According to a report from market intelligence platform Tracxn, India’s technology startups pulled in $7.2 billion in funding between 1 January and 24 June 2026, marking a 12% increase over the same period last year. But that headline number masks a sharper underlying trend: the total number of funding rounds fell 43% to just 652, the steepest such decline in recent years. In plain terms, investors are writing fewer cheques — but much larger ones — to companies they have high conviction in.

That concentration is stark at the top of the table. The three largest funding rounds of H1 2026 — CRED’s $900 million raise, data-centre operator Nxtra’s $710 million round, and AI infrastructure company Neysa’s $600 million round — together accounted for roughly $2.2 billion, or nearly a third of all capital raised in the half-year period.

AI startups are reaching unicorn status faster than ever

Five Indian companies crossed the $1 billion valuation mark during H1 2026, and the contrast between them is telling. AI-native startups Neysa and Sarvam AI both achieved unicorn status in under three years from founding — an extraordinarily compressed timeline by historical standards. By comparison, the other three new unicorns of the half — fintech lender KreditBee, private space company Skyroot, and real estate platform Square Yards — took between eight and twelve years to reach the same milestone.

Sarvam AI’s own trajectory illustrates the momentum behind homegrown artificial intelligence. The company closed a $234 million round in mid-June led by HCLTech, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners, pushing it firmly into unicorn territory and giving India’s domestic AI model-building efforts a high-profile win.

Fintech, meanwhile, dominated by sheer capital volume, almost entirely on the back of CRED’s mega-round. According to weekly tracker data, Indian startups raised over $1 billion in the final week of June alone — a 164% jump from the week before — with fintech deals like CRED’s leading the surge alongside continued momentum in AI-powered development platforms.

Exits are happening faster too

The funding story isn’t the only sign of a maturing ecosystem. India recorded 13 initial public offerings in H1 2026, up slightly from 12 a year earlier. Among the standout listings were enterprise AI firm Fractal Analytics, which debuted with a market capitalisation of $1.7 billion, followed by ad-tech company Amagi at $858 million and quick-commerce logistics player Shadowfax at $782 million.

Perhaps the most telling statistic for founders and investors alike: the average time it now takes a startup to go from its first funding round to an IPO has dropped sharply, from roughly 14.5 years to just 8.1 years. That compression suggests both that companies are scaling faster and that public markets have become a more viable, near-term exit option than they were even a few years ago.

Beyond the marquee AI and fintech deals, capital also continued flowing into less glamorous but steadily growing categories — rooftop solar, pet care, clean-label nutrition, and circular-economy businesses among them — signalling that investor appetite hasn’t narrowed entirely to deep tech, even as the big-ticket headlines get dominated by AI.

For founders heading into the second half of 2026, the message from the data is fairly direct: investors are rewarding category clarity, defensible unit economics, and a clear milestone that a funding round is designed to unlock — rather than spreading smaller bets more widely, as was common in previous cycles.

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Lieutenant General Seth, an officer of the Armoured Corps commissioned in December 1986, becomes the Army’s new Chief of Army Staff after most recently serving as Vice Chief of Army Staff. Over his career he has commanded both the South Western and Southern Commands, giving him deep operational experience across some of the Army’s most strategically sensitive theatres. He is the sixth Chief of Army Staff to come from the Armoured Corps, in an institution where infantry officers have traditionally dominated the Army’s top job.

In an exclusive conversation ahead of demitting office, outgoing chief General Dwivedi spoke at length about the Army’s operational posture along the Line of Actual Control, the lasting significance of Operation Sindoor, and what he described as a fundamental shift in the character of modern warfare driven by drones and unmanned systems.

A push for “Indian solutions for Indian challenges”

General Dwivedi was candid about the Army’s strategic direction on self-reliance, stating that the institution’s limitations, challenges and military needs are unique to India, and cannot simply be solved by importing technology off the shelf. He pointed to an expanding collaboration between the Defence Research and Development Organisation, defence public sector units, private industry, MSMEs, startups and academic institutions, all working together to test indigenous systems faster and get them into the hands of soldiers sooner.

