As torrential rains wreaked havoc last week in Bengaluru, largely owing to encroachments and illegal unplanned buildings, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) undertook a ruthless demolition drive at 18 locations in Bengaluru on Tuesday for the second day in a row.
The official note from BBMP stated that the demolition drive has been carried out in the Mahadevapura zone and Yelahanka zones. The Shantiniketan Layout, Papaiah Reddy Layout and Challaghatta localities in Mahadevapura are the major localities where the demolitions were carried out now.
As these two areas are singled out during the last week’s floods where roads were inundated with logged rain water. Several engineers, revenue officers, marshals and police personnel were present during the drive in which two Hitachi and eight JCB machines were used.
Nalapad Academy in Challaghatta has encroached upon 2.5 meters of width, and 150.5 meters of storm water drain has been encroached. So far, 50 meters of encroachment has been cleared and the drive will continue.
Bengaluru: BBMP started demolition of the residence and buildings constructed encroaching drains at Shanti Niketan layout, which was recently flooded due to heavy rainfall , in Bengaluru on Tuesday 13th September 2022.(PHOTO:IANS)
In Shantiniketan Layout, seven buildings and four compound walls have been removed though owners of flats and buildings complained that they have purchased from builders and banks have also given loans for them. Now, BBMP is demolishing without any notice, they said.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has informed the Assembly session that Rs 600 crore has already been released to build infrastructure across the state and Rs 1,800 crore for development of storm water drains in Bengaluru has been earmarked for the work to be finished in a set time-frame.
The owner and operator of a pornography production company, who is charged with sex trafficking and production of child pornography, now becomes one of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list of FBI and there is a reward of $100,000.
Michael James Pratt and his co-conspirators allegedly used internet advertisements, along with fake websites and email addresses, to recruit young women for modeling jobs. Only after the victims responded to the advertisements would Pratt and others disclose that they were actually seeking women for pornographic video shoots, according to charging documents.
Investigators say the women were promised that the videos were for a private collector overseas and that they would remain anonymous. Pratt and his partners allegedly hired other young women to falsely reassure reluctant participants that their images would never appear online.
But the videos were indeed posted online, and Pratt’s pornography websites, GirlsDoPorn and GirlsDoToys, made millions of dollars in revenue from the videos between approximately 2012 and 2019.
“Pratt has victimized hundreds of young women through the course of this conspiracy,” said Supervisory Special Agent Renee Green with the FBI’s San Diego Field Office. Pratt has ties to or may visit New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Singapore, Japan, Chile, Croatia, and France.One victim was under the age of 18 during her encounter with Pratt, according to court documents and investigators. Other victims reported being forced into sexual acts to which they did not consent, as well as being threatened and intimidated by Pratt and his partners when they learned their videos were posted to his websites and wanted them removed.
Michael James Pratt
Several of Pratt’s co-conspirators have faced justice for their roles in the scheme. The websites’ cameraman and its bookkeeper each pleaded guilty to trafficking charges in 2021. One of the websites’ lead recruiters and producers, Ruben Garcia, of San Diego, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the trafficking conspiracy.
Pratt’s alleged co-owner, Matthew Isaac Wolfe, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion. Wolfe is scheduled to be sentenced in October 2022. Pratt is the only major player in the conspiracy who is still at large.
Pratt is 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds. He has brown hair and hazel eyes, and speaks with the accent of his native New Zealand. In addition to his connection to New Zealand, Pratt has ties to Australia and the financial means to travel the world.
“We feel that there are people out there who have been helping Michael Pratt to hide,” Green said. “He has probably promised them the world—giving them money, buying them gifts in return for providing him a safe haven.” Green encouraged anyone who may be aiding Pratt to consider their own best interests—along with the interests of the many victims in this case—and come forward with information.
[To provide a tip or information about the whereabouts of Michael James Pratt, contact your local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate. You can also call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.]
A Twitter user Logan Smith had put out a tweet in July predicting the Queen’s death on September 8 and of course, made it private soon as too many visitors started seeing it. He also gave a warning that King Charles III’s reign will come to an end in 2026 predicting his death on March 28, 2026.
The prediction came true on Sept 8 when the Queen died and the Twitter is abuzz with his prediction on King Charles III. The man in question — Logan Smith, who posts on social media as @logan_smith526, has made his Twitter account private after the unprecedented traction.
Whether his prediction come right or not, social media is going viral with his name dragged in every debate. Screenshots of the post have been going viral including a TikTok by @zukosburnteye which shows the user looking shocked and it has triggered a storm in social media.
One user named Hailey, wrote: “RIP to logan I know the British are coming for him.” The video by her received more than 91,000 likes as people flocked to the comments divided. Another user said: “Hope not for King Charles.”
Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept.8, 2022 after illness ending a reign of 70 years as the British long-serving monarch. Her son ascended the throne as King Charles III at the age of 73.
The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has expressed deep grief over the demise of Veteran telugu cinematic personality, Krishnam Raju Garu.
The Prime Minister tweeted;
“Saddened by the passing away of Shri UV Krishnam Raju Garu. The coming generations will remember his cinematic brilliance and creativity. He was also at the forefront of community service and made a mark as a political leader. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti.”
PM condoles demise of Veteran telugu actor, Krishnam Raju
The Income Tax Department carried out a search & seizure action on 25.08.2022 on two groups engaged in the business of sand mining, sugar manufacturing, road construction, healthcare, running of medical college etc. The search action covered more than 20 premises spread over Solapur, Osmanabad, Nashik & Kolhapur districts of Maharashtra.
During the course of the search operation, a large number of incriminating evidences, in the form of hard copy documents and digital data have been found and seized. These evidences reveal various modus-operandi of tax evasion adopted by the group including booking of bogus expenses, undisclosed cash sales, unexplained loans/ credit entries, etc.
In case of the group engaged in sand mining and sugar manufacturing, documentary evidences of unaccounted cash sales of sugar exceeding Rs. 15 crore have been found & seized. The search action has revealed that the group has introduced its unaccounted income in the form of bogus unsecured loans in its books of accounts. Several lenders to the group, as well as promoters of the group have admitted that unaccounted cash generated by the group exceeding Rs. 10 crore was routed in its books of account in this manner.
Evidences of capital gains of about Rs. 43 crore on sale of assets by a non-filer corporate entity have also been seized.
In the other group engaged in the business of healthcare and running of medical college, as also road construction, evidences of undisclosed cash receipts representing capitation fee and refund of salary and stipend paid to the doctors/PG students have been found. Moreover, evidences regarding booking of bogus expenses and contractual payments etc. have been found & seized. Preliminary estimates of such undisclosed income of the group is to the tune of Rs. 35 crore.
Income-Tax
So far, the search action has led to detection of unaccounted income of more than Rs. 100 crore. Further, undisclosed assets of more than Rs. 5 crore have also been seized.
As British Queen Elizabeth II passed away on 8th September 2022, India has declared one day State Mourning on September 11 as a mark of respect to her.
Queen Elizabeth II passed away, Charles III becomes UK’s new King
On the day of Mourning, the National Flag will be flown at half mast throughout India on all buildings where the National Flag is flown regularly and there will be no official entertainment on the day.
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Army have successfully completed six flight-tests of Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM) system from Integrated Test Range (ITR) Chandipur off the Odisha coast. The flight tests were conducted as part of evaluation trials by the Indian Army.
The flight-tests were carried out against high-speed aerial targets mimicking various types of threats to evaluate the capability of the weapon systems under different scenarios, including long range medium altitude, short range, high altitude manoeuvring target, low radar signature with receding & crossing target and salvo launch with two missiles fired in quick succession. The system performance was also evaluated under day and night operation scenarios.
During these tests, all the mission objectives were met establishing pin-point accuracy of the weapon system with state-of-the-art guidance and control algorithms including warhead chain. The performance of the system has been confirmed from the data captured by a number of Range instruments like Telemetry, Radar and Electro Optical Tracking Systems (EOTS) deployed by ITR. Senior officials from DRDO and the Indian Army participated in the launches.
These tests were conducted in the final deployment configuration consisting of all indigenously-developed sub-systems, including the missile with indigenous Radio Frequency (RF) seeker, mobile launcher, fully automated command and control system, surveillance and multi-function Radars. The uniqueness of the QRSAM weapon system is that it can operate on the move with search and track capability & fire on short halt. This has been proven during the mobility trials conducted earlier.
Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh has complimented DRDO and Indian Army on the successful flight trials. He exuded confidence that the QRSAM weapon system will be an excellent force multiplier for the Armed Forces.
Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO has congratulated the teams associated with the successful series of trials and said that the system is now ready for induction into the Indian Army.
Powered by A16 Bionic, the fastest chip ever in a smartphone, iPhone 14 Pro introduces a new class of pro camera system, with the first-ever 48MP Main camera on iPhone featuring a quad-pixel sensor, and Photonic Engine, an enhanced image pipeline that dramatically improves low-light photos.
These features help make iPhone more useful for everyday tasks and creative projects. Both models include a new Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion that features the Always-On display, enabled by a new 1Hz refresh rate and multiple power-efficient technologies.
The pro camera system on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in a smartphone, empowering every user — casual or professional — to capture the best photos and video.
The pro camera system on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max takes computational photography even further with the introduction of Photonic Engine, improving mid- to low-light performance across all cameras through a deep integration of hardware and software.
iPhone 14 Pro takes computational photography even further with Photonic Engine, offering a giant leap for mid- to low-light performance in photos across all cameras through a deep integration of hardware and software: up to 2x on the Main camera, up to 3x on the Ultra Wide camera, up to 2x on the Telephoto camera, and up to 2x on the TrueDepth camera.
