India News
Save on diplomatic front, NDA-2 has fared poorly

Saturday’s afternoon talk show examines performance of Modi government after four years in office, unemployment and growth remain big issues
Saturday’s afternoon debate centred on an examination of the performance of the Narendra Modi government four years into its five-year tenure. Participants included APN managing editor Vinay Rai, Congress spokesperson Ajay Verma, BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana, CPI spokesperson Aameer Haider Zaidi, diplomat NN Jha and senior journalist Govind Pant Raju. The debate was anchored by Akshay Singh.
Rai made the opening remarks. “The Ujjwala scheme and awas yojana have reached the common man. But did the LPG problem get solved? Development should be inclusive. Every section of the society must be taken along. So if the government has underperformed, the people will teach it a lesson, come 2019,” he said.
Verma had the next chance to speak. “As far as employment is concerned, the Modi government is a huge failure, statistics show. Leave alone job creation, according to the labour ministry, everyday 550 jobs are being destroyed. Four crore BPL families are yet to be covered. Even the Model Village Scheme has failed. Yet Modi has spent 12,000 crores on advertisements and spent millions on international travel, yet the H1B visa is under threat. Even the Namami Gange project has not taken off. Bank NPAs have increased to 9.9 percent. GDP has fallen to 6.5 percent,” was his well-annotated point.
Zaidi of CPI was quite despondent about the performance of the Modi government.
“The government sold off the Red Fort. Their idea of employment and progress is pakodas and cycle puncture service. The Rs 15 lakh dole to every bank account has turned out to be a jumla. And Dalits and minorities are now under life threat. The government keeps haranguing against Pakistan but imports sugar from it while not taking cane from its own farmers, leading to penury, untold sufferings and suicides,” he said.
Raju, however, had a different take. “It is a bold government,” he said. “No other government has taken a bold step such as demonetisation. Also, let us not look down upon the concept of swarozgar and small work. The problem is that even after training, there is no help from the government to support youth starting their own businesses. There is a dearth of loans under the Mudra scheme.”
Regarding rise in fuel price, the government is taking steps to bring it down. Our government’s philosophy is every youth must be a job giver and not a job seeker. We have framed our policies according to that. We have good intentions. But a lot of our work remains to be done, BJP spokesperson Khurana said.
Jha felt that, on the diplomatic front, there have been successes. “But, especially with regard to China, it is a work in progress. I would give the government eight out of 10 on this front,” he said.
—Compiled by Sucheta Dasgupta
India News
Open AI CEO Sam Altman meets PM Modi to discuss AI opportunities in India
OpenAI is the firm behind ChatGPT, an artificial chatbot.

On Thursday, Open AI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sam Altman met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
Altman in his meeting with PM Modi discussed the need for global regulation related to artificial intelligence.
OpenAI is the firm behind ChatGPT, an artificial chatbot.
Altman’s meeting with PM Narendra Modi holds significance as India is in the process of regulating AI through the upcoming Digital India Bill, which is likely to replace the Information Technology (IT) Act. As per reports, during the meeting PM Modi and Altman discussed the potential and opportunities of artificial intelligence in India together with the need for regulations to address the loopholes of this emerging technology.
Addressing the Digital India Dialogues event at IIT Delhi, Altman expressed his satisfaction with the meeting and added that the Prime Minister provided great answers on why India has embraced ChatGPT. In addition, he further elaborated that they talked about India’s prospects, the necessary steps for the country along with the importance of global regulations to avert negative consequences.
Furthermore, speaking about his company Altman said, they have spent almost 8 months on GPT for making sure that it was safe enough to release.
He mentioned that they build the technology and have worked with organisations to figure out what the limits should be and tested them all.
He also acknowledged that they think, coordination and self-regulation is important. However, the world should not be left entirely in the hands of the companies.
In addition, narrating about his plan for India, Altman mentioned, the first thing he will do in India is to fund startups. Considering, India’s strong IT industry along with large set of data, AI-based utilities can leverage huge potential in the country.
Although, AI is still in its early stages. He expressed that they were always amazed and quite grateful for the quality of Indian startups. Following the meeting, PM Modi thanked Altman for the insightful conversation. He tweeted that the potential of AI in enhancing India’s tech ecosystem is indeed vast and that too among the youth in particular. He also welcomed collaborations that can accelerate digital
India News
Caught on cam: 22-year-old man hits, stabs man on Delhi street, suspect arrested
The 22-year-old boys are identified as Kasim, the victim, and Sohaib, the attacker. However, police have taken Sohaib into custody.

