Context

The Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday that officials from New Delhi and Dhaka have been in talks for "several weeks" for a possible visit to India by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman — but that the atmosphere of bilateral relations has been "vitiated" by deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's August 5 press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club in New Delhi.

Background & Key Facts

• The demand: Official spokesperson A.K.M. Shahidul Karim urged India to "extradite" Ms. Hasina and the suspected killers of radical student leader Osman Hadi, saying "a propitious environment" is required for Mr. Rahman's visit.
• The formulation: "We are of the view that a propitious environment needs to be created for the visit. To this end, we have requested the Indian authorities to expeditiously act on our request to extradite Sheikh Hasina and other fugitive criminals, and to hand over to Bangladesh the accused killers of Shaheed Sharif Osman Hadi in compliance with our bilateral extradition treaty... We are awaiting their response."
• The two invitations: MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal reiterated on Friday that New Delhi had extended two invites to Mr. Rahman — one for the upcoming BRICS Summit to be held in India, and the other for a bilateral visit.
• The trajectory before the rupture: Diplomatic sources had earlier indicated that bilateral talks were on track after India distanced itself from Ms. Hasina's press conference; Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka Dinesh Trivedi called on Mr. Rahman on August 10. Sources in Dhaka had indicated that "positive movements" had started and that the window for a big-ticket visit was gradually opening.
• India's position: On August 7, Mr. Jaiswal said India does not "endorse" the comments made against the "duly constituted government" of Bangladesh.
• Dhaka's declared doctrine: Mr. Karim reiterated the "Bangladesh first" foreign policy and said the government will continue to promote friendly bilateral relations with other countries, including neighbours, "on the basis of sovereign equality, national dignity, non-interference in each other's internal affairs and mutual benefit".
• The backdrop: Ms. Hasina sought refuge in India on August 5, 2024, after a popular uprising toppled her government.

The extradition framework

Context

The National Testing Agency said on Sunday that it will re-conduct the UGC-National Eligibility Test for English, sociology and commerce after finding that the papers had "defects", which "do not meet the standards of fairness and error-free examination". The decision follows multiple complaints from candidates about errors in the question papers.

Background & Key Facts

• The dates: The English and commerce re-exams will be held on September 9, and the sociology re-test on September 10.
• Scale of the original exam: The UGC-NET was conducted in the last week of June in 87 subjects, to recruit Assistant Professors, award Junior Research Fellowships, and for Ph.D. admissions.
• What candidates flagged: Large-scale question repetitions from past years in English and commerce, alongside spelling mistakes, poor translation, and garbled scholar names in the sociology paper.
• The committee's findings: NTA Director-General Abhishek Singh told The Hindu that a committee constituted to review the complaints found the three papers had "many factual, typographical, and translation errors, including misspelt names of prominent scholars, garbled book titles, errors in the stem wording of questions, grammatical errors, gender and number agreement errors, punctuation mistakes, and non-standard coined terms for established concepts, as well as repetition of a significant number of questions previously administered."
• The notice: "Papers carrying such defects do not meet the standards of fairness and error-free examination." Details of city, centre and admit card will be notified separately; no additional examination fee will be charged for the re-conduct.
• The wider context: This follows the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak, the special fast-track court proceedings against 13 accused, and the ongoing student protests over recruitment examination integrity.
• A parallel State-level failure: During the recent Civil Police Constable Recruitment Exam in Karnataka, 141 Optical Mark Recognition sheets were found missing from an exam centre at Tikota in Vijayapura district.

The examination integrity chain

The NEET case failed at the third link; the UGC-NET case failed at the first and second; the Vijayapura case failed at the fourth. Each is a distinct failure requiring a distinct fix.

Context

Protesting students burnt the effigies of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the 23rd day of their stir at the Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium in Ranchi, alleging that the State government was not serious about their demand for a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in competitive examinations for government jobs. Later in the day, the government invited the protest leaders for a fourth round of talks on Monday afternoon.

Background & Key Facts

• Why the Congress is a target: The Congress is part of the JMM-led government in Jharkhand. Effigies were burnt in other districts too, with students shouting slogans against both the JMM-led government and the Congress.
• The alleged promise: Ravindra Paswan, leader of the JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch, said that when the agitation began, Mr. Gandhi had assured them that if Mr. Soren did not take positive steps or give a satisfactory response by August 15, the Congress would withdraw its support to the JMM-led government. "However, even after August 15, the government has not taken any concrete steps."
• The escalation announced: "We have already announced that if the government does not listen to our demands by August 18, we will gherao the CM's residence on August 20. We have no other option left," Mr. Paswan said.
• The talks: Kumar Rajat, Sub-Divisional Officer of Ranchi Sadar, and Dhananjay Kumar, ADM (Law and Order), met the protesting students at the site with the government's proposals. Talks were set for 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday at the State guest house in Ranchi.
• Duration: Hundreds of students have gathered at the stadium since July 25, demanding a CBI inquiry into alleged irregularities in government job recruitment examinations.
• The legal backdrop: Police have registered an FIR against 300 people over the march to the Assembly, involving violation of prohibitory orders, damage to government property and attacks on police personnel; FIRs against more than 500 unnamed protesters were reported last week.

Context

The armed forces are likely to compile a list of Agniveers eligible for recruitment into the Central Armed Police Forces under the government's reservation policy for the temporary recruits, a government source told The Hindu. The first batch of around 25,000 Agniveers is scheduled to retire from the Army by December.

Background & Key Facts

• The mechanism: While CAPFs such as the CRPF, SSB and Assam Rifles have reserved 50% of constable vacancies for former Agniveers, the Army, Navy and Air Force will furnish the details of eligible personnel — indicating that ex-Agniveers may not be able to apply directly for recruitment under the reserved quota.
• Caste reservation continues: Although recruitment into the armed forces is not based on caste reservation, existing quotas for SCs, STs and OBCs will continue to apply for recruitment into the CAPFs.
• The retention concern: CAPF service tenure extends to the age of 60, whereas armed forces personnel retire much earlier. "During deliberations, it was felt that, if given a choice, many Agniveers would prefer to join the CAPFs rather than continue in the armed forces because of the longer career span and greater job security," the source said.
• The decision: "Therefore, it has been decided, at least initially, that the armed forces, beginning with the Army, which will witness the first batch of Agniveers retiring later this year, will provide the CAPFs with a list of eligible candidates for recruitment under the reserved quota."
• The notifications: Over the past month CAPFs including the CRPF, SSB and Assam Rifles issued notifications specifying 50% reservation for ex-Agniveers. The Border Security Force was the first to issue such a notification, on December 19, 2025, enhancing the quota from 10% to 50%.
• The exemptions: Ex-Agniveers will be exempted from written examinations, physical standard tests and physical efficiency tests.
• The two-phase model (CRPF notification, July 27): "In the first phase, the concerned nodal force will conduct recruitment to fill the vacancies earmarked for ex-Agniveers... In the second phase, recruitment for the remaining 50% of vacancies will be conducted through an open examination under the existing recruitment provisions. Any vacancies reserved for ex-Agniveers that remain unfilled in the first phase will be added to the vacancies to be filled in the second phase."

The Agnipath framework recalled

Context

The Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India notified 40 questions for Population Enumeration, the second phase of Census 2027, on August 14. The phase begins in Ladakh and the snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand from Monday and continues till September 30 — ahead of the rest of the country, where the exercise will be held in February 2027.

What is new

• The count: 40 questions in 2027, against 29 in Census 2011 — 13 new questions.
• The new fields: Spouse's name, nationality, father and mother's particulars, digital literacy, permanent address, place of COVID-19 vaccination, number of bank accounts, passport, driving licence, and mobile, Aadhaar and voter ID numbers, if available.
• Caste enumeration: Census 2027 will also enumerate caste, in addition to these new data fields.

