Daily Briefing: Delhi, small-town India get makeovers for G20 Summit; why cricket could soon be included in the Olympics; and more

🔴 With more than 250 meetings – ministerial and working group, among others — being held across 60 cities in the run-up to the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi on September 9 and 10, small-town India has had a makeover. From highways to health centres, find out how our smaller cities dressed up for G20.

🔴 Meanwhile, after months of work that involved coordination between various civic agencies, Delhi’s G20 transformation is complete. As the Summit draws closer, officials make last-minute inspections to ensure things are in order. The Indian Express visited 5 key areas to check out what’s new.

⚡ Only in Express

In the latest edition of Idea Exchange, economist NK Singh talks about reforming multilateral development banks, finding ways to harness private capital and the challenges of helming the G20 expert group.

🏏 Express @ Asia Cup: The fact that India is yet to fill the M S Dhoni-shaped hole tells how difficult it is to master the multiple roles he performed for a decade and more. But in his 90-ball 87 against a fast and furious Pakistan on Saturday, Hardik Pandya showed definite signs of him evolving into the Dhoni role. We take a closer look at why Hardik could be the new Dhoni. 

📰 From the Front Page

In a rare interview to news agency PTI, Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed India’s G20 Presidency, the Global South, and our role in the global economy: “Many positive impacts are coming out of India’s G20 Presidency… The shift to a human-centric approach has begun and we are a catalyst… India’s G20 Presidency has also sowed the seeds of confidence in the countries of the so-called ‘Third World’”.

Cricket could soon begin a new innings of its own. It is among nine sports vying for a spot at the 2028 Olympics and is emerging as a front runner as the International Olympic Committee looks to tap into its die-hard fan base, The Indian Express has learnt. Find out more here.

A day after it launched the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, the country’s first mission to study the Sun, ISRO carried out the first orbit-raising manoeuvre on Sunday. It said that the satellite is “healthy and operating nominally”, and that the first Earth-bound manoeuvre has been “performed successfully” from ISTRAC, Bengaluru.

After the ethnic clashes erupted in Manipur this May, thousands of people from the Kuki-Zomi community left the Meitei-majority Imphal– however, 24 people from the community stayed behind, protecting their locality with jagged gates. This changed on Saturday, with these 24 residents evacuated by security personnel soon after midnight, with some alleging that it was “more like an abduction”. Read more here.

👩‍💻 Must read

The recent announcement on the ‘premature’ release of politician Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani, convicted for the murder of Madhumita Shukla in 2003, has left her sister Nidhi Shukla shaken but determined. Here’s Nidhi’s ordeal of dealing with the pain, and her determination to seek justice for her sister.

In our Opinion section today, Ashok Gulati and Purvi Thangaraj delve upon India’s scientific and economic prowess as it looks to clock the highest growth rate amongst G20 countries for two successive years. They share their views on “how can India with its G20 presidency walk the talk to benefit the masses in the Global South for whom food and nutritional security is still a challenge, one made worse by climate change?” 

The Centre on September 2 set up a committee to examine both legal and logistical aspects for implementing the “one nation, one election” idea. One of the terms of reference outlined for the eight-member panel is to examine if a constitutional amendment to facilitate simultaneous polls would have to be ratified by the states. What are the ways in which India’s Constitution will be amended? We explain.

⌛ And finally…

Delhi confidential: A tale of multiple high-profile visitors in the weeks preceding former President Ram Nath Kovind’s appointment to the committee to lead the ‘one nation, one election’ panel. Meanwhile, Russian envoy clears the air on Russian Foreign minister Lavrov, accused of being a “womaniser.”

🎧 In today’s episode of the 3 Things podcast, we talk about debates surrounding the idea of “one nation, one election,” the outcomes of the Opposition bloc INDIA’s latest meeting in Mumbai, and an attack on a tribal woman in Rajasthan.

Until tomorrow,

Arushi Bhaskar and Ariba

Business As Usual by E P Unny