Plain answers to the questions behind the news.
Tech Mahindra's board has recommended one free share for every share held, its first bonus issue since 2015. Here is how a bonus works, what happens to the share price, and what shareholders need to watch for.
Brussels on Thursday listed nine more companies for helping Russia get round its curbs, four of them from India, the UAE and the Seychelles. An EU listing does not bind India, but it can still shut a company out of European money, ships and markets.
India's para athletes began competing in Aichi on Friday, and almost every event name carries a code. Those letters and numbers are the heart of para sport: they group athletes by how their impairment affects play, so that skill decides the result.
From Friday, banks must keep at least 99% of their required cash reserve with the RBI every single day, up from 90%. It sounds technical. It is one of the ways the central bank is trying to make its rate rise bite.
On Thursday the Supreme Court refused to restore the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore of YES Bank's AT-1 bonds, and the bank's shares fell as much as 20%. What these bonds are, why they were wiped out, and who gains or loses now.
Punjab has just logged its worst day of farm fires this season. The timing is no accident: a groundwater law, the harvest calendar and the machines used to cut paddy all push burning into a few weeks of autumn.
Yogi Adityanath seeks a third term, Akhilesh Yadav is betting on his PDA coalition and Mayawati is going it alone. The leaders, the small caste-based parties that tip close seats, and the newcomers who want a share.
The BJP and its allies won 273 seats last time, the Samajwadi Party nearly tripled its tally and the BSP was reduced to a single MLA. How the state's four regions split, and the arithmetic that will decide 2027.
UPI payments to shops have been free for merchants since 2020. A fee on larger payments was due on 15 October and has been put off until after Diwali. How it works, what is exempt and whether customers will feel it.
Beijing has issued five batches of Chinese names for places in Arunachal Pradesh since 2017. This month India named 28 features in Ladakh, and China called that illegal. What these lists are, what they change on the ground and why both capitals bother.
This week the IMF raised its growth forecast for India to 7%. A week earlier the RBI said 7.1%. How the Fund's flagship report is put together, why two careful forecasters rarely land on exactly the same figure and what the numbers are used for.
Tankers are being hit almost daily in and around the strait, and Brent crude is back above $106 a barrel. Why a narrow channel off Iran matters so much to India, why pump prices have risen far less than crude, and what could change that.
Retail inflation is 5.54%. Wholesale inflation was 9.92% in August and is expected to cross 10% when the September figure comes out at noon today. What each index measures, why the gap is so wide and who should care.
The old Section 144 has a new number. Cases over this month's Delhi protests have been filed for breaking orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. Who can issue such an order, how long it lasts and how it can be challenged.
Rahul Gandhi and 10 other opposition leaders want the voter roll revision stopped, its records opened up and its deletions audited. Here is what they are asking, on what legal grounds, and what the Election Commission says.
Onions, garlic and silver pushed prices up at the fastest pace of the year. Economists now expect the RBI to raise rates again in December, which would reach home loans within months.
Missiles from Yemen have hit Saudi airports four times in a week, killing at least 20 people, one of them from Hyderabad. Who is firing, why now, and what it means for Indians in the Gulf.
A satirical online page started in mid-May 2026 is now one of the most visible youth protest movements in India. Where the name came from, who runs it and why it is marching against the Chief Election Commissioner.
A selection committee led by the Prime Minister picks the CEC under a 2023 law now before a Constitution Bench. Removal needs the same process as a Supreme Court judge.
What the SIR is, why names are being left off draft rolls, and the forms to use if yours is missing or wrong.
How Lok Sabha seats are shared among states, why the numbers have been frozen since 1976, and what the government's April 2026 attempt to change them would have done.
The population count asks 40 questions, from age and religion to Aadhaar, bank accounts and caste. Here is what to expect, when, and what remains unclear.
The Bill would let a government authority take over foreign-funded assets of NGOs that lose their FCRA licence, and cut the maximum jail term. A joint committee is studying it.
Since September 2025, most goods and services fall into a 5% or 18% slab, with 40% for a short list of sin and luxury goods. Here is how the system works as of October 2026.
Six stages take a Bill from a minister's desk to the statute book. Here is what happens at each, and where Money Bills, joint sittings and private members fit in.
India moved its national accounts to a 2022-23 base in February 2026. Here is how the growth number is put together, and why past figures shifted.
Since February 2026, India's retail inflation figure comes from a new Consumer Price Index with base year 2024. The basket is bigger, food counts for less and some prices are now collected online.
MLAs, not voters, choose Rajya Sabha members, using ranked ballots that they must show to their party. All 12 seats due in October were filled unopposed.
The Centre announces minimum support prices for 22 crops, but government buying is concentrated in a few crops and a few states. Here is how the system works.
Two Bills to hold Lok Sabha and assembly elections together have been with a joint committee since December 2024. Its report is now due in the Winter Session.
Much of Parliament's detailed scrutiny happens in small committees that meet behind closed doors. Here is how they differ, and which ones are at work now.
The Tenth Schedule punishes MPs and MLAs who switch sides, but a merger of two-thirds is allowed and the Speaker decides. 2026 has tested both rules.
The gap between what the Centre spends and what it earns decides how much it must borrow. For 2026-27 the target is ₹16.96 lakh crore, or 4.3% of GDP.
Four codes replaced 29 central labour laws in November 2025. Here is what they promise workers, what they ask of employers, and why so much still depends on the states.
The RBI's main policy rate moved up to 5.50% in October 2026. Here is how a decision in Mumbai finds its way into your home loan instalment.
India's data protection law lets you see, correct and erase your data and complain if it is misused. Most of it takes effect in May 2027, and the regulator is not yet staffed.
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