India, Pak open window: Cricket on the table, Ministers hold talks

In the first direct conversation between Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan since 2015, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar spoke twice in less than 24 hours, and there were indications that these talks explored the idea of resuming some form of cricketing ties between the two countries.

Territorial integrity to terror, Jaishankar takes swipe at China, Pakistan

In a thinly veiled reference to Pakistan and China, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that "if trust is lacking or cooperation inadequate if friendship has fallen short and good neighbourliness is missing somewhere, there are surely reasons to introspect and causes to address".

Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) heads of government meeting in Islamabad, Jaishankar listed the key challenges that the organisation was committed to combating terrorism, separatism and extremism.

Trade deficit at 5-month low as textile exports surge, gold imports dip

A marginal increase in exports, driven by textiles, engineering and electronic goods that compensated for lower petroleum exports, alongside a sharp decline in gold imports, helped India's goods trade deficit ease to a five-month low of $21 billion in September, compared to a ten-month high of $30 billion in August, official data released. 

Amid several geopolitical challenges, India's exports managed to register a slight increase in September, reaching $35 billion compared to $34 billion last September. 

A consistent rise in engineering goods exports to Russia and Europe, where military spending is increasing, and export of electronic items such as mobile phones to the US, added to total exports.

SC verdict on challenge to Sec 6A of Citizenship Act

A Five-Judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court will pronounce its verdict on whether Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955- which granted citizenship to immigrants who entered Assam before January 1, 1966, is constitutional. 

The provision was added to the statute in 1985 following the signing of the Assam Accord between the Rajiv Gandhi government at the Centre and the All Assam Students' Union. The accord was a culmination of a six-year-long agitation against the entry of Bangladeshi migrants into Assam. 

The verdict is expected to answer crucial questions on the grant of citizenship to immigrants and the rights of "indigenous" Assamese people.

8 states get SC contempt notice for appointing temporary DGPs

A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud took up the issue of appointments of temporary police chiefs, clubbing three petitions and issuing contempt notices to eight states that will make their submissions before the court on October 21.

The apex court, hearing a contempt petition in the matter, issued notices to Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal, apart from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). 

While issuing the orders, the court dispensed with the personal presence of the respondents, including chief secretaries and DCs apart from officials from the MHA and UPSC. 

It, however, allowed the notices to be served to the standing counsel of the states.

As the world warms and cools

It's important to realise that human security holds the key to national security, especially in regions where proxy wars, based upon terrorism, abound. Bangladesh lost 1,40,000 people and innumerable of the country's citizens were injured and displaced due to the fury of the super cyclone in 1991. 

Human security in the underdeveloped environment of the nation has been a nagging factor ever since then. Displaced and homeless people have always been targeted by radical ideologies.

Trudeau's troubles & Canadian Sikh vote

India has rejected Canadian accusations of involvement in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and said they are part of "the political agenda of the [Justin] Trudeau Government that is centred around vote bank politics".

"Prime Minister Trudeau's hostility to India has long been in evidence", the Ministry of External Affairs said. 

The allegation that senior Indian diplomats, including High Commissioner Sanjay Verma, were involved in Nijjar's killing "serves the anti-India separatist agenda that the Trudeau Government has constantly pandered to for narrow political gains", it said.

CAN LIFE EXIST ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM? WE MAY KNOW SOON

Europa Clipper, the biggest interplanetary spacecraft that NASA has ever built, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday afternoon with a mission to tackle one of biology's core questions:

The spacecraft's destination is Europa, a moon of Jupiter, where water sloshes beneath a shell of ice that could be more than 10 miles thick. Such ocean worlds are fairly common in the outer Solar System.

Korean Peninsula heating up again: history of hostility between North and South, the trigger for current tensions

North Korea announced that more than 1.4 million citizens had applied to join the army. 

This came a day after it blew up a section of roads and railway lines on its southern border, in response to South Korea allegedly sending drones with anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border.

India faces 'tariff asymmetry' in ASEAN agreement, says official

Amid a widening trade deficit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a senior government official said that India is facing tariff asymmetry in the ASEAN agreement and is aiming to complete the review by next year. 

The review of the India- ASEAN trade deal was mentioned in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 10-point plan to enhance cooperation between the two regions during the ongoing 21st ASEAN-India Summit. 

Rajesh Agrawal, Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce, said during a press briefing that India has strongly urged the completion of the review of the free trade agreement in goods by 2025. 

The review is important, as India faces tariff asymmetry in the agreement, with a blanket "74 per cent plus" tariff elimination for ASEAN nations, he said.