Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari on Saturday said his party will not allow non-locals to settle in the Union Territory as he criticised the administration for its ongoing anti-encroachment drive to retrieve state land.

 

The former minister appealed to people to maintain peace and promised to reverse all "anti-people" decisions of the administration once his party comes to power.

"We will not allow the non-locals to settle in Jammu and Kashmir. The land in J&K belongs to the people of the erstwhile state of J&K," Bukhari said at a function in Jammu.

The function was organised to welcome PDP youth leader from Samba Sanny Sangral, who along with dozens of youth, joined Apni Party at its Gandhi Nagar headquarters.

Expressing concern over the anti-encroachment drive, he said the government has no other option but to regularise unauthorised colonies.

"Even the government in Delhi has regularised such colonies from time to time, but it seems they do not understand the issues of the poor people, he said, criticising the BJP for delaying assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

"The administration has no right to displace people from their land. If we form the next government, we will reverse anti-people decisions of the administration like stopping the darbar move practice and anti-encroachment drives," he said.

He said the decision regarding unauthorised colonies should be left to the elected government.

Referring to the demolition of a showroom at Malik Market in Narwal area of Jammu during the anti-encroachment drive, he said 40 workers lost their means of livelihood by this "wrong decision".

An Indian citizen missing in Turkey since February 6 earthquake, that has killed more than 25,000, was pulled out from under the rubble of a hotel in Malatya, said the Indian embassy in Turkey. 

The dead man is from the hill state of Uttarakhand. 

The dead man has been identified as Vijay Kumar, a businessman, said the embassy.

The country's first lithium reserve, found in Jammu and Kashmir, is of the best quality, a senior government official said on Saturday, as upbeat villagers expressed hope the discovery will bring them a bright future.

The 5.9-million ton reserve of lithium, a crucial mineral for the manufacturing of electric vehicles and solar panels, had been discovered in Reasi district by the Geological Survey of India.

 

"Lithium falls in the critical resource category which was not earlier available in India and we were dependent for its 100 per cent import. The G3 (advanced) study of the GSI shows the presence of best quality lithium in abundant quantity in the foothills of Mata Vaishno Devi shrine at Salal village (Reasi)," J-K Mining Amit Secretary Sharma told PTI.

He said against the normal grade of 220 parts per million, the lithium found in J&K is of 500 ppm-plus grading, and with a stockpile of 5.9 million tons, India will surpass China in its availability.

 

"India joined a select group of countries at the global level after this finding and it will fulfil the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' (self-reliant India)," he said.

 

Sharma said lithium has widespread usage and its discovery at a time of India's G20 presidency provides an opportunity for J-K to showcase its rich reserves.

Asked about the possible timeline for its extraction to start, he said every project takes its own time. "We had G3 level study and it will now be followed by G2 and G1 study before the final extraction of the metal."  

"Everything will be done at the earliest and we will collaborate with the GSI and extend our full support in this historical feat," he said.

 

The officer assured the people that the reserve will be a game-changer for them as the local youths are given preference in any project as per the government's industrial policy.

"The local youth, whether skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled, will be part of this project. People who will be affected by this project will be adequately compensated and rehabilitated under rules," he said.

People living in the villages around the site are excited at the discovery. 

"It is a very happy moment for all of us and we are feeling proud. After the railway projects and Mata Vaishno Devi shrine, which are major source of employment for the locals, this project is going to be a game-changer for us," Salal Deputy Sarpanch Rajinder Singh said.

Salal is home to the Salal Hydroelectric Power Station, a run-of-the-river hydropower project on Chenab river. Salal is located on way to under-construction paradigmatic Chenab railway bridge with a height of 359 meters, 30 meters higher than the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday said religious and social harmony, secularism and tolerance are in India's DNA and asserted that it is the only country where believers of almost all religions live peacefully.

   

Addressing the "Samajik Samrasta Sammelan" organised by Bharatiya Baudh Sangh to mark the birth anniversary of Sant Guru Ravidas here, Naqvi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's honesty and hard work has proven that "truth can neither be troubled nor trounced".

 

Guru Ravidas' teachings, ideology and philosophy are the eternal essence of the commitment to "Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat".

 

Naqvi said the strong message, given by Sant Ravidas centuries ago, warning against the evil effects of the caste system, was relevant even today.

 

Assimilating the teachings and message of Sant Ravidas, the Modi government has broken the barrier of caste, community, region and religion to ensure that every needy equally gets the benefits of development without any discrimination, Naqvi said.

