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Mood: How we're feeling this week

  • The new Indian Tennis star who made a opening set heroics against Roger Federer
  • The Amazon rainforests ablaze in Brazil have ignited a political firestorm

Sumit Nagal.
Sumit Nagal.

Nagal makes a mark

Sumit Nagal’s opening-set heroics against world No.3 Roger Federer in their US Open first-round clash have drawn plenty of praise. Nagal displayed composure and high levels of stamina against the Swiss great, who eventually won the match in four sets. Nagal has excellent reach despite his relatively short height—he stands at 5ft, 10 inches. The 22-year-old from Jhajjar, Haryana, who turned pro in 2015 and prefers to play on clay and hard courts, is definitely a player to watch out for.

Going for Gold

While customers might have gotten used to the one-plus-one offers from restaurants via online food aggregators like Zomato, EazyDiner and Dineout, the party may soon come to an end. With the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) spearheading the logout movement against predatory pricing and deep discounts, the aggregators are feeling the heat, with over 2,500 restaurants joining the protest. The spotlight is on Zomato and its Gold programme and the battle is turning personal as NRAI president Rahul Singh and Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato, lock horns online. As the deadlock continues, it must be acknowledged that each side has a point—restaurants stand to lose out on profits due to deep discounts while customers are upset at the thought of foregoing freebies. The question is, who will bear the cost of the free lunches?

Fighting over forests

The Amazon rainforests ablaze in Brazil have ignited a political firestorm. There have been, by some estimates, around 80,000 fires this year, an 83% increase over last year. Given that the Amazon rainforests act as a bulwark against climate change (see Climate Change Tracker on page 3), and 60% of the rainforests are in Brazil, the Jair Bolsonaro government’s response has been characterized by many as inadequate. The G7’s offer of $20 million (around ₹142 crore) brought its own criticism, with commentators saying the sum was less than the budget of a Hollywood studio film. Brazil rejected the offer initially, but then Bolsonaro seemed to suggest he would accept the aid if French President Emmanuel Macron apologized for calling him a “liar".

The final list

(Photo: Reuters)

Harrowing accounts have preceded the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that is being finalized in Assam, alerting us to families being torn apart and children left stateless owing to complex citizenship requirements for parents and grandparents. The Indian Express profiled a 14-year-old girl who will not be on the list because her deceased grandfather is marked as a Doubtful Voter in the electoral rolls. In another family, the father, mother and youngest child are excluded from the list, while two older children have been included. With the Bharatiya Janata Party government stating its intention of rolling out a nationwide NRC, Assam shows how problematic the exercise can be in a country with low literacy levels and poor documentation.

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