Key points from the interview with Amit Sharma, Chief Principal Census Officer and Director, Census Operations, J&K and Ladakh

• On the rationale for new questions: "The questions are decided after several rounds of discussions with all Ministries. No private or confidential data is being sought by enumerators; these are all documents provided by the government. We are not seeking the bank account details, only the number of accounts an individual has." The identity documents — Aadhaar, voter ID, driving licence, passport — are all government-issued, and respondents provide them subject to availability.
• On confidentiality: "All data is confidential under the Census Act, 1948. It is better if respondents write down their details on paper before an enumerator comes. Since there are 40 questions, it may take more time."
• On self-enumeration: Available in the entire UT of Ladakh and in snow-bound areas of 16 districts of J&K from Monday, on a web portal, before door-to-door enumeration begins on September 1. The option is geo-referenced — a resident of a snow-bound area such as Gurez who is presently in the plains will not be able to access the portal.
• On cyber fraud: "Beware of cyber fraud; fraudsters may seek information in the name of the Census. Our enumerators have QR-code-enabled ID cards; their credentials can be checked."
• Phase 1 uptake: More than 6.67 lakh households in J&K and 7,009 households in Ladakh voluntarily completed self-enumeration before the House Listing Operations in June.
• The counting rule: "Under the extended de facto pattern, everyone present at a location will be counted."
• Why it matters for J&K and Ladakh: It will provide the first comprehensive demographic picture of Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, and the first Census of Ladakh as a Union Territory — generating data on population distribution, migration, age structure, housing, education, employment, fertility, disability and social composition.
• On geography: "Census 2027 aims to capture not just population numbers, but where people live, how they live, how they move and how those patterns are changing." J&K's population is spread across cities, villages, mountainous regions, border areas and tribal habitations, with seasonal migration complicating enumeration; Ladakh's population lives across a vast high-altitude region with dispersed settlements and seasonal accessibility.
• On nomadic and displaced groups: Special coordination with forest, tribal affairs and local administration departments to identify migratory routes and seasonal settlements of Gujjar-Bakarwals and other nomadic groups, so that "mobility does not lead to undercounting". Communities such as Kashmiri Pandits will be recorded according to established Census concepts and reference dates, while capturing migration and household characteristics.

Context

The Hindu's editorial notes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech — his thirteenth — was delivered in an entirely new political context shaped by the recent student protests that led to the resignation of his Education Minister. The speech offered hope and purpose on one hand while, on the other, building "a new phantom labelled 'dimagi naxals'" who, he said, influenced policymaking and required purging.

What was announced

• Skill training for one crore youth over the next year to prepare India for the artificial intelligence era.
• Free online coaching for competitive examinations to reduce the burden on families and improve access to opportunities.
• Renewed emphasis on innovation, quantum technology, space, robotics, data centres and other emerging sectors.
• Reiterated commitment to self-reliance in defence production, including advanced technologies such as drones and next-generation defence systems.
• Repeated stress on big dreams, firm resolve and rapid execution, arguing that India could no longer think in incremental terms. The speech was specifically addressed to the young citizens of the nation.

The editorial's critique

• On comparison: "India's progress is a continuum that should ideally have a compounding effect with each subsequent year. Comparing, in absolute terms, achievements before and after 2014... is neither statistically relevant nor politically prudent."
• On the scale of the challenge: India enters its 80th year as a free nation with unprecedented challenges — "a massive young population entering the workforce even as technology is disrupting life and work as never before."
• The prescription: "What India needs is an all-hands-on-the-deck approach, requiring a unified political will among parties and stakeholders that is unaffected by electoral contests. India also needs an indigenous understanding and philosophy of development rather than trying to mimic the techno-capitalism that is rattling advanced economies" — a point the editorial notes was also underlined by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in his Independence Day speech.
• The closing line: "Mr. Modi clearly sees the challenges; but he also sees, unfortunately, an enemy in every critic. As he leads the country into a new year of independence, perhaps he could consider new ideas, including those from his critics, instead of amplifying divisive ones."

The political row

• The clarification: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said on X that the remark was not aimed at Opposition leaders, and was directed only at those who "support Maoists and reject the Indian Constitution", "stand with separatists and support Article 370", and those who "want to cut the chicken neck to separate the northeast from India". "Mr. Modi didn't say Opposition leaders are dimagi Naxals."
• The trigger: Senior Congress leader and former Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram posted: "I am proud to be a dimagi Naxal!"
• What was said: Mr. Modi alleged that dimagi Naxals had entrenched themselves in the system and continued to influence society through policy manipulation; while "armed Naxals may have gone", "dimagi Naxals are lurking around" — calling for "identifying and isolating" them.
• The exchanges: Congress MP Pawan Khera mocked Mr. Rijiju's numbering; Jairam Ramesh backed him with a jibe at the Prime Minister's qualification. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey circulated an old video of Mr. Chidambaram on nuclear weapons; BJP general secretary B.L. Santhosh alleged he had been the "PMC of the saffron terrorism project of the UPA".
• A letter to the editor notes that after "urban Naxals", "tukde-tukde gang" and "andolanjeevis" became outdated, the new label appears aimed at the student leaders behind the Gen Z protests, and argues that if the warning about a "malicious plan to harm the country" was genuine, the traits of such individuals should have been clearly outlined.

Context

Escalating the controversy over the National Song's rendition at the Congress headquarters on Independence Day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday demanded an apology from the Opposition party for "disrespecting" Vande Mataram. The Congress denied any wrongdoing, calling it a communication issue and accusing the BJP of manufacturing a political controversy.

What happened, and what each side says

• The incident: During Independence Day celebrations at the AICC headquarters on Saturday, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi was seen gesturing towards party president Mallikarjun Kharge while Vande Mataram was being sung.
• The charge: Mr. Shah, addressing a public meeting at Nimbahera in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh district, accused Ms. Gandhi of asking for the National Song to be stopped midway. "The people of the country will never forgive this sin you have committed. If Congress members have any shame left, they should fold their hands and apologise to the people." He added: "Thousands of people went to the gallows, faced bullets, endured lathi charge and were jailed while chanting Vande Mataram. But the Congress has forgotten it for a vote bank."
• The denial: The Congress asserted there was no attempt to stop the singing of the full, six-stanza version; Ms. Gandhi was asking for a chair for Mr. Kharge, who had been standing for some time.
• The Congress response: K.C. Venugopal in Kollam said the controversy arose from a misunderstanding: "For the BJP, everything is political. For us, it is emotional. What happened at the AICC headquarters was a communication issue. We are people who respect Vande Mataram."
• The descendant's letter: BJP MLA Sumitra Chatterjee, who represents Naihati in the West Bengal Assembly and is a descendant of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, wrote to Ms. Gandhi on August 15 saying Vande Mataram was "not the ancestral property" of any single political party: "It is part of the nation's collective memory, the eternal legacy of Bankim Chandra, and a sacred national symbol earned through the blood and sacrifice of millions of martyrs." He urged "an unconditional apology".
• West Bengal: Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the objection to singing the full version was an "insult" to nationalism, patriotism and the song's creator.
• The counter-attack: Jairam Ramesh accused the Home Minister of diverting attention, listing his own charges and concluding that "such a man is now demanding an apology from the Congress to divert attention away from the real issues of the day".
• The legal turn: An inquiry has been initiated after two lawyers asked the Delhi Police to register an FIR against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi under the provisions of the new law punishing insults to the National Song. The complaint at Indraprastha Estate Police Station sought a probe into the "intentional obstruction" caused during the rendition.
• The legislative backdrop: The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Act received presidential assent on August 11, extending to Vande Mataram the protection previously available only to the National Anthem. 2026 marks 150 years of the song.

Context

Shashi Tharoor argues that the One Nation, One Election proposal to enforce a uniform, synchronised timeline for national and State elections across India represents "a profound misapprehension of the structural mechanics of the parliamentary system, and poses an existential threat to the federal architecture designed by the framers of the Constitution."

