Bangladeshi complainants allege Rampal power station’s pollution and climate risks threaten the Sunderbans, a world heritage site
Barclays Bank is facing a formal complaint over its financial links to a coal-fired power station near the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and home to millions of people in Bangladesh and India.
Three complainants from the region have submitted a case to the UK government’s Office for Responsible Business Conduct, alleging that the British bank breached international guidelines by underwriting companies involved in the emission-heavy Maitree super thermal power project, also known as the Rampal power plant.
Indian scientists searching for clues to the oldest signs of life on Earth have discovered evidence of organic matter in a 3.5-billion-year-old sample of Paleoarchean volcanic–hydrothermal chert.
If confirmed, the team said the ancient chert would represent one of the oldest signs of life emerging on Earth, less than a billion years after the planet’s formation.
Searching for the Oldest Signs of Life on Earth
According to a press release announcing the discovery, some of the earliest known traces of life on Earth have typically been preserved as carbonaceous matter. Although many have been discovered in marine and hydrothermal vents, others have been unearthed in black cherts and volcanic-sedimentary rock formations.
“Kerogen, insoluble organic matter preserved in sediments, represents some of the earliest known terrestrial biosignatures which have provided important insights into the origin of life and planetary habitability,” the researchers write.
However, they also note, directly dating these ancient materials is often complicated by a lack of “suitable geochronometers.” Instead, dating ancient cherts and other early traces of life on Earth has relied on indirect constraints from surrounding materials. These include dating the ages of cross-cutting lithologies.
Ancient Organic Material Dated to 3.497 Billion Years Ago
To date, the newly discovered 3.5-billion-year-old chert, T. Mark Harrison, Trisrota Chaudhuri, and colleagues examined samples of “banded” cherts collected from the Singhbhum Craton in eastern India. Under microscopic analysis, the team found that the cherts contained “submillimeter-scale layers” alternating between carbonaceous matter and quartz-rich sedimentary material.
“The chert exhibits micron-scale alternating layers of carbonaceous and siliceous materials,” the study authors explained.
Outcrop photo showing dark carbonaceous bands in chert. Image Credit: Trisrota Chaudhuri.
To date the material, the team analyzed a specific combination of zircon grain characteristics. This analysis indicated that the grains were “emplaced” as part of a ‘tuff.’ The team said a tuff is a volcanic ashfall “that settled on the sediments at the time of their deposition.”
Next, they tested the lead isotopes found within the zircon crystals. The team said this analysis of the material in the banded cherts suggested the organic cherts formed about 3.497 billion years ago. This date places them in the Paleoarchean Eon.
“Here, we report a 3.5-billion-year-old carbonaceous chert from eastern India containing what are interpreted to be contemporaneous tuffaceous zircons,” they write.
The team said the carbon isotope analysis yielded a value “consistent with a biological origin of relatively sophisticated metabolism.”
“Isotope data of carbonaceous matter (CM) together with stratigraphic relationships indicate a biogenic origin of the kerogen, marking this, to our knowledge, as the oldest directly dated rock with a confirmed biosignature,” they write.
Among the Earliest Known Occurrences of Biologically Generated Organic Matter
When discussing the significance of the findings, the team said the ancient Indian cherts “count among the earliest known occurrences of biologically generated organic matter.”
The research team also noted that the findings suggest Archaean-age cherts “may contain records of early life and further suggest that key biological processes were active on Earth by around 3.5 billion years ago.”
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org
Apple Pay will launch in India by this October, reports Business Standard, citing people familiar with the matter. Apple Pay will support major credit card networks like Visa and Mastercard, but it won't support transactions via the country's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) at launch.
Apple would need clearance from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for that to happen, plus it would need to partner with a sponsor bank for routing the transactions. Negotiations are said to be ongoing.
Bloomberg reported in February that Apple has been in talks with major Indian banks in a bid to get Apple Pay up and running in the country this year.
Apple is intensifying efforts to convert India’s growing appetite for premium smartphones into higher sales by opening more retail stores and offering expanded financing deals, while simultaneously scaling up local manufacturing.
