A look at the headlines right now:

  1. Minister Anil Deshmukh asked Sachin Vaze to collect Rs 100 crore every month, claims ex-Mumbai police chief: Deshmukh denied the allegations and accused Singh of making false claims to protect himself from further legal action in the Ambani and Hiren cases.
  2. Maharashtra logs record-high 27,126 cases; Mumbai to conduct random tests in crowded areas: Meanwhile, with 813 new cases on Friday, Delhi also recorded its sharpest rise in infections this year.
  3. Discussed human rights violation in India with ministers of Modi government, says US defense secretary: Lloyd Austin also spoke about the military standoff in eastern Ladakh, and said the US never believed that India and China were on the threshold of war. Earlier in the day, Rajnath Singh and the US defense secretary held a meeting.
  4. ‘Free speech suffered a grievous blow,’ says Raghuram Rajan on Ashoka University resignations: More than 150 academicians from Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge and other international universities expressed solidarity with political scientist and commentator Pratap Bhanu Mehta, who resigned as professor from Ashoka University earlier this week.
  5. ‘For how many generations will reservation continue?’ asks SC: Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi urged the court to re-examine the total 50% ceiling on the reservation for backward communities.
  6. Delhi doorstep ration delivery scheme will have no name, do not want credit, says Arvind Kejriwal: The Centre had written to the Delhi government saying it was not allowed to use foodgrains allotted under the National Food Security Act for its schemes.
  7. WhatsApp was down for 50 minutes, but development in West Bengal down for 50 years, claims PM Modi: He accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of running ‘a school of brutality’, which taught ‘extortion, syndicates and anarchy’.
  8. Centre funds AIIMS study to find if chanting ‘gayatri mantra’ can treat coronavirus: The study, which is sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, will be conducted in AIIMS Rishikesh.
  9. India records 40,953 coronavirus cases after almost 4 months: The Centre on Friday told the states that the surge in coronavirus cases was largely because people were not strictly observing safety norms, and directed them to address this problem. Meanwhile, Pakistan PM Imran Khan tested positive for the coronavirus.
  10. Indian-origin man in New Zealand arrested for allegedly threatening Sikh youth on social media: He reportedly called the Sikh man a ‘Khalistani terrorist’, and posted his photos and phone number online.