National Political News
1. The release of book ‘Neither a Hawk nor a Dove; An insider account of Pakistan’s foreign policy’ authored by former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri met with resistance from activists of a political party in Mumbai, who smeared activist Sudheendra Kulkarni’s face with ink/ paint while he was on his way for the book release function. The activists were protesting against various provocations of Pakistan vis-à-vis India.
2. Punjab is facing acute disturbances and protests after the desecration of the Holy-book ‘Guru Granth Sahib’, as its torn pages referred to as ‘BIRS’ have been recovered from near a Gurudwara in Faridkot district of Punjab. Two other places in Punjab have witnessed similar type of incidents.
3. A CBI special Court in New Delhi has acquitted top executives of Airtel, Vodafone and former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh in the excess spectrum case pertaining to 2002. The CBI Court asked for proceeding against the CBI officials who had distorted and fabricated the contents of the case. The BJP attributes fabrication of the case to certain Congress stalwarts.
International Political News
1. Former Communist leader 63 year old K. P. Sharma Oli took oath as Nepal Prime Minister on being elected as Prime Minister by the Nepalese Parliament. Nepal has been rocked by political unrest over the new Constitution it has adopted and the Madheshi issue.
2. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has won a landslide victory in an election for the fifth term in office. Belarus borders strife torn Ukraine, both being parts of former USSR.
3. Russian Embassy has been hit in Damascus, Syria by 2 rockets, as several hundred Syrians had gathered there to express their support for targeting of ISIS by Russian war planes.
Al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate calls for Jihad in Muslim Caucasus region of Russia as a retaliation to Russian Air Strikes in Syria.
Business News
1. Industrial output figures touch a high of 6.4% in August this year as per data release by Central Statistical Organization (CSO). Consumer inflation hardened to 4.4% for September.
2. Tech bell weather Infosys reported a 9.8% rise in September quarter consolidated net profit beating street estimates. The profit stood at Rs.3398 crores as compared to Rs.3096 crores in the year ago period.
TCS net profit also jumped 16% to Rs. 6085 crores for this quarter against Rs. 5244.28 crores for the same quarter in the previous year.
3. Reliance Industry Ltd. clocked a 12.5% increase in net profit in the quarter ending 30th September this year. The profit stood at Rs. 6700 crores or 1 billion approximately.RIL has the world′s biggest refinery at Jamnagar which earned 10.6 Gross Refining Margin (GRM) for every barrel of oil processed.
4. Indian company Wipro’s Azim Prem Ji is ranked 4th in a list of 20 top Philanthropists of the World. The list is led by Bill Gates at No. 1, Warren Buffet at No. 2, George Soros at No. 3 and then followed by Azim Premji.
Science, Technology and Misc. News
1 The Royal Swedish academy of Sciences at Stockholm in Sweden has awarded the Nobel Prize for economics to British born economist 69 year old Angus Deaton for his work on consumption, poverty and welfare. The prize money is 8 million Swedish Crown ($978000).
2. The mysterious star in our galaxy identified as KIC 8462852 emits a strange light pattern in comparison to other stars. It lies above the milky-way between the constellation Cygnus and Lyra.
Kepler space Telescope – Astronomers 1st identified it in 2009 as a candidate for having earth like planets orbiting it.
A team lead by astronomer Wright from Penn State University in US have raised the possibility of objects being created by intelligent creatures in this system resulting in strange light pattern emissions.
Sports
1. India lose to Oman 0–3 in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers of Soccer played at Muscat. India are ranked as 167 in FIFA World rankings of soccer.
2. India record a 22 run win over South Africa in the Second ODI played at Indore. Dhoni scored an unbeaten 92 to take India to 247 for 9 wicket in 50 overs. South Africa replied with 225 runs all out in 43.4 overs.
