This special report delves into significant political and governance challenges across India. Ahead of the Bihar assembly elections, a battle of promises intensifies between Mahagathbandhan’s CM face Tejaswi Yadav and NDA’s Nitish Kumar. Both alliances propose extensive populist schemes, from scrapping the Waqf Amendment Act to cash handouts for women, prompting scrutiny over their fiscal feasibility in a state already facing substantial debt. Tejaswi Yadav affirmed, ‘In front of the people of Bihar, there is a resolution, which is our commitment to make Bihar number one.’ Concurrently, Delhi faces a severe pollution crisis, sparking an intense political confrontation between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP. AAP’s Somnath Bharti and BJP’s Neomar Gupta exchange accusations, with Bharti alleging data manipulation: ‘The water sprinklers are being used in in and around the monitoring station so that the a QY does not get registered properly.’ The report also examines controversies surrounding the Yamuna river’s condition during Chhath Pooja and the Delhi government’s cloud seeding experiment, as residents contend with ‘very poor’ air quality.