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New Delhi, Oct 4 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it has attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs 6.03 crore in connection with a money laundering case lodged against K.N. Marzook, the former Chairman and Director of Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI), and others.

An ED official said the attached properties consist of various movable and immovable properties in the form of bank accounts, lands and residential and commercial space in Kerala Trade Centre (KTC) building situated in Ernakulam, in his name as well as in the name of Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and Cherupushpam Films Private Limited.

The ED initiated money laundering investigation against Marzook and others on the basis of the FIR filed by Central Police Station, Ernakulam district, Kerala.

The ED learnt in the investigation that Marzook had been misusing his official position.

The official said that by misusing his official power, he made the KCCI enter sale agreements with buyers of KTC and received money from various buyers for selling the building space of the Kerala Trade Centre in cash.

During the course of investigation, it was revealed that Marzook received huge cash amounts from the prospective buyers and had diverted money received from the sale of KTC building space to start a private TV channel namely India Middle East Broadcasting Network (IMBEN).

This TV channel was banned from operations by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting due to involvement of Marzook.

The ED learnt that crores of rupees were diverted from KTC accounts to KCCI and IMEBN accounts by Marzook.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Oct 4 (IANS) Actor Amit Sadh, who is known for his work in 'Kai Po Che!: Brothers...For Life' and the streaming series 'Breathe', recently made Golden Globe Award winning Hollywood actor Jeremy Samuel Piven during his ongoing holiday in the USA. Amit is quite inspired and influenced by the American actor-comedian-producer.

The actor even shared a picture of himself with Jeremy on his Instagram and also penned down his experience of interacting with him.

Amit wrote in the caption: "Jeremy Piven's portrayal of Ari Gold (Entourage) is one of the first few performances that inspired me when I started my acting career. It continues even today after meeting him, I find him bold, and he has the fortitude and courage to push through life's ordeals. He has greatly influenced me so much that it helped me to understand that there is a great message under the mess we come across in our life (sic)."

Expressing his gratitude, he further mentioned: "Thank you brother for opening up to me. I cherish the stories of your life, which you shared with me. I look forward to your next film and can't wait to see you tap dancing. This friendship shall continue. @borncarioca Thank you for making this happen - and for the shadow that lurks on this image, says it all."

Jeremy is best known for his role as Ari Gold in the popular comedy series 'Entourage', for which he won a Golden Globe Award and three consecutive Emmy Awards.

Meanwhile, Amit, who recently completed shooting for season 3 of 'Breathe', will be portraying a photojournalist in his forthcoming short film titled 'Ghuspaith - Beyond Borders'.

--IANS
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Chennai, Oct 4 (IANS) Post its global box-office juggernaut, superstar Kamal Haasan's 'Vikram' is all set to have another international recognition under its belt.

The film will be screened at the prestigious Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) slated to take place from October 5-14.

'Vikram' will be screened under the Open Cinema category that recognises new and internationally acclaimed films that strike the perfect balance between popular and artistic cinema.

Produced by multi-faceted legend Kamal Haasan and R. Mahendran, 'Vikram' released on June 3 earlier this year and went on to become a box office phenomenon across the world and also the highest grossing Tamil film in the UK. Director Lokesh Kanagaraj masterfully created an immersive universe in the film. That coupled with a stellar star cast made 'Vikram' one of the most successful Indian movies of 2022.

"The response to Vikram all over the world has been extremely overwhelming. The Busan International Film Festival is another feather in the film's cap and its selection is a win for the entire team. We are proud to have our film being screened along with some of the finest films across the globe and are grateful for all the love and adulation from the audiences," said V. Narayanan, CEO Raaj Kamal Films International.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Oct 4 (IANS) Google-owned video streaming platform YouTube might reportedly limit access to 4K videos to only users of its Premium service.

According to MacRumors, some users on Reddit and Twitter mentioned that they have started to notice that on iOS, and presumably across other platforms also.

However, not all users are seeing the 4K quality option blocked behind YouTube's paywall, and it is unclear if YouTube plans to move forward with this.

