The Indian telecom industry is neck-deep in trouble. Vodafone Idea is almost sunk and Airtel’s boss Sunil Mittal has been calling for a tariff hike for a while. And while Jio is perhaps the only one not under stress, if its competition were to collapse all of a sudden, the company alone does not have the build to handle the influx of new customers. The govt that is proposing to create a “floor price” for services. Competition may have just killed competition.
TOP NEWS
➡️ SC clips wings of states on dropping criminal cases against MPs, MLAs
➡️ ‘Hybrid warfare’ in Europe
➡️ 8 out of 34 Afghan provincial capitals now under Taliban
➡️ World economy losing steam: OECD
IN PARLIAMENT
J-K: Only two persons from outside J-K have bought land in the UT since Article 370 and 35A were scrapped in 2019. Regional political parties say that this was the start of the process to change the region’s character.
Just Kids: Govt has decided not to take up a parliamentary panel’s suggestion to consider children over the age of 16 as adults in cases in which they are accused of child sexual assault.
Rajya Sabha: What was supposed to be a debate on the problems plaguing the agricultural sector saw the a descent into pandemonium in Rajya Sabha with the Opposition alleging that the govt refused to have a more narrow debate on the farm laws it had passed last year.
Bill Unites All: For the first, there was much peace in the Lok Sabha and none objected to the passage of the 127th Constitutional Amendment Bill — or the so-called OBC Bill — that returned powers to decide on quotas to the states. In the six-hr debate, Opposition and BJP allies demanded that the 50% cap on reservations be done away with.
Scratching heads: While discussing the OBC Bill BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh Sanghmitra Maurya praised the govt for allowing caste census in the states. One problem: the govt has not and it has consistently held that it will not.
Food Lost: During storage in govt warehouses, India lost grains worth Rs 406 crore in the last three years, enough to feed 800,000 people, according to a parliamentary panel report on food.
INDIA NEWS
Wings Clipped: States will no longer be able to drop criminal cases against MPs and MLAs without the nod from high courts, said the Supreme Court. It asked political parties to make public the criminal antecedent of its candidates 48 hrs after selection. BJP and Congress are among nine political parties penalised for contempt as they did not fully disclose details of the candidates’ prior to 2020 Bihar elections.
Leave, NOW!: India has asked its citizens to leave Afghanistan’s northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif where it has a consulate. The Taliban captured another provincial capital -Farah of the province that goes by the same name. It has also captured city of Pul-e-Khumri, which allows it to control Kabul’s access to the north and west of the country.
Coronavirus News: The Centre told the Supreme Court on why Kerala has a very high case load – 1) hardly much of rural-urban divide 2) high rate of reinfection, even among vaccinated 3) high prevalence of non-communicable diseases like diabetes 4) 55% vulnerable population 5) 90% cases are of Delta variant 6) substantial national and international migration 7) unlocking during Onam and of tourism.
Peace at last?: Twitter India is now in compliance with the new IT rules, Centre has told the Delhi high court, seemingly bringing down curtains on an issue that has long plagued the relationship between the tech giant and the govt.
“RSS is a staunch supporter of caste-based reservation. It has said time and again that reservation is a historical necessity and will be needed in India for many more decades.”
Dattatreya Hosabale, RSS general secretary
WORLD NEWS
Coronavirus News: Study of 81,000 people in the UK has found that many people suffered from “brain fog”, a Long Covid symptom that showed up as cognitive ability loss. Germany is planning to put a price on testing in order to get more people to vaccinate. With the Delta variant infecting even the vaccinated, the concept of herd immunity may not apply to it, an Oxford University researcher has told UK MPs.
After much controversy, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has resigned over sexual harassment allegations by 11 women. 
Kathy Hochul is New York’s first woman governor in 233 years.
Major Victory: The US Senate has cleared the way for the Biden administration’s huge $1 trillion plan to update infrastructure. Republicans mostly supporter it and managed to keep former president Donald Trump’s attempts to scuttle it at bay.
Trouble in Europe: A record number of people are crossing over from Belarus to neighbouring Latvia and Lithuania. The two countries are accusing Belarus of using this “hybrid warfare” to force the EU to drop sanctions on it.
Sorry, Busy: Days after North Korean president Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jung said South Korea will have to pay for conducting military exercises with the US, a hotline call from South Korea opened just weeks earlier went unanswered.
Ethiopia: With Tigray rebels making gains in the country, the prime minister Abiy Ahmed has called on civilians to join the cause of resisting them.
They’ve got to fight for themselves.
US Joe Biden on Afghanistan
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Another Unicorn: CoinDCX raised $90million making it the first cryptocurrency exchange to turn into a unicorn in India.
Losing Steam: With the resurgence of the virus in the US and Japan, the world’s economic recovery is slowing down, according to the OECD.
Will Pay up: Amazon US said it will pay customers who suffer damages or injuries due to a product bought on the platform.
News Of Today 