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| 5 THINGS FIRST |
Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Saudi Arabia; EU delegation to visit J&K; Inter-ministerial group to discuss FDI policy easing; US Federal Reserve meet; Indian Super League football (Jamshedpur FC vs Hyderabad FC)
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| 1. What’s up in Kashmir? |
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- A visit: A 27-member delegation of lawmakers from the European Union, which met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and NSA Ajit Doval on Monday, would be visiting Jammu and Kashmir today. Reports said the visit is "unofficial" and the members have organised it "in personal capacity". The visit comes on a day when schools are likely to see good attendance as year-end examinations from Class 5 to Class 12 start today. This will be the first global delegation to visit the Valley after the abrogation of Article 370. Earlier this month, American senator, who was part of a US congressional delegation visiting India on trade and other issues, had said that the government had denied his request to travel to Kashmir. The Congress questioned the government for allowing the EU delegation to visit the state while preventing Indian leaders from going there and claimed that it was an insult to India's Parliament.
- The life: The restrictions in Kashmir completed 85 days on Monday with the main markets continuing to remain shut and public transport off the roads. The state’s businesses have suffered losses of over Rs 10,000 crore due to the shutdown, a trade body said on Monday. Post-paid mobile services were restored for voice calls and SMS a fortnight ago but over 25 lakh prepaid connections and internet services remain deactivated. Last week the Supreme Court had asked the government to furnish a roadmap on easing restrictions on movement and the internet in the Kashmir valley.
- And exams: About 1.6 lakh students would appear in their end-of-year school exams at 1,502 centres across Kashmir though only about 20% of them have been attending schools post-August 5 and almost half of the syllabus is yet to be completed due to the prolonged closure of schools. While class 10 exams, in which 65,000 candidates will appear, begin today, class 12 exams for 48,000 students start tomorrow. The sudden announcement of exams to get students back to school in the middle of a shutdown is similar to the 2016 move after months of violent protests in the Valley following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. In a bid to get more students to clear the exams, the authorities had then announced a 50% relaxation in the question paper.
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| 2. Is BJP-Sena tussle heading the 2014 way? |
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- What: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena leader Diwakar Raote met the governor on Monday but separately (they called it “courtesy calls”). Alliance partners BJP and the Shiv Sena are yet to agree on how they will share power in the state with the latter reminding the former of the 50:50 formula “agreed upon” earlier and demanding a rotational arrangement where a chief minister from each party will split the five-year term. The Sena also took a dig at the BJP in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamna' saying “...Itna sannata kyon hai bhai?” (why is there so much silence) is the question resonating everywhere on “silence” over the future of the country and Maharashtra.
- When: The next government must be formed by November 8 (the term of the current assembly expires on November 9). The BJP has called a meeting of its MLAs tomorrow to formally elect the leader of the party in the state assembly. The party is likely to stake claim to form the government the same day to put pressure on its ally. Both the alliance partners have been canvassing support of independents and other MLAs separately — BJP claims the support of 10 and Sena of four.
- Then: Shiv Sena’s hard bargaining is not new. In 2014, the Sena had called off its 25-year-old alliance with BJP just a few days ahead of assembly polls and sat in the opposition for a month (even electing a leader of opposition) before joining the Fadnavis government on the day of the swearing-in. It had, for a month, said that it won’t support the BJP government in the trust vote till the power-sharing was resolved. The difference this time is that unlike in 2014, the NCP hasn’t promised support to the BJP and BJP is more vulnerable compared to 2014. Both BJP’s and Sena’s seat tally has come down from 2014 — BJP won 105 seats, a loss of 17 seats compared to its 2014 tally and Sena is down to 56 seats from 63 in 2014. NCP has 54 and the Congress 44 seats in the 288-member assembly. Shiv Sena first formed an alliance with the BJP in 1989 and since then has contested on more seats than the BJP in assembly elections but that changed this year and the Sena became the ‘junior’ partner for the first time.
