Good morning. The Monsoon Session is barely a day old and already the streets outside Parliament have said more than the benches inside it. There is also a lot of movement abroad this morning, a new face in one world capital and a changed one at the top of another organisation entirely.
In today's newsletter: tear gas at Parliament as a Gen Z movement demands accountability, four Indian sailors killed in a missile strike off Ukraine, and a widening US-Iran war that is starting to show up at the fuel pump.
Closing levels · 2026-07-20
Sensex 77,708.52 -0.57% |
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Private banks led a broad-based selloff after Brent briefly topped $90 a barrel intraday on Middle East supply fears, even as Nifty PSU Bank and metals held up. Crude easing back below $88 by the close did little to calm nerves about India's oil import bill and the rupee.
Police fire tear gas as thousands march on Parliament demanding the education minister's resignation
Thousands of protesters calling themselves the Cockroach Janta Party marched toward India's Parliament on Monday in one of the largest anti-government demonstrations the capital has seen in years, demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over repeated exam paper leaks.
Police had refused permission for the march, banned public gatherings, barricaded roads and shut down mobile internet in central Delhi. Demonstrators came anyway, and were met with tear gas and baton charges at several points in the city.
The movement's core demands include reforms to the examination system and compensation for the families of roughly a dozen students who died by suicide after the NEET paper leaks, alongside the release of Ladakh activist Sonam Wangchuk, who is on hunger strike in solidarity. Health Minister J P Nadda met movement spokespeople briefly and said the government would consider their demands.
This is the first time a satirical, leaderless Gen Z movement has pulled 10,000-plus people onto the streets of Delhi over institutional failure rather than a single scandal. Whether the government treats it as a passing outburst or a structural warning will shape how it handles the rest of a Monsoon Session that opened only a day earlier.
The protest movement takes its name as a piece of self-deprecating satire, aimed at how ordinary citizens feel treated by the system. That framing is precisely why it has spread faster among students than more conventional opposition-led protests.
Four Indian sailors killed as missiles hit cargo ship leaving Ukraine's Odesa port
Four Indian nationals were killed and one critically injured after the Guinea-Bissau-flagged bulk carrier MV Golden Leo was struck by cruise missiles shortly after departing Odesa on Sunday evening, India's external affairs ministry said. Five of the vessel's 17 crew were Indian.
Ukraine's navy said Russian forces fired three cruise missiles at the civilian carrier, which was hauling a shipment of corn and caught fire, triggering an overnight search and rescue effort. India's MEA strongly condemned the attack, saying commercial shipping and civilian crew should never be targeted, though it stopped short of naming Russia directly.
Indian seafarers make up a large share of the world's merchant marine workforce, and this is among the deadliest single incidents for Indian sailors since Russia's invasion of Ukraine widened its reach into Black Sea shipping lanes.
US-Iran war enters its tenth night as Kuwait comes under attack and crude stays elevated
The United States carried out a tenth consecutive night of strikes on Iran after President Trump vowed retaliation for the deaths of three more American service members, taking total US military deaths since the war began to 17.
Kuwait's military said it intercepted "hostile" missiles and drones as it absorbed its third round of Iranian attacks in recent days, and Iran said its diplomatic channels remained open even as fighting intensified, with Washington reporting a build-up of fighter jets and fuellers across the region.
For India, the war's clearest channel is the price of crude, which briefly crossed $90 a barrel this week and is a big reason Monday's selloff hit banking and financial stocks hardest. A prolonged conflict keeps pressure on the import bill, the rupee and, eventually, pump prices at home.
Breaking.exe
AI inference funding. Inference startup Infinity raised $15 million from Touring Capital and researchers at OpenAI and Anthropic, betting that leaner inference infrastructure is the next AI cost battleground. |
Turtlemint's turnaround. Insurtech platform Turtlemint's shares jumped 13% to a record high after the company posted its first profitable quarter, with revenue up 42% year-on-year. |
$110B merger frozen. A US judge issued a 14-day restraining order pausing the Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery merger, after a coalition of 12 state attorneys general sued to block the deal on antitrust grounds. |
Pangaea Revisited
Britain's seventh PM in a decade. Andy Burnham became UK prime minister after Keir Starmer's resignation, pledging to end years of political instability in Downing Street. |
Hamas picks a new chief. Khalil al-Hayya, the group's chief ceasefire negotiator, was elected Hamas's overall leader in a one-vote run-off against Khaled Meshaal, replacing the assassinated Yahya Sinwar. |
Moscow under drone barrage. Ukraine launched more than 400 drones at the Moscow region overnight, hitting an oil depot and logistics facilities, a day after one of the war's heaviest missile barrages on Kyiv. |
Gaza settlement push. Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich led settlers to the Gaza perimeter, demanding the government rebuild three Jewish settlements in the north of the strip. |
Also, Also, Also
Logistics turnaround. Mahindra Logistics swung to a ₹25.39 crore profit in the June quarter from a year-ago loss, with revenue up 23% on stronger warehousing and transport volumes. |
Nolan's Indian record. Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has crossed ₹61 crore in its opening weekend in India, the strongest start for any Hollywood release in the country this year. |
Cement maker's strong quarter. UltraTech Cement's net profit rose 17% to ₹2,603.72 crore in the June quarter on higher sales volumes and revenue growth of nearly 16%. |