Farmers are concerned as the June monsoon has disappointed them so far. He is struggling with preserving rice seedlings, but is wondering if he should plant them in early July. Data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) center in Patna show that the state is expected to experience the weakest monsoon rains in decades in June this year.

"Tango Charlie 7, allow the passage of the cars and do not stop them," this was the message on the wireless set of a traffic police cop stationed at Khalini Chowk at 8 pm. When asked, the traffic official said that the voice on the wireless set was of Sanjeev Gandhi, the superintendent of police, Shimla. He further said he could monitor the city's traffic from his home as he had screens at his residence.  While it is amusing to hear SP's voice on a traffic signal, one can also see that the system is not the best. This is an intermediary solution at best. 

As the oldest library in Australia, the State Library of New South Wales (NSW) on Monday started opening Shakespeare Room seven days a week to the public for the first time in its history. Welcoming visitors in a social media post, the NSW State Library said that the Tudor-style room, opened in the early 1940s, was built to commemorate the 300th anniversary of English playwright William Shakespeare's death, reports Xinhua news agency. "Inside you'll find thousands of books by and about Shakespeare, as well as stained-glass windows that depict the seven ages of man from his play 'As You Like It'," the state library noted.

Opium nearly smoked out China, made Britain acquired tainted wealth and laid the foundation of the fortunes of many a notorious trading house, most infamously Jardine Matheson, and made a number of early 19th-century Bombay Parsi families, who were middlemen in the East India Company's illicit opium trade, very rich. And it continues to have a baneful influence because it is the life-blood of global narco terrorism. Celebrated author Amitav Ghosh's next book, 'Smoke and Ashes', to be released by HarperCollins India's Fourth Estate imprint on July 15, is, in the words of its sub-title, 'A Writer's Journey Through Opium's Hidden Histories'.

A video showing an artist giving a rustic Rajasthani look to Indian cricketer Virat Kohli's picture is going viral on Instagram. Teju Jangid, an artist, shared this video on Instagram with the caption, "@virat.kohli in rural Rajasthani look..." Jangid puts a red-coloured turban and a white Kurta attire on Virat Kohli's picture. Further, he adds a stick to complete the look. He also draws a moustache on Kohli's face to give him an authentic Rajasthani appearance.

A new Omicron subvariant is spreading in the United States, and has accounted for nearly 10 per cent of new weekly Covid-19 cases reported across the country, according to data updated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The subvariant XBB.1.16, referred to as "arcturus", has been added by the CDC to its variant tracker. The percentage is expected to increase in the coming weeks, and it may become the next dominant coronavirus strain in the country, experts warned.

Vietnam is accelerating efforts to vaccinate children against polio amid a global surge in a variant of the the virus, local media reported on Tuesday. The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology has urged local health authorities to administer polio vaccinations to children, especially those born in 2021 and 2022, reports Xinhua news agency. As a result of social distancing practices to limit the spread of Covid-19, childhood immunisation rates for polio have dropped to the lowest level in the past 20 years, putting millions of children at risk of exposure to the preventable disease, said the epidemiology institute under the Ministry of Health.

It all started when theatre director Roysten Abel and singer Bombay Jayashri spoke over a video call. When she talked about her voice's voyage and what it really meant for her, Abel could feel a peculiar note. 'Voice' resonated with him on multiple levels -- political and social.

Don't you wish growing up, you had strong female voices that would speak to you in your time of need? Women, whose personal triumph would give you the courage and hope to stand up for yourself and always ask for more till the time you got what you truly deserved.

Growing up in the vibrant surroundings of Central Delhi's Karol Bagh, Anupama Mohan began writing at the age of nine -- "at least, that's how far back my memory of something tangible -- a diary, a journal -- goes".