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The Morning Wrap: 52 Million Indians Have Hepatitis; Brett Lee's Film Lands In Trouble With CBFC

Our selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers.
File photo of former Australian cricketer Brett Lee.
Stringer India/Reuters
File photo of former Australian cricketer Brett Lee.

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

Two Indians have been chosen for the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2016. Carnatic musician TM Krishna and social activist Bezwada Wilson are among the six chosen for the honours. The others include Conchita Carpio-Morales from Philippines, Dompet Dhuafa from Indonesia, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and Vientiane Rescue from Laos.

Last week, the Chinese troops violated the border in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand area and infiltrated into Uttarakhand, the government confirmed on Wednesday. The Chinese troops were seen camping along with arms despite the two nations having agreed to keep it a demilitarised area. After a face-off with the Indian soldiers that lasted about an hour, both sides pulled back.

Konkona Sensharma's debut feature, A Death In The Gunj, is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this year. Moody and peculiar, Sensharma's film revolves around a family vacation that quickly turns sinister as a sudden death threatens to dismantle their interpersonal relationships.

Main News

India signed a contract to buy four maritime spy planes from Boeing Co for about $1 billion to bolster the navy as it tries to check China's presence in the Indian Ocean. Reportedly, India has already deployed eight of the long-range P-8I aircraft to track submarine movements in the Indian Ocean and on Wednesday exercised an option for four more.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recognised viral hepatitis as a serious public health problem in India. With over over 52 million people infected by chronic hepatitis in the country, the WHO has also warned that over 95% of people infected with chronic hepatitis do not know they are infected and thus, succumb to liver cirrhosis or liver cancer.

A case was registered against Jitesh Kumar, a wrestler, who was alleged to have spiked food supplements of Rio-bound wrestler Narsingh Yadav. A case has been registered against Kumar, under sections 328 (causing hurt by means of poison with an intent to commit an offence) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

Off The Front Page

Indian contestant Rohit Khandelwal won the title of 'World's Most Desirable Man' this year. Last week, the 26-year-old won the top title of Mr World 2016, an international male beauty pageant held this year in the town of Southport in the United Kingdom. Reportedly, Khandelwal is the first Indian in the 10-year history of the pageant to win the title.

The Indo-Australian rom-com titled UnIndian, featuring former Australian cricketer Brett Lee, is reportedly being made to cut a 65-second lovemaking scene by the CBFC. The filmmakers have reportedly been asked to only show Lee's side profile and not his back and to remove the spiritual context from the scene.

A family member of the woman AAP activist who allegedly committed suicide last week has informed the National Commission for Women that the activist was asked to 'make compromises with her body' if she wanted to 'rise' in the party. NCW Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam added that a man had also threatened to abduct her two daughters.

Opinion

Irom Sharmila's decision to call off her fast against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) reflects the state's failure to engage, writes Deepti Priya Mehrotra in The Indian Express. "The answer lies not only in Sharmila's hands, but in the hands of a much wider set of people. It may be salutary to recall the moment when Aung Saan Suu Kyi was set free, after years of confinement: She re-entered the political arena, as the world celebrated, and soon became, from a symbol of peace, a real woman, with her incredible strengths but also her flaws and limitations. The struggle is not forged by one person, but her leadership in the world outside may create a new impetus, the nucleus required to actually forge an alternative politics," she says.

The Smart Cities Mission is a flagship programme of the ruling National Democratic Alliance. One year after its official launch, while expectations have been scaled down, the rhetoric has largely escaped political scrutiny, writes G Sampath in The Hindu. "It is worrisome that India's approach to urban development seems to have no alternative to the smart city paradigm. India needs to develop its own framework of urban renewal that prioritises the democratic aspirations of its citizens. What our cities need is not smartness but functionality; not efficiency so much as equity. And neither of these is a value that technology alone can deliver," he says.

If GST can be tweaked upward just by the executive, it will become more and more regressive, worsening inequality, writes Ajit Ranade in Mint. "GST is certainly a landmark reform, but it is not the magic bullet that cures all pending economic reforms. For example, tax reform is only one component of the larger agenda for improving India's ease of doing business ranking. More importantly, the roll-out of a nationwide GST also raises some concerns, which have to be acknowledged, and hopefully resolved in due course of time," 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.