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Big money: It’s official, Walmart is buying 77 per cent equity in Flipkart for $16 billion, in what is to be the biggest-ever deal in the e-commerce space, The Economic Times reports. This leaves two giant MNCs, Walmart and Amazon, to battle it out in the Indian online retail space — the largest emerging market in the world. Walmart has so far been unable to make a mark in Indian markets, with its joint venture with Bharti Enterprises collapsing in 2013. Read The Times of India breakdown to understand why this deal is the biggest headline today.
Kashmiri youth need to stop fighting for ‘azadi’, it will never happen, you can’t fight the Indian Army, General Bipin Rawat told The Indian Express in an interview. The Army chief added, “We don’t enjoy it. But if you want to fight us, then we will fight you with all our force. Kashmiris have to understand that the SFs (security forces) haven’t been so brutal — look at Syria and Pakistan.”
A ‘unilateral ceasefire’ is being called for in Kashmir during the month of Ramzan and the period of the Amarnath Yatra, The Hindu reports. All major political parties, including the ruling PDP and BJP, supported the idea during the all-party meeting convened by J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti in the wake of the Valley’s worsening security situation.
The 10,000 voter IDs that were found in a Bengalruru apartment have sparked a major blame-game between the Congress and the BJP, with both accusing each other of trying to rig the Karnataka election. Roughly a hundred thousand “counterfoils” that resembled acknowledgement slips issued while adding names to the electoral rolls were also found, Hindustan Times reports. The question being asked is — which party did the tenant belong to?
‘Allow only five mosques and keep them least two kilometres away from temples’: This is what Hindutva groups have asked the Gurgaon administration, which designates open spaces for Friday prayers, to do, The Times of India reports. This follows Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s controversial statement about namaz in public and Muslim groups’ counter-argument.
The debate has polarised groups, with some arguing that it’s the persecution of a religious minority, while others say that the CM’s statements are constitutionally sound.
Supreme Court thinks the Archaeological Survey of India is incompetent, and “will have to be thrown out of the picture” if the Taj Mahal has to be saved. The Indian Express reports that the Centre told the SC Wednesday that it may “involve international experts in the conservation of the 17th-century monument”. The Taj Mahal is reportedly turning green and yellow due to neglect, heavy foot traffic, insect slime, and imbalance in the surrounding ecosystem.
Supreme Court judge Justice Arun Mishra has said that lawyers who go on TV and target apex court judges are “killing the institution”, Hindustan Times reports.
In ThePrint
Introducing Pre-Truth: A segment that will bring you snappy, witty and significant snippets from the world of politics and government. To begin with, if a quiet internal campaign works, Divya Spandana could be new president of the Indian Youth Congress.
Less than 10 per cent of people in UP & Punjab are satisfied with their police force, Ananya Bhardwaj reports, based on an official performance and perception report. For Himachal and Haryana, the figure stands at 71 per cent.
Using parliamentary committee reports as evidence in courts is OK, and does not mean the judiciary is stepping on the powers and privileges of Parliament, Apurva Vishwanath reports on a Supreme Court observation. The ruling emerged from a PIL seeking a probe into allegedly illegal clinical trials on tribal girls in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
Business Class
Sachin Bansal, the co-founder of Flipkart, will move out of the company after the mega deal with Walmart as the US retail giant wants only one Flipkart executive on board, reports The Economic Times.
With the Walmart-Flipkart deal sealed, there might be another such agreement in the wings involving India’s biggest brick-and-mortar retailer, Future Group. Kishore Biyani, the founder of Future Group, is looking for a global retailer to buy a 10 per cent stake in the company, reports The Economic Times.
News it’s just kinda cool to know
Baby Indus river dolphins were spotted in the Beas river and this gives the World Wildlife Federation hope for the revival of an endangered subspecies, Hindustan Times tells us. So far, five to 11 Indus river dolphins are believed to be in the 185km stretch of the Beas that runs through Punjab.
18 people were arrested by Mumbai police Sunday and Monday after a senior editor at The Times of India “complained that his secretary had conspired ‘with unknown persons’ to make payments worth Rs 15 crore for freelance articles that were never actually written or published”, Scroll reports.
100 new underwater species have been discovered by Oxford scientists off the coast of Bermuda. The discovery was made on a research mission carried out by Nekton, an ocean exploration charity, India Today reports.
Point of View
The two Congress MPs who moved the SC in the ‘CJI impeachment’ case subsequently withdrew their plea. The Indian Express writes in its editorial, “On its (Congress’) ill-advised CJI impeachment bid, it should have cut its losses. Instead, it’s compounding its mistakes.”
Fulfilling his poll promise, President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Iran Nuclear deal. The Hindu, in its editorial, criticises the move, writing, “President Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal is a huge setback to multilateral diplomacy and the rules-based international order.”
Criticising the US decision on the Iran deal, Iranian-American scholar Ramin Jahanbegloo writes in his column in The Indian Express, “With Rouhani becoming a lame duck and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards winning their wager, it will be nearly impossible to bring Iran back to a trustful negotiating table.”
About a week ago, PM Modi claimed to have fulfilled his promise of electrifying every village in this country. Former union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, in his column in The Economic Times, calls it “a piece of well-crafted misinformation”.
11 May marks the 20th anniversary of the Pokhran nuclear test. Journalist Saubhik Chakrabarti, in his column in The Times Of India, writes that “…North Korea and Iran today clearly demonstrate India’s longstanding argument that US-led nuclear non-proliferation regimes never stopped determined rogues; it only penalised responsible, aspirational democracies”.
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