The argument

• The core objection: To align the distinct electoral rhythms of dozens of individual States with the central government, in the name of national uniformity, is to prioritise administrative convenience over democratic substance. "The argument for synchronisation relies on a superficial calculation of national expenditure and an overblown narrative of governance paralysis."
• Flexibility at democracy's core: At the very heart of the parliamentary form of government is the principle that the executive branch derives its legitimacy directly from, and remains continuously accountable to, the legislature. Unlike a presidential system, where the executive is elected independently for a strict, unalterable calendar year, a parliamentary executive exists entirely at the pleasure of the legislative majority.
• Why a fixed calendar is coercive: A Prime Minister or Chief Minister rules only as long as they command the confidence of the house. Consequently, the parliamentary system is inherently built around flexibility; terms are not rigidly fixed because the collapse of a governing coalition, a successful motion of no confidence, or a shifting legislative realignment must naturally trigger a democratic reset. "That is why India's elections, which ran on the same timetable from 1952 to 1967, no longer do so: governments at the State and the Centre fell at different times when they lost their legislative majorities, and were elected accordingly thereafter, leading to the current situation where some State or the other is going to the elections every year."
• The 'lame-duck' problem: Imposing a fixed-term electoral calendar artificially onto this system requires a complex, deeply unsatisfactory short-circuiting mechanism. "If a government falls, forcing a fixed timeline means that the electorate is stripped of its sovereign right to choose a new government for a full five-year mandate. Instead, the system must resort to truncated midterm elections... creating weak, insecure 'lame-duck' administrations whose bureaucrats, police forces and political opponents will simply run down the clock rather than engage in decisive long-term policymaking."
• The alternative is worse: Resorting to President's Rule when a State government falls, rather than holding a fresh election, "is even more undemocratic. This would inevitably force a domino effect of constitutional crises that severely erodes the value of a citizen's vote."
• Equity of the vote: "Under a synchronised system, the democratic leverage of the electorate is fundamentally distorted. A citizen voting in a midterm election to fill a two-year unexpired term is structurally handed less political bargaining power than a voter casting a ballot at the dawn of the five-year cycle. If full-term and midterm governments wield identical constitutional powers, it is a violation of democratic equity that identical mandates carry unequal temporal weight."

How national politics would overshadow States

Tharoor argues that "regional parties are subtly coerced into prioritising national alignment over regional suitability, a phenomenon supported by the majoritarian push for uniform alignment under the guise of developmental efficiency." Federalism, he writes, "is not a mere administrative arrangement; it is a vital mechanism for cultural and political accommodation."

The financial and 'good governance' claims examined

• The cost argument: "The claim that simultaneous elections will drastically cut public spending deliberately conflates the minimal, necessary administrative costs incurred by the State with the unregulated, private campaign expenditures of political parties. The official funds spent by the Election Commission of India to manage independent cycles are a drop in the ocean for an economy of India's scale, a small and necessary price to pay for maintaining a responsive democracy."
• Structural benefits of the current cycle: Conversely, the vast sums of money circulated by political parties during campaigns actually function as a form of informal economic redistribution, temporarily generating widespread employment and shifting capital back down to printers, local transport networks, artisans and working-class citizens. "To restrict this economic circulation to once every five years under the banner of austerity is an argument that privileges elite fiscal preferences over the periodic economic stimuli that support jobs."
• On the Model Code of Conduct: "The electoral code is designed strictly to prevent the ruling executive from announcing opportunistic, brand-new financial handouts or executing politically-motivated bureaucratic transfers during the immediate run-up to a vote. It does not freeze the wheels of the State, nor does it halt the execution of ongoing public works, routine governance, or essential administrative duties."
• Where the paralysis really lies: "The narrative of paralysis is often deployed by executives to excuse structural inefficiencies that have nothing to do with the electoral calendar."
• Accountability cycles: "State elections serve as a critical check on executive hubris, forcing political representatives to regularly return to the doorsteps of their constituents with folded hands. This continuous accountability cycle keeps political parties responsive to shifting public sentiment, whereas a single, synchronised event leaves a five-year void where representatives are essentially insulated from the popular will."
• The conclusion: "Ultimately, the drive toward uniform elections is an attempt to standardise the organic, messy vitality of a decentralised parliamentary democracy into the rigid, totalising efficiency of an authoritarian state model... True democratic strength does not lie in forced conformity or synchronised clocks, but in the enduring resilience of a federal compact that allows its many distinct regions to live, breathe, and vote according to their own unique conditions."

Context

Rangarajan R. explains that the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly has passed a resolution urging the Centre to permanently freeze the number of Lok Sabha seats at 543 and maintain the present State-wise distribution — while the Union government introduced the Constitution 131st Amendment Bill in April 2026 to raise the maximum number of Lok Sabha seats from 550 to 850.

The basics

• What delimitation means: The process of fixing the number of seats and boundaries of territorial constituencies in each State for the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies, performed by a Delimitation Commission set up under an Act of Parliament. The last time the number of seats was determined was on the basis of the 1971 census.
• The constitutional principle: Article 81(2) provides that the ratio between the number of seats and the population of a State shall, as far as practicable, be the same for all States.
• The 1971 baseline: The number fixed at 543 when the population was 54.8 crore, translating to an average population of about 10.1 lakh per constituency.
• The freezes: The 42nd Amendment froze the number till the year 2000; the 84th Amendment extended it until 2026. The number will now have to be readjusted on the basis of the first census after 2026 — Census 2027.
• Women's reservation: The 106th Constitutional Amendment (2023) provided for one-third reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies, to be given effect through delimitation based on the census after 2026.
• Tamil Nadu's resolution also sought preservation of the current ratio between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats, and implementation of the one-third women's reservation from the 2029 election onwards without linking it to any future census or delimitation.

Table 1 — Value of the vote of each citizen (estimated 2026 population)

*Kerala calculated as 1, and other States' values derived on this base. A voter in Bihar effectively carries about half the weight of a voter in Kerala.

Table 2 — If seats are increased to 848 on 2026 projected population

Based on research papers of Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hintson for the Carnegie endowment.

The Centre's proposal and the larger implications

• The oral assurance: The Home Minister assured Parliament that the number of seats in each State or Union Territory would be increased by 50% on a pro-rata basis. However, this Bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha, and there are expectations that the government may introduce the Bill again in the near future with explicit provisions for a 50% increase in seats for all States and UTs on a pro-rata basis.
• Argument for a 50% pro-rata increase: It maintains the current proportion of representation of States and UTs in the Lok Sabha; and it enables seamless reservation of one-third of seats for women, with the additional 272 seats being reserved for women out of an enlarged house of around 816 seats.
• The Rajya Sabha problem: The current strength of the Rajya Sabha is 245, giving a ratio of 2.2:1 to the Lok Sabha's 543. An increase in Lok Sabha seats by 50% without altering seats in the Rajya Sabha would skew this ratio to 3.3:1.
• The joint sitting mechanism: In the event of disagreement between the two Houses on any Bill, there is a mechanism for a joint sitting under the Constitution to resolve the deadlock. Though used rarely in the past — only three times since Independence — the increased strength in the Lok Sabha runs the risk of a rise in such joint sittings to push through Bills. In such a scenario it would diminish the role of the Rajya Sabha as an effective check and balance on the Lok Sabha.
• Sitting days: Considering that the Lok Sabha sits for only around 60 days in a year, there would hardly be any meaningful time for each MP to raise their issues in the house. "The purpose of the house would then be reduced to mere numerical representation rather than meaningful deliberation."
• Cost: The increased cost to the exchequer because of additional MPs, including allocation for Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds, needs to be borne in mind.
• Harmonious reconciliation: The author proposes freezing the number of MPs in the Lok Sabha at the existing 543, which would ensure no disruption to the current representation of various States, while increasing the number of MLAs in each State in line with the current population to address the democratic representational requirement.

Context

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said on Sunday in Patna that the "successful" conduct of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar last year helped to increase the voter turnout in the State Assembly election that followed.

Background & Key Facts

• The claim: He asserted that the SIR was the most successful nationwide initiative for the purification of electoral rolls and that it originated in Bihar; the voter turnout during the last Assembly election was the highest recorded since Independence.
• The mechanism: Mr. Kumar said the SIR exercise resulted in around 70 lakh names being removed from the electoral rolls. "The revision was followed by the Assembly elections, which recorded a significant rise in voter turnout," he said.
• The visit: He landed in Patna on Sunday for a two-day visit to Bihar, thanking the people of Bihar at a press conference at the airport, and said he had come to pay his respects to the sacred land of Bihar.
• The programme: Mr. Kumar is scheduled to visit Vaishali, Madhubani and Sitamarhi. On Monday he will interact with around 500 Booth Level Officers in Rajgir.
• The political context: The SIR has been contested by Opposition parties in several States, and pleas concerning the disposal of appeals by persons excluded from the West Bengal electoral roll are pending before the Supreme Court, where the Court has sought disposal-rate data from the Election Commission.

Context

Raja Karthikeya of the Takshashila Institution argues that India is losing West Asia, one country at a time — and that even as the region undergoes a once-in-a-generation shift in its security architecture and political battle lines, "it is unclear what India's strategy is, or whether New Delhi has one at all."

