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Ever Wondered Why Old Railway Tickets Had Tiny Holes On The Sides?

Those tiny holes on old Indian Railways tickets were not decorative. They played a crucial role in printing millions of tickets accurately before the era of digital and e-ticketing

Doctor reveals 4 health markers that may predict heart attack and stroke risk

Doctors are now suggesting looking beyond just LDL cholesterol for heart health. New markers like ApoB, hs-CRP, insulin resistance, and abdominal obesity provide a better and fuller picture. These factors reveal how inflammation, metabolism, and body fat impact vascular health. Understanding these elements helps identify risks earlier for better prevention.

SCTIMST successfully performs first LDL apheresis procedure for treating Familial Hypercholesterolemia

Procedure performed on a 34-year-old woman suffering from Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia, a rare genetic condition, which results in extremely high cholesterol levels from a young age

Inflation watch intensifies as RBI nears

India needs to remain watchful on the inflation front as rising fuel prices, a weakening rupee and the risk of a below-normal monsoon threaten to rekindle price pressures, the finance ministry said just days before the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy decision.In its monthly economic review for May, the Department of Economic Affairs said the economy remains "cautiously resilient", with domestic fundamentals largely holding up despite growing global and domestic uncertainties.Also Read: RBI to hold rates in June; majority now expect hike by year-end: Poll"The confluence of elevated global energy prices, a depreciating rupee, rising upstream cost pressures and the prospect of a below-normal monsoon calls for sustained policy vigilance," the ministry said.The assessment comes ahead of the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee meeting next week, with the policy decision due on June 5. Expectations of a tighter policy stance have increased amid concerns over inflationary pressures and efforts to support the rupee, which touched a record low of nearly 97 against the US dollar earlier this month.While retail inflation remained below the RBI's 4% target in April, the ministry cautioned that wholesale price pressures have accelerated sharply, raising the risk that higher input costs could eventually feed into consumer prices.Producer inflation climbed to a more than three-and-a-half-year high in April as elevated energy prices pushed up manufacturing costs. Data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed the wholesale price index rose 8.30% year-on-year, up from 3.88% in March and well above economists' expectations of 5.50%.Also Read: RBI’s currency printing cost falls 23.5% in FY26 despite rise in cash circulationThe ministry also warned that the fallout from the West Asia conflict poses a significant risk to India's inflation and external-sector outlook, particularly through disruptions to energy supplies."The duration of the Strait of Hormuz disruption remains the 'single most consequential variable for India's external and price outlook'," it said.According to the review, higher crude oil prices, tighter global financial conditions and slowing world growth are creating headwinds for the Indian economy that cannot be fully insulated from external shocks."Policy will need to remain agile across monetary, fiscal, and structural dimensions to navigate this period of compounded uncertainty, external and climatic, while keeping medium-term growth objectives firmly in view," the ministry said.

India shows ‘cautious resilience’ despite Middle East conflict: DEA

India's economy shows 'cautious resilience' despite global headwinds like Middle East conflict and rising oil prices. While manufacturing and services remain strong, and forex reserves offer a buffer, inflation concerns are mounting due to wholesale price surges. A weaker monsoon could further challenge growth and rural demand.

Trump's medical report: US president 'fully fit' to work but asked to shed weight

President Trump's latest medical report declared him in 'excellent health' and fit to serve, despite advising weight loss and increased physical activity. The report noted his weight has increased, and he takes medication for cholesterol and cardiac prevention. Bruising on his hands was attributed to frequent handshaking while on aspirin.

