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The Morning Wrap: India, Pakistan Hold Secret Meeting In Bangkok; Terror Strike In Delhi Averted

The Morning Wrap: India, Pakistan Hold Secret Meeting In Bangkok; Terror Strike In Delhi Averted
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The Morning Wrap is HuffPost India's selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers. Subscribe here to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning.

Essential HuffPost

Though official numbers peg India's July-September quarterly growth at 7.4%, a Bank of America-Merill Lynch report says that it would have been only 5.2%, if the traditional method of calculation were employed.

At the Paris climate talks, a South African diplomat embarrassed the richest nations from trying to wiggle out of their commitment to provide $100 billion every year from 2020.

As the Chennai floods wreaked havoc on a city bursting at the seams with rapid industrialization, one city resident wrote a harrowing account of being trapped in the rains for three days and two nights.

This is the clarification the Press Information Bureau should have written after photoshopping an image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking an aerial survey of Chennai.

Main News

India and Pakistan's National Security Advisors (NSA) held a secret meeting in Bangkok on Sunday, discussing terrorism as well as Jammu & Kashmir. Reports suggest that the Prime Ministers of both countries had decided to hold the meeting when they met last week at the sidelines of the Paris climate talks.

All domestic as well as international flights from Chennai will resume from today. The airport was shut down last Tuesday night after heavy downpour flooded the runway and all other operating areas.

The Delhi Police's Special Cell has claimed to identify and foil a plan by the Lashkar-e-Taiba to carry out "a Mumbai-like attack in Delhi or any other city" and apparently blow up Prime Minister Modi's gatherings or assassinate other high-profile politicians in Delhi.

Chief Justice of India TS Thakur has claimed that Indians don't have to fear "intolerance" as the judiciary protects "the rights of all classes and communities".

The Prime Minister's Office has asked for an explanation from officials at the information and broadcasting ministry and the Press Information Bureau after the PIB photoshopped an image of Modi surveying the flood situation in Chennai.

Off The Front Page

English education can't instil patriotism, according to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. The right-wing leader said that "such schools" weren't needed.

A social activist has approached the Bombay High Court seeking stay on the release of the movie Bajirao Mastani until two of its songs — Pinga and Malhari — are not censored as these allegedly distort facts and history.

A stolen 2,600-year-old idol of Lord Mahavir was found in a ditch in Bihar, eight days after it went missing from a Jain temple. Interestingly, several Jains and local villagers thronged the area around the ditch to offer prayers, even as the police struggled to control the crowd.

Opinion

The Congress Party is far from being ‘obstructive’, and is battling for a proper Goods and Services Tax Bill to make sure the new law actually encourages growth, argue Randeep Singh Surjewala and Muhammad A Khan.

The Delhi government's plan to cut down air pollution by allowing cars with odd and even license plates on alternate days is "radical", but it hasn't been properly planned for implementation.

Nirupama Subramanian writes about Chennai's "burden of bravery", and how the city's administration has failed it: "[T]he scale of the catastrophe need not have been so massive had Chennai’s civic authorities, politicians and real estate developers not so stubbornly refused to learn lessons from the city’s previous bad experiences."

Madhya Pradesh’s high agricultural growth rates offer important lessons for the Centre, argue Ashok Gulati and Aastha Malhotra in The Indian Express: "Focusing on agriculture is not only good economics but also good politics. When the largest number gains from growth, it gives political legitimacy for further pushing the reform frontier."

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.