Author: India BBC News Correspondent

If you’ve been putting off buying a new refrigerator or air conditioner, October wasn’t the month to wait. Prices on a range of home appliances have risen across the board from October 1, hitting consumers at a time when household budgets are already under pressure. Here’s what went up, by how much, and why manufacturers say they had no choice. What’s Getting Costlier Air Conditioners: Most major brands have revised AC prices upward by 3 to 6 percent. The increases are steeper on inverter models and larger capacity units. Brands like Voltas, Daikin, LG, and Blue Star have all confirmed…

It took a three-day maritime operation, a tip-off that officials are being deliberately vague about, and a boarding at sea in the Arabian Ocean — but the Indian Coast Guard has pulled off what’s being described as one of the largest single drug seizures in the country’s naval history. 526 kilograms of narcotics, valued at approximately ₹3,000 crore, seized from an Iranian fishing vessel roughly 700 nautical miles off the Gujarat coast. Fourteen crew members taken into custody. The scale of it is significant. But so is the route it exposes. How the Operation Unfolded Coast Guard officials said the…

A textbook released six months into the academic year. A sceptre installed in Parliament. And historians who say the official version of events simply doesn’t hold up. The NCERT Sengol controversy has all the ingredients of a proper political and academic fight — and it’s not going away anytime soon. Here’s what’s actually going on. What NCERT’s New Textbook Claims The Class 9 Social Science textbook, released this September under the title Understanding Society: India and Beyond – Part 2, contains a detailed account of the Sengol — a gold-plated sceptre with roots in Tamil Shaivite tradition — being presented…

Alvaro Morata had been through a difficult few months. Dropped from the starting XI, questioned by sections of the Spanish press, carrying the weight of a nation’s expectations. On Tuesday night in Madrid, he answered every single doubt with one of the most stunning individual performances in UEFA Nations League history. A hat-trick. Spain 4-1 Croatia. And a place in the semi-finals that few would have predicted when the group stage began. How the Game Unfolded Croatia started cautiously — which is unusual for Zlatko Dalic’s side. They sat deep, tried to hit Spain on the counter, and for the…

Nobody quite expected Auqib Nabi to bowl like that. The 23-year-old from Jammu and Kashmir — making only his fourth ODI appearance for India — tore through the West Indies batting lineup with a six-wicket haul that was, frankly, one of the more remarkable individual bowling performances in recent Indian cricket memory. India won the third and final ODI comfortably, sealed the series 2-1, and walked away with several questions answered about the depth of their bowling resources. Chief among those questions: who fills the gap left when your first-choice pace attack is unavailable? On this evidence, the answer might…

The row over the Election Commission, centered around Gyanesh Kumar, the Chief Election Commissioner, isn’t limited to the political realm anymore but has spilled into the domain of meme warfare. The slogan “Gyanesh, it’s done bro” started making rounds following the announcement of a Delhi press meet by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). The party had used this line while declaring the meet, which would be centered around the working of the Election Commission. The online response was preceded by a news report in The Indian Express that claimed two Election Commissioners — Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi —…

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on September 12, 2026, on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi. The meeting was confirmed in readouts published by India’s Prime Minister’s Office and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. What the leaders said India’s official readout said the two leaders welcomed progress in bilateral relations since their previous meeting in Tianjin in August 2025. It also recorded discussions on maintaining peace and stability along the border, expanding people-to-people ties and the importance of a predictable relationship for regional and global stability. China’s foreign ministry said…

A high-profile murder case. A suspect claiming innocence. And an investigating agency reaching for one of the most misunderstood tools in modern forensics: the polygraph. The Siya-Ketan case — which has gripped national attention over the past several weeks — has put lie detector tests back in the public conversation. But most of what people believe about polygraphs is wrong. And understanding how they actually work matters, especially when courts and investigators are deciding how much weight to give them. The Siya-Ketan Case: What We Know Without going into details that are still sub-judice, the broad outline is this: Siya,…

When Iran’s military commanders stood before cameras last week and warned the United States and Israel not to try anything during Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral, most regional analysts weren’t surprised. What surprised them was the sheer bluntness of it. Tehran doesn’t usually telegraph its warnings this openly. So when senior IRGC officers said that any “opportunistic action” during the mourning period would trigger an “immediate and crushing response,” the message was clearly meant to land hard — both in Washington and Tel Aviv. But what’s actually behind this warning? And why now? A Nation Holding Its Breath Khamenei’s death has left…

A donation scandal that should have been a small-town financial fraud case has blown up into something considerably messier — touching religious institutions, local political networks, and a police investigation that critics say moved far too slowly. At the centre of it: Avinash Shukla, arrested in connection with the alleged diversion of approximately ₹20 crore donated to religious causes in Ayodhya. What Happened The case centres on donations collected ostensibly for religious construction and charitable causes in Ayodhya — a city that has seen enormous inflows of money since the Ram Mandir’s consecration dramatically raised its profile. Shukla allegedly received…