In the wake of intensifying anti-government protests in Sri Lanka, a nationwide curfew was imposed until Thursday morning. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is also the crisis-hit country's Acting President, asked parliament speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to nominate a new premier “who is acceptable to both the government and opposition”. HT brings you a round-up of the most important and interesting stories, so you don’t miss your daily dose of news. |
THE BIG STORY Emergency in Lanka, Gotabaya flees island Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country on Wednesday, plunging a country already reeling from economic chaos into deeper political turmoil, even as a state of emergency was imposed and a nationwide curfew was put in place to contain protesters who laid siege to the parliament. Read more. |
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED |
The Big Question Will the Centre’s offer of free booster doses for 75 days raise the uptake rate? The Centre announced on Wednesday that it will make Covid-19 vaccine booster doses free for all adults at government-run centres from July 15 for 75 days as part of its Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, a step that could likely help spur uptake of third doses that over 92% of the eligible population is late for. Read more. |
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 One suffered an engine failure. One had a cracked windshield. And one started smoking on the inside, all in the span of a week. There’s clearly something wrong with the left phalange. What high-speed long-distance vehicles suffered these malfunctions? |
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From the Edit Page A crescendo that felled Lanka’s most powerful July 9 was a watershed day in Sri Lanka’s political history when tens of thousands of its citizens flooded Colombo, breached three iconic seats of political power, and pushed the president and prime minister (PM) to agree to resign from office. July 13, however, brought forth a more volatile mix of emotions – relief at the exit of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the island hours before he was to resign, anger at the fact that he is unlikely to be held accountable legally or democratically for the crisis and wariness at the possibility of unrest with PM Ranil Wickremasinghe appearing to cling onto power as acting president and a weak Opposition scrambling to respond. Read more. |
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NUMBER THEORY Growth vs inflation: A case for recalibration of policy Retail inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew 7.01% in the month of June, making it the sixth consecutive month of inflation staying above the 6% upper limit of the Reserve Bank of India’s tolerance band. To be sure, the headline CPI reading came down for the second consecutive month in June, and the June quarter inflation has ended up lower than RBI’s forecast of 7.5%. Most forecasters, including RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) expect inflation to stay above the 6% mark in this year. Even as economic policy continues to focus on inflation management – finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman reiterated the government’s commitment to maintain vigilance on inflation on July 12 – an argument can be made that there is merit in recalibrating the economic policy focus away from inflation management towards growth. Read more. |
From the Field Shunning deep-rooted caste biases in TN’s equality villages The date is fuzzy, but the memory of the night is vivid. It was past 1am on February 2020, just before the first wave of Covid-19 hit, and 46-year-old K Selvi, her body feeling weak, knew she was running a high temperature. A single mother, whose daughter moved away after marriage, there was nobody at home to help. Her first call was to Malar Kodi, her neighbour. “Malar and her husband Arjunsamy drove me to the Kinathukadavu hospital, eight km away, on their moped. They made me sit in between them so I wouldn’t fall. They stayed with me in the hospital for five hours, brought me back home and made kanji (porridge) for me for the next day,” Selvi said. Read more. |
Infographic of the Day Understanding the Webb photos  (Click to expand) |
 Airplanes |
Photo of the Day The cool gate no. 1 |
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