5 THINGS FIRST Lok Sabha bypolls in Karnataka for three seats; Defamation case against Rahul Gandhi filed by Kartikey Chouhan, MP CM's son; Hearing of case against Navjot Sidhu's wife in Bihar for Amritsar train tragedy; Day 2 of Imran Khan’s China visit; Arsenal take on Liverpool in Premier League 1. Every two hours a day, the police shoo a woman away Pathetic apathy: A woman who's already traumatised by a sexual assault or a crime against her doesn't just have to fight for justice, but also fight police apathy — data analysed by the National Commission for Women (NCW) reveal that every two hours a woman files a complaint against police apathy for discouraging her from filing a complaint, turning her away or further harassing her every day. Unlucky 13: The NCW analysis points out that every day, 13 women seeking to file a complaint of domestic violence, dowry, harassment or sexual harassment, are actively or passively dissuaded by the cops — in the past four years and 10 months, amounting to 1,764 days, the NCW received 23,661 complaints of police apathy against women, with Uttar Pradesh alone accounting for 65% of such cases, followed by Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan. Counting heads: A major part of the problem, according to experts, is the low ratio of women in the police force, with men constituting over 93% of the 24-lakh police force as against 6.6% (or 1.6 lakh) female police — a ratio of 1 woman cop for every 3,565 women. Meanwhile, disgraced journalist and former BJP minister MJ Akbar, who's facing a charge of rape from a former colleague, had his wife come out in his support. She claimed the accuser was in a consensual relationship with Akbar; Akbar has admitted to what he said was an "extra-marital relationship". Akbar's defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani, following #MeToo revelations, took a fresh twist as the Bar Council of Delhi sought an explanation from the law firm representing him, Karanjawala & Co, on why it included names of 97 lawyers in its defamation complaint even as the enrolment numbers and initials of only four lawyers appear on the Vakalatnama. The law firm, in response, said the mistake was "inadvertent" and added that it has now filed a fresh Vakalatnama. 2. Will 59 minutes make up for two years of pain for small industries? Gone, in less than 60 minutes: In less than an hour — or to be more precise, in 59 minutes — a micro, small or medium enterprise (MSME) will be able to avail a loan of Rs 1 crore under the MSME support programme announced by PM Modi, which also included an increase in the minimum mandatory sourcing by PSUs from MSMEs to 25%, from 20%, with 3% of the sourcing to be done from MSMEs run by women. Why now? MSMEs were among the worst affected by the 2016 demonetisation decision and the rollout of GST last year — the former leading to a decline in credit given by banks while the latter adversely impacted their exports. According to the Economic Survey 2018, growth of credit to micro and small enterprises increased by just 4.6%, in the case of medium enterprises, it decreased by 8.3% — with the sector receiving only 17.4% of the total credit outstanding. Given that the sector employs 11.1 crore people, contributing 30% to the country's GDP, 40% to its exports and 45% of the manufacturing output, the MSME sector becomes an important constituency for an incumbent government going in for parliamentary elections in a little over five months. Boost for PSU banks? Given that 97% of the MSMEs are in the informal sector, access to adequate finance was a challenge as banks require a thorough credit appraisal, with the result that private banks and NBFCs have gained in market share in the last two years — even in the average ticket size, the Rs 50 lakh loan category, which constitutes 21% of the MSME segment, has seen the highest growth, of 25%, in the last financial year. The government's move, of easing access to Rs 1 crore loans, could help PSUs garner a greater share, now that NBFCs are facing headwinds, as evident from IL&FS going belly-up on its financial commitments. Read more here 3. Why RuPay bothers Mastercard? It was revealed that Mastercard told the US government in June that the Modi government was using nationalism to promote domestic payments network RuPay, and New Delhi’s protectionist policies were hurting them. This marks a major turning point in the behind-the-scenes but intense battle between international card payment companies and the Indian government. India beckons: The Modi government's push for a 'cashless India' (or a 'less-cash India') — marked by policies such as the 2016 demonetisation — India's rising economy and the per capita income, improving banking penetration and the sheer size of the population makes India an attractive market for payment companies. India swipes: The latest data from RBI shows that