BIHAR VOTE COUNT BEGINS: LEADS SO FAR POINT TO A TIGHT RACE

The leads at 0945 IST (Total seats 243, leads available from all 243):

NDA (JD(U)/46 + BJP/59 + Others/8) = 113

Mahagathbandhan (RJD/72 + Cong/28 + CPI (ML)/6 + Others/7) = 113

LJP / 8

Others / 9

FIRST TIME SINCE BORDER STANDOFF, MODI, XI ON ONE ONLINE PLATFORM

The stage is set for the first encounter between Prime Minister Narendra

Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping since the border standoff in eastern

Ladakh that started in May, with the two leaders scheduled to participate in

a virtual interaction at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit

today.

Modi will also share a virtual platform with the Chinese President on

November 17 for the BRICS meeting and on November 21-22 for the G-20 summit.

The two leaders have met at least 18 times in the last six years but last

shared a platform on March 26 when Saudi Arabia held a virtual G-20

gathering over the Covid pandemic.

Officials said chances of a border thaw at the SCO meeting are "bleak",

given the hard positions the two sides have taken. Besides, unlike in the

past SCO, BRICS and G-20 summits, where the leaders could meet in retreat

sessions and engage in freewheeling discussions, the virtual format doesn't

provide for one-on-one conversations.

In 2017, the nearly three-month-long Doklam border stand-off was resolved

just ahead of the BRICS summit in September 2017 in Xiamen. The Chumar

border stand-off in September 2014 was also resolved after Modi raised the

issue with the visiting Chinese President in Ahmedabad.

But this time, there has been no sign of disengagement and de-escalation

after eight rounds of military talks, six rounds of diplomatic talks and at

least one face-to-face meeting between the Indian and Chinese NSAs, Defence

ministers and External Affairs ministers.

So far, the key factor that has kept tensions in check is the absence of

escalatory moves on the border since External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar

and Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed on a joint

approach to defuse the situation.

WILL HOLD TRICOLOUR AND J-K FLAG TOGETHER: MEHBOOBA MUFTI

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti on Monday asserted that she will hold the tricolour

and the flag of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir together, saying as

an MLA she had reaffirmed her faith in the J-K Constitution and the

sovereignty and integrity of India as both are inseparable.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister had last month said she was not

interested in contesting elections or holding the national flag till the

constitutional changes enforced on August 5 last year were rolled back,

sparking protests in Jammu.

"We are the people, especially in the Kashmir Valley, who upheld the

tricolour high over the years at the cost of thousands of our workers who

were martyred," Mufti told reporters at the end of her five-day visit to

Jammu - her first after release from over one-year-long detention under the

Public Safety Act (PSA).

Launching a scathing attack on the BJP, besides the RSS without naming it,

she said, "Those moving with half pants and where their leader sits do not

hoist the tricolour (at their headquarters) and they are giving us lessons

on the national flag."

She accused the BJP of "breaking the relations" of Jammu and Kashmir with

the country by its last year's decision of abrogating the special status of

Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and bifurcating it into union

territories. "I am saying give us our flag and the Constitution back.the

merchandise you have looted in the daylight after conspiring under the

darkness of the night have to be returned with interest," the PDP president

said.

She said the people in Nagaland had recently said they do not accept the

flag of this country and the Constitution, why these "half pants" did not

take out protest marches against them.

NGT IMPOSES NATIONWIDE BAN ON FIRECRACKERS WHEREVER AIR QUALITY FALLS

Taking a tough stance to check the deteriorating air quality, the National

Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday imposed a total ban on the sale or use of all

kinds of firecrackers in the Delhi-NCR region from November 9 midnight of

November 30.

The ban that comes a day after Haryana CM ML Khattar allowed sale and

bursting of crackers for two hours on Diwali has sent firecracker sellers

and manufacturers in a tizzy as they claim to have invested a lot in the

production, procurement and licence of newly introduced green crackers.

As per the decision pronounced on Monday, a Bench headed by NGT Chairperson

Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said the firecracker ban would apply to all cities

and towns in the country where the air quality in November fell under

'poor', 'very poor' or 'severe' categories.

