News digest: Vajpayee passes away, PCA framework, rupee falls, and more

With Vajpayee, curtains for an era that was gentler, but more democratic

Was he a private person? Yes, but you would have never known it, judging by the way he lived his life. Was he a public person? Not always: His political moves, especially against his adversaries, were so indirect and secret, and at the same time so brutal, that they rarely recovered.

The 10th prime minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, one of India’s most beloved leaders and most brilliant orators, died on Thursday. And, with him ended an era of politics that had Hindu majority assertion as its