| 5 THINGS FIRST |
SC judgement on curbing criminalisation of politics today; Filing of claims by people excluded from Assam's National Register of Citizens to start; Finance minister Arun Jaitley to meet PSU bank chiefs for quarterly review; President Ram Nath Kovind to present National Sports Awards; 27 states, UTs to join healthcare scheme Jan Arogya Yojana from today
|
|
|
|
| 1. Coming soon, petrol @ Rs 100 a litre |
 |
- Crude @100: Crude prices are at $80 a barrel level now. However, major oil trading houses are talking about crude hitting the $100 level for the first time since 2014. They believe that if Iran's exports of 2 million barrels a day stop due to US sanctions, the market won't have the capacity to replace it. Group of oil-producing nations OPEC said after a weekend meeting that it doesn't plan to raise output anytime soon. An oil trading company head sees $90 oil by Christmas and $100 in early 2019.
- Petrol @90: Petrol has crossed the Rs 90-mark in Mumbai for the first time after the latest 11 paise per litre hike. Diesel prices went up by 5 paise. The hike pushed petrol price in Delhi to Rs 82.72 per litre and diesel to Rs 74.02. Delhi has the cheapest fuel rates among all metros and most state capitals because of lower taxes. Mumbai has the highest sales tax or VAT.
- Petrol @100? India is the third largest importer of crude oil (we imported 4.4 million barrels per day in August for about $12 billion) and rising international prices and falling rupee will make fuel even more costlier in the coming days. Indian crude imports are already 47% more expensive this year in rupee terms.
- Band-aid: To cope with the higher costs, India, is considering cutting oil imports and relying on stockpiled cheaper crude but that can only be a short-term solution and may lead to a bigger bill if prices don't cool down.
- Bottomline: If crude at $80 a barrel now means petrol at Rs 90 a litre, $100 crude will surely be bad news, unless of course election economics takes over in 2019.
|
|
|
|
| 2. How India 'won' a foreign election |
 |
- The election: Ibrahim Mohamed Solih defeated the incumbent President Abdulla Yameen. Solih, the compromise joint candidate of a weakened opposition, emerged as the winner with 58.3% vote share, the biggest margin of victory in any election since the advent of democracy in the Maldives in 2008. Nearly 90% of the 262,000 electorate turned out to vote.
- The challenge: There was a big question mark over fair polls as Yameen had put prominent opposition leaders behind bars, forced a former President to live in exile, made the parliament defunct and crippled judiciary by arresting Supreme Court judges. There were also concerns that Yameen may not accept the outcome.
- The history: In the last elections in 2013, Yameen trailed after the first round of voting but the Supreme Court had annulled the result and gave him time to forge alliances and win the second round of voting that was postponed twice.
- India's concern: The Maldives is just 1,200 km away from the Indian mainland. The country, home to around 22,000 Indians, is of strategic importance and its growing proximity to China is a cause for concern. Yameen had courted investments from China, borrowing millions of dollars for an infrastructure blitz since coming to power in 2013. In the neighbouring Sri Lanka, a state-owned Chinese firm now owns and operates a sensitive port.
- The relief: Solih's Maldivian Democratic Party had taken an anti-China stance during the polls and may help undo some of the damage done by the current President in Indo-Maldives ties. Solih has vowed to restore democracy and release dissidents. India termed the election a "triumph of democratic forces".
Read the full story here
|
|
|
|
| 3. After Kerala, J&K, Himachal and Punjab fear rain |
 |
- Lives lost: Unpredictable rain is causing India more pain. At least 8 people were killed across J&K, Himachal and Punjab, including five of a family in a landslide in Doda district in Jammu. In Punjab the CM has asked the district authorities to stay on "constant vigil"; Uttarakhand too has seen heavy rainfalls. The army and IAF are already carrying out rescue ops.
- Expanse: The worst affected districts — measured by the amount of rainfall in a span of 24 hours beginning Sunday morning — according to private weather forecaster Skymet are Manali (121 mm), Chamba (117 mm), Patiala (69 mm) and Dharamsala (63 mm). Over 48 hours beginning Saturday, Pathankot (243 mm), Kapurthala (227 mm) and Amritsar (203 mm) saw heavy rainfall.
