The world famous Sambhar salt lake of Rajasthan is nowadays filled with unique colors of nature. This large saltwater lake has turned into a pink sea due to the arrival of millions of migrating flamingos. Located a short distance from Jaipur, this view of the Sambhar Lake has become a special attraction for tourists, bird watchers and photographers. The lake becomes even more alive with the arrival of migratory birds every year through the Central Asian Flyway. According to experts, good rainfall this year has kept the water level in the lake balanced, due to which food items such as algae and brine shrimp are available in abundance. This is the reason why flamingos come here in large numbers. More than 100,000 migratory birds were recorded in a January 2025 census, while there are currently estimated to be around 200,000 to 250,000 flamingos in the lake area. Birds come from these countries. Spread over 240 square kilometers, Sambhar Lake is the largest brackish water lake in India and has been made a Ramsar site. It is a special winter destination for Greater and Lesser Flamingos that migrate from as far away as Russia, Siberia and Mongolia. Along with this, different types of ducks and other migratory birds are also seen in large numbers. More than 300 species of birds in Sambhar Lake Ornithologist Gaurav Dadhich says that more than 300 species of birds have been seen in Sambhar Lake so far. According to him, this year’s good weather and water level created ideal conditions for the birds, due to which their numbers increased significantly. Migration usually takes place from October to March, but when conditions are good many birds stay longer. A boon for nature lovers: Seeing pink flamingos flying, eating cereal and having fun in the water is a boon for nature lovers. For bird watchers and photography enthusiasts, a trip to Sambhar Lake these days can be an unforgettable experience. Share this story Tags

MG Motor India is going to launch the 2026 model MG Hector in a new avatar today, December 15, 2025. The company’s aim is to make the SUV even more premium and refined with this facelift. In view of the increasing competition in this segment, MG Hector is introduced with new changes to rekindle the interest of the customers. Let’s have a look at its features. More Striking Exterior Design There will be noticeable changes to the exterior design of the 2026 MG Hector. To give the SUV a more luxurious look, a new and larger front grille can be fitted. The front and rear bumpers will also be redesigned. The chrome accents will be retained, further enhancing the premium look of the vehicle. While there won’t be any major changes in the lighting, there could be a slight update in the taillights. Newly designed larger alloy wheels are also expected. A new and fresh feeling in the cabin The interior of the new MG Hector has been significantly upgraded. Although full details are not yet available, new color options and seat covers are expected. The large touchscreen will remain the same, but the system will likely be more user-friendly and faster, making it more convenient to use while driving. Special focus on features and safety MG Hector has always been known for its features, and this time too the company does not want to compromise in this matter. Features like panoramic sunroof, digital display, wireless charging and air purifier will still be available. For safety, it will get 6 airbags, a strong safety system and level-2 ADAS technology, which will make the ride even safer. The same reliable engine The engine options in the 2026 MG Hector will remain the same. It will be available in both petrol and diesel variants, which already offer excellent performance. Overall, with its new look and better features, the MG Hector SUV will aim to further strengthen its position in the market. Share this story Tags

To promote modern agricultural technology in the state, a new initiative has been started in Khejri and Kotri villages of Panchayat Samiti Hurra of Bhilwara district. Now farmers are given the facility to spray nano-fertilizers and medicines on crops through drone technology. This facility has been made available to farmers in collaboration with IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertilizer Co-operative Limited) at concessional rates. Using drone technology, it is possible to spray nano-urea in an acre of field within a few minutes. Farmers say that this technology saves time and the dependence on human labor has reduced significantly. In addition, drone spraying is more uniform and efficient than traditional methods, which is expected to increase crop quality and productivity. Agricultural experts say that drone technology increases precision in farming and nutrients and medicines reach the crops in equal amounts. This will not only increase crop production but also reduce the cost of farmers. The local administration and agriculture department welcomed the initiative and said there are plans to expand it to more villages in the future. Farmers are also trained so that they can use this technology correctly and effectively. This initiative is considered as an important step towards the adoption of modern agricultural technology in the state and increasing the income of farmers. Share this story Tags