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| 3. And how are we breathing, a day after Diwali? |
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- Delhi-NCR: Nothing quite worked — ‘green’ firecrackers, a two-hour limit to burst them, a mega laser show organised by Arvind Kejriwal — as a day after Diwali the city's air quality, on Monday, plummeted to the ‘severe’ category for the first time this season. According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality monitor — the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) — levels of PM2.5 (tiny particulate matter of diameter 2.5 or less than 2.5 microns that can enter deep into the lungs) reached as high as 735 at Delhi University.
- At 11:30 am on Monday, the overall air quality index (AQI) for the Capital — enveloped in a layer of haze — stood at 463. The AQI at Pusa, Lodhi Road, Airport Terminal T3, Noida, Mathura Road, Ayanagar, IIT Delhi, Dhirpur, and Chandni Chowk was 480, 436, 460, 668, 413, 477, 483, 553 and 466, respectively. However, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, Delhi's overall AQI stood at 348 at 11:30 am on Monday. (It was 337 at 4:00 pm on Sunday.)
- The consolation: The situation’s still better than it was the last three years — think last year when Delhi’s AQI had crossed the 600-mark, 12 times the safe limit. (The AQI post-Diwali was 367 in 2017 and 425 in 2016.) And the capital, in fact, was better off than the satellite towns of Ghaziabad (378), Greater Noida (364), Gurgaon (359) and Noida (375), according to CPCB data.
- Elsewhere in the North: Ambala, Hisar and Kurukshetra in Haryana recorded their AQI at 370, 380, and 377, respectively. In Uttar Pradesh's Hapur, Muzaffarnagar, Moradbabad, Agra and Meerut, it was 694, 414, 393, 380 and 330. Punjab's Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Khanna were at 334, 314, 321 and 301, respectively.
- Mumbai, in comparison: As reported by Hindustan Times, the city on Sunday recorded its cleanest Diwali air in five years, since real-time air quality monitoring began in Mumbai. However, researchers have predicted a marginal spike in pollution levels on Monday. The AQI on Sunday was 30 during the day, which rose to 87 by evening. Even as BKC and Malad in the city were predicted to have the worst air quality on Sunday, reports said that Cyclone Karr and light rainfall helped keep the pollution to a minimal level. SAFAR predicted an AQI of 118 for Monday, and then a dip to 70 today.
- Note: An AQI between 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’, and 401-500 ‘severe’. Above 500 is ‘severe-plus emergency’.
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| 4. What’s PM Modi doing at ‘Davos in the desert’? |
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- The visit: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Riyadh on his second visit to Saudi Arabia (he last visited the Kingdom in April 2016). He is scheduled to hold talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, attend an investment summit and launch the RuPay card in the country during the two-day visit.
- The flight: Air India One was forced to take a longer route to the Kingdom after Pakistan denied the use of its airspace for the PM’s plane. The flight plan had to factor in Cyclone Karr, the first super cyclonic storm in Arabian sea in the last 12 years. Pakistan's airspace was closed for overflying by all flights from February 27 following Indian Air Force's Balakot strike and re-opened after 138 days on July 16. While scheduled commercial and charter flights have started overflying Pakistan after July 16, the neighbouring country has not allowed AI One to overfly. India has complained about the denial of overfly rights to International Civil Aviation Organisation, a UN agency responsible for managing international air navigation.
- The agenda: The visit comes in the backdrop of Pakistan’s shrill rhetoric on Kashmir and threats of a nuclear war. Saudi Arabia, unlike Turkey or Malaysia, has refused to take sides after the abrogation of Article 370. Earlier this month, Pakistan PM Imran Khan had also visited Riyadh and discussed the Kashmir issue. India and Saudi Arabia are expected to sign a pact for a ‘Strategic Partnership Council’ to be chaired by both. The two countries will also seek to finalise major deals in the energy sector, including the $44 billion West Coast Refinery Project (in Maharashtra) and for India's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) programme.
