New Delhi: The Election Commission’s ‘Special Intensive Revision’ of Bihar’s electoral rolls has sparked a major political debate. However, this is not the first time that the poll panel has ordered an ‘intensive’ revision of electoral rolls — at least nine such revisions were held from 1952 to 2004, several of which came with similar house-to-house verification and even a ‘de novo’ electoral roll in some cases. However, the EC has seldom ordered a full state intensive revision in a state 4-6 months ahead of assembly elections, as is the case with Bihar.

Factor the last such instances: In June 2004, ECI ordered ‘Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls‘ in seven northeastern states and J&K.

Alongside, it ordered a ‘special summary revision‘ in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, West Bengal, and Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, NCT of Delhi, Lakshadweep and Pondicherry.Prior to that, ‘intensive revision’ of the electoral rolls was conducted in 20 other states/UTs, including Bihar, in two phases during 2002 and 2003, except the northeastern states and J&K.

BIHAR 2025- A unique case
The 2025 SIR in Bihar is different on several counts. While an ‘intensive’ revision mostly involves a ‘de novo’ exercise, drawing up a fresh electoral roll from the scratch, the Bihar SIR is using the 2002-03 electoral roll as a base to build upon. At the same time, it involves a new pre-printed enumeration form included in the usual house-to-house verification format and document submission, associated with an ‘intensive’ revision. It is, also, very different from previous intensive revision exercises in terms of timing.

EC has seldom ordered a full state and full-scale intensive revision in a state 4-6 months ahead of scheduled assembly elections, as is the case with Bihar. Bihar saw its last intensive revision in 2002, a good three years away from the assembly polls held in October 2005.
Similarly, when the EC, on June 29, 2004 announced an intensive roll revision in eight states, it chose to leave out two states which were pending a similar intensive roll revision. These were Arunachal Pradesh & Maharashtra where assembly polls were due in October 2004.
“In Arunachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, general elections to the assemblies are to be held in the latter half of 2004. Therefore, the programme in these two states will be announced after the completion of the elections,” the EC press note on 29.06.2004 read.
Instead, a ‘special summary revision of rolls’ was announced for Maharashtra ahead of the October 2024 assembly polls with house-to-house enumeration, as per the September-December 2004 EC newsletter.

The EC has, in fact, often conducted ‘intensive’ revision in certain areas of a state. In Tamil Nadu- after inquiry reports indicated ‘shortcomings in the conduct of different levels of election officers at the time of intensive revision of electoral rolls in 2002’- the poll panel on October 19, 2004 ordered a ‘special revision of intensive nature with house-to-house enumeration’ in six municipal corporation areas across 33 constituencies, spanning parts of Chennai, Salem, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, and Tirunelveli.

In the aftermath of Gujarat riots, the ECI on August 16,2002, announced a repeat of the 2002 ‘special revision of intensive nature’.

Types Of Electoral Roll Revisions

Intensive Revision: It’s usually a de-novo process without reference to earlier existing roll; involves at least 2 household verification visits by booth-level officer

Summary Revision: Roll is simply updated; no house-to-house enumeration but objections are addressed before final roll publication

Special Summary Revision: EC can order so if it finds inaccuracies or poor coverage of any area. EC can adopt changes in existing procedure

Partly Intensive and Partly Summary Revision: Existing electoral rolls are published in draft and checked through household verification and put through claims/objection process

Roll revision chronology

1950
Originally Section 23 of Representation of the People Act, 1950 provided for annual revision with March 1 as qualifying date

1952
After first gen election in 1952, EC directed that from 1952 to 1956, annual revision of electoral rolls should cover 1/5th of entire state area so that every locality might have its electoral roll intensively revised at least once before 2nd gen polls

1956
EC directed intensive revision of rolls every year in some areas where electoral rolls were likely to become inaccurate: (i) Urban Areas (ii) Areas with floating labour population (iii) Areas where fairly large movements of population had taken place

1957
Post 1957: Lok Sabha polls: EC directed that during each of the three following years, the electoral rolls of 1/3rd of the entire state area be revised intensively, while during 1961 the revision would be intensive only in urban areas, areas with floating, migratory population and service voters

1960
Following amendments to RP Act, 1950, EC ordered annual revision of rolls between January 1 and Jan 31 of the year

1962
Post 1962 LS Polls: EC directed ‘summary revision’ adequate for 1963 and 1964. In 1965 intensive revision conducted again in 40% of the country; the rest 60% was done in 1966

1966
Post 1966: District Election Officer appointed in each district and summary roll revision conducted in 1969-70 and 1975

