Above the Fold: Top stories of the day
1. Two Indians were among the the five killed in an attack by militants on a guesthouse in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday morning.
2. The Supreme Court has ruled that government ads cannot be used as promotional vehicles for politicians, allowing only the Prime Minister, President and Chief Justice of India to appear in the advertisements, and that too with their personal clearance.
3. There has been another attack on a key witness in the rape cases against godman Asaram and his son Narayan Rai, making it the sixth attack on a witness so far.

The Big Story: Modi in China
Narendra Modi sets off for his first visit to China as prime minister on Thursday. Modi will spend three days in the Middle Kingdom, starting off at the Chinese President's hometown of Xian, a reciprocal gesture for to Xi Jinping visiting Ahmedabad in Septeber, followed up by major talks in Beijing. There will be plenty on the agenda, from trade to the neighbourhood situation to the border dispute, as India attempts to figure out a position in Asia that doesn't antagonise Beijing without exactly bowing down to it either.

As is his wont, Modi will focus on the trade and economic side of the discussions the most. Yet there are expectations, partly because of the image Modi has developed, that he will make progress on border issues, particularly in the way the two countries approach areas like the disputed Arunachal Pradesh. Here, a set of an economic agreements with little reference to the border issue is more likely to help Modi than a major step forward on the border that is perceived as conceding too much to the Chinese.

Trade isn't all that easy of a matter either, considering the massive trade deficit between the two countries. There are opportunities, however, for this to be balanced, since it will be in both countries' interest. There will also be plenty of chances to work together on issues from climate change to terrorism in the region. Whatever emerges from this bilateral meet could be an important indicator of where Modi actually sees India's place in the overall scheme of things, which TN Ninan suggested might be more muted than we expect

The Big Scroll
An editorial in the Global Times, a Communist Party mouthpiece, blames India-China disputes on the arrogance of Indian elites and the inferiority of its ordinary people.

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Politicking & Policying
1. The government is staying the course on its Foreign Direct Investment in Multi-Brand Retail policy for the moment, allowing up to 51% of foreign investment, even though the Bharatiya Janata Party had called it the "death knell" for small traders and agitated against it. The Congress, which was responsible for the policy, has stayed quiet over the matter. 
2. The Cabinet has approved a change to the Child Labour Act, keeping the ban against employment for those under 14 with the caveat that those in "non-hazardous family enterprises" along with a few other exceptions are permitted. The move has been met with opposition from activists.
3. The Budget Session of Parliament has come to a close with one of the most productive sessions in years. Parliament passed 24 pieces of legislation, including some crucial ones, with the only setback for the government being that two key laws, the Goods and Services Tax Constitutional Amendment and the Land Acquisition Amendment had to be referred to committees.
4. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi may claim that the new government has tried to kill investment in his constituency of Amethi, but the place has little to show for being one of the most important Lok Sabha seats for decades now.
5. Former Bihar Chief Minister JR Manjhi says he is ready for a post-poll tie up with the BJP, Congress or Rashtriya Janata Dal after he was expelled from the Janata Dal (United).

Giggle

 

Punditry
1. Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express says the National Judicial Appointments Commission standoff is a question of whom do we trust more: the executive or the judiciary?
2. The spread of the Modi government's new welfare schemes to the middle-class as well is one of the most useful things that it has done, writes R Srinivasan in the Hindu Businessline.
3. An old alliance in the cricketing world could mean we get to see India playing Pakistan in a test series once again, writes Ayaz Memon in Mint.

Don't Miss
K Anis Ahmed writes about the death of secular expression in Bangladesh, one blogger at a time.
The current government faces a tough quandary. If it resorts to tougher measures against Islamists, it may be painted by BNP-Jamaat as anti-Islamic, and by its secular allies as autocratic. If the government remains restrained in its response, then the Islamists may feel emboldened.

The trick here might be to ignore the false dichotomy of tough or soft actions,  and focus on being much more precise and energetic in response to specific crimes. It also has to make incitement of violence, be it in a Friday sermon or in a digital hole, more punishable.