INDIA
- The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is gearing up for the nine-day annual Navaratri Brahmotsavams scheduled to commence from October 15.
The procession of Golden Tiruchi will mark the commencement of the festival on October 15.
The important days of the festival include Garuda Vahanam on October 19, Pushpaka Vimanam on October 20, Swarna Ratham on October 22 and Chakrasnanam on October 23.
- A departmental working paper by the World Bank on the progress of the Swacch Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) has now found that despite “breathtaking” gains made by the Programme to bring toilet access to rural India since 2014-15, when it began, there has been a clear trend India from 2018-19, with the largest drop being seen among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe socio-economic groups.
The paper, by researchers at the World Bank and a faculty member of economics at Yale University, reconciles varied data points on toilet access and usage from the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS), National Sample Surveys (NSS) and National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) and the SBM-G’S own information system.
The paper also said that most low-income States were among the best performers in terms of their overall increase in regular use of toilets and that the performance of richer States was mixed.
WORLD
- Thailand’s Prime Minster launched a committee to amend the military-drafted constitution, but ruled out any changes to the contentious sections related to the monarchy.
Srettha Thavisin’s new government had come to office in August after months of political wrangling and having promised constitutional reform.
- France’s Pierre Agostini, Hungarian-Austrian Ference Krausz and French-Swedish Anne L’Huillier won the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for research using ultra-quick light flashes that enable the study of electrons inside atoms and molecules.
The Jury said, their technique employs pulses measured in attoseconds, a unit so short that there are as many in one second as there have been seconds since the universe’s birth over 13 billion years ago.
The laureates’ research has made it possible to examine moves or changes so rapid that they were previously impossible to follow, with potential applications in both electronics and medical diagnostics.
BUSINESS
- Ashok Leyland Ltd. (ALL) has reported a 9% year-on-year increase in total sales for September aided by a strong push in the bus segment.
- India’s Largest iron-ore producer NMDC has increased ore prices by ₹ 250 a tonne.
For the six months ended September, the company had reported a 21% year-on-year rise in production to 19.56 million tonne (mt) and a 25% higher sales at 20.53 mt.