The argument

• The lost decade of gains: Ten to twenty years ago India was rapidly remaking its footprint in West Asia. In 2016, Saudi Arabia awarded India's Prime Minister its highest civilian honour. In 2021, the I2U2 agreement was signed binding India, Israel, the United States and the UAE. In 2024, Iran leased Chabahar to India. "All these successes though are now memories from the past."
• Pakistan's new diplomatic moment: In the last four months, the U.S.-Israel war with Iran has escalated into a catastrophic regional conflict, with Iran attacking Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the Saudis hitting Iraqi militias, the Houthis attacking Saudi ships and Israel carrying out strikes in multiple countries. "Now, the Gulf countries are rethinking the efficacy of the U.S. security umbrella. They see a threat from both Iran and Israel." Among the Gulf countries there is a schism on how to handle this threat — through engagement (as the UAE is doing) or through deterrence (as the Saudis are contemplating).
• The reputational benefit: "In this context, Pakistan's role as mediator in the U.S.-Iran conflict is gaining reputational benefits in the region." Irrespective of Pakistan's motives, analysts in the region see that Pakistan waded into the conflict at a time when it seemed that no one could bring U.S. President Donald Trump and the Iranians to the table, despite efforts by Türkiye, Qatar and Egypt. The latest collective defence pact in Mecca between Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan comes in this context. "That pact may mean less in shaping the U.S.-Iran war as none of these countries is likely to directly take on Iran alongside the U.S. The pact is thus aimed less at Iran and more at deterring Israel."
• The challenge for India: "All three countries see themselves as the next target of Israel after Iran. They thus want to pool Saudi capital, Pakistani military strength, and Türkiye's technological advances. This is a challenge for India. A future war between Israel and Pakistan will inevitably draw in India given the close partnership between Israel and India. Similarly, even greater Turkish support for Pakistan in a future conflict that Pakistan might have with India cannot be ruled out."
• The choices before India: "It appears to be confident of Israel's victory in its various battles in the region given its proximity to the U.S. But U.S. politics are changing rapidly, with both 'Make America Great Again' Republicans and Democratic Socialists questioning the once-unquestioned U.S. support for Israel. Can Israel then emerge triumphant alone?"
• The UAE and remittances: "India has cultivated a special relationship with the UAE given the importance of remittances from Indian workers in the country, the investments by the Indian elite in the UAE and the UAE's strategic investments in India. But the UAE's mounting differences with Saudi Arabia are a cause for concern, as are its positions against UN-recognised governments in conflicts as afar as Sudan."
• The constraint: "India can choose to sign military alliances with Israel and the UAE. But this would hurt what is left of India's relationship with Iran and Saudi Arabia. India can choose to do nothing as it is doing now. And its merchant mariners may keep getting killed in the Strait of Hormuz while more Indian ships may sink in the Bab-el-Mandeb."
• The verdict: "A great power in the making risks appearing humbled and hobbled in its immediate maritime neighbourhood. Or, India can pick a third way. It can devise an active regional political strategy."

The author's prescriptions

• Re-engage the Saudis: "with whom it has no explicit differences". "It can start playing a role of rebuilding trust between the Arab countries and Iran, starting with the UAE-Iran relationship."
• Engage in Jordan's security: offering Jordan defensive technologies at a time when U.S. munitions are running low.
• Peacekeeping and stabilisation: "It can engage in the future UN peacekeeping role in Lebanon, which is now under a cloud, with the forecast being an end to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). It can even run a back-channel with Türkiye sharing its red lines about its relationship with Pakistan."
• Maritime security: "If India cannot join the new Saudi-led maritime force for the Red Sea, it can work with Egypt on a parallel effort to safeguard India-bound shipping, from the Suez Canal to Bab-el-Mandeb. It can look into setting up a military presence in the Red Sea region whether in Somaliland or Socotra. Building on current military training exchanges, it can start drills and military exercises with a range of countries in the region."
• A Special Envoy: "India can also appoint a new Special Envoy for West Asia — not one focused on the Israel-Palestine peace process necessarily, but one who can draw all the threads together to secure India's interests in the region at a time of unprecedented turbulence. All of this can be part of one pro-active vision for India to support a new security architecture for West Asia — one that does not draw new battle lines but instead contributes to trust-building."
• The closing: "India cannot afford to be a stranger to West Asia. India has both the capacity and the responsibility to help restore peace and predictability in the region."

Context

The Hindu's editorial argues that the August 4, 2026 incident involving Air India flight AI 2379 from Phuket to Delhi, with 137 passengers and eight crew, now has two tracks: the reclassification of an "event of turbulence" as a "serious incident" after in-flight technical issues and a significant deviation in aircraft altitude caused injuries to more than 20 passengers and crew — and the result of the pilot-in-command's post-flight screening for psychoactive substances.

Track one: the technical investigation

• Who is investigating: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation was drawn in on reclassification; the subsequent probe is by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, along with France's investigation authority BEA, and technical representatives from Airbus.
• The anomalies to be unravelled: On the Airbus A320N — fault warnings across the hydraulic systems, elevator flight-control faults, autopilot disconnection, emergency-exit door indications, and an engine anti-ice warning.
• Airbus's initial data is said to support the evidence of technical errors.

Track two: the screening gap

• The airline's response: The Tata Group-Singapore Airlines joint venture airline "has been prodded into commencing the immediate and mandatory screening of its flight deck crew 'for any substances or unprescribed medications'."
• The weak link exposed: "The greater emphasis on pre- and post-flight breathalyser checks for alcohol than on testing for psychoactive substances", which falls under Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) Section 5-Air Safety Series F Part V. The CAR — which applies to Air Traffic Controllers also — leans more towards random and post-flight or post-shift testing, with graded disciplinary action.
• Why this matters now: "With India's air carriers expanding operations, crew citing stress-related issues, and, separately, the availability of substances for medicinal or recreational use, the regulator must ensure stringent psychoactive substance testing and operational compliance."
• The regulatory precedent: The DGCA's Medical Circular No. 02 of 2021 on 'over-the-counter (OTC) drugs and self-medication' highlights pilot cognitive and psychomotor skills impairment, drawing on the Mangaluru (2010) and Kozhikode (2020) fatal air accidents.
• The evidence base: "Documented cases from the West reveal that even small levels of impairment can affect crew judgement, reaction time, coordination, and decision-making, the critical skills needed in the flight deck."
• The conclusion: "Ensuring that fit crew are behind the controls is an aviation industry bedrock, and every Indian operator, large or growing, must uphold the highest standards. This was a lucky escape, but luck cannot be allowed to become a safety strategy."

Context

Suneeta Reddy, Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd., argues that modern medicine has built an extraordinary depth of knowledge, but how much of it reaches the patient who needs it now has traditionally depended on the number and distribution of trained clinicians, the institutions in which they work, and the systems that connect them to patients — all three of which are difficult to expand quickly.

The global evidence cited

The argument

• India's specific constraints: "Specialist care remains concentrated in larger cities, while chronic conditions require patients to be monitored over many years. Hospitals are also managing rising volumes without being able to increase clinical capacity at the same pace."
• Where AI helps: "An AI tool that helps prioritise a radiology scan, alerts a care team to a deteriorating patient or supports a physician handling a complex case in a smaller city can make existing capacity work more efficiently."
• The digital foundation: The Scan and Share improvements "did not require a dramatic reinvention. It came from removing friction from a familiar hospital process. AI can extend the same principle to appointment scheduling, clinical documentation, claims, inventory planning, and discharge management. Each task takes time away from care if handled poorly."
• The financial case: "For hospitals, these gains can free resources for clinical teams, equipment and capacity. They can also reduce administrative work that contributes to staff fatigue."
• New services, not more technology: "AI can help providers offer services that were previously difficult to deliver at scale. Remote monitoring can extend care beyond discharge. Risk-based preventive programmes can identify people who need attention before symptoms become severe. Virtual specialist support can connect smaller hospitals with expertise located elsewhere. Diagnostics can be taken closer to communities."
• Judicious use: "These models create revenue, but their value does not come from selling more technology. It comes from reaching patients earlier and avoiding preventable deterioration. This is also where restraint matters. A system that performs well in one hospital or population may not work equally well across India's States, disease patterns, and care settings. Clinical validation, representative data, and human oversight also need to be seriously considered."
• The performance-drift warning: "The tools' performance at launch does not guarantee performance over time."
• The framing: "Healthcare does not need AI everywhere. It needs it where delays can be reduced, clinicians can make better-informed decisions, and more patients can receive appropriate care." And: "The economic return on AI in healthcare will be measured not by the number of systems deployed, but by the number of lives touched and its impact on human life and happiness."

