5 THINGS FIRST PM Modi likely to announce measures to boost credit availability for small companies today; Centre to take a call on raising import duties on 29 US products; Congress-NCP meet on seat sharing in Maharashtra; Last date for filing nomination for second phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly elections; Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to visit China

1. Will India's patience with Trump run out today? Last straw? India's patience with the Trump administration may finally run out today as New Delhi could opt for retaliatory tariffs after the US withdrew the duty-free statusof 50 items largely imported from India, most of them in the handloom and agricultural sectors. The withdrawal came into effect yesterday. Three strikes: India had notified the WTO in June its decision to impose tariffs on 30 US products, including motorcycles, heavy machinery, almonds, shrimps and chocolates, after Trump declined to exempt Indian steel and aluminium imports from higher tariffs. New Delhi deferredthe imposition of tariffs — expected to net India an additional $240 million — thrice, the latest to November 2. However, with the latest round of duties that Washington has imposed, it may become politically and economically imperative for India to respond. Nothing personal: The concessions that the US has revoked are not country-specific but product-specific and were given under the provisions of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). But India is one of the biggest beneficiaries of duty-free exports, accounting for $5.6 billion out of a total of $21.2 billion duty-free imports into the US last year. And now, the carrot: Even as the duty wars escalate, India may finally get the much-needed waiver from the US on oil imports from Iran, allowing New Delhi to import 1.25 million tonnes of oil a month from Tehran till March 2019, with an official announcement expected in a few days — Trump had earlier given a deadline of November 4 to countries to stop importing crude oil from Iran, as the US sanctions on Tehran (meant to force Iran into a new nuclear deal) come into effect a day later.

2. Is Delhi the new business capital of India? Easy peasy: Mumbaikars will not take this lying down: The latest World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index has placed Delhi ahead of the city for being more conducive to do business. Of the 30 parameters under 10 categories that were studied for the index this year, Delhi fared better than Mumbai on 11; Mumbai was better on four and the two cities were tied on 15 factors — with the result that new businesses are growing faster in Delhi NCR than in Mumbai Time is money: For instance, it takes less time to start a business in Delhi than it does in Mumbai. The national capital also requires fewer days to get permission to construct a warehouse and constructing it is cheaper by over 36% than Mumbai. Getting an electricity connection in Delhi is also quicker — a connection is installed within a month in Delhi, compared to almost 3 months in Mumbai, though power is cheaper in the latter. Money is power: This is not the first time Delhi has overtaken Mumbai on business and economy. In 2016, a report by Oxford Economics called it India's new economic capital after it outranked Mumbai in total GDP — the Maharashtra capital's GDP of $368 billion ranked it 31st among 50 top metropolitan cities globally, just behind Delhi at 30, with a GDP of $370 billion.

3. Bad day in SC for criminal netas, lazy courts and encroachers Criminal politicians: Dropping a bomb on criminal-politicians, the Supreme Court on Thursday said it would bring the spotlight back on a PIL's main plea to impose life-ban on elected representatives and politicians once they get convicted in a criminal case. The SC's attempt till now was to fast-track pending criminal cases against politicians, MPs and MLAs. "The prayer in the petition is that if a government servant or a judicial officer is sacked from the job on a conviction in a criminal case, why should the same yardstick be not applied to politicians and ban them from contesting elections altogether after their conviction in a criminal case?" the court said. Lethargic courts: Displeased with the high courts for not acting upon its order to fill vacancies in lower courts, the Supreme Court sounded an ultimatum: "if you (HCs) can't do it, we will take over to put in place sanctioned strength of trial judges", even as the Centre had proposed to introduce a test fill up the vacant posts. Citizens in trouble: In a major relief to the 40 lakh persons excluded from final draft Assam NRC, SC allowed five documents — NRC 1951, voter list of 1971 and three more documents issued till March 24, 1971 which are citizenship certificate, refugee registration certificate and ration card — to be relied upon for seeking inclusion of their names in the Assam NRC. With this, persons seeking inclusion of names in NRC can now rely on all 15 documents stipulated in the original standard operating procedure. Illegal houses: In order to streamline its drive against commercial misuse of residential properties, the SC said that the present practice of issuing an advance notice to offenders be done away with and the premises be sealed in 48 hours. "(The advance notice) gives offenders time to hastily remove the misuse to hoodwink the local bodies, which in turn have a window of opportunity to indulge in more corruption by bargaining with the defaulters for some solution," it said.