 

Amid various global challenges and crisis, the former Union minister said, India is showing the path to the entire world just because of the strength of teachings and philosophy of the great Saints and Sufis.

 

Naqvi said religious and social harmony, secularism and tolerance are in the DNA of India.

 

India has become an ideal of harmony, tolerance and brotherhood for the entire world, he said.

 

"India is the only country where the believers of almost all religions of the world live peacefully," he said.

 

"All of us have to work together to defeat those evil elements who are involved in conspiracy to disturb and harm the fabric of social harmony and unity in diversity in the country," Naqvi said.

 

Former Union minister and BJP Parliamentary Board member Satyanarayan Jatiya, Vishwa Hindu Parishad Delhi president Kapil Khanna, Bharatiya Baudh Sangh national president Bhante Sanghpriya Rahul, BJP leader Adesh Gupta, among others, were present on the occasion. -- PTI 

A second batch of 12 cheetahs is expected to arrive in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park (KNP) from South Africa on February 18, six months after eight of the spotted cats were released into the reserve, a senior forest official said on Saturday. 

According to current plans, 12 more cheetahs are being brought to KNP on February 18, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (wildlife) J S Chouhan told PTI.

He said the felines will be flown from South Africa to Gwalior before being transported to Kuno. The official said he was unaware of the number of male and female cheetahs in the batch of 12.

The cheetahs will be kept under one-month quarantine as per the norms, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released the first batch of eight cheetahs five females and three males from Namibia into a quarantine enclosure at KNP on his 72nd birthday on September 17. 

The first batch of cheetahs is currently in hunting enclosures at the park before their full release into the wild.

Cheetahs are being reintroduced nearly seven decades after the species became extinct in India. The last cheetah died in the country in 1947 in the Korea district in present-day Chhattisgarh, and the species was declared extinct from India in 1952.

In January, India and South Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the reintroduction of cheetahs in the Asian country. As per the MoU, an initial batch of 12 cheetahs will be flown from South Africa to India.

An official of KNP had earlier said that the park has set up 10 quarantine bomas (enclosures) for the new guests.

Due to the delay in the signing of the MoU for various reasons, some experts had last year expressed concern over the health of the South African cheetahs as these animals have been quarantined there since July 15. 

As a result of long quarantine, these animals might have lost their fitness, they had said. -- PTI 

Pathaan, superstar Shah Rukh Khan's return to the big screen after four years, has raised Rs 901 crore gross at the worldwide box office. 

 

According to Yash Raj Films (YRF), the Siddharth Anand directorial raised Rs 5.90 crore nett in India on its third Friday.

"The total worldwide gross is an incredible Rs 901 crore (India gross : Rs 558.40 crore, overseas: Rs 342.60 crore)" the studio said in a press note. 

YRF said Pathaan has become the highest grossing Hindi film worldwide in the history of Hindi cinema.

The stylish action thriller follows the titular spy (Shah Rukh) who comes out of exile to stop terrorist group Outfit X from launching a debilitating attack on India.

The film also features John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Dimple Kapadia and Ashutosh Rana.

India's hero in the opening Test victory over Australia in Nagpur, Ravindra Jadeja was on Saturday fined 25 per cent of his match fee for applying cream on the swollen index finger of his bowling hand without taking permission from the on-field umpires on the first day of the match.

   

Jadeja, who returned figures of 7/81 and contributed 70 runs in the match that India won by an innings and 132 runs, was seen in a video receiving something from pace bowler Mohammed Siraj and rubbing it on his left index finger.

 

The Indian all-rounder's act had the Australian media and a former player "interested", but the ICC said the cream was applied to the finger purely for medical purposes and it did not change the condition of the ball.

 

Jadeja action was deemed to have breached "Article 2.20 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to displaying conduct that is contrary to the spirit of the game". 

 

"India spin bowler Ravindra Jadeja has been fined 25 per cent of his match fee for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct during the first Test against Australia in Nagpur on Thursday," the ICC said in a statement.

 

"In addition to this, one demerit point has been added to Jadeja's disciplinary record, for whom it was the first offence in a 24-month period."

 

The ICC said the incident occurred in the 46th over of Australia's first innings, when Jadeja applied "a soothing cream to a swelling on the index finger of his bowling hand without asking for permission to do so from the on-field umpires".  

