The widely heralded and remarkable   progress in cosmology 
leading to  the emergence of a  'standard cosmological model’ has relied on  
certain key assumptions at various levels.  I review work along  
multiple facets, largely,  from the research program of  my group 
at IUCAA, that have all attempted to adopt  an agnostic approach in 
drawing cosmological inference independent  of such assumptions, 
in the context of  the exquisite   observations  of the Cosmic  Microwave 
Background CMB anisotropy by Planck. I dwell on the enigmatic 

Dark matter is ubiquitous. However, we do not know what it is. A large number of direct (and indirect detection) experiments, both ongoing and planned, are aimed at unveiling the particle nature of dark matter. All these searches take place within our own Milky Way halo and, thus, the Milky Way dark matter astrophysics is a crucial input. In this talk, I will review some current developments of our knowledge of the phase-space of our own dark matter halo and briefly show how it impacts particle physics dark matter searches.

The basic elements of the modern cosmology - inflation, baryosynthesis
and dark matter imply physics beyond the Standard model of elementary
particles. This physics comes from the extension of the symmetry of
Standard model and can lead to nontrivial cosmological consequences.
Strict particle symmetry priovides the existence of new conserved charges, so
that the lightest particles that possess these charges are stable and
can play the role of dark matter candidates. Particle symmetry breaking

Steve Torchinsky:

To-date, more than 3000 exoplanets have been discovered; now we aim to detect and characterize exoplanets that could potentially harbor life. An exo-Earth orbiting a Sun-like star 10 parsecs from our solar system would have roughly 10^-10 the brightness of its host star, and appear at a maximum angular distance of 0.1 arcsecond from the star. Thus, unprecedented technological advances are needed in high-contrast imaging and starlight suppression. NASA is pursuing technology development in two categories: 1. coronagraphs, and 2. starshades.