The Evening Wrap: Ratan Tata cremated with full state honours in Mumbai

The final rites of renowned industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata were performed with full state honours at a central Mumbai crematorium on Thursday evening. The Mumbai police paid tribute to Tata with a gun salute. The industry titan’s family members, including half-brother Noel Tata, and top executives from the Tata Group like chairman N. Chandrasekaran, were present at the crematorium in Worli. Industrialist Ratan Tata’s body was on Thursday morning taken from his house in a hearse, decked with white flowers, to the NCPA in south Mumbai where it would be kept for people to pay their last respects. Ratan Tata died at a Mumbai hospital late on Wednesday. The chairman emeritus of the Tata group was 86. Tata was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital in south Mumbai on Monday owing to age-related issues, and to control his blood pressure. Tributes poured in from across the country, following Tata’s death. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled his death, calling him a “visionary business leader, compassionate soul and an extraordinary human being”. In a statement, the Congress said it “is deeply saddened by the passing of Padma Vibhushan Shri Ratan Tata, a titan of Indian industry and a philanthropist who shaped India’s corporate landscape.” The Maharashtra government announced a day of mourning in the State on Thursday (October 10) to pay tributes to the industrialist. Ratan Tata remained inspirational with unique thinking and work: RSS chief Bhagwat Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday condoled the demise of veteran industrialist Ratan Tata, saying he remained inspirational with his unique thinking and work. “Even after touching many heights, his style of simplicity and humility will remain exemplary,” Bhagwat said in a post on X. With his demise, India has lost an invaluable gem, Bhagwat said. “He established many excellent standards in important sectors of the industry along with new and effective initiatives. His continuous cooperation and participation remained in all types of works in the interest of the society,” he said. “Be it the issue of national unity and security or any aspect of development or the welfare of working employees, Ratan ji remained inspirational with his unique thinking and work,” Bhagwat said. “We offer our humble and heartfelt tribute to him and pray that God grants peace to the departed soul,” he added. Ratan Tata met Bhagwat at the RSS headquarters in Maharashtra’s Nagpur on April 18, 2019. It was the industrialist’s second visit to the Sangh headquarters. Prior to that, Tata first visited the RSS headquarters on December 28, 2016, his 79th birthday, while he was locked in a bitter boardroom battle with ousted Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry. Omar Abdullah elected NC legislature party leader Omar Abdullah was on Thursday unanimously elected as the leader of the National Conference legislature party, party president Farooq Abdullah said here. “A meeting of the legislature party was held where everyone unanimously chose Omar Abdullah as its leader,” the senior Abdullah said. He said a meeting of the pre-poll alliance partners would be held on Friday to take the process of government formation further. Omar Abdullah thanked the National Conference legislators on Thursday for electing him their leader. “You are aware of the decision that was taken. A meeting of the NC legislature party took place, the legislature party has decided its leader and I am thankful from the bottom of my heart to the NC legislators that they have reposed their faith in me and given me a chance to stake claim for government formation,” he said. Earlier, all the newly elected MLAs of the National Conference (NC) met at party headquarters Nawa-i-Subah to elect their leader, who is most likely to be the chief minister as well, in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly. The meeting was convened by party president and Omar’s father Farooq Abdullah. He said four of the seven Independent MLAs have extended support to the NC, taking the party’s strength to 46. “Talks are on with the Congress. They have been given a day to decide. Once they give us a letter of support, I will stake claim for government formation,” Omar Abdullah said. The NC has emerged as the single-largest party in the just-concluded Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls with 42 seats. The party has a comfortable majority in the 95-member Assembly as its alliance partners Congress and CPI(M) have won six seats and one seat respectively. Child marriage: NCPCR identifies more than 11 lakh children vulnerable; takes preventive steps The apex child rights body National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Thursday said it identified more than 11 lakh children vulnerable to child marriage in 2023-24 and intervened through steps such as family counselling, school reintegration efforts and coordination with law enforcement. In a comprehensive report, the NCPCR underscored the efforts it took under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, through collaboration with child marriage prohibition officers (CMPOs), district authorities and other stakeholders. “More than 1.2 crore people were reached through the awareness campaigns, with Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh emerging as leaders in the fight against child marriage,” the