Morning Digest: India curbs Bangladeshi exports via land ports; naming members to all-party delegations triggers political row, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on May 18, 2025

Bangladesh will no longer be allowed to use Indian land ports to export ready-made garments to India. A notification from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade issued in this regard on Saturday will come into immediate effect, officials said. The same notification has also ordered that specified commodities from Bangladesh will be prevented from entering India through the land ports of Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram.

The process of nominating members to all-party delegations, which will meet key global partners to convey a united message of India’s zero tolerance against terrorism following Operation Sindoor, got caught in partisan politics on Saturday (May 17, 2025) as the government ignored three of the four names suggested by the Congress.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) could not accomplish its 101st launch, the PSLV-C61/EOS-09 mission on Sunday (May 18, 2025). Minutes after PSLV-C61 with the EOS-09 Earth observation satellite lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 5:59 a.m., the space agency said that the mission could not be accomplished due to an observation in the third stage of the launch vehicle.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that it was inappropriate to read politics into his decision to accept the Central government’s invitation to head an Indian diplomatic delegation to five nations to explain the country’s standpoint against the backdrop of Operation Sindoor.

Tagging External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar’s reported statement that India had informed Pakistan of hitting terror infrastructure at the start of Operation Sindoor, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday asked who had “authorised” such a move, and how many aircraft India had lost as a result.

The Union government has been adamant in not releasing funds to the tune of ₹2,152 crore to Tamil Nadu for refusing to implement the three-language policy, and the State government will seek legal recourse in the Supreme Court, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said in Chennai on Saturday.

A woman travel vlogger in Haryana has been arrested on charges of spying and passing on secret information to Pakistani intelligence operatives. Jyoti Rani, a resident of Agarsen Extension in Hisar, was arrested under the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on Friday.