Daily Briefing: Express Investigation into Bihar ambulance service; Khalistan Tiger Force chief shot dead; and more

🔎 Express Investigation

The Bihar government recently renewed the contract to run emergency ambulances across the state to a company owned by relatives of an MP of the ruling JD(U). This came despite caution from the High Court and a series of audits flagging irregularities. 

In Part 2 of our investigation, we take a look at the 12 audit reports, which flagged serious lapses such as expired medicines, missing oxygen cylinders, lack of sufficient staff and poor hygiene in the service offered by the said company.

Part 1 of our investigation had detailed how norms were tweaked in favour of the JD(U) MP’s kin.

🚨 Big Story

Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for his first State visit to the United States in nine years in office on Tuesday morning. During the visit, the focus will be on closer defence ties and strengthening trade and investment relations.

We take a look at the deepening economic engagement at the heart of the Indo-US strategic partnership and some headwinds.

⚡ Only in the Express

The Rath Yatra in Puri starts today. Over 150 pairs of hands belonging to labourers, carpenters, artists, painters, etc., worked in tandem to shape over 800 logs into three magnificent chariots by working for 12 hours a day from Akshaya Tritiya onwards, nearly two months before the much-awaited event. Meet the workers!

📰 From the Front Page

Khalistan Tiger Force chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead by two unidentified men within the premises of a gurdwara in Canada Sunday night.  He is the third wanted separatist to die in a little over a month.

✈️ IndiGo made history on Monday by placing the largest-ever order placed by an airline in one go anywhere in the world, with its mega order of  500 Airbus A320neo family planes. Here are the  airline’s big plans for the future.

In an attempt to check mobs on both sides of the ethnic divide in Manipur, the security establishment is pinning its hopes on the creation of buffer zones on the fringes of Imphal valley where Metei-dominated areas give way to Kuki-populated hills– the region that has witnessed the maximum arson and gun battles after the first wave of violence subsided.

👩‍💻 Must Read

As the larger Jammu region faces an uptick in militant attacks, the hero of Hikalka, Tahir Fazal Hussain, who led a civilian uprising against militant groups in the area in 2003, has a message for the government: “If the local people are not on your side, then all that is useless, isn’t it?”

⌛ And Finally…

♟️ Why did Magnus Carlsen say India will be ‘the leading chess nation in the world’ and what made Vladimir Kramnik hail “outstanding Indian generation”? A chess revolution is spreading across the country– we take a deep dive into what’s happening.

🤫 Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla called for a ‘performance review’ after completing four years in the post, and Union Minister Jitendra Singh publishes a report card on his 9 years as MP: find out more in today’s Delhi Confidential!

🎙️ In the latest episode of the ‘3 Things’ podcast, we take stock of the India-China border crisis 3 years after Galwan, go over the concerns that the Ariha Shah case raises, and discuss what’s behind the recent deaths in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia.

Until next time,

Sonal Gupta and Arushi Bhaskar