Commission said. The report, which was prepared after virtual review meetings with district officials and key stakeholders, presents data on children at risk of dropping out of schools, a major factor contributing to child marriages. Uttar Pradesh, with more than 5,00,000 such children, showed a strong response in addressing this issue, followed by States such as Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. “Across India, more than 11.4 lakh vulnerable children were identified, with steps taken to prevent child marriages through family counselling, school reintegration efforts, and coordination with law enforcement,” according to the NCPCR. The preventive measures also included mapping schools to identify children absent for 30 consecutive days without notice and coordinating with school authorities to monitor dropouts. “In States such as Karnataka and Assam, officials conducted more than 40,000 meetings with key local figures such as religious leaders, service providers involved in marriage ceremonies, and Anganwadi workers to raise awareness and prevent marriages involving minors,” the report, released on Thursday, said. Despite these efforts, the NCPCR report highlighted gaps in data collection and enforcement in certain States, including Goa and Ladakh, leading to difficulty in gathering comprehensive information. “Some districts still face deeply entrenched cultural practices, making it difficult to completely eliminate child marriage,” the report added. In a letter to all States and UTs, NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo emphasised the importance of maintaining momentum in the fight against child marriage. He urged the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories to prioritise the issue and continue implementing district-level strategies for eradication of child marriages. The letter, accompanying the report, stressed the role of competitive-cooperative federalism in shaping and refining child welfare policies, particularly in raising awareness and enforcing existing laws. Ukraine President Zelenskyy meets U.K. PM and NATO leaders, seeks support for his ‘victory plan’ in war against Russia Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived at 10 Downing St. in London on Thursday for talks with the leaders of Britain and NATO on his “victory plan” for the war against Russia. Zelenskyy is meeting Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, before travelling to Paris for talks with President Emmanuel Macron. Starmer said the Downing Street meetings, also attended by U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey and armed forces chief Adm. Tony Radakin, were a chance to “go through the plan, to talk in more detail”. Zelenskyy is to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Friday and will also travel to Italy to discuss the plan. He had been due to present his blueprint at a weekend meeting of Western leaders and defense ministers in Germany, but it has been postponed because U.S. President Joe Biden said he had to stay home to respond to Hurricane Milton’ s landfall in Florida. Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he hoped the meeting could be rescheduled soon. The details of Zelenskyy’s plan have been kept quiet but contours have emerged, including the need for fast action on decisions Western allies have been mulling since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. Zelenskyy said on Wednesday at a summit in Croatia with leaders of southeastern European states that the plan seeks to strengthen Ukraine “both geopolitically and on the battlefield” before any kind of dialogue with Russia. “Weakness of any of our allies will inspire [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he said. “That’s why we’re asking them to strengthen us, in terms of security guarantees, in terms of weapons, in terms of our future after this war. In my view, he [Putin] only understands force.” Kyiv is still awaiting word from Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets deep inside Russia. While some, including the U.K., are thought to be willing, Biden has held back out of concern it could escalate the conflict. Ukraine’s leader last visited London in July, soon after Starmer’s Labour Party government was elected, when he addressed a meeting of the British Cabinet. Starmer’s spokesman, Dave Pares, said Thursday’s meeting would involve “broad strategic discussions” on U.K. and allied support for Ukraine during a “crucial period,” rather than specific decisions. It comes as Russia continues a slow but relentless drive deeper into Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and targets key infrastructure with air strikes. Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 goes to South Korean author Han Kang South Korean writer Han Kang has won the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2024. The Swedish Academy hailed the 54-year-old writer “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”. Her literary career began with a book of poems but her breakthrough novel is The Vegetarian, first published in Korean in 2007, and translated into English by Deborah Smith in 2015. It immediately scooped up many honours including the Man Booker International Prize in 2016. The story revolves around a woman and the consequences of her decision to give up eating meat. As the protagonist Yeong-hye defends her radical stand, and small act of independence, her family reacts in extraordinary, violent ways to make her change her mind. The obsessive tale has been compared to Kafka’s nightmarish stories, and all her books since have been widely welcomed in the English-speaking world. The Swedish Academy highlighted her “physical empathy for extreme life stories,” evident in her novels like Greek Lessons (2023/2011), a relationship between an individual who has lost the power of speech, and another, who is losing his power to see; Human Acts, 2016, her most political novel about a massacre of unarmed civilians, The White Book (2017), which was also shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, and deals with the death of the baby sister of an unnamed narrator, told in fragments, using the colour of grief, white. Her new book, We Do Not Part, translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris is going to be published in early 2025; it tells the story of a friendship of two women in the backdrop of a hidden chapter of Korean history. Korean culture, think k-pop and k-drama, has been sweeping the world and in the literary sphere too it has been making waves. The major fiction prize, The Booker Prize, has seen several Korean writers being shortlisted in the past few years from Bora Chung, Hwang Sok-yong to Cheon Myeong-kwan, with Han Kang going on to win it. Last year, the Prize went to Norwegian writer Jon Fosse whose oeuvre is filled with the “mysticism” of ordinary life, and the Swedish Academy called for a celebration of his “innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.” In Brief: The social media platform X began returning to Brazil, after remaining inaccessible for more than a month due to a clash between its owner, Elon Musk, and a justice on the country’s highest court. Internet service providers began restoring access to the platform after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorised lifting X’s suspension on Tuesday. “TWITTER IS ALIVE,” Lucas dos Santos Consoli, known as luscas on X, wrote on the platform to his more than 7 million followers. “I’m happy that the platform decided to follow the laws of Brazil and finally adapted, after all I’ve been using the app for almost 15 years so I can’t deny that I was missing it,” the 31-year-old told The Associated Press. Evening wrap will be back tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 10 October 2024 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [View in browser]( [More newsletters]( Ratan Tata cremated with full state honours in Mumbai The [final rites of renowned industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata]( were performed with full state honours at a central Mumbai crematorium on Thursday evening. The Mumbai police paid tribute to Tata with a gun salute. The industry titan’s family members, including half-brother Noel Tata, and top executives from the Tata Group like chairman N. Chandrasekaran, were present at the crematorium in Worli. [Industrialist Ratan Tata]( body was on Thursday morning taken from his house in a hearse, decked with white flowers, to the NCPA in south Mumbai where it would be kept for people to pay their last respects. Ratan Tata died at a Mumbai hospital late on Wednesday. The chairman emeritus of the Tata group was 86. Tata was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital in south Mumbai on Monday owing to age-related issues, and to control his blood pressure. Tributes poured in from across the country, following Tata’s death. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled his death, calling him a “visionary business leader, compassionate soul and an extraordinary human being”. In a statement, the Congress said it “is deeply saddened by the passing of Padma Vibhushan Shri Ratan Tata, a titan of Indian industry and a philanthropist who shaped India’s corporate landscape.” The Maharashtra government announced a day of mourning in the State on Thursday (October 10) to pay tributes to the industrialist. Ratan Tata remained inspirational with unique thinking and work: RSS chief Bhagwat Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief [Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday condoled the demise of veteran industrialist Ratan Tata]( saying he remained inspirational with his unique thinking and work. “Even after touching many heights, his style of simplicity and humility will remain exemplary,” Bhagwat said in a post on X. With his demise, India has lost an invaluable gem, Bhagwat said. “He established many excellent standards in important sectors of the industry along with new and effective initiatives. His continuous cooperation and participation remained in all types of works in the interest of the society,” he said. “Be it the issue of national unity and security or any aspect of development or the welfare of working employees, Ratan ji remained inspirational with his unique thinking and work,” Bhagwat said. “We offer our humble and heartfelt tribute to him and pray that God grants peace to the departed soul,” he added. Ratan Tata met Bhagwat at the RSS headquarters in Maharashtra’s Nagpur on April 18, 2019. It was the industrialist’s second visit to the Sangh headquarters. Prior to that, Tata first visited the RSS headquarters on December 28, 2016, his 79th birthday, while he was locked in a bitter boardroom battle with ousted Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry. Omar Abdullah elected NC legislature party leader [Omar Abdullah was on Thursday unanimously elected as the leader of the National Conference legislature