5 THINGS FIRST PM Modi to launch a new cleanliness drive; UIDAI to roll out face recognition feature for Aadhaar from today; First round of elections in Bhutan; Asia Cup 2018 kicks off in the UAE with Bangladesh v Sri Lanka; NASA launches mission to study changing ice on Earth 1. How a false spy case created real legal history The judgement: Nearly 24 years after scientist Nambi Narayanan was framed and arrested in a false ISRO spy case, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the Kerala government to pay within 8 weeks Rs 50 lakh compensation to him for violation of his right to life by wrongful arrest. The history: Though India does not have a concept of compensating a 'wrongly' arrested person, the court invoked its constitutional powers to do so. It said this not a case where Narayanan was acquitted after trial to be not entitled to compensation but a "clear instance of police framing him to cause humiliation when he was involved in an important project of developing cryogenic rocket engines for Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)". The case: Narayanan has been fighting to bring to book the erring Kerala police officers, who in October 1994 cooked up a sex scandal involving two Maldivian women and arrested him to sully his reputation. A CBI probe discharged Narayanan of any wrongdoing in 1996, but the Kerala government set up an SIT to probe afresh. In 1998, SC quashed the reinvestigation. The NHRC in 2001 asked the state to pay Rs 10 lakh to Narayanan, which was paid in 2012 after Kerala HC intervened and slammed the state for defending the officers. The officers appealed against this before HC, which set aside the order, forcing Narayanan to appeal to the SC. Read the full story here 2. It took 27 years for Indians to live 11 years longer One step at a time: India climbed one spot in the latest UNDP human development index rankings to 130 (out of 189 countries) — its HDI score increased 50% from 0.427 in 1990 to 0.640 in 2017, an indicator that several millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. Living longer, earning more: Since 1990, the average lifespan of an Indian has increased by 10.9 years, helped by a 266% increase in the income since the economy liberalised. Yet, life expectancy of an Indian at birth (68.8 years) is still lower than the average life expectancy of a South Asian (69.3) and even Bangladesh (72.8 years). A study of education: Also, India is not faring well on educating a child till graduation, as on an average a child of school-entry age is expected to study for over 12 years. Also, he or she gets to study for just half that time: 6.4 years of mean schooling time, which is also the average number of years of education received by an Indian who is 25 years or older. Read the full story here X-PLAINED 3. eSIM What is it: A regular SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card is essentially a chipset that lets your phone connect to a mobile network. An eSIM does the same but without the need to insert a plastic card into the phone; eSIM is a chipset that is embedded within the device. What's special: An embedded eSIM in a device doesn't mean you are locked into a network — in fact, the opposite. eSIMs let you change from one network to the other through a software update — no need to buy another SIM. All you have to do is call up the network provider and ask to be ported. When do I get it: Apple's new phones (XS, XS Max, XR) sport eSIMS but eSIMs were here before that. Samsung's Gear watch of 2016 had it, but it was the Apple Watch 3 (the previous generation) that made it mainstream — allowing a user to make and receive calls with the Watch (the eSIM shared the same number as the regular SIM on the user's iPhone). In fact, that Watch was the subject of a complaint Reliance Jio lodged against Airtel — it accused the latter of breaking the rules through its eSIM provisioning. This May, the Department of Telecom, issued guidelines to resolve the issue, meaning you could use the eSIM on Apple's new phones as soon as it is available in the market. So what do I gain: Besides the ability to change numbers easily, eSIMs provide numerous use cases: a car infotainment system with an eSIM would mean you could make and take calls on it without having to pair your phone via Bluetooth. It also makes car-to-car communication easier — a crucial factor in autonomous driving. 