 

Jadeja admitted the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by Andy Pycroft of the ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees, so there was no need for a formal hearing.

 

"In reaching his decision to sanction the player along with the Level 1 sanction he imposed, the Match Referee was satisfied that the cream was applied to the finger purely for medical purposes.

 

"The cream was not applied as an artificial substance to the ball and consequently it did not change the condition of the ball, which would have been in breach of clause 41.3 of the ICC playing conditions -- Unfair Play-The Match Ball -- Changing its Condition." -- PTI

Former Kerala Chief Minister and senior Congress leader, Oommen Chandy, who has been admitted to a private hospital near Thiruvananthapuram, will be shifted to Bengaluru for further treatment, AICC general Secretary in charge of Organisation, K C Venugopal, said on Saturday. 

          

After visiting Chandy at the hospital at nearby Neyyattinkara, Venugopal said doctors have informed that the former chief minister was free from pneumonia.

        

Venugopal said Chandy will be shifted to a hospital in Bengaluru as decided by the Congress party.

        

"He (Chandy) is a bit tired. The doctors say he is now free from pneumonia. I met him under the direction of the party president. He will be shifted to Bengaluru and AICC will make necessary arrangements for the travel and treatment," Venugopal told reporters.

        

Meanwhile, Chandy Oommen, the son of former chief minister, also confirmed that pneumonia has subsided and the Congress leader will be shifted to Bengaluru.

        

Oommen also alleged that false propaganda was being carried out against his family in connection with his father's health.

        

"Even when he was undergoing treatment for pneumonia, there were false campaigns against the family. We don't have any issues with any sort of treatment. It's not right to spread fake news. I have all the medical records," Oommen told the media . 

        

He said the Congress party leadership was fully aware about all the matters and took the  initiative to take Chandy to Germany for better treatment.

        

Earlier, concerns were raised from various quarters over his deteriorating health.

        

His relatives had alleged that the veteran Congress leader was being denied proper medical care by his close family members.

        

As the social media was abuzz with reports of his health condition, Chandy had posted a video on his son's Facebook page, claiming that he was being properly taken care of by his family and the party.

        

The development came after Chandy's 42 close relatives, including his younger brother, sent a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking his urgent intervention to provide better treatment for his predecessor.

       

Chandy has not been keeping well since 2019. He was taken to Germany a few months ago after his throat related ailment aggravated.

        

Chandy, who represents Puthuppally constituency in the state assembly since 1970, was chief minister of Kerala twice. -- PTI 

Aviation safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), on Saturday imposed a penalty of Rs 20 lakh on Tata Group-owned budget carrier AirAsia India for violation of certain norms relating to pilots' training.

   

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation also ordered the removal of the airline's head of training from his position for a period of three months besides imposing a fine of Rs 3 lakh each on eight Designated Examiners (DEs), as pe a statement.

This is the third enforcement action against a Tata Group airline in over a month.

 

AirAsia India, in a statement, said it is reviewing the DGCA order and considering an appeal against it.

 

"We acknowledge that a finding related to training exercises of pilots was observed by the DGCA following the main base inspection in November 2022. Immediate corrective action was taken in coordination with DGCA and additional simulator training sessions to address the gap were implemented," an AirAsia spokesperson said in the statement.

 

The enforcement action came following a surveillance inspection conducted by the DGCA on the airline during November 23-25 last year and subsequent show cause notice to the airline, its head of training, and all DEs.

 

During the inspection, DGCA team observed that a few mandatory exercises of the pilots of Air Asia (India) Ltd were not done during pilot proficiency check/instrument rating check (which is an International Civil Aviation Organization requirement) as per schedule, resulting in violation of DGCA regulations, DGCA said in a statement.

 

DGCA issued show cause notices to the accountable manager, head of training and all designated examiners of the airline "as to why enforcement action should not be taken against them for lack of oversight of their regulatory obligations".

 

"The written reply of accountable manager, head of training and all designated examiners were examined... Accordingly, a financial penalty of Rs 20,00,000 has been imposed on AirAsia (India) Ltd for violation of applicable DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements (CARs)," it said.

 

The DGCA has also directed the airline to "withdraw" its head of training from his position for a period of three months for failing to discharge his duties as per applicable DGCA CARs, as per the statement.

 

"Financial penalty of Rs 3,00,000 (has been imposed) each on eight Designated Examiners of AirAsia (India) for failing to discharge their duties as per applicable DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements," the DGCA said in the statement.

