Explainers

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has gone to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for optogenetics, which lets scientists switch nerve cells on and off with light. A treatment for blindness based on it is under review in the United States. Several pioneers, including Zhuo-Hua Pan, who began his career in China, were left out.

Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ is the new Uttar Pradesh Congress president. Born in Prayagraj, she is a three-time MLA from Rampur Khas and the daughter of Pramod Tiwari. Her family, education, election record, assets and the challenges ahead.

Virat Kohli's 55th ODI hundred took him to 86 international centuries, 14 short of Sachin Tendulkar's 100. A format-by-format comparison: Kohli rules ODIs and chases, Tendulkar's 51 Test tons stand apart, and the road to 100 now runs through ODIs alone.

A legal explainer on the SC/ST Atrocities Act: why acquittal is not proof of a false case, when the “public view” test applies, what Section 18A changed and what both accused and victims can do.

China has released figures on deaths, missing people and foreign nationals on the Tibet side of the Himalayan flood. The harder question is how far those figures can be independently checked.

Gnani.ai has launched Artha, a sovereign AI stack that pairs the Evon v3.3 open-weights language model with the Plexus agentic platform. What is confirmed, what is a company claim, and what buyers should check.