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The Morning Wrap: Mallya Tells SC He Can Pay ₹2,468 Crore More; Rats Spotted On Air India Dreamliner

The Morning Wrap: Mallya Tells SC He Can Pay ₹2,468 Crore More; Rats Spotted On Air India Dreamliner
Chairman and CEO of India's Kingfisher Airlines Vijay Mallya talks on his cellphone during a meeting with pilots in New Delhi on March 15, 2012. Chairman of the beleaguered airline Vijay Mallya was scheduled to meet pilots in the Indian capital in an attempt to steer it out of the crisis. India's Kingfisher Airlines earlier curtailed its overseas flights to avoid losing further cash as it struggles to keep flying amid mounting operational difficulties. AFP PHOTO/ Manan VATSYAYANA (Photo credit should read MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images)
MANAN VATSYAYANA via Getty Images
Chairman and CEO of India's Kingfisher Airlines Vijay Mallya talks on his cellphone during a meeting with pilots in New Delhi on March 15, 2012. Chairman of the beleaguered airline Vijay Mallya was scheduled to meet pilots in the Indian capital in an attempt to steer it out of the crisis. India's Kingfisher Airlines earlier curtailed its overseas flights to avoid losing further cash as it struggles to keep flying amid mounting operational difficulties. AFP PHOTO/ Manan VATSYAYANA (Photo credit should read MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images)

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

RK Pachauri, former chief of TERI, who is facing serious sexual harassment allegations from a junior colleague, said that he voluntarily decided to end his association with the climate think-tank, which he headed for over 35 years. "I felt that it was time for me to move away and get engaged in other interests which I have harboured over the past few years for activities at the global level," he said.

E-commerce giant Amazon recently surprised a seven-year-old Delhi boy with a lightsaber, a popular toy from the Star Wars franchise. The boy, who had been saving money for the toy, had written an endearing note, where he asked Amazon whether they would accept coins (that's how he saved the money) when he ordered the product on cash-on-delivery service. Amazon not only sent him the lightsaber as a gift, but also sent him some lovely personal messages.

A 20-year-old engineering student, Divyanshu Kumar alias Golu, has been arrested for allegedly hacking Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad's Facebook account. According to reports, Golu had hacked the RJD chief's Facebook account on 13 March, had allegedly posted 'objectionable comments' on his page.

In a gesture to support drought-hit Maharashtra, actor Riteish Deshmukh, who’s currently shooting his next film Banjo with Nargis Fakhri, decided to scrap the use of fake-rain in a song the unit recently shot. Deshmukh said that as he hailed from Latur, he understood the problems faced by the people in the drought-hit area.

Main News

The Uttarakhand High Court on Thursday set aside the order of the Centre that put the state under President's Rule on 27 March. Allowing former CM Harish Rawat's plea challenging the imposition of President's Rule, the High Court said the nine dissident Congress MLAs will now have to pay the price of committing 'Constitutional sin' of defection by being disqualified. The court has now ordered a fresh floor test on 29 April.

Urmilaben Patel, former Union Minister and wife of former Gujarat Chief Minister late Chimanbhai Patel, passed away in Ahmedabad following a brief age-related illness, state Congress said in a statement. She was 85 years old.

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya who is facing a non-bailable arrest warrant, told the Supreme Court that he was prepared to deposit an additional ₹2,468 crore over and above the earlier offer of ₹4,400 crore against the demand of ₹9,000 crore by a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India (SBI). He still is maintaining silence over his return to India.

India is the second most targeted country for social media scams, announced the Internet Security Threat Report released by software security firm Symantec. The report also added that India 156 per cent rise last year in the number of scams via social media where users interact with malicious content shared by those on their networks.

Off The Front Page

BJP MP and Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Babulal Gaur recently launched an Android-based mobile app named 'Massom Milap' which will help register lost and found children. Gaur also said that the app will be particularly useful in the light of the upcoming Simhastha mela, which is held every 12 years in Madhya Pradesh and sees visitors from all over the world.

Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan has deposited copies of the emails, said to have been sent by actress Kangana Ranaut him, with the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell. But Ranaut's lawyer maintains that her account was hacked by Roshan and that he had sent all the emails from her account to himself.

Air India flight headed from Melbourne to Delhi had to make an unscheduled landing in Singapore because rats were spotted on the airplane. The sight of the unwelcome passengers naturally sent the entire plane in hysteria, forcing the plane to make an unexpected stop.

A father from Punjab took revenge against a teenaged boy who raped his 7-month-old baby daughter in the most gruesome way possible. The man from Kotli Ablu tied the 17-year-old alleged perpetrator to a tree and chopped off his hands with a machete. The father is now on the run.

Opinion

Arbitrarily invalidating private contracts, as with Bt cottonseed royalties, will dissuade investors, wrote Bharat Ramaswam and Milind Murugkar in The Indian Express. "The NDA government has preferred to continue the legacy of the UPA administration and various state governments. The not-so-secret sauce is to: One, maintain costly and unpredictable regulatory structures; two, reduce entry and competition; and three, acknowledge the stupendous demand for the commercialised product by squeezing the monopolist incumbent," they write.

The Delhi government’s decision to ban surge pricing by taxi service aggregators, which follows a similar ban imposed by Karnataka, is misguided, says an editorial in The Hindu. "The odd-even scheme may be a welcome intervention to reduce traffic congestion in the Union Territory, but the decision to clamp down on surge pricing by taxi aggregators, which is set to continue even after Phase Two of the odd-even scheme ends on 30 April, is counterproductive," says the editorial.

"Should Incredible India's mascot be an aged, fake haired, highly touchy, insecure, has-been, nepotistic individual? I would say yes, of course! Who else," writes Aakar Patel in Mumbai Mirror. "Incredible as we all know, has two meanings. The first is 'fantastic'. Perhaps that is what the government meant in telling foreigners India is incredible. However the Latin root of the same word says incredible is that is which is not credible. Incredibilis means not worthy of belief. My suspicion: is this what successive governments have meant when trying to lure people to coming to India? Have they been clever without being untruthful," he asks.

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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.