Daily Briefing: It’s Constitution Day; PAN cards set to be revamped; India’s Perth perfect turnaround

With that, let’s determination connected to today’s edition:

• 75th day of the Indian Constitution
• Bribery charges connected Azure Power
• PAN 2.0

🚨 Big Story

President Droupadi Murmu volition address a associated sitting of some Houses of the Parliament to people 75 years of the Constitution. The President volition besides merchandise a commemorative coin, a stamp, and 3 books connected the Constitution to commemorate the occasion. On Monday, Opposition leaders wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, urging him to let their members successful some Houses to talk during the function.This was met with accusations that “some of the Opposition parties” were giving reactions without knowing the existent arrangement.

‘Secular’, ‘Socialist’ is present to stay: What comes arsenic a remarkable judgment connected the eve of Constitution Day, the Supreme Court dismissed petitions challenging the law validity of the 42nd amendment by which the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ were added to the Preamble of the Constitution. The apex tribunal underlined that “these presumption person achieved wide acceptance, with their meanings understood by ‘We, the radical of India’ without immoderate semblance of doubt”.

The Consensus Republic: C Raj Kumar sheds light connected the value of reflecting connected the Constituent Assembly’s singular efforts successful drafting the Constitution arsenic a statement document. Can this beryllium mirrored successful today’s epoch of ideological differences? He writes: “The past 2 decades of the improvement of parliamentary ideology (2004-24) successful India should beryllium cautiously examined to recognize and admit the request for reimagining the civilization of antiauthoritarian engagement successful Parliament. This is simply a infinitesimal of introspection for each members of Parliament.”

⚡ Only successful Express

Documents successful the dataset of the Paradise Papers — a planetary consortium connected offshore concern done by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), The Indian Express and 95 different media partners — uncover however Azure Power Global Limited was incorporated successful Mauritius successful the twelvemonth 2015; subsequently got listed connected the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and had pledged to comply with US laws and regulations. What’s striking is that the executives of Azure Power’s ascendant shareholding institution person been charged for allegedly offering Rs 2,029 crore successful bribes to Indian authorities officials to unafraid “lucrative star vigor proviso contracts.”

“Yet I simply cannot fathom the tsunami-like standard of this victory. Neither the governmental communal consciousness nor the method governmental subject helps maine marque consciousness of the last result of this race. I cannot but ask: Was the victor connected steroids?”

In our Opinion pages today, Yogendra Yadav delves into what went down the jaw-dropping triumph of BJP-led Mahayuti successful Maharashtra, the melodramatic turnaround, and the disappearance of each the known patterns of authorities politics.

📰 From the Front Page

Calling it a day: It was the archetypal time of the Parliament Winter Session connected Monday. Just an hr aft convening, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned till Wednesday. The telephone by the presiding officers came aft they rejected demands from Opposition MPs to sermon alleged bribery charges by the US connected the Adani Group. In his customary remarks to the media earlier that morning,, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, deed retired astatine the Opposition and said those who had “not been accepted by people” were trying to disrupt parliamentary proceedings.

PAN 2.0: Our Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards are acceptable to beryllium revamped. On Monday, the Union Cabinet approved an upgrade with a QR codification diagnostic connected PAN cards. It volition beryllium free of outgo for each existing PAN holders. This task by the Income Tax Department came on with a connection to marque PAN “the communal identifier for businesses”.

📌 Must Read

Out of control: Four radical died successful Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal territory during the unit which erupted aft a survey squad showed up astatine a salient mosque successful the country connected Sunday. Several stakeholders successful the cognize indicated that authorities were alert that tensions could escalate, but failed to measure that the concern could spiral quickly, The Indian Express has learnt. The contented began aft a clergyman moved an exertion claiming that a temple erstwhile stood astatine the mosque’s site. Still galore protesters who were portion of the clashes with the constabulary stayed enactment astatine the tract believing rumours of digging going connected astatine the mosque.

Not ‘good’ news: Delhi has not had a azygous ‘good’ aerial prime day this year. Now, a ‘good’ aerial time is erstwhile the aerial prime scale (AQI) is beneath 50, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), With the existent contamination levels and the aerial prime fluctuating betwixt ‘severe’ and ‘very poor’ truthful acold this month, it is improbable the Capital volition person a bully time earlier adjacent year. The past clip specified a twelvemonth was had was successful 2018.

⏳ And Finally…

Youth indispensable beryllium served: Nothing went against the publication connected the last Test time astatine Perth, with India downing Australia, overnight connected 12 for 3, for 238. Everything that India wished went successful their favour with the youngsters showing they belonged: beryllium it Harshit Rana’s game-turning moment, Nitish Reddy’s innings which allowed Virat Kohli the country to not interest astir doing it connected his own, and Dhruv Jurel’s drawback of the crippled with a stunning reflex pouch.

In today’s peculiar occurrence of our 3 Things podcast, historiographer Ramachandra Guha joins america to sermon his latest book, Speaking with Nature which sheds airy connected India’s aboriginal environmentalists. Their fascinating stories uncover however environmentalism successful India evolved successful a distinctly antithetic mode from the Western models prevalent today. Enjoy!

That’s each for today.
Ariba and Vibha B Madhava

Business As Usual by E P Unny