Tag: India

  • Fans react to Babar Azam being ‘ignored’ by ICC in World Cup promo

    Fans react to Babar Azam being ‘ignored’ by ICC in World Cup promo

    On July 20, the International Cricket Council (ICC) shared a promo for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. Cricket fans around the world have strongly reacted to Babar Azam, number one ODI batter, being ignored by the ICC in its recently released World Cup promo in which Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan also made an appearance.

    ICC tweeted: “History will be written and dreams will be realised at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. All it takes is just one day.”

    However, cricket fans were quick to point out an obvious omission by the ICC in its World Cup promo.

    The missing factor: Pakistan’s star batter Babar Azam.

    Read more: Babar Azam and co ready to dominate in LPL: auction data released

    Fans called out the ICC for its ‘bias’, not including Babar Azam in the promo and also for making the content more about the Indian cricket team and less about the World Cup.

    Here are some tweets by fans who were not happy with the ICC:

  • Two women allegedly gang-raped, paraded naked in India

    Two women allegedly gang-raped, paraded naked in India

    In a shocking sequence of events, a viral video from May 4 shows two women from Kangpoki district, Manipur, being paraded on the streets naked after being gang-raped in a field. According to the statement posted by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF):

    “…The despicable scene, which happened on May 4 in Kangpokpi district, shows the men constantly molesting the helpless women, who cry and plead with their captors.”

    “The horrifying ordeal suffered by these innocent women is amplified by the perpetrators’ decision to share the video, which shows the identity of the victims, on social media,” ITLF further wrote, appealing to the National Commission For Women and the National Comission for Scheduled Tribes to intervene and arrest the aggressors.

    According to The Wire, the incident happened after tribal clashes between the Meitei and Kuki community in Manipur on May 3. The violence began when tribal groups held a solidarity march against the demand to grant Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei community. A mob burned down houses and accosted five people who were trying to flee the violence. Two men in the group were murdered, and the other women were forced to strip.

    The Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani had condemned the incident on her Twitter account yesterday and revealed that she had spoken with Chief Minister N Biren Singh to order the police and investigate this crime to take speedy action against the perpetuators.

    According to Outlook, the Indian government has issued an order to social media websites like Twitter to take down the video

  • Flood waters reach boundary wall of Taj Mahal, raising fears of damage to iconic building

    Flood waters reach boundary wall of Taj Mahal, raising fears of damage to iconic building

    Flood waters from Yamuna river have reached the boundary wall of the Taj Mahal, raising fears of damage to the most famous building in India.

    Water levels in Yamuna have risen steadily since June when unusually heavy rains hit north India including Uttar Pradesh, home to the iconic Taj. According to India’s Central Water Commission (CWC), the portion of the river flowing alongside the Taj Mahal rose to 152m on Tuesday evening, well above the warning level for potential danger of 151.4m. The level considered dangerous is 152.4 metres.

    The last time flood waters hit the boundary wall was in 1978, exactly 45 years ago.

    The mausoleum, where Mughal emperor Shah Jehan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal are buried, remains untouched by the water as of now.

    However, the red walls of the compound appear submerged in photographs shared by Indian news outlets.

  • Buzzfeed’s AI-generated Barbie Dolls article faces backlash for racial stereotypes

    Buzzfeed’s AI-generated Barbie Dolls article faces backlash for racial stereotypes

    Popular website Buzzfeed published an article featuring AI-generated images of Barbie Dolls from every country around the world. The piece has received extreme backlash for promoting racist micro-aggressions and cultural inaccuracies, which prompted the website to delete the article from all of their social media pages.

    Buzzfeed had given a brief disclaimer before the article that they acknowledged the biases and stereotypes demonstrated by AI models, clarifiying that these depictions should not be seen as accurate or comprehensive portrayals of human experiences.

    The article featured Barbies from all around the world, including one from Pakistan, who looked more like she stepped out of an Arabian fantasy book rather than from the streets of Lahore or Karachi.

    And the Barbie from India looks a lot more like subcontinent’s colonial masters than Deepika Padukone, the ACTUAL Barbie.

    And don’t even get me started on what the Afghanistan Barbie looks like. It’s a shame how a vibrant culture is reduced to burqas by racist algorithms

    A lot of the dolls featured in the article from Asian countries like Vietnam and Korea were wearing inaccurate clothing along with white-washed features.

    A Barbie from South Sudan was seen carrying a gun, drawing outrage from users.

  • EU parliament urges Indian PM Modi to protect minorities

    EU parliament urges Indian PM Modi to protect minorities

    On Thursday, the European Parliament urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to end ethnic violence in Manipur, and to do more to protect ethnic and religious minorities in India. Modi is currently on an official visit to France, having been invited to attend the country’s annual Bastille Day national festival as a guest of honour. 