Photonic Engine enables this dramatic increase in quality by applying Deep Fusion earlier in the imaging process to deliver extraordinary detail, and preserve subtle textures, provide better color, and maintain more information in a photo.
The new 48MP Main camera allows users to go beyond the three fixed lenses, adding a new 2x Telephoto option that offers a familiar focal length that’s great for Portrait mode.
New Camera features
For the first time ever, the Pro lineup features a new 48MP Main camera with a quad-pixel sensor that adapts to the photo being captured, and features second-generation sensor-shift optical image stabilization. For most photos, the quad-pixel sensor combines every four pixels into one large quad pixel equivalent to 2.44 µm, resulting in amazing low-light capture and keeping photo size at a practical 12MP.
The quad-pixel sensor also enables a 2x Telephoto option that uses the middle 12 megapixels of the sensor for full-resolution photos and 4K videos with no digital zoom. This delivers optical quality at a familiar focal length, which is great for features like Portrait mode.
Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing said during the launching event: “Groundbreaking safety capabilities bring users even more security, offering help when they need it most. And with the incredibly powerful and efficient A16 Bionic chip and all-day battery life, this is the best iPhone yet.”
iphone 14 pro
The quad-pixel sensor also brings benefits to pro workflows, optimizing for detail in ProRAW. And with a new machine learning model designed specifically for the quad-pixel sensor, iPhone now shoots ProRAW at 48MP with an unprecedented level of detail, enabling new creative workflows for pro users.
The quad-pixel sensor on the 48MP Main camera brings benefits to pro workflows, optimizing for detail in ProRAW and allowing for an unprecedented level of detail.
Extra pro camera features:
A new 12MP Ultra Wide camera with 1.4 µm pixels, which delivers sharper images with more detail, improving already powerful macro photography capabilities.
An improved Telephoto camera that offers 3x optical zoom.
A new front TrueDepth camera with an ƒ/1.9 aperture that enables better low-light performance for photos and video.
Using autofocus for the first time, it can focus even faster in low light and capture group shots from farther away.
A new Adaptive True Tone flash that has been completely redesigned with an array of nine LEDs that change pattern based on the chosen focal length.
Powerful computational photography benefits like Night mode, Smart HDR 4, Portrait mode with Portrait Lighting, Night mode Portrait photos, Photographic Styles to personalize the look of every photo, and Apple ProRAW.
A new Action mode for incredibly smooth-looking video that adjusts to significant shakes, motion, and vibrations, even when video is being captured in the middle of the action.
Cinematic mode, now available in 4K at 30 fps and 4K at 24 fps.
Pro-level workflows for video, including ProRes3 and end-to-end Dolby Vision HDR.
A new Action mode allows for incredibly smooth-looking video that adjusts to significant shakes, motion, and vibrations, even when video is being captured in the middle of the action.
A new Action mode for incredibly smooth-looking video that adjusts to significant shakes, motion, and vibrations, even when video is being captured in the middle of the action.
Cinematic mode, now available in 4K at 30 fps and 4K at 24 fps.
Pro-level workflows for video, including ProRes3 and end-to-end Dolby Vision HDR.
A new Action mode allows for incredibly smooth-looking video that adjusts to significant shakes, motion, and vibrations, even when video is being captured in the middle of the action.
It may be surprising to learn that even giraffes, parrots, and oak trees are included in the list of threatened species, as well as cacti and seaweed.
Seaweed is one of the planet’s great survivors, and relatives of some modern-day seaweed can be traced back some 1.6 billion years. Seaweed plays a vital role in marine ecosystems, providing habitats and food for marine lifeforms, while large varieties – such as kelp – act as underwater nurseries for fish.
However, mechanical dredging, rising sea temperatures and the building of coastal infrastructure are contributing to the decline of the species.
The world’s trees are threatened by various sources, including logging, deforestation for industry and agriculture, firewood for heating and cooking, and climate-related threats such as wildfires.
Unsplash/Shane Stagner. Kelp, a type of seaweed, can be fed to animals and could help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
It has been estimated that 31 per cent of the world’s 430 types of oak are threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species. And 41 per cent are of “conservation concern”, mainly due to deforestation for agriculture and fuel for cooking.
Giraffes are targeted for their meat, and suffer from the degradation of their habitat due to unsustainable wood harvesting, and increased demand for agricultural land; it’s estimated there are only around 600 West African giraffes left in the wild.
Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and its PSU, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) has announced approval from DCGI for emergency use authorization first of its kind intranasal COVID-19 Vaccine to Bharat Biotech (BBIL).
Supported by DBT and BIRAC under the aegis of Mission COVID Suraksha, the mission was launched by DBT and implemented by BIRAC to reinforce and accelerate COVID-19 vaccine development efforts. Scientific leadership at various levels of vaccine development was provided by DBT laboratories and BIRAC. This is the fourth success story for the Covid-19 vaccine under mission Covid Suraksha.
