5 stories you must read today, September 23: From National Film Award to Siddaramaiah’s solution to ease Bengaluru traffic and more

Veteran Malayalam actor Mohanlal on Tuesday received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award from President Droupadi Murmu during the 71st National Awards. Mohanlal who has acted in more than 400 films across Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada in a career spanning over four decades was honoured for his iconic contribution to Indian cinema. Mohanlal is only the second celebrity from the Malayalam cinema industry to ever win the award, after filmmaker Adoor Gopalkrishnan, who was honoured with Indian cinema’s top award in 2004. Read more

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has urged IT major Wipro to allow limited vehicular traffic through its campus to ease the traffic congestion along Bengaluru’s IT corridor. In a letter to Wipro founder Azim Premji, the Karnataka CM said allowing limited vehicular movement through its Sarjapur campus would reduce congestion on the Outer Ring Road by nearly 30 per cent, particularly during peak hours. Bengaluru has regularly ranked as one of India’s most traffic-congested cities. Read more

Alleging that cab aggregator apps have failed to update the rates according to the Maharashtra government’s policy, app-based cabs in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur have decided to charge ‘meter-based’ rates on trip bookings. According to the Indian Gig Workers’ Front (IGWF), the meter-based’ rates will come into effect Tuesday and will be applicable on cab bookings through platforms including Ola, Uber and Rapido. Read more

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore $500 million in federal grant funding that it froze at the University of California, Los Angeles. US District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction on Monday, saying the government likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act. The Trump administration has been using federal grants and research support as a bargaining chip to force some of the top universities and colleges in the US to fall in line with its policies. In August, UCLA announced that the Trump administration had suspended $584 million in federal grants over allegations of civil rights violations related to antisemitism and affirmative action. Read more

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates announced that the Gates Foundation will give $912 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Gates, who said the world was at a crossroads, with millions of children at risk of dying if funding drops too steeply, also urged governments around the world to reverse global health funding cuts. The Gates Foundation, which he co-founded in 2000, is one of the world’s biggest funders of global health initiatives. Read more