The Indian rupee fell to an all-time low of 89.7 against the United States dollar. This came amid sluggish trade activity and portfolio flows, coupled with uncertainty about a trade deal between Washington and New Delhi.

United States President Donald Trump had said on November 10 that his country was getting close to a “fair deal” with India. However, the delay in the announcement of the trade deal and the resulting uncertainty about the future of exports were creating a stir across the market.

Washington’s tariffs on Indian exports have dented trade and portfolio flows into equities, leaving the Indian rupee reliant on interventions by the central bank for support. Read on.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded an audit of 1.2 crore digitisation entries made between October 26 and October 28 in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal. The party has alleged irregularities in the exercise, claiming that the rise in the digitisation numbers from 5.5 crore to 6.7 crore was “an abnormal and statistically impossible”.

It also alleged that the surge was achieved not by booth-level officers, but by a political consultancy group, “known to be very close to the ruling TMC”, illegally performing the digitisation tasks.

After meeting Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal, BJP leader...

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