BBV154 is an intranasal replication-deficient chimpanzee adenovirus SARS-CoV-2 vectored vaccine. It consists of a replication deficient ChAd vector expressing the stabilized Spike SARS-CoV-2 (Wuhan variant).
DBT’s Autonomous Institute, National Institute of Immunology (NII), New Delhi utilized their “Human Immune Monitoring and T-cell Immunoassay Platform” to examine the vaccine-induced SARS-CoV-2-specific systemic and mucosal cellular immune responses the trial participants.
Interactive Research School for Health Affairs (IRSHA), Pune completed the Plaque Reduction Neutralization Assay (PRNT) to quantify the neutralizing antibody for the virus from three trial sites.
Covid Suraksha
Dr Rajesh S Gokhale, Secretary, DBT, and Chairperson, BIRAC speaking on the subject said that “The Department through Mission COVID Suraksha, is committed to the development of safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccines.
BBV154 COVID Vaccine is the first intranasal vaccine approved by DCGI for primary immunization against COVID-19 in the 18+ age group for restricted use in emergency situation being developed in the country under Mission COVID Suraksha and adds to India’s COVID-19 vaccine series.
“This is an excellent example of Aatmanirbharta initiative of the Government of India. I congratulate our scientists for partnering with Bharat Biotech and providing scientific leadership throughout the development of first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine,” said Gokhale.
Boosting physical activity levels and curbing sitting time are highly likely to lower breast cancer risk, finds research designed to strengthen proof of causation and published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The findings were generally consistent across all types and stages of the disease, reveals the Mendelian randomisation study, prompting the researchers to recommend a stronger focus on exercise as a way of warding off breast cancer.
Mendelian randomisation is a technique that uses genetic variants as proxies for a particular risk factor—in this case lifelong physical activity levels/sedentary behaviour—to obtain genetic evidence in support of a causal relationship.
Exercise/Photo:en.wikipedia.org
Observational studies show that physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour are linked to higher breast cancer risk, but proving they cause breast cancer is another matter.
The researchers therefore used Mendelian randomisation to assess whether lifelong physical activity and sitting time might be causally related to breast cancer risk in general, and specifically to different types of tumour.
They included data from 130,957 women of European ancestry: 69, 838 of them had tumours that had spread locally (invasive); 6667 had tumours that hadn’t yet done so (in situ); and a comparison group of 54,452 women who didn’t have breast cancer.
Exercise-Yoga/Photo:en.wikipedia.org
The researchers then drew on previously published studies that had used the vast repository of UK Biobank data on potential genetic explanations for overall predisposition to physical activity, vigorous physical activity, or sitting time—as measured by wrist-worn activity trackers—to genetically predict how physically active or inactive their own study participants were.
Next, the researchers estimated overall breast cancer risk, according to whether the women had or hadn’t gone through the menopause; and by cancer type,stage (size and extent of tumour spread), and grade (degree of tumour cell abnormality).
Analysis of the data showed that a higher overall level of genetically predicted physical activity was associated with a 41% lower risk of invasive breast cancer, and this was largely irrespective of menopausal status, tumour type, stage, or grade.
Similarly, genetically predicted vigorous physical activity on 3 or more days of the week was associated with a 38% lower risk of breast cancer, compared with no self-reported vigorous activity. These findings were consistent across most of the case groups.
cancer cells/photo:en.wikipedia.org
Finally, a greater level of genetically predicted sitting time was associated with a 104% higher risk of triple negative breast cancer. These findings were consistent across hormone-negative tumour types.
The findings were unchanged after factoring in the production by a single gene of two or more apparently unrelated effects (pleiotropy), such as smoking and overweight, for example.
There are plausible biological explanations for their findings, say the researchers, who point to a reasonable body of evidence indicating numerous causal pathways between physical activity and breast cancer risk, such as overweight/obesity, disordered metabolism, sex hormones, and inflammation.
“Mechanisms linking sedentary time and cancer are likely to at least partially overlap with those underpinning the physical activity relationship,” suggest the researchers.
Their findings provide “strong evidence” that more overall physical activity and less sitting time are likely to reduce breast cancer risk, they say.
And they conclude: “Increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary time are already recommended for cancer prevention. Our study adds further evidence that such behavioural changes are likely to lower the incidence of future breast cancer rates.
“A stronger cancer-control focus on physical activity and sedentary time as modifiable cancer risk factors is warranted, given the heavy burden of disease attributed to the most common cancer in women.”
Exposure to air pollution in the first six months of life impacts a child’s inner world of gut bacteria, or microbiome, in ways that could increase risk of allergies, obesity and diabetes, and even influence brain development, suggests new CU Boulder research.