in the month of August, 144.2 million credit card transactions were made, amounting to a value of Rs 479.8 billion. The number of debit card transactions was 357.2 million, valued at Rs 489.7 billion. In total, that's nearly Rs 1 trillion card transactions Indians made on grocery, electronics, apparel and more, up nearly 43% year-on-year from Rs 700 billion in August 2017. Debit and credit cards issued by banks are powered by payment companies such as Mastercard and Visa (or RuPay), who charge a transaction fee. A swipe at them: But Mastercard and Visa do not have a duopoly over the Indian market, which has a home-grown payment system called RuPay, created by the National Payment Council of India (NPCI) in 2012. According to NPCI's data, transactions worth Rs 62.9 billion were made on RuPay cards in August this year, through 49.6 million transactions, meaning an average of Rs 1,267 a transaction, whereas the average national transaction value for all debit and credit cards, which also includes RuPay, in the same period was Rs 1,933. The potential: The other aspect is the millions that are yet to get access to a card. Here, RuPay also gets an advantage as it is being pushed by the government — for instance, the much-vaunted Kisan Credit Card is based on RuPay. Debit cards are also getting popular — increasing from 84 million 10 years ago to nearly 1 billion (to be precise 980 million) today. Keep in mind, NPCI has another mode of payment: UPI, which accounted for Rs 542.1 billion in August for around 312 million transactions (thus, very popular). Their problem: Mastercard, in its letter to the US government, written by its Vice-President for Global Public Policy, says this situation makes NPCI both as "a quasi-regulator and a competing payment network". It said the situation was compounded by the government's "misleading statements and inaccurate information on pricing, despite Mastercard being priced lower than RuPay". There is another policy that has troubled payment companies such as Mastercard: the RBI's insistence on data localisation, even though they began complying to the norms recently. 4. What the Chief Justice said — and left unsaid In his first interaction (informal) with journalists since taking over as the Chief Justice of India early October, Justice Ranjan Gogoi said he was surprised by the "unprecedented" speed with which the central government cleared the names of four judges within 48 hours of the collegium recommending their names. The CJI was referring to the appointment of four new SC judges on Friday: Justices Hemant Gupta, Subhash Reddy, MR Shah and Ajay Rastogi. The 'surprise': The Supreme Court Collegium recommended the names of the judges on Wednesday. It said the judges "are more deserving and suitable in all respects than" others. And the Centre agreed without any reservation. This is in contrast to recommendation of Justice KM Joseph earlier this year, where the Centre dragged its decision for months, before returning his name through an unprecedented act of splitting the SC recommendation and thus, pushing Justice Joseph behind other judges on oath-taking (and thereby pushing him lower on the pecking order to be future CJI). Why so: In the case of Justice Joseph, it was alleged that his judgment quashing the governor's rule in Uttarakhand was the reason behind the Centre's decision (it had rejected the accusation). In the case of the latest appointment, things are different. While recommending the names, the collegium considered that the High Courts of Punjab & Haryana, Gujarat and Rajasthan have remained unrepresented in the SC — Justice Gupta was the Chief Justice of MP High Court, Justice Reddy is the Chief Justice of the Gujarat HC, Justice Shah is from Patna HC but had served as judge in Gujarat before, and Justice Rastogi was from Tripura HC but had served in Rajasthan HC. A lot pending: Justice Gogoi's interaction with the journalist came on the same day the government's Senior Counsel on a PIL regarding pending collegium recommendation with the Centre. That hearing went like this: CJI asked: "What is the figure of the recommendations reiterated by the collegium which are pending with the government?" Counsel replied 13. CJI responded: "It is three times more. There is a piece of paper lying on my desk." FYI: High Court judges are recommended by a collegium that includes the CJI. Also... The remark also comes a day after Supreme Court sounded an ultimatum to high courts on filling vacancies in lower courts — "if you (HCs) can't do it, we will take over to put in place sanctioned strength of trial judges," the SC remarked. Days earlier Centre had proposed to introduce a test to fill the vacant posts. Meanwhile, in a departure from the practice of its judgments and orders being available in English only, the Supreme Court is planning to have them translated, to start with, in