The Evening Wrap: Former Indian captain Bishan Singh Bedi passes away

Former India captain and legendary spinner Bishan Singh Bedi passed away on October 23. He was 77-years-old. Born in Amritsar in 1946, Bedi played 67 Tests for India and took 266 wickets with 14 five wicket hauls and one 10-wicket haul. He was the part of Indian cricket’s golden quartet of spinners, others being Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chadrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, who formed the core of India’s bowling unit for more than a decade between 1966 and 1978. His younger peers revered him as a grand statesman of the sport, never shy on offering trenchant opinions on issues plaguing the game, or backing other cricketers. Bedi was briefly the manager of the Indian cricket team in 1990 during tours of New Zealand and England. He was also a national selector and mentor to many talented spinners like Maninder Singh and Murali Kartik, who all swore by his technical insight. He was the longest serving Delhi Ranji team captain from 1974to 1982 and under him the team became a force to reckon with national cricket circuit. “Deeply saddened by the passing of noted cricketer Shri Bishan Singh Bedi Ji. His passion for the sport was unwavering and his exemplary bowling performances led India to numerous memorable victories. He will continue to inspire future generations of cricketers. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Several former and current cricketers, BCCI officials also condoled Bedi’s death. One person dead as portion of under-construction bridge collapses in Palanpur in Gujarat One person was killed after a portion of an under-construction bridge collapsed in Palanpur town in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district on October 23 and a search and rescue operation at the site was underway, officials said. Six concrete girders or slabs, which were recently installed on the pillars of the under-construction bridge near RTO check post, collapsed in the afternoon, said Banaskantha Collector Varunkumar Baranwal. A CCTV footage of the incident showed a person abandoning his autorickshaw after realising some portion of the bridge was about to give way and trying to run to safety but in vain as he got crushed under huge concrete slabs. Those at the site claimed there are two more persons in the debris as a tractor was also crushed along with the autorickshaw. “This is a railway overbridge connecting Ambaji with Palanpur. After the six girders collapsed, we started a search and rescue operation. So far, one body has been recovered. There is no point in assuming how many more are still trapped. Our work to remove the debris is on,” Collector Baranwal said. Though the construction of the bridge has been going on since some time, the girders that collapsed were launched on the pillars a week back but had not been tied to the structure as yet, he added. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast What can we do to get MNCs and billionaires to pay their fair share in taxes? | In Focus podcast When it comes to taxes, there is one definitive trend in all countries: the wealthiest entities, be it billionaires, or multinational corporations, enjoy the lowest effective rates of taxation. And this is in a context where governments around the world are cutting down on welfare programmes because they ostensibly can’t afford the resources to sustain them. To reduce inequality, fair and effective taxation is absolutely critical, and yet, largely missing. The European Union Tax Observatory (EU Tax Observatory) has come out with a report on this subject, titled ‘Global Tax Evasion Report’. It summarises the work of more than 100 researchers worldwide and quantifies the magnitude and dynamics of tax evasion. In a repeat of 2018, Bhupesh Baghel promises loan waiver for Chhattisgarh farmers Ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled next month, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has promised a loan waiver to farmers in the event of the Congress returning to power. Farm waiver is considered a key electoral promise that saw Congress returning to power in 2018 after a gap of 15 years in Chhattisgarh and one of the first decisions taken by the current Bhupesh Baghel government after it was formed was to waive off around ₹9,000 crores of loans owed by farmers. It also waived off another ₹350 crores of irrigation tax. At a campaign speech in Sakti on October 23, Baghel made the announcement of another loan waiver and reiterated three promises his party made earlier: caste census [State-level survey], buying 20 quintals per acre of rice from farmers and providing 17.5 lakh houses to homeless. While the loan waiver promise is the latest in the series of initiatives the government has taken to craft a pro-farmer image and woo this crucial constituency of farmers that dominate the Mahanadi basin and other areas of the Central plains. In recent years, agriculture activity has picked up in Bastar and Sarguja too, claims the government, attributing it to additional input subsidy being given by the State over the MSP given by the Centre. When Baghel was asked the rationale of the loan waiver in the light of the government’s claims on input subsidy, he claimed it was for the overall benefit of the entire economy and contrasted it with loan waivers given to industrialists by the Centre. Meanwhile, the BJP accused the Congress government of deceiving the farmers on the “complete loan waiver” promise and