A standard YouTube Premium plan costs $11.99 in the US and includes ad-free videos, background playback, and the ability to download videos for offline viewing.

The platform recently said it is testing a new feature in its mobile app with its Premium subscribers that allows them to zoom in on any video.

The latest opt-in experimental feature enables a pinch-to-zoom gesture for videos -- and it works both in portrait and full-screen landscape view.

To enable pinch to zoom, open YouTube's settings menu either on your phone or from the website. If you are subscribed to YouTube Premium, there should be a "try new features" section.

--IANS
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Kabul, Oct 4 (IANS) The death toll of a suicide blast on the western edge of Kabul city has reached 53, said the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

"Further rise in casualties from Friday's classroom bombing in Hazara quarter of Kabul: 53 killed, at least 46 girls and young women, 110 injured. Our human rights team continues documenting the crime," the UN mission here tweeted on Monday.

A suicide explosion rocked an education centre in a neighbourhood of western Kabul on Friday morning where a large number of students were preparing for an exam, Xinhua news agency reported.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 3 (IANS) The central election authority (CEA) of the Congress has issued guidelines to all the state presidents to extend courtesy to both Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge who are contesting for the party presidential poll.

The guidelines says that Pradesh Returning Officer (PRO) will be the Polling Officer of their respective PCCs and shall be responsible for keeping order at the polling stations and to see that the election is fairly conducted.

"Shri Mallikarjun Kharge and Dr. Shashi Tharoor are contesting the election of Congress President in their personal capacity. Therefore, delegates are free to elect any one of them, as per their choice, through Ballot Paper.

"All the office-bearers are asked to resign first if they want to campaign. AICC General Secretaries/ In-charges, Secretaries/ Jt Secretaries, PCC Presidents, CLP Leaders, Heads of Frontal Org., Chiefs of Depts./Cells and all official Spokesperson shall not campaign for or against contesting candidates. If they wish to support any candidate they must first resign from their organisational post, after that they participate in the campaign process," said the guidelines.

CEA chairman Madhusudan Mistry has said that all the state presidents shall extend courtesy to the candidates during their visits to the respective states and arrange meeting hall, chairs and other equipment for the public announcement to the candidate who wishes to hold the meeting of the delegates.

"However, no such meeting can be called by the PCC Presidents in their personal capacity. Organising the meeting is the task of the proposer or the supporters of the contesting candidates."

As per the guidelines during the election "no candidate shall use a vehicle bringing the voters nor resort to any undesired pamphlet, any other kind of publication propaganda. Violation of these procedures shall render the candidates' election invalid and make them liable for disciplinary action".

It said, "Utmost care must be taken to ensure that there is no mala fide campaign against any candidate. The same would bring disgrace to the party. The sensitivity of the election process must be upheld at any cost."

--IANS
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By Nishant Arora
New Delhi, Oct 3 (IANS) As India rolls out 5G with showcasing some early use cases with telcos setting some aggressive deadlines, millions of smartphone users will only enjoy the super-fast Internet in 2024 amid infrastructure limitations, limited use cases and low 5G handset penetration, industry experts said on Monday.



India is home to more than 500 million smartphone users and over 100 million users with 5G-ready smartphones wish to upgrade to a 5G subscription in 2023, according to a latest Ericsson report.

However, there are multiple challenges ahead for telecom service providers to meet the tough roll-out deadlines.

"In theory, there are use cases out there which really warrant and demand 5G: enterprise solutions, private networks, IoT, logistics. But it could take a year or more for those applications to really take off," Prasanto K. Roy, a leading technology and public policy expert, told IANS.

Telcos will focus on converting existing higher-ARPU (average revenue per user) individual customers to 5G, which really limits how much more they can charge for 5G especially in a competitive space.

"I don't see 5G really bumping up ARPU overall in any significant way -- at least not in 2023," Roy said.

In the top four metros, consumers should be able to experience 5G in early October (according to Airtel) to late October (according to Reliance Jio), with Airtel planning to take 5G to eight cities this month.

There are no 5G roll out plans from Vodafone-Idea yet.

