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The Morning Wrap: Rajinikanth Casts His Vote In Chennai; Cricketer Suresh Raina Becomes A Father

The Morning Wrap: Rajinikanth Casts His Vote In Chennai; Cricketer Suresh Raina Becomes A Father
HuffPost Staff

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

That Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a social media superstar is not unknown. However, his ministers are catching up with the trend as well. Apart from Modi, some of the tech-savy ministers from his cabinet include, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Power Minister Piyush Goyal, HRD Minister Smriti Irani, and Home Minister Rajnath Singh, among others.

From 1 July, Delhi University (DU) alumni can apply for their degree certificates, marksheets, migration certificates, attestations and transcripts online. Claiming that DU would be the first Indian university to go completely online, the university announced that the will also deliver the documents to the desired destinations such as educational institutions, employer and visa agencies.

Bollywood actress Sushmita Sen who made her Instagram debut last month has been sharing adorable pictures of her daughters along with some of her attempts at poetry. Sen, who mostly wrote about her personal experiences and her father, proved that she is also good with words.

Amid reports that China and Pakistan were jointly opposing India's bid for the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership, the US said India meets missile technology control regime requirements and is ready for entry into the exclusive club.

Main News

As polling begins in the 232 of the total 234 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu, DMK chief M Karunanidhi, actors Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Ajith Kumar and chief electoral officer Rajesh Lakhoni are the early birds who have already cast their votes on Monday morning.

Home ministry under secretary Anand Joshi, who is accused of taking away the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act file on Teesta Setalvad's Sabrang Trust and arbitrarily issuing notices to many foreign-funded NGOs was arrested on Sunday after the CBI tracked him in west Delhi. Joshi had been was under surveillance, and, as per CBI sources, was deliberately avoiding joining the probe.

A Delhi Police head constable Brijpal, deployed for Union Minister Uma Bharti’s security, allegedly shot himself to death at her official residence in Akbar Road in Delhi late on Sunday night. A fellow policeman saw him using his service revolver to shoot himself and raised an alarm.

Off The Front Page

Indian batsman Suresh Raina became a father after his wife Priyanka Chaudhary gave birth to a baby girl at a private hospital in Amsterdam. The 29-year-old Gujarat Lions skipper and his wife named their daughter, Gracia, who was born on 15 May. Raina shared photos of his baby daughter on his official Twitter account.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent quality time with his mother Heeraben, when she visited him at his official residence on Race Course Road, New Delhi, for the first time since in almost two years. The nonagenarian, who lives in a village in Gujarat with her other sons, stayed in Delhi for five days, hanging out with PM Modi.

Samsung has patented a smartwatch idea that projects a larger user interface (UI) on the user’s hand for better management of the device. The wearable includes an image projector with UI screen, a camera and processor. The integrated camera will detect what the other hand does in the interface and create commands for the device says the description of the patent.

Opinion

Tamil Nadu is used to witnessing a two-way contest between the two major Dravidian parties — the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). However, a multi-cornered election is now a reality and the desire for change among the people is more than visible, writes Ramu Manivannan in Hindustan Times. "What is tragic about the politics in TN is that the people are trapped between the AIADMK and DMK with no immediate alternative in sight. They are forced to choose between the parties that are fully responsible and have an undeniable share in all that we consider as evils of politics in the state. This anger or disillusionment may also result in a hung assembly. What is wrong with a hung assembly when people are searching for an alternative? It is a step forward, not an end itself," he says.

The biopic based on Mohammad Azharuddin's life is another attempt to win back fans and find closure — but it doesn’t work, writes Sandeep Dwivedi in The Indian Express. "Azhar reminded us of what Lord Paul Condon, the ICC’s anti-corruption unit chief, said about the game in the late ’90s: “It was a crisis of credibility. Sponsors were pulling out because it was clear there had been a whole series of fixed matches in every form of the game…” The movie deepens those old wounds, aggravates contempt for “those” dubious cheats who sold their souls to shady syndicates. Back then, they pulled a fast one by reducing cricket to a pre-decided farce. Now one of them seems to be at it again. History can’t be replaced by a favourable Bollywood script. Or, maybe it can," he says.

In post-Soviet states, some of the world’s most corrupt, bureaucracy is inherited from a time when cheating the state was a national pastime, says Leonid Bershidsky in Mint. "According to the IMF, corruption costs the world $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion a year, or 2% of global economic output, mainly by undermining incentives for taxpayers to share their incomes with governments, increasing costs and undermining the quality of public spending, and stifling private investment and productivity. The losses mostly occur in the countries that can least afford them. The West cannot do much to help, either in terms of enforcement or by offering advice. It’s up to each corrupt nation to rip up its bureaucracy and chase away its architects," he says.

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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.