Daily Briefing: Clash of NDA, Oppn meetings today; UTs lose 1.44 lakh PMAY units to UP; and more

🚨 Big Story

Today may well set the narrative for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with the Opposition holding its second unity meeting in Bengaluru (starting Monday), and the BJP reviving the moribund National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to announce its own meeting coinciding with the Opposition’s. 

The Opposition unity meeting will discuss giving the proposed anti-BJP grouping a name, structure and a common agenda and campaign programme, besides figuring out a roadmap towards seat-sharing. The BJP, which needs to win seats from new areas, is hoping to retain its old allies and get new ones, to fill the gap.

🏠 Only in Express

Aiming to construct 2.95 crore houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin by March 2024, ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha polls, the Centre has withdrawn the allocation of 1.44 lakh houses from about two dozen states and Union Territories which failed to sanction the houses by June 30, and given these to Uttar Pradesh as additional allocation. 

📰 From the Front Page

The Supreme Court has said it is “inclined” to send the Delhi government’s plea, challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre’s ordinance on control of services, to a five-judge Constitution Bench, saying it has legal aspects which were not “dealt with” by the two Constitution Benches which heard the matter earlier.

With an objective to review the existing data framework and issues related to all surveys, the government has renamed and expanded the scope of coverage of the Standing Committee on Economic Statistics formed in December 2019 as Standing Committee on Statistics.

Among the many layers of security for the G20 Summit later this year will be 19 “markswomen” of the Delhi Police. They have just completed a four-week specialised training session, conducted by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at its training centre in Karera, Madhya Pradesh.

👩‍💻 Must read

With the Law Commission of India initiating fresh deliberation on the Uniform Civil Code, discussions have been triggered on the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) and its separate treatment under tax laws. Deepak Joshi, an expert on tax law, explains how and why UCC can impact HUF’s tax benefits. 

✍️ In our opinions section, historian Janaki Nair writes about Bengaluru’s ‘cosmopolitanism’ and the wrong approach to developing cities: “Treat cities as public good — not a private asset — and build anew the idea of commons from bottom up for a functional, sustainable and socially just urbanism.”

Revenue officials sitting with laptops and maps, supervising the construction of a house; a police team keeping a close eye on every visitor; politicians making a beeline — these are the scenes, reminiscent of the Hindi movie Peepli Live (2010), playing out in MP’s Karaundi village, where Dashmat Rawat, the man in the middle of the urination row, lives. Check out our ground report for more

And finally

Take a deep dive (pun intended) into a unique programme under which the Army Sports Institute is trying to scout children aged 8 and above at gymnastics clubs across the country in a bid to create a footprint in a sport where India has no history– diving. 

🤫 Find out why a group of leaders at the Bengaluru Opposition meet had to work late into the night, only in today’s Delhi Confidential!

🎧 In the latest episode of the ‘3 Things’ podcast, we discuss the reasons behind the death of two Cheetahs at the Kuno National Park, why India is hedging its bets on diving, and how a man scammed 15 women out of 3 crore rupees.

Until next time,

Anamni Gupta and Arushi Bhaskar