Daily bulletin: Narendra Modi to inaugurate Vibrant Gujarat summit; SC to hear plea of women who entered Sabarimala; day's top stories

Modi to inaugurate Vibrant Gujarat Summit

The summit is being held in Gandhinagar from 18 to 20 January. Heads of five countries and over 30,000 national and international delegates, including CEOs of major companies from India and abroad, are expected to attend the 9th edition of the summit.

Indian business tycoons who are expected to attend include Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries; Uday Kotak, chairman and managing director, Kotak Mahindra Bank; Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla group; Adi Godrej, chairman, Godrej group; Gautam Adani chairman and founder, Adani Group; and Pankaj Patel chairman and managing director, Cadilla Healthcare.

The Vibrant Gujarat Summit was conceptualised in 2003 by Modi who was then the chief minister of Gujarat to re-establish the state as a preferred investment destination. The Summit provides a platform for brainstorming on agendas of global socio-economic development, knowledge-sharing and forging effective partnerships.

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Reuters

The CEOs and top executives of global companies like BASF, DP World, Suzuki, Vanguard and Maersk among others would also be present.

SC to hear plea of women who entered Sabarimala

The Supreme Court will hear on Friday a plea of two women — Kanakdurga and Bindu — seeking round-the-clock security after they recently entered the Sabarimala temple in Kerala despite protests right-wing Hindu groups.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices LN Rao and SK Kaul said on Thursday that it would hear the plea on Friday after senior advocate Indira Jaising contended the matter should be heard urgently as one of the women was assaulted by her mother-in-law.

The plea also sought directions to all authorities to allow women of all age groups to enter the temple without any hindrance and to ensure security and safe passage, including police security to women wishing to enter the temple in future.

Karnataka Congress to hold key meet

After four days of intense drama over allegations of poaching and horse-trading, the Congress in Karnataka will take stock of its tally by calling a meeting of its MLAs on Friday.

The meeting is scheduled to be held at 3:30 pm at the state Assembly in Bengaluru. The party has made it clear that any MLA who fails to turn up for the meeting will be expelled from the party and will face action under the anti-defection law.

India elect to bowl first in the series decider after winning toss at Melbourne

Virat Kohli decided to bowl first after winning the toss at Melbourne amidst overcast conditions. India handed Vijay Shanker his ODI debut cap, also came into the side Kedar Jadhav and Yuzvendra Chahal. They will replace Mohammed Siraj, Ambati Rayudu and Kuldeep Yadav. India have never won a bilateral ODI series in Australia.

Dinesh Maheshwari, Sanjiv Khanna to be sworn in as SC judges

Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Sanjiv Khanna of the Delhi High Court will be sworn in as judges of the Supreme Court at 10.30 am on Friday.

The government had notified on Wednesday the appointment of Maheshwari and Khanna as judges of the apex court. Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi will administer the oath of office to the two judges on Friday, an official circular said.

The elevation of Maheshwari and Khanna generated controversy as top court collegium recommended their elevation while revoking its 12 December, 2018 decision. The collegium had on 12 December decided to recommend the elevation of Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Justice Rajendra Menon to Supreme Court.

Navy detects body of miner, several skeletons in Meghalaya mines

Navy divers have found a body of one of the 15 trapped miners and also spotted several skeletons in the flooded rat-hole coal mines in Meghalaya East Jaintia Hills district, weeks after a multi-agency search operation was launched to rescue them.

The naval personnel spotted the decomposed body of one of the miners about 200 ft along the horizontally dug small hole and managed to pull it about half-way to the bottom of the shaft. But the body, which is yet to be identified, could not be extracted out of the shaft due to apprehension that further moving it could result in its disintegration.

The navy divers on Thursday also spotted through a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) a number of skeletons inside one of the rat-hole mines and are waiting for the state administration's directive on the future course of action. They said it was not clear if the skeletons were of the missing miners.

Apple CEO calls the FTC to help users with new tools to control data

Apple CEO Tim Cook decided to go after the "shadow economy" of firms profiting from people's personal data in a column for Time Magazine. Calling upon the US government to introduce new tools to help users control personal data being collected everyday, Cook said that consumers should have the power to "delete their data on demand, freely, easily and online, once and for all."

Nawazuddin Siddiqui film Photograph heads to Berlinale

Photograph, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, will be screened at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival next month. Director Ritesh Batra took to Twitter to share the news.

"Hello all, 'Photograph' will be screened at the #Berlinale2019," Batra posted on Thursday.

According to the official site of the festival, Photograph will be part of the Berlinale Special Gala at the Friedrichstadt-Palast where it will have its European premiere. It also features in Berlinale Special films category. The fest will start from 7 February and will run till 17 February.

Wipro Q3 results today

The Wipro board of directors will declare on Friday the results for the quarter ended 31 December, 2018. India's third-largest IT company may also consider a proposal for issue of bonus shares, the company said in a regulatory filing.