On a humid August morning, Washington DC awoke to the sight of National Guard convoys rumbling through its avenues. United States President Donald Trump had invoked a rarely used clause of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, taking direct control of the capital’s police and declaring a ‘crime emergency’.
The Adani group is entering the battery energy storage system business, with an initial planned capacity of 1.126GW of power, capable of delivering that power for around three hours. This solves two kinds of problems, but creates two larger ones, of supply-chain dependence on China and significant indirect emissions of the kind green energy is supposed to avoid.
Bihar has presented the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in charge at the Centre a sterling electoral victory. Nitish Kumar has been sworn in as chief minister for the 10th time.
The fact that the NDA has won all, save two, state assembly elections held since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections serves, in the eyes of many, to shake off doubts about the stability of the ruling coalition created by the BJP’s failure to secure a simple majority, leave alone the two-thirds majority it had been seeking.
The Supreme Court’s reply to the Presidential reference is a big letdown. The Constitution Bench’s task was to ascertain if the Court can prescribe timelines for Governors and the President to decide on a Bill that comes up before them, and whether the conduct of Governors and the President is justiciable.
The four labour codes long in the making have finally been notified. The good thing is that a legal framework now exists for a company inclined to provide social security for the gig workers it employs to actually provide it. Uber, for example, says it has been waiting for such a legal framework. Any labour law is only as good as its enforcement. Where workers and their unions are strong enough to compel enforcement, laws are complied with.
The Bihar results were out even before polling began: Bihar has lost, whoever the victor in the Assembly elections. With well over one crore women being paid Rs 10,000 crore by the incumbent government, supposedly for self-employment ventures, and promises of future fiscal support for such enterprises, the political economy of state handouts had been entrenched before polling began.
Policy UpdateMuskan Thakur “This word is LiFE, which means ‘Lifestyle For Environment’. Today, there is a need for all of us to come together and take Lifestyle For Environment forward as a campaign. This can become a mass movement towards…