INDIA COOPERATING WITH US PROBE IN PANNUN CASE: ENVOY

Washington has shared “legally presentable” inputs with Delhi on “Indian connections” in the alleged assassination plot of Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, but Ottawa has shared only “allegations” linked to separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing, Indian High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma has said.

He also said that the Indian connections referred to by the US are not “Government of India connections”, but are linked to “people” in India.

This is the first time that a senior Indian official has drawn a distinction between what US and Canada have shared with India, regarding alleged assassination plots against Khalistan separatists in these two countries.

Within hours of a report in UK daily Financial Times last week that the US thwarted a conspiracy to assassinate Pannun on American soil and issued a warning to India over concerns that it was involved in the plot, Delhi said that it took such inputs “seriously” and these were “already being examined” by relevant departments.

This Delhi response was very different from the manner in which it responded to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “credible allegations” about a potential link of Indian government agents to the killing of Nijjar.

In an interview to CTV, a Canadian TV channel, High Commissioner Verma, on being asked about the US inputs, “Those inputs are a nexus between gangsters, drug peddlers, terrorists, and gun runners in the US, and there is a belief that some of the Indian connections – now when I say Indian connections, I don’t mean Government of India connections, there’s 1.4 billion people, so some of the Indian connections are there – they are ready to investigate. Because we have got inputs, which are legally presentable.”

MALAYSIA LATEST TO WAIVE VISAS FOR INDIANS; 17TH NATION TO DO SO

Malaysia has become the latest country to offer visa-free travel to Indian tourists for a limited period. A number of countries have in the recent past extended visa-free travel in a bid to draw more tourists and boost economies post-Covid.

Thailand and Sri Lanka recently waived visas for Indians. Malaysia is now the 17th nation to extend this facility to Indians. The others are Barbados, Bhutan, the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Haiti, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, the Maldives, Nepal, Niue Island, Qatar, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, St Lucia and the Cook Islands.

The 30-day visa-free facility for Indians begins from December 1, but they will have to go through security screening to enter the country.

VP DHANKAR CAN’T STOP GUSHING ABOUT PM

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday described Mahatma Gandhi as the ‘mahapurush' of the last century, and termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the ‘yugpurush' of this century.

“Mahatma Gandhi freed us from the slavery of British through satyagraha and non-violence. India's successful Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken us to a path where we always wanted to be,” Mr Dhankhar said.

He was speaking at the birth anniversary celebrations of Jain mystic and philosopher Shrimad Rajchandraji.

MODI’S TELANGANA CAMPAIGN MAY HELP CONGRESS

Three days before Telangana votes in the Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday targeted the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and reiterated that it was the party’s responsibility “to bring Telangana out of the clutches of the BRS”. Modi also reiterated that the BJP had “turned down” the BRS’s offer to join hands.

The prime minister’s consistent attack on Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR, and his party illustrates the BJP’s earnest effort to shrug off the Congress’s allegation that the BJP and the BRS have joined hands in the election. There have been allegations of an alleged BRS-BJP deal and central investigating agencies’ delay in proceeding against BRS leaders in the alleged Delhi liquor scam has fuelled the speculation.

The BJP, which has not emerged as a formidable alternative in Telangana so far, has pushed back against the narrative that it reached a tacit understanding with the KCR-led party so that they can mutually benefit each other by keeping the Congress at bay. Sources in the BJP, however, said the scaling up of the offensive on the BRS seems to have shifted votes away from the KCR-led party without hurting the Congress much. “In effect, the aggressive campaign appears to be helping the Congress to win more seats,” said a BJP leader involved with the state election.

With several BRS leaders joining the Congress, the Mallikarjun Kharge-led party has succeeded in creating an impression that it has pushed the BJP to third place.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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ISRAEL AND HAMAS AGREE TO EXTEND TRUCE FOR TWO MORE DAYS, AND FREE MORE HOSTAGES AND PRISONERS

Israel and Hamas agreed to extend their cease-fire for two more days past Monday, the Qatari government said, bringing the prospect of a longer halt to their deadliest and most destructive war and further exchanges of militant-held hostages for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

The announcement, made by Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid Al Ansary in a post on X, came on the final day of the original four-day truce between the warring sides. Qatar, along with the United States and Egypt, has been the key mediator in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Israel has said it would extend the cease-fire by one day for every 10 additional hostages released. After the Qatari announcement, Hamas confirmed it had agreed to a two-day extension “under the same terms.”

