Daily News Capsules
1. Mamdani elected mayor of New York
Zohran Mamdani, 34, was elected as the mayor of New York in a historic win on Tuesday night, riding on a campaign that cast him as a foil to a hostile Republican President Donald Trump , who in turn portrayed the Indian-origin Democratic candidate as a dangerous radical out of touch with voters. The self described democratic socialist pulled off a stunning victory in the election and will take office on January 1, 2026 as the youngest mayor of New York in over a century, and also the first South Asian and Muslim to helm the administration of America’s largest and richest city. Mamdani, who currently serves as an assemblyman in the New York State Assembly, defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was running as an independent. Mamdani won with 50.4% of votes, compared to Cuomo’s 41.6%. Replublican nominee Curtis Sliwa secured 7.1%. The incumbent Eric Adams dropped out of the race amid low poll numbers and a series of scandals and later endorsed Cuomo. Indian-Americans also won in other high-profile contests in the US. The Hyderabad-born Senator Ghazala Hashmi was elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, becoming the first Muslim-American woman to be elected to statewide office anywhere in the US, and Aftab Pureval saw off a challenge from US Vice President JD Vance’s half-brother Cory Bowman to win re-election as mayor of Cincinnati in Ohio. A slate of Indian-American candidates, mostly from the Democratic Party, also won state and local level offices across the country.
Possible Question
What factors explain the growing political visibility of the Indian diaspora in Western democracies? What does this mean for India’s foreign policy engagement?
2. Rahul now alleges poll fraud in Haryana; EC rebuts
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of conspiring to “steal” the Congress’s mandate in the Haryana elections last year, alleging large-scale manipulation of electoral rolls and irregularities in the counting process. Speaking a day before the first phase of the Bihar polls, Gandhi said his party collected proof that nearly 2.5 million votes in Haryana were either deleted or duplicated to benefit the BJP. This allegedly included a Brazilian model whose photograph was used 22 times in 10 booths in the Rai assembly constituency using names such as “Seema, Sweety and Saraswati”, Gandhi said. “This is being done in a systematic way, not randomly. The Election Commission has become a participant rather than a neutral referee,” he said. Gandhi also touched upon the controversial special intensive revision of rolls in Bihar and brought on stage five people who said they were voters from Jamui district whose names were removed. ECI dismissed Gandhi’s allegations as “unfounded,” saying that no appeals or objections were filed during the Haryana electoral process. “Haryana: zero appeals against electoral rolls,” said an ECI statement, adding that only 22 election petitions were pending in the high court across 90 Assembly seats. The BJP dismissed the allegation as “false and baseless” and accused the Congress leader of raising questions on ECI to hide his failures and defame democracy.
Possible Question
Analyse the challenges of maintaining public trust in democratic processes.
3. Panel proposes AI regulatory framework
A government-appointed committee has advocated using existing regulation to address risks arising from the use of Artificial Intelligence in India but has also pointed out the need for eventually reviewing laws and rules to fix gaps, particularly in the case of so-called intermediaries, while laying out a regulatory framework with a new apex agency for coordinating policy across ministries. In its ‘India AI Governance Guidelines’ report submitted to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Wednesday, the panel headed by headed by Balaraman Ravindran, Professor at IIT Madras, said the AI Governance Group (AIGG) should serve as a permanent inter-ministerial body to steer AI governance efforts in the country. The AIGG will be headed by the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India and have government agencies, regulators and advisory bodies as members. MeitY should be the nodal ministry for AI governance while respective ministries and regulators would be responsible for governance in their respective fields, the report said. Establishing the AIGG as a nodal agency has been identified as a short-term priority in the committee’s action plan, along with conducting “a regulatory gap analysis and suggesting appropriate legal amendments and rules.”
Possible Question
How can India design an AI governance framework that encourages innovation while mitigating ethical and algorithmic risks? Examine the institutional mechanisms proposed in recent policy reports.
4. Forces plan big operations against top Maoist, lethal fighting unit
Security forces are preparing one of the biggest coordinated anti-Maoist operations in Bastar to eliminate top CPI (Maoist) commander Mandvi Hidma and his Battalion Number 1, considered the most lethal fighting unit of the outlawed group, officials familiar with the development said. Hidma led the Battalion number 1 of CPI ( Maoist ) for almost of decade, and was the main planner of all major attacks on security forces in the last 15 years. He was recently made secretary of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKZC), a powerful decision-making body of the outlawed group. The offensive, planned across Sukma, Narayanpur and Bijapur districts, will target 50 key villages still under Maoist influence where Hidma and other senior leaders are believed to be camping. Following recent encounters that claimed the lives of several senior Maoist leaders, forces have intensified preparations for what is being described as a “decisive and final push” against insurgents. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has set a deadline of March 2026 to completely clear the Bastar forests of Maoist presence.
Possible Question
Evaluate the effectiveness of India’s approach in addressing Left-wing extremism. What are the learnings?
5. Canada to reduce intake of temporary residents by 43%
Canada is sharply reducing its intake of temporary residents, including workers and international students, by nearly 43%, according to the immigration levels plan announced by the government as part of the Federal Budget on Tuesday. There will be a decrease in the total numbers in these categories between 2026 and 2028. In its previous levels plan, the government had looked at admitting 305,000 international students each year. But the plans on Tuesday showed the target at 155,000, reducing further to 150,000 in 2027 and 2028. The government is also planning to launch an accelerated pathway to attract talent affected by the $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas imposed by the United States this year. The projections for workers and students in 2026 is 385,000, going down to 370,000 over the next two years. The number of new work permits to be issued under the Temporary Foreign Worker Programme (TFWP), International Mobility Program (IMP), including those issued under humanitarian public policies, will total 230,000 next year, and 220,000 in 2027 and 2028. The 2025 target for temporary residents admitted to the country was 673,650, including 367,750 foreign workers and 305,900 students. The projected figures in the 2024 levels plan were at 516,600 in 2026 and 543,600 in 2027. Indians form the largest cohorts in the impacted areas. They comprised 20.8% of the TFWP source country, and 29.2% under the International Mobility Plan in 2024. Indians also accounted for 36.5% of the study permits issued.