That emphasis on speed reflects lessons learned from recent operations, where the pace of drone warfare evolution has outstripped traditional procurement timelines. Officials within the defence establishment have repeatedly stressed that waiting years for a single “perfect” system is no longer viable when battlefield requirements can shift within months.

In a related development, the Indian Army has firmly denied recent reports alleging Chinese encroachment in Arunachal Pradesh, calling the claims incorrect — a reminder that information warfare around the contested border remains as active a front as the physical one.

Continuity on Agnipath, eyes on modernisation

Asked about the Agnipath recruitment scheme, which has remained a subject of public debate since its introduction, General Dwivedi described it as a “major human resource reform” intended to build a younger, more future-ready Army. He indicated that any future refinements to the scheme should be guided by operational feedback from the force rather than external pressure, signalling that the Army intends to keep evolving the programme rather than abandoning it.

Beyond personnel policy, the broader modernisation drive General Dwivedi leaves behind includes continued work on integrating BrahMos missile systems onto the Su-30MKI fighter fleet for long-range strike capability, alongside parallel efforts by the Navy and Air Force to expand indigenous platforms — from next-generation destroyer programmes to engine sovereignty discussions for India’s future fighter jets.

Lieutenant General Seth inherits an Army balancing two demands simultaneously: maintaining high alert along a tense northern border while accelerating the shift toward indigenous, drone-centric warfare capability that General Dwivedi has championed throughout his tenure. Defence analysts say the transition is likely to be smooth given Seth’s deep familiarity with current Army priorities from his time as Vice Chief, but the scale of the modernisation agenda he now leads is considerable.

The Ministry of Defence is expected to formally outline the new chief’s priorities in the coming weeks, though early signals suggest continuity on the self-reliance push rather than a change in strategic direction.

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History was made for the wrong reasons in Belfast last week — and now India arrive in England with a five-match T20I series, a fresh head coach decision to make, and a 15-year-old prodigy still waiting in the wings.

India open their tour of England with the first T20I at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street on Wednesday, 1 July, their first assignment since suffering a 2-0 series defeat to Ireland — the first time India has ever lost a T20I series to the Irish. That result has put pressure on captain Shreyas Iyer and the team management to rethink a batting order that looked uncharacteristically brittle while chasing modest totals in Belfast.

At the centre of the debate is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the teenage opener whose List A exploits — including a blistering 94 off just 29 balls — have made him one of the most talked-about young batters in the country. Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has been careful with his messaging, saying Sooryavanshi will have to “go through the process and bide his time” like any other cricketer hoping to break into the side, even while acknowledging the youngster looks ready for international cricket.

The selection headache

Sanju Samson’s twin failures against Ireland have given the team management a plausible opening to make a change at the top of the order, potentially pairing Sooryavanshi with Abhishek Sharma, who salvaged some form with a 20-ball 49 in the first match at Belfast. Ishan Kishan, who managed scores of just 1 and 12 in the series, is also under scrutiny, though dropping any established performer carries its own risks for squad morale.

Batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has pushed back gently against the idea of dropping in-form players purely to accommodate a debutant, noting that performers who are already delivering for the team should not be cast aside lightly. It captures the genuine tension within the camp: rewarding current form versus blooding a generational talent before the runway gets any shorter.

England, by contrast, arrive with relatively settled plans. Jofra Archer is included in the squad but unlikely to feature in the series opener, having played a Test match only two days earlier — Sonny Baker or Luke Wood are the likelier picks to share the new ball alongside Saqib Mahmood. Leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who has taken 15 wickets in his last 10 T20I outings at an economy under 8, is expected to be England’s most influential bowler on a Chester-le-Street pitch that may offer some turn.

A series with little time to prepare

Neither side has had the luxury of extended preparation. India will get just a single training session before the opener, while England’s squad has had to juggle travel from Nottingham to Durham with the demands of the international calendar. Despite that, this five-match series is expected to be among the most-watched cricket events of the English summer, with several matches starting late at night for Indian audiences given the time difference.

