Daily Reads-58 (Level-1)

Reading Suggestion-1

Article Name: A welcome Sale: Air India Disinvestment
Author Name:The editorial Team
Source: The Hindu
Category: Economy

Summary for this article:

The article talks about the government’s courageous decision of privatisation of the airline company, Air India. The author lauds at this move by the government Now, the government could use the money that kept Air India from going bankrupt into important social and infrastructure programmes.

The author says that that the government would do better if it goes for the sale of the entire stake of the airline company, even if it is done in a gradual manner. Ultimately, the aim of the sale should be to get the best price for the airline. This could be best done by allowing both the domestic and the foreign buyers to bid freely for the stakes. Indigo has already expressed an interest in buying a stake in the airline company while other domestic buyers are also keen in making a bid. How the entire process for the sale will proceed will be very vital as the smoother the process, the easier would be the disinvestment of other public-sector units

Words to learn from this article:

Disinvestment: Sale from the government, partly or fully, of a government-owned enterprise.
Rationale: A logical reasoning for a course of action or belief and not blinding believing or following something
Bailout: To save a failing business or economy from collapsing by providing financial assistance

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Reading Suggestion-2

Article Name: About time: By one form of reckoning, India is a much bigger country than the US
Author name: Jug Suraiya
Source: Times of India
Category: Society

Summary for this article:

Satirically stating the Indian time keeping habit, in this article, the author says how India is actually bigger than the US when comparing its time zones.

Everything about the US is huge, says the author -the portions of the food served by its restaurants, the amount of energy consumed by its consumers, the balance of payments deficit and also the huge mouth of its President. Adding to the list and comparatively the biggest of all, of which the US can indeed be proud of, is its multiplicity of time ones. The US has nine different times zones which is nowhere close to India; which though officially one, yet there is also the Plantation Time followed in Assam and other eastern parts of India which is 30 minutes ahead of IST.

But unofficially, the author says India has different time zones as each of us function in our own time zones. Hence, IST really means Individually selected time.

Words to learn from this article:

Yardstick: A standard used for comparison of similar things
Gauge: An instrument or device that is used for measuring the size or amount of something
Anointed: Smear or rub with oil as part of the religious ceremony

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Reading Suggestion-3

Article Name: Should the Sedition law be scrapped
Author name:Umar Khalid
Source: The Hindu
Category: Policy

Summary for this article:

In this article, the writer talks about the irrelevance of the sedition law in today’s times calling it draconian and the necessity to scrape such a law.

The sedition law only serves the purpose of weakening the voices of the ones who shout against the ill doings of the society or a regime by titling them as anti-nationals. Such weakening of dissent only serves the purpose of strengthening the archaic colonial era sedition law. It hampers the exercising of one’s constitutional right.

The author concludes by giving an account of the recent arrest of 15 Muslim men by the police on sedition charges that were later claimed as false. Such disastrous situations call for the urgent need of scraping of the sedition law.

Words to learn from this article:

Sedition: Something done against the government that encourages people to go against the government
Archaic: Very old and is no longer used
Dissent: Public disagreement of an official decision
Veneer: A facade
Eerie: Strange
Rung: Ranking or a position