Good morning,
Outgoing Army Chief General M M Naravane talks about ties with Pakistan, clashes erupt in Patiala, Centre finally sells its stake in Pawan Hans — here are the top stories from today’s edition: The Big Story
General M M Naravane demits office today after an eventful stint as chief of the Indian Army. During his 28-month tenure as Chief of the Army Staff, some momentous events took place including the military standoff with China, the Covid-19 pandemic, ceasefire with Pakistan and removal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from some districts in states of the North-East. The Indian Express speaks to General Naravane on these key issues and challenges.
Only in the Express
The violent clash between two groups in Patiala, with protesters waving swords and pelting stones, is the first major test for the Aam Aadmi Party government. And, it appears to have been taken by surprise at the scale of the violence. There are growing murmurs that the situation can only be handled by someone who understands the interplay of politics and religion in the state, and not by "outsiders", as AAP is often dubbed.
India's drive against doping in sports has received a setback with two of its track-and-field Tokyo Olympians, a male and a female, failing dope tests for using banned anabolic steroids and facing bans up to four years. The Athletics Federation of India was tight-lipped about the cases but multiple sources confirmed they have been dropped from the national training camp.
Indian Administrative Service officer Shah Faesal, who resigned from the service in protest against the "unabated" killings in Kashmir in 2019, has been reinstated. What are the rules for resignation and reinstatement of an officer? Is an officer allowed to withdraw a resignation that has already been submitted? And under what circumstances is the withdrawal of an officer’s resignation accepted? We explain.
From the Front Page
After three unsuccessful attempts at disinvesting its stake in the helicopter services provider, the government Friday approved the sale of Pawan Hans Ltd along with management control to Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd. This disinvestment is the second major sale from the government’s aviation portfolio in the last 12 months — Air India went to Tata Group in January this year. With India running dangerously low on coal — 108 of the 173 plants have critically low levels of inventory — the Indian Railways has cancelled 753 trips involving 42 trains to prioritise the delivery of coal rakes across the country. The cancellations will primarily impact passengers travelling from key coal-producing states, including Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. Granting bail to Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman police officer while in custody, a court in Assam’s Barpeta district pulled up the cops for lodging a “false FIR” and “abusing the process of the court and the law”. It also warned the Assam Police against “converting our hard-earned democracy into a police state”. 
In the midst of a heatwave, parts of the Yamuna turned dry in Delhi. (📸 Praveen Khanna)
Must Read
A month after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar raised the issue, China finally announced plans to permit the return of “some” Indian students stranded in India for over two years following visa and flight restrictions imposed by Beijing after the pandemic. According to estimates, over 23,000 Indian students, mostly studying medicine, are stuck in India after they returned home following the Covid-19 outbreak in China in December 2019. A few weeks back, the bankrupt tennis legend Boris Becker was in court facing trial for hiding from his creditors, among other high-value acquisitions, the Wimbledon Trophy he won as a 17 year old. It was a heart-breaking bit of Becker update for a world that treats even the Lemon & Spoon race medals from school days as family heirlooms. Yet, there was a sense of inevitability when the former Wimbledon champion was sentenced to two and a half years for avoiding repaying a £3 million loan on his luxury estate in Mallorca, Spain. India is likely to take another 13 years to overcome the losses incurred due to the Covid pandemic that hit the country in March 2020, says a Reserve Bank of India report. As such, the blueprint of reforms proposed in the RBI report revolves around seven wheels of economic progress: aggregate demand, aggregate supply, institutions, intermediaries and markets, macroeconomic stability and policy coordination, productivity and technological progress, and structural change and sustainability. And Finally...
After watching Ajay Devgn and Amitabh Bachchan starrer Runway 34, Shubhra Gupta writes: “A high-flying pilot, in charge of a flight from Dubai to Kochi, has to bring all his vaunted expertise to bear in order to power through bad weather and worsening visibility. Is he successful? The most effective disaster movies keep both stakes and suspense high, but in ‘Runway 34’, my heart was never in my mouth.” Delhi Confidential: The National Commission for Minorities has started taking cognizance of incidents of violence that are taking place in other countries against people from minority communities in India. In an unusual move, the Commission — headed by Iqbal Singh Lalpura — has written two letters to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, its parent ministry, urging it to raise the issue with the Ministry of External Affairs.
Until tomorrow,
Leela Murali and Rounak Bagchi
| 