Molecule glue drugs shake up cancer care

One of the biggest advances in pancreatic cancer in decades came out of a crazy idea born in a Harvard University lab.Chemical biologist Gregory Verdine believed you could fight disease-causing proteins hidden inside cells by chemically gluing them to something else in the body and smothering them."Everybody told us this is crazy, that it would never work," he recalls.Revolution Medicines, which bought one of Verdine's companies in 2018, recently announced that one of its drugs doubled the typical survival time for patients with aggressive forms of the disease, from 6.7 months to 13.2 months. The full results from the company's final-stage trial are expected to be the star of the show at the annual confab of cancer doctors in Chicago this weekend.Spurred by the success of RevMed, numerous companies are now racing to develop similar drugs, dubbed "molecular glues", which can be used to treat a variety of ailments. And investors and pharmaceutical companies with deep pockets are chasing after them, creating one of the hottest corners of dealmaking in the industry.Also read | India's out-of-pocket healthcare spending drops significantly, govt data showsIt's not unusual for exciting new drugs to spark surges in stock prices and dealmaking frenzy. But molecular glue is a particularly complicated science, and the startups pursuing technologies similar to RevMed are mostly in early stages of testing. Their medicines won't be ready for years, if ever.That hasn't stopped big drugmakers such as Novartis, Roche Holding and Eli Lilly from inking research pacts with glue developers that could pay out billions of dollars in milestones.The boom has been especially lucrative for Monte Rosa Therapeutics. Over the past three years, the Boston-based biotech firm has signed three agreements that could be worth over $10 billion to develop molecular glue drugs with both Novartis and Roche.The company, which trades under the stock ticker GLUE, has seen its shares surge nearly 400% over the past year. It's preparing to start mid-stage trials for multiple drugs by the end of this year."The run-up in the share price is justified based on what we've seen so far," says Robert Driscoll, an analyst at Wedbush. Gains are "due to the success of their drugs rather than kind of exuberance around the glue technology as a whole", he says.Science of GlueMolecular glues work in a fundamentally different way from other oral medicines. Most pills - like Prozac for depression or Lipitor for cholesterol - are tiny chemicals that squeeze into a pocket inside a much larger protein to gum up its functioning. But many proteins have few obvious pockets, including key cancer-causing proteins.In fact, about 80% of all proteins in the body are what scientists refer to as "undruggable", meaning they can't be targeted with traditional drug technologies.RevMed's daraxonrasib cleverly circumvents this problem by acting as a molecular stickum. Once inside the body it binds to a healthy protein on one side and then draws in the bad protein to stick to the other side. The healthy protein helps block the bad protein and turn off its signalling.Competitors Line UpMultiple companies are chasing RevMed's lead in pancreatic cancer despite the long odds. San Diego-based Erasca is in early stages of testing a drug it says is more potent than daraxonrasib. Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma has begun final-stage trials of a degrader that may help a subset of pancreatic and lung cancer patients.Molecular glues are also being developed as alternatives to injectable drugs used to treat autoimmune and skin disorders. Shares of Kymera Therapeutics have soared more than 180% in the past year thanks to promising early trial results. The company is developing a once-daily pill it hopes will one day compete with Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' Dupixent, one of the world's bestselling drugs."The technology allows you to go after things that would have been almost impossible" to do previously with pills, says Nello Mainolfi, Kymera's founder and CEO.With few effective options for pancreatic cancer, analysts expect RevMed's daraxonrasib to become an enormous bestseller for the company.Prospects for daraxonrasib and speculation about a potential takeout deal have inflated RevMed's market cap to nearly $33 billion. That's a lofty figure for a drugmaker with no approved medicines.The company is preparing to file for US approval soon, and the FDA has promised to give the drug an ultrafast review. It's projected to reach $7 billion in sales a year by 2032, according to the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

RBI expected to hike repo rate by year-end

The Reserve Bank of India will keep its key interest rate unchanged at 5.25% in June, according ​to most economists in a Reuters poll, although ​a majority now expect at least one increase by year-end due to risks from high oil ​prices and pressure on the rupee from weak capital inflows.India's still-benign inflation at 3.48% in April, below the RBI's 4% medium-term target for over a year, gives the central bank scant reason to act urgently.But, with crude oil prices hovering about 30% over levels seen before the U.S.-Israeli war ‌with Iran, the rupee ⁠down roughly ⁠6% for the year and wholesale inflation accelerating sharply in April, a growing number of economists now expect policy action may eventually be needed to limit ​the pass-through to inflation.Nearly 80% of economists, 44 of 56, in the May 22-29 Reuters poll expected the Monetary Policy Committee to keep the ​repo rate unchanged at 5.25% on June 5.Also Read: Repo rate hike not on the cards, for now, says Ram Singh, external member of MPCAmong other respondents, 11 forecast a 25-basis-point hike and one expected a bigger 50-basis-point increase. In an April poll only one respondent predicted a June rate lift."With growth facing downside risks while inflation faces strong upside ​pressures, we expect the RBI to hold rates steady in June... as supply ⁠shocks perceived as ‌temporary might not warrant an interest rate action immediately," said Aditya Vyas, chief economist at STCI ​Primary Dealer."Interest rates are ​not a good tool to counter large supply shocks. Also, I do not think the RBI ⁠MPC will increase rates to defend the rupee since it is beyond the ​remit of the MPC and precedents provide evidence it is not an effective antidote to ​depreciation."But not everyone agrees the RBI should keep rates steady.Also Read: RBI warns prolonged West Asia conflict could hit India’s economy"Without any hikes the financial market perception that domestic policies remain unaligned with tight global financial conditions will continue to grow, inflating risks of repeated or renewed speculative pressures on the exchange rate," said ANZ economist Dhiraj Nim.A shift to a "hawkish" policy stance would be prudent, he added.The central bank has already spent billions of dollars to slow the rupee's decline as a global risk-off environment accelerates foreign outflows from India.Meanwhile, other Asian central banks have ‌already begun tightening policy to shore up their currencies. Bank Indonesia delivered a surprise 50-basis-point rate hike last week, and the Philippines' central bank raised rates 25 basis points in April.India, Indonesia and the Philippines ​are especially exposed ​as higher oil import costs coincide ⁠with capital outflows driven by investors seeking safer assets.Still, when asked if the RBI should consider using monetary policy alongside FX intervention to cushion the rupee's fall, a majority of economists, 14 of 18, said no.Poll medians showed the central bank would raise ​interest rates by 25 basis points in the fourth quarter and again in the third quarter of 2027. Most economists expected at least one 25-basis-point rate increase by end-2026 compared with expectations in the April survey for no rise through 2027.Mizuho's head of macro research Vishnu Varathan said the RBI hiking rates was "a matter of when not if", and argued moving "sooner rather than later at the August meeting makes sense and mitigates unnecessary pain".

