LAC TALKS TODAY, BOTH SIDES TO HAVE FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICIALS

The seventh round of corps commanders talks to discuss disengagement and

eventual de-escalation of the over five-month-long military standoff in

eastern Ladakh between India and China will take place today.

This will be the last meeting in which XIV Corps Commander Lt General

Harinder Singh will lead the Indian delegation before he hands over the

command of the corps to Lt General P G K Menon, who will take over later in

the week. Singh, who will complete his one-year tenure as the corps

commander on October 14, will move to head the Indian Military Academy in

Dehradun.

Today's meeting takes place on the Indian side of the Chushul-Moldo Border.

Monday's talks will be the first in which both sides will have senior

military commanders and representatives of foreign ministries. While the

Indian delegation included a diplomat during the last meeting on September

21, the Chinese delegation too will include a Foreign Ministry official

today.

A top Army source said "there is no expected breakthrough of a peace deal".

During the last talks, while India had asked for the entire eastern Ladakh

region to be discussed, China had insisted that Indian troops move back from

their new positions in the Chushul sub-sector.

After some initial disengagement in early July, the last three rounds of the

senior commanders' meetings have not yielded any success.

After the last meeting, the two sides had issued a joint statement in which

both had agreed to not send any more troops to the frontline.

However, there has not been any change in the ground situation since then.

At several positions in the Chushul sub-sector, and on the north bank of

Pangong Tso, troops from both sides continue to be separated by just a few

hundred metres.

CENTRE EXTENDS FRESH INVITE TO PROTESTING FARM OUTFITS, THEY DEMAND SOME

ANSWERS FIRST

The Centre on Sunday extended an invitation, second time in five days, to

Punjab's farmers' unions, who have been protesting against the new farm

laws, for holding talks on issue on October 14. The unions, however, said

they need some clarifications and added that a decision on whether to accept

the invitation will be taken at a meeting in on October 13.

Underlining that farmers in Punjab have been protesting for the past few

days due to farm-related subjects, the letter says, "Indian government is

always serious about agriculture. This is the reason that the Centre

Government is keen to talk to you."

The fresh invitation comes days after the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee

- an umbrella body under which the protesting farm unions have united -

rejected a similar letter on October 7 inviting the farm leaders to Delhi

for talks the next day.

Talking about the fresh invitation, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, president of BKU

(Ugrahan), said, "We need to know who will be holding the discussions with

us in this meeting, what is the agenda of the meeting. Only then will we

decide whether to go or not. Our unions will collectively take a call on

this."

Sunday was the 11th day of indefinite protests by farmers in Punjab over

farm laws. The are also holding rail roko protets at 33 places.

SVAMITVA SCHEME AIMS TO TRANSFORM RURAL INDIA

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the physical distribution of property

cards under the 'Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology

in Village Areas' (SVAMITVA) scheme on Sunday, calling it a 'historic move'

set to transform rural India.

This launch will enable property holders to download their property cards

through SMS on their mobile phones and pave the way for villagers to use

property as a financial asset for taking loans and other financial benefits.

The scheme focuses on mapping rural-inhabited lands using drones as land

records are inaccurate or do not exist for vast areas across India. Even

though 60 per cent of the country lives in rural areas, villagers do not

have ownership documents of their homes despite records being kept of

agricultural land. SVAMITVA is a central scheme of the Ministry of

Panchayati Raj and Rural Development and will be implemented across the

country in a phased manned over the next four years, covering around 6.62

lakh villages.

This is the first time that a large-scale exercise involving modern

technology is being carried out to benefit millions of rural property

owners. Around one lakh villages in UP, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya

Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka, and a few border villages of Punjab and

Rajasthan will be covered in the pilot phase (2020-21).

As once ownership of property becomes easy to demarcate and prove, its

prices will also be fixed. Then the property cards can be used to take

loans, improving the tax regime at the Panchayati level.

JAGAN VS JUDICIARY: 100 HIGH COURT ORDERS & NOW A SC JUDGE

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy's allegations against senior

Supreme Court Justice N.V. Ramana and high court judges aren't the only

legal tangles he and his government are facing.

