5 THINGS FIRST Cyclone 'Titli' to hit Andhra, Odisha coast today; Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to be in Paris for a bilateral meeting; TCS to announce second quarter results, market waiting for impact of rupee's fall on IT companies; Go Air launches its first international flight; International Day of the Girl Child 1. How many kids in a class are too many? Upper limit: Several private schools affiliated to CBSE, as also some Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs), run the risk of not just being fined by the education board but also losing their affiliation if they violate the rule of a maximum of 40 students per section — the fine being Rs 500 per extra student. The move is also seen as a crackdown against "renting of seats" by private schools, in which a student is enrolled and attendance is marked in absentia while he/ she attends private coaching. Small mercies: The CBSE identified 1,700 private schools who broke the rule and should be sent a show cause notice for withdrawal of affiliation, but has, as a one-time relief, allowed them, as well as the KVs and the JNVs, to have 5 extra students per section. Stretching resources: Ideally, for primary schools, the average class size in OECD countries is 16 students to a teacher, while for lower secondary school, the range is between 20-25 students per class (though Chile has 30 students per class). A report by Brookings Institution found that a reduction of class size from 22 to 15 students meant that each student received an equivalent of 3 months of extra schooling and outperformed students in larger classes. Read the full story here 2. Election time is Bofors (and now Rafale) time Remember the Bofors scandal? It's back. The first time it rocked India was just before an election, and it managed to topple a Congress government. It's election time and politicians will be fighting over it again. To make the politics more interesting even the Rafale deal has ended up in the top court. Bofors first: The deal: India and Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors signed a Rs 1,437 crore deal for the supply of 400 155mm Howitzer guns in 1986. The scandal: It was alleged that Rs 64 crore was paid by the company as a bribe to top Indian politicians and defence personnel to clinch the deal. It was a big factor in Rajiv Gandhi losing the 1989 elections. The case: Since 1999, when the first charge sheet was filed, some of the main accused died, some were let off by Delhi High Court. In 2004, the court quashed the CBI charges of payoffs, observing that there was no evidence produced by the CBI to support the allegations of bribe having been paid to the then PM Rajiv Gandhi. CBI didn't appeal against the acquittals but SC, in 2005, allowed a lawyer to appeal. In 2009, CBI asked permission from SC to withdraw the case (it was a Congress government then) but was denied. The lawyer then contested the 2014 parliamentary polls from Rae Bareli against Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The lawyer's plea came up for hearing again in 2016; in 2017 CBI said (it was a BJP government now) it will open the case again if SC or Centre asks. The latest: The CBI, which had claimed that it was not allowed by the previous Congress regime to appeal against the 2004 HC judgment, finally moved SC in February 2018, four years after NDA government came to power and a year before the next elections are due. That case is listed for hearing in SC on October 12. Meanwhile, the Centre has opposed two PILs on Rafale deal (one seeking details of the agreement and the other asking for probing the deal) in Supreme Court, seeking their dismissal on the ground that they have been filed to gain political mileage. One of the PILs has been filed by a politician. SC wants to scrutinise whether Centre followed a fair and transparent decision-making process while entering the agreement. The court has asked the Centre to provide details of the decision-making process in the deal by October 29. More on the case here 3. Odisha, Andhra brace for cyclone Titli Tropical cyclone Titli, currently located at the Bay of Bengal, will make a landfall between Gopalpur in Odisha and Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh at around 5.30 am today. The wind speed could reach up to 150 kmph; the IMD says wind speed of 60-90 kmph is "very likely" to prevail over interior districts adjacent to south coastal Odisha. How prepared is India? Odisha government has set a target for "zero casualties" — hoping the proactive steps would suffice. It has ordered the evacuation of people living in the low-lying areas of Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur — storm surge of height 1 m above astronomical tide is expected, and these areas could be inundated. Ten teams of National Disaster Response Force and eight teams of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force have been deployed across the state, says an official. Around 300 motor boats have been arranged to assist in rescue operation as there is a likelihood of flood due to the possibility of heavy rains till October 11. All the 879 cyclone and flood shelters have also been kept in a state of preparedness. Odisha and Andhra have ordered their fishermen to return to shore. In Andhra, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam expect heavy rainfall. The area spread across the two states may receive up to 400 mm of rainfall by Friday noon, while coastal areas could get even more rain. Besides storm surge and rainfall, there is a threat of mudslides too. Cyclones too many Odisha saw its worst cyclone in 1999 (wind speed of over 250 kmph), which killed, according to official figures, 9,885 — though some estimate the toll to be above 50,000. An estimated 1,500 children were orphaned. Better preparation limited