Top stories on December 10 in a capsule

RBI Governor Urjit Patel resigns citing personal reasons

Almost three weeks after a showdown with the government over management of central reserves, the Governor of Reserve Bank of India Urjit Patel stepped down from his post on Monday citing personal reasons. Patel was appointed as the 24th governor RBI governor for a three-year tenure on September 2016. In a statement, Patel said, “on account of personal reasons, I have decided to step down from my current position effective immediately. It has been my privilege and honour to serve the Reserve Bank of India in various capacities over the years.” The rift between RBI and central government was evident on October 27 when deputy governor Viral Acharya urged the need of independence of the central bank without any interference from the ruling government. Acharya had said that such demands would undermine the Indian economy further. After Patel’s resignation, Congress leader Kapil Sibal hit out at the government on Twitter and said, “Another one bites the dust. This is the result of our chowkidar's assault on democratic institutions.”
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Upendra Khushwaha resigns as Union Minister

Rashtriya Lok Samta Party chief Upendra Khushwaha resigned from his post as Union Minister of state for Human Resource Development on Monday due to his dejection over the seat sharing issue for the forthcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Khushwaha submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and stated that he felt betrayed as his party was not given appropriate seats in Bihar. Following his resignation, Khushwaha addressed a press conference and said, “BJP stood with Nitish ji and insulted me. Nitish ji addressed me as neech.” Earlier in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, RLSP was an ally with BJP but the emergence of Grand Alliance last year caused change in the seats allocation in the state and only two seats were reserved for Khushwa’s party in the 2019 elections. Apart from Khushwaha, another alliance party Asom Gana Parishad threatened the BJP to break the coalition over the citizenship amendment Bill 2016 and demanded its withdrawal. 

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Rahul Gandhi and 'chaalis chor' in Rs 5,600 cr NSEL scam: BJP

A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided Congress leader Jignesh Shah’s residence and exposed an alleged involvement of Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in a scam, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the Gandhis are very much a part of the Rs 5,600 crore National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) scam. The case in question refers to the setting up of NSEL in 2007, which had received a show cause notice by the then UPA government for market irregularities. 10 months after the notice, Rahul and Priyanka apparently rented their Mehrauli property to Shah and his company Financial Technologies Ltd. The scam came to light in 2013 and the rent was terminated two months before the lease would have expired in December, 2013. Addressing a media gathering on Monday, Patra said, “We have also come to know that Rs 40.2 lakh divided into two separate cheques of Rs 20.1 lakh were deposited in Rahul Gandhi’s account.” Patra futher took a jibe at the Gandhis by saying that, “Alibaba aur chaalis chor machaaye chaukidaar ka shor.”

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Child locks in cabs to be disabled from 2019, orders Govt

The Centre on Monday issued an advisory emphasizing that all cabs will have to disable their child lock facility as a measure to avoid its misuse for criminal activities against women. According to a report by an English news website the Times of India, the road transport ministry asked taxis to remove the ‘safety device’ from July, 2019. The order comes a year after the misuse of child lock feature had come to light in 2017 when a woman passenger was assaulted in a cab after the driver had locked her using the same device. The order will reportedly implied on M1 category transport vehicles.

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Visiting Taj Mahal gets expensive by Rs 200

Tourists entering Taj Mahal’s main mausoleum from Monday will have to pay an extra Rs 200 per head to visit the original graves of Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz in the basement. As per Indian Express, deputy superintendent Archaeologist Vasant Swarnkar was quoted, “The system has been updated to factor in the new rule. A separate ticketing system for visiting the mausoleum comes into effect on Monday.” Till now the domestic visitors paid only Rs 50, while the foreign visitors paid Rs 1,100 and the tourists from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries had to shell out Rs 540 respectively. Earlier this year Archaeological Survey of India (AAI) on September 14 submitted a proposal of fee hike to manage the crowd inside the monument. The Taj Mahal received UNESCO World Heritage site status in 1983 for preserving ancient masterpieces of Mughal architectures in India.
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Tata Nexon becomes first Indian car to score 5 star crash test

The Tata Nexon, on Monday, has become the first made in India car to score five stars in Global New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) crash test results. Earlier in August 2018 the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) had received three star rating from Global NCAP but the current model has an added seatbelt reminder which helped the car fetch best ratings. The Global NCAP released an updated #SaferCarsIndia campaign in India with two new crash test results designed for Indian market. Tata Nexon scored five stars in Adult occupation Protection test and bagged three stars for child occupant protection. Apart from Nexon, Mahindra Marazzo also scored four stars with double airbags, Anti-lock braking system, and supplementary restrain system and ISOFIX anchorages. Secretary General of Global NCAP David Ward said, “This is a huge landmark for car safety in India. The Nexon was engineered in India and this shows the huge capability of the domestic industry to achieve excellence in safety and design and performance”, reported by a news agency.

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