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India

1. Follow-up: Cyclone Arnab makes landfall in India's Andhra Pradesh; over 180,000 evacuated and three airports shut

   India's weather department said Cyclone Arnab, classed as a very severe cyclonic storm, began making landfall in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, Oct 28, with wind speeds of 125-135 km/h, gusts of up to 150 km/h and a possible storm surge of 1.5-2.5 metres above normal tide; the storm's centre then almost stalled near the Bay of Bengal, so landfall was expected to last several hours. Authorities said more than 180,000 people had been evacuated in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, with no deaths reported so far, but there were power cuts and fallen trees, some schools closed and trains and flights were cancelled. India's civil aviation ministry said three airports in Andhra Pradesh had suspended operations, and neighbouring Nepal warned tourists not to travel to high-altitude areas.

   Oct 28, 2026 Afternoon
2. Ambani's Jio Platforms debuts in Mumbai after record US$3.2 billion IPO drew US$77 billion in bids

   Jio Platforms, the telecoms and digital business of Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani, began trading in Mumbai on Wednesday, Oct 28, after its US$3.2 billion initial public offering drew US$77 billion in bids, the most heavily subscribed IPO in India's history. Jio is valued at up to US$108.3 billion, counts Meta and Google parent Alphabet as shareholders and has more than 530 million customers. The listing is part of Ambani's plan to turn parent company Reliance Industries from a petrochemicals group into a conglomerate spanning consumer and technology businesses. People familiar with the matter said his eldest son, Jio director Akash Ambani, was expected to attend the listing ceremony.

   Oct 28, 2026 Afternoon
3. Cyclone Arnab set to hit India's east coast; nearly 50,000 evacuated in Andhra Pradesh

   Cyclone Arnab, which formed in the Bay of Bengal, kept strengthening from Monday, and India's weather department expected it to make landfall on the coast of Andhra Pradesh on the morning of Wednesday, Oct 28, with neighbouring Odisha also facing strong winds and heavy rain; some train services were cancelled. Andhra Pradesh's disaster management chief told Reuters that nearly 50,000 people had been moved to shelters by Monday night, out of about 400,000 expected to be evacuated. After landfall the storm is expected to turn north inland towards Nepal, where authorities warned of heavy rain, snowstorms and avalanches in the Himalayas from Thursday night to Saturday; flash floods in Nepal in August killed about 1,500 people.

   Oct 28, 2026 Morning
4. Nearly 40 police injured as protesters against mega hydropower dam clash with police in India's Arunachal Pradesh

   On the evening of Friday, Oct 23, people opposed to a government plan to build a large multipurpose hydropower project gathered in Arunachal Pradesh, in north-east India near the China-India border, confronted police and destroyed large amounts of supplies. AFP, citing a briefing by the Arunachal Pradesh government the next day, reported that nearly 40 police officers were injured and police used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

   Oct 26, 2026 Morning
5. Private keys for 8 eMudhra intermediate TLS certificates compromised, allowing forged certificates for any website

   Ars Technica reported that private keys for eight TLS intermediate certificates of Indian certificate authority eMudhra were exposed, letting holders issue browser-trusted certificates for any website. A reporter named Wayne used each of the eight keys on Oct 17 to sign the message 'We have a problem here - Wayne' and submitted them to root certificate programmes; Firefox and Chrome have blocked the certificates since Oct 17 and Apple devices since Oct 19. Certificate Transparency logs show no malicious use so far, but Linux distributions, embedded and IoT devices take longer to update, and a cryptography engineer called it a cleanup 'bigger than Heartbleed'.

   Oct 21, 2026 Morning
6. India's Jio Platforms record IPO draws anchor bids of over $25 billion

   Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries said on Oct 19 that investors including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BlackRock and Fidelity took part in the anchor book of Jio Platforms' $3.2 billion IPO, India's largest ever. Two sources said anchor demand exceeded $25 billion, more than 30 times the allotment; Jio allocated more than 81 billion rupees (about $853 million) of shares to anchor investors, and public subscription opens on Wednesday. Jio upended India's telecom market in 2016 with free calls and cheap data and now has more than 500 million users.

   Oct 20, 2026 Morning
7. Follow-up: Kolkata Durga Puja stampede death toll rises to 19; police say a broadcast sparked the crush

   On the evening of Oct 17, a stampede occurred outside a Hindu Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata, West Bengal. Officials and Indian media said the death toll has risen to at least 19, with 25 injured. West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said 6 bodies had been identified. A senior officer at the scene said heavy rain at night, then a broadcast, caused a crush as people queuing outside pushed forward and fell. Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted condolences on Facebook and said the West Bengal government was giving every possible help to victims' families.

   Oct 19, 2026 Afternoon
8. Truck ploughs into Hindu festival crowd in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, killing 13

   Early on Oct 18, a heavily loaded truck lost control in Gwalior in India's Madhya Pradesh state and ploughed into Hindu festival devotees gathered at a temple. The Press Trust of India, citing hospital officials, said 13 people were killed. President Droupadi Murmu called the incident 'heartbreaking'.

   Oct 19, 2026 Morning