Rare Photo Captures Earth And 7 Planets For The First Time Ever

In a groundbreaking feat, photographer Josh Dury, 27, also known as the "Starman", is believed to have captured the first-ever image of all seven planets, plus Earth, in a single frame. This rare opportunity arose due to a rare celestial event known as the "great planetary parade", which occurs when all eight planets align – a phenomenon that hasn't happened since 1982. Mr Dury, an award-winning astronomical photographer, snapped the panoramic photo from Somerset's Mendip Hills on February 22, potentially making history with this extraordinary image.

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How did he capture it?

To capture the elusive trio of Mercury, Saturn, and Neptune, Mr Dury employed a meticulous technique. He created a panoramic image by stitching together multiple "panes". For the specific pane featuring these three planets, he used a dual-exposure approach: one base exposure and another with increased exposure and ISO to coax out the faint light from the dimmer planets.

To verify their positions, he cross-referenced the image with plain sphere maps. Dury's equipment of choice for this remarkable shot included a Sony A7S II camera paired with a Sigma 15mm Diagonal Fisheye lens.

Mr Dury told The Telegraph: "I managed to capture a panorama image of the seven planets, AKA - the planetary parade. It is made of nine images, revealing Saturn, Mercury and Neptune. They were very tricky to spot. I used multiple image analysis and astronomy apps to confirm their location As this was taken with a wide-angle lens, the nine images stitched to a panorama and a HDR blend of one of the frames to reveal Saturn, Neptune and Mercury. These three planets are not easy to see at all."

"Being close to the sun and in the attempt to photograph them as soon as they were readily visible, the relative positions of these three planets are slightly misaligned due to their approximate visibility from the imaging location and low western cloud," Mr Dury explained.

All About the Planetary Parade

Notably, the celestial spectacle known as the "planetary parade" is nearing its climax.

Astronomers define planetary alignment as the phenomenon where multiple planets converge on one side of the Sun simultaneously. This alignment can involve anywhere from three to eight planets. While smaller alignments are relatively common, larger ones are more rare. Specifically, five-planet alignments are more frequent than six-planet alignments, but the rarest and most extraordinary occurrence is when all seven planets align, making it a truly exceptional celestial event.

On February 28, a rare and fleeting moment will occur when all planets in our solar system will be visible in the night sky. Following the alignment of Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune between January 21-29, this event will mark the last time until 2040 that all seven planets, including Mercury, will converge to create a breathtaking night sky display.

Planetary Parade: Visibility in India 

The planetary alignment will be visible across India. Most cities will be able to witness this rare event. Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus will be visible to the naked eye. However, you will need a telescope to see Mercury, Saturn and Neptune, as they will be faint. 

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Redmi Book Pro 16, Redmi Book Pro 14 (2025) With Up to Intel Core Ultra 7 255H Processor Launched

Redmi Book Pro 16 (2025) and Redmi Book Pro 14 (2025) laptops have been launched in China. The new laptops with Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors and Intel Arc graphics were unveiled alongside the Xiaomi 15 Ultra smartphone. The Redmi Book Pro 16 comes with a 3.1K resolution screen, while the Redmi Book Pro 14 boasts a 2.8K display.

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Opinion: The Rise Of The Far Right In Germany Is No Ordinary Shift

The 2025 German federal election has brought a shift in Europe's political landscape. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) emerged as the strongest party with 28.5% of the vote, while the Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to 20.8%, nearly doubling its vote share. This result underscores deepening regional, generational, and ideological divisions—west Germany largely stayed with the CDU, while the east overwhelmingly backed AfD. As the political establishment scrambles to form a governing coalition, questions arise over Germany's future direction, especially in security, economic policy, and its place in the European Union.

Beyond domestic concerns, the election comes at a critical geopolitical moment, with Germany's foreign policy, relations with the U.S., and its role in the Ukraine war under scrutiny. The war has strained Germany's economy and security posture, while debates over NATO's future and European defense autonomy signal unease in Berlin's policy circles. CDU leader Friedrich Merz, the likely next chancellor, will shape Germany's stance on Ukraine aid, European security, and transatlantic ties. These issues will dominate coalition negotiations and Germany's policy realignment in the coming months.

A Grand Coalition Is Likely

The election results reflect a growing generational realignment in German politics. CDU retained strong support among older voters, especially those above 60, where it secured over 40% of the vote. However, among the youth, CDU lost ground to AfD, which gained remarkable traction among voters aged 18-34. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) suffered a significant decline, as younger left-wing voters shifted to Die Linke and the newly formed Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). The Free Democratic Party (FDP) collapsed below the electoral threshold, indicating the waning appeal of economic centrism among young voters.

With mainstream parties ruling out cooperation with AfD, a CDU-SPD ‘grand coalition' is the most viable option. Friedrich Merz (69) has set Easter as the deadline to finalise a coalition agreement, emphasising economic stability, European integration, and security concerns. The new Bundestag begins its term on March 25. Merz aims to collaborate with the SPD and Greens on debt brakes, signaling his eagerness for a fresh start. Securing an agreement would be a major win for him. Despite its poor showing, SPD is likely to accept a junior role in government, though the Scholz faction may take a backseat due to electoral pragmatism.

This coalition faces two, rather three, major challenges: economic recovery, defense and Ukraine. Germany's economic slowdown, exacerbated by inflation, energy dependency, and global supply chain disruptions, demands urgent action. With CDU's pro-business stance, the new government is likely to push for corporate tax reforms, deregulation, and incentives for skilled labour migration—an essential step as Germany faces severe labor shortages.

Merz seeks to prioritise achieving greater independence in foreign policy and defense matters, seeking a step-by-step reduction of reliance on the US while advancing European security autonomy. This shift will be closely watched by NATO allies and EU partners, as it reflects Germany's attempt to balance transatlantic commitments with a more self-reliant European defense strategy. Friedrich Merz has also pledged continued support for Ukraine, as against President Trump, reinforcing Germany's role in European security.

US-Russia Manoeuvring

These debates occur against the backdrop of recent geopolitical manoeuvers—most notably the Riyadh meeting between the Trump administration and Putin's representatives, which has alarmed European allies over a potential US-Russia understanding that bypasses Ukraine. In response, European leaders convened in Paris to discuss forming a European peacekeeping force, seeking greater autonomy in regional security matters.

With another European summit planned for early March, further steps toward a coordinated EU security strategy on Ukraine will be debated. Meanwhile, at the Munich Security Conference, US Vice President JD Vance signalled a more restrained American role in European security, reinforcing the need for Germany and the EU to reassess their defense commitments amid shifting transatlantic priorities.

A Warning to the Establishment

AfD's historic gains in eastern Germany highlight widespread frustration with economic stagnation, migration policies, and political elites. The party's success among undecided voters indicates that many Germans feel disconnected from mainstream politics. AfD's new role as the largest opposition party means it will push hardline anti-immigration measures and challenge EU directives.

For CDU and SPD, AfD's rise presents a political dilemma. Ignoring the economic anxiety, cultural tensions, and security fears fuelling its rise will only push more voters toward them. But directly engaging with AfD's rhetoric risks legitimising its positions and shifting German politics further to the right. The coalition government must tackle public concerns head-on without normalising populism.

Impact On India

The German election results come at a critical juncture for India-Germany and India-Europe relations. With top EU officials visiting New Delhi on February 27-28, discussions will focus on skilled labour migration, trade agreements, and strategic cooperation. Germany, facing a workforce shortage, is expected to push for relaxed migration policies, making India a key partner in supplying skilled labour, particularly in IT, engineering, and healthcare.

From a strategic standpoint, India will closely monitor Germany's evolving stance on China, defence, and transatlantic relations. While Merz has reaffirmed support for Ukraine, his push for European defense autonomy signals a potential shift in Berlin's foreign policy priorities.

Notably, Merz has expressed a favourable outlook toward strengthening relations with India. In 2024, meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar in Berlin, Merz and CDU's foreign policy team reaffirmed their commitment to deeper India-Germany and India-EU relations. This engagement suggests increased collaboration in technology, defense, and economic development, further solidifying Germany's role as India's key European partner.

A New Era For Germany

The 2025 German federal election has reshaped the country's political landscape, solidifying CDU's dominance while catapulting AfD to unprecedented levels of support. Meghan O'Sullivan, director of Harvard's Belfer Center and former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Bush, described the election as “a step in the direction to the right”, underscoring the broader transformation in German politics. 

AfD's rise is a wake-up call for mainstream parties—German voters are shifting, and establishment politics must evolve. As Germany navigates both domestic unrest and shifting transatlantic ties, its decisions will ripple across trade, migration, and security. The path ahead is uncertain, but one thing is clear—German politics and its role in Europe are undergoing a seismic shift.

(Abhishek Chaudhari is currently on an academic break to pursue a mid-career degree at Harvard Kennedy School. Aniket Bhavthankar recipient of Konrad Adenauer Stitung's doctoral fellowship.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

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Google Pixel 9a to Be Available at the Same Price Point as Its Predecessor: Report

Google's Pixel 9a is anticipated to hit stores next month. While Google is yet to announce a launch date for the new Pixel A series phone, several leaks have surfaced recently and showcased the hardware, design and US pricing of the Pixel 8a successor. A new leak now suggests that the Pixel 9a will be available at similar pricing as its predecessor.

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Man Wants To Split Lottery Prize With Thieves Who Stole Card To Buy Tickets

A French man's credit card was stolen from his car and used to buy a lottery ticket, among other things. He then won the lottery, hitting a jackpot of Euro 500,000, approximately Rs 4.57 crore.

The man, Jean-David Estele, has now proposed to share the reward with the thieves, CNN reported.

Mr Estele's lawyer Pierre Debuisson said the thieves broke into his client's car in Toulouse on February 3. They used the card for payment at a bar the same day, and one of the other purchases was a lottery ticket, which later proved to be the winning one, Mr Debuisson added.

Mr Estele wants to split the jackpot with the two thieves, the lawyer said, adding his client believed the criminals were homeless and had since fled.

Mr Debuisson added that without Mr Estele's credit card, it would not have been possible to purchase the ticket, but "without the thieves' behaviour, the ticket wouldn't have been bought either."

Mr Estele doesn't plan to file charges and has urged the thieves to come forward.

"We don't know much about the thieves beyond the fact that they are homeless," Mr Debuisson said, adding the search was "proving difficult."

Police are yet to identify the pair despite finding fingerprints at the scene.

Mr Estele and his spouse intend to build a new house with their share of the money. Police declined to comment on the matter, and French lottery organiser Francaise des Jeux (FDJ) said that no claim for the reward had yet been made.

In another similar story, a North Carolina man won a mammoth $110,000 (Rs 95,91,136) lottery after he claimed to have had a dream that he would win. Robert Hoban bought a $1 lottery ticket and went to bed with the drawing on his mind, he said. The next day, he woke up to find his dream had come true - he had won the exact amount he had seen in his dream.

"It's strange because I even dreamed of the exact amount that I won. It was very crazy, but it's true," he said.

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Ramiz Raja Hints At 'Conspiracy' Behind Pakistan's Early CT 2025 Exit

Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja questioned why Pakistan began its campaign against New Zealand in the Champions Trophy, rather than Bangladesh after India humbled Pakistan in a high-voltage clash in Dubai. Following Pakistan's heavy defeat against India, which jeopardised their title defence, Ramiz questioned the team's strategy. "I wonder why Pakistan played their first match against New Zealand. They should have played their first match against Bangladesh. Even though Bangladesh is a strong side, it was still comparatively an easy match for them," Ramiz said on his YouTube channel.

Ramiz believes that playing Bangladesh first would have put equal pressure on each team in Group A, rather than allowing New Zealand to gain an early advantage. Pakistan's defeat to New Zealand put pressure on the team, which was exacerbated by their loss to India.

After Pakistan surrendered to a thumping 60-run defeat against New Zealand, the significance of their high-octane clash against arch-rival India soared to new levels.

Victory was the only way for Pakistan to keep their fate in the Champions Trophy. However, the Men in Green had no answer to the formidable India side as they succumbed to a six-wicket defeat.

Schedule Conspiracy?

"They played against them in the opener and lost. The defeat created pressure on Pakistan. I don't understand why Pakistan didn't play their first match against Bangladesh or India. If that happened, the pressure would be equal," he added.

In the high-voltage clash, Virat Kohli was the mastermind behind Pakistan's title defence falling in jeopardy. Often regarded as the 'chase master', Virat proved to be a hurdle Pakistan couldn't overcome even after implementing their ploy.

He figured out the flawless route for chasing the 242-run target and executed it perfectly. While steering India towards the finishing line, he slammed his 51st ODI century and became the fastest to 14,000 ODI runs.

With a shot clean as a whistle, Virat found the boundary rope to celebrate his unbeaten ton and India's six-wicket victory with a handful of overs to spare.

"Virat's knock had everything. There was calmness and attack. He maintained the pace well. Overall, Virat Kohli was a complete package. He keeps on challenging himself. He played confidently against every bowler and didn't allow anyone to settle," Ramiz added.

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Opinion: Trump's European Snub: A U-Turn On Ukraine, Nixing NATO

As we mark three years of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, here's a look at Trump 2.0's Europe shakedown and his move to seek a rapprochement with Russia.

United States President Donald Trump's recent initiative on Ukraine did many things in one go—from widening the Atlantic to fording the oceanic divide with Russia. It also underlined the age-old aphorism: “one week is a long time in politics”, overlaying it against his own earlier “truthful hyperbole” of stopping the Russia-Ukraine conflict “in a day”.

His race against the clock began in earnest on Wednesday, February 12, with an hour-long call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a Western doghouse for his invasion of Ukraine. Six days later, on February 18, the action shifted to Riyadh, the Saudi Capital, where American and Russian Foreign Ministers held their first bilateral talks in three years. These lasted four hours and were mostly aimed at de-escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and a rapprochement between Moscow and Washington. While no immediate breakthroughs were announced, the two sides broadly agreed to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies, to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks; to explore closer relations and economic cooperation, as well as readmitting Russia to G7+1. Even a Trump-Putin Summit at a hitherto unspecified date was hinted at.

A Clear Message To Ukraine

An even bigger impact of these events in Week Four of Trump 2.0 was felt in Europe, particularly by Ukraine being conspicuously kept out of the loop – leading to its President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, indignantly declaring that Ukraine was not bound to honour any solution to the conflict reached without her participation. Moreover, the Trump administration also pressed Ukraine for a bilateral agreement providing the US companies preferential access to its natural resources, including rare earth elements to reimburse the American aid, put at $500 billion that sustained its conflict with Russia. The agreement terms were reportedly rejected by President Zelenskyy, insisting on American security guarantees for Ukraine. (For the record, the total aid allocations by all donor governments to Ukraine during the war as of Dec 2024 amount to €267 billion, or about €80 billion per year. In particular, the US and Europe each rendered almost equal amounts of around €63 billion in military support. Europe surpassed the US in financial and humanitarian aid allocations (€70 billion vs. €50 billion).

'A Modestly Successful Comedian'

These tense exchanges were further weaponised with President Trump calling President Zelenskyy “a modestly successful comedian” who is “a dictator with only a 4% approval rating”. He even blamed President Zelenskiy for starting the war. Zelenskyy, in turn, accused Trump of living under the Russian misinformation space. In a recent speech at the Munich Security Conference, US Vice President J.D. Vance declared that the Ukrainian demands to join NATO and return all its territories from Russia were “unrealistic”. Separately, President Trump ruled out sending US troops to Ukraine. One is entitled to wonder if the current Washington-Kiev pyrotechnics were noisier than the ones on the killing fields of Ukraine.

Although Donald Trump has never made a secret of his intention to seek a rapprochement with Russia, the speed, context and manner Trump 2.0 has undertaken this drive has shocked the European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Firstly, it was an article of faith for them that NATO, with the US underpinning, would collectively protect them from Russia. Many of them also believed that Ukraine was fighting their war and joined in with the Biden administration to support and sustain Kyiv militarily and in myriad other ways. They were horrified by the unilateralism and alacrity shown by Trump 2.0 to swing the pendulum to another extreme and fast-forward mending its fences with Russia, without even a nod and wink towards them.

The 'Threat From Within'

Secondly, Trump & Co. have hectored the European NATO members about “threat from within” for accepting large-scale immigration and indulging in ill-conceived liberalism. He also put them on notice that the US would not continue to do the heavy lifting for Western Europe's defence. They must stop “ripping off” the US and raise their defence outlays to 5% of the GDP from less than 2% at the moment. While such American moralising is not new, the Trump 2.0 unilateral actions and conditioned utterances have seared the European establishments. They also question the US airing the concessions on NATO and Ukraine even before the beginning of the formal negotiations with Russia. They point out that they are currently tackling economic headwinds amidst the rise of the extreme right. They have been rudely shaken by the prospects of deterring a resurgent Russia without the Pentagon's anchor. While the large five West European NATO members express their resolve to continue supporting Ukraine and pledged $20 billion in assistance, there is perceptible panic in the Russia-facing part of the 32-member alliance at the prospect of their ‘Finlandisation'. At a fundamental level, this chasm across the Atlantic shakes up the 75-year-old collective security architecture enshrined in NATO.

Russia has, perhaps deliberately, addled this witches' brew by declaring that it intends to make no concessions, territorially or otherwise. Moscow has also intensified its military campaign with the apparent aim of leveraging the rift in the NATO alliance, and shortages of Ukrainian manpower and defence equipment. In particular, they hope to liberate a part of the Kursk salient that Ukraine overran last autumn to prevent it from being used as a bargaining chip at the negotiation. Moscow has ruled out NATO troops in any form for peacekeeping in Ukraine.

