared was over Rs 65,000 crore. India Today reported that the department would recover tax worth around Rs 30,000 crore in its kitty (at 45 per cent) on the declared amount. However, in a surprising turn of events, Mumbai came second in declaring […]

Two years ago, entrepreneur Ravindra Pal Sood, a resident of Jawahar Nagar in Jaipur, noticed that the incessant chirping of sparrows in his neighbourhood had lessened considerably. He realised that something was amiss, and soon found that the tiny, round, brown bird, once ubiquitous, was fast disappearing. House sparrows, taxonomically classified as Passer domesticus, are intimately associated with human habitation. They nest in man-made structures such as eaves or walls […]

Two American lawmakers have introduced legislation in the US Congress to designate Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism, in a humiliating setback to Islamabad ahead of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s speech before the UN General Assembly. The bill, H.R 6069 or the Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act, enjoins the U.S administration to make a formal call on the matter within four months of its passage. The President […]