 

AirAsia spokesperson said the airline has already conducted mandatory exercises of the pilots as part of a simulator training done beyond the mandated regulatory training requirements. 

 

"We wish to reiterate that there is no deviation from the safety margins required for our operations. Nonetheless, we are reviewing the DGCA order and are considering making an appeal as per available regulatory provisions," AirAsia India said. -- PTI 

A Delhi court judge, who recently discharged student activists Sharjeel Imam and Asif Iqbal Tanha along with nine others in the 2019 Jamia Nagar violence case, has recused himself from hearing a similar matter citing "personal reasons".

 

Additional Sessions Judge Arul Varma was hearing a case regarding the violence in Jamia Nagar in December 2019 which was registered against several accused, including Tanha.

"Due to personal reasons, the undersigned hereby recuses from hearing the matter. Accordingly, let the present matter be put up before the principal district and sessions judge, southeast district, Saket court, for February 13 at 12 pm with a request to transfer the matter," the judge said in an order passed on Friday.

Last Saturday, while discharging the 11 accused in the other case, the judge had said that legal proceedings were initiated in a "perfunctory and cavalier fashion" and "allowing them to undergo the rigmarole of a long-drawn trial, does not augur well for the criminal justice system of the country".

Delhi Police had registered an FIR in connection with the violence that erupted after a clash between police and people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December 2019.

The accused in the present case also include Meeran Haider, Ashu Khan, Qasim Usmani, Mohammad Hassan, Mohd Jamal, Mohd Sahil Muddassir, Faheem Hasmee, Sameer Ahmad, Mohd Umar, Mohd Adil, Roohul Ameer, Chandan Kumar and Saqib Khan. -- PTI

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday dubbed the removal of the Kejriwal dispensation-appointed members from discom boards by LG V K Saxena as "unconstitutional and illegal".

The LG has started a new trend of reversing decisions taken by the elected government of Delhi, Sisodia said at a press conference here.

The deputy chief minister also rubbished the charges that the members appointed by the Arvind Kejriwal government provided benefits to the tune of Rs 8,000 crore to the private discoms.

The LG can get the alleged "scam" investigated by any central agency, he added. -- PTI 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the new tax regime will benefit the middle class as it will leave more money in their hands.

   

Talking to reporters after the customary post-Budget address to the central board of RBI, she said it is not necessary to induce individuals to invest through government schemes but give him an opportunity to make a personal decision regarding investments.

 

Under the revamped concessional tax regime, which will be effective from the next fiscal, no tax would be levied on income up to Rs 3 lakh. Income between Rs 3-6 lakh would be taxed at 5 per cent; Rs 6-9 lakh at 10 per cent, Rs 9-12 lakh at 15 per cent, Rs 12-15 lakh at 20 per cent and income of  Rs 15 lakh and above will be taxed at 30 per cent.

 

However, no tax would be levied on annual income of up to Rs 7 lakh.

 

Answering a question on the Adani Group crisis, the minister said, "Indian regulators are very, very experienced and they are experts in their domain. The regulators are seized of the matter and they are on their toes as always not just now."

 

On regulating cypto assets, she India is in discussion with G20 nations for designing a common framework.

 

Responding to a query on price rise, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said retail inflation is expected to be around 5.3 per cent in 2023-24 and may fall further if crude prices remain benign.

 

Das said RBI has assumed USD 95 per barrel rate of crude for inflation projection for the next fiscal.

 

On pricing of loans, Das said market competition will decide rates on lending and deposit sides as it has been a de-regulated segment. -- PTI 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 246-km Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway on Sunday, with the new stretch set to reduce the travel time from the national capital to Jaipur from five hours to around three and a half hours.

   

Developed at a cost of more than Rs 12,150 crore, this first completed section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will provide a major boost to the economic development of the entire region, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.

 

Modi will launch road development projects worth more than Rs 18,100 crore from Dausa and will visit Karnataka on Monday to inaugurate the 14th edition of Aero India 2023 at the Air Force Station, Yelahanka in Bengaluru.

 

The PMO said Modi's emphasis on the building of excellent road infrastructure as an engine of growth, development and connectivity in "New India" is being realised by the construction of a number of ongoing world class expressways across the country.

 

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will be the India's longest with the length of 1,386 km. It will reduce travel distance between Delhi and Mumbai by 12 per cent, from 1,424 km to 1,242 km, while the travel time will be cut by 50 per cent, from the current 24 hours to 12 hours, it said.

