Daily Hindu Editorials

👉India must be careful in picking up best practices from elsewhere in drafting a data protection law While the Americans and Europeans both call a sport football, they play a very different game. This difference is rooted not only in culture but in the rules of the game that provide rewards for goals, and penalties for breaching allowances. In the case of privacy regulations too, such a marked distinction is visible. With the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect on May 25, 2018, the absence of a comparable regulation across the Atlantic poses a question for India: What path should it take? Should it follow the U.S. or Europe? Or, in fact, should India take the lead in this regard? 👉American exceptionalism Last year, in November, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Carpenter v. United States, which many commentators termed as one of the most critical electronic surveillance case in decades. Among other finely threaded legal arguments ...

👉PM Modi’s meeting with the Russian President signals a necessary recalibration👈 With his visit to Sochi to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for a day-long “informal summit”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared to set a new normal in his foreign policy outreach. As was his Wuhan meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Sochi visit was aimed at resetting and rebalancing bilateral ties that have weakened over the past few years. The special understanding between India and Russia has frayed, with India drifting closer to the U.S. and Russia to China. The personal touches — hugs, handshakes, a boat ride on the Black Sea — projected the impression of two strong leaders addressing each other’s concerns “man to man”. Substantively, Mr. Modi’s visit was premised on a number of new realities facing India. First, India’s existing dependence on Russian military hardware, with orders for about $12 billion more in the pipeline, must not be jeopardised at any cost. These have been...

👉The proposed change to the Bankruptcy Code must treat homebuyers a step above lenders👈 Homebuyers parted of their money by real estate developers have some relief coming their way. The Union Cabinet has cleared an ordinance amending the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), a law which came into force in November 2016 to hasten the process of winding up failed businesses. While the government refused to divulge specific details of the amendment, the change to the law is expected to help offer better treatment to homebuyers when it comes to recovering their dues from bankrupt companies. A 14-member panel formed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had recommended last month that homebuyers should be treated as financial creditors during the bankruptcy resolution process. It is yet to be known whether homebuyers will be treated better or worse than banks and other financial lenders under the amended law. But there is a sound reason to treat them a step above these traditional lend...

👍YES 👉This will be a model coalition government which will run its full term smoothly and successfully👈 Who are the naysayers to the above proposition? The ones who, with lightning speed on May 15, without verifying anything, staked claim to form the government? Are they the same people who wrote to the Governor on May 15 without attaching names, lists or signatures of those from their party? Are they the same ones who tried desperately till the last minute to form the government but failed? Are the doubters those who sought seven days time for the floor test? Are they the ones who, through the Attorney General, sought a secret ballot in the Supreme Court? Are they the ones whose Chief Minister, sitting in a solo Cabinet, announced on May 17 huge policy decisions, before the apex court said that this cannot be allowed until a majority is proven? 👉A well-founded fear If I am right in every example above, then, obviously, the naysayers are expressing their frustrati...

👉The Labour party may be forced to specify EU exit strategy as internal rifts intensify👈 Last weekend, Labour party members queued outside the premises of Trinity, a school in the southeast London borough of Lewisham, where the hustings for the party’s candidate for a forthcoming by-election was due to take place. Among the groups campaigning there was People’s Vote, a cross-party group pushing for a public vote on any final Brexit deal reached with the European Union (EU). 👉The choice of candidate Optimism was high among those campaigners about the potential signal that the by-election, triggered by the resignation of Heidi Alexander, the constituency’s popular anti-Brexit MP, could have. Initially the loss of Ms. Alexander had been mourned by many seeking change in the party’s approach to Brexit, but that soon gave way to hope as Janet Daby, a candidate who supports remaining in the European single market as well as the customs union, won the internal party contest by ...

👉His legacy is an antidote to majoritarian chauvinism👈 On February 22, 1958, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru went on air to announce: “Aaj hamara Mir-e-Karavan chala gaya (today we have lost the leader of our caravan).” He was referring to India’s first Education Minister Maulana Azad who had just passed away. Azad was the youngest and the longest serving President of the Congress during the freedom struggle. Born in 1888 as Mohiuddin, he was a man of many parts. A precocious student, home-schooled and self-taught, he completed his religious curriculum at the age of 16. But his interpretation of Islam was not conventional. He believed in independent thinking based on reason and was critical of what he called “the shackles of conformity” and literal interpretations of Islamic texts. At a very early age he began a remarkable career in journalism. His writings and speeches in Urdu, unparalleled for their eloquence and sophistication, earned him the sobriquet Abul Kalam (father o...

CHINA WANTS PAKISTAN TO RELOCATE HAFIZ SAEED TO A WEST ASIAN COUNTRY  ( IR) Pakistan’s all-weather friend China has told the country that it should move Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed to a West Asian country to keep him out of the limelight. Why The idea of relocating Saeed to a west Asian country was pitched by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. China’s suggestion, comes amid mounting international pressure to act against the terrorist, and china find it’s more and more difficult to resist the international consensus. And by shifting Saeed out of Pakistan China believes it can get rid of the issue, that too without upsetting Pakistan. Mr. Abbasi has consulted the government’s legal team, which is yet to come up with a solution. But the issue is expected to be referred to the next government, as Pakistan is going into general elections soon. Who is Hafiz Saeed? Hafiz Saeed, is the chie...

💥 Daily Word Bytes - 2  from editorial  -Thoothukudi firing: Entirely preventable 💥 lead-up (noun) – circumstances, conditions, situation. Hindu Editorial usage  :  There must be a thorough inquiry into the lead-up to the deaths in Thoothukudi smelter (noun) – a factory in which metal ore (a naturally occurring solid material, i.e. rock) is smelted to extract a metal. (smelt means extract metal from its ore by heating something to a very high temperature & melting). Hindu Editorial usage  :  The protest against the copper smelter plant of Sterlite Copper in Thoothukudi has witnessed its deadliest turn so far, with the death of 12 people in police firing put up (phrasal verb) – display, present, arrange. Hindu Editorial usage  :    It was clear the movement would put up a show of strength on May 22, the 100th day of this phase of protests   irony (noun) – paradox, incongruity, peculiarity. Hindu Editorial usage  ...