The Evening Wrap: SEBI says its chief Madhabi Buch disclosed, recused when necessary

In its first comments following a new report by U.S.-based short seller Hindenburg Research, capital markets regulator SEBI on August 11 said it has investigated all the allegations against the Adani group. Chairperson Madhabi Buch made relevant disclosures from time to time and recused herself in matters involving potential conflicts of interest, the regulator said in a statement. The regulator also said that it has duly investigated the allegations made by Hindenburg against Adani, and said that last of its 26 investigations is nearing completion now. Hindenburg attacking credibility, attempting character assassination: SEBI chief Madhabi, husband issue detailed rebuttal U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research is attacking capital markets regulator SEBI’s credibility and attempting a character assassination of its chief, Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval said today. In a detailed statement issued this evening, the Buchs clarified on the raft of allegations made by Hindenburg in a report on August 10. “They have chosen to attack the credibility of Sebi and attempt character assassination of the Sebi chairperson,” the statement said. Hindenburg had alleged that it suspects SEBI’s unwillingness to act against Adani Group may be because Madhabi had stakes in offshore funds linked to the conglomerate. The Buchs had immediately termed the allegations “baseless” in an early morning statement. While Madhabi serves as the chairperson of SEBI, her husband is a senior advisor with Blackstone. In the fresh statement, the Buchs said their investment in a fund promoted by IIFL Wealth Management was as Singapore-based private citizens, and made two years before Madhabi joined SEBI as a whole-time member in 2017. According to the statement, Buchs decided to invest in the two funds on advice of Dhaval’s childhood friend, Anil Ahuja. Ahuja is the person who the Hindenburg report has identified as the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Mauritius-based IPE Plus Fund and who the Adani Group also in its statement said was a nominee of 3i Investment Fund in Adani power (2007-2008) and served as a director of Adani Enterprises for three terms spanning nine years ended June 2017. Citing Ahuja’s statement, the Buchs said that at no point did the fund invest in any bond, equity, or derivative of any Adani Group company. On the Hindenburg report’s concerns surrounding Dhaval’s association with Blackstone, the Buch couple said the appointment was on account of his deep expertise in supply chain management and predates Madhabi’s elevation of becoming the SEBI chairperson. “At no time has Dhaval been associated with the real estate side of Blackstone,” they added. They also clarified that immediately on Dhaval’s appointment, the Blackstone Group was added to Madhabi’s “recusal list” maintained with SEBI. Making it clear that all the regulations in SEBI are approved by its board and not by the chairperson, the statement said insinuations of a handful of the decisions concerning the Real Estate Investments Trusts industry are favours to specific party are “malicious and motivated”. They said in the last two years, SEBI has issued over 300 circulars across the entire market ecosystem and these include ease of doing business initiatives. On Madhabi’s two consulting firms, the couple said the entities became “dormant” on her appointment at SEBI and added that her shareholding in them was also disclosed to SEBI. However, it also added that on Dhaval’s retirement from Unilever, he started a consultancy practice through the same companies and worked for prominent clients in India. Linking the earnings in the consultancy companies to Madhabi’s current government salary is “malicious”, the statement said. In the report, Hindenburg alleged that Madhabi “currently” has a 99% ownership in Indian consulting business called Agora Advisory where her husband is a director. “When the shareholding of the Singapore entity moved to Dhaval, this was once again disclosed, not just to Sebi, but also to the Singapore authorities and the Indian tax authorities,” it said adding that SEBI has strong institutional mechanisms on disclosure and recusal norms. Hindenburg research on SEBI chief: Opposition parties flay government, demand JPC probe In the wake of the U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research’s allegations against Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairperson Madhabi Buch, the Congress on August 11 said the government must act immediately to eliminate all conflicts of interest in the regulator’s investigation of the Adani Group and reiterated its demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the matter. The Opposition party also said the “seeming complicity of the highest officials of the land” can only be resolved by setting up a JPC to investigate the full scope of the “scam”. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said a JPC inquiry is imperative to probe this “massive scandal”. He alleged that until a JPC inquiry probes the issue, concerns persist that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will continue to “shield his ally, compromising India’s constitutional institutions, painstakingly built over seven decades”. In a post on X, Kharge said, “SEBI had previously cleared Adani, a close associate of PM Modi, before the Supreme Court following the January 2023 Hindenburg Report revelations. However, new allegations have surfaced regarding a quid pro quo involving the SEBI chief.” “The small and medium investors belonging to the middle class who invest their hard-earned money in the stock market need to be protected, as they believe in the SEBI,” he said. In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the SEBI account on Twitter is “locked”, and therefore inaccessible to the general public. Congress’ media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said that the shocking revelations do not just expose the “cozy relationship” between the SEBI chief and the Adani group, they show how appointments to watchdog institutions are made in this government. Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra raised questions on X demanding answers for detailed clarification. In a post on X, she questioned the SEBI chief whether she had invested in IPEplus Fund 1 in 2015 being a part of Global Development Opportunities Fund, a part of Global Opportunities Fund used by Vinod Adani. Moitra has also asked when Buch ceased to have a stake in this fund and further asked if Anil Ahuja, former director of Adani Enterprises/Adani Power was part of this fund. Among her many other questions, Moitra also asked if the SEBI chairperson had disclosed to SEBI about her ownership stakes when she was a whole-time member of it. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanded that the Supreme Court take note of the allegations. Addressing a press conference, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the SEBI had told a Supreme Court panel that the investigation into the Adani group was “directionless”. Paris Olympics: Six medals and six near misses; India finishes 71st in medal tally Paris 2024 will be remembered for the six medals which brought joy to the Indians as well as the six fourth place finishes that resulted in heartbreaks. A medal less than what the country got in the previous edition may have restricted the celebrations in the Indian camp but the mixed bouquet of hits and near misses paint a promising picture of Indian sports. Neeraj Chopra, Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh, Swapnil Kusale, Aman Sehrawat and the Indian hockey team contributed in the six medals, including a silver and five bronze, and gave reasons to celebrate. India managed the 71st place on the medals tally. In Tokyo, one gold, two silver and four bronze had placed the country at the 48th spot in Tokyo three years ago. Shooters Manu (25m sports pistol), Arjun Babuta (10m air rifle) and the mixed team pair of Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan (skeet), the archery mixed team pair of Ankita Bhakat and B. Dhiraj, shuttler Lakshya Sen and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu lost their respective bronze medal contests to miss podium finishes by a whisker. Add to this the quarterfinal losses of boxers Nishant Dev and Lovlina Borgohain, just a step away from securing a medal, to the country’s so-near-yet-so-far moments. The unexpected disqualification of wrestler Vinesh Phogat after reaching the women’s 50kg final was another huge blow to the country’s aspirations of securing medals in double digit. NDA eyes majority in Rajya Sabha after bypolls The BJP-led NDA is expected to achieve a clear majority in Rajya Sabha after by-elections for 12 seats scheduled next month, which would help the party get the nod for key legislations such as the Waqf (Amendment) Bill. In the Upper House with the current effective strength of 229, the BJP has 87 MPs and with its allies the number is 105. Six nominated members, who usually cast their vote with the government, take the strength of the NDA to 111, four short of the half-way mark of 115. The Congress has 26 members in the Upper House and its allies add another 58, taking the opposition alliance numbers to 84. Among the key fence-sitters are the YSR Congress Party with 11 members and BJD with eight members. Elections to the 12 vacant Rajya Sabha seats in nine states will be held on September 3. The Election Commission has announced 12 separate elections for each of the seats, handing over a clear advantage to the ruling party in the state. The BJP and its allies are expected to win 11 of the 12 seats in the elections, which will take the NDA past the half-way mark to 122 seats in the 245-member house. Four seats from Jammu and Kashmir in the Upper House are vacant as the Union Territory is yet to get its first legislative assembly. This reduces the effective strength of the Rajya Sabha to 241. BJP and RSS re-kindle closer coordination for upcoming Assembly elections After large sections of the RSS cadre stayed away from election work during the recent Lok Sabha election, the BJP has actively wooed back its ideological mothership, with the RSS-BJP coordination committees for the upcoming Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections being set up. In Maharashtra, RSS joint general secretary Atul Limaye has been told to coordinate efforts between the BJP and RSS for the narrative and the campaign. “During the Lok Sabha elections, many of the RSS cadres had kept away from the campaign and [from] drumming support for Mahayuti candidates as they were upset with the inclusion of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the alliance, and other internal issues. After this, efforts have been made to effect a rapprochement within the ideological parivar (family), and [to enable] closer coordination,” a senior leader in the Maharashtra BJP said. For Haryana, another RSS joint general secretary, Arun Kumar, who is otherwise also in charge of coordination between the BJP and the RSS, is the point person. Both organisations held marathon meetings several days ago on the Haryana Assembly election to thrash out campaign and other issues. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan (the BJP’s in-charge for the Haryana election), and Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini were present at those meetings. The Lok Sabha election exposed the testy relationship between the RSS and the BJP, which was not helped by BJP president J.P. Nadda’s statement during an interview that the BJP was now “saksham” (capable) of deploying its own personnel for the campaign. After the BJP came back to power, albeit with a reduced number of 240 seats and dependent on allies, including the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), to form a government at the Centre, there have been attempts to bridge the distance between the BJP and the RSS. J&K Assembly polls: Election Commission has exclusive right to decide schedule, says LG Manoj Sinha Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on August 11 said the Election Commission of India has the exclusive right to decide the schedule for Assembly elections in the Union Territory. However, he expressed hope that the democratic exercise would be conducted soon in Jammu and Kashmir, which has been under the Central government rule for more than six years after the fall of the PDP-BJP government in 2018. Talking to reporters after inaugurating the newly constructed building of the Malaviya Mission Teachers Training Centre at the University of Jammu, LG Sinha also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks during his visit to Srinagar in June that the Assembly elections will be held soon and the statement of Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament on August 5, 2019 that delimitation will be followed by Assembly polls and then Statehood at an appropriate time. “It is happening in the same sequence… I hope the Assembly elections will take place soon,” Sinha said. He also referred to the recent two-day visit of the Election Commission’s full team to Jammu and Kashmir and their meetings with political parties, administration officials and other stakeholders before returning to Delhi. “What will be the date of (Assembly) elections is the exclusive right of the ECI (Election Commission of India),” he said. The visit of the Election Commission of India was the first major exercise for preparing the grounds for holding the maiden Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5, 2019. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledges Ukraine’s military operation in Russia President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged for the first time on August 10 that Ukrainian forces were fighting in the surprise offensive in Russia’s Kursk, as attacks on the border region continued with authorities rushing to evacuate people. Moscow’s forces were in their sixth day of intense battles against Kyiv’s largest incursion into Russian territory since the start of the war, which left southwestern parts of Russia vulnerable before reinforcement started arriving. In a sign of the gravity of the situation, Russia imposed a sweeping security regime in three border regions, while Belarus, a staunch ally of Moscow, sent more troops to its border with Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of violating its air space. In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said he had discussed the operation with top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, vowing to restore justice after Russia launched the full-scale invasion on its smaller neighbour in February 2022. Russia’s Defence Ministry said on August 11 it had destroyed 14 Ukrainian drones and four Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles overnight over the Kursk region, and 18 drones over other Russian regions that Ukraine frequently attacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin cast the Ukrainian attack — which military analysts say caught the Kremlin off-guard — as a major provocation. Russian military bloggers said the situation had stabilised after Russia’s reinforcements, though they said Ukraine was swiftly building up forces. Earlier today, Kursk officials said 13 people were injured in the city after debris from a destroyed Ukrainian missile fell onto a nine-storey residential building. It was not clear whether there was further damage. Moscow and Kyiv rarely disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by attacks on them unless there are injuries or damage to residential buildings. Russian military bloggers say fighting is taking place as deep as 20km inside the Kursk region, prompting some of them to question why Ukraine was able to pierce the Kursk region so easily. In Brief: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on August 11 announced that her party will field candidates in all the 10 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh where bypolls are going to be held. In a statement released after a meeting of the BSP’s State unit district chiefs, office bearers and functionaries, the party said Mayawati reviewed the preparations for the upcoming Assembly bypolls. [logo] The Evening Wrap 11 August 2024 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [View in browser]( [More newsletters]( Hindenburg Research: Allegations against Adani duly investigated; Madhabi Buch disclosed, recused when necessary, says SEBI In its first comments following a new report by U.S.