- The gift: The kingdom and the crown prince need the summit to be a success not just for the investments but also to turn the page on killing of critic and journalist Jamal Khashoggi that triggered a mass boycott last year. A strong turnout at the three-day Future Investment Initiative, nicknamed "Davos in the desert", would be a boost to the crown prince's image. PM Modi and Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro are guests of honour who will address the conference. Saudi Arabia recently climbed 30 places to 62nd in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business index, just ahead of India.
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| 6. After ‘killing’ Al Baghdadi, Trump resurrects bin Laden |
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Not one to let go of an opportunity for grandstanding, US President Donald Trump was hyperbole personified as he basked in the limelight of announcing the killing of ISIS founder Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in Syria over the weekend — using the event to make claims that he in fact had predicted the rise of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and had called for his killing a year before the 9/11 attacks. While that would certainly make him a much more reliable intelligence source than the CIA, fact is, the facts speak slightly differently, as pointed out in this report by AP. This however, isn’t the first time Trump has made some outlandish claims regarding Osama bin Laden — last year too, he had claimed to have predicted Laden’s 9/11 attacks a year before they happened.
- Claim: “About a year before the World Trade Center came down, the book came out. I was talking about Osama bin Laden. I said, 'You have to kill him. You have to take him out.' Nobody listened to me." Trump added that people said to him, "'You predicted that Osama Bin Laden had to be killed, before he knocked down the World Trade Center.' It's true."
- Fact: No doubt, in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, Trump definitely mentions Osama bin Laden, but that’s a singular reference in passing — as one of the many threats to US national security. Moreover, no where in the book does he advocate killing Laden — as he claimed at the Baghdadi killing briefing.
- Claim: "Nobody ever heard of Osama bin Laden until really the World Trade Center."
- Fact: That's incorrect, or, as Trump’s counsellor Kellyanne Conway would say, are “alternative facts.” Osama bin Laden, who shot to prominence during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, was on the CIA’s radar much before 9/11 — with the agency having a unit entirely dedicated to him going back to the mid-1990s. He had already launched attacks against US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 — which raised the question if Clinton and his successor, President George W Bush could have done more against al-Qaeda to pre-empt the 9/11 attacks.
- Claim: "In Iraq — so they spent — President Bush went in. I strongly disagreed with it, even though it wasn't my expertise at the time, but I had a very good instinct about things. They went in and I said, 'That's a tremendous mistake.' And there were no weapons of mass destruction. It turned out I was right."
- Fact: Trump seems to be having a few Ghajini moments, or so it would seem — on Sept. 11, 2002, when questioned by radio host Howard Stern on whether he supported a potential Iraq invasion (the US invaded Iraq in 2003), Trump replied "Yeah, I guess so." Again, on March 21, 2003, just days after the invasion, Trump praised the US military action, saying that it "looks like a tremendous success from a military standpoint." It was later that year that Trump began expressing reservations.
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| 7. UK’s election bid defeated even as Brexit gets a “flextension” |
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- Pre-poll defeat: UK PM Boris Johnson’s bid to get the parliament to agree to a snap poll on December 12 went belly up as the government failed in getting the support of two thirds of the MPs — 434 of the total 650 —- and instead could manage a relatively measly number of 299 votes in favour versus 70 votes against. Johnson is now left with the option of introducing a single line bill today stating that the elections will be held on December 12, regardless of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011. While that requires just a simple majority — by just one vote — Johnson doesn’t have the majority to get that also passed. Moreover, like any other piece of legislation in the parliament, it will be open to amendments wherein the opposition could team up with his own party’s rebels “to change the law in ways that could hurt him.”
- No riddance: Earlier in the day, the EU granted an extension to Brexit as the continental economic bloc voted to extend the deadline by three months till January 31, with the European Council president Donald Tusk terming it as a “flextension” or a flexible extension. That means that should the UK be able to pass the legislation on its Withdrawal Agreement Bill before that date, it can leave the EU before the new deadline. Interestingly, the EU agreed to extend the deadline on the basis of an expected election that is being pushed for by Johnson.
