India Ranked 'Partly Free' in Global Rankings Again; New Chinese Radar Sytem Will Track Indian Missiles; Modi's Degree; Mercantilist Trump and Cost of US Alliance

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Tanweer Alam, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Seema Chishti, Sushant Singh, MK Venu, and Siddharth Varadarajan | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK

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Over to Siddharth Varadarajan for today’s Cable

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Snapshot of the day

February 27, 2025

Siddharth Varadarajan

India has been ranked a “partly free” country for the fourth year in a row in the annual report of Freedom House, the Washington-based pro-democracy research group. The report also states that democracy in India is “losing ground”. The overview notes how the Narendra Modi government has sought to gain more influence over judicial appointments. In 2014, it tried to replace the Collegium system, whereby new judges are nominated by their colleagues, with a new commission that would include members of the government in addition to sitting judges, it states. “The Supreme Court struck down the law in 2015, but since then the Modi government has delayed appointments and rejected nominations made by the Collegium without explanation. Judicial vacancies have increased as a result, contributing to a