Political updates: Narendra Modi launches UP election campaign; Jayalalithaa to visit Delhi today

New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday will make a final push to gain consensus on the goods and services tax (GST) as he addresses the empowered committee of state finance ministers in Kolkata.

Meanwhile, in her first visit to New Delhi after election, Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other central ministers. On Monday, PM Modi officially launched the election campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh, keeping development as the main agenda. Modi’s address in Allahabad came after the BJP completed its two-day national executive meet in the city.

GST design: Arun Jaitley to address state finance ministers meeting

Finance minister Arun Jaitley will address the empowered committee of state finance ministers in Kolkata on Tuesday as the centre makes a final push to achieve a consensus on GST. The empowered group of state finance ministers, headed by West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra, are meeting on 14-15 June to finalize the design of GST. Read more

Development is the only answer to UP’s woes: Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh assembly election campaign from Allahabad on Monday with development as the central theme. Promising jobs to the youth, infrastructure and end to law and order problems, Modi asked people to use the 2017 assembly election as an opportunity to end lawlessness, religious and caste divides, and the rule of family-run political parties. Read more

BJP spotlights pole position in national politics in Allahabad resolution

The BJP on Monday claimed that it is now the only pan-Indian party as the Congress is “shrinking” by the day. The party identified coastal states spanning from West Bengal to Kerala for its growth, asking workers to prepare the organisation for “big gains” in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Read more

Udta Punjab gets Bombay HC nod with single cut in snub to CBFC

Controversial film Udta Punjab will release as per schedule on 17 June with only one cut suggested by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and an ‘A’ certificate, the Bombay high court ruled on Monday. A bench comprising justices S.C. Dharmadhikari and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi approved only one cut of the 13 suggested by CBFC and ruled that the film could be released as per schedule. It also directed CBFC to issue a fresh certificate to the film within 48 hours. Read more

Pranab Mukherjee refuses assent to Delhi govt bill

In a setback to the Delhi government led by the Aam Aadmi Party, President Pranab Mukherjee refused his assent to a bill that aims to protect 21 party legislators who were appointed as parliamentary secretaries from the prospect of disqualification. Read more

Has Bhupinder Singh Hooda turned Congress rebel?

An election gone wrong, the mystery of a “replaced” pen, a defeat for the Congress and, above all, allegations of rebellion against Gandhi family loyalist Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The former Haryana chief minister is in the eye of a storm in the wake of the just-concluded Rajya Sabha election, in which the Congress-Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate lost due to invalid votes cast by MLAs who owe allegiance to Hooda. The big question: has Hooda turned rebel? The party is divided. One section feels he is “too loyal” to engineer a mutiny like this; the other is of the view that Hooda, often sidelined by the party, is trying to send out a message to the party leadership about his importance in state affairs. Read more

Returning officer of Haryana RS election gives clean chit to polling process

The returning officer for the Rajya Sabha election in Haryana said on Monday that there was no problem with the polling process on Saturday, after the surprise loss of a candidate backed by the Congress party raised allegations of foul play. Read more

India has few critically acclaimed political biopics

At the peak of the 2014 election campaign, Narendra Modi responded to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s “neech rajniti” (dirty politics) remark by recalling how the top Congress leadership had denied a state funeral to former prime minister Narasimha Rao in Delhi. Modi called it “neech rajniti”. The Economic Times reported on Monday that this episode involving the Congress leadership under Sonia Gandhi would be part of a new biopic on Modi’s predecessor Manmohan Singh. The biopic is based on Singh’s media advisor and senior commentator Sanjay Baru’s book, The Accidental Prime Minister: the Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh. The Indian film industry, including the regional language ones, cannot boast of a rich quantity of political biopics. Read more

In NSG membership bid, Modi turns to Putin to help out with China

Within days of his visit to the US, and China objecting to India joining the exclusive Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up Russian President Vladmir Putin. The call was put through at India’s initiative, a press statement from the Kremlin posted on Twitter said late on Sunday. Read more

Govt lays out road map for adoption of fuel cell technology

The Central government on Monday released a draft report that lays down a road map for the use of hydrogen energy and fuel cell technology in the transport sector as it tries to broaden the green economy in India. The draft report, ‘Hydrogen energy and Fuel Cells in India—A way forward’ has been put online by the ministry of new and renewable energy and is open for comments till 20 June. Read more

Regional languages on mobiles get govt push

In what may prove to be a big push to the government’s Digital India programme, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) on Monday came out with requirements for a mobile handset for typing text in English, Hindi and at least one additional Indian official language along with the facility of message readability in the phones for all 22 Indian official languages. Read more

Saving every drop of rainwater is the way forward: Sriram Vedire

Rajasthan government’s water conservation drive Mukhya Mantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan recently found mention in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly radio address Mann ki Baat. The programme’s goal is to make every village of the state self-reliant for water. In an interview, Sriram Vedire, chairperson of Rajasthan River Basin and Water Resources Planning Authority and advisor to the Union ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation, spoke about the scheme, why interlinking of rivers is important and measures to tackle water crisis. Read the edited excerpts here.

How IIT-JEE (Advanced) works, from results to rank list

Indian Institutes of Technology, the country’s most prestigious engineering and technology schools, have announced the results of joint entrance examination—Advanced (JEE-Advanced), giving ranks to 36,566 candidates for seats in 22 IITs across India. Of the total 36,566 rank holders, 31,996 were male and 4,570 female. Here are five charts explaining everything that you would like to know about JEE-Advanced from ranking criteria to male-female equation and seat availability in the IIT system.

Himalayan region inching towards a massive earthquake: Scientists

The Himalayan region could witness an earthquake far more destructive than the 2015 Nepal temblor that killed 8,000 people and destroyed parts of the country, reveals a new study looking to understand the aftermath of last year’s earthquake and vulnerability of the region. In the study, published in Nature Geoscience on Tuesday, scientists show that the part of the fault that hadn’t moved since the earthquake remained completely locked, accumulating further strain. Read more

Can Punjab’s drugs menace be solved in a month? Yes, says Rahul, AAP ridicules Congress drive

Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP is trying to spread its wings to Punjab and it alleged that the Congress was adopting double standards because it had failed to initiate any action on the issue of drugs when the matter was brought to the notice of former prime minister Manmohan Singh. Read more