- Ready for talks with Pak., but options open: Muttaqi
Context: Taliban say 58 Pakistani soldiers killed in operations by Afghan forces across Durand Line; Foreign Minister says women journalists left out of Friday’s press meet in Delhi due to a ‘technical error’.
- Afghanistan is open to dialogue and diplomacy for a peaceful resolution of its conflict with Pakistan, but if the efforts do not succeed, it has “other means”, the acting Foreign Minister of the Taliban administration, Amir Khan Muttaqi, said here in response to the border clashes between the two countries.
- “There are some special groups in Pakistan that are trying to disturb our relation. After they initiated hostile activities last week, we responded to defend our territory, and after that, our friends Saudi Arabia and Qatar intervened. Our doors are open for dialogue, but if Pakistan does not take this opportunity, then we have other means,” he said.
- Pakistan carried out airstrikes against targets in Kabul and in response, the Afghan Defence Forces conducted operations across the Durand Line in which 58 Pakistani soldiers were killed, said Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesperson of the Taliban administration.
- Mr. Mujahid accused Pakistan of sheltering IS fighters from multiple countries in West Asia, and said Pakistan-based IS elements were behind the attacks in Russia and Iran.
- Pakistan had claimed that Thursday’s airstrikes in Kabul eliminated leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Mufti Noor Wali Mehsood, a claim that was denied by sources in the TTP.
- Pakistan has been claiming that TTP is drawing support from the Afghan Taliban administration and is using Afghan territory to launch attacks against it. Responding to the accusations, Mr. Muttaqi said the real problem is Pakistan’s inability in maintaining law and order along the Durand Line and the forced expulsion of the Afghan refugees from Pakistan.
- “There are no terror groups inside Afghanistan. We have removed them all over the last four years. Pakistan, which carried out attacks deep inside Afghanistan, is unable to stop attacks that are taking place deep inside its own territory. They should look into their internal failures,” said Mr. Muttaqi, urging Pakistan to control the law and order situation along the Durand Line.
- Faced with multiple questions on the condition of women in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, Mr. Muttaqi said, “Afghanistan has Islamic rule. In Islam, everyone’s rights are protected, be it men or women. Everyone has rights.
- ‘Mane Manege Police’
Context: Enumerators of the Social and Educational Survey and the police are visiting houses in Bengaluru these days, for different purposes.
- While enumerators are conducting the survey, asking multiple questions, the police have launched a unique initiative called ‘Mane Manege Police’ (police to every home) in an attempt to build stronger ties with communities and make policing more approachable.
- The police have been collecting information about the number of people residing in the house, their names, and their phone numbers.
- The exercise is aimed at building trust between the police and the community within all police station limits.
- State to appoint three Information Commissioners soon
Context: The State government has reportedly finalised the names of three candidates for filling vacancies in the Karnataka Information Commission.
- A meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is said to have finalised the names of former IAS officer Richard Vincent D’Souza, journalist Venkat Singh, and former journalist and currently officer on special duty to Legislative Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti, Mahesh Valvekar.
- State government is expected to issue a notification on the appointment of the three information commissioners.
- Chief Information Commissioner Ashit Mohan Prasad is expected to retire on October 31.
- India sends Minister to Egypt for Gaza summit
Context: India will send Minister of State for External Affairs Kirtivardhan Singh to represent the country at the Peace Summit on Gaza in Sharm el-Sheikh to be co-hosted by Egypt and the United States.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among more than 20 world leaders invited over the weekend to attend the summit, which will be co-hosted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and U.S. President Donald Trump, to discuss the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, brokered mainly by negotiators from the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar.
Egypt’s FM to visit Delhi
- Mr. Singh left for Cairo and will travel to Sharm el-Sheikh, the officials said. Mr. Modi is, however, expected to meet Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty later this week, who is travelling to Delhi to hold the India-Egypt Strategic Dialogue.
- According to sources, Mr. Abdelatty’s visit is part of the Sisi-Modi Strategic Partnership Agreement signed in January 2023, and this is his first visit to India since taking over in 2024.
- Mr. Abdelatty is also expected to brief the government on the plans for the reconstruction of Gaza.
- Although Egypt is not a member of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), it has been keen to discuss alternative route alignments through Sharm el-Sheikh with India, given the security issues with Israel’s Haifa port, where the current alignment lies.
Finalise truce deal
- “The summit seeks to help restore regional stability and alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza, in line with U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision for peace in the region,” it added.
- Mr. Modi had welcomed the Gaza ceasefire agreement last week.
- Email accounts of 12 lakh Central govt. employees now run on Zoho’s platform
Context: Over the past one year, all 12 lakh email addresses of Union government employees, including those of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), have migrated from a National Informatics Centre-based system to a platform developed by Zoho,. Zoho is a multinational firm based in Tamil Nadu.
