1. Why is Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar spending more time talking about the 15 years of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s rule of the state, rather than his own record? Marya Shakil reports ahead of elections in the state.
  2. Even though the Bharatiya Janata Party has insisted that the Citizenship Amendment Act would protect Hindus in the National Register of Citizens process in Assam, Makepeace Sitlhou reports that “in the absence of clarity from Delhi on how the new citizenship law will work, Hindus of suspect citizenship continue to be declared foreigners”.
  3. “Ever since it began opening up the economy in the 1990s, India’s dream has been to emulate China’s rapid expansion,” writes Andy Mukherjee. “After three decades of persevering with that campaign, slipping behind Bangladesh hurts its global image.”
  4. Sunaina Kumar recounts the fascinating final days of the autonomous kingdom of Sikkim, before it was merged into India amid high drama.
  5. “The Tanishq advertisement of a Muslim mother-in-law and a Hindu daughter-in-law is beautiful, just the way all their advertisements are,” writes Sameena Dalwai. “Taking it back means we believe that it is mischievous fiction, that these kinds of relationships do not exist in reality. But they do. I am a living proof. I am the unborn baby in that ad.”
  6. Asim Ali argues that Narendra Modi’s political career echoes that of former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, despite their politics being completely different.
  7. The Kerala government is attempting to reinvigorate public schools, which it claims has led to a surge in enrolment despite competition from private ones, reports Vishnu Varma.
  8. Why is Facebook suddenly taking a lot of action against conpiracy-mongers and other right-wing sources of fake news? Because, writes Will Oremus, “after four years of trying to appease Trump and Congressional Republicans who cry ‘censorship’ over fact-checks, the major internet platforms now face the prospect of a government run by a party that wants them to moderate content more aggressively”.
  9. Deepa Seetharaman and Emily Glazer tell the story of how Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg became a political operator, despite his earlier disinterested stance.
  10. A team of reporters from ProPublica reports on “how the world’s greatest public health organisation was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus”.