South Asia

“The matter will be discussed at the business advisory committee and any decision on this count will be conveyed only after that,” the speaker of West Bengal assembly Biman Banerjee told media persons on late Saturday afternoon. The business advisory committee meeting will be on Monday only when the monsoon session of the house will resume.

Generally, on the first day of any session, the house is adjourned after obituary mentions.

That Trinamool Congress will take up the Manipur issue as a major tool to oppose nationally was given by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee while addressing the party’s annual “Martyrs’ Day” rally on Friday.

While delivering her speech there the chief minister clearly said that she had discussion with her counterpart in Delhi and Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal on the possibilities of some leaders of the constituents of Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance, including herself, visiting Manipur and reviewing the situation there.

Earlier, Trinamool Congress had sent a five-member delegation to Manipur to review the situation in the violence- ridden NorthEastern state. Time and again the leadership of the state’s ruling party has accused the top leadership of being silent about Manipur and neglecting the violence issue there.

--IANS

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And with Pakistan failing to qualify for the Rio 16 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games editions, Continental events are the only avenues left for the two countries to meet.

That is the reason why there is a bit of excitement as the two sides are scheduled to meet in the Asian Champions Trophy, which will be held in Chennai from August 3.

There is palpable excitement among hockey fans as international hockey returns to Chennai after 16 long years, with the Asian Champions Trophy to be played at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium in Egmore.

In the fourth episode of the ‘Chennai Chronicles Series’, the legendary Vasudevan Baskaran, under whose leadership the Indian team won its eighth and last gold medal in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, took a trip down memory lane recalling some magic moments from hockey in Chennai and the Indo-Pak rivalry.

Expressing his delight about the prestigious Asian Champions Trophy 2023 being hosted in his hometown, Baskaran said, “I and a lot of veterans in Chennai were all starved of a major international tournament. In fact, that made most of the players start Masters Hockey which usually gets about 5000 spectators. One can imagine the turnout for international matches with stars of Indian hockey."

Chennai last hosted an international hockey event in 2007 when the prestigious Asia Cup was held and it saw thrilling matches that have left a lasting impact on fans. Nostalgic about India’s successful outing in 2007,

“In 2007, Asia Cup was played here and we beat Korea 7-2 in the final to lift the trophy. As usual, a crowd of around 10,000 fans attended the match in the stadium. It was raining by half-time during the Final but no one left the stadium. I can't forget those moments," Baskaran was quoted as saying by Hockey India in a release on Saturday.

The upcoming Asian Champions Trophy has rekindled the passion for hockey in Chennai. Bhaskaran shared his excitement about the event being held at Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium, which he fondly referred to as “Eden Gardens of Chennai" as fans turn out in large numbers in the stadium even to witness local games.

"In normal league matches, about 5,000 fans are present in the stadium. So that is the interest and fan following in Hockey in Chennai," Baskaran said.

Baskaran expressed his appreciation for the decision to host the tournament in his hometown, saying, "I think it's very right on Hockey India's part to give this event to Chennai. Egmore Stadium is very close to my heart. I used to play here as a 17-year-old and back then it was on gravel and then it was developed into a grass stadium. I must have played about 5000 matches here. Although by the time an Astroturf was laid here, I had quit playing hockey but I have some very fond memories as a Coach."

The prestigious tournament will also witness remarkable infrastructural improvements at Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium, enhancing the players' experience and spectators' enjoyment. Baskaran noted, "New turf is coming up in the stadium and the entire gallery is being spruced up. And the dressing rooms are being upgraded."

The India-Pakistan league match is a highly anticipated encounter in the upcoming tournament, sure to draw a full house. “I think that's going to be a very, very vital match. The ground will be full, I know,” Baskaran said.

"I remember, in 1998, when I was a coach, the last match played with India-Pakistan was at the same ground. We could gather a crowd of about 11,000 fans. Two extra galleries were made. An entire Egmore roundabout was blocked for half a day," he added.

