India relies heavily on groundwater for drinking and irrigation, but rapid, unregulated extraction has led to widespread contamination.
India’s groundwater crisis
India depends on groundwater for about 85% of its rural drinking water needs and around 60% of irrigation water.
Despite an increase in rainfall over the past decades, groundwater replenishment is insufficient due to excessive withdrawals and encroachments on natural recharge zones.
Medical tourism, the practice of traveling across borders for affordable, high-quality medical care has grown into a global industry, with India now holding a significant position as a preferred destination.
What is Medical Tourism?
Cost Advantage: Procedures can cost 60–90% less than in Western countries, making quality care accessible to a broader international clientele.
Cost Advantage: Procedures can cost 60–90% less than in Western countries, making quality care accessible to a broader international clientele.
The 11th National Handloom Day was celebrated at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.
National Handloom Day
The handloom sector played a vital role in India’s freedom movement. The Swadeshi Movement, launched on August 7, 1905, championed indigenous industries, especially handlooms, as a form of economic resistance to colonial rule.
In honour of this legacy, August 7 was declared National Handloom Day in 2015.
Amid US Tariffs, Prime Minister Modi said that the government would never compromise the interests of India’s farmers, livestock rearers and fisherfolk.
Background
Trade negotiations between India and the US have stalled, with the US (under Donald Trump administration) pressuring India to:
Open its domestic market to American farm produce.
India and Russia have reaffirmed their strategic partnership with a renewed focus on industrial cooperation, particularly in the extraction of rare earth minerals and critical resources, amid US’s escalated pressure on India’s oil trade with Russia.
Indo-Russian Cooperation in Rare Earth Minerals
Need: Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are essential for modern technologies — electric vehicles, wind turbines, semiconductors, and defence systems.
Recent export restrictions by China, which controls 85–95% of global supply, have disrupted India’s automobile production and exposed vulnerabilities in its supply chain.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated M.S. Swaminathan Centenary International Conference on August 7 to mark the birth centenary of M.S. Swaminathan.
M.S. Swaminathan
He was known as the Father of India’s Green Revolution. The term ‘Green Revolution’, was coined by William S Gaud in 1968.
M.S. Swaminathan researched fertilizers conducive to the Indian soil for growing wheat, different high-yielding wheat varieties, and efficient farming techniques.