- Date fixation: The date chosen is not random: as per the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011, there needs to be a gap of minimum 25 working days between the dissolution of the Parliament and the next elections, with polling, as far as possible, scheduled for a Thursday. While the Act fixes the first Thursday of May as the day of polling, if elections are held at their five yearly interval, they do not prescribe a Thursday as a polling day in case of a mid-term election. However, in 2017, when Theresa May had announced a mid-term poll, the polling day was set for a Thursday. December 12 is the first Thursday after the end of the 25-working day gap period between the parliament’s dissolution and the elections. Moreover, it will give enough time for the next government to be in place before the Parliament closes for its Christmas recess — while the dates for this year’s Christmas break are not yet known, last year, they lasted from December 20 till January 7.
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| 8. Tiger, Tiger, winning bright |
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- Tiger Woods made history on Monday after he won the Zozo Championship at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba, Japan. The 43-year-old finished off the final round, holding off Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama to win his 82nd career PGA Tour title, equalling the 54-year-old record for the most PGA Tour titles, which is credited to Sam Snead. Snead, who died in 2002 aged 89, won the last of his titles in 1965 aged 52.
- Bad weather meant both Woods and Matsuyama had to finish on Monday with Woods having seven holes left of his fourth round. Woods shot a final-round 67 to complete the tournament at 261, 19 under par. Matsuyama was three shots back, while Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and South Korea’s Sung-jae Im tied for third.
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- It was his first tournament since arthroscopic left knee surgery in August and came after he started the tournament on Thursday with three straight bogeys. Four back surgeries, countless knee operations, marital strife and run-ins with the law meant Woods had not won a major since 2008 and no tournaments since 2013 when he teed up at the Players Championship at East Lake, Atlanta, just over a year ago.
- He had endured two years out of the game and hobbled out of the February 2018 Dubai Desert Classic with back spasms on his long-awaited return. His ranking plummeted to 656 at the end of 2017, and with form and fitness deserting him many felt he might never get the three further tour wins he needed to tie Snead, let alone another major.
- That said, it was the second title of 2019 for Woods, who won the Masters in April, his 15th major. The victory came in Woods' first start of the 2019-20 season at the first-ever PGA Tour event to be contested in Japan. Woods has now won PGA Tour events in seven countries: the US, Canada, Scotland, England, Ireland, Spain and Japan. (He's also won other titles in the UAE, Australia, Germany and Thailand.)
- And despite his summer physical woes, Woods now has three PGA Tour victories in his last 14 starts. And the victory moves him to No. 6 in the world. FYI: Woods won his first title aged 20, in October 1996 in Las Vegas. And his first major coming at the Masters the following year.
Full story here
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| 9. T20I overdose!!! |
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- In case you missed it during Diwali festivities on Sunday, there were eight T20 internationals played — the most played in a single day. It began with the Australia versus Sri Lanka game in Adelaide, where the hosts prevailed by 134 runs — their biggest-ever margin of victory in a T20I, in terms of runs. Sri Lankan fast bowler Kasun Rajitha also registered the worst-ever bowling figures in a T20I, going for 4-0-75-0.
- On to the UAE then, which is currently hosting the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup qualifiers. While Papua New Guinea sealed qualification to their first-ever T20 World Cup beating Kenya by 45 runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, hosts UAE qualified for the playoffs edging Canada by 14 runs at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Then there was Jersey’s win over Oman at Abu Dhabi and Netherlands’ victory against Scotland in Dubai. Also, Hong Kong dismantled by 5 wickets at the Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi.
- Neighbouring Europe also hosted two matches of the three-nationIberia Cup, with both games being played at the La Manga Club Bottom Ground in Murcia, Spain. Gibraltar, who featured in Sunday’s back-to-back games — first against Portugal and later hosts Spain — failed to pick up a win.
