5 THINGS FIRST India play third ODI against West Indies today; India vs Japan semi-final of Asian Champions Hockey Trophy (finals on Sunday); Rahul Gandhi to address public meetings in Karnataka; PM Modi will begin his two-day trip to Japan tomorrow; Sushma Swaraj on a 4-day trip to Qatar and Kuwait starting Sunday

1. CBI finally gets autonomy... for two weeks What's new? The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to complete its inquiryinto allegations against CBI Director Alok Verma within two weeks. "We want to see preliminary probe report ... to decide whether it requires further probe," the court said winding up the proceedings within 15 minutes. Verma had approached the court saying that Centre's move to send him on leave was illegal. Here's what these two weeks mean for 'caged parrot' CBI: Boss isn't around: The CBI chief Alok Verma continues to be on leave till the CVC submits its report and SC takes a decision. Half-a-boss can't do much: The apex court directed that CBI interim director Rao will not take any major policy decisions and do only routine work to keep the probe agency going. Decisions taken by him since October 23 (the day government issued orders to send CBI's top two officers on leave) to October 26 will not be implemented and all decisions taken after that will be placed before the court on November 12, the next date of hearing. CVC reports to SC: The CVC (which had taken the decision to divest Verma of his duties at 6 am on October 24) inquiry will be conducted under the supervision of a former Supreme Court judge, the court ordered saying it was because of the 'importance of the case without casting aspersions on any constitutional or statutory authority'. Government is out: This also means that during these 10 days of court-monitored probe and monitoring of all decision taken, the Centre will be effectively out of its powers of influence. In one of the first decisions after the CBI shake-up, several officers probing sensitive cases were changed. Meanwhile, finance minister welcomed the judgment saying: "The government is only interested in maintaining professionalism, the image and the institutional integrity of the CBI". Meanwhile another ‘independent’ institution, the Reserve Bank of India, doesn’t seem to be happy about government interference. A top RBI official has warned that "governments that do not respect central bank independence will sooner or later incur the wrath of financial markets, ignite economic fire, and come to rue the day they undermined an important regulatory institution'. Read more here

2. In Sri Lanka, 2 Presidents unite to oust 1 Prime Minister Enemy's enemy: Proving true the adage that in politics, the enemy's enemy is a friend, Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena chucked out the country's Prime Minister and his coalition partner, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and installed former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the island country's new Prime Minister. Sirisena, who was a health minister under Rajapaksa, had broken away from his then boss and joined forces with Wickremesinghe to defeat Rajapaksa in the 2015 Presidential elections, ending the latter's nine year-plus rule. Marriage of convenience: The-three-year-old coalition government of Sirisena-led United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) was a political marriage of convenience between the two bitterly opposed parties. In April this year, Wickremesinghe survived a no-confidence motion put forward by Rajapaksa's party, and supported by Sirisena's party, after Arjun Mahendran, a Singaporean the PM appointed as the country's central bank governor was alleged to have leaked inside information to benefit his (Mahendran's) son-in-law to the tune of $72 million, while the country is said to have lost $55 million. Sirisena has also accused the UNP of not taking seriously an alleged conspiracy to assassinate him and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, brother of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Fight club: Rajapaksa's ascension, however, could result in a constitutional crisis for Sri Lanka, as it does not allow for a government to be formed unless it has a majority — the Sirisena-Rajapaksa combine has just 95 seats, compared to 106 seats of Wickremesinghe's party, which also falls short of the majority mark by 7 seats. Read more here

