5 THINGS FIRST Second phase of Chhattisgarh polls for 72 seats; SC to hear on-leave CBI chief's plea against govt; PM Modi to campaign in Jhabua and Rewa in MP; Rahul Gandhi to address rallies in Champhai and Aizwal (Mizoram); Delhi court to pronounce sentence in 1984 riots case

1. India's 'lender of last resort' borrows time The meeting: Reserve Bank of India's most-watched meeting (that was supposed to signal the course of government-RBI relations in future) and one if its longest in recent years (it lasted nine hours) ended in a temporary truce to buy time to sort out the differences. The meeting came amidst a rare public display of differences over a wide range of issues from loans to small firms to the central bank's reserves over the last few weeks. The government had threatened to invoke a never-used rule to issue directions to the central bank to act on its key concerns. The outcome: Among the issues on which there was some clarity were: RBI's reserves: Government had earlier said RBI has more reserves than it needs so it should transfer the rest to it. RBI said is needs a strong balance sheet to function effectively. Now: A committee will look at reserves requirements of RBI and transfer of surplus to government. The mandate is to look at future profits and not past reserves. That means the issue of transfer of reserves gets pushed to after 2019 elections. Loans to small firms: The government was of the view that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are not getting adequate credit but RBI said it is for the banks to decide whether to give loans based on their risk appetite. Now: RBI will consider a scheme (available till March 2020) for restructuring of stressed assets of MSME borrowers with loans of up to Rs 25 crore. That would be a plus for the government as it goes into an election soon. Weak banks: Government wanted a relaxation in RBI rules that would allow 12 'weak banks' (categorised by RBI under its prompt corrective action framework) to start lending. RBI favoured government bringing in the capital before offering concessions. Now: The matter (to bail out some banks based on improved financial performance) will be examined by the Board for Financial Supervision of RBI and banks would get a breather in meeting capital norms. Bottomline: While RBI has agreed to examine some of the issues raised by the government it also seems to have not given in immediately on the big issue of reserves. With most of the sticky issues being handed over to committees, all eyes will be on the next round of announcements by the central bank or its next board meeting on December 14 which will look into ‘governance and liquidity’ issues, that also need some sorting out. Read more here

2. CBI crisis reaches government's doors The latest: A CBI joint director (Manish Kumar Sinha), who was one of those transferred in last month's midnight shakeup at the agency, moved Supreme Court on Monday levelling serious allegations (of interference) against top government officials: the country's top security officer, a minister, a bureaucrat, the Central Vigilance Commissioner and a RAW official. The characters: Sinha led the investigation against CBI's number two officer Rakesh Asthana who was accused of taking a bribe from Hyderabad-based businessman Satish Babu Sana. Asthana had alleged that Sana had bribed the CBI chief. Sana is a co-accused in cases against meat exporter Moin Qureshi, who is accused of money laundering. Brothers Manoj and Somesh Prasad were the alleged conduits for the bribe paid by Sana to Asthana. The NSA: Sinha alleged links between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Manoj and Somesh Prasad, the alleged conduits for the bribe paid by businessman Sathish Sana to CBI's Asthana. Sinha alleges that during interrogation (he was supervising the bribery probe against Asthana) the duo bragged about their father's (who retired as joint secretary, R&AW) close acquaintance with Doval. Sinha claims Doval stymied a search request at Asthana's residence. He also quoted the CBI Director to allege that search and seizure of mobile phones of public servants in connection with Asthana bribery was not permitted by Doval. The minister: Sinha says that businessman Sana had claimed that Union Minister of State for Coal and Mines Haribhai P Chaudhary had been paid 'few crores of rupees' as bribe for help in CBI matters. Chaudhari is an MP from Gujarat and is known to be close to PM Narendra Modi. The CVC: The petition says that Sana had also met CVC K V Chowdhary (who along with vigilance commissioners T M Bhasin and Sharad Kumar gave report on the CBI chief to the SC) and discussed the Moin Qureshi case. The bureaucrat: The petition says that while the CVC (on directions of SC) was looking into complaints against the CBI chief, the Union Law Secretary got in touch with Sana and tried to influence him. RAW: The petition has also said that during surveillance, CBI had heard a conversation involving a R&AW officer who said "the PMO had managed the CBI issue", and it was on the same night that the entire CBI team probing the Asthana case was removed. Sinha pleaded for a SC-monitored SIT probe into the allegations. Meanwhile, CBI director AK Verma filed in Supreme Court his responserebutting the ‘not so complimentary and very uncomplimentary’ comments against him in the CVC report on corruption charges against him.

