The UAE-India Business Council's 2026 programme, launched in Dubai, is pushing forward policy work on AI integration, infrastructure and supply chains, alongside continuing social-impact commitments including the UAE-India Friendship Hospital and a school project in Kashmir.
Maharashtra is drafting amendments to its Bike-Taxi Rules that would require food-delivery and quick-commerce platforms to run EV-only fleets, add GPS tracking and insurance, and contribute 2% of every fare to a driver welfare fund — bringing gig-economy regulation to India's largest state economy for the first time.
Pune startup Cresa has engineered a fully biodegradable, plastic-free sanitary pad that dissolves in hot water in roughly 80 seconds, tackling India's menstrual waste crisis and the stigma around pad disposal.
Climate-tech startup Mitti Labs has raised $9.5 million led by Aramco Ventures — the Saudi oil major's venture arm's first Indian investment — to scale AI-powered, water-efficient rice farming across Asia.
IIT Madras-incubated deeptech startup Solinas Integrity has raised $5.5 million to expand its robotics platform for inspecting and cleaning underground water and sanitation infrastructure.
The Dalmia Bharat Foundation has launched new community water infrastructure in Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh, reinforcing the cement major's long-running rural development programme and India's broader corporate push into decentralised water security solutions.
The Centre has released ₹276 crore against a combined outlay of nearly ₹1,490 crore approved for four AI Centres of Excellence at IIT Ropar, IIT Kanpur, IISc Bengaluru and IIT Madras, according to a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, as the centres work on sector-specific AI models for agriculture, healthcare, cities and education.
Indian green energy, electric mobility and renewable energy stocks showed mixed performance on August 5, 2026, with Kabra Extrusion and commercial EV maker Olectra Greentech posting strong gains even as several power and solar-related counters declined amid a broadly stable trading session.
Optimist, a Gurugram-based startup building air conditioners engineered specifically for Indian heat and humidity, is in talks to raise about $10 Mn from TDK Ventures, months after closing a $12 Mn seed and pre-Series A round led by Accel and Arkam Ventures.
The Indian government has operationalised an inventory-based cross-border ecommerce export framework under the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, removing the ₹10 Lakh per-consignment value cap on courier exports and introducing a formal Exporter-on-Record system to help Indian D2C brands and MSMEs sell globally.