1976
Emergency: no Lok Sabha polls in 1976; EC held summary roll revision

1983
1983 on: Staggered intensive revision of all rural constituencies ahead of 1985 LS polls

1987-88
All constituencies revised intensively; special revision in 1989

1992
Summary revision ordered followed by intensive revision in 1993 along with introduction of EPIC card

1995
Intensive Revision comes in

1999-2000
Amid computerisation electoral rolls, no intensive revision in 1999, 2000

2002
Special intensive revision in 20 states; intensive revision in 7 states in 2003-04

Glantz from Rusi thinks that as legitimate businesses close, crime moves in. “Rents are down, there’s a lot of empty spaces, so landlords are willing to pretty much take just about anybody,” he says.

Plumb came up with a new name for these areas: the “shuttered front”, a string of constituencies with struggling High Streets that Power to Change think could play a pivotal role in future elections.

Indeed, Reform’s Nigel Farage and Richard Tice were among the first mainstream politicians to regularly talk about visible signs of High Street criminality.

In 2024, Farage said at an event: “You can see High Streets with five, six, seven barber shops in them.” Tice added: “Seriously, how come lots of these new barber shops have got no customers in them? How come they all want cash only? These are fronts for money laundering and drug money, and someone has to talk about it.”

And in a social media video he made last year – one that quickly set parts of the internet alight – Robert Jenrick, who was then the shadow justice minister, listed “weird Turkish barber shops” as a visible sign of decline, alongside bike theft, phone theft, and drugs in town centres. “It’s all chipping away at society,” he said. He later clarified that he was “obviously not talking about all Turkish-style barber shops”. Jenrick defected to Reform earlier this year.

Some politicians argue the language around High Street decline is in danger of becoming racially coded. In January, Miatta Fahnbulleh, then the devolution, faith and communities minister, agreed when asked by the Guardian if she thought the focus on Turkish barbers had racist overtones. “Yes, I do. The fundamentals aren’t to do with the colour of the skin of people running our High Streets. It’s to do with long-term decline and neglect.”

At the time a Reform spokesman was quoted as saying: “This is not a matter of ethnicity.

“The National Crime Agency itself has said many of these establishments are used as fronts for money laundering as well as a whole range of criminality which is why they carried out hundreds of raids on them last year.”

Meanwhile, immigration – the issue that voters consistently highlight as among the most pressing, and that Reform campaigns heavily on – came up in our investigation too. We exposed a Kurdish gang that was enabling migrants to work illegally in mini-marts the length of Britain, by offering to put their own names to official paperwork. Trading Standards told us they find a constant supply of staff from asylum hotels, who are vulnerable to abuse by employers, working in those shops.

Josh Nicholson, a researcher at the Centre for Social Justice think tank, says, “Chaos and flux in Westminster are reflected in our High Streets.

“People feel powerlessness, they look at Westminster and see an inability of politicians to grapple with the basics and that feeds down to a local level.”

This feeling of helplessness came up again and again in our travels.

“Nothing is going to change,” Daniel, in Swansea, told us about the criminality on his High Street, which has become a hub for counterfeit rolling tobacco. He has seen violence on the High Street and an increase in raids on High Street shops. He’s a dual British and Chinese national and was considering moving to Hong Kong.

“It doesn’t make me feel safe. I’ve got kids.”

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers are placing Shohei Ohtani on the injured list, manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday, after weeks of left-knee, right-biceps and neck pain that the club tried to manage without an official stay.

“We tried to kick the can as much as we could,” Roberts said after a 14-1 win over Cincinnati. “It’s the right thing to do.” As a two-way player, Ohtani must go on the 15-day list rather than the 10-day list for position players. Backdated to Tuesday, the earliest he can return is Sept. 23 — six days before the wild-card round and 10 days before a National League Division Series that would start Oct. 3.

He has not pitched since July 3. He sat six of the past seven games. He returned Monday, went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a walk, then sat again. Roberts said a swing Monday “he didn’t feel great on” and that Ohtani “hasn’t totally recovered from Monday.” The club learned of that extra discomfort Tuesday night, after it had planned to use him Wednesday and after it had already kept him available as a pinch-hitter.

“If it were a postseason game tomorrow, he would be in the lineup,” Roberts said. “Now you’re talking about two weeks, 14 days. I feel that that’s substantial. He’ll be in a much better place than he was today. Is it going to be 100 percent? Probably not. But I do think that with this time that we’re taking now, he’ll be in an adequate spot to finish the season.” Asked about confidence in that plan, he said, “Very.”