Context

V. Raghavendra reports that the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department of Andhra Pradesh, long "caught in the time warp of archaic administrative measures", is trying to catch up with the times. At the recent Green Andhra Summit organised by the Indian Green Building Council, a top official noted in disbelief that one of the most laughable things about urban local bodies was its imposition of a 'tree guard fee' — and that about 45 different types of charges are being collected by the department.

The reforms under way

The stated aim, per the MA&UD official, is to make the city "grow rapidly and be adaptive, like it happened with London and Paris among other great global cities" — a shift towards "deep-tech governance, fiscal self-reliance, and environmentally resilient urban living", under the theme 'build faster and better and grow green'. This is already visible in Amaravati, the emerging greenfield capital city.

Context

Tanu M. Goyal, Mohd. Tahoor and Shravani Prakash of ICRIER report that India's Time Use Survey (2025) shows the division of labour that emerges in adulthood begins much earlier, through childhood conditioning. In a recent interaction with women aspiring to become entrepreneurs in rural Haryana, they found that beyond social and cultural norms, the biggest practical constraint was that a large share of their time was tied up in cooking and household chores — and that it was their daughters, rather than their sons, who were already sharing this burden.

The data

The authors' argument

• Schooling is not the trade-off: "The cost of girls' domestic work is often framed primarily as a trade-off with schooling and education. But data shows that girls, in fact, are spending slightly more time on learning than boys at most ages. They, therefore, remain in school but still pay a substantial price in leisure time."
• Why leisure matters: Time that could be spent on "sport, friendships, rest, exploration and simply having discretionary control over their own time. These are not economically irrelevant activities. They are part of how children build confidence, social networks, physical capability and even a sense of agency, all of which influence their ability to build career trajectories later in life."
• The training thesis: "Between childhood and adulthood, therefore, girls are being trained for the household while boys are being trained for the world outside. This helps explain why childhood conditioning can later appear as an 'efficient' gendered allocation of household work."
• The policy gap: "Most policy interventions address women's unpaid work in adulthood through childcare, community kitchens, safe mobility infrastructure, flexible work and social protection, among others. But the Time Use Survey suggests that policy must also start much earlier, by addressing the unequal assignment of domestic work between boys and girls."
• The objective: "The objective is not to remove domestic work from children's lives, but to remove its gender assignment. Schools can help by giving every child, boy or girl, equal opportunities to learn practical life skills, from cooking and home management to stitching, carpentry and financial management."
• The conclusion: "India has invested heavily in keeping girls in school and improving their educational outcomes, but equal attention must be paid to what happens to their time outside school... If we want a different workforce tomorrow, we may need to start by giving boys and girls a different childhood today."

Context

Sobhana K. Nair reports on the Congress's "Chhatron Ki Goonj" initiative, through which the party has since June been reaching out to aspirants preparing for public recruitment and educational examinations, including NEET — an attempt to mobilise the growing frustration among students and job aspirants.

The two cases that frame the story

• Bihar, 2014-2022: The Bihar Staff Selection Commission notified vacancies for positions including forest guards, assistant sub-inspectors, lower division clerks and stenographers. The examination was conducted in 2018, and the results were declared only in 2022 — eight years after the posts were first advertised. Rakesh Chandan (name changed), 32, from Patna, said that by the time results were announced many successful candidates had become ineligible to join because they had crossed the age limit.
• Uttarakhand, 2012: Prashant Pandey (name changed), 37, from a small town near Dehradun, cleared the written examination for the post of sub-inspector in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. He was found to be 2 kg short of the required weight and was asked to undergo another medical examination. Three months later he was informed that the recruitment process had been indefinitely postponed.

The campaign's design

• Public meetings: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has addressed three public meetings — in Kota, Dehradun and Prayagraj. On Sunday he announced another event in Pune on August 22 that will focus exclusively on women aspirants.
• Focus groups: 16 focus group discussions have been held in Delhi, Patna and Dehradun. A senior party leader said each group was curated to bring together participants from different caste, class, gender and geographical backgrounds.
• Why women aspirants: The decision emerged from these discussions, during which female candidates spoke about the greater odds they face, including a narrow window to pursue their careers owing to the "looming deadline" to get married.
• The recurring pattern: "Participants speak of inheriting aspirations for government jobs from their families, the years spent preparing for exams, the money invested in coaching centres, and the repeated setbacks caused by paper leaks and delayed recruitments."

Context

Sahana Venugopal reports that as part of its measures to comply with the European Union's AI Act, Anthropic announced that Claude content will in future carry a machine-readable marking to better enable AI content labelling. Adding a watermark to AI images and videos is not new — what made waves was the announcement that a watermark would be added to Claude text as well, potentially forcing millions to reconsider their use of AI tools. The update will be globally implemented.

What the policy does

• The legal trigger: The policy was introduced after Anthropic signed the EU AI Act's Article 50(2) Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content.
• Two mechanisms: Watermarks embedded in text content, and signed provenance metadata attached to supported files in formats such as .svg, .png, or .jpg.
• Invisible to users: Regarding the text-based watermark applied at the model level, users will not be able to see it, and Anthropic has confirmed that it will not affect Claude's response.
• The statement that alarmed users: "Because the watermark is part of the text, it will travel with the text when it's copied and pasted elsewhere, and may persist through some editing."
• The implication: "Professional emails, personal messages, school assignments, workplace deliverables, and other types of written content that could once be passed off easily as human-made, may soon come with an AI watermark — even if Claude's involvement was close to negligible."
• Technical opacity: How exactly the watermarking technology works in the case of Claude text is not yet clear, as the rollout announcement did not reveal full technical details. Anthropic is still working on letting external parties detect the markings.
• Coverage: Output from the Claude Platform (API), Claude, Claude Code, Claude Cowork and Claude Tag are set to get the embedded watermarks. The same applies when Claude models are accessed through AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Foundry.

The concerns

• The false-attribution risk: "If a human-made file is proofread, translated, summarised, or even converted by someone else using Claude, the final output could still carry a mark." This has put both AI users and non-users on edge.
• Anthropic's own caveat: The company warned about false positives and false negatives — "detecting a Claude mark does not confirm that the work was created by AI, while the lack of a mark does not mean the work was 100% human-made."
• Factors that throw off results: Short text lengths, content changes after Claude processing, metadata being stripped by converting the file format, and use of a Claude offering that does not yet support AI marking.
• The scam economy: In the days following the announcement, "multiple dubious websites claiming to offer Claude AI watermark 'removal' or 'clean up' services have come online."
• The precedent: "The earlier rise of a market for AI text detectors — and subsequently, AI text humanisers designed to deceive these same detectors — has resulted in multiple authors and bloggers being accused of passing off AI content as original creations. Despite AI text detection tools being experimental, fallible, and prone to errors, they have been involved in cases that led to cancelled book deals and social media trolling."

Are watermarks effective?

• Where they work: "Watermarks certainly help simplify the jobs of regulators, fact-checkers, and journalists by giving them a reliable way to verify the origin of an image or a video and even trace it back to a specific provider. But accurately detecting AI-generated text is uncharted territory."
• The distribution problem: AI-generated content often travels far and can be circulated thousands of times on social media unchecked, "as content moderation rules have been loosened across Mark Zuckerberg's Meta family of apps and Elon Musk's X. The average internet user distractedly scrolling through media on their phone often misses even visible AI watermarks, let alone invisible markings."
• The verdict: "Tech providers and regulators will need to work hand-in-hand to make sure that the AI watermarks lead to a tangible reduction in misinformation, deepfakes, or AI content being passed off as human-made... Anthropic's watermarking initiative for AI text is an intriguing concept, but it is too soon to tell if this approach to labelling will lead to more clarity or create more confusion."

Context

D.P. Kasbekar explains that Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA) is a genetic disorder that progressively damages the nerves and the heart. A new study from researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, published in Human Molecular Genetics on June 9, has finally explained why the disease has been reported only in people of European, North African, West Asian and South Asian descent.

