Daily Briefing: Centre hikes petrol, diesel prices by 90 paise; second increase in a week

On that note, let’s get to the rest of today’s edition. 👇

🚨 Big Story

The Adani Group has secured major legal relief in the United States, with the US Treasury reaching a $275 million settlement with Adani Enterprises over alleged sanctions violations linked to Iranian LPG shipments, while separate criminal fraud and bribery charges against Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani were dropped. US authorities had alleged that LPG imported through a Dubai-based trader was falsely declared as originating from Oman and Iraq instead of Iran. At the same time, the US SEC moved to settle a parallel civil case tied to allegations that the Adanis concealed a bribery scheme linked to a large solar power project while raising funds from American investors. The Adani Group has denied wrongdoing in all the cases.

⚡ Only in Express

Yogendra Yadav writes that the Centre’s push for “Indian Knowledge Systems” has increasingly become a politically driven and performative exercise, encouraging superficial academic work and ideological signalling rather than serious scholarship. At the same time, he argues that dismissing India’s traditional knowledge systems altogether would also be an intellectual mistake. Yadav says post-Independence India often sidelined indigenous intellectual traditions in favour of Western frameworks, and calls for a more balanced, critical, and inclusive engagement with Indian knowledge rather than either romanticising or rejecting it outright.

📰 From the Front Page

Manipur tensions escalate: The Kuki-Zo Council has again demanded a separate Union Territory with a legislature, saying worsening ethnic tensions in Manipur have made peaceful coexistence difficult. In a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the council cited fresh clashes with both Meitei and Naga groups, particularly in Kangpokpi and Senapati districts, and sought stronger security deployment in buffer zones. The renewed demand comes after the killing of three church leaders triggered a hostage crisis involving Kuki and Naga groups. The council also requested helicopter services for Kuki-majority areas and safer exam centres for Kuki-Zo students, arguing that the existing administrative structure and autonomous councils have failed to provide security and effective governance.

Keralam bus promise: Hours after the Congress-led UDF formed the government in Keralam on May 18, its first Cabinet decision, offering free bus travel for women in KSRTC buses from June 15, began facing financial and operational concerns. The scheme, part of the UDF’s “five Indira guarantees”, has raised questions over the fragile financial health of the state-run transport corporation, which has long depended on government support. With women contributing a major share of KSRTC’s daily ticket revenue, the subsidy burden on the state is expected to rise sharply. Private bus operators have also opposed the move, warning that free travel in KSRTC buses could shift passengers away from private services and affect their business.

📌 Must Read

Liberty vs UAPA: The Supreme Court has once again reopened the debate on liberty versus national security with fresh observations on bail under the UAPA. While granting bail in a Jammu and Kashmir narco-terror case, the court underlined that constitutional protections under Article 21, including the right to personal liberty and speedy trial, cannot be sidelined indefinitely, even in terror-related cases. The bench reaffirmed the 2021 K A Najeeb ruling, which held that prolonged incarceration and delayed trials could justify bail despite the UAPA’s stringent provisions. The observations assume significance at a time when several accused in high-profile UAPA cases continue to spend years in jail awaiting trial, intensifying concerns over the growing use of prolonged pre-trial detention.

Missing, not abducted: A closer look at Maharashtra’s kidnapping data reveals that most cases involving minors are not conventional abductions but runaway, missing-child, or elopement cases registered as “deemed kidnappings”. According to NCRB data, nearly 95% of minors named in kidnapping FIRs in 2024 were teenagers aged between 12 and 18 years. The classification follows a 2013 Supreme Court directive requiring police to treat every missing child complaint as a kidnapping case to ensure immediate action. Police officials say the large number of such cases can sometimes blur the distinction between genuine abductions and missing-person complaints, while social media rumours around child kidnappings have also fuelled public panic in recent years. Mumbai Police, however, has said that most missing children are eventually traced and reunited with their families.

⏳ And Finally…

Limbo ends: A Bombay High Court order has finally ended a nine-year struggle for a Beed man whose engineering degree remained stuck in bureaucratic limbo due to Maharashtra’s aborted Muslim quota policy. Farukh Ilahi Sayyad had secured admission under the state’s short-lived 5% Muslim reservation introduced in 2014, but after a change in government and the lapse of the ordinance, authorities refused to issue him a caste validity certificate. Despite completing his engineering course in 2017 and paying open-category fees, his degree was withheld by the University of Mumbai. Earlier this month, the High Court directed the university to release his degree, highlighting the fallout of policy reversals and prolonged administrative uncertainty.

🎧 Lastly, tune in to today’s episode of our 3 Things podcast, where we discuss our investigation into the alleged diversion of National Sports Development Fund money for premium facilities in civil services institutions and a bureaucrats’ housing colony, and the larger questions it raises about accountability and public spending.

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

Anupama