Fishing out fake news using a deep-learning neural network

by Hansraj Agrawal | May 31, 2026 | Science

Researchers at the ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Gwalior, have developed a new artificial intelligence system that combines text analysis, image recognition and fuzzy logic to detect fake news in Indian media with high accuracy.

The system, called F2IND-IT! (fuzzy fake Indian news detection using images and text), was described in a recent paper uploaded to arXiv. The researchers say the project addresses a growing challenge in India, where rapid internet penetration and social media use have accelerated the spread of misinformation.

According to data from the Press Information Bureau, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 1,575 fake news cases were reported between 2022 and March 2025. The number rose from 338 in 2022 to 583 in 2024. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau also show a 214 per cent increase in fake news cases during the early pandemic period from 2018 to 2020. A 2024 study by ISB and CyberPeace found that 46 per cent of false information was about politics, and over 77 per cent of it spread through social media platforms. Another survey among Gen Z users in Delhi found that 91 per cent believe fake news can affect election outcomes.

To tackle the problem, the researchers designed a multimodal AI model that analyses both the written content of news articles and the accompanying images. The framework uses DistilBERT — a lightweight language-processing model — to understand text semantics, while a convolutional neural network (ResNet-50), which is a deep-learning image recognition system, extracts visual features from photographs. These inputs are then combined using an ‘attention mechanism’ and processed through an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), which produces a probability score indicating whether a news item is fake or genuine.

The model was trained and tested on the Indian Fake News Dataset (IFND), which contains more than 56,000 news articles spanning politics, elections, Covid-19, violence and other topics. According to the paper, the proposed system achieved an accuracy of nearly 98 per cent, outperforming several alternative model configurations in ablation studies.

The researchers say future versions could rely less on manually designed fuzzy rules and instead use data-driven systems capable of dynamically generating their own inference structures during training.

Published on June 1, 2026

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IIT-Kanpur hosts India’s first DORIS beacon

by Hansraj Agrawal | May 31, 2026 | Science

The setting up of India’s first DORIS ground beacon at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, is an important but somewhat under-the-radar step in India’s space and earth observation capabilities. DORIS — short for ‘Doppler orbitography and radio-positioning integrated by satellite’ — is a French system that tracks satellites and ground stations with centimetre-level accuracy.

The beacon at IIT-Kanpur is part of a global network of DORIS ground stations. Satellites carrying DORIS receivers use signals transmitted from these beacons to calculate their own position precisely. Because a satellite moves very fast overhead, the frequency of the signal changes slightly due to the Doppler effect — the same effect that makes a passing train horn sound different as it moves away. By measuring these tiny frequency shifts from beacons around the world, the satellite can calculate its exact position and speed.

This accuracy is crucial for missions involving ocean altimetry, climate studies, mapping the earth’s gravity field, monitoring sea-level rise and glacier movement, tracking tectonic shifts, and precise satellite orbit determination.

A satellite measuring ocean height, for instance, may detect just a few millimetres of change per year. That measurement becomes meaningful only when scientists can know the satellite’s orbit with centimetre-level accuracy. Otherwise, they cannot tell whether the ocean rose, or whether the satellite drifted slightly. DORIS helps remove that uncertainty.

The system has been used in major international satellite missions such as Jason, Sentinel, CryoSat and the Indo-French SARAL/AltiKa.

The beacon at IIT-Kanpur strengthens India’s role in global space geodesy — the science of precisely measuring the earth’s shape, rotation and gravitational behaviour — and deepens Indo-French cooperation in the space sector.

Systems like GPS, VLBI (radio astronomy timing), laser ranging and DORIS together form the backbone of modern earth measurement.

Benefits for India

“The establishment of the DORIS beacon in India represents enhances the national geodetic infrastructure and participation in the global geodetic community,” says Prof Onkar Dikshit of IIT-Kanpur.

“It will help establish a highly accurate and stable national terrestrial reference framework for surveying, mapping, infrastructure development, satellite navigation, disaster management, smart city planning, and other strategic applications,” he said. In addition, the Indian subcontinent is tectonically active due to the interaction between the Indian and Eurasian plates, making continuous geodetic monitoring critically important for understanding crustal deformation, intraplate tectonics, land subsidence, uplift, and seismic hazards, he said.