3. Why a grenade blast has India so worried? The grenade blast at the Sant Nirankari Mission place of worship in Amritsar, that claimed three lives and injured 10 others, revived memories of the 1978 clash between Sikhs and Nirankaris, that not only resulted in a severe loss of life, but is widely acknowledged as the tipping point for militancy in Punjab that lasted through much of the 1980s and the early part of the 1990s — even taking the lives of an incumbent Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi and the head of the Sant Nirankari Mission, Gurbachan Singh. So, who are the Nirankaris and why are they at odds with the mainstream Sikhs? Selective interpretation: The Sant Nirankari Mission is considered an offshoot of the Nirankari sect, that was started by a contemporary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Dayal Das, in the 19th century, apparently as a reformist movement to rid Sikhism of orthodox Hindu practices like idol worship — however, while it copied the teachings of the first five Sikh Gurus, it rejected the teachings and the formation of the Khalsa order by the 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh. The break up: The emergence of the Singh Sabha reformist movement in Sikhism in the latter half of the 19th century, which adhered to the tenets of all 10 Sikh Gurus, led to the dying out of the Nirankari movement, to be replaced by its offshoot, the Sant Nirankari Mission (SNM) by Buta Singh, who advocated not only a living line of gurus but also composed scriptures, both of which are are considered blasphemous by mainstream Sikhs. Subterranean tension: Clashes, some of them violent, between the SNM and Sikhs had long before the fateful day of Baisakhi in 1978 — when SNM's then head, Gurbachan Singh, in an alleged provocation to Sikhs, is believed to have not only desecrated the Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, but is also said to have made public his intention of ordaining a parallel order to the Khalsa, which provoked militant Sikhs to clash with SNM followers, resulting in the death of 16 people. The tipping point: Following the clashes, the Akal Takht, the highest temporal authority in Sikhism, issued an edict in October 1978 forbidding any social contact by the Sikhs with the followers of SNM. In April 1980, Gurbachan Singh, who many Sikhs alleged was directly responsible for the 1978 Baisakhi clashes, was assassinated by a militant Sikh, after which Punjab's descent into chaos accelerated, leading to the Operation Bluestar in 1984, the assassination of Gandhi and the genocide of Sikhs across the country, all of which led to the rise of extremism in Punjab that continued for over a decade till the mid 1990s. Not just the human cost: Militancy in Punjab cost it dearly, both in terms of humans lives and economic growth, with the state GDP slipping below the national average, along with large scale migration of its youth to foreign shores, either to escape militancy or police excesses. Meanwhile, the police have released composites of the two, Lakhbir Singh Rode & Harmeet Singh 'PhD', suspected to have carried out the attack, apparently at the behest of Pakistan's spy agency, ISI, as the grenade used is similar to the one manufactured by the Pakistani Army Ordnance Factory, according to Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, who has announced a reward of Rs 50 lakh for information on the two suspects, while negating any comparison between the 1978 Sikh-Nirankari clashes and the 2018 blast, terming the former a religious matter. Read more here

4. Seasonal migration results in children's stagnation Vicious cycle: A UNESCO study, the 2019 Global Education Monitoring (GEM), revealed that 40% of children from seasonal migrant households are likely to end up working rather than studying in school and face exploitation and abuse. It said 80% of migrant children across seven Indian cities did not have access to education near worksites. When moving isn't progress: India, along with China, is home to some of the world's largest internal population movements, with inter-state migration rates doubling in India in the 10 years from 2001 to 2011. The worst affected due to this are the children, with 10.7 million of them between the ages 6 and 14 living in rural households with a family member who was a seasonal worker, while among youth aged 15 to 19 who have grown up in a rural household with a seasonal migrant, 28% identified as illiterate or had an incomplete primary education. Diminishing hope? While the Right to Education Act in 2009 made it mandatory for local authorities to admit migrant children — and some states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh have made efforts by offering boarding schools for migrant workers' children, or textbooks in the mother tongue of the migrants' children — the situation on the ground needs a drastic improvement, due to rampant teacher and student absenteeism as also wide disparity in the social habits and cultural background of the teachers and the taught.

