Former prime minister Manmohan Singh has blamed the NDA government’s “mindset” for the lack of consensus on economic reforms that are crucial to India’s ambitions to grow fast and pull millions of its people out of poverty as reported in The Hindustan Times.
Here are some important reports from the biggest newspapers of India:
1. Anti-Congress mindset of BJP doesn’t go with reforms: Manmohan Singh
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh has blamed the NDA government’s “mindset” for the lack of consensus on economic reforms that are crucial to India’s ambitions to grow fast and pull millions of its people out of poverty as reported in The Hindustan Times.
Twenty five years to the day when Singh, as finance minister then, unveiled a historic budget that transformed India from a socialist-style to a market-driven economy, a renewed momentum to address the unfinished agenda of the reforms programme has eluded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
2. Man linked to Zakir held for IS connection
In a joint operation, the Maharashtra ATS and Kerala Police arrested Rizwan Khan, 53, a Kalyan resident and member of televangelist Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), late on Friday on charges of forcible conversion and suspected links with Islamic State. Khan is the second IRF man to be arrested this week.On Wednesday , IRF office-bearer, Arshid Qureshi, 45, was nabbed from Navi Mumbai for recruiting Kerala youths for the terror youths, reports The Times Of India.
Khan, along with Qureshi, had converted 800 people across India from Christianity and Hinduism to Islam, ATS officials said. He will be taken to Kerala on Sunday . Originally from Tamil Nadu, Rizwan Khan shifted to Maharashtra six years ago and lived in Kalyan (West) with his wife and three children. He ran a marriage bureau, and ATS sources said he was involved in converting people to Islam.
3. Rs. 15,000 vs Rs. 800: Why hospitals make you buy costly drugs
Private hospitals are ma king a killing by buying medicines and devices in bulk at huge discounts and selling them to patients at the marked maximum retail price -accounting for 15-35% of their profits. Patients, as a captive market, have little choice but to bear the inflated costs.
But quality issues may not be the only reason why a hospital chooses to push the more expensive option. Zometa is sold to stockists for just Rs 13,000, according to an industry insider. At that rate, the hospital would make a profit of Rs 2,200. Clearly, the Rs 2,800 injection could not yield that huge a margin, reports The Times of India.
4. Munich Shooter Had No IS Link
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is conven ing an emergency meeting of her security cabinet as police ruled out any terrorist motive behind a teenage gunman's rampage in Munich that left 10 people dead, including the killer, reports the Economic Times.
The Munich police said that a search of the home of the suspect, an 18-year-old German-Iranian who was born and raised in the city, yielded no evidence of any link to terrorism but showed that he had studied past shooting incidents. There is an apparent connection with the fifth anniversary of the murders by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway, they said.
5. Now, NGOs have to register with NITI Aayog for grants
Stepping up its scrutiny of NGOs, especially their financial dealings, the Centre has made obtaining unique identification numbers and registering them on the NITI Aayog portal, including the details of the Aadhaar and PAN numbers of all their trustees and office- bearers, mandatory for them to apply for grants from any ministry.
The decision was taken by the Aayog at its meeting on May 9, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired following which all ministries have been directed to process the proposal for grants and releases to the NGOs only through the Aayog’s portal, according to the minutes seen by The Hindu .
6. North Chennai to get Metro Rail in 3 years
Promising that Metro Rail will traverse the northern parts of the city in three years, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Saturday said it was only during her regime that a major portion of Chennai Metro Rail’s elevated and underground construction works were completed, reports The Hindu.
After laying the foundation stone for Metro Rail Phase I extension connecting Washermanpet to Wimco Nagar, Ms. Jayalalithaa appealed to the Centre to approve Phase II of the project at the earliest, for which a proposal would be sent shortly. Ms. Jayalalithaa said the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of the Chennai Metro Rail needs modifications as it works against the State’s interest.
7. Feather in the cap: India home to 12% of world’s bird species
A group of ornithologists have come up with the first definitive checklist of Indian birds, putting the number of species across the country at 1,263.
With that figure, India accounts for 12 per cent of the total number of bird species in the world, amounting to 10,135, reports The Hindu.
Among the 1,263 species, Himalayan Forest Thrush (Zoothera salimalii) is the newest species discovered to science, while White-browed Crake Amaurornis cinerea is the latest entry to the country’s bird list. Taxonomically, the bird population in the country is divided into 23 orders, 107 families and 498 genera.
8. Red tape snipped for start-ups
The government has eased the norms under which start-ups can seek benefits according to the Startup India Action Plan. Start-ups can now be eligible for benefits by simply receiving a certificate from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), compared with the earlier process of being vetted by an inter-ministerial board, said Nirmala Sitharaman, commerce and industry minister, reports The Business Standard.
Addressing the first conference of states organised by the DIPP on Saturday, Sitharaman said the new norms would allow more start-ups to receive benefits, while the government would be able to build a scalable model to spur growth in the new economy.
9. Pay taxes or govt will watch you like a big brother: FM
Asking people to come clean on unaccounted wealth and live with “heads held high”, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the government was aware of sectors generating black money but it would be unpleasant to start the “big brother watching” process, reports The Business Standard.
The government, he said, has to trust its citizen and hence keeping a watch on their transactions was not a preferred option. Asserting that those who earn must pay taxes, Jaitley said in future non-payment would be detected.
10. NHAI okays 6-lane Delhi-Manesar link
In a bid to decongest the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway , the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has given its nod to construct a new six-lane bypass road that will originate from the Sirhaul border near Ambience Mall on NH-8 and terminate near the NSG campus on the highway in Manesar, reports The Times Of India.
This comes more than four months after Union highways and road transport minister Nitin Gadkari had promised to expedite Huda's proposal of constructing the alternative route between Delhi and Manesar.
Comments
0 comment