Hindsight came cheaper. “If we look right now, here today, I would love to go back and put him on the IL,” Roberts said of last week’s four-day rest. “But at that moment in time, we all felt that giving him four days was sufficient. He was agreeable. Getting him out there on Monday with the hope that he would be able to play [again Wednesday]. But where we’re at right now, sure.” He also said the staff had already talked to Ohtani about speaking up sooner. “We did,” Roberts said. “That’s right. We did.”

Ohtani, through interpreter Will Ireton, did not close the subject. “It’s hard to say now with the season still going on,” he said when asked about communication. On pitching, he had already drawn a line after Monday’s game: “Most likely, no. I’m going to be focusing on hitting moving forward.” He called that “disappointing” but said the priority was “making sure that the pitching wouldn’t cause the worst scenario, which was for me to not be able to play at all.”

Josue De Paula, a 10th-ranked ESPN prospect who hit .303 with 27 homers and 31 steals in 124 Double-A games, is expected to take the designated-hitter at-bats when the club opens a trip in Miami. Roberts said De Paula would “likely replace Ohtani as the everyday DH.”

The medical list is a pile, not a single date. Knee trouble drew a lubricant injection at the All-Star break. Biceps soreness flared the day of his last start. Neck pain followed. Since Aug. 8, when he was cleared to throw again, he hit .198 with four home runs in 24 games. General manager Brandon Gomes said earlier this week the slump was not tied to health. Roberts, after Wednesday, treated the body as the story. “The most important thing is him being as healthy as possible, not compromising his swing, and kind of bet on that,” he said. “He’s not supernatural, as much as we think he might be at times.”

The calendar is now the opponent. Five regular-season games at most if he comes back on day 15. A postseason that the Dodgers still expect him to start as a hitter, not a pitcher. A four-time MVP who had never been on the injured list in Los Angeles, held out until a Monday swing forced the paperwork the club spent a month trying not to file.

In theory, the inquiry should be impartial and informative – a learning process focused solely on improving passenger safety. But in the case of AI171, the information revealed by the investigation so far has triggered a major backlash from safety campaigners, pilots’ groups and lawyers acting for the bereaved relatives.

A key factor in this has been the preliminary report issued by the AAIB a month after the accident. The 15-page document did not draw any conclusions about the causes of the crash, or make any recommendations.

Nonetheless, just two short paragraphs generated a great deal of controversy.

First, it was noted that according to the aircraft’s flight data recorder, the two fuel cutoff switches – normally used when starting the engines before a flight and shutting them down afterwards – transitioned from the run to the cutoff position seconds after take-off. This would have deprived the engines of fuel, causing them to lose thrust rapidly.

The report then says: “In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so.”

This brief statement, provided without a transcript or any indication of who was speaking, sparked intense speculation about the actions of the pilots. Newsweek, for example, focused on the “troubling possibility: that a seasoned captain may have deliberately doomed his jet – and nearly 250 lives”. Former NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt told CBS News the report showed “this was not a problem with the airplane or the engines. Instead…somebody in the cockpit shut the fuel off to those engines.”

A few days later, The Wall Street Journal weighed in. Citing people familiar with the matter, it claimed that recordings of dialogue between the pilots suggested it was the Captain, Sumeet Sabharwal, who had flipped the fuel switches.

It is important to note that this was merely a preliminary report, and within days, the AAIB issued a statement condemning “selective and unverified reporting” in the international press as “irresponsible”. It urged the public and the media to “refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process.”

By then, arguably, the damage had already been done.

“When a pilot is alive he can defend himself” says Capt. CS Randhawa, president of the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP). “When the pilot is dead, all the agencies can collude – and they put the blame on the pilot, to save the manufacturer. And this is seen the world over. It’s not the first time”.

His organisation, which represents around 6,000 pilots, condemned the preliminary report as “irrevocably compromised”. Together with Sumeet Sabharwal’s 91-year-old father, Pushkar Raj Sabharwal, they took their concerns to India’s Supreme Court, demanding a judicial investigation into the crash.

In central Manchester, 23‑year‑old Ashleigh agrees with Joel that the state pension is unlikely to be coming her way: “At this rate I don’t think anyone’s ever going to retire, I think everyone will just have to fend for themselves in the end.”

But as someone on a lower income, her pension choices are less squirrel‑like. When working for a big retailer, she says that she chose to stop contributing to her employer’s auto-enrolment pension.

“I opted out of it. I need the money now.” She explains: “I’d rather save for a house and then at least I have something to show for it”.

