India has replaced Indonesia as Asia’s least-preferred stock market, Bloomberg quoted a Bank of America survey of fund managers as showing. The Indian stock market has been one of the world’s worst performers this year.

The survey of panellists managing $272 billion in assets between them found that 32% were allocating a smaller share of their portfolios to Indian stocks.

Their biggest concern was that there are not enough listed Indian companies with a strong presence in the artificial intelligence sector. Weak economic growth was the second-biggest concern, followed by the lack of policy reforms to improve the business environment in the country and high valuations of the stocks. Read on.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav was detained during a protest against the Bihar Police firing an AK-47 rifle on youth demonstrating last month against alleged irregularities in competitive examinations.

His sister, party MP Misa Bharti, was also detained while participating in a march to the governor’s residence.

On August 11, the government told the Supreme Court that a constable in Siwan district had on July 25 fired four shots in the air from his AK-47 rifle after getting “trapped” among the protesters. It claimed that no one had been injured by the bullets. Read on.

The Tamil Nadu government withdrew an order directing the authorities to prevent students and youth from participating in protests organised by Left parties and the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign in the state.

Two Left parties – the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – support the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam-led state government.

The directive was issued on Friday and withdrawn on Monday following a backlash. The Cockroach Janta Party had described the order as “unconstitutional” and “irrational”. Read on.

Jammu and Kashmir is an “important part of India” and the United States will consider revising its travel warning for the region, US Ambassador Sergio Gor said. Washington would re-evaluate the safety advisory as the Union government and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had taken steps to make the region safer, he told reporters during a visit to Srinagar.

The US currently advises its citizens against travelling to Jammu and Kashmir citing “terrorism and civil unrest”.

Gor’s remark that the region is an “important part of India” assumes significance as Washington’s long-standing position has been that Kashmir’s status should be settled through negotiations between New Delhi and Islamabad “while taking into consideration the wishes of the Kashmiri people”. Read on.

The Supreme Court gave the Odisha government a final opportunity to decide on the premature release of Bajrang Dal member Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons. It verbally stated that if the Odisha Sentence Review Board did not decide on the matter by the next hearing, the court would take the decision.

During the previous hearing on July 14, the court had asked the Odisha government to decide on Singh’s remission plea by August 19. However, a bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Vijay Bishnoi was told on Wednesday that no decision has been taken yet. Read on.

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