NEWS IN CLUES 5. Which is the largest economy in the EU? Clue 1: The entire nation is broken into 16 states—each largely autonomous and with its own constitution. Clue 2: With a population of 82.3 million, it's the second-most populated country in Europe, after the Russian Federation (1.43 million). Clue 3: The country's also hosted two Olympics and two FIFA World Cups. Scroll below for answer

6. Why do best-paid executives resort to penny-pinching? Who? On Monday, Japanese automaker Nissan said its high-flying chairman Carlos Ghosn is to be dismissed after an internal investigation found he under-reported his income by millions of dollars and engaged in other "significant misconduct". He who: Ghosn is a celebrated name in the auto industry. He not only chairs Nissan but is also the chairman of Renault, the French carmaker and also the chairman of an alliance between the two carmakers and a third, Mitsubishi. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance in 2017 sold more cars than any other company in the world. All of that means Ghosn gets three salaries (!) a year. In 2017, he earned $8.5 million in cash and stock at Nissan and Mitsubishi, and another $8.4 million in cash and stock at Renault (after a pay hike narrowly approved by the board), taking the total to nearly $16 million a year — among the highest in auto industry, though well short of GM CEO Hugo Barra's $22 million. How much did he hide? The investigation over several months on the violations, which was flagged by a whistleblower, revealed Ghosn and a Nissan representative director, Greg Kelly, under-reported their income by a combined 5 billion yen ($44 million) from 2011 to 2015. Ghosn is also alleged to have engaged in the personal use of company assets. Fall from grace: The revelation marks a dramatic turnaround for Ghosn, credited to be one of the shrewdest brains in the business. After successfully restructuring Renault in the late 1990s, Ghosn earned the nickname "Le Cost Killer"; he later became Nissan's chief operating officer in 1999 and took over as its CEO in 2001 — thus becoming the first person to run two companies on the Fortune Global 500 simultaneously. He stepped down as Nissan's CEO last year but retained the title of chairman. Who else? Early this year, Martin Sorrell, the CEO of advertising giant WPP, had to step down after a probe into his improper use of company funds and allegations of improper personal behaviour (he is, however, back in business as the head of S4 Capital). There was also AMP chief executive Craig Melle this year. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron says France wants to ensure stability at the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi. The French state owns 15% of Renault, and Macron said the government “will be extremely vigilant about the stability of the alliance.” He also promised to watch out for Renault workers.

7. Google News may shut down in Europe. Here's why The battle: Lawmakers of the European Union voted to approve in September amended versions of its copyright rules that aim to make tech companies like Facebook and Google share more of their revenue to news publishers showing news snippets or linking to news stories on other sites. Now, a top Google executive has threatened to shut down Google News in Europe if the rules are enforced. Blowback: The days of technology being seen as a saviour or even a benign force are over — lawmakers across the world are discussing the harms caused by technology companies, from Facebook's Cambridge Analytica and election meddling scandal to data leaks big and small. (Go deeper here) New laws: This has meant new laws, and EU has been at the forefront of it. Early this year, EU's new privacy law, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), came into force, which gives greater control of data to consumers (such as on consent to data porting to the erasure of information). GDPR has influenced other nations to come up with similar laws; even India's proposed data policy takes cues from it. That means: If EU enforces its copyright rules, Google will have to pay a "link tax" for articles it aggregates on its News feed. So do Facebook and every other aggregator. The rise of these technology platforms have had hit news publishers hard — the previous gatekeepers of advertisement have seen their role in ad business diminish to the point that Google and Facebook are now the lords of the business. Thus, the possibility of other nations replicating EU copyright rule is high, which means a reduced revenue for the like of Google, Facebook and Apple. In fact, Spain had enforced a similar rule already, and Google shut down its News there; and a similar situation played out in Germany, but Google News was restored after publishers and Google came to an agreement. Meanwhile, Facebook will donate £4.5m to fund 80 local British newspaper jobs for the next two years, as the company faces further questions over its relationship with the media and long-term impact on the news business. The scheme is being arranged in the form of a cash donation to the National Council for the Training of Journalists, a registered charity.

8. To find engineers, head to small towns (like Guntur) but... Talent here: A new report says employable talent in India's tier-2 and tier-3 cities is rising, with Guntur, Lucknow, Nashik and Visakhapatnam finding a place in the top 10 cities with the highest employability. The India Skills report — prepared by People Strong, Wheebox and industry body CII in partnership with the All India Council for Technical Education, United Nations Development Programme and the Association of Indian Universities — says, at a state-level, Andhra Pradesh has the highest employability, followed by West Bengal and Delhi, and engineers continue to be the most employable. Bengaluru and Chennai topped at a city-level, followed by Guntur. (Go deeper here) So should tech companies make a beeline to India's smaller cities to look for talent? Yes and no. Tech companies have for some time realised India's best talent is not always found in IITs and IIMs and, hence, has thrown their net wider to find the right employee... But a small town scoring high on employability may not necessarily mean it has the best talent. In fact, there are doubts if India is producing the right talent, with some even claiming 94% of India’s engineering graduates are of poor quality — even an IIT chief had raised concern. Also to note, Association of Indian Universities, on the partners of the report, though has 527 members from India and other neighbouring nations, does not include the IITs. This is not to say, small towns have lower quality, just that more talent does not mean better talent. Just look at the hiring practices of technology companies these days. Campus recruitment has fallen, especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, as companies are looking beyond bulk hiring and training model, and is relying on startups and recruitment firms that conducts practical tests or online coding challenge to find the right top talent. Besides this, companies like Facebook also hire coders who find a bug in their software or those who stand out at hackathons.

