US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Mumbai on Tuesday and said the two countries were "about as close as you can be without having executed the agreement" on a trade deal, with only a few issues left.

They discussed energy security and defence, and held a three-way meeting with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed. Rubio, Jaishankar and US Ambassador Sergio Gor laid a wreath at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel for the victims of the 2008 attack.

Rubio also said the US delegation would discuss Venezuelan oil with Reliance Industries, calling India "a refining superpower". No signing date has been announced.

India's medal count at the Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya rose to 35 on Tuesday: 9 gold, 11 silver and 15 bronze.

Deepthi Jeevanji defended her women's 400m T20 title in a Games record of 56.36 seconds, and Simran won the 200m T12 in a Games record of 24.80 seconds. Nishad Kumar took his second gold, in the high jump T47, and Pranav Soorma set an Asian record of 11.66m in the discus F51/52/53.

Manish Narwal won silver in the 10m air pistol SH1. The Games end on 24 October.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor rejected the BJP's claim that the opposition is seeking "regime change" like Bangladesh or France, saying the demand for free and fair elections is a constitutional matter.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju had alleged that "anti-India gangs" were planning violence during protests over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The National Lok Adalat for pending Delhi traffic challans will be held on Sunday, 25 October, at seven district court complexes. It covers compoundable challans pending in virtual courts up to 30 June 2026. Slips can be downloaded online, with a cap of 50,000 a day.

From 18 October, five superfast trains run by the Northeast Frontier Railway, including two Vande Bharat Expresses, get regular coach cleaning, better washroom upkeep and a two-hour target for fixing complaints.

Union Bank of India's September-quarter profit rose 30.3% to ₹5,537 crore. Travel app ixigo reported a net profit of ₹63.42 crore against a loss a year earlier, helped by a ₹40.7 crore gain from selling part of its Freshbus stake; train bookings revenue rose 16%.

L&T has been asked to start work on a Tashkent airport project worth over ₹15,000 crore, while Sobha's profit fell 54.3% and Waaree Renewable's shares dropped about 10% after a 30% profit fall.

India's 10-year government bond yield rose to 7.402%, close to a one-year high and about 0.34 percentage points higher than a month ago, as costly oil keeps inflation worries alive. Higher yields usually mean costlier home and car loans later.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said mines struck two tankers on an "illegal route" south of the Strait of Hormuz and both caught fire; this has not been independently confirmed. Brent crude touched a five-month high of $111.75 on Tuesday before settling near $109.

Britain is sending RAF Typhoon jets to Saudi Arabia for what it calls defensive patrols, after Houthi attacks forced Riyadh to postpone its 'Davos in the Desert' conference to 2027.

US envoy Steve Witkoff is travelling to Norway for talks with President Zelenskyy and European officials, and then plans to meet Vladimir Putin in Russia. A Russian drone near the Kyiv–Odesa highway killed three people.

India's three-part ceasefire proposal, covering energy sites, grain and energy routes and commercial ships, has been described as the broadest of four plans under discussion. Ukraine says it is open to an energy and Black Sea ceasefire.

Drone strikes have killed more than 160 people in western Sudan since Friday, according to Al Jazeera, including 80 near a market in al-Dabba, West Kordofan. Rights groups blamed the Sudanese army for that strike.

The Dow Jones rose 1.02% on Tuesday and the S&P 500 0.28%. Gold slipped 0.44% to $4,114 an ounce. Traders on Polymarket put an 86.5% chance on the US Federal Reserve holding rates at its 28 October meeting.

Iranian officials told Reuters that Iran has deliberately prolonged talks with the US to weaken Trump before the 3 November midterms, and that Tehran is preparing for renewed attacks. Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir is visiting Iran as a mediator.

On the prediction market Polymarket, traders give an 86.5% chance that the Fed keeps rates at 3.75–4.00% on 28 October and 12.5% to a quarter-point rise. Prediction markets are bets, not official forecasts.

Both sides say a deal is close, but neither has announced a signing date. Trump says it will be "much different" from earlier versions; details have not been made public.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana, first-time employees who join between 1 August 2025 and 31 July 2027, earn up to ₹1 lakh a month and were not EPF members before can receive up to ₹15,000.