Samajwad Party founder who helmed Uttar Pradesh as Chief Minister thrice and former Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav passed away after a prolonged illness in Medanta hospital in Gurugram on  Oct 10 morning. Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son and SP chief Akhilesh confirmed his father’s demise in a tweet through the official Twitter handle of the party.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on  Oct 9 declared Modhera in Gujarat as India’s first 24x7 solar-powered village, even as he sought to further cement his connect with the poll-bound state, saying people there had showered affection and given him electoral victories without looking at his caste.

Regarding Modhera, which also has a famous Sun Temple, Modi said, whenever people discuss solar energy in the world, this village will feature in it.

The solarisation of the Modhera Sun Temple and town happened through partnership between the Central and state governments. It involved integrating the village with a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) at Sujjanpura in Mehsana, about 6 km away from the Sun Temple.

More than 1,300 rooftop solar systems have been installed on houses for power generation. While day time power comes from the solar panels, at night it is supplied from the BESS. Modhera is also happens to be the first modern village having a solar based modern electric vehicle charging station.

Senior Congress leader Bhanwar Lal Sharma passed away on  oct 9 at the age of 77 in the SMS Medical College, in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Sharma had become the MLA after getting tickets from Congress for the election in the years 1998, 2003, 2013, and 2018.

He had contested the first time Rajasthan assembly election for becoming the MLA from Lok Dal in 1985 and for the second time, he became MLA in 1990 after he joined the Janata Dal Party. 

The National Security Guard (NSG) is hosting the multinational Joint Anti-Terror Exercise (JATE), “Manesar Anti-Terror 2022”, under the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), at NSG Manesar Garrison. It is stage 2 of the exercise as the Stage-1 of the Exercise was conducted from July 27 to August 1 by the National Counter Terrorist Forces of SCO Member Countries in their respective territories.

Stage-2 of the Exercise is being conducted from October 8 to October 13 at NSG Manesar Garrison, in which eight representatives from National Counter Terrorism Forces of Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Uzbekistan, Russian Federation and NSG of Republic of India are participating.

Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) one of the permanent organ of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and has its headquarters in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The objective of SCO RATS is to facilitate cooperation and coordination against Terrorism, Extremism and Separatism.  India assumed the chairmanship of the Council of SCO RATS in Oct 2021. JATE is an annual Counter Terrorist Exercise held within the framework of the SCO RATS.

The SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc that India and Pakistan joined as full-time members back in 2017. The founding members of this group include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Indian-American author Sarah Thankam Mathews is among the finalists for the 2022 National Book Awards, which will be announced on November 16 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

Mathews' debut novel 'All This Could Be Different', is listed in the fiction category and tells the story of a young queer immigrant who creates a community for herself while grappling with the oppressive demands of capitalism.

Mathews grew up between Oman and India, and moved to the US at seventeen. Her work has been published in places including AGNI, SSENSE, and Best American Short Stories.

She was a 2020 Margins Fellow at the Asian American Writers' Workshop, and the recipient of a Rona Jaffe fellowship at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

A total of 25 finalists will be contending for the awards. Publishers submitted a total of 1,772 books for this year's National Book Awards: 463 in fiction, 607 in non-fiction, 260 in poetry, 146 in translated literature, and 296 in young people's literature.

North Korea's recent missile tests involved "tactical nuclear" drills to simulate hitting the South, and were overseen by leader Kim Jong Un in response to US-led joint military exercises in the region, state media said on Oct 10.

Kim made acquiring tactical nukes -- smaller, lighter weapons designed for battlefield use -- a top priority at a key party congress in January 2021, and this year vowed to develop North Korea's nuclear forces at the fastest possible speed.

The country revised its nuclear laws last month to allow pre-emptive strikes, with Kim declaring North Korea an "irreversible" nuclear power -- effectively ending the possibility of negotiations over its arsenal.

The rupee depreciated 39 paise to an all-time low of 82.69 against the US dollar in early trade on  Oct 11 as elevated crude oil prices and risk-averse sentiment among investors weighed on the local unit.

Moreover, a negative trend in domestic equities and firm American currency sapped investor appetite, forex traders said.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 82.68 against the greenback, then slipped further to 82.69, registering a fall of 39 paise over its previous close.

On Oct 6 , the rupee depreciated further by 13 paise to hit a new lifetime closing low of 82.30 against the US dollar.

India's forex reserves dropped by USD 4.854 billion to USD 532.664 billion as on September 30, the Reserve Bank said on Oct 6.

State-owned oil marketing companies IOC, BPCL and HPCL may for the first time ever post the second consecutive quarterly loss with a combined loss of Rs 21,270 crore in July-September, on holding petrol and diesel prices below the cost of production.

The three state-owned firms -- Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), had in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (April-June) posted a combined loss of Rs 18,480 crore due to erosion in the marketing margin on petrol, diesel and domestic LPG.

The three firms are to announce second-quarter earnings later this month or in early November.