Here are some important reports from the biggest newspapers of India.
1.) Modi travels by night, sleeps on flights to save time
Check-in bags are not coming off Air India One these days, as on most of the nights, the Prime Minister aims at sleeping on the plane rather than in foreign hotels to shorten his trips.
As per a report in The Economic Times, in his latest trips to Belgium, US and Saudi Arabia between March 30 and April 2, Narendra Modi spent three nights on Air India One while in transit from Delhi to Brussels, from Brussels to Washington DC and from there to Riyadh. He just spent two nights at hotels one in Washington and one in Riyadh. “It is unprecedented to complete a PM's multination trip involving US in just 97 hours. If the PM had not chosen to sleep on the plane, we would not have been back for at least six days,“ a senior government official said.
2.) Swachh Bharat offers cab ride to women for a better life ahead
A group of 500 women from the scheduled castes are looking forward to making a clean break from their occupation as manual scavengers and driving into their new profession as cabbies, thanks to Modi Sarkar which is providing them all the requisite training including some nifty self-defence techniques, The Economic Times reported.
Their instructor, Mamtha Sangte from Ujjain, was among the fortunate few who managed to break the cycle of caste and poverty on her own and give up manual scavenging to train in martial arts.The 34-year-old black belt in taekwondo is set to train this first batch of Dalit women for a month, after which they will be ready to take on their role of driving commercial taxi cabs in Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai. These women have already completed their training in driving, government officials said.
3.) Ahead of odd-even, DTC faces 400 breakdowns a day
A whopping 400 breakdowns a day. That's the crisis DTC is faced with as summer temperatures soar and the government is set to implement round 2 of the oddeven formula, as reported by The Times of India. The state transport agency, with a 4,300-strong fleet, had achieved 95% efficiency during the first phase of the plan but this time around, it might struggle to hold up its end of the bargain.
Playing down the issue, DTC insisted that maintenance teams had been asked to ensure 97% deployment. Even so, the DTC fleet will be stretched as 700 buses will be on school duty. Schools were closed in the first phase of odd-even.
4.) Beating liquor ban in Bihar with ambulance and milk containers
With the Bihar government’s liquor ban coming into effect, liquor suppliers and consumers have found innovative ways to bring the spirit into the state.
According to police, a person posing as a patient and another as his attendant were held on Thursday with six bottles of India-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) which they were allegedly transporting to Purnea in an ambulance. The ambulance driver too was nabbed. The accused were coming from Siliguri in West Bengal and had got passage at every busy intersection till police smelled a rat and nabbed them, as reported by The Indian Express.
5.) Government rolls out dialysis care scheme, experts seek clarity on payments
It took just 40 days for the health ministry to roll out the national dialysis care programme across the country after finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced the scheme in the Union Budget. Launched with technical support from national health systems resource centre (NHSRC), the scheme aims to provide dialysis care in every district across the country, the Times of India reports.
On Thursday, the ministry released the guidelines setting up the dialysis centres under public private partnership. The ministry has also prepared model tender documents.
6.) Eyeing huge Dalit vote bank, Centre plans mega event on Ambedkar anniversary
The BJP-led Centre has drawn up a mega plan to celebrate 125th birth anniversary of Dalit icon BR Ambedkar in what is being seen as perhaps the biggest outreach to the electorally potent community, The Times of India reports.
On April 14 when PM Narendra Modi will pay homage to the Dalit icon at his birthplace at Mhow, a host of programmes have been lined up over ten days by the Centre and BJP to reach out to the community such as `Samrasta Bhoj` (community meals), opening schools in Dalit settlements as well as organising sensitisation programmes.
BJP mandarins believe that apart from drawing the community to the saffronfold, focus on Ambedkar will also blunt the opposition's campaign of projecting the party as 'anti-Dalit' following the suicide of Hyderabad Central University scholar Rohith Vemula.
7.) Mallya woes leave iconic soccer clubs high & dry
Vijay Mallya's financial mess has cast a shadow over two iconic football clubs of Kolkata. Among the two, I-League champion Mohun Bagan seems to be facing more problems than East Bengal, The Economic Times reports.
The storied rivals on the football pitch entered into mega funding and sponsorship deals with Mallya's UB Group towards the end of the millennium. The arrangements, with UB Group companies owning stakes in the clubs, worked mostly well, except for some minor licensing issues which were deftly dealt with. Then, Mallya's woes came to the fore, with banks now chasing him for non-payment of loans. While concerns were raised over the funding of UB Group's sporting teams in the world of cricket and Formula 1 racing, the football clubs remained mostly out of the discussions.
8.) Digital library soon, to include audio books read out by celebs
The National Digital Library that seeks to contain lakhs of digitised books particularly for students may bring out a series of audio books to be read out by celebrities and well-recognised voices, The Economic Times reports.
The HRD ministry is examining the idea of hosting special audio books on the National Digital Library portal following a proposal by Prasoon Joshi, advertising veteran and lyricist who is currently the CEO of McCann World Group India, people aware of the development said. Joshi recently called on the HRD minister Smriti Irani for the same. Joshi is learnt to have proposed creating a set of 50 audio books to start with which would be read out by the likes of Amitabh Bachchan as well as trained professionals. Sources said the HRD ministry is positive about the idea, which would also help generate greater awareness about the digital library initiative.
9.) Prime Minister Modi asks for first report on Panama Papers revelations in 15 days
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who returned from his five-day Belgium-US-Saudi Arabia official trip on the intermediate night of April 3-4, has sought the first report on The Panama Papers within 15 days, as reported by The Indian Express.
The Prime Minister was of the view that the SIT may take its own time to study the offshore entity route and arrive at conclusions. Further, it may not have the expertise to deal with the Prime Minister asks for first report on Panama Papers companies in 15 days complexities of the modus operandi adopted by individuals who would have set up or acquired offshore entities in tax havens for illegal purposes.
10.) SC appoints 2 top lawyers for Nirbhaya case convicts
As the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case fight their last legal battle to escape the gallows, the Supreme Court on Friday appointed senior advocates Raju Ramachandran and Sanjay Hegde to defend them, The Times of India reports.
Noting that all aspects of the case needed to be examined and that the convicts' lawyers were not experts in criminal law, a bench of Justices Dipak Misra, V Gopala Gowda and Kurian Joseph said they needed to be defended by more experienced lawyers so that they were not deprived of justice.
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