Top of the Morning: India’s Historic Chase | Kerala’s Big Poverty Claim | Beijing’s Magnet Lifeline to India | Powai Hostage Scare

Mint Podcast

Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint.. I’m Nelson John and here are today’s top stories.

Thursday afternoon in Mumbai's Powai turned into every parent's nightmare. Seventeen children walked into RA Studio thinking they were auditioning for a web series. Instead, they became hostages. The man behind it was 50-year-old Rohit Arya from Pune. He locked the kids inside, set up motion sensors on the stairs, and recorded a chilling video. "Instead of committing suicide, I made a plan and kept a few children hostage," he said on camera. His demands? A conversation. He wanted to speak with former Maharashtra Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar. Here's the thing. Arya wasn't asking for money. He claimed the government owed his firm Rs 2 crore for work done under the Swachhta Monitor Project, part of the state's "My School, Beautiful School" campaign.

339 runs to win. Defending champions Australia. A knockout match. And the ghosts of past chokes hanging heavy over Indian cricket. Thursday night in Navi Mumbai, something changed. Jemimah Rodrigues walked in at 59 for 2. The 25-year-old hadn't even been a guaranteed starter at the tournament's beginning. Four months of struggle, of being dropped, of wondering if she belonged. All of it came down to this moment. What followed was the knock of her life. 127 not out off 134 balls. But here's the thing about this innings. It wasn't just about the runs. It was about the courage to keep going when Australia's Alyssa Healy dropped her on 82. Then again on 106. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur stood alongside her, scoring 89 off 88. Together they added 167 runs for the third wicket. India's highest partnership against Australia in World Cup history. When Harmanpreet fell with 113 still needed, Rodrigues didn't flinch.

China just threw India a lifeline on rare earth magnets. And the timing tells you everything. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed Thursday that several Indian companies have received licenses to import rare earth magnets from China. No numbers yet, but this is significant. Let's break it down. Rare earth minerals are the backbone of electric vehicle manufacturing and battery production. China controls 70 percent of global rare earth mining. When Beijing restricted exports recently, Indian EV makers felt the squeeze immediately

Kerala is making a bold claim. The state says it's about to become the first in India to eradicate extreme poverty. MLA M. B. Rajesh laid out the numbers. When the Pinarayi Vijayan government returned to power in 2021, their first cabinet decision was launching a poverty eradication scheme. They trained 4 lakh people through the Kerala Institute of Local Administration to identify the poorest families. Then they built micro-plans for each of the 64,006 families identified. Four years later, Rajesh says all of them have been lifted out of extreme poverty. "After China, Kerala is becoming second place in the world to eradicate extreme poverty," he told ANI. But Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar isn't buying it

India just bought itself some time on Chabahar port. The US has granted a six-month exemption from sanctions on the Iranian port project. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed the news Thursday. This matters because Chabahar is India's strategic gateway to Afghanistan and Central Asia without going through Pakistan. Here's what happened. US sanctions on the port kicked in September 29 as part of Trump's pressure campaign on Iran's nuclear program.