4. Why this 'war of sexes' keeps ending up in court Dowry & law: Dowry has been illegal in India since 1961, yet the practice continues. To prevent harassment of women for dowry, a tough anti-dowry law — Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code — was introduced in 1983. A complaint under the dowry law can lead to immediate arrest of the accused. The case: Campaigners against the law say that the provision is being misused, and false cases filed. They say that though thousands of arrests are made under the law every year, the conviction rates are low — it has dropped from 21.9% in 2006 to 12.2% in 2016. Others say since women continue to be harassed in the name of dowry, the provision should stay — 7,634 women were killed in 2015 in dowry-related incidents. The confusion: On Friday, a Supreme Court judgement removed a few safeguards against the arrest of husbands and their relatives under Section 498A that a previous bench had enforced. Last year, the top court had said that a complaint under Section 498A should be first verified for authenticity by a committee, and an arrest would be made only after its final report. The solution: SC has also said it is the Parliament, which enacted the Section 498A, that is obliged to frame protective measures to curb harassment of husbands and their relatives from misuse of the same provision and prevent the situation from becoming "a war between two sexes". Read the full story here NEWS IN CLUES 5. Which is the world's biggest automaker? Clue 1: It has been nominated the most times for the International Engine of the Year Awards. Clue 2: US carmaker Ford turned down an offer to buy this company for free. Clue 3: Most of its car models are named after oceanic currents and prevailing winds. Scroll below for answer 6. India's closest neighbour goes to polls and China's watching The election: Bhutan will vote today in a primary round of its third general election as a democracy. The round would be held between four aspiring political parties of which only two parties will be selected to compete for the general round, which will be held on October 18. The contestants: Two new parties — the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) and the Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party (BKP) — will be contesting along with the older ones that won elections in 2008 and 2013: the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) and the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). Closest neighbour: India has maintained extremely close ties with Bhutan, supporting it with extraordinary economic aid since its Independence. Though the bilateral treaty between the two countries was updated in 2007 to allow Bhutan to strike relations with other countries without asking for India's permission, relations have been good. India & polls: Outgoing PM Tshering Tobgay of PDP is seen as a pro-India leader. In fact, his election had come as a relief for India after a year of stress as the earlier prime minister Jigme Y Thinley was seen friendlier to China. But the Indian government's report on Bhutan says "there is widespread feeling of anti-incumbency in the country". Bhutan & China: Though China doesn't enjoy official diplomatic ties with Bhutan, it has reached out to Thimpu on various issues. One big concern for India is the Chinese pressure on Bhutan to accept a land-swap deal which could see Bhutan cede the Doklam plateau, the site of Sino-Indian military standoff last year, to China. 7. Data localisation could boost India's renewable energy The jury is still out on if forcing tech and payment companies to store data locally is sound governance. But if the Indian government’s stand does prevail, there could be an unexpected winner: India’s renewable energy sector. Here’s why: RBI wants all payment companies to store financial data within India. This would affect the likes of VISA, Mastercard, Google, WhatsApp and many others (Google this week said it will comply). A similar directive could be enforced on the e-commerce sector. Where do you store all this data? In data centres, of course. And data centres, with its large servers and coolers, are power hungry — in 2014, before the real data boom, US data centres consumed 70 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, that is 2% of the country's total power consumption. A study says by 2020, 20% of world’s energy could be consumed by data centres. And all this energy cannot be, realistically, sourced from fossil fuel alone — which at present contribute 80% of the world's energy. Why? Growing energy need plus fewer fossil fuel mean high cost for data centres. Hence, tech companies are these days buying up wind and solar farms. A report says the top global corporate buyers of renewable energy today are Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple. In fact, this week Google signed a deal with a Finnish firm to buy energy from three wind farms. Apple's facilities — data centres, stores and more — are already powered 100% by renewable energy. All that means, more data centres in India could mean new, power-hungry customers for India's renewable energy market, which is already seeing better investment growth than China. (India's target is 175 GW of renewable power by 2022 against its current capacity of around 60 GW). 8. Is Afghanistan the new Syria? Deadly conflict: As the conflict in Syria heads towards a possible endgame this year, the Afghan conflict could overtake it as the deadliest conflict in the world, analysts say. Syria vs Afghanistan: The Syrian conflict, which began a decade after Afghanistan's, has claimed over 15,000 lives so far this year. Indications are that the Afghan war is on track to inflict over 20,000 battle deaths in 2018. Afghan civilian deaths have already hit a record 1,692 in the first six months of 2018, a recent UN report showed. Why: The Taliban and other insurgents control or influence 14% of Afghanistan's 407 districts. The government, meanwhile, controls or influences 56%. The rest of the country is considered 'contested'. Why now: The total death toll has been rising steeply since 2014, the year NATO combat troops pulled out, leaving Afghan forces with the responsibility for holding back the resurgent Taliban. This year, the violence has been fanned by long-delayed parliamentary elections scheduled for October 20 and renewed efforts to engage the Taliban, Afghanistan's largest militant group, in peace talks. Read the full story here YOU SHARE YOUR B'DAY WITH... Source: Various 9. Admissions to the 'good wife' course now open! Come again? Women these days have no clue on what a marriage entails — Bhopal's Barkatullah University seems to think so, as it launched a short-term course to educate and train women on how to become an ideal daughter-in-law (there's no course to educate men, though). That's rich! Its Vice Chancellor, Prof D C Gupta, asserts that the course objective is to prepare brides who will keep families intact (as if the onus is solely on the wife). FYI: This is coming from the same university that was unable to decide if English medium students should answer their BCA exam paper in English or Hindi. Clueless varsity: The course, to be started in the departments of psychology, sociology and women's studies as a pilot project, is being touted as a step towards women's empowerment, though, the vice chancellor has no clue whether the girls who enrol — the first batch of which will be 30-strong — need to have a minimum qualification to be eligible. Read the full story here 10. And the parody Nobel goes to... It's less lucrative, less prestigious than a real Nobel. But the Ig Nobel Prize, awarded every autumn since 1991, celebrates achievements that "first make people laugh then make them think". The 10 awards for 2018, announced at a ceremony at Harvard, were: Medicine: Using rollercoaster rides to try to hasten the passage of kidney stones. Anthropology: Collecting evidence in a zoo that chimpanzees imitate humans nearly as often, and as well, as humans imitate chimpanzees. Biology: Demonstrating that wine experts can reliably identify, by smell, the presence of a single fly in a glass of wine. Chemistry: Measuring the degree to which human saliva is a good cleaning agent for dirty surfaces. Medical education: For the medical report Colonoscopy in the Sitting Position: Lessons Learned From Self-Colonoscopy. Literature: Documenting that most people who use complicated products do not read the instruction manual. Nutrition: Calculating that the caloric intake from a human-cannibalism diet is significantly lower than the caloric intake from most other traditional meat diets. Peace: Measuring the frequency, motivation, and effects of shouting and cursing while driving an automobile. Reproductive medicine: Using postage stamps to test whether the male sexual organ is functioning properly—as described in the study Nocturnal Penile Tumescence Monitoring With Stamps. Economics: Investigating whether it is effective for employees to use Voodoo dolls to retaliate against abusive bosses. The winners physically received their prizes from actual (albeit bemused) Nobel laureates, as the 1,100-strong, paper aeroplane-throwing crowd cheered on. Full list here. 3 CURATED WEEKEND READS 1. Finally, a cure for insomnia?We are living through an epidemic of sleeplessness, but the medical establishment has largely ignored the problem. Can a radical new therapy help you get some sleep? 2. What kids' backpacks say about themThese bags are one of the most constant material items in a kid's life, and they serve as both status symbols and intimate companions. 3. Why companies should add class to their diversity discussionsClass background matters in the workplace. Just ask professionals who grew up in blue-collar households — people scholars call “class migrants”.  Follow news that matters to you in real-time. Join 3 crore news enthusiasts. GET APP Answer To NEWS IN CLUES Volkswagen. The German automaker is ending production of its Beetle in 2019, one of the world's most iconic car designs. VW said output would end at its plant in Mexico next July after production of celebration models. The Beetle was originally designed in the 1930s by Ferdinand Porsche, at the behest of Adolf Hitler, who wanted a cheap and practical mass-produced car for Germans.