Daily Briefing: Nitish is back

🚨Big Story

We are halfway into the one-month enumeration phase of the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in nine states and three Union Territories. Where do things stand?

👉 99% of the 51 crore registered electors have received their enumeration forms. Only about 16% of the completed forms have been digitised so far.

👉 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) responsible for distribution, collection and digitisation of forms have complained of pressure to meet the deadline.

👉 Protests by BLOs, citing “excessive workload”, in states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Rajasthan, and West Bengal, threaten to disrupt the exercise. On Wednesday, a third BLO died by suicide in West Bengal, after similar deaths in Kerala and Rajasthan. Read more.

Meanwhile, fear of the SIR survey, triggered in part by the TMC-led government likening the exercise to a “backdoor implementation of NRC”, has led to a “reverse exodus” in West Bengal. In the past week, over 400 people turned up at the Hakimpur border outpost ready to cross into Bangladesh. Some came here for work, some have Indian documents, but most don’t.

⚡Only in Express

The probe into the Red Fort-blast linked Jaish-e-Mohammad terror module has led investigators to uncover a “widespread network” that connects “foreign handlers” to local operatives, including Umar Nabi, whose car exploded on November 10. These handlers are believed to be in Afghanistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Investigators are now tracing Telegram chats, calls and fund routes. Here’s what The Indian Express has learnt.

📰 From the Front Page

Aftermath: Over 10 years ago, Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched over alleged cow slaughter in Uttar Pradesh’s Bisada village. Now, the UP government has moved to withdraw charges against all 18 accused in the case. But in Bisada, Akhlaq has long been forgotten. His name triggers uneasy glances. His house lies deserted. And the accused, out on bail for the last eight years, have “moved on”.

🎧 To know more about the Dadri lynching case, tune in to today’s ‘3 Things’ podcast episode.

Desi tech: For a long time, the technology to produce genome-edited crops was held by US-based institutions such as MIT and Harvard, along with the chemicals giant Corteva Agriscience. This has made the commercial cultivation of GE crops difficult, as the owners of the intellectual property (IP) rights could demand licensing fees. That’s about to change. Indian scientists have developed an indigenous genome-editing technology that uses a different set of proteins to alter plant DNA. Read all about it here.

📌 Must Read

Three new states were carved out 25 years ago. How have they progressed? What challenges do they face? We analyse in today’s Explained series.

🔴 Jharkhand: Birthed from a fight to protect Adivasi identity and resources, Jharkhand was split from Bihar in November 2000. Despite holding 40% of India’s mineral wealth, it continues to struggle with poverty, unemployment and a lack of access to crucial infrastructure.

🔴 Uttarakhand: In the 25 years since it was bifurcated from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand has formed its distinct identity and culture. Though it surpasses UP in net state domestic product, Uttarakhand has to deal with out-migration and frequent disasters.

🔴 Chhattisgarh: The state has come a long way since its creation, outpacing its parent state, Madhya Pradesh, in power and infrastructure. However, problems such as poverty, unemployment, and struggle with Maoism persist.

Good news! The tiger, once declared extinct in Gujarat, has returned to the state. This makes Gujarat home to three out of four big cats — lions, tigers and leopards. The state is also preparing the Banni Grasslands under ‘Project Cheetah’ to host the fourth cat.

Hot potato: US President Donald Trump has signed the legislation calling on the Justice Department to release the so-called ‘Epstein files’. In recent months, pressure had been mounting on the Trump administration from all sides of the political spectrum to release the case files of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which many believe will expose the rich and powerful. Allegations of sexual abuse against Epstein, and his connections, including to Trump, have fuelled much outrage and speculation. Trump has admitted to befriending Epstein but denies knowledge of his sex-trafficking operation.

⏳ And Finally…

India’s T20I captain, Suryakumar Yadav, joined us for the latest Express Adda — and got refreshingly candid. In a free-flowing conversation, SKY opened up about his game-changing catch in the 2024 T20 World Cup final, his late entry into the national squad, and what it’s really like to be a Mumbai Indians (MI) player. Sample the rapid-fire round:

What tattoo should the following people get?
Rohit Sharma: Garden
Virat: G.O.A.T.
Read on.

That’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta

Business As Usual by EP Unny