“This study adds to the growing body of literature showing that air pollution exposure, even during infancy, may alter the gut microbiome, with important implications for growth and development,” said senior author Tanya Alderete, assistant professor of Integrative Physiology at CU Boulder.
At birth, an infant hosts little resident bacteria. Over the first two to three years of life, exposure to mother’s milk, solid food, antibiotics and other environmental influences shape which microorganisms take hold. Those microbes, and the metabolites, or byproducts, they produce when they break down food or chemicals in the gut, influence a host of bodily systems that shape appetite, insulin sensitivity, immunity, mood and cognition. While many are beneficial, some microbiome compositions have been associated with Chrohn’s disease, asthma, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic illnesses.
Air pollution/photo:en.wikipedia.org
“The microbiome plays a role in nearly every physiological process in the body, and the environment that develops in those first few years of life sticks with you,” said first author Maximilian Bailey, who graduated in May with a master’s in Integrative Physiology and is now a medical student at Stanford University.
Boosting inflammation
For the study, the researchers obtained fecal samples from 103 healthy, primarily breast-fed Latino infants enrolled in the Southern California Mother’s Milk Study and used genetic sequencing to analyze them.
Using their street addresses and data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality System, which records hourly data from monitoring systems, they estimated exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 (fine inhalable particles from things like factories, wildfires and construction sites) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), a gas largely emitted from cars.
“Overall, we saw that ambient air pollution exposure was associated with a more inflammatory gut-microbial profile, which may contribute to a whole host of future adverse health outcomes,” said Alderete.
For instance, infants with the highest exposure to PM2.5 had 60% less Phascolarctobacterium, a beneficial bacterium known to decrease inflammation, support gastrointestinal health and aid in neurodevelopment. Those with the highest exposure to PM10 had 85% more of the microorganism Dialister, which is associated with inflammation.
infant-small child/photo:en.wikipedia.org
Infants are particularly vulnerable to the health hazards of air pollution because they breathe faster and their gut microbiome is just taking shape.
“This makes early life a critical window where exposure to air pollution may have disproportionately deleterious health effects,” they write.
Meantime, Alderete advises everyone to take these steps to reduce their exposure to both indoor and outdoor pollutants:
Avoid walking outdoors in high-traffic zones
Consider a low-cost air-filtration system, particularly for rooms children spend a lot of time in
If you are cooking, open the windows
And for new moms, breastfeed for as long as possible
“Breast milk is a fantastic way to develop a healthy microbiome and may help offset some of the adverse effects from environmental exposures,” Alderete said.
Tokyo Institute of Technology researchers have invented a new method that predicts smell based on the odor impression instead of predicting the smell from molecular features.
As the sense of smell is one of the basic senses of animal species, it is critical to finding food, realizing attraction, and sensing danger. Humans detect smells, or odorants, with olfactory receptors expressed in olfactory nerve cells.
These olfactory impressions of odorants on nerve cells are associated with their molecular features and physicochemical properties. This makes it possible to tailor odors to create an intended odor impression. Current methods only predict olfactory impressions from the physicochemical features of odorants. But, that method cannot predict the sensing data, which is indispensable for creating smells.
To tackle this issue, scientists from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have employed the innovative strategy of solving the inverse problem. Instead of predicting the smell from molecular data, this method predicts molecular features based on the odor impression.
Using standard mass spectrum data and machine learning (ML) models, the Tokyo Tech team has found a new method. “We used a machine-learning-based odor predictive model that we had previously developed to obtain the odor impression. Then we predicted the mass spectrum from odor impression inversely based on the previously developed forward model,” explains Professor Takamichi Nakamoto, the leader of the research effort by Tokyo Tech. The findings have been published in PLoS One.
Aroma/Photo:en.wikipedia.org
This simple method allows for the quick preparation of the predicted spectra of odor mixtures and can also predict the required mixing ratio, an important part of the recipe for new odor preparation.
“For example, we show which molecules give the mass spectrum of apple flavor with enhanced ‘fruit’ and ‘sweet’ impressions. Our analysis method shows that combinations of either 59 or 60 molecules give the same mass spectrum as the one obtained from the specified odor impression. With this information, and the correct mixing ratio needed for a certain impression, we could theoretically prepare the desired scent,” highlights Prof. Nakamoto.
This novel method can provide highly accurate predictions of the physicochemical properties of odor mixtures, as well as the mixing ratios required to prepare them, thereby opening the door to endless tailor-made fragrances, said the team.
It looks like the future of odor mixtures smells good!
India commissioned the first indigenous aircraft carrier as INS Vikrant today, Friday Sept 2, 2022 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the event and also unveiled the new Naval Ensign (Nishaan), doing away with the colonial past.
Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said every Indian, is witnessing the sunrise of a new future. This event being held on the INS Vikrant is a tribute to the rising spirits of India on the world horizon.