 

The expressway will pass through six states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra and connect major cities like Kota, Indore, Jaipur, Bhopal, Vadodara and Surat.

 

It will also serve 93 PM Gati Shakti Economic Nodes, 13 ports, eight major airports and eight multi-modal logistics parks (MMLPs) along with spurs to new upcoming greenfield airports such as Jewar Airport, Navi Mumbai Airport and JNPT port.

 

It will have a catalytic impact in the developmental trajectory of all adjoining regions, thus contributing in a major way in the economic transformation of the country, the PMO said.

 

During the programme, Modi will also lay the foundation stone of 247 kilometres of national highway projects to be developed at a cost of more than Rs 5,940 crore.

 

About the prime minister's programme in Bengaluru, the PMO noted that the theme of Aero India 2023 is "The Runway to a Billion Opportunities".

 

In line with Modi's vision of "Make in India, Make for the World", the event will focus on displaying indigenous equipment, technologies and forging partnerships with foreign companies, it said.

 

The prime minister's emphasis on self-reliance in the Indian defence sector will also be displayed, as the event will showcase the country's progress in design leadership, growth in UAVs sector, defence space and futuristic technologies.

 

Further, the event will promote export of indigenous air platforms like Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)-Tejas, HTT-40, Dornier Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) and Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), the PMO said. -- PTI

Fresh snowfall in Kashmir on Saturday affected air and surface traffic as the Srinagar-Jammu national highway was closed for vehicles due to shooting stones and flights were delayed because of poor visibility, officials said.

   

The highway too remained closed on Friday and Thursday due to shooting stones at Panthyal and many other places in Ramban district.

 

Flights scheduled to arrive at Srinagar international airport were delayed due to poor visibility caused by the fresh spell of snowfall.

 

"Flights will resume only after improvement in the visibility," an official of the Airport Authority of India said.

 

Snowfall has been going on in most places in the Kashmir Valley since early morning.

 

An official of the traffic control department said the work on the restoration of the 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway was going on and vehicular movement may resume later in the day.

 

The highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, was closed on Thursday following multiple landslides between Panthiyal and Ramsu in Ramban district, leaving over 1,000 vehicles including passenger vehicles stranded at different places.

 

Officials said the road clearance operation at Panthiyal, Cafetaria Morh and Mehar is going on in full swing.

 

The iron and steel tunnel at Panthiyal was almost completely damaged by the shooting stones from the hillock overlooking the highway, they said, adding there was huge debris piled up at Cafetaria Morh and more men and machines were pressed into service to remove the road blockade.

 

The officials said the district administration Ramban provided food and shelter to the stranded passengers, who will be given preference once the road is reopened for traffic.

 

"No traffic was allowed either from Srinagar or Jammu. Once the road is through, only the stranded vehicles will be allowed to move towards their respective destinations," a traffic department official said.

 

He said the fresh traffic from the twin capitals is likely to be restored Sunday morning, depending on the road condition.

 

However, there will be one-way restrictions on the heavy motor vehicles plying on the highway, he added. -- PTI 

India recorded 132 new coronavirus infections, pushing the tally to 4.46 crore, while the active cases increased to 1,820, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

   

The death toll stands at 5,30,750, data updated by the ministry at 8 am stated.

 

The daily positivity was recorded at 0.10 per cent while the weekly positivity was pegged at 0.09 per cent, the ministry said.

 

The active cases comprise 0.01 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate increased to 98.81 per cent, according to the health ministry website.

 

So far, the country has recorded a total of 4.46 crore (4,46,83,994) Covid cases.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,41,51,424, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent.

 

According to the ministry's website, 220.62 crore doses of vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 inoculation drive.

 

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19, 2020.

 

The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore cases on May 4, three crore on June 23 last year and four crore cases on January 25 this year. -- PTI 

'Government nominees', including Aam Aadmi Party leader Jasmine Shah, appointed to the boards of power discoms in Delhi by the Arvind Kejriwal-led dispensation have been replaced with senior officials, sources at the Lieutenant Governor's office said on Saturday.

 

Besides Shah, a spokesperson of the AAP, those removed from the boards include Naveen Gupta, son of AAP MP N D Gupta, and other private persons "illegally" appointed as 'government nominees', they claimed.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party termed the LG's orders removing Shah and Gupta from the boards of discoms "illegal and unconstitutional". The LG does not have the power to issue such orders, it claimed.