    However, between the ceremony and the diplomatic courting, EU parliamentarians in Strasbourg approved a motion that urged India to end violence in the country’s northeastern Manipur state, and to protect the minorities there. 

    The motion also criticised the ‘national rhetoric’ of the local state government, run by Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). EU parliamentarian Pierre Larrouturou released a statement on his Twitter, with an accompanying video.

    In his tweet, Larrouturou stated that Modi and Macron can “pretend that everything is going well in India”,however, the EU parliament is recalling facts, and strongly condemns the human rights violations that take place in India.

    “Every day in India, thousands of Muslims, Christians, and members of ethnic minorities see their rights repressed,” the statement read. “To remain silent on the situation would have been a humiliation for all those who fight for their fights and suffer every day from the Hindu nationalism imposed by the Modi government.”

    In May, CNN reported how residents of Manipur say there has been a breakdown of law and order. This was after a spell of violence that left at least 58 dead and tens of thousands more homeless.

    In a speech to the public, Larrouturou went on to point out, “In Manipur, for the past two months, we have seen monstrous violence. Over 120 people have died and 1700 homes have been devastated, 250 churches have been destroyed, 40,000 people have fled for their lives.”

    Despite differences over the war in Ukraine, namely India’s continued support to Russia, as well as tensions over human rights violations in the country, Western democracies are courting Modi and what is currently the world’s most populous country, as a counterweight to China’s influence in Asia.

    India is also one of the largest global buyers of French arms. On Thursday, India approved in principle the purchase of 26 French marine Rafale jets and three Scorpene-class submarines, news agency ANI reported. 

    During Modi’s last visit to Paris in 2015, he announced a landmark deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets worth around €4 billion ($4.48 billion).

  • Dukaan CEO lays off 90% of his support staff in favour of AI chatbot

    Dukaan CEO lays off 90% of his support staff in favour of AI chatbot

    Suumit Shah, founder and CEO of Bangalore-based e-commerce startup Dukaan, announced via his Twitter account that he has laid off 90% of his customer support staff in favour of using an AI chatbot. 

    The bot was built by one of the firm’s data scientists, and according to Shah was able to respond to initial queries instantly, compared to the average staff time of one minute and 44 seconds.

    In his tweet, Shah admitted that the layoffs were “tough, but necessary”, explaining that given the state of the economy, startups are prioritising “profitability”.  

    Customer Support has apparently been a long-time struggle for Dukaan. In a conversation with CNN, Shah said that the company had cut the cost of its customer support function by 85% after introducing AI technology. He reasoned that this part of the business had been problematic for some time, with delayed responses and limited availability of staff at critical times, among other issues.

    That’s what prompted Shah to come up with the idea to create a personal AI-assistant for Dukaan, which would answer customer queries instantly, precisely, and from anywhere. Dukaan’s AI-lead Ojasvi Yadav stepped up to the plate.

    According to Shah’s Twitter thread, just a day after the bot was launched, Dukaan’s AI chatbot ‘Lina’ had resolved 200 lives chats and 1400 support tickets. The success of Lina propelled the team to create Dukaan’s new product ‘BOT9.ai’. It is an AI assistant, that can learn the ins-and-outs of a business, and answer customer queries instantly, 24/7. 

    As Shah tweeted, “it’s less magical, sure, but at least it pays the bills!”

    Considering the era of AI we are in now, and the general widespread layoffs by tech giants, Shah’s decision had been met with much criticism. However, Shah continued to justify the layoffs by emphasizing how AI technology can optimise their operations. 

    Moreover, Shah believes that allocating employees’ expertise to areas requiring critical thinking, while relegating routine tasks to AI-powered chatbots, improves efficiency while also allowing for a better allocation of human resources.

    Many Twitter users were enraged at the apparent pride in Shah’s tweets. One user tweeted, “You disrupted the lives of 90% of your support team & you’re celebrating it in public. You also likely destroyed your customer support (disprove with good CSAT for the bot) – all for a basic ChatGPT wrapper. This is a new low even for you.” 

    While the announcement may read as apathetic, it is not surprising that major companies are turning to AI to improve general performance and efficiency in what are considerably quite routine tasks. 

    According to a report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which looks at layoffs across every industry, around 5% of May’s job cuts in 2023 were directly related to artificial intelligence. 

    Are you worried AI is going to replace you at work?

  • Another Indian official arrested for getting tricked by alleged Pakistani spy 

    Another Indian official arrested for getting tricked by alleged Pakistani spy 

    The Ghaziabad Police in India have arrested Naveen Pal, an official working for the Minister of Finance, for passing on classified information related to the ministry and the G20 meeting to a hacker allegedly disguised as a woman in Karachi, Pakistan.

    According to India Today, Pal met the woman online on social media and both began talking on Whatsapp.