Madman Negotiations?

Trump's bark is often worse than his bite, and his over-the-top opening overtures are part of a gaming ‘madman negotiating strategy' to awe the opponent into making concessions. However, Trump 1.0 is replete with disastrous stratagems, including a tariff war with China, engagements with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and an Afghanistan troop withdrawal agreement with the Taliban, all showing the naivety of his transactional approach to geopolitics.

As we mark three years of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it's easy to see its calamitous impact on the two combatant nations. While the estimates vary wildly, the cumulative combined losses of the two armed forces in the past three years are estimated at around 150,000. A similar number of civilian deaths or missing, mostly Ukrainians is speculated. They have suffered enormous economic losses: Ukraine's losses due to war damage have made it Europe's poorest GDP per capita country. Russia's much bigger economy has also suffered as it faced headwinds from over 21,000 Western sanctions in the wake of its aggression, distorting its longstanding global symbiosis and requiring its economic and commercial reorientation.

Forced To Take Sides

The war has had profound and multisector regional and global impacts ranging from lower growth, higher inflation, a spurt in weapon transfers, and disrupted supply chains, particularly of hydrocarbons, agro-commodities, precious stones and metals, etc. It has caused economic deglobalisation and political repolarisation the world over, with most countries resenting being corralled into taking sides.

As geostrategic chips begin falling, a possible solution may freeze the conflict without a long-term resolution of the contentious underlying complexities. Russia would most likely retain a fifth of Ukrainian territories, mostly Russian-speaking areas of the east already under its control. While Ukraine would not join NATO, it would be offered a consolation prize in the form of security guarantees through a UN Security Council resolution. An EU membership and a dollop of post-war reconstruction assistance may also be on the cards for a 'Finlandised' Ukraine. Cynically, it may suit most stakeholders to cast Zelenskyy as a “useful idiot” to be blamed for the bloody conflict and replaced. The process of Russia's reintegration with the West would resume, impetused more by the need to wean it away from West's baddies such as China, Iran and North Korea than for any genuine change of hearts.

Will The Conflict Really End?

Either way, the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the first war in Europe since 1945, may have a profound long-term impact. The bruised combatants may lick their wounds and continue their conflict through non-military means. Buffeted by Russian triumphalism and US isolationism, Europe may see realignments. At one extreme, a siege mentality may force Europe into combined militarisation with the UK, France and Turkey among the beneficiaries. Depending on external stimuli, a vertical division into pro-US and pro-Russia camps can also not be ruled out. Countries of the former Soviet Union with sizable Russian minorities may need to “manage” them better than Ukraine did.

The conflict's resolution offers many discerning lessons. Firstly, as the US volte face has shown, international alliances are often unreliable and duplicitous. Secondly, extensive usage of new weapon systems such as killer drones and hypersonic missiles, involvement of foreign troops and mercenaries, extensive psycho-war operations and targeting of civilian infrastructure have created several ‘new normals' for future conflicts. Thirdly, disastrous miscalculations galore from the quick end to Russia's “Limited Special Military Operation” to counterproductive Ukrainian “counteroffensive” are testaments to the continued unpredictability of a conflict even in the current era of near complete technical openness. Lastly, in case the US-Russia modus vivendi holds, Washington may offer carrots to Moscow on such regional issues as containment of China, Iran's nuclear programme, oil prices, the Middle East crisis and production of critical minerals.

What India Should Learn

As far as India is concerned, an early end to the Ukrainian conflict would be conducive to our interests. It would buttress our strategic autonomy by removing the sharpest pain point in our ties with Russia and the United States. It would lessen Russia's dependence on China. Lifting the Western economic sanctions would enable us to boost our economic interactions with Russia. While Russian oil may not be offered to us at a discount, global oil prices are likely to decline as supplies improve. However, for us, the most significant takeaway from the Russia-Ukraine episode is the disruption of the foreign supply chains and financial transaction mechanisms during the conflict. It should reinforce our campaign for 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' (self-reliant India) in these and other critical areas.

(The author is a retired Indian Ambassador who learnt the Arabic language in Damascus. He currently heads Eco-Diplomacy and Strategies, a Delhi-based consultancy.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

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Oppo Find X8 Mini is expected to join the Oppo Find X8 and Find X8 Pro, which were unveiled in China in October 2024. The Mini variant is tipped to be thinner and lighter than the other models alongside being smaller in size. Several leaks and reports have previously hinted at the expected key features of the purported handset. Now, a tipster has claimed that the r...

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Elon Musk Recalls How He Fired Ex-X CEO Parag Agrawal After New DOGE Diktat

Elon Musk took a swipe on Saturday (local time) at Parag Agrawal, former X chief executive officer (CEO), who was sacked in 2022 after the Tech billionaire took over the platform. This came as Musk, who has been roped in by US President Donald Trump to head the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), issued a diktat to federal employees to justify their work over the past week or lose their jobs.

Replying to a post on X that said "Almost three years ago Elon Musk asked Parag Agrawal what he got done last week. Now he's asking every federal worker the same question", the Tesla CEO wrote, "Parag got nothing done. Parag was fired."

Parag got nothing done.

Parag was fired. https://t.co/69Je8rpYoM

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025

Elon Musk-Parag Agrawal Fallout

Ever since Musk's order to federal workers, netizens have been posting memes and screenshots of an old conversation between Agrawal and the Tesla chief before he acquired the microblogging platform in 2022.

In his post, Agrawal had said: "You are free to tweet- is Twitter dying? or anything else about Twitter- but it's my responsibility to tell you that it's not helping me make Twitter better in the current context. Next time we speak, I'd like to provide you with perspective on the level of internal distraction and how it is hurting our ability to do work. I hope the AMA will help people get to know you, to understand why you believe in Twitter, and to trust you- and I'd like the company to get to a place where we are more resilient and don't get distracted, but we aren't there right now".

Replying, Musk had asked, "What did you get done this week?"

The public exchange, which was seen as a major fallout between the two, eventually led to Musk firing Agrawal from X.

DOGE's Notice To Federal Workers 

On Saturday, The Trump administration sent emails to US federal government employees telling them to detail their work accomplishments from the previous week by Monday night or risk losing their jobs.

The emails came shortly after Musk posted on the social media site X that not responding to the email request would be viewed as a resignation. "All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," Musk posted on X. 

"Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

Musk issued his post just hours after President Donald Trump posted on his own social media network, Truth Social, that DOGE should get more aggressive in its attempts to downsize and reshape the 2.3 million-strong federal workforce.

As of Saturday evening, emails were sent to employees across federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others with the subject line, "What did you do last week?"

The subject line harks back to Musk's poser to Agrawal three years ago. The email reportedly asks employees to reply with five bullet points summarizing "what you accomplished at work last week," and to copy their managers.

It was sent from a human resources address from the Office of Personnel Management and gives employees until 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday to respond.

It is unclear what legal basis Musk has to terminate federal workers if they fail to respond to his request and what would happen to employees who cannot detail confidential work.

Some federal judiciary employees received the email on Saturday from OPM, even though the court system is not part of the executive branch, people familiar with the matter told news agency Reuters.

Workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also reportedly received the email. However, most agency staff had been ordered not to perform any tasks since early this month, creating a conundrum. The agency is also under a temporary court order not to resume mass firings pending the outcome of legal proceedings.
 

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Vasundhara Oswal: The Billionaire's Daughter Who Was Detained In Uganda

Vasundhara Oswal, daughter of Indian-origin billionaire Pankaj Oswal, was last year detained in Uganda for three weeks on false charges of kidnapping and murdering her father's former employee, who was later found alive in Tanzania. Arrested on October 1, she was granted bail only on October 21.

Ms Oswal, 26, was kept in a high-security prison alongside convicted murderers and human traffickers.

Who is Vasundhara Oswal?

1. Vasundhara Oswal is the daughter of business tycoons Pankaj and Radhika Oswal, who own the multibillion-dollar Oswal Group Global. She lives in Villa Vari, one of the world's most expensive homes, worth over $200 million, overlooking Mt. Blanc in Switzerland. The house was designed by renowned interior designer Jeffrey Wilkes.
2. She graduated with a Bachelor's in Finance with Honours from a prestigious university in Switzerland.
3. In 2020, she joined the board of PRO Industries, making history as the organisation's first female lead. She currently serves as the Executive Director (Finance) of PRO Industries, overseeing investment strategy and plant development. She is also the Director General of Axis Minerals, one of the largest bauxite mining projects in Guinea, which holds 884 million tons of bauxite. Under her leadership, PRO Industries and Axis Minerals have completed major expansion projects, reduced debt, and launched sustainability programmes.
4. She successfully integrated a commercially viable Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) programme at PRO Industries, ensuring 100 per cent wastewater recycling. She established a CO2 capture facility that sells CO2 to the beverage sector, aligning with her ecological and sustainability goals. She has led social initiatives, including installing drinking water facilities and roads in East Africa for underprivileged communities.
5. She has received multiple accolades, including Inspiring Woman of the Year by The Economic Times and the Global Youth Icon Award in 2023. She was also featured in Femina India in 2023.

