More than half the state is in severe drought, the most since mid-September 2021. The state's first drought notice is due by Saturday.

A birth in a private hospital cost a family 16 times as much as in a government one in 2025. The government spent less than Rs 8 a day on each person's health.

A kilo of onions has doubled in price in a year. India's monsoon is 15 per cent short, but more than half of this year's rise in food prices came before it failed.

This is the third in a three-part story. The institute that counts India's stubble fires added a line to its bulletins this year: satellites do not record fires lit when nothing is overhead. September 15 was the first time it appeared in a paddy season, the season that produced the 93 per cent fall everyone quotes.

The NPCI met with banks and payment firms on Tuesday to start setting a fee on UPI. The government has already fixed where UPI stops being free. Its own data shows 98 per cent of shop payments sit below that line.

This is the second of a three-part story. Punjab's crop-fire detections fell 93 per cent in five seasons. Delhi's worst days eased; its everyday autumn air did not. And the counted burning moved to the states next door.

This is the first of a three-part story. Everyone talks about the autumn stubble burning that's allegedly responsible for Delhi's bad air. But the spring burning that nobody mentions is usually twice as big.

For every Rs 100 Indian households hold in financial savings, they now owe Rs 32, against Rs 27 four years ago. Reserve Bank of India data shows borrowing running ahead of both savings and the economy.

India hosts the 18th BRICS Summit on September 12 and 13, 20 years after the bloc was founded and with its oil map redrawn.