the casualty in the 2013 cyclone, named Phailin, (wind speed 220 kmph) to 44, but a joint report by World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Odisha then estimated the required cost of reconstruction at Rs 8,902 crore. The US too is bracing for its own terror winds, with Hurricane Michael(wind speed has climbed to 190 kmph) expected to make a landfall of Florida. Meanwhile, a UN report released today says the economic cost of climate-related disasters hit $2.25 billion over the last two decades, an increase of more than 250% from the previous 20 years. NAMING A CYCLONE 4. Can India help China fight its trade war with US? Calling India: China and India need to deepen their cooperation to fight trade protectionism, the Chinese Embassy said on Wednesday, as it accused the US of provoking trade disputes by adopting a unilateral approach. China's demand: Soybeans are at the heart of the trade war between the US and China. The oilseed, used to make cooking oil and animal feed, accounted for about 60% of the US's $20 billion agricultural exports to China before the US imposed additional tariffs in July. It puts India in a position to step up and fill the gap left by the US, say economists. That will also help narrow down India's current account deficit. India's market: China is already the top market for India's overall export growth in recent months. Between April and August, India's exports to China have grown an average 52.9% year-on-year, compared with 14.7% to the US, 11.9% to the UAE and 12.6% to Europe. Cotton on which China has imposed tariffs on the US was among the top three contributors to India's exports to China. Thanks to the US: A government study has identified 100 productswhere India can replace US exports to China by benefiting from the higher import duty imposed on products originating in the US. Among them are some products (like fresh grapes, lubricants etc) that both US and India export to China and some that India has been exporting to other countries but not to China (oranges, almonds, walnuts, corn etc). NEWS IN CLUES 5. Which global body boasts 206 member nations? Clue 1: Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, it was founded in 1894. Clue 2: German lawyer Thomas Bach is its ninth and current president. Clue 3: In 2009, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) granted it Permanent Observer status — direct involvement in the UN Agenda and attendance at UNGA meetings. Scroll below for answer 6. What makes India's special villages so special? Best villages: Rural development ministry in 2017 conducted a survey to rank 50,000 panchayats selected for Mission Antyodaya that aims to make them 'poverty free'. It then went back to 50 high-performing panchayats to check the reasons behind their performance. The results: One is enough: A panchayat in charge of a single village has little or no performance issues compared to panchayats overseeing two or more villages. Singletons club: The survey says panchayats overseeing a solitary village have the advantages of better fund flow, programme implementation and distribution of benefits to members. Moreover, a single-village entity ensures that all facilities are centrally located, whereas the availability of services, like Anganwadi, in panchayats with multiple villages is not uniform. Multiple-village panchayats also suffer on allocation of funds and while their requirement is higher for services like road network, the norms of allocation are based on population and not on the number of villages under it. Proximity to prosperity: Other than managing resources for a single village, what also helped was the locational advantage, in terms of proximity to highways, main roads, to tourist centres and district headquarters — villages closer to towns and cities enjoy better "access to officials" and register better implementation of schemes. Full story here 7. Fake news bill — and its cost France on Wednesday cleared two bills to prevent the spread of false information during election campaigns following allegations of Russian meddling in the 2017 presidential vote — a Russian backed channel, RT, had campaigned against Emmanuel Macron. The "fake news bills" give France's broadcast authority the power to take any network that is "controlled by, or under the influence of a foreign power" off the air if it "deliberately spreads false information that could alter the integrity of the election". They also mandate social media companies to reveal the source of sponsored political content. But countering fake news through a legislation is not a straightforward solution as it seems — in fact, it can be counterproductive. In Malaysia, former PM Najib Razak had passed a fake news law ahead of the election — when he was facing the heat of a scandal over misappropriating $4.5 billion from a fund. The bill defined fake news as "news, information, data and reports which is or are wholly or partly false". This left room to intimidate journalists and critics ("partly false" is a loose term). The new government that came to power repealed the law. In India, early this year, the then Information and Broadcast minister, Smriti Irani, published a circular amending the guidelines for accreditation of journalists to "regulate fake news". It aimed to cancel the accreditation of a journalist (which the government issues so she can get access to and cover it) if found guilty of spreading fake news but lets anyone register a complaint of fake news — the accreditation of the accused journalist will be suspended during the investigation. After the furore it caused, PM Modi scrapped the circular (Irani is now the minister for textile). Even in France, critics say the new fake news bills give disproportionate power on the ruling government during elections and could harmfreedom of press. 8. Bitcoin exchanges laundered more money than Nirav Modi U.S.-based cybersecurity firm CipherTrace said on Wednesday that since 2009, cryptocurrency exchanges based out of countries with lax anti-money laundering rules laundered $2.5 billion worth of bitcoins. These money-laundered funds represent transactions that the company was able to directly monitor and designate as criminal or highly suspect. FYI: Modi scam is estimated around $1.8 billion. CipherTrace looked at about 350 million transactions from top 20 cryptocurrency exchanges, and found 100 million of those with counterparties. At the same time, these exchanges have also been used to purchase 236,979 bitcoins worth of criminal services. Besides laundering, the firm also found an uptick in hacking and theft of cryptocurrencies — in the first nine months of 2018, $927 million worth virtual currency was stolen through hacking exchanges, a 250% increase from the last year. Meanwhile, Quartz reports that a panel formed by the Indian finance ministry would soon recommend the government to launch its own cryptocurrency. 9. Attention, tennis players! Get your own towels. Fernando Verdasco's harsh treatment of a ball boy who failed to bring him his towel fast enough has put the spotlight on ball kids being asked to handle sweaty and snotty towels for players, many of whom like to wipe their faces after each point. The incident at last month's Shenzhen Open in China saw the 34-year-old Spaniard aggressively gesticulating at a ball boy to hurry up. And everyone's crying 'fault'! To begin with, Judy Murray, the former British Fed Cup captain and mother of three-time Grand Slam winner Andy inquired on Twitter about a rule that makes players get their own towels. A possible solution is a towel rack at the back of the court. And that's set to be tested out at next month's Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, which brings together the best players aged 21 and under. While Rafael Nadal and Kei Nishikori aren't in favour, Roger Federer is happy to give it a go, though he has reservations. The need of the hour though is a little more respect for the ball boys and girls, who are also maybe the future of the game? Ask Federer, who was a ball boy before going on to win 20 Grand Slams. Full story here. YOU SHARE YOUR B'DAY WITH... Source: Various 10. How India helps world's greenest country stay green Carbon vs forests: Bhutan's is the world's only carbon-negative country that absorbs three times more CO2 than it emits. That's due to the lush forests covering 72% of its land but also because of its efforts to keep its environment pristine, often by sacrificing profits. Profit vs environment: The nation of 8 lakh has restricted tourist numbers with a daily fee of $250 per visitor in peak season. The constitution stipulates that at least 60% of Bhutan must be covered in forest, putting a brake on farming and a potentially lucrative timber industry. Environment vs development: In May, Bhutan opted out of an India-backed regional road connectivity project mainly over concerns that trucks coming in from other countries will pollute its air. Under its 11th five-year-plan, Bhutan aims to reduce "substantially" its fossil fuel imports by 2020. In 2016 it installed its first wind turbines. Help from India: Bhutan plans to build 10 hydropower projects with India's help to remain carbon neutral. Hydropower is also Bhutan's largest export (all of it to India), accounting for a third of the country's exports and 8% of its GDP. Read the full story here PLUS Could religion help Delhi breathe easier this winter? Divine help: Worried by the lack of awareness among the state's farmers, regarding the effects of stubble burning on the quality of air, especially in Punjab's neighbouring states, like Delhi, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has roped in a trump card to get its message across — requesting religious and opinion leaders, among them the high priest of Takht Kesgarh Sahib in Anandpur Sahib and noted environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal, to issue edicts against the burning of stubble, to which they have complied. In tune with nature: The PPCB has also come out with songs in the Punjabi language, which speak against stubble burning, to help spread awareness among farmers, who find it the cheapest and most convenient route to prepare their fields for sowing the next crop — the Centre has released a grant of Rs 19 crore to the state government to help spread the message. Recourse to religion: While it remains to be seen how much of an impact will religious messages and edicts have on the farmers' habit of burning their stubble, religious bodies have in the past taken it upon themselves to issue edicts against social evils. In 2001, the Akal Takht issued an edict against the practice of female foeticide, given that Punjab's sex ratio at birth in 2001 was an abysmal 754 females per 1,000 males — in 2011, the ratio had improved to 852. Similarly, in 2005, it had issued an edict to limit the decibel level of loudspeakers in Gurudwaras, which was re-issued by the SGPC in 2013 and in 2007, the DSGMC had issued an order against lavish spending on weddings in the Sikh community to curb the menace of dowry. Follow news that matters to you in real-time. Join 3 crore news enthusiasts. GET APP Answer To NEWS IN CLUES International Olympic Committee. On Wednesday, the IOC announced it will form a special team of competitors with refugee status for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The decision was taken during an IOC session on Wednesday in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which is hosting the 2018 Youth Olympics. President Bach added that the initiative was introduced in an attempt to unite and socially integrate displaced people through sport.