Cloudbursts. Flash floods. Landslides. Could the Char Dham highway project be making the Uttarakhand Himalayas more vulnerable? Help us investigate the true cost of this infrastructure push. Click here.

The National Democratic Alliance has released its joint manifesto for the Bihar Assembly elections. As part of its 25 key promises, the ruling alliance announced that it would provide more than one crore government jobs and employment opportunities to the residents, if it retains power.

The alliance also promised that members of occupational groups within the Extremely Backward Classes will receive assistance of up to Rs 10 lakh each. Among other development measures, it announced financial aid for one crore women under the Lakhpati Didi scheme and said that it would launch Mission Crorepati to support women entrepreneurs in cities.

The NDA’s manifesto also promises free ration, 125 units of free electricity, free medical treatment up to Rs 5 lakh, 50 lakh new houses and social security pensions for the poor. Read on.

‘Youth is very angry’: Will Nepal’s revolution drive anti-incumbency in Bihar’s border regions?

Activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and Gulfisha Fatima have told the Supreme Court that they did not make calls for violence in Delhi during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests. They, along with activists Meeran Haider and Shifa Ur Rehman, are accused of being part of a “larger conspiracy” behind the 2020 Delhi riots.

The five of them had been arrested between January and September 2020. They have challenged a judgement issued by the Delhi High Court on September 2, dismissing their bail applications.

Khalid told the Supreme Court on Friday that he was not in Delhi when the riots broke out, while Imam said that he had only called for peaceful blockades. Fatima said that no evidence of violence was found at the protest sites where she was present. Read on.

Are students and activists being punished for invoking their faith in the Constitution?

Congress leader and former cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin has been sworn in as a minister in the Telangana Cabinet. Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi claimed that the ruling Congress took the decision ahead of the bye-elections in the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency to appease minorities.

Azharuddin had unsuccessfully contested the seat in 2023. After taking the oath of office, he said that his induction into the Cabinet had “nothing to do with the Jubilee bye-election”.

The BJP alleged that giving the former cricketer a ministry “is nothing but a mala fide intention of the Congress to woo a section of voters”. The BRS described Azharuddin’s induction into the Cabinet as a “last resort to win over minorities”. Read on.

India and the United States have signed a 10-year framework for “major defence partnership”. While the details of the framework were not immediately known, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the agreement “will provide policy direction to the entire spectrum of the India-US defence relationship”.

He added that defence will remain a “major pillar” of the India-US relationship.

This came amid tensions between New Delhi and Washington after US President Donald Trump imposed so-called reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods and punitive levies for purchasing Russian oil. Read on.

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