Kharmas is considered the most spiritually important time in the Hindu calendar. It is a month when weddings, house warming and other auspicious ceremonies are stopped, but the importance of devotion, worship and charity increases significantly. The chanting, penance and service done during this period are believed to purify both the mind and the life. In 2025, Kharmas will begin on December 16 at 10:19 PM. At this time, the Sun will move from Scorpio to Sagittarius, which is also known as Dhanu Sankranti. Kharmas ends on Makar Sankranti on January 14, 2026, when the Sun enters Capricorn, and auspicious activities will resume. Auspicious activities to be avoided during Kharmas: According to the scriptures, the energy of the Sun decreases somewhat during Kharmas. For this reason, auspicious ceremonies like marriage, Mundan Sanskar, Griha Pravesh and Namkaran Sanskar are not performed during this period. This is a time for self-reflection and self-restraint rather than starting new work. Although this time is not considered auspicious for worldly activities, it is considered very auspicious for worship and spiritual practices. Worshiping Lord Vishnu, Sun God and Lord Krishna in this month offers special benefits. During this period chanting the name of Ram, reciting Bhagavad Gita and reciting Vishnu Sahasranama are also considered beneficial. Recitation of religious texts During Kharmas, reading or listening to Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, Shiv Purana and Ramcharitmanas is considered auspicious. Completing at least one religious scripture during this month is believed to purify the mind and bring clarity to life. Perform daily puja and offer water to the Sun. During Kharmas, wake up early in the morning, bathe and wear clean clothes. Then fill a copper vessel with water, vermilion, flowers and rice grains and offer water to the Sun God. While offering water chant the mantra “Om Suryay Namah”. It balances the position of the planets and increases health and energy. Do charity and service work. Charity is considered very important during Kharmas. It is believed that a donation made with a true heart at this time is equivalent to a visit to a holy place of pilgrimage. During this time, donating grains, warm clothes, blankets, ghee, lamps, flowers and other things related to puja is considered very auspicious. Visiting Temples and Holy Rivers Visiting temples and bathing in holy rivers during Kharmas is considered beneficial. It is believed to remove problems from the past and bring blessings for the future.

A serious road accident took place on Jaipur Road in Banswara district of Rajasthan. An ISR vehicle had a head-on collision with an auto-rickshaw. Seven people traveling in the auto-rickshaw were injured in the accident, who were immediately taken to the hospital for treatment. Doctors at the hospital declared the three-year-old child dead. There was a long traffic jam. On receiving information about the accident, passers-by immediately called an ambulance and took the injured to the hospital for treatment. There was chaos at the place and a long queue of vehicles formed on the road causing traffic jams. SI Ramlal of Sadar police station said Hitesh, three-year-old son of Vikas, resident of Sag Talai, died in the accident. These are the injured: The body of the child was kept in the morgue of Mahatma Gandhi Hospital (MG Hospital). Other injured are being treated in hospital. The injured included Prabhu and Dinesh, residents of Jatala; The deceased included Deepika, Savita and Kali, residents of Sag Talai; and Kailash, son of Jeevan, resident of Amarthun. After the accident, there was a traffic jam on Banswara-Jaipur road. As soon as the information was received, Sadar Police Station Officer Budhram Bishnoi and his team reached the spot. The police dispersed the crowd, restored traffic and assisted with relief operations. The police are currently investigating the cause of the collision between Isar and Auto. Share this story Tags

China is buying its first shipment of Argentine wheat in decades, at a time when farmers in the Pampas region are reaping a record harvest and President Javier Milley is cutting export tariffs in a bid to boost it. State-owned company Cofco International Ltd is loading the shipment at its facilities in the city of Tempeos, located in Argentina’s export hub on the Paraná River, making it the first shipment of this type since the 1990s. The ship will then proceed to a port on the Atlantic Ocean to load an additional 65,000 metric tons of wheat before sailing to China. The purchase comes at a time when Argentine wheat is among the cheapest in the world, thanks to a near-perfect growing season that produced a good harvest. Milly’s latest reduction in tariffs on agricultural exports also took effect on December 12, including reducing wheat tariffs by 2 percentage points to 7.5%, making Argentine shipments more competitive. Although levies on exports are frowned upon in many countries, Argentina has introduced them since the turn of the century to finance government spending. Adopting liberal leanings that seek to liberalize the economy, Milley aims to eventually abolish it altogether. Also read: China resumes buying US wheat after a year of hiatus. China is on its way to buy more wheat. This wheat trade deepens a growing trend in China to buy more crops from South America, amid a widening trade dispute with the United States. Last year, just before Donald Trump assumed the presidency, Beijing opened the door to wheat and corn imports from Argentina in a sign of its effort to diversify the sources of its food supply. During Trump’s first term, China granted approval to import Argentine soybean meal, and a few weeks ago received its first shipment, chartered by Bunge Global SA. Two additional cargoes bound for China were loaded on the Paraná River in October, although no wheat transactions have been recorded so far. Although Argentina’s wheat crop is large, the grain is of lower quality due to its low protein content, which could reduce the customs revenue Milley’s government can collect from exports to bolster the central bank’s dollar reserves. “One thing to note is that despite the high yields, the crop shows a decrease in protein content, which negatively affects the prices paid by international buyers,” the Rosario Stock Exchange Board of Trade said in a report.

