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Essential HuffPost
Amid a massive faceoff over the JNU controversy, home minister Rajnath Singh said the event in the memory of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru had the backing of Pakistan-based terror outfit LeT. "We should also understand this reality that Hafiz Saeed has supported this incident and it is extremely unfortunate," he said.
Talking at an event to celebrate 'Make In India' week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to woo global investors by highlighting India’s growth story and promising policy reforms to make business easier, including a transparent tax regime. A Twitter user observed that Modi's 'Make In India' agenda looks like the UPA's 2011 Manufacturing Policy. HuffPost India compared the two and found a couple of sentences that are, in fact, exactly the same.
In a major embarrassment for the ruling Grand Alliance in Bihar, an RJD legislator was booked for allegedly raping a minor. An arrest order was issued against RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav in connection with the rape case of a minor girl last week, a senior police officer said.
Justice Antonin Scalia, a colorful and by far the most influential member of the US Supreme Court's conservative wing, died at a ranch in West Texas. He was 79. Local officials initially claimed that the cause of death was a heart attack, but later stated that the official cause will not be determined for several days.
Expressing happiness over completion of one year in the office, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the bonding between the Aam Aadmi Party and the national capital is deep and everlasting.
Main News
A massive fire broke out at a cultural event held in Mumbai where a string of film celebrities and political leaders were present as part of the high-profile ‘Make in India’ investment meet, but swift action averted a major tragedy.
The police must not interfere or take criminal action against adult sex workers “participating with consent”, recommended a Supreme Court panel, looking for measures to ensure better work conditions for prostitutes and to protect their rights.
The National Investigation Agency has decided to preserve the bodies of the four terrorists killed in an encounter at the Pathankot airbase for an “indefinite period” as it makes preparations to hand over their photographs to Pakistan.
A 23-year-old woman was allegedly raped inside the ICU of a private hospital in Haryana. She had delivered a baby through C-section a few hours ago. The police are conducting raids in and around Bahadurgarh to nab the accused.
Actor Shah Rukh Khan’s car was attacked in Ahmedabad, where he was shooting for his forthcoming film. The attackers shouted slogans, demanding the boycott of his film. Sources said this was likely a reaction to Khan’s recent comments on intolerance in India.
Off The Front Page
In MP, there’s a police station that doubles up as a school, and the cops as teachers. Opened on the premises of Hanumanganj police station, the initiative by the city police aims to help young children in slum areas prone to crime.
When an engineering student asked RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan why the humble dosa was so expensive, Rajan did not disappoint and promptly explained the economics of it, attributing the high cost to the discrepancy between the traditional tawa preparation and the wages of the person making it.
The controversy over Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah's luxury wrist watch will now echo in the Parliament. BJP state president said he would raise the wrist watch issue in the budget session, demanding for an inquiry by the enforcement authorities.
Eight young Jains took ‘diksha' at a ceremony in Mumbai that was witnessed by a big crowd. It was conducted under the guidance of a monk. Diksha refers to the preparation or consecration for a religious ceremony to renounce the worldly life in order to lead an ascetic one.
On Valentine’s Day, Milind Yende, a bangle shop owner in Mumbai, got a pleasant surprise when an eye surgeon visited his home to thank him for saving a diabetic man's vision. Yende had directed one of his customers to visit the doctor for her husband’s vision problem.
Opinion
India has been toying with the idea of high speed trains for 15 years. High speed lines require huge investments and cause long-term demographic and economic impacts. Their success depends on getting a comprehensive, context-specific optimal solution; at the very least this means getting speed, pricing, and distance right, writes Sriram Lakshman in The Hindu.
Critics have lampooned carpooling as superficial, claiming that it is like a new model of table manners when you are confronting a food crisis. There is truth in the comment as car sharing does not challenge any of the basic categories of a crisis. A car is still a private vehicle and the crisis of vehicular pollution needs a public solution. But sometimes great reform comes through small changes in narrative, not through immediate changes in plot, writes Shiv Visvanathan in the Hindustan Times.
Nothing that JNU students did poses nearly as much of a threat to India as government's subversion of freedom, writes Pratap Bhanu Mehta in The Indian Express. “The arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar and the crackdown on political dissent at JNU suggest that we are living under a government that is both rabidly malign and politically incompetent. It is using nationalism to crush constitutional patriotism, legal tyranny to crush dissent, political power to settle petty scores, and administrative power to destroy institutions.”
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