The company has built a network of Apple Stores across key cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, and Noida, giving customers direct access to products and services in a market long dominated by multi-brand retailers and online platforms. These physical locations allow Apple to showcase the latest iPhone models and provide hands-on experiences that help drive upgrades and first-time purchases.
To address India’s price-sensitive consumers, Apple has broadened financing partnerships. Shoppers can access no-cost EMI options for several months through major banks, instant cashback offers of up to ₹15,000 on select cards, and trade-in programs that reduce the effective cost of new devices, Bloomberg News reports. These tools lower the barrier to entry for devices that often carry higher list prices in India than in the US due to taxes and other factors.
The push comes as Apple’s India business reaches new milestones. Annual sales surpassed $10 billion for the first time in the fiscal year ended March 2026, up from about $9 billion the prior year, with iPhones accounting for the majority of revenue. Market share has expanded significantly: iPhones now represent around 10% of smartphone shipments in some recent periods, a sharp rise from roughly 1.5% a decade earlier—and the company continues to post double-digit growth even amid broader industry softness.
Manufacturing growth underpins both supply reliability and the “Made in India” appeal. Apple now assembles about a quarter of its global iPhones in the country, producing roughly 55 million units in 2025. For the first time, the full iPhone 17 lineup (including base, Plus, Pro, and Pro Max variants, plus related models) was manufactured locally from launch. Contract manufacturers such as Foxconn and Tata Electronics operate large facilities near Chennai and Bengaluru, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs and a deepening local supplier base of more than 40 companies making components ranging from batteries to enclosures.
This dual focus on demand-side accessibility and supply-side localization positions India as both a major growth market and a strategic hedge against reliance on China. CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly highlighted the country’s potential, noting strong uptake among first-time Apple customers across iPhones, Macs, and iPads. Analysts point to premiumization trends, improved inventory management, and these retail and financing initiatives as key drivers of the shift from niche status to mainstream relevance.
MacDailyNews Take: While challenges remain (including competition in the mid-premium segment, currency fluctuations, and the need for continued policy support after the original production-linked incentive scheme ended) Apple’s investments signal confidence that Indian consumer desire for iPhones will sustain long-term expansion.
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A yearslong partnership between Indian policymakers and electronics manufacturers has shifted supply chains away from China, according to Bloomberg News.
Each day, more than 150 white buses fan out on the black tar roads that run through the outskirts of the Indian city of Chennai, ferrying workers to a factory run by the Taiwanese manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., better known as Foxconn. Although calling the facility a factory doesn’t quite do it justice. It’s a 160-acre fortress lined with assembly shop floors, testing and storage rooms, nine hostel towers, huge parking bays, and a power station. Roughly 40,000 employees work through three shifts, under the strict watch of almost 700 security guards, making iPhones.
About 30 kilometers (19 miles) away stands another iPhone assembly facility, this one run by Pegatron Corp., now controlled by the Tata Group. There, about 10,000 people, most of them women, work in an equally disciplined environment.
The development forms part of Apple’s broader effort to build production capacity in India as a hedge against risks concentrated in China, Bloomberg News reports in its August 5, 2026, feature.
MacDailyNews Take: Clearly, it’s very important for Apple to not have all of their eggs in one basket – especially one owned by the CCP. The sky’s the limit for Apple in India!
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Apple exceeded $10 billion in annual sales in India for the first time last fiscal year, underscoring surging demand for its pricey devices in a market where it’s steadily ramping up its retail network.
Revenue grew at a double-digit percentage rate in the 12 months through March from about $9 billion a year earlier, Bloomberg News reports citing a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.
Apple’s iPhone lineup accounted for a significant majority of the sales, while demand for iPads and MacBooks also rose, the person said.
The milestone highlights Apple’s expanding presence in India through a broader retail network.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote four years ago, “The sky’s the limit for Apple in India!”
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India has proposed extending tax exemptions until 2041 for foreign companies that provide machinery to contract manufacturers, handing a major win to Apple which had lobbied for such changes, and is fast expanding in the market.
India has been a key market for Apple as it diversifies iPhone manufacturing beyond China, and the South Asian nation is set to make 26% of the world’s iPhones in 2026, up from 6% four years ago, according to Counterpoint Research.
