5 THINGS FIRST Supreme Court to hear Bofors case 14 years after Delhi High Court verdict acquitting the accused; Finance ministry kicks off 2019-20 budget exercise with a meeting of steel, power and housing ministries; Data releases - Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for August, Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) data for September; Sushma Swaraj to attend two-day conclave of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Tajikistan; Second India-West Indies Test match starts 1. Indians are shorter and earning lesser than they should Study more, earn more: For those of us who feel we are not getting our just rewards in our paycheque, or feel a just a little bit short, well, that feeling wasn't without basis — a World Bank Human Capital Index report states that for every additional year of schooling, a person's earnings rise by 8%. Given that the average Indian completes just 10.2 years of schooling, against the mandated 14 years, he or she is earning 30.4% less than they should. No tall tales: The study also points out that a 10 percentage point improvement in adult survival rate — measured as the share of 15 years olds who will celebrate their 60th birthday — leads to an increase in height by 1.9 centimetres. Given India's adult survival rate of 0.83, out of a maximum of 1, Indians could have been an inch and a half, or 3.23 centimetres, taller and be almost 11% more productive. Lagging behind: India, which ranks 115th in the index, below Myanmar (107th), Bangladesh (106th), Nepal (102nd) and Sri Lanka (74th), is also trailing most of its South Asian neighbours in the average number of years of schooling — with Bangladesh (11 years), Nepal (11.7 years) and Sri Lanka (13 years), meaning, the average Indian earns less than his/her full potential vis-a-vis an average Bangladeshi, Nepalese and a Sri Lankan. However, India has rejected the findings of the report as it “does not reflect the key initiatives taken for developing human capital in the country". Full story here 2. Why Sensex is back to where it started 2018 Stock market benchmark erased all gains that it had made this year as it plunged by 760 points on Thursday. Rs 2.63 lakh crore of investor wealth was wiped out in a single day with two of every three stocks on Bombay Stock Exchange ending in the red. Global selloff: It started before Indian markets opened. European stocks slumped to 18-month lows over Italian budget plans that have revived fears about the eurozone. US markets were next that saw their worst decline in months after Trump criticised the US central bank saying it has 'gone crazy' with plans for higher interest rates (that will hurt US companies). Asian markets plunged following the bad session on Wall Street. Indian markets fell because all markets fell. Rupee woes: A weakening rupee only soured the mood further as it fell to another record low of 74.45 against the dollar. Rising interest rates in the US is sucking funds out from emerging markets (including India) and that is putting pressure on currencies (including rupee). Trade war: The US-China trade war threatens to slow down the global economy. IMF has already cut global growth forecast for 2018-19 (to 3.7% from 3.9% earlier) due to trade tensions. Indian economy: The fallout of the liquidity crisis in the NBFC sector, free fall of rupee and rising oil prices has kept domestic investors worried since the past few weeks. Politics: The coming state elections that are being seen as a preview of 2019 elections and recent controversies have kept investors on the edge. On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump sent out a veiled threat to India over its purchase S-400 air defence system from Russia saying India "will soon find out" his decision on the sanctions. 3. Politics takes Rafale the Bofors way The latest: A French news outlet said it had obtained a Dassault company document saying the group agreed to work with Reliance as an "imperative and obligatory" condition for securing the Rafale contract. The report appeared to corroborate former French President Francois Hollande's comments last month that New Delhi had put pressure on Dassault to choose Reliance as the offset partner in a deal worth millions of dollars to the Indian company. But the company later clarified that it picked Reliance Defence as a partner on its own and the document quoted was to tell French unions about how offsets won't create more jobs for them. Politics: Rahul Gandhi called the Prime Minister "corrupt" and asked him to quit in the light of 'fresh revelations'. Accusing the Congress President of spreading lies, the BJP termed the entire Gandhi family corrupt. The similarities: Two defence deals, both in court (Bofors case comes up for hearing in Supreme Court today), both getting politicised before elections and in both cases the quality of the purchase was not in question. Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said it has attached assets worth Rs 54 crore of Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in India, Spain and the UK in connection with a money laundering case. And the income Tax department carried out searches at the premises of media baron Raghav Bahl to find evidence of “bogus long term capital gains” booked by him. The Editors Guild said “motivated income-tax searches and surveys will seriously undermine media freedom and the government should desist from such attempts.” 