The BJP government in West Bengal on Monday presented its maiden budget, announcing the filling of 100,000 government vacancies, a 20 percentage point hike in DA for its employees, and a ₹36,000-crore outlay for the financial assistance scheme for women, Annapurna Yojana.

Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta said his government has inherited a debt burden of ₹8.15 trillion from the previous administration.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that he will step down, saying a successor should be in place by September, following dissent within the governing Labour Party.

He also said that he was resigning from his role as the leader of the Labour Party.

China will support qualified foreign-funded companies seeking to list on domestic stock exchanges under a new action plan unveiled on Monday to strengthen foreign investment, the Chinese government said.

The plan was jointly issued by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance.

India's fragmented water governance structure, highly subsidised pricing and slow reallocation among sectors can result in water shortage and higher risk of sustained fiscal pressure, Moody's Ratings said on Monday.

In a report, Moody's said allocation frameworks, which govern how water supply is prioritised, priced and distributed across households, industry and agriculture.

The US and Iran have agreed on a roadmap aimed at reaching a final agreement within 60 days following two days of talks at the Swiss resort of Burgenstock, according to a joint statement issued by mediators Pakistan and Qatar on Monday.

The talks, held on Sunday and Monday, took place under the framework of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the US and Iran on Thursday to advance negotiations on regional security and other contentious issues.

Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia X has lowered fares by 5% since June 15 and the airline is reviewing the situation week by week as jet fuel prices drop, the company's CEO, Bo Lingam, said on Monday.

The airline used the past three months to cut underperforming flights, shift demand and renegotiate contracts with all vendors and lessors, Lingam said, as the US-Iran war wreaked havoc with travel worldwide.

A student from Nagpur in Maharashtra was allotted an examination centre in Abu Dhabi for Sunday's Neet UG 2026 re-examination by the National Testing Agency, prompting his parents to raise the issue with the NTA and seek a correction.

The student, Abdulla Talib, had given preference to Nagpur, Wardha, and Bhandara centres for the examination.

The Centre has banned 16 fixed drug combinations (FDCs), including antibiotics and topical and cosmetic combinations, after a review concluded that they may pose health safety risks.

The Union Health Ministry issued a gazette notification prohibiting the manufacture, sale and distribution of these FDCs.

Former Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujral was allegedly duped of ₹7.8 crore after scammers impersonated him on an online messaging application and tricked his company's financial staff into transferring funds, police said on Thursday.

Naresh Gujral, 78, is the son of the late Inder Kumar Gujral, who served as India's 12th prime minister from 1997 to 1998.

The writing appeared to be on the wall for Shiv Sena (UBT) as six of its nine Lok Sabha MPs skipped its parliamentary party meeting here on Thursday, signalling that a formal crossover to the ruling Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde may be only a matter of time.

Sena (UBT) MPs Arvind Sawant, Anil Desai and Rajabhau Waje attended the meeting, along with Sanjay Raut, the party's lone Rajya Sabha MP.

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