According to a draft of the proposed tax amendments seen by Reuters, “to provide (tax) certainty” the government has extended tax breaks until March 31, 2041 to foreign companies that provide equipment to their contract manufacturers in India.
India introduced the tax exemption for foreign companies in February, valid only until 2031, after Apple lobbied the Indian government to modify its income tax laws to ensure the company is not taxed for ownership of the high-end iPhone machinery it provides to its contract manufacturers.
Apple had feared that, unlike in China, tax laws in India could treat ownership of machinery supplied to its contract manufacturers as so-called “business connection,” exposing its iPhone profits to tax.
Tax Break for Storing Components
The extended tax exemption will apply to manufacturers of mobile phones, tablets, laptops, hearing, and wearable electronic devices, according to the draft bill that will have to be passed by the lower and upper houses of parliament.
India has also exempted from tax foreign companies’ income from storing and providing parts used to manufacture such electronics components to contract manufacturers until 2041.
The rule will apply for factories and warehouses set up in so-called customs-bonded areas — which are technically considered being outside India’s customs border. If devices are sold within India from such factories, they will attract import taxes, making such facilities attractive only for exports.
“The proposed tax changes will enable foreign companies to store and transfer critical equipment and components in India for their contract manufacturers, helping mitigate supply chain disruptions arising from trade uncertainties while providing greater tax certainty,” Riaz Thingna, a partner at Grant Thornton Bharat, told Reuters
Data Centers
India has also proposed to make it easier for foreign companies that use data center services in the country to make use of tax exemptions.
India in February announced a tax exemption until 2047 for foreign companies using data centers in the country to provide services to global clients, addressing concerns that New Delhi could in future tax their global income for using such facilities.
The bill now allows data centers to be leased, rather than be owned by the Indian partners of foreign companies.
Allowing Indian partners to lease, rather than own, data centers will lower capital requirements and make it easier for smaller and mid-sized players to enter the market, said Thingna.
MacDailyNews Take: May India convert these proposals into law ASAP!
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Welcome to Edition 9.04 of the Rocket Report! We've had to wait an extra week for SpaceX to get its 13th Starship test flight off the ground. A last-second abort on July 16 led engineers to roll the booster back to its hangar in South Texas to swap out engines. Starship is now back on the launch pad. Liftoff is set for Friday evening. A flawless launch and reentry will put SpaceX on the cusp of an orbital flight later this year. Ars will have a comprehensive recap story after the completion of the test flight.
As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
India's first private rocket reaches orbit. Indian space officials celebrated the debut flight of Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket, India’s first fully commercial satellite launcher, as a “grand success” Saturday after an on-target climb into a 280-mile-high orbit following liftoff from an island spaceport in the Bay of Bengal, Ars reports. The Vikram-1 lifted off from India’s primary spaceport on Sriharikota Island around midday local time. The launch was delayed more than a half-hour to resolve a last-minute technical problem. The countdown resumed, culminating in the command to ignite Vikram-1’s solid-fueled first stage booster to propel the rocket off the launch pad.
Welcome to Edition 9.04 of the Rocket Report! We've had to wait an extra week for SpaceX to get its 13th Starship test flight off the ground. A last-second abort on July 16 led engineers to roll the booster back to its hangar in South Texas to swap out engines. Starship is now back on the launch pad. Liftoff is set for Friday evening. A flawless launch and reentry will put SpaceX on the cusp of an orbital flight later this year. Ars will have a comprehensive recap story after the completion of the test flight.
As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
India's first private rocket reaches orbit. Indian space officials celebrated the debut flight of Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket, India’s first fully commercial satellite launcher, as a “grand success” Saturday after an on-target climb into a 280-mile-high orbit following liftoff from an island spaceport in the Bay of Bengal, Ars reports. The Vikram-1 lifted off from India’s primary spaceport on Sriharikota Island around midday local time. The launch was delayed more than a half-hour to resolve a last-minute technical problem. The countdown resumed, culminating in the command to ignite Vikram-1’s solid-fueled first stage booster to propel the rocket off the launch pad.
