5 THINGS FIRST PM Modi to address Dawoodi Bohra community at Indore; JNU student union polls; Wholesale Price Inflation data for August to be released; Andhra government to launch an unemployment allowance scheme; Hindi Diwas

1. A peek into Naxal economy The investigation: National Investigative Agency (NIA) is looking into Maoist funding in 90-odd districts affected by Left-wing extremism. Naxal economy: Estimates have varied over the years. A CPI-Maoist politburo member arrested in 2007 said their budget for 2007-09 was Rs 60 crore. Another arrested in 2009 put it at Rs 15-20 crore. In the same year, the then Chhattisgarh DGP said Maoists make Rs 2,000 crore a year through nationwide extortion and the state's CM put their budget at Rs 1,000 crore. In 2010, former home secretary GK Pillai put the annual income of Maoists at about Rs 1,400 crore. Conservative estimates put the funding at Rs 100 to Rs 120 crore a year. The cash machine: NIA says naxals extort money from individuals, small businesses and contractors. In the coal and steel producing areas, owners of stone crushers, transporters and local contractors are tapped. Then, there are "membership fees" gathered from villagers. Investments: In some cases, money is left with the source itself and collected when required. NIA says Maoists have invested in gold biscuits, fixed deposits and real estate through former radicals who invest and return the money when demanded. Expenses: Most of the money goes into acquiring weapons, ammunition and explosives from the grey market, while some is spent on daily needs of cadres. Large sums are also being used for higher education of children of top naxal leaders. A small amount goes into printing of propaganda books, prisoners' assistance or assistance to the families of Maoists or medicines. Read the full story here

2. BJP, Congress, CBI... everybody helped Mallya Congress pinned the blame on finance minister Arun Jaitley and BJP went so far as to say that Kingfisher was in fact Rahul Gandhi’s company that he owns by proxy. The fact is, both parties helped Mallya at various stages of his success and crisis. Here’s how: Rajya Sabha entry: Both BJP and Congress helped Vijay Mallya enter Rajya Sabha, with help from JD(S). He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2002 as an independent member from Karnataka with the support of Congress and JD (S). In 2010, he got elected for a second term with the backing of BJP and JD(S). Bad loans get worse: The airline, launched in 2005, kept on expanding furiously and piling loans despite making big losses as early as 2009. Banks kept lending him money to evergreen (rollover) Kingfisher's loans and that, some say, wouldn't have been possible without political support, especially since many of these banks were government owned. A consortium of 17 banks collectively lent over Rs 7,000 crore to the crisis-ridden airline. Escape: That's been the focus of politics ever since the disgraced tycoon said that he met finance minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament before he left for London. BJP MP Subramanian Swamy had alleged earlier (and now Congress does too) that CBI, which was probing Kingfisher's financial irregularities, had issued a notice in October 2015 to block Mallya from trying to leave India. That notice was changed a month later to 'report' when he leaves the country. CBI officials say it was a technical mistake that was corrected. Curiously, Mallya left India on the same day banks moved debt recovery tribunal to seek his arrest and seize his passport.

3. A maternity scheme that has found no mothers The scheme: 2.6 crore babies are born in India every year, many in poor families. To support them, PM Narendra Modi had announced the pan-India implementation of a maternity benefit scheme on December 31, 2016. The scheme, Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) was a rebranded version of the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY) launched in 2010. The plan: Under the scheme, women aged over 19 get Rs 5,000 after delivery of their first child in an institution like a hospital. Missing mothers of UP: Not a rupee of government money has been spent on pregnant and lactating women enrolled under the scheme till August 2018 in Uttar Pradesh (UP), which has India's highest fertility rate. The state was sanctioned the highest amount of over Rs 336 crore from the total budget of Rs 2,049 crore in 2017-18. Only 184 women have enrolled for the scheme and none have received payment yet. Missing mothers of India: 44 lakh women have enrolled across 717 districts and 34 lakh have benefited from the scheme till now. Punjab got Rs 46.49 crore but managed only 5 beneficiaries and 7 enrolments. West Bengal has the highest number of women enrolled (6.8 lakh) and beneficiaries (5 lakh).

4. It's settled. Security more important than privacy in classrooms The Delhi High Court on Thursday said there was nothing wrong with having CCTV cameras inside classrooms and rubbished the claims that children's right to privacy would be affected. The concerns of privacy have to be balanced with safety of the children, it said, adding that often parents accuse teachers of not teaching and therefore, the cameras in the classrooms will show the correct picture. The observations were made while hearing a PIL against the Delhi government's proposal to install over 1.4 lakh CCTV cameras inside classrooms of its schools. The petitioners argued that it was not healthy to have cameras inside classrooms where children, including girls, often discuss personal things amongst themselves. The Delhi government told the court that feed from the cameras would be password protected and accessible to parents and not to any strangers. Read the full story here

NEWS IN CLUES 5. Which state boasts the world's richest Hindu temple? Clue 1: It is also home to India's oldest mosque—the Cheraman Juma Mosque—built in 629 AD. Clue 2: It boasts the highest sex ratio and highest life expectancy among all states. Clue 3: The state's population of nearly 35 million is the same as Saudi Arabia's. Scroll below for answer

6. These towers could kill Delhi's smog The idea: A futuristic design by a Dubai based architectural firm may become the answer to getting Delhi rid of being the world's most polluted city tag given to it by the WHO — a network of 100 metre tall towers across the cityscape that will suck in the smog and spew out breathable air. How it will work: Each tower will have filtration pods at its base which would capture pollutants at the level where people breathe, and propellers at the top would circulate the clean air — producing 3.2 million cubic metres of clean air each day, to reduce pollution to moderate levels. Pragmatic, or utopian? A similar idea, by Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde has already been put into action with the installation of seven-metre-high towers with patented air purifying technology sucking in smog at the top and then releasing clean air through vents in the building's six sides — the towers are currently in action in Rotterdam and Krakow.

X-PLAINED 7. Hurricane vs Typhoon vs Cyclone Damaged traffic boards and telecommunication relay poles brought down by typhoon Jebi in Osaka  Earlier this year, Cyclone Mekunu killed more than 30 people in Yemen and Oman. Typhoon Jebi then ripped through Japan last week. And as Hurricane Florence wreaks havoc in eastern USA, Typhoon Mangkhut is headed for the Philippines and Taiwan. So what’s the difference between the three? Location: Hurricanes form in the North Atlantic, northeastern Pacific, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Typhoons develop in the northwestern Pacific and usually threaten Asia. So, when a hurricane crosses over the International Dateline from east to west, it becomes a typhoon, and vice versa. The same storms in the Bay of Bengal or Arabian Sea are called cyclones. Season: The 2018 Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1 to November 30. The Pacific season kicked off earlier. Typhoons, on the other hand, can form throughout the year but are most common from May to October. And the cyclone seasons vary between November-April (South Pacific), two weeks later in the southern Indian Ocean and May-November (northern Indian Ocean). Categorisation: Hurricanes are categorised 1 to 5 according to the Saffir-Simpson scale, which is based on wind speed. Typhoons are classified by the Japan Meteorological Agency as 'typhoon', 'very strong typhoon' or 'violent typhoon', depending on sustained wind speeds. Cyclones in the Indian Ocean are classified according to two intensity scales: 'very intense tropical cyclone' and 'super cyclonic storm'. Australia rates cyclones from categories 1 to 5. Etymology: 'Hurricane' appeared in English in the 16th century as an adaptation of the Spanish 'huracan'. 'Typhoon' is variously described as coming from Arabic ('tafa') or Chinese ('taifeng'), or both. 'Cyclone' was coined in the late 18th century by a British official in India, from the Greek for moving in a circle'.

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8. It's a crime to deny a CM his right to cut ribbons What: Congress MP Kantilal Bhuria has been booked by the police for 'inaugurating' a government medical college a day before Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was scheduled to inaugurate it. Where: In a game of one-upmanship ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state, Bhuria reached the Government Medical College at Banjli in Ratlam along with his supporters and a priest and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday. The CM officially inaugurated it on Wednesday So: "A case under section 144 of CrPC (prohibiting assembly of more than four people in an area) and IPC sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 448 (punishment for house-trespass) was registered against Bhuria and 15 others based on a complaint given by the college administration in this regard," says the Ratlam Superintendent of Police. Read the full story here

9. Elephants are pests? This country thinks so Botswana is holding a month of public hearings to decide whether it should lift a ban on elephant hunting (introduced in 2014) as farmers complain the animals are damaging their crops. The report from the hearings will be submitted to the cabinet next month. There are at least 130,000 elephants in the sparsely populated southern African nation, or roughly 1 per 18 citizens. The world's second biggest population is in neighbouring Zimbabwe where limited hunting is permitted and generates income through trophy fees. Tourism is Botswana second-biggest source of foreign exchange after diamonds. Critics of the ban say elephant populations have grown rapidly and others have come from neighbouring countries to seek refuge from poachers, prompting an increase in human deaths and declining incomes in farming communities as they encroach on cultivated land.

10. Junkies' new high: kiss a cobra Deadly high: Drug addicts who are unable to get a high from the usual opioids and even medicinal drugs, as also alcohol, are taking recourse to the kiss of death — kissing a cobra so as to get bitten on the tongue and experience a feeling of ecstasy. Venomous paradise: According to a study published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, a person addicted to cobra venom experiences jerky movements of the body, blurring of vision and unresponsiveness or blackout for about an hour — however, on regaining consciousness, the addict experiences a heightened sense of arousal and well being for a period of 3-4 weeks, with no craving for either alcohol or opioids. Stunt gone wrong: A cobra, however, isn't exactly your typical romantic date, as kissing it is potentially fatal — young snake rescuers, in a bid to become popular on social media, often indulge in stunts like kissing a cobra or a Russell's viper, only to end up in the morgue, prompting animal rights activists to demand that forest officials issue safety guidelines for snake rescuers. Read the full story here

PLUS This is the world's oldest 'hashtag' Archaeologists have unearthed the oldest known abstract pencil drawing by human hand -- which looks like a present-day hashtag -- from South Africa. It's over 70,000 years old. The drawing was made with a piece of ocher used as a pencil. It was discovered on the surface of a small piece of siliceous rock (silcrete), that is 73,000-year-old, while analysing stone tools collected during an excavation in South Africa's Blombos Cave. This predates previous drawings from Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia by at least 30,000 years.

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Answer To NEWS IN CLUES Kerala. On Thursday, the state government sought Rs 4,700 crore as compensation from the central government for the damage caused by the recent floods, the worst in a century. The memorandum to the home ministry detailed the loss of human life, properties, infrastructure and crops. The Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram is the richest Hindu temple in the world, in terms of gold assets and precious stones.