- The cause of the ongoing rains: An active Western Disturbance over J&K and low pressure over northern Rajasthan and adjoining southwest Uttar Pradesh and southern Haryana. Heavy rainfalls have become far too common this year, with Himachal being the 16th state to be affected since the onset of Monsoons.
- Damned! Much like in Kerala, the dams in the affected states are facing the threat of overflow. The water level at the reservoirs of the Ranjit Sagar Dam is at 524.80 metres (the maximum is 527.91 metres). In Himachal 88,000 cubic feet per second water is being released from the Pandoh dam. (Water level of Chandigarh's Sukhna Lake too has crossed the danger mark of 1163 feet, forcing officials to open two out its six floodgates. The gates were last opened in 2008).
- Cut off: In Himachal, the Beas river has overflown into the state highway and Jhiri village in Kullu has been isolated from the rest of the state — in total 378 roads are shut in Himachal. The national highway through Punjab and Himachal too have been affected and so are the trains. Experts also predict losses to crops in Punjab and Haryana.
Meanwhile, Kerala is fretting over yellow alert in districts such as Idukki and Wayanad that calls for vigilance in lieu of expected heavy rainfalls.
|
|
|
|
| 4. What's behind Rafale's 'perception' problem? |
 |
As the political row over the Rafale deal rages on, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman says “this is a perception battle … we will fight this battle”. So what’s the reason for the ‘perception’? Politics and maybe this:
- Price & discount: Centre says the price it is paying for the 36 planes is a secret but at the same time ministers have claimed that it is at least 20% cheaper than the deal negotiated by the previous government. When the deal was signed in September 2016, reports put the cost at 7.9 billion Euro but government hasn't disclosed the price citing a 'secrecy clause' with France. Except, it actually did disclose the cost once. The defence minister also said at one point that she is willing to disclose the price; after all it is "public money". The flip-flop has fuelled the politics.
- Public vs private: The deal also has a 50% offset clause(which means Indian companies will get businesses worth half the deal amount) that the manufacturer of the plane (Dassault Aviation) has to execute in partnership with Indian companies. It chose Reliance Defence, a private company (with no experience in manufacture of aircraft) over the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics (that's in the business of making planes). The government claims that it has no role in that selection. However, former French President Francois Hollande, under whose watch the deal was signed, said that the Indian government had recommended Reliance and it had no option but to go with it. That's made the opposition more aggressive.
- Number of planes: The deal being negotiated under the previous government was for 126 planes along with the transfer of technology. The current government wants to buy 36 planes to meet 'critical operational necessity' without transfer of technology. In 2015, the then defence minister had claimed that 36 planes is all that India needs. However, Air Force still claims it is short of fighter planes.
|
|
|
|
| NEWS IN CLUES |
| 5. Which is India's second-smallest state (not UT)? |
- Clue 1: Earlier recognised as an independent nation, it was officially annexed to India on May 16, 1975.
- Clue 2: It boasts the largest share of cardamom production in India. It is also the world's second largest producer of the spice after Guatemala.
- Clue 3: It is also home to Asia's second-highest suspension bridge—the Singshore Bridge, with a length of 198 m and depth of 220 m.
Scroll below for answer
|
|
|
|
| 6. What makes SPG special |
 |
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi dragged the Special Protection Group (SPG), which incidentally also looks after his and PM Modi's security, into a political controversy, claiming that a former SPG Director quit as he was being forced to accept a list of officers selected by the RSS — a charge dubbed as baseless by the Ministry of Home Affairs. So, what makes the SPG 'special':
- Zero error: In 33 years of existence — the SPG was set up in 1985 — it has the distinction of not losing even one protectee under its watch. Even the much-vaunted US Secret Service can't claim that record, having lost one sitting US President, John F Kennedy, which in the world of proximate security, is one too many. It also nearly lost former presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, as also then president elect, Franklin D Roosevelt to assassination attempts — with Reagan actually being shot.
- No entry: Unlike the White House, under the protection of the Secret Service, which has witnessed 36 incidents of perimeter breaches in the last four decades, the Indian PM's residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg (formerly 7 Race Course Road), manned by the SPG, is an impregnable fortress — even ministers arriving to meet the PM have to use the SPG ferry car to drive up to the main bungalow's entrance from the entry gate.
