THINNING OF TROOPS POSSIBLY ON TABLE FOR NEXT ROUND OF LAC TALKS

Negotiations between India and China over the situation in eastern Ladakh

have not yielded results so far on troops returning to their April locations

- the status quo ante, before the start of the standoff in May - but the

Indian establishment is hopeful of "partial disengagement" at certain

friction points in the region.

While seven rounds of talks at the level of the Corps Commander have taken

place since June, movement of troops and artillery by either side has only

increased in the region.

A move to effect some thinning of troops by either side comes at a time when

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are likely to

meet each other thrice this month - over video-conference - at the BRICS,

SCO and G-20 summits.

"At the moment, China does not appear to have any intention to concede to

India's demand for restoration of status quo ante. They seem to be confident

of sustaining the redrawing of the LAC that they have done unilaterally.

However, there have been feelers from the other side that it is willing to

thin down troops at certain friction points. The next Corps Commander level

talks have not been scheduled yet. As and when it happens, this matter will

be discussed," said a source privy to negotiations between the sides.

India, the source said, will continue to push for restoration of status quo

ante and will not agree to any "mutual equidistant withdrawal". A "partial

disengagement", the source said, would be in the interest of both countries

for now.

Following the June 15 Galwan Valley clash, in which 20 Indian soldiers were

killed and the Chinese an unspecified number, Corps Commander level talks

secured disengagement at the spot of the clash with forces of the two

countries moving 2 km behind.

But ever since, no substantial disengagement has been achieved. As a

countermeasure, Indian forces have occupied dominating heights on the south

bank of Pangong Tso and the Chushul sub-sector.

In early September, China increased troop presence on Finger 4 of the north

bank with India mirroring the strength. "The result is that there are

1500-2000 soldiers on each side at the top of the ridge between Finger 4 and

Finger 3. The situation is no different on the south bank where China has

tried to mirror the Indian strength. This is a recipe for a clash. Moreover,

in the harsh winter, with temperatures diving several notches below freezing

point, sustaining these positions is a difficult task for either side," the

source said.

RAJASTHAN ASSEMBLY PASSES BILLS TO COUNTER CENTRE'S FARM LAWS

The Rajasthan Assembly on Monday passed three Bills to counter the farm laws

enacted by the Centre with the state following the example of Congress-run

Punjab and Chhattisgarh.

BJP MLAs staged a walkout just ahead of the voice vote that took place after

about eight hours of debate in the House.

The Rajasthan Bills mandate that crops will be bought or sold for no less

than the MSP and provide for imprisonment of three to seven years for

harassing farmers.

However, the Bills become law only after the Governor's assent, who may

withhold and decide to refer them to the President.

Replying to the debate in the assembly, Rajasthan Parliamentary Affairs

Minister Shanti Dhariwal said the entire country is against the Centre's new

farm. "I can say it with a guarantee that all three farm laws will have to

be withdrawn, just like the Land Acquisition Act," Dhariwal said.

Dhariwal said farmers were free to sell their produce anywhere in the

country in the existing system, contrary to what has been claimed by the

Centre. "Farmers were free to sell their produce anywhere in the country and

you are saying that you have freed them. You have worked to handover

agriculture mandis directly into the hands of corporate houses," Dhariwal

said.

NDA CONSOLIDATES POSITION IN RAJYA SABHA; CONG DROPS TO LOWEST EVER TALLY

The ruling NDA dispensation further consolidated its position in Rajya Sabha

crossing the 100-mark after nine BJP candidates, including Union Minister

Hardeep Singh Puri, were elected unopposed to the Upper House on Monday.

On the other hand, the Congress, which dominated the Upper House for a long

time, is now down to 38 seats -- its lowest ever tally -- in the 242-member

House after it lost two more seats to the BJP in the current elections.

Out of the 11 Rajya Sabha seats up for grabs -- 10 from Uttar Pradesh and

one from Uttarakhand -- nine were won by BJP candidates, including Union

Urban Development Minister Puri, taking the party's tally to 92 seats.

The NDA tally will now be 104 and it can get the support of four nominated

members. The half-way mark is 121 in Rajya Sabha whose current strength is

242.

