Dear Express Explained reader, After record-breaking heat across the country in March, much of North India has seen a new high in the average maximum temperature in April as well — and the IMD's forecast for May is only mildly encouraging. This has been an extraordinarily hot year so far, and the reason primarily is the near total absence of rainfall due to western disturbances (nor'westers) that periodically put a cap on rising temperatures in the summer. Temperatures have also been rising sharply between the Centre and states, figuratively speaking. After disagreements over language policy that cropped up again recently, the Prime Minister provoked the states by accusing them of doing "injustice" to the people by not cutting VAT on automobile fuels. Aanchal Magazine and Karunjit Singh explained why letting go of taxes of fuel is easier said than done, and separately, the structure of tax-sharing between the Centre and states. Another, ongoing controversy between the Centre and states was resurrected after the Tamil Nadu Assembly this week passed Bills that propose to take away the power of the Governor to appoint vice-chancellors of state universities. As justification, Chief Minister M K Stalin repeated concerns that have been articulated earlier by West Bengal and Maharashtra over allegedly motivated interference by Governors at the behest of the central government. Sourav Roy Barman looked at the rules for the appointment of VCs, and the sources of the frictions that have arisen repeatedly. The government of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh has begun a drive to take down or lower the volume of loudspeakers on places of worship. In response to accusations of targeting of citizens based on their religion, the UP government has said that it is only enforcing compliance with orders that were issued several years ago, and directives passed by the High Court to curb noise pollution. Maulshree Seth looked at these legal bases cited by the government for its actions — two of its orders passed in 2018, and a strongly worded judgment of the court demanding accountability in 2017. A woman suicide bomber targeted a Chinese studies centre at Karachi University this week, killing three Chinese and their Pakistani driver. Nirupama Subramanian wrote about the organisation to which she belonged, the Baloch Liberation Army, the idea of Baloch nationalism that drives it, and why they are opposed to the presence of the Chinese on their land. (Nirupama has been following the activities of the group over the years, and she wrote about them earlier in 2020, when the Karachi stock exchange was attacked.) Stay safe and stay aware. Keep reading The Indian Express Explained. Some of our content is now behind a paywall, so if you haven't subscribed to The Indian Express yet, this may be the perfect time to do so. Click here to subscribe. Sincerely, Monojit (monojit.majumdar@expressindia.com) If you received this newsletter as a forward, you can subscribe to it here | Do read our Explained articles here | 
