The Latest: Top stories of the Day
1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Paris said that India will do its bit to combat climate change, a problem that it did not create.
2. India has overtaken China as the world's fastest growing economy, with 7.4% growth in the last quarter.
3. Marathi newspaper Lokmat's offices were attacked in multiple locations in Maharashtra because of an image that some Muslim groups considered blasphemous.

The Big Story: Handshake Diplomacy
The climate change puns were obvious and yet, nevertheless, happily embraced by newspaper editors writing about a brief meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Paris. The Times of India went even further, managing to call the meeting an "intense 160-second huddle". The best coverage of the little moment happened to come from an unexpected place.

While the little meeting in Paris might not have actually been all that productive, no matter how intense those 160 seconds might have been, there have been signs that New Delhi and Islamabad could find some common ground after talks have gone off the rails over the last year.

Just this week Sharif, after meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron, reportedly said that Pakistan would be prepared for unconditional talks. The cricket boards of the two countries are once again discussing how they can assist with the process. And Pakistan tends to follow India's lead at major climate change negotiations, giving the two countries one more reason to find common ground.

The real import of the handshake meeting however comes in the image it sends to the international community of the two countries willing to work with each other. Both the United Kingdom and the United States reportedly brought up subcontinental tensions in recent conversations with leaders from both Indian and Pakistan. Making it evident that the leaders are willing to work together sends the message that the subcontinent may be tense, but it's still open for business especially from the West.

The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
Shoaib Daniyal points out that even Google Maps knows how dysfunctional the India-Pakistan relationship is. As talks of another cricket series continue, Nadeem Paracha looks back to the historic 1978 series between the two nations, which came after a 17-year break. And Haroon Khalid writes of ruins of gurudwaras which blur the lines between India and Pakistan.

Politicking & Policying
1. Parliament Watch: The intolerance debate in the Rajya Sabha began with allegations that Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said Narendra Modi was India's first Hindu ruler in 800 years, a quote that turned out to be misattributed.
2. Parliament Watch: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati declared her support for the Goods and Services Tax while attacking the government for intolerance and not uplifting Dalits on the floor of the Rajya Sabha.
3. Five people were harassed into leaving a movie hall in Mumbai for failing to stand up during the national anthem.
4.  The Supreme Court has rejected a petition seeking to investigate the citizenship of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, after allegations that he holds a British passport.

Punditry
1. Modi is returning India to the Nehruvian conception of international leadership, writes  C Raja Mohan in the Indian Express.
2. Anjuli Bhargava in the Business Standard writes that the government's aviation policy has some interesting suggestions but lacks long-term vision.
3. We all want our civil servants to be competent and incorruptible, yet we're not comfortable with increasing their pay, writes Nitin Pai in the Hindu.

Don't Miss
M Rajshekhar explains how climate change sparked political and social unrest in Punjab this year.
During the heyday of the green revolution in the 1970s and '80s, Punjab had a large bureaucracy that transmitted agricultural knowhow to farmers – chief agricultural officers and gram sewaks in each district, doing what was called agricultural extension. There were also kisan melas at the block and district levels that disseminated knowhow about agriculture and technology – information on new crops, seeds, fertilisers, implements and pesticides – to farmers through camps and lectures.

The system does not work any more.