Daily Briefing: Mock drills

Indian Express

06-05-2025

Good morning,
For much of this morning, the internet has been drooling over the fan-anointed 'Badshah of Bollywood'. Shah Rukh Khan graced the red carpet (well, blue this time) of the Met Gala 2025, the grandest fashion event unfolding at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He became the first Indian male actor to walk the carpet, dressed in Sabyasachi's finest couture and wielding a gold-crafted Bengal Tiger head cane. At his candid best, Khan told Vogue interviewers he was nervous and was here at the designer's request. We all love a humble king!
On that note, let's get to today's edition.
Big Story
Amid rising tensions over a likely Indian military response to the April 21 Pahalgam terror attack, the government has instructed northern and western states and Union Territories to conduct safety drills to test and strengthen civil defence mechanisms in the event of a hostile attack. This will include activating air raid sirens, implementing crash blackout measures in selected areas and training civilians, including students, on safety protocols.
Meanwhile, Jammu 's Chenab River ran dry for the first time in many years, with water levels falling below the waist level on Monday. Locals gathered to witness the phenomenon; some were scouting for gold and silver ornaments. Officials told this newspaper that this was due to India lowering the sluice gates of the Baglihar dam to restrict water flow to Pakistan's Punjab.
Only in Express
In 1988, the Delhi government leased 15 acres of prime land in Jasola to Indraprastha Medical Corporation Ltd (IMCL)—operators of Apollo Hospital—for just Re 1 a month. In return, IMCL was to build a super-speciality hospital and reserve one-third of its 600 beds for free treatment of poor patients. Decades later, that promise remains largely unfulfilled. In March, the Supreme Court issued a stern warning: comply or risk having AIIMS take over the hospital's management. The warning wasn't without reason. The Indian Express dug into company records and found that Apollo meets only one-fifth of the quota.
From the Front Page
The catch: As India and the UK discuss finalising a trade deal, one sore point has stalled negotiations: the carbon tax. Duties on carbon-intensive imports could disrupt India's iron, steel, aluminium, ceramics, and cement exports as the UK remains unwilling to grant any concessions.
Declared: Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna prefers a fixed deposit for savings. Justice Sanjay Kumar, on the other hand, has a detailed stock portfolio. How do we know this? Well, Supreme Court judges have just made their assets public. Check it out!
Must Read
It's 'normal': Will artificial intelligence (AI) impact life like the Industrial Revolution? Will it go rogue and take over humanity? It's doubtful, say researchers at Princeton University. Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor explain why fears around AI are unfounded and will be decades before AI does anything transformative. Read.
The arithmetic: The BJP government's announcement for caste enumeration comes at an intriguing time when the nation is rife with tensions over the Pahalgam terror attack. In her weekly column, Neerja Chowdhury deciphers the BJP's play and whether it will lead to another Mandal moment.
Unjust? While the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) is hailed internationally as an outstanding example of water sharing, given its scale and the hostility between the signatories, for Dilip Sinha, a former diplomat, the IWT is anything but and should be scrapped. He argues that the treaty has been unfair to India, giving Pakistan an undue advantage.
And Finally…
Picture this: you are deep in an online chess battle, the prize money's in lakhs, adrenaline's pumping… and boom, your screen freezes. Welcome to every gamer's worst nightmare. Now imagine being Nihal Sarin, a 20-year-old Grandmaster from Kerala who's played—and won—thousands of games in speed chess online. When one millisecond can make or break a match, slow internet isn't just annoying; it's a dealbreaker. But the good news is Chess.com is levelling up. They are all set to expand their Realtime Chess Network, which has one server in Mumbai and could help Indians be on par with global rivals.
🎧 Before you go, tune in to today's episode of the '3 Things' podcast, where we discuss the diplomatic measures India has taken against Pakistan, the alarming hike in school fees across cities, and the rising tensions in the Israel-Gaza war.
That's all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta