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.

The Morning Wrap: Terrorism Suspected In EgyptAir Plane Crash; Pratyusha Banerjee's Parents Move SC

The Morning Wrap: Terrorism Suspected In EgyptAir Plane Crash; Pratyusha Banerjee's Parents Move SC
MUMBAI, INDIA � JULY 23: Pratyusha Banerjee, who plays the new grown-up Anandi in the serial Ballika Vadhu, during a press conference in Mumbai on July 23, 2010. (Photo by Yogen Shah/India Today Group/Getty Images)
Mail Today via Getty Images
MUMBAI, INDIA � JULY 23: Pratyusha Banerjee, who plays the new grown-up Anandi in the serial Ballika Vadhu, during a press conference in Mumbai on July 23, 2010. (Photo by Yogen Shah/India Today Group/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

Aiming to combat the 'menace' of coaching institutes, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is coming up with a mobile app and portal containing free lectures from IIT faculty on various subjects and previous years' question papers of entrance tests to prestigious engineering institutions. Keeping in mind the requirements of students who have studied in regional languages, this content will be available in 13 languages.

BJP has made clear inroads into Kerala, though LDF has won the state with a whopping majority. Not only has it won its first seat in that state, it has finished second in seven constituencies. According to the latest data BJP's vote share has risen to from 6.03 per cent in 2011 to 10.6 per cent now. In West Bengal, the party won three seats and its vote-share has increased to 10.2 per cent.

Actor Randeep Hooda who was recently promoting his upcoming film Sarabjit, lost his cool with a journalist. Speaking at a press conference, Hooda was thanking his sister for helping him shed his weight for the movie, when a journalist asked him if he felt overshadowed by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (who stars opposite him) in the Omung Kumar film. Hooda initially chose to ignore the question, but eventually lost his cool with the persistent journalist and replied curtly, “Shut up," and moved on to other questions.

BJP's O Rajagopal became the first contestant from the party to win a seat in Kerala. The two-time Rajya Sabha MP has lost nine elections in the past — from several Lok Sabha elections since 1980 to a couple of bye-elections in last few years. He has also held important portfolios under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government as Minister of State for Defence and Parliamentary Affairs, Urban Development, Law, Justice and Company Affairs, and Railways.

Main News

Pakistan is 'seriously concerned' by India’s recent test of anti-ballistic missiles which could intercept incoming nuclear weapons. A senior foreign ministry official also warned that Pakistan would upgrade its defences. On 15 May, India tested a locally designed Anti-Ballistic Missile system which could in theory intercept a nuclear-carrying ballistic missile.

An Egyptian jetliner carrying 66 people from Paris to Cairo abruptly swerved, vanished from radar and plunged into the Mediterranean on Thursday. Egyptian officials issued conflicting information about whether wreckage had been found and suggested terrorism was a more likely cause than technical failure.

Photojournalist Abhinav Rajan Chaturvedi was allegedly held hostage and thrashed by some people while he was taking pictures of a pillar being erected for an elevated at Hindon river near Ghaziabad. Chaturvedi, who works at a vernacular newspaper was taking photos of a pillar which was obstructing the water flow of the river. He later freed himself from his captors' clutches, and was escaping from the spot, when they allegedly fired in air.

Off The Front Page

Dwayne Bravo, the West Indies cricketer who is a part of the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premiere League recently revealed that he's going to appear in an episode of The Kapil Sharma Show. Earlier noted cricketers such as Wasim Akram, Mohammad Azharuddin, Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh, among others had also appeared on the show.

An auto-rickshaw driver from Pune allegedly tried to fake his own death by bludgeoning a stranger and setting his body on fire. The driver also planted his own identity proofs on the dead man to create an impression that he had died — because he wanted to get the money-lenders off his back.

Parents of TV actor Pratyusha Banerjee, who committed suicide recently, moved the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking cancellation of the anticipatory bail granted to her boyfriend Rahul Raj Singh, who has been accused of abetment. Bombay high court had granted anticipatory bail to Singh on 25 April.

Opinion

After the assembly elections results, the usual questions popped up in the television studios. Will Narendra Modi do an encore in 2019, leading the BJP to a second consecutive Lok Sabha victory? Is the Congress facing political extinction, writes Vidya Subrahmanium in The Hindu. "There are three years to go before the 2019 general election, it doesn’t automatically guarantee a victory in 2019. To be sure, a big showing in a significant State is bound to have its spin-off. It will re-energise the cadre and indicate whether or not there has been an erosion in the contesting party’s popularity. Without any doubt, the potential game-changer State is Uttar Pradesh. If the BJP gets UP in 2017, that could arguably cascade into higher returns nationally for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. But how does any party or any leader better or equal or even approximate the record of 71 of 80 seats, which, if the trend held, would translate as a three-fourths majority in the Assembly," he asks.

The gap between real-world emissions and what will be needed to keep global warming below the agreed-upon limits is rapidly widening, says an editorial in Mint. "Complex long-term policymaking works only if ambitious goals are in place. But targets cannot be vague aspirational goals; they must be precise, evaluable, attainable and motivating. The Paris agreement itself offers one possible approach. Hidden behind a vaguely defined formula, a third mitigation target has been introduced: reaching zero emissions in the second half of the century.... Every country’s emissions must peak, decline and eventually reach zero. This provides a transparent system to evaluate the actions not only of national governments, but also of cities, economic sectors, companies and even individuals. Defection would be discouraged because it is easy to see—and more important, to explain to the public—whether emissions are going up or down," it says.

With Congress being pushed out of the arena, the political contest will now be between the BJP and the regional parties, says an editorial in The Indian Express. "As the BJP expands to new territories and acquires more layers, the Congress is shrinking. If earlier, it could be said that the BJP was more than a regional party but not yet truly a national party because of its absence from large swathes of the country, especially the south and the Northeast, it is the Congress that seems to have receded to a few regional pockets and is looking less than a national party today. Karnataka is the only large state ruled by the Congress and this predicament looks likely to continue and worsen. To be sure, the Congress still has significant vote shares in a large number of states but in the absence of an agile and alert leadership at the centre, a vivacious organisation in the states or even a basic will to power, it cannot hope to consolidate and electorally encash the support it still has on the ground," it says.

Contact HuffPost India

Close
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.