Sensex Crash, Taliban Attack, Imaginary Caste Battle: Morning Brief, January 21, 2016
Good Morning, Swarajya Readers.
What you need to know today
Back to square one. Sensex plunged 417.80 points to close at 24,062.4 yesterday, below 16th May 2014 level of 24,121.74 when PM Modi was voted to power. Falling oil prices, massive sell off, china’s slowdown are major factors contributing to the markets crash. But the ratings agencies still predicting Ache Din for the economy.
Terror in Charsadda. Some four TTP terrorists killed 25 people and injured another 50 in an attack on Bacha Khan University near Peshawar. Pak tweeple were quick in completing their investigation when the attack was still underway, and pin the blame on NSA Doval.
Imaginary caste battle. Smriti Irani addressed media yesterday clearing all the fiction floating in the old media. A standard operating procedure was followed but politics of Dalitism has made it into a caste battle. The ABVP activist who was attacked by Rohith Vemula and others was himself an OBC.
Other Notables
Where are the Jobs? Keeping its laser-like focus on creating more and more jobs, the government in its latest communication to all the Secretaries has stated that they will now have to clearly mention the job potential of each proposal they send to Cabinet committee for approval.
Cabinet nod to Power Tariff Policy. Power companies will now be allowed to pass costs on to consumers arising out of taxes, cesses, levies levied on them and Power generators will be allowed to sell their surplus power on the power exchange and sharing proceeds with the state government.
5th GPS Satellite in Orbit. PSLV-C31 successfully put IRNSS-1E into orbit, yesterday morning. This fifth GPS satellite is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India.
9th Planet beyond Pluto. The scientist whose work led to the downgrade of Pluto from its planet status, has claimed to have found a compelling evidence of another planet beyond Pluto. The unnamed planet may have a mass 10 times that of Earth, is at least 20 billion miles away, and could take up to 20,000 years to orbit the sun.
No cap on GST rate. FM Arun Jaitley has called Rahul Gandhi’s demand of putting a constitutional cap on GST rate as preposterous. He further added that the tariffs are not put in constitution anywhere in the world.
3 Opinion pieces you shouldn’t miss today
Questioning the axioms: In the west, it is taken as axiom that all societies are founded on the law; if they are not, they ought to be. The Indian intelligentsia is increasingly imitating the west. But what if the law does not dictate how people live or die but allows old customs to do their work?
Revamping teacher education: Unless average capacity of the existing teacher pool goes up, we will not see a clear improvement in education.
The case for going universal: Maternity entitlements are important policy tool for encouraging better maternal health. This is why we need to do away with conditionality in cash transfer schemes.
Swarajya Special