A look at the top headlines of the day:

  1. Adani Group to acquire 29.18% stake in NDTV, will launch open offer for another 26%: The acquisition was carried out without the consent of the media group’s promoters and co-founders Radhika and Prannoy Roy, employees were told in an e-mail.
  2. Supreme Court says it will look into plea challenging release of Bilkis Bano case convicts: Advocate Aparna Bhat mentioned the matter before Chief Justice NV Ramana, seeking an urgent listing on August 24.
  3. Three IAF officers sacked for accidental firing of BrahMos missile into Pakistan: The Indian Air Force said that the accident happened as these officials deviated from the standard operating procedure.
  4. Adani Group is ‘deeply overleveraged’, warns debt-research company: CreditSights, a unit of Fitch Group, also said that in the worst case scenario, the ports-to-power conglomerate could fall into a debt trap.
  5. Supreme Court refers petitions related to Shiv Sena tussle to Constitution bench: The Election Commission has been asked to not recognise either of the Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray factions as the real Shiv Sena till the case is heard.
  6. BJP suspends MLA Raja Singh hours after his arrest for repeating Nupur Sharma’s Prophet remarks: The legislator from Goshamahal constituency claimed that he had posted a comedy video in reaction to Munawar Faruqui’s show held in Hyderabad last week.
  7. India forced Twitter to give ‘agent’ access to user data, alleges whistleblower: The Union government, facing ‘intense protests’, made the social media company put a person on its payroll, the former Twitter security chief claimed.
  8. Dalit girl allegedly beaten up in Uttar Pradesh, thrown out of class for not wearing uniform: The accused person is a former village head who visits the school every day even though he is not a teacher or official.
  9. Ramdev cannot abuse other medicine systems, says Supreme Court: The court was hearing a petition filed by the Indian Medical Association, seeking to curb the ‘smear campaign’ against modern medicine and Covid-19 vaccination.
  10. We will chop hands of those who remove Savarkar posters, warns Sri Rama Sene chief: Pramod Muthalik said that his supporters will not “keep quiet if the Congressmen insulted freedom fighters”.