The broader context adds extra intrigue. England reached the semi-finals of this year’s ICC tournament before losing narrowly to India by just seven runs, and will see this series as an opportunity for revenge on home soil. India, the reigning T20 World Cup champions, head-to-head against England, but the team will be acutely aware that the aura of invincibility took a dent in Ireland.

With the Sooryavanshi question likely to dominate team-news bulletins right up to the toss, Wednesday’s opener promises to be as much about selection drama as it is about the cricket itself.

The post After Ireland Shock, India’s T20I Side Faces Bigger Test appeared first on Daily Tips.

Dalal Street wrapped up June on a shaky note. The BSE Sensex fell 249.70 points, or 0.33%, to close at 76,478.67 on Tuesday, while the NSE Nifty 50 slipped 80.50 points, or 0.34%, to settle at 23,865.75 — sliding below the psychologically significant 23,900 mark. It was a volatile session from start to finish, one that began with sharper losses, recovered to near-flat by midday, and then drifted lower again into the close.

The trigger for the morning’s selloff was geopolitical. Iran accused the United States of violating the fragile ceasefire that has held in West Asia since 17 June, reviving fears of renewed escalation just as both sides were expected to send negotiating teams to Doha for fresh talks. Markets across Asia wobbled in sympathy, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down over 1% and Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite also under pressure, though Japan’s Nikkei 225 managed to buck the trend.

IT stocks bear the brunt

By the closing bell, it was the technology sector doing the real damage. The Nifty IT index plunged roughly 2.7% as investors trimmed exposure to export-oriented stocks ahead of key US economic data due later in the week. Sector heavyweights Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro all featured among the day’s biggest losers on the Nifty 50, reflecting persistent worries about discretionary technology spending in the US and the broader interest-rate outlook there.

Eicher Motors had an especially rough day, falling close to 4.8% after analysts flagged that Delhi’s newly outlined electric vehicle policy — which charts a phased shift away from internal combustion two-wheelers — could weigh on demand for the company’s Royal Enfield motorcycles. Tata Consumer Products also featured among the laggards.

It wasn’t all bad news, though. Market breadth actually stayed positive through the session, with roughly 2,250 stocks advancing against 1,805 declining — a sign that the pain was concentrated in large-cap technology and auto names rather than spread evenly across the market. Domestic-focused sectors fared considerably better: the Nifty Realty and Nifty Consumer Durables indices both gained more than 1%, buoyed by optimism around domestic consumption and softer crude oil prices, which eased through the day as hopes grew for de-escalation in the Gulf.

What analysts are watching next

Market strategists say the coming sessions will likely continue to take their cue from developments in West Asia rather than domestic fundamentals. Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Research for Wealth Management at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said equities are likely to stay “cautiously optimistic” while investors watch the progress of US-Iran negotiations, particularly around guarantees for safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

Brokerages including Bajaj Broking Research maintain that the broader market structure remains constructive despite the short-term wobble, projecting the Nifty could gradually work its way toward the 24,500–24,600 zone in the coming weeks if the geopolitical overhang clears. Bank Nifty, meanwhile, has been consolidating around the 57,000 support zone, with the brokerage flagging 59,200 as a potential target on a sustained move higher.

For now, investors are also keeping an eye on foreign institutional investor flows, the rupee’s movement against the dollar, and crude oil prices — all of which have become more sensitive than usual given the uncertainty over whether the West Asia ceasefire will hold through the week.

The post Sensex, Nifty Close Lower as IT Stocks Slump on Iran Ceasefire Jitters appeared first on Daily Tips.

Tax season has arrived with a twist this year. For decades, India’s salaried class circled one date on the calendar — 31 July — as the income tax return deadline. That single-date system has now been replaced with a tiered structure that depends on which ITR form a taxpayer is required to use, following changes introduced in Budget 2026.

According to the Income Tax Department’s e-filing portal, taxpayers filing ITR-1 (Sahaj) or ITR-2 — covering salary income, capital gains, interest income, and those owning one or two house properties — must still file by 31 July 2026 for Assessment Year 2026-27. The bigger change applies to small business owners and professionals. Those filing ITR-3 or ITR-4 for non-audit business or professional income now get an extra month, with their deadline pushed to 31 August 2026.