Accurate geodetic monitoring can aid urban subsidence assessment in rapidly growing cities, improve floodplain mapping, and enhance coastal vulnerability assessments in regions affected by sea-level rise and cyclones. The data products derived from DORIS-supported satellite missions can contribute to precision agriculture, water resource management, glacier monitoring in the Himalayas, and early warning systems for natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, and floods.

Enhanced satellite orbit determination also improves the quality of remote sensing products used in weather forecasting, environmental monitoring, fisheries management, and maritime navigation, directly benefiting societal planning and sustainable development initiatives.

Beyond national applications, the DORIS station strengthens India’s contribution to international Earth observation and climate research programmes. The inclusion of India within the global DORIS network fills an important geographic gap in the international space geodetic observing system and enhances the robustness of global reference frame realisation. By hosting such advanced geodetic infrastructure, IIT-Kanpur positions India as an active contributor to the global space geodesy community while simultaneously advancing indigenous capabilities in satellite geodesy, precise positioning, and earth system science.

How IIT Kanpur got in

In 2022, the International DORIS Service (IDS) announced a global call for proposals to establish a new DORIS station, and the proposal submitted by IIT-Kanpur was evaluated by the IDS Selection Committee against several technical and scientific criteria. These included network coverage and tectonic plate contribution, co-location with other geodetic instruments, antenna environment, monument stability, maintenance and security provisions, host institution capability, and prospects for scientific collaboration.

One of the major strengths of the IIT-Kanpur proposal was its strategic geographic location on the northern part of the Indian tectonic plate, addressing a significant gap in the current DORIS network. At present, the only operational DORIS station located on the Indian plate is the MALE station in the Maldives, while the Everest station lies near the Indian–Eurasian plate boundary. The DORIS station at the National Centre for Geodesy (NCG) at IIT-Kanpur will provide improved spatial coverage for monitoring inter-plate and intra-plate tectonic deformation across the Indian region. The station will also enable integrated geodetic studies using both DORIS and GNSS observations for crustal motion and reference frame applications.

A key motivation behind the selection of IIT-Kanpur was the existing technical strength and proposed future plans related to space geodesy at the NCG , along with the significant geographic gap in the existing DORIS network across the Indian region, where no DORIS station is today co-located with other major space geodetic techniques, particularly GNSS.

Published on June 1, 2026

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The protein-peptide bonds that heal

by Hansraj Agrawal | May 31, 2026 | Science

Peptide-based drug discovery has gained currency in the past decade. This branch of pharmaceuticals promises solutions to tricky health issues such as cancer. Now, two researchers from IIT-Bombay and one from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, have reported work that suggests ways to improve peptide-based drug discovery.

Inside every living cell, thousands of proteins constantly interact with one another, switching genes on and off, repairing damage, carrying signals and deciding whether a cell should live or die. Many diseases, including cancer, arise when some of these protein–protein interactions go wrong.

One such interaction involves two proteins called p53 and MDM2. Normally these two proteins function together in a checks-and-balance manner. The p53 protein is a sort of sentinel — it triggers the destruction of cells that have gone bad, such as with cancer. Excess of p53 can be a problem. MDM2 comes in and suppresses p53. This is fine but sometimes p53 is less or MDM2 is more; when this happens, MDM2 prevents p53 — the guardian angel — from doing its job. Keeping track of such happenings in cells has given rise to the study of ‘protein-protein interaction’.

Precise stapling

Scientists have discovered that stapled peptides (see box) can bind themselves to MDM2 and prevent it from suppressing p53. This is because scientists have engineered the stapled peptides to resemble p53, and MDM2 attaches to them. This leaves p53 free to do its job, without hindrance from MDM2.

Drug discovery is about making the right kind of stapled peptide.

In a paper, the three researchers have used computer simulations to demonstrate that medical researchers should look not just at protein combinations but also the behaviour of the molecules in the solvent in which the proteins are immersed. In their study, the researchers focused on the behaviour of water molecules — the solvent — in the presence of stapled peptides.

Peptides are short chains of amino acids. In a sense, they are “dwarf proteins”.

Most people know proteins as body-building molecules — which is true — but there are thousands of different proteins. For example, snake venom is a cocktail of proteins, as is haemoglobin.

Both peptides and proteins are chains of amino acids. An amino acid is a molecule that has carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and a ‘side chain’ of molecules with other elements like sulphur. Since there are about 20 ‘side chains’, there are as many amino acids.

