The Daily Brief – 9th October, 2016

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• The ruling AIADMK party in Tamil Nadu has expressed that it is against the idea of installing a Deputy Chief Minister or appointing an interim head of government to steer the administration till Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who has been hospitalised, recovers completely and resumes her political responsibilities.
• India is getting ready to deploy an indigenously developed rover on the lunar surface for on-site analysis of various samples and relay them to the earth station. The Chandrayaan-II Mission includes launching of lunar explorations by geosynchronous launch vehicles (GSLV Mk-II) with clinical precision.
• Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of Maharashtra inaugurated the Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration (MCIA), which is being seen as a major step towards making Mumbai an International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) and providing an arbitration platform to Indian business houses to negotiate commercial disputes.
• After its controversial decision prescribing educational qualifications for panchayat elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Rajasthan has introduced similar qualifications for those willing to contest elections to the cooperative bodies by amending the State Cooperative Societies Act. The amendment, which came into force on October 4, provides for different qualifications for block, district and State-level cooperative societies. The new rules will apply to about 10,000 cooperative institutions functioning across the State.
• The Supreme Court has constituted a fresh three-member Bench to hear the dispute related to the sharing of Cauvery water between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The new Bench would comprise Justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and A.M. Khanwilkar and will take up all the issues arising out of the dispute on October 18. Earlier, on October 4, a Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and U.U. Lalit agreed with the counsel representing both sides that the matter had to be heard by a three-judge Bench.
• The renowned Dasara celebrations at Aishbagh’s Ram Leela maidan in Lucknow has acquired new significance this year as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend it. This is the first ever visit to the function by a sitting Prime Minister.
• Indian pharmaceutical companies have ranked low at 19th position with an overall score of 59 out of 100 among in the Biopharmaceutical Competitiveness & Investment (BCI) Survey. The survey of 28 countries was commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
• The Union Finance Ministry has set up a Public Debt Management Cell (PDMC) with the objective of deepening bond markets in the country. PDMC will streamline government borrowings and better cash management for deepening bond markets.
• India’s first Medipark (Medical Park) will be set up in Tamil Nadu at Chengalpet near Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It will boast of the first medical devices manufacturing park in the country. In this regard, the Union Cabinet has allowed HLL Lifecare, a ‘miniratna’ public sector company to sub-lease over 300 acres of land for the purpose.
• The Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) of BRICS nations viz. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has been declared operational. It was announced by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who had chaired the Governing Council meeting of the BRICS’ CRA in New York, United States.
• Indian shuttlers Ruthvika Shivani Gadde and Siril Verma continued their impressive run to enter the finals of women’s and men’s singles events at the Russian Open Grand Prix. The mixed doubles pair of N. Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra, who clinched the Brazil Open Grand Prix title last month, also reached the final.
• Australian Nick Kyrgios will take on Belgium’s David Goffin at the ATP Japan Open final.
• Ramkumar Ramanathan and Jordi Munoz-Abrou of Venezuela made the doubles final in the $25,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament.
• NASA’s Opportunity probe on Mars will drive down a gully carved long ago by a fluid that might have been water, according to the latest plans for the mission.
• Islamic State has lost more than a quarter of the territory it once controlled and the area under its hold in Iraq and Syria is roughly the size of Sri Lanka, according to new data. Security and defence analysts IHS say the terror group’s control has reduced by 28 per cent since its height in January 2015.

• Senator John McCain, a senior figure in the Republican Party who was its 2008 presidential nominee, formally withdrew his support Saturday for Donald Trump over lewd remarks that threw his White House campaign into disarray. A defiant Donald Trump refused to withdraw his campaign, rejecting a growing backlash from Republican leaders nationwide who disavowed him after he was caught on tape bragging about predatory advances on women.

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