For businesses whose accounts require a statutory audit, the timeline extends further, to 31 October 2026. Companies and entities with transfer pricing reporting obligations involving international or specified domestic transactions get until 30 November 2026.

Officials at the tax department’s offline utility desk confirmed that ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-3 and ITR-4 forms have all been activated for online and offline filing for AY 2026-27, meaning taxpayers in every category can begin preparing their returns now rather than waiting for last-minute portal congestion in July.

Why the change matters

Tax consultants point out that the revised structure offers real relief to freelancers, consultants, doctors, lawyers and small business owners who previously had to scramble against the same end-of-July rush as salaried employees. The additional weeks are intended to give this group more breathing room for bookkeeping, reconciling income against TDS records, and avoiding the kind of last-minute errors that lead to defective return notices.

There’s a second, equally important change buried in the fine print. Until now, the window to file a belated or revised return closed on 31 December of the assessment year. Under the new framework, taxpayers can revise their returns until 31 March 2027 — the actual end of the assessment year — giving far more time to fix mismatches flagged in the Annual Information Statement (AIS) or claim deductions missed in the original filing.

Those who miss the original deadline altogether can still file a belated return up to 31 December 2026, though this attracts a late fee of up to Rs 5,000 under Section 234F, reduced to Rs 1,000 for taxpayers with total income below Rs 5 lakh, along with interest on any outstanding tax liability.

What taxpayers should do now

Tax advisors recommend three steps before filing season peaks. First, reconcile Form 16 issued by employers against Form 26AS and the AIS to catch any TDS mismatches early. Second, compare the old and new tax regimes carefully, since the choice materially affects final liability for many salaried taxpayers. Third, complete e-verification of the return within 30 days of submission — an unverified return is treated as not filed at all, regardless of whether it was submitted before the deadline.

It’s also worth noting that the broader Income-tax Act, 2025 came into force on 1 April 2026, but it governs income earned from FY 2026-27 onward. Returns being filed right now, for FY 2025-26, are still processed under the old, familiar Income Tax Act of 1961 — so the forms and rules taxpayers are used to remain valid for one more filing cycle.

With refund processing increasingly tied to early, accurate filing, tax professionals are urging eligible taxpayers not to wait for the deadline itself, particularly given that government portals have faced technical slowdowns in peak filing weeks in past years.

The post What Salaried and Business Taxpayers Need to Know for AY 2026-27 appeared first on Daily Tips.

There was a time, not long ago, when the biggest challenge for the Reserve Bank of India was deciding how many times it could cut interest rates without spooking markets. That era, for now, is over. The RBI held its benchmark repo rate steady at 5.25 per cent for the third consecutive meeting in June 2026, maintaining its neutral stance as a set of external and domestic pressures made further easing politically and economically difficult.

The June decision was broadly anticipated. Markets had not been pricing in a cut, and the central bank’s communication over recent months has signalled caution rather than accommodation. What was less expected was the downward revision to the GDP growth forecast for FY2026-27 — trimmed to 6.6 per cent from the earlier projection of 6.9 per cent. It is still strong growth by any global standard, but the direction of the revision matters.

Why the Outlook Has Shifted

The RBI’s revised forecast reflects two converging pressures. The first is external. Ongoing conflict in the Middle East has added uncertainty to global energy markets, threatening to push crude oil prices higher — a significant concern for a country that imports the bulk of its petroleum needs. A weakening rupee compounds the problem, making imports more expensive and importing inflationary pressure from global commodity markets. Inflation, which had fallen to extraordinarily low levels in late 2025 — the Consumer Price Index touching 0.25 per cent year-on-year in October 2025 — is projected to average around 5.1 per cent through FY27, with the RBI now forecasting 4.2 per cent in Q1 and 5.9 per cent in both Q3 and Q4.

The second pressure is the sequencing of past policy. The RBI cut rates by 125 basis points last year in a concerted effort to ease financial conditions and stimulate consumption. Goldman Sachs Research, in its most recent India outlook, noted that those cuts have had a visible effect on consumer credit and urban consumption — but also concluded that there is now “limited scope for further policy rate easing.” The accommodative cycle appears to have run its course for the foreseeable future.

