The Election Commission of India on Tuesday (July 5) issued the notification for the election of the Vice-President of India. The term of office of Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu comes to an end on August 10. The election is scheduled for August 6, and July 19 is the last date for filing nominations. Neither the NDA nor the Opposition have announced their candidate yet, but Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Steel Minister RCP Singh resigned from their posts on Wednesday (July 6), triggering speculation that Naqvi, in particular, could be the government’s nominee for the election. So, How is the Vice-President of India elected. We explain

Andimuthu Raja, the DMK MP from Nilgiris, said in the presence of Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday (July 3) that if the central government did not give Tamil Nadu greater autonomy, the DMK could be “compelled” to revive the demand for a “separate” state. Raja’s comments come in a period in which the DMK government in Tamil Nadu has repeatedly and vocally disagreed with the policies of the central government, and accused it of undermining India’s federal structure. We explain the evolution of demand for ‘Dravida Nadu’.

After months of sweltering heat, the monsoon has arrived in several parts of the country, including Delhi and Maharashtra. The all-India June rainfall this year was 152.3 mm against an average of 165.3 mm (based on 1971-2020 data). This is a deficit of 8 per cent and classified as normal rainfall (deviation within 10 per cent). The monsoon has, however, picked up this month. July is expected to bring widespread rainfall over various parts of the country.

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Andimuthu Raja, the DMK MP from Nilgiris, said in the presence of Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday (July 3) that if the central government did not give Tamil Nadu greater autonomy, the DMK could be “compelled” to revive the demand for a “separate” state.

Raja’s comments come in a period in which the DMK government in Tamil Nadu has repeatedly and vocally disagreed with the policies of the central government, and accused it of undermining India’s federal structure. 

We explain the evolution of demand for ‘Dravida Nadu’.

The Election Commission of India on Tuesday (July 5) issued the notification for the election of the Vice-President of India. The term of office of Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu comes to an end on August 10.

The election is scheduled for August 6, and July 19 is the last date for filing nominations. Neither the NDA nor the Opposition have announced their candidate yet, but Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Steel Minister RCP Singh resigned from their posts on Wednesday (July 6), triggering speculation that Naqvi, in particular, could be the government’s nominee for the election.

So, How is the Vice-President of India elected. We explain

Supporters say it is the world’s most ambitious green investment rulebook and could direct huge sums of money into fighting climate change. Critics say it’s a “greenwashing” exercise that puts the European Union’s climate change targets at risk.

So what is the EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy? We explain

‘Just Stop Oil’, a UK-based group of climate activists, has hit the headlines over the last few months for their rather distinctive disruptions drawing attention to their cause.

On July 5, they glued themselves to the frame of a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, attributed to his pupil, Giampietrino, at the Royal Academy in London. We explain the issue

Several UK cinemas have banned young people from wearing formal attire during screenings of the recently-released animated film ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ due to unruly behaviour fuelled by a bizarre new trend on TikTok.

Since the film was released last week, hoards of youngsters have been flocking to cinema halls wearing suits and referring to themselves as ‘Gentleminions’. We explain the row. 

Alleging disproportionate use of power by officials, Twitter moved the Karnataka High Court Tuesday against the Ministry’s content-blocking orders issued under Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Last month, the IT Ministry had written to Twitter, asking it to comply with its orders by July 4 or lose its safe harbour protection under the intermediary rules. As Twitter initiates legal action, we take a look at the IT Act, the lawsuit, and the faceoff between the social media site and the government.    

The Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment — which is investigating the slight differences between matter and antimatter by studying a type of particle called the “beauty quark”, or “b quark” — has observed three never-before-seen particles, CERN announced on July 5. The three “exotic” additions — a new kind of “pentaquark” and the first-ever pair of “tetraquarks” — to the growing list of new hadrons found at the LHC will help physicists better understand how quarks bind together into these composite particles, CERN said in a release. CERN — Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire — is the original name of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, which runs the particle accelerator complex that houses the LHC, the world’s largest and most complex collider. What are the three new ‘exotic’ sub-atomic particles discovered at CERN.

The all-India June rainfall this year was 152.3 mm against an average of 165.3 mm (based on 1971-2020 data). This is a deficit of 8 per cent and classified as normal rainfall (deviation within 10 per cent). The monsoon has, however, picked up this month. July is expected to bring widespread rainfall over various parts of the country. June, in general June accounts for 15 per cent of the season’s rainfall. As the first month of the southwest monsoon, it is usually marked by large-scale rainfall variations. This is mainly because the monsoon currents are getting established as the monsoon makes gradual progress over various regions of the country. We explain why the monsoon is expected to pick up in July. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday proclaimed victory in the battle of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine after months of fighting.

While Russia says it now has full control over Luhansk after Ukrainian withdrawal from the bombed-out city of Lysychansk, Ukraine has described the retreat as tactical, saying it would launch a counter-offensive. Here is why the region is significant. 

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Monday issued guidelines to prevent unfair trade practices, and to protect the interest of consumers with regard to the levy of service charge in hotels and restaurants. Under the guidelines, consumers can lodge complaints against hotels and restaurants by calling the number 1915. Read our Explainer to know more.

The world’s most powerful particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will begin smashing protons into each other at unprecedented levels of energy beginning July 5. Scientists will record and analyse the data, which are expected to throw up evidence of “new physics” — or physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics, which explains how the basic building blocks of matter interact, governed by four fundamental forces. But what is the Large Hadron Collider? We explain. 

Delhi airport's Terminal 2 has started trials of automated full-body scanners, The trials will continue for 45-60 days. In 2019, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security had asked for these scanners to be installed at 84 airports around the country within a year. The massive disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, however, led to most airports missing the deadline. What are these new machines? We explain

The Centre on Monday said hotels and restaurants can’t force customers to pay service charge. What is service charge? Here is our Explainer, from May this year.

In the last two weeks, Australian authorities have exterminated millions of honeybees in a bid to prevent a potentially devastating parasitic plague affecting the southeast region of the country. Colonies of honeybees have been put under “lockdown” as part of a wide range of biosecurity measures to limit the outbreak. What is the plague, and what could be the effects of the extermination? We explain. 

A batch of 11 Afghan Sikhs arrived in Delhi last week after two persons from the community were killed in a terror attack on Gurdwara Dashmesh Pita Guru Gobind Singh Karte Parwan in Kabul on June 18. The Islamic State-Khorasan Province claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it was “an act of support for the Messenger of Allah”. The attack came days after the IS-KP said it would avenge remarks made against the Prophet by a suspended BJP leader. What is the IS-KP, where does it operate? Read More

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil a 30-foot-tall bronze statue of freedom fighter Alluri Sitharama Raju as part of his visit to Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh, on Monday (July 4). The year-long celebrations of the freedom fighter’s 125th birth anniversary will also begin on the same day. As part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, a campaign to mark 75 years of Indian independence, the government is “committed to giving due recognition to the contribution of freedom fighters and making people across the country aware of them”, said a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. On the campaign website, the account of Alluri’s life comes under the “Unsung Heroes” section. Read More

Cristiano Ronaldo is undoubtedly one of the greatest footballers of all time. But in his second coming at Manchester United, he couldn’t prevent the club from being an also-ran in the race for a Champions League spot. While his own contribution is endlessly debated, Ronaldo is said to have put in a transfer request, a move which may force United to rebuild again. What are the issues and why is he looking to move on? We explain

📆 September ➡️ October ➡️ November 🌍#MUFC | #PLFixtures

Last week, the Reserve Bank of India came out with its latest Financial Stability Report (FSR). The FSR is published biannually and includes contributions from all the financial sector regulators. It is the main document to understand the current status of risks to the stability of the Indian financial system. One of the key observations in RBI's Financial Stability Report that caught everyone’s attention was the growing disconnect between India’s stock markets and the real economy. We take a look at the status of India’s equity markets and their valuation. Read More

In the latest and potentially fatal blow to the government of Boris Johnson in the UK, two of his most senior ministers, Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, resigned within minutes of each other on Tuesday, expressing a lack of confidence in his leadership. The latest crisis for Johnson comes just after ‘Partygate’, a no confidence motion he survived, and two bypoll defeats for his party. We explain the controversy.

Many of you would have noticed a new surge in Covid-19 cases around you over the last few weeks. If the official numbers published by the government every day seem to be fewer than what you’d expect, it could be because many people are giving themselves rapid tests at home and not reporting positive outcomes, or perhaps not testing at all. Thankfully, in most cases, the illness is not severe, and very few people other than those with severe comorbidities are actually ending up in hospital.

What are the variants of SARS-CoV-2 — rather, the sub-variants of Omicron — that are causing this current spike in infections? When and where did they emerge, and how afraid should you be? Do read Anonna Dutt’s explainer.

Give a read also to Anuradha Mascarenhas’s unpacking of India’s first mRNA Covid-19 vaccine that received clearance for “restricted emergency use” in adults this week. How does GEMCOVAC-19, manufactured by Gennova Biopharmaceuticals, work, and why is its development a major breakthrough for Indian conditions?

The crisis in Maharashtra seems to be over for now (we did publish some important explainers on the various legal and constitutional aspects through the week), but the other ongoing — and deeply disturbing — story of the week, around the objectionable remarks on the Prophet, continues. Do read Nirupama Subramanian and Zeeshan Shaikh’s profile of the Da’wat-e-Islami, the radical Sunni Muslim group to which Rajasthan Police have linked Ghouse Mohammad, the man who murdered tailor Kanhaiyalal Teli in Udaipur; and Apurva Vishwanath’s fine summary of law and precedent on the clubbing of multiple cases in court, written after the Supreme Court’s angry scolding of Nupur Sharma, the former BJP spokesperson whose “loose tongue” the Bench blamed for being “singlehandedly responsible for what is happening in the country”.

The war in Ukraine has now gone on for more than four months. The West’s sanctions, among the harshest in history, were predicted to inflict unbearable pain on the government of President Vladimir Putin, and possibly lead to Russia’s economic collapse and defeat in the war. But things haven’t quite gone to script. Harish Damodaran explained why the sanctions have been less effective than the West expected, and what is likely to happen here onward.

Explained Editor, The Indian Express