Hindi, which may later extend to vernacular languages. NEWS IN CLUES 5. Which company co-created the Moxy chain of hotels? Clue 1: Each year it prints more than 208 million catalogues — more times than Тhe Holy Bible itself. Clue 2: Its largest outlet — all of 640,000 sq ft — is located in Gwangmyeong, Seoul, South Korea. Clue 3: Its products are named rather than numbered because its founder was dyslexic. Scroll below for answer 6. Apple doesn't want you to know how many phones it sells The good and bad: Apple on Thursday reported its latest quarterly financial performance, and it was better than expected on many fronts. Its revenue for the July-through-September period was $62.9 billion and profit per share was $2.91, beating expectations of $61.5 billion and $2.79, respectively. But one announcement stood out: Apple said it will no longer report the number of iPhones sold. Because... Apple's explanation? "This is a little bit like if you go to the market and you push your cart up to the cashier and she says or he says, 'How many units do you have in there?'" Cook said. "It doesn't matter a lot how many units there are in there in terms of the overall value of what's in the cart." Apple says the focus on the number of phones sold doesn't reflect its "underlying strength" in earning money through services (the app store, music and video streaming and such). To Apple, this is key: It doesn't see itself as a mere smartphone maker, but as technology ecosystem or a complete lifestyle package. The phone, in its argument, is just a device (a premium one at that) to access the services that it wants to sell. Apple has a point — its revenue from services ($9.98 billion the last quarter) has increased consistently and is far ahead of any other smartphone maker, though, phone sales still bring the bulk of its revenue. But, then... Analysts say the reason to not publish the number of iPhone units in future is that Apple fears the demand for its phones will be underwhelming in future. They say the number of units sold gives them an idea of the average price of the units sold, an important marker to judge if people are indeed buying the increasingly expensive models that Apple is pushing (like the iPhone XS). To be clear, Apple did report its iPhone sales for the last quarter: 46.89 million iPhones sold at an average selling price was $793. The signs: The surprise decision by Apple and its warning that the holiday sales (Christmas-New Year) won't be as expected, sunk its stock by 7%, taking roughly $70 billion off Apple's market value and forcing that value below $1 trillion. 7. This island could break free from France Who? New Caledonia. The French overseas territory is in the south Pacific, a little east of Australia and nearly 18,000 km away from Paris. Population: 259,000. Area: 18,575 sq km (one-third of Delhi NCR). Languages spoken: French, Melanesian, and Polynesian dialects. What? The archipelago votes in an independence referendum on Sunday (Nov 4) to decide if it will continue its status quo or seek independence from France. The referendum took thirty years in making; the Noumea Accord signed in 1988, after violence in the archipelago, set the timetable for a vote on the territory's independence by the end of 2018. Why? The status of the archipelago, which the French took possession in 1853 to use as a prison, has been a subject of tension between the indigenous people of Kanaks and Caldoches (those who have settled). Kanaks comprise roughly 40% of the population, and a lot of them, especially those in the satellite islands, support independence; "we have endured 165 years of exploitation. And we still live in misery," says one of them. But opponents of independence argue that New Caledonia, aided by French subsidies, has a higher standard of living than other Pacific islands, such as neighbouring Vanuatu — France gives the territory 1.3 billion euros annually. Initial estimates suggest a majority of New Caledonians want to remain a part of France. Past: Under French colonial rule, the Kanaks were forced to live on reserves in remote areas, pay specific taxes and do mandatory work for very low wages. They had to respect curfews and were not allowed into some places reserved for European settlers. In the 1980s, longstanding resentments between Kanaks and Caldoches, boiled over into deadly violence that claimed more than 70 lives. In 1988, between the two rounds of the French presidential election, a violent attack and a two-week-long hostage-taking by Kanak separatists left four gendarmes, two soldiers and 19 tribesmen dead. Future: Whichever way the referendum goes, interest in New Caledonia goes beyond the archipelago and France; the territory holds a quarter of the world's supply of nickel — the element used in making stainless steel, and coating of aircraft, cars and more. New Caledonia is also a tourist attraction. 