What the Numbers Actually Look Like

Strip away the central bank caution and India’s economic picture still looks broadly healthy. Goldman Sachs forecasts real GDP growth of 6.9 per cent for calendar year 2026 and 6.8 per cent in 2027 — both above consensus estimates and ahead of most peer emerging markets. Real consumption growth is projected to rise to 7.7 per cent in 2026, supported by a strong winter harvest, continued rural welfare spending by state governments heading into election cycles, and the Rs 6.3 trillion in liquidity injections that the RBI has pushed into the banking system over the past year.

The US-India trade deal struck in February — which reduced reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods from 25 per cent to 18 per cent, broadly in line with other Asian nations — is expected to provide a modest but meaningful growth tailwind, estimated at around 0.2 percentage points of GDP on an annualised basis. Analysts expect private capital expenditure to pick up in the second half of 2026 as the uncertainty that had been depressing investment decisions begins to lift.

The Rupee and the Current Account

One area of genuine concern for policymakers is the current account deficit, which widened sharply to around 2.8 per cent of GDP in the fourth quarter of 2025 — more than double the 1.3 per cent recorded the previous quarter — as exports to the United States dipped and gold imports surged. The RBI expects the deficit to widen further in 2026, driven primarily by higher non-oil and non-gold imports as domestic consumption improves. Services exports — where India remains one of the world’s most competitive suppliers, from IT services to financial outsourcing — are expected to provide a partial offset.

For households and businesses, the practical implication of a rate hold is straightforward: borrowing costs are unlikely to come down further in the near term. EMIs on home loans, auto finance, and MSME credit will remain at current levels. The RBI has signalled that any further rate decisions will be data-dependent, with the next monetary policy committee meeting scheduled for August.

For an economy that has, by most measures, handled a difficult global environment with considerable resilience, the message from the central bank is essentially one of holding steady — neither pressing the accelerator nor reaching for the brakes, waiting to see which way the headwinds blow.

The post India’s Economy Navigates Headwinds as RBI Holds Rates at 5.25%, Trims Growth Outlook appeared first on Daily Tips.

The southwest monsoon is advancing, but the news it brings with it is mixed. As of 29 June 2026, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has confirmed that favourable conditions are in place for the monsoon to push further into Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, the remaining parts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, and some parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand over the next three to four days. By mid-July, it is widely expected to cover the entire country.

That is the good news. The rest of the story is more complicated — and for the millions of Indian farmers who depend on the four-month June-to-September rainy season, considerably more worrying.

A Below-Normal Season

The IMD’s updated long-range forecast, issued in late May 2026, indicates that this year’s seasonal rainfall is most likely to be below normal — estimated at between 90 and 95 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA). While that may sound like a modest shortfall, the geographic distribution matters as much as the headline number: below-normal rainfall is projected across most parts of the country, with only Northwest and Northeast India, the eastern fringes of peninsular India, and isolated pockets of east-central India expected to receive normal to above-normal precipitation.

The monsoon core zone — the agricultural heartland encompassing the rain-fed farmlands of central and peninsular India — falls squarely within the at-risk area for deficits. Crops like kharif rice, soybean, groundnut, and pulses are planted and nurtured entirely through monsoon rainfall, making the coming weeks critical for sowing decisions across millions of small and marginal farms.

The Climate Signal Behind It

The IMD has flagged the potential development of El Niño conditions during the southwest monsoon season as a key risk factor. El Niño, the warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, historically suppresses Indian monsoon rainfall by disrupting the large-scale atmospheric circulation that draws moisture inland from the Indian Ocean. The IMD’s Monsoon Mission Climate Forecast System is currently tracking weak La Niña-like conditions in the Pacific — but models suggest El Niño-like conditions could develop before the season ends.

Adding to the uncertainty is the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), a separate but influential climate pattern. The IMD has reported neutral IOD conditions at present, with forecasts suggesting a shift towards positive IOD towards the tail end of the monsoon season — a development that, if it materialises, could partially offset the El Niño suppression and provide some rainfall boost to southern and eastern India in September.

