Daily Bulletin: Voting in phase 2 of J&K civic election begins; cyclone Titli may make landfall on Thursday; day's top news

Cyclone Titli to make landfall, states prepare for disaster The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast heavy rains in various parts of Odisha, over Gangetic West Bengal as well as northern coastal Andhra Pradesh. The IMD has also predicted heavy rains at isolated places over Mizoram and Tripura. Very rough sea conditions have also been predicted due to strong winds over the west-central Arabian Sea, the northern Bay of Bengal, the Odisha and West Bengal coasts. Fishermen have been advised not to venture into these areas. As a precautionary measure, schools and colleges in Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts of Odisha will be closed today and tomorrow. [caption id=“attachment_5349401” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rough sea condition prevailed over southeast and east-central Bay of Bengal due to cyclonic storm Titli. Twitter/@IndiaCoastGuard[/caption] The regional meteorological department on Tuesday issued a red alert for Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts as heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to occur in these places from Wednesday. An orange alert has been issued for Khurda, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Bhadrak and Balasore. Three hundred boats have been kept ready for emergencies. Six NDRF teams have been sent to Gajapati, Puri, Kendrapada, Nayagarh, Jajpur and Bhadrak districts for rescue operations. Seven teams of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force are being deployed in Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Khurda, Cuttack, Balasore, Mayurbhanj and Kalahandi districts. The Health Department has asked officials to keep power back-up and generator sets ready at health facilities to meet any eventuality. It also asked for a contingency plan for medical relief centre, which should be opened as early as possible. Voting in phase 2 of J&K civic election begins Over 1,000 candidates will participate in the second phase of the urban local bodies polls in Jammu and Kashmir today, officials said. The four-phase elections began on 8 October and will end on 16 October. Officials said that security arrangements have been put in place for smooth conduct of the second phase elections which will take place from 6 am to 4 pm. The second phase will cover a total of 384 wards spanning 13 districts across the state — seven of which are in the Valley, officials said. They said that 1,198 nominations were received for these wards and after scrutiny and withdrawal, 1,095 contestants are contesting the polls. Out of 1,095 candidates, 65 have won the polls uncontested, including 61 from the Valley. In the first phase polls on Monday, threats from terror groups kept a majority of people away from polling booths in the Valley for where the turnout was a paltry 8.3 percent, whereas over 65 percent of the electorate voted in the Jammu and Ladakh divisions of the state. Polling on Monday was peaceful in the four-phase election to urban local bodies, which has been boycotted by two main regional parties — the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Google announces Pixel 3 smartphone, Slate tablet and Home Hub Given the flood of leaks these past weeks, Google’s Pixel 3 event last night offered little that was new, in terms of hardware. On the AI front, however, things were very different. The biggest benefactor of the new AI features is the Google Camera app, which now offers new features such as vastly improved low-light performance, digital superzoom that uses your shaky hand to enhance images, Photobooth for fun portraits and so on. Among these features is also a new call-screening feature that will answer calls on your behalf while giving you a real-time transcript of the conversation. Alongside the phones, we also saw the launch of the Google Home Hub, a smart speaker-cum-tablet for your home, an upgraded Chromecast and a brand new, Chrome OS-powered tablet called the Slate. Quietly launched were also a pair of wired Pixel Buds that connect via USB-C. Later in the day, expect to see a camera comparison between the Pixel 3 XL and the iPhone XS Max as well as a more detailed explanation of how many of these new features work. Rupee at Rs 74.39 against the dollar The rupee fell 33 paise on Tuesday to finish at a fresh lifetime low of 74.39 against the US dollar on high crude oil prices, strengthening of the greenback and unabated foreign fund outflows. At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex), the rupee made a cautious recovery of 18 paise to 73.88 against the US dollar in early trade on fresh selling of the American currency by banks and exporters. However, the domestic currency failed to sustain the momentum after Brent crude breached the $84 per-barrel-mark again and the US dollar strengthened overseas. Falling for the sixth straight sessions, it finally closed at 74.39 against the US dollar, down by 33 paise. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on India’s #MeToo movement: We should extend our support to all the voices Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is happy with India having its own #MeToo movement and the actor on Tuesday said more support and strength should be given to the women who are sharing their experiences of sexual harassment. “The #MeToo movement has gained momentum in present times. The world has got smaller with social media, one voice is becoming larger. What is nice to see in present time is that the members of the media are becoming allied and propelling voices that needs to be heard. The law of the land will take over for justice to be served. “It wouldn’t be right to specifically comment on individual cases as matters would be sub judice and that would not be responsible on our part but having said that, God bless and strength to the voices that need that kind of support and you all need to be there,” Aishwarya said in an interview.