The IPL 2022 saw quite a few overhauls- two new teams being added, the mega auction where teams splurged close to Rs 550 crore for 204 players to construct some new squads. We also saw iconic names going missing and some new captains being announced.  There seems to be a lot of change this season and a quick glance at the points table tells the same story. Three of the most successful and storied teams in the history of IPL - Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings and the Kolkata...

If you, like me, have caught yourself multiple times a day complaining about how this year is hotter than the last, you are not alone. March 2022 has been India’s third warmest March since 1901 and there have been at least 26 heat waves since the start of March, which can last for anywhere between 4-10 days.  On 11 April, Delhi broke a 72-year-old record with the temperature hitting 42.6 degrees Celsius. And the absence of summer rains, which usually keeps a check on the heat, has...

Things seem to be going from bad to worse for Virat Kohli as his poor performance continues to haunt him in the ongoing IPL 2022 as he got out on the first ball for the second straight match and scored less than 10 runs in the match subsequent to it. The former Indian captain, who has scored over 23,500 international runs for India, was out on the first ball against Lucknow SuperGiants and on 23 April, when he edged the outgoing delivery he faced from South Africa-fast bowler Marco Jansen...

Only a few days ago, Elon Musk's bid to buy Twitter was thought to be long shot but his offer has ben accepted by the social media platform. The billionaire will now pay a cool $44 billion to take the company private. In his statement on Tuesday, 26 April Musk said he wants to "make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans." The announcement also...

Assured of another five years in office, French President Emmanuel Macron made history on Monday, 25 April, by beating his far-right rival Marine Le Pen. This was the second straight fight between the two politicians and Le Pen’s third shot at presidency. But there is something deeply unsettling about these results — how close Le Pen, a long-time standard-bearer for the French far-right, got in terms of vote share with Macron.  Le Pen scored better than she ever has, winning about 41...

In his first visit to India since being elected United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson on 22 April said the relationship between the two countries is stronger than ever. It has taken three attempts for Johnson to finally arrive in India, having cancelled his earlier trips as the chief guest of the 2021 Republic Day and then calling his trip off again four months later in April on account of the deadly COVID second wave. However, even as her arrives in India, Johnson is being...

Hit by communal violence just days before, Delhi’s Jahangirpuri on 20 April saw seven bulldozers roll into the neighbourhood accompanied by heavy police deployments as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led North Delhi Municipal Corporation razed parts of shops, carts, tin sheds, homes, and the gate of a mosque. The demolition, which started around 10 am, went on for over an hour till 12:15 pm despite the Supreme Court’s directions at 11 am that the status quo be maintained. And taking...

It’s been a busy few days at 10 Janpath with political strategist Prashant Kishor meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other senior party leaders, with the former reportedly looking to join the party full time. With three high level meetings since 16 April, Kishor reportedly gave a detailed presentation on the roadmap to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to party leaders like Priyanka Gandhi, Mukul Wasnik, KC Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, Digvijay Singh, Ambika Soni, and Kamal...

After close to a two-month decline in COVID-19 cases, as we were getting back to our pre-pandemic lives with state governments lifting restrictions, the rise in COVID-19 cases in the national capital has started to sound alarm bells once again. Since 11 April, Delhi has witnessed a whopping 265.69 percent surge in daily new cases, according to data released by the Union health government. On 11 April, daily cases were at 137 and on 18 April, this number rose to 501. Not just Delhi but...

On Saturday, 16 April, violence broke out in Northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri following a Shobha Yatra organised to mark Hanuman Jayanti. The Delhi Police have so far arrested 24 people and apprehended two juveniles in connection with communal clashes that broke out in North Delhi’s Jahangirpuri after a religious Hindu procession allegedly attempted to hoist a flag on a mosque. According to the FIR filed by the police, arguments between two groups escalated after a man named Ansar came...

In a big development in Karnataka politics, State Minister of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj KS Eshwarappa announced his resignation from office on Thursday, 14 April, after allegations of corruption and his alleged role in the suicide of a contractor surfaced. The news of Eshwarappa’s resignation is huge given that it was not expected in the days after the allegations surfaced. Eshwarappa too had been defiant on the issue and even previously stated to media that there is “no...

In the backdrop of big geopolitical developments in Ukraine, the United States and India held their fourth 2+2 dialogue on 12 April in Washington DC. These focused discussions between two countries' foreign and defence counterparts have become a regular affair since the inaugural dialogue in 2018. However, Tuesday became noteworthy since it was also preceded by a surprise Biden-Modi virtual summit, signalling that the talks were being guided from the top. As in previous dialogues, the...

