🏢 Tata lost its chairman. Here's what happened.

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Good morning.

Have you ever seen a house float? Not in a movie. In Bihar, during a flood, on the Ganga. That is where we start today.

Let's get into it.

In Ara, Bihar, engineer Prashant Kumar built a house that floats. When floodwater rises, the house rises with it. Built from bamboo, mud, cow dung, lime, and waste materials, it has survived three monsoon seasons without maintenance. Total cost: ₹6 lakh. He is now working to bring that down to ₹1.5 lakh.

Every year, floods in Bihar damage lakhs of homes. Prashant's answer was not to fight the water. It was to move with it. He is now planning an entire floating village along the Ganga. Read More →

Scroll to the end for the answer

What happened? N Chandrasekaran announced on Wednesday that he will not seek reappointment as Tata Sons Chairman when his term ends in February 2027. The decision came a week before the company's AGM on August 18. Read More →

Why did he leave? Six months ago, the board deferred a vote on extending his tenure. The Tata Trusts had unanimously recommended a five-year extension, but one board member withheld support. Without unanimous backing, Chandrasekaran chose to step aside rather than push it through.

Who is he? Born into a farming family, Chandrasekaran joined TCS in 1987 as a fresh graduate. He rose to become CEO of India's largest IT company before Ratan Tata handpicked him as Chairman in 2017. He was the first person outside the Tata and Mistry families to lead the group in its 155-year history.

What comes next? The board must now begin a formal succession process. The AGM on August 18 will address his reappointment as director while the transition is planned.

Tata Group stocks fell sharply after the announcement, with TCS dropping nearly 5% and ₹68,000 crore wiped off the group's combined market value in a single day. 

Why it matters: Tata runs airlines, steel, hotels, cars, chips, and India's largest IT company. The last time this seat changed hands, it took a boardroom war and a Supreme Court case. This time, the exit is quiet. The question it leaves behind is not.

Legend traces Madhubani painting back to the wedding of Ram and Sita, when the women of Mithila decorated the walls to celebrate. 

2,500 years later, women in Jitwarpur, Ranti, and villages across Bihar's Madhubani district still paint on mud walls with the same bold lines, natural pigments, and motifs of peacocks, lotus, and mythology. 

The art passes from mothers to daughters. No empty space is left on the wall. That is the rule.

Madhubani received a GI tag in 2007. Seven artists from the region have received the Padma Shri over the last 50 years. 

From village walls to museum galleries in Tokyo, the art has travelled far. The women who paint it have always been the real guardians.

⚖️ Law: The Supreme Court refused to issue a uniform policy against demolition of long-standing properties, asking states to frame their own guidelines instead.

🌧️ Weather: Widespread rain expected across northwest and central India as a Bay of Bengal system intensifies. Travel plans may need a check.

🏸 Sports: The BWF World Championships 2026 are coming to Delhi. Here is everything you need to know.

🏛️ Policy: A parliamentary panel is pushing for automatic mutation of land records on property registration. If implemented, it could simplify one of India's messiest systems.

🛡️ Defence: The Indian Army has 300 capability projects in the works, spanning 6G, quantum computing, AI, and cloud systems.

📊 Karnataka: Karnataka has launched Tathyakosh, an open data platform putting 1.5 million public datasets in one place. A quiet but significant transparency move.

🦅 Northeast: Nagaland's tax collection rose ₹170 crore to ₹1,597 crore in FY 2025-26. A small state with a growing revenue story.