Morning Brief: GST Meeting Ends Ahead Of Schedule; India-China In Joint Military Exercise; Jayalalithaa Recovering

Good Morning, Swarajya Readers! Here's What You Need To Know Today.

GST Council Meeting Ends Ahead Of Schedule

The three-day session of the GST council ended on Wednesday, a day ahead of schedule after the Centre and the states failed to reach a consensus on the rate bands. The GST council, however, managed to reach a broad agreement on the formula for compensation in case of a revenue loss after moving to the new system.

The council will meet again on 3-4 November to finalise the tax structure. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the final slabs would depend on the source of funds meant to compensate states for revenue losses.

India-China Conduct First Joint Army Exercise

India and China on Wednesday conducted their first-ever joint army exercise in eastern Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir. Brigadier RS Raman led the Indian troops, while the Chinese team was led by Senior Colonel Fan Jun.

The Indian Army said the day-long exercise was focused on humanitarian aid and disaster relief. Joint teams carried out rescue operations, evacuation and rendering of medical assistance in a fictitious situation of an earthquake striking an Indian border village.

Microsoft Builds Human-Like Speech Recognition System

Microsoft researchers have created a technology that accurately recognises the words in a conversation like people do - a feat that may soon help people suffering from speech-related issues. It was reported that the speech recognition system makes the same or fewer errors than professional transcriptionists.

The milestone means that, for the first time, a computer can recognise the words in a conversation as well as a person would.

Pakistan Media Regulator Bans Indian Content

Amid rising tensions with India, Pakistan's media regulatory authority on Wednesday approved a complete ban on airing of Indian content in Pakistan. The authority also revoked the rights given to Indian media during Pervez Musharraf's rule.

The decision was taken at the 120th meeting of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority on Wednesday in the federal capital. The restriction will come into effect at 3pm on Friday, 21 October.

Jayalalithaa's Condition Improves

According to media reports, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's health has witnessed some improvement. She continues to remain under close observation of the original team of doctors that treated her from 22 September, when she was admitted to Apollo Hospitals.

A team of specialists, aided by experts from Singapore, continues to monitor her to prevent further infection from occurring.

MUST READ OP-EDS

India’s New Strategy In Climate Negotiations: India had initially wanted a more relaxed timeline but after several years of failed negotiations, it went to Kigali with a different approach.

Roadblocks To Inclusive Growth: India has been a functioning democracy for the last 70 years and is among the world’s fastest growing economies. And yet, it has been struggling with basic issues of quality health and education. An efficient welfare system, certainly not of the Left kind, is needed.

Common Knowledge And Counter-Strikes: Can Game Theory explain how India made the decision to speak out about the surgical strikes its army conducted in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir?

SWARAJYA SPECIAL

We May Be Celebrating Fall Of CPI Too Soon; Core Inflation Is Trending Up: To expect the RBI to somehow manage retail inflation when it does not have the tools to do so is meaningless. It should be asked to target core inflation instead.

We hope you enjoyed reading our morning brief. Have a great day ahead!

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