Newspaper Must Read Articles of The Day – 05 August 2015

Front Page/National

• Citizenship soon for those who fled religious persecution: The Union Home Ministry is going to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 and extend citizenship to undocumented migrants who fled religious persecution in Pakistan and Bangladesh (Hindus,Buddhists, Christians, Zoroastrians, Sikhs and Jains). This could affect our relations with those two neighbours.

• Autonomous councils key to Naga deal success: The creation of autonomous councils for Naga people outside Nagaland is under consideration by the Union govt. These are locally appointed governments that already function in the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir. Their creation is likely to be met with stiff resistance from the neighbouring states, where the migrant Naga population lives.

• Ban only on child porn sites: Following massive uproar over its move to ban 857 pornography sites, the Union government on Tuesday said the ban would be lifted. However, sites that promoted child porn would continue to be prohibited.

• Nine US. satellites to be flown from Sriharikota: ISRO’s commercial venture Antrix Corporation recently signed contracts to launch nine micro and nano spacecraft separately as small co-passengers on the PSLV light-lifter during this year and next year. This is a small but significant progress in the chequered Indo-US space equations,as Indian launchers will for the first time put a few U.S.-made satellites into space from Indian soil.

• Amalendu Krishna of TIFR wins Ramanujan Prize: The Ramanujan Prize is awarded jointly by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Italy, the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and the International Mathematical Union (IMU) to a person under 45 working in a developing country. For 2015, it is being awarded to mathematician Amalendu Krishna of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai for his contributions in the area of algebraic K-theory, algebraic cycles and theory of motives.

• When govt. failed to hear its own officials: It has emerged that the present government had gone against the advice of its own bureaucrats in pushing through ordinance after ordinance on the Land Acquisition Bill. A detailed point-by-point explanation on why the ordinances not necessary to meet the government’s objective of providing a boost to investments and infrastructure in both rural and urban India was overruled by the govt.

• It’s time to be more assertive: National Security Adviser Ajit Doval has said that deterrence was the credibility that a nation could show its strength when required. But the lack of a will to exercise power is as good as not having any power. So, we should not be afraid of demonstrating our power where we should.

• Rs. 120 crore for urban renewal plan: As part of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), the Union Urban Development Ministry has announced the release of Rs. 120 crore to the States and Union Territories. The money will be directly transferred to municipal councils nationwide, something that is happening for the first time in India’s urban governance. The city councils are free to use the money in whatever way they want, and can award private companies entry into infrastructure like drainage and water supply.

• NHAI comes out with cost index: In a move that should make it easier to gauge costs and price movements in the road construction sector, the National Highways Authority of India has released for public comment an index of prices pertaining only to the sector. The aim of the index which is still tentative pending consultation, improvements and more data, is to eventually replace the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) when it comes to measuring the escalation of prices to do with road construction.

Opinion/Editorial

• Breakthrough in Nagaland: While the Indian govt has taken a big step forward in ending the decades-long Naga insurgency by signing a framework agreement with the largest and most prominent of the armed Naga groups, not all the major issues have been sorted out by the agreement, and some smaller groups have not been part of the process at all. So, this is just the beginning, and we must not rest until the whole process has been completed.

• Victory over Ebola:  The interim results of a clinical trial in Guinea using a novel virus vaccine (rVSV-ZEBOV) have shown 100 per cent efficacy after 10 days of vaccination. This is a big victory and a much needed weapon to fight the virus that killed many, devastated economies and caused the health-care systems to collapse in three countries (Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia). The vigil should now continue, and it should be ensured that Ebola never makes a comeback anywhere on earth.

• Lethal lottery or just deserts: The death penalty is a discriminatory and biased punishment. It is dependent on variable factors like the personal inclinations of judges, administrators and the political environment of the moment, so a crime that gets the death penalty at one point of time may not get it at another point of time.

• Afghanistan on edge again: The death of Mullah Omar has thrown up a lot of challenges before the Taliban (like leadership, new recruiting etc). In this turmoil, there is no predicting what the Taliban could do. So, the situation in Afghanistan is pretty tense now, and Pakistan could have a major role to play in deciding the outcome.

• Smart is as smart does: An article discussing the problems that the Smart Cities Mission faces, vis-a-vis the concept of Smart Grid that was introduced a few years back. Must-read.

International/World Affairs