Israel said late Monday that 11 more hostages released in the Gaza Strip had arrived safely.

Shortly after the arrival of the hostages was confirmed, Israel's prison authority said 33 Palestinian inmates had been released. The release brought the total number of detainees freed by Israel during the initial, four-day pause in the fighting to 150.

NETANYAHU SHOWS ELON MUSK FOOTAGE OF OCTOBER 7 HAMAS ATTACK

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk lent support on Monday to Israel's campaign against Hamas, saying one challenge was stopping propaganda of a sort that led to the Palestinian faction's killing spree that triggered the Gaza war.

The owner of the social media platform X, Musk was on an unusual visit to Israel, during a four-day pause to the fighting, and held a live online discussion with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hearing Netanyahu describe the destruction of Hamas, which Israel has set as a war goal, as necessary for any prospective peace with the Palestinians, Musk sounded his general agreement for such objectives during an X Spaces discussion. "There's no choice," said Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, adding: "I'd like to help as well."

Musk has himself been accused of incitement after agreeing on November 15 with a post that falsely claimed Jews were stoking hatred against white people.

Netanyahu showed Musk some footage of the Oct. 7 attack.

Last month, as the war raged, Musk proposed using Starlink to support communication links in the blackout-hit Gaza enclave with "internationally recognised aid organizations". At the time, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi objected, saying "Hamas will use it (Starlink) for terrorist activities".

ARAB STATES, EU AGREE ON NEED FOR 2-STATE SOLUTION

Arab states and the EU agreed at a meeting in Spain on Monday that a twostate solution was the answer to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell saying the Palestinian Authority should rule Gaza. Borrell said all EU members attending the meeting had agreed on the need for a two-state solution. The Palestinian Authority must hold elections and improve its functioning but is the only “viable solution” to the future leadership of Gaza, currently run by Hamas Islamists, to avoid a “power vacuum”, he said.

Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki said the Palestinian Authority, which lost control of the Gaza Strip in a 2007 power struggle with Hamas, had no need to return to Gaza, saying: “We have been there all the time, we have 60,000 public workers there.”

THE REST

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UTTARKASHI: VERTICAL DRILLING MAKES PROGRESS, AND RAT-HOLE MINERS GO HORIZONTAL

Rescuers had bored 36 metres into the hill above the Silkyara tunnel by Monday evening in their effort to reach 41 workers trapped inside for 15 days, as rat-hole mining experts also reached the disaster site to help tackle the challenge simultaneously from another front.

Twelve rat-hole mining experts will be involved in manual drilling and excavation horizontally through the last 10- or 12-metre stretch of debris of the collapsed portion of the under-construction tunnel on Uttarakhand's Char Dham route.

This drilling was earlier being carried out by a huge auger machine that got stuck in the rubble on Friday, forcing officials to focus on an alternative option -- drilling down from above the tunnel. About 40 per cent of the 86-metre vertical drilling required is now done.

For the horizontal through-the-rubble option, officials decided that the final stretch would be handled through a manual approach in which individual workers will go into the escape passage with drills, as well as gas-cutters to tackle obstacles like iron girders.

By Monday evening, the last bit of the stuck auger had been cut out piece by piece and a steel pipe inserted further into the partially complete escape passage.

In Delhi, National Disaster Management Authority member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said vertical drilling, which began on Sunday, has already reached a depth of 36 metres. Rescuers hope to pull out workers through this one-metre-wide shaft when it breaks through the top of the tunnel below, hopefully by Thursday.

