Three months after the bold decision of scrapping Jammu and Kashmir's decades-old special status under Article 370, the strife-torn state ceased to exist on Wednesday midnight when the clock struck 12. India now has two new Union Territories - Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh - while it has one less state. The big change of status for Jammu and Kashmir comes 86 days after the Centre moved to scrap the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The new Union Territories will be headed by Lieutenant Governors GC Murmu and RK Mathur, respectively. They took oath on Thursday. This is for the first time in the history of India that a state is being converted into two Union Territories. The total number of states in the country will now be 28, while the total UTs will go up to nine. The UT of Jammu and Kashmir will have a legislature like Puducherry while Ladakh will be a UT without legislature like Chandigarh. On this edition of the big picture we will analyse the way ahead for the two new Union Territories.