Over the last 16 months since Jagan's YSR Congress Party unseated N.

Chandrababu Naidu's TDP, there have been as many as 100 high court orders

against the state government's decisions, say teh party representatives.

They say the most recent of these is a stay on investigations into alleged

irregularities, particularly land deals in the Amaravati capital region,

during the previous TDP regime.

On Saturday, this ongoing confrontation took an unprecedented turn when

Jagan's YSR Congress Party government levelled allegations of corruption and

bias against Justice Ramana. The letter also alleged that Justice Ramana was

influencing the state's judicial process to protect TDP, citing an alleged

"proximity" to Naidu.

Last month, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had ordered a gag on media

reporting in the state government's FIR into an alleged land scam, which had

named Justice Ramana's kin and a former government official who worked under

the TDP regime.

The Jagan government's 'three-capital' plan for Andhra Pradesh - an

executive capital at Visakhapatnam, judicial capital at Kurnool and a

legislative capital at Amaravati - also came crashing when the high court

issued a stay on the decentralisation of the administration.

There are around 90 petitions in the high court challenging the state

government's decision to have three capitals. Several farmer association

groups and a few TDP leaders have also filed petitions opposing the state

government's proposal.

The high court had also directed the government to restore N. Ramesh Kumar

as the state election commissioner earlier this year, following which the

government approached the Supreme Court, which refused to stay the high

court's direction. Kumar, a Naidu regime appointee, had decided to defer

local body polls citing the Covid-19 pandemic.

The state government's decision to increase the backward classes quota in

the local bodies to 34 per cent from 27 per cent was also struck down by the

high court.

The high court had also struck down an order by the state government making

English medium mandatory from classes 1 to 6 in all government schools.

According to the state government representatives, most of the petitions

filed against the present dispensation are by opposition party leaders and

their supporters.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

======================

TRUMP SAYS HE'S FREE OF COVID, TO GET BACK ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday his doctors had found he no longer

had Covid-19 and would not be a transmission risk to others as he returns to

holding big rallies during the final weeks of the race for the White House.

Trump's physician said on Saturday the president had taken a test showing he

was no longer infectious and there was no evidence "of actively replicating

virus," but did not directly say whether Trump had tested negative. "I

passed the highest test, the highest standards, and I'm in great shape,"

Trump, who spent three days in the hospital after revealing he had tested

positive on October 2, said on Fox News Channel.

Trump said he was no longer on medications for the coronavirus. "I beat this

crazy, horrible China virus," he said, adding "it seems like I'm immune."

The scientific evidence is unclear on whether people who have recovered from

Covid-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection, and how

long that immunity might last.

Trump also tried to raise questions about whether his opponent in the

presidential election, former Vice President Joseph Biden, could be sick,

claiming he had been coughing "horribly" yesterday. The Biden campaign

released results of his coronavirus testing, which so far are negative. The

White House has declined to do for the president.

THE REST

========

AAREY METRO CAR SHED SCRAPPED, TO BE SHIFTED TO KANJURMARG

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday announced the

scrapping of Aarey Metro car shed and said the project will now come up at

Kanjurmarg. In a webcast, Thackeray said the project will be shifted to a

government land in Kanjurmarg and no cost will be incurred for the purpose.

"The land will be available at zero rate," he said.

He said the building which has come up in Aarey forest will be utilised for

some other public purpose. "About Rs 100 crore expenditure was incurred for

the purpose and it won't go waste," he said.

Thackeray said the government had earlier declared 600 acre of Aarey land as

forest but now it has been revised to 800 acre. There will be no

infringement on rights of tribals in the Aarey forest, he added.

"Biodiversity in Aarey needs to be to conserved and protected. Nowhere is

there an 800-acre jungle in an urban set up. Mumbai has a natural forest

cover," he said.

Cases last year against citizens and environmentalists who protested against

the Aarey project and felling of trees in that area have been withdrawn, he

said.

