The Morning Wrap: SC's Stand On National Anthem; Sensex And Nifty Hit All-Time High

Essential HuffPost

The Supreme Court has weighed in on the national anthem, again, this time to say people shouldn't be forced to stand up in cinemas. But really that misses the larger point, argues Sandip Roy.

Wesley Mathew, from Kerala who is based in Texas, admitted to moving the body of his 3-year-old daughter Sherin Mathew from the family's home after she choked on milk and died, according to an arrest affidavit, changing his original story that she had disappeared after he had put her outside a few hours before dawn as punishment.

We're entering the sixth-wave of mass-extinction. We stand to lose up to 75% of the world's species, some report as soon as mid-century. This is because of human activity like waste and pollution, climate change, habitat destruction and wildlife poaching.

Main News

The government's ₹2.11 lakh crore stimulus for public sector undertaking bank recapitalisation sent the equity markets zooming on Wednesday morning, with both Sensex and Nifty, touching an all-time high in early trade.

Over the last four months, The Indian Express has tracked three key routes to find a trail of health hazards, including environmental damage, caused by the transportation of 25 million tonnes of coal. Official records attest that by 2030, this is slated to double to go up to 51.6 million tonnes each year.

NR Narayana Murthy, one of the founders of Infosys, said he was "disappointed" by the board clearing former CEO Vishal Sikka and his management members on issues of corporate governance and irregularities on a $200 million acquisition.

Off The Front Page

Within 24 hours of tabling a bill in the Rajasthan assembly that sought to shield public servants and judges from investigation, the Vasundhara Raje government has put the controversial draft into "cold storage" by sending it to a select committee of the House.

Large personal electronic devices like laptops may soon be disallowed from check-in bags because of fears that their battery fire would go undetected, leading to possible catastrophes.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has said that by appointing a representative to hold talks in Kashmir, the central government has finally taken an important step towards reconciliation.

Opinion

The question facing the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat is whether the powerful Patel community in the state will vote as a caste bloc or if their support will be divided by class inflections. Christophe Jaffrelot weighs in in The Indian Express.

The horrifying incident of a brutal rape in a public place in Visakhapatnam, and of a bystander recording a video of the incident instead of alerting the police highlights not just how unsafe our cities are for women, but also how callous our society has become, an editorial in the Hindustan Times says.

Bitcoin has proved many of its critics wrong over the years, but its long-term prospects may not be too bright, writes Prashanth Perumal in The Hindu.