Daily Briefing: SC draws hard line on SIR of electoral rolls

With that, let’s move on to the top stories from today’s edition

🚨 Big Story

Playing hardball: The Supreme Court on Monday drew a hard line on the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, telling States it would not allow anyone to “create any impediment”  to the exercise. Hearing petitions linked to the SIR in West Bengal, including one by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant said any orders or clarifications would follow, but the revision could not stall. The court gave West Bengal a week’s extension beyond February 14 to scrutinise documents submitted by voters who received notices. It also kept micro-observers in place despite the State’s objections, even as it accepted a list of 8,505 Group B officers offered by the government to assist with the exercise. The court added that the ECI could choose who stays, who goes and who gets trained, with final decisions resting only with Electoral Registration Officers. Appearing for the Centre, the Solicitor-General urged firm directions, saying the Constitution applied across States, while the State denied the allegations. 

What to watch: The DGP’s affidavit and the court’s next hearing on February 20.

As the Supreme Court weighs challenges to West Bengal’s SIR, ground reports from hearing camps show TMC workers dominate proceedings, monitor BLOs and BDOs and manage queues and paperwork, while Opposition parties say intimidation keeps them out. 

⚡ Only in Express

Comeback?: In a narrow lane in Dhaka’s Moghbazar, next to a small mosque, the Jamaat-e-Islami headquarters tells the story of a party that has made its way to the centre of Bangladesh’s politics. Fresh paint, new furniture and a working elevator now replace the neglect that marked the building until the ban on the Jamaat was lifted a year-and-a-half ago, and the office buzzes with workers, journalists and first-time visitors as February 12 polls approach. With Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League out of the race, the Jamaat has stepped into the space of the main challenger to the BNP, betting on campus victories by its student wing, alliances with protest leaders who helped topple the previous regime, and a ground campaign marked by “dari palla” symbols across the neighbourhood. Once banned, jailed and condemned for its leaders’ roles in 1971, the party now speaks openly of winning 30 to 90 seats, or at the least emerging as the principal Opposition, a role it has not played in decades. The rise brings questions too but for now, the Jamaat is back in play. 

The government says PMKVY 4.0 has trained over 27 lakh candidates across 38 sectors. On the ground, many of the classrooms built for that promise now sit shut. Our Executive Editor (News and Investigations), Ritu Sarin, found deserted labs, locked colleges and stripped signboards across states after the Skill Ministry blacklisted 178 training centres in October 2025 for “non-adherence” to norms, triggering penalties and FIRs in cases of alleged irregularities. Owners and faculty say inspections flagged empty classrooms on days when trainers fell ill, centres shut early, or floods cut off access; replies went unanswered, payments stopped, branding came down and, in some cases, police followed. The fallout has spread beyond individual centres to sector councils and training partners, who say a single centre’s listing has stalled work nationwide. A decade after PMKVY began, the blacklists offer a glimpse into how skilling works (and unravels)  outside the dashboard numbers.

From the Front Page

Switching it up: Targeted emails seem to be doing what scrutiny never could. About 60 per cent of the 1.11 crore people who responded to the Income Tax department’s NUDGE campaign were non-filers, prompting the department to double down on data-led persuasion rather than enforcement. Officials now pore over responses to see what kind of message works best (soft reminders, sharper nudges, emails, SMSes or e-verification) based on a taxpayer’s profile and past behaviour. Rolled out in late 2024 and expanded as NUDGE 2.0 in 2025 to cover foreign assets, the campaign has brought in Rs 8,800 crore in additional tax over two years and cut back Rs 1,750 crore in refund claims. With nearly three crore non-filers, the department focused on those likely above the Rs 12 lakh threshold. Now rechristened SAKSHAM NUDGE, the idea, the CBDT says, is simple: share data, signal the gap, and get taxpayers to correct it themselves.

📌 Must Read

A USDA report released in March 2025 (weeks into Donald Trump’s second term) offers a glimpse of how India’s food future may redraw its trade map. The significance of the report lay both in the context and timing. As incomes rise and diets shift to being protein-rich, demand for feed crops such as maize and soyabean meal is projected to surge sharply through 2040 and 2050, far outstripping domestic production under both ‘moderate’ and ‘rapid’ growth scenarios. With India’s yields well below US levels, the report flags large import requirements ahead: a potential opening for American exports. Yet policy lines remain firm: India has kept its ban on genetically modified maize and soyabean. For now, India’s fast-growing Rs 1.75 lakh crore feed industry is still anchored to local crops, but the pressure points are clear. We explain.

🎧 For more on this, tune in to today’s episode of our 3 Things podcast, where we discuss how the India–US trade deal could affect Indian farmers, and which US products may find a larger market in India. 

⏳ And Finally…

Touch some paper: A  reminder to slow down and feel the world again. From Michelangelo’s fingertips to Steve Jobs’ swipe, touch –our first language– has been dulled by screens and smooth glass. As hands trained to knead, stitch, write and build are reduced to tapping and scrolling, what do we lose in how we think, remember and create? A case for returning to making things with our hands and for choosing paper, thread and clay over endless swiping, at least once in a while. Forget touching grass. Touch paper.

That’s all for today! See you tomorrow

Malavika Jayadeep