The ruling alliance can also seek support on crucial bills from some

friendly parties like the AIADMK with nine MPs, BJD with nine MPs, TRS with

seven MPs and YSRCP which has six MPs in Rajya Sabha. These parties have

been extending issue-based support to the NDA.

BIHAR: VOTING FOR 94 SEATS TODAY

The elections to 94 Bihar Assembly segments in the second phase today will

test the political might of former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad as both his

sons are in the fray.

For 31-year-old Tejashwi Yadav, the second phase of polling could mean a

make or break one as the RJD is contesting the most seats today as compared

to the other parties.

Tejashwi is defending Raghopur, a seat he wrested from the BJP's Satish

Kumar in 2015 and has put up nominees in 56 of the 94 constituencies that

will go to the polls tomorrow. The Congress is in the fray on 27 seats, BJP

in 46, JDU in 43 and the LJP in 52.

Tejashwi's elder brother Tej Pratap is also contesting from Hasanpur in

Samastipur, one of the 17 districts that will witness a contest today.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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

ATTACK ON KABUL UNIVERSITY BY ISIS GUNMEN LEAVES 22 DEAD

At least 22 people were killed and 22 wounded after Islamic State-affiliated

gunmen stormed Kabul University as it was hosting a book fair attended by

Iran's ambassador to Afghanistan, taking hostages and fighting gun battles

with security forces for more than five hours.

The Afghan government has declared Tuesday a national day of mourning

following the attack. Three attackers shot at fleeing students and gunned

down others in their classrooms in what was the second assault on an

educational facility in the country in recent weeks. The gunmen were shot

dead by Afghan security forces, authorities said.

On Monday evening, Isis took responsibility for the attack, claiming it had

targeted a "graduation gathering for judges and investigators of the

apostate Afghan government". It named two men as responsible.

2 KILLED IN VIENNA "TERROR ATTACK" AT 6 LOCATIONS; 1 GUNMAN SHOT DEAD

Gunmen opened fire at multiple locations across central Vienna on Monday,

killing at least two people and wounding several more in what Austrian

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz described as a "repulsive terror attack", with a

huge manhunt under way for the assailants. One of the gunmen was shot dead

by police who said they were hunting for at least one more attacker still at

large.

The attacks, in six locations including near a synagogue in the centre of

town, were carried out by "several suspects armed with rifles", police said.

The attacks started at around 8 pm (1900 GMT) Monday.

In a press conference early Tuesday, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said:

"According to what we currently know, there is at least one attacker who is

still on the run." Speaking to ORF, Austrian leader Kurz had said that the

attackers were "were very well equipped with automatic weapons" and had

"prepared professionally".

President Emmanuel Macron of France, which has experienced two serious

attacks in recent weeks, tweeted that "we French share the shock and sorrow

of the Austrian people".

"After France, it's a friendly nation that has been attacked," he added,

referring to the killing on Thursday of three people by an attacker in the

southern city of Nice and the beheading of a schoolteacher by a suspected

Islamist outside Paris several days before.

Terming it a "hideous terrorist attack", Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz

also condemned the shootings while thanking the emergency services who

risked their lives to save people.

US GOES TO POLLS TODAY

Today is the final day of voting in US - early voting has been open since

mid-September - and by Monday night India time, over 96 million Americans

had already cast their votes, either in person or by returned mail ballots,

according to the US Elections Project.

Unlike India's Election Commission, there is no federal body in the US that

runs the election or tallies the results. Each state runs the election

according to its own rules. Although most states allow electronic methods,

paper ballots are the norm across the country. Ahead of counting comes a

stage called processing, which involves checking signatures, verifying

documentation, and perhaps even scanning the ballots. Counting votes is a

separate, and later, process.

The count is not officially finalised for weeks - in 2016, it took until

December. What happens on Election Night is that major TV networks and the

Associated Press "call" the election in favour of one of the candidates - a

projection based on exit polls, interviews with voters, and trends - a

legitimate exercise, and a necessity in the US system. The projections are

not usually contested, and the candidate projected to have lost concedes the

election.

This year, given the pandemic and the huge volumes of mail-in ballots, there

is widespread apprehension that a clear winner will not emerge on November 3

or even the day after - unless any one candidate wins in a landslide.

