Morning Brief: Modi-May Vow To Fight Terror; US Goes To The Polls; Crop Fires Blamed For Delhi Pollution

Good Morning, Swarajya Readers! Here's What You Need To Know Today.

Modi-May Pledge To Fight Terror: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Theresa May took a strong joint stance on terrorism and security issues after the first summit meeting in New Delhi yesterday (7 November). The two countries agreed not to allow fugitives and criminals to escape the law and resolved to facilitate outstanding extradition requests.

US Goes To The Polls: Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump have the same message to their supporters ahead of polling in the US – the country is at a crossroads, and their opponent is the worst presidential candidate in history. Thirty-seven million Americans have already voted, and between 70 and 80 million are expected to vote later today. The final results are expected by 11 pm Eastern Time in US, which will be IST 9.30 am on Wednesday.

NDTV India Ban On Hold: The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting decided to “put on hold” its one-day ban on the Hindi channel NDTV India for allegedly broadcasting information useful to the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot airbase.

Crop Fires Blamed For Delhi Pollution: Crop fires in Punjab and Haryana contributed as much as 70 per cent of the pollution load in Delhi, a leading government scientist has said. System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research programme director Gufran Beig said the proportion of pollutants from crop fires rose dramatically from almost zero on 1 November to a peak of 70 per cent on 6 November.

Kerala Backs Women’s Entry To Sabarimala: Kerala’s Left Democratic Front government yesterday (7 November) made a U-Turn and supported the entry of women to Sabarimala temple, reverting to its stand of 2007. The state government conveyed this change in stance to the Supreme Court, which recorded that the Kerala government was not against entry of women to the temple.

Green Light For Blacklisting Policy: India on Monday approved the long-pending policy for blacklisting firms involved in corruption in arms purchases. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) also gave the go-ahead for the procurement process for fighter jets, tanks and attack helicopters cumulatively worth more than Rs 82,000 crores, all produced domestically.

Surgical Strike Threat By Hafiz Saeed: Jamat-ud-Dawa chief and Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has threatened India with a “surgical strike” by Kashmiri militants. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done what he had to. Now it is the turn of the Mujahideen to carry out a surgical strike in Kashmir,” Saeed said in Mirpur, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Rahul Gandhi Congress Chief By Year-End: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi appears set to replace mother Sonia Gandhi as the party’s president by the end of the year after the party's senior functionaries unanimously asked him to take over as soon as possible. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) took the decision on Monday against the backdrop of Sonia's poor health.

China Defiant On India’s NSG Membership: Ahead of a key Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting in Vienna, China on Monday said there is ‘no change’ in its stand on India’s membership bid. The development comes just days after India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, failed to reach a consensus on the issue.

Reprieve For Amit Shah In Sohrabuddin Case: The Supreme Court rejected a petition by social activist Harsh Mander seeking review of the apex court's decision not to permit him to challenge BJP president Amit Shah's discharge from the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. A bench of Justices S A Bobde and Ashok Bhushan dismissed Mander's review petition.

MUST READ OP-EDS

Big Data And The US Election: The big data experts get back to the drawing board to continue to create fear, uncertainty and doubt—all of which can only result in more business for them and their ilk.

Prohibition Is Unwise, Misguided And Grossly Counterproductive: India has a long history of prohibition failure and one only hopes that the days of prohibition are behind us. Prohibition is an outdated weapon that can do more harm than good.

Making Autonomous Institutions Accountable: Allowing institutions to opt out if they wish to move from being an autonomous body could turn the narrow review into a much broader and participatory upgrade and perhaps even increase the public sector savings.

SWARAJYA SPECIAL

More Than Just Genes: The Strikingly Deep Australian-Indic Connection: The Indian connection of the Aborigines of Australia is way more profound than you ever thought. Aravindan Neelakandan lays it bare here.

In India, Among The Four Pillars Of Democracy, Some Seem Bigger: Making the politician the sole focus of criticism has allowed some of the nation’s other institutions to walk away scot free. We have seen both the media and the judiciary getting a free pass from the public.

US Presidential Election: The Result Is Anyone’s Guess: The election on 8 November is too close to call and can go either way. Final result may well depend not on which candidate is liked more, but on who gives rise to feelings of lesser animosity.

We hope you enjoyed reading our morning brief. Have a great day ahead!

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