Archives for April 2022

NEW DELHI: The crackdown continued on online video sharing and social media platforms, which were spreading false news, with the minister of information and broadcasting (I&B) blocking 16 YouTube news channels and one Facebook page.

According to the ministry, 10 channels were based in India and six were being operated from Pakistan. Their cumulative viewership is 68 crore.

The action against social media accounts and Youtube channels, running fake news and spreading coordinated disinformation, began in December. Since then, the Government has blocked more than 90 channels and social media networking accounts.

“Utilizing the emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021, the ministry of I&B, 2021, vide two separate orders on April 22, issued directions for blocking of 16 YouTube news channels and one Facebook account,” confirmed the ministry on Monday.

None of the blocked digital news publishers had furnished information to the ministry as required under IT rules.

The content published by Indian YouTube channels referred to a community as terrorists, and incited hatred among the members of various religious communities. Such content was found to have the potential to create communal disharmony and disturb public order.

“Multiple India based YouTube channels were observed to publish unverified news and videos having the potential to create panic among various sections of the society. Examples include false claims related to announcement of a pan-India lockdown due to COVID-19 thereby threatening the migrant workers, and fabricated claims alleging threats to certain religious communities. Such content was observed to be detrimental to public order in the country,” read a statement issued by the ministry.

On Saturday, the ministry had advised private television news channels not to run false claims and use scandalous headlines.

The blocked channels ran fake news such as Germany demanding sanctions on India, Saudi Arabia announcing stopping oil export to India, Turkey destroying India’s S400 defence system, and Russia hanging 40 Indian soldiers in Ukraine.

The channels which have been blocked are Saini Education Research, Hindi Mein Dekho, Technical Yogendra, Aaj te news, Defence News24x7, The study time, Latest Update, MRF TV LIVE, and Tahaffuz-E-Deen India. All these were based in India. The blocked Pakistani channels are AjTak Pakistan, Discover Point, Reality Checks, Kaiser Khan, The Voice of Asia, and Bol Media Bol. The banned facebook is Tahaffuz E Deen Media Services INDIA.

Earlier this month, the ministry blocked 22 such channels and social media handles. In January, the minister issued directions to block 35 YouTube news channels and two websites. In December, it took action against 20 YouTube Channels and two websites, operating from Pakistan under the same provisions for the first time.

MUMBAI: A sessions court here on Tuesday asked the Mumbai police to file on April 29 their reply to a bail application of jailed independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband, MLA Ravi Rana.

The couple had on Monday moved the court seeking bail in an FIR registered by the Mumbai police against them on charges of sedition and promoting enmity, after they gave a call to recite Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence ‘Matoshree’ in suburban Bandra.

When the matter came up for hearing in the court on Tuesday, the police said they want to respond with an affidavit to the bail plea. The court accepted this and posted the matter for further hearing on April 29.

The Ranas were arrested by the Mumbai police on Saturday.

Ranas’ advocate Rizwan Merchant on Monday said the couple decided to withdraw their bail plea pending before the Bandra magistrate court that had remanded them to 14-day judicial custody on Sunday.

Merchant had said the suburban Khar police initially booked the Ranas under Indian Penal Code Section 153(A), for allegedly promoting enmity between different groups.

At the time of their remand, the police informed the magistrate court that they had added the charge of sedition, under IPC Section 124A, against the couple in the first FIR.

Their bail plea said the call to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside ‘Matoshree’ was not a calculated move to promote feelings of enmity or hatred and the charge under section 153(A) cannot be sustained.

There was no intention on part of the applicants to instigate or create hatred by offering Hanuman Chalisa near ‘Matoshree’, the couple said in their plea.

It is submitted that by no stretch of imagination can the acts of the applicants be stated to constitute the offence of sedition, the plea said.

Further, the Mumbai police had issued notice under section 149 of the CrPC and the applicant (Navneet Rana) had complied with the police’s direction and not stepped out of her residence, it added.

Navneet Rana, the Lok Sabha MP from Amravati in eastern Maharashtra, and Ravi Rana, the MLA from Badnera in Amravati, had eventually dropped their plan to recite the Hanuman Chalisa (hymns dedicated to Lord Hanuman) on Saturday outside Thackeray’s home, citing the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Mumbai for an event on Sunday.

BENGALURU: A gang of 10 Kerala-based dacoits, who were targeting jewellers on highways, have been arrested by the Bengaluru rural district police based on a complaint by a 60-year-old accountant of a Kerala based jeweller near Nadgir College at Madavara on the Bengaluru- Tumakuru Highway. The gang would hire SUVs from Kerala and commit dacoities across the state by changing the vehicles’ registration number plates. They had escaped with Rs 1 crore in cash along with other valuables from the victims.