Another eight-inch wide shaft being drilled from a nearby point has reached about 75 metres down. This probe, which is also expected to act as a supply line for the trapped workers, has indicated that there were no serious geological obstacles for the main shaft up to this point, the NDMA member and officials at Silkyara said.

MANIPUR VIOLENCE: BODIES UNCLAIMED, PANEL SAYS KIN UNDER PRESSURE, ASKS SC TO INTERVENE

With the bodies of more than half of those killed in Manipur since May 3 lying unclaimed in the state’s mortuaries, the Supreme Court-appointed panel has expressed concern over victims’ relatives facing “pressure” from civil society organisations to not accept the bodies, and urged the apex court to intervene.

The panel, headed by former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal, is learnt to have suggested that victims’ relatives should be directed to perform the last rites, failing which the Manipur government should do so instead, and the Supreme Court should prohibit civil society organisations from interfering.

The case will be heard by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud today.

The Supreme Court had appointed the three-member committee, which includes former Bombay High Court Judge, Justice Shalini P Joshi, and former Delhi High Court Judge, Justice Asha Menon, to examine the humanitarian aspects of the ethnic violence in Manipur. The panel submitted its thirteenth interim report to the Supreme Court last Monday.

DMK MP GETS FLAK FROM ALLY CONGRESS FOR ‘EULOGY’ TO ‘HONORABLE NATIONAL LEADER PRABHAKARAN’

DMK MP Thamizhachi Thangapandian’s remarks on the late Velupillai Prabhakaran, the founder-leader of the Sri Lankan Tamil separatist group LTTE, have not gone down well with ally Congress in Tamil Nadu.

In an interview to The Federal, a news portal based out of Tamil Nadu, last week, the writer-politician was asked which historical figure she wanted to dine with. She replied, “Methagu Thesiya Thalaivar Prabhakaran (honorable national leader Prabhakaran)”.

To a follow-up question on what she would ask the person, Thamizhachi said, “I would apologise. I would ask his pardon for the Mullivaikal tragedy (the killing of thousands of Tamils in the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war).”

Reacting to the interview, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said “eulogising Prabakaran doesn’t sit well with anyone in the Indian National Congress”.  “To gloss over the dastardly assassination of Rajiv Gandhi along with 17 Tamils is not acceptable,” he added in a post on X. “This Prabhakaran Veerappan Tamil Nationalism is as fringe as Hindutva nationalism.”

Drawing a parallel from the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, he said one could “sympathise & support the Palestinian people without being an endorser of Hamas”.  “Likewise, one can stand with the Tamils of Sri Lanka in their struggle for equality & dignity without being an apologist & fanboy of the LTTE. Why is this difficult to comprehend?” he added.

UP COURT SUMMONS RAHUL GANDHI OVER REMARKS ON AMIT SHAH IN 2018

An MP-MLA court has summoned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a 2018 defamation case over alleged "objectionable" comments he made against Union minister Amit Shah, the petitioner's counsel said.

Judge Yogesh Yadav has summoned Gandhi on December 16.

The defamation case was filed by BJP leader Vijay Mishra in 2018 against the Congress leader for allegedly making "objectionable" comments against Shah at a press conference in Bengaluru.

The complainant had referred to Gandhi's comment that the BJP which claims to believe in honest and clean politics has a party president who is an "accused" in a murder case. Shah was the BJP president when Gandhi made the remark. About four years before Gandhi's remark, a special CBI court in Mumbai had discharged Shah in a 2005 fake encounter case when Shah was a minister of state for home in Gujarat.

DELHI POLICE FOIL CANADA TERRORIST'S PLOT TO KILL SINGER MANGAT

Five members of a gang operated by Canada-based designated terrorist Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh Dalla were on Monday arrested by Delhi Police, which claimed they were planning to kill Punjabi singer Elly Mangat.

Arshdeep has links with the banned terror outfit Khalistan Tiger Force and is wanted by the National Investigation Agency and the Punjab police for heinous crimes such as murder, extortion, targeted killings and running terror modules.

The accused have been identified as Rajpreet Singh, Virender Singh, Sachin Bhati, Arpit Dhankar and Susheel Pradhan, the police said.

