Firstpost Editor's Picks: Sheila Dikshit passes away, Disney embraces diversity, moon landing's 50th anniversary; today's must-read stories

Sheila Dikshit passes away at 81: Ex-Delhi chief minister was fighting to revive the Congress till her last breath In many ways, her rise was reflective of the changed demography and aspirations in the national capital. Though a Punjabi Khatri from Punjab who lived in Delhi, her political lineage was traced to Uma Shankar Dikshit. She presented a fine combination of Punjabiat and Poorvanchali. As compared to a Madan Lal Khurana or a Sahib Singh Verma or a VK Malhotra of BJP and a Sajan Kumar, a Jagdish Tytler, a Mukesh Khanna or a JP Agrawal of Congress, she was seen as a refreshing leader who had no baggage of the past. The Lion King, Aladdin, Mulan, The Little Mermaid: Disney embraces diverse cast, setting course for future films Disney has had a great year so far with the top five highest grossers across the globe belonging to the production house, from Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame to Pixar’s Toy Story 4. A lot of film critics have written that the monopolisation needs to stop in order to prevent the Disney narrative from pervading the globe. However, Disney is conscious of the corporate social responsibility it has as the biggest studio the world of entertainment has seen so far. It is increasingly hiring black, Asian and Middle Eastern actors to be part of the live-action remakes of the very animated films that were criticised for involving only white actors. Half a century of bank nationalisation: Indira Gandhi’s historic blunder or India’s biggest bank reform? Yes, nationalisation certainly helped India push agricultural credit and other forms of directed lending to certain sectors, besides advancing government schemes sans any questions. But, these entities never learnt to fend for themselves. Sovereign support made them complacent and never exposed them to existential worries like their private counterparts. These banks competed only with each other to appease their political bosses and were trained to approach the North Block with begging bowls every year for survival capital. Indonesia Open 2019: Dominating PV Sindhu decimates Chen Yufei’s challenge in straight games to enter year's first final Dominating and implacable. Those were the two words that sprang to the mind while describing PV Sindhu’s on-court demeanour, as the No 5 seed took just 46 minutes to demolish the challenge of second seed and title favourite, Chen Yufei of China, by a 21-19, 21-10 scoreline in Saturday’s semi-finals of the Indonesia Open World Tour Super 1000 badminton championships. On moon landing's 50th anniversary, Buzz Aldrin recounts his experiences on NASA's Apollo 11 mission This year marks the 50th anniversary of that historic moon landing. Ahead of the Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Gala held on 13 July 2019, Buzz Aldrin was in conversation with Robert Charles, president and managing member of the Charles Group. Aldrin spoke of what the Apollo 11 mission meant to him, and its various high points. Reproduced here with permission from Robert Charles are edited excerpts from the chat with Aldrin.