8. Has Usain bolted from professional soccer? Usain Bolt's attempt to become a professional footballer collapsed on Friday after contract talks with Australian club Central Coast Mariners failed. On trial at the Mariners for the past two months, the sprint king rejected the club's contract offer, which largely hinged on finding a commercial partner to boost his salary. The Mariners could only offer the 32-year-old Jamaican close to $150,000 — a fraction of the $2.1 million his management were said to be seeking — without any guarantee that the Jamaican would get an A-League game (Bolt's not A-League grade, theyhad said previously). Bolt's camp, the Mariners and Football Federation Australia had been seeking outside sponsors to increase the amount of the offer but finding a suitable deal in a timely manner was always going to be difficult. Wait then. Was it really about the dream or the money? Previously having tried out with clubs in Germany, South Africa and Norway, Bolt's quest to turn pro always had the world curious. The interest peaked on October 12, when he scored twicefor the Mariners in a friendly against amateur club Macarthur South West United. Six days later, Bolt was offered a two-year, trial-free contract from Maltese club Valletta, which he rejected. Interestingly, the breakdown in his talks with the Mariners coincided with Jamaican Football Association chief Michael Ricketts urging Bolt to sign for a club in his homeland, dangling the prospect of being picked for the national team. YOU SHARE YOUR B'DAY WITH... Source: Various 9. Two falls and a kidney stone fail to stop Biles Who? Simone Biles. Remember her? The most decorated female athlete of Rio Olympics in 2016 (alongside swimmer Katie Ledecky) — with five medals in total, four of them gold — is back to what she does the best: dominate the gymnastics arena. Even after uncharacteristic falls. What: Despite falls on the vault and balance beam, Biles became the first woman to win four all-around titles at the gymnastics world championships on Thursday. Her world title in Doha, Qatar adds to the all-around titles she won in 2013, 2014 and 2015 — a remarkable consistency in a sport that is prone to injuries. No stone unturned: Biles's victory caps her return to the sport after a year-long hiatus post Olympics. And if the remarkable achievement isn't stunning enough, consider this: She competed in Qatar despite a kidney stone bothering her. Biles was hospitalised less than a week ago, but the stone has not passed yet. But she shrugged it off saying, "if it were a challenge for me, I wouldn't have competed at all". 10. Superheroes have turned more violent than villains Beaten by the hour: General Zod and the Joker are actually the good guys in the Superman and Batman movies respectively, according to a new research done by the US-based Penn State College of Medicine and presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition on Friday — the study shows the superheroes indulge in more acts of violence (5 more an hour, to be precise) than the villains they conquer on screen. Trigger happy: The research, which analysed 10 superhero flicks between 2015 and 2016 — Suicide Squad, Batman: The Killing Joke, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, X-Men: Apocalypse, Captain America: Civil War, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Deadpool, Fantastic Four, Ant-Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron — found that the only segment where villains outscored the heroes was in bullying, torture and intimidation, where they committed 237 acts, vis-a-vis 144 acts by the superheroes. The pacifiers: The women superheroes are not given as many violent scenes as their male counterparts — the male protagonists commit more than five times the number of violent acts (33.6 acts per hour) as their female peers (6.5 acts of violence per hour). 3 CURATED WEEKEND READS 1. Butter nonsense: the rise of the cholesterol deniersA group of scientists has been challenging everything we know about cholesterol, saying we should eat fat and stop taking statins. This is not just bad science — it will cost lives, say experts. 2. The (imaginary) numbers at the edge of reality Have you ever sat in a math classroom and wondered, "When will I ever use this?" You might have asked yourself this question when you first encountered "imaginary" numbers. 3. The tragedy of Saudi Arabia’s warThe Saudi-led war in Yemen has pushed millions to the brink of starvation. Follow news that matters to you in real-time. Join 3 crore news enthusiasts. GET APP Answer To NEWS IN CLUES IKEA. Having launched its first Indian store in Hyderabad this August, the Swedish home furnishings company is preparing to launch its second Indian store—in Mumbai by March 2019, which is expected to create 10,000 jobs in Maharashtra. IKEA also plans to launch its third store in Bengaluru.