questioned why were the farmers of the State compelled to take loans in the first place. Israel-Hamas war | Israel mounts limited ground raids into Gaza Israel’s military said on October 23 its ground forces had mounted limited raids into the Gaza Strip overnight and said their air strikes were focusing on sites where Palestinian militants were assembling to attack any wider Israeli invasion. In a televised briefing, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said 222 people had now been confirmed as taken hostage during the October 7 cross-border onslaught by Hamas. “During the night there were raids by tank and infantry forces. These raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for the our next stage in the war,” he said, describing incursions that went “deep” into Gaza. The Hamas had said that its fighters had engaged what it described as an armoured force infiltrating a southern area of Gaza and had destroyed some Israeli military equipment. There was no Israeli comment on such losses. More than 19,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon amid an uptick in tensions between Israel and Hezbollah at the country’s southern border, figures released on the day by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration showed. Meanwhile, a third convoy of aid trucks entered the Rafah crossing from Egypt bound for the besieged Gaza Strip, an aid worker and two security sources said. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) representative Major Doron said that during the attack by Hamas, Israel had failed on multiple fronts of security, including intelligence, military, and many others. “There is no question that Israel failed here on many levels. The intelligence spheres, the military spheres, and many others,” he said. While speaking to ANI, he said that the failure of security structures needs independent inquiries for a thorough understanding and expressed a commitment to take these failures as lessons for future tasks. At least 20 killed, several injured in collision between two trains in Bangladesh At least 20 people were killed and several others injured on October 23 when a freight train hit a passenger train in Bangladesh’s northeastern Kishoreganj district, officials said. The accident took place when the freight train headed towards Chattogram hit the rear coaches of the Dhaka-bound Egarosindur Godhuli Express around 3.30 pm (local time) in Bhairab area of Kishoreganj district, some 60kms from the capital Dhaka, Bhairab Railway Police Station duty officer Sirajul Islam said. “Twenty bodies have been recovered so far. We are extending our all possible support to the rescue operations,” an official of the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion informed. Fire service officials on the spot said three passenger carriages were upturned and feared many people were trapped under the dilapidated wagons though some 100 passengers were rescued with wounds and rushed to different health facilities. A rescue train with cranes has left for the accident site. Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence media chief Shahjahan Sikder said that over a dozen units of the fire service are conducting rescue operations. Market mayhem: investors’ wealth plunges ₹7.59 lakh crore on October 23 Investors’ wealth eroded by ₹7.59 lakh crore on October 23 as the equity market took a heavy drubbing amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. The 30-share BSE Sensex plunged 825.74 points or 1.26% to settle at 64,571.88 points. During the day, the index plummeted 894.94 points or 1.36% to 64,502.68 points. This is the fourth consecutive session of decline for the benchmark index and in four days, the BSE benchmark has dropped by 1,856.21 points or 2.79%. Amid weak trend in equities, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms fell by ₹12,51,700.73 crore in four days of market crash to reach ₹3,11,30,724.40 crore. On Monday alone, the market valuation of the BSE-listed companies plummeted ₹7,59,041.63 crore. Among the Sensex firms, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Wipro, IndusInd Bank, HCL Technologies, NTPC, State Bank of India and Larsen & Toubro were the major laggards. Bajaj Finance and Mahindra & Mahindra were the gainers. Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.04% to $92.18 a barrel. In the broader market, the BSE smallcap gauge cracked 4.18% and midcap index dropped 2.51%. All the indices ended lower, with telecommunication plunging 3.82%, industrials falling 3.26%, utilities (3.10%), commodities (3.06%), services (2.99%), realty (2.84%), power (2.69%), consumer discretionary (2.25%), IT (2.14%) and oil & gas (1.88%). A total of 3,196 firms declined while 638 advanced and 156 remained unchanged on the BSE. In Brief: A five-member bench of the Pakistan Supreme Court on October 23 declared the trial of civilians arrested following the violent protests on May 9 in military courts as “null and void” and ordered authorities to conduct their hearing in criminal court. The bench comprising Justices Ahsan, Muneeb Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Mazahir Naqvi, and Ayesha Malik announced its verdict on a dozen petitions challenging the trial of more than 100 civilians in military courts following the unprecedented violence in the country after the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on May 9. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 23 October 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Bishan Singh Bedi, former India captain and legendary spinner, passes away at 77 [Former India captain and legendary spinner Bishan Singh Bedi passed away]( on October 23. He was 77-years-old. Born in Amritsar in 1946, Bedi played 67 Tests for India and took 266 wickets with 14 five wicket hauls and one 10-wicket haul. He was the part of Indian cricket’s golden quartet of spinners, others being Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chadrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, who formed the core of India’s bowling unit for more than a decade between 1966 and 1978. His younger peers revered him as a grand statesman of the sport, never shy on offering trenchant opinions on issues plaguing the game, or backing other cricketers. Bedi was briefly the manager of the Indian cricket team in 1990 during tours of New Zealand and England. He was also a national selector and mentor to many talented spinners like Maninder Singh and Murali Kartik, who all swore by his technical insight. He was the longest serving Delhi Ranji team captain from 1974to 1982 and under him the team became a force to reckon with national cricket circuit. “Deeply saddened by the passing of noted cricketer Shri Bishan Singh Bedi Ji. His passion for the sport was unwavering and his exemplary bowling performances led India to numerous memorable victories. He will continue to inspire future generations of cricketers. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Several former and current cricketers, BCCI officials also condoled Bedi’s death. One person dead as portion of under-construction bridge collapses in Palanpur in Gujarat [One person was killed after a portion of an under-construction bridge collapsed in Palanpur town in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district]( on October 23 and a search and rescue operation at the site was underway, officials said. Six concrete girders or slabs, which were recently installed on the pillars of the under-construction bridge near RTO check post, collapsed in the afternoon, said Banaskantha Collector Varunkumar Baranwal. A CCTV footage of the incident showed a person abandoning his autorickshaw after realising some portion of the bridge was about to give way and trying to run to safety but in vain as he got crushed under huge concrete slabs. Those at the site claimed there are two more persons in the debris as a tractor was also crushed along with the autorickshaw. “This is a railway overbridge connecting Ambaji with Palanpur. After the six girders collapsed, we started a search and rescue operation. So far, one body has been recovered. There is no point in assuming how many more are still trapped. Our work to remove the debris is on,” Collector Baranwal said. Though the construction of the bridge has been going on since some time, the girders that collapsed were launched on the pillars a week back but had not been tied to the structure as yet, he added. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast What can we do to get MNCs and billionaires to pay their fair share in taxes? | In Focus podcast [When it comes to taxes, there is one definitive trend in all countries: the wealthiest entities, be it billionaires, or multinational corporations, enjoy the lowest effective rates of taxation](. And this is in a context where governments around the world are cutting down on welfare programmes because they ostensibly can’t afford the resources to sustain them. To reduce inequality, fair and effective taxation is absolutely critical, and yet, largely missing. The European Union Tax Observatory (EU Tax Observatory) has come out with a report on this subject, titled ‘Global Tax Evasion Report’. It summarises the work of more than 100 researchers worldwide and quantifies the magnitude and dynamics of tax evasion. In a repeat of 2018, Bhupesh Baghel promises loan waiver for Chhattisgarh farmers Ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled next month, [Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has promised a loan waiver to farmers]( in the event of the Congress returning to power. Farm waiver is considered a key electoral promise that saw Congress returning to power in 2018 after a gap of 15 years in Chhattisgarh and one of the first decisions taken by the current Bhupesh Baghel government after it was formed was to waive off around ₹9,000 crores of loans owed by farmers. It also waived off another ₹350 crores of irrigation tax. At a campaign speech in Sakti on October 23, Baghel made the announcement of another loan waiver and reiterated three promises his party made earlier: caste census [State-level survey], buying 20 quintals per acre of rice from farmers and providing 17.5 lakh houses to homeless. While the loan waiver promise is the latest in the series of initiatives the government has taken to craft a pro-farmer image and woo this crucial constituency of farmers that dominate the Mahanadi basin and other areas of the Central plains. In recent years, agriculture activity has picked up in Bastar and Sarguja too, claims the government, attributing it to additional input subsidy being given by the State over the MSP given by the Centre. When Baghel was asked the rationale of the loan waiver in the light of the government’s claims on input subsidy, he claimed it was for the overall benefit of the entire economy and contrasted it with loan waivers given to industrialists by the Centre. Meanwhile, the BJP accused the Congress government of deceiving the farmers on the “complete loan waiver” promise