Today’s Top News Headlines and Latest News at 10:30 am on 6 July 2023

In top national news: The Union Cabinet Wednesday approved the draft data protection Bill, paving the way for its introduction in the Monsoon session of Parliament. If passed, the law will become India’s core data governance framework, six years after the Supreme Court declared privacy as a fundamental right. The Bill is one of the four proposed legislations in the IT and telecom sectors to provide the framework for the rapidly growing digital ecosystem. The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, approved by the Cabinet, is learnt to have retained the contents of the original version of the legislation proposed last November, including those that were red-flagged by privacy experts.

In political news: Two days before he was sworn in as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister on Sunday, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar removed his uncle, Sharad Pawar, from the post of party president, and wrote to the Election Commission (EC) seeking recognition of his faction as the real NCP. Both Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar held separate meetings on Wednesday in their first show of strength since the split in the NCP on July 2. While at least 29 of the party’s 53 MLAs were at the former’s meeting and signed affidavits confirming their allegiance to him, 16 MLAs attended the latter’s meeting.

Amid speculation that there could be changes at the top after the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction joined the Maharashtra government, BJP leaders on Wednesday said the party does not have any plan to replace Eknath Shinde from the post of chief minister for the time being, and that the party plans to fight the upcoming elections under the “trio”. With Ajit Pawar’s remarks on Wednesday that he wants to be the “Chief Minister some day” creating a flutter in political circles, a top source in the party asked about the comment, said, “What else could he have said when asked whether he wants to be CM.”

In other news: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Wednesday wrote to the Law Commission of India, reiterating its opposition to the UCC while underlining that “majoritarian morality” must not override religious freedom and rights of minority communities. This was in response to the Law Commission seeking views from the public on June 14 on the UCC, saying it was examining the matter. The representation was sent to the Law Commission after the AIMPLB discussed the issue at a meeting. AIMPLB spokesperson S Q R Ilyas told The Indian Express, “In the representation, we have answered how the justifications being given by some people and the political parties in favour of the UCC are useless.”

Moving on to top international news from the US: State officials are investigating how eight people became trapped upside down on a roller coaster — some of them for more than three hours — at a festival in Wisconsin. The roller coaster’s cars got stuck near the top of a loop around 1.30 pm Sunday at the Crandon International Offroad Raceway. Rescue workers arrived to find eight passengers hanging upside down from their safety harnesses. Firefighters used ladder trucks to reach them, securing each one before releasing their over-the-shoulder safety bars, the Crandon Fire Department said. It took nearly three and a half hours to get all the passengers down. One person was taken to a hospital.

In news from Nepal: The remark of Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, that an Indian businessman settled in Nepal put in a word for him in Delhi to have him appointed as the Prime Minister triggered a controversy in the country as a united Opposition demanded his resignation. Both Houses of Parliament — Rashtriya Sabha and the House of Representatives — were adjourned for the day after the opposition parties created a ruckus stating that the Prime Minister’s remarks lowered the dignity of the country.

In news from Pakistan: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Wednesday accused his predecessor Imran Khan of not only halting progress on the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) but also damaging ties with ‘all-weather ally’ China. Addressing a ceremony here to mark a decade of the signing of the CPEC, Sharif also said that the mega project helped Pakistan progress in the region and the world. Sharif, however, regretted that the previous government led by Imran Khan created misconceptions about the project which resulted in its slow implementation.

Lastly, Ukraine and Russia accused each other Wednesday of planning to attack one of the world’s largest nuclear power plants, but neither side provided evidence to support their claims of an imminent threat to the facility in southeastern Ukraine that is occupied by Russian troops. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been a focus of concern since Moscow’s forces took control of it and its staff in the early stages of the war. Russia and Ukraine have regularly traded blame over shelling near the plant that caused power outages. Over the last year, the U.N.’s atomic watchdog repeatedly expressed alarm over the possibility of a radiation catastrophe like the one at Chernobyl after a reactor exploded in 1986.

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