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The Morning Wrap: Reliance Jio's Free Call Offer Gets Clean Chit From TRAI; Akshay Kumar Helps Producer Get Kidney Transplant

Our selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers.
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After a decade-long struggle following her win at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, and her subsequent controversial gender test where she had high levels of androgens, Shanthi Soundarajan has finally got a job. Soundarajan who was reduced to state of poverty after the controversy, has now got a permanent job as a state coach with the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu. She was helped by Madurai-based gender rights activist M Gopi Shankar, who petitioned for her case with the Tamil Nadu government.

Members of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India went to meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday regarding the controversy around the release of Karan Johar's upcoming film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. After the meeting with Singh, which was also attended by the representatives of several top production houses in India, the Guild's president Mukesh Bhatt told the reporters that the Home Minister has assured them of his support. He also added that Singh had told them that he would contact all the chief ministers of the states and make sure the film release was not met with any violence.

Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved has a fierce nationalistic marketing message: buy 'Swadeshi', but the yoga guru recently said that he won't mind setting up shop in Pakistan and other shores. Ramdev said he was open to bringing yoga camps to Pakistan as "yoga is also an art." He is also open to launching a business unit in Pakistan, but warned that "unlike Pakistani artistes" he won't "bring back any profits" to India, adding he would use the earnings for the welfare of the people in Pakistan.

In biggest-ever security breach affecting the Indian banking sector, Indian banks are scampering to contain the damage and compensate the affected account holders. According to reports, banks, including, SBI, HDFC, ICICI, Axis and Yes Bank are looking to refund money to customers or other banks.

In a boost to Reliance Jio, which is offering life-time free voice calling service, telecom regulator TRAI has held that tariff plans of the new player are compliant to existing rules and not discriminatory. TRAI said that it found that the tariff plans filed with them could not be considered as IUC non-complaint, predatory and discriminatory, at present.

Lawyer-turned-whistleblower C Edmonds Allen recently alleged that his former business partner and controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma "honey-trapped" BJP MP Varun Gandhi to extract sensitive information about defence deals. Gandhi strongly rejected all charges as "totally ridiculous", holding he would quit politics "even if 1 per cent of all this" was true.

Actor Akshay Kumar offered to help out the producer of his first Bollywood project to get a kidney transplant. Ravi Shrivastava, who was the producer of the film Dwarpaal and Saugandh, was in need of help. Kumar tweeted out to the request that he is taking care of the same.

British actor Pierce Brosnan has said that he is "deeply shocked and saddened" by the "unauthorised and deceptive use" of his image in the Pan Bahar advertisement which recently ran in India. He said, "As a man who has spent decades championing women's healthcare and environmental protection, I was distressed to learn of Pan Bahar's unauthorised and deceptive use of my image to endorse their range of pan masala products." Brosnan added that his contract stated that he was to advertise a "breath freshener/tooth whitener," which wouldn't include an ingredient that turns saliva red. He also said that he had agreed to advertise a single product which was presented as "all-natural containing neither tobacco, supari, nor any other harmful ingredient."

New Zealand scored the first win of their India tour, defeating the hosts by six runs in the second cricket One-day International at Feroz Shah Kotla ground, in Delhi on Thursday. India were all-out for 236 in 49.3 overs chasing a target of 243.

Politicians can't complain if central banks attempt to fulfil their mandates by keeping interest rates at record lows, says an editorial in Mint. "Governments have abdicated responsibility for economic stability to their central banks. They've set inflation targets of 2% almost everywhere... But the more powerful central bankers become, the more tempted politicians will be to meddle," it says.

Despite his outrageous views, Donald Trump represents hope to many Americans, writes Girish Kuber in The Indian Express. "A complete outsider, a la Kejriwal, Trump has no baggage, telling people how the rich are getting richer in the current environment. Trump's success lies in his ability to tag Hillary to this "rich getting richer" syndrome. The poor view Trump as their weapon to get back at the system that robbed them. He sympathises with the poor and middle class by blaming the establishment for even war deaths," 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.