1. Atal Bihari Vajpayee Passes Away at the Age of 93
After a prolonged illness at Delhi's AIIMS, Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away on the evening of Thursday, 16 August, at AIIMS at the age of 93.
On 17 August, his body will be brought to the BJP headquarters, following which he will be laid to rest at Vijay Ghat.
The Centre announced seven days of state mourning throughout India to mark his death. A state funeral will be accorded to the nonagenarian.
Read more here.
2. Kerala Fights Worst Flood in History, More Rains Predicted
The death toll in flood-ravaged Kerala rose to 79 on Thursday, 16 August, IANS reported. The water level in Mullaperiyar Dam breached the 142 ft mark as against the maximum permissible limit of 136 ft.
The public transport system collapsed in many parts of central Kerala with the Southern Railways and Kochi Metro suspending their operations due to floods. The Kochi airport will also remain shut till 26 August.
CM Pinarayi Vijayan said that water levels are expected to increase, and assured deployment of additional helicopters.
Meanwhile, PM Modi asked Defence Ministry to step up relief operations in Kerala.
Catch all the live updates on the Kerala floods here.
3. Modi’s I-Day Address: A Fact-Check and What He Missed Out
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fifth and final Independence Day address before the 2019 election was as political as it could get, a precursor to the Lok Sabha election, if you will. The thrust of his speech was – “India has developed only after I took over as Prime Minister.”
Highlighting his government’s reform record, Modi predicted that India will be the engine of growth for the world economy for the next three decades. That from a “sleeping elephant”, it had started to run on the back of structural reforms like GST. In the last four years, he said, India had gone from being a fragile and risky economy to a fast-paced one to emerge as a top global investment destination.
This transformation was brought about by several developments post 2014.
“If we had continued at the same pace at which toilets were being built in 2013 and electrification was taking place, it would have taken us decades to achieve these goals. India would not have developed in a hundred years”, he said.
Read the full story here.
4. Review: ‘Gold’ Has Its Moments of Glory But Doesn’t Quite Shine
Each time one sees a sports film, especially one on hockey, somehow it becomes very difficult to shake off the memory of Shimit Amin’s brilliant 2007 film – Chak De! India
The film touched upon a number of issues and yet the ease with which it told us the triumphant tale of an underdog women’s hockey team battling cynicism and internal feuds, without getting preachy, makes Chak De the gold standard for sports films.
Now Gold might also be about hockey but it’s positioned in a much more shrill, less subtle territory.
Read the full review here.
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