NewsBytes

SIR of electoral rolls begins in 12 states, UTs

Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' list commenced in nine states and three Union territories on Tuesday, amid objections from several parties with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leading the anti-SIR offensive in West Bengal with a rally in Kolkata and alleging "silent, invisible rigging" through the exercise. Besides Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC), the electoral roll clean-up exercise is also being opposed by the ruling DMK and its allies in Tamil Nadu which approached the Supreme Court on Monday on the issue. The Election Commission (EC) said its booth-level officers (BLOs) have fanned out to hand over semi-filled enumeration forms to electors and will also help them fill the required document. According to the schedule announced by the poll authority, SIR will begin with the enumeration stage and continue till December 4. The EC will release the draft electoral rolls on December 9, and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 7. The 12 states and UTs where the second round of SIR will be conducted are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

India rises: 294 Universities in QS Asia Rankings, 7 in top 100

India's higher education ecosystem is accelerating, with 294 universities featured in the QS World University Rankings: Asia 2026, a 1,125% increase since 2016. Seven Indian institutions rank in the top 100, 20 in the top 200, and 66 in the top 500. IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, and Chandigarh University showcased notable performances. India's dominance in research productivity is evident, with five universities ranked among Asia's top 10 in Papers per Faculty. The National Education Policy is driving growth, positioning India as a global knowledge leader and a preferred study destination. Depth and breadth of Indian universities are now globally recognized.

EU says it could admit new members by 2030

The European Commission said on Tuesday that the EU could welcome new members as early as 2030 as it praised Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova for their progress on reforms needed to join the bloc. The commission also criticised Serbia for slowing down its reform process. It accused Georgia of "serious democratic backsliding" and said the former Soviet republic was now considered a candidate country "in name only". "Expanding the Union is in our best interest," the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels as she presented the Commission's annual report on would-be members' efforts to join the bloc. "Joining the European Union remains a fair, tough and merit-based process. But now, new countries joining the European Union by 2030 is a realistic goal," Kallas said. Earlier, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said Montenegro, a Balkan nation of some 600,000 people, was the most advanced of the candidate countries on its path to membership. Kos, who oversees the EU executive’s work with possible future members, also praised Albania for what she called its "unprecedented progress", while Moldova, which borders Ukraine, had also moved ahead with "accelerated speed" despite pressures.

On eve of UN climate talks in Brazil, a call for less talking, more doing

For 30 years, world leaders and diplomats have gathered at United Nations negotiating sessions to try to curb climate change, but Earth's temperature continues to rise and extreme weather worsens. So this month, they're hoping for fewer promises and more action. Past pledges from nearly 200 nations have fallen far short and new plans submitted this year barely speed up pollution-fighting efforts, experts say. And if the numbers aren't sobering enough for world leaders when they kick off the action Thursday, there's the setting: Belem, a relatively poor city on the edge of a weakened Amazon. Unlike past climate negotiations — and especially the one 10 years ago that forged the landmark Paris climate agreement — this annual UN conference isn't primarily aimed at producing a grand deal or statement over its two weeks. Organisers and analysts frame this Conference of Parties — known less formally as COP30 — as the “implementation COP.” “This is really going to be much more about what are we doing on the ground,” said former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, who helped shepherd the 2015 Paris agreement aimed at limiting warming.