The Latest: Top stories of the day
1. Chief ministers of drought-hit states met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday and demanded Rs 27,000 crore in disaster funds to tackle the crisis.
2. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been named in the First Information Report looking into irregularities in the National Herald case.
3. Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik qualified for the Rio Olympics, taking the Indian wrestling contingent to six.
Weekend Reads
1. TN Ninan in the Business Standard complains about the Narendra Modi government's initial reformist impulses giving way to interventionist ones.
2. In Sirsa, Haryana’s westernmost district, the fight to end female foeticide includes tip-offs, thrilling chases and decoys, P Anima writes in Blink.
3. Aditi Phadnis in the Business Standard looks back at the five-decade-long political career of Ahmed Patel that is now tainted by the initials "AP".
4. Dalit-OBC couples in Tamil Nadu are up against new socio-economic realities and an indifferent state, finds Arun Janardhanan in the Indian Express.
5. Praveen Thampi travels through Kerala for the Economic Times as election fever continues to burn through the state.
6. Anand Vasu in Mint points to two Indian cricketers who are setting an usual example – running fast between the wickets.
7. Siddhartha Deb in the New Republic offers a portrait of the Narendra Modi government for foreign readers that covers a lot of familiar ground.
8. David Samuels' massive New York Times Magazine profile of Barack Obama's foreign policy guru, and a Washington Post response to the piece that calls it gross.
9. Sadiq Khan is not the first Muslim mayor of a major European city. Juan Cole at Informed Comment writes of the 1,300-year history of Muslims running major European cities.
10. Shaun Walker in the Guardian tells the story of American children who discovered that their parents were Russian spies.
Reading
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1
‘Inviting Modi for Christmas event ignores plight of persecuted Christians,’ says citizens’ group
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2
Shyam Benegal (1934-2024): The conscience keeper of Indian cinema
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3
‘Dune: Prophecy’ review: Palace intrigue overtakes magic in fantasy series
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4
What a meeting with a woman entrepreneur in Kolkata taught a German diplomat about women in India
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5
Interview: East India Company to Big Tech – how corporations think about knowledge
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6
‘Modernity, Print and Sahitya’: A well-researched book about how Odia literature shaped its culture
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7
Centre changes election conduct rules days after HC tells EC to provide poll documents to petitioner
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8
The ugly history of Boer prisoner-of-war camps in India
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9
Translated fiction: Gyan Chaturvedi’s novel about the free-market economy and excessive consumerism
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10
Haruki Murakami and the challenge of translating Japanese’s many words for ‘I’