4. Why EC, RBI hate this 'new cash' that political parties love Alt cash: Corporates are busy buying electoral bonds that are on sale for the sixth time till November 10 to fund political parties. The first sale in March had made political parties richer by Rs 222 crore. Electoral bonds were introduced in January this year to allow cashless donations to political parties and bring transparency to political funding. Till last year, donations to political parties below Rs 20,000 could be anonymous but that limit is now down to Rs 2000. As good as cash: The names of buyers of these bonds were kept a secret to protect them from politics over their donation. However, this anonymity (of donors and receivers) ensures that we do not know who buys these bonds and which political parties get it. RBI doesn't like it: When the Centre had announced the scheme last year, it wanted the Reserve Bank of India to sell them. Arun Jaitley on February 1 last year had talked of an amendment to the Reserve Bank of India Act for this. However, there were reports that the central bank was uncomfortable as it thought that this was like creating another currency. The bonds are now sold through State Bank of India's 29 specified branches. EC hates it: Donations made through electoral bonds are not being declared by the political parties to the Election Commission. The poll body is all set to analyse the annual audited accounts of political parties (that were to be submitted by October 31). EC's big four concerns: the level of opacity (of funding source), the use of shell companies to route funds to political parties, channeling political funding via dying/loss-making companies, and misusing anonymity offered by bonds to illegally tap party funds from foreign sources.

NEWS IN CLUES 5. Which Indian cricketer's middle name is Gurunath? Clue 1: England's Gary Ballance and Australia's Mitchell Marsh are his only two Test victims. Clue 2: His only IPL hat-trick came in the 2009 season, versus the Mumbai Indians. Clue 3: He's the second Indian to boast centuries in all three formats of the game. Scroll below for answer

6. Ease of business? How about ease of accessing internet? Here’s a ranking that should deeply worry everyone. India leads the world in the number of internet shutdowns, with over 100 reported incidents in 2018 alone, according to a report titled Freedom On the Net by US-based Freedom House. Not so free: The report gives India a score of 43 on a scale of 100, meaning the country only has a "partly-free internet". This places India as the 35th worst on internet freedom. China is the worst, with its internet classified "not free" with a score of 88 (besides shutdown, China actively sensors content on the internet, more so than any other nation). Worsening: India's record on internet freedom has, in fact, worsened in a year even as more people got access to the internet for the first time due to a fall in data cost. According to Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Centre, internet shutdowns in India has increased by over 50% in a year, from 79 to 121 so far this year. In fact, the number of shutdowns has consistently increased over the years, with just 4 recorded in 2014. In dark: Jammu and Kashmir accounts for most of the internet shutdowns in India, with a total of 112 blackouts since SFLC started tracking the data in 2013. It is followed by Rajasthan (56), Haryana (12), Gujarat (11), Uttar Pradesh (12) and Bihar (10). This year's worst states are J&K (52 shutdowns), Rajasthan (30), Haryana (8) and UP (8). According to SFLC's 2018 report, Living in Digital Darkness, a vast majority of internet shutdowns in India are ordered under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Why it matters? Internet matters as it is often the only source of information (and these days banking) to many. The rising number of internet shutdowns in India is against the spirit, and even defeats the purpose, of Digital India initiative promoted by the Central government. According to a 2016 report by Brookings Institute, India incurred losses to the tune of $968 million due to internet shutdowns. Since then the number of shutdowns has increased nearly 300%. Internet shutdowns also violate human rights, says the Human Rights Council. Fake news? Freedom House says, blocking internet is not the right solution to fake news, instead, it calls for smart solutions ranging from digital literacy education to partnerships between civil society and tech companies to effectively countering disinformation and violent extremism online.

7. A strike supported by a company CEO Global walkout: Employees at Google's offices globally, including its three offices in India, at Mumbai, Hyderabad and Gurgaon, staged a walkout on Thursday in protest against the company's handling of sexual harassment cases, in a move that was supported by the company's CEO, Sundar Pichai. Cost of millions: The trigger point for the worldwide protest has been a recent revelation that Google paid $90 million as an exit package to Andy Rubin, dubbed the Father of Android, who resigned in 2014 in the wake of sexual misconduct charges. After initial criticism, Pichai wrote a letter saying he is "deeply sorry for the past actions" and added that the company has since then terminated 48 employees on sexual harassment complaints and none of them was provided with a severance package. A new deal: Google's employees have demanded an end to forced arbitration in harassment cases, a public disclosure of the company's sexual harassment policy, a clear and uniform process for reporting sexual misconduct cases anonymously, equal pay, and appointment of an employee representative to the company's board. Read more here

X-PLAINED 8. The Black Box A black box from the crashed Lion Air JT610 jet has reportedly been recovered , which could be critical to establishing why the brand new Boeing-737 MAX 8, which went into service just a few months ago, plunged into the Java Sea off Indonesia's northern coast on Monday, killing 189 people. What: A 'black box' actually consists of two boxes: A cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and a flight data recorder (FDR). Each is about the size of a shoe box, weighing around 10 kg. Made out of aluminium, they are intensely durable and designed to withstand massive impact, fire or high pressure. Although originally painted black, the colour was changed to bright orange to make them easier to locate by investigators. Where: Compulsory on any commercial flight or corporate jet, the FDR is usually kept in the tail of an aircraft, where they are more likely to survive a crash. And as the name suggests, the CVR is located in the cockpit. How: Black boxes are fitted with an underwater locator beacon that starts emitting a pulse if its sensor touches water. If a crash happens on land, searchers only have the orange colour as a visual beacon. Why: The FDR records a stream of flight information, while the CDR stores conversations and other noises made in the cockpit. Data from both the CVR and FDR is stored on stacked memory boards inside the crash-survivable memory unit, which can store two hours of audio data for CVRs and 25 hours of flight data for FDRs. This data helps experts investigate the cause of an accident or serious incident and reduce the potential sources for error. But: Investigators cannot fully reconstruct a flight using a black box. Also, there are only a few specialised agencies worldwide capable of evaluating a black box, and not every agency is able to examine the various models. In future: Video devices may be employed to record certain displays in the cockpit. The transmission power of the locator signal through water will also be improved. And not just planes, even cars (like all Tesla automobiles currently) will be equipped with their own black boxes.

