Front Page
Headlines today rotate around four pivots — military, money, Modi, and a splash of cricket.
Military
The Indian Express opens with a headline on a new integrated defence panel on strategy formed by the Centre Wednesday under the chairmanship of national security adviser Ajit Doval. Called the Defence Planning Committee (DPC), the permanent body “will prepare a draft national security strategy besides undertaking a defence review and formulating an international defence engagement strategy.” Hindustan Times also leads with the story, adding that the move “comes as the country faces several potential threats in a highly militarised neighbourhood”.
Modi
In Stockholm, the PM reiterated the importance of a “win-win” partnership with Sweden on defence, Divya Narayanan reported for ThePrint Tuesday. He later left for the UK to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London that starts today.
‘Rape is rape,’ declared the Prime Minister, referring to the Kathua and Unnao incidents, at a diaspora event in central London Wednesday, The Hindu reports front page. The PM, who was criticised for breaking his silence on the episodes very late, said in his address that “the rape of a little girl was a ‘crime against society’ but playing a ‘blame game’ was an even ‘bigger mistake'”.
President Ram Nath Kovind also addressed the Kathua case Wednesday, saying it was “barbaric”, and that it was “our collective responsibility to ensure such a thing does not happen to any girl or woman”, The Hindu reports.
During his breakfast meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Modi “raised the extradition of Indian economic offenders based in Britain, including (Vijay) Mallya”, Hindustan Times reports.
Money
A research report by SBI on the ongoing cash crunch in six states tells us what we already kind of knew — the Rs 2,000 note is inconvenient to spend. The bank, whose report “estimates the shortfall at Rs 70,000 crore — a third of the monthly ATM withdrawals, says declining income velocity indicates that the Rs 2,000 note isn’t getting adequately circulated in the economy”, The Indian Express reports. However, the pace of circulation for the Rs 200 note is fast.
The word ‘raid’ was a Google trend in India Wednesday, perhaps because tax authorities conducted 30-35 raids in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh “as part of a drive to smoke out cash hoarders, even as the government and RBI moved to pump in funds into some of the states facing a currency crunch”, The Times of India reports.
The income tax department has also warned salaried taxpayers to not claim incorrect deductions or under-report income. The Times of India reports the move comes after the I-T department “stumbled upon evidence of such malpractices in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Ludhiana”.
Cricket
That the BCCI shouldn’t function like a private club is essentially what the Law Commission said Wednesday. The commission has advised that the “Board of Control for Cricket in India be declared a public body”, thereby bringing it under the “the Right to Information law regime”, The Hindu reports as its lead story.
In ThePrint
The Kathua rape-murder case was actually ‘cracked’ in Delhi, thanks to just one spot of blood on a frock. “But for that to happen, the evidence had to be sent from Jammu to Delhi for forensic tests,” Pragya Kaushika reports. Read the full report to know the forensics that reportedly helped crack one of the most gruesome rape-murders in the country.
Modi government’s top scientist wants to use Twitter and local languages to take science to the masses — Meet principal scientific adviser VijayRaghavan, 64, a man who has the Prime Minister’s ear and “believes social media can help make the field more accessible to the layperson”. Sandhya Ramesh brings us a profile of perhaps the most influential person in Indian science today.
Business Class
In light of the ICICI Bank-Videocon controversy, heads of mutual fund houses met ICICI Bank chairman M.K. Sharma for a discussion about the succession plan at the bank, reports Business Standard.
Just before the Cambridge Analytica controversy, a top team of Facebook India went to Colombo to negotiate a deal to lift a temporary ban on the social media site, reports The Economic Times.
The real reason for the mess in public sector banks? The Economic Times reports, “Former Sebi chairman M. Damodaran blamed the telephone calls from Delhi (a reference to politicians) to Mumbai for the myriad problems that public sector banks face now and warned against their privatisation to resolve the crisis.”
News it’s just kinda cool to know
When life resembles a science-fiction movie: Humanity, more specifically NASA, launched a Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Wednesday that “will map 85 per cent of the sky in search of alien worlds”, Daily Mail reports.
In case you want to drive a taxi, autorickshaw or any other commercial vehicle, you don’t need a special ‘commercial’ licence anymore, as your private driving licence will do, The Times of India reports on a new government order.
Point of View
The country is facing a cash crisis again, nearly a year and a half after demonetisation. The Hindu writes in its editorial, “The sudden cash crunch shows that remonetisation remains a work in progress.” The Indian Express, in its editorial, writes, “Cash crunch in several states could have been prevented, puts RBI and government in the dock.”
Mecca Masjid blast was a natural disaster. Or at least the acquittal of all suspects in the case so suggests. The Hindu writes in its editorial, “The Mecca Masjid acquittals will reinforce cynicism about the state of the justice system.”
North-south divide has again become a talking point, with many southern states raising objections to the Terms of Reference for the 15th Finance Commission. BJP MP Varun Gandhi writes in his column in The Economic Times, “…We must shed old stereotypes that reinforce a comfortable analysis of India on a north-south axis and look deeper, seeking policy solutions and business models that work across a variety of states and at the district level.”
As if the alleged rape and murder of a child in Kathua was not disturbing enough, politicians from across the spectrum jumped in to give it many twists and turns. Prof. Zoya Hasan and Prof Farida Abdulla Khan, in their column in The Hindu, write, “The chilling details of the Kathua rape are important, but so is the disturbing politics behind it.”
The Supreme Court order on SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has ignited a debate about Dalit issues. Faizan Mustafa, vice-chancellor of NALSAR University of Law, writes in his column in The Indian Express, “An ordinance to overturn the Supreme Court order on SC/ST Atrocities Act is much needed.”
