Daily Briefing: Who’s polluting the Yamuna?

On that note, let’s get to today’s edition.

Big Story

Who’s polluting the Yamuna River? The reply depends connected who you ask. In the past fewer days, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal has stirred up a storm, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Haryana authorities of “poisoning” the Yamuna waters. The Nayab Saini government, of course, denies the charges.

The politics: Why the abrupt hullaballoo implicit the Yamuna waters? Well, Delhi is conscionable days distant from the high-stakes Assembly elections. The nationalist superior volition ballot connected February 5. Consequently, Kejriwal’s remarks person travel nether the Election Commission’s scrutiny. Acting connected complaints by the BJP and Congress, the polling assemblage has demanded impervious from Kejriwal implicit his claims, which it said “promoted disharmony and enmity”. In turn, Kejriwal insists that Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar is “engaging successful politics” for “a occupation post-retirement”.

The facts: Kejriwal’s claims are wholly fictional. The Yamuna River, indeed, has harmful levels of ammonia, which render adjacent h2o attraction plants ineffective. But the occupation isn’t new. Where bash the pollutants travel from? Documents obtained done the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the Upper Yamuna River Board, which regulates the stream waters, point fingers towards concern units successful Panipat and Sonipat. But fewer sources successful Delhi are conscionable arsenic overmuch to beryllium blamed.

The mode forward: Shailaja Chandra, erstwhile main caput of Delhi, writes connected the request to emergence supra authorities to code the Yamuna problem. The revival of the river demands cooperation from each states and stakeholders.

Only successful Express

AI, made-in-India: India has decided to leap connected the artificial quality (AI) bandwagon, inspired by the low-cost Chinese exemplary DeepSeek. It intends to physique a domestic ample connection model of its ain arsenic portion of the Rs 10,370 crore IndiaAI Mission. Has India got what it takes? Well, we had experts constitute for our play Dis/Agree file to pass the debate.

AI experts B Ravindran and Krishnan Narayanan judge India has the endowment and the resolve. “The clip for corporate AI action is now“.

Meanwhile, cyber information expert Subimal Bhattacharjee is much cautious. Noting India’s lag successful processing foundational models, helium suggests a multi-pronged strategy for our AI ambitions.

From the Front Page

The aftermath: The Uttar Pradesh authorities is looking to marque amends aft a pre-dawn stampede astatine the Sangam successful Prayagraj connected Wednesday killed astatine slightest 30 people. A time later, It issued a string of directives, including the cancelling of each VVIP passes and declaring the full Maha Kumbh country arsenic a no-vehicle zone.

Traces of the incidental stay astatine the mela grounds with footwear, apparel and backpacks strewn adjacent the Sangam ghat. The ambulances and information unit are nearer and much successful numbers. Reporting from the ground, my workfellow Maulshree Seth writes of the tense aerial astatine the Maha Kumbh arsenic devotees workout much caution than before.

For much connected the Maha Kumbh stampede, tune successful to today’s occurrence of the ‘3 things’ podcast.

Must Read

Tax cuts? The Budget Session of Parliament kicks disconnected today. Tomorrow, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman volition contiguous the Union Budget 2025-26. There are respective calls for the authorities to chopped taxes, which begs the question: Are Indians paying much taxes than those successful different countries? It’s not truthful easy. Udit Misra finds that the reply lies successful a cautious appraisal of incomes, economical maturation and the grade of a country’s democracy. Read his analysis.

Space chronicles: Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is taking 1 for the team—for 1.4 cardinal radical to beryllium precise. He is astir to go the 2nd Indian to question to space. As helium prepares to spell into abstraction arsenic portion of the United States’ Axiom 4 mission, Shukla has recovered a mentor successful the archetypal Indian that went to abstraction 40 years ago.

And Finally…

As Virat Kohli returned to home first-class cricket aft 13 years, truthful did the crowds astatine the Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium for Delhi’s Ranji Trophy necktie against Railways. Authorities scrambled to accommodate radical successful the stands arsenic 12,000 fans turned up astatine the Kotla. With Delhi’s crook to bat today, fans mightiness get to spot Kohli successful enactment today.

That’s each for contiguous folks. Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta

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