TheFinePrint

By Moushumi Das Gupta, Deputy Editor

Maharashtra politics is heating up ahead of the assembly polls next month.

In a potential source of conflict within the ruling Mahayuti, the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party has fielded Nawab Malik from Mumbai’s Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar constituency, despite the BJP having voiced its strong exception to his candidature. Malik filed his nomination as the official candidate of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP Tuesday. The party has nominated his daughter Sana Malik from her father’s current constituency, Anushaktinagar. Manasi Phadke reports.

Politics of a different kind is brewing up in the Hindi heartland. After the Kanwar Yatra row, now BJP and VHP leaders are urging ‘Sanatanis’ to ‘buy from your own’ ahead of Diwali.

With the beginning of the Diwali celebrations on the occasion of Dhanteras on Tuesday, a section of BJP leaders from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and constituents of its ideological parent Sangh Parivar in Madhya Pradesh have sparked a controversy demanding that ‘Sanatanis’ make purchases only from their “own people”.

Down south, constant needling from its alliance partners has pushed Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK to drop its confrontational approach to its ideological rival BJP after the Lok Sabha elections. DMK has decided to shed its differences with the BJP-led Union government on governance for strategic reasons because the state government has been reeling under a financial crisis with the Centre holding up critical funds for some schemes. Prabhakar Tamilarasu reports.

On the defence front, American engine maker GE has informed the Indian government that they will start delivery of the critical F404-IN20 engines needed to power India’s indigenous fighter aircraft— Tejas MK 1A – by April 2025. The company was supposed to start the delivery of Tejas engines in 2023. PM Narendra Modi & Defence Minister Rajnath had Singh raised the issue of delay during their recent US visits. Snehesh Alex Philip reports.

A new clinical trial has found that feeding a baby born with caesarean-section milk containing a tiny bit of the mother’s faeces may provide beneficial microbes to their gut. The trial was conducted in Finland and reported in the Nature Journal this week. The trial, scientists from Finland have noted, suggests that the approach might one day help to prevent diseases during childhood and later in life in kids born through C-section, while also aiding the mounting evidence establishing a connection between gut health and immunity. Sumi Sukanya Dutta reports.

Also Read:

NSCN-IM dissident leader slams scrapping of Free Movement along Myanmar border amid Naga peace talks

By Karishma Hasnat - Read more

NCB, Delhi Police bust Noida drug factory ‘linked to Mexican cartel, set up by Tihar warden’

By Mayank Kumar - Read more

In Pawar bastion Baramati, Yugendra up against his own Goliath. Uncle Ajit has never lost an election

By Manasi Phadke - Read more

Opinion

The past two years have seen the “collegium system” of appointment continue to be replaced by what I call the “search and selection committee” method of appointment, writes Alok Prasanna Kumar, co-founder of the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

In about five articles on the military disengagement at the LAC, Global Times claimed that New Delhi’s ties with the US and its allies are unreliable, which has forced it to ease tensions with China, writes Rishi Gupta, Assistant Director of the Asia Society Policy Institute, New Delhi.

Video

A week since India and China resolved LAC standoff in Depsang & Demchok, concerns remain about buffer zones & patrolling--- Watch this episode of 'Cut The Clutter', where Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta & Defence Editor Snehesh Alex Philip discuss what the deal means.

'Unemployment is the biggest issue, I want to focus on jobs' — Aaditya Thackeray shares his vision for Maharashtra ahead of assembly elections. Watch him in conversation with Purva Chitnis, in 'ThePrint Uninterrupted'.