He said that today we are seeing a manifestation of the dream of the freedom fighters where they envisioned a capable and strong India. “Vikrant is not just a warship. This is a testament to the hard work, talent, influence and commitment of India in the 21st century. If the goals are distant, the journeys are long, the ocean and the challenges are endless – then India’s answer is Vikrant… a unique reflection of India becoming self-reliant.”
Commenting on the new mood of the nation, the Prime Minister said , no challenge is too difficult for today’s India. He said “today, India has joined those countries in the world, which manufacture such a huge aircraft carrier with indigenous technology. Today INS Vikrant has filled the country with a new confidence, and has created a new confidence in the country.”
The Prime Minister acknowledged and praised the contribution of the Navy, engineers of Cochin Shipyard, scientists and specially the workers who worked on the project. He also noted the happy and auspicious occasion of Onam that is adding even more happiness to the occasion.
Every part of INS Vikrant has its own merits, a strength, a development journey of its own. It is a symbol of indigenous potential, indigenous resources and indigenous skills. The steel installed in its airbase is also indigenous, developed by DRDO scientists and produced by Indian companies, he said.
Explaining the massive proportions of the Carrier, the Prime Minister said it is like a floating city. It produces electricity that is sufficient to power 5,000 households and the wiring used will reach Kashi from Kochi, he said. He said that INS Vikrant is a living embodiment of the Spirit of the Panch Prans that he proclaimed from the ramparts of Red Fort.
The Prime Minister remarked that when Vikrant descends to protect our maritime zone, many women soldiers of the Navy will also be stationed there. With the immense power of the ocean, the Indian Navy has decided to open all its branches for women. Just as there are no boundaries for the capable waves, there will be no boundaries or restrictions for the daughters of India.
Commenting on the changing geo-strategic situation, he said in the past, security concerns in the Indo-Pacific region and the Indian Ocean have long been ignored. But, today this area is a major defence priority of the country for us. That is why we are working in every direction, from increasing the budget for the Navy to increasing its capability, he said. The Prime Minister said that a strong India will pave the way for a peaceful and safe world.
INS Vikrant
INS Vikrant is designed by Indian Navy’s in-house Warship Design Bureau (WDB) and built by Cochin Shipyard Limited, a Public Sector Shipyard under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Vikrant has been built with with state of the art automation features and is the largest ship ever built in maritime history of India.
The Indigenous Aircraft Carrier is named after her illustrious predecessor, India’s first Aircraft Carrier which had played a vital role in the 1971 war. It has a large number of indigenous equipment and machinery, involving major industrial houses in the country as well as over 100 MSMEs. With the commissioning of Vikrant, India will have two operational Aircraft Carriers, which will bolster the maritime security of the nation.
During the event, the Prime Minister also unveiled the new Naval Ensign (Nishaan), doing away with the colonial past and befitting the rich Indian maritime heritage.
The discovery of Mbiresaurus in Zimbabwe has led the group of researchers to propose a new theory on dinosaur migration, as Africa was once part of the supercontinent called Pangea.
The climate across ancient Pangea continent is thought to have been divided into strong humid and arid latitudinal belts, with more temperate belts spanning higher latitudes and intense deserts across the lower tropics of Pangea. Scientists previously believed that these climate belts influenced and constrained animal distribution across Pangea.
“Because dinosaurs initially dispersed under this climatic pattern, the early dispersal of dinosaurs should therefore have been controlled by latitude,” said Christopher Griffin, who graduated in 2020 with a Ph.D. in geosciences from the Virginia Tech College of Science. “The oldest dinosaurs are known from roughly the same ancient latitudes along the southern temperate climate belt what was at the time, approximately 50 degrees south.”
Missing Middle bridged
Griffin and others from the Paleobiology and Geobiology Research Group at Virginia Tech purposefully targeted northern Zimbabwe as the country fell along this same climate belt, bridging a geographic gap between southern Brazil and India during the Late Triassic Age.
Moreover, these earliest dinosaurs were restricted by climatic bands to southern Pangea, and only later in their history dispersed worldwide. To prove the claim, the research team developed a novel data method of testing this hypothesis of climatic dispersal barriers based on ancient geography and the dinosaurian family tree. The breakdown of these barriers, and a wave of northward dispersal, coincided with a period of intense worldwide humidity, or the Carnian Pluvial Event.
After this, barriers returned, mooring the now-worldwide dinosaurs in their distinct provinces across Pangea for the remainder of the Triassic Period, according to the team. “This two-pronged approach combines hypothesis-driven predictive fieldwork with statistical methods to independently support the hypothesis that the earliest dinosaurs were restricted by climate to just a few areas of the globe,” Griffin said.
Brenen Wynd, also a doctoral graduate of the Department of Geosciences, helped build the data model. “The early history of dinosaurs was a critical group for this kind of problem. Not only do we have a multitude of physical data from fossils, but also geochemical data that previously gave a really good idea of when major deserts were present,” he said.
