02 February 2026
While India ranks third globally in the startup ecosystem, after the US and China, the country now has close to 49 per cent of startups coming from the tier 2 and 3 cities, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Friday.
There startups from smaller cities are working in the fields like IT, agriculture, aviation, education, energy, health and space sectors, the Minister said while delivering keynote address at “DST Startup Utsav” here.
A committee formed by the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) to look into the manufacturing of electric two-wheelers in India in the wake of a series of fire incidents has found serious lapses in the battery management system (BMS) and venting mechanism of cells, senior officials in the ministry said on Friday.
Based on the committee report, the transport ministry has approved imposing a hefty monetary penalty on three companies that sold “faulty” electric two-wheelers. Also, instead of coming up with a set of guidelines as planned in April, the transport ministry has decided to issue regulations to ensure safety standards in batteries that will be binding on all manufacturers and for testing agencies to check compliance of. The rules are likely to make it mandatory to include an “auto cutoff” feature in the BMS in case of overheating.
It’s a free-for-all between the BJP and AAP over the freebie issue. The Centre has come out with a point-by-point rebuttal to the comments and allegations by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on the matter.
Government sources told News18, “Arvind Kejriwal is deliberately framing the argument in a manner that is wrong. Nobody is saying that giving free benefits to the poor is wrong. But it is also wrong to classify the loan write-offs as being freebies, or to say that the corporate tax rate cut was designed to benefit the corporates.”
Delhi on Thursday reported 2,726 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest in nearly six and a half months, and six fatalities due to the viral disease, while the positivity rate stood at 14.38 per cent, according to data shared by the health department here. This is the ninth consecutive day when the capital logged more than 2,000 cases in a day. The national capital on January 31 had reported 2,779 COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 6.20 per cent and 38 deaths. The city on Wednesday had reported eight fatalities due to the coronavirus infection, the highest in nearly 180 days, and 2,146 cases with a positivity rate of 17.83 per cent.
The national capital on February 13 had recorded 12 deaths due to the viral disease. On Tuesday, Delhi had reported 2,495 coronavirus cases with a positivity rate of 15.41 per cent and seven fatalities.
The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has extended the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) scheme till December 31, 2024, wherein financial assistance is to be provided for the completion of already sanctioned 122.69 lakh houses till March 31, 2022, according to an official statement.
PMAY-U Housing for All is a major flagship programme being implemented by the government to provide all-weather pucca houses to all eligible beneficiaries in the urban areas across the country.