The sources at the LG's office, meanwhile, said the finance secretary, power secretary and the MD of Delhi Transco will now represent the city government on the boards of the discoms, in line with the prevalent practice.

Delhi LG V K Saxena had ordered the immediate removal of Shah, Gupta and other private individuals "illegally" appointed as government nominees to the boards of the BYPL, BRPL and the TPDDL, they said.

The AAP, however, said only the elected government has powers to issue orders on the subject of electricity. "The LG has made a complete mockery of all Supreme Court orders and the Constitution. He is openly going around saying that SC orders are not binding on him," the party added.

The LG had invoked "difference of opinion" under Article 239AA of the Constitution of India after the Kejriwal government persisted upon their continuance as government nominees, despite "proven misconduct and maleficence", by allegedly benefiting the discoms to the tune of more than 8,000 crore, the sources claimed.

Saxena had referred the matter to the President of India for a decision. He had asked for the removal of the "political appointees" from the discom boards with immediate effect, they added.

The Delhi government owns 49 per cent stake in the discoms. Senior officers used to serve on the boards of the discoms earlier, but the Kejriwal government started nominating politically affiliated persons to them, the sources claimed. -- PTI 

The Centre will introduce new guidelines for releasing subsidies to farmers for the purchase of farm machinery and tools, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shobha Karandlaje has said.

          

A major portion of the subsidy is at present set apart for the purchase of tractors and farmers are not able to purchase other farm machineries and tools required for their daily work, she said, inaugurating a three-day farm machinery fair on the premises of the Vivekananda college at Puttur Friday evening. 

        

The minister asked youth to explore new methods for producing value added products from coconut as there is huge demand for such products including coconut sugar and coconut milk.

        

She also suggested that arecanut and coconut growers can cultivate oil palm as an inter-crop as there is demand for palm oil which is being imported now. The farmers should strive for achieving self-sufficiency in edible oil production.

        

Karandlaje said her ministry has sent a proposal on raising the minimum import price of arecanut to the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT). The DGFT will forward the same to the Commerce Ministry which will take a final decision.

        

The central arecanut and cocoa marketing and processing cooperative (CAMPCO) president A Kishore Kumar Kodgi, in his speech, requested the union government not to allow import of arecanut as it will adversely affect the domestic market. -- PTI  

ChatGPT could score at or around the approximately 60 per cent passing threshold for the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE), with responses that made coherent, internal sense and contained frequent insights, according to a new study.

 

Tiffany Kung and colleagues at AnsibleHealth, California, US, tested ChatGPT's performance on the USMLE, a highly standardized and regulated series of three exams, including Steps 1, 2CK, and 3, required for medical licensure in the US, the study said.

Taken by medical students and physicians-in-training, the USMLE assesses knowledge spanning most medical disciplines, ranging from biochemistry, to diagnostic reasoning, to bioethics.

After screening to remove image-based questions from the USMLE, the authors tested the software on 350 of the 376 public questions available from the June 2022 USMLE release, the study said.

The authors found that after indeterminate responses were removed, ChatGPT had scored between 52.4 per cent and 75 per cent across the three USMLE exams, the study published in the journal PLOS Digital Health said.

The passing threshold each year is approximately 60 per cent.

ChatGPT is a new artificial intelligence (AI) system, known as a large language model (LLM), designed to generate human-like writing by predicting upcoming word sequences.

Unlike most chatbots, ChatGPT cannot search the internet, the study said.

Instead, it generates text using word relationships predicted by its internal processes, the study said.

According to the study, ChatGPT also demonstrated 94.6 per cent concordance across all its responses and produced at least one significant insight, something that was new, non-obvious, and clinically valid, for 88.9 per cent of its responses.

ChatGPT also exceeded the performance of PubMedGPT, a counterpart model trained exclusively on biomedical domain literature, which scored 50.8 per cent on an older dataset of USMLE-style questions, the study said.

While the relatively small input size restricted the depth and range of analyses, the authors noted that their findings provided a glimpse into ChatGPT's potential to enhance medical education, and eventually, clinical practice.

For example, they added, clinicians at AnsibleHealth already use ChatGPT to rewrite jargon-heavy reports for easier patient comprehension.

"Reaching the passing score for this notoriously difficult expert exam, and doing so without any human reinforcement, marks a notable milestone in clinical AI maturation," said the authors.

Kung added that ChatGPT's role in this research went beyond being the study subject.

