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Journalism of Courage
Good morning,
The frozen continent of Antarctica, with thick ice sheets believed to have formed 25 million years ago, has been the source of much intrigue for scientists. India began conducting research in the icy terrain in the early 1980s. In fact, the first Indian research base, Dakshin Gangotri, was established in 1983 and operated for a few years. Today, two other research sites, Maitri, operational since 1989, and Bharati, established in 2012, help India’s scientific community gather data exclusive to Antarctica’s unique wilderness. Now, India is ready to build its fourth research station, Maitri II, on the continent. The Finance Ministry has approved Rs 2,000 crore for the project, and the site is expected to be readied by January 2029.
On that note, let’s get to the rest of today’s edition 👇
Soldiers at the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan clashed on Sunday, resulting in casualties on both sides. Hours later, Afghanistan’s foreign minister and Taliban leader Amir Khan Muttaqi sent a strong message to their neighbour from Delhi: “we want a peaceful resolution… but if the peace efforts don’t succeed, we have other options”. Muttaqi will remain in India till October 16.
Notably, the development came a day after Pakistan summoned the Taliban envoy to convey its “strong reservations” over the India-Afghanistan joint statement issued in New Delhi, in which Kabul strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Pahalgam in April this year. Ties between India and Pakistan have worsened since the attack, and the growing closeness between Kabul and New Delhi would be of much concern to Islamabad.
Pakistan’s ties with Afghanistan have remained fraught over the control of the contentious Durand Line, the over 2,000 km border that separates the two countries. Pakistan has accused the Taliban regime of sheltering the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which it holds responsible for a series of attacks inside the country. Muttaqi, however, rejected the charge, stating that there was no presence of TTP in Afghanistan. He added that past Pakistani military operations in tribal areas had displaced a large number of people, who found refuge on Afghan soil, and that the hilly border region between the two countries could not be controlled by force.
Meanwhile, another conflict seems poised for an ‘end’. World leaders will gather in Egypt today for a Gaza “peace summit”, co-chaired by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and US President Donald Trump. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also invited to the summit to discuss the next steps for peace in the besieged Gaza Strip after Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire proposal. However, India has sent Kirti Vardhan Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, as its representative instead. Sources told The Indian Expressthat New Delhi was being cautious since both the Pakistani Prime Minister and Trump would be present at the summit.
🎧 For more on Muttaqi’s visit to India, tune in to today’s ‘3 Things’ podcast episode.
Winter is coming… and the Army is gearing up to ward off infiltration attempts in Jammu and Kashmir, which usually see a spike before the snow cuts off the passes. The Indian Express spoke to insiders to uncover the changing modus operandi of terrorists and how the Indian Army is strengthening its anti-infiltration grid. Read Amrita Nayak Dutta’s report.
Musical chairs: >The NDA has agreed to a seat-sharing formula for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections next month. BJP and Janata Dal (United) will be on equal footing for the first time since 1996 — contesting 101 seats each. The alliance also accepted demands put forth by Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vikas), giving them 29 seats on the back of the party’s strong performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Meanwhile, RJD and Congress leaders are expected to meet today and likely finalise the seat-sharing formula for the INDIA bloc of parties.
Poll math: In Maharashtra, political gears are shifting as the once-estranged cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray inch closer to an alliance in the run-up to the high-stakes elections for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai’s local body. Read Vallabh Ozarkar’s deep dive into why Raj’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is crucial for the Uddhav-led Sena.
Mail fraud: There has been a marked rise in “threat mails” to prominent establishments across the country in the past year. The Mumbai Police, tracking the source of at least 17 of these emails sent to the stock exchange, courts, five-star hotels and schools, has dug up a trail that leads to Chennai. The sender — or senders — are also on the Chennai police’s radar, who believe that the source of the emails might be a Tamil expatriate settled abroad.
‘I call a spade a spade…’: K Kavitha, daughter of former Telangana CM and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) founder K Chandrashekar Rao, is seeking to establish herself as an independent political force after she was recently removed from her party for taking a stand against coterie politics. She joined us for the latest Idea Exchange session to talk about her suspension, her next steps, a likely BRS-BJP merger, and caste politics in Telangana.
Mixed fuelings: The impact of ethanol blending with petrol is multifold: it reduces strain on crude oil reserves, lowers CO2 emissions, and boosts the agricultural sector. With government intervention, the total supply of ethanol to oil marketing companies rose from a mere 38 crore litres in 2013-14 to a whopping 672.49 crore in 2023-24. The all-India average blending ratio (of ethanol in petrol) reached 14.6% from just 1.6% in that period. But the programme originally meant to support sugarcane growers has turned more beneficial for standalone grain-based ethanol manufacturers. Harish Damodaran explains why.
India’s first bullet train project is expected to bring Mumbai and Ahmedabad closer, cutting travel time to just a little over two hours. But the high-speed rail corridor has been in the works for years now. For Japan Transport and Tourism Research Institute chairman Masafumi Shukuri, the project could be a success despite the delay. He spoke to The Indian Express about the nature of high-speed rail systems and how the Japanese Shinkansen system managed to achieve near-perfect safety and punctuality over six decades. Read the full interview.
That’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta
