4. Who wants Nitish as PM?

• Nitish as PM candidate? Ever since Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has dumped the BJP to ally with the RJD, a number of anti-BJP voices have pitched him as a potential challenger to PM Narendra Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Nitish also fueled the speculation, daring PM Modi asking “will he survive 2024” soon after taking oath as the Bihar CM.
• Proposers: Describing Nitish as “PM material”, Upendra Kushwaha, president of the JDU national parliamentary board, said, “Bihar gave the country its first president, Rajendra Prasad, but it hasn’t had the chance to elect a prime minister. It will be good if Nitish moves to national politics.” Former Nitish aide Sharad Yadav, now with the RJD, also said Nitish could be a PM for 2024.
• Tejashwi Yadav endorsed him saying, “He has experience. He has administrative experience. He has social experience. Tell me if Narendra Modi ji can become PM, then why not Nitish ji?”
• What has Nitish said? “This [PM ambition] is not on my mind but I am getting a lot of calls…We will work towards getting everyone together [for the 2024 polls].”
• But, his party, JDU, president Rajiv Ranjan Singh said, “We have said Nitish Kumar is not a PM contender but he has all qualities needed to become PM…Once the new Bihar government starts functioning, we’ll go to Delhi meet Opposition leaders to arrive at consensus for a fight against the BJP across India.”
• However, for Nitish to become a serious PM contender, he needs to bring other PM contenders from the opposition camp — Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee and K Chandrashekar Rao — to a consensus, and elicit support from parties like the Congress, Samajwadi Party, the BJD, the NCP and Shiv Sena. More here

• India-born British author Salman Rushdie, who faced Islamist death threats over his controversial novel, ‘The Satanic Verses’, was attacked on stage at an event in New York on Friday.
• Video footage posted on social media showed people rushing to his aid after he was attacked at the event in Chautauqua County, with police confirming a stabbing while declining to immediately identify the victim
• New York police say Rushdie suffered stab wounds to his neck and was airlifted to hospital, according to an AP report.
• The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s supreme religious leader, pronounced a fatwa, or religious edict, on the writer on February 14, 1989, calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie because of perceived blasphemy against Islam in his fourth novel, ‘The Satanic Verses’ (1988).
• Iran later backed away from the order and Rushdie has lived relatively openly in recent years. His second novel, ‘Midnight’s Children’ (1981) won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be “the best novel of all winners” on two occasions.

• Lowest since March: India’s retail inflation in July eased to its lowest since March at an annual 6.71% — against 5.59% in July 2021. The retail price rise index for June was at 7.01%, staying above 7% for the three consecutive months.
• RBI still won’t be happy: The lowest inflation since March is still above the upper limit of the Reserve Bank of India’s target range of 2-6%. Inflation has stayed above the RBI’s upper threshold for seven months.
• How: Food prices eased in July. Food prices account for nearly half of the consumer price index basket. Food inflation moderated from 7.75% in June to 6.75% in July.
• Fuel costs also eased in July, helping rein in the pace of rise in prices. Brent crude eased about 9% in July. Another contributing factor was the lagged reflection of the fuel tax cut. Further, reducing import duties and restrictions on wheat exports also helped. However, the core inflation remains elevated and sticky.
• Double digit IIP growth: India’s industrial production rose 12.3% in June. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data prepared by the National Statistical Office (NSO) shows that the manufacturing sector’s output grew 12.5% in June.
• Auto sales rise: Passenger vehicle dispatches to dealers in India rose by 11% year-on-year in July, helped by improvement in semiconductor supplies, automobile manufacturing body SIAM’s data showed.
• Sensex gains: Benchmark BSE Sensex rose by 130 points while Nifty extended gains for the fifth straight session in a range-bound trade on Friday as oil and gas, metal and power shares advanced. The 30-share BSE index ended 130.18 points or 0.22 per cent higher at 59,462.78 as 13 of its constituents ended in the green.

More reserves

• The government also declared establishment of one more elephant reserve, Agasthiyamalai in Tamil Nadu. This will be the country’s 32nd elephant reserve, adding another 1,197 sq km of protected area dedicated to conservation of elephants.
• This has brought the total area under elephant reserves in India to about 76,508 sq km across 14 states.

‘National heritage animal’

• The elephant has been recognised as a National Heritage Animal of India and the highest degree of protection has been given to it under Indian Wildlife Protection Act (1972). India has the largest population of Asian elephants with around 30,000 wild and about 3,600 captive elephants.

