Good Morning, Swarajya Readers!



Here’s what you need to know today.



Sarbananda Sonowal assumed the office of the Chief Minister of Assam yesterday. His colleague Himanta Biswa Sarma also took the oath as a minister and was made the convener of North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) soon after. It’s an alliance of all non-Congress governments in the region. This will be a part of the NDA and currently boasts of Arunachal, Assam, Nagaland and Sikkim as its members.



The CBI on Tuesday questioned the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat for more than four hours regarding his involvement in the sting operation that showed him offering bribes to MLAs. He has been asked to reappear on 7 June as he couldn’t furnish complete details on many issues.



President Pranab Mukherjee finally signed an ordinance exempting the seats in state government medical colleges and government seats in private medical colleges from being allocated on the basis of the NEET this year, bypassing the Supreme Court ruling. This means students who have already appeared for tests conducted by various states will not have to appear for NEET.



Nitin Gadkari has set an ambitious target for his officials in the shipping ministry this year. They have been asked to add a capacity of 120 mn tonnes at 12 major ports. These ports saw a capacity addition of 94 tonnes last year. The operating margin for the major ports is set to increase to 44 percent, compared to 39 percent during 2015-16.



The Devendra Fadnavis government is working on an ordinance that will amend the APMC act in the state thereby allowing the farmers to sell their produce directly to consumers. Currently, they are forced to sell only to wholesale traders. This will benefit lakhs of farmers but traders’ unions have called for a strike on 8 June opposing the government’s move.



DMK legislators on Tuesday elected M.K. Stalin as their leader. He will be the Leader of Opposition also in the Tamil Nadu state assembly by the virtue of DMK being the largest party in opposition.



Tunisia‘s Islamist party Ennahda voted Monday to separate politics and religion ushering in the era of secularism. If this experiment succeeds, it will be the only country where the Arab Spring could bring some positive change. Ennahda is currently the biggest party in parliament and is ruling the country in coalition with the secular Nida Tunis party.



Op-eds You Shouldn’t Miss



Healthcare Funding Options Needed: India’s can’t afford to rely on a single public healthcare financing system. We need a diverse system of healthcare financing that pools financial risk and shares the cost burden.



Growth-Killer Land Law Is Being Cut To Size By States, Including Congress Ones: It has three debilitating features: payment of 4 times and two times the market price in rural areas and urban areas resp.; 70-80% consent of owners; compulsory social impact assessment.



A New Fiscal Framework: A flexible fiscal target based on potential output is welcome, but it will suffer from credibility problem unless there is an independent fiscal council that does its own analysis.



Swarajya Special



India Should Shift From NREGA To Minimum Income For Poor: A basic minimum income would lift more people out of poverty than make-work schemes like MGNREGA.



How Jesus As A Yogi Is Being Used For Conversion Propaganda: Rather than affording greater respect for Hindu and Buddhist teachings, the Jesus as a yogi story is sadly becoming one of the main conversion ploys in the country.



We hope you enjoyed reading our morning brief. Have a great day ahead!