The disease

• Symptoms: Affected individuals typically begin to show symptoms between the ages of 5 and 15. They become unsteady and their coordination is impaired; speech slows and slurs; swallowing becomes difficult; hearing and vision deteriorate; they feel fatigued and lose sensation, first in the arms and legs, then in the trunk and other parts of the body; and the spine curves to one side. Most patients die relatively young, of heart disease. There is no cure.
• The Indian burden: Ashwin Dalal, a medical geneticist at the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, says the institute diagnoses one case of FRDA every month on average — and almost all of these individuals come from consanguineous marriages. Many Indian communities practise consanguinity, which greatly increases the risk of genetic diseases that are otherwise rare.
• The absence: So far, FRDA has not been reported in people from sub-Saharan Africa, North America, and China, Japan and Southeast Asia.

The mechanism

• The gene: FRDA is caused when a gene called FXN becomes mutated. FXN codes for a protein called frataxin, essential for mitochondria. ATP, the cell's energy currency, is made mostly in the mitochondria; nerve, spinal cord, brain and heart muscle cells use a lot of energy. When frataxin levels become abnormally low, mitochondria produce ATP less effectively and accumulate toxic by-products, rendering the cell dysfunctional.
• The mutation type: The most common disease-causing mutations occur in a part of the FXN gene called the intron, and take the form of modifying the number of times a particular sequence of bases is repeated.
• The variants: Normal variants contain 5-11 repeats (short normal) or 12-33 repeats (long normal). People with Friedreich's ataxia have 100-1,500 repeats — the "expanded variants".
• The structural effect: Short-normal and long-normal variants have an open structure in the chromosome that allows cells to make frataxin as needed; expanded variants force the chromosome into a closed shape that reduces frataxin expression.
• Inheritance: Individuals who develop FRDA carry two copies of the expanded variant, one from each parent. A person with only one copy is a carrier — they will not have the disease but can pass the defective intron to their children. Genetic tests can identify carriers.

The distribution puzzle, solved

• The finding: 95% of expanded variants originally came from just two long-normal variants. At two points in history, a long-normal variant mutated to an extended variant, both times in Eurasia. The researchers call these originator mutations protomutations.
• The reservoir effect: Because people with FRDA die earlier, extended variants disappear from the population over time. People with protomutations and pre-mutations do not carry that risk — so they act as "reservoirs" that steadily replenish the depleting extended variants.
• Why East Asia is spared: The absence of long-normal variants in East Asian populations explains why these problematic mutations never arose there. The protomutations arose only a few times, and only in populations with a sufficient number of long-normal variants.
• The ancient DNA evidence: By analysing DNA from the skeletal remains of individuals who lived in ancient times, the researchers found both protomutations were present in Europe and Western Asia at least 9,000 years ago — but not in Neanderthals and Denisovans.
• The team's statement: Research team leader Sanjay Bidichandani credited "the longstanding tradition in the human genetics community of freely sharing DNA sequence data" as "crucial to accurately track the presence of susceptibility to Friedreich's ataxia from prehistoric humans to a wide variety of extant populations".
• Why it matters: The findings will help scientists understand what makes the two protomutations different from other long-normal variants that don't turn into pre-mutations — an answer that will in turn help find ways to prevent or at least slow down the genetic changes.

Context

Vasudevan Mukunth explains that the Hara forests are a vital ecological treasure of the Persian Gulf, spanning the Strait of Hormuz — and that recent satellite images have revealed a major environmental threat to them: an oil spill off the southern coast of Qeshm, an Iranian island in the Persian Gulf.

What the Hara forests are

• The species: These mangrove forests consist mainly of grey mangrove trees (Avicennia marina), which have a special filtration system in their roots that allows them to thrive in saline conditions.
• Coastal defence and carbon: The same roots protect the coast against erosion, and the forests are voluminous carbon sinks, "sequestering significantly more carbon than terrestrial forests".
• Protected status: The forests are a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
• Nursery function: They serve as an important nursery for marine life, sheltering shrimp, crabs and numerous fish species that sustain the region's fisheries.
• Birds: Up from the water's edge, the canopy is a major migratory hub for birds like the great stone-curlew and various herons.
• Livelihoods: The mangroves are the backbone of the sustainable tourism programmes of Qeshm, drawing visitors to their labyrinthine waterways. "Protecting these forests is crucial for the lives and livelihoods of Qeshm's local communities and for efforts to preserve the Gulf's natural heritage."

The spill

• The source: Experts have identified it as a bulk carrier named Minoan Pioneer, which has been leaking heavy fuel oil after being struck by a projectile.
• The extent: The slick stretches 160 km long, with dark liquid already washing ashore.
• The complication: "The ongoing West Asia conflict is also hindering cleanup efforts, leaving the mangroves at great risk of devastation."
• The warning: Environmentalists have said losing them would trigger "a catastrophic collapse of the local food chain and coastal defences".

Context

A panel constituted by the High Court of Meghalaya has flagged the State's lethargy in adopting a policy to close all rat-hole mine openings and fence those that pose danger to humans and livestock. In its 39th Interim Report submitted to the court last week, the one-man Justice (retired) B.P. Katakey Committee underlined the absence of a comprehensive action plan, the non-adoption of a mine closure policy, and serious gaps in the scrutiny of coal-based industries, specifically coke oven plants.

Background & Key Facts

• The unheeded advice: The State had been advised years ago to seal abandoned and active but illegally operated mines that have been death traps for humans — specifically children — and livestock. There are also instances of murderers using these pits to dump the bodies of their victims.
• The pilot projects: The Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited prepared detailed project reports for two pilot restoration projects — one at Sutnga in East Jaintia Hills (₹63 lakh) and the other at Arenggtim in South Garo Hills district (₹92.78 lakh).
• Pending approvals: Both proposals have been pending before the National Green Tribunal-constituted Oversight Committee, a hybrid Centre-State body comprising 12 members.
• The panel's objection: The DPRs focus on land restoration but lack adequate protective measures, including fencing, until works are completed. It insisted that immediate steps are essential to prevent further loss of human and animal lives, noting that thousands of open coal mines exist across Meghalaya.
• The scale: According to the Jaintia Coal Mines Owners and Dealers' Association, there are about 60,000 mines spread across 360 villages in the East Jaintia Hills district alone. Most are abandoned but left uncovered.
• Administrative inertia: Most districts have not sent concrete proposals on mine closure to the Mining and Geology Department. Officials from South West Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills, West Jaintia Hills and East Jaintia Hills districts assured submission within 10 days; South Garo Hills sought 15 days.
• The ban and its record: The NGT banned Meghalaya's hazardous rat-hole coal mining in April 2014. The death of more than 45 miners in the narrow tunnels 150-300 metres underground over the years has indicated that mining has continued illegally in the State.
• Why "rat-hole": The tunnels, branching out horizontally from a deep pit, are large enough only for an adult to crawl through. Such mines are also in operation along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh and Assam-Nagaland borders.

Context

Janaki Nair, professor (retired) at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, writes a tribute to Sumit Sarkar, who passed away on August 13. "I did not have the good fortune of being taught by Sumit Sarkar. But like every (conscientious) modern Indian historian, I have indeed been 'taught' by him."

On Modern India

• The book: "His classic, Modern India, modestly described as a 'textbook', is perhaps the most well-thumbed of my many books. Here, along with colonial masters and nationalist leaders, peasants, workers, and ordinary people sprang from its pages."
• Why it mattered: "This was no simple inclusion: it was a conceptual break, altering our understanding of Indian history in profound ways, acknowledging the lives and actions of millions, even their failures, as the true basis on which to understand our past."
• The framing: Despite its emphasis on the novel breakthroughs of a 'history from below', the book was sandwiched "between the foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 and the achievement of independence in 1947", since those 60 years "witnessed perhaps the greatest transition in our country's long history".
• On Gandhi: In one memorable sentence, he signalled the many unfulfilled promises of Indian nationalism: the Mahatma succeeded in "drawing in the masses, while at the same time keeping mass activity strictly pegged down to certain forms predetermined by the leader."

On the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal

• Methodological innovation: The book on Bengal's first partition of 1905 and the nationalist movement it spawned "was full of methodological innovations, using plays, novels, newspapers, pamphlets, in addition to the more familiar colonial archive."
• The unsatisfactory answers: "These materials led him to ask questions that often led to ambiguous or unsatisfactory answers. Educated unemployment and rising prices surely fuelled the anger against the Bengal partition. But the pride-inducing victory of a little 'eastern' nation, Japan, over a powerful 'western' neighbour, Russia — the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05 — also played its part, despite a relative ignorance in India of emerging critiques of imperialism elsewhere."
• The contradiction he confronted: "How could a Swadeshi editorial in the Bande Mataram praise, in the same breath, both the labour movement and the caste system, the latter for having had 'the true socialistic aim of keeping awake in every class of society a sense of duty to it'? Or, as he would ask later, what drew upper caste men to revolutionary terrorism in Bengal, and why has that memory endured longer than those of tribal or lower caste participants?"
• The prescient work: "He was among the earliest of historians to unpack how 'Hindu' nationalism gradually became 'common sense', with consequences up to this day."
• The method: "Sarkar's task was to break out of the economic determinism and narrow positivism that was the hallmark of Marxist scholarship at the time. But the work remains unsurpassed, since it upholds the protocols of historical research, the verifiability of evidence, and as he said, 'the constant knowledge that my conclusions remain open to revision and change'."

