(1) Israel breaks ceasefire with attack on Gaza
Israel launched a barrage of airstrikes into Gaza on Tuesday (March 18, 2025), killing hundreds. This marked the end of a fragile ceasefire with Hamas, reigniting the war that began when Hamas launched an attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, killing over a thousand people and taking 251 hostages.
To put Israel’s Tuesday attack in context, it was the fiercest not only since the ceasefire began, but also in at last a year. Weekly fatalities in the preceding weeks ranged between 282 to over 800. At least 400 people were killed on March 18 alone in Israel’s renewed attack.
With that, the ceasefire was effectively dismantled. A lack of consensus on post-war plans for Gaza, along with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war objective of fully eradicating Hamas complicate the way forward. A resumption of the war will drive up the already high costs of rebuilding the destroyed region.
Meanwhile, 59 people remain in captivity as Hamas’ hostages, 35 of whom are presumed dead.
(2) Violence breaks out in Nagpur
Riots broke out in Nagpur on Monday last week (March 17, 2025) after word spread that the Quran had been desecrated during a rally by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal demanding that Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb in the State be removed.
At least 33 people were injured, with vehicles torched and stones pelted at homes. The violence started at Chitnis Park and spread to other areas. A curfew was imposed over jurisdictions under several police stations in the area.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the violence was triggered after the screening of the film Chaava, which showed graphic scenes of how the Mughal emperor tortured the Maratha king Sambhaji Maharaj.
Over a 100 people were arrested in connection to the violence. One of them is Fahim Khan, a leader of the Minority Democratic Party (MDP), who allegedly led an unlawful gathering of 50 to 60 people outside the Ganeshpeth police station. According to the FIR, around 500 to 600 people from a minority community had assembled near Shivaji Maharaj Chowk.
Normalcy is returning to the city, with the curfew lifted from all areas.
(3) Sunita Williams returns home after nine months in space
NASA’s Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore, Nick Hague, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, began their journey back to earth aboard a SpaceX capsule on Tuesday (March 18, 2025), the first two marking the end of an unexpectedly prolonged mission.
Wilmore and Williams, who were originally part of Boeing’s troubled test flight of its Starliner capsule, spent more than nine months in space. Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS in June 2024 aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, initially scheduled for an eight-day mission. However, their short trip stretched into nearly nine months after NASA, citing technical issues with the Boeing vehicle, decided in August that the duo would return on a SpaceX capsule instead.
Their prolonged stay captured global attention, with some media outlets dubbing them the “stranded” astronauts — a reflection of NASA’s cautious decision to avoid sending them home in the troubled Starliner. They circled Earth 4,576 times and travelled 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) by the time of splashdown.
Here’s a timeline on the Starliner mission, and astronauts’ return to Earth:
(4) Key takeaways from Telangana Budget 2025-26
The Telangana State budget with an outlay of ₹3.05 lakh crores was presented by the Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka in the Assembly today (March 19, 2025). The Gross State Domestic Product for the 2024-25 fiscal was ₹16.1 lakh crores as per revised estimates. The growth rate was estimated to be 10.5%.
Here are some other key figures.
Receipts and Expenditure
Revenue receipts stand at ₹2.3 lakh crores for 2025-26 budget estimates, up from ₹2.02 lakh crores last year (revised estimates). Revenue expenditure for 2025-26 is estimated to be ₹2.26 lakh crores, with a deficit of ₹2.7 thousand crores.
Capital receipts and expenditure are estimated to be ₹74.6 thousand crores and ₹36.5 thousand crores respectively.
Trend in revenue receipts
Over 60% of the State’s revenue came from taxes. Non-tax revenue (revenue from interest receipts, dividends, general services, social services and economic services) made up 13.76% of the estimated revenue receipts.
Revenue expenditure for social services increased from ₹81.1 thousand crores in 2024-25 (revised estimates) to ₹1.1 lakh crores in 2025-26 (budget estimates), the highest increase among social, general and economic services receipts. While expenditure for economic services fell from ₹71.4 thousand crores in 2024-25 to ₹67.7 thousand crores in 2025-26, those for general services increased from ₹43.7 thousand crores to ₹48.2 thousand crores.
During the budget presentation, Mr. Vikramarka asked for an increase in the devolution of taxes to the State from the Centre from 41% to 50%, saying that the cesses and charges imposed by the Centre that do not come to the State reduced the revenue that the States received.
How govt earns and spends
Looking at the overall picture of how the government earns and spends, state taxes and duties make up 63.3% of what it earns, while development expenditure makes up 77.9% of what it spends.
Major allocations and its trend
Among allocations to departments, the Scheduled Castes Welfare department received ₹40.2 thousand crores, or 13.19% of the total budget outlay. This is followed by Panchayati Raj and Rural Development with ₹31.6 thousand crores (10.36% of total outlay) and Agriculture with ₹24.4 thousand crores (8.01%).
(5) Kerala Police’s ‘Operation D-Hunt’
The Kerala Police’s ‘Operation D-Hunt’, a special campaign to curb drug-peddling across the State, has led to the registration of 8,646 cases and 8,931 arrests so far.
In the maiden drive, which lasted a day on January 27, 2024, 1,820 persons were checked, out of which 285 were arrested in 281 cases. The drive yielded 28.81 kg of suspected ganja and 85.93 grams of suspected MDMA. Also, 147 suspected ganja beedis, 3,624 tobacco packets, 60 grams of suspected brown sugar and 13.55 grams of suspected hashish oil were seized, the police said.
The 10-day second drive between May 15 and May 24 last year saw the numbers escalating considerably. Over 25,300 persons were checked during the drive which led to the arrest of 2,808 in 2,728 cases. While over 200 kg of suspected ganja were seized, a significantly high 1.42 kg of suspected MDMA were seized. The other seizures included 1,528 suspected ganja beedis, 1,600 tobacco packets, 37.10 grams of suspected hashish oil, nine nitrazepam tablets and 0.10 grams of heroin, according to the Kerala Police.
Published – March 25, 2025 01:28 pm IST