and questioned why were the farmers of the State compelled to take loans in the first place. Israel-Hamas war | Israel mounts limited ground raids into Gaza [Israel’s military said on October 23 its ground forces had mounted limited raids into the Gaza Strip]( overnight and said their air strikes were focusing on sites where Palestinian militants were assembling to attack any wider Israeli invasion. In a televised briefing, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said 222 people had now been confirmed as taken hostage during the October 7 cross-border onslaught by Hamas. “During the night there were raids by tank and infantry forces. These raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for the our next stage in the war,” he said, describing incursions that went “deep” into Gaza. The Hamas had said that its fighters had engaged what it described as an armoured force infiltrating a southern area of Gaza and had destroyed some Israeli military equipment. There was no Israeli comment on such losses. More than 19,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon amid an uptick in tensions between Israel and Hezbollah at the country’s southern border, figures released on the day by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration showed. Meanwhile, a third convoy of aid trucks entered the Rafah crossing from Egypt bound for the besieged Gaza Strip, an aid worker and two security sources said. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) representative Major Doron said that during the attack by Hamas, Israel had failed on multiple fronts of security, including intelligence, military, and many others. “There is no question that Israel failed here on many levels. The intelligence spheres, the military spheres, and many others,” he said. While speaking to ANI, he said that the failure of security structures needs independent inquiries for a thorough understanding and expressed a commitment to take these failures as lessons for future tasks. At least 20 killed, several injured in collision between two trains in Bangladesh [At least 20 people were killed and several others injured on October 23 when a freight train hit a passenger train in Bangladesh]( northeastern Kishoreganj district, officials said. The accident took place when the freight train headed towards Chattogram hit the rear coaches of the Dhaka-bound Egarosindur Godhuli Express around 3.30 pm (local time) in Bhairab area of Kishoreganj district, some 60kms from the capital Dhaka, Bhairab Railway Police Station duty officer Sirajul Islam said. “Twenty bodies have been recovered so far. We are extending our all possible support to the rescue operations,” an official of the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion informed. Fire service officials on the spot said three passenger carriages were upturned and feared many people were trapped under the dilapidated wagons though some 100 passengers were rescued with wounds and rushed to different health facilities. A rescue train with cranes has left for the accident site. Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence media chief Shahjahan Sikder said that over a dozen units of the fire service are conducting rescue operations. Market mayhem: investors’ wealth plunges ₹7.59 lakh crore on October 23 [Investors’ wealth eroded by ₹7.59 lakh crore on October 23 as the equity market took a heavy drubbing amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.]( The 30-share BSE Sensex plunged 825.74 points or 1.26% to settle at 64,571.88 points. During the day, the index plummeted 894.94 points or 1.36% to 64,502.68 points. This is the fourth consecutive session of decline for the benchmark index and in four days, the BSE benchmark has dropped by 1,856.21 points or 2.79%. Amid weak trend in equities, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms fell by ₹12,51,700.73 crore in four days of market crash to reach ₹3,11,30,724.40 crore. On Monday alone, the market valuation of the BSE-listed companies plummeted ₹7,59,041.63 crore. Among the Sensex firms, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Wipro, IndusInd Bank, HCL Technologies, NTPC, State Bank of India and Larsen & Toubro were the major laggards. Bajaj Finance and Mahindra & Mahindra were the gainers. Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.04% to $92.18 a barrel. In the broader market, the BSE smallcap gauge cracked 4.18% and midcap index dropped 2.51%. All the indices ended lower, with telecommunication plunging 3.82%, industrials falling 3.26%, utilities (3.10%), commodities (3.06%), services (2.99%), realty (2.84%), power (2.69%), consumer discretionary (2.25%), IT (2.14%) and oil & gas (1.88%). A total of 3,196 firms declined while 638 advanced and 156 remained unchanged on the BSE. In Brief: [A five-member bench of the Pakistan Supreme Court on October 23 declared the trial of civilians arrested following the violent protests on May 9 in military courts as “null and void”]( and ordered authorities to conduct their hearing in criminal court. The bench comprising Justices Ahsan, Muneeb Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Mazahir Naqvi, and Ayesha Malik announced its verdict on a dozen petitions challenging the trial of more than 100 civilians in military courts following the unprecedented violence in the country after the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on May 9. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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