ALL FOUR 'QUAD' COUNTRIES TO PARTICIPATE IN MALABAR EXERCISE

Amid the Sino-Indian military standoff along the LAC in Ladakh and rising

tensions in the South China Sea, the Quadrilateral grouping of US, Japan,

India and Australia are sending their warships for the Malabar Exercise next

month.

On Monday, India announced that Australia will be part of the Malabar

Exercise in November, making it the first military exercise between all

countries that make the Quadrilateral grouping, better known as Quad.

Australian Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said the Malabar Exercise marks a

milestone opportunity for the Australian Defence Force.

Since 2017, the year Quad was revived, Malabar had been a trilateral

exercise involving the navies of US, India and Japan. It includes simulated

war games and combat manoeuvres. Last year, it was held in September off the

coast of Japan, and included complex maritime operations in surface,

sub-surface and air domains, with focus on anti-submarine warfare, anti-air

and anti-surface firings, maritime interdiction operations (MIO) including

Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) and tactical scenario-based exercises

at sea.

New Delhi and Washington are also stepping up efforts to conclude the Basic

Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) ahead of the Indo-US 2+2

ministerial meeting on October 26-27 - defence and foreign ministers of the

two countries will be in a huddle at the 2+2.

The fast-tracking of work on BECA and the decision of the four Quad

countries to participate in the Malabar Exercise are perceived to be a

strategic signal to an aggressive China which External Affairs Minister S

Jaishankar described last week as a "critical security challenge" at the

border.

NEW DIGITAL HEALTH ID WILL BE USED IN COVID IMMUNISATION, SAYS PM MODI

Two months after he announced that a unique health ID will be provided to

every citizen under the National Digital Health Mission, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi on Tuesday indicated that the "digital health ID will be used

to ensure immunisation".

Addressing the inaugural function of the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting

2020, the Prime Minister said, ".India is now at the forefront of vaccine

development for Covid-19. Some of them are in advanced stages. We are not

stopping here; India is already working on putting a well-established

vaccine delivery system in place. This digitised network, along with the

digital health ID, will be used to ensure immunisation of our citizens."

In his Independence Day address, the PM had said that the Unique Health ID

provided to every citizen would have details of diseases, diagnosis, report,

medication, etc. in a common database.

A high-level expert group on vaccine administration is looking at mechanisms

to track recipients as and when the vaccine is ready to be administered;

this is because there could be two or three doses, and population groups

must be followed accurately.

The Prime Minister underlined India's global reputation on vaccine

manufacturing. "Beyond Covid too, India is known for its proven capacity to

produce vaccines at a low cost. More than 60 per cent of the vaccines for

global immunisation are being manufactured in India..With India's experience

and research talent, we will be at the centre of global health care efforts.

We want to help other nations, enhance their capacities, in these sectors,"

he said.

COMPLEX MATH IN BIHAR POLLS

Much before the RJD-led Grand Alliance announced its seat-sharing, senior

BJP leader and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi had said, "More the number of

seats the RJD contests, the keener the fight."

The BJP's wish appears to have been granted, in ways more than one. The RJD,

that contested 101 seats in the Nitish Kumar-led Mahagathbandhan in the 2015

Assembly polls and won 80, is fighting on 144 constituencies in the coming

election. Not only that, the RJD, the strongest of the Grand Alliance

parties, is fighting on most of its seats against the JD(U).

On as many as 77 of its seats, RJD candidates are up against the Nitish-led

JD(U), which had bargained hard to ensure it got more constituencies (115)

than the BJP (110) in the NDA seat-sharing. In other words, in just about

30% of its seats (38 in all), the JD(U) can expect an easier fight.

In contrast, the RJD candidates are up against the BJP on 51 of its 110

seats, leaving the latter with prospects of an easier win on the remaining

59. Five RJD nominees are up against former chief minister Jitan Ram

Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), and 11 will take on the

Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP).

With LJP chief Chirag Paswan openly supporting BJP candidates and taking on

Nitish, it could further dent the JD(U)'s prospects. Nitish has expressed

his displeasure over several BJP leaders who were denied seats contesting on

LJP tickets.

The BJP has been trying to assuage Nitish, assuring that he will remain CM

irrespective of the number of seats the parties win. It has also been

criticising Paswan for latching on to it, accusing him of trying to create

confusion.

To add another dimension, Chirag Paswan and Tejashwi Yadav continue to

refrain from attacking each other.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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

TRUMP NARROWS GAP, BUT BIDEN STILL HAS THE EDGE

With a fortnight left for the November 3 Election Day in the US, Democrat

nominee Joe Biden's once-encouraging lead over incumbent Republican Donald

Trump has narrowed, leaving both campaigns on edge.

Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said in a memo to donors,

reported by Reuters, "We cannot become complacent because the very searing

truth is that Donald Trump can still win this race, and every indication we

have shows that this thing is going to come down to the wire." "New polling

shows this election is going to come down to a few swing states like North

Carolina, Minnesota, Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Simply

put, we can win this but we've got to ramp up our campaign," said Trump's

campaign manager Bill Stepien in a memo shared with his party campaign

mailing list on Sunday.

With Biden's leads in national polls, all conventional political

understanding says he should win. But, the landscape feels like deja vu for

pundits who remember former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's poll-lead

in the run-up to the 2016 election. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll had

Clinton at +10 percentage points over Trump back then. The same poll has +11

for Biden now. Poll aggregation done by data analytics outlet

FiveThirtyEight has Biden at +10.6.

THE REST

========

CHINESE SOLDIER STRAYS ACROSS LAC; TO BE HANDED OVER TO PLA SOON

The Indian Army on Monday apprehended a Chinese soldier in eastern Ladakh.

The Army said that the soldier had "strayed across the LAC" and will be

handed over to the People Liberation Army soon.

In a statement, the Army said, "a PLA soldier identified as Corporal Wang Ya

Long was apprehended in the Demchok sector of Eastern Ladakh on 19 October

2020 after he had strayed across the LAC." "A request has also been received

from the PLA about the whereabouts of the missing soldier," the Army said,

adding that, "as per established protocols, he will be returned back to

Chinese officials at the Chushul - Moldo meeting point after completion of

formalities".

The soldier, the Indian Army said, "has been provided medical assistance

including oxygen, food and warm clothes to protect him from the vagaries of

extreme altitude and harsh climatic conditions".

ED GRILLS FAROOQ, KASHMIR PARTIES CALL IT VENDETTA

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday questioned National Conference

president Farooq Abdullah for over six hours in connection with a

multi-crore scam in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association, prompting

accusations of 'political vendetta' by the newly-formed People's Alliance

comprising several mainstream parties.

The 82-year-old former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister received the ED

summons a day after the formation of the People's Alliance led by him was

announced on October 15. He was questioned at the agency's regional office

in Srinagar in the case connected to the embezzlement of more than Rs 40

crore of JKCA funds during his tenure as president of the association.

NCW NOTICE TO KAMAL NATH FOR CALLING WOMAN MINISTER 'ITEM'

BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh, led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan,

on Monday held a protest against Kamal Nath, while the National Commission

for Women sought an explanation from the Congress leader for his 'item' jibe

against state minister Imarti Devi.

Nath, who heads the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, also came in for flak from

BSP leader Mayawati, who asked Dalits to 'teach the Congress a lesson' over

the remark.

Imarti Devi, the state's women and child development minister, who quit the

Congress to join BJP, is a Dalit leader. 'Will Sonia Gandhi tolerate if such

a remark is made against her daughter?' Imarti Devi said, attacking Kamal

Nath.

At a bypoll campaign meeting in Dabra Assembly constituency in Gwalior

district on Sunday, Kamal Nath had compared the qualities of the Congress

candidate Suresh Raje and rival candidate Imarti Devi from the BJP. He had

said, "Suresh Raje is a simple man. He is not like the person. What is the

name of the person? As the crowd shouted Imarti Devi's name, Kamal Nath

called her an 'item', saying, "Why should I name her? You know her better

than I do. You should have warned me. Ye kya item hai..."

The National Commission for Women said it has also approached the Election

Commission for necessary action over Kamal Nath's remarks.

CALCUTTA HC BARS ENTRY TO DURGA PUJA PANDALS

A division bench of the high court comprising Justices Sanjib Banerjee and

Arijit Banerjee, while hearing a public interest litigation, said that no

visitors will be allowed to enter the marquees.

For small pandals, barricades will have to be put up five metres from the

entrance, while for the bigger ones, the distance has to be 10 metres, the

court ordered.

There should be 'no-entry' boards on the barricades, it said.

The court also ordered that only 15 to 25 persons belonging to the

organising committees will be allowed to enter the pandals. Their names will

have to be put up on a display board on a daily basis and cannot be changed,

it said.

The high court order comes amid red flags raised by medical experts and

epidemiologists about a possible exponential spread of the pandemic in West

Bengal after reckless celebration of Durga Puja, the state's biggest

festival, as was witnessed in Kerala after Onam.

The court passed the order on a PIL filed by one Sabyasachi Chatterjee.

The same bench of the Calcutta High Court had on Friday directed the

community Durga Puja organisers in the state to spend 75 per cent of the Rs

50,000 grant given by the West Bengal government on procurement of COVID

protection equipment and the rest on strengthening public-police bonding.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced on September 24 the Rs 50,000

grant for each of the 36,946 community Durga puja committees in the state.

HC TURNS DOWN ZEE NEWS REQUEST TO GIVE INFORMATION ON DELHI RIOTS REPORT IN

SEALED COVER

The Delhi High Court Monday turned down Zee News' request to file an

affidavit in a sealed envelope on how one of its journalists had procured an

alleged disclosure statement of a February riots accused, after the police

denied having shared the same.

The channel claimed privilege over the source who had provided it with a

copy of the alleged confessional statement of Asif Iqbal Tanha, a student of

Jamia Millia Islamia, who has been arrested in connection with the Delhi

riots.

The bench was hearing Tanha's petition seeking a direction to take down

sensitive information connected to the investigations, that was allegedly

leaked by the police to the news channel.

A bench led by Justice Vibhu Bakhru rejected Zee News' request even though

the channel's lawyer Vijay Aggarwal said it was crucial that the affidavit

was filed in a sealed envelope to maintain freedom of the press.

The court questioned Zee News for making public the purported "disclosure

statement" of an accused, saying it was not a prosecuting agency and the

document, which has "little evidentiary value" in a trial, has been

portrayed as something that "completely indicts a person".

"It is a misrepresentation of facts of a different level," observed Justice

Vibhu Bakhru......"You make (public) documents which are not supposed to be

taken out and you want your name to be concealed," the court told Aggarwal.

L&T SET TO WIN ONE OF THE LARGEST CIVIL WORKS TENDERS FOR BULLET TRAIN

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is set to win one of the largest infrastructure

tenders the country has seen.

It is likely to be the lowest bidder for the design and construction of

civil works for 47 per cent of the alignment of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad

High-Speed Rail corridor.

Three bidders, involving seven major infrastructural companies, had

participated in competitive bidding.

The bidders other than L&T were the Afcons Infrastructure-IRCON

International-JMC Projects India consortium, and the Tata Projects-NCC-J

Kumar Infra Projects-HSR consortium. L&T quoted Rs 24,985 crore for the

237-km stretch.

If it gets the contract, this will be the biggest project won by L&T, which

had the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), which was around Rs 8,000 crore,

as one of the largest projects before.

COVID PUZZLES: JOBS BACK, BUT LABOUR SHRINKS, DEMAND LOW BUT INFLATION STILL

HIGH

With economic activity picking pace after the easing of lockdown measures,

the recovery has thrown up some paradoxes: revival in employment amid a fall

in labour force participation, surging inflation rate despite

disinflationary impact from weak demand, and improvement in future outlook

surveys even as the situation worsens in households.

In September, as lockdowns were progressively eased, an unusual labour

market phenomenon was observed in India - while several workers got jobs,

many who did not went on to leave the labour force, data collated by the

Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) showed. Typically, when more

people find jobs, as had happened during September, a greater number should

have come in looking for jobs. The reverse seems to have happened, the CMIE

estimates suggest.

The unusual trend is explained by a rural-urban disaggregation of the data:

rural India is seeing an increase in jobs while employment in urban India is

on a slide.

For policy makers, there could be two significant takeaways: while labour

data shows a recovery in employment, the quality of recovery is a problem -

in other words, better quality and higher paying jobs in urban areas are

being lost and substituted by lower-paid rural jobs. And this points to the

fact that a reversal of migration back to the cities is not happening to the

extent that it should have.

There are other economic paradoxes that the pandemic has thrown up.

For instance, as against the general expectation globally that the massive

demand shock from the pandemic would overshadow any supply shock and would

therefore be disinflationary, the opposite has happened in India. While much

of the world is seeing benign inflation trends, India is a clear exception.

Among the drivers of headline inflation in India in recent months has been

food prices, especially those of vegetables. Also, the frequent rounds of

hikes in excise duties on fuel, thrice in the last one year, coupled with

increase in state levies of sales tax/VAT, are having a pass-through effect

on the retail inflation.

And even as the current situation of households has been progressively

worsening, the survey points to households reporting better prospects for

the future. The dip in the 'current situation survey' in each of the months

post June, with the estimates touching a new all-time low in each passing

month, was reported despite the progressive opening up of the economy,

offering a possible pointer to uncertainties in household perception of the

economy and a dimming outlook on employment prospects.

HOMEBUYERS IN SC TO FRAME MODEL PACTS TO PROTECT REALTY CUSTOMERS

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre

to frame model pacts for builder and agent buyers to protect customers and

bring in transparency in the realty sector in tune with the Real Estate

Regulatory Authority (RERA) Act 2016.

The plea filed by 62 homebuyers has also sought a direction to all the

states to enforce ''Model Builder Buyer Agreement'' and ''Model Agent Buyer

Agreement'' and to take steps to avoid "mental, physical and financial

injury" to customers.

"Promoters, Builders and Agents use manifestly arbitrary one-sided

agreements that do not place customers at an equal platform with them, which

offends Articles 14, 15, 21 of Constitution. There have been many cases of

deliberate inordinate delays in handing over possession and customers lodge

complaints but police don't register FIRs, citing arbitrary clauses of the

agreement.

The PIL contended that many developers across the country still follow a

common practice of pre-launching a project without securing requisite

approvals for the project from the authorities, and term it as ''soft

launch'' or ''pre-launch'' etc. thus, openly violating the law.

IPL: RR SCORE A COMFORTABLE WIN OVER CSK

Rajasthan Royals recorded a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Chennai

Super Kings, riding on Jos Buttler's unbeaten 48-ball 70 after their

bowlers' ended CSK innings at 125/5.

RR then overcame the target in 17.3 overs, thanks to a 98-run fourth wicket

partnership between Buttler and skipper Steve Smith (26).

CSK are now placed at the bottom of points tally with 3 wins from 10 games

(NRR -0.463)

RR have 4 wins from their 10 matches (NRR -0.591)

INDICATORS

Sensex 40,432 (+449), Nifty 11,873 (+111), Trading Value NSE ,(Rs.crores)

48437.99

Nasdaq 11,479 (-193) Dow 28,195 (-411), S&P 3,427 (-57)

US$-Rs. 73.25 GBP-Rs. 94.95, Euro-Rs. 86.07, UAE Dhm-Rs.19.93, Can$-Rs.

55.58, Aus$- Rs. 51.91

GBP 0.77 /US$, Euro 0.85 /US$, Jap.Yen 105.40 /US$, Aus$ 1.41 /US$, Sing

1.35 /US$, Bang Taka 83.28 /US$, Can$ 1.31 /US$, Mal Ring 4.14 /US$,

Pak Re 161.87 /US$, Phil Peso 48.61 /US$, Russian Rouble 77.75 /US$, NZ$

1.50 /US$, Thai Baht 31.16 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 28.10 /US$, Norway NOK 9.32

/US$

Bitcoin - USD 11,736

Dollar Index 93.42 Brent Crude 42.27 BDI 1,477

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,903 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 5,092 / 4,992

Silver (Rs. Per KG) 61,350

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

The debt of gratitude we owe our mother and father goes forward, not

backward. What we owe our parents is the bill presented to us by our

children. - Nancy Friday

OFF TRACK

An irate woman burst into the baker's shop and said, "I sent my son in for

two pounds of cookies this morning, but when I weighed them there was only

one pound. I suggest that you check your scales."

The baker looked at her calmly for a moment or two and then replied, "

Ma'am, I suggest you weigh your son."