-based short seller Hindenburg Research, capital markets regulator [SEBI on August 11 said it has investigated all the allegations against the Adani group](. Chairperson Madhabi Buch made relevant disclosures from time to time and recused herself in matters involving potential conflicts of interest, the regulator said in a statement. The regulator also said that it has duly investigated the allegations made by Hindenburg against Adani, and said that last of its 26 investigations is nearing completion now. Hindenburg attacking credibility, attempting character assassination: SEBI chief Madhabi, husband issue detailed rebuttal U.S.-based short-seller [Hindenburg Research is attacking capital markets regulator SEBI’s credibility]( and attempting a character assassination of its chief, Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval said today. In a detailed statement issued this evening, the Buchs clarified on the raft of allegations made by Hindenburg in a report on August 10. “They have chosen to attack the credibility of Sebi and attempt character assassination of the Sebi chairperson,” the statement said. Hindenburg had alleged that it suspects SEBI’s unwillingness to act against Adani Group may be because Madhabi had stakes in offshore funds linked to the conglomerate. The Buchs had immediately termed the allegations “baseless” in an early morning statement. While Madhabi serves as the chairperson of SEBI, her husband is a senior advisor with Blackstone. In the fresh statement, the Buchs said their investment in a fund promoted by IIFL Wealth Management was as Singapore-based private citizens, and made two years before Madhabi joined SEBI as a whole-time member in 2017. According to the statement, Buchs decided to invest in the two funds on advice of Dhaval’s childhood friend, Anil Ahuja. Ahuja is the person who the Hindenburg report has identified as the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Mauritius-based IPE Plus Fund and who the Adani Group also in its statement said was a nominee of 3i Investment Fund in Adani power (2007-2008) and served as a director of Adani Enterprises for three terms spanning nine years ended June 2017. Citing Ahuja’s statement, the Buchs said that at no point did the fund invest in any bond, equity, or derivative of any Adani Group company. On the Hindenburg report’s concerns surrounding Dhaval’s association with Blackstone, the Buch couple said the appointment was on account of his deep expertise in supply chain management and predates Madhabi’s elevation of becoming the SEBI chairperson. “At no time has Dhaval been associated with the real estate side of Blackstone,” they added. They also clarified that immediately on Dhaval’s appointment, the Blackstone Group was added to Madhabi’s “recusal list” maintained with SEBI. Making it clear that all the regulations in SEBI are approved by its board and not by the chairperson, the statement said insinuations of a handful of the decisions concerning the Real Estate Investments Trusts industry are favours to specific party are “malicious and motivated”. They said in the last two years, SEBI has issued over 300 circulars across the entire market ecosystem and these include ease of doing business initiatives. On Madhabi’s two consulting firms, the couple said the entities became “dormant” on her appointment at SEBI and added that her shareholding in them was also disclosed to SEBI. However, it also added that on Dhaval’s retirement from Unilever, he started a consultancy practice through the same companies and worked for prominent clients in India. Linking the earnings in the consultancy companies to Madhabi’s current government salary is “malicious”, the statement said. In the report, Hindenburg alleged that Madhabi “currently” has a 99% ownership in Indian consulting business called Agora Advisory where her husband is a director. “When the shareholding of the Singapore entity moved to Dhaval, this was once again disclosed, not just to Sebi, but also to the Singapore authorities and the Indian tax authorities,” it said adding that SEBI has strong institutional mechanisms on disclosure and recusal norms. Hindenburg research on SEBI chief: Opposition parties flay government, demand JPC probe In the wake of the U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research’s allegations against Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairperson Madhabi Buch, the [Congress on August 11 said the government must act immediately]( to eliminate all conflicts of interest in the regulator’s investigation of the Adani Group and reiterated its demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the matter. The Opposition party also said the “seeming complicity of the highest officials of the land” can only be resolved by setting up a JPC to investigate the full scope of the “scam”. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said a JPC inquiry is imperative to probe this “massive scandal”. He alleged that until a JPC inquiry probes the issue, concerns persist that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will continue to “shield his ally, compromising India’s constitutional institutions, painstakingly built over seven decades”. In a post on X, Kharge said, “SEBI had previously cleared Adani, a close associate of PM Modi, before the Supreme Court following the January 2023 Hindenburg Report revelations. However, new allegations have surfaced regarding a quid pro quo involving the SEBI chief.” “The small and medium investors belonging to the middle class who invest their hard-earned money in the stock market need to be protected, as they believe in the SEBI,” he said. In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the SEBI account on Twitter is “locked”, and therefore inaccessible to the general public. Congress’ media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said that the shocking revelations do not just expose the “cozy relationship” between the SEBI chief and the Adani group, they show how appointments to watchdog institutions are made in this government. Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra raised questions on X demanding answers for detailed clarification. In a post on X, she questioned the SEBI chief whether she had invested in IPEplus Fund 1 in 2015 being a part of Global Development Opportunities Fund, a part of Global Opportunities Fund used by Vinod Adani. Moitra has also asked when Buch ceased to have a stake in this fund and further asked if Anil Ahuja, former director of Adani Enterprises/Adani Power was part of this fund. Among her many other questions, Moitra also asked if the SEBI chairperson had disclosed to SEBI about her ownership stakes when she was a whole-time member of it. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanded that the Supreme Court take note of the allegations. Addressing a press conference, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the SEBI had told a Supreme Court panel that the investigation into the Adani group was “directionless”. Paris Olympics: Six medals and six near misses; India finishes 71st in medal tally Paris 2024 will be remembered for the [six medals which brought joy to the Indians]( as well as the six fourth place finishes that resulted in heartbreaks. A medal less than what the country got in the previous edition may have restricted the celebrations in the Indian camp but the mixed bouquet of hits and near misses paint a promising picture of Indian sports. Neeraj Chopra, Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh, Swapnil Kusale, Aman Sehrawat and the Indian hockey team contributed in the six medals, including a silver and five bronze, and gave reasons to celebrate. India managed the 71st place on the medals tally. In Tokyo, one gold, two silver and four bronze had placed the country at the 48th spot in Tokyo three years ago. Shooters Manu (25m sports pistol), Arjun Babuta (10m air rifle) and the mixed team pair of Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan (skeet), the archery mixed team pair of Ankita Bhakat and B. Dhiraj, shuttler Lakshya Sen and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu lost their respective bronze medal contests to miss podium finishes by a whisker. Add to this the quarterfinal losses of boxers Nishant Dev and Lovlina Borgohain, just a step away from securing a medal, to the country’s so-near-yet-so-far moments. The unexpected disqualification of wrestler Vinesh Phogat after reaching the women’s 50kg final was another huge blow to the country’s aspirations of securing medals in double digit. NDA eyes majority in Rajya Sabha after bypolls The BJP-led [NDA is expected to achieve a clear majority in Rajya Sabha]( after by-elections for 12 seats scheduled next month, which would help the party get the nod for key legislations such as the Waqf (Amendment) Bill. In the Upper House with the current effective strength of 229, the BJP has 87 MPs and with its allies the number is 105. Six nominated members, who usually cast their vote with the government, take the strength of the NDA to 111, four short of the half-way mark of 115. The Congress has 26 members in the Upper House and its allies add another 58, taking the opposition alliance numbers to 84. Among the key fence-sitters are the YSR Congress Party with 11 members and BJD with eight members. Elections to the 12 vacant Rajya Sabha seats in nine states will be held on September 3. The Election Commission has announced 12 separate elections for each of the seats, handing over a clear advantage to the ruling party in the state. The BJP and its allies are expected to win 11 of the 12 seats in the elections, which will take the NDA past the half-way mark to 122 seats in the 245-member house. Four seats from Jammu and Kashmir in the Upper House are vacant as the Union Territory is yet to get its first legislative assembly. This reduces the effective strength of the Rajya Sabha to 241. BJP and RSS re-kindle closer coordination for upcoming Assembly elections After large sections of the RSS cadre stayed away from election work during the recent Lok Sabha election, the [BJP has actively wooed back its ideological mothership]( with the RSS-BJP coordination committees for the upcoming Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections being set up. In Maharashtra, RSS joint general secretary Atul Limaye has been told to coordinate efforts between the BJP and RSS for the narrative and the campaign. “During the Lok Sabha elections, many of the RSS cadres had kept away from the campaign and [from] drumming support for Mahayuti candidates as they were upset with the inclusion of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the alliance, and other internal issues. After this, efforts have been made to effect a rapprochement within the ideological parivar (family), and [to enable] closer coordination,” a senior leader in the Maharashtra BJP said. For Haryana, another RSS joint general secretary, Arun Kumar, who is otherwise also in charge of coordination between the BJP and the RSS, is the point person. Both organisations held marathon meetings several days ago on the Haryana Assembly election to thrash out campaign and other issues. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan (the BJP’s in-charge for the Haryana election), and Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini were present at those meetings. The Lok Sabha election exposed the testy relationship between the RSS and the BJP, which was not helped by BJP president J.P. Nadda’s statement during an interview that the BJP was now “saksham” (capable) of deploying its own personnel for the campaign. After the BJP came back to power, albeit with a reduced number of 240 seats and dependent on allies, including the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), to form a government at the Centre, there have been attempts to bridge the distance between the BJP and the RSS. J&K Assembly polls: Election Commission has exclusive right to decide schedule, says LG Manoj Sinha Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on August 11 said the [Election Commission of India has the exclusive right to decide the schedule]( for Assembly elections in the Union Territory. However, he expressed hope that the democratic exercise would be conducted soon in Jammu and Kashmir, which has been under the Central government rule for more than six years after the fall of the PDP-BJP government in 2018. Talking to reporters after inaugurating the newly constructed building of the Malaviya Mission Teachers Training Centre at the University of Jammu, LG Sinha also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks during his visit to Srinagar in June that the Assembly elections will be held soon and the statement of Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament on August 5, 2019 that delimitation will be followed by Assembly polls and then Statehood at an appropriate time. “It is happening in the same sequence… I hope the Assembly elections will take place soon,” Sinha said. He also referred to the recent two-day visit of the Election Commission’s full team to Jammu and Kashmir and their meetings with political parties, administration officials and other stakeholders before returning to Delhi. “What will be the date of (Assembly) elections is the exclusive right of the ECI (Election Commission of India),” he said. The visit of the Election Commission of India was the first major exercise for preparing the grounds for holding the maiden Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5, 2019. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledges Ukraine’s military operation in Russia President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged for the first time on August 10 that [Ukrainian forces were fighting in the surprise offensive in Russia’s Kursk]( as attacks on the border region continued with authorities rushing to evacuate people. Moscow’s forces were in their sixth day of intense battles against Kyiv’s largest incursion into Russian territory since the start of the war, which left southwestern parts of Russia vulnerable before reinforcement started arriving. In a sign of the gravity of the situation, Russia imposed a sweeping security regime in three border regions, while Belarus, a staunch ally of Moscow, sent more troops to its border with Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of violating its air space. In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said he had discussed the operation with top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, vowing to restore justice after Russia launched the full-scale invasion on its smaller neighbour in February 2022. Russia’s Defence Ministry said on August 11 it had destroyed 14 Ukrainian drones and four Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles overnight over the Kursk region, and 18 drones over other Russian regions that Ukraine frequently attacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin cast the Ukrainian attack — which military analysts say caught the Kremlin off-guard — as a major provocation. Russian military bloggers said the situation had stabilised after Russia’s reinforcements, though they said Ukraine was swiftly building up forces. Earlier today, Kursk officials said 13 people were injured in the city after debris from a destroyed Ukrainian missile fell onto a nine-storey residential building. It was not clear whether there was further damage. Moscow and Kyiv rarely disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by attacks on them unless there are injuries or damage to residential buildings. Russian military bloggers say fighting is taking place as deep as 20km inside the Kursk region, prompting some of them to question why Ukraine was able to pierce the Kursk region so easily. In Brief: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief [Mayawati on August 11 announced that her party will field candidates in all the 10 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh]( where bypolls are going to be held. In a statement released after a meeting of the BSP’s State unit district chiefs, office bearers and functionaries, the party said Mayawati reviewed the preparations for the upcoming Assembly bypolls. 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