Data centres are huge computer facilities that run AI and online services, and they use large amounts of power and water. Local opposition to them has grown across the US, which explains why companies are making such promises.

Context: A gold loan lets a borrower pledge gold jewellery as security and get cash, and the lender can keep the gold if repayments are missed. CIBIL is India's best-known credit bureau, which tracks loan repayment records.

Context: CERT-In is the national agency that tracks cyber threats and warns organisations about them. Banks and finance firms hold customer money and data, so attacks on them are a major worry for regulators.

Context: AI agents are programs that take actions on their own, like using apps or tools for a user. CERT-In is India's national cyber security agency, which sets security advice for organisations. As companies give agents access to company data, control over what they can do matters more.

CERT-In is the national agency that tracks and responds to cyber threats in India. Banks and fintech apps hold customers' money and personal data, so attackers often target them.

UPSC conducts the Civil Services Examination every year to recruit officers for services such as the IAS, IPS and IFS. It runs in stages: a preliminary test, this main written exam, and then a personality interview.

Context: Thousands of old satellites and rocket parts orbit Earth, and collisions can create more debris that threatens active satellites. Space agencies and companies are exploring cleanup methods, and India's private space sector has grown since reforms opened it up in 2020.

Context: The TNPSC, or Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, conducts recruitment for many state government jobs. Age limits decide who can apply, so aspirants near the cutoff depend heavily on changes like this.

Context: Nvidia makes the graphics chips that power most AI data centres, so its share price is often seen as a gauge of demand for AI. Data centre rules matter because they can affect how quickly companies build the computing capacity AI needs.

Context: Agnipath is a short-service scheme where recruits serve four years in the armed forces, and many have asked what happens after. Earlier reports said the Army was only weighing relief, so this moves the plan toward a firm policy.

Context: ABB is a Swiss-Swedish engineering group, and SoftBank is a Japanese investment firm. China has been tightening control over data leaving the country and over advanced AI technology, so cross-border AI deals now face closer scrutiny.

Context: A buyout is a payment offered to staff who agree to leave, and tech firms often use them to reshape teams. Such moves can signal changing priorities, which matters for workers in technology across many countries, including India.

Context: Companies around the world are adding AI to customer service, shopping and internal work, so managing AI risk now matters for businesses of every size.

Context: UPI is the instant mobile payment system run by NPCI, and it has grown into one of India's most used payment channels. Merchants have largely paid no fee on UPI, so any charge is a major shift for shops and small sellers.

Context: CCMB is the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, a government-funded research institute in Hyderabad. Gene studies like this can help doctors understand which family members may be at risk.

Context: Tax devolution is the share of central tax revenue the Centre passes on to the states, which they use to fund their own spending. Getting the money early helps states meet extra costs during the festive season.

Context: Visa and passport rules decide who can enter and stay in India, and they are mainly set under the Passport Act and the Foreigners Act. Many refugees living here have no formal status, so changes to these rules matter for their legal stay.

Context: DXOMARK is an independent testing lab that scores phone cameras, and its rankings are often used by buyers comparing flagship models. Premium phones at this price compete with top models from Apple, Samsung and Google.

Diwali is one of India's biggest festive shopping seasons, when many people buy phones and discounts are common. Price changes after a festival often follow a rush of buying, so buyers may want to plan purchases carefully.

Industrial policies are state government plans that offer tax breaks, land and subsidies to lure factories and investors, and states compete for the same companies. Suvendu Adhikari is West Bengal's chief minister, and the state has long sought more manufacturing investment.

A visa category sets the purpose of a foreign visit, such as tourism, business or study, along with the rules attached to it. Fewer categories usually mean fewer forms and less confusion for applicants.

Context: Generative AI tools can create images from text prompts, and many were built using large collections of online art. The debate over consent and credit now touches working artists, who must compete with cheaper AI output.

Context: Dearness allowance is a cost-of-living payment that central and state governments revise periodically, often after inflation rises. Other states, such as Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, have recently made similar changes.

Context: Aadhaar is India's 12-digit biometric ID system, widely used to verify identity for banking, SIM cards and government services. Paperless checks aim to make that process faster and reduce reliance on physical copies.

Context: Age limits for government jobs are usually applied strictly, so a temporary relaxation is an exception. Such changes often follow protests when long delays in hiring push eligible candidates past the limit.

Context: The Colorado Party has dominated Paraguay's politics for decades, so its lawmakers joining an impeachment is unusual. Impeachment is a formal process where legislators can remove an elected leader from office.

Context: The UGC is the national body that sets standards for universities and colleges in India. Ragging, which is harassment of new students, has been banned for years, and this case asks whether the current rules are strong enough.