The police checked footage of over 250 CCTVs on the highways, toll plazas. “We found that the gang had abandoned the complainant’s car on the Bengaluru-Hassan Road. They then travelled via Nagamangala, Mysuru and Chamarajanagar. They have changed the SUV registration number from Karnataka RTO to Kerala RTO at Chamarajanagar toll plaza. The team then went to Coimbatore, Palakkad, Ernakulam and other places in Kerala to collect more information of the gang,” said an officer.

The main accused Sridhar alias Kodali Sridhar from Kerala, who is on the run, has escaped with Rs 90 lakh in cash. On March 11 between 6.10 am and 6.15 am, the accused had robbed J Franklin, the accountant, a resident of Konam village at Kanyakumari while he was returning with his other colleagues after collecting cash from the jewellery buyers at Hubballi. Franklin had filed a complaint with the Madanayakanahalli police. Two SUVs and Rs 9.7 lakh in cash and other valuables have been recovered from the accused.

BENGALURU: The Karnataka government wants to make Bengaluru the “Number 1 Silicon City in the world”, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Monday. He pledged to provide better infrastructure and focus on decongestion of traffic, during the curtain raiser for Bengaluru Tech Summit 2022. The State government is due to organise the 25th Bengaluru Tech Summit — BTS 2022 — from November 16 to 18.

“When it comes to Silicon Cities, there are only two in the world — California in US and Bengaluru in India. We want to make Bengaluru Number 1 Silicon City,’’ he said. He said the government will create more novel clusters in research and attract youngsters in the field of IT-BT and other sectors. He assured the firms that they could work together to make Bengaluru the best Silicon City.

Bommai told reporters that with the Bengaluru Tech Summit approaching its silver jubilee year, the government has decided to raise the flagship tech event to the international level. On his interaction with entrepreneurs and representatives of the IT-BT sector, he said,“These representatives have given suggestions on policies, industrial growth, creating ideal ecosystem, technological aspects and even infrastructure. We have also responded positively. BTS 2022 will give a new dimension to the technology sector.”  

Many company CEOs and representatives had stressed on skilled human resources and the State government will work towards it, Bommai said. There is a need for skilled human resources, and to encourage IT-BT, research and startup sectors, the State government is committed to develop basic amenities in Bengaluru, for which the draft plan is ready.

A sum of Rs 8,000 crore has been kept aside for development of basic amenities, which was announced in the budget. After the monsoon, all roads will be developed, and Metro Phase 3, Bengaluru Suburban Rail, Peripheral Ring Road, Satellite Town Ring Road will also be taken up. The government is also setting up facilities under Beyond Bengaluru at Mysuru, Hubballi and other Tier-II cities.

Target $1.5 trillion
IT-BT Minister Dr Ashwath Narayan said they started preparations seven months ahead of BTS 2022, organising events in the US, UK, Japan and other countries to woo them. Karnataka has set a target of contributing $1.5 trillion to make India a $5 trillion economy. Karnataka has drawn the biggest share of 40 per cent of Foreign Direct Investment India drew in the last financial year, amounting to $17.3 billion, he said. Karnataka is at the top spot in exports too, he added.

FUTURISTIC TECH TO TAKE CENTRE STAGE

The next futuristic technologies such as Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Web3.0 and Metaverse, apart from IT, and Deeptech will be major highlights at the 25th edition of Bengaluru Tech Summit 2022 (BTS 2022) that will be held physically from November 16-18 at the Bengaluru Palace. Over 300 speakers from 25 countries, 400 exhibitors and more than 300 startups are expected to participate in the event.  CM Bommai held a meeting with over 100 CEOs and leaders from Electronics, IT, Biotech and startups on Monday, and invited them to be a part of the BTS.  The CEOs shared their ideas to create innovation clusters. They also said that BTS should focus on cutting-edge research and should attract a high-end research pool, better access to risk capital, facilitating global linkages and attracting more GCCs (Gulf Cooperation Council). IT&BT Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan said PM  Narendra Modi will
 be invited to inaugurate the summit. 

JAIPUR:  The Rajasthan High Court has issued notices to 18 Congress MLAs, including Sachin Pilot, on a two-year-old petition challenging the notice issued by Assembly Speaker under the anti-defection law during their rebellion against the Ashok Gehlot government. The court has sought their response by May 25. 

In July 2020, while holding the posts of party president and deputy CM, Pilot, along with 18 Congress MLAs, had rebelled against the government. During the rebellion, Speaker CP Joshi issued notices to the rebel MLAs under the anti-defection law. PR Meena, on behalf of the Pilot camp, had challenged this notice in the high court. Later in August 2020, the Pilot camp and CM Gehlot’s camp reconciled. 

Despite reconciliation, the petition in connection with the notice has been remaining pending in the high court. Among the MLAs who have been issued notices, five are ministers.  They include ministers Vishvendra Singh, Hemaram Chaudhary, Ramesh Meena, Brijendra Ola, and Murarilal Meena.  

During the hearing on Monday, it was argued that all the rebel MLAs have returned to the Congress party and many of them have also become ministers in the Gehlot cabinet. So, there is no point in pursuing the case. Upon this,  the high court has asked the legislators to file their response.

AHMEDABAD:  With the poll fever in Gujarat rising every day, the season of switching loyalties is also peaking. Political leaders are busy exploring options and looking for greener pastures keeping the electoral prospects of various parties in mind. The latest to jump the ship are Manilal Vaghela and Kailash Gadhvi, both from the Congress, who have decamped to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), respectively.

Vaghela, a former Congress MLA whom the party had denied ticket in the 2017 Assembly elections in favour of Independent candidate Jignesh Mevani, joined the BJP on Sunday along with several of his supporters. State BJP president CR Patil welcomed him to the party fold at the ‘Vijay Vishwas Sammelan’ in Vadgam town of Banaskantha district.

Vaghela, who was among the senior-most Congress leaders in the state and was associated with the party right from the beginning of his political career, had resigned from the party in November last year. With Mevani, Vadgam’s current MLA, arrested in Assam and Vaghela now in the BJP, it will interesting to see the how the poll battle will be poised in the constituency that has been a Congress bastion.

Since being thrown out of Vadgam, the veteran had nursed a grievance and said as much in his letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. He had pointed out  that injustice was done to him despite his loyalty to the party during Ahmed Patel’s Rajya Sabha election in 2017, when around 15 party MLAs resigned. 

Vaghela had earlier this month met PM Narendra Modi in Delhi. According to BJP sources, his induction is part of the party’s strategy to increase its presence on seats which are considered Congress strongholds. The party is eying the seats where it has traditionally been weak so as to offset any losses it may face in seats it had won last time.

Gadhvi, the longstanding spokesperson of Congress, also left the party on Sunday. “I do not think that the party (Congress) has the energy or the will to fight and conquer the ruling BJP. AAP has the power to fight evil and raise people’s issues and resolve them,” he said.

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, informed on Tuesday that the country’s cumulative vaccination coverage has exceeded 187.95 crores (1,87,95,76,423) through 2,30,89,167 sessions, as per the provisional reports till 7 AM.

According to the ministry, the COVID-19 vaccination for the age group of 12-14 years started on 16 March 2022 and 2,70,96,975 (first dose) and 37,27,130 (second dose) have been administered to them.

The people of the age group 15-18 years have been provided with 5,82,03,865 first dose and 4,15,67,113 second dose of the Coronavirus vaccine, said the ministry.

Of this cumulative vaccine coverage, 2,69,76,618 precaution doses have been administered to the ones eligible. As many as 47,15,948 precaution doses have been given to the health care workers (HCWs) and 74,02,619 jabs of it were given to the front line workers (FLWs).

1,02,702 precaution doses have been given to the people belonging to the age group 18-44 years, and 3,65,509, and 1,43,89,840 were given to the ones belonging to the age group 45-59 years and over 60 years, respectively.

However, the HCWs were given with the 1,04,04,823 (First Dose) and 1,00,13,086 (Second Dose) against Covid-19, whereas 1,84,15,129 (First Dose) and 1,75,33,583 (Second Dose) were given to the FLWs.

The people in the age group were administered with 55,55,33,820 (First Dose) and 47,60,68,522 (Second Dose) against Covid-19, whereas 20,28,90,196 (First Dose) and 18,74,97,026 (Second Dose) were given to the ones in the age group 45-59 years.

The senior citizens (with the age of more than 60 years) have been given 12,68,43,833 (First Dose) and 11,68,04,704 (Second Dose) vaccines against the Coronavirus.

With India’s current active caseload at 15,636, the active cases now constitute 0.04 per cent of the total positive cases in the country.