Talking about the importance of the Asian Champions Trophy 2023, Baskaran said, “The importance of this tournament is very, very high. Also, it will serve as a precursor to the all-important Asian Games to be played in China in September.”

--IANS

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The official said that the chopper was deployed following a request from the district authorities as the region grapples with incessant rains for the past two days.

In and around Anandnagar-Tanda, scores of homes were flooded and people were forced to wade out in 3-4 feet deep waters to safter locations even as the water levels continued to rise, inundating the village roads and the agricultural fields around.

Earlier this afternoon, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that around 45 people were stranded in the flooded villages and two helicopters would be dispatched to evacuate them.

A defence official confirmed this evening that one chopper was flown to the affected region and the evacuation work was currently underway.

Besides, a SDRF team is also en route to Anandnagar-Tanda to rescue the other villagers even as the area continued to be lashed with heavy rains this evening.

Vidarbha, the eastern region of Maharashtra has been witnessing a downpour in the past 48 hours in Nagpur, Yavatmal, Buldhana, Gadchiroli and other districts.

The torrential rains have claimed at least 8 lives and another two dozen injured in various rain-related incidents while all concerned agencies are in a state of high alert as more rains are predicted.

--IANS

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The interaction took place at MCD schools in DDA Flats Kalkaji and Indira Kalyan Vihar, Okhla where they discussed with teachers various ways to improve learning and performance of students.

Atishi highlighted that PTMs bring parents and teachers together, assisting them in devising better strategies for their children future.

“Under the leadership of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, education became our top priority, resulting in all Delhi government schools becoming excellent. Here, children from all sections of society are receiving world-class education. Now, we are bringing similar changes to MCD schools, fulfilling CM's promise and working towards making them world-class too," she said.

She mentioned that they have begun improving the quality of education in MCD schools, providing children and teachers with essential facilities they were deprived of for 15 years.

Mayor while interacting with parents at MCD schools, expressed that Kejriwal's primary vision is to prioritise providing better education to children, making it the country's foremost goal.

--IANS

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Using medical telexistence (MediTel) technology, which allows for a highly realistic sensation of existence in remote places without actual travel, a team at the University of Sheffield, UK, successfully created a mobile, robotic-controlled uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV).

The UGV boasts of virtual reality (VR) capability and can enable medics and operators to assess critical casualties in hazardous environments, allowing them to perform a remote triage while also ensuring their safety.

The first-of-its-kind, fully integrated medical telexistence solution was developed in just nine months. It features two robotic arms which can effectively remotely operate medical tools to perform a critical initial assessment of a casualty within 20 minutes, including: temperature, blood pressure and heart rate checks; carry out a palpation of the abdomen and administer pain relief through an auto-injector -- all while streaming real time data to the remote operator.

"Our MediTel project has demonstrated game-changing medical telexistence technology that has the potential to save lives and provide remote assessment and treatment of casualties in high-risk environments such as humanitarian disasters," said David King, Head of Digital Design at the varsity's Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC).

His team developed a complete solution to perform a triage of casualties in hazardous environments. They are now looking to build on the project's success by seeking further funding and partners to realise the potential of MediTel medical telexistence technology to revolutionise how people could be medically triaged in dangerous incidents where it is unsafe.

The team noted that the future vision of MediTel would be to explore the development of the technology into a large-scale integrated medical emergency platform, capable of rapidly being deployed to humanitarian disasters with multiple casualties and enabling remote medics to provide critical lifesaving treatment.

--IANS

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While the two countries will work on the development of next generation small modular reactor technologies for domestic and export markets, in the space field, the US will fly Indian astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) next year.

The proposed spaceflight mission is in addition to the NISAR satellite built by the two countries and to be launched by India next year.

In the nuclear power field, small modular reactors are the new development.Small modular reactors are the ones which are factory-made compact with less than 300 MW capacity.

