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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
The Opposition closed ranks against Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani over the JNU and Hyderabad university issues. While the Congress Party moved a privilege motion against Irani in the Lok Sabha, Mayawati's Bahuhan Samaj Party did the same in the Rajya Sabha.
After years of speculative stories and questions about her relationship status, actor Preity Zinta finally got hitched to her long-time beau Gene Goodenough.
Under all-round attack, the government promised to consider demands for a partial rollback of the proposal to tax 60 per cent of withdrawals from provident fund and a ceiling on employers contribution, but made it clear that PPF will continue to be tax exempt.
A special court in Mumbai gave permission to the Enforcement Directorate to begin extradition proceedings against former IPL chairman Lalit Modi, who is believed to be in the UK, in connection with the money laundering probe against him.
The Delhi Police finally filed its chargesheet against RK Pachauri in a sexual harassment complaint lodged over a year ago by his 29-year-old female colleague.
Main News
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden outlined in letters and other documents how at least $29 million of his funds and possessions should be apportioned after his death, requesting that most of it be used to continue global jihad.
Amid the raging controversy surrounding the Afzal Guru event held at JNU on February 9, it has emerged that two of the seven videos sent by the Delhi government for forensic tests were ‘doctored’.
For the third game in a row, India had some tense moments after the loss of early wickets. However, the middle-order, led once again by Virat Kohli, sealed their qualification for the Asia Cup final with a five-wicket victory against Sri Lanka at the Shere Bangla Stadium.
The parliament session was disrupted as the opposition parties demanded the resignation of Union minister Ram Shankar Katheria for allegedly making inflammatory comments at a public meeting in UP.
In what could be the harshest sentence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, since it came into effect, a special court judge in Kerala sentenced a priest to 40 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a minor girl.
Off The Front Page
After 40 hours of search by fear-stricken parents and cops from three police stations, four young schoolboys were eventually found — 330km away, blithely watching cartoon on TV and munching on popcorn at the home of the grandmother of one of the kids.
As a tribute, close to 180 people pledged their eyes in Karegowdanahalli, the native village of Harish Nanjappa, who died in a gruesome road accident in Bangalore. It had surprised everyone that while he lay calling for help, he had requested that his eyes be donated.
Expectant leap-year moms rescheduled C-sections to skip February 29. “I have had to schedule several C-sections," said Chennai-based obstetrician D Dakshayani. “In fact, I have been a doctor for 15 years, but have never delivered a baby on February 29.”
A woman in Kanpur refused to tie the knot at the last minute with a man whom she found to be mentally unstable. The police was called in after the groom’s family kicked up a row.
Cattle smugglers in UP used an ambulance-like van to dodge cops. The police recovered five cattle from the vehicle, which were to be sold in Bihar. While the driver slipped away, the helper was arrested.
Opinion
The diversity pipeline is long and vexed. We laughed dutifully at the little skits in which Black faces replaced White ones. But can you imagine a major studio backing a film like The Martians (in which, nominee Matt Damon learns to survive on Mars by, among other things, growing potatoes in his own, um, excrement) if it starred a Black actor? asks Shubhra Gupta in The Indian Express. “It is still a fight that needs to be fought.”
Delhi lives off borrowed water. Out of 900 million gallons it consumes daily, the capital gets 780 from neighbouring states. Only 120 gallons is tapped internally — from ponds, groundwater, wells and recycling. For a city that has little water of its own, Delhi loves to splurge. The per capita water consumption in its affluent districts is perhaps the highest in the world. Bore wells have sucked south and west Delhi bone dry, writes Shivani Singh in the Hindustan Times.
The Budget is unlikely to accelerate the realisation of the ‘Make in India’ dream. There is virtually nothing to encourage either domestic or foreign investments in the manufacturing sector. What is required is a complete change in the way we encourage and nurture entrepreneurship. It will be irrational to expect a new India to emerge from old-style Budgets, writes Arvind P Datar in The Hindu.
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