Front Page
Remix: The J&K cabinet is about to be reshuffled, and the BJP is making major changes. For starters, “Deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh will step down, trading places with speaker Kavinder Gupta,” The Indian Express reports. Singh had supported J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti in her decision to stand by the crime branch probe in the Kathua case. “Gupta, who replaces Singh, is a first-time MLA but an old BJP and RSS hand,” the report adds.
Rahul Gandhi’s 32-minute speech at the Congress’ Jan Aakrosh rally at the Ramlila Maidan Sunday has given most major dailies their headlines for today. The Hindu highlights Rahul’s ‘open challenge’ to the BJP, that the Congress will win the upcoming assembly as well as the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Indian Express reports that the Congress president listed the NDA government’s unfulfilled promises. Hindustan Times tells us that Rahul said the “country’s watchman is silent” on key issues. The Times of India didn’t carry the story on the front page at all.
‘All villages in India now have access to electricity,’ The Times of India reports front page, patting the PM on the back for keeping his 2015 promise of putting all the villages on the grid in 1,000 days. “Manipur’s Leisang village became the last non-electrified inhabited village to join India’s mainline supply network at 5.30 pm on Saturday,” the report reads. The daily also explains that “this means that all 597,464 inhabited villages in the country now have access to power”.
Caste-ing Call: Photographs have surfaced showing newly recruited constables with “SC”, “ST” and “O” for OBC written on their chests during a medical examination in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district. A probe was ordered Sunday on possible caste-based segregation in recruitment policies, Hindustan Times reports.
Modi had a 30-minute speech of his own, over the radio, on his monthly Mann ki Baat broadcast Sunday. On his show, he “asked youngsters to join the ‘Swachh Bharat Summer Internship 2018′, and also pitched for water conservation”, The Hindu reports. For a quick summary of his segment, read the article.
Better safe than sorry: To avoid any more embarrassing frauds like the Nirav Modi-PNB affair, all public sector banks have started conducting audits of loan accounts above Rs 50 crore, The Indian Express reports as its lead story today. This move is based on a directive issued by the finance ministry.
And guess who’s in the news again? Tripura CM Biplab Deb has advised the youth to “set up paan shops instead of running after political parties for several years to get government jobs and waste vital time of their life”. NDTV also quoted him as saying that “every household should have a cow” because selling milk could give people a bank balance of “Rs 10 lakh in 10 years.”
Following Deb’s string of controversial remarks, which “left his party colleagues redfaced and his rivals in splits”, he has been summoned by PM Modi to New Delhi on 2 May, The Economic Times reports
The Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee has directed Delhi’s municipal corporations to hurry up with the sealing exercise against unauthorised constructions, Hindustan Times reports. “In a circular sent to the civic agencies on Friday, the monitoring committee directed local bodies to send a daily compliance report about the sealing drive,” the report adds.
Meanwhile, in our neighbour’s front yard:
Pakistan’s interior ministry has removed the chief prosecutor of the 26/11 case for his “unbiased and independent” approach. The Times of India reports that “the move comes two days after the US urged Pakistan to fully cooperate with India to investigate the Mumbai attacks”. This is a big blow for India’s efforts to bring the perpetrators of 26/11 to justice.
However, India and Pakistan are set to take part in a military exercise together for the first time. “The arch rivals will be part of a multi-nation counter-terror exercise in Russia in September, which will also be joined by China and several other countries,” PTI reports.
In ThePrint
Who called the Bharat Bandh on 2 April? Well, the Modi government still doesn’t know. Ananya Bhardwaj tells us that “even the home ministry is clueless about who was behind the call that went viral on WhatsApp and other social media platforms”, following which Dalit groups came together to protest. While some say the bandh was a politically motivated move called by ‘upper castes’, other officials seem to think a foreign hand was involved.
Coming soon to Mumbai: A ferry for your car. Manasi Phadke reports that in order to significantly cut commute time within the congested Mumbai Metropolitan Region, “the Maharashtra government plans to operationalise a roll-on-roll-off ferry service that will allow passengers to carry their cars on board from Mandwa, near Alibaug, to Ferry Wharf in south Mumbai.” Read her story to find out more.
Business Class
India’s own card RuPay is all set to occupy number two position, pipping either Visa or Master Card “on the value and volume of transactions done through them in the country this calendar year”, reports The Economic Times.
Almost three quarters since the implementation of GST, automobile manufacturers are moving towards keeping the ex-showroom price of their mass segment models uniform throughout the country, reports Business Standard.
Apple India posted a net profit of Rs 373.4 crore for the last financial year, reports The Economic Times. “Apple India’s total income (including other income) grew by 17 per cent to touch Rs 11,704.5 crore in FY17, up from Rs 9,997.6 crore in the previous fiscal,” the report adds.
New it’s just kinda cool to know
Bob Dylan has created a new door to heaven: Whisky. The Nobel prize winning lyricist and musician “has joined liquor entrepreneur Marc Bushala to turn a deconsecrated church in Tennessee (US) into a distiller”, The Guardian reports. PS: The brand is called Heaven’s Door.
Want to know the secret behind the UPSC topper’s success? — Just Google it, literally. UPSC topper Anudeep Durishetty told The Times of India that he spent hours on the internet to prepare for the civil services exam. If websites, magazines and newspapers aren’t enough, he said, then “YouTube is the best tutor”.
If you haven’t seen ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ yet, the makers of the film probably won’t care, because the movie scored the biggest global film opening of all time — an estimated $630 million — $380 million in 52 international markets and $250 million in the US. What’s even more amazing is that the Marvel superhero movie from Disney hasn’t even opened in China yet, where it’s slotted for release on 11 May.
Point of View
Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded his two-day China visit. Editorials in leading dailies have praised the maturity shown by both sides. The Indian Express, in its editorial, writes, “Modi-Xi meet acknowledges the need for political maturity, diplomatic skill in managing India-China relations.” The Hindu writes its editorial, “PM Modi and President Xi change the tenor of India-China ties. They must build on it.”
Modi’s visit to China was ‘more about optics than substance, but it was a much needed summit’, writes JNU associate professor Happymon Jacob in his column for The Hindu. He adds that the PM must focus on the deliverables now.
News of Delhi’s Red Fort being adopted by Dalmia group generated much hullabaloo. The Economic Times, in its editorial, criticises the hysteria and expresses support for the move.
Former State Bank of Pakistan governor Ishrat Husain’s book Governing The Ungovernable was published in February. Pakistani columnist Khaled Ahmed, in his column in The Indian Express, writes that the book “unravels the failure of the country’s institutions”.
The Supreme Court seems to be sitting on the cusp of history. Araghya Sengupta, research director of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, writes in his column in The Times Of India that it’s time for the Supreme Court now “face down the political pressure and take charge of its destiny”.
The ongoing tussle between the Supreme Court and the government of India has raised questions about the independence of the judiciary. In light of the government asking the collegium to reconsider Justice K.M. Joseph’s appointment to the SC, Manini Chatterjee, in her column in The Telegraph, writes that CJI Dipak Misra must “call… a meeting and restore the collegial functioning and collective decision-making that alone can resist the grasping tentacles of a rampaging executive”.