The NGT said cities and towns where the air quality was 'moderate' or below,

only green crackers should be sold and the timings for use and bursting of

crackers be restricted to two hours during festivals.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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

TRUMP FIRES HIS DEFENCE SECRETARY MARK ESPER

US President Donald Trump on Monday fired defence secretary Mark Esper and

announced Christopher C Mills, head of the National Counterterrorism Center,

as acting head of the defence department.

Esper was Trump's second defence secretary. The first, James Mattis, had

resigned over policy differences with the president about troops in Syria.

Esper's firing further destabilises a government already navigating Trump's

refusal to concede election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.

Esper had clashed with Trump over his suggestion of using military personnel

to quash civic unrest.

TRUMP REFUSES TO CONCEDE

The Trump administration is literally refusing to hand over keys to the

federal government to President-elect Joe Biden's team. President Donald

Trump is digging in with assertions of a stolen election even as the Biden

team is knocking on the doors of the White House.

Signs of what could be an ugly stalemate emerged on Monday after the head of

the General Services Administration, a low-profile agency in charge of

federal buildings, refused to sign a letter that would assign budget (about

$10 million) and office space in every federal building to the Biden

transition team to prepare for governance.

Trump is in no mood to relent even as Biden's transition team began rolling

out plans to meet the immediate challenge - the pandemic - by announcing a

coronavirus task force to be co-chaired by Indian-American Vivek Murthy, a

former surgeon general in the Obama administration. The president kept up a

relentless barrage of tweets through the weekend questioning the verdict and

accusing the "lamestream media" of prematurely calling the election for the

Biden-Harris team.

While Trump retains support of rank and file party and most GOP lawmakers,

several Republican grandees acknowledged Biden as the legitimate winner and

implicitly urged the president to bow out. "I just talked to the

President-elect of the US, Joe Biden. I extended my warm congratulations and

thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night. I also called

Kamala Harris to congratulate her on her historic election to the vice

presidency. Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a

good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country," former

US President George W Bush said in a statement.

BUt Republican lawmakers (with rare exceptions such as Senator Mitt Romney

and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski) are backing Trump to the hilt. The more

militant among then are urging him to take the fight to the people,

essentially the Trump base, which the outgoing president is stirring up with

unrelenting charges of voter fraud and stolen election that are finding

resonance only among this most ardent followers.

The Trump family itself is said to be split over conceding the election.

Trump's son-inlaw Jared Kushner is reported to have counseled the president

to bow out, but his sons Don Jr and Eric are for fighting it out. First Lady

Melania Trump, who was reported to have urged her husband to concede,

appeared to back him, tweeting "The American people deserve fair elections.

Every legal - not illegal - vote should be counted. We must protect our

democracy with complete transparency."

THE REST

========

PFIZER CLAIMS FIRST BIG BREAKTHROUGH: TEST VACCINE 90% EFFECTIVE IN PHASE 3

American pharma company Pfizer said on Monday that during the first interim

analysis from phase 3 clinical trials, its vaccine candidate had been found

to be more than 90 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 in participants

without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Pfizer and its partner, the German biotech company BioNTech, said the

analysis of phase 3 trial data of the m-RNA vaccine candidate by an external

independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) "has not reported any serious

safety concerns".

However, the independent expert committee has recommended that the study

"continue to collect additional safety and efficacy data as planned", the

company underlined. "The data will be discussed with regulatory authorities

worldwide," Pfizer said in a release on Monday.

"This is a first but critical step in our work to deliver a safe and

effective vaccine," chairman and CEO Dr Albert Bourla said. He hailed the

trial data as representing "a great day for science and humanity".

While this means that this vaccine could be speedily developed, it also has

relatively fragile efficacy. Previous statements from the developers have

suggested that it needs to be stored at super-low temperatures - of minus 70

degrees Celsius or lower. Once it has been thawed out after transportation

at this super-low temperature, it needs to be kept refrigerated at just

above zero degree Celsius for at most 24 hours - after which it loses

efficacy and winds up being a placebo. The distribution challenge for

countries like India should be obvious. It is difficult enough to send out

regular vaccines. But this one, in addition, requires super-low

temperatures; has complex inventory requirements, with a maximum 24-hour

shelf life; and needs a follow-up dose in exactly three weeks. Put together,

this is a near-prohibitive ask for the Indian distribution system. The

developed world, however, could manage it.

