Daily Briefing: Govt cuts excise on fuel; Modi-Biden talks to look at global issues, says govt

Only in the Express 

In an online interaction at The Indian Express Idea Exchange, Nikhat Zareen, who became only the fifth Indian woman to win the championship, spoke about her struggles in a conservative society, how people ridiculed her choice to box as a girl, and how she had to fight, both inside and outside the ring, to achieve her dream.

Former Union minister P Chidambaram writes on the ground-breaking liberalisation of the Indian economy 31 years ago and that the case for a re-set is compelling. 

“We cannot depart from the path of an open, liberal and market-based economy. That would be suicidal. Yet, we must take stock and, considering the global and domestic developments, re-set our economic policies. That requires the courage, clarity and speed of 1991.”

From the Front Page 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be meeting US President Joe Biden on May 24 on the sidelines of the Quad leaders’ summit in Tokyo. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific will dominate discussions between Prime Minister Modi, President Biden, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the Australian Prime Minister — polls have closed in Australia where Anthony Albanese and his Labour Party look set to defeat Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s ruling coalition.

Dominican authorities dropped the charge of illegal entry against fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi, nearly a year after he showed up bruised and battered in the island nation. Choksi, a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda and wanted in India for his alleged role in the Punjab National Bank fraud case, claimed he was abducted from Antigua and Barbuda, allegedly by Indian agents, and forcibly taken to Dominica in a yacht. 

Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, speaking at an event in London, said the country was sitting on a “powder keg,” and accused the BJP Government of having “crushed” the nation’s voice and its institutional framework. Calling Indian democracy a “global public good,” Gandhi said that if it “cracks,” it will cause a “problem for the planet.”

Must Read 

From the renewed row over the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi built by him, to the disturbed quiet around his spare tomb near Aurangabad, Aurangzeb finds himself back at the heart of controversies. However, one piece of history involving the Mughal Emperor is slowly coming to life in Maharashtra. For the past six months now, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has been excavating a 400-year-old hammam located opposite the ‘Bibi Ka Maqbara’ built by Aurangzeb in Aurangabad. The maqbara had been constructed by the sixth Mughal Emperor in 1660, in the memory of his first wife and chief consort Dilras Banu Begum, as a replica of the Taj Mahal, which had been built by his father Shahjehan, for his wife.

Amid a court-ordered videography survey of the Gyanvapi Mosque complex in Varanasi, a district judge in Mathura on May 19 allowed the reopening of a lawsuit on the ownership of the land on which Shahi Idgah Masjid stands. We travel to Varanasi and Mathura, two of the oldest cities in the country where history has been summoned to shape the future. In Mathura, while sections on both sides of the debate blame “outsiders” and media for sensationalising the news, many also speak in hushed tones about walking in the ominous footsteps of Ayodhya,  Meanwhile, across Varanasi, the survey and its ‘findings’ continue to be spoken of with excitement — or carefully sidestepped.

Foreign exchange, including the US dollar and euro, taken out of the country by resident Indians has shot up by 54.60 per cent during the fiscal ended March 2022 as countries opened up and flight services resumed after the Covid-19 pandemic restricted the movement of resident Indians in the previous year. Total outward remittances under the RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), shot up to an all-time high of $19.610 billion in the year ended March 2022 as against $12.684 billion in March 2021, as per latest RBI data. 

And Finally

One can’t help but notice a recurring theme of death in some of India’s showcase at Cannes. “Death is the only thing that makes living real,” says Pratham Khurana, 23, whose Whistling Woods’ diploma film Nauha is among 16 student films competing in La Cinef section (formerly Cinéfondation). Meanwhile, arathi director Nikhil Mahajan’s compelling meditation on the acceptance of death, marks a chalk-and-cheese shift from his previous thrillers to family drama. 

Until tomorrow,

Leela Prasad G and Rahel Philipose