SATURDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2024 www.thestatesman.com Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC INDIA’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER SINCE 1818 Twitter.com/thestatesman Facebook.com/thestatesman KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR ‘INDIA OUTPERFORMS GLOBAL AVERAGE IN UN SUSTAINABILITY GOALS’ RUSSIAN DISSENTERS P8 P6 SENSEX 73,142.8015.45 WEATHER Sunshine along with some cloudy intervals. Maximum and minimum temperatures likely to be around 28 °C and 20°C respectively. RAINFALL: NIL RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 71% Max: 28.3°C SUN RISES 06:02 hrs MOON RISES 17:33 hrs P7 ` vs $ 82.938 PAISE GOLD 63,885.00 EAM cautions against ‘mind games’ by China ‘India should not give power to other nations to influence its policy changes’ Min. 58% Min: 20.5°C SUN SETS 17:37 hrs MOON SETS 05:59 hrs TEMPERATURE NIFTY 22,212.704.75 AGENCIES NEW DELHI, 23 FEBRUARY xternal Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar on Friday said that India should not give power to other countries to influence its policy changes and should be confident enough to "leverage the international system to create the best possible outcome" for itself. “Today, when I say think through your own solutions is don't give another country which is clearly a competitive country a veto over our policy changes. Unfortunately, in past, it has hap- E New Moon on 24 February THUMBNAILS MEA responds on Indians caught in conflict in Russia: Responding to the reports of Indian nationals forced to fight in the RussiaUkraine war, the Ministry of External Affairs said 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, MEA spokesperson, said, adding that the Indian Embassy has taken it up with the Russian authorities for their early discharge. pened,” he said, referring to India-China relations, during a panel discussion at the Raisina Dialogue 2024 in New Delhi. The minister said that the biggest challenge for both the nations would be that instead of getting caught up in "mind games", India should harness other Google’s AI chatbot Gemini violates India’s IT laws: Rajeev Chandrasekhar AGENCIES NEW DELHI, 23 FEBRUARY factors to get better terms to arrive at an equilibrium and then maintain it. He said that the immediate issue between India and China was the latter's decision to make a departure from border agreements put in place in the late 1980s. “There was a departure after almost after 30 years, a departure on their side in terms of how they behaved on the border. And there is a pushback from our side,” Mr Jaishankar said. “The mind games which were being played, would be just between the two of us (India and China), there is nobody, other 190 odd countries in the world don't exist in our relationship. That will be the mind game which will be played. I don't think we should play it. Because if there are other factors out there in the world, which can be harnessed by me to get better terms on an equilibrium. Why should I forgo that right?” he said. Former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi passes away LOS ANGELES, 23 FEBRUARY 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." 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’) Naziera 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 onWednesday. 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 reporters. AGENCIES (Pg 5) Govt tweaks rules to cut power connection timeline STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE The amendments aim at facilitating installation of rooftop solar systems; separate connections for EV charging stations; new connectionsto be obtained faster; and additional rights for consumers in residential colonies and flats 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 electricity 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 ROOT’S 31ST TEST TON HELPS ENGLAND PAST 300-RUN MARK ‘CONGRESS WILL IMPROVE N-E TALLY' 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. CMYK SILVER 74,500 P12 BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 80.581.41 LS poll schedule likely to be out on 13-14 March NEW DELHI, 23 FEBRUARY The Election Commission of India (ECI) is in all likelihood going to announce the schedule for the upcoming parliamentary elections around 13-14 March. ECI teams have visited several states to take stock of the election preparedness there. ECI officials are currently visiting Tamil Nadu, with Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir next on the schedule. Sources said the full Commission would visit J&K on 11-12 March to assess the poll preparedness and the security scenario there. The ECI is expected to announce the Lok Sabha election schedule after its return from J&K. IANS US spacecraft lands on the moon: Private US company Intuitive Machines' lunar lander touched down on the moon early Friday morning, making it the first American spacecraft to land on the lunar surface in more than 50 years. The uncrewed lander, named Odysseus, landed at the lunar South Pole on Thursday at 6.23 p.m. Eastern Time (4.53 a.m. India time), NASA said. IANS
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