BJP SETS UP TALKS TO END DEADLOCK OVER PUNJAB TRAIN SERVICES

Punjab farmers, who have been protesting against the Centre's farm laws,

have been invited to Delhi on 13 November to meet senior ministers in a bid

to end the ongoing impasse between them and the Railways, and restore train

services in the state.

The meeting, proposed by senior BJP leader Harjeet Singh Grewal, is expected

to take place between a delegation of the protesting farmers and Defence

Minister Rajnath Singh, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal.

Dr Darshan Pal, convenor of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination

Committee, which is spearheading the protest in Punjab, however, said they

have not received any formal invitation or agenda for the meeting on 13

November. "We have only been sent some feelers. Once we have the agenda

before us, we will hold an emergent meeting of the various unions and decide

on our next course of action," he said, adding that all train tracks have

now cleared of protesters.

Train services to Punjab have been suspended since 3 October when farmers,

protesting against the three farm laws brought by the NDA government,

launched an indefinite 'rail roko' agitation.

On 23 October, most of the farmer bodies called off their agitation and

decided to allow goods trains to pass in view of the acute shortage of coal

and fertilizer supply to the state. They, however, decided not to allow any

passenger trains to pass through.

The Railways did not restore goods train services to Punjab, insisting that

the state government should assure them of uninterrupted passage and

security to railway property.

AMID GUJJAR STIR IN RAJASTHAN, JATS AND MUSLIMS RENEW QUOTA DEMAND

Amid the protests by the Gujjar community, a section of Jat and Muslim

communities have renewed their demand for reservation under the OBC

category.

"If the government wants anarchy and only listens to agitations, then we

will decide on a strategy through eight mahapanchayats in the district

(Bharatpur), the first of which will be at Pathena village on November 18,"

said Nem Singh Faujdar, convenor of the Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti. "We

will not set any vehicle on fire, nor will we damage any property, but we

will do a chakka jam that the government can't even imagine," he said.

While the agitation by the Gujjars on the railway tracks has entered its

ninth day, the Ashok Gehlot government appears to be patiently trying to

avoid any confrontation and violence.

BOMBAY HIGH COURT REFUSES INTERIM BAIL TO ARNAB GOSWAMI

The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to grant interim bail to Republic TV

Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami and two others in a 2018 case of abetment of

suicide of an interior designer.

A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik said that the

petitioner (Goswami) had the remedy under law to approach the sessions court

concerned and seek regular bail.

On Saturday, the high court, while reserving its order on the petitions

seeking interim bail, said pendency of the matter in the HC does not

preclude the accused persons from seeking regular bail before the sessions

court.

CCI PROBE AGAINST GOOGLE FOR 'UNFAIR MEANS' TO PROMOTE GPAY

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) Monday initiated a

Director-General (DG)-level probe into alleged abuse of dominant position by

Google, to promote its payments app, Google Pay. It called for

investigations to be completed and a report submitted within 60 days.

This is the third major antitrust probe ordered by the Indian competition

regulator against Google and the various services it offers in the country.

Acting on an anonymous complaint filed in February this year, the CCI in its

39-page order said prima facie, Google had abused its dominant position in

the Indian market to unfairly push Google Pay on two accounts.

The first one was Google's policy of "mandatory use of Google Play's payment

system for purchasing the apps and IAPs (in-app purchases) in the Play

Store". The second was "excluding other mobile wallets/ UPI (Unified

Payments Interface) apps as one of the effective payment options in Google

Play's payment system".

The probe against Google Pay comes just four days after the National

Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) allowed rival Facebook-owned WhatsApp

to go live on the UPI in the multi-bank model.

In its order on Monday, the CCI also came down heavily on Google's policy to

charge 30 per cent commission for all app and in-app purchases.

