Above the Fold: The day's top stories
1. The Reserve Bank of India committed to the biggest monetary policy shift since liberalisation by agreeing to an inflation target.
2. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar travels to Islamabad today to resume Indo-Pak talks that were halted last year.
3. The unseasonal rain does not bode well for the mustard, wheat and gram crop in northern states.
4. Ola Cabs acquired TaxiForSure for $200 million. The merged Indian company is set to take on the startup behemoth, Uber.
5. Maharashtra has made the possession of beef an offence punishable by up to five years in prison.
The Big Story: AAP in Arms
A leadership battle within the Aam Aadmi Party has turned dirty, with taped conversations being used to fight the battled between national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in one corner and senior leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan in the other.
Yadav has been accused of conspiring to grab the national convenor position from Kejriwal, because of his own ambitions. Bhushan and Yadav, however, have made the matter about the party's approach to internal democracy, revealing gory details about the way the party campaigned before the Delhi elections. A party meet on March 4 should settle the battle, with the Kejriwal camp heavily outnumbering the others.
On the way though, the AAP's patented sting op tactic is being used against itself with critics of Yadav playing tapes of a journalist claiming the AAP leader trashed Kejriwal's decision not to expand into Haryana last year. The Indian Express reports on the use of the taped call to fight the Yadav-Kejriwal battle.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's top story
Is the crisis in AAP really a churning of ideas? More likely, it's a battle between former friends.
Need-to-Know 1: Gentleman's Game
Jagmohan Dalmiya as back at the helm of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, nearly a decade after he was ousted. The Bharatiya Janata Party's Anurag Thakur got the secretary post, a boost for the Sharad Pawar faction in the board, but all other posts went to associates of former BCCI President N Srinivasan.
Need-to-Know 2: House rules
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be forced to listen to a few dissenting opinions in the Rajya Sabha today, as there will still be a few speakers before his cue to speak. The Coal and Insurance Bills are also being brought up in Parliament, a prelude to a coming fight over more ordinance-replacing legislation.
Politicking: Top political stories
1. The BJP alliance with the People's Democratic Party is off to a rocky start. After a statement on Pakistan raised eyebrows, PDP leaders called the hanging of convicted terrorist Afzal Guru a "travesty of justice".
2. The Congress is not going to make Rahul Gandhi just a "working President" next month to avoid multiple power centres. It will go the whole hog.
3. Rahul is also getting his way with state party chiefs, as Ashok Chavan has been named to the top post in Maharashtra. Punjab was left out of the announcement on Monday, though.
4. Having made its mark in Kashmir, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is now turning to Assam.
Giggle
Punditry: All the best commentary
1. Admiral L Ramdas in the Economic Times says it is Arvind Kejriwal's job to steer AAP through this storm.
2. Quoting Aeschylus, Praveen Swami in the Indian Express says Modi's job with Pakistan is not to end a war but to prevent another one.
3. The lack of One Rank One Pension may be a problem, says Sushant Singh in the Indian Express, but so is the government's inability to spend the defence budget.
4. The RBI's inflation targeting agreement doesn't put any fiscal responsibility on the government which could be a problem, says Ajit Ranade in Mint.
5. India's renewed engagement with Pakistan is the product of US prodding, writes Kanwal Sibal in the Telegraph.
Don't Miss: Deadly businesses
Prince Mathews Thomas reports on the people for whom dealing with death is a daily job.
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1. The Reserve Bank of India committed to the biggest monetary policy shift since liberalisation by agreeing to an inflation target.
2. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar travels to Islamabad today to resume Indo-Pak talks that were halted last year.
3. The unseasonal rain does not bode well for the mustard, wheat and gram crop in northern states.
4. Ola Cabs acquired TaxiForSure for $200 million. The merged Indian company is set to take on the startup behemoth, Uber.
5. Maharashtra has made the possession of beef an offence punishable by up to five years in prison.
The Big Story: AAP in Arms
A leadership battle within the Aam Aadmi Party has turned dirty, with taped conversations being used to fight the battled between national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in one corner and senior leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan in the other.
Yadav has been accused of conspiring to grab the national convenor position from Kejriwal, because of his own ambitions. Bhushan and Yadav, however, have made the matter about the party's approach to internal democracy, revealing gory details about the way the party campaigned before the Delhi elections. A party meet on March 4 should settle the battle, with the Kejriwal camp heavily outnumbering the others.
On the way though, the AAP's patented sting op tactic is being used against itself with critics of Yadav playing tapes of a journalist claiming the AAP leader trashed Kejriwal's decision not to expand into Haryana last year. The Indian Express reports on the use of the taped call to fight the Yadav-Kejriwal battle.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's top story
Is the crisis in AAP really a churning of ideas? More likely, it's a battle between former friends.
Need-to-Know 1: Gentleman's Game
Jagmohan Dalmiya as back at the helm of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, nearly a decade after he was ousted. The Bharatiya Janata Party's Anurag Thakur got the secretary post, a boost for the Sharad Pawar faction in the board, but all other posts went to associates of former BCCI President N Srinivasan.
Need-to-Know 2: House rules
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be forced to listen to a few dissenting opinions in the Rajya Sabha today, as there will still be a few speakers before his cue to speak. The Coal and Insurance Bills are also being brought up in Parliament, a prelude to a coming fight over more ordinance-replacing legislation.
Politicking: Top political stories
1. The BJP alliance with the People's Democratic Party is off to a rocky start. After a statement on Pakistan raised eyebrows, PDP leaders called the hanging of convicted terrorist Afzal Guru a "travesty of justice".
2. The Congress is not going to make Rahul Gandhi just a "working President" next month to avoid multiple power centres. It will go the whole hog.
3. Rahul is also getting his way with state party chiefs, as Ashok Chavan has been named to the top post in Maharashtra. Punjab was left out of the announcement on Monday, though.
4. Having made its mark in Kashmir, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is now turning to Assam.
Giggle
Arvind Kejriwal: Woohoo! I am the Delhi CM. BJP: Er... can we be Leader of Opposition? Arvind Kejriwal: Nope. That's Yogendra Yadav.
— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) March 2, 2015Punditry: All the best commentary
1. Admiral L Ramdas in the Economic Times says it is Arvind Kejriwal's job to steer AAP through this storm.
2. Quoting Aeschylus, Praveen Swami in the Indian Express says Modi's job with Pakistan is not to end a war but to prevent another one.
3. The lack of One Rank One Pension may be a problem, says Sushant Singh in the Indian Express, but so is the government's inability to spend the defence budget.
4. The RBI's inflation targeting agreement doesn't put any fiscal responsibility on the government which could be a problem, says Ajit Ranade in Mint.
5. India's renewed engagement with Pakistan is the product of US prodding, writes Kanwal Sibal in the Telegraph.
Don't Miss: Deadly businesses
Prince Mathews Thomas reports on the people for whom dealing with death is a daily job.
"There are thousands of entrepreneurs like Dwivedi in what could be called India’s death-care industry, a concept that’s common in the US. Almost completely unorganised in India, it is probably the only sector that flies under the radar of media, policymakers and investors. Ironically, the same social beliefs and taboos that drive its business, also ails it. A start-up like Kashi Moksha Incorporation might never get a private equity investor. "
