Daily Briefing: Energy a priority for India as Jaishankar rushes to West Asia amid fragile truce

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

• Jaishankar leads outreach to GCC
• Inside ‘godman’ Kharat’s network
• Mixed day for chess siblings

🚨 Big Story

As Pakistan gears up to host peace talks between the US and Iran in Islamabad, Delhi has already begun reaching out to key partners in the region – on the question of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. This comes at a time when the truce with Iran appears to be fragile after Israel stepped up its offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reached Port Louis in Mauritius on Thursday to participate in the 9th Indian Ocean Conference to hold bilateral conversations with Indian Ocean countries on the sidelines over two days. These conversations with Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Seychelles, Madagascar and Tanzania, among others will frame the challenges being faced post 40 days of conflict.

Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to take place in Washington next week at the US State Department. The talks will be handled by US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa on the American side and Israel’s Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter on the Israeli side. It isn’t yet clear who will represent Lebanon. According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed over 300 people and wounded more than 1,100, as on Wednesday.

In our Opinion section today, Shyam Saran highlights the impact of the two-week ceasefire between US and Iran on India, and the country’s next strategic steps. He writes: “India should get into pole position in this process by enhancing its defence collaboration with these countries. This should take place within a high-level dialogue on the transformed security landscape in a region of vital interest to India. The reconstruction and rehabilitation of infrastructure damaged in the war will also offer opportunities for a constructive role by Indian companies, which are already well entrenched in the region and have developed benign partnerships.

⚡ Only in Express

This time, the ongoing Assembly elections in Kerala, Assam, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu, are more about their Chief Ministers, rather than about the parties making a bid for power, our in-house columnist Neerja Chowdhury underlines. While being tall leaders in their own right, they have continued to face anti-incumbency or serious allegations of corruption, throughout the election campaign. Chowdhury writes: “The elections have underlined this one thing yet again: chehra (clear leader) carries more weight than ideology or narrative in Indian politics more often than not.”

📰 From the Front Page

Record: On Thursday, Assam and Puducherry recorded their highest-ever turnout in the Assembly elections, at 85.38% and 89.83%, respectively, according to data released by the Election Commission (EC). Kerala, too, saw an increase from last time at 78.03%. For Kerala and Puducherry, it was their first election after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was completed in February 2026. And, for Assam, it was the first Assembly elections after the 2023 delimitation. Bypolls were also held in four Assembly constituencies across three states of Karnataka, Nagaland and Tripura.

After TVS Group’s Venu Srinivasan, now another senior trustee of Tata Trusts, Vijay Singh, has come out arguing for the listing of Tata Sons on the stock exchanges through an initial public offering (IPO). The argument for listing Tata Sons – the principal shareholder of Tata group companies – is contrary to the resolution passed by Tata Trusts a year ago to retain the company as an unlisted entity. The view over the last few years has been that Tata Sons should continue as it is. However, its expansion and the new capital and technology intensive businesses demand an urgent re-look, Singh, the former Defence Secretary, stated.

📌 Must Read

US President Donald Trump’s vacillating statements and inconsistent actions — during the Iran war as well as throughout his second presidential term — have lent credence to belief that he is practising the “madman theory”. The theory proposes that heads of state, by showing a willingness to take extreme measures, can influence an adversary’s calculations by raising fears of escalation. Roseanne McManus, professor of political science and international affairs at Pennsylvania State University, explains how Trump seems to have put the theory into practice, and what it means for the US’s standing in the global order.

In 45 days: Close to two weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally inaugurated the Noida International Airport (NIA), workers are racing to make the project ready for its users over the following few months. The inside of the terminal building looks set to accept passengers, with its shiny, scrubbed floor made of locally sourced red granite gleaming. According to officials, a 3,900-metre runway at the airport is ready for flights. “We are waiting for the completion of the Airport Security Program (ASP), and once this is done, we’ll be able to operate, starting with domestic flights within 45 days,” an official of the Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL) told The Indian Express.

Kharat’s network: Over Rs 2.43 crore had been routed through four bank accounts in the name of a Mumbai hotelier and his wife, which he claims he never opened, to a credit society he and his family had never seen or visited. The documents he shared for “darshan booking” with now-arrested ‘self-styled godman’ Ashokkumar Eknath Kharat had been misused to open these accounts. According to multiple complaints and bank records accessed by The Indian Express, the documents collected from followers, visitors and even victims may have been used to open more than 130 such bank accounts. Meanwhile, the transactions exceeded Rs 63 crore between 2021 and 2024, with Kharat listed as a nominee in at least a hundred accounts and his mobile number appearing across many of them.

⏳ And Finally…

Mixed day for siblings: The sibling duo of R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali were the cynosure of all eyes on one of the most significant days at the parallel Candidates chess tournaments in Cyprus. The 20-year-old prodigy lost to Uzbek phenom Javokhir Sindarov for the second time in the tournament. However, Vaishali played out a draw against Anna Muzychuk, and remained unbeaten in her last five games. The draw serves as a streak, helping her keep alive her chances of winning the Women’s Candidates. This, coupled with a victory for Bibisara Assaubayeva against Zhu Jiner, meant that the Indian is now the sole leader in the women’s section with only four games left.

🎧 Lastly, tune in to today’s episode of our 3 Things podcast, where we talk about the Express investigation into the state of eleven universities set up by the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal. We also discuss India changing its mind about hosting the COP33 summit in ߬ as well as Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s visit to Qatar amid the US-Iran ceasefire.

That’s all for today. Have a wonderful day!

Until next time,
Ariba

Business As Usual by E P Unny