SENSEX, NIFTY SOAR TO LIFETIME HIGHS; BIDEN WIN SPARKS GLOBAL RALLY

Equity benchmark Sensex surged 704 points to end at its all-time high on

Monday amid a rally in global markets following Joe Biden's victory in the

US presidential election.

After touching its lifetime intra-day peak of 42,645.33, the 30-share BSE

index ended 704.37 points or 1.68 per cent higher at 42,597.43 -- its record

closing high.

The broader NSE Nifty too scaled a fresh intra-day peak of 12,474.05. It

ended at a lifetime high of 12,461.05, up 197.50 points or 1.61 per cent.

Indian markets opened on a positive note tracking positive Asian market

peers as investors globally reacted to US presidential election results,

said Narendra Solanki, Head- Equity Research (Fundamental), Anand Rathi.

Most market participants are hoping that the Joe Biden regime would spell

good news for Indian companies, especially IT, and domestic financial

markets.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo ended up

to 2.12 per cent higher.

FRAGILE RECOVERY: RETAIL AUTO SALES CONTRADICT ROBUST WHOLESALE NUMBERS

Soon after major automakers reported high sales numbers for October, dealers

have cautioned against any exuberance. With declining retail sales

contradicting the robust wholesale numbers, there's an air of suspicion

around the recovery narrative in the auto space.

Auto sales are a barometer of the country's economy and record high sales

reported by manufacturers had raised hopes of the festive season pushing

consumer demand severely hit by the lockdown.

The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), the national body

representing automobile dealers in India, said the total vehicle

registrations in October declined 23.99 per cent to 14,13,549 units from

18,59,709 units a year ago. Automakers in India report dispatches from

factories to dealers as their sales in contrast to global markets where

firms report actual retail sales.

IPL FINAL: MUMBAI EYES FIFTH TITLE, DELHI DESPERATELY SEEKS ITS FIRST

After 52 days of the most closely-contested and widely-watched edition

played on alien land in the backdrop of the raging Covid-19 pandemic, the

BCCI can pat itself for pulling off a near flawless tournament that gave

people a chance to withdraw from prime time negativity that dominated the

air space.

And now, it's the coronation time with IPL's most successful skipper Rohit

Sharma itching to win his fifth title amid a stormy couple of weeks.

On the other hand, Delhi Capitals, a team that had flattered to deceive for

a dozen editions, will seek to lift its maiden ttle.

There hasn't been too many editions where the two most deserving teams

squared off in a summit clash unlike this edition where Mumbai reached the

finals winning 10 out of their 15 games while Capitals, despite a slump,

managed to triumph in nine out of their 16 games. But Delhi have lost all 3

games they've played against Mumbai this season. There haven't been too many

teams that have shown the flair and balance of Mumbai Indians, an envy for

any opposition.

INDICATORS

Sensex 42.597 (+704), Nifty 12,461 (+197), Trading Value NSE ,(Rs.crores)

56902.4

Nasdaq 11,714 (-181) Dow 29,158 (+835), S&P 3,551 (+41)

US$-Rs. 73.83 GBP-Rs. 97.19, Euro-Rs. 87.57, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.09, Can$-Rs.

56.80, Aus$- Rs. 53.81

GBP 0.75 /US$, Euro 0.84 /US$, Jap.Yen 104.36 /US$, Aus$ 1.37 /US$, Sing

1.34 /US$, Bang Taka 83.21 /US$, Can$ 1.29 /US$, Mal Ring 4.10 /US$,

Pak Re 159.91 /US$, Phil Peso 48.17 /US$, Russian Rouble 76.69 /US$, NZ$

1.46 /US$, Thai Baht 30.48 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 28.11 /US$, Norway NOK 9.06

/US$

Bitcoin - USD 15,309

Dollar Index 92.65 Brent Crude 42.06 BDI 1,196

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,878 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 5,223 / 5,123

Silver (Rs. Per KG) 65,400

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I

succeed. - Michael Jordan

OFF TRACK

An old farmer wins the ten million dollar lottery and is being interviewed.

The reporter asked what he is going to do with all the money.

"Oh, I reckon the first thing I'll do is go and pay a few bills."

"And what about the rest?" the reporter continued.

The farmer shrugs. "Well, I guess they'll just have to wait."