Author: Neel Achary

GST Council Meeting Shifted to October 7, Focus Likely on Simplifying GST System

New Delhi, Sep 7: The 57th meeting of the GST Council has been rescheduled from September 12 to October 7 as the earlier date coincides with the BRICS Summit in New Delhi.

The meeting will be preceded by discussions among senior GST officials on October 5 and 6. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will chair the meeting, which will bring together representatives from the Centre and state governments.

The upcoming meeting is expected to focus on making the GST system simpler and more business-friendly. Improving compliance procedures, resolving pending issues and providing greater clarity on GST rules are likely to remain important areas of discussion.

Another key objective will be to improve GST administration and reduce difficulties faced by businesses and taxpayers. The Council may also look at ways to streamline procedures related to tax payments, refunds and input tax credit.

The meeting will also provide an opportunity for the Centre and states to review the functioning of the GST framework and discuss measures that can improve revenue collection while keeping compliance manageable for businesses.

The GST Council last met in September 2025, when major changes were approved in the GST rate structure. The revised system introduced 5 per cent and 18 per cent as the main tax rates, while a 40 per cent rate was retained for selected luxury and demerit goods.

The October 7 meeting is expected to be closely watched by businesses, consumers and state governments. Any decision aimed at simplifying procedures and improving the GST framework could make compliance easier and provide greater certainty for businesses.

Dr. Vinaya Prakash Singh Re-elected APPU Secretary-General for Second Term

New Delhi: Dr. Vinaya Prakash Singh, a 1988-batch Indian Postal Service officer, has been re-elected as Secretary-General of the Asian-Pacific Postal Union (APPU) for a second consecutive four-year term. He was elected unopposed by acclamation during the 14th APPU Congress held in Bangkok on September 4, 2026.

Dr. Singh’s re-election is seen as a significant recognition of India’s role in international postal cooperation and reflects the confidence of postal administrations across the Asia-Pacific region in his leadership. His second term will begin in January 2027 and continue through December 2030.

India’s Role in Asia-Pacific Postal Cooperation

The re-election comes as the Asian-Pacific Postal Union continues to strengthen cooperation among postal administrations across the region. Headquartered in Bangkok, the APPU is an intergovernmental organisation with 32 member countries and functions as a Regional Union of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the United Nations specialised agency for the postal sector.

Dr. Singh first assumed the position of APPU Secretary-General in January 2023 after being elected at the 13th APPU Congress in 2022. During his first term, he contributed to strengthening cooperation among postal administrations and supporting efforts to modernise and develop postal services across the Asia-Pacific region.

His second term is expected to provide further opportunities to deepen regional postal cooperation, promote modernisation and address emerging priorities facing the postal sector.

Dr. Vinaya Prakash Singh’s Career in Indian Postal Service

Dr. Singh has more than three decades of experience in public administration and the postal sector. During his career, he has held several senior positions in the Government of India, including Member of the Postal Services Board, Senior Deputy Director General and Chief Vigilance Officer in the Department of Posts.

He has also served as Chief Postmaster General of Uttar Pradesh Circle and Chief General Manager at India Post Headquarters. His professional experience includes assignments with the Union Public Service Commission, the United Nations Development Programme in Afghanistan and the Army Postal Service Corps.

Academic Background and Recognition

Alongside his administrative career, Dr. Singh has an extensive academic background. He was a Gold Medallist in Modern History from the University of Allahabad and holds a Ph.D. in Management from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

The Department of Posts has congratulated Dr. Vinaya Prakash Singh on his re-election and wished him a successful second term as Secretary-General of the Asian-Pacific Postal Union.

His continuation in the post through 2030 is expected to further strengthen India’s engagement in international postal affairs and regional cooperation across the Asia-Pacific postal network.

Archaea As Flexitarians: Ammonia-Oxidizing Microbes Also Feed on Amino Acids

Sep 05: Symbiotic ammonia-oxidizing archaea in marine sponges are not strict specialists, but true “flexitarians”: A team led by microbiologists Bettina Glasl and Katharina Kitzinger from the University of Vienna, in collaboration with partners from Australia, has shown that these microbes dine not only on ammonia but also on amino acids such as valine, leucine, and isoleucine – and presumably do that to communicate with their animal host. The findings shed new light on one of the oldest animal-microbe symbiotic relationships on Earth and point to a previously underestimated role played by archaea. The study was published in the prestigious journal Science Advances.

For decades, scientists assumed that ammonia-oxidizing archaea had a strict diet, feeding exclusively on ammonia, and to some extent, on the simple nitrogenous compounds cyanate and urea, to fix CO2. A new study led by researchers from the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science at the University of Vienna, in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Marine Science, shows that symbiotic ammonia-oxidizing archaea, unlike their free-living relatives studied thus far, are actually “flexitarians”. They use amino acids, such as valine, leucine and isoleucine, as additional food sources. This finding also suggests that these symbiotic microbes may have an unknown ability to communicate with their animal hosts.

An ancient symbiosis

Marine sponges are among the oldest animals. Their simple bodies are teeming with microbes. This partnership, also called symbiosis, is vital for the sponge’s survival in the oceans. Ammonia-oxidizing archaea are key symbionts in marine sponges. They are renowned as the sponge’s microscopically sized sanitation crew as they remove toxic ammonia, a metabolic waste product.