Nuclear power equipment manufacturers like Russia's Rosatom, French company EDF and the US based NuScale Energy are now looking at the small modular reactor segment.

For global nuclear power plant makers, small is now beautiful and they are looking at populating their small modular reactors across the world.

With lesser gestation time, higher power generation period and lower risks, nuclear power plant manufacturers are now of the view that small is beautiful and are in favour of small modular reactors, experts had earlier told IANS.

Incidentally, the world's first land-based small modular reactor (SMR) with RITM-200N is slated to be commissioned in 2028 in the Russian Arctic region, said Director General of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden have underscored the important role nuclear energy plays in global decarbonization efforts and affirmed nuclear energy as a necessary resource to meet nations’ climate, energy transition, and energy security needs.

While India will house six Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear reactors, in Tamil Nadu -- two are already generating power and four are under construction -- the US company Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC) is negotiating with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to set up six atomic power stations in India.

The US Department of Energy and India's Department of Atomic Energy are having intense consultations for facilitating the opportunities for WEC to develop a techno-commercial offer for the Kovvada nuclear project in India.

The US also reaffirmed its support for India’s membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group and commits to continue engagement with like minded partners to advance this goal.

That apart, the two democratic countries have bilateral cooperation on cutting-edge scientific infrastructure, including a $140 million in-kind contribution from India’s Department of Atomic Energy to the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Laboratory toward collaborative development of the Proton Improvement Plan-II Accelerator, for the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility -- the first and largest international research facility on American soil.

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) being built in Maharashtra is also an Indo-US initiative in the field of astronomy.

Forty years after Russia carried an Indian to space in its spacecraft, the US will be doing that but to the International Space Station.

The space agencies of two countries – Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will develop a strategic framework for human spaceflight cooperation by the end of 2023.

NASA will provide advanced training to Indian astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, with a goal of mounting a joint effort to the International Space Station in 2024.

It may be recalled that it was Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma who had travelled to space in a Russian rocket in 1984.

Be that as it may, the other Indo-US joint space programme NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) -- an earth observation satellite -- will be orbited by an Indian rocket next year from the Sriharikota rocket port in Andhra Pradesh.

The NISAR is an earth observation satellite jointly built by NASA and ISRO. The satellite has already reached India from the US.

Modi and Biden called for enhanced commercial collaboration between the US and Indian private sectors in the entire value chain of the space economy and to address export controls and facilitate technology transfer.

India also signed the Artemis Accords -- it was the 27th nation to do so -- which advance a common vision of space exploration.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at v.jagannathan@ians.in)

--IANS

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The community happens to be the most educated with the highest median income in the US, with an average household earning of $123,700 -- making them the top earners in the US among other Asians in the country.

As the profile of the Indian American community -- now the second-largest immigrant group in the US -- has grown, so too has its economic, political, and social influence, according to a recent Carnegie Endowment study.

In 2010, only 18 per cent of Americans saw India as “very important” to the United States, according to The Chicago Council survey.

Now, India is perceived by Americans as their seventh favourite nation in the world, with 70 per cent of people viewing India favourably in 2023, says a Gallup survey.

Much of how America views India today can be attributed to the success of this community, which according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has played a significant role in the all-round development of the nation they live in and also strengthened the India-US relationship.

The fifth largest economy of the world, India today is seen in the US as a strong bilateral partner sharing common democratic values with broad-based and multi-sectoral cooperation in sectors like trade and investment, defence and security, education, science and technology, cyber security, etc.

American businesses heavily rely on highly-skilled workers from India to fill the gaps in IT and engineering sectors via the H-1B visa programme. These visa holders create prospects for US citizens, by enabling companies to invest in domestic operations instead of sending jobs abroad.

As US Ambassador Eric Garcetti recently said: "India is a place where dreams become reality every day. Our counties have so much in common. Indian dreams and American dreams are two sides of the same coin."