- A senior official said Zoho’s suite had also been activated to ensure that government employees did not use open source applications to create text files, spreadsheets and presentations.
- Though the suite was available earlier, not many employees were using it.
- “It was found that many government employees were using open source tools, which could compromise security of files, and it was decided to make them aware of, and display, the suite’s features prominently on the internal mail platform,” the official said. On October 3, the Union Education Ministry issued an order to its officials to use the Zoho suite “in alignment with the Government of India’s broader vision of transforming the nation from a service economy into a product nation, and in pursuit of building a self-reliant ecosystem in technology, hardware, and software solutions”.
- It said the Zoho Office Suite was already incorporated in the NIC mail system and “by embracing Zoho’s indigenous office productivity tools, we take a bold step in the Swadeshi movement, empowering India to lead with home-grown innovation, strengthen digital sovereignty, and secure our data for a self-reliant future.”
- Another official added that the domain name of the emails remained the same — nic.in or gov.in — but the host storing and processing the data has changed from NIC to Zoho. The private firm was awarded the contract in 2023 for seven years, the official added.
- The NIC, established in 1976 under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, is the technology partner of the Union government and provides technology-driven solutions to it and the State governments.
- Environment Minister heads to Brazil for key pre-COP talks
Context: Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav will attend the pre-COP meeting in Brasília on October 13 and 14 as India steps up preparations for the UN climate summit COP30, which will be held in Belém, Brazil, in November.
- The two-day pre-COP brings together environment ministers, senior negotiators and observers to narrow differences on politically sensitive topics and try to build ministerial consensus ahead of the UN climate conference.
- India plans to submit two important documents ahead of or at COP30: an updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) extending commitments to 2035 and India’s first national adaptation plan (NAP).
- Natural farming gains traction in Himachal
Context: The hill State’s flagship Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana and MSPs have helped farmers to steadily shift away from chemical-based agriculture toward sustainable, non-chemical practices.
- Amid a national push for natural farming, farmers in Himachal Pradesh are gradually adopting chemical-free agricultural practices. Supported by State policies aligned with sustainable farming, the hill State is witnessing a quiet transformation that seeks to balance farmer welfare with environmental conservation.
- Sunil Kumar, 42, a farmer from Balakrupi village in Kangra district, expressed satisfaction after receiving a payment of ₹2.25 lakh for 25 quintals of turmeric this year. “Earlier, I used to sell naturally grown raw turmeric at ₹60 a kilogram locally. This time, the State government procured it at ₹90 a kg,” he said.
- “Natural farming has not only improved soil and plant health on my farm, but has also helped me reap better yields and profits than chemical-based farming,” he added. Mr. Kumar shifted to non-chemical natural farming three years ago after receiving training under the State government’s flagship Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana (PK3Y).
- Launched seven years ago, PK3Y promotes non-chemical farming practices. So far, 3.06 lakh farmers have been trained under the scheme, and 2.22 lakh farmers are practising it partially or fully on 38,437 hectares across the State. Over two lakh farmers are certified under CETARA–NF (Certified Evaluation Tool for Agriculture Resource Analysis), a self-assessment tool devised under PK3Y to certify natural farming practitioners.
- Rishu Kumari, 37, a master trainer and natural farmer from Jamanabad village in Kangra district, said she sold 10 quintals of naturally grown wheat to a government agency at ₹60 a kg compared with ₹22 a kg in the local market earlier. Ms. Kumari and other women farmers now plan to increase the area under wheat cultivation.
- “The farmers are far more independent now with natural farming, as it has reduced our dependence on the market. We can produce all inputs on our farms,” she said.
- The State government has been promoting natural farming by introducing a minimum support price (MSP) for naturally grown crops such as maize (₹40 a kg), wheat (₹60 a kg), and raw turmeric (₹90 a kg) under PK3Y.
- “With the government now supporting us through MSP, it will build up a market for such crops. Until now, natural and chemically grown produce were treated alike for pricing in local mandis,” said Ramesh Chand, a farmer from Mandi district.
- Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said, “We want people to take up natural farming as it is sustainable. It is not only healthy for farmers, who often fell ill due to chemical sprays, but also environmentally friendly and yields chemical-free, nutrition-rich crops.”
- Diane Keaton, Oscar winner, star of Annie Hall, Godfather, dead
Context: Actress Diane Keaton, known for her Oscar-winning performance in 1977’s Annie Hall and her role in The Godfather films, has died at age 79.
- Keaton was a frequent collaborator of director Woody Allen, portraying the titular character in Annie Hall, the charming girlfriend of Allen’s comic Alvy Singer.
- The film also garnered Oscars for best picture, best director and best original screenplay, cementing Keaton’s place as one of the industry’s top actresses and an offbeat style icon as well.
- The actress made her mark co-starring in eight Allen movies, from Play It Again, Sam (1972) to Manhattan (1979) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993).
- In The Godfather films, she played Kay Adams, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone.