oppn parties Mumbai Will Now Have A Night Life, Officially

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
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Mumbai Will Now Have A Night Life, Officially

By Yogendra
First publised on 2020-01-25 10:46:33

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Yogendra is freelance writer

New York is the city that never sleeps and the fact was celebrated in a few films, television shows, books and art too. Any city in India that comes close to it is Mumbai, a city that is always on the move, a vibrant and restless city that never sleeps. Yet, Mumbaikars had to sleep, or at least forgo a lot of activities like eating and drinking out or shopping at night because of government restrictions on shop timings. Not anymore. The Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state has allowed several business establishments to remain open for business round the clock provided they adhere to relevant Acts and rules in place for employee management.

Although the restrictions will now be removed in certain areas only, it is a good beginning. Based on the feedback and success of the experiment, the government is expected to extend it to all areas and more types of establishments. With many offices in many Indian cities catering to an overseas clientele now remaining open round the clock, there is an urgent need to keep other establishments open too. It will lead to the creation of more jobs too.

Not all business establishments are expected to have good sales if they keep open round the clock. But this should be left to the market. Those who get clients will keep open while others will go back to the previous routine if the experiment fails. There is no harm in that. But ideally, there should be no restrictions on shop timings. It will also result in better policing and make the cities safer.

Other cities in India should keenly watch the Mumbai experiment and cities like Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru, to name just three, should think along the same lines. Modern cities have cosmopolitan residents engaged in a wide variety of activities. The time of the day is no longer important. With movies ending at 2 am in some multiplexes, what would a group do if they feel hungry after that? As people become adventurous, laws should change with the times.