News Dabba for 21 April 2025: Five stories for a balanced news diet

Indie Journal brings you the daily updates that the internet is talking about through various news websites. Here's a glance through some of the National and International news updates, from Hindi imposition row, Karnataka ex top cop's murder, to Australia drowning deaths.

India Today on Udhayanidhi Stalin's 'stay alert' message to Tamil students

Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Sunday called on students to stay alert and resist what he described as the central government’s attempts to impose Hindi through educational reforms, India Today reports. Speaking at the inauguration of a new auditorium at Nandanam Government Arts College for Men in Chennai, the report says that he warned that policies such as the National Education Policy (NEP), the three-language formula, and NEET were being used to undermine Tamil and the Dravidian model of governance. Udhayanidhi also recalled a significant moment from the 1980s, when his grandfather, Karunanidhi, then Opposition Leader spoke on the same college campus during a student protest against Hindi imposition. Read the full report here.

Indian Express: Jal Shakti Ministry seeks Rs 2.79 lakh crore more for Jal Jeevan Mission

Sharply higher costs amid concerns that some states may have approved inflated work contracts to provide tap water connections to rural households under the Jal Jeevan Mission have led an Expenditure Secretary-led panel to propose a 46 percent cut in the Centre’s funding assistance to the Jal Shakti Ministry’s demand for four years ending December 2028, Indian Express reports. The onus to bridge this liability — estimated to be over Rs 1.25 lakh crore over the four years — may fall on states, the report says. The Jal Jeevan Mission, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2019, aimed to provide tap connections to about 16 crore rural households to achieve saturation coverage by December end 2024. But only 75 percent of the target could be achieved over five years, the report mentions. Read the full report here.

US defence chief Pete Hegseth shared war plans in second Signal chat: The Straits Times

The Straits Times reports that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, according to four people with knowledge of the chat. Some of those people said the information he shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen – essentially the same attack plans he shared in a separate Signal chat on the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic. Hegseth’s wife Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, is not a Defence Department employee, but she has travelled with him overseas and drawn criticism for accompanying her husband to sensitive meetings with foreign leaders, the report says. Read the full report here.

NDTV on Karnataka ex top cop's murder

Former Karnataka Police chief Om Prakash, who was found dead at his Bengaluru home yesterday, fought with his wife Pallavi in the afternoon. During this fight, she allegedly threw chilli powder at him, tied him up and then stabbed him to death, NDTV reported as per its sources. The 68-year-old was also attacked with a glass bottle. The wife, Pallavi, according to sources, is the prime suspect in the shocking murder of the former police chief, the report says. Read the full report here.

Nine-year-old dies as Australia weekend drowning toll rises to seven, BBC

BBC reports that a nine-year-old boy who got trapped between rocks at a New South Wales beach on Sunday has become the seventh person to drown in Australia over the Easter weekend. The majority of deaths were caused by strong swells washing people into the ocean from rocks. Two people remain missing, the report adds. According to Royal Life Saving Australia, 323 people drowned across the country in the year to June 2024. Read the full report here.