"However, with tariffs still unclear, I do not know if current 4G customers will all be able to sample a limited trial, or will have to upgrade right away. Although Airtel (and possibly Jio) expects a revenue increase (from its current ARPU of Rs 183), I do not expect most customers to shell out much more for 5G," Roy noted.

The Ericsson study, however, claimed that the Indian smartphone users are willing to pay a 45 per cent premium for a plan bundled with novel experiences, which could be a delight for Internet service providers ready with 5G.

According to Neil Shah, Vice President of Research at Counterpoint, in terms of population coverage, for all operators, India should reach the current blanket 4G coverage by the end of 2024 , way sooner than the 4G or 3G era.

"Jio is in a driver's seat with respect to its peers to likely achieve a pan India 5G network rollout over the next 15 months with no 2G, 3G and 4G baggage," Shah told IANS.

Not only consumers but also enterprises and the public sector will be able to benefit from 5G over the period of next two years.

"Airtel, on the other hand, also has been building a highly upgradeable network to easily reuse the same towers for both 4G and 5G. Most of its key circles should be able to experience 5G by mid-2024," Shah noted.

According to smartphone players, 5G has the potential to bring together the entire ecosystem and online gaming, augmented/virtual reality (AR-VR) experience, along with content creation, will take centre-stage with the launch of 5G services.

"With 5G being officially available now, we are looking forward to exploring the numerous opportunities it provides to us and will be directing our efforts into making this technology even more accessible to users," said Madhav Sheth, CEO realme India, VP, realme and President, realme International Business Group.

According to Roy, infrastructure limitations and limited use cases and revenue also pose great challenges for telcos and smartphone players.

"To really leverage 5G bandwidth and latency, towers are to be connected by fibre. Only a third of them are 'fiberised' so I would expect 5G service to be reserved for large cities until the fiber gets to twice that number of towers," he explained.

Telcos have also struggled with adequate tower density even for 4G, but 5G needs a much higher tower density -- increasing upfront investment.

"All this capex investment would also be limited by the telcos' high debt and stagnant ARPU (revenues), already stretched by spectrum fees and initial 5G investments," according to Roy.

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw expects telcos to invest Rs 2-3 lakh crore on 5G and 4G in the next two years for better voice quality and high-speed data.

There are also 5G network equipment availability challenges, because of very strict supply chain reporting mandates for cybersecurity and related reasons since June 2021 (called the NSDTS directive).

"This is slowing down approved telecom and IT equipment available for the telcos, or requiring them to apply for case by case exemptions," Roy told IANS.

(Nishant Arora can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in)

--IANS
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Islamabad, Oct 3 (IANS) The death toll from this season's monsoon rain and flood since mid-June has risen to around 1,695 along with 12,865 others injured in Pakistan, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.

According to a report released by the NDMA on Sunday, 630 children and 340 women were among those who lost their lives in separate rain or flood-related accidents in the country, Xinhua news agency reported.

The country's southern Sindh province was the worst-hit region where 759 people were killed, followed by southwest Balochistan and northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces which reported 336 and 307 deaths, respectively.

Moreover, 2,045,349 houses were destroyed and 1,162,122 livestock perished in different parts of Pakistan, the report said.

Around 33,046,329 people and 84 districts have been affected by the flood, it added.

The report further added that 13,254.49 km-long roads and 440 bridges have been damaged throughout the season.

Rescue and relief operations by the NDMA, other government organizations, volunteers and non-government organisations were underway in the flood-hit areas.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 2 (IANS) The relationship between the ruling BJP and the principal opposition party Congress has been quite bitter in the last few years, with both parties slamming each other at regular intervals over a number of issues.

The scenario, however, looked a bit different for a change on Sunday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the interim president of Congress Sonia Gandhi came face-to-face in the Parliament.

Both leaders faced each other at the Central Hall of Parliament House on the occasion of the wreath laying ceremony organised on the birth anniversary of Father of the Nation -- Mahatma Gandhi, and late former Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri.

PM Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh offered garlands on the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri.

