India has issued a Letter of Request (LoR) to France for a government-to-government (G2G) deal worth ₹3.25 lakh crore to procure 114 Rafale fighter jets for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
Under this agreement, 94 of these aircraft will be manufactured in India by Dassault Aviation in collaboration with an Indian partner. The first Rafale-M jets are expected to be delivered by 2028.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has become the first Global Systems Integrator (GSI) to partner with the France-based Mistral AI, an AI startup.
The collaboration aims to deliver advanced enterprise generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) solutions for clients worldwide. The former will use ‘Mistral Forge’ to develop custom enterprise AI models, allowing clients to integrate their specific data and context for better decision-making.
The 79th edition of the annual Cannes International Film Festival 2026 was hosted in Cannes, France. The Palme d’Or, the highest award, was won by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu for his drama ‘Fjord’, marking his second win. The Grand Prix was awarded to Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev for his political thriller ‘Minotaur’.
The Jury Prize was conferred upon ‘The Dreamed Adventure’ by Valeska Grisebach (Germany). The Best Director award was jointly presented to Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi (Spain) for ‘La Bola Negra’ and Paweł Pawlikowski (Poland) for ‘Fatherland’.
The Best Actor award was shared by Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne (Belgium) for ‘Coward’, while the Best Actress award was jointly awarded to Virginie Efira (Belgium-France) and Tao Okamoto (Japan) for ‘All Of A Sudden’.
The Best Screenplay award was presented to Emmanuel Marre (France) for ‘A Man of His Time’, and the Camera d’Or for Best First Film was awarded to ‘Ben’Imana’ by Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo (Rwanda).
The Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) has partnered with the French Institute in India (IFI) to launch a 3-year initiative named “Para Elan” to promote inclusive education and empower youth through para-sports. The program aims to reach 10,000 students through activities such as awareness campaigns, specialized workshops, interactions with athletes, and adaptive sports engagements.
National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has signed a non-binding MoU with the France-based Electricite de France (EDF) to collaborate on developing new nuclear power projects in India.
This partnership marks a strategic shift for NTPC, the largest thermal power producer in India, to diversify its energy portfolio. The company aims to achieve a nuclear capacity of 30 GW by 2047.