The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya in the early hours of  Oct 11 after night-long questioning in connection with the irregularities in the recruitment of primary teachers.

Bhattacharya, the former chairman of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, was arrested for allegedly not cooperating with the investigation.

Kashmir will be connected with the rest of the country through a railway link from next year, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha announced on Oct 10

Work on 272km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Link (USBRL) is currently going on. The rail line has been laid on three sections of 25km from Udhampur to Katra, 18 km from Banihal to Qazigund and 118 km from Qazigund to Baramulla and trains also operate on them on a daily basis.

Work on the 111km railway line from Katra to Banihal, which is a difficult stretch due to its topography, is also going on at present. Of the 111km stretch, 58km will pass through a tunnel. The railway stretch from Katra to Banihal would be having the world’s highest railway bridge over River Chenab at Khour region of Reasi district at a height of 359 metres from the bed level. The bridge will be higher than Qutub Minar and Eiffel Tower.

The USBRL would provide all-weather rail connectivity to Kashmir with the rest of India for the first time since 1947. It will reduce Kashmir’s dependency on the Srinagar-Jammu highway. The Valley has so far been dependent on the 271km national highway, which is the only road link connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country for supplies. The highway remains closed for traffic for days together in winter due to heavy snowfall.

India will be the first country to expand design thinking and innovation courses in schools, with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) all set to roll out books from class seven onwards.

While the design thinking and innovation course have already been introduced for students of Class 6 in many schools this academic year as a skill development curriculum, the CBSE is now planning to launch books for classes 7 to 12.

Embattled AAP minister Rajendra Pal Gautam  has resigned from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s cabinet, adding a new twist to the drama, days after he stoked a controversy by participating in a mass religious conversion event and subsequently apologised.

A video clip of a mass conversion of Dalits to Buddhism in Delhi that went viral embarrassed the AAP as Hindu deities were denounced in a pledge at the event.

This year’s Nobel Prize in economic sciences has been awarded to the former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, and two U.S.-based economists, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig, “for research on banks and financial crises.”

Unlike the other prizes, the economics award wasn’t established in Alfred Nobel’s will of 1895 but by the Swedish central bank in his memory. The first winner was selected in 1969.

Malaysia's prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob  has announced the dissolution of parliament on Oct 10 , allowing for snap elections aimed at bringing political stability as the country emerges from Covid-19 and the 1MDB corruption scandal.

He made the announcement a day after an audience with the king, Sultan Abdullah, who gave his consent.

No date has been given for an election, but under the constitution polls must be held within 60 days following the dissolution of parliament.

The dissolution came days after the government unveiled a populist budget that included a few billion dollars worth of cash handouts and a cut in personal income taxes.

An Indian-origin banker has been issued a 10-year prohibition order and a 24-month conditional warning for his failure to report a suspicious transaction involving the jailed Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's infamous company 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Raj Sriram, the former deputy CEO and head of private banking of BSI Bank Limited's Singapore branch (BSIS), was issued the prohibition and warned on  Oct 10  to report the suspicious transaction, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a statement.

Under the warning, Sriram paid a sum of SGD 150,000 to the Singapore Government's Consolidated Fund and committed to refrain from criminal conduct for a period of 24 months.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss  has handed a junior trade minister's job to an ally of her leadership rival Rishi Sunak, in a move seen as an attempt to rally the governing Conservative Party behind her and curb rebellious moves on the backbenches.

Greg Hands, a vocal supporter of the former Indian-origin Chancellor, replaced Conor Burns as Minister of State in charge of Trade Policy in the Department for International Trade (DIT) after the latter was sacked recently following allegations of serious misconduct.

Hands was one of Sunak's high-profile backers in the Conservative Party leadership contest and his inclusion was welcomed by other Sunak loyalists as a sign that Truss wants to build bridges with that faction of the party.