Front Page
Delhi CM Kejriwal to meet L-G Baijal today: After the Supreme Court upheld the powers of the Delhi government, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will meet lieutenant governor Anil Baijal today. Meanwhile, the relationship between the AAP dispensation and bureaucrats strained further Thursday as the former “warned officers of ‘serious consequences’ if they did not comply with the city government’s directive on transfers and postings”, reports Business Standard.
Kumaraswamy waives farm loans: Karnataka CM H.D. Kumaraswamy honoured his party’s poll promise by announcing a waiver of crop loans to the tune of Rs 34,000 crore in the coalition government’s maiden budget presented Thursday, reports The Hindu. However, to fund the waiver scheme, people would need to brace for dearer petrol, diesel, electricity, liquor, and motor vehicles.
JNU panel upholds punishment for Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumar: A high-level JNU inquiry committee has upheld the expulsion of Umar Khalid and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Kanhaiya Kumar in connection with a campus protest in February 2016 against Afzal Guru’s hanging, reports The Times Of India.
Maneka Gandhi wants inquiry against Kerala firm for shark finning: A day after ThePrint reported that a firm in the southern state has been accused of skirting the central government’s ban on export of shark fins, union minister Maneka Gandhi urged the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence to “prevent these criminal actions”, reports ThePrint’s Sanya Dhingra.
Abducted Jammu and Kashmir cop found dead: A 27-year-old policeman, Javed Ahmad Dar, abducted by militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district Thursday evening was found dead. He was a personal security officer for former superintendent of police Shalinder Mishra, reports Hindustan Times. The murder comes days after an Army man, Aurangzeb, was similarly abducted and killed in Kashmir.
The first tender for India’s bullet train is out: The National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) has floated its first tender for India’s bullet train project, even as it seeks to overcome local resistance to land acquisition in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The tender pertains to the construction of one of the 60-odd bridges required for the high-speed corridor, reports The Indian Express.
Business Class
In a major relief for the consortium of 13 banks trying to recover their loans from businessman Vijay Mallya, a UK court allowed the British Enforcement Officer to enter the properties of Mallya in London, reports Business Standard. Mallya owes Indian banks over Rs 9,000 crore.
Reliance Industries is all set to enter the Indian e-commerce space, chairman Mukesh Ambani announced at the firm’s annual general meeting, reports The Economic Times. Reliance Industries plans to use Jio and Reliance Retail to create a unique ‘online-offline platform’.
News it’s just kinda cool to know
WhatsApp is finally taking fake news seriously. The social media giant has decided to give researchers Rs 50,000 for a study on how to tackle fake news, reports Moneycontrol. Under the programme, an independent researcher would be expected to develop conceptual tools, gather and analyse data, and/or investigate relevant issues.
‘Trump baby’ has been given the green light: After thousands signed a petition and a crowdfunding campaign raised more than £16,000 to get a six-metre Trump ‘angry baby’ blimp balloon off the ground, London mayor Sadiq Khan’s Greater London Authority has approved the request for it to fly near parliament during Trump’s UK visit, reports Sky News.
Point of View
The issue of drug-related deaths is again raising its head in Punjab, with the chief minister announcing all state government employees to be screened for drug use. The Indian Express, in its editorial, writes, “That the announcement was made by chief minister Amarinder Singh before the details have been discussed or drawn up exposes it for what it is — a hasty, knee jerk and misplaced political response, like the one before it, to a pervasive and deep problem.”
The Modi government has raised the MSP of kharif crops to 150 per cent of the cost of cultivation. The Times Of India, in its editorial, writes, “MSPs are no longer a potent tool to deal with agrarian challenges and are at best a Band-Aid. A better approach to tackling agrarian woes is through a combination of pro-market reforms and providing direct investment support to farmers in a crop neutral way.”
A second BJP leader has come to the aid of Sushma Swaraj after trolling. BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav, in his column in The Indian Express, writes, “A difference of opinion in these matters is plausible and valid as well. What is not valid is the hounding, the abuse, the death-wishes, the obscenities like calling her Begum Sushma or worse commenting on her health and kidney — or a retired professor asking her husband to beat her up.”
What should be the role of governor or lieutenant governor in a parliamentary democracy? Former governor of West Bengal Gopalkrishna Gandhi, in his column in The Hindu, writes, “’What would you like me to do?’ (a former Bengal governor, Frederick Burrows, had asked Mahatma Gandhi this question). The answer was courteous, but crisp. ‘Nothing, your excellency’, Gandhi said. After the British declaration to quit India, the governor’s position in India’s provinces was that of a constitutional head of state and he must ‘let’ the representative government do its duty.”
Prime Time
Loan waiver politics
Zakka Jacob of CNN News 18 discussed the impact chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s loan waiver will have on the state exchequer. While BJP spokesperson Gopal Aggarwal said the government would have to find its own money, Congress spokesperson Shabeena Sultana blamed the BJP for not providing funds for the loan waiver.
“If the state has to give a farm loan waiver, they have to find the money in their own budget,” said Aggarwal.
“We had initially asked the Centre to support us in waiving farm loans but they did not. So we had to raise revenues,” countered Sultana.
A wave of joy
On NDTV, Vishnu Som talked about the damage the fake news industry had caused to the country. He pointed to the Tripura education minister’s statement backing a rumour of children being abducted for kidney trafficking — leading to four deaths within 48 hours, he said.
According to NDTV’s correspondent from Guwahati, Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, when confronted with the gravity of the fake news industry, said, “There is a wave of joy in Tripura.”
(With inputs from Prateek Gupta)