3 min readNew DelhiAug 31, 2025 05:13 PM IST
First published on: Aug 30, 2025 at 09:43 AM IST
Good morning!
Old films are finding new screens this season with Bimal Roy’s ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ making the leap from black-and-white to 4K at Venice. On September 4, a restored version of the 1953 film – our very own neorealist landmark – will premiere at the Venice Film Festival inside Sala Corinto, a skating rink turned pop-up theatre. Roy’s children Rinki, Aparajita and Joy, along with Film Heritage Foundation’s Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, will attend the screening. The restoration brings back a story of land, loss and labour to a global audience more than seven decades after its first release, in full clarity.
With that, here’s what else is making news today:
🚨 Big Story
The GDP Growth: What keeps the economy ticking? Turns out, in the June quarter, agriculture and services did the heavy lifting, according to data released by the statistics ministry. India’s GDP grew 7.8 per cent, at a particularly turbulent time that has seen the US tariff war buffet global economic prospects. What does this say about the state of our economy? A deep dive into the momentum, and where the cracks show.
⚡Only in Express
Widening The Safety Net: For years, officer cadets who were medically discharged for suffering varying degrees of disabilities during military training were left out of the Defence Ministry’s healthcare safety net. That gap has now been closed. A new notification makes them eligible for the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS), giving them access to the medical facilities that serving and retired personnel already use.
💡 Express Explained
Trade Ties: With the Modi-Trump bromance at an impasse, India is looking to shift its diplomatic focus elsewhere. Tomorrow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Tianjin to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, and meet Chinese President Xi Jinping to build closer ties between the two countries. This is a sharp turnaround in their relationship, which had soured following the June 2020 border clashes at Galwan Valley. What does this mean for India’s trade choices?
✍️ Express Opinion
Click & Inherit: Your life doesn’t end with you, it lives on in your possessions. But the process of who gets what most times, is a long, drawn-out process. Our columnist L S Narayanswamy says that an e-will ensures assets aren’t lost or contested and can cut through red tape and speed up access. Where there’s an e-will, there’s a better way to pass on what matters.
🍿 Movie Review
No Rom, No Com: ‘Param Sundari’, now playing in theatres near you, pairs Sidharth Malhotra and Janhvi Kapoor in a story that sets out to be both romantic and funny. The trouble is, it struggles to find the right balance and results in a film that doesn’t quite deliver on either promise. Shubhra Gupta looks at where the rom-com ambitions falter, and whether the lead pair’s performances are enough to carry the film.
That’s it for today, happy weekend!
Malavika Jayadeep
Top news on September 13, 2025 
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