Asian markets fell at the start of the last full trading week in 2025 as concerns over the profit outlook of technology companies and their heavy spending on artificial intelligence weighed on sentiment. The MSCI Regional Stock Index fell 0.7%, with shares in South Korea, a model of artificial intelligence momentum, down 1.5%, following a sell-off led by tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday. In a sign of possible stability in the markets, US stock index futures rose 0.2% in Asian trade on Monday. Chinese indices also fell slightly after the latest data showed retail sales growth was the weakest since the Corona pandemic, while investment continued to fall. Gold continued its gains for a fifth day in a row, after mixed statements by Federal Reserve officials prompted traders to reduce their bets on further monetary easing in the United States over the next year. Gold has jumped more than 60% this year, while silver has more than doubled, with the two metals on track for their best annual performance since 1979. Fears of an artificial intelligence bubble weighing on morale Risk appetite has waned globally amid growing skepticism about the ability of tech stocks, which has only boosted their levels from global indexes and aggressive spending. artificial intelligence. Asian markets, which have been among the strongest performers this year, appear more vulnerable to risks given the region’s heavy reliance on manufacturing components that underpin the technology boom. Friday’s moves “highlighted the possibility that we will see the AI ​​bubble burst at some point in the near future,” said Nick Tweddell, chief market analyst at AT Global Markets in Sydney. He added: “We’ve seen good growth in the Asian markets over the past year, driven by AI in particular and technology in general, despite trade concerns, so I expect that to taper off significantly in today’s trade.” From the recent wave of selling in Nvidia shares, to the decline in Oracle shares after announcing increased spending on artificial intelligence, to weakening sentiment regarding a network of companies exposed to Open AI, signs of doubt are mounting. Also Read: Oracle Shares Fall As Its Artificial Intelligence Spending Rises Looking ahead to 2026, a debate is taking place among investors on whether to reduce exposure to artificial intelligence in anticipation of a possible burst of the bubble, or double down on the bet to take advantage of this transformative technology. Concerns surrounding artificial intelligence include the enormous cost of developing it as well as the uses of this technology, and whether consumers will ultimately pay for these services. The answers to these questions will have major implications for the future of stock markets. “The year-end seasonal rally may not take off amid fresh concerns about AI valuations,” said Kyle Rodda, senior analyst at Capital.com. He added: “Although the risks are not at the level of what we saw last week, there are enough uncertainty factors to keep investors in a state of anticipation, and perhaps trigger a year-end rally, or deepen the selling wave.” Bloomberg Strategists’ take: Garfield Reynolds, head of the Asia team at Bloomberg Markets Live, expects “global stocks to fall this week as the shift to tighter monetary policy in many regions of the world leads to the withdrawal of one of the key factors of support, at a time when concerns about this year’s artificial intelligence boom are dampening this year’s boom.” He added: “Stocks also face a reasonable possibility that this year’s peaks have already been reached, prompting investors to instead take profits and convert them into liquidity.” US Treasuries steadied on Monday, at a time when controversy raged in markets and among Federal Reserve officials over the amount of monetary easing expected next year. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said she would prefer interest rates to be a little tighter to keep pressure on inflation. On the other hand, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Austin Goolsbee said he expects interest rates to cut at a faster rate in 2026 than many of his colleagues expect. Weak Chinese data In China, retail sales rose 1.3% year-on-year in November, while economists polled by Bloomberg had expected the growth rate to remain at 2.9% for the second straight month. Chetan Seth, equity strategist at Nomura Holdings, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV that “corporate profits are likely to remain at weak levels.” Also read: The Chinese president attacks the inflated growth figures and warns about useless projects. A $3 billion bailout crisis in the east of the country has also revived concerns about the poorly regulated shadow banking sector, as the country’s prolonged real estate recession threatens to spill over into the financial sector. A series of major monetary policy meetings from central banks, including the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan, are expected this week.

