Daily Briefing: PM Modi’s UCC push; Ashwini Vaishnaw on Express Adda; 100 days to ODI World Cup and more

⚡*Only in the Express*

In the latest edition of Express Adda, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology speaks on the increased investment in railways, rollout of Vande Bharat trains, and how India can become the biggest chip producer.

📰 *From the Front Page*

With 100 days left for kick-off, the schedule of the ODI World Cup was announced on Tuesday. The opener, India vs Pakistan, England vs Australia, and the final — the Narendra Modi Stadium will host four marquee games. The choice of venues reflects the changing power equations within the Indian cricket board.

Following queries from several countries, especially Israel and the United States, on permission to carry automatic and long-range weapons for the G20 summit later this year, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is learnt to have advised that only short-range and manually-operated weapons like pistols and revolvers should be allowed.

What began as a whisper campaign about the “extraordinary influence” wielded by an IAS officer in the Odisha government has spilled into the open in the state, with the BJP and Congress both on one side. Their target: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s long-standing private secretary, V K Pandian. Out of the backroom, Pandian has lately stepped out of the shadows.

The IIT-Bombay has achieved its highest rank ever, breaking into the world’s top 150 universities in the latest edition of the QS World University Ranking. The Indian Express spoke to IIT-B director Subhasis Chaudhuri on the global rankings, scope for improvement, mental health on campus and engineers taking up non-core jobs.

👩🏽‍💻 *Must Read*

👉🏽As part of its digitisation effort, the Delhi Police uploaded 29 “antique” FIRs of crimes reported between 1861 and 1900, most of them related to robberies – 104 pigeons, 110 goats stolen from near a lake, a pair of pyjamas, 11 oranges, a liquor bottle, a pony, bedsheet, a single plate, even a kulfi.

✍️In today’s Opinion section, Sanjib Baruah writes on how the 2021 coup in Myanmar, which triggered a refugee influx into India, has been framed in Manipur in “incendiary language, ignoring transnational kinship relations”. “…The media and governmental inattention to the underlying refugee issue — and the complications that arise from the presence of ethnic kin inside the country — allowed an alternative framing of the issue to develop in Manipur.”

♟️‘Of course, there’s always relief after it’s over, but it’s not the sort of relief you really want…’

Russian Chess player Ian Nepomniachtchi speaks to The Indian Express on loving team competitions, the grind he puts himself through for World Championship skirmishes, needing to take a break from chess and more.

⏱️ *And Finally*

👉🏽Twenty-seven years after an 18-year-old domestic help killed her sexagenarian employer in Kerala, Reji alias Achamma, who vanished in thin air before she can be punished, was finally caught. Read her story here

🤫United States Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti may soon be dipping into his past experience as the mayor of Los Angeles while addressing a group of mayors at the Urban20 Mayoral Summit to be held in Ahmedabad next week. Read in today’s Delhi Confidential!

🎧In today’s episode of 3 Things, we discuss why Punjab and Haryana will ensure food security in India during a low monsoon year, the political slugfest between the Karnataka government and Centre over the state’s Anna Bhagya scheme and about a case where a regulatory body asked an OTT platform to take down its content.

Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta and Varsha Sriram