Religion, Ramakrishna, and clock-time

• "His Marxism did not come in the way of engaging with what Ranajit Guha has called the oldest (and richest) archive in India: religion. He read religion, but not as a believer; not to denigrate but to connect the celestial world to its earthly presence in meaningful ways."
• "In fact, Marxism enabled his interest in the 19th-century mystic (and rustic) Hindu thinker Ramakrishna Paramhansa, and the petty-bourgeois, clerical ambience within which he operated, which gave his philosophy its force and material influence, especially among the emerging, well-read, urban middle class."
• "Sarkar linked the belated entry of clock-time into India, and the disciplinary mechanisms it generated, to the slavery of clerical labour, which paved the way for the reception of Ramakrishna."

On the RSS and the Left

• Engaged scholarship: "When India was stunned in 1992 by the shock troops of the BJP and RSS that brought down the Babri Masjid, Sarkar and his colleagues produced a short but vital book called Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags. It was the first serious historical reconstruction (based also on sensitive fieldwork) of what the RSS had become, the most formidable force on the Indian political firmament. Certainly the young people who have today given us a ray of hope should place this book at the top of their reading lists."
• Criticism of the official Left: "Sarkar, in both his writing and his political positions, was unafraid to confront the official Left and its surrender to global capital, as at Nandigram and Singur. He would have been the first to admit that proletarians have not been the grave diggers of capitalism, though he welcomed historians who showed renewed interest in labour and working class history."
• Provincialising Bengal: "His choices 'provincialised' Bengal, by acknowledging the worlds and questions that lay well beyond it — Kanpur, Jamshedpur, KGF, Bombay, the railway works."
• The closing: "At a time when 'everyone' is a historian, and we are being trained in thinking of history only as 'pride' in the past, we will miss complex thinkers like Sarkar even more, for his passing no doubt signals the end of an era."

Context

Three separate episodes of political violence and death in West Bengal were reported on Sunday — the death of the father of a Cockroach Janta Party volunteer after an attack in Bankura, the killing of a Congress leader and his son in Nadia, and the death of a former Trinamool Minister found at a party office in Birbhum.

1. Bankura: the CJP volunteer's father

• The incident: Three persons were arrested on Sunday after the father of a CJP volunteer died on Saturday of injuries suffered in an attack on Thursday in Bankura. The CJP claims local BJP workers attacked Janab Mak, father of Shaik Abdul Hafeez.
• The trigger: Officials said the incident took place at Bankura's Karisunda on Thursday after Mr. Hafeez went to 'inspect' a government school as part of the CJP's 'School Thik Karo' campaign. He had attended the CJP's protest last month at Delhi's Jantar Mantar demanding the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as Education Minister.
• His account: "At night, five BJP workers attacked my house. They were looking for me but launched a brutal attack on my father after they could not find me. He sustained grievous injuries and was rushed to the Bardhaman Medical College, where he passed away."
• The denial: Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari dismissed the allegation, saying an FIR was lodged against five persons, three of whom were arrested. "The two others will also be arrested. There is no BJP connection here. They are all criminals."
• The CJP response: Founder Abhijeet Dipke said: "CJP stands firmly with Abdul and his family. We demand the immediate arrest of those responsible for his father's death. And to the hatemongers who think they can silence us through violence: we are not going to back off. Attack our members, threaten us, try to intimidate us, we will only fight harder."

2. Nadia: a Congress leader and his son

• Congress leader Anishur Rahman and his son Abu Suyan were killed in Nadia district late on the night of August 14. Miscreants fired upon the vehicle in which they were travelling at the Nakasipara railway gate; the two were dragged out and hacked to death.
• Three persons were arrested on Sunday morning, including Fatema Bibi, head of Nadia's Haranagar panchayat, and two associates, Ali Mandal and Mithun Sheikh.
• The Congress observed a 'Black Day' across the State on Sunday. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said Trinamool activists were behind the murder: "The SP told me that Jubbar Sheikh got it done from the jail. Jubbar Sheikh's wife, who is the Trinamool panchayat head, has also been arrested."

3. Birbhum: a former Minister found dead

• Who: Former West Bengal Minister and Trinamool leader Asish Banerjee, 75, was found dead on Sunday morning inside a party office near his residence in Birbhum district. A five-term Trinamool MLA and Deputy Speaker of the Assembly from 2021 to 2026, he lost the 2026 Assembly election to the BJP's Dhruba Saha.
• The note: A note was found and the body sent for autopsy. Banerjee, who had taught at Rampurhat College, was known as a leader with a clean image. The note stated that he was not involved in any "wrongdoing": "I had nothing to do with corruption and yet all these completely false allegations to malign me..." He rued that he became associated with politics and urged his children not to do so. He was apparently referring to allegations relating to the Tarapith Rampurhat Development Authority, where he had served as chairperson.
• The reactions: Mr. Adhikari described him as a decent political leader, said he had spoken to the family, and asked them to cooperate with the police, adding that call records should be examined. Former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she was deeply disturbed, and that "despite the work he did, he was repeatedly maligned, falsely accused and subjected to relentless pressure" — which "should make all of us pause and reflect on the human cost of relentless political hostility". Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee, whose camp of rebel Trinamool MLAs Banerjee had joined, visited the residence and called him a "martyr".
• The Hindu carried the note: For those in distress, counselling is available at TeleMANAS-14416.
• Separately: The Special Task Force of the West Bengal Police arrested three people from Sahebganj in Cooch Behar on Saturday for suspected association with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.

Context

A group of around 200 farmers and supporters led by Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal was stopped by the Haryana Police at the Khanauri-Data Singhwala boundary in Jind on Sunday while marching on foot towards Delhi as part of a 13-day 'Kisan Bachao Padyatra' (Save Farmers Walk). Several farmer leaders were also taken into preventive detention.

The demands

• Exclusion of agriculture from the proposed India-U.S. trade agreement.
• A legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price.
• Waiver of farmers' loans.
• Withdrawal of police cases registered against farmers during agitations.

How it unfolded

• The destination: The group was heading towards Delhi's Jantar Mantar, scheduled to reach on August 29.
• The farmers' account: Mr. Dallewal told The Hindu that the farmers were marching peacefully on foot and had not brought tractors or trolleys, and that the government had earlier said the farmers would be allowed to proceed if they came on foot.
• The barricading: The Haryana Police, in anticipation of the march, had sealed the stretch between the Khanauri boundary in Punjab and Data Singhwala in Haryana with concrete barriers and barbed wire. Heavy security was deployed around the Narwana canal bridge.

Context

Meera Srinivasan reports from Colombo that the Sri Lankan government will table a contentious Bill in Parliament this week seeking to raise the mandatory retirement age of judges of the country's Supreme Court and Court of Appeal — a move critics say could undermine the independence of the judiciary.

Background & Key Facts

• The Bill: Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara said the proposed constitutional amendment — the 22nd Amendment — will be tabled on Tuesday. It seeks to amend Article 107(5) of the Constitution to raise the retirement age of Supreme Court judges from 65 to 67, and of Court of Appeal judges from 63 to 65.
• The government's case: The Anura Kumara Dissanayake administration says it would help address the massive backlog of cases, expedite court proceedings, and ensure continuity by retaining experienced and senior judges. Mr. Nanayakkara said the amendment would help address a backlog of approximately 1.1 million pending cases.
• The opposition: The political Opposition, members of the legal fraternity and sections of civil society are fiercely opposing the move. Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa questioned why the extension must apply to sitting judges.
• The Bar Association: A 20-member delegation of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka met President Dissanayake on August 12. "The BASL emphasised that the proposed amendment would have a serious impact on the independence of the judiciary and that, in the circumstances, the proposed amendment should not be proceeded with. The BASL further pointed out that there are several other urgent matters requiring the attention of the government which must be given priority."
• The President's position: His office said Mr. Dissanayake "stressed that the decision to extend the retirement age of judges was not taken with any individual or group in mind, but in the broader public interest".
• The international response: Margaret Satterthwaite, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, recently wrote to the government noting that the amendment, in the form reportedly proposed and in its implications, "may not be in line with international human rights standards related to the independence of the judiciary and the right to a fair trial".

