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Essential HuffPost
Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Kanubhai Gandhi recently said that he has been a 'bhakt' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a long time. Kanubhai told the media that he was an 'old follower' and that the PM still remembers the help he had extended when Sonia Gandhi was 'against them'.
After years of debate and legal battles, India will soon decided whether or not to pass a law to legalise 'passive euthanasia'. The Union government has released a draft Bill on it and has and has invited public suggestions before the formation of the law. HuffPost India has listed out the most important suggestions from the draft Bill.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has taken to singing to woo his voters. Kejriwa's latest song was a classic by Kishore Kumar titled 'Aa Chal Ke Tujhe Main Leke Chaloon' — with new and improved lyrics.
Main News
The 16-year-old girl whose molestation triggered protests and led to the killing of five civilians last month in Jammu & Kashmir has now retracted her earlier statement and has alleged that it was an Army person who had molested her. She accused the police of forcing her to give a statement blaming two local boys for sexually harassing her.
Bihar's suspended MLA Manorama Devi, who had gone into hiding after an arrest warrant over a liquor stash found inside her home, surrendered before the Gaya court on Tuesday. She has been sent to a 14 day judicial custody. The lawmaker's son Rocky Yadav was arrested last week for shooting a teenager in a road rage.
The BJP alleged that the AAP government in Delhi spent over ₹100 crore in advertising for the 'failed' odd-even traffic scheme in Delhi. Other replies to RTI applications revealed that the Delhi government spends ₹16 lakh per day on advertising in the print media and that they are published across India.
Off The Front Page
Deepak Shodhan, one of the finest cricketers of the 1950s, died of lung cancer in his residence in Ahmedabad on Monday. A stylish left-hander of his times, Shodhan is best remembered for his heroics while batting at number eight against Pakistan in a drawn Test at Eden Garden, Kolkata, in 1952-53, which was the first series between the two countries after separation.
Over 6,000 HIV cases have been reported in the last six months in Kanpur district, Uttar Pradesh. The sudden surge in the number of patients is due to growing awareness among people who are coming for timely detection and treatment, say the doctors.
A 55-year-old man who had gone to pluck Tendu leaves in the forest was trampled to death by a wild elephant in Kudmura forest range in Chhattisgarh's Korba district. He is the third person to be killed by the animal in the past five days in the region.
A 17-year-old Delhi girl recently used an ingenious way to escape two alleged attackers. She pretended like she was 'possessed' and started laughing and screaming as loud as she could. The young woman even scratched one of the men's faces and started rubbing the blood on her own face, laughing the 'evil laugh'. Alarmed and scared, the men ran away.
Opinion
With April seeing more murders of professors and editors in Bangladesh, the exodus of writers to other countries may intensify. Bloggers under threat estimate that around 50 members of this “close-knit community” have already fled the country, many escaping through family ties in the US, the UK or Canada, says Mohit Rao in The Hindu. "But the writers harbour little hope of return in the near future to their country. With the list of those being attacked now growing — LGBT activists and minority groups included — Bangladesh, isn't a secular country at this moment," he says.
Trade with countries that have very different economic, social, political models raises concerns about legitimacy, writes Dani Rodrik in Mint. "Concerns about unfair trade lie at the heart of the anti-globalisation backlash. Yet, legal trade remedies permit little room for them beyond the narrow commercial realm of below-cost pricing. Labour unions, human rights NGOs, consumer groups or environmental organisations do not have direct access to protection in the way that firms do," he says.
Within a span of two years, the Modi government represent substantial progress towards restoring the momentum of the economy. But given the large volume of counter-productive laws, regulations and rules that exist, much remains to be done, writes Arvind Panagariya in The Indian Express. "There currently exist a total of ₹5.5 trillion worth of tax disputes under various laws. As a further step towards reducing tax uncertainty, Budget 2016-17 offers to settle the cases involving less than ₹10 lakh in dues without penalty as long as the dues are paid. Cases involving more than ₹10 lakh in dues can also be settled on payment of 25 per cent of the minimum imposable penalty. The government has announced its intention to reform the corporate profit tax by eliminating myriad exemptions and reducing the tax rate to 25 per cent. As a first concrete step, Budget 2016-17 offers the option of 25 per cent tax plus surcharge and cess to companies incorporated beginning March 1," he says.
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