PM Modi meets Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand, pushes early CEPA

Canada's Foreign Minister Anita Anand called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 14. They discussed deepening cooperation in trade, science and technology, defence, security, energy, education and people-to-people ties. The Prime Minister stressed turning the positive momentum into concrete outcomes, including early conclusion of negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). Both sides also exchanged views on regional and global developments. He conveyed warm wishes to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

PM inaugurates RBI data centre and Cybersecurity Training Institute in Bhubaneswar

On 25 October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Reserve Bank of India's ₹169-crore data centre and Cybersecurity Training Institute in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He said wars are no longer fought only with weapons and that a country can be weakened by attacks on its economy. Protecting the banking system from cybercriminals and cyberterrorists is therefore a national priority.

Protests in Delhi against the Special Intensive Revision and the CEC

On 23 October, civil society groups, students and farmers' organisations marched towards the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters in New Delhi. They protested against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Police detained more than 100 protesters.

Full text of Pakistan–Saudi–Turkey ‘Mecca’ defence pact released

The full text of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey is out. It became public after Turkey submitted the agreement to its Parliament for ratification on 20 October. The 16-article pact focuses more on military capacity-building than on NATO-style mutual defence.

Haryana regulator grants first private parallel power distribution licence

The Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission has granted Eleven Power Pvt Ltd a 25-year parallel distribution licence for Gurugram and Nuh. It will be the first private player in Haryana's power distribution. The Haryana government, which opposed the move, plans to appeal to the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity.

Google, Mozilla, Apple and Microsoft block eMudhra certificates over key flaw

Major browser companies have blocked certificates linked to Bengaluru-based eMudhra. Eight of its intermediate certificate-authority keys were generated with too little randomness, which made them potentially recoverable by attackers. CERT-In issued an advisory on 21 October.