Shah Rukh Khan took on a mentoring role rather than a romantic one with Alia Bhatt in Gauri Shinde’s Dear Zindagi, marking a shift in dynamics in the industry. Fast forward seven years, and now Akshay Kumar and Ananya Panday are set to portray a mentor-pupil relationship in Karan Johar’s The Untold Story Of C. Sankaran Nair. Directed by Karan Singh Tyagi, the biopic casts Akshay Kumar in the lead role of Nair, known for his battle against the British empire concerning the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

According to insiders close to the project, Akshay Kumar and Ananya Panday assume the roles of lawyers. Akshay portrays a seasoned and highly esteemed lawyer, while Ananya’s character is a newcomer seeking guidance from Akshay’s character. 

Akshay Kumar was last seen in Tinu Suresh Desai’s Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue, which premiered in October. The film centred around the remarkable efforts of Jaswant Singh Gill, who rescued a substantial number of miners trapped in a flooded mine in Raniganj in 1989. In the movie, Akshay portrayed Gill, sharing the screen with talents like Parineeti Chopra, Kumud Mishra, Pavan Malhotra, and more. Recently, the film began streaming on Netflix.

The Karnataka government on Friday announced it will soon withdraw the ban on wearing hijab. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said there was no effective hijab ban in the state, adding that women can “wear anything they want.”

“Hijab ban isn’t there anymore. (Women) can wear hijab and go anywhere. I have directed to withdraw the (ban) order. How you dress and what you eat is your choice. Why should I obstruct you?,” the chief minister said while addressing a gathering in Mysore.

Mr Siddaramaiah said that people in the state were free to wear and eat whatever they choose to. “Wear what you want. Eat what you want. I will eat what I want, you eat what you want. I wear dhoti, you wear pant shirt. What’s wrong in that?” he added.

In 2022, the BJP government under Chief Minister B Bommai had banned the head covering in educational institutes of the state leading to a massive row. After several students moved the court against the ban, the Karnataka High Court upheld the state’s ban, saying that wearing a hijab “is not an essential religious practice of Islam” and educational institutes can decide the dress code for all their students.

The matter went to the Supreme Court, which delivered a split verdict, with one judge maintaining that the state is authorised to enforce uniform in schools and the other describing hijab as a matter of choice.

In June, after the Congress government was voted to power, Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge told NDTV that the “any law” brought by the BJP government” which was deemed “regressive” would be repealed by the new state government. “Any regressive policy that impedes the growth of Karnataka economically and is going to take the state backwards will be reviewed and repealed if necessary,” the leader said hinting at the hijab ban and the controversial anti-cow slaughter bill.

Following reports of the International Monetary Fund cautioning India on alleged government debt vulnerabilities, the Centre on Friday said that certain presumptions have been made, which do not reflect the factual position.

One of the key points that the finance ministry has raised is that a majority of India’s general government debt, which includes those of the Centre and states, is in rupees, and external borrowings make up only a small portion. It pointed out that the rollover risk is low for domestic debt.

In its Article IV consultations with India, the IMF had said that, under adverse shocks, the country’s general government debt could be 100% of debt to GDP ratio by FY 2028. The ministry has clarified that this was mentioned as an extreme possibility like “once-in-a-century Covid-19” and was among various favourable and unfavourable scenarios that were listed. The ministry has emphasised that in that instance, the IMF was talking only of a worst-case scenario and this is not a “fait accompli”.

The finance ministry also pointed out that IMF reports for other countries showed a much higher extreme scenario for them, with the figures being 160% for the US, 140% for the UK and 200% for China. 

The IMF report for India also indicates that, under favourable circumstances, the General Government Debt to GDP ratio may decline to below 70 per cent in the same period, the ministry said.

The ministry said that shocks like Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war have uniformly impacted the global economy. Despite this, it said, India has done relatively well and is still below the debt level of 2002.

It also emphasised that the general government debt has reduced significantly from approximately 88% in FY 2020-21 to about 81% in 2022-23 and that the Centre is on track to “achieve its stated fiscal consolidation target (to reduce fiscal deficit below 4.5 per cent of GDP by FY 2025-26)”.