MANY STATES STILL UNDECIDED ON REOPENING SCHOOLS

The Centre has given the go-ahead for graded reopening of schools from

October 15, but many states, including Delhi, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh,

have decided against it, while states like Haryana and Meghalaya are still

assessing the situation in view of the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

According to the latest unlock guidelines, schools, colleges and other

educational institutions outside Covid-19 containment zones can reopen after

October 15. The final decision on reopening the institutions has been left

with the states and UTs.

COVID NUMBERS STILL HIGH BUT WITH A DOWNWARDS TREND

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan yesterday said the indigenously developed

Feluda paper strip test for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis could be rolled out over

the next few weeks.

Vardhan said the exposure risk and co-morbidities would determine the

prioritisation of groups for administration of Covid vaccine, dispelling

apprehensions that youngsters and working class people would get preference

in inoculation for economic reasons.

Meanwhile, India on Sunday registered 67,745 new Covid-19 cases. The daily

death toll in the country over the past 7 days has shown a generally

downward trend - the daily death numbers starting from Oct 5 read thus:

886, 991, 963, 967, 929, 921, 813

The daily number of Active cases in the country has also been steadily

decreasing. The numbers from 5th to 11th Oct read thus: 9,18,429, 9,07,379,

9,01,924, 8,93,041, 8,82,997, 8,67,243, 8,62,611

SOME INDICATORS LINKED TO CONSUMPTION REGAIN PRE-COVID LEVELS

The stock market rally over the last seven trading sessions - where the

Sensex jumped 6.7 per cent, to close at pre-Covid levels in February -

coincides with the fact that a number of consumption-related economic

indicators have surpassed the February or pre-Covid levels.

While the stock markets have cheered the better-than-expected recovery of

economic activity across sectors - barring few such as tourism, airlines and

hospitality - research houses now say that this has led to expectations of

upward revision in GDP growth for FY21.

In September, consumption of steel, toll collection, sale of tractors,

passenger vehicles and two-wheelers among others surpassed pre-Covid levels

seen in February. While data from the RBI, Finance Ministry and market

sources indicate an uneven pace of recovery across sectors, several key

segments of the economy such as IT, pharma, automobiles and retail have

shown robust recovery.

According to the RBI's latest data on high frequency indicators, electricity

demand that had slumped to 82 in April, from a base level of 100 in February

2020, surpassed the February levels in September to reach 108.

While petrol sales rose 3.3 per cent compared to the year-ago period, diesel

demand was still 6 per cent below diesel consumption in September 2019.

Diesel consumption had declined by 20 per cent year-on-year in August.

The toll count and collections in September surpassed their pre-Covid

levels.

The E-way bills jumped 10 per cent in September and the power demand too has

witnessed a double-digit growth.

The banking sector continues to see muted credit growth amid expectations of

rising non-performing assets. Domestic air passenger traffic, domestic air

cargo, port cargo, and exports and imports continue to remain below the

February base levels.

AMID COVID SURGE, KERALA DECIDES TO OPEN TOURIST SPOTS

Despite a surge in Covid-19 cases in the state, the Kerala government has

decided to open up hill destinations, adventure tourism centres and

backwaters for tourists from October 12. Popular beach destinations would be

open for visitors from next month onwards.

State Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran told the media that tourist

centres would be opened in a two-phased manner, ensuring strict compliance

of Covid-19 guidelines. "The decision was taken considering the demand from

the tourism industry and lakhs of people who depend upon the sector for

their survival. For the last six months, the state tourism sector has been

facing a severe crisis. As Kerala is effectively managing the pandemic, I

hope domestic tourists would be willing to visit the state,'' he said.

According to the order, the norm that no quarantine is required for stay up

to seven days would be applicable to inter-state tourists also. Earlier,

business travels for short stay were exempted from the mandatory quarantine

period. Inter-state tourists will have to register with the state covid

jagratha portal. If they want to travel in Kerala for more than seven days,

they should undergo Covid-19 test at their own cost or carry a no-Covid-19

certificate. Tourists have been advised to maintain Covid-19 protocols,

including social distancing and use of sanitizer.