After a while, Sonia Gandhi also proceeded to put garland on the portrait of the two departed leaders.

Modi greeted Sonia Gandhi by saying "Namaste", and in her response, the Congress leader also greeted the Prime Minister with folded hands.

Despite the exchange of greetings, a tinge of tension was visible.

Several group photographs were also clicked in which both PM Modi and Sonia Gandhi were also present but none of them neither communicated with anyone not made any eye contacts.

Later, both Rajnath Singh and Sonia Gandhi greeted each other with a "Namaste".

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 2 (IANS) The recent police complaint by Kerala MP Hibi Eden against the manipulation of the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' pictures of Rahul Gandhi by the BJP's "online hate factory", has once again put the focus on the use of social media in India for peddling misinformation and hate.

Over the years, social media has turned into a battleground of the dirty tricks departments of the major political parties.

As per a research paper by S Md. Al-Zaman in 2021 titled "Social Media Fake News in India" published in the Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research, fake news shared on social media has six major themes: health, religion, politics, crime, entertainment and miscellaneous; eight types of content: text, photo, audio, and video, text & photo, text & video, photo & video, and text & photo & video; and two main sources: online sources and the mainstream media.

Health-related fake news is more common only during a health crisis, whereas fake news related to religion and politics seems more prevalent, emerging from online media. Text & photo and text & video have three-fourths of the total share of fake news, and most of them are from online media: online media is the main source of fake news on social media as well. The research paper said previous literature hints that online fake news in India serves mainly two purposes -- political and religious, utilized by two groups, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) digital army and digital archiving as history-making to support the Hindu-nationalist government and gau-rakshaks ("cow protectors" or "cow vigilantes") to harass or lynch the minorities, mainly the Muslims.

Four reasons may be helpful to define India's current fake news problem: (a) higher social media penetration, (b) a growing number of Internet-illiterate people using social media, (c) the existing law that makes tracing fake news producers difficult (d) the rise of Hindutva (an ideology of Hindu-domination) and religious nationalism, the research paper said.

Social media is used widely in India to mobilize political activists for assembly and/or demonstration, and general public and vigilante groups for religious vigilantism and/or mob lynching, the research paper said.

Religion and politics often intertwine, creating a new type of fake news: religio-political, and WhatsApp is mostly used for such fake news propagation because of its instant messaging capacity, easier usability and wide reach, it added.

For example, WhatsApp fake news triggered the Muzaffarnagar riot in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, eight months before the federal election, and had both political and religious purposes, the paper said.

Also, fake, doctored, and old videos and photos are mainly used in creating religious and political misinformation in India. For these reasons, visual content is responsible for many of India's health, religious, and political fake news. Previous studies also stated that Indian fake news is mostly WhatsApp-based, which is conducive for visual content.

Fake news has two main sources, online media and mainstream media. Online media produces almost seven times more fake news compared to mainstream media and previous studies suggested similar results, it added.

From 2014 to 2019, the Internet users in India increased by 65%, surpassing the appeal of mainstream media. In addition, thanks to social media's political benefits, the BJP government promotes Internet-based alternative media that helps to reduce the effects of mainstream media to some extent, the research paper said.

Social media has a wider reach -- only 19% of Dalits, the most underprivileged community in India, have access to water, but 65% of them have access to the Internet. It is easy to manipulate content and mobilize people; digital archiving is used in history-making in favour of the BJP's Hindu nationalism and other political agendas, the research paper said.

Although it has been said that social media has democratised India, it makes unregulated information production and dissemination commonplace.

Also, a large share of the users lack digital literacy, which makes them more susceptible to fake news, the research paper said.

As per a July article in the Lowy Institute, in May 2021, when the Information Technology Rules came into effect, Twitter again fell foul of the Modi government when the company labelled posts by politicians from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as "manipulated media" - the same labelling it had applied to some of US President Donald Trump's tweets while he was still in office.