party]( party president Farooq Abdullah said here. “A meeting of the legislature party was held where everyone unanimously chose Omar Abdullah as its leader,” the senior Abdullah said. He said a meeting of the pre-poll alliance partners would be held on Friday to take the process of government formation further. Omar Abdullah thanked the National Conference legislators on Thursday for electing him their leader. “You are aware of the decision that was taken. A meeting of the NC legislature party took place, the legislature party has decided its leader and I am thankful from the bottom of my heart to the NC legislators that they have reposed their faith in me and given me a chance to stake claim for government formation,” he said. Earlier, all the newly elected MLAs of the National Conference (NC) met at party headquarters Nawa-i-Subah to elect their leader, who is most likely to be the chief minister as well, in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly. The meeting was convened by party president and Omar’s father Farooq Abdullah. He said four of the seven Independent MLAs have extended support to the NC, taking the party’s strength to 46. “Talks are on with the Congress. They have been given a day to decide. Once they give us a letter of support, I will stake claim for government formation,” Omar Abdullah said. The NC has emerged as the single-largest party in the just-concluded Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls with 42 seats. The party has a comfortable majority in the 95-member Assembly as its alliance partners Congress and CPI(M) have won six seats and one seat respectively. Child marriage: NCPCR identifies more than 11 lakh children vulnerable; takes preventive steps The apex child rights body National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Thursday said it [identified more than 11 lakh children vulnerable to child marriage in 2023-24]( and intervened through steps such as family counselling, school reintegration efforts and coordination with law enforcement. In a comprehensive report, the NCPCR underscored the efforts it took under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, through collaboration with child marriage prohibition officers (CMPOs), district authorities and other stakeholders. “More than 1.2 crore people were reached through the awareness campaigns, with Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh emerging as leaders in the fight against child marriage,” the Commission said. The report, which was prepared after virtual review meetings with district officials and key stakeholders, presents data on children at risk of dropping out of schools, a major factor contributing to child marriages. Uttar Pradesh, with more than 5,00,000 such children, showed a strong response in addressing this issue, followed by States such as Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. “Across India, more than 11.4 lakh vulnerable children were identified, with steps taken to prevent child marriages through family counselling, school reintegration efforts, and coordination with law enforcement,” according to the NCPCR. The preventive measures also included mapping schools to identify children absent for 30 consecutive days without notice and coordinating with school authorities to monitor dropouts. “In States such as Karnataka and Assam, officials conducted more than 40,000 meetings with key local figures such as religious leaders, service providers involved in marriage ceremonies, and Anganwadi workers to raise awareness and prevent marriages involving minors,” the report, released on Thursday, said. Despite these efforts, the NCPCR report highlighted gaps in data collection and enforcement in certain States, including Goa and Ladakh, leading to difficulty in gathering comprehensive information. “Some districts still face deeply entrenched cultural practices, making it difficult to completely eliminate child marriage,” the report added. In a letter to all States and UTs, NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo emphasised the importance of maintaining momentum in the fight against child marriage. He urged the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories to prioritise the issue and continue implementing district-level strategies for eradication of child marriages. The letter, accompanying the report, stressed the role of competitive-cooperative federalism in shaping and refining child welfare policies, particularly in raising awareness and enforcing existing laws. Ukraine President Zelenskyy meets U.K. PM and NATO leaders, seeks support for his ‘victory plan’ in war against Russia [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived at 10 Downing St.]( in London on Thursday for talks with the leaders of Britain and NATO on his “victory plan” for the war against Russia. Zelenskyy is meeting Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, before travelling to Paris for talks with President Emmanuel Macron. Starmer said the Downing Street meetings, also attended by U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey and armed forces chief Adm. Tony Radakin, were a chance to “go through the plan, to talk in more detail”. Zelenskyy is to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Friday and will also travel to Italy to discuss the plan. He had been due to present his blueprint at a weekend meeting of Western leaders and defense ministers in Germany, but it has been postponed because U.S. President Joe Biden said he had to stay home to respond to Hurricane Milton’ s landfall in Florida. Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he hoped the meeting could be rescheduled soon. The details of Zelenskyy’s plan have been kept quiet but contours have emerged, including the need for fast action on decisions Western allies have been mulling since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. Zelenskyy said on Wednesday at a summit in Croatia with leaders of southeastern European states that the plan seeks to strengthen Ukraine “both geopolitically and on the battlefield” before any kind of dialogue with Russia. “Weakness of any of our allies will inspire [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he said. “That’s why we’re asking them to strengthen us, in terms of security guarantees, in terms of weapons, in terms of our future after this war. In my view, he [Putin] only understands force.” Kyiv is still awaiting word from Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets deep inside Russia. While some, including the U.K., are thought to be willing, Biden has held back out of concern it could escalate the conflict. Ukraine’s leader last visited London in July, soon after Starmer’s Labour Party government was elected, when he addressed a meeting of the British Cabinet. Starmer’s spokesman, Dave Pares, said Thursday’s meeting would involve “broad strategic discussions” on U.K. and allied support for Ukraine during a “crucial period,” rather than specific decisions. It comes as Russia continues a slow but relentless drive deeper into Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and targets key infrastructure with air strikes. Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 goes to South Korean author Han Kang [South Korean writer Han Kang has won the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2024](. The Swedish Academy hailed the 54-year-old writer “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”. Her literary career began with a book of poems but her breakthrough novel is The Vegetarian, first published in Korean in 2007, and translated into English by Deborah Smith in 2015. It immediately scooped up many honours including the Man Booker International Prize in 2016. The story revolves around a woman and the consequences of her decision to give up eating meat. As the protagonist Yeong-hye defends her radical stand, and small act of independence, her family reacts in extraordinary, violent ways to make her change her mind. The obsessive tale has been compared to Kafka’s nightmarish stories, and all her books since have been widely welcomed in the English-speaking world. The Swedish Academy highlighted her “physical empathy for extreme life stories,” evident in her novels like Greek Lessons (2023/2011), a relationship between an individual who has lost the power of speech, and another, who is losing his power to see; Human Acts, 2016, her most political novel about a massacre of unarmed civilians, The White Book (2017), which was also shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, and deals with the death of the baby sister of an unnamed narrator, told in fragments, using the colour of grief, white. Her new book, We Do Not Part, translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris is going to be published in early 2025; it tells the story of a friendship of two women in the backdrop of a hidden chapter of Korean history. Korean culture, think k-pop and k-drama, has been sweeping the world and in the literary sphere too it has been making waves. The major fiction prize, The Booker Prize, has seen several Korean writers being shortlisted in the past few years from Bora Chung, Hwang Sok-yong to Cheon Myeong-kwan, with Han Kang going on to win it. Last year, the Prize went to Norwegian writer Jon Fosse whose oeuvre is filled with the “mysticism” of ordinary life, and the Swedish Academy called for a celebration of his “innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.” In Brief: The social media platform [X began returning to Brazil]( after remaining inaccessible for more than a month due to a clash between its owner, Elon Musk, and a justice on the country’s highest court. Internet service providers began restoring access to the platform after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorised lifting X’s suspension on Tuesday. “TWITTER IS ALIVE,” Lucas dos Santos Consoli, known as luscas on X, wrote on the platform to his more than 7 million followers. “I’m happy that the platform decided to follow the laws of Brazil and finally adapted, after all I’ve been using the app for almost 15 years so I can’t deny that I was missing it,” the 31-year-old told The Associated Press. Evening wrap will be back tomorrow Today’s Top Picks [[Not just a businessman, Ratan Tata was family to us: Former employees] Not just a businessman, Ratan Tata was family to us: Former employees]( [[Life and times of Ratan Tata: A timeline] Life and times of Ratan Tata: A timeline]( [[When Boman Irani played Ratan Tata in the Narendra Modi biopic] When Boman Irani played Ratan Tata in the Narendra Modi biopic]( [[Much before Nano, Ratan Tata steered success with Indica] Much before Nano, Ratan Tata steered success with Indica]( Copyright© 2024, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. If you are facing any trouble in viewing this newsletter, please [click here]( Manage your newsletter subscription preferences [here]( If you do not wish to receive such emails [go here](