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Twitter's new boss Elon Musk has drafted Chennai-born Indian-American engineer Sriram Krishnan to a core team to effect changes to the social media platform amid disquiet in many quarters about the fallout from the world's richest man's free speech absolutism.

Sriram Krishnan, a former Twitter employee who began his career with Microsoft and is currently a partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (also known by its acronym a16z) confirmed the development himself, tweeting, "Now that the word is out: I’m helping out @elonmusk with Twitter temporarily with some other great people."

"I ( and a16z) believe this is a hugely important company and can have great impact on the world and Elon is the person to make it happen," he added, clarifying, amid speculation that he is in line to be the next CEO, that he is "still very much in my day job at @a16zcrypto. If you’re a crypto founder, you know how to find me!"

Russia has launched a wave of cruise missiles at hydroelectric dams and other critical infrastructure across Ukraine on Monday morning, with explosions reported near the capital Kyiv and in at least 10 other cities and regions. Ukraine’s air command said it shot down 44 out of 50 enemy rockets. Video footage suggested that several missiles were intercepted in the skies around Kyiv, soon after 8am local time. Air raid sirens went off nationally, with citizens told to seek shelter.

The governor of Kyiv, Oleksiy Kuleba, said “massive shelling in the region” had damaged electricity and energy infrastructure. He said residents should expert emergency power cuts. He added: “There is currently one victim. We are clarifying the information.”

The reported rise of the XBB subvariant is yet to reflect in Covid numbers in the country as the tally of fresh cases continued to dip in the Diwali week, with the total likely to fall below 10,000 for the first time in more than six months.

India is expected to report around 9,500 new cases in the week ending Sunday, a drop of nearly 30% from the previous week’s count of 13,500. This is also the lowest weekly case count since April 11-17, when just over 8,000 fresh cases were recorded. Like in the previous week, deaths from the virus are likely to remain under 50. The seven-day test positivity rate — the proportion of samples testing positive for the virus —also remains below 1%.

The Delhi Fire Services on Sunday said it has begun sprinkling water at 13 hotspots to combat rising air pollution in the city. The move comes after Delhi's air quality was recorded in the 'very poor' category on Sunday and even deteriorating to the 'severe' category in some areas. Forecasters said slow wind speed and an increase in stubble burning, especially in Punjab, may make it worse.

Officials said a fire tender with a four-member crew has been deployed at each spot to sprinkle water to curb pollution.

Due to high pollution levels, Delhi Fire Service has been asked to sprinkle water in the capital preferably at or around hotspot area. As ordered, 13 fire tenders have been deputed so far," Atul Garg, Director, DFS.

The government is likely to announce sugar export quota for the new sugar season 2022-23 (October-September) in tranches for ensuring domestic availability and to curb any possibility of increase in prices during the year.

Sources told media that learning from the experience of wheat exports where the government had abruptly put a ban on shipment of grain in May after committing for 10 million tonne (mt) of shipment in the current fiscal, the government was looking to ensure sufficient domestic sugar inventories prior to announcing exports quota at one go.