| Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day's biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. RBI keeps key lending rates unchanged, tweaks home loan rules to aid real estate sector The monetary policy committee (MPC) of the RBI has unanimously decided to keep the key lending rates unchanged, Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Friday. The MPC voted to leave the policy repo rate unchanged at 4%. The MPC also decided to continue with its accommodative policy stance as long as required this year and next year, he said. "After the steep decline into which the global economy plunged in the second quarter of this year, there's a rebound in activity in the third quarter but it is not even," Das observed. The Indian economy is entering a decisive phase in the fight against Covid-19. By all indications, the deep contractions of Q1 2020-21 are behind us. Silver linings are among us, Das said, adding that he always "dared to be an optimist." Migrant labour is returning to work in urban areas, and factories and construction activity are coming back to life. Online commerce is booming, and people are getting back to offices, Das said, adding that he expected Q4 to record a positive growth. In a bid to boost the real estate sector, the RBI has also decided to rationalise the risk weights on home loans and link them only to the LTV (loan to value) ratio. This provision will apply to all new home loans sanctioned up to March 31, 2022. At present, risk weights are applied to home loans for both the size of the loan as well as the LTV ratio -- that is, how much of the value of a property a bank can lend to a borrower. The greater the risk weights, the greater the provisions the bank must make to address the risk, and accordingly, the lower would be its capacity to lend. By eliminating risk weights with regard to size of loan, the RBI is aiming for an uptick in home loans growth, which, if it happens, would put more money in the real estate sector, thereby boosting construction and related economic activity. World Bank slashes India forecast, says FY21 GDP will contract by 9.6% The World Bank, in its South Asia Economic Focus report released on Thursday, sharply revised its June forecast of a 3.2% contraction of the Indian GDP to 9.6%, for the year 2020-21. This revision reflects "the impact of the national lockdown and the income shock experienced by households and firms," the Bank explained. "The situation is much worse in India than we have ever seen before," Hans Timmer, World Bank Chief Economist for South Asia said. "It is an exceptional situation in India. A very dire outlook." "The slowdown in India is expected to depress manufacturing and exporting industries, and the construction sector (which relies on Indian migrant workers) is also likely to experience a protracted slowdown due to a limited pipeline of public sector infrastructure projects," the report said. The Bank reckoned that there will be a rebound to 5.4% growth in 2021-22, but largely due to base effects and hinging on assumptions that the pandemic-related restrictions are completely lifted by 2022. "Despite measures to shield vulnerable households and firms, the trajectory of poverty reduction has slowed, if not reversed," the Bank said. It said significant disruptions to jobs have likely worsened India's poverty rate, with 2020 rates back to 2016 levels. Taking potshots at Quad meet, China says it's against "organising closed and exclusive cliques' China on Friday said it was opposed to "organising closed and exclusive cliques", underlining its wary response to this week's ministerial meeting of the Quad grouping, which comprises India, Australia, Japan and the United States. At Tuesday's ministerial meet in Tokyo, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had singled out China as a threat to the region, although the three other foreign ministers, including External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, did not directly mention China. They did, however, express broad concerns about maintaining a rules-based order, freedom of navigation, and the peaceful resolution of disputes in the region.  Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying during a press briefing in Beijing. File "As partners in this Quad, it is more critical now than ever that we collaborate to protect our people and partners from the Chinese Communist Party's exploitation, corruption, and coercion," Pompeo said. "We've seen it in the South China Sea, in the East China Sea, the Mekong, the Himalayas, the Taiwan Straits. These are just a few examples." Speaking at a press briefing in Beijing on Friday, the first following the week-long national holiday in China, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in response to a question on the Quad meet, "This is now the 21st century and we are living in an era of globalisation. The interests of all the countries are so intertwined that organising closed and exclusive cliques will not help to build mutual trust and cooperation, especially when we are faced with urgent tasks of fighting the pandemic and reviving the world economy." Lalu Prasad gets bail but will stay in jail The Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to jailed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad in connection with the ₹959 crore fodder scam case. The case pertained to fraudulent withdrawal of ₹33.67 crore from the Chaibasa treasury in Jharkhand during 1992-93, when he was Chief Minister of undivided Bihar. While granting bail, the court asked Prasad to submit two personal bonds of ₹50,000 each and deposit ₹2 lakh for securing bail. He has been in jail for half of the punishment of five years in the case. Prasad, however, will not come out of jail for now as he has been convicted in a number of other cases as well. The RJD chief has been undergoing treatment at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for multiple illnesses. Following his conviction in the fodder scam cases, Prasad has been at Birsa Munda central jail in Jharkhand since December 2017. Bhima Koregaon case: NIA files supplementary charge sheet The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a second supplementary charge sheet against seven accused and one absconding accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case. The central agency has named 83-year-old activist Father Stan Swamy, Anand Teltumbde, 70, Gautam Navlakha, 67, Hany Babu, 54, and members of cultural group Kabir Kala Manch, Sagar Gorkhe, 32, Ramesh Gaichor, 38 and Jyoti Jagtap 32. The absconding accused is the brother of Teltumbde, Milind Teltumbde.  Anand Teltumbde (left) and Gautam Navlakha against whom the National Investigation Agency filed a supplementary charge sheet in the Bhima Koregaon case on October 9, 2020. File Father Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest who works with tribals, was arrested from his home in Jharkhand capital Ranchi by a team of NIA officials from Delhi in a late night operation. He has been sent to jail till October 23 by the special court. The press release issued by NIA says, "All these accused conspired with other accused persons to further the ideology of terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist) and abetted violence… incited disaffection towards the Government established by law and promoted enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, caste and community. The absconding accused Milind Teltumbde also organised training camps for imparting weapons training to other accused persons." World Food Programme wins Nobel Peace Prize 2020 The Nobel Peace Prize was Friday awarded to the World Food Programme for feeding millions of people, from Yemen to North Korea. The WFP was honoured for "its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas, and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict," Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said on unveiling the winner in Oslo.  The World Food Progamme (WPF) won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has announced on October 09, 2020. Whether delivering food by helicopter or on the back of an elephant or a camel, the WFP prides itself on being "the leading humanitarian organisation" in a world where, by its own estimates, some 690 million people, one in 11, go to bed on an empty stomach. "With this year's award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to turn the eyes of the world towards the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger," Reiss-Andersen said. Covid watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 69,59,166 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,07,109. India's active caseload on Friday fell below 9 lakh for the first time after a month. India registered 8.93 lakh active cases today after registering 8.97 lakh on September 9, said a release issued by the Health Ministry. Entry to the Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala has been banned till October 15 after at least 10 priests, including the chief priest and the joint chief priest, tested positive for the coronavirus. V Ratheesan, the temple's chief executive officer, said the tantri, who usually performs special ceremonies, will perform daily pujas without the devotees. In Brief: Various airlines owe the Airports Authority of India (AAI) ₹2,400 crore for using different airports across the country. Air India owes nearly ₹1,900 crore, and GoAir and SpiceJet have been declared "cash and carry" where they pay their rentals daily because of pending dues. Delays in payments by airlines and a dip in revenue from airports, including from those operating under the PPP model, have forced the AAI to seek a loan of ₹1,500 crore for its working capital needs. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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