Until now, it was assumed that they are strict “chemolithoautotrophs”: They derive energy from inorganic compounds, in this case ammonia, and use CO2 as their carbon source.Hints that symbiotic ammonia-oxidizing archaea might be more flexible came from their genomes. Unlike many free-living ammonia-oxidizing archaea, they carry genes encoding transporters for branched-chain amino acids. The new study provides the first direct experimental evidence that symbiotic ammonia-oxidizing archaea actually are mixotrophs, capable to use CO2 and amino acids as a carbon source.

Zooming in on individual microbes’ activity

The researchers studied the coral reef sponge Ianthella basta, also called elephant ear sponge, and its ammonia-oxidizing archaeal symbiont Nitrosospongia ianthellae. Using a cutting-edge combination of advanced chemical and microscopic imaging techniques, including NanoSIMS, they were able to watch the dietary habits of individual symbiont cells in their sponge host.

 “The real challenge was to prove which specific cells were consuming the amino acids within the sponge,” says Katharina Kitzinger, co-lead author and specialist in single-cell analysis. “We could literally see the labeled amino acids being incorporated into individual symbiont cells, linking a cell’s identity to its function rather than relying on genome predictions alone.”

From waste disposal to microbial communication

The discovery has implications beyond the microbes’ diet. As they can both consume and produce branched-chain amino acids, symbiotic ammonia-oxidising archaea may influence the availability of these essential amino acids within their ancient animal host.

“We used to think of these symbionts primarily as a waste disposal service for the sponge” says Bettina Glasl, co-lead author and expert in sponge–microbiome interactions. “By producing and consuming these amino acids, the symbionts can potentially modulate important signalling molecules for the sponge. This could be a form of communication between microbes and animal hosts with deep evolutionary roots.”

The researchers propose that this metabolic activity could even influence the mTOR signaling pathway, a conserved regulator of cell growth and metabolism that responds to branched-chain amino acid availability.

“This work would not have been possible without the tight collaboration of many people in Austria and Australia, and the generous support from the FWF for the Cluster of Excellence ‘Microbiomes drive planetary health'” says Michael Wagner, head of the FWF-Cluster and last author of the study.

Utah researchers join NSF center that studies how robots and people learn to work together

Sep 05: A new National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center, led by the University of Texas at Austin, will study what happens when assistive robots leave the lab and move into the real world to live and work alongside humans.  

The Center for Human and Robot Co-Adaptation will bring together 39 researchers from six universities and multiple industry partners to establish a new science of “human-robot co-adaptation”—how people and robots learn from one another and adjust their behavior over long periods in everyday settings that will include homes, hospitals and assisted-living residences.

The University of Utah will play a central role in the new center under the leadership of Daniel Brown, assistant professor in the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering’s Kahlert School of Computing. The Utah contingent of researchers has expertise spanning human-AI alignment and safety, robot learning and manipulation, human-centered computing and human factors. 

“A lot of research into robotics research today focuses on whether a robot can successfully complete a particular task,” Brown said. “Through this center, we want to dive deeper and understand what happens when a person and a robot live and work together for weeks, months or even years.” 

“This kind of long-term study of co-adaptation is really only possible with the kind of large-scale effort afforded by the center,” he said. “I’m really excited about the opportunity to get the research we’ve been developing in the lab into hospitals, dormitories, museums and care facilities to better understand how to create human-robot interactions that benefit and empower people.” 

Other Kahlert faculty involved with the 5-year collaboration, which is funded by a $30 million NSF grant, include Tucker Hermans, Jason Wiese and Kenneth Marino, along with Frank Drews, a Utah professor of psychology.

The University of Utah will also provide one of the center’s most important real-world proving grounds. Through the Human Environment with Robots Facility Network, robots will be deployed at University of Utah Health sites, including the Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital and the planned One U Residential Center, designed to support independent living for people with complex physical injuries.

Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital is a leader in patient-facing technology and innovation, providing a clinical environment to develop and test new technologies that can increase patient independence, improve rehabilitation outcomes and support care teams. The project builds on a longstanding collaboration between Jason Wiese; Dr. Jeffrey Rosenbluth, Vice Chair of Innovation and Community Programs at Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital; James Gardner, who coordinates the development of new patient-facing technology at Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital; and Brent Eliesen, Health Innovation Team Lead with University of Utah Information Technology. 

Their work includes the hospital’s 75 smart patient rooms, where assistive technologies are integrated into patient care and studied in a clinical setting. This established infrastructure and experience provide a strong foundation for expanding this work into assistive robotics.

These real-world settings will allow researchers to study how patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals and robots adapt to one another during extended, real-world interactions—moving robotics research beyond short laboratory experiments toward technologies that can safely support rehabilitation and independent living. Utah will also contribute to the center’s education and outreach efforts through collaborations with the Utah STEM Action Center.

“This project gives us a chance to study robotics where the technology really matters: alongside people in their everyday environments,” Wiese said. “We want to understand how robots can adapt to individual needs and support greater independence.”

Partner universities include Indiana University Bloomington, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University, and Yale University. Industry collaborators include Amazon, Apptronik, Diligent Robotics, Google DeepMind, Hello Robot, MassRobotics, NVIDIA and Robust AI.