Iran Pushes Back on Rumours of Delegation Visiting Islamabad for US Talks

Harshita Arora’s story reads like a modern Indian success saga. Dropping out of school at fifteen, she taught herself coding, built a crypto‑tracking app that Apple highlighted, and was honoured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a national award. When her first pandemic‑era startup collapsed, she and her co‑founders pivoted into an unfamiliar world of trucking payments, creating AtoB – now a Series C fintech that provides the financial backbone for more than thirty‑thousand U.S. trucking fleets and carries a valuation of about $800 million. At twenty‑five, Harshita broke another glass ceiling by becoming a General Partner at Y Combinator, the accelerator that nurtured Airbnb, Dropbox and Reddit. This article follows her journey step by step, adding personal observations and everyday Indian references to show how a small‑town dreamer is reshaping global tech and inspiring the next wave of Indian entrepreneurs.

In a candid social‑media post, Zerodha co‑founder Nithin Kamath reminded us that the famed economist Simon Kuznets had originally designed the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – then called GNP – as a gauge of human welfare, not merely of output. Kamath traced the metric’s birth in the 1930s, highlighted how World War II turned it into a production counter for tanks and aircraft, and quoted Kuznets’ 1962 caution about confusing the quantity of growth with its quality. He also cited recent criticism from UN chief António Guterres and economist Diane Coyle, illustrating how GDP can rise even when forests vanish, households lose paid work, or people spend more on sickness because public services crumble. Relating these points to the massive shift we are witnessing today because of artificial intelligence, Kamath argued that relying on a World‑War‑II‑era number to judge progress feels out‑of‑step. Drawing on everyday Indian examples – from the chatter at a roadside tea stall to the rise of gig‑workers and the silent cost of polluted rivers – the description unpacks why the debate on GDP’s relevance matters for ordinary citizens, policymakers, and anyone watching India’s rapid technological transformation.

The Assam Board of Secondary Education (SEBA) has released the Class 10 (HSLC) results for the year 2026, showing an overall pass percentage of 65.62 %. This marks a modest improvement over the previous year’s 63.98 % but is still below the 75.7 % recorded in 2024. Out of 4,29,249 students who appeared for the exam, 2,81,701 managed to pass. The districts of Dima Hasao, Sivasagar and Dibrugarh topped the performance chart with pass rates of 88.23 %, 84.08 % and 78.46 % respectively. Jyotirmay Das from Barpeta secured the top rank with 591 marks, followed closely by Akankha Bhuyan of Biswanath and Surjit Akhtar of Nalbari. The article also outlines the historical pass‑percentage trend from 2019 to 2026, provides details on the exam schedule, the gender split of candidates, and explains the division and distinction criteria used by SEBA. Readers can check their results on the official portals such as results.sebaonline.org and others.

A US Navy MQ‑4C Triton, one of the priciest surveillance drones in the American arsenal, disappeared over the Strait of Hormuz after transmitting a general emergency signal. The aircraft had spent about three hours monitoring the Persian Gulf and the strait before turning back toward its home base at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Italy. Flight‑tracking data from Flightradar24 showed the emergency code 7700, a slight turn toward Iran and a rapid descent before the platform vanished from all screens. This incident raises immediate questions about whether the loss was due to a mechanical fault or hostile action, especially as it occurred just two days after the US and Iran announced a fragile cease‑fire and Iran pledged to reopen the crucial waterway that carries roughly one‑fifth of the world’s oil. The Triton, valued at over $200 million per unit, can fly above 50,000 feet for more than 24 hours, covering a range of 7,400 nautical miles, and usually works in tandem with manned P‑8A Poseidon patrol aircraft. As of last year the US Navy operated 20 of these drones with plans for seven more, yet the Pentagon has yet to comment on the mysterious disappearance.

The Indian GLP‑1 agonist market, once a tiny niche, has exploded to nearly Rs 1,600 crore within four years, driven largely by the entry of affordable semaglutide generics after the molecule’s patent expired on March 21. Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, which has dominated the market for the past four months, is now seeing its monthly revenue drop from Rs 135 crore in January to Rs 114 crore in February, signalling the first tangible impact of the generic wave. Data from Pharmarack shows that 26 semaglutide brands from 13 different companies are now competing, pushing the overall GLP‑1 market share of Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro down from 69 percent to 56 percent. Analysts point to the lower price of semaglutide and the aggressive launch strategies of players such as Torrent, Abbott and Emcure as key reasons for this shift. While Novo Nordisk still commands about 76 percent of the value market with its Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus brands, the market is rapidly consolidating around a few strong generic players, and the surge in injectable semaglutide sales is outpacing oral formulations. Government advisories may tighten prescription rules, but the growth momentum is unlikely to stall in the near term.

The latest Assam Assembly election has witnessed a striking rise in voter participation, especially in Lower Assam where the competition is fiercest. According to the Election Commission, the overall turnout reached 84.4%, already overtaking the 82.4% recorded in 2021. This surge, however, is not uniform across the state. While Dalgaon in Darrang district recorded a remarkable 94.6% turnout, Lower Assam’s 66 seats averaged 86.5%, far higher than Upper Assam’s 81.2% average. The pattern aligns closely with areas having larger Muslim electorates, with districts like Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Goalpara and Dhubri crossing the 90% mark. Upper Assam districts such as Tinsukia, Jorhat and Dibrugarh lag behind with turnouts below 81%. At the constituency level, 38 of the 46 seats exceeding 85% turnout have Muslim voter shares above 25%, and all top‑ten turnout seats fall in this group. The Barak Valley, despite a 45% Muslim share, posted a lower 82.9% turnout, while Dhubri district, home to the state’s highest Muslim concentration at 77%, continued its tradition of high participation with an average of 90.5%. These figures suggest that the electoral momentum is heavily concentrated in Lower Assam, potentially shaping the final seat outcomes more than the overall turnout figure alone. The narrative also hints at a continued geographic split, with the BJP finding stronger support in Upper Assam and tribal areas where participation has been modest. This nuanced turnout landscape sets the stage for a closely watched contest between AIUDF, Congress, and their allies versus the BJP in the coming days.