A look at the headlines right now:

  1. Manmohan Singh says state of economy ‘powerful indictment’ of BJP government’s poor performance: The former prime minister said demonetisation and the hasty implementation of the Goods and Services Tax has hurt enterprises.
  2. Alibaba’s co-founder Jack Ma to retire next week, say reports: The former English teacher said his retirement from the Chinese e-commerce giant is the beginning of an era, and he will now focus on education.
  3. Election Commission will assess if Telangana can go to polls with 4 other states this year: Elections must be held on the first occasion, the chief election commissioner said, citing a Supreme Court ruling from 2002.
  4. UIDAI’s proposal to hire social media agency is against its submissions, says Supreme Court: The Aadhaar authority had told the top court it did not want to monitor online activities of citizens who possess the biometric ID.
  5. Three accused in Alwar lynching charged with murder, no mention of police officials in chargesheet: The police have claimed that Rakbar Khan’s murder was not a case of mob lynching.
  6. Tripura’s ruling allies BJP and IPFT to contest panchayat bye-elections separately: The Bharatiya Janata Party released its first list of 3,155 candidates on Thursday.
  7. Three men lynched for allegedly trying to abduct schoolgirl in Bihar: About 20 villagers chased the four accused, overpowered three of them and allegedly beat them to death.
  8. Supreme Court grants one week’s time to states to implement guidelines to prevent mob violence: The court said it will ask home secretaries to appear before it if states do not submit compliance reports within a week.
  9. Delhi High Court asks CBI to respond to convict’s bail plea 1984 anti-Sikh riots case: Balwan Khokhar, serving a life term in Tihar Jail since 2013, has sought regular bail until the appeals process against his conviction is completed.
  10. Former Chennai police commissioner denies receiving payment from tobacco manufacturer: ‘Entries might have been made in the diary based on someone’s statement,’ said S George.