The Election Commission Saturday will announce dates for the Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram Assembly elections. The EC is expected to make the announcement in a press conference at 12.30 pm. The Model Code of Conduct will come into force after the announcement is made.

Mizoram’s 50-member House expires on December 15, 2018. Chhattisgarh’s Assembly, comprising 90 members, ends on January 5, 2019. The tenure of the Madhya Pradesh 230-member House expires on January 7, 2019. The 200-member Rajasthan House expires on January 20, 2019.

The Congress has been in power in Mizoram since 2008. It won the 2013 Assembly election after securing 34 seats in the 40-member House. Lal Thanhawala was elected CM of the state.

The BJP is in power in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In Rajasthan, the party has 160 seats in the 200-member House. Vasundhara Raje in the CM of Rajasthan. In Madhya Pradesh, it won 166 seats in the House and elected Shivraj Singh Chouhan as CM. The BJP won the Chhattisgarh polls in 2013, securing 49 seats in the 91-member House. The Congress came a close second with 39 seats. Raman Singh was elected CM.

The combined net worth of the world’s 500 richest people fell the most in six months on Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The group shed 1.2 per cent of its combined net worth as luxury stocks tumbled following reports of a Chinese trade crackdown, and as US equities slid on concerns over rising Treasury yields.

Europe’s richest person, Bernard Arnault, saw his fortune fall about $3.5 billion, the most of anyone on the index. The founder of the world’s biggest luxury goods maker, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, is now worth $73.5 billion.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its fourth bi-monthly meet today left the repo rate unchanged at 6.50 per cent while the reverse repo rate remains at 6.25 per cent. The monetary policy stance has changed from neutral to ‘calibrated tightening’. The RBI stated that headline inflation is estimated to accelerate to 4.5% by March 2019 quarter with upside risks.

The central bank also stated in its policy document that FY19 GDP growth target remains unchanged at 7.4 per cent. CPI inflation is seen at 4 per cent in July-September and 3.9-4.5 per cent in October-March.

Following the RBI announcement, the rupee breaches 74-mark against US dollar for the first time. The rupee has been performing poorly for the past few months and the rise in repo rate is seen as an attempt by the RBI to curb further price fall. The rupee closed at 73.77 against the US dollar on Thursday.

On the effect of crop price rise, the RBI said that in September the government had announced measures aimed at ensuring remunerative prices to farmers for crops, but there’s still uncertainty about their exact impact on food prices.

The RBI said that oil prices “remain vulnerable to further upside pressures, especially if the response of oil-producing nations to supply disruptions from geopolitical tensions is not adequate.” It observed that the central government’s decision to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel will moderate retail inflation.

India’s overall ranking on the Government’s adoption of e-payments has moved up to 28th in 2018, from 36th in 2011, but it needs to do more on digital infrastructure access and socio-economic factors, a survey said on Wednesday.

The country is taking “rapid strides” in advancing government e-payments capabilities and is is one of the top- performing countries in terms of citizen-to-Government (C2G), business-to-Government (B2G) and government-to-business (G2B) transactions, the survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit commissioned by payments company Visa said.

The country holds the top ranking on B2G and G2B, and comes third on C2G jointly with Argentina.

Norway leads the pack in the 73-country ranking, followed by France and Denmark.

The 73-country survey, which was last conducted in 2011, looks at availability of government electronic transaction services and the underlying environment of mechanisms that support digitisation for all transactions in a market, such as policy and infrastructure.

“(India) could further improve its standing by focusing on expanding access to digital infrastructure, investing in socio-economic development, and promoting a healthy, competitive market,” the survey said.

More than 8,000 delegates from across the country will take part in the fourth edition of the India International Science Festival (IISF) starting Friday, where an attempt would be made by about 500 students to “isolate DNA”, said Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan.

The IISF, to be held from October 5 to 8, is being organised in the state for the first time. It will be inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind, whereas Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will attend the valedictory session, said Vardhan. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath assured all help for the event. While about 800 women scientists and entrepreneurs are expected to take part in IISF, outreach programmes for the same were carried out in 77 cities across the country where 5,000 to 15,000 children and scientists participated, Vardhan said.

Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Oct 04 (ANI): The Indian and Vietnamese Coast Guards kicked off joint exercise at the Chennai coast today. The exercise aims to promote interoperability between two maritime forces.

Three ships a chopper are participating in the exercise from India and a ship from Vietnam. Vietnam Coast Guard ship CSB 8001 is on its maiden visit to India and arrived at Chennai port on Tuesday.

A six-member delegation of Vietnam Coast Guard also arrived in Chennai for interaction.

India and Kazakhstan agreed to step up military cooperation, especially in the areas of defence production, as Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met her counterpart Nurlan Yermekbayev during her three-day visit to the central Asian country. A Defence Ministry statement said this today.

During her Kazakhstan visit, which commenced on October 2, Sitharaman also met Minister of Defence and Aerospace Industry Beibut Atamkulov.

They discussed a wide range of issues relating to defence and military technical cooperation and took stock of the progress of the bilateral relationship, especially in the defence sector.

The two countries had renewed the Memorandum of Cooperation on defence in January 2017. Both countries are 'strategic partners' since 2009.
Smt Nirmala Sitharaman also discussed regional developments with the Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Mr Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the statement said.

Over 200 Kazakh defence forces personnel have undergone military training in India till date. Both countries successfully conducted a company-level joint military exercise 'KAZIND-2018' in south Kazakhstan last month.

Sitharaman and Yermekbayev presided over the flag off ceremony of the Kazakhstan contingent that will join the Indian contingent at the United Nations International Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon.

The statement said the Kazakh contingent will join the Indian contingent at Lebanon by the end of this month. She also invited Yermekbayev Atamkulov to visit India and to attend Aero India 2019 to be held in Bengaluru in February 2019, the statement added.

Sitharaman also visited the National Defence University where she was shown the Indian Military Art Room (IMAR), which has been established with Indian assistance.

The much-delayed 36th National Games in Goa will be held from March 30 to April 14 next year. Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) Executive Director V M Prabhudesai made the announcement in Panaji today after a meeting with visiting officials of the Indian Olympic Association. The Games were earlier scheduled to be held next month.

Prabhudesai said at a media conference that Opening and Closing ceremonies will be held at PJN Stadium, Fatorda. The Opening ceremony will be on March 30 and closing ceremony will be on April 14.

Prabhudesai said shooting and cycling events will be held in New Delhi as Goa does not have facilities for these two sports.
He said five sports -- Rugby, Wushu, Modern Penthatlon, Lawn Bowl, and Billiards and Snooker -- will be added in the Games programme.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed state-owned oil companies to borrow long term working capital from overseas. RBI relaxed the policy on borrowing up to 10 billion US dollar from the overseas by the state owned fuel retailers.

Till now oil marketing companies including Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, were not allowed to raise external commercial borrowing (ECB) for working capital needs on a long-term basis. Now, the RBI has allowed them to raise ECB of minimum maturity of 3 or 5 years.

The move comes at a time when international oil prices have hit four-year high of near 85 US dollar per barrel and the rupee plummeted to close at an all-time low of 73 rupee and 34 paise to a US dollar

Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani on October 4 was named India's wealthiest for the 11th consecutive year with a net worth of $47.3 billion, according to Forbes’ annual India's Richest 2018 list.

Wipro’s Azim Premji came second with a net worth of $21 billion. Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, followed with a net worth of $18.3 billion.

Hinduja brothers – Ashok, Gopichand, Prakash and Srichand – were ranked fourth on the list of richest Indians for 2018 with a net worth of $18 billion.