3. What law couldn't do, fear is doing for banks The winner: One of the most hotly contested assets under India's new insolvency process, Essar Steel, may have finally found a new owner. The committee of creditors of the debt-laden company has chosen ArcelorMittal (world's largest steelmaker) and Japan's Nippon Steel as the winning bidders for the company. The contest: Essar Steel was one of the biggest debt defaulters that were forced to go to bankruptcy court last year as part of RBI's attempt to solve Indian banks' bad loans problem. The lenders had auctioned the company to recover over Rs 49,000 crore of unpaid loans. The deal they have signed on brings 'an upfront payment of Rs 42,000 crore' to settle debt and 'a further Rs 8,000 crore of capital injection to support operational improvement'. The surprise: The development came just a day after promoters of Essar Steel, who were also the defaulters, said they had lots of cash to repay dues. They offered to pay lenders Rs 54,389 crore, including Rs 47,507 crore upfront cash payment to clear all dues and pull out the firm from insolvency proceedings. No surprise: The fear of similar action has helped creditors, led by banks, recover Rs 1.1 lakh crore from loan defaulters who were earlier unwilling to clear dues betting their hopes on prolonged litigation. But now promoters of errant companies are paying up to avoid losing control of their companies. Last month, government said that public sector banks were aiming to recover around Rs 1.8 lakh crore from loan defaulters this year. But why was Lakshmi Mittal chasing Essar Steel so desperately? Read it here

4. Ambani richer than all the richest Gujaratis Beaten by a trillion, and then some: The combined wealth of the 58 richest Gujarati billionaires, each worth a minimum of Rs 1,000 crore, pales in comparison to the net worth of India's richest man for the seventh year running, Mukesh Ambani — his wealth of Rs 3.71 lakh crore dwarfing the combined Gujarati wealth of Rs 2.54 lakh crore, according to the Hurun India rich list. Incidentally, Ambani himself is of Gujarati origin. State stats: Gujarat ranks fourth in the number of people with a net worth of Rs 1,000 crore or more, with 49 of the 58 mega crorepatis ( minimum net worth of Rs 1,000 crore) residing in Ahmedabad — Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani topping the list with a net worth of Rs 71,200 crore. Wealth of numbers: Apart from Adani, others in Gujarat's rich list include Pankaj Patel of Zydus group (Rs 32,100 crore wealth), Bhadresh Shah of AIA Engineering (Rs 9,700 crore), Karsanbhai Patel (Rs 9,600 crore) and Torrent group promoters Samir and Sudhir Mehta (Rs 8,300 crore each) — 10 women also feature in the list of wealthiest from Gujarat, who belong to popular business families having ownerships of Nirma group, Torrent group and Intas Pharma, among others. Meanwhile, in a reflection of just how precarious is a billionaire status, China, which added more than 2 new billionaires a week in 2017, also saw 1 billionaire drop out of their ranks — of the 106 new billionaires added, 51 ended the year as just a multi-millionaire, according to a Billionaires Insights Report.

NEWS IN CLUES 5. This actor's part of the rock band Hollywood Vampires Clue 1: He's twice recorded with British band Oasis as well. Most notably, playing lead slide guitar on the track 'Fade In-Out' from the album Be Here Now. Clue 2: Nominated for the Best Actor Oscar thrice — 2004, 2005 and 2008 — he has never won the award till date. Clue 3: In 2012, he was listed in the Guinness World Records as the world's highest-paid actor, with earnings of $75 million. Scroll below for answer

6. 26/11 mastermind no more a terrorist in Pakistan Doctrine of lapse: The Presidential ordinance against the 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind, Hafiz Saeed, and his organisations — Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) — lapsed, allowing Saeed to move about in Pakistan a free man. Pariah no more: In February this year, ex-President Mamnoon Hussain had promulgated an ordinance to amend the country's Anti-Terrorism Act to list groups sanctioned by the UN's Security Council, including JuD and FIF, as terrorist organisations. After its lapse, it has neither been extended nor tabled in the parliament to change it into an act by the current Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government of former cricketer-turned-politician, Imran Khan. Cry of innocence: Saeed had filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court, challenging the ordinance under which his outfits were declared as proscribed organisations, contending that though JuD — which he established in 2002 — has cut off all ties with the banned Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT), India continue to malign JuD for its past association with the outfit, and that the UN move to proscribe his organisations was against the sovereignty of Pakistan.

7. A Reliance contract is jettisoned Rollback: J&K governor Satya Pal Malik has scrapped the controversial Group Medical Insurance contract for state employees that was awarded to Anil Ambani's Reliance General Insurance Company (RGIC) in September. The contract, when awarded, was criticised by an employees union as well as political parties. "I myself went through files, and when I came to the conclusion that the contract was awarded wrongly, I cancelled it," the Governor said. Under cover: The insurance scheme, rolled on September 20, covered around 3.5 lakh employees and provided an insurance cover of Rs. 6 lakh to each employee and up to 5 lakh for their family; each employee had to pay a premium of Rs. 8,777 a year. Availing the insurance was made mandatory, prompting criticism from employees who were already covered under insurance they had bought from the open market. In a letter to the government, the secretaries union had said "making participation mandatory has put an extra burden on pocket of an employee and this is not acceptable". Changes: Questions were also raised on the procedure under which RGIC won the contract — certain bidding criteria such as the requirement of a working experience in the state was removed and the minimum annual turnover of Rs 5,000 crore in 2017-18 to be eligible was reduced to Rs 3,000 crore. Second thoughts: Curiously, it was the governor's office that had approved the policy in the first place. The former coalition government of PDP and BJP, headed by Mehboob Mufti, had shelved the policy that was meant to be implemented in February. Later the state came under the governor's rule, and after Malik succeeded N.N. Vohra as the governor, he approved the contract in his first decision while chairing state administrative council on August 31. This and that: In a tweet on October 6, Congress president Rahul Gandhi associated the insurance contract with the controversial Rafale jet deal, where Anil Ambani group's defence firm is the Indian partner of Dassault Aviation. Former J&K CM and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said: The guilty must be exposed and punished. Just cancelling the contract is not enough.

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8. Will world football split? What: Fifa president Gianni Infantino's wants a new Club World Cup and a Global Nations League. Because, you know, money. Fifa's flagship event, the World Cup, is quadrennial, and that means a long gap between the big paydays — the current annual Club World Cup fought between the champions of continental tournaments like the Uefa Champions League is rarely watched. The solution: Fifa thinks expanding the Club World Cup to 24 teams (from the current 7) and holding it every four years will increase its profile. That could mean the new Club World Cup will be held sometime between two World Cups as the two cannot be on the same year due logistics. If so, Fifa's calendar could look something like this: A World Cup in 2022, a Club World Cup in 2024/25, and then another World Cup in 2026. Sweet, isn't it? The icing: Fifa also wants a Global Nations League, presumably to replace all the 'meaningless' friendlies that international teams play often. Does this sound familiar? Fifa is borrowing the idea from Uefa, the european football body, which launched the Nations League this year (Read more on Uefa's Nations League here in story No: 9). Fifa's Global Nations League would see top teams of continental Nations Leagues competing. A truly mini world cup. The spanner: But Fifa's plans have not gone down well with the Uefa — a mega Club World Cup would take the sheen away from its Champions League, which at the outset is a European tournament but watched all around the world. Uefa had threatened a walk out at the Fifa Council meeting in Kigali on Friday, if the world governing body pushed for a vote on the plans (that didn't happen). A pause: Under pressure, Fifa's Infantino on Friday agreedto set up a task force to "bolster the consultation process" on the Club World Cup and global Nations League. But matter is not settled as Fifa is bound to push its agenda; Infantino said the competitions "are of high interest in many parts of the world". Made your Sunday plans, btw? You know Barcelona are playing Real Madrid at 8.54 pm, right? A clasico without Ronaldo (now a Juventus player) or Messi (injured), the first such since 2007; a clasico between leaders Barcelona (ahead of the weekend) and a Madrid team struggling to find goals (they are seventh in the table).

