National

aharashtra is gearing up for massive civic polls across 29 municipal corporations, including the prestigious Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Ahead of the Municipal elections, South Mumbai Returning Officer Krishna Jadhav requested the people of Mumbai to cast their votes in the municipal elections.

In 2022-23, by January 13, 97.67 LMT of paddy was purchased from 2,214,302 farmers, and Rs 20,022 crore was paid. Against all these benchmarks, 2025-26 has surpassed every previous year, both in the quantity procured and in the total amount paid to farmers.

During the event, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan extended Pongal greetings to the people of Tamil Nadu, beginning his speech with a greeting in Tamil. Acknowledging that he could not speak Tamil fluently, he said he had made an effort, as Tamil was a great and powerful language with rich cultural and communicative strength.

Iran continues to witness unrest, with the protests entering their 20th day on Wednesday. What began as demonstrations over record inflation and the steep fall in Iran's currency has now expanded into widespread nationwide unrest, with reports of agitation across more than 280 locations.

The discussions focused on strengthening bilateral cooperation through enhanced trade, capacity building, startup exchanges, joint R&D, best-practice sharing, and collaboration in mariculture and allied sectors.