Morning Brief: NITI Aayog’s New Growth Blueprint; States Warned Over Data Leak; Nifty Makes History

Good Morning, Swarajya Readers! Here's What You Need To Know Today.

NITI Aayog’s New Growth Blueprint: With the objective of accelerating growth and increasing employment opportunities, government think tank NITI Aayog in its three-year draft action agenda has suggested a host of reforms in taxation, agriculture and energy sectors. Releasing the draft agenda, NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya also underlined the need for recalibrating the role of the government by limiting its involvement in activities that do not serve a public purpose.

Government Has No Plans To Deploy Army Against Maoists: The Union Home Ministry has said that the government has no plans to deploy the army to tackle the Maoists. “It is an internal security issue. There is no question of deploying the army in the anti-Maoist operations,” a Home Ministry official said. Meanwhile, the Centre has asked security forces on the ground to go on an "all-out offensive" against Maoists. "Identify the lapses and problem areas that are exposing the CRPF to repeated high-casualty attacks. I want results on the ground in the next two to two-and-a-half months," Union Home minister Rajnath Singh is learnt to have told a senior security adviser in Raipur.

Dinakaran Arrested: The Delhi Police early this morning arrested the nephew of the jailed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary V K Sasikala, T T V Dinakaran on charges of trying to bribe Election Commission officials to get the party's 'two leaves' election symbol. Dinakaran was arrested along with his aide Mallikarjun after three days of questioning at the Chanakyapuri crime branch office. Dinakaran has been accused of paying bribe to middleman Sukesh Chandrashekhar to get the two-leaves party symbol.

FIR Against Former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha: Weeks after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked its former boss A P Singh in a corruption case, it has now registered a first information report (FIR) against another former chief Ranjit Sinha in a graft case following a directive from the Supreme Court. Sinha was booked for abuse of official position under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 for allegedly meeting the accused persons in the coal block allocation cases without the presence of the investigating officer/team during his stint as the CBI chief between 2014 and 2016.

States Warned Over Data Leak: State governments were told by the Centre not to disclose Aadhaar data and other personal details of individuals on their official websites, warning such actions can attract jail term of three years. The directive comes after Aadhaar numbers of lakhs of pension beneficiaries were displayed on a website of Jharkhand government. The Union IT Ministry has also asked the states to review website content of various departments and take "precautions" to ensure that personal data of individuals, including Aadhaar numbers or bank account details, do not appear on portals.

Nifty Makes History: The National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) benchmark Nifty closed above the 9,300-mark for the first time in its history on Tuesday, spurred by strong results and upbeat global cues. The 50-share Nifty rallied 88.65 points, or 0.96 per cent, to reach its new lifetime closing high of 9,306.60, surpassing the previous record close of 9,265.15 on 5 April. "Government's push in the infra and affordable housing space has also kept housing, cement and realty stocks buzzing," said Geojit Financial Services chief market strategist Anand James.

Uber Says Flying Taxis To Take Off In Three Years: Uber, not satisfied with giving customers rides on land, is now looking to the skies. US ride-hailing service Uber Technologies expects to deploy flying taxi services in Dallas and Dubai in 2020, chief product officer Jeff Holden said at the Uber Elevate Summit in Dallas. Uber believes that investing in flying cars is essential to protecting its business, and envisions full-scale operations of a flying car network launching in 2023.

Pakistan Group Hacks Websites Of Top Indian Universities: A pro-Pakistan group hacked the official websites of four prominent Indian institutes and some lesser known institutions several times on Tuesday. While all four educational institutes – IIT Delhi, IIT Varanasi, Aligarh Muslim University and Delhi University – restored their websites initially, the hackers brought them down again and posted the pro-Pakistan, anti-India messages on these websites. The hacker group code named “Pakistan Haxors Crew ” wrote abuses about Indian government and the Indian Armed forces on the landing pages of the websites.

MUST READ OP-EDS

The Difficult Transition From Informal To Formal: The high degree of informality in India has become a matter of public debate since the demonetisation gamble of 8 November. The transition from farm to factory has been stymied in India because of regulatory policies that have made it difficult for firms to grow in size.

The Absurdities Of The United Nations: If rules allow absurdities to occur, then it behoves the UN leadership to call on members to change them. In recent years, the UN, meant to render succour to the world’s miserable, has also been delivering relief of the comic kind.

Indian IT Industry’s Past Sins Threaten Its Future: The Indian software services industry is a custodian not merely of its own fortunes but that of the future of an entire nation. The inability of India’s IT services exporters to upscale their skills and their wares has led up to the current crisis.

Building Roads In Heart Of Naxal Dominion: The tough political call is whether to halt, go slow or continue the momentum to build roads into the heart of the Naxal dominion. If roads have to be constructed, then it’s time for security forces have to mull a counter offensive into the Maoist heartland.

SWARAJYA SPECIAL

Ground Report: How Bastar Has Been Preparing For The Final Push Against The Maoists: There is a silent revolution happening in Bastar. Emerging out of the pernicious shadow of the Maoists, people – almost all of them adivasis – have started to aspire for a normal life like the rest of their countrymen.

We hope you enjoyed reading our morning brief. Have a great day ahead!

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