1. Ukraine's largest aerial attack

• The scale: Ukraine launched hundreds of drones across Russia on Sunday, killing at least six persons in one of Kyiv's largest aerial attacks of the war. Russia's Defence Ministry said it had destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones overnight; Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said some 600 drones were detected headed toward the Russian capital, with a third of those destroyed over the Moscow region itself.
• The casualties: An 83-year-old man was killed after a drone hit a private home in the Moscow region, local Governor Andrey Vorobyov said; he also confirmed that an attack sparked a blaze at a Wildberries warehouse in the town of Podolsk. A drone attack targeted three towns in Russia's southwestern Rostov region, killing five persons; the attack, with more than 150 drones, damaged several homes and a railway station and sparked a forest fire.
• The pattern: Kyiv has stepped up attacks this year with long-range missiles and swarms of drones targeting military industries and energy facilities, and has increasingly pummelled giant Wildberries depots, "burning billions of dollars' worth of merchandise belonging to the Russian online retail giant" — bringing the war home to the Russian public nearly four-and-a-half years into the full-scale invasion.
• The Russian strikes: Ukraine also came under attack, with drone strikes destroying homes and torching Kyiv's landmark book market. A Russian missile attack on Kryvyi Rih killed two persons and wounded 14, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote; one more person was killed in Sumy. ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine's largest steel producer, confirmed one of its sites had been hit and that operations had been partially suspended.

2. West Asia

3. And elsewhere

• Indonesia: Around 5,000 people evacuated after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake — the deadliest since 2022 — rocked eastern Indonesia on Saturday, killing at least 53, blocking roads and causing landslides; more than 130 people were injured, many with broken bones.
• Romania: A Spanish F-18 shot down a drone that had breached Romanian airspace near the border with Ukraine and Moldova; the drone entered from Moldova and debris fell in an unpopulated area of the Galati region.
• Korean peninsula: South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said warning shots were fired when North Korean soldiers violated the military demarcation line, prompting them to return. "Recently, on the Eastern Front, North Korean forces crossed the military demarcation line, prompting our military to fire warning shots according to operational procedures."
• DR Congo: Adults and children searching for gold at a mining site in Iga-Barriere in eastern Congo's Ituri province — accusations of child labour, unsafe conditions and corruption have long plagued the country's mining industry.

News in Numbers

Karnataka & the States

• Mahadayi: There is no proposal before the Union government from Karnataka seeking Environmental Clearance for diversion of the Mahadayi river for various projects, the Centre recently told the Lok Sabha in reply to a question posed by an MP from Goa.
• Recruitment exam: During the recent Civil Police Constable Recruitment Exam, 141 Optical Mark Recognition sheets were found missing from an exam centre at Tikota in Vijayapura district.
• JNU: Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit called allegations of irregularities in teacher recruitment a "malicious campaign" run by the JNU Students Union and JNU Teachers' Association, citing "the most transparent, record recruitments, especially of the SC/ST and the OBC" during her four and a half years.
• Assam: Leon, a Belgian Malinois and one of Assam's sharpest wildlife guard dogs, retired from service on India's 80th Independence Day. He tracked wildlife crime suspects and assisted in anti-poaching operations; the highlight of his career was guiding Assam Forest Department and police personnel to a rhino poacher after following a scent trail for nearly 20 km across several forest camps and checkpoints during the 2019 floods. He joined field duty in November 2018.
• Mumbai: The bodies of an Indian Navy sailor, his wife and their two children were recovered from their official accommodation at Navy Nagar, Colaba, prompting separate police and naval investigations. The residence has been sealed and a forensic team has examined the premises.
• Varanasi: Two staff involved in baggage screening were injured at the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport when an Air India Express passenger's declared licensed firearm (a 7.62 mm pistol with 21 live cartridges) went off accidentally during inspection at the check-in counter, injuring two AAICLAS screeners.
• Maharashtra FDA: A show-cause notice has been issued to actors Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Tiger Shroff over their involvement in an advertisement for "Vimal Elaichi", claiming it prima facie amounted to "indirect or surrogate" promotion of prohibited pan masala and tobacco-related products, the sale of which is banned in the State. Commissioner Tukaram Mule directed removal of all content and a detailed explanation within 19 days.

Moneywise, faith and language

• Insurance ('Between the Lines', K. Nitya Kalyani): On not renewing a hospitalisation policy — what is lost includes accumulated bonus sum insured from claim-free years, expiry of time-bound exclusions and waiting periods, free or subsidised master health check-ups, and lifelong renewability, which IRDAI has made mandatory for standard hospitalisation policies without fresh medical tests. Insurers cannot refuse renewal or hike an individual premium due to health setbacks or claims, provided premiums are paid on time; exceptions include proven fraud, intentional misrepresentation, false claims and moral hazard.
• 'Your portfolio without you' (Vaishali R. Venkat): A portfolio requiring daily monitoring is vulnerable to more than market volatility — hospitalisation, floods, outages, a lost phone. The test: mentally switch off phone, Internet and broker account for a fortnight and ask of each investment, "What happens if I do nothing for a month?" Swing trading makes access and timing part of the game, and so cannot be treated as a set-and-forget investment.
• 'Convertible, portable?' (Venkatesh Bangaruswamy): Physical assets are touch-and-feel but not portable; if work requires relocation, invest primarily in financial assets. Land should be for parking surplus cash, not for achieving a life goal, since real estate is illiquid. REITs are not a pure bet on real estate — being listed, they are exposed to market risk, though they can be an alternative for rental income.
• Faith — 'Two forms of worship': Sri Ramanujamji on Canto 12 of the Bhagavad Gita, dedicated to Bhakti Yoga. Saguna Upasana is devotion with attributes or form; Nirguna Upasana is formless devotion. Krishna tells Arjuna that while both ultimately lead to the same Supreme realisation, Saguna Upasana is far easier and more practical for embodied human beings — the mind and intellect naturally rely on names and forms. The analogy: a solid bar of gold (nirguna) versus a crafted golden ornament (saguna); water in a still lake versus a flowing waterfall.
• Know your English (S. Upendran): 'Old fashioned' vs 'antiquated' — both mean not modern, but 'antiquated' is negative and suggests something outdated to the point of uselessness, while 'old fashioned' can be charming and still functional. Automania has two meanings: excessive enthusiasm about cars and fast driving, or being obsessed with oneself (an egomaniac). 'Shoal of fish' — 'shoal' rhymes with 'pole' and 'hole', and comes from Old English scolu meaning 'crowd of fish'; it can also be used of people and things.
• Word of the day: Decadence — the state of being degenerate in mental or moral qualities. Synonym: degeneration. Usage: "The leader's decadence became evident in his abuse of power."

From the Archives and the Daily Quiz

• Fifty years ago (17 August 1976): Britain, "an island normally drenched by Atlantic rains", was studying the possibility of importing drinking water amid its worst drought since 1727, when records started. Officials considered importing water by ship from Scandinavia; a million homes in South Wales already had water cut off at night, and strict rationing began in Jersey. All 10 water authorities in England and Wales applied to use powers under the Drought Act.
• A hundred years ago (17 August 1926): The Federation of Master Cotton Spinners Association inaugurated a scheme to protect the American Spinning Section of the trade from under-cost selling, fixing "basic prices" — in effect minimum prices — for a standard quality of American cotton and yarns, with Manchester Exchange salesmen instructed to quote prices coinciding with the Federation's list.
• The Daily Quiz was on Indonesia, which observes its Independence Day today: the largest archipelagic state with over 17,000 islands; Sukarno and Megawati Sukarnoputri; the Wallace Line between Bali and Lombok and between Borneo and Sulawesi; batik (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2009); Garuda Pancasila; the new capital Nusantara in Borneo; Borobudur, the ninth-century Buddhist temple in Central Java; and the Komodo dragon in the visual question.
• Sport: Bangladesh won its first Test in Australia. India's Commonwealth Games campaign delivered 39 medals, with weightlifting once again among the biggest contributors.