TheFinePrint

By Moushumi Das Gupta, Deputy Editor

Punjab, once counted among the country’s most prosperous states, has been reeling under a severe financial crisis in recent years as the AAP government’s freebies and subsidies have pushed it deeper into a debt trap.

The state’s financial crisis has now triggered a political furore, with opposition parties accusing the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government of mismanagement of funds, and demanding a central probe into the state’s expenditure. Chitleen K Sethi reports.

The Goods and Services Tax Council Monday announced slashing tax rates on three key anti-cancer drugs from 12 to 5 percent. The Union government decided to waive the basic customs duty for the same drugs in July. The anti-cancer medicines on which the government has offered basic customs duty concession and now GST reduction include immune and targeted therapies such as trastuzumab deruxtecan, osimertinib, and durvalumab—all three by British-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca.

The moves will reduce the cost of these prohibitively expensive drugs by up to 15-20 percent. However, top oncologists said that the majority of the new drugs continue to be out of reach for the vast majority of cancer patients due to high costs. Sumi Sukanya Dutta reports.

As a former stand-up comedian, counsellor, reiki healer, and spiritual guru, as well as the director of an upcoming Tamil movie, Tamil Nadu-based Mahavishnu has worn multiple hats, but it is his current one—motivational speaker—that has landed him into trouble.The Madurai native was arrested Saturday for allegedly verbally abusing a visually impaired teacher at a government school. He is currently in judicial custody. Aneesa PA profiles the comedian turned motivational speaker.

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Opinion

When Narendra Modi attacked the Congress in his speeches abroad, Congress leaders reacted with anger. Anand Sharma said, 'This is his characteristic style, the Prime Minister continues to insult history and India’s achievements since Independence.' The BJP’s leaders and spokespeople are now saying more or less exactly what Sharma and others had said. Just as Gandhi is following Modi’s lead, BJP spokespersons are parroting what Congress leaders have said, writes journalist and talk show host Vir Sanghvi.

When compared with his first debate in New York with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in September 2016, it’s clear he isn’t happy seeing women as adversaries. Especially not on the same stage. So, he ridicules them and resorts to attacking their experience and expertise. It’s Trump’s second debate, he easily won the first one against Biden. But after he pulled out of the race in July, Trump is stuck in a battle he wasn’t prepared for, writes Rama Lakshmi, Opinion and Ground Reports Editor at ThePrint.

Video

Controversial tele-evangelist Zakir Naik's intervention on the new Waqf Bill muddied the waters. Watch this episode of ‘Cut The Clutter,’ where Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta discusses the political row over Naik's legacy of being the 'misinterpreter of maladies' and India wants him extradited.

This is the first time such a heavy rocket-like explosive has been used in the ongoing violence in Manipur for an attack and is a significant advancement over the previously used “Pampi gun,” made out of a steel pipe with a rope attached to it that lacked range. In the attacks reported in the last two weeks, eleven people have been killed and several others have been injured.Watch this video by Ananya Bhardwaj and Suraj Bisht to know more.