"ChatGPT contributed substantially to the writing of [our] manuscript... We interacted with ChatGPT much like a colleague, asking it to synthesize, simplify, and offer counterpoints to drafts in progress... All of the co-authors valued ChatGPT's input." -- PTI 

The United States intelligence community has linked the Chinese spy balloon to a vast surveillance programme run by the People's Liberation Army, and US officials have begun to brief allies and partners who have been similarly targeted, The Washington Post reported.

According to The Washington Post, the surveillance balloon effort, which has operated for several years partly out of Hainan province off China's south coast, has collected information on military assets in countries and areas of emerging strategic interest to China including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines, according to several US officials.

According to officials, the surveillance airships, operated in part by the PLA air force, have been spotted over five continents.

An official said: 'What the Chinese have done is taken an unbelievably old technology, and basically married it with modern communications and observation capabilities to try to glean intelligence on other nations' militaries. It's a massive effort.'

The New York Times recently reported that, as part of its response to a Chinese spy balloon that traversed US airspace last week, the Joe Biden administration on Friday (local time) clamped down on sales of some of its technology to several Chinese aviation and technology companies.

The Commerce Department added five Chinese companies and one research institute to its so-called entity list, which will prevent companies from selling them American parts and technologies without a special license.

Alan Estevez, the undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, said the action directly responded to the Chinese government's use of high-altitude balloons for surveillance, reported NYT.

"Today's action makes clear that entities that seek to harm US national security and sovereignty will be cut off from accessing US technologies," he said.

The spy balloon's flyover from Alaska to South Carolina captured the attention of regular Americans and officials before the US military shot it down off the country's east coast.   -- ANI

The White House on Friday reiterated that the United States would welcome any effort that could lead to an end of hostilities in Ukraine when asked if there is still time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop the war or convince President Vladimir Putin.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, "I think there's still time for Putin to stop the war. I think there's still time for it. I will let PM (PM Modi) speak to whatever efforts he's willing to undertake. The US would welcome any effort that could lead to an end of hostilities in Ukraine."

Notably, Modi's statement, this is not the era for war during his interaction with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was a statement of principle he believes is right and was welcomed by the US and resonated widely in Europe in a very positive way.

On the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's summit, Modi said, "Today's era is not of war and I have spoken to you about it on the call. Today we will get the opportunity to talk about how we can progress on the path of peace."

The prime minister spoke about this during a bilateral meeting in Uzbekistan's Samarkand.

This statement was accepted by world leaders and was praised by international media.

Modi's 'Today's era is not of war' became a part of the outcome statement of the G20 joint declaration at Bali in Indonesia.   -- ANI

The Telangana government on Saturday said the inauguration of the state's new secretariat which was scheduled to be inaugurated on February 17 has been postponed owing to the poll code.

The Election Commission on February 9 released the schedule for two seats of the Telangana Legislative Council, along with 13 seats of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council.

The ECI which announced that notifications for these elections will be issued on February 16, had said the model code of conduct for these elections would come into force with immediate effect in the constituencies concerned.

Polls for the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad Teachers' constituency and Hyderabad Local Authorities' constituency will be held on March 13.

"As the election Code is in place, the Chief Secretary held consultations the Election Commission about the inauguration of the Secretariat scheduled on February 17. As the response from the ECI was not promising, the inauguration has been postponed for now. The next date will be announced," an official release from KCR's office said.

Rao had laid the foundation stone for the construction of new Secretariat building here at the existing location near Hussain Sagar Lake in June 2019.

The complex coming up in about 7 lakh square feet is in its final stage of completion. After the grand inauguration of the secretariat on February 17, which also happens to be Rao's birthday, the Bharat Rashtra Samiti wanted to hold a grand public meeting.

An official release had earlier said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, Janata Dal-United national president Lalan Singh as representative of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Dr B R Ambedkar's grandson Prakash Ambedkar among other dignitaries would attend the inaugural ceremony of the secretariat and all the leaders would attend a public meeting in Hyderabad on that day.   -- PTI

Rescuers pulled out children on Friday (local time) from the rubble of the Turkey-Syria earthquake as the toll crossed 24,000, reported The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH).

The confirmed death toll from the deadliest quake in the region in two decades stood at more than 24,000 across southern Turkey and northwest Syria four days after it hit.

The stench of death hung over Turkey's eastern city of Kahramanmaras -- the epicentre of the first 7.8-magnitude tremor that upturned millions of lives in the pre-dawn hours of Monday.

It is located in a remote region filled with people already displaced by war, reported France24.

Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said authorities should have reacted faster to this week's huge earthquake.

Erdogan on Friday visited Turkey's Adiyaman province, where he acknowledged the government's response was not as fast as it could have been.

"Although we have the largest search and rescue team in the world right now, it is a reality that search efforts are not as fast as we wanted them to be," he said.

Erdogan is standing for re-election in a vote scheduled for May 14 and his opponents have seized upon the issue to attack him.

The election may now be postponed due to the disaster.

With anger simmering over delays in the delivery of aid and getting the rescue effort underway, the disaster is likely to play into the election, if it goes ahead.

Erdogan, for whom the vote was his toughest challenge in two decades in power even before the earthquake, has called for solidarity and condemned what he has described as 'negative campaigns for political interest'.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of Turkey's main opposition party, criticised the government's response.

'The earthquake was huge, but what was much bigger than the earthquake was the lack of coordination, lack of planning and incompetence,' Kilicdaroglu said in a statement.

Hundreds of thousands more people have been left homeless and short of food in bleak winter conditions and leaders in both countries have faced questions about their response, reported SMH.

Rescuers, including teams from dozens of countries, toiled night and day in the ruins of thousands of wrecked buildings to find buried survivors.

In freezing temperatures, they regularly called for silence as they listened for any sound of life from mangled concrete mounds.

The United Nations warned that at least 870,000 people urgently needed hot meals across Turkey and Syria.

In Syria alone, up to 5.3 million people may have been made homeless.

"That is a huge number and comes to a population already suffering mass displacement," said Sivanka Dhanapala, the Syria representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made his first reported trip to affected areas since the quake, visiting a hospital in Aleppo with his wife Asma, state media reported.

His government also approved humanitarian aid deliveries across the frontlines of the country's 12-year civil war, a move that could speed up the arrival of help for millions of desperate people.

The World Food Program said earlier it was running out of stocks in rebel-held northwest Syria as the state of war there complicated relief efforts, reported SMH.   -- ANI

The AADTA had fielded Dr Seema Das, a professor of political science at Hindu College, for the executive council elections. 

Das won the election getting more than 3,100 votes. 

AADTA national in-charge Dr Aditya Naryan Mishra dedicated the victory to AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and said that the party is comfortably placed in the academic council elections too with all its five candidates set to win. 

The executive council election of the Delhi University takes place every two years. 

Over 12,000 teachers from about 70 colleges cast their votes to elect two teacher representatives to the 21-member executive council -- the highest decision making body of the university. -- PTI

Taking suo motu cognizance of the matter, Press Council of India chairperson Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai directed the Maharashtra government through its chief secretary and director general of police to submit a report on the facts of the case at the earliest. 

Similar directives wee also issued to the district magistrate and the superintendent of police of Ratnagiri, a PCI statement said. 

Journalist Shashikant Warishe, 48, was seriously injured on Monday when an SUV allegedly driven by Pandharinath Amberkar hit his two-wheeler near a petrol pump at Rajapur, some 440 km from Mumbai. 

Warishe died in hospital the next day. 

An article written by Warishe against Amberkar had appeared in a local Marathi newspaper on the morning of the incident. -- PTI

Addressing a street corner meeting at Old Bowenpally in Hyderabad as part of 'Janam Gosa-BJP Bharosa' (people's suffering - BJP's assurance) campaign, he disapproved of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao inaugurating the new Secretariat on the latter's birthday on February 17. 

The Secretariat building, named after Babasaheb Ambedkar by the BRS government, should be inaugurated on April 14, Ambedkar's birth anniversary, Kumar said. 

The BRS government has increased the expenditure estimates to build the Secretariat from Rs 400 crore to Rs 1,500 crore, the Karimnagar Lok Sabha member alleged. 

"With Rs 1,500 crore, he is building Secretariat like Taj Mahal. Once BJP government is formed, we will definitely demolish those domes. We will change the Secretariat in such a way that it reflects Telangana and Indian culture," he said. 

Referring to AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi's reported reported comments that the new Secretariat has been built magnificently, like a Taj Mahal, he alleged that Rao is trying to please Owaisi and that Taj Mahal is actually a 'samadhi'.

He also said Pragati Bhavan, the Chief Minister's camp office-cum-official residence here, would be converted into a 'Praja Darbar'. -- PTI