    The police reported that Pal had several confidential financial documents in his phone, with the files saved under the name ‘secret’.

    The woman’s phone number was traced to Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly, but the IP address was found to be from Karachi.

    This is the second recent incident of an Indian official being duped by a Pakistani hacker into sending confidential information. An Indian defence scientist Pradeep Kurulkar, had been exchanging texts and voice messages with a woman named Zara, sending her confidential defence information on phone.

  • ‘Pyaar kiya toh daarna kia’, Pakistani woman marries Indian PUBG love

    ‘Pyaar kiya toh daarna kia’, Pakistani woman marries Indian PUBG love

    They say love is crazy and limitless. According to Seema Haider, a 27-year-old Pakistani woman and mother of four, love was the reason behind her decision to move to India and start a new life with an Indian man.

    The news of the across-the-border love story has been making rounds on social media. “You only live once then you get old and die, so I chose love over everything,” says Seema.

    Seema is now married to Sachin Meena and lives in a two-room house 70 kilometers from India’s capital New Delhi. She has refused to come to back to Pakistan. “I’ll die here but never return,” Seema stated.

    In an interview shared by BBC, Seema and Sachin opened up about how the romance began for them and what they mean to each other. They started talking on PUBG in 2020, becoming close friends in a span of seven months. According to the lovers, they met in March in Nepal for the first time and it was Seema who got Sachin a ticket.

    Seema told the interviewer that it’s a wondrous feeling when you are talking to someone from across the border. She said, “I used to show him Pakistan and he used to show me India.”

    On being asked that Pakistan is demanding for counselor access to Seema, she was pretty clear that she is never coming back to Pakistan. “I don’t hate Pakistan. It’s not like I don’t miss the country. I have spent my childhood there. My family is there and my parents are buried in Pakistan, but I won’t go back,” she said. Sachin was also very local about not letting Seema go back, he said, “I won’t let her leave till I’m alive.”

    Seema’s first Pakistani husband Ghulam Haider, who is currently in Saudi Arabia, has appealed to the Saudi government to help him in getting his wife and four children back, to which Sachain responded that Seema is also his wife now, and he has accepted her with the children. Seema further added that Haider has claimed that she is still his wife, but she is not. Haider had divorced her verbally. It’s not on papers yet. She said verbal divorce is considered divorced in Pakistan.

    “A woman can also file for divorce. I’ll send him a notice to make it official,” she added.

    When asked about changing her religion, Seema expressed that she willingly converted to Hinduism and there was no pressure on her as claimed by her ‘ex-husband’.

    She was questioned that Sachin works at a shop, do you think you along with your four kids will be offered a good life with him. “Yes, he respects me, loves my kids and that’s enough. It means nothings when one gives you money, but no respect,” she replied.

  • ‘I was not targeting anyone particularly’: Kajol provides clarification on ‘educated political leaders’ comment

    ‘I was not targeting anyone particularly’: Kajol provides clarification on ‘educated political leaders’ comment

    Bollywood actress Kajol recently said in an interview to The Quint that people are steeped in traditions, and politicians are uneducated which is why there isn’t a clear viewpoint on how to move forward in India:

    “You have political leaders who do not have an educational system background. I’m sorry but I’m going to go out and say that. I’m being ruled by leaders, so many of them, who do not have that viewpoint, which I think education does give you, at least the chance to look out for a different viewpoint.” 

    While some applauded the DDLJ actress for making a strong case for why its important to have educated leaders, some Twitter users were enraged by her comments and pointed out that Kajol herself was a school dropout.

    Kajol took to Twitter to post a clarification, saying that she was emphasising the importance of education, and was not targeting any politician.

    “I was merely making a point about education and its importance. My intention was not to demean any political leaders, we have some great leaders who are guiding the country on the right path.”

  • Indian defence scientist arrested after ‘falling in love’ with Pakistani, sharing classified info: NDTV

    Indian defence scientist arrested after ‘falling in love’ with Pakistani, sharing classified info: NDTV

    Pradeep Kurulkar, a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist from India, was arrested on May 3 after it was revealed he was chatting with a Pakistani using the alias ‘Zara Dasgupta’, NDTV has reported.

    Kurulkar, who was the Head of one of the labs in Pune, met Zara through WhatsApp where they had exchanged voice and video notes.

    Zara claimed to be a software engineer based in the UK, and befriended the scientist by sending him obscene texts and videos, while Kurulkar revealed classified information about top secret projects like the Brahmos Launcher, UCV, Agni Missile Launcher and other things.

    “Kurulkar, who was attracted to her, stored the classified and sensitive information of DRDO on his personal phone and then allegedly shared it with Zara,” the charge sheet said.

    The two remained in touch from June 2022 to December 2022.

    Chat records also show that Kurulkar shared his personal and office schedules and location with the spy, despite being strictly forbidden from doing so.