Welcome to Edition 9.04 of the Rocket Report! We've had to wait an extra week for SpaceX to get its 13th Starship test flight off the ground. A last-second abort on July 16 led engineers to roll the booster back to its hangar in South Texas to swap out engines. Starship is now back on the launch pad. Liftoff is set for Friday evening. A flawless launch and reentry will put SpaceX on the cusp of an orbital flight later this year. Ars will have a comprehensive recap story after the completion of the test flight.
As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
India's first private rocket reaches orbit. Indian space officials celebrated the debut flight of Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket, India’s first fully commercial satellite launcher, as a “grand success” Saturday after an on-target climb into a 280-mile-high orbit following liftoff from an island spaceport in the Bay of Bengal, Ars reports. The Vikram-1 lifted off from India’s primary spaceport on Sriharikota Island around midday local time. The launch was delayed more than a half-hour to resolve a last-minute technical problem. The countdown resumed, culminating in the command to ignite Vikram-1’s solid-fueled first stage booster to propel the rocket off the launch pad.
Paleontologists in India have unearthed a partial skeleton of a diminutive, previously unknown neosauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic rocks of Gujarat’s Kachchh Basin.
Indian space officials celebrated the debut flight of Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-1 rocket, India's first fully commercial satellite launcher, as a "grand success" Saturday after an on-target climb into a 280-mile-high orbit following liftoff from an island spaceport in the Bay of Bengal.
The Vikram-1 lifted off from India's primary spaceport on Sriharikota Island at 1:35 am EDT (06:35 UTC) Saturday, around midday at the launch base along India's southeast coast. The launch was delayed more than a half-hour to resolve a last-minute technical problem. The countdown resumed, culminating in the command to ignite Vikram-1's solid-fueled first stage booster to propel the rocket off the launch pad.
Vikram-1 is modest in size compared to India's larger workhorse rockets. Skyroot's rocket stands about 72 feet (22 meters) tall, with the capability to place payloads of up to 770 pounds (350 kilograms) into low-Earth orbit. This makes Vikram-1 somewhat larger than the Electron launch vehicle developed by Rocket Lab, the world's most successful dedicated small satellite launcher.
Indian space officials celebrated the debut flight of Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-1 rocket, India's first fully commercial satellite launcher, as a "grand success" Saturday after an on-target climb into a 280-mile-high orbit following liftoff from an island spaceport in the Bay of Bengal.
The Vikram-1 lifted off from India's primary spaceport on Sriharikota Island at 1:35 am EDT (06:35 UTC) Saturday, around midday at the launch base along India's southeast coast. The launch was delayed more than a half-hour to resolve a last-minute technical problem. The countdown resumed, culminating in the command to ignite Vikram-1's solid-fueled first stage booster to propel the rocket off the launch pad.
Vikram-1 is modest in size compared to India's larger workhorse rockets. Skyroot's rocket stands about 72 feet (22 meters) tall, with the capability to place payloads of up to 770 pounds (350 kilograms) into low-Earth orbit. This makes Vikram-1 somewhat larger than the Electron launch vehicle developed by Rocket Lab, the world's most successful dedicated small satellite launcher.
The Indian government has fined HP India and its partners a total of 1.4 billion rupees (about $14.4 million) for working with reseller partners in the “cartelization” of computers, ink cartridges, and toner.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said this week that it found HP India had colluded with some channel partners to drive up the cost of bids for government contracts for computers, as well as for selling ink cartridges, toner, and other printing supplies, including graphic and digital manufacturing supplies.
It said that HP was aiming to outcompete other OEMs and discourage resellers from selling “counterfeit” ink and toner.
The Indian government has fined HP India and its partners a total of 1.4 billion rupees (about $14.4 million) for working with reseller partners in the “cartelization” of computers, ink cartridges, and toner.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said this week that it found HP India had colluded with some channel partners to drive up the cost of bids for government contracts for computers, as well as for selling ink cartridges, toner, and other printing supplies, including graphic and digital manufacturing supplies.
It said that HP was aiming to outcompete other OEMs and discourage resellers from selling “counterfeit” ink and toner.
Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket successfully lifted off on its inaugural flight July 18, becoming the first commercial Indian rocket to reach orbit.
The Indian government has fined HP India and its partners a total of 1.4 billion rupees (about $14.4 million) for working with reseller partners in the “cartelization” of computers, ink cartridges, and toner.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said this week that it found HP India had colluded with some channel partners to drive up the cost of bids for government contracts for computers, as well as for selling ink cartridges, toner, and other printing supplies, including graphic and digital manufacturing supplies.
It said that HP was aiming to outcompete other OEMs and discourage resellers from selling “counterfeit” ink and toner.
The strange grin of the Happy-Face spider has been spotted far from the Hawaiian Islands, its only previously known home, much to scientists’ surprise.
In a recent paper published in Evolutionary Systematics, researchers from the Forest Research Institute and the Regional Museum of Natural History have found a spider bearing the unmistakable grin in Uttarakhand, India’s Montane mountains.
The researchers call it the Himalayan Happy-Face spider, Theridion himalayan, named for the unexpected combination of its highly recognizable markings and strange new location.
Finding the Happy-Face Spider
As with many scientific discoveries, the Himalayan Happy-Face Spider was discovered entirely by accident; the researchers, Ashirwad Tripathy and Devi Priyadarshini, were initially focused on the region’s ants.
“So, one fine day, when he shared this image from the underside of a Daphniphyllum leaf, I froze in shock because I had seen the Hawaiian spider during my master’s program itself, and I knew instantly we had a jackpot because of its striking resemblance,” said Priyadarshini, a researcher with the Regional Museum of Natural History in Bhubaneswar, and the co-author of a new study deatiling the discovery.
“I asked him to send all morphs that he found, and that led to the discovery in the next few months, from October 2023 onwards.”
According to Priyadarshini, she has always been interested in high-altitude spiders because the significant differences in landscape and vegetation in these regions compared with low-altitude plains offer “a gateway to look at other polymorphic species from this region.”
Examples of mature male (left) and female (right) Himalayan Smiley-Face spiders. Credit: Devi Priyadarshini and Ashirwad Tripathy
Himalayan Spider Species
According to Tripathy, this discovery may only be the beginning for the documentation of Himalayan Happy-Face spiders, as more variations may be identified in future surveys.
“The name Himalayana was decided as the species name because we both wanted to pay our respects to the mighty Himalaya mountain ranges, which have been standing tall not just guarding our country but also holding a plethora of biodiversity within them, said co-author Ashirwad Tripathy, of the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun. “Since this spider was the first polymorphic from this region, we decided to make it an ode to the amazing mountain ranges.”
So far, the species has been found in three locations around Uttarakhand, including Makku, Tala, and Mandal, yielding 32 distinct color variations. In their investigation, the researchers conducted a DNA analysis of the new species, discovering that it differed by approximately 8.5% from the previously known Hawaiian Happy-Face spider. This indicates that the Himalayan version evolved independently.
Mysterious Markings
While the markings are fascinating, perhaps partially due to a certain amount of pareidolia in humans, the researchers are uncertain exactly why the spiders evolved to feature them. Notably, other creatures in the region bear similar colorful body markings.
“The reason behind the expression of polymorphism is also very complex and unique,” Priyadarshini explained. “These patterns definitely help them survive better in the wild, which is understood prima facie, but why do they resort to such patterns on their back, and what functional role in their life cycle does it exactly serve is yet to be deciphered. This is definitely indicative of a deeper genetic mystery.”
One strange connection between the Hawaiian and Himalayan varieties was their shared propensity to cling to ginger plants. This is especially notable because ginger is not native to Hawaii, suggesting an evolutionary connection between the species.
“How did the spiders choose an invasive species and ginger exactly?” Priyadarshini asks, noting this adds an unusual layer to the mystery, especially “if T. himalayana is an elder cousin of T. grallator, although discovered 125 years later!”
“Although this sounds like a tall claim now, it will be our further scope of work to establish any missing links,” Priyadarshini adds.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.
Jio Platforms, which owns India’s largest telco, is looking to lease broadband capacity from satellite constellations to jumpstart its own sovereign LEO network in the country.
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