evidence: In August 2019, amid much controversy, the government of India significantly changed the administrative status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir through the hard-hitting and broadly-reaching Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act. The key reforms included the separation of the region of Ladakh and making it a separate "union territory" (UT). At the same time, the administrative status of Jammu and Kashmir itself was reduced from a state to a union territory (which, the home minister promised, was only a temporary measure, although without a specific timeline). What does this change of status mean in practice? [...] It must be added that Jammu and Kashmir was also a special case among Indian states, as it had a special autonomous status in many regards, which, however, has now been done away with at the same time that the region was reduced to a union territory. Thus, with the new reforms, Ladakh has been granted more autonomy than it had before (as it was only a region within a larger state) while Jammu and Kashmir lost a lot of its own autonomy. [...] While pushing through the new reform, the Indian government announced that Ladakh will be a UT without an assembly (which will make it a regular UT) while Jammu and Kashmir will be a union territory with an assembly (like Puducherry). This would also suggest that Jammu and Kashmir’s lawmakers will be eligible to vote in India’s presidential elections, as the same power belongs to Puducherry’s lawmakers (while other UTs do not take part in these elections).