Stapled peptides are two peptides linked by a chemical. They are, therefore, engineered molecules.

They found that stapled peptides also altered the behaviour of water molecules. When a stapled peptide binds to its target protein, the water molecules gain ‘entropy’ or freedom, while the peptide itself becomes more stable and rigid. The behaviour of the water molecules could be manipulated to create more effective and ‘stickier’ medicines. Put simply, this means medicines (stapled peptides) can be made more effective by controlling how a drug interacts with the water molecules rather than by focusing only on the drug molecules’ shape and binding capability.

A more stable peptide binds better with its target — its efficacy increases. “Peptide-based drug discovery is an emerging field… Using in-silico (computer-based) approaches, effective peptide drug candidates can be identified and filtered at early stages. However, the detailed thermodynamics at the binding interface are often overlooked,” the researchers say in a joint statement to businessline.

They point out that in many ongoing drug discovery pipelines, the ‘entropic effects’ (freedom of movement of molecules) are largely ignored.

Therapeutic pathway

If a peptide’s binding property is improved, will it translate into a drug that requires lower doses or has fewer side effects?

“Stronger binding affinity can provide several practical advantages, including lower therapeutic doses, reduced off-target effects and potentially lower treatment costs. Importantly, understanding how stapling affects both peptide structure and surrounding water dynamics provides a… basis for the rational design of more effective peptide therapeutics,” the researchers respond in their statement.

However, they caution that translating the computational insights into clinical applications calls for more extensive experimental and clinical validation.

Interestingly, research into stapled peptides could well open the door to improved treatment for other diseases. “Researchers can identify optimal stapling positions and cross-linker chemistries that enhance binding affinity. This strategy expands opportunities for targeting challenging protein-protein interactions in areas such as oncology and immunology,” the statement says.

Published on June 1, 2026

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IIT-Madras sets up testing tank for ships, submarines

by Hansraj Agrawal | May 26, 2026 | Science

You are building a new ship or submarine. Computer simulations can predict how it may behave in water. But simulations alone are not enough. Aircraft manufacturers test their designs in wind tunnels. Can something similar be done for ships?

Yes. IIT-Madras is planning such a facility at its satellite campus in Thaiyur, near Chennai.

Called HYDRA Centre, the facility will feature a half-km ‘towing tank’. Scaled-down ship and submarine models will be dragged through the water channel under controlled conditions, allowing scientists to study resistance, stability, wave patterns, propulsion efficiency and manoeuvrability.

When completed, HYDRA could become a key national facility for testing and refining indigenous ship and submarine designs, strengthening India’s self-reliance in advanced maritime and naval engineering. The centre is expected to support advanced work on warships, submarines and underwater platforms.

MDL’s support

Public sector Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited is supporting the initiative. The company has also funded several related research facilities at IIT-Madras through its corporate social responsibility programme.

One of these is a newly inaugurated ‘circulating water tunnel’, which is closely related to the HYDRA concept. While HYDRA studies how moving vessels behave in water, the circulating water tunnel examines how flowing water behaves around stationary objects. In this facility, built at a cost of ₹4.5 crore, water is continuously circulated past test objects such as propellers, offshore platforms, bridge pillars and underwater structures. Engineers use it to study turbulence, drag and complex flow behaviour around these “bluff bodies” — objects with broad or blunt shapes that disturb water flow significantly.

Another proposed collaboration between IIT-Madras and MDL relates to “high-efficiency multi-stage thermoelectric sub-zero refrigeration systems” for submarines and small naval vessels. Put simply, the idea is to develop compact, quiet and highly reliable cooling systems for defence platforms.

Submarines require specialised cooling for electronics, sensors, storage systems and crew environments. Conventional refrigeration systems rely on compressors and moving mechanical parts. Thermoelectric refrigeration, instead, uses semiconductor devices that produce cooling when electricity passes through them — a phenomenon known as the Peltier effect. “Multi-stage” systems stack multiple cooling stages together to achieve very low temperatures.

IIT-Kharagpur students to intern at battery recycler NavPrakriti

NavPrakriti, a lithium-ion battery recycling and refurbishment company based in eastern India, has signed a memorandum of understanding with IIT-Kharagpur for joint research, skill development and technology advancement in the battery recycling sector.

