In a bid to further strengthen the maritime security in Maharashtra, the state Fisheries Department issued directives on Friday making it mandatory for every sailor going for fishing at all ports in the state to carry a QR coded Aadhaar card.

Fisheries Department Commissioner Kishor Tawde's directions came days after the Fisheries and Port Development Minister Nitesh Rane had visited Sassoon Dock in south Mumbai where he noticed that most of the sailors did not have Aadhaar cards.

At that time, Rane had given instructions to issue a directive, making it binding for sailors going for fishing to have Aadhaar cards. Accordingly, the Fisheries Development Commissioner on Friday issued the directive.

In a bid to help improve transparency and inclusivity in the decision-making process, the Centre on Friday expanded Aadhaar authentication to government and private entities for providing various services in the public interest boosting innovation, knowledge and public service enhancement.

The IT Ministry notified the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Amendment Rules, 2025 under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016.

According to the ministry, the amendment seeks to enhance the scope and utility of Aadhaar authentication to further promote good governance, social welfare, innovation, and knowledge dissemination allowing the usage of Aadhaar for improving service delivery and, thereby, enhancing ease of living for residents and enabling better access to various services for them.

US space agency NASA on Thursday announced that Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams, along with colleague Butch Wilmore, have begun their second spacewalk for maintenance and scientific experiments.

"Astronaut Suni Williams is conducting her ninth career spacewalk and Butch Wilmore is conducting his fifth career spacewalk today," NASA said in a blog post.

This is Williams' second spacewalk in 12 years.

The first took place earlier this month, where Williams undertook the spacewalk along with colleague Nick Hague.

The protest of electricity employees continued today as well against the privatization of the electricity department and against forcefully handing over the department employees to a private company without fixing the service conditions and stake of the employees and without taking the option and to cancel the LOI issued to the company illegally and rallies were held in all the offices during the lunch break.

While addressing the rallies, Union President Amrik Singh, General Secretary Gopal Dutt Joshi, Vice President Gurmeet Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Swarn Singh, Vinay Prasad, Kashmir Singh, Paan Singh, Amit Dhigra, Virendra Singh, Lalit Singh, Satkar Singh, Harjinder Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Gagandeep, Jagtar Singh, Ram Gopal, Surinder Singh, Resham Singh and Federation President Raghveer Chand, Senior Vice President Rajinder Katoch, Harpal Singh, Toplan, former President Ram Saroop, Harinder Prasad etc. demanded to cancel the decision of selling the profit-making electricity department to a private company at a throwaway price and to cancel the LoI given to the company. And alleged that the administration officials are repeatedly flouting the rules and bidding process and questioned the working style of the officials for not cancelling the LOI despite the company repeatedly changing the conditions. And said that the officials are working in favour of the company and violating the service conditions of the employees and without taking the option from the employees, they are being forcibly handed over to the private company against their will. The speakers demanded to adjust other employees in the engineering department on the lines of disabled employees and appealed to the administrator to end discrimination against them as well.

The Indian stock market on Thursday continued its upward journey for the third consecutive session, with both the Sensex and the Nifty closing in the positive territory, as all eyes are now on the Union Budget 2025-26.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex gained 226.85 points or 0.3 per cent to end the day at 76,759.81. During the session, the index touched a high of 76,898.63 and a low of 76,401.13.

The Nifty climbed 86.40 points or 0.37 per cent to settle at 23,249.50. The index moved between 23,311.15 and 23,139.20 throughout the trading day.

On Nifty, 35 stocks closed in the green. The top performers included Bharat Electronics, Power Grid Corporation, Cipla, Hero MotoCorp, and Bharti Airtel which went up to 4.87 per cent.

On the flip side, Tata Motors, ITC Hotels, Shriram Finance, and Bajaj Finserv were among the 17 stocks that ended lower.

At least 30 people were killed and about 60 injured in the stampede that broke out at the mela ground in Prayagraj, in the early hours of Wednesday, a top police officer said.

Vaibhav Krishna, the DIG rank officer at Mahakumbh told the press that 25 bodies have been identified so far and the process of identification for the rest is underway. He said the injured are currently undergoing treatment at the hospital.

This is the first official confirmation about the death toll and the number of injured in the Mahakumbh stampede. Soon after the news broke about deaths in stampede, political parties were prompt in offering their condolences on loss of loved ones, however, the number of deaths was not clear.

Addressing the media, the DIG rank officer overseeing the Mahakumbh festivities said: "At around 1-2 a.m. before the Brahma Muhurta, a huge crowd gathered at the Akhara Marg. Due to the massive gathering, the barricades on the other side broke and the crowd ran over the devotees, wanting to take a dip at the Sangam."

The RBI’s monetary policy committee meeting scheduled for February is likely to spring some positive surprises with a growth-favoured approach, according to brokerage firm Jefferies.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) policies can take a growth-supportive turn, especially with the government expected to take a tight fiscal stance on February 1, Jefferies said in a note.

The recent move by the central bank to provide liquidity is a positive indicator, the report said. It was referring to the RBI’s announcement this week that it would inject Rs 1.5 lakh crore liquidity into the banking system in the coming weeks till the end of February.

If the RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra-led committee takes a potentially dovish stance on liquidity or rates, the rupee may depreciate further, Jefferies observed in its note.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha raised concerns over the steep hike in airfare to Prayagraj during the ongoing Maha Kumbh, calling it an exploitation of faith by airlines. Highlighting how ticket prices have surged from Rs. 5,000 to as high as Rs. 60,000, he urged the government to intervene and either cap flight prices or ensure affordable travel options for devotees attending this sacred event.

The payroll data of the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) released on Friday reveals that 16.07 lakh new employees were added in November last year out of which over 47 per cent are young employees up to the age group of 25 years, which is a good indicator of new jobs being created in the economy.

As many as 20,212 new establishments have been brought under the ambit of the ESI Scheme in the month of November 2024 thus ensuring social security to more workers, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has got in touch with banks this week to understand the impact of its new liquidity coverage norms following concerns that the move would adversely impact the flow of credit in the economy.

Banks have provided some feedback, asked for deferment of the norms and alternative mechanisms to cope with the likely hit from these norms, report.

The move has been initiated at a time when Sanjay Malhotra has just taken over as the new Governor of the RBI succeeding Shaktikanta Das