What’s up? A mystery train pulled into Beijing on Monday. The green and yellow train looked like the one used by then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during a visit to China in 2011. He hated flying. Speculation mounted that the current North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited China. Today North Korea confirmed that it was indeed Kim who had made an “unofficial” visit to China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping.

• Is there more to it? The meeting comes days after Trump accepted an invitation from Pyongyang. Kim also told Xi that he wants to talk to Trump. Xi called up Trump on Tuesday and conveyed the message. While America sees it as a sign that the pressure is working on Kim pushing him to the table. China sees it as the meeting pushing it to the centre of events and gives it a leading role.

Are India-North Korea friends? World's largest democracy and the world's most isolated country are not enemies for sure. “We feel that there should not be the usual old hurdles and suspicion in bilateral ties as North Korea is an independent country and also a member of the United Nations” – that’s Kiren Rijiju in Sept 2016. There have been hiccups in the past - like India blaming the country for selling nuclear tech to Pakistan and voting for sanctions at the UN - but we have had a history of helping them too. We have trained their people in technology, their military officers at our army centres, their diplomats at our institutes. We have send food when they needed it and they have responded when tragedy struck here (they donated $30,000 after the tsunami of 2004)

• The point is … If North Korea comes back to the mainstream it will help us more than harm us.

What? Karnataka elections have been announced. The state votes on a Saturday (May 12) and gets the results on a Tuesday (May 15). Weekends have been Karnataka’s preferred days to vote – 3 out of the last 4 assembly polls began on a weekend. In 2013 it voted on Sunday, it was a Saturday in 2008 and Sunday in 1999. Tuesday, on the other hand, is the day America chooses to vote every year.
Does it even matter? Not much for us in India since the scheduling of polls is based more on the weather, movement of security forces and poll personnel than a weekend or a week day. But having polls on weekend has its advantages as America is debating. For the Americans, a fixed polling day has been a tradition that has continued without anyone asking why. For us, each election is different and the Election Commission decides the date afresh.
Sunday voting means …. a shorter commute to the polling booth that is based on (and therefore closer to) your residential address, not where your office is. The lines at polling booth are also likely to be more spaced out because on a work day people can vote only before or after work, and that means the ‘rush hour’ problem in these peak hours. An Election Day holiday on a weekday is costly too because that comes at the cost of productivity.

Tradition & votes: The US votes on Tuesday because in 1845, Tuesday was the most convenient day for voting. It could take a day or longer for farmers to get to the county seat to vote, and Tuesday allowed them this time without interfering with the Sunday church or Wednesday, which was market day. If India followed tradition like US … we would have always be voting on Thursday as independent India first cast its vote on 25 October 1951, a Thursday.

India's central bank celebrates its 83rd founding day today (April 1). But if governor Urjit Patel keeps the jingles to a low note, there’s a reason. We put that in verse

First came the note ban,
Sudden, so sudden and BAM!
They said I didn’t stand up like a man

There’s now this PNB scam
Sudden, so sudden and BAM!
He called to say ‘what were you doing man?

They call me a chowkidar, who was sleeping
Can I really stop them from taking it out …
… if I can’t stop them from looting?

They say I have the power
I say it's not about the power
But about your power to overpower

Hint:


Answer: They all have a foundation named after themself. Pranab Mukherjee Foundation is the latest to join the list

MARCH 31 is … The last day …

• … to file income tax returns if you haven’t done so in the last two years
• … to make tax saving investments if you plan to claim benefits next year
• … for the popular Jio Prime membership

Not the last day

• … to link your insurance policies, bank accounts, mobile number, passport to Aadhaar
• … to link your PAN with Aadhaar. The new deadline is June 30
• … for linking of Aadhaar with government schemes and benefits. It is June 30 now

Likely to be a rainy day in Kolkata

• After making 29 trips to Delhi, notching up 45,000 air miles and spending close to five days in the air in all, the Andhra Pradesh CM gave up on his demand for special status for his state. He asked his ministers to quit the Central government and days later pulled out of the NDA too.
• What’s the politics? YS Jagan Mohan Reddy , leader of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and Naidu 's principal rival in the state has notched up close to 2,000 kilometres across 13 districts and 130 Assembly constituencies in his Praja Sankalpa Yatra. After narrowly losing to TDP in 2014 and a string of high-profile exits (20 MLAs, 2 MPs), YSRC seems to be gaining ground. And so is the issue he’s been talking about - special status for Andhra. That’s forced TDPs hand and rocked the seemingly steady BJP-TDP ties.
• What next? The pullout doesn’t affect the government at the Centre but BJP’s alliance partners in NDA are watching. Some expect BJP and TDP to patch up after 2019 polls but some are also talking of possibilities of BJP getting a new ally in Jagan’s YSR Congress. Both TDP and Jagan’s YSRC had very similar vote shares in 2014 Lok Sabha polls (29%) and even in Assembly polls.

What’s Vinod Rai trying to teach bosses about being a super-boss?He wants to read the mails juniors write. He doesn’t trust his deputies, so even the senior most ones have to take his permission before they can travel on work. He is not a full time boss because he has another assignment. He is an outsider imposed on his employees. But then, he just approved a massive salary hike for the star performers and he really likes the top performer. Good boss? Bad boss? It really depends on who you are in the BCCI hierarchy.


As the ugly battle between the two-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the three principal BCCI office bearers gets murkier, you can expect more office lessons to tumble out.

Who is this 78 year old virgin with a following that spans continents?

• Clue 1: He holds 67 honorary doctorates
• Clue 2: He's an honorary citizen of 6 cities - Budapest, Warsaw, Paris, Venice, Rome and Huy - and 1 country - Canada .
• Clue 3: He's been a contemporary of every Indian Prime Minister since Jawahar Lal Nehru , to Manmohan Singh - 14 prime ministers in all.
• Clue 4: He admitted to receiving $1.7 million annually from the CIA in the 1960s for supporting his country's independence movement.
• Clue 5: His real name is Lhama Thondup.

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