Your Daily Wrap: India bans wheat exports, Tripura gets a new CM ahead of polls; and more
◾ In top story of the day, the Narendra Modi-led central government has banned export of all wheat from the country. This came a day after its data showed annual consumer price inflation hitting a near eight-year-high of 7.79 per cent in April and retail food inflation surging even higher to 8.38 per cent. The export ban comes even as procurement of wheat by government agencies has plunged to a 15-year-low, with only 18 million tonnes (mt) bought so far in the current marketing season, as against the record 43.3 mt in 2021-22. Read more
◾ Tripura, which will go to polls early next year, witnessed a major development today with the resignation of Biplab Kumar Deb from the post of chief minister. The ruling BJP has named state president and Rajya Sabha MP Dr Manik Saha as his replacement. With the state going to polls next year, the move came as a surprise to many, with even ministers in his Cabinet admitting that they had no prior indication that he would do so. Read more.
◾ The CBI today conducted searches at seven locations across Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Jodhpur in a suspected case pertaining to betting and match-fixing in the 2019 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The agency has booked seven people in two separate FIRs and said the cases have been registered based on information from Pakistan.
◾ In some global news, rulers in the United Arab Emirates today announced that they appointed Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as the president of this hereditarily ruled nation on the Arabian Peninsula. It comes after the late President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan died Friday.
Political Pulse
◾ Over 30 years after P V Narasimha Rao opened up the Indian economy and ushered in path-breaking liberalisation, the Congress today called for a “reset” of the “economic policies” taking into account global and domestic developments. The party also lashed out at the BJP government’s management of the economy, but admitted the party has “failed” to communicate to the people the “distressful situation” of the Indian economy. Former finance minister P Chidambaram, the convenor of the Congress panel deliberating economic issues at the brainstorming session ‘Chintan Shivir’ in Udaipur, said the “reset of economic policies must also address the questions of rising inequalities; extreme poverty among the bottom 10 per cent of the population”. Read more
◾ At a time Congress leaders have assembled in Udaipur for a “Chintan Shivir”, the Gujarat BJP, amid the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) entry into the state and in a bind over what it should do with Congress defectors, is set to organise its own brainstorming conclave at a golf resort on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on Sunday and Monday. Gujarat will go to polls later this year. BJP’s state president CR Paatil has set a target of winning all 182 seats but a functionary said that more than the Congress, which is bogged down with factionalism and defections, it is the AAP for which the BJP requires a counter-strategy. Read more
Explained
◾ The Allahabad High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by BJP leader Rajneesh Singh asking for a fact-finding panel to establish “the real History of Taj Mahal”, and for more than 20 sealed “rooms” to be opened to look for the possible presence of idols of Hindu gods on the premises of the monument. Over the years, several BJP leaders have repeated and amplified unhistorical claims that the Taj is in fact a Hindu temple that was built much before the reign of Shah Jahan. We take a look at the theory of “Tejo Mahalaya”.
◾ The sharp crash in Luna, the sister cryptocurrency of algorithmic stablecoin Terra, which has rendered it almost worthless, has sent shockwaves throughout the cryptocurrency market, with experts likening the crash in the crypto market to be as severe as the big financial crisis of 2008. What does it mean in the big picture?
