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HT Morning Brief September 7: Delhi's crumbling infra claims lives again, Mahadev mastermind's homecoming delayed
Here's your 5-minute rundown of today's top stories from politics, India, the world, entertainment, and sports.
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Good morning! Grab your coffee — here's your 5-minute rundown of today's top stories from politics, India, the world, entertainment, and sports.
Renovation turns fatal: Student PG collapse near Delhi University campus kills 6, rescue ops continue
Six people were killed, five were injured and an unknown number were feared trapped after a five-storey building in Satya Niketan that housed Delhi University students collapsed on Sunday, another in a run of tragedies that has shaken the national capital this year and turned the spotlight on the city’s frail infrastructure, poor regulatory regimes and the near-absence of a monitoring mechanism to crack down on violations. Click here to read more.
No sanctioned plan, no fire NOC: How Satya Niketan PG building grew unsafe
The building that collapsed in south Delhi’s Satya Niketan on Sunday, killing several people, had no sanctioned building plan and unauthorised construction in its basement, according to a senior Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) official aware of the early assessment following the latest tragedy. The rampant violations have again raised questions about how such structures went undetected in a neighbourhood where multi-storey PG buildings have proliferated for years. But much of the construction that transformed the low-rise settlement into a dense student hub happened outside the rules, with senior MCD officials saying no sanctioned building plan exists for the collapsed structure and that construction in its basement was unauthorised. Read more here.
UAE move may delay India’s bid to extradite Mahadev app kingpin
Deep Dive
India’s attempt to extradite Sourabh Chandrakar, the mastermind of the ₹6,000-crore Mahadev online gambling racket, from Oman has hit a hurdle. Agencies in India have learned that the UAE has also sent an extradition request to Oman seeking his transfer, people familiar with the development said. This, officials said, means that even if India wins the extradition case in Oman—which may take months or even years—the timeline to bring him back to India will be affected as New Delhi will have to wait for Oman’s decision on the UAE’s request. Read more here.
HAL set to deliver first batch of delayed trainer aircraft to Indian Air Force
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is set to deliver the first batch of delayed HTT-40 basic trainer aircraft to the Indian Air Force, bolstering the air force’s capacity to meet its growing pilot training requirements, officials aware of the development said on Sunday. Three HTT-40 (Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40) aircraft, two built at Bengaluru and one at Nashik, are ready for delivery, the officials said, asking not to be named. Click here to read more.
Want to surpass Gukesh, become youngest world champion: Erdogmus
At 15, Yagız Kaan Erdogmus is already discovering that being the most talked about teen in chess right now comes with its own peculiar burden. In his case, first there are the rating goals. His coach, Azerbaijan grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, has declared the never-before-scaled 2900 as their Everest. The teen almost casually states a desire to become world champion “as young as possible” – preferably younger than Gukesh, who at 18 became the youngest undisputed world champion. “Gukesh winning the world title had a huge impact on me,” the precocious teen from Bursa, Turkey told HT. Read full interview here.
