The Morning Wrap is Huffpost India's selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers.
Main News
US President Barack Obama on Monday chewed gum, broke his Secret Service’s sacred security protocol by remaining in the open for more than two hours and veered from the tradition by travelling to Rajpath in his own ‘Beast,’ instead of accompanying the President of India in his vehicle.
Legendary cartoonist R.K. Laxman, creator of the iconic “Common Man”, died in a private hospital here Monday evening after a brief illness. He was 94.Modi’s woollen ‘bandhgala,’ that he wore to a Sunday meeting with Obama, stormed Twitter after close-ups showed that it had ‘Narendra Damodardas Modi’ monogrammed all over the fabric as pin-stripes. The dress was designed by the owner of Ahmedabad-based men’s clothing store, Jade Blue, Bipin Chauhan, who has been styling Modi since 1989.
In a resolution of a long impasse, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has—without any conditions-- agreed to let its partner Cairn India, retain the prolific Rajasthan oil block beyond the contractual deadline of 2020. The initial dispute was about the amount of royalty each of these companies need to pay the government.
Coincident with US President Barack Obama’s India visit, China has offered to engage more closely with India in matters of strategy and warned India that US’ overtures may not be as beneficial to India in the long run, as envisaged.
The ministry of information technology (IT) and communications is set to take charge of Aadhaar, the ambitious national citizen identification project. The project that has previously seen turf wars between ministries was, until now, managed by the Planning Commission that has become the Niti Aayog.
US companies with interests in the nuclear power business say that they need to understand the new civil nuclear law agreements and are unlikely to immediately invest in Indian nuclear projects.
The government is set to initiate more frequent surveys, on a quarterly as well as an annual basis, on employment and unemployment in the country. Currently two separate ministries conduct their own, limited surveys and the ministry of statistics and programme implementation will now join the fray with a far more expansive ambit.
Off The Front Page
States without a BJP government at the helm were least represented in the Republic day parade, witnessed by US President Barack Obama.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Congress reacted sharply to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's portraits adorning floats at the Republic Day parade held in Chennai on Monday. Jayalalithaa had quit as chief minister last year after she was convicted in a corruption case.
Though it’s India’s youngest state, Telangana has already stepped into age-old disputes, over how neighbouring states should share water, and is sparring with Andhra Pradesh over the sharing of water from the Nagarjuna Sagar dam. The Andhra Pradesh government is accusing Telangana of not releasing its “rightful share of water.” and the latter retorts that according to a previous agreement, Andhra Pradesh has already used up its quota.
The remote Binagunda village—a Naxal controlled region—in Abujmarh, Chattisgarh, has for the first time hoisted the tri-colour as part of Republic Day celebrations.
An Economic Times report, based on information obtained through the Right to Information (RTI) Act, shows that though women ministers are outnumbered by male counterparts in government, they attend more Cabinet meetings than their counterparts in the previous UPA regime.
Opinion
Suhrit Parthasarthy, in The Hindu, says that the Supreme Court’s judgements on the functioning of the Board of Cricket Control in India are far reaching as they compel similar, powerful private associations to reign in their monopolistic powers.
Ajit Balakrishnan, in the Business Standard, says that the disruptive changes that information technology is bringing about in workplaces, is destroying the institution of the ‘manager.’
Praveen Swami writes in The Indian Express that the pomp and spectacle Modi sought to project was aimed to impress the local—rather than an international--audience. “..Modi’s diplomacy offers to its audience a dream, one which allows for the grinding realities of their existence to be transcended, if only in the imagination..”
Sitaram Yechury, in The Hindustan Times, says that the reworked India-US nuclear deal favours the US far more than India.