Possible Question
What implications do shifting immigration policies in Western economies have for India’s labour mobility and higher-education strategies?
Editorial Snapshots
A. Regional vs national in the Northeast
The new, yet-to-be-named political party announced by Meghalaya chief minister and National People’s Party (NPP) chief Conrad Sangma and TIPRA Motha leader Pradyot Manikya DebBarma, among others, is an interesting experiment. There is no shortage of regional parties in the Northeast, but a pan-regional party is rare. The NPP was founded as a pan-Northeast outfit in 2013, but it has remained a Meghalaya-centric outfit. TIPRA Motha has failed to win office even in its home, Tripura, where it advocates special privileges for the indigenous communities. The proposed party intends to combine the agendas of the NPP and TIPRA Motha — a regional agenda and the rights of indigenous people, respectively — which are mostly at variance. The Northeast is a federal entity whose political geography reflects its linguistic, ethnic, and religious diversity. Regional parties here have built their case by articulating subnationalist agendas and prioritising the local over the national. These parties have also worked together with the party in power at the Centre to ensure political and fiscal stability in the states. The relationship among the national, regional, and indigenous in the Northeast is riddled with contradictions because of the nature of state formation in the region. Waves of migration have changed demographies, turning “indigenity”, a tenuous concept, into a political issue in almost all states. Any party that wants to articulate a common vision for the region will have to reconcile the differences and project a federal and inclusive politics. That’s no easy task. However, with the BJP holding its place as one pole and the Congress in decline, a new third pan-regional party may eye the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the Northeast.
Possible Question
How can India’s federal system accommodate regional aspirations in the Northeast while safeguarding national integration? Examine the prospects and pitfalls of pan-regional political formations.
B. A cricket success, also a story of empowerment
Cricket ceased to be a gentleman’s game long ago. It’s played by men, but, it is as much a woman’s sport today. India’s Class of 2025 announced that loud and clear Sunday midnight, as their infectious joy on winning the World Cup was beamed into homes across the country. It has been compared to the 1983 moment for men’s cricket in India, when Kapil’s Devils stormed Lord’s and defeated an all-time great West Indian side. The euphoria of the ’83 win, in a country where the only previous world champion was Ajit Pal Singh’s hockey team of 1975, kick-started cricket’s transformation into a mass sport. The 1987 World Cup, played at home, telecast nationwide and packaged as entertainment, was truly the moment cricket transcended its elite, metro origins and began to find fans outside the big cities. The IPL was the culmination of that journey when cricket turned into an aspiration sport, a ticket out of rural misery and urban poverty, for many starry-eyed young people. Harmanpreet Kaur’s Class of 2025 illustrates this story even better. Kaur is from Moga, Punjab, and her deputy, Smriti Mandhana, hails from Sangli, a small town in western Maharashtra’s sugar belt. There’s Kranti Gaud from Ghuwara, Uma Chetry from Golaghat, Shree Charani from Kadapa, and Richa Ghosh from Siliguri. Mumbai and Delhi, and state capitals such as Dehradun, Chandigarh, Shimla and Hyderabad are represented, but the team is more a microcosm of India’s geographical spread and economic diversity. The players represent the hopes of single mothers and rural families that scraped out resources to ensure that their wards got to live out their dreams. This transformation of cricket as a pan-Indian, class-agnostic sport is an empowering story that calls for celebration. It has enormous social and economic implications for a nation where many still see the girl child as a burden. The Class of 2025 are role models, and evidence of the potential of India’s girls and women.
Possible Question
In what ways has the rise of women’s cricket in India reflected broader social and economic transformations? Discuss its role in advancing gender equality and grassroots empowerment.
Fact of the day
137 Indian institutions in QS rankings but none in top 50
No Indian higher education institution has secured a place in the top 50 of the QS World University Rankings: Asia 2026, released on Tuesday even as the country added 137 institutions to the rankings — the second highest after China’s 261. Even those within the top 100 — including five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) — have seen sharp decline in their rankings compared to previous years, as universities in Malaysia, China, South Korea, and Singapore continue to outperform them. The 17th edition of the QS Asian University Rankings features 1,529 universities from 25 higher education systems, including 558 new entrants. China (Mainland) added 261 institutions to reach 395, regaining its position as the most represented system after two years, while India added 137, taking its total to 294, the second highest. India’s representation has surged from 24 universities in 2016 to 294 in 2026—a remarkable 1,125% increase, compared to China’s 273% rise. A total of 19 universities achieved their highest-ever ranking, including Chandigarh University, BITS Pilani, Shoolini University, and OP Jindal Global University. In rankings, India’s top 10 institutions range from IIT Delhi at 59 to IIT Guwahati at 115. Five IITs — Delhi, Madras, Bombay, Kanpur, and Kharagpur — have recorded their lowest positions in the last five years, while public institutions such as IISc Bengaluru and Delhi University have also slipped. Chandigarh University, the only private institution in the group, improved to 109th, up from 120th last year and 149th in the previous edition.