"The problem in India is much bigger: hate speech is rife, bots and fake accounts linked to India's political parties and leaders abound, and user pages and large groups brim with inflammatory material targeting Muslims and other minorities. Disinformation is an organised and carefully mined operation here. Elections and "events" like natural calamities and the coronavirus pandemic usually trigger fake news outbreaks", the BBC reported in October 2021.

"With a surfeit of hate speech, trolling and attacks on minorities and women, Indian Twitter is a polarised and dark place. WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging service, remains the largest carrier of fake news and hoaxes in its biggest market", BBC reported.

A publication of the Stimson Center, South Asian voices in July 2021 carried an article which said the 2014 general elections --egarded as the "First Social Media Election" in India's political history -- kicked-off a social media revolution in Indian politics.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's success in mobilizing India's digital generation using social media platforms has forced contending parties to revamp their social media engagement. As a result, millions of politically motivated messages now flood India's digital space, making elections susceptible to social media manipulation, the article said.

The BJP reportedly operates around 2-3 lakh WhatsApp groups. The party has developed an effective IT wing linked to disinformation and propaganda, both of which it uses to stoke communal divisions to reap electoral benefits. The spread of disinformation, and polarizing, BJP-led social media campaigns promoting Hindutva, deepen tensions among Hindu and Muslim communities, the article said.

According to the 2017 CSDS-Lokniti survey, one-sixth of India's WhatsApp users were part of a WhatsApp group either managed by a political party or its leader. Signifying the volume of politically motivated content, a 2019 CSDS-Lokniti and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung survey determined that one in every three Indian citizens on social media consumes political content daily or regularly, the article said.

Political content voters absorb through WhatsApp and other platforms influences political perceptions in a two-step manner. First, political accounts generate an influx of positive narratives concerning a party, drowning out criticism. For instance, widespread nationalist content from BJP-affiliated right-wing groups praised the army and the Balakot air strikes while evading content on rising unemployment and debilitating economic crises in India. Second, disinformation - spread particularly through fake social media handles - consolidates nationalist support against perceived "enemies", the article said.

In early 2020, BJP IT wing head Amit Malviya tweeted a fake video of Anti-CAA protestors raising "Pakistan Zindabad" banners. This was intended to deepen Hindu-Muslim communal divisions and advance the BJP's political efforts, the article said.

The BJP's social media campaign has evolved significantly since 2014: then it largely focused on highlighting its leader, now it seeks to control the content citizens consume. The core focus of the BJP's social media campaign in 2014, aided by professional agencies, was building the brand of then Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, promoting its development agenda and criticizing the ruling Congress government.

The BJP's social media campaign adopted more polarizing methods in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and the 2019 general election, it said.

The BJP's savvy social media presence and electoral success has created incentives for other parties to expand their presence in the digital space. Faced with continuous electoral setbacks since 2014, and a tarnished image of leader Rahul Gandhi as "Pappu" (a mocking name for an immature and half-witted boy in popular media) by the BJP IT cell, the Congress' social media spending increased tenfold in 2019 compared to 2014.

Even the Communist parties, which have a history of opposing computerisation, have begun training their cadres.

The BJP has used "anti-national" messaging to delegitimise the farmers' protest, unmasking its weaponisation of digital platforms to thwart voices of dissent, the article said.

In November 2020, BJP IT head Amit Malaviya shared a video on Twitter countering the allegations of police brutality against protesting farmers. Later, Twitter flagged this video as "manipulated." Then, a host of BJP leaders, including Tajinder Bagga (BJP Delhi spokesperson), Varun Gandhi (BJP MP) and Harish Khurana (Delhi BJP spokesperson), propagated disinformation and linked protesting farmers to the Khalistan movement, the article said.

A significant part of the success of the BJP's social media strategy has been its ability to propagate messages that are more personal and thus have greater potential to influence a wide range of citizens' political perceptions.

For instance, it employed trolls and campaign ads using memes from the Game of Thrones series. Ample financial resources to set up IT cells, recruit techies, and hire professional agencies, combined with an efficient and vast network of organizational machinery on the ground to ensure the social media campaign reaches ordinary voters, helped the BJP far surpass competing parties in the digital outreach, the article said.

--IANS
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