“This is the first time where those geochemical and fossil data have been supported using only evolutionary history and the relationships between different dinosaur species, which is very exciting,” he explained.
The unearthing of one of the earliest dinosaurs ever found is a major win for the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe.
The Mbiresaurus skeleton is almost complete, making it a perfect reference material for further finds. It is also the first sauropodomorph find of its size from Zimbabwe, where most of the earlier sauropodomorph finds are usually of medium- to large-sized animals.
“The discovery of the Mbiresaurus is an exciting and special find for Zimbabwe and the entire paleontological field,” said Michel Zondo,a curator and fossil preparer at the museum.
Darlington Munyikwa, deputy executive director of the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, said: “The unfolding fossil assemblage from the Pebbly Arkose Formation in the Cabora Bassa Basin, which was hitherto known for paucity of animal fossils, is exciting. A number of fossil sites [are] waiting for future exploration were recorded, highlighting the potential of the area to add more valuable scientific material.”
Much of the Mbiresaurus specimen is being kept in Virginia Tech’s Derring Hall as the skeleton is cleaned and studied. All of the Mbiresaurus skeleton and the additional found fossilswill be permanently kept at Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
“This is such an exciting and important dinosaur find for Zimbabwe, and we have been watching the scientific process unfold with great pride,”saidMoira Fitzpatrick, the museum’s director. She was not involved in the study. “It has been a pleasure to work with Dr. Griffin,and we hope the relationship will continue well into the future.”
The discovery of Mbiresaurus also marks another highpoint for the Paleobiology and Geobiology Research Group. In 2019, Nesbitt authored a paper detailing the newly named tyrannosauroid dinosaur Suskityrannus hazelae. Incredibly, Nesbitt discovered the fossil at age 16 as a high school student participating in a dig expedition in New Mexico in 1998.
“Our group seeks out equal partnerships and collaborations all over the world and this project demonstrates a highly successful and valued collaboration,” Nesbitt said. “We will continue studying the many fossils from the same areas as where the new dinosaur came from and explore the fossil beds further.”
An international team of paleontologists led by Virginia Tech has discovered a skeleton of new long-necked dinosaur Mbiresaurus raathi, that fills a critical geographic gap in the fossil record of the oldest dinosaurs.
The skeleton, mostly intact, was first found by a graduate student in the Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences and other paleontologists during two excavations over the course of period in 2017 and 2019.
Published on Thursday in the journal Nature, the findings show that the skeleton is the oldest dinosaur skeleton ever found in Africa. The animal is estimated to have been 6 feet long with a long tail. It weighed anywhere from 20 to 65 pounds.The skeleton, missing only some of the hand and portions of the skull, was found in northern Zimbabwe.
Dinosaur
“The discovery of Mbiresaurus raathi fills in a critical geographic gap in the fossil record of the oldest dinosaurs and shows the power of hypothesis-driven fieldwork for testing predictions about the ancient past,” said Christopher Griffin, who graduated in 2020 with a Ph.D. in geosciences from the Virginia Tech College of Science.
Africa’s oldest-known definitive dinosaurs, it was roughly equivalent in age to the oldest dinosaurs found anywhere in the world. The oldest known dinosaurs — from roughly 230 million years ago, the Carnian Stage of the Late Triassic period — are extremely rare and have been recovered from northern Argentina, southern Brazil, and India.
Sterling Nesbitt, co-author of the study, said, “Early dinosaurs like Mbiresaurus raathi show that the early evolution of dinosaurs is still being written with each new find and the rise of dinosaurs was far more complicated than previously predicted.”
Mikhail Gorbachev, a friend of India who visited twice in the mid-1980s, died on Tuesday aged 91 after a prolonged illness. He was the last Soviet president who ended the Cold War without bloodshed though could not prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“Mikhail Gorbachev passed away tonight after a serious and protracted disease,” said Russia’s Central Clinical Hospital. President Vladimir Putin expressed “his deepest condolences”, and World leaders paid tribute. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Gorbachev, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, had opened the way for a free Europe.
U.S. President Joe Biden said he had believed in “glasnost and perestroika – openness and restructuring – not as mere slogans, but as the path forward for the people of the Soviet Union after so many years of isolation and deprivation.”
He will be buried in Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife Raisa, who died in 1999.
On becoming general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, aged just 54, he had set out to revitalize the system by introducing limited political and economic freedoms, but his reforms spun out of control.
“He was a good man – he was a decent man. I think his tragedy is in a sense that he was too decent for the country he was leading,” said Gorbachev biographer William Taubman, a professor emeritus at Amherst College in Massachusetts.
Gorbachev’s policy of “glasnost” allowed previously unthinkable criticism of the party and the state, but also emboldened nationalists who began to press for independence in the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and elsewhere.