The tie-up will focus on battery material recovery, and hydrometallurgical refining and extraction technologies for critical minerals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium.

Students from IIT-Kharagpur will intern and train at NavPrakriti’s facilities, including its Serampore plant. They will gain exposure to industrial-scale battery recycling and refurbishment operations.

The joint research projects, technological consulting assignments and capacity-building initiatives are aimed at developing skilled manpower for the emerging battery and critical minerals ecosystem.

NavPrakriti said it has been recognised under the National Critical Mineral Mission for extraction of cobalt, nickel and lithium.

Published on May 27, 2026

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How ‘spent’ graphite breathes new life into fuel cell

by Hansraj Agrawal | May 18, 2026 | Science

Graphene atomic structure
| Photo Credit:
Rost-9D

It is commonly known that lithium-ion (Li-i) batteries can be recycled. But the focus is mostly on salvaging nickel, cobalt and manganese. Their poor cousin graphite is generally ignored; it cannot be reused in new Li-i batteries as it loses the structure needed to function effectively.

However, this ‘spent’ graphite finds use in a different application. It can help extend the life of a methanol fuel cell.

Ordinarily, graphite needs to be ‘exfoliated’ before it can be used in a fuel cell. Exfoliation in this context means the breaking down of bulk graphite into several layers so as to increase the available surface area. Greater the surface area, the better the conductive support in a cell.

The exfoliation of fresh graphite consumes significant amounts of energy. A spent Li-i battery, on the other hand, gives you ready-made exfoliated graphite after the mechanical stress it has undergone in the battery through repeated use. In other words, the very reason graphite is discarded from batteries makes it useful in fuel cells.

Methanol fuel cells typically suffer from a ‘leakage’ of methanol, leading to its interaction with the platinum used in the cell, making the precious metal less effective. Leaking past the membrane separating the anode and the cathode, methanol oxidises to form carbon monoxide, which ‘poisons’ the expensive platinum. This affects the cell’s efficiency and longevity.

Prof Raman Vedarajan leads a team working on this issue at the Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), under the government’s Department of Science and Technology. Says Prof Vedarajan, “In collaboration with the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, we cleaned the spent graphite of metallic contaminants and applied it as a ‘scavenger’ in the DMFC (direct methanol fuel cell).”

He explains that the “exfoliated graphite helps capture the permeating methanol before it reaches the platinum catalyst”.

Asked how the new piece of research helped save on cost and/or effort, he replies, “DMFCs typically run for about 15,000 cycles. Using exfoliated graphite can help extend the life of these cells to 20,000 or even 25,000 cycles.”

The research has been validated in a lab. According to Prof Vedarajan, “There is sufficient proof that it can work, so a prototype is being built.” This could help manufacturers not only reduce battery waste but also address another environmental headache — fuel cell inefficiency.

Published on May 18, 2026

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Dentistry’s prehistoric drill

by Hansraj Agrawal | May 17, 2026 | Science

LONG IN THE TOOTH. Neanderthal molar with a ‘drilled’ hole, found in Siberia; image courtesy PLOS One

Sixty thousand years ago, it is very likely that a dentist did not have a nice reclining chair for patients. Nor did he or she have a soothing anaesthesia but they did offer molar relief.

Dentistry appears to be older than humankind itself. The human ancestor — the Neanderthal — practised it to a point of precision that surprised scientists. The clue came from a badly decayed molar discovered in 2016 in Siberia’s Chagyrskaya cave. The tooth had a suspiciously neat hole in it — researchers now believe this was not damage caused by nature but the result of someone painstakingly drilling into the rotten tooth tissue using a small stone tool.

The study, published in PLOS One, adds to growing evidence that Neanderthals were far from the brutish cavemen they were once portrayed to be. Earlier findings have suggested they cared for injured individuals, may have treated ailments with medicinal plants, and even looked after a child with Down Syndrome.

Ironically, Neanderthals probably had fewer cavities than modern humans because their diets contained much less sugar and carbohydrates.

The oldest known evidence of dental treatment by humans dates back only about 14,000 years, in Italy. The find in Chagyrskaya cave suggests that the roots of surgery and healthcare may run deeper than previously thought.

In short, long before modern dentists began asking us to “open wide”, a Neanderthal somewhere in icy Siberia seems to have heard its prehistoric equivalent.

Published on May 18, 2026

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