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The Union government has introduced the 2025 Immigration and Foreigners Bill in the Lok Sabha to consolidate existing immigration laws. The bill includes a provision to deny entry or residency to foreigners deemed a threat to India’s sovereignty or integrity.

Union minister Nityanand Rai said the bill aims to regulate immigration, not restrict it, and would replace four older laws, namely the 1920 Passport Entry into India Act, the 1939 Registration of Foreigners Act, the 1946 Foreigners Act and the 2000 Immigration Carriers’ Liability Act.

The proposed law mandates the registration of foreigners upon arrival, restricts their movement, and requires institutions to report their presence. The bill also proposes stringent penalties for visa violations and forged documents, and allows immigration officers to make an arrest without a warrant.

Critics, including Congress MP Manish Tewari, said the bill could undermine constitutional rights and be misused to target ideological opponents. Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy warned it could deter the inflow of global professional talent. Read on.

The Baloch Liberation Army, a militant separatist group, took more than 450 passengers hostage from the Jaffar Express in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. The train, travelling from Quetta to Peshawar, was attacked and trapped inside a tunnel, with the driver injured in the assault.

The group claimed responsibility, stating it had captured passengers, including security personnel, and threatened to execute them unless security forces retreated. Security forces reported hearing an explosion and were engaged in a gunfight with the militants.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack, asserting there would be no concessions to those harming civilians. The Baloch Liberation Army, designated a terrorist group by Pakistan, seeks the secession of Balochistan and has carried out numerous attacks against state institutions and Chinese interests in the region. Read on.

India was the world’s second-largest arms importer in 2024, accounting for 8.3% of global imports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Ukraine overtook India, with an 8.8% share, due to a near-hundredfold rise in imports after Russia’s 2022 invasion.

India’s arms imports declined by 9.3% from 2015-’19 to 2020-’24, driven by domestic manufacturing and diversification away from Russia, whose share fell to 36%-38%. India is now the top arms importer from France and Israel and among the top from South Korea and South Africa.

The country remains outside the top 25 arms exporters globally. Four of the top 10 importers were in Asia and Oceania. Pakistan’s imports rose 61%, with China as its dominant supplier. Global transfers stayed stable, though United States exports surged while Russia’s fell sharply. The changes were attributed to rising regional security threats and shifting geopolitical alliances. Read on.

Thirteen of the world’s 20 most polluted cities in 2024 were in India, with Byrnihat in Meghalaya topping the list, according to Swiss air quality firm IQAir’s annual World Air Quality Report. They are: Byrnihat, Delhi, Punjab’s Mullanpur, Faridabad, Loni, Gurugram, Ganganagar, Greater Noida, Bhiwadi, Muzaffarnagar, Hanumangarh and Noida.

The study analysed levels of PM2.5 – fine particulate matter hazardous to health – in nearly 9,000 cities worldwide. It found Delhi to be the most polluted capital city globally, while India ranked as the fifth most polluted country, down from third place in 2023.

Byrnihat recorded an annual average PM2.5 concentration of 128.2 micrograms per cubic metre of air (µg/m³) – over 25 times the World Health Organization’s safe limit of 5 µg/m³. India’s national average stood at 50.6 µg/m³.

Chad and Bangladesh were the most polluted countries. The annual average PM2.5 concentration in Chad was 91.8 μg/m³, more than 18 times higher than the World Health Organization standard. It was 78.0 μg/m³ in Bangladesh. Read on.

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