- Sunday, in fact, smashed the previous record for the seven T20Is played on Saturday, Oct. 5 2019, and was two better than the six T20Is played the day before (on Saturday, Oct. 26 2019). FYI: There have been 88 T20Is played this month so far, with 264 T20Is in total for 2019. This after 100 T20I matches were played for the entire year in 2016. (Note: The ICC had granted T20I status to all 104 member countries in April this year.)
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| 10. When lawyers go on strike, hire new ones |
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- What: Cracking the whip on striking lawyers paralysing judiciary, the Supreme Court has said that it expected the courts to dispense justice by hearing litigants if advocates remained adamant on striking work while mulling option of sending litigants to courts in neighbouring states.
- Why: The order came in a case where a litigant has sought transfer of his case owing to continuing agitation by lawyers in Odisha. The strike by lawyers is to protest the decision of SC Collegium clearing names of some candidates, who practised in the SC and not clearing the names of other candidates. “This can hardly be a ground for the lawyers to abstain from work,” the court said.
- How: The petitioner’s lawyer told the court that if the parties decide to engage lawyers from outside the state, or decides to appear in person, they must be provided security. The bench recorded its agreement with the plea and said, “It will be open for the counsel to appear or the party going to appear in advance to intimate the Registrar (of the HC) for making specific security arrangements for their presence and the police department of the state will also render full assistance in this behalf.”
Read the full story here
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| PLUS |
| Why Louis Vuitton wants to have “breakfast at Tiffany’s” |
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- Small is big: French luxury goods giant LVMH’s $14.5 billion bid for the sole US global luxury brand, Tiffany’s, could be the biggest acquisition by the company owned by France’s richest man, Bernard Arnault — even though it will be a means to an end for the French luxury goods maker which is seeking to bolster its jewellery business.
- Is Tiffany interested? The company, which started off as a single store in New York 182 years ago — in 1837 — and gained further fame in the 1961 Audrey Hepburn movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, hasn’t said an outright no. In fact, it said that it is considering the proposal, though no formal discussions are on at this stage. One potential reason why Tiffany’s may not have warmed up to the proposal is the potential upside in its share price — according to analysts, against the $120 a share price quoted by LVMH, Tiffany’s shares could be worth $140-160 apiece, which could make the company worth as much $19 billion. Moreover, with Tiffany’s share price surging 17.7% on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Monday and LVMH having a war chest of over $44 billion, the US-based company could certainly be forgiven for fancying a higher price — especially since LVMH needs it more than ever.
- Why is LVMH keen: LVMH, which owns brands such as Christian Dior, Givenchy and Fendi in addition to Vuitton, also has watches and jewellery brands like Bulgari, Hublot and Tag Heuer. It is keen to expand its presence into the US bridal market as also boost the contribution of its jewellery business to the group’s bottomline — currently, Hard Luxury, which is how the jewellery and watches division is categorised, is the smallest contributor to LVMH’s overall revenues and profits. In 2018, it contributed 9% to revenues and 7% to LVMH’s profits — and is one fifth the size of its fashion and handbag unit, which is the group’s bread and butter. With the jewellery segment in the luxury space set to grow at 7% this year — over the $20 billion in global sales in 2018, making it one of the strongest performers in the luxury space — Tiffany’s buyout is one meal ticket LVMH wouldn’t like to miss.
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| Answer to NEWS IN CLUES |
Richard Branson. The 69-year-old’s space venture Virgin Galactic is scheduled to become the first human spaceflight company to trade on public markets. Last week, shareholders approved Virgin Galactic’s merger with venture capital company Social Capital Hedosophia, which is pouring around $800 million into the space tourism program for a 49% stake in the business. The merged entity, which will list directly on the NYSE, will begin trading on Monday.
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Compiled by: Judhajit Basu, Rakesh Rai, Sumil Sudhakaran, Tejeesh N.S. Behl
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