The Catch Up: 22 November

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Ichha Sharma.
Today is the 22th of November and here are this week’s headlines.

Karnataka’s Anti-Naxal Force shot and killed fugitive Naxal leader Vikram Gowda in a gunbattle on Monday night in Udupi. The 44-year-old had been a key member of the banned CPI (Maoist) group, considered one of the last remaining major Naxal leaders from Karnataka. His death follows the 2021 arrest of another top leader, B.G. Krishnamurthy. With Gowda’s death, the remaining underground Naxals in Karnataka come down to just seven, including four women.

Delhi’s air quality hit alarming levels early Tuesday, with an AQI of 492, placing the capital in the "severe-plus" category. Certain areas, including Alipur and Anand Vihar, surpassed the 500 mark. This means Delhi residents are breathing in pollutants equivalent to 50 cigarettes a day, posing serious health risks to everyone, not just those with pre-existing conditions. The government has implemented its highest emergency measures, and the Supreme Court has ordered these actions to remain in place until further notice. Additionally, Delhi’s Environment Minister Gopal Rai announced a 50% work-from-home policy for both private and government offices due to severe air pollution.

As polling concluded in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, urban voter ahpathy remained a challenge for the Election Commission, which frequently ran campaigns to encourage people to come out in large numbers and vote. Despite being the state’s largest city and the country’s financial and entertainment hub, Mumbai recorded the lowest vote turnout at 51.27 per cent, just 1 per cent higher than 48.4 per cent turnout in 2019. Meanwhile, Gadchiroli saw the highest turnout at 69.63 per cent. In Jharkhand, Jamtara recorded the highest turnout at 76.16 per cent, while Bo-ka-ro had the lowest at 60.97 per cent. After casting his vote in Thane, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde expressed his confidence in securing a thumping victory in the ongoing Assembly polls. Shinde said, quote “People have seen their two-and-a-half years of rule vis-a-vis the work done by us in the same amount of time. People will vote for development and for the work done by us,” unquote.

In a major legal development, US prosecutors have indicted Gautam Adani, the chairman of Adani Group, along with seven others, accusing them of orchestrating a $250 million bribery scheme. The charges allege the group bribed Indian officials to secure power contracts in India. Alongside the indictment, the US SEC is seeking penalties and a jury trial for Adani and his associates, citing their operations in the US and impact on American investors. The political war over the Adani bribery case heats up as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accuses the Indian government of supporting Gautam Adani, who was indicted in the US for allegedly offering over $200 million in bribes. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra hit back, accusing Congress of destabilizing Indian markets with false propaganda. He questioned why Congress-ruled states had welcomed Adani’s investments despite the controversy.

On the global front, Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from its southern Astrakhan region in an attack against Ukraine. Kyiv’s air force said this is the first time since the war broke out that Russia has used a long-range missile. Meanwhile, Ukraine on Wednesday said that Russia hit it with a “a massive information-psychological attack” by dispersing fake warning, alledgedly from Ukrainian military intelligence, about an imminent mass air attack. Following the Main Directorate of Intelligence’s statement Reuters reported, quote “This message is a fake, it contains grammatical errors typical of Russian information and psychological operations,” unquote

This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.