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Essential HuffPost
Fortune's January cover story about Amazon's plan for expansion into the Indian market depicts Jeff Bezos as a Hindu deity, resembling Lord Vishnu, with the title "America Invades India." Some find the cover to have explicit neo-colonial imperialist overtones. "Apologies to those offended," tweeted Fortune editor Alan Murray.
Arvind Kejriwal is still out of his depth as Chief Minister, and is yet to switch from activist mould to that of an administrator, writes K. S. Venkatachalam, but there are four changes in leadership which could help him be more than a two-hit wonder.
Along with a beautiful baby girl, former Miss World Diana Hayden has delivered possibly the perfect solution to Indian women battling the biological clock. The child was born of an egg that Hayden had frozen eight years ago.
Sanjay Jha argues that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Make in India" campaign is a myth: "where are the 25 million jobs per annum in the promised land? Incidentally, even Modi's own Statue of Unity of Sardar Patel has been outsourced to a Chinese foundry. This is grotesque double-speak."
Will Arvind Kejriwal experience Delhi as a real aam aadmi, common man, who does not own a car? "I have a dream. That one day, Arvind Kejriwal will sell his Wagon R car and use public transport. Not a one-time gimmick Delhi Metro ride during elections, but every day, Mr Kejriwal would use public transport to get wherever he needs to in Delhi-NCR," writes Shivam Vij.
Main News
According to the latest United Nations estimates, 244 million people, or 3.3% of the world's population, live in a country other than the one where they were born. Sixteen millions Indians, scattered around the world, make up the world's largest diaspora.
India's war hero, Lieutenant-General J.F.R. Jacob, who played a crucial role in negotiating the surrender of Pakistan in Dhaka in 1971, died in Delhi at the age of 92. Born in Kolkata in 1923, where his Jewish family had migrated from Baghdad, Jacob began his career during World War II in 1942.
Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai has said that the odd-even car scheme to curb pollution, which wraps up on Jan. 15, will be back for a second phase. Details of the second phase will be discussed at a review meeting with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Jan. 18.
A 40-year-old health worker worker in Muzzafarnagar, who was allegedly raped by a 20-year-old, committed suicide after a video of the incident was circulated on WhatsApp by the accused.
Pakistan claims to have arrested Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother and "several individuals" belonging to his group, suspected to have engineered the Pathankot terror attack, earlier this month. There was no official word on Azhar's arrest from the Prime Minister's Office, but the Modi government acknowledged "considerable progress" in the investigations.
Comedian and TV actor Kiku Sharda, known for playing Palak in the hugely popular show Comedy Nights With Kapil, was arrested for mimicking Dera Sacha Sauda leader Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on the grounds of hurting religious sentiments.
While the Supreme Court has questioned why women are barred from entering Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala, government authorities and temple officials are standing by the decades-old tradition. "The chief deity in the temple is a celibate. So allowing women to worship in the shrine is a sin," said Thazhamon Madom Kandararu Rajeevaru, chief priest of the Hindu temple.
The Gauhati High Court has banned the traditional bulbul bird fight at the Hayagrib Madhab Mandir, an ancient pilgrim centre at Hajo in Assam.
Off The Front Page
While London has emerged as the world's number one city for international universities, and Qatar University is now the most international institution, not a single Indian higher education institute has made it to the 2016 list of the 200 most international universities announced by Times Higher Education.
The Samajwadi party government in Uttar Pradesh has declared that men with more than one wife will not be eligible to teach Urdu, and female candidates who are married to a man with two wives will also not qualify for the post. The Muslim Personal Law Board is protesting against the requirement to declare marital status.
The Nitish government in Bihar has decided to impose 13.5 per cent tax on luxury items including samosa and kachauri.
Did you know BJP Union Minister General VK Singh made a cameo in a Bollywood movie?
At no. 24, Tamil Nadu is the only Indian state to have made to the The New York Times' list of 52 places to go in 2016.
Kuttanadan Punjayile Kochu Penne Kuyilale, the famous boat song from Kerala, just got a new twist, thanks to musicians Shankar Tucker and Vidya Iyer. The video has been shot in Kerala and features Sreenidhi and Sreedevi performing Mohiniyattam.
Opinion
Increasing maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks is a welcome step, but it is a far cry from resolving the myriad problems which prevent women from joining the workforce, writes Jayati Ghosh in The Indian Express. "India stands out in the world because of shockingly low rates of recognised work participation by women that have even declined over the past decade. This obviously represents a huge economic loss for the country — but it is also a sign of the continuing low status of women and their lack of agency in Indian society," she writes.
Mehbooba Mufti, who recently lost her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, must recognise that the PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir has not delivered in the 10 months of its existence, writes Siddiq Wahid in The Times of India: "Can the PDP-BJP coalition continue when its Agenda of the Alliance has been all but ignored in the last 10 months? Will the PDP effect a fresh alliance and with whom? Would it be disrespectful to the late Mufti’s legacy to abandon the coalition?"
Indian authorities had ample warning, a well trained force at their disposal, and sufficient time to foil the Pathankot attack, but experts in the national capital behaved in a "shabby and unprofessional" manner, writes Vijay Oberoi in The Pioneer: "The shemozzle of wrong decisions taken at Delhi was eventually corrected after we suffered many casualties and had dollops of sheer luck, but can or should we depend on luck?"
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