Why India is flagging in China+1 sweepstakes

Exports were up 18% year on year in September on the back of a 26% jump in computers/components exports and a 63% jump in machinery/accessories exports in the third quarter

Jet will need more capital post-rescue

• The winning bidders are expected to restart Jet’s operations by April 2021
• Challenges for the beleaguered airline include its heavy debt and high costs of restarting operations, amid low travel demand

Finance minister hints at another round of stimulus package in FY21

• Sitharaman was speaking at the virtual launch of the autobiography of 15th Finance Commission chairman N.K. Singh, titled 'Portraits of Power: Half a Century of Being at Ringside'
• Last week, expenditure secretary T.V. Somanathan said though nothing is planned yet, another stimulus cannot be ruled out

India seeing a decline in Covid-19 cases due to an early lockdown: PM Modi

'India was one of the firsts to encourage the usage of masks. India actively began to work on effective contact-tracing,' Modi said adding that the country was also one of the earliest to deploy the rapid antigen tests

Blackstone looks to buyout L&T Mutual Fund, expand India financial services play

• The deal, if it goes through, will mark the first buyout of an Indian AMC by a foreign non-mutual fund company
• L&T AMC, with 39 MF schemes, has assets worth around ₹63,057 cr as of the September quarter

Vineet Nayyar resigns from IL&FS board

• C S Rajan, MD, IL&FS, has been asked by the board to discharge Nayyar’s responsibilities in the interim and, in consultation with senior management, put in place a revised organisational structure

India must not repeat mistake of neglecting bank recapitalisation: Viral Acharya

• 'This lack of focus is tantamount to kicking the can down the road and jettisoning financial stability for short-term gains,' says the former RBI deputy governor
• Restoring banks' capital is critical for aiding a meaningful recovery, but there has been little focus on the matter, says Acharya

After Samsung, Xiaomi trolls Apple for removing chargers from iPhone 12 series

• Xiaomi posted a video on Twitter showing a person unboxing its Mi 10T Pro smartphone to reveal a power adaptor inside
• The video has gone viral since being posted last week and has garnered over a million views

Boost to Quad: Australia to be part of Malabar naval exercise, says India

• India's decision to heed to Australia's request to be part of the mega naval drill comes in the midst of growing strain in ties with China over the border row in eastern Ladakh
• The US and Japan are the other countries that participate in the annual exercise

L&T set to win ₹25,000 cr contract for Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project

• The company bid ₹24,985 crore for constructing the 237.1 km line for the bullet train project, beating two other bids led by Tata Projects and Afcons Infrastructure

Mint Lite | Covid-19 vaccine, China, APAC, economic risks & others

Stories, views, opinions and talking points that matter, from around the world

India can have 40,000 active Covid cases by Feb, says Harsh Vardhan

• The Union Health Minister attributed the figure to a prediction done by scientists

WHO chief Tedros says 184 countries signed up to vaccine facility

COVAX facility aims to finance COVID-19 vaccines to be distributed fairly to both rich and poor countries

Global funds place larger bets in India’s office assets

• Last week, Bengaluru developer Prestige Group signed an agreement with Blackstone to sell rental income assets for around $1.6 billion
• Analysts attribute the increased enthusiasm of foreign investors to buy office assets mainly to the success of the two real estate investment trusts so far

Finance minister nudges CPSEs to meet 75% of capex target by December

• The finance minister also said that capital expenditure of CPSEs needs to be scaled up for the current and the next fiscal year as it a ‘critical driver for economic growth’.

Sensex rallies nearly 450 points, Nifty Bank surges 3%. What analysts say

• State-run firms also also rose today after a report said the government had asked some of them to consider share buybacks.