Addressing the 2019 Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, then Foreign Minister late Sushma Swaraj had noted that while the Indian diaspora started migrating centuries ago, it was the migration of the educated, highly-skilled and dynamic young Indians that brought laurels to India.

The dominance of Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, and Parag Agarwal in the IT sector has strengthened the image of India in the US as a technology powerhouse and a source of quality human resources.

With US Vice President Kamala Harris sitting atop the political ladder, the US House of Representatives has five Indian Americans -- Ami Bera, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Pramila Jayapal and Shri Thanedar.

There are close to 60 Indian-American CEOs in Fortune 500. Even though Indians are just 1 per cent of the American population, they are more than 10 per cent of the Fortune 500 CEOs with the likes of Laxman Narasimhan (Starbucks) and Raj Subramaniam (FedEx).

The US now has 20,000 Indian-American professors and at least a third of companies in the Silicon Valley that come for funding, and have an Indian American co-founder, according to Indiaspora founder M.R. Rangaswami.

According to foreign policy experts, it is the success of this community, which has dramatically changed the US perception of Indians and India, with its ability to spread Indian soft power, lobby for India’s national interests, and contribute economically to their mother country's rise.

As part of “soft diplomacy”, Indian-Americans played a pivotal role in the fructification of the historic Indo-US nuclear deal in 2005.

The community also urged the political establishment -- right from the Oval Office down to statehouses -- to send aid worth at least half-a-billion dollars to India during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

(Meenakshi Iyer can be reached at meenakshi.i@ians.in)

--IANS

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The bigger and stronger China's competitors are in Asia, the greater the prospects for a balance of power favorable to the US, wrote Graham Allison, a professor of government at the Harvard Kennedy School in Foreign Policy.

With 1.4 billion people and rising -- and the world's fifth largest economy, India's growing prominence, both economically and geopolitically, makes it a country that the Biden administration – like those of Trump, Obama and Bush before it -- could not ignore, The Guardian reported.

Yet most experts say that it is China that has been the fundamental driver of this growing alliance; mutual concerns over Beijing's aggressive, expansionist agenda have never been more acute, The Guardian reported.

This has coincided with a shift in Washington's relationship with China, from that of strategic competitor to rival or outright threat that must be deterred and contained. The bipartisan consensus is that India is a crucial geopolitical, and even economic, counterweight to China’s dominance in the Indo-Pacific region.

"In Washington, the hope is to build out an extended framework of deterrence to try and keep China in check," said Milan Vaishnav, director of the south Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Both geographically as well as strategically and economically, India has become a linchpin in this framework", The Guardian reported.

Despite careful nurturing by Washington over the years, many aspects of US ties with India remain challenging. Bilateral trade has grown tenfold since 2000, to $191 billion in 2022, and India became the ninth-largest US trading partner in 2021. But longstanding economic gripes persist, meriting 13 pages in the 2023 Foreign Trade Barriers report from the US Trade Representative.

Multilaterally, India's role in the fast-consolidating "Quad" (comprised of the US, Australia, India, and Japan) has brought shared purpose to Washington and New Delhi, both of which harbor concerns about China. But New Delhi also champions alternative non-Western groupings like the BRICS, and it remains outside bodies central to U.S. diplomacy like the UN Security Council and the G7, says Alyssa Ayres writing in Time.

Ayres is dean and professor of history and international affairs at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs, and adjunct senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The US-India relationship has been transformed over the past quarter-century, but that transformation has not delivered a partnership or alignment similar to the closest US alliances.

"This shouldn't surprise anyone. India is not a US ally, and has not wanted to become one. To see relations with rising power India as on a pathway that culminates in a relationship like that the United States enjoys with Japan or the UK creates expectations that will not be met. Indian leaders across parties and over decades have long prioritized foreign policy independence as a central feature of India's approach to the world," Ayres said.