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

9. Has the men's tennis cartel been smashed? Ask 21-year-old Alexander Zverev (in pic) from Germany. The youngest finalist at the ATP World Tour in nine years overcame 14-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-3 to lift the trophy at London's O2 Arena on Sunday night. This, having dispatched 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer, again in straight sets (7-5, 7-6), in the semis. In the process, he became just the fourth player to beat Federer in a semifinal and Djokovic in a final in the same tournament, after Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and David Nalbandian. Grand Slams apart, the ATP World Tour Finals winners list since 2010 shows the dominance of the established order: 2010: Roger Federer 2011: Roger Federer 2012: Novak Djokovic 2013: Novak Djokovic 2014: Novak Djokovic 2015: Novak Djokovic 2016: Andy Murray 2017: Grigor Dimitrov 2018: Alexander Zverev But that could change from here. Zverev seemed to have finally delivered on the promise that has seen him win 10 titles (including the ATP Finals and three Masters crowns) and become the shining light of a 'next generation' of up-and-coming tennis tyros looking to unseat the multiple Grand Slam winners who have dominated the sport for well over a decade. We're talking Federer, Djokovic, Nadal and Murray primarily. FYI: The only three players who have beaten Djokovic since Wimbledon started — Karen Khachanov (Paris Masters Final), Stefanos Tsitsipas (Toronto Masters final) and now, Zverev — are all part of the new generation. Zverev reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final at the French Open this year and it seems only a matter of time, especially with eight-time major champion Ivan Lendl helping Zverev’s dad with the coaching, that he will go deeper into the biggest tournaments. Watch this space...

10. How many Kiwis do you need to bowl out the opposition? Ajaz Patel Stunning: New Zealand's 4-run win against Pakistan in the 1st Test in Abu Dhabi on Monday — their narrowest Test victory in history. (Overall, in terms of runs, it's the fifth-smallest Test win). More stunning: 16 of the 20 Pakistani wickets (or 80%) fell to New Zealanders born outside the country 7: Ajaz Patel (born in Mumbai, India) 3: Ish Sodhi (Ludhiana, India) 3: Neil Wagner (Pretoria, South Africa) 2: Colin de Grandhomme (Harare, Zimbabwe) 1: Run out (Sodhi/Patel) And the remaining 4 went to Trent Boult, born in Rotorua, New Zealand.

PLUS Too many holidays, that's the problem The issue: In Karnataka, the public perception of the state not functioning effectively has become a serious concern for the government. The reason: Up to 100 days of holidays in a year for government employees (including earned leave). So, the state government decided on Monday to form a cabinet sub-committee to look into the issue and increase the efficiency of the state administration. The urgency: The sixth pay commission had recommended every fourth Saturday to be declared a holiday but the state government thinks that would be 'impractical' and if at all it has to happen "then there needs to be reduction of the holidays elsewhere". The politics: The sub-committee (whose members will be decided by the chief minister) will also look at the demands from government officials for a holiday on weekends. "If we ask one jayanti to be declared a non-holiday, then that community will come forward to declare other jayantis also a non-holiday," says a minister.

KEEPING TRACK Fruits of a hug: Two days after India- PM Narendra Modi blessed the inauguration of new Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the head of a party supporting Solih said on Monday the nation will pull out of a free trade agreement (FTA) with China because it was a mistake for the tiny nation to strike such a pact with the world's second biggest economy. Lankan turmoil: The Sri Lankan Parliament, which met on Monday following violence and disruption last week, was adjourned minutes after it convened, without a resolution to the ongoing political crisis. They are to meet again on Friday.

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Answer To NEWS IN CLUES Germany. The country will bar 18 Saudis from entering its territory and Europe's Schengen passport-free zone over their alleged links to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Germany’s foreign minister Heiko Maas said on Monday. He added that the move was "coordinated very closely” with France and Britain and the broader EU as they seek more information in Khashoggi's death last month in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.