United Nations to stockpile 100 crore syringes for Covid-19 vaccine

• UNICEF said it aims to get 520 million syringes in its warehouses by the end of this year
• The syringes will be used by Covax, the vaccine procurement, production and distribution pool

Govt asks at least 8 PSUs to consider buybacks: Report

• The firms asked include miner Coal India , power utility NTPC, minerals producer NMDC and Engineers India Ltd: Report

Odd-even scheme will be our last resort to curb air pollution: Delhi Minister

• 'Odd-even would be our last resort and we'll think about its implementation if rest of the methods to curb the air pollution fail,' says Gopal Rai
• The national capital's air quality was recorded in the 'poor' category on Monday morning

Chinese soldier captured in Ladakh

• The soldier is in the custody of the Indian Army and Indian agencies are probing whether there was any espionage involved, according to the report

Kalyan Jewellers gets go ahead for ₹1,750 crore IPO

• Kalyan Jewellers' promoter T S Kalyanaraman would be offloading shares worth up to ₹250 crore
• The proceeds from the fresh issue of shares would be utilised for working capital requirements and general corporate purpose

Karnataka Deputy CM’s 8 family members test Covid positive; son on ventilator

• Karjol explained his inability to take up a long journey to physically monitor the flood situation
• He is in touch with the district administration and is monitoring the flood situation sitting at home

Welcome aboard, well, virtually: How to start a new job amid pandemic

• Tech giants like Apple and Amazon are eyeing an early-2021 return to office life, Google is aiming for next July, and some – like Twitter and Slack – are even suggesting that the work-from-home shift could be permanent
• Here are few tips on how companies can make employees feel welcome from a distance – and how just-hired staffers can navigate this bizarro world

RBI paper attributes equity returns in India to falling Equity Risk Premium

• The paper focuses on estimating ERP which is the extra return that investors demand in return for holding a risky asset. A fall in ERP denotes that investors have become more confident about the asset in question.

Mahindra Thar crosses 15,000 bookings, 57% are 1st-time car buyers

• The bookings are significantly large, and a huge share is for automatic variants
• The auto major informed that around 57% of the buyers are first-time car buyers

Durga Puja 2020: Is virtual pandal-hopping the new normal this time?

• Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court has directed all Durga puja pandals in the state to be made into 'no-entry zones'

Reliance Jio hikes ₹222 Disney+ Hotstar VIP plan price: Details here

• Jio's ₹222 plan, which is an add-on pack to your existing plan, comes with Disney+ Hotstar VIP subscription for a year
• This prepaid pack offers 15GB of high-speed data that is valid until the base plan expires

Pakistan to lift ban on TikTok after it vows to moderate content

The move comes a few days after Pakistan blocked TikTok for failing to filter out 'immoral and indecent' content

India saw highest news intake among major countries during lockdown

• During the pandemic, those who were more anxious about their health and financial situation were more likely to have increased their news consumption

Covid-19: Durga Puja pandals to be no-entry zones for visitors, says Calcutta HC

• All 34,000 Durga Puja pandals in the state to be made 'No-Entry' zone for visitors
• The court also directs that list of names of organisers to be put up outside pandals and only they can enter for puja-related works

Mumbai locals: 700 train services, including 2 ladies specials, on Western line

• The Maharashtra govt had requested the Western Railway on 16 Oct to allow local trains services for women
• Recently, the Central Railway had added 225 more trains

Bank officers' unions blame IBA for derailing wage negotiation process

• Following the delay in finalising the wage revision process, the four bank officers' unions have asked their members for withdrawing extra cooperation to the banks management

DMart’s sequential recovery falls short of investors’ expectations

• The company maintains that there has been a month-on-month improvement in sales with August being better than July and September being better than August

Parliamentary panel to scrutinize EPFO corpus, benefit to workers

• This is the first time in the last one year when EPFO will come under parliamentary scrutiny
• The standing committee on Labour is also planning to look at ways to make EPFO more fruitful for working class, organized and unorganized sectors

HC rejects Kerala govt's plea against lease of airport to Adani group

• The state government argued that the 50-year contract to run the airport is not in public interest and said the airport is currently situated in prime land owned by it

Selling gold? Income tax rules depend on the form of yellow metal

The most common way of buying gold is in the form of jewelry and coins. The taxation for this form of gold depends on the time period for which you held the gold jewelry or coins.

'Masks work? No': Twitter removes 'misleading' post by Trump's adviser on Covid

• Twitter Inc removed the tweet, saying it violated its misleading information policy on Covid-19
• Dr. Scott Atlas continued to minimize the importance of masks with a Twitter post on Saturday, saying, 'Masks work? NO'