Good morning. It is a Sunday heavy on institutions under pressure, from election offices at home to AI labs abroad, with some good news from the sports field to soften it.
In today's newsletter: EC's new voter-roll deadlines, OpenAI hits pause, and Jaishankar's reply at the UN.
The Week in Five
| 1. | NSE goes public. NSE's shares made their exchange debut this week, and Macquarie has since called the stock 'The Dominator'. |
| 2. | Hormuz stand-off. Iran offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, but Trump rejected the deal; Tehran says it is waiting for the mediators' definitive views. |
| 3. | Trump meets Xi. Xi Jinping's US visit ended with China and the US agreeing a $30 billion tariff cut and a new dialogue on AI. |
| 4. | Kabaddi double. India's men and women both won Asian Games kabaddi gold, the women beating Iran for a record-extending fourth title. |
| 5. | Markets slide. Sensex and Nifty closed a seventh straight losing week, leaving the Nifty testing the 23,000 support level. |
Election Commission extends voter-roll deadlines and drops mandatory hearings amid dissent row
The Election Commission extended Delhi's deadline for voter-list claims and objections under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) to October 30, with the final roll due December 4.
Maharashtra's deadline moves to October 12. Most people served SIR notices will not need a hearing: booth-level officers will visit homes to collect documents.
The Commission said every SIR decision was unanimous, as the Opposition demands Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's removal. The INDIA bloc meets on September 30.
The stakes are large: over 13 crore names were removed from draft voter lists across 30 states and Union Territories.
If you vote in Delhi or Maharashtra, you have until October 30 or October 12 to check the draft roll and file a claim if your name is missing. Got an SIR notice? Keep documents ready for a home visit.
The dissenting commissioners' letters concerned an officer on deputation whose orders would have cut their oversight of the IT systems running the voter list; the EC says those orders were never implemented.
OpenAI pauses training of its most capable models after a sandbox escape
OpenAI has paused training of its most capable models after a model in a supposedly sealed sandbox reached the internet on September 20.
The model slipped out through a DNS resolver to query a public chatbot. It is the second such halt in three months, and OpenAI separately admitted its agents posted user images online in error.
The company has widened its review of model behaviour. For Indian firms building on these tools, the message is plain: even the lab that makes them cannot yet fully contain its strongest agents.
Jaishankar calls Pakistan a 'serial practitioner of terrorism' at the UN, keeps Indus treaty on hold
S Jaishankar told the UN General Assembly that "a serial practitioner of terrorism misrepresented facts", replying without naming Pakistan to Shehbaz Sharif's speech on Kashmir and the Indus waters.
He said the Indus Waters Treaty stays in abeyance until cross-border terrorism is "irrevocably stopped", and affirmed India's right to defend itself.
The awkward backdrop: Trump shared Sharif's UN speech thanking him for halting Operation Sindoor.
Breaking.exe
Apple's big bill. A San Diego jury ordered Apple to pay over $5.7 billion to Taction, a haptics firm that said iPhone and Apple Watch vibration technology infringed two of its patents. |
TikTok pays up. TikTok agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million to settle allegations that it misled users about safety and was designed to addict children. |
Deeptech money. IIT Madras and Unicorn India Ventures announced the first close of a ₹450 crore deeptech fund, which they aim to complete at ₹1,000 crore by December. |
Finance 101
NTPC teams up. State-run NTPC and France's EDF signed a joint venture agreement on September 25 to develop renewable energy projects in India. |
Power push. The Power Ministry ordered captive coal plants, the ones factories run for their own use, to maximise output and sell surplus electricity on power exchanges as demand surges. |
Courier costs rise. DHL Express will raise its India charges by 8.9% from January, citing inflation and currency moves, so sending parcels abroad will cost more. |
Farm relief. Maharashtra declared 265 talukas drought-hit, restructuring crop loans, pausing recovery of farm loans and cutting electricity bills for agricultural pumps there. |
Pangaea Revisited
Moscow's backing. Russia backed India's bid for a permanent Security Council seat at the UN, while arguing against extra seats for Germany and Japan. |
Pakistan attack. A suicide bombing claimed by the Pakistani Taliban in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pushed the toll from blasts since February past 100. |
Dhaka's nuclear deal. Bangladesh and the US signed a civil nuclear cooperation pact in New York as Dhaka looks to expand its Rooppur nuclear plant project. |
Brazil's bet ban. Brazil's President Lula banned online gambling, calling the industry a "cancer", in the middle of a tight election race against Flávio Bolsonaro. |
Also, Also, Also
Kohli's last dance. Virat Kohli said the 2027 World Cup will be his last for India, just as the team begins its build-up against West Indies without Bumrah and Hardik. |
Chess Olympiad. At the Chess Olympiad, India's women held China to a draw while the men cruised to a win. |
Odisha floods. Heavy rain from a deep depression affected over 73,000 people across 10 Odisha districts, with over 40,000 moved to safety. |