9. When does an attack become terrorism? The FBI is treating the series of pipe bombs sent to Obama, Clinton, CNN and others (more were found and a man was arrested on Friday) as an act of domestic terrorism. But when does an attack, or an attempted attack, become a terrorist act? The US classifies terrorism into two: international terrorism and domestic terrorism. An international terrorism is defined as a violent act or act dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws in the US, or would be so if committed in the US; intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence government policy by intimidation or coercion or affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and occurring primarily outside the US. Domestic terrorism is defined more or less the same but occurring within the jurisdiction of the US. The pipe bombs packages were (or are being) sent to Democratic Party members and critics of President Trump. This would mean it is intended to influence the policy — some of the Democratic Party members are Senate and Congress members, and others are active in politics. Threat to a former President too could be seen as a threat to government — as it could influence the current of future Presidents. Yet, Donald Trump has shied away from calling it so. In his initial condemnation he said "acts and threats of political violence have no place in the United States of America". The White House spokesperson said the attacks were "terrorising acts". Clearly, Trump has a different definition. In India? India does not classify terrorism but adopts a broader definition. It defines terrorist act under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967 (and its amendments of 2004, '08 and '12). It says (shortened here] "whoever, with the intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security of India, or to strike fear in or any section of people, does any act by using explosive or flammable devices or any lethal weapon or chemical to cause death or injury of any person or to damage properties or services essential to life in India (or properties outside India meant for its defence or government function) or threatens a person to compel the government (or a foreign government) to do (or abstain from) an act" is committing a terrorist act. The 2012 amendment included economic security for consideration to. But due to special consideration, acts by ULFA or Naxals are usually referred to as 'insurgency', though naxals are charged under the unlawful activities (prevention) act.

10. Move over van Gogh and Picasso. AI's here! A painting created by an algorithm has gone under the hammer for $432,000 (about Rs 3.16 crore) at the Christie's Prints and Multiples art auction in New York. 'Portrait d'Edmond Belamy' (or the Portrait of Edmond Belamy) is the first piece of Artificial Intelligence (AI) sold at a major auction house. The painting, created by a Paris-based art collective called Obvious, employed a type of algorithm known as Generative Adversarial Networks. It fed the algorithm a data set of about 15,000 portraits painted between the 14th and 20th centuries. A Generator portion of the algorithm then used its understanding of those many works of art to start creating its own images. (Don't miss the stamp of a mathematical formula on the bottom right usually reserved for the artist's signature.) Originally expected to sell for $7,000 to $10,000, ‘Edmond Belamy’—one of 11 in a series of portraits of non-existent people created by AI—was reportedly snapped up by an anonymous telephone bidder after a five-way battle on the phone, online and one interested buyer in the room.

PLUS India's doing with three wheels what China plans with four Rickshaws: An electric-vehicle revolution is gaining ground in India, and it has nothing to do with cars. It's about the 1.5 million battery-powered, three-wheeled rickshaws - a fleet bigger than the total number of electric passenger cars sold in China since 2011. Cars: However, while an estimated 1.35 million passenger electric vehicles are cruising around in China, the number of electric cars plying Indian roads is a paltry 6,000. Chinese automakers sell more than that in three days. Road ahead: About 11,000 new e-rickshaws hit the streets every month, and annual sales are expected to increase about 9% by 2021. Ride-hailing startup, Ola, also plans to place 10,000 e-ricks in its service by next April. A hindrance to the potential growth of EVs is the lack of charging and battery-swapping stations nationwide (India had about 425 publicly available charging points at the end of last year). Read the full story here

3 CURATED WEEKEND READS 1. Kohli’s unstoppable, machine-like methods No ODI record may be safe if Team India's captain can regain his hunger and fitness till the 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup. 2. What do we consent to when we consent to sex?Joseph J Fischel, associate professor of women's, gender and sexuality studies at Yale University, delves in. 3. The prophets of cryptocurrency survey the boom and bustInside the ongoing argument over whether Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the blockchain are transforming the world.

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Answer To NEWS IN CLUES Johnny Depp. The 55-year-old has been axed from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The star actor has played Jack Sparrow in five Pirates films for the last 15 years, but will reportedly no longer be part of the popular films as Disney Studios plan a reboot. Dogged by personal drama over the past four years—financial and drinking problems, a public split with ex-wife Amber Heard in 2016— Depp's last outing as Sparrow was in Dead Men Tell No Tales—the lowest performing movie of the films.