Nepal’s political test, India’s smartphone push, and The Odyssey: Today’s Premium reads

As Punjab heads towards Assembly elections next year, two issues — Charanjit Singh Channi’s political positioning within the Congress and the controversy surrounding Satluj — are beginning to shape the state’s electoral discourse. In her weekly column, Neerja Chowdhury writes on how caste equations, competing political interests and the legacy of Punjab’s militancy years could influence the battle for power in a sensitive border state.

When Mohanan Pillai fled Kerala after allegedly killing his brother-in-law in 1987, he is believed to have built an entirely new life under a different name in neighbouring Tamil Nadu. Nearly four decades later, a chance lead during a hospital visit helped police track him down, bringing to an end one of Kerala’s longest-running manhunts.

India now makes almost every smartphone sold in the country, but the brands on those devices are overwhelmingly foreign. With a new Rs 62,500-crore incentive scheme, the government wants Indian companies to move beyond assembly lines into design, R&D and brand ownership — and finally create a homegrown smartphone champion.

Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey arrives in cinemas on July 17, introducing one of the oldest surviving works of Western literature to a new generation of viewers. Written nearly 3,000 years ago, it is a story of homecoming after war, set in a world populated by gods, monsters and mortals. Whether you’re coming to Homer for the first time or simply wondering how Nolan’s film fits into the ancient epic, here’s where to begin.

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Modi’s Punjab visit amid the Satluj row, the debate over One Nation, One Election, and what Ambedkar told the Constituent Assembly about citizenship and migration: Here are Premium reads from July 16.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Punjab with a slate of development and railway projects, the BJP hopes to shift the conversation to infrastructure and governance ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls. But the timing of the visit coincides with the political storm over Satluj, the film on Jaswant Singh Khalra that has reignited debates over Punjab’s militancy years. Raakhi Jagga examines how the controversy has complicated the BJP’s political messaging in the state, exposed differences within the party, and intersected with its broader strategy of going solo in Punjab.

The government’s push for One Nation, One Election promises lower costs, smoother governance and faster growth. But Vijay Kelkar and Ajit Ranade argue that the evidence behind these claims is weak. They contend that the proposal overlooks local body elections and leaves untouched deeper problems such as opaque political funding and the criminalisation of politics — merely reshaping the electoral calendar without fixing what is truly broken.

As the Supreme Court reiterates that citizenship must be determined through a “fair, lawful and reasonable process”, this explainer revisits the Constituent Assembly debates of 1949, when B R Ambedkar and other framers grappled with migration, Partition, and the question of who could become an Indian citizen. It traces how concerns over migration into Assam shaped the discussion — and the safeguards the Constitution’s architects sought to build into India’s citizenship framework from the outset.

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How virtual hearings transformed India’s courts, why Maharashtra is pruning the Ladki Bahin scheme, what China’s latest missile test means for India and the Indo-Pacific, why Trump’s Hormuz transit fee plan collapsed within a day, and why the Ayodhya trust controversy is about more than money — here are Premium reads from July 15.

The pandemic derailed the best of plans. But this was also the time India’s courtrooms got on to a new track, starting virtual hearings. Despite the chaotic start patchy networks, frozen screens, and mute buttons — e-courts are now a key part of India’s justice delivery system, write Amaal Sheikh and Sohini Ghosh.

The Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana helped power the Mahayuti alliance to victory in Maharashtra by putting cash directly into the hands of millions of women voters. Two years later, with 92 lakh beneficiaries dropped from the scheme, this report examines the political calculations, fiscal pressures, and electoral risks behind the government’s decision, and why a welfare programme once seen as a masterstroke is now becoming a political liability.

China tested its sea-based long-range intercontinental ballistic missile on July 6, marking its first-ever test of a submarine-based ballistic missile in international waters. Suyash Desai explains what the launch reveals about China’s rapidly evolving nuclear capabilities, the growing gap between its doctrine and deterrence posture, and what it could mean for India and the wider Indo-Pacific security landscape.

Donald Trump’s proposal to charge a 20% fee for commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz lasted barely a day before it was withdrawn. Sukalp Sharma explains why the plan triggered alarm across shipping and energy markets, the legal and practical questions it raised, and what the episode reveals about the wider contest between Washington and Tehran over who controls one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.

