SandeshBox for the week

India

• Critical state election in November in 5 states

  1. The Election Commission announced elections in november for five key states including Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, MP, Telangana and Mizoram with results on 3 December.

  2. The five-state elections are widely seen as a virtual semi-final for the Lok Sabha polls scheduled to be held in April-May next year with over 161 million people slated to vote. 

• AAP MP arrested in Delhi liquor case

  1. AAP's Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Singh, has been arrested by the ED in a money laundering case related to the Delhi liquor policy investigation.

  2. This marks the third significant arrest, with earlier arrests including health minister Satyendar Jain and former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia in separate money laundering cases connected to the liquor policy.

Business

• ADIA to invest in Reliance Retail

  1. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) will invest Rs 4,967 crore into the reliance retail arm. This investment values the company at at a value of Rs 8.38 lakh crore ($100 Billion).

  2. This makes it among the top four companies by equity value in the country.

  3. Mukesh Ambani also reclaimed the top spot from Gautam Adani as the richest person in India with a net worth of $92 billion.

• More trouble for Adani?

  1. The Adani Group faces new allegations of business malpractice, accused of inflating coal import prices and selling electricity at a higher rate in India.

  2. An investigation by the UK-based Financial Times reveals an alleged inflation of imported coal prices by $73 million across 30 shipments from January 2019 to August 2021.

  3. The Adani Group preemptively dismissed the upcoming FT report as an effort to revive "old and unfounded allegations aimed at damaging the reputation of the Adani Group."

  4. The matter dates back to 2016 when the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) flagged 40 entities, including five from the Adani Group, for suspected over-invoicing in coal imports from Indonesia.

• Groww overtakes Zerodha

  1. Groww has surpassed Zerodha as India's leading brokerage, boasting 6.63 million active investors compared to Zerodha's 6.48 million by September 2023.

  2. The total number of demat accounts in India reached an estimated 12.97 crore by the end of September 2023. However, only 3.34 crore of these are active.

Sports, Culture & Everything else

• India on top in world cup!

  1. India claimed the top spot displacing NZ after a convincing victory over Pakistan, securing a 7-wicket win with over 20 overs to spare.

  2. India's next match is scheduled against Bangladesh on October 19th.

• Nobel Prizes 2023 declared

  1. Physics - For experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light

  2. Medicine - For development of effective mRNA technology

  3. Chemistry - For discovery and synthesis of quantum dots

  4. Literature - For ‘giving voice to the unsayable’

  5. Peace - For fighting against the oppression of women in Iran

  6. Economics - For advancing our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes.

     Check all the details here.

• Interesting tidbits

  1. Remember Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at Oscars for disrespecting his “wife”? Turns out, the couple have been separated from 2016.

  2. Kareena Kapoor Khan partners with Sugar Cosmetics' founders to launch Korean skincare brand ‘Quench Botanics’.

  3. Narges Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is presently jailed in Iran for her advocacy for women's rights, the very cause for which she was honored with the Nobel Prize.

  4. Bank of Baroda has reportedly admitted to linking mobile numbers to customer accounts without authorization to inflate mobile banking app registrations.

Global

• Israel-Hamas confrontation

  The best way to explain this extremely messy and eventful situation would be a chronology of events followed by our analysis

  1. Context: Hamas, the prominent Palestinian militant Islamist group, attacked Israel on 7 October, prompting Israel to declare a state of war and conduct multiple air strikes on 8 October.

  2. October 9 - Hamas states over 100 Israelis captive, 100,000 Israeli troops gather near Gaza border, Iran denies involvement, US sends ships closer to Israel to show support, China asks all side to act with calm while staying mum on Hamas.

  3. October 10 - Israel keeps up its relentless bombardment, Hamas vows to execute an Israeli captive for every civilian house bombed without warning, Israel military regains control of Gaza border, US, UK, Italy, Germany, France & Canada issue statement in support of Israel but also in recognizing need of a Palestinian state.

  4. October 11 - Israel calls up 3 lakh reserve fighters, Israel exchanges rocket fire exchanged with Hezbollah and groups in Syria, Iran continually claims non-involvement but praises Hamas for the attack.

  5. October 12 - Israel places Gaza under a “total siege,” stopping food, fuel, electricity, water from reaching Gaza, Israel forms an emergency unity government, with PM Netanyahu, defense minister and the opposition leader,

  6. October 13 - Israel says it attacked 750 “military targets” overnight, Multiple rescue flights fly out of Israel, India condemns "terrorist attack" but offers support for the Palestinian state, India gets it’s citizens out of Israel

  7. October 14 - Israel orders 1.1 million Gazans in north to evacuate prompting invasion fears, Reuters journalist killed in Lebanon in missile fire from direction of Israel, Saudi Arabia puts talks with Israel on hold

  8. More than 1900 Palestinians and 1300 Israelis have been killed in the past 9 days with millions in Gaza now fleeing their homes.

  9. Growing likelihood of a ground invasion raises concerns of a protracted war. Israel's move may trigger involvement of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syrian groups, and potentially Iran, spiraling the conflict beyond any one party's influence.

• Afghanistan hit by series of earthquakes!

  1. Afghanistan has been hit by a series of earthquakes which have wreaked havoc across the nation.

  2. The Taliban govt reported about a 1000 people dead with more than 10,000 displaced.