“Consequently, India’s recovery rate stands at 98.75 per cent. 1,970 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours and the cumulative tally of recovered patients (since the beginning of the pandemic) is now at 4,25,23,311,” it said.

With 2,483 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the country saw a total of 4,49,197 COVID-19 tests being conducted. India has so far conducted over 83.54 Crore (83,54,69,014) cumulative tests.

The weekly positivity rate in the country currently stands at 0.58 per cent and the Daily Positivity rate is also reported to be 0.55 per cent. (ANI)

NEWYORK: Twitter’s India-born CEO Parag Agrawal has told worried employees that he doesn’t know “what direction this company will go in” once the whopping USD 44 billion deal, which will take the social media giant private, closes with new owner billionaire Elon Musk.

“It’s important to acknowledge that all of you have many different feelings about what is happening,” The New York Times newspaper quoted Agrawal as saying.

The American daily, which listened to the meeting, said that Agrawal told employees that he estimated the deal might take three to six months to complete.

“In this moment, we operate Twitter as we always have,” he said, adding that “how we run the company, the decisions we make, and the positive changes we drive, that will be on us, and under our control.” Uncertainty now hangs over the fate of Twitter employees, who voiced concern over layoffs in the wake of the acquisition by Musk. The NYT report added that it is unclear how hands-on Musk plans to be at Twitter.

ALSO READ: What’s next now that Twitter agreed to Elon Musk bid?

“Among the unanswered issues are whom he might pick to lead the company and how involved he would be in running the service,” it said, adding that Agrawal is “expected to remain in charge at least until the deal closes.” The NYT report added that in the employee meeting, Agrawal acknowledged the uncertainty ahead.

“Once the deal closes, we don’t know what direction this company will go in,” 37-year-old Agarwal said. Upon completion of the transaction, Twitter will become a privately held company.

The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Twitter Board of Directors, is expected to close in 2022, subject to the approval of Twitter stockholders, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

On Monday, as Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor announced that Tesla and SpaceX founder Musk will acquire the company, Agrawal tweeted, “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”

The NYT report said that in the meeting with Twitter employees, Agrawal and Taylor “nodded to the emotions of the day and how workers were most likely processing the news of a sale.” Agrawal said compensation would remain largely the same under Musk but “he did not make the same assurances about Twitter’s policies and culture,” the NYT report said.

Agrawal told employees that their stock options would convert to cash when the deal closes. Employees would receive their same benefits packages for a year after the deal was finalised, the NYT report said.

In response to a question about whether former President Donald Trump, who was permanently suspended from the social networking site in January 2021, would be allowed back on the platform, Agrawal said “We constantly evolve our policies.” Following the acquisition, Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, said, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”

“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential, I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,” the 50-year-old Tesla CEO said.

The social media site’s co-founder Jack Dorsey, who had stepped down in November last year, had declared that his “trust” in Agrawal “as our CEO is bone deep” when he had named the India-born executive as Twitter’s new CEO on November 29, 2021.

Dorsey had said that after almost 16 years at the company he had decided it was finally time for him to leave and the first reason he had given for why it was the “right time” for his departure was “Parag becoming our CEO.”

“The board ran a rigorous process considering all options and unanimously appointed Parag. He’s been my choice for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs. Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around. He’s curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware, and humble. He leads with heart and soul, and is someone I learn from daily. My trust in him as our CEO is bone deep,” Dorsey had said.

Agrawal had said in a note posted on Twitter that he was “honoured and humbled” by his appointment and expressed gratitude to Dorsey’s “continued mentorship and your friendship.” An IIT Bombay and Stanford alumnus, Agrawal had joined Twitter 10 years ago when there were fewer than 1,000 employees.

“While it was a decade ago, those days feel like yesterday to me. I’ve walked in your shoes, I’ve seen the ups and downs, the challenges and obstacles, the wins and the mistakes. But then and now, above all else, I see Twitter’s incredible impact, our continued progress, and the exciting opportunities ahead of us,” he had said in the post following his appointment.

“Our purpose has never been more important. Our people and our culture are unlike anything in the world. There is no limit to what we can do together,” he had said.

“We recently updated our strategy to hit ambitious goals, and I believe that strategy to be bold and right. But our critical challenge is how we work to execute against it and deliver results – that’s how we’ll make Twitter the best it can be for our customers, shareholders, and for each of you.” “The world is watching us right now, even more than they have before. Lots of people are going to have lots of different views and opinions about today’s news.

It is because they care about Twitter and our future, and it’s a signal that the work we do here matters,” Agrawal had said.