The greatest theft at Ayodhya was not of money. It was a matter of trust. The Ram Mandir Trust is called a “trust” for a reason. The first duty of the trustees was not to manage property but to protect the faith reposed in them by millions. That faith of millions now must be honoured, not with new promises, committees or with cosmetic administrative rearrangements, but with the full force of an independent, professional and transparent investigation. Because this was never about stolen money only, but also about stolen faith, writes Yashovardhan Azad in this column.

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From the story of the government buildings that shaped post-Independence India to an alleged scholarship fraud in Bhopal, the unwinding of South Korea’s AI-fuelled market rally, India’s near-universal registration of births and deaths, and the legal legacy of Jaswant Singh Khalra’s fight for justice, here are today’s Premium stories from The Indian Express on July 14.

As Delhi’s Nehruvian-era Secretariat buildings begin to make way for the new Kartavya Bhawan, this story goes back to the files, Cabinet notes and architectural debates that shaped them. It traces how a newly independent India balanced the demands of an expanding government with limited resources — choosing utility over grandeur, capping heights to avoid the charge of extravagance, and preserving the Central Vista as its planners envisioned it.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case over an alleged Rs 99.48 lakh scholarship fraud in Bhopal, accusing the then senior manager of UCO Bank’s Habibganj branch and five Academy of Management College officials of diverting government scholarship funds meant for MBA students. Investigators allege 118 bank accounts were fraudulently opened without students’ knowledge, with forged documents.

South Korea’s AI-fuelled stock market rally has unravelled sharply over the past three weeks, dragged down not just by concerns over overheated valuations but also by a surge in leveraged bets by retail investors. Akash Mandal explains why South Korea’s markets have suffered far more than Taiwan’s despite both being dominated by AI stocks, and what the divergence says about investor behaviour, leverage, and the future of the AI trade.

India has come close to a milestone it struggled to achieve for decades: officially recording more than 99% of its births and deaths. This explainer looks at how the country’s Civil Registration System transformed from a patchy database into a near-universal record of vital events — why that matters for everything from public health to policymaking, and the gaps that still remain beneath the headline numbers.

Three decades after his custodial killing, Jaswant Singh Khalra is back at the centre of public debate following the controversy over Satluj. This report traces how Khalra’s investigation into Punjab’s “disappeared” men led to landmark Supreme Court interventions, a CBI probe into illegal cremations, and convictions in his murder case — leaving behind a legal record that continues to shape conversations around militancy, human rights, and accountability in Punjab.

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A film that has reopened debate around Punjab’s troubled past, an exam paper leak that exposed vulnerabilities in a supposedly secure system, the Supreme Court’s blueprint for AI in the judiciary, and an alleged racket that may have sent relabelled expired food products back into the market — here are Premium stories from The Indian Express on July 13.

Can a film reopen old wounds — or does it force a society to confront memories it would rather leave buried? As the debate over Satluj and Punjab’s militancy years intensifies, Manraj Grewal Sharma revisits the political grievances, missteps and violence that shaped the state’s darkest chapter, and explains why many in Punjab believe remembering that history matters as much as moving on from it.

The Maharashtra TET question papers were meant to be secure — printed in secret at an out-of-state press and guarded by layers of protocol. But investigators say all it took to defeat the system was a folded paper hidden inside a shoe. This report traces how an alleged paper leak network turned the examination system’s own safeguards into vulnerabilities, and why the fallout could extend well beyond a single exam.

The Supreme Court has released draft rules to govern the use of artificial intelligence in courts, opening the door to AI-assisted administration while drawing clear red lines around judicial decision-making. This explainer breaks down what the proposed framework allows, what it prohibits, and what it could mean for litigants, judges and the future of India’s courts.

For years, cartons of chips, soft drinks and health drinks arrived at a nondescript unit in Delhi’s Okhla Industrial Area and left with fresh labels and new expiry dates, investigators allege. After a raid uncovered what police describe as a large-scale relabelling operation involving expired food products, Alok Singh traces how the alleged racket worked, the supply chain behind it, and why authorities fear some of these products may have reached consumers through e-commerce platforms.