SATURDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2024 www.thestatesman.com Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC Twitter.com/thestatesman Facebook.com/thestatesman INDIA’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER SINCE 1818 KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR ‘INDIA OUTPERFORMS GLOBAL AVERAGE IN UN SUSTAINABILITY GOALS’ P8 SENSEX 73,142.8015.45 WEATHER PARTLY CLOUDY SKY. THE MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM TEMPERATURES WOULD BE AROUND 25 AND 08 DEGREES CELSIUS RESPECTIVELY. RAINFALL: NIL RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 84 % TEMPERATURE Max: 24.4 °C (-1) SUN RISES 6:51 hrs MOON RISES 18:12 hrs P6 NIFTY 22,212.704.75 ` vs $ 82.938 PAISE Min: 07.6 °C (-4) SUN SETS 18:17 hrs MOON SETS 07:23 hrs THUMBNAILS Elderly men pose for a selfie amidst the blooming tulips at Lodhi Garden, in New ANI Delhi on Friday. MEA responds to Indians caught in conflict in Russia, urges caution: Responding to the reports of Indian nationals forced to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday that it is aware of the matter and urged the community there to exercise due caution. "We are aware that a few Indian nationals have signed up for support jobs with the Russian army," Randhir Jaiswal, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, said in a statement. P12 SILVER 74,500 GOLD 63,885.00 BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 80.581.41 PM slams Cong for calling Kashi's youth drug addicts STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE VARANASI, 23 FEBRUARY ‘For INDIA, family above all, poor only vote-bank’ P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the Congress of labeling the youth of Varanasi as “drug addicts”, reacting to a statement made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. “The royal family of Congress says that the youth of Kashi are drug addicts. They have spent two decades abusing Modi, now these people are taking out their frustration on the youth of UP. Those who have lost their senses are calling the children of my Kashi as drug addicts," he said in Varanasi. After the inauguration ceremony of the Banas Kashi Complex and inaugurating and laying the foundation stone of projects worth more than Rs 13,000 crore for Purvanchal, PM Modi fiercely targeted the opposition. He said that decades of corruption, nepotism and appeasement kept UP backward. UP was made a sick state, the future of the youth was played with. STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 23 FEBRUARY Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to people as he arrives at a public event where he will inaugurate and launch several development projects, in Varanasi on Friday.  SNS Challenging the Congress, the Prime Minister said that the youth of Kashi and UP are engaged in making a developed UP. "The youth of UP will never forget the insult done by Congress and the INDI alliance," he said. Targeting the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, the PM said that members of political families are always afraid of youth power and talent. They feel that if an ordinary youth gets an Google’s AI chatbot Gemini violates India’s IT laws: Rajeev Chandrasekhar AGENCIES NEW DELHI, 23 FEBRUARY opportunity, he will challenge everywhere. They like only those who keep cheering them day and night, he said. The Prime Minister said that another reason for their anger and frustration is that they do not like the new form of Kashi and Ayodhya. " They attack Ram Mandir on all kinds of things. I did not know that Congress had so much hatred for Prabhu Shri Ram. They are unable to think beyond their family Former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi passes away LOS ANGELES, 23 FEBRUARY The issue was raised by verified account of a journalist alleging bias in Google Gemini in response to a question on Modi while it gave no clear answer when a similar question was asked for former US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Some news portals have reported that the IT Ministry is in the process of issuing a notice to Google over the “problematic” responses generated by its AI platform Gemini regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Earlier this week, Google paused the ability for Gemini AI to generate images of people, as controversy erupted over inaccuracies in AIgenerated historical images. The controversy erupted when images generated by Gemini AI depicted specific white figures (like the US ‘Founding Fathers’) Nazi-era German soldiers as “people of colour”. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have also accused Google of running "racist, anti-civilisational programming" with its artificial intelligence (AI) models. Former Maharashtra chief minister Manohar Joshi passed away on Friday following a cardiac arrest, family sources said. He was 86. He was admitted to P D Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai on Wednesday. In a statement, the hospital said the veteran leader was severely ill upon admission. The statement also indicated that he suffered a cardiac event and was under close observation by medical professionals. "My father had been admitted to the ICU and was under observation. He had cardiac trouble on Wednesday. He had prolonged age-related health issues. He passed away in the early hours of Friday. We will be performing the last rites at Shivaji Park crematorium and before this, the mortal remains will be brought to our house in Matunga," Joshi's son Unmesh told SNS reporters. Govt amends rules to reduce power connection timeline STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 23 FEBRUARY The Centre has approved amendments to the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020, with Union Minister for Power and Renewable Energy R K Singh (in photo) saying the amendments further reduce the timeline for getting new electricity connections and simplify the process of setting up rooftop solar installations. The minister informed that the amendments empower consumers living in multistoreyed flats in choosing their connection type and ensure separate billing for common areas and back-up generators in residential societies, thus enhancing transparency. The amendments also provide for check meters to be installed by distribution companies in case of consumer complaints, to verify elec- P7 He said that decades of corruption, nepotism and appeasement kept UP backward Min. 35 % Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday expressed concern over the potential violation of Indian IT laws by Google's Gemini AI chatbot. His reaction comes after users on the social media platform X posted Gemini AI responses regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other well-known political figures from other countries. "This #GeminiAI from @google is not just woke, it's downright malicious @GoogleIndia. The GOI should take note," a user wrote who responded to the post containing Gemini AI's responses on political figures. To which, Chandrasekhar replied: “These are direct violations of Rule 3(1)(b) of Intermediary Rules (IT rules) of the IT act and violations of several provisions of the Criminal code. @GoogleAI @GoogleIndia @GoI_MeitY." ROOT’S 31ST TEST TON HELPS ENGLAND PAST 300-RUN MARK ‘CONGRESS WILL IMPROVE N-E TALLY' RUSSIAN DISSENTERS tricity consumption, he said. The government has said that the major amendments aim at facilitating easier and faster installation of rooftop solar systems; separate connections for electric vehicle charging stations; new connections and change in existing connections to be obtained faster; additional rights for consumers in residential colonies and flats; and mandatory additional meter in cases of complaints. The amendments facilitate faster installation and enhance the ease of setting up rooftop solar PV systems at the premises of prosumers. Exemption has been given for the requirement of technical feasibility study, for systems up to a capacity of 10 kW. For systems of capacity higher than 10 kW, the timeline for completing the feasibility study has been reduced from twenty days to fifteen days. Further, in case the study is not completed within the stipulated time, the approval will be deemed to have been given. Additionally, it has now been mandated that the distribution system strengthening necessary for rooftop solar PV systems up to 5 kW capacity will be done by the distribution company at its own cost. Further, the timeline for the distribution licensee to commission rooftop solar PV systems has been reduced from thirty days to fifteen days. Also, with the new arrangement at place, the consumers can now obtain separate electricity connections for charging their electric vehicles (EVs). This aligns with the country's goal of reducing carbon emissions and reaching Net Zero by the year 2070. and vote bank. When elections come, these people come together. When the result is silence, they abuse each other and separate," he alleged. Modi said: “This is Banaras, everyone is a guru here, the maneuver of the Indi alliance did not work here. Not just Banaras but the entire UP knows that the goods are the same and the packaging is new." The Prime Minister said that this time he will have to struggle a lot to save his bail. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the country’s backwards and poor must know the INDI Alliance (INDIA) is opposed to welfare schemes for their benefit and in the name of taking up their cause, indulges in “parivarvad” to promote interests of just one family. The Prime Minister said when a programme for construction of toilets was started for the deprived sections, the INDI Alliance had made fun of it, just as it had laughed at Jan Dhan bank accounts for the poor. The members of the alliance had opposed Digital India which aimed at helping the poor. Lok Sabha election schedule likely to be out on 13-14 March AGENCIES NEW DELHI, 23 FEBRUARY The Election Commission of India (ECI) is expected to announce the schedule for the upcoming parliamentary elections around 13-14 March. The model code of conduct (MCC) will come into effect after the ECI makes the announcement. ECI teams have so far visited several states and held meetings with the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) to take stock of the poll preparedness there. The ECI officials are currently visiting Tamil Nadu, where they are taking a detailed view of the electionrelated preparations by the state machinery. In the coming week, the ECI will visit Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Sources told IANS news agency that the full Commission would visit Jammu and Kashmir on 1112 March to assess the poll preparedness and the security scenario there.