4. Will courts become India's strictest workplaces? You can't go on leave on a working day, except when it's an emergency. You can't go out of the office to attend seminars or workshops on working days. You won't be entitled to a travel allowance on leaves taken on working days. You lose your project / work if you defy orders and take leave on working days. Your boss will monitor your work and output on a daily basis. These are the instructions issued by the new Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to the judges of all the high courts and trial courts in the country — at 60% of the required workforce strength, India's judiciary is woefully understaffed. With the move, he is hoping to ease the burden of the three crore cases pending in SC, HCs and trial courts. Elsewhere at the court: SC will today hear a petition challenging a Calcutta HC decision permitting Mamata Banerjee government to gift Rs 28 crore to organisers (Rs 10,000 each) of Durga Puja this year. Amrapali group CMD and the two directors will remain in police custody for another 15 days as the documents seized in the company premises was not in order for a forensic audit. Responding to the CMD's plea to grant him the comforts of home under police custody, the bench said, "We have already burnt out fingers by allowing you time but you have not shown any progress." NEWS IN CLUES 5. Who's the second-richest athlete in the world? Clue 1: His first contract, at the age of 13, was written on a paper napkin. Clue 2: He shares his birthplace with the revolutionary Che Guevera. Clue 3: His international debut lasted only 47 seconds. He received a red card after coming on as a substitute. Scroll below for answer 6. AI is not really that great — ask Amazon What? Amazon has reportedly scrapped its artificial intelligence (AI) recruitment software as it was biased against women. The incident highlights what critics say is a major flaw in today's AI tools, and shows the need for caution before companies rush to implement AI on every operational aspect. Biased data: The trouble is data can be biased. But first, let's understand what an AI is. AI, in simple terms, is a software that learns to perform a function based on the analysis of scores of data provided to it — an AI fed with data on all your food habits since birth (or say even 5 years) could be capable of suggesting your dinner and could even surprise you with a new recipe palatable to you. Baggage of past: That means AI is as good as the data it is fed. Now, let's go back to Amazon's AI recruitment tool, which had the data of the past 10 years. What did it learn? In simple terms, men are better — because men were hired more often (due to bias in college admission, campus recruitment, company recruitment, promotion... ). So the AI downgraded resumes that mentioned "women's chess club" and the like or graduates from two all-women colleges. Industry-wide: Data bias isn't limited to Amazon's AI. In 2016, a University of Virginia professor noted that the image-recognition AI he was developing started associating kitchen with women. ProPublica researchers found that an AI tool police forces in the US have been using to predict crime is biased against blacks. India too: This matters as AI is getting popular — some firms in India too offer AI-based recruitment. A report says, Dalit representation in the top echelons of corporate India is negligible. Hence, an AI tool fed on data on executive hiring over the years could be biased against, say, candidates who graduated from non-elite schools. 7. Why a court is 'taking over' this Central university Manipur High Court on Thursday suspended pro vice-chancellor of Manipur University, Prof. K. Yugindro, and appointed the former chief secretary of Manipur, Jarnail Singh, as an administrator to discharge the function of the vice-chancellor of the varsity — the varsity’s VC was earlier suspended by the President of India, and an inquiry ordered into his alleged irregularities. Why? Manipur University has been the centre of a long protest — it was shut between May 31 and August 23, as students' union and a teachers' association agitated for the removal VC Adya Prasad Pandey, accusing him of financial and administrative ineptitude and "saffronisation". Over time, the protest also exposed the rivalry between Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley and the largely tribal hill areas. The reason: The tribal groups back VC for his support of a higher reservation for ST (under state law) as against the lower share set by the Central and UGC norms (a Central amendment of 2012 relaxes the mandate in North Eastern institutes, letting them choose the higher share if needed). As protests continued, President suspended the VC so that the independent probe into the allegation of administrative and financial irregularities was not interfered with. However, a few of days later, acting upon a complaint registered by pro-VC, saying he was gheraoed by agitators from taking office, police raided the campus after midnight and arrested 89 students and 6 teachers. Of them, 15 are still in jail. Now, the High Court has suspended the pro-VC and appointed Jarnail Singh to take charge. It also ordered not to cancel the suspension of the VC in the meantime. The court said, "considering the best interest of the students and very disturbing situation prevailing, we have reluctantly opted to intervene in the matter". Fresh violence was also reported on Wednesday during the student protest demanding the release of the 15 arrested. 