YOU SHARE YOUR B'DAY WITH... Source: IMDB

9. The paralysed could soon walk again A breakthrough treatment involving electrical stimulation of the spine has enabled paralysed patients to walk again, apparently reactivating nerve connections and providing hope for people even years after accidents. The study, called STIMO (STImulation Movement Overground), was led by the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and the Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland. Three paraplegic individuals were part of the five-month programme—at the end of which all of them could walk independently (either partially supported or with a walker) for the first time in years. One of them, David Mzee, even walked up to a kilometre or for two hours without breaks. Nerves in the spinal cord send signals from the brain to the legs. But when a spine is damaged, these signals are often too weak to create movement. Till now, that is. The revolutionary new device works thus: The patient is implanted with 16 electrodes on the spinal cord below the break Short, timed bursts of electricity stimulate the spinal nerves At the same time, the patient thought about moving his legs The stimulation may have caused the nerves to regrow Patient could feel his legs and even walk when the stimulation was off, all the while controlling the device with a voice-controlled watch The researchers said the treatment was still experimental, and its effectiveness for others with complete or partial paralysis was yet to be worked out. But hey, the first steps have been taken…

10. Why these Indian villagers took World Bank to a US court The case: Fishermen and farmers in Gujarat have dragged the International Finance Corp (IFC), the financing arm of the World Bank, to court for investing in Tata Mundra Power plant in Gujarat that they say is causing environmental damage. The background: IFC provided $450 million in loans in 2008 for construction of the coal-fired Tata Mundra Power plant. IFC loan provisions require some environmental standards are met. Fishermen living near the plant sued the agency in US federal court in Washington in 2015, saying it failed to meet these obligations. After the lower court ruled in favour of IFC, the case is being heard in the US Supreme Court. The last hearing was on October 31 and a final ruling is due by the end of June. Why it matters: The important legal outcome of the case would be whether there are limits to immunity for entities like the IFC (under 1945 International Organizations Immunity Act), as there are for foreign countries under a 1976 law. A ruling against the organisation could invite similar lawsuits targeting other international development banks. Trump's with villagers: The Trump administration has urged the US Supreme Court to overturn the lower court decision that international organisations are entitled to 'absolute immunity' from lawsuits in US courts.

PLUS Just 5 nations hold most of the world's wilderness More than 70% of Earth's last untouched wilderness lies in the territories of just five countries. They are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Russia, and the US. This, according to a study published in the journal Nature and led by researchers from Australia's University of Queensland and New York's Wildlife Conservation Society. Source: Nature In fact, true wild spaces—land and sea areas mostly unaffected by mankind's explosive expansion and insatiable appetite for food and natural resources—now cover little more than a quarter of the planet. Why are wild spaces important? Well, they are vital refuges for thousands of endangered species threatened by deforestation and overfishing, and provide some of our best defences against the devastating weather events brought about by climate change. Also, these spots often act as the world's lungs, storing CO2 that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. The study also revealed that and just 23% of land is untouched by the impact of agriculture and industry—a century ago that figure stood at 85%. At the same time, 13% of the planet's seas bore little or no hallmarks of human activity. Putting it in context: Between 1993 and 2009, an area of wilderness the size of India was lost to human settlement, farming and mining.

KEEPING TRACK Asia Bibi, the Christian woman acquitted in Pakistan after eight years on death row for blasphemy, plans to leave the country soon, her family said on Thursday, even as authorities said they arrested two prisoners last month for conspiring to kill her. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has agreed to reconvene the country's suspended parliament on Monday, November 5, to resolve a constitutional crisis to decide who's the country's Prime Minister — this after the President sacked PM Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new PM, even though the latter does not enjoy a majority in the parliament. Trying to forge an anti-BJP alliance, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu met Congress president Rahul Gandhi, NCP leader Sharad Pawar and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah in Delhi — Naidu and Gandhi are also in talks for seat sharing for the AP assembly elections due in December.

Follow news that matters to you in real-time. Join 3 crore news enthusiasts. GET APP

Answer To NEWS IN CLUES Rohit Sharma. The 31-year-old Indian opener became the fastest to smash 200 ODI sixes. Having reached the milestone in his 187th innings — against West Indies in the 5th ODI in Thiruvananthapuram — he eclipsed Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi’s record (195 innings). He also became the second Indian after MS Dhoni to hit 200 ODI sixes and the world’s second-highest run-getter in ODIs for 2018.