A 14-year old schoolboy, who was trying to take a selfie on his cellphone atop a stationary train wagon, was electrocuted and died a few hours later on Tuesday evening, officials said. The incident happened at Nahur station yard in Mumbai when the victim, Sahil C. Eshwarkar, allegedly climbed atop a goods train wagon parked…

Chennai: Chennai’s K Prithika Yashini is all set to become India’s first transgender Sub Inspector of Police after winning a legal battle at the Madras High Court yesterday. In a landmark decision, the Madras High Court on Thursday directed Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) to appoint Yashini – a transgender – as Sub…

A team of Australian scientists has discovered a gene in a “magical” plant that will open the door for space-based food production, especially during deeper human missions, including to Mars. Professor Peter Waterhouse, a plant geneticist at the Queensland University of Technology, discovered the gene in the ancient Australian native tobacco plant Nicotiana benthamiana —…

Boosting the government’s ambitious ‘Digital India’ drive, social media giant Facebook has come forward to facilitate state-run BSNL in setting up 100 Wi-Fi sites in rural areas of western and southern India. Facebook will spend Rs. 5 crores per annum for sponsoring these 100 Wi-Fi hotspots in the country. “Facebook has partnered with us to…

Stating that India has “one of the largest nuclear power programmes” among developing nations, a US-based think-tank on Monday said by the end of 2014 India had enough weapon-grade plutonium to possess an estimated stock of atomic weapons in the range of 75-125. “An estimate of India’s nuclear arsenal can be derived by considering its…

New Delhi: Eight more birds from India have been added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of threatened species for 2015 indicating increased threat to avian habitats like grasslands and wetlands. With the additions in the latest Red List of birds released by the IUCN, an international environmental NGO, the…

India plans to shift to Euro-VI emission compliant petrol and diesel by 2020 to cut carbon pollution, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday. “We already have BS-III, equivalent to Euro-III specifications, across the country and BS-IV, in major cities which will shortly be extended to the entire country. A revised Auto Fuel Policy is…

NEW DELHI: Mobile companies are not ready to pay you a penalty for call drops and have rather warned that tariffs may go up if they are forced to pay consumers for providing deficient services. While they have petitioned telecom regulator Trai for rolling back its order on penalty, it is understood that they will…

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aspiration to turn the country into a top investment destination has got off to a positive start, with India now ranked by the World Bank at 130 of 189 countries on “Ease of Doing Business.” That is up 12 places from its original ranking last year and four places from its…

New Delhi:  A powerful earthquake of 7.5 magnitude centred in Afghanistan, has killed nearly 280 people, including 12 Afghan schoolgirls who were crushed in a stampede as they tried to flee their collapsing school. At least 214 people, including eight children, have died in Pakistan and over thousand are reported injured. The earthquake shook north…