Speaking to news agency PTI on Friday, Vasundhara Oswal called her imprisonment a "gross violation of human rights," alleging she was denied food, water, and even access to a washroom.

"My parents had to bribe police officers through lawyers to bring me food, water and basic necessities," she claimed.

She also accused the Ugandan police of searching her premises without a warrant and coercing her into giving a statement without legal representation. Despite submitting a police bond and the allegedly dead employee being found alive on October 10, she remained in custody until her release.

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The Email That Took 4 Minutes To Get "Yes" From Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

A simple "cold email" landed an Indian YouTuber an interview with Satya Nadella, where the Microsoft CEO opened up about a major "lesson" learned -- the company's failure to anticipate the dominance of search. Speaking with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Mr Nadella admitted that Microsoft underestimated search as a way to organise the web, allowing Google to take control of what became the internet's most lucrative business model.

"We missed what turned out to be the biggest business model on the web because we all assumed the web is all about being distributed," Mr Nadella said. "Who would have thought that search would be the biggest winner?" he asked, adding they "obviously didn't see it" and Google managed to capitalise on it.

Mr Nadella acknowledged that this oversight was a crucial lesson for him. "These business model shifts are probably tougher than even the tech trend changes," he said.

"You have to not only get the tech trend right, you also have to get where the value is going to be created with that trend. These business model shifts are probably tougher than even the tech trend changes," he added.

The 'Cold Email' That Landed An Interview With Satya Nadella

The conversation with Mr Nadella came about unusually. Dwarkesh Patel, known for hosting guests like Mark Zuckerberg and Tony Blair, noticed that the Microsoft chief had subscribed to his newsletter. Without hesitation, Mr Patel sent a short email with the subject line: "Wanna come on my podcast?"

"Hi Satya, saw your email on my newsletter subscriber list. Appreciate you tuning in! Would you be interested in coming on my podcast?... I'm keen to hear how you're thinking about AI (and Microsoft) over the next 3/10/25 years," Mr Patel wrote.

To his surprise, Mr Nadella responded in just four minutes: "Your pod is super. I would love to." The podcast host later shared the story on X, writing, "Don't underestimate the power of a cold email."

Kids, don't underestimate the power of a cold email.

(From @Microsoft's YouTube channel - link below) pic.twitter.com/TyqXMiTjZk

— Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp) February 19, 2025

In the podcast, Satya Nadella also discussed the major technological shifts he has witnessed. The first was the transition from mainframes to personal computers, followed by the rise of client-server architecture. He recalled attending Microsoft's 1991 PDC conference while working at Sun Microsystems, where it became clear that servers would shift to x86 systems.

The second major shift was the advent of the web, marked by the release of the Mosaic and Netscape browsers. "We had the browser moment, and so we had to adjust. And we did a pretty good job of adjusting to it because the browser was a new app model," Mr Nadella explained.

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"Punjab Important, Not...": AAP Minister Amid "Non-Existent" Department Row

After the Punjab government abolished the Department of Administrative Reforms headed by him, State Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that the department's existence is not an agenda for him as Punjab is a higher priority for the government.

"They have now abolished the department. We have all come to save Punjab. For me, the department is not important; Punjab is important. (Whether this department exists or not) is not an agenda for us," Mr Dhaliwal told media.

According to the notification released on February 21, Mr Dhaliwal, who holds the portfolio of the NRI Affairs department, was allocated the charge of the Department of Administrative Reforms, which the Government now says "does not exist".

"In partial modification of Punjab Government Notification No. 2/1/2022-2Cabinet/2230 dated September 23, 2024, regarding allocation of portfolios amongst the Ministers, the Department of Administrative Reforms earlier allotted to Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Cabinet Minister is not in existence as on date," the notification read.

This led to igniting criticism from the BJP, with several leaders targeting the AAP government in Punjab.

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri did not hold back in his criticism of Punjab Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, condemning him for running a "non-existent" department for 20 months under the AAP government's leadership.

Mr Puri criticized Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, saying, "He was heading a department for 20 months which is 'non-existent'. Such a thing can happen only under the leadership of the AAP government."

BJP leader Fatehjung Singh Bajwa said that the Mann government has taken Punjab back by 50 years.

"Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal is one of the most senior leaders of the Cabinet and he was leading a non-existent Department, which means no meeting was ever taken... What kind of administrative reforms are being taken? People are going abroad through dunki routes, and no agent or tout who sent them was ever caught... The biggest industry in Punjab is immigration offices and out of 100, only 10 might have a proper license... This state government has taken Punjab back by 50 years... Punjab used to stand ahead once and now stands at 14th or 15th position because of these 'clowns'," he said.

However, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann defended his government, saying that they changed the department's name and created a new one.

"We changed its name and created a new department. Earlier it was just for the name, there was no staff or office. Now, it has been created to bring reforms, whether it is in bureaucracy or other areas...We are also looking at merging several departments with similar functions into one department," Mr Mann said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Who Is Adam Schiff, Senator Whose Remark On Kash Patel Angered Elon Musk

US Senator Adam Schiff was among the fiercest critics of Kash Patel's nomination as FBI director, calling him a "political hack" and a "sycophant" unfit for the role. Despite strong opposition from Democrats, the Senate on Thursday confirmed Patel to lead the nation's top federal law enforcement agency. About half a dozen Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats gathered outside FBI headquarters earlier that day in a final attempt to block his confirmation.

"This is someone we cannot trust," said Senator Schiff of California. "This is someone who lacks the character to do this job, someone who lacks the integrity to do this job," he said, adding that even Republicans knew it.

"The only qualification Kash Patel has to be FBI director is that when everyone else in the first Trump administration said 'no, I won't do that, that crosses moral, ethical, legal lines,' Kash Patel said sign me up," said Mr Schiff.

Adam Schiff's sharp criticism has sparked speculation that he may be added to the list of "enemies" Kash Patel mentioned in his 2023 book Government Gangsters. Mr Patel, did not hold back in his response to Mr Schiff's comments. "Adam Schiff is the worst criminal in Congress in the last 250 years," he said. Billionaire Elon Musk echoed this, saying, "Adam Schiff is a criminal."

Adam Schiff is a criminal https://t.co/f2tbVUcsXg

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2025

Who is Adam Schiff?

Adam Schiff was born in Framingham, Massachusetts. He attended Monte Vista High School in Danville, California. Mr Schiff went on to study at Stanford University and later earned a law degree from Harvard Law School.

After graduating from law school, he moved to Los Angeles to work as a law clerk for Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr. He later joined the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles as a federal prosecutor. During his six-year tenure, he prosecuted Richard Miller, the first FBI agent indicted for spying for Russia. He also established one of the first federal environmental crimes units in the office.

In 1996, Adam Schiff was elected to the California State Senate as its youngest member. During his term, he introduced the Schiff-Cardenas Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act of 2000, which funded programmes to keep at-risk youth out of prison.

His efforts to expand the Metro Gold Line earned him the nickname "Father of the Gold Line."

In 2000, Adam Schiff was elected to the US House of Representatives, serving on key committees, including Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, and Intelligence, where he later became chairman.

He led the first impeachment inquiry against US President Donald Trump and was a vocal critic of Russia's election interference. He also pushed for sanctions against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. As House Intelligence Committee chair, he pushed for deeper probes, facing criticism from Republicans. In 2023, the House pushed to punish him for spreading what they called false claims, but he denied any wrongdoing.

In 2024, Adam Schiff was elected to the US Senate, representing California.

Mr Schiff was instrumental in getting Congress to formally recognise the Armenian Genocide in 2019. He championed the Protecting Our Democracy Act, which aimed to prevent presidential abuse of power.

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Ranveer Allahbadia, Ashish Chanchalani, Rakhi Sawant Summoned By Cops

YouTubers Ranveer Allahbadia, Ashish Chanchalani, actor Rakhi Sawant summoned amid 'India's Got Latent' row

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"There Is A Reason...": Rohit Silences Doubts On Gill's Vice-Captaincy

Shubman Gill is a potential successor to India captain Rohit Sharma in the ODI format and the latter was all praise for his opening partner on Wednesday, saying there is a reason why he has been made the vice-captain of the side. Gill had a forgettable Test tour of Australia, like the majority of Indian batters but his numbers in the ODI format are phenomenal. "Gill is a very, very classy player. There was never a doubt about his ability in this squad. We tend to mix formats and I don't think that's the right way to judge any player," Rohit said. "Certain players have their strength in certain formats and if one format doesn't go well, it doesn't mean that the other formats will be the same. It's there for all of us to see what happened in Australia and things have changed certainly in a different format.

"With Gill, we know the numbers are crazy. If you look at it, he has been superb for us in the last 3-4 years that he has batted. Obviously, there is a reason that he has been elevated to be the vice-captain of the team as well.

"Hopefully, he has a great tournament and it will eventually help us achieve the things that we are looking to achieve," added Rohit.

The 25-year-old has amassed 2587 runs in 50 ODIs at an average of 60.16 including seven hundreds an 15 half-centuries.

In 32 Tests, he has tallied 1893 runs at an average of 35.05. With 578 runs in 21 games, he averages 30.42 in the T20 format.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Smartphones With Snapdragon 8 Elite 2, Dimensity 9500 to Launch Ahead of Schedule, Tipster Claims

Smartphones equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 and Dimensity 9500 chipsets are expected to arrive earlier than previously anticipated this year, according to a tipster. Chinese smartphone makers are often the first to introduce new handsets with the latest Qualcomm and MediaTek flagship chipsets, while Samsung usually launches high-end smartphones in January. Prev...

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Video: White House Shares Footage Of Illegal Migrants In Chains, Handcuffs

The White House has posted a controversial video showing undocumented immigrants being shackled and led onto a deportation flight from Seattle. The 41-second clip on X, titled "ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight," features close-ups of chains and cuffs being laid out on the tarmac and detainees walking with their hands and ankles restrained.

ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight ???? pic.twitter.com/O6L1iYt9b4

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 18, 2025

The term ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) typically refers to calming sounds that trigger pleasant sensations, making the title particularly contentious.

Billionaire Elon Musk reposted the video, writing, "Haha wow," with an alien emoji.

Haha wow ???????? https://t.co/PXFXpiGU0U

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 18, 2025

The video was initially shared by the Seattle office of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), saying, "Removal Flight. A group of undocumented aliens are flown from Seattle as part of a process to finalise return to their home countries."

The original ICE video begins with a shot of an officer wearing a jacket marked "ERO" (Enforcement and Removal Operations). The White House version, however, opens with a different clip - an officer adjusting a shackled migrant's collar. 

ICE's video originally placed this shot at the end, but in the White House's version, it was moved to the beginning. The White House first retweeted ICE's video without comment. About 90 minutes later, it posted the edited version with the "ASMR" label.

✈️REMOVAL FLIGHT✈️
A group of undocumented aliens are flown from Seattle as part of a process to finalize return to their home countries.
For more info on ICE Air, visit https://t.co/dshkGbtHZe. pic.twitter.com/VD0GwSp8jO

— ICE Seattle (@EROSeattle) February 18, 2025

President Donald Trump has made cracking down on undocumented immigrants a key focus of his second term. Since taking office on January 20, federal agencies have intensified arrests and deportations, carrying out large-scale operations across the country.

The deportation of Indian nationals has also sparked anger, especially after US authorities shared a separate 24-second video showing detainees being led onto a military aircraft. The clip, set to dramatic music, ended with the warning, "If you cross illegally, you will be removed."

The video, filmed at night, shows migrants marching in chains, closely guarded by American soldiers, before being strapped into seats aboard a C-17 military aircraft.

So far, three flights carrying Indian deportees have landed in Amritsar, with 104 people sent back on February 5, 116 on February 15, and another 114 on February 16.

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"Lined Up, Shot Dead": Pak Gunmen Stop Bus, Kill 7 Amid Raging Violence

Gunmen in volatile southwest Pakistan shot seven bus passengers dead after identifying them as being from another region, officials said Wednesday.

Security forces have been battling sectarian, ethnic and separatist violence for decades in impoverished but mineral-rich Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran. Attacks on security forces and ethnic groups have sharply increased in the past few years, especially against labourers from Punjab, the country's most populous and prosperous province and also a major recruitment base for the military.

Attackers late on Tuesday burst the tyres of a bus that was travelling through Balochistan along a highway close to the provincial border with Punjab, Saadat Hussain, a senior government official in the area, told AFP.

Gunmen boarded the bus and demanded to see the identity cards of passengers.

"The passengers belonging to Punjab province... were taken off by the terrorists and killed," Hussain said.

"They were lined up and shot dead."

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

However, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) is the most active group in the region, killing six people in a bombing in January.

The separatist militants killed at least 39 people in coordinated attacks last year that largely targeted ethnic Punjabis. 

In November, the BLA claimed responsibility for a bombing at Quetta's main railway station that killed 26 people, including 14 soldiers.

The militants have in the past also targeted energy projects with foreign financing -- most notably from China -- accusing outsiders of exploiting the resource-rich region while excluding residents in the poorest part of Pakistan.

According to an AFP count, since January 1 at least 67 people, the vast majority members of the security forces, have been killed in violence carried out by armed groups fighting against the state - mainly in the west bordering Afghanistan.

Last year was the deadliest in a decade for Pakistan, with a surge in attacks that killed more than 1,600 people, including 685 members of the police or security forces, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based analysis group.

The violence is largely limited to the country's border regions with Afghanistan in the north and south, with attacks in major cities increasingly rare.

It comes as the Champions Trophy tournament will kick off in Pakistan from Wednesday, with eight international teams visiting Rawalpindi, Karachi and Lahore under improved security. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Opinion: US, Russia, China Have Found A New 'Negotiating Table' In Middle East

As world leaders gathered in Munich, Germany, for Europe's top annual security conference, placating, pleasing, and managing US President Donald Trump stood as a top agenda. Trump's phone call to Russia's Vladimir Putin, US Vice-President J.D. Vance's disruptive speech challenging Europe, and, by association, the very nature of trans-Atlantic alliances, and demands to end the Ukraine conflict, has led to a mad rush to host such a process, in the Gulf. The question that perhaps comes immediately to mind, even though the conflict in Gaza remains a major global flashpoint, is, why?

The Meeting Between Rubio And Lavrov

Russia and the US are preparing to start initial consultations on Ukraine following an ice-breaking meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh. For Saudi Arabia and its powerful heir-apparent, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, this is a moment of both regional and global reckoning. Gulf powers in the Middle East have now been for a while re-positioning and re-posturing their geopolitics. This process started much before Trump's return to the White House—arguably, prior to even the Russian war against Ukraine. The roots of this shift lie in two main realities. First, a change in the construct of global power contestation, that is, a bi-polar competition between the US and China and a demand for multipolarity by a host of middle powers looking to secure their own interests and not get caught in the Washington-Beijing dynamics. The second reality relates to a general idea of the US becoming increasingly unwilling to mobilise militarily power to protect its allies.

Reconsidering America's Role

Regional powers such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are evaluating the very fundamentals of the decades-long American hegemony, which has provided security blankets in the region. This also provides them with an opportunity to build their own geopolitical repertoire as middle powers with their own agency, instead of being viewed as client states, a tag that has plagued many of them for decades. The UAE as well has thrown its hat into the ring, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy landed in Abu Dhabi, mere hours after both Russia and the US eluded to excluding Kyiv from talks regarding Ukraine's own future (Zelenskyy later cancelled a planned visit to Saudi). While this position by the Trump administration delivered tremors across European capitals, it has also played into an increasingly constrained space between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi for regional influence. And peace diplomacy, or mediation, is the flavour of the day.

However, the proverbial gold-rush to host Ukraine talks has more solid foundations in regional competition than an international one. For long, Oman has been the state that has consistently pitched itself as the main mediator, playing the role of ‘Switzerland of the Middle East', where Muscat seemingly prioritises neutrality and offers a common ground for warring parties, such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthi militia, or even the US and Iran, to talk.

The Qatar Question

Saudi Arabia and the UAE installed a blockade against Qatar between 2017 and 2021 for what they saw as Doha not aligning and punching above its weight, and, more specifically, for its support for Political Islam. But the Qatari leadership had another trick up its sleeve to ratchet its power quotient. In February 2020, under Trump's first tenure, the Taliban in Afghanistan and the US signed a historic agreement for the latter's exit from a two-decade long war in the country. Doha hosted the political office for the Taliban, and managed Kabul, to deliver this outcome to a president who, more than anything else, adores deals. This “success” gained Qatar the title of becoming America's first and preferred ‘major non-NATO ally' in the region. Today, Qatar also hosts America's largest military base in the Middle East. For others, such as the UAE, the meteoric rise of Qatar's influence in Washington was seen as a challenge. Within Abu Dhabi, questions were raised with Emirati diplomats in the US on why the Taliban's office was not hosted in either Abu Dhabi or Dubai.

Saudi And UAE Have Bigger Goals

For Saudi Arabia, despite its functional relations with Russia and China alike, a security relationship with the US remains paramount. The same strategic aim is consistent for the UAE as well, one of the few Arab states that normalised relations with Israel as part of the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords and which continues to have functional relations with Iran. Despite continuing pressures on Saudi Arabia and the UAE to help deliver lasting solutions to the Israel-Palestine crisis and the Israel-Hamas war, both have broader, long-term aims with regard to their positions as poles-of-power within a multipolar framework. Both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi share this world view with the likes of India, but American power projection is infinitely more critical to political structures in the Middle East. This is truer today after the experience of the Arab Spring, and, more recently, the collapse of the Bashar Al Assad regime in Syria at the hands of a self-styled ‘lapsed' jihadist group, the Hay'at Tahrir Al Sham (HTS).

