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.
The world is holding its breath for the next few hours as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump fight it out for the most important job in the planet. The run-up to the presidential elections in the United States has seen more lows than highs this time, thanks to Trump's chequered history and his uncompromising arrogance. But finally, the stage looks set for Clinton to make history as the first female president of country. The FBI has cleared her of criminal charges over her email practices, leading to a rise in her ratings, especially in the notorious swing states. There couldn't have been a better silver lining on the eve of the D-Day!
Our guest this week in Breakfast With HuffPost is a financial and technological wizard, who will blow your mind with his revelations. Read Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma's interview with our editor-in-chief in which he recounts his rags to riches story. Once unable to pay the rent for his south Delhi barsati, this 37-year-old e-commerce visionary now owns a company valued at $5 billion. And his journey is going onwards, in exciting and diverse directions. From his promise to enable people to draw money "out of thin air" to revolutionising the media start-up scene in India, Sharma is a game-changer in the best sense of the term.
Delhi government has finally issued a health advisory to citizens, most of whom are already affected by critical levels of air pollution in the national capital. The announcement was made on a day when the administration put into effect a number of measures, including halting of construction and demolition activities, starting of a process of de-registration of 15-year-old diesel vehicles and imposition of ban on use of fire crackers. While such measures may seem like trying to bolt the stable door after the proverbial horse has escaped, but, as they also say, better late than never.
Playing politics with the sensitive communal fire is always dangerous and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hardly needs reminding of this home truth. But the party president Rajnath Singh decided to ignore such wisdoms when he spoke to a gathering in Kairana in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the elections next year. As the BJP's Parivartan Yatra rolled into the state, the Union Home Minister said "self-respect of mothers and sisters is being looted" in the region. If the BJP is voted to power, he promised it will act against "those using muscle power to terrorise people... hum dekhenge ki usne kitna ma ka doodh piya hai". As far as the language of muscle power goes, Singh's threat doesn't get any better.
In a shocking tragedy, two Kannada actors have been drowned after they jumped off a helicopter into the Tippagondanahalli reservoir, 35 km west of Bengaluru, on Monday afternoon. A motor boat, which was kept as a standby in case of an emergency, caught a snag and remained ashore, as the accident unfolded before the crew. Anil Kumar and Uday Venkatesh died on the spot after attempting the stunt, even though both of them were not very good swimmers.
A change of guards may be in offing in the Congress after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) unanimously appealed to party vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday to take over the reins of the organisation. The 130-year-old party, which has been in a dire state for several years now, needs to reinvent itself as quickly as it can, though this move, critics may argue, may not be the best, given Gandhi's recent track record in Indian politics.
Sanjay Joshi, described by The Telegraph as Narendra Modi's "bugbear", has been invited to attend a seminar on Ayodhya at the Constitution Club as a "special guest". Hosted by the Azad Bharat Sangh, an RSS offshoot led by BJP sympathiser Dhanraj Giri, it will be chaired by Ram Bahadur Rai, who heads the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, and Champat Rai, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's international secretary-general. Joshi, who was once a powerful figure in the BJP, was ousted in 2012, when he managed to get into the current PM's bad books.
Photographs circulated on social media seem to suggest the buzz about the Reserve Bank of India releasing a Rs 2,000 currency note may be true. The wads of pink-and-white notes, which look rather fetching, will be the highest currency value circulated in contemporary India, though there is a high chance these may be only a hoax.
The employability of Indians has increased over the past four years, a study shows. Nearly 40.4% of students are now employable, up from 33.9% in 2014, the India Skills report 2017 has revealed. According to the survey launched in 2014, employability stood at 37.2% in 2015 and rose to 38.1% in 2016.
Former Election Commissioner of India S.Y. Qureshi compares the electoral processes in the US and India in The Indian Express. Explaining the complexity involved in the running of the US polls, the details of which ends up confusing even the veterans of psephology, he points out, "The biggest reason of the success of Indian system is extreme simplicity." He also offers a credible explanation for India's preference for EVMs, or electronic voting machines, as opposed to the world's most powerful nation's refusal to do so.
"National security", much touted these days, should mark the beginning of the debate over the banning of NDTV India, writes Gautam Bhatia in The Hindu, rather than the raison d'etre of it. Examining our existing broadcast laws, he points out the loopholes in these provisions that allow the state sweeping powers to impose censorship, without facing many consequences, and suggests ways of remedying this situation.
In his inimitable tone, economist Ashok V. Desai shows the way ahead to "two big poor countries" -- India and China -- to becoming world leaders. Comparing the performances of these rivals over the years and the factors that contributed to the rise of one over the other, he writes in his column in The Telegraph, "The days of strutting and domination are gone; if they are to realize their world potential, Indians need to understand their neighbours and listen to them in their languages."
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