India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the 12th International Yoga Day celebrations at Kolkata’s Red Road on Sunday morning, taking part in a mega event as thousands joined open-air yoga sessions across the state for the first time

49 organisations and collectives, 553 environmentalists and academics, citizens wrote a letter to Chief Justice demanding that the Supreme Court withdraw oral remarks that cast doubt on the right of communities to seek enforcement of environmental law

The first census since 2011 is about to begin: one of the world’s largest administrative tasks, it will involve over three million workers gathering data door to door; info will include caste, as policy will benefit lower ones in the next decade

The patent on semaglutide, the molecule behind Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, expired in India allowing domestic pharma to release generics; the competition could cut prices by half, expand people's access and reach $1bn in value

In her speech for the International Press Institute India Award for Excellence in Journalism, Justice Nagarathna emphasised how precarious press freedom is in an era of corporate consolidation that makes media legally free but economically constrained

A historic Free Trade Agreement was signed in New Delhi with the EU; the "Mother of all deals" took two decades of negotiations, covers 25% of GDP 96% of goods or services, reduces tariffs on import of cars and wines boosting Indian textiles and services

The 2nd world laboratory for testing and calibration of air pollution measuring equipment was inaugurated in India to curb dependance on foreign certification systems, promote environmental governance and foster local production of monitoring equipment

AI Futures Fund will focus on founders in India and diaspora building AI products for billions of Indians or global AI products built in India; new Accel and Google partnership will invest up to $2 million in each startup through Accel’s Atoms program