Is This The Future Of Mediation?

The Saudis are not stopping just at giving space to the US and Russia to debate Ukraine. As per reports, Riyadh is also open to hosting talks between Iran and the US over the former's nuclear programme. The Saudi-Iran détente was achieved in March 2023 with the help of China, the main competitor to the US, and a state that has unreservedly supported Arab positions in Gaza. Beijing, meanwhile, also remains open to mediating and helping to bridge political gaps across the region. Chinese President Xi Jinping's visits to the region have been welcomed with gusto by Saudi Arabia and the UAE alike, both as a function of being the world's second-largest economic power and using this position to hedge risk with Western partners. The future of mediation between the Riyadh-Abu Dhabi-Doha trifecta is a cat and mouse game within the Arab construct. External powers such as the US, Russia, and China, are part of the utility kit. This push for one-upmanship will have a tremendous impact on regional politics where in the coming years economic and political competition is only expected to increase.

(Kabir Taneja is Deputy Director and Fellow, Strategic Studies Programme, Observer Research Foundation)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip FE Allegedly Spotted on Samsung's Firmware Server, Model Number Revealed

Samsung is believed to unveil a budget-friendly foldable phone called Galaxy Z Flip FE alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 this year. While the brand hasn't officially confirmed the plans to introduce Galaxy Z Flip SE, the alleged model number of the phone has popped up on a Samsung server validating its existence. The Galaxy Z Flip SE is expected to be ...

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Realme P3 Pro First Impressions: Sensible Upgrades

Realme released its latest P3 Pro just 5 months after its predecessor and less than a year after the P1 Pro. The differences between the P1 Pro and P2 Pro were negligible, but this time around Realme has taken things up a notch despite its abnormally quick product release cycle. There are plenty of upgrades sprinkled across the board and some sensible ones as well.

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2 Hours, 4 Trains, Mega Crowd: Sources On What Caused Delhi Stampede

An investigation into the deadly stampede at New Delhi railway station on Saturday, which killed 18 - including five children - has revealed that a senior Railway Police Force (RPF) official had asked the station manager not to issue any more tickets after he sensed that the crowd had become too large and an uncontrollable situation could arise, but thousands were already on the platforms by then, sources have told NDTV.  

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has, however, said that there was no extraordinary rush at the station. 

Sources said an RPF investigation report into the incident found that four trains to Prayagraj were scheduled to leave the New Delhi railway station between 8.15 pm and 10.10 pm - a span of just two hours - resulting in a massive crowd of Maha Kumbh devotees descending on the platforms. Reports had said that, on average, nearly 1,500 general tickets were sold at the station every hour and many more were purchased online. 

The RPF report said that the Shiv Ganga Express, between New Delhi and Varanasi via Prayagraj, was scheduled to depart from platform number 12 at 8.15 pm, the Magadh Express to West Bengal's Islampur via Prayagraj from platform number 14 at 9 pm and the Prayagraj Express from the same platform at 10.10 pm. By the time the Shiv Ganga Express left, thousands of passengers could not make it on the crowded train and that's when they found out that a special train would leave for Prayagraj from platform 16.

This sparked a frenzy and, the report said, the big mass of people began trying to make its way from platform 12 to 16 to board the special train using foot overbridges two and three. In addition to the usual rush, a crowd of people was already heading for platform 14 for the two trains to Prayagraj and the overflow from platform 12 joined this throng. This, the report said, led to the stampede. 

The report mentions that when the crowd began to swell to a point that the situation seemed to be headed out of control, the Assistant Security Commissioner of the RPF asked the station manager not to issue any more tickets, but thousands were already on the platforms and foot overbridges by then. A call was also made for all on-duty and off-duty staff to reach the platform and foot overbridges and the station director was asked to order the special train to Prayagraj to leave as soon as it was full. 

It also notes a statement from one of the injured women that while the stampede began at 9.15 pm, the first call to the fire brigade was made 40 minutes later, at 9.55 pm.

Authorities' Take

A spokesperson for the Railway Board said more information is being gathered.

"A committee has been formed to investigate the matter through which information will be obtained from all the officers and inspectors posted at the station, after which the committee will submit the report to the zonal railway," the spokesperson said. 

On Monday, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had ruled out any conspiracy behind the stampede at the New Delhi station and emphasised that there was no extraordinary rush either.

"No conspiracy looks at the moment (sic)," the minister was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. 

Stating that the information he had till then showed that there was no extraordinary rush at the New Delhi railway station, he also dismissed reports of a platform change announcement as a cause of the stampede. "The inquiry committee is looking into it deeply," he said.

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Goa Man Jailed For Life For Rape-Murder Of Irish-British Woman Tourist

A court in Goa on Monday sentenced a 31-year-old local resident to rigorous life imprisonment for the rape and murder of Irish-British national Danielle McLaughin in 2017.

The court had on Friday pronounced the accused, Vikat Bhagat, guilty of raping and murdering the 28-year-old tourist, whose body was found in a forested area in Canacona village of South Goa on March 14, 2017.

District and sessions judge Kshama Joshi on Monday sentenced Bhagat to rigorous life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 for the rape and murder and Rs 10,000 for the destruction of evidence.

The convict will also undergo imprisonment of two years for destruction of evidence, with the court ruling that both sentences will run concurrently, said Vikram Varma, the lawyer representing the victim's mother, Andrea Brannigan.

After the verdict on Friday, the victim's family members also issued a media statement, which was read out by their representative.

"We, as Danielle's family and friends, are so thankful to everyone involved in our fight for justice, they have treated her like their daughter and have tirelessly fought for her," it said.

They were thankful that their hard work paid off, and Bhagat was found guilty of "taking Danielle from them", the family said.

Police Inspector Philomena Costa, who investigated the case, said it was the meticulous probe that resulted in the conviction.

He said he was extremely happy with the verdict.

As per the chargesheet filed by the Goa police, McLaughin, who hailed from Donegal in Northwest Ireland, was on a visit to Goa in March 2017 when Bhagat befriended her. He murdered her after spending an evening with her.

McLaughin was struck with a stone, which resulted in her death, it said.

Her body was found lying in a pool of blood, without clothes, with injuries to the head and face.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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"Bought 2nd-Hand WagonR...": Rahane Opens Up On Early Financial Struggles

One of the most renowned names in Indian cricket, Ajinkya Rahane is a name that hardly needs an introduction. The batter played all three formats for India, though it was Test cricket where he truly made a name for himself. Not part of the Indian team in any of the three formats at present, but Rahane hasn't given up hope of an international comeback. While national selection doesn't really remain in Rahane's hands, perseverance does. Having made sacrifices all his life, Rahane knows how to remain calm and wait for his opportunity.

"I used to come from Dombivali, the train journey was the most challenging for me and I used to travel alone from the age of 8 because my father had to go to office," Rahane said in an interview with The Indian Express. "I come from a lower-middle-class family. My mother used to babysit to earn extra money because my father's salary wasn't enough to make ends meet. Those memories are in my mind and that is why I try to be grounded. This fame and money has come only due to this game."

The veteran batter, who has lead the Indian team to some famous wins as a leader, also shared insights into his mindset as a captain.

"I don't like to go into their personal space but as a leader, if I feel I need to tell them anything, I will. I have seen players with talent but wrong choices and wrong friends took them astray. It's important not to forget where we all come from. Many times when a player is having a great run, you see people with them. Suddenly, if things go wrong, the same people vanish. So it is very important to know who your true friends are," he says.

Rahane dug deep in his memory as he recalled those times when he had started to gain attention on the international circuit. The batter revealed that he only bought a second-hand WagonR when he made his India debut.

"This is where my family values came in. They never said don't spend, but they only said if it's needed, do it. I bought a car very late in my life, I used to take a lift from Nilesh Kulkarni, Avishkar Salvi or Pravin Tambe. I bought a second-hand WagonR when I played for India. People said bada car le but for me it was about travelling in comfort. I wanted to invest wisely. After two years, I bought a Honda City," Rahane added.

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Vivo V50 With Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 SoC, 50-Megapixel Selfie Camera Launched in India: Price, Specifications

Vivo V50 was launched in India on Monday. The smartphone comes with a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset and a 6,000mAh battery with support for 90W wired fast charging. It carries two 50-megapixel rear cameras alongside a 50-megapixel selfie shooter. The handset is claimed to meet IP68+IP69 ratings for dust and splash resistance and is said to have a 7.39mm thin profile. It ...