A man has been seen hitting and stabbing another man on a road in yet another terrifying incident that has been reported from Delhi’s Nand Nagri PS area late on Thursday night.
The video of the incident has gone viral on the internet. A CCTV camera was present at the place of occurrence and recorded the entire incident.
The 22-year-old boys are identified as Kasim, the victim, and Sohaib, the attacker. However, police have taken Sohaib into custody.
Kasim first got hit by Sohaib before he noticed stabbing him with a knife as he lay on the road. Then, using the knife, the attacker stabbed the victim’s left elbow severely, causing a strange bend. Surprisingly, the witnesses did not try to help the victim or stop the attacker as he walked away.
Kasim’s mother was horrified after seeing her son in near to death situation. She rushed over to Kasim and took him in her arms. In the video, she can be heard screaming that her son has been stabbed repeatedly. The incident happened at about 10:30 p.m.
After that Kasim was taken to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital (GTB) in Shahdara, Delhi. Later, he was sent to the Safdarjung Enclave Trauma Centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi. He is receiving treatment and has not given the police a statement due to the serious injuries.
The accused and victim both lived in the same area and were known to each other. However, it is still unclear what has led to the conflict. Police has begun the investigation after the FIR was filed.
The case is similar to the 16-year-old Sakshi murder case in Delhi a week ago, a 20-year-old man Sahil made a gruesome attack on a girl called Sakshi, whom he stabbed more than 20 times and bludgeoned to death with a cement slab.
The next day, Sahil who had escaped the incident was arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahar.
India News
Fire engulfs Delhi hospital, 20 newborns rescued
Delhi Fire Service Director Atul Garg said, at 1:35 am, they received a call about a fire to have broken out at a hospital. First, four teams were sent but later as they were informed there were 20 newborns trapped, again four more tenders were sent.

A fire broke out at a West Delhi hospital in the early hours of Friday, 20 newborns were rescued and no fatalities reported.
The incident reported at a Child hospital in the Vaishali colony of Delhi.
As many as nine fire fighting teams were effectuated to rescue the newborns from the deadly ablaze.
All 20 newborns were immediately shifted to other medical facilities after were rescued.
As per the Delhi police, 13 of the 20 rescued newborns were shifted to Janakpuri’s Arya hospital, two were shifted to a newborn child hospital in Dwarka, two were shifted to JK Hospital in Janakpuri and other three were discharged after rescue.
Reports said, the fire broke out at around 1:35 am after some furniture items caught fire, but was brought into control by the Delhi fire service team.
Delhi Fire Service Director Atul Garg said, at 1:35 am, they received a call about a fire to have broken out at a hospital. First, four teams were sent but later as they were informed there were 20 newborns trapped, again four more tenders were sent.
Garg said, he and his team reached the spot on time and were succesful in extinguishing the fire.
Garg also claimed the hospital did not have a fire NOC and it was just a one floor hospital.
Further investigation is underway to find out the reason behind.
The incident comes just a day after a massive fire broke out at a hospital in Lucknow.
An under-construction facility of the King George Medical University’s (KGMU) of Lucknow was engulfed with fire, which was later brought under control with no casualties reported.
A similar incident was reported from Mumbai early this morning, a huge fire broke out in a 5-storey building in the Zaveri Bazaar area of Mumbai, which trapped around 50-60 people inside the building.
However, with the efforts of 12 fire tenders team, all the people trapped were evacuated safely.
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