RBI says banks can withstand severe shocks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday said that India's financial sector remained resilient in 2025-26, supported by healthy bank and non-bank balance sheets, improved asset quality and strong capital buffers. The central bank affirmed confidence in India's banking sector, indicating that it remains healthy, with gross bad loans at multi-decadal lows and stress tests showing banks can withstand severe shocks without breaching capital norms."Stress test results reaffirmed the resilience of banks, indicating their ability to withstand losses under adverse scenarios while maintaining capital buffers well above the regulatory minimum," the central bank said in its Annual Report. RBI further highlighted that the financial sector remained resilient on the back of healthy bank and non-bank balance sheets, improved asset quality and capital buffers, enabling double-digit credit growth.Also read: India steers boat through a risky channel between war clouds and El NinoRBI noted that bank credit growth gained momentum across sectors and outpaced deposit growth during the year, leading to a rise in the credit-deposit ratio. The transmission of policy repo rate changes to banks’ deposit and lending rates also remained robust amid conducive liquidity conditions.Bank credit to the commercial sector grew 15.9% year-on-year in 2025-26, up from 10.9% a year ago, while credit from non-bank sources expanded 13.3%, underscoring the continued strength of financial intermediation in the economy, the report said.RBI noted that profitability of scheduled commercial banks remained robust alongside improvement in asset quality. The gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio declined to a multi-decadal low, while the capital to risk-weighted assets ratio (CRAR) remained comfortably above regulatory requirements.The report added that asset quality and capital adequacy of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) remained strong during the year. Urban co-operative banks also witnessed improved credit and deposit growth along with robust capital buffers and higher profitability.The central bank further said the share of external benchmark-based lending rate (EBLR)-linked loans increased during the year, aiding faster monetary policy transmission, while the proportion of marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR)-linked loans continued to decline.RBI on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)The RBI indicated that it expanded its experimentation with Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) during 2025-26 by launching multiple pilots linked to direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes of the Centre and state governments.In its Annual Report, the central bank said programmable CBDC was used to deliver food subsidies under the public distribution system (PDS) in Gujarat, Puducherry and Chandigarh. Beneficiaries were credited subsidies through CBDC wallets that could be redeemed only for eligible commodities at fair price shops and designated merchants.The RBI said the pilots leveraged the programmability feature of CBDCs, allowing targeted use of funds and improving efficiency in subsidy delivery.The central bank also advanced efforts in tokenisation of financial assets through the development of the Unified Markets Interface (UMI), a multi-layer platform aimed at improving settlement efficiency using wholesale CBDC.“A pilot on tokenisation of certificates of deposit (CDs) was initiated on UMI,” the report said.On cross-border payments, RBI said it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for collaboration on digital assets and held bilateral discussions with MAS and the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) to operationalise a cross-border CBDC pilot.The RBI also joined multilateral initiatives led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, including Project Rialto and Phase 2 of Project Mandala, focused on improving cross-border payments using CBDCs.The report comes as central banks globally continue to explore digital currency infrastructure to improve payment efficiency, lower transaction costs and strengthen cross-border settlement systems.The research by the U.S.-based Atlantic Council think tank revealed that 146 countries & currency unions, representing over 98% of global GDP, are exploring a CBDC. There is a new high of 77 countries in the advanced phase of exploration, which includes development, pilot, or launch.

India auto wholesales to stay strong in FY26–28