Context: OpenAI makes ChatGPT, and Anthropic, which makes the Claude chatbot, is its main rival in selling AI tools to companies. An IPO means selling shares to the public on a stock market, so the plan signals how big the AI business has become.

Paraguay is a South American country where the president serves a single five-year term. Impeachment is a process where the legislature can bring formal charges against top officials, and it is separate from ordinary elections.

Context: Gemini is Google's AI chatbot, and Classroom is its online tool that schools use to share lessons and assignments. Questions about safety and privacy for young users are growing, so companies and schools are setting stricter defaults.

Context: Local body polls depend on an accurate voter list, which decides who can vote. Problems with the list can delay polls or keep eligible people from voting.

CMFRI is a government research body based in Kochi that studies fish and sea life. A stranding is when a sea animal washes ashore, often dead or in distress, and tracking them helps scientists spot patterns.

Context: An NOC is an approval a player needs from their board before joining a foreign league, and T10 is a short cricket format with 10-over innings.

Forests act as carbon sinks by pulling carbon dioxide from the air as trees grow. The Amazon is one of the world's largest rainforests, so a change in its role affects the global climate.

Context: Particle physicists study the tiniest building blocks of matter, and rare decays can hint at physics beyond current theories. Searches like this often take decades because such events are extremely hard to spot.

Context: Deepavali is the Hindu festival of lights, and fireworks are a big part of the celebrations. Delhi and other cities often see smog rise around the festival, which is why timing limits on crackers are common.

Context: CPSEs are government-owned companies, such as railway and energy firms, that can hold unused land and buildings. Asset monetisation means selling or leasing such assets to raise money for the government.

Context: Agrivoltaics is the practice of sharing farmland between crops and solar panels. It matters as countries expand solar power while still needing their farmland to produce food.

Many people from India's northeast have long moved to other parts of the country for work, and small farms and debt are common reasons cited in such studies.

Context: ALMM stands for Approved List of Models and Manufacturers, a list of domestic makers whose equipment qualifies for certain government-backed solar projects. Wider rules could shift business from imported parts to Indian factories.

Nepal and Bhutan share open or largely unrestricted borders with India, so Indians often travel there without a visa. Rules on these movements change from time to time, so checking the latest notice before a trip helps.

Context: Agniveers are recruits under the Agnipath scheme, launched in 2022, who serve fixed-term contracts rather than full careers in the armed forces. Any change to their service rules affects thousands of young people and their plans.

Context: Indian law requires a person arrested without a warrant to be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours, so the start point decides how long police can hold someone before that step.

Context: Voyager 1 launched in 1977 and is now the most distant spacecraft from Earth, still sending data from interstellar space. One light-day is about 26 billion kilometres, the distance light travels in a single day.

Apple's iOS runs iPhones, and point updates like 27.3 come between major yearly versions. Apple has been adding AI features such as Siri under its Apple Intelligence branding, a push to bring AI into everyday phone use.

Cloud seeding sprays substances such as silver iodide into clouds to try to make them rain. Delhi's winter smog builds up as crop residue burning, traffic and cold, still air trap pollutants.

Context: The Reserve Bank of India has recently tightened cyber checks on banks after several hacks. Attackers and defenders are both now experimenting with AI tools, which is why the topic keeps coming up.

Context: Much of Karnataka's milk moves through farmer cooperatives, so price revisions affect both farm incomes and household budgets. KRRS, the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, is a major farmers' union in the state that speaks for dairy and crop growers.

AI labs are companies such as those building large chatbot models. Governments worldwide are still working out how to regulate them, and the Pentagon is the US defence department.

Context: The Public Accounts Committee is a Parliament panel that checks how public money is spent, and it reviews audit reports from the government's auditor. Indian Railways is one of the largest rail networks in the world and carries millions of passengers every day.

Context: Enzymes are proteins that speed up chemical reactions inside living cells, and researchers often modify them to change how cells behave. Light-controlled cells are an emerging area of biology research.

Context: NavIC is India's own regional navigation system, meant to give location services over India and nearby areas. Axiom-4 was a private mission to the International Space Station in 2025 that included an Indian astronaut.

Context: Data centres house the computers behind online services and AI, and they need large amounts of land and power. Disputes like this often arise when big tech companies pick sites for new AI facilities near homes or nature.

Solar and wind power generate electricity only when the sun shines or the wind blows, so storage is needed to use it at other times. Grid-scale storage means large battery or similar systems connected to the main power network.

Context: Teacher recruitment tests help states fill government school vacancies, and many candidates prepare for them for months. Getting a teaching post is often a stable career goal for graduates across India.

