The WTF star; India's 'billionaire raj' era; Amit Shah's testimony; and more

[View this email in your browser]( Top Story [WTF: The Story of the Strangest Star We’ve Known]( Sandhya Ramesh [In May of 2009, several hundred people around the world noticed a star in a galaxy far, far away. It looked like nothing they’d ever seen before. They thronged to discussion forums on the web for the citizen science project called Planet Hunters and frantically discussed what they were seeing. They’d all been working on data obtained by the Kepler Space Telescope. The star, later called KIC 8462852, was blinking in a very strange way.]( [India’s ‘Billionaire Raj’ Era: Time to Reform Personal Income Tax]( Rajul Awasthi [It is puzzling that India’s political parties, which swear by the motto of poverty alleviation, have yet to properly implement any system of progressive personal income taxation.]( [Is the Congress Crawling Out of Its Self-Imposed Shell?]( Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta [Between university elections, Rahul Gandhi’s speech in Berkeley and the BJP’s defensive attitude, it seems as though the grand old party may be re-emerging as a political alternative.]( [Dear Minister: Maybe an Indian Didn’t Fly the First Plane but He Definitely Tried]( Vasudevan Mukunth [The point of teaching ‘ancient technology’, such as it is, is to inculcate the spirit of perseverance and entrepreneurship instead of fixating on ‘giving’ the world successes.]( [Is Delhi Police’s Special Cell Using an ‘Al-Qaeda Recruiter’ as a Pawn to Vilify Rohingya in India?]( Bibhu Prasad Routray [The charges levelled against the British citizen of Bangladeshi origin by the Delhi police’s special cell raise grave doubts about the agency’s intentions.]( [Watch: Looking Into Amit Shah’s Testimony in the Maya Kodnani Trial]( Siddharth Varadarajan [Manoj Mitta, author of The Fiction of Fact-finding: Modi and Godhra, and Siddharth Varadarajan discuss Amit Shah’s testimony in defence of Maya Kodnani and the 2002 riots.]( [Meet the Hunter S. Thompson of Elementary Particles]( Vasudevan Mukunth [Particles called gluons are responsible for mediating the strong nuclear force, a fundamental force of nature. But one of their properties complicates this picture profusely.]( [If Only Durga Could Slay the Asura of Politicking]( Subir Roy [This year’s controversy around West Bengal police’s order about idol immersion after Durga puja, on Muharram, was uncalled for, because the state has, for decades, celebrated different festivals at the same time.]( [With the Post-GST Trend of Rising Prices, Has the Government Taken the Public for a Ride?]( Arun Kumar [The Goods and Services Tax is awfully complex and has confused not only businesses and the public, but also the government.]( Copyright © 2017 The Wire, All rights reserved. You're getting this email because you recently subscribed to receive email digests from The Wire via our website. Our mailing address is: The Wire 13, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg Gole MarketNew Delhi 110001 India [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](