1. PM Modi’s message to the nation after unfurling India’s tricolor flag: Prime Minister Narendra Modi unfurled the national flag this morning at the Red fort marking India’s 76th Independence Day. He urged the 130 crore people of the country to work together as a team and make India into a developed nation 25 years from now.
2. Unprecedented demand for national flag: The ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign has pushed the demand for the national flag this independence day as India marks the completion of 75 years of freedom.
3. Independence day celebrations at Congress HQ: Senior party leader and Congress Working Committee member Ambika Soni hoisted the national flag at AICC headquarters in the presence of other party seniors. Party president Sonia Gandhi was absent as she was in isolation after testing positive for Covid for the second time.
4. Arvind Kejriwal’s Independence day speech had a word on Freebies: Delhi CM and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal asserted that free healthcare and education are welfare schemes for the nation’s growth and cannot be called “freebies.”
5. Couple’s WhatsApp chat delays flight by six hours: Suspicion over a WhatsApp chat conversation between a couple delayed a Mumbai-bound flight from Mangluru by six hours. The couple was to board different flights from Mangaluru airport when a co-passenger oversaw their funny banter resulting in a security scare.
6. Dalit boy dies after allegedly slapped for drinking water from teacher’s pot: Inder Meghwal, a 9-year-old Dalit boy, allegedly died after being slapped by his teacher Chail Singh for drinking water from a clay pot kept for the teacher in Jalore. The teacher has been arrested on murder charges and under the (Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Atrocities) Prevention Act, 1989. With two contrasting views, Police are awaiting a postmortem report to ascertain the cause of death.
7. First tribal district with 100 percent literacy: Mandla has become the first tribal district in Madhya Pradesh to achieve 100% literacy. This is a major leap for the district, which just had a 68% literacy rate in 2011. Even by July 2020, some 2 lakh people in the district lacked literacy. Through ‘Niraksharta Se Azadi Abhiyaan’from 2020 Independence day Mandla has achieved this remarkable feat today.
8. Deluge in over a dozen villages downstream Karam Dam: A portion of the Karam Dam wall in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh collapsed on Sunday as channels dug to divert the water widened under pressure. Villages downstream, from where people have already been moved to safety, are under deluge now.
9. Rushdie out of ventilator, talking: Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed multiple times in a ‘premeditated and targeted’ attack, is now out of ventilator support and is talking, said his agent Andrew Wylie. Meanwhile, condemning the attack, Isreal called “Iran a threat to the free world.”
10. Over 41 killed in a church fire accident in Egypt: Tragedy struck the Coptic Abusufin church in Giza, the second-largest in the Egyptian city, when an electrical fire broke out during a mass, causing a stampede. Nearly 41 people died and 45 were injured in the accident.
Image: PTI