- On duty, always: Members of the SPG, assigned to guard a person's life, don't have too much control over their own — under the SPG Act, no member of the SPG can resign from his appointment or withdraw, except with prior written permission.
Read the full story here
|
|
|
|
| 7. Justice needs justices |
 |
- Judges wanted: With just 19 judges per 1 million Indians, Indian courts face a combined shortage of 6,160 judges across lower courts, high courts and Supreme Court, according to data from the Law Ministry; former chief justice T S Thakur, quoting a Law Commission report, said that the ideal ratio needs to be 50 judges per 1 million population.
- Missing justices: More than 93% of the vacancies are in the lower courts, which have a shortage of 5.748 judicial officers — the high courts are deficient by 406 judges, while the country's apex court, the Supreme Court, has 6 vacancies in its sanctioned strength of 31.
- Fallout: According to a letter by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, written in August to all the high court chief justices, asking them to speed up recruitment of judicial officers, there were a total of 2,76,74,499 cases pending in the District and Subordinate Courts of the country, due to the shortfall of judges.
Read the full story here
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 8. India has a 60% chance of 'winning' an Oscar in 2019 |
 |
Three movies, out of five, in the Best Foreign Language category at next year’s Oscars will have an Indian connect. Here’s how:
- Norway's India: Norway's official entry in the best foreign language film category at Oscars 2019, What Will People Say, stars Indian actors Adil Hussain and Ekavali Khanna and has been co-produced by Norway, Germany, Sweden, France and Denmark.
- Bangladesh's India: Doob-No Bed of Roses, Bangladesh's entry to Oscars 2019 in the best foreign language film category not only stars two Indians in the lead — Irrfan Khan and Parno Mittra — but also credits Khan as a co-producer, which raises the possibility of Khan actually holding a statuette in his hands next February 24.
- India's own: Village Rockstars, an Assamese language film by Rima Das, a National Film Award winner, is India's official entry to Oscars 2019 in the best foreign language film category. It needs to noted, however, that the three movies have been submitted for consideration; whether they make the cut for the final five shortlist will be known only in January.
|
|
|
|
| 9. Tiger, Tiger, returning bright! |
 |
March 2018
- Tied for second at the Valspar International
- Tied for fifth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational
July 2018
- Tied sixth at the British Open
August 2018
- Runners-up at the PGA Championship
Having missed almost the entire of 2016 and 2017, all Tiger Woods needed this year was the triumph. And it arrived on Sunday, with the 42-year-old, 14-time major winner carding a one-over-par 71 at the Tour Championship in Atlanta to claim the 80th title of his glittering career — his first title in five years. We're talking five years of career-threatening back injuries (including a spinal fusion surgery last April), an arrest for DUI (or 'driving under the influence'), a fall to 1,199th in the rankings at one point, a sex scandal, a divorce. The victory at Atalanta's East Lake Golf Course was Woods's first since his success at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August 2013. Next up, Woods joins the US team for the Ryder Cup against Europe starting Friday. Full story here
|
|
|
|
| 10. Israeli cops get 'dressed' in Kerala |
 |
- Saving their shirts: If not for an unheralded dressmaker by the name of Maryan Apparel, Israeli cops will literally lose their shirts — the Kannur-based apparel manufacturer supplies one lakh shirts annually to the Israeli policemen and policewomen.
- Identification parade: The firm was selected after trials of its products three and half years ago by a team comprising Israel's top cops, and the initial mandate was to stitch the complete uniform, including the trousers. However, this year, a Chinese firm won the contract for the cops' trousers.
- Dressing the forces: The apparel maker is also in the process of supplying uniforms to Kuwait's national guard and fire service, plus uniforms for the Philippine Army, as also uniforms to health workers in UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Read the full story here
|
|
|
|
Follow news that matters to you in real-time.
Join 3 crore news enthusiasts. |
|
|
|
| Answer To NEWS IN CLUES |
 |
Sikkim. The state's first (and India's 100th) airport, the Pakyong Airport, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. The airport is spread over 201 acres and is located atop a hill about 2 km above Pakyong village (33 km away from the capital Gangtok). At 4,500 feet above sea level, it’s also just 60 km away from the India-China border. The first commercial flights would begin from October 4.
|
|
