From a rooster facing a possible court hearing for causing its owners death, to the government's call for an All India Judicial Service; here are today's top stories.
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The Big Story
The Central Government has listed 19 comorbidities for those above the age of 45 looking to get inoculated in the next phase of Covid-19 vaccination drive starting tomorrow. It has also capped the cost of a single Covid vaccine dose at Rs 250 per person in private healthcare facilities.
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From Big Tech’s responsibility and power to why politicians trash the press: Marty Baron, the celebrated and storied executive editor of The Washington Post, who retires Sunday, spoke to Anant Goenka.
From the Front Page
Welcoming the ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said the onus of creating an “enabling environment” for further progress in bilateral relations rests with New Delhi.
Coverage for rural and urban populations under the National Food Security Act could be reduced based on Niti Aayog’s recommendation. The move is likely to result in savings of up to Rs 47,229 crore. At present, NFSA covers 67 per cent of the total population .
The group of 23 senior Congress leaders, who have been demanding sweeping reforms in party, reiterated their call for a change at a joint public event in Jammu. Former union ministers Anand Sharma and Kapil Sibal said the Congress was getting weakened, with Sibal questioning why the party had let a leader of Ghulam Nabi Azad’s experience retire from the Rajya Sabha.
Must Read
A rooster from Gollapali in the Jagtiyal district of Telangana is in police custody after it was accused of causing its owner’s death by accidentally slashing him in the groin during a bird fight. Bird fights are illegal in Telangana, and the rooster now finds itself not just without an owner and a vocation, but also facing a possible court hearing.
The sexual assault complaint lodged by an IPS officer that led to the Tamil Nadu government removing Special DGP Rajesh Das from his post capped a series of dramatic events early this week. While Das insists the complaint was politically motivated, several senior police officers said otherwise. One officer claimed he saw the IPS officer rush out the car in which the alleged incident took place, another said she was blocked by over 150 police personnel on her way to record her complaint.
Underlining the need for “good intake in the judiciary”, Union Minister of Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government was in “discussion” with the Chief Justice of India to establish an All India Judicial Service or Indian Judicial Service drawing the “best minds” via competitive examinations “very soon”.
It’s a bird! It’s an app! It’s Koo! A little yellow bird, very much like a little blue bird ruffled many feathers the past fortnight when, in a matter of days, its user base zoomed to a whopping 4.2 million. But the app, that is less than a year into its launch, really took flight when the government had a spat with Twitter and several top BJP leaders announced they were now on Koo.
ICYMI
A Bombay High Court judge earlier this week pulled up a lawyer after he removed his face mask despite the guidelines in place, and refused to hear his plea by de-listing it from the board.
The Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) cancelled its five-day theatre festival in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh after strong opposition from a group led by the Bajrang Dal over two of the plays scheduled to be enacted at the fest.
To woo followers of the Furfura Sharif whose cleric Pirzada Abbas Siddiqui has joined hands with the Congress and the Left Front, TMC chief and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee allocated Rs 2.60 crore for the development of the popular Muslim shrine.
Two months after a case pertaining to an e-mail exchange controversy involving actors Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut was transferred to the Crime Intelligence Unit of the Mumbai Crime Branch, Roshan recorded his statement with police on Saturday.
Police fired rubber bullets and detained protesters at anti-coup rallies in Yangon and other cities across Myanmar, as a crackdown on protests against the military intensified.
And Finally
Crisp plots, high-quality production, and suspenseful, romantic scenes explain the skyrocketing success of Korean dramas across the world. According to Netflix India, K-drama viewership increased by 370 per cent in 2020 as compared to 2019. But now, India’s fascination with Korea has extended beyond K-dramas to other aspects of Korean culture — particularly the fermented vegetable preparation known as kimchi
Until tomorrow,
Leela Prasad G and Rahel Philipose
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