What It Means for Farmers, Cities, and Power

The consequences of a below-normal monsoon ripple well beyond rainfall records. Reservoir levels — which feed both irrigation networks and hydroelectric plants — are determined over the course of the season, and below-normal inflows risk carrying deficits into the dry season of 2027. Several states including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan have already activated contingency protocols for drought-prone districts, directing agricultural extension workers to promote shorter-duration, drought-tolerant crop varieties as an insurance measure.

For urban India, the concern is somewhat different. Heat wave conditions persisted across parts of central and east India through late June, with the Vidarbha region recording temperatures 3 to 5 degrees above normal on multiple days. The IMD’s week-two forecast (2 to 8 July 2026) anticipates widespread rainfall with heavy to very heavy falls along the western coast — Gujarat, Konkan, Goa, coastal Karnataka, and Kerala — as well as normal to above-normal rainfall across the country overall in the short term.

That near-term forecast is encouraging. But meteorologists are quick to caution that a good July does not guarantee a good season, and that the true test of the 2026 monsoon’s character will arrive in August, historically the month most sensitive to El Niño disruption.

The IMD’s Recommendation

The department has urged the agricultural sector to avoid transplanting rice during episodes of heavy rainfall and to use its early warning advisories for sowing decisions. Given the projected seasonal deficit, water resource authorities have been advised to prioritise conservation and downstream planning well ahead of the withdrawal of the monsoon, typically expected in October.

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If applying for or renewing an Indian passport has been sitting on your to-do list for the past several months, tonight is the last chance to do it at the rates you have always known. Starting tomorrow, 1 July 2026, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will bring into force a comprehensive revision of passport fees across all categories — the first such update since 2012, and one that affects everyone from first-time applicants to those replacing a lost or damaged booklet.

The revised schedule was notified through the Passports (Amendment) Rules, 2026, on 25 June 2026, and covers fresh applications, renewals, Tatkal (expedited) processing, minor passports, Police Clearance Certificates, and replacement services for lost or damaged documents. Applications submitted before the rules take effect will continue to be processed under the existing fee structure.

The New Fee Structure

Under the revised rules, a standard 36-page passport — covering both fresh applications and reissues for adults — will cost Rs 2,500 under the normal processing category, up from the existing Rs 1,500. The 60-page booklet preferred by frequent travellers and professionals who need space for multiple visa stamps rises to Rs 3,500 under the same category.

Tatkal fees, which apply to expedited processing, have also been revised upward. A 36-page Tatkal passport now costs Rs 5,000, against the previous fee of Rs 3,500. The 60-page Tatkal option rises to Rs 6,000.

For passports belonging to minors — a significant category given that between 13 million and 14 million passports are issued annually in India and an estimated 25 to 30 per cent of those go to applicants under 18 — both normal and Tatkal fees have been increased proportionately. The government has retained a 10 per cent concession on normal fees for fresh applications made by children under 8 years of age and senior citizens above 60.

Those replacing a lost or damaged passport will now pay fees equivalent to the new Tatkal rates in the corresponding booklet category — Rs 5,000 for a standard 36-page lost passport replacement, and Rs 7,500 under Tatkal.

Why the Revision, and Why Now?

The MEA has cited rising operational costs, enhanced security features being incorporated into new-generation passport booklets, and the ongoing rollout of Passport Seva Programme 2.0 as the primary reasons behind the revision. India has simultaneously launched chip-based e-passports across 544 service centres, with biometric data embedded directly into the booklet — a significant upgrade from the previous generation of documents.

It is worth noting that the revision also arrives alongside a legal clarification from the MEA that has attracted its own share of attention: a passport, the ministry reiterated, is a travel document and not conclusive proof of Indian citizenship. That distinction matters practically for NRIs, OCI applicants, and those navigating complex residency or dual-nationality questions, where citizenship documents and passport documents serve different legal purposes.

What You Should Do Today

If your passport is due for renewal within the next several months, applying before tonight locks in the lower fee. The Passport Seva Portal at passportindia.gov.in accepts online applications around the clock, and appointments at Passport Seva Kendras across the country remain available for walk-in and scheduled visits.