Context: India has faced several cases of contaminated or substandard medicines in recent years, which led to calls for tighter checks on drug makers. The proposal would change how the licensing regulator responds to such failures.

Road projects in India are often funded in stages, with the state cabinet approving extra money when costs rise or the scope grows. Such top-ups are a common way governments keep big projects moving.

Aadhaar is the 12-digit ID used for many government subsidies and payments. The SIR is the Election Commission's special revision of voter lists, so the debate links welfare access to whether a person is on the rolls.

Context: Rabi is the winter sowing season, when crops like wheat and mustard are planted after the monsoon. Cyclones often bring heavy rain, but farms need steady rain spread over time, which is why storms alone may not help.

Changing the owner of a used vehicle involves registration records, which are handled by state transport offices. Fees and paperwork can therefore differ from one state to another.

Context: Grama panchayats are elected village-level councils in India, and an SHO is the officer in charge of a police station. Harmony committees are a common way to ease tensions between communities before they grow into disputes.

A zepto is one sextillionth of a unit, so the zeptoverse refers to extremely small scales. Particle physics studies the smallest building blocks of matter, and reaching smaller scales can change what scientists know.

Context: Guinea-Bissau is a West African nation that was a Portuguese colony until 1974. Trials that give some participants a placebo are common in medical research, but critics in poorer countries often question whether they are fair.

Context: Karnataka runs large schemes such as the free electricity guarantee, and these need big yearly budgets. Price hikes like these often come when states look for ways to raise money for such programmes.

Ronaldo is one of the best-known football players in the world and has played at club and international level for decades. This news concerns his time with Portugal, not his whole playing career.

Context: A GLOF happens when a glacial lake bursts through its natural barrier, sending water and debris rushing downstream. Glaciers in the Himalayas are changing, and such floods are a growing concern for mountain communities in the region.

Context: The PMK is a political party in Tamil Nadu. Wetlands like Pallikaranai, near Chennai, hold rainwater and help drain floods, so changes to them often draw public concern.

Context: Mineral taxes and royalties in India are shared between the Centre and the states, and critical minerals are needed for batteries and electronics. Much of this supply is imported, so building local processing is a long-running policy goal.

Context: Form 6 is the form people use to get added to India's voter list, and SIR, or Special Intensive Revision, is the Election Commission's review of voter rolls. Links between the two matter because voter lists decide who can vote.

Context: An Olympic quota is a place a country earns for an athlete before the Games, so early quotas help with planning. ISSF is the international shooting body that runs the World Championships.

Context: CBG is biogas cleaned up to work like natural gas, usually made from farm residue, cattle dung and municipal waste. India wants it to cut fuel imports and reduce waste disposal problems, as part of a wider push for cleaner energy.

Context: Mumbai's airport is very busy and has limited runway time, so slots are tightly controlled. Navi Mumbai International Airport opened as a second hub to take some of this traffic off the older Mumbai airport.

Data centres are the huge computer buildings that run AI tools and cloud services, and their growth needs power and permission. Investors in AI firms watch these plans closely, so policy changes in Washington can move tech stocks.

Context: Indiramma houses are homes built under Telangana's state housing programme. Family insurance schemes usually aim to cover medical costs for households, but this scheme's terms are not yet known.

Context: Test cricket is the longest form of the game, played over up to five days. Bangladesh and West Indies have a long rivalry, and this match is part of West Indies' tour of Bangladesh.

Context: KYC, or know your customer, is the identity check that brokers and banks run before opening an account. Easier rules can make investing simpler to start, but the checks exist to protect both investors and the system.

France has seen repeated large strikes in recent years, including over pension changes in 2023. Unions and students often press for higher pay and fairer job prospects, so this march fits a wider national debate.

Context: Ballari Road is a major route linking central Bengaluru to the airport, so long construction there affects many commuters. Elevated corridors and tunnels are built to ease jams on busy city roads, though the work takes time to finish.

Antibodies are proteins the immune system makes to recognise and neutralise invaders such as viruses. Hantavirus is a group of viruses that can infect people, and knowing how antibodies block it can guide future treatments.

Context: Aditya-L1 is ISRO's solar observatory, placed about 1.5 million km from Earth to study the Sun. Solar eruptions can send charged particles toward Earth, so forecasting them matters for satellites and communications.

Context: A state's debt maturity is the date its bonds or loans must be paid back, so longer maturities spread payments over more years. States borrow heavily to fund schemes and infrastructure, and the Centre tracks their finances closely.

Voter rolls are the lists of people eligible to vote in each constituency, and the Election Commission revises them from time to time. Name deletions during these revisions have become a sensitive issue, so court rulings like this one attract close attention.