8. The world's longest flight just took off We're talking a marathon 18 hours and 45 minutes in the air between Singapore and New York. Singapore Airlines, is the first airline in the world to operate the Airbus A350-900ULR, configured to carry 161 passengers — 67 in business class and 94 in premium economy, with no regular economy seats. On board: Two pilots, a special 'wellness' menu and more than seven weeks' worth of film and TV entertainment to keep travellers engaged on the 16,700-kilometre journey. For the flight crew — which also includes two first officers and a 13-member cabin crew — the workload will be broken up, with each pilot having a minimum eight hours' rest during the flight. The twin-engine plane uses a modified system that burns 25% less fuel than other, similar-sized aircraft. The flight can take up to 18 hours and 45 minutes under normal weather conditions, but the pilots will have something in reserve in an aircraft capable of flying more than 20 hours non-stop. Thursday's flight went past the current longest direct link between cities: Qatar Airways Flight 921 from Auckland to Doha, which takes 17 hours 40 minutes. The longest flights till date: Singapore→ New York 18 h 45 m Auckland→ Doha 17 h 40 m Houston→ Sydney 17 h 30 m Perth→ London 17 h 20 m Los Angeles→ Singapore 17 h 20 m Auckland→ Dubai 17 h 20 m Johannesburg→ Atlanta 16 h 50 m Full story here 9. A rocket fails, capsule falls... and crew survives A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying two astronauts — American Nick Hague and Russian Alexey Ovchinin — to the International Space Station suffered a failure shortly after take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Though details are still sketchy, the crew notified mission control of experiencing weightlessness — a sign of a technical snag — and shortly after aborted the mission and ejected the crew capsule from the rocket. The crew capsule landed about 20 km east of the city of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, and Nasa has issued a statement saying the rescue team has recovered the crew and that they are safe. The official also said the crew capsule made a ballistic landing, which meant it did not achieve the speed to orbit back to earth and instead fell in a steeper trajectory. But why was a Russian cosmonaut and an American cosmonaut hanging out together? Necessity. Soyuz is the only rocket capable of sending astronauts to the space station, though US companies like Boeing and Elon Musk's SpaceX are working on rockets that could in near future. 10. A $4.7 million prancing horse We aren't talking of Ferrari here but a real, living, breathing, prancing horse. Qatar's Sheikh Fahad al-Thani has spent 3.6m pounds (nearly $4.7 million) on a one-year-old colt at an auction in Newmarket, England. The unnamed colt, in fact, could turn out to be cheap, said al-Thani's racing manager, for he is the brother of a champion thoroughbred named Too Darn Hot, who is unbeaten in his racing career. But for now, the colt is just a promise. Al-Thani's stable though has a knack of spotting a good colt. In 2012, the Sheikh spent 2.6 million pounds on a colt, named Hydrogen, who has since won more than $2m in prize money — which guarantees a lucrative career as a stud (to father next generation thoroughbreds). But the price al-Thani paid for the new colt is not a shade on the most expensive yearling in horse racing: a horse named Seattle Dancer was bought for $13.1 million in... 1985. But a note of caution before you jump on the horse: The world's most expensive horse, The Green Monkey, bought for $16 million in 2004 when two, was euthanised early this yearafter an injury-plagued career. YOU SHARE YOUR B'DAY WITH... Source: Various PLUS Admissions now open for Bachelors in Politicking Schooled for elections: The Adityanath Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh is planning to open a school for budding politicians, set on a 60-acre campus in Ghaziabad and entailing an investment of Rs 200 crore, under the aegis of the state urban development department. Course for horses: The school will teach its students how to contest elections and win them, how to behave in public and with workers and how to conduct themselves in their constituencies, on social media, and in the institutions they sit — from panchayat to parliament. Criteria for admission: None, actually — as there would be no minimum qualifications, which would ensure that even those who are illiterate can become the leaders who will chart out India's future in the future. Sex discrimination? Interestingly, the school, which will be completely residential, assumes that men will always outnumber women in politics, as it has 180 one-BHK units for males and just 80 for females. Read the full story here Follow news that matters to you in real-time. Join 3 crore news enthusiasts. GET APP Answer To NEWS IN CLUES Lionel Messi. The life of the Barcelona and Argentina legend will be the focus of a new Cirque du Soleil show. The Montreal-based group of performing artists confirmed the show will go on a world tour in 2019, with exact dates and venues yet to be released. Previous shows have been inspired by music artists such as the Beatles and Michael Jackson, but this is will be the first to focus on a sportstar.