Everything you need to know for the day (and a little more).
Above the Fold: Top stories of the day
1. The Japanese navy could be set to join naval exercises planned between India and the United States, a move that might cause consternation in Beijing.
2. The Supreme Court issued notice to Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav to reply on a petition challenging the quashing of a First Information Report against him alleging involvement in the MP Vyapam scam.
3. Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea have been knocked out of the Wimbledon after losing in the men's doubles semifinals. His compatriot Leander Paes has reached the mixed doubles semifinals along with Martina Hingis, who will also be playing in the women's doubles semifinals today, alongside Sania Mirza.
The Big Story: Piecemeal Process
Just under a year since India called off talks with Pakistan, after Islamabad's ambassador met with Kashmiri separatists, Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif are set to meet each other on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Ufa, Russia. It won't just be a quick meeting like the one on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation last year. Instead, this will involve a proper bilateral discussion and several agreements signed by the nuclear neighbours. (The meeting is being considered serious enough that the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi has called off its iftar plans, which would have included invites to Kashmiri separatists).
The agreements themselves are unlikely to be too memorable, although they will be quietly important, including things like permitting banks in each others' countries and allowing more multiple-entry visas. But it will be the meeting itself that will be more remarked upon. Modi began his innings as PM in India by inviting Sharif to New Delhi for his swearing in, a move that made people hope for better communication between the two countries under the new dispensation. By August, though, this hope had dissipated.
The Ufa meeting should act as the unclenching of a fist, allowing the two countries to talk again and charting out a path for further reconciliation. Modi stands in a slightly uncomfortable place politically at home and Sharif is never going to be comfortable because of civilian-military relations in his country, which means both could do with some bilateral progress. But both also have to pander to the more nationalist portions of their constituencies. Which is all to say: don't expect too much from Ufa.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
Even Google Maps knows how dysfunctional India-Pakistan relations are. And also, India's alleged funding of MQM will strengthen the hand of the Pakistan army.
Politicking & Policying
1. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has suggested that if he is brought back to power, he might push for a ban on alcohol.
2. Special Public Prosecutor in the 2008 Malegaon blases case Rohini Salian has said that her statement about the National Investigation Agency telling her to go "soft" on the case, wasn't an impulsive one.
3. The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh has come in the way of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Maharashtra government's plan to implement labour reforms in the state.
4. Tamil Nadu politics has started to get personal, with the slightly ironic sight of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam head M Karunanidhi asking TN Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to reveal details about her alleged "ill health."
Punditry
1. Bibek Debroy in the Business Standard calls on those putting together the sustainable development goals, which replace the millennium development goals to ensure they are not filled with jargon and instead can be understood by anyone.
2. Indians are turning to wildlife tourism like never before, writes Bahar Dutt in Mint, but little of that is directed towards the right causes at the moment.
3. An important legacy of the Emergency has now mostly been forgotten, writes Krishna Kumar in theHindu: the role of conscience in politics.
Don't Miss
Malini Subramaniam reports on Chhattisgarh shutting down schools in precisely the areas where it should be expanding them.
With the closure of the middle school, Sethia and his schoolmates will have to walk another two kilometres through the jungle to Koleng village. “How can I let my 11-year-old walk 12 kilometre every day back and forth through the forest?” said one of the parents.
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