Context: Bangladesh is one of the world's largest garment exporters, and the sector employs millions, many of them women, so wage disputes often put pressure on factories and the government.

Context: The census counts people every ten years and its data guides how funds and seats are shared, so how 'urban' is defined matters. Many Indian towns have grown beyond old boundaries, so rural and urban areas now blend together.

Context: Adani Ports is one of India's largest port operators and has been expanding overseas and into logistics. Storage businesses handle goods moving through ports, so the purchase fits a wider push to grow beyond Indian shores.

The SHANTI Act is a 2025 law that opened India's nuclear power sector, once run mainly by the state, to private companies. AERB, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, checks that reactors and plants meet safety rules.

Context: Nvidia, Micron and other AI chipmakers have a large weight in the Nasdaq, so a sell-off in them can move the whole market. Bitcoin often moves with tech shares, and leveraged traders who borrow to bet on price moves get forced out when prices fall.

Pralay is a surface-to-surface missile developed by DRDO, the country's main defence research agency. Quasi-ballistic missiles can manoeuvre during flight, which can make them harder to track and intercept.

Sanitation workers keep towns and cities clean, so a long strike quickly affects garbage collection and public health. Indefinite strikes usually continue until both sides agree on pay or service terms, which is why talks matter.

Context: ARRI is a German company known for professional film cameras used on big movies, and Honor is a Chinese phone brand that was once part of Huawei. Reviewers often get phones before launch, so full verdicts usually come later.

Airtel is one of India's three big telecom companies, alongside Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea. Its profits depend heavily on how much customers pay per month, which telecom firms have raised in recent years.

GRAP, or Graded Response Action Plan, sets tougher steps as Delhi's air worsens, with GRAP 2 being an early stage. Stubble burning in nearby farm states and winter weather trap smoke each year, so the problem returns every autumn.

The WTA is the women's professional tennis tour, and the Chennai Open is one of its events held in India. Vaishnavi is an Indian player, so her results at home tournaments draw close attention from fans.

Context: Oleshky is a town in southern Ukraine, in the Kherson region, where fighting has been intense. Kirill Dmitriev heads Russia's Direct Investment Fund and is often Putin's envoy for talks with Washington.

Context: A correction is a sharp fall in price, and a bull run is a sustained rise. Gold is often bought as a store of value, so its price swings matter to Indian families and investors.

The Sensex tracks 30 large companies listed on the BSE, while the Nifty tracks 50 on the NSE, so together they reflect the mood of India's biggest listed firms. FIIs are foreign institutional investors, and their buying or selling can move the market sharply.

The BCCI, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, decides where national matches are played. Delhi's winter air pollution has repeatedly raised concerns about outdoor sport in the city.

Context: ABB is a Swiss engineering group that makes robots and automation equipment, and ABB India is listed on Indian stock exchanges. The debate over whether automation creates or cuts jobs is ongoing, and interest in smaller cities reflects a wider push by companies to reach beyond big metros.

Context: The Cauvery is a major river that supplies drinking and farm water across Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and the two states have long disputed how it is shared. Pollution boards test water and can act against factories that release waste into rivers.

Context: Israel's Parliament, the Knesset, has 120 seats, and a government needs at least 61 to hold a majority. Small religious and minority parties often decide who can form a government, so their choices matter greatly.

Context: Central banks raise interest rates to slow rising prices, which makes loans dearer. The rate rise comes as Andy Burnham, the new Prime Minister, has tried to ease cost of living pressures.

Context: FATCA is a US law and CRS is a global standard, both requiring banks to share details of foreign accounts to curb hidden wealth and tax evasion. A sovereign rating is a country's credit score, which affects how cheaply it can borrow.

Context: French unions have a long record of mass strikes over pensions, pay and working conditions, and government policy changes often trigger these protests. Such coordinated days of action show how much union support a movement can gather.

Hasina was ousted as prime minister in 2024 after mass protests, and she has lived in India since then. Her return would be a sensitive issue for both Bangladesh and India, which are close neighbours.

The Youth Olympic Games is for mostly teenage athletes and is a stepping stone to the senior Olympics. Badminton is among India's most popular sports, which is why this run draws national attention.

Context: India's deep-ocean plan, often called Samudrayaan, is run by the Earth sciences ministry and uses a crewed submersible called Matsya 6000. It builds on the country's wider push into ocean research and human spaceflight.

Context: Samsung usually launches its flagship Galaxy S phones in the first part of the year, and early leaks help buyers plan. A dummy unit is a non-working model used to check a phone's design.

Context: Rainfall strongly shapes rural incomes, so farm machinery sales often track the monsoon closely. Q2 covers July to September, the quarter in which companies report how demand held up during the season.