For those already in the queue with a scheduled appointment after 1 July, the new fees will apply at the time of payment unless the application was formally submitted and fees paid in advance of tonight’s deadline. Indian missions and consulates abroad will also implement revised fee schedules from the same date, meaning NRIs looking to renew through overseas passport centres will see higher costs as well.

The revision is described by the MEA as a one-time adjustment rather than the beginning of recurring annual increases — though officials have acknowledged that fees are subject to periodic review as technology and operational costs evolve.

The post Indian Passport Fees Rise From Tomorrow: What You Need to Know Before Applying appeared first on Daily Tips.

India arrived in Belfast as reigning T20 World Cup champions, the most decorated T20 side in history, and with the most hyped uncapped teenager to wear the blue jersey in decades sitting in their squad. They left two days later having lost both matches — by 34 runs and then by a single, agonising run — while that teenager, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, watched from the bench without facing a single delivery of international cricket.

Ireland’s historic 2-0 series win — their first ever over India in any men’s international format — was built on sharp bowling, superior reading of conditions, and the kind of self-belief that upsets generate. But back home, the conversation has been less about Ireland’s achievement and more about a selection call that left an entire nation equal parts confused and divided.

What Happened on the Pitch

The first T20I on 26 June set the tone. India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and chose to bowl on a surface that offered assistance to seam bowlers — a reasonable call, but one that also meant frontloading his pace attack and running short of options at the death. Debutant Ireland pacers Jai Moondra and Matthew Hollard, both uncapped, were outstanding. Moondra dismissed World Cup Player of the Tournament Sanju Samson with his very first ball in international cricket. Hollard took three wickets and celebrated each one with a different routine. Ireland posted 182 for 9, and India — despite a watchable 49 from Abhishek Sharma — were bowled out for 148. Ireland won by 34 runs.

The second T20I on 28 June was crueller still. Chasing 155, India needed 2 runs off the final ball and could not get them, finishing on 153 for 9. Ireland, unchanged, held their nerve. It ended 154 for 8 to 153 for 9, Ireland winning by one run to complete a series that will be told and retold in Irish cricketing folklore for years.

Lorcan Tucker, Ireland’s new captain, played with composed authority across both matches and became the first men’s T20I captain to score a half-century in each of his first three games in charge. His summing up was generous but pointed: “Pretty special to beat the world champions at home. We had some tough periods in it, but we stayed in it and were diligent.”

The Sooryavanshi Question

Before the series, the conversation was dominated entirely by one name: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. At 15 years and 71 days when named in the squad, he became the youngest player ever selected for the Indian men’s team — breaking a record held by Sachin Tendulkar for 36 years. His IPL 2026 campaign with Rajasthan Royals — 776 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 237.30, the Orange Cap and MVP — made a compelling case for immediate inclusion. Selector Ajit Agarkar had said at the time of selection: “Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s performance forced us to pick him.”

He did not play a single ball in Belfast.

Shreyas Iyer explained the decision before the first match with characteristic diplomacy: “He’s a gun player but we have some tremendous players who have done well for us, so we are backing them. He will get his chance when the time comes.” Sunil Gavaskar took a different view after the series defeat, questioning publicly whether Sooryavanshi should have been given the nod given India’s struggles against conditions that clearly suited a positive, attacking top-order approach.

The counter-argument has merit too. India’s top three of Samson, Abhishek Sharma, and Ishan Kishan were central to the World Cup win. Dropping any of them for a series of two games — in Ireland, of all places — to accommodate a 15-year-old would have sent its own complicated message. Sanjay Manjrekar made the case: “You can’t drop the other guys just because we are excited with the young boy. India are doing the right thing. He has time.”

Looking Ahead

India now turn to a five-match T20I series against England starting 1 July, with the same 16-member squad available. The England series carries significantly more weight in terms of preparing for the next T20 World Cup cycle. Sooryavanshi’s debut, when it comes, will generate the kind of broadcast audience numbers that broadcasters and the BCCI rarely see outside of marquee tournaments.