Some experts warn that the gap between rich and poor in retirement could widen significantly for this generation.

Dr Suzy Morrissey, deputy director at the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI), believes that alongside how much Gen Z save privately, another factor will widen the divide: far more of them will be renting.

“Renting in retirement increases your chances of pensioner poverty, and they do face challenges to save, as younger people, that previous generations didn’t face when they were at the same age,” she says. “If we have people paying rent in retirement who don’t have large pension pots to cover those expenses, then that equals higher risk of pensioner poverty.”

But Morrissey sees a silver lining: pensions auto-enrollment, the system that automatically puts most employees into a workplace pension unless they opt out. If they’ve been employees, “they will have spent their working life contributing into a pension pot, and they will be the first generation that will have spent their whole life doing that.”

It’ll be a backstop for many, but the minimum contribution rate is unlikely to be enough for a comfortable retirement. It’s not automatic for the self-employed and people like Ashleigh have opted out because of immediate financial pressures, so it looks like plenty won’t see the benefit of that silver lining.

Robert Gentil spent several decades working in New York’s stock and trading markets before retiring to Richmond, Virginia.

He is 72 now, and he still gets up early, still checks the markets out of habit, and still keeps a handwritten to-do list instead of trusting his phone to remember things for him. None of that is an accident. It is the same operating system he used on the trading floor, just running on a much quieter machine.

Most profiles of people like Robert lead with the career: the titles, the years, the deals. This one starts somewhere else, with the question that actually explains him: how does someone trained to make fast, high-stakes decisions spend a morning when nothing is at stake at all?

How a career in market analysis shapes daily habits

Robert built his career on market analysis, investment strategy, and risk management. Those are not hobbies you can switch off. He still reads the newspaper each morning with particular attention to business and science, and he still glances at the markets briefly before moving on with his day.

What has changed is the purpose behind it. During his working years, that information fed decisions with real consequences for clients and colleagues. Today, he says the habit survives mostly out of curiosity rather than necessity. He is not managing anyone’s money. He just likes knowing what is happening and why.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. A lot of people who spend decades in high-pressure jobs lose the routines the moment the job ends, because the routines were only ever a means to an end. Robert’s held because they were never just about the job. They were about how he preferred to think.

The tools he kept and the ones he let go

During his career, Robert relied on the standard instruments of financial analysis: a Bloomberg terminal, FactSet, spreadsheets built and rebuilt over years. He still checks Bloomberg and Reuters occasionally, but he is candid that his telescope software and astronomy apps have probably become more important to him now. The tools didn’t disappear. They just changed rank.

What patience in markets taught him about everything else

Ask Robert what decades in trading actually teaches a person, and he won’t point to a specific trade. He points to patience. Markets reward people who can sit still during periods of noise and resist the urge to react to every fluctuation. That is a skill, not a personality trait, and he thinks it transfers almost anywhere.

He applies the same instinct to his garden, which does not respond to urgency any better than a volatile market does. He applies it to reading, where he prefers biographies and history over anything that promises a quick takeaway. And he applies it to conversation. Robert is known among his Richmond neighbors as someone who listens before he offers an opinion, a habit he traces back to years of watching markets punish people who talked more than they thought.

Why he measures a good day differently now

For most of his career, a good day had a clear scoreboard. Retirement removed the scoreboard, and Robert has had to build a different one. His version involves smaller, more deliberate measures: whether he learned something new, whether he helped a neighbor, whether he got outside.

He keeps a notebook, a habit he never dropped from his working years, though what goes in it has changed. It once tracked market observations. Now it tracks astronomical ones, along with the occasional idea from a book or a conversation worth remembering. The format stayed. The content moved on.

This is, in a way, the clearest evidence of who Robert Gentil actually is underneath the résumé. The career gave him structure, and he liked the structure enough to keep most of it after the career ended. Few people manage that. Most treat retirement as the opposite of work, a permission slip to stop being disciplined about anything. Robert treated it as a chance to redirect the discipline somewhere that mattered to him personally rather than professionally.

A different kind of expertise

Robert doesn’t present himself as someone with lessons to hand out. But talk to him for even a few minutes and it’s clear he thinks about decision-making the way some people think about weather patterns: as something with visible cause and effect, worth watching closely even when you’re not the one steering. That habit of mind, sharpened over decades in New York’s financial markets, is arguably what Richmond neighbors are really getting when Robert offers to fix a fence, water a plant, or explain what’s visible through his telescope on a clear night. It’s the same mind. It just has a different job now.