Good morning,
A Kashmiri student was arrested for an article he wrote 11 years ago; World Cup-winning coach Gary Kirsten was our guest at Idea Exchange; Yogi Adityanath's list of do's and don't for his council of ministers — here are the top stories from today’s edition of The Indian Express. The Big Story
Inflation has hit a 17-month high. Clothing, milk, vegetables, and personal care are among the commodities that have gotten expensive. But the runaway prices have not adversely impacted political outcomes, given the results of recent state elections. Analysts point to multiple factors at play. Only in the Express In this edition of the Idea Exchange, former Indian cricket team coach Gary Kirsten talks about guiding young Indian talent in the IPL, his coaching philosophy, memories of the 2011 World Cup win and providing opportunities to township players back home in South Africa. From the Front Page A PhD student at Kashmir University has been arrested for an article written by him 11 years ago for an online news magazine. The Jammu and Kashmir Police’s recently created State Investigation Agency said the article was “highly provocative, seditious and intended to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir”. A recipient of a government fellowship for five years, the student was scheduled to get married in a fortnight. First, the Khargone district administration demolished their house built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Now, the same administration has reached out to the family with ration and rehabilitation options. But the family, who have taken shelter in an abandoned mosque nearby, rejected the administration's offer to shift them to a multiplex. Must Read
For the last two months, Kali Ghat by the Ganga at Patna has seen large crowds during the weekends, unusually so. Sitting on the steps of the sprawling ghat are thousands of students — from Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra — scribbling away on mock test papers for the Group D Railways examination. Meet the brainchild of these 90-minute mock test sessions, who spends up to Rs 45,000 per session out of his own pocket. A cafe located inside the police lines in Saharanpur has slowly started to create a buzz in the area as it attempts to bring residents and the police closer in an informal setting. Two boards on the entrance to Bailout Cafe list out instructions. One of them is that the cafe does not provide wifi in order to encourage interactions and conversations between people and police. Make official presentations yourself. Travel to the ground to meet people. Use government guest houses rather than hotels. Don’t appoint relatives as secretaries. These are among a list of do’s and don’t issued by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the ministers in his council as he attempts to burnish his governance credentials ahead of the urban local body polls later this year — and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Daily new Covid-19 cases are rising in Delhi and Haryana, as are active cases nationwide. Lifting of restrictions could be a reason, but it's too early to worry about a fourth wave when no new variant has been detected. Our in-house expert makes sense of Covid-19 trends in the country. And Finally... Top overseas cricket stars were considered the lynchpins of teams when the IPL started almost a decade and a half ago, but things seem to have changed of late. So much so, that teams don’t think twice before fielding fewer than the four overseas players allowed in the playing XI if strategy demands so. We explore the reasons behind this new phenomenon. Delhi confidential: Election strategist Prashant Kishor’s meeting with the Congress leadership, including the Gandhis, has put the party’s Telangana unit in a spot. Kishor has made a presentation to the Congress leadership and the party has gone on record saying it will appoint a committee to look into his suggestions. What is interesting is that Kishor is said to be working for the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in the state. In this episode of 3 Things, we discuss how the unprecedented crisis in Sri Lanka is unfolding on the ground. Until tomorrow,
Leela Prasad 
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