For Ireland, the result is about more than a series scoreline. It is evidence that associate cricket, properly resourced and tactically sophisticated, can compete with anyone on the right day — or in this case, on the right two days.

The post Ireland Stun World Champions India 2-0 in Belfast, Sooryavanshi Debate Rages On appeared first on Daily Tips.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir — consecrated amid national fanfare in January 2024 and a symbol of decades of faith-driven aspiration for hundreds of millions of Hindus — is today at the centre of the most damaging institutional scandal in its short history. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe has revealed a brazen and systematic scheme to steal cash and valuables from the donations of ordinary devotees, leading to eight arrests, the resignations of senior trustees, and a political firestorm that threatens to reshape the contest for Uttar Pradesh’s assembly elections, now only months away.

The scale of alleged wrongdoing, as it has gradually emerged over the past four weeks, has left both devotees and political observers stunned. The SIT’s preliminary report, submitted to the Uttar Pradesh government on 23 June 2026, identified significant procedural failures and flagged at least 70 documented theft incidents stretching back to the very day the temple opened its doors in early 2024.

How the Theft Allegedly Worked

Suspicion first arose when temple trust officials noticed discrepancies between cash collected and amounts deposited into bank accounts. Bundles of Rs 500 notes pulled from donation boxes — which typically held between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 7 lakh — were repeatedly falling short. Hidden cameras were subsequently installed inside the counting room, and what they captured was methodical and damning.

The footage revealed two distinct methods. In one approach, a staff member would deliberately obstruct the CCTV camera while a colleague concealed currency in their clothing. In another, additional notes were slipped into counting bundles and then quietly removed before the cash reached the bank, ensuring the final tally matched the voucher while cash quietly disappeared. Stolen money was allegedly stashed inside temple washrooms before being smuggled out in batches. Investigators recovered Rs 2.5 lakh from a washroom near the counting room alone — found there after the controversy broke and just before the SIT was formally constituted.

Eight individuals linked to the cash and valuables counting operations have since been arrested and remanded to judicial custody. Among those named in the FIR are Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, and two others. The police allege that one of the accused, Manish Kumar Yadav, was placed in the cash-counting unit through the influence of a relative already working at the trust — pointing to systemic lapses in vetting and oversight.

Resignations at the Top

The political fallout accelerated on 27 June when Champat Rai, the trust’s longstanding general secretary and one of the most publicly prominent figures in the Ram Temple movement, stepped down along with other senior trustees. Rai’s resignation has been widely seen as an attempt to contain the damage, but for many devotees the exit of a figure so central to the temple’s founding has only deepened their sense of betrayal.

Devotees who had travelled from across India to make offerings — some donating silver bricks, gold jewellery, and family heirlooms — have come forward demanding accountability. “We have been betrayed by the management, who have looted our faith, nothing less,” one devotee told Al Jazeera this week.

The Political Dimension

The timing could hardly be worse for the Bharatiya Janata Party. Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, is heading into an election cycle, and the Ram Temple was arguably the party’s single most resonant political achievement since 2014. The Congress party has demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe and called for the dissolution of the temple trust, while Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut went further, alleging without evidence that stolen funds were used to engineer political splits in opposition parties — a claim the ruling party has not publicly addressed.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav weighed in with pointed commentary on social media, implying that those who had promised moral guardianship of Hindu faith had instead enabled systematic looting.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has publicly crossed swords with the opposition on the matter, framing the SIT action as evidence that his government acted swiftly and transparently. His critics, however, point out that the racket appears to have run for over two years before any official action was taken. The Congress general secretary K C Venugopal put it bluntly: after using Ayodhya for political purposes, the BJP-RSS had “made a complete mockery” of the sentiments of ordinary devotees.

What Comes Next

The SIT probe is still ongoing, and investigators acknowledge that the full scale of embezzlement remains unknown. All eight accused are currently in judicial custody, and the report has already triggered demands for a more fundamental overhaul of how India’s most prominent religious institutions manage their finances and oversee those placed in positions of trust.

For the millions of Indians who donated to the Ram Temple with sincerity of faith, the events of the past month have raised a harder question that courts and investigations alone may struggle to answer: who watches the watchmen?

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