A sense of false complacency spreads across the Internet when reports suggest that Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the metaverse is in trouble. This is what happened last week when my colleague Kurt Wagner revealed Meta Platforms’ intention to reduce the expenses of the Reality Labs division, which is responsible for this experimental technology, by up to 30%. Henry Blodgett, famous for promoting failed Internet stocks, said: “In the end it was a good try, now let’s move on to other things.” The Wall Street Journal described this decision as a “shift” from “a vision that had been in place for years.” Investors cheered with joy. “Potential cost reductions may partially offset historical spending on building Meta’s AI infrastructure,” TD Securities analysts wrote, estimating cost savings of $5 billion to $6 billion. Meta shares ended the week up around 4%. Zuckerberg is moving to reduce Metaverse spending on the Metaverse bet, but this is not a shift away from the Metaverse. This is a renaming process. For the second time, Meta’s CEO reshaped his ambitions to make his spending more palatable to Wall Street, and it worked. The metaverse has long been considered Zuckerberg’s craziest project. It has lost $71 billion since 2021 without achieving significant results. The company shipped just under a million Quest headsets, considered the gateway to the metaverse, worldwide in the second quarter of this year. As for the “Horizon Worlds” platform of the “Meta” company, which is a virtual space for living and interaction, looks lonely. The Verge, a tech news site, sarcastically noted, “Number of ready players: none.” Insist on the “crazy” goal, but if ridicule and poor sales were enough to keep Zuckerberg from his passion for this project, he would have abandoned it years ago. To view the impending cuts – part of the Meta’s broader austerity measures – as evidence of a change of heart would be a mistake, or a misunderstanding of its goal of building “the one” device that will one day bring us into the metaverse. Two important developments have occurred in the past two years that have influenced the company’s thinking and led to these planned cuts. Infographic: What Did “Metaverse” Add to Zuckerberg? The first was the failure of Apple to enter this sector. The company that makes iPhones hasn’t offered any real technical innovation that the Meta Virtual Reality Lab team hasn’t solved before, nor any unprecedented creative uses. However, the user interface was nicer and more intuitive. Meta recently appointed a CEO who was responsible for its development. The second was the strong performance of Ray-Ban smart glasses from Meta. EssilorLuxottica, which manufactured the device, announced in October that it was preparing to ship up to 10 million units annually. Meta acquired a stake of approximately 3% in the company. Weaker competition means less spending. These events indicated to Meta the possibility of reducing spending on research and development, which was cautiously increased in anticipation of a tough and long-term competition with Apple in the field of high-quality virtual and mixed reality. This competition, which could turn into a fierce war between gaming devices, did not happen. Alternatively, Meta could focus on a product that consumers seem to want (glasses) rather than a product they don’t want (headphones). It changes the course of action, but it does not change the end goal. Initially, Zuckerberg’s plan was to prioritize large, full-featured headsets, which he could later scale down, along the lines of the personal computing path. Apple is exploring entering the field of smart glasses to compete with Miata, but consumers are clearly saying that it should start as small as possible, even if its capabilities are lower, and work to add features later. Eventually, as Zuckerberg has insisted for more than a decade, there will come a time when full mixed reality—the metaverse—can be achieved in glasses that are indistinguishable from regular glasses. To make all of this happen, Zuckerberg created a new design studio within the company. “Our idea is to treat intelligence as a new design material,” he wrote last week. On Friday, the company announced its acquisition of Limitless, a company specializing in wearable artificial intelligence, for an undisclosed sum. The company makes a wearable necklace that records and analyzes conversations. This focus on AI in wearable development gives Zuckerberg additional cover to continue working on the metaverse while keeping investors away. “Glasses are the ultimate form of both AI and the metaverse,” he said last year. Nothing in the upcoming layoffs suggests he’s changing his mind today. Expecting Zuckerberg to abandon the metaverse is like expecting Elon Musk to stop publishing on the “X” platform. It’s true that it’s embarrassing at times, and it’s true that it’s cost the “Meta” company huge amounts of money, and it’s true that investors would prefer it to stop. But he can’t hold back: There’s a sci-fi world out there, and as long as he runs Meta, Zuckerberg is determined to get there. If his words are true, come and see how his critics say they believed in him all along.

Shares of Geojit Financial Services, part of the portfolio of Rekha Jhunjhunwala – wife of the late market veteran Rakesh Jhunjhunwala – rose 8.5% in intraday trade on Monday, December 15 following reports of a large block deal on the counter. Various media reports indicated that 4.25 crore shares or 15.25% stake of the company changed hands in various deals worth ₹ ₹ 290 crore. Munt could not independently verify this report. The data is released after-market hours and will shed light on the likely buyers and sellers involved in the likely block transaction today. More to come…

IndiGo issued a travel advisory for passengers noting that dense fog and reduced visibility in Delhi affected flight operations on December 15. The airline added that some flights may be proactively canceled, ensuring passenger safety amid poor weather conditions. In a detailed post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), IndiGo said: “Travel advisory: Due to dense fog in Delhi this morning, visibility has drastically reduced, affecting flight operations. As a precautionary measure, some flights may be proactively canceled throughout the day to prioritize safety and help reduce long waits at the airport.” IndiGo apologizes amid delays, cancellations The airline also apologized for the delays and cancellations, adding: “We understand how inconvenient this can be, especially when travel plans are important. Please be assured that our teams across airports are constantly working to manage operations as smoothly as possible, and will keep you updated as the situation develops.” What should passengers do? “With slower road traffic expected, we recommend allowing extra travel time. We also encourage you to check your latest flight status on our website or app before going to the airport. In the event of a cancellation, you can conveniently rebook or claim a refund online via https://goindigo.in/plan-b.html. Thank you for your patience and understanding. We are now staying in line with the air traffic conditions that the authorities have included, and will update the summary of the air traffic conditions permitting.”