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The Morning Wrap: Bihar Class 12 Toppers To Retake Exam; NFAI Tracing Dharmendra-Hema Malini's 'Devdas'

The Morning Wrap: Bihar Class 12 Toppers To Retake Exam; NFAI Tracing Dharmendra-Hema Malini's 'Devdas'
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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

The rising number of students committing suicide in Kota, Rajasthan — (in)famous for its number of coaching centres for IIT entrance exam — lies in the teaching pattern of the IIT-JEE training centres. Exam stress, obligation to the kids' families, relentless studies, bad living conditions, etc are some of the reasons why about 57 kids killed themselves in the city in the last five years.

Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar had kept their mum following the furore caused by comedian Tanmay Bhatt's snapchat video which featured their faces. But now, Mangeshkar replied to the media barrage of questions in a cutting, but dignified manner. The singer said that she hadn't seen the video, nor did she intend to. She also added that she didn't even know who Bhat was.

A campaign to end the outdated practice of Triple Talaq (where a divorce is confirmed when a man says talaq three times) is underway in several parts of the country. Over 50,000 Muslim men and women have signed a petition to ban this custom of unilateral and instantaneous divorce. Recently news reports have surfaced where men are using Triple Talaq on Facebook and mobile phone texts to divorce their wives.

Main News

14 students who topped the Bihar board’s Class XII exams will retake the test, after one of the the students, who scored 444 marks out of 500 in Political Science, said that the subject was about cooking. She was unable to pronounce 'Political Science' correctly, calling it 'Prodigal Science' instead. Bihar education minister Ashok Choudhary also admitted that there was an apparent hint of 'education mafia' in the case.

A special designated court is set to pronounce the verdict in the Gulberg Society massacre case involving the killing of 69 people, during post-Godhra riots in 2002. The court will decide the fate of 62 accused in this case, which is one of the nine major rioting incidents investigated by the Supreme Court appointed-Special Investigation Team. Heavy security has been deployed inside and outside the court premises in view of the judgement.

Ministry of Home Affairs barred noted lawyer Indira Jaising’s NGO Lawyers Collective from receiving foreign funds as its Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licence has been suspended for six months (180 days). The ministry in its suspension notice said that Jaising, as a government servant, received foreign funds over ₹96 crore when she held the post of Additional Solicitor General (ASG) between 2009-14, in violation of FCRA norms.

Off The Front Page

The National Film Archives of India (NFAI) is trying to trace the reels of the little-known film venture based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's epic novel Devdas, starring Hema Malini and Dharmendra. Written and directed by noted lyricist and filmmaker Gulzar, the venture was abandoned in the mid-1980s for unknown reasons.

British special forces are blasting Bollywood music as a new psychological warfare weapon against Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in Libya on the advice of a Pakistani-born intelligence officer. They came up with the idea after the Pakistani-born intelligence officer with the British Army said that Bollywood tunes would annoy ISIS, which considers music un-Islamic.

Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani is all set to make a biopic on the controversial Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt. While Dutt's role will be played by actor Ranbir Kapoor, Hirani is still in search for actresses to portray the roles of the leading ladies in his his life — Richa Sharma and Manyata Dutt.

Opinion

The cause of 130 tonnes of ammunition blowing up in the fire at the Army’s Central Ammunition Depot in Pulgaon, Maharashtra is unclear, and the high toll of life and material at India’s largest ammunition dump calls for not merely an inquiry, but also a thorough appraisal of the standard operating procedures for storage and inventory, says an editorial in The Hindu. "This tragedy must be a wake-up call, for the government and the military, to improve the safety of ammunition dumps and to accident-proof the transport of ammunition. Even the slightest lapse can have a devastating effect," it says.

Maharashtra is seeing a political parivartan and the BJP-led government is working hard to restore the state’s lost glory, writes Vinay Sahasrabuddhe in The Indian Express. "Among other things, Maharashtra Chief Minister is changing the political culture and the culture of governance in the state... For rapid industrialisation, the he has brought down the number of permissions needed to start an industrial unit from 75 to 30. To open a hotel, you now need only 25 permissions as against 150 in the past. Citizens in Maharashtra can now file FIRs electronically in any police station. Rate of conviction in cases filed against criminals was barely nine per cent two years ago. Now it has reached 51 per cent," he says.

Notwithstanding our long-term needs for minerals, mining leases have been granted at an unsustainable pace, writes Rohit Prasad in Mint. "The need of the hour is a three pronged strategy consisting of: reducing the coupling of our mining sector with the global commodities cycle; strengthening regulatory capacity to ensure that unregulated mining ceases and mining companies follow rules; and provision of basic services in advance of the start of mining operations so that local populations can take advantage of mining projects, and the associated positive spin-offs," he says.

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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.