Must Read News Articles – April 9, 2018

Archives

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Society related issues:

Indians averse to adopting children with special needs(The Hindu )

For every Indian parent who adopts a differently-abled child there are at least seven foreigners who adopt such children from India after they fail to find a family in the country.

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Indian Constitution and Polity:

Inclusion and the right to dignity(The Hindu Opinion)

The onus of battling discrimination must not fall on the shoulders of Dalits alone

A case to withdraw the triple talaq Bill(The Hindu  Opinion)

The Prime Minister’s lament to the outgoing Rajya Sabha MPs that they missed out on an opportunity to debate important issues such as the triple talaq Bill — the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 — due to disruptions is an indication that despite widespread public opinion against it, the Centre is inordinately keen on making it a law.

Broken Houses(The Hindu Opinion)

With the two Houses of Parliament adjourned sine die on April 6, the institutional crisis afflicting the legislature has been framed by both statistics and the solutions being offered by the Treasury and Opposition benches.

EC to take a call on electoral bonds soon(The Hindu)

The Election Commission will soon take a fresh view of the electoral bonds after analysing the terms of the government notification and the outcome of two rounds of their sales since March.

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Economy:

Why Indian firms don’t innovate(The Hindu)

A large proportion of Indian companies just don’t have the policy or human resource capabilities to invest in innovation though the country fares favourably in terms of research and development (R&D) spending when compared with its peers, according to a top World Bank official.

Will IBC bankrupt banks?(The Hindu)

When Parliament passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in 2017, it was intended to herald a new era for banking. Assets — steel mills, power plants, telecom towers languishing in the never-never land of corporate debt restructuring would be auctioned and put back into use.

Bad loan menace: auditors come under lens of RBI(The Hindu)

With the RBI cracking the whip on bad loans menace, more than three dozen chartered accountants (CAs) are under the scanner for allegedly conniving with promoters in defaulting as well as restructuring the stressed assets, sources said.

‘LTCG tax to spur growth in fixed-income MFs’(The Hindu)

Year 2017 was one of the most remarkable years for the mutual fund industry both in terms of growing the equity asset class, as well as systematic investment plans (SIP) as a mode of investing.

Science and Technology:

Humanity’s first flight to sun in July: NASA(The Hindu)

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe — humanity’s first mission to the Sun — is undergoing final preparations for its launch scheduled  for July 31.

Environment

Smoke in the woods(The Hindu Opinion)

Government policy documents are statements of goals, priorities and strategies. If old strategies have failed or circumstances have changed, they should be revised. Given that our Forest Policy was last revised in 1988, changes are perhaps overdue. The new draft Forest Policy 2018, however, ignores the lessons from this period and returns to the state-managed forestry of the 1950s, but with a neoliberal twist.