Daily Briefing: Rupee falls below 80 against dollar; why a UP sanitation worker was sacked over photos of Modi, Yog

Big Story 

Raising concerns over high imported inflation, the Indian rupee breached the psychologically significant exchange rate level of 80 to a US dollar in early trade on Tuesday.

🔴 Why is this happening? Significant dollar demand from oil importers amid elevated crude oil prices and concerns about swelling trade deficit have also been key catalysts behind the steep descent seen in the Indian currency, which has fallen by over seven per cent since January this year.

🔴 Silver lining: Although the rupee has depreciated against the US dollar, it has appreciated against other major currencies such as euro and the Japanese yen. Currencies such as the British pound, the Japanese yen and the euro have weakened more than the Indian rupee against the US dollar and, therefore, the Indian rupee has strengthened against these currencies in 2022, said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. 

🔴 Expert weighs in: India’s leading banker and SBI Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara is of the view that an artificial intervention does not have a long-term impact and it doesn’t work. He, however, added that we should instead focus on balance of trade. “As compared to that, I would say that, if at all the balance of trade is in our favour, that will perhaps work better.”

Only in the Express

Over a year after he quit the Congress and joined the Yogi Adityanath cabinet, PWD Minister Jitin Prasada now has his back to the wall. This week, several top officials — including Prasada’s Officer on Special Duty, Anil Kumar Pandey — were removed or suspended from the department over allegations of transfers in PWD in exchange for money. A government official said action against the officials was part of the UP government’s policy of “zero tolerance towards corruption”.

From the Front Page

🔴 Sri Lanka’s Parliament is set to elect a new President to replace Gotabaya Rajapaksa today. In the running are Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Dullas Alahapperuma, a rebel leader of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) who is backed by the Opposition, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

🔴 Filmmaker Avinash Das was detained on Tuesday for allegedly sharing on social media “a five-year-old photo” of Union Home Minister Amit Shah with IAS officer Pooja Singhal, who was arrested in Jharkhand this May by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case of money laundering.

🔴 The Supreme Court directed that “no coercive action” can be taken against suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma till the next date of hearing in connection with the complaints filed against her in several states over her remarks on the Prophet during a television debate show.

Must Read 

For 40-year-old sanitation worker from Mathura, Bobby Khare, the last four days have been overwhelming. He was first sacked from his job after photographs surfaced of him pulling a garbage cart with photos of PM Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath, and later reinstated. A grateful Khare promises he will “never repeat the mistake” again. Asked how the pictures ended up in his cart in the first place, he said he had found them at the garbage collection spot.

Weeks after the political showdown in Maharashtra, Rahul Shewale, who was appointed the Shiv Sena leader in the Lok Sabha by the Eknath Shinde-led group, claimed on Tuesday that Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was himself keen on patching up with the BJP soon after the MVA government was formed in Maharashtra. According to him, the patch-up did not occur due to the antagonistic stand taken by certain members of the Sena against the BJP and Thackeray’s procrastination.

A position paper by the Karnataka government on the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, uploaded recently, has revived discussion on something that has long been known to historians of mathematics — that what we call the Pythagoras theorem was already known to Indians from the Vedic times.The position paper describes Pythagoras’s theorem as “fake news” and the “so-called Pythagoras theorem”. Did Pythagoras exist? How do we know that Indian mathematicians from the Vedic period knew this? Did Indian mathematicians prove the equation? We explain. 

And Finally 

When 3×3 basketball became an Olympic sport, five years ago, America’s favourite pass-time was picking the best all-time trio from the NBA galaxy. The common myth was that 3×3 is just a shrunk version of the 5-on-5 basketball. At its best, a leaner version to woo the attention challenged in this era of instant gratification. Read more here. 

🤐 Delhi Confidential: Gearing up for protests on July 21, the day Congress president Sonia Gandhi will appear before the Enforcement Directorate, the party has reached out to other Opposition parties requesting them to show solidarity. MPs of the Congress may stage a protest in Parliament while senior party leaders will assemble at the AICC headquarters, 24, Akbar Road. 

🎧 In today’s episode of the ‘3 Things’ podcast, why students have been missing the 10th and 12th state board exams, Lucknow’s Lulu mall controversy, and Dantewada Himanshu Kumar’s case.

Until tomorrow, 

Rahel Philipose and Vidya Gowri 

Express Cartoon by EP Unny.