The Modi government invokes a Sanskrit saying, the "world is one family" (vasudhaiva kutumbakam), to frame Indian diplomacy. This approach has been termed "multialignment", a theory of seeking positive ties as far and as widely as possible, without seeing contradictions in this approach, the article said.

In practice, New Delhi has carefully managed its relationships with Saudi Arabia as well as Iran; with Israel as well as the Palestinian Territories; with the United States as well as Russia. India's G20 presidency this year encapsulates this orientation, with its Sanskritic theme of “One Earth, One Family, One Future,” and its twin efforts to lead the forum for the world’s 20 largest economies while self-consciously presenting itself as the "Voice of the Global South", Ayres said.

For many in Washington, the dramatic growth of coordination and joint activities under the Quad consultative group fills a growing need in light of China’s rise, encompassing subjects as far-flung as maritime security, infrastructure, climate and resilience, vaccines, technology standards, and higher education-all underlining Indian strategic convergence with the United States in the Indo-Pacific.

Yet strategic convergence there does not mean everywhere: Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its year-long war has elicited a tepid tut-tut from New Delhi, while India has escalated its purchases of cheap Russian oil at a time Washington seeks to isolate Moscow, the article said.

--IANS

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Lilly Jay, who shares a child with Ethan, is reportedly "completely blindsided" by his supposed new romantic relationship with the singer-actress, who recently split from her husband Dalton Gomez, as reported by Aceshowbiz.

Ariana's romance with Ethan has reportedly turned the mother of one into "a wreck”.

Aceshowbiz quoted a source telling Page Six, "It's horrible. They were high school sweethearts. They have a baby! She's a wreck."

The source said that Lilly has been blaming Ariana for her sudden split from her husband Ethan, claiming that the couple had no serious issues beforehand. The source says Lilly believes Ariana's the reason she and Ethan "suddenly break up now when nothing appeared wrong between them”.

In May, Ethan paid a glowing tribute to his "wonderful" wife in a Mother's Day post on Instagram. He wrote, "Happy first Mother's Day to the most loving caring and wonderful mom/person in the world." The pair welcomed a son in August 2022.

Meanwhile, Ariana’s estranged husband Dalton is still hoping for a reconciliation, but her alleged new romance has changed everything.

TMZ reported that Ariana, 30, and Ethan, 31, started dating several months ago during production of ‘Wicked’. After the dating rumours broke, Ethan set his Instagram page private.

Ariana sparked breakup rumours with Dalton, 27, after ditching her wedding ring at Wimbledon earlier this month.

Page Six later claimed that they came to the decision together. They were having problems before January, but they want to remain best friends. They've been really good friends throughout the entire process, and their friends and families have been trying to protect them.

Ariana is set to play Glinda in Universal’s film adaptation of the Broadway musical ‘Wicked’, while Ethan will play Boq, the love interest of Elphaba’s sister Nessarose.

The movie began shooting in the U.K. last year and was scheduled for release in November 2024, though it remains unclear if the SAG-AFTRA strike will affect its premiere.

Ethan is an actor, singer, composer and writer, and got his big break recently as SpongeBob Squarepants in the Broadway musical -- for which he earned a Tony Award nomination.

--IANS

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According to police, a Twitter user posted a message claiming to have placed a bomb at the venue for the Genshin Impact Summer Festival 2023 held at Olympic Park in Seoul's eastern ward of Songpa earlier in the day, reports Yonhap news agency.

The person wrote that the bomb will go off "when the time arrives" and told followers to "look forward to it." The user also shared photos of what appeared to be the alleged explosive.

After discovering the message, organizers suspended the event and reported it to the police. After searching the venue, police and firefighting officials said there was no bomb at the site.

Police are currently tracking down the person who wrote the message, according to the report.

Genshin Impact is a popular open-world action role playing game published by Chinese developer HoYoverse.

The company launched the four-day gaming festival for loyal South Korean users on Thursday.

--IANS


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