Plugged-In: Storm kills 39 & Nawaz statement creates furore

Front Page

A massive storm hit Delhi and other northern regions Sunday, resulting in the death of 39 people: A powerful dust storm backed by rain and supported by the season’s strongest winds disrupted air and road traffic, uprooted more than 250 trees and caused widespread power failures across the national capital region. Deaths were reported in Delhi, UP, and West Bengal, reports Hindustan Times.

A palm tree fell on cars during the dust storm in New Delhi, Sunday | PTI

Pakistan national security council to meet over Nawaz Sharif’s comments: On Saturday, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif admitted to his country’s involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, causing an uproar. Pakistan’s national security council will meet over the next two days to discuss the “misleading media statement”, reports Times Now.

The defence minister has said the proposed ‘unilateral ceasefire’ is not possible in J&K. In a statement, Nirmala Sitharaman stressed that the Army must firmly handle any terrorist activity that poses a threat to J&K’s stability, India Today reports.

Siddaramaiah says he is OK with staying on as CM as well as stepping aside if the Congress wins the Karnataka election. Asked about reports that a Dalit would be made CM if the Congress gets a majority, Siddaramaiah said he had no objection and would leave the decision to the party high command, reports Business Standard.

Delhi food minister seeks revocation of cancellation of food rations: A day after the Delhi government’s food and civil supplies department decided to stop distributing rations to beneficiaries who had not availed of them for three consecutive months, minister Imran Hussain wrote a letter describing the move as “draconian, unreasonable and illegal”, reports The Indian Express.

Aurangabad ‘cops seen walking with a mob in video’: An investigation has been ordered into the alleged involvement of police personnel in the communal riots that started in the city late Friday night, reports The Times of India. This came after a video purportedly showed cops accompanying rioters torching vehicles and property.

In ThePrint

Dog attacks continue in Sitapur, with the toll rising to 13. As a red-faced administration scrambles for answers following the deaths of 13 children in 12 Sitapur villages, the blame is squarely put on dogs – and every dog is being made to share it equally, reports Sanya Dhingra.

Shashi Tharoor explains why ‘social media’s importance in politics is overestimated’. He writes, “It won’t matter how many more Twitter followers Narendra Modi has than Rahul Gandhi. It will only matter who has won more seats in the Lok Sabha.”

On his government’s fourth anniversary, a survey could make Modi a very happy man: In an online survey conducted by governance social media platform LocalCircles, 57 per cent of the respondents stated that the NDA government had either met or exceeded their expectations. However, this means that 43 per cent of people are dissatisfied with the government, a number that has risen in the last couple of years, reports Ruhi Tewari.

Latest news on Modi | Modi to address BJP morchas | ThePrint.in
Prime Minister Narendra Modi | PTI

Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s daughter Moneeza Hashmi says she remains undeterred despite India’s twin ‘visa snubs’, reports Amrita Nayak Dutta.

Business Class

The civil aviation ministry is mulling the privatisation of eight airports, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow and Guwahati, reports Business Standard.

Former Infosys co-chairman Ravi Venkatesan is discussing a leadership role in Amazon India, reports The Economic Times. Amazon India is gearing up for an intense fight after its India rival Flipkart sold a majority stake to American retail giant Walmart.

News it’s just kinda cool to know

In east Delhi, an entire residential society is powered by the sun: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated a 140 kWp solar PV plant at Milan Vihar cooperative society in IP Extension Sunday, reports The Times Of India.

Indian sports tourism industry gets a boost: According to experts, Indians are showing more enthusiasm for visiting countries to attend sports events, with a 10-12 per cent growth in the industry, reports The Economic Times.

Gyms on panchayat land to be used as RSS ‘shakhas’: Using land for namaz may be an issue for Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, but the BJP-led state government seems OK with the RSS using government gyms made on panchayat land to hold shakhas, reports The Wire.

RSS
RSS volunteers | PTI Photo

Taxi aggregators steal a march on Mumbai’s ‘kaali-peelis’: The comfort that taxi aggregators have brought to commuters in Mumbai has paid off and Ola and Uber have bypassed the popularity of the traditional black-and-yellow taxis, reports The Indian Express.

Point of View   

The Supreme Court collegium has decided, in principle, to reiterate the recommendation for Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K.M. Joseph’s elevation to the top court. The Hindu, in its editorial, praises the move but asks why the SC didn’t do it immediately after the government returned the recommendation.

The credibility of economic data available in the public domain is at an all-time low: Business Standard, in its editorial, writes, “From all available evidence, it is apparent that the CSO (Central Statistics Office) is unable to meet the demands of the new economy. The solution is not just to correct the flaws in GDP estimation but also to improve the functioning of the CSO itself.”

Just before the polls, Karnataka raised the minimum wages from Rs 7,751 a month to Rs 13,429 for semi-skilled workers: Aegis CEO Sandip Sen, in his column in The Economic Times, writes that it will hurt the BPO sector badly and lead to job losses.

After the droughts in 2014-15 and 2015-16, the government launched the PM Fasal Bima Yojana: Agriculture economist Ashok Gulati writes in his column in The Indian Express that it “does not inspire the confidence of farmers. They have to wait for months, sometimes years to get compensation”.