On today’s front pages, Trump’s bravado that “millions [will be] welcoming him” in India makes headlines, as does Arvind Kejriwal, again.
The second convoy of envoys to Jammu and Kashmir also makes an appearance. And, a warning — bad news ahead: the newspapers note the rise in inflation and fall in industrial output in contrast to yesterday’s reports on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement about “green shoots’’ appearing in an economic recovery.
The Times of India makes its own news with the First Times Now Summit where PM Modi “made a strong appeal to citizens to take a pledge to pay their taxes honestly, keeping in mind the sacrifice of those who laid down their lives for the freedom of the nation.”
The other lead on Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s swearing-in ceremony, coming Sunday, notes, “The ceremony will be held at Ramlila Maidan, the site of Anna Hazare’s fast, where Kejriwal was sworn in as CM in 2015.” It adds that Kejriwal plans to “repeat’’ all ministers in his last cabinet.
The story on Trump’s comments of “millions welcoming him to India” adds, “He (Modi) thinks we’ll have 5-7 million people from the airport to the new (Motera) stadium.” However, TOI wonders “on what basis’’ he expects these numbers, “as per the 2011 census’’ Ahmedabad’s population was 5.7 million.
The Indian Express has some worrying news too: based on an interview with former Chief Statistician Pronab Sen, it reports how the attacks on field enumerators due to the growing mistrust over the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act may make it difficult to conduct household surveys — the first paragraph is a minefield of convoluted ideas.
Hafiz Saeed, the 26/11 terror attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamat-ud-Dawa founder, has been “sentenced to prison” for 11 years. Express notes that Pakistan convicted Saeed just six days before its fate on blacklisting will be decided in a Financial Action Task Force session.
Foreign diplomats’ visit to Kashmir to assess the situation included a gloomy shikara ride — look at the photograph. The paper also focusses on the Congress after it scored a duck in the the Delhi polls: AICC Delhi in-charge P.C. Chacko “sought to blame the late Sheila Dikshit for the state of the party’s decline” even though it had “flaunted her work” during the campaign.
And here’s a supreme irony: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s choice for forest minister, in none other than Anand Singh, a four-time MLA from Ballari, who not only has “business interests in mining and transportation” but also charges of illegal mining against him.
There’s an obituary of renowned designer Wendell Rodricks after he “passed away peacefully” at his home in Goa.
Hindustan Times still has a Kejriwal hangover, reporting on the chief minister’s unchanged cabinet because “AAP wanted to signal continuity by not shuffling the Cabinet, particularly since the mandate was secured on the back of a successful stint in office.”
The paper highlights what others ignore: two Indians on a quarantined ship off Japan were tested positive for coronavirus, raising the number of Indians infected to six. But it suggests there maybe relief around that corner as “China recorded its lowest number of daily cases since January…”
Like TOI, the paper reports on Trump’s ‘millions’ comment. The report on Wendell Rodricks, says he died after “collapsing at his residence” in Goa. Read the odd anchor story on the duping and blackmailing of members of the LGBTQ community thorugh a dating site: “The racket run by six men was busted in November after a decoy was sent to meet one of the members on Southern Peripheral Road following a complaint by a victim.”
And in important consumer news, the price of LPG was hiked by Rs 144.5 per cylinder Wednesday.
Like Express, The Hindu gives Hafiz Saeed’s sentencing top billing. The report details, that he “was found guilty of ‘being part of a banned terrorist outfit’ and for ‘having illegal property’ by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore.”
Hindu also covers the J&K visit of foreign envoys, adding, “They sought inputs from locals, including select politicians, elected grass-roots representatives, editors, traders and members of the civil society, on the measures required to move ahead,” but no meeting with regional political party leaders. The anchor story is an interesting read as “Kerala imposes Rs. 13 price cap on bottled water” as the “Government views current prices as exploitation of consumers” and also makes it an “essential commodity”.
The Telegraph does not look like The Telegraph this Thursday morning, perhaps because of the half page ad. Soaring inflation hits the FM’s :green shoots’’ — the paper adds that this is “the highest level since May 2014 — while factory output shrank by 0.3 per cent in December.”
In the other lead, Justice A.P. Shah is critical of the Supreme Court — he said, “its role as an institution that keeps majoritarian impulses in check is diminishing and it seems to be behaving in a way that is indistinguishable from the government.” Another story reports on reactions to Kerjiwal’s win as “Shah shunned public appearances and social media comments for the second consecutive day.”
The New Indian Express is dominated by its vertical page 1 ad. Its lead on the Aam Aadmi Party’s plan of action says, the party “is already eyeing the three new municipal corporations in the city”.
The paper also reports two Indian crew members tested positive for the coronavirus aboard the Diamond Princess luxury liner.
Mumbai Mirror highlights the dispute between “around 40 Mumbai chemists and four public hospitals”. The report says, “The poorest of the poor will be the ones to suffer as the Druggist and Chemist Association of Mumbai is adamant to not supply even a single strip of medicine to the four hospitals till they settle the bills amounting to around Rs 60 crore.”
The Tribune’s crowded front-page leads with Supreme Court Justice Mohan Shantanagoudar recusing himself from hearing the petition of Omar Abdullah’s sister Sara Abdullah Pilot, although no reason was given.
And an interesting report about how all medical devices manufactured and sold will be defined as drugs in order to control prices. This includes “all devices from disposable syringes, catheters, intraocular lenses and nebulisers to condoms”. Another important report on page 1, is about Assam’s NRC data disappearing from the website as the contract with Wipro, providing “the cloud server for the huge set of data” hadn’t been renewed.
In The Economic Times, the lead is an important deal in the works between JC Flower and Yes Bank, which might turn around the fate of the bank that has been suffering because of “surging bad loans and management uncertainty”. There’s an interesting anchor story on how “closure of factories in China on account of the coronavirus outbreak” could affect Amazon and Flipkart sales. The flap carries the news about the dismal industry data — “Factory Output Shrinks, retail inflation surges to near 6-yr high”.
Mint’s lead headline says it all on the factory output data. It highlights the contradiction with Nirmala Sitharaman’s comment about green shoots.
Also the Tata group names “veteran Srinath Narasimhan as their first chief executive, signalling a shift to a more professional leadership framework”. The anchor story spells bad news for consumers and small businesses as RBI’s recent measures won’t make loans cheaper because of the move to the “new external benchmark-based lending rate”.
An unusual lead for BS is about the central government’s measures to make the tax dispute resolution scheme attractive. The paper also follows the same line of criticism as Mint and NIE over the latest data, which signals that retail inflation is at a six-year high.
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