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"Be Kind To Yourself": Vikrant Massey, Bhumi Pednekar On Pariksha Pe Charcha

Study to pass in life, not just exams, and identify your strengths during challenging times, actors Vikrant Massey and Bhumi Pednekar told school students during an interaction on PM's Parisha Pe Charcha aired on Sunday. The actors shared their school experiences, tackling exam stress, parental expectations and the importance of resilience at a special session of Pariksha Pe Charcha (PPC), an annual event in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with students appearing for board examinations.

In a shift from the traditional town hall format, this time the prime minister preferred a more informal setting and took the students to Delhi's iconic Sunder Nursery for his annual interaction with them ahead of board exams.

Massey, who saw a career turnaround with the 2023 film "12th Fail", asked students to practice the "power of visualisation".

"We all know how to subconsciously visualise. You can take out 10 minutes a day to write about your feelings and what you wish to achieve in a journal... It's a kind of manifestation," he said.

"Never feel arrogant about getting good marks. Keep your eyes low and your thinking high. That's very important. Study to pass in life, not just exams. Be kind to yourself and if you do not meet your expectations, restart," he added.

Recalling the time she lost her father, Pednekar said she was very young when she realised she had to focus on her strengths.

"At that age you don't realise that such a big unfortunate event has happened to you. I just knew I had to play by my strengths. Identify your strengths during challenging times... Explore new ways to learn... Like whenever I am given a scene, I try doing it in different ways," the "Dum Laga Ke Haisha" actor said during the eighth edition of PPC.

During his school days, Massey said he was "an above average student" who was more into sports.

"I used to pick up books days before exams. We had cable TV at the time so that used to be disconnected during exams... I'm a bit sad to see today's generation. Our playtime was all about the playground. For today's generation, it's mobile. Cricket, which is our country's most favourite sport, requires one to be present in the moment. Even the prime minister says 'The present is God's favourite present'," he added.

Pednekar too said she was never a frontbencher and used to enjoy participating in extracurricular activities.

"I was a very obedient student and I still am. I was mischievous but I shared a beautiful relationship with my teachers... I realised early on that I want to be an actor. I wanted my parents to be happy and proud so I used to work very hard in studies." Children are unable to grow when the expectations of parents start to feel like a burden, added Massey.

"Express yourself. If your parents want you to become an engineer but you want to become a photographer, you should tell them what you feel. They will get convinced over a period of time because all they want for you is to be happy," he told students.

Pednekar emphasised the importance of having a good sleep routine.

"I used to take an hour-long break in a day during exams. I would go out and play, I loved dancing, playing badminton. All that was important for me was to give my brain a break...

"When I was young, I just didn't want to sleep. Now when I'm shooting, I quickly finish my lunch in 15 minutes and sleep for half an hour. That half an hour of sleep will give me a very focused eight hours at work," she added.

Massey shared his three hacks on how to be an 'Exam Warrior'.

"Eat well, rest well; keep improving; and go, play, unplug," he said.

Asked to give her go-to tips to handle stress, Pednekar said: "Be a warrior, not a worrier. Being spiritual keeps you grounded and focused." Previously, eminent personalities like boxer MC Mary Kom, spiritual leader Sadhguru, and Bollywood star Deepika Padukone also shared their experiences and knowledge with students on key aspects of life and learning in different episodes of Pariksha Pe Charcha this year.

The first edition of the prime minister's interactive programme with school and college students was held at the Talkatora Stadium in February 2018. Its seventh edition was held in a town hall format at the Bharat Mandapam in Pragati Maidan, engaging participants from across the country and overseas.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Abhinav Chandrachud, Lawyer Representing Ranveer Allahbadia In Top Court

On Friday morning at 10:30 AM, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna's bench convened as usual to hear a series of cases. Among them was the high-profile 'India's Got Latent' controversy, in which YouTuber and podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia or 'BeerBiceps' is involved.

As the proceedings began, the lawyer representing Mr Allahbadia appeared before the court. The man has not argued a case in the Supreme Court in the past eight years and six months but his presence caught everyone's attention. He was Abhinav Chandrachud, a Bombay High Court lawyer and the son of former CJI DY Chandrachud. 

Who Is Abhinav Chandrachud

Abhinav Chandrachud's family name carries weight in India's judicial circles. His father was appointed Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court in May 2016 before becoming the Chief Justice of India. Despite his father's towering position in the judiciary, Abhinav had never before presented a case in the Supreme Court during his father's tenure.

At his farewell speech last year, Chief Justice (retd) Chandrachud shared an anecdote about his two sons, Abhinav and Chintan. He recalled how he had once asked them to appear in the Supreme Court, hoping to see them more often. Both, however, declined the offer, citing professional integrity concerns.

In a past interview with NDTV, former Chief Justice (retd) Chandrachud had also reflected on his own career. Between 1982 and 1985, he refrained from appearing in any Indian court while pursuing his studies at Harvard. His father, Justice YV Chandrachud, was India's longest-serving Chief Justice.

Abhinav Chandrachud is also an accomplished academic and author. He holds a Doctor of the Science of Law (JSD) and a Master of the Science of Law (JSM) from Stanford Law School, where he was a Franklin Family Scholar.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he graduated from Government Law College, Mumbai, in 2008. He later pursued his Master of Laws (LLM) at Harvard Law School as a Dana Scholar. He has also worked as an associate attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an international law firm.

Beyond his legal practice, he has authored several books, including Republic of Rhetoric: Free Speech and the Constitution of India (2017) and Supreme Whispers: Conversations with Judges of the Supreme Court of India 1980-1989 (2018). His opinion pieces have been published in leading Indian newspapers.

The Ranveer Allahbadia Case

Mumbai Police have summoned Ranveer Allahbadia to appear for questioning on Saturday over controversial remarks he made during a YouTube show. The police had initially asked him to appear on Thursday, but when he failed to do so, they issued a second summons for Friday.

On Friday, police teams from both Mumbai and Assam arrived at Mr Allahbadia's residence in Versova, only to find it locked.

The controversy stems from remarks made by Mr Allahbadia on comedian Samay Raina's now-deleted YouTube show, 'India's Got Latent'. His comments, perceived as crude and offensive, triggered widespread outrage and multiple complaints.

The Assam Police team investigating the matter met with officials from Maharashtra's Cyber Department on Thursday. They are particularly interested in questioning not only Allahbadia but also fellow YouTubers Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh, and Apoorva Makhija, who were featured in the controversial episode.

The Supreme Court has yet to set a fixed date for hearing the petition in which Abhinav Chandrachud appeared virtually before Chief Justice Khanna. 

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"No Joke": Ashwin Blasts Star's 'Don't Care If We Lose To India" Comment

England suffered an embarrassing 3-0 ODI series defeat and 4-1 T20I series defeat at the hands of India in their recently-concluded tour, and legendary India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has launched a scathing criticism on them. In particular, Ashwin expressed disappointment at how lightly England seemingly took the series, and also emphasized his disapproval of excuses used by England following their defeats. In particular, England opener Ben Duckett came under the hammer from Ashwin after he'd said that they don't mind losing the series 3-0 as long as England beat India in the Champions Trophy.

"If we lose 3-0 to India, I don't care as long as we beat them in the final in the Champions Trophy. No one will probably look back on this series if we go and do the business in that competition," Duckett had said after the 3-0 ODI series defeat.

Ashwin sharply responded to Duckett's statements.

"No matter what Ben Duckett says, going into the Champions Trophy this series loss will create a big dent to their confidence," Ashwin said, speaking on his YouTube channel.

"Ben Duckett has said similar things in the past too, saying Yashasvi Jaiswal has learnt to play aggressive cricket from England's Bazball style. I know Ben Duckett and his penchant for humour, but this was no joke and it is like you are hiding your failures behind humour," Ashwin added.

Ashwin also criticized the fact that England players seem to look for excuses after a series defeat. He also stated that the England team has been in a slump for a fair while now.

"Your 2023 ODI World Cup was pretty bad as well. It isn't like they are in bad form over 2-3 months. It has been the case for four years now. Despite having such a talented group they are not able to justify their potential," Ashwin stated.

"Even in Test cricket, I read somewhere a few days ago that Ben Stokes said that he doesn't understand the points system of the WTC. My only advice to him is that if you don't understand the points system, then first go and understand it. This is not a joke. Every time you lose, you bring up such lame excuses," Ashwin said.

England will face Australia, South Africa and Afghanistan in what is expected to be a closely-fought group in the Champions Trophy 2025. England finished behind all three nations at the 2023 World Cup.

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India Star Carried 250kg Luggage To Australia, Made BCCI Pay: Report

An unbelievable piece of information has surfaced from India's tour of Australia as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) unrolled the new set of rules, which also put a cap on the weight of luggage the players can carry for overseas assignments. A report has claimed that the board had to put the rule in place to prevent such issues from cropping up again. The BCCI, as per the new rule, has clarified that it would only bear the cost for luggage, up to 150 kg.

A report in Dainik Jagran made the explosive revelations, highlighting how certain players have been misusing the board's lenience. A player, reportedly, had the board manage and pay for more than 27 bags during the tour Down Under. The bags didn't just belong to the player but also to his family members and personal staff. The weight of the bags went above 250kg, for which the board had to pay, as per the report.

The bags consisted of a total of 17 bats, as well as other items belonging to the members of the player's family and personal staff. As part of the BCCI policy, the luggage belonging to a player's family and personal staff is supposed to be carried separately. But, the player got the BCCI to manage all that as part of his luggage.

The report further claims that during the entire course of the tour, the family members of the player under the spotlight were with him. The BCCI, in the process, had to bear the cost of getting the player's and his family members' stuff from India to Australia and vice-versa, as well as from one city to another during the series Down Under. While the exact money spent by the board during this process isn't known, the figure is expected to be in lakhs.

This system had a bad influence on other members of the team, prompting them to follow a similar approach too. Hence, the BCCI had to act and put certain rules in place.

Since the Australia tour, a lot has changed in Indian cricket. The players are now required to travel through the team bus for matches. No player is being given permission to make personal arrangements when it comes to team travel. 

As the team prepares to fly to Dubai for the ICC Champions Trophy, the BCCI has also issued a strict diktat, making the family members of the players ineligible to accompany them on the tour. A senior player, as per a PTI report, had even sought understanding on the matter as he wanted to fly his wife to Dubai for the series.

The board is said to have informed the player that the rules remain the same for everyone. 

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OnePlus Says it Won't Launch the OnePlus Open 2 in 2025; Reaffirms Support for OnePlus Open Owners

OnePlus Open 2 won't be launched as the successor to the first generation foldable phone in 2025. A OnePlus product manager confirmed in a community post that the company doesn't plan to release a foldable this year. The first Open model debuted in 2023, followed by the Open Apex Edition in 2024.

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Congress Congratulates Kangana For "Pure Veg" Cafe, Internet Says This

Actress-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut has announced the launch of her new cafe in Himachal Pradesh's Manali. The Mountain Story cafe, which she describes as a long-cherished dream, will open its doors on Valentine's Day. While her fans and supporters celebrated the announcement, a surprising congratulatory message came from the Congress.

"We are happy to learn about your new 'pure vegetarian' restaurant. Hope you'll serve some amazing Himachali vegetarian dishes for all tourists. Wishing all success for this venture!" wrote the official handle of the Kerala unit of Congress. 

The post, which appeared out of character given Ms Ranaut is a BJP MP and her past political clashes with Congress leaders immediately triggered reactions from social media users. Many questioned whether the Kerala Congress account had been hacked. 

"I am 100% sure this account is being run by a high school student on a lunch break!" responded one person

"Is this account hacked?" asked another 

Dear @KanganaTeam,

We are happy to learn about your new 'pure vegetarian' restaurant. Hope you'll serve some amazing Himachali vegetarian dishes for all tourists. Wishing all success for this venture! pic.twitter.com/00z8I0w9UB

— Congress Kerala (@INCKerala) February 12, 2025

Criticism also came from Congress supporters who found the message unnecessary. 

"You guys keep tweeting such cheap posts and then wonder why you are losing elections? It takes a great deal of stupidity to completely ignore the ethos of this country," wrote one person. 

Ms Ranaut had shared a video of The Mountain Story cafe a few days ago, showing its interiors and the scenic beauty surrounding it. The video features wooden furniture, dimly lit chandeliers, and a traditional Himachali aesthetic.

"A childhood dream comes alive. My little cafe in the lap of Himalayas," she had written.

Ms Ranaut's latest film, 'Emergency', in which she plays former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was released in theatres in January. As a first-time MP from the BJP, Ms Ranaut remains an outspoken critic of the Congress party.

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Opinion: Modi In France: How Governance Will Be The 'Killer' AI App

The age of AI is here and we are living in the most exciting and transformative period in our lives. The Paris AI Action summit and the conversations there reiterate that. The summit was the third chapter since the UK launched the AI Safety Summit in November 2023, where I represented India. India was Co-Chair of this summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself attending, following our chairmanship of the December 2023 New Delhi Global Partnership of AI summit, which he had inaugurated.

India's participation and co-chairing of this summit was very important and appropriate. India under PM Modi has become a global case study of how a country has used tech to transform itself, in terms of both governance and economy. India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has become a framework that countries around the world are adopting rapidly or aspiring to. 

The DeepSeek Watershed

The Paris AI summit was held in the backdrop of the dramatic entry of China into the global AI scene with DeepSeek. The rapid progress made by AI since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 was dominated more or less by US Tech giants: Open AI, Google, Meta, X, etc. The narrative in recent months has been built around these companies , their work and platforms in AI and their access to capital and AI compute infra that was helping them “scale”. The dramatic entry of DeepSeek and its strategy to open-source its models has altered and broadened the narrative and discourse dramatically. That was apparent at the Paris Summit.

There were three broad threads that dominated the conversations in Paris. 

The Progress Of AI

First was the original strand of the progress of AI, and the prediction of the roadmap to AGI (artifical general intelligence) and ASI (artificial superintelligence) and ‘singularity'. This has dominated the discourse around AI in the last year. This conversation has been tempered by the realisation that capital expenditure alone wasn't the moat that AI stalwarts like Sam Altman had anticipated. We were stepping into the next phase of AI where real research and innovation in algorithms, datasets and other forms of training and learning were going to be equally important in shaping the impact, success and quality of the next generation of models and intelligence.

Governance Over Everything

Second thread was one that India's presence and PM Modi's approach has triggered. Even while Big Tech giants are investing billions in general-purpose Large Language Models (LLMs) and applications on them, India's focus on AI being built for use cases in healthcare, education, agriculture, etc, has prompted the creation of killer apps for AI. Governance can be one of the biggest areas where AI can make deep, very meaningful impacts. It was obvious that the momentum of conversations and discussions around real deployment of AI and success in use cases will be led by India. I attended a series of sessions leading up to the summit, arranged by the Tony Blair Institute and titled ‘Governing in the Age of AI'. I have written and spoken about this earlier. I am convinced that governance is going to be the killer app for AI and that India will demonstrate that soon.

On Making AI 'Responsible'

The third thread that was discussed in Paris was about safe and trusted AI that would ensure only responsible and ethical use of AI.  This is an area where there is a mix of really focused discussions on regulation and control, but also a lot of hot air and rhetoric.

Was AI to be regulated for harms/bias/correctness, or was it to be guardrails that platforms would follow voluntarily?  What about how some countries like China had access to the global internet while shutting off its internet to any non-Chinese platforms, thus creating asymmetry of knowledge and data?  What about open-source AI models vs closed AI models?

These are all very foundational questions around the role of governments and public policy towards AI in specific and technology in General. Big Tech has for the last two decades more or less escaped regulation because  they have argued they were innovators. There is a built-in resistance and pushback in technological companies towards any attempts by governments to regulate them. 

Safety And Trust Are Paramount

Safety and trust take on a very significant meaning in the age of AI. For a world that has struggled unsuccessfully with misinformation, disinformation and influence operations on social media, AI represents that problem to the power of infinity. India's position on this has been demonstrated by PM Modi's approach to data protection, which I explained in my interactions in Paris—that we don't consider citizen rights and innovation to be binaries that need to be balanced. Policymakers can ensure both if we look at this pragmatically and in a contemporary manner. That voluntary guidelines won't do and that we need a framework of laws that provide adaptive guardrails to prevent AI from causing harm, bias, falsehoods and criminality. AI available on the global internet must be safe and trusted.

Can't Deny Tech

Some experts, like Yoshua Bengio from University of Montreal, and others like OpenAI's Sam Altman, have argued against permitting open-source AI. Yoshua Bengio recently authored a huge 400-page document of AI safety. Their main argument was that bad people will get access to AI, and that this can be prevented by keeping AI models closed. This of-course is a double-edged argument because it also normalises the notion that there should be only a few AI models owned by a few companies, and that everybody else will have to use those models. This construct is now contrary to the history of technology, where every proprietary system has been upended by the unrelenting and unstoppable force of innovation and innovators who disrupt the existing normal.  DeepSeek has shown us that. There will be many more who will in coming months and years keep rewriting the normal of AI as we know it today. That is the real normal. So, open-source AI models are inevitable, and as I said in one of the sessions when asked, those who oppose open-source betray a lack of understanding of how technology has progressed and proliferated in contemporary times. That denial of technology has never worked in our times—not for missile, nor for nuclear bombs. It's definitely not going to work for software models either.

For me, personally, these summits and the conversations with very bright minds are inspiring and exciting. I started my career as a tech geek coder, who through fate became a telecom entrepreneur and then a politician in public service. These summits reinforce that I remain a tech geek even today. I have been fortunate to have lived through the compute, internet, semiconductor disruptions, and am living now in the most exciting time ever in the history of tech: the AI Age. It's here. Get set for a transformative ride.

(The author is the former Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Jal Shakti)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

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