7 KASHMIR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ARRESTED UNDER UAPA OVER CAMPUS FACE-OFF AFTER WORLD CUP FINAL

Seven students of an agricultural university in Kashmir were arrested and booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) after another student complained that he was allegedly threatened and pro-Pakistan slogans were raised following Australia’s victory against India in the cricket World Cup final earlier this month.

The complaint was filed by a student after a face-off between several students at the hostel of the Veterinary Sciences faculty of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) at Shuhama in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal on the night of November 19.

An official at the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences said that on the night of November 19, there was a face-off between students at the undergraduate hostel after India lost the match.

US PENSION FUND'S INDEX SWITCH: INDIAN EQUITY MKTS SET FOR $3.6 BN INFLOWS

A US federal government retirement fund’s decision to change its equity benchmark index for gaining international exposure is set to trigger a churn of $28 billion (Rs 2.3 trillion) across global equities, and India is expected to be a major beneficiary of the move. According to analysts, Indian equity markets may attract inflows of $3.6 billion on account  of this  churn.

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB), one of the US government’s main retirement funds with assets of over $600 billion, recently decided to switch the benchmark index it uses for investing in global equities from the MSCI EAFE index to the MSCI ACWI IMI ex USA ex China ex Hong index.

With a market cap of nearly $4 trillion, the Indian market is the world’s fifth largest. But a relatively low public float and caps on overseas investments in several sectors have kept India’s weighting under check in several global indices historically. This has slowly changed over the past few years with sharp outperformance of domestic equities vis-à-vis other global equities. Also, India’s public float has increased following regulatory measures such as mandating listed companies to have at least 25 per cent public float, freeing up of investment legroom for overseas funds by the government, and advent of new-age companies with 100 per cent public float.

TO CURB FRAUD, 4-HOUR DELAY LIKELY IN FIRST UPI TRANSFER OVER RS 2,000

To curb rising instances of online payment frauds, the government is planning to introduce a minimum time for a transaction beyond a particular amount happening for the first time between two persons. The plan likely includes a possible four-hour window for the first transaction between two users for digital payments being processed for all transactions likely above Rs 2,000, government officials say.

While the process is expected to add some friction to digital payments, officials are of the view that it is necessary to mitigate cybersecurity concerns. If finalised, the measure could cover a wide range of digital payments through Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and even the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

To be sure, the plan is not to just delay or limit the first transaction upon account creation – which already happens in some shape or form across most digital payment means – but to regulate every first transaction between two users, irrespective of their independent past transaction history.

INDICATORS

(Indian Stock Markets were closed on account of Guru Nanak Jayanti)

Nasdaq 14,241 (-10) Dow 35,333 (-57), S&P 4,550 (-9)

US$-Rs. 83.36, GBP-Rs. 105.15, Euro-Rs. 91.23, UAE Dhm-Rs. 22.69, Can$-Rs. 61.12, Aus$- Rs. 54.96

GBP 0.79 /US$, Euro 0.91 /US$, Jap.Yen 148.93 /US$, Aus$ 1.51 /US$, Sing 1.33 /US$, Bang Taka 108.95 /US$, Can$ 1.36 /US$, Mal Ring 4.67 /US$, Pak Re 282.46 /US$, Phil Peso 55.44 /US$, Russian Rouble 88.99 /US$, NZ$ 1.64 /US$, Thai Baht 35.12 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 35.87 /US$

Bitcoin - USD 37,283, Dollar Index 103.00, Brent Crude 79.96, BDI 2102

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 2018 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 6,256 / 5,735, Silver (Rs. Per KG) 81,500

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts. Perhaps the fear of a loss of power. - John Stienbeck

OFF TRACK

A blonde is taking the driving portion of her driver's license exam. She handles most of the manoeuvres quite well. She has a little trouble parallel parking, however, and  winds up a couple of feet from the curb.  

"Could you get a little closer?" the examiner asks.  

The blonde then unbuckles her seat belt and slides over toward the examiner. "Now what?"