Human-elephant conflicts

• The government also decided to take multiple actions to handle human-elephant conflict (HEC) situations that cause deaths of around 500 people and 100 jumbos annually across the country.
• Environment minister Bhupender Yadav said human-elephant conflicts (HEC) are increasing due to “competition for resources”. An environment ministry official said a regional stakeholders workshop will be organised soon to understand the issues and mitigation of HECs.

• Breaking its silence on the Taiwan issue, India on Friday said it was concerned over the developments around the island and called for avoiding “unilateral actions” to change the status quo in the region. China recently held its biggest-ever military drills around the self-ruled island following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to it.
• One-China policy: In an apparent reference to a question on the ‘One-China’ policy at a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Friday said India’s relevant policies are well-known and they do not require reiteration.
• Call for de-escalation: Bagchi said India is for de-escalation of the tensions and pitched for efforts to maintain peace and stability in the region. China considers Taiwan as its breakaway province. The Taiwanese government has alleged that China used the military exercise as a practice to attack the country in future.
• Ties with Taiwan: India does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan but both sides have trade and people-to-people ties. The volume of bilateral trade has grown nearly six fold from $1.19 billion in 2001 to almost $7.05 billion in 2018.

• A woman has approached the Delhi High Court seeking to stop her friend from travelling to Switzerland to undergo euthanasia. The person, who is supposed to travel for the physician-assisted suicide, is suffering from a debilitating inflammatory disease.
• In her plea, the 49-year-old petitioner has sought a direction to the central government not to grant “emigration clearance” to her friend in his late 40s and suffering from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
• Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a “complex, debilitating, long-term neuro inflammatory disease” and the petitioner’s friend, who had the first symptom of the disease in 2014, is “now completely bed bound” and can only “walk a few steps inside home”, the plea informs.
• The petitioner has stated that her friend was earlier receiving treatment at AIIMS but the same could not continue during the pandemic due to “donor availability issues”.
• “There are no financial constraints for providing respondent No. 3 [petitioner’s friend] with better treatment within India or abroad. But he is now adamant on his decision to go for euthanasia, which also affect the life of age old parents miserably. It is humbly submitted that there still persists a ray of hope for the betterment of his condition,” said the plea filed through advocate Subhash Chandran KR.
• The petitioner has also prayed for a direction to the Centre to constitute a medical board to examine the medical condition of her friend who has obtained the requisite visa for Switzerland on the “false” pretext of getting treatment, and also provide necessary medical assistance to him.
• The parents, family members and friends of the petitioner’s friend would suffer an irreparable loss and hardship and will be going through an agonising moment if the prayers are not allowed, the plea said.

The FBI raid

• The search of his home was part of an investigation into whether Trump illegally removed records from the White House as he left office in January 2021, some of which the Justice Department believes are classified.
• It was not clear whether such documents were recovered at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, the Post said.
• The US Justice Department asked a judge on Thursday to make public the warrant that authorised the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, after Trump, a Republican, portrayed it as political retribution.

Trump’s reaction

• Trump took to social media to voice his anger and said that the “nuclear weapons issue is a hoax”, equating it to controversies involving Russia, his two impeachments and the Mueller investigation. “Same sleazy people involved,” he alleged.
• His decision to publicly confirm the search was highly unusual. US law enforcement officials typically do not discuss ongoing investigations in order to protect people’s rights. In this case, Trump himself announced the search in a Monday night statement. More details here

• Claims & counterclaims: Ukraine’s Energoatom agency said the Zaporizhzhia complex in south-central Ukraine was struck five times on Thursday, including near where radioactive materials are stored. Russian-appointed officials said Ukraine shelled the plant twice, disrupting a shift changeover, Russia’s TASS news agency said.
• Who controls it: Russia seized Zaporizhzhia in March after invading Ukraine on February 24. The plant, near the front line in the fighting, is held by Russian troops and operated by Ukrainian workers.
• UN appeal: UN Security Council met on Thursday to discuss the situation. “The facility must not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, urgent agreement is needed at a technical level on a safe perimeter of demilitarisation to ensure the safety of the area,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
• Attack on airbase: Satellite pictures released by Planet Labs on Thursday showed devastation at an air base in Russian-annexed Crimea. It suggested Ukraine may have new long-range strike capability with potential to change the course of the war, Western military experts said.
• But, Russia has denied aircraft were damaged and said explosions at the base on Tuesday were accidental. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility.