The Catch Up: 20 March

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.
It’s the 20th of March and here are today's headlines.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that India has emerged as the world’s third largest startup ecosystem with over 1.25 lakh startups and 110 unicorns, and is charting a roadmap for becoming a developed nation with right decisions taken at the right time. Speaking at the Startup Mahakumbh event, Modi said India’s startup ecosystem is not limited to metro cities, it has now become a social culture. The PM vowed that he will make India the world’s third largest economy in his third term, and asserted that startups will play a big role in India’s progress.

Days after the Election Commission of India directed the transfer of the home secretaries in six states, including Uttarakhand, the Uttarakhand Congress has requested that Director General of Police Abhinav Kumar also be removed from his post, saying that his “closeness to the ruling party is well known”. In a letter to the ECI, the Uttarakhand Congress president Karan Mahara said that the “loyalty of the present DGP of the state to the ruling party” raises questions on the fairness of the elections.

From claiming that he has received an “overwhelmingly positive” response to Zomato’s plans of launching a separate delivery fleet for vegetarian food, the company’s co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal has changed track in less than 11 hours. The food delivery service provider has now decided against the segregation of the fleet on the ground basis of people’s dietary choices. Concerns that the segregation of workers into green and red clothes could result in potential harassment on the ground, has now resulted in Zomato rolling back the green uniforms.

The World Happiness Report for 2024 was released earlier this week, noting that while the top 10 countries in the list have remained the same since before the Covid-19 pandemic.  Finland topped the list for the seventh year in a row, followed by Denmark, Iceland and Sweden. India ranked 126th in the list. The report observed that in India, older age is associated with higher life satisfaction. However, older Indian women reported lower life satisfaction than older men.

New Zealand said on Wednesday it will ban disposable e-cigarettes, or vapes, and raise financial penalties for those who sell such products to minors. The move comes less than a month after the government repealed a unique law enacted by the previous left-leaning government to phase out tobacco smoking by imposing a lifetime ban on young people buying cigarettes.

This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.