In a shocking development, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on  Oct 23 asked vice-chancellors of nine state universities to submit their resignations by 11.30am on Oct 24 .

Coming barely hours after the LDF announced its plans to organise protests against the governor, the move is being seen as his retaliation to the Left front’s offensive. It also has legal experts divided. Interestingly, the VCs asked to quit include Kerala University’s V P Mahadevan Pillai whose term ends the same day.

Khan’s directive came in the wake of  Supreme Court verdict quashing the appointment of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University VC. The court said a VC search-cum-selection committee constituted contrary to the norms or appointment made on the basis of single-name panel shall be “illegal and void ab initio.”

In a letter to VCs, Khan said in view of the judgement, the appointments made in state universities contrary to the law have to be rectified. He said fresh appointments are to be made to these posts in accordance with the law.

Six VCs of Kerala University, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Kannur University, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit have to step down as only a single name was provided by the search-cum-selection committee to the chancellor for the appointment.

VCs of Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University, Calicut University and Cochin University of Science and Technology were asked to quit as a “non-academician” (chief secretary) was part of the three-member VC selection committee.

The SC/ST reservation in poll-bound Karnataka is all set to go up, with state Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot giving his assent to an ordinance in this connection.

With the passage of the ordinance, which was in accordance with the Justice Nagamohan Das committee report, the reservation for the Scheduled Castes will increase from the existing 15 per cent to 17 per cent.

For the Scheduled Tribes, it will be 7 per cent from the existing 3 per cent. The state cabinet had cleared the ordinance a few days ago. On Oct 23 , it got the governor's nod.

To take Ayurveda and its benefits to the masses, the centre launched the campaign ‘Har Din Har Ghar Ayurveda’, one of the world’s oldest holistic healing systems, which is now recognised in 30 countries.

On the 7th Ayurveda Day on Oct 23 , the Ayush ministry said the campaign was launched to propagate the benefits of Ayurveda throughout the country. To commemorate the day, the ministry held a 6-week-long celebration, which included more than 5000 events. These events were organised by the ministry’s various institutes and councils.

Come June 2023, the first of its kind 3-day long National Young Legislators’ Conference (NYLC) will be organised  to provide the  biggest open platform for the young legislators of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, state assemblies and councils. The venue of the NYLC would be either in Goa or Pune in June and exact dates are soon to be fixed by the organising committee.

Besides the legislators, the governors, the chief ministers, speakers and their deputy of several states’ assembly and council would also be sharing their views on democracy and other given themes during plenary sessions.

Even the elected members from SAARC countries and the organisational heads of youth-wing of all political parties will also be sharing their views on the nine selected themes including “What Young Bharat Aspire” and  “Overcoming Linguistic Barriers-Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat”.

Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs V Muraleedharan will go on an official visit to the Republic of Senegal from October 24-25 to participate in the 8th edition of the Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security.

During the visit, MoS will address the 8th edition of the Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security. Being held annually since 2014, the Dakar Forum has become a key event for decision-makers involved in Africa. This is the first time that India is participating in the Forum at a Ministerial level, according to the statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs.

The participation of MoS in the Dakar Forum underscores the importance that India attaches to the peace, security and developmental issues concerning Africa. The visit is also in line with India's policy to intensify and deepen its engagement with Africa.

India and Senegal enjoy warm and friendly relations, sharing common values of democracy and secularism, with strong economic engagement and development cooperation. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established at the Ambassadorial level in 1962, with a resident Indian Mission in Dakar.

As per DGCIS, Government of India, statistics, Indian exports to Senegal in 2018-19 touched $ 639 mn and imports from Senegal USD 658 million.

As to the bilateral trade basket, major items of export from India include textiles, food items, automobiles and pharmaceuticals. Major items of import from Senegal are phosphoric acid and raw cashew.

India's investment is mainly in construction, tourism, retail, trading, phosphates, pharmaceuticals etc. The largest investment from India in Senegal is in the Industries Chimique du Senegal (ICS). ICS is the flagship company in Senegal which is in the business of manufacturing phosphoric acid from the rock phosphate available in plenty in Senegal. Indian companies viz. Tata Group (Tata Motors, Tata Unitech), Ashok Leyland, Kirloskar Bros, Ajanta Pharma, Sun Pharma, ShapoorjiPallonji, Kalpataru Power Transmission, KEC Ltd., Promac, SenegIndia etc are present in Senegal.

Recently, former Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu also made his visit to Senegal during his three-nation visit. During his visit to Senegal, Naidu signed three MoUs with the West African country to further deepen bilateral partnership in various areas

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced  on Oct 23 he will not run to lead the Conservative Party, ending a short-lived, high-profile attempt to return to the prime minister’s job he was ousted from little more than three months ago.

His withdrawal leaves former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak the strong favourite to become Britain’s next prime minister — the third this year — at a time of political turmoil and severe economic challenges. He could win the contest as soon as on Oct 23.

Johnson, who was ousted in July amid ethics scandals, had been widely expected to run to replace Liz Truss, who quit last week after her tax-cutting economic package caused turmoil in financial markets, was rapidly abandoned and and obliterated her authority inside the governing party.

Johnson spent the weekend trying to gain support from fellow Conservative lawmakers after flying back from a Caribbean vacation and held talks with the two other contenders, Sunak and House of Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt.

Amid delay in re-launching the airline, insolvency appellate tribunal NCLAT on Oct 21 directed Jet Airways’ new owner -- Jalan-Kalrock consortium -- to pay the unpaid provident fund and gratuity dues of employees of the carrier.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has directed the former resolution professional to “compute the payments to be made to workmen and employees within one month from today’’ and communicate the same to the consortium to take steps for the payment.

The appellate tribunal also said the workmen are entitled to payment of their gratuity dues as on the insolvency commencement date, after adjusting any amount towards gratuity paid under the resolution plan. The consortium won the bid through an insolvency resolution process for Jet Airways, which had stopped operations in April 2019 due to the financial crisis. 

Beating street estimates, two of India’s private lenders - ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank - reported robust numbers for the September-ended quarter (Q2FY23). However, Yes Bank, which is charting a comeback to the big league, reported a sharp dip in its quarterly profit due to legacy issues. The better-than-expected performance of ICICI and Kotak is in line with good show put up by other leading lenders such as HDFC Bank, the SBI, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank. ICICI Bank on Oct 22 reported a 37% year-on-year (YoY) growth in net profit to Rs 7,558 crore in Q2FY23 as against a net profit of Rs 5,511 crore reported in the year-ago period.

Mumbai-headquartered Kotak Mahindra Bank’s PAT for Q2FY23 stood at Rs 2,581 crore, up 27% from Rs 2,032 crore in Q2FY22 and Rs 2,071 in Q1FY23.

The other private lender, Yes Bank, reported a 32% dip in September quarter net profit at Rs 153 crore, as legacy bad assets come to haunt it, resulting in higher provisions.

Numbers in line  with other big lenders

The better-than-expected performance of ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank is in line with a good show put up by other leading lenders such as HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank