Environment

UPI completes 10 years, transaction surges to Rs 314 lakh crore

From a transaction value of Rs 7000 crore in the Financial Year 2016-17, when it was launched, to a whopping Rs 314 lakh crore in FY26, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India has come a long way and completed a decade of operations. The digital mode of payment has now become a staple for almost every Indian citizen with transaction volumes surging nearly 13,000-fold since its launch, while the platform has expanded into 11 countries and emerged as the world's largest real-time payment system by transaction volume, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday.

2026-08-24T09:44:19.530833+00:00 IST

OpenAI announces 3.2 GW AI data centre campus in Georgia

OpenAI on Wednesday announced plans to develop a 3.2-gigawatt artificial intelligence data centre in Effingham County, Georgia, under Project Camellia, committing USD 80 million in community benefits and up to USD 71 million in Codex credits for students as it expands AI infrastructure in the United States.

2026-07-22T15:52:34.323069+00:00 IST

TN: Customs at Trichy Airport seize gold worth over Rs 1 crores

In two separate incidents Customs officials of Trichy Airport seized gold worth one crore rupees from two male passengers.

2023-11-13T00:46:22.806816+00:00 IST

Plastic waste and "from thin air" clean, sustainable fuels

Researchers have shown how carbon dioxide from industrial operations or even straight from the air can be gathered and converted into clean, sustainable fuels using just solar energy. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, developed a solar-powered reactor that converts captured CO2 and plastic waste into sustainable fuels and other valuable chemical products. In tests, CO2 was converted into syngas, a key building block for sustainable liquid fuels, and plastic bottles were converted into glycolic acid, which is widely used in the cosmetics industry.

2023-06-19T16:48:03.899914+00:00 IST

Method creates window to study distribution of elements in plants

Plant roots are crucial in the uptake, selection, enrichment, and retention of a variety of mineral elements, which supply distant plant tissues with nutrients and sequesters excess metals. A variety of ion transporters found at roots mediate the absorption, efflux, and intracellular compartmentalization of various mineral elements to carry out such element-specific tasks.

2023-06-13T13:21:17.239885+00:00 IST

A few steps you can take to manage e-waste

Since technology has advanced so quickly over the last few decades, it is difficult to envision life without smartphones, GPS navigation systems, laptops, and other electronic devices.

2023-06-04T14:53:42.505029+00:00 IST

Early warning system based on AI can classify tsunami risk

In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles and Cardiff University in the U.K. developed an early warning system that combines state-of-the-art acoustic technology with artificial intelligence to immediately classify earthquakes and determine potential tsunami risk.

2023-04-26T17:39:13.816761+00:00 IST

More News

Environment

New ways discovered to estimate long-term coastal cliff loss

The work was conducted in Del Mar, California, a beach town in San Diego County with infrastructure atop its coastal bluffs.

2023-04-18T14:06:22.583991+00:00 IST

Environment

Temperature dominant factor in dissolved oxygen in U.S. Rivers

Oxygen concentration is an important measure of water quality because fish and other aquatic organisms require dissolved oxygen to breathe, according to Wei Zhi, assistant research professor of civil and environmental engineering and first author of the study, recently published in Nature Water.

2023-04-13T10:05:31.119000+00:00 IST

Environment

Research shows how plants control nitrogen use

Plant biochemist Soichi Kojima and colleagues at Tohoku University discuss their findings and future plans about how gene and protein control systems that regulate the use of nitrogen by plant roots could help develop crops that require less nitrogenous fertilizers to produce acceptable yields.

2023-04-12T11:48:29.771175+00:00 IST

Environment

Ocean warming can trigger viral outbreaks within corals

The breathtaking colours of reef-building corals come from photosynthetic algae that live inside the corals. A groundbreaking three-year study has found that viruses may increase their attacks on these symbiotic algae during marine heat waves.

2023-04-05T09:20:47.169139+00:00 IST

Environment

Housing plays key role in disaster preparedness: Study

But a new national study found that housing is also important before disasters happen: People with homes not meeting federal quality classifications and those who are housing insecure tend to be less prepared to face natural calamities.

2023-03-26T09:45:58.379273+00:00 IST

Environment

Change in temperature risks bees prone to pesticides: Study

Certain pesticides, particularly a class called neonicotinoids, are known to impact bees and other important insects, and are thought to be contributing to population declines. However, bees' reported responses to this threat across the world often seem to vary, suggesting other interacting factors are at play.

2023-03-26T09:33:19.676297+00:00 IST

Environment

Activity deep inside earth has an impact on global magnetic field

New research from geophysicists at the University of Leeds suggests that the way this super-hot core is cooled is key to understanding the causes of the peculiarities -- or anomalies, as scientists call them -- of the Earth's magnetic field.

2023-03-25T09:56:30.148859+00:00 IST

Environment

Activity deep in Earth affects the global magnetic field

2023-03-20T09:57:13.275319+00:00 IST

Environment

Satellites observe speed-up of glaciers on Antarctic Peninsulal

A team of researchers, led by scientists at the University of Leeds, has used more than 10,000 satellite images, taken above the Antarctic Peninsula between 2014 and 2021, to understand how the flow of glaciers into the waters around the Antarctic alters during colder and warmer periods.

2023-02-28T17:05:02.930716+00:00 IST

Environment

Endangered Bahamas bird may be lost from island

The endangered Bahama Warbler may be surviving on just one island following Hurricane Dorian's devastation in 2019, according to researchers at the University of East Anglia. A new study shows the bird's distribution and ecology in Grand Bahama before the hurricane struck.

2023-02-25T00:50:52.375180+00:00 IST

Environment

Climate 'spiral' threatens land carbon stores: Study

Dramatic changes to forests, and other habitats that store carbon in plants and soils, are becoming more likely in some regions across Earth, with less carbon consistently absorbed by the 'land carbon sink' provided by trees, soil and plants, according to scientists writing in Nature

2023-02-24T01:16:11.945204+00:00 IST

Environment

Ice sheet movement can shed light on sea level rise

Using extensive satellite measurements, researchers from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and University of Copenhagen's Niels Bohr Institute have conducted a study that shows how movements of the ice sheet appear to be closely linked with meltwater flow beneath the ice.

2023-02-22T23:30:25.063662+00:00 IST

Environment

Deep-sea black carbon comes from hydrothermal vents

Associate Professor Youhei Yamashita and grad student Yutaro Mori at Hokkaido University, along with Professor Hiroshi Ogawa at AORI, The University of Tokyo, have revealed conclusive evidence that hydrothermal vents are a previously unknown source of dissolved black carbon in the deep ocean. Their discoveries were published in the journal Science Advances.

2023-02-13T16:44:56.925520+00:00 IST

Environment

Indian students advocate for ecological rights

Amid rising environmental problems, over 300 children from India presented their recommendations on the draft of UN General Comment 26 (GC 26) to Mikiko Otani, the United Nations Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

2023-02-06T16:44:45.163830+00:00 IST