Top news of the day: February 15, 2024

Supreme Court declares electoral bonds scheme unconstitutional The Supreme Court on February 15 struck down the electoral bonds scheme, which provides blanket anonymity to financial contributions to political parties, and amendments made to the law allowing rich corporations to make unlimited political donations “unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary”. Ajit Pawar’s faction is the real NCP: Maharashtra Speaker In another setback to the Sharad Pawar faction, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar ruled on February 15 that the Nationalist Congress Party faction-led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was the ‘real’ political party when two factions emerged in July 2023. India rejects European FTA bloc’s ‘data exclusivity’ demand to protect generic drug firms’ interest India on February 15 said it has rejected the demand of the four European nations EFTA bloc for inclusion of a ‘data exclusivity’ provision in proposed free trade agreements, stating that it always protects the interests of the domestic generic drugs industry. IND vs ENG 3rd Test | Rohit, Jadeja and Sarfaraz make it India’s day against England on Day 1 Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja made classical Test match hundreds while debutant Sarfaraz Khan announced his arrival on the big stage with a fluent half-century as India reached 326 for five at stumps on day one of the third Test against England on February 15.