On 11 April, Shehbaz Sharif became the 23rd Prime Minister of Pakistan after his predecessor Imran Khan was booted off unceremoniously through a no-confidence vote. After 3 years and 8 months in office and a lot of attempts to stay in power, Khan ultimately shared the same fate as the 21 Pakistan PMs before him, none of whom were able to complete a five-year term. Sharif who was leading the charge against Imran Khan in Pakistan’s parliament, was elected unopposed shortly after, but as...

Several instances of violence, stone pelting, and arson rocked many states of India on the occasion of Ram Navami on 10 April. Reports of unrest and violence emerged from Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat West Bengal, Goa, Mumbai, and New Delhi, where students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University were allegedly attacked by students affiliated with right-wing groups. Meanwhile, the clashes that erupted in Gujarat caused the death of a person. Several purported videos of these incidents...

All is not well for Imran Khan as he faces an unprecedented no-confidence motion against him in the Pakistan National Assembly on 9 April The chess pieces were set for what seemed like a sure ouster by the country’s Opposition on 29 March, who had collected 197 votes—25 more than the required 172— for winning the vote in the 342 member house. But Khan swiped away at the pieces with some help from Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri, who dismissed the no-confidence motion, calling it...

In an unprecedented move on 4 April, the Mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) proposed to shut meat shops under his jurisdiction during the Navratri festival, which will last till 11 April. In a letter to the South Delhi commissioner, Mayor Mukkesh Suryaan – a Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader – argued that “in view of the sentiments and feelings of the general public, necessary directions may be issued to the officers concerned to take necessary action for the closure of...

In a scathing speech at the United Nations on 5 April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of a litany of horrors and atrocities and challenged the UN to act immediately or dissolve itself altogether. This outrage comes in the aftermath of the alleged massacre in towns in and around Kyiv, where the bodies of 410 civilians were discovered. Russian and Ukrainian forces have been trading fire since 27 February in this region, which stopped only in early April. The...

In a big announcement on Monday, 4 April, the board of HDFC Limited and HDFC Bank announced the biggest merger in Indian corporate history, with a combined balance sheet of a whopping Rs 17.87 trillion. The merger, which is expected to conclude over the next 18 months, has been speculated for more than a decade and it was a question of when and not why. And rightly so. This is the merger of two industry behemoths: HDFC Limited – India’s largest housing finance company with assets...

Less than three months after getting arrested for making Islamophobic remarks and instigating violence at the Haridwar 'Dharma Sansad' in December 2021, controversial Hindu leader Yati Narsinghanand is at it again. On 3 April, an event called the 'Hindu Mahapanchayat' was organised at North Delhi's Burari Grounds. Here, Narsinghanand, who was released on bail on 15 February, delivered a speech to Hindus, asking them to pick up arms and claiming that the Hindu community faced a threat of...

In a significant move, the Centre on 31 March reduced the footprint of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from several parts of Assam, Nagaland, and Manipur. This decision is significant as the calls for repealing the Act have been growing louder over the past decade. The Act, which has been termed draconian and unconstitutional by many, gives sweeping powers to the armed forces beyond the authority of the police in 'disturbed areas' to maintain public order. And...

It's Day 36 of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and a lot has happened in just the past week. This includes Russia and Ukraine coming to the negotiating table in Istanbul, Russia announcing for the first time that it would reduce military presence in Kyiv and surrounding regions, and Ukraine pitching the idea of declaring itself a neutral nation to end the war. While the peace talks have offered a glimmer of hope, there have been no breakthroughs yet. The two nations at war, however,...

In 1920, when the British were still in power, they introduced a law named the “Identification of Prisoners Act.” This allowed the police to take and store footprints and fingerprints of conflicts.  Now, 102 years later, this bill has not only been revived in a new avatar but its powers and scope has been expanded to questionable extent. On 28 March, the Centre introduced the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 which proposes to allow the police and prison authorities to...

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan is facing the biggest threat to his political career – a unified Opposition coalition and a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly on 31 March. The political temperature in the country has been on the rise since 8 March, when Opposition parties submitted the no-confidence motion against Khan, alleging that he was responsible for the country's economic crisis and spiralling inflation. While the Opposition is confident that it can garner the...

The deference of the Delhi civic polls has left the AAP-led Delhi government at loggerheads with the BJP-led Centre. At the heart of the delay is The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 that seeks to merge the North, East and South Delhi municipal corporations. The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai who said it would make the MCD “a single, integrated and well-equipped entity”, however, the Delhi government...

Delhi’s Karkardooma Court rejected the bail plea of activist and former JNU student Umar Khalid, on 24 March, in connection with the Delhi Riots ‘larger conspiracy’ case. This comes after the court deferred the pronouncement of the order three times consecutively. Khalid was arrested in 2020 and slapped with the stringent UAPA charges along with 17 others on accusations of “masterminding” the Delhi 2020 riots, which had left 53 people dead and over 700 injured. But only six have...