CLIMATE CHANGE DRIVING BUTTERFLIES, MOTHS HIGHER UP HIMALAYAS: STUDY

Rising average temperatures in the Himalayan region have driven several

dozen species of butterfly and moth to habitats higher up the mountains, a

new study commissioned by the government has found.

The findings of the study will be used as a baseline indicator to track the

impact of climate change on animal species over the coming decade, officials

said. The Himalayas are home to more than 35 per cent of Lepidoptera - the

order of insects that includes butterflies and moths - species found in

India.

The survey, funded by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

and carried out by the Zoological Survey of India, identified at least 49

species of moth and 17 species of butterfly that have shown "considerable

new upward altitude records", with a difference of more than 1,000 metres

between their current and previously recorded mean habitat altitudes.

NADAL TIES FEDERER AT 20 SLAMS BY BEATING DJOKOVIC IN PARIS

Rafael Nadal equalled long-time rival Roger Federer for the most major

singles tennis championships won by a man and added to his own record at

Roland Garros with No 13 on the red clay, courtesy of a surprisingly

dominant 6-0 6-2 7-5 victory over the No 1-ranked Novak Djokovic on Sunday.

When Nadal ended it with an ace, he dropped to his knees, smiled widely and

pumped his arms.

He did not cede a set in his favourite tournament this year.

Nadal, No 2 in the rankings, improved to 100-2 at the French Open, including

a combined 26-0 in semifinals and finals, and picked up his fourth

consecutive title in Paris.

The 34-year-old left-hander from Spain previously put together streaks of

four French Open championships from 2005-08, then five in a row from

2010-14, to go alongside his four trophies at the US Open, two at Wimbledon

and one at the Australian Open.

Djokovic's loss left him at 17 majors.

Nadal is the oldest French Open champion since 1972 and the more than 15

years between his first and most recent Grand Slam titles is the longest

such span for a man.

This was the 56th instalment of Nadal vs Djokovic, the most meetings between

any pair of men in the professional era, and their ninth in a Grand Slam

final, equalling Nadal vs Federer for the most.

Djokovic had won 14 of the last 18 matchups against Nadal, and led 29-26

overall, including a 6-3 6-2 6-3 win at the 2019 Australian Open final.

IPL: TEWATIA, PARAG SNAP RAJASTHAN ROYALS' FOUR-MATCH LOSING STREAK

Rahul Tewatia's uncanny ability to win tricky games rescued Rajasthan Royals

yet again as they eked out a five-wicket victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad

to snap their four-match losing streak.

Tewatia, who became a household name with five sixes in an over against

Kings XI Punjab, smashed an unbeaten 45 off 28 balls as Royals overhauled

the 159-run target with a ball to spare.

Along with Riyan Parag (42 not out off 26 balls), Tewatia won the game in

'Royals' style keeping Steve Smith's men in the mix after they were reduced

to 78 for 5 in 12 overs.

The duo added 85 runs for the sixth wicket in eight overs when their

illustrious international stars flattered to deceive.

SRH and RR now have 3 wins each from 7 respective matches.

MUMBAI INDIANS SUCCESSFULLY CHASE 162 POSTED BY DELHI CAPITALS

Fluent and fiery half centuries by Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav

shaped Mumbai Indians' five-wicket win over Delhi Capitals in the clash

between the two most consistent IPL sides of the season.

Chasing 163, the defending champions overhauled the target with two balls to

spare.

Earlier, Shikhar Dhawan scored his first half-century of the season and

shared a 85-run stand with skipper Shreyas Iyer (42) to help DC post 162 for

four.

MI and DC now have 5 wins each from 7 respective matches.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe,

and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they

have to touch it to be sure. - George Carlin

OFF TRACK

Pati ne message bheja:

Meri zindagi itni pyari, itni khubsoorat banana ke liye tumhara shukriya.

Main aaj jo bhi hoon, sirf tumhari wajah se hoon. Tum mere Jeevan mein ek

farishta ban kar aayee ho aur tumne hi mujhe jeene ka maqsad diya hai. Love

you darling.

Patni ne reply kiya: Maar liya chautha peg???