India Visits in 1986, 1988
Gorbachev, throughout his tenure championed for strong Soviet-India relations and visited India twice in 1986 and 1988. In 1986 he was received by then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
“When friends come calling, our hearts light up. We are delighted to have you in our midst,” Rajiv Gandhi said during the press conference.
Gorbachev said India and Soviet Russia strive for lasting global peace and said Soviet Russia will always support India’s real interests. “We shall not take a single step in our foreign policy that could damage India’s real interests,” Gorbachev said. It was during this visit that Gorbachev and Gandhi also signed the Delhi Declaration which “called for the complete destruction of nuclear arsenals before the end of the century, and asserted the importance of solving problems in a non-violent way.”
Gorbachev’s India visit
Soviet Russia and India opened more avenues of cooperation in sectors of space, infrastructure development and defence during the visit. Russia committed to provide India with the latest military hardware and months after, India received advanced MiG29s from Soviet Russia.
When Rajiv Gandhi visited Moscow in 1987, Gorbachev held a private meeting with him lasting for six hours. He also dedicated a monument to his mother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi and named a Moscow square in her memory.
Hyderabad police on Friday detained BJP MLA T. Raja Singh who had threatened to burn down the venue of stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui’s show scheduled to be held in Hyderabad on Saturday, just before he prepared to go there.
Raja Singh has been detained and shifted to Bolaram police station in a police vehicle. His supporters raised slogans against the state government and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao when police officials detained him from his office in Mangalhat. Some of them tried to block the police vehicle but were taken into custody.
Police had tightened the security at the MLA’s office since morning. He represents Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad and had warned in a video that if the comedian goes ahead with the show, he would beat him up and burn down the venue.
Raja Singh alleged that Faruqui had hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus by making jokes on their gods after Munawar took to his Instagram account to announce his show “Dongri to Nowhere” in Hyderabad on August 20.
He had earlier planned to perform in Hyderabad in January but the show had to be canceled due to a surge in Covid-19 cases.
“In the past too, our idiot minister KTR had offered police protection and invited him, saying his event will be a great success. But even then, when Hindu groups across Telangana united to threaten him, he got scared and cancelled the event,” Raja Singh said, in a reference to state minster K.T. Rama Rao.
“I am seriously telling this. Everybody knows about the law and order in Telangana. I am telling KTR, if you don’t want this to deteriorate further, don’t allow the comedian in Hyderabad,” the MLA from Goshamahal warned KTR.
The BJP leader has also issued an open threat. “See what will happen, If they invite him. Wherever the program is, we will go and beat him up. Whoever offers him a venue, we will burn it down. If something goes wrong, KTR and the government and police officers will be responsible,” Raja Singh said.
Faruqui had announced his Hyderabad show on December 22, 2021, days after KTR had extended him an open invite to perform in Hyderabad, saying the city is truly cosmopolitan. he had also tweeted that he was receiving several calls and mails from Hyderabad to perform in the city.
At least half of the companies worldwide are planning to cut jobs or prune bonuses and rescinding job offers due to the onset of a global economic downturn, said global financial monitoring firm PwC in its latest report.
In its “PwC ‘Pulse: Managing business risks in 2022” survey in the US, it said 50 per cent of respondents are reducing their overall headcount. “At the same time, respondents are also taking proactive steps to streamline the workforce and establish the appropriate mix of worker skills for the future,” said the report released on Thursday.
This comes as no surprise, after a frenzy of hiring and a tight labour market over the past few years, as “executives see the distinction between having people and having people with the right skills… For example, 50 per cent of all respondents are reducing their overall headcount, 46 per cent are dropping or reducing signing bonuses and 44 per cent are rescinding offers.”
More than 32,000 tech workers have been laid off in the US till July, including at Big Tech companies like Microsoft and Meta, and the worst has not been over yet, said the report.
India job cuts at 25K
In India, more than 25,000 startup workers have lost jobs since the pandemic and more than 12,000 have been fired this year, said the PwC report. “Consumer markets and technology, media and telecommunications companies, for example, are more likely to invest in automation to address labour shortages,” the PwC report mentioned.
At the same time, healthcare is seeing bigger talent challenges than other industries and is more focused on rehiring employees who have recently left.
The global consulting firm last month polled more than 700 US executives and board members across industries. With increasing economic uncertainty, 83 per cent of executives are focusing their business strategy on growth.
“On the whole, this generation of corporate leaders have minimal experience navigating a recession, yet with the possibility of one looming amid increasing geopolitical divides and skyrocketing inflation, they are bullish on their ability to handle what could be ahead,” said Kathryn Kaminsky, vice chair, trust solutions co-leader, PwC US.
Nearly two-thirds of businesses (63 per cent) have changed or are planning to change processes to address labour shortages, up from 56 per cent in January 2022, the report noted.
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