India

S Jaishankar Meets Bill Gates, Exchange Books During Meeting

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S Jaishankar Meets Bill Gates, Exchange Books During Meeting

Dr S Jaishankar and Bill Gates exchanged books on Thursday.

New Delhi:

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The two leaders, as they met, also exchanged books on Thursday.

In a post on X, Mr Jaishankar shared a post, showing him and Gates posing for a picture with their respective books.

“A good book exchange with @BillGates. And a great conversation,” S Jaishankar wrote.

Bill Gates, who is on a visit to India, arrived in Odisha’s capital, Bhubaneswar, on Tuesday.

Following his Odisha trip, Mr Gates arrived in the national capital, where he met Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

In an interview with ANI on Thursday, Mr Gates said that he is confident about the good future of India, adding that the country has witnessed strong improvement in a lot of the key areas.

When asked whether he is bullish or bearish on India’s future, Bill Gates said, “I’m certainly bullish. The rate of improvement in a lot of the key areas is very strong. Everyone knows that in vaccines, India is the world’s leader. So we are investing with our partners here to come up with lots of new vaccines. The diagnostic industry has also come out with some work after the pandemic so we are partnering there as well.”

Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership in introducing digital public infrastructure and transforming the country’s rural economy, Bill Gates said that other countries can certainly benefit from the Indian leadership.

“This idea of digital connections that starts with Aadhaar and the bank accounts that you manage digitally, that’s flourishing. And so we see in agriculture now that they are registering the farmers and giving them advance notice. And so Indian leadership is something other countries should benefit from,” he said.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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S Jaishankar Meets Bill Gates, Exchange Books During Meeting

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S Jaishankar Meets Bill Gates, Exchange Books During Meeting

Dr S Jaishankar and Bill Gates exchanged books on Thursday.

New Delhi:

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The two leaders, as they met, also exchanged books on Thursday.

In a post on X, Mr Jaishankar shared a post, showing him and Gates posing for a picture with their respective books.

“A good book exchange with @BillGates. And a great conversation,” S Jaishankar wrote.

Bill Gates, who is on a visit to India, arrived in Odisha’s capital, Bhubaneswar, on Tuesday.

Following his Odisha trip, Mr Gates arrived in the national capital, where he met Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

In an interview with ANI on Thursday, Mr Gates said that he is confident about the good future of India, adding that the country has witnessed strong improvement in a lot of the key areas.

When asked whether he is bullish or bearish on India’s future, Bill Gates said, “I’m certainly bullish. The rate of improvement in a lot of the key areas is very strong. Everyone knows that in vaccines, India is the world’s leader. So we are investing with our partners here to come up with lots of new vaccines. The diagnostic industry has also come out with some work after the pandemic so we are partnering there as well.”

Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership in introducing digital public infrastructure and transforming the country’s rural economy, Bill Gates said that other countries can certainly benefit from the Indian leadership.

“This idea of digital connections that starts with Aadhaar and the bank accounts that you manage digitally, that’s flourishing. And so we see in agriculture now that they are registering the farmers and giving them advance notice. And so Indian leadership is something other countries should benefit from,” he said.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Israeli Forces Open Fire On People In Gaza At Aid Point, 104 Killed

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Israeli Forces Open Fire On People In Gaza At Aid Point, 104 Killed

Palestinian health ministry condemned what it labelled a “massacre”. (representational)

Palestinian Territories:

Israeli forces in war-torn Gaza opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians at an aid distribution point Thursday, killing at least 104 people and wounding over 700 according to Palestinian health officials.

Israeli sources confirmed that troops shot at the crowd, believing they “posed a threat”, in the pre-dawn incident in Gaza City in the north of the besieged territory.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza condemned what it labelled a “massacre” and said it had claimed at least 104 lives and left 760 people wounded.

A witness told AFP that the violence unfolded when thousands of people desperate for food rushed towards aid trucks at the city’s western Nabulsi roundabout. 

“Trucks full of aid came too close to some army tanks that were in the area and the crowd, thousands of people, just stormed the trucks,” the witness said, declining to be named for safety reasons. 

“The soldiers fired at the crowd as people came too close to the tanks.” 

The Israeli army initially said that “during the entry of humanitarian aid trucks into the northern Gaza Strip, Gazan residents surrounded the trucks and looted the supplies being delivered”. 

It added that “during the incident, dozens of Gazans were injured as a result of pushing and trampling. The incident is under review.”

Later an Israeli source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity, that “the crowd approached the forces in a manner that posed a threat to the troops, who responded to the threat with live fire”.

As the dead and wounded were taken to several of Gaza’s few functioning hospitals, health officials reported a steadily rising death count.

“Medical teams are unable to deal with the volume and type of injuries arriving at Al-Shifa Medical Complex as a result of weak medical and human capabilities,” one official said in a statement.

– Famine warning –

AFP TV footage showed the corpses of two men being taken away on the back of a donkey drawn cart.

Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said the death count from the “massacre” in Gaza City “rose to 104 martyrs and 760 injuries due to the bullets of the occupation forces that targeted a gathering of citizens”.

Gaza is