THE REST

========

EC HAS NO POWER TO STRIP NETA OF STAR CAMPAIGNER STATUS: SC

The Supreme Court yesterday stayed the Election Commission's decision to

revoke the "star campaigner" status of Congress leader and former Madhya

Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath for allegedly violating the model code of

conduct during campaigning for the Assembly byelection in the state.

"Who gives you the power to determine who is the leader of the party? We

stay this order. You have no such power," a Bench headed by CJI SA Bobde

told the commission while staying its October 30 order.

While a political party pays for expenditure of its star campaigners,

individual candidates pay for expenditure of other campaigners.

On behalf of the EC, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi submitted that the

matter had become infructuous because the poll campaign was already over.

KERALA CONGRESS CHIEF IN HARSH SPOTLIGHT OVER RAPE REMARKS

Kerala Congress president Mullappally Ramachandran drew flak Sunday for

appearing to blame rape victims for the crime.

Addressing allegations of rape levelled at some Congress leaders,

Ramachandran in Thiruvananathapuram said, "Every day when she wakes up, she

claims she was raped. A woman who says she was raped across the state, she's

dressed up and made to stand behind the curtain. We can understand if a

woman says she was raped once. Any woman with self-respect will either die

or prevent being raped again. But, she keeps crying that she was raped again

and again all over the state."

His statement was in reference to a woman involved in the 2013 state solar

scandal, who had subsequently accused multiple Congress leaders of rape.

This, however, isn't the first time that Ramachandran, a seven-time Lok

Sabha MP and former minister of state (MoS) for home affairs, has been

slammed for his controversial statements, often deemed sexist and

misogynistic.

MP & K'TAKA IN LINE TO JOIN CRUSADE AGAINST 'LOVE JIHAD'

The club of BJP-governed states contemplating laws against "love jihad" grew

to four on Monday, with MP already "making legal arrangements to check this"

and Karnataka waiting for UP and Haryana to finalise theirs so that it can

study and decide what provisions to adopt.

"There will be no jihad in the name of love, and if anybody dares to, then

action will be taken," MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said at the

BJP state headquarters in Bhopal on the eve of bypolls to 28 assembly

constituencies. "My government will not allow fanaticism. Whoever does so

will face the consequences."

AMID PROTESTS BY OPPN, J&K SAYS OLD LAND LAWS OBSOLETE

Amid protests by opposition parties and many sections of the public in Jammu

and Kashmir against the new land laws introduced by the Centre, the Union

Territory administration's spokesperson Rohit Kansal on Saturday defended

the move, saying that many of these laws repealed or modified had become

"outdated" and "obsolete'' and were even "regressive'' and "anti-people".

While National Conference leader and former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah

has accused the government of opening J&K "for sale", and said that the new

laws try to do away with land reforms that had been hallmark of the

erstwhile state, Kansal maintained that the reality is "actually quite to

the contrary''.

Citing an instance, he said while Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976, had already

superseded the Big Landed Abolition Act, relevant provisions of both laws

have been included in the new laws. According to Kansal, the new laws were

required since the entire gamut of earlier land laws was meant to serve an

"old agrarian rural", and many of these had become "outdated and obsolete".

JUDGES MUST BE EDUCATED ON GENDER SENSITISATION, SAYS AG

Attorney General KK Venugopal on Monday told the Supreme Court that judges

needed to be educated on gender sensitisation to ensure that they didn't

trivialise sexual violence against women.

"On the face of it, the (MP) High Court judge seems to have got carried away

as this order was nothing less than a drama that must be condemned,"

Venugopal told a Bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar.

The MP HC had on July 30 granted bail to a molestation accused, saying he

should visit the house of the complainant and request her to tie a 'Rakhi'

to him. The petitioners wanted the top court to restrain courts across India

from imposing such bail conditions against the principle of law.

GOVT MAY ALLOW EPFO TO INVEST IN CASH-STARVED INFRA SECTOR THROUGH AIFS

The Centre is planning to bring in special changes to the regulation of the

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), enabling it to invest in the

cash-starved infrastructure sector through alternative investment funds

(AIFs), said a finance ministry official.

The development is part of the central government's strategy to channelise

domestic savings and assets into infrastructure and reduce dependence on

foreign investors.

An initial estimate says domestic assets of about Rs 16 trillion can be

channelised into infrastructure if the government liberalises the investment

guidelines on such funds.

At present, the EPFO is mandated to invest 20-45 per cent of its incremental

funds (of around Rs 1.5 trillion) in debt-related instruments, according to

its pattern of investment notified by the labour and employment ministry,

following consultations with the Ministry of Finance. This includes both

private and public sector bonds issued by commercial banks and fund houses.

RIL SCRIP PLUNGES 8.7% IN A DAY

Reliance Industries (RIL) was the biggest loser among index stocks on

Monday. It closed the day with losses of 8.7 per cent, against 0.2 per cent

rise on the Nifty50 index during the day. This was a sharp reversal for a

stock which has been the biggest market mover in the past six months. RIL's

market capitalisation (m-cap) is, however, still up 75 per cent since the

end of March this year, accounting for nearly 30 per cent rise in Nifty

during the period.

Analysts say the recent decline in RIL's stock price was long overdue, given

its earnings have lagged behind the sharp rise in its m-cap in recent

quarters; that gap has been growing steadily.

RIL's m-cap is up 150 per cent in the past 12-quarters, against 24 per cent

cumulative growth in its net profit on a consolidated basis during the

period. This has created a wedge between its earnings per share (EPS) and

the stock price. That gap has widened to record levels at the end of

September this year

IPL: DELHI CAPITALS SECURE 2ND SPOT; RCB SURE OF 3RD OR 4TH SPOT

Riding on a fine partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane,

Delhi Capitals ended their four-match losing streak to finish second in the

points table. It gives them the leeway of an extra game in the playoffs, as

they beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

RCB, too, qualified, thanks to their better net run rate than Kolkata Knight

Riders.

After posting 152/7, RCB had to take the game deep to ensure that they go

through. They stay put on 14 points but as DC surpassed their total in 19

overs, RCB's net run rate remained above KKR's.

League Match Remaining:

Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Mumbai Indians

Team / points / NRR

MI 18 / 1.296

DC 16 / -0.109

RCB 14 / -0.172

KKR 14 / -0.214

SRH 12 / 0.555

KXIP 12 / -0.162

CSK 12 / -0.455

RR 12 / -0.569

A frenzied last couple of days has come down to a simple equation before the

final league match of the season: Mumbai Indians end up 1st, Delhi Capitals

2nd.

A win takes SRH through and to 3rd place, pushing Royal Challengers

Bangalore down to 4th and Kolkata Knight Riders to 5th.

A loss for SRH would mean 3rd spot finish for RCB, 4th spot for KKR

INDICATORS

Sensex 39,758 (+144), Nifty 11,669 (+27), Trading Value NSE ,(Rs.crores)

55,341.01

Nasdaq 10,958 (+46) Dow 26,925 (+423), S&P 3,310 (+40)

US$-Rs. 74.37 GBP-Rs. 96.01, Euro-Rs. 86.54, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.24, Can$-Rs.

55.95, Aus$- Rs. 52.28

GBP 0.77 /US$, Euro 0.85 /US$, Jap.Yen 104.75 /US$, Aus$ 1.42 /US$, Sing

1.36 /US$, Bang Taka 83.30 /US$, Can$ 1.32 /US$, Mal Ring 4.15 /US$,

Pak Re 160.08 /US$, Phil Peso 48.39 /US$, Russian Rouble 80.26 /US$, NZ$

1.51 /US$, Thai Baht 31.10 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 28.46 /US$, Norway NOK 9.56

/US$

Bitcoin - USD 13,510

Dollar Index 93.98 Brent Crude 38.89 BDI 1,283

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,897 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 5,099 / 4,998

Silver (Rs. Per KG) 61,700

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Nothing changes more consistently than the past; ... the past that

influences our lives is not what actually happened but what we believe

happened. - Gerald W. Johnson

OFF TRACK

A doctor and a lawyer were talking at a party. Their conversation was

constantly interrupted by people describing their ailments and asking the

doctor for free medical advice.

After an hour of this, the exasperated doctor asked the lawyer, "What do you

do to stop people from asking you for legal advice when you're out of the

office?"

"I give it to them," replied the lawyer, "and then I send them a bill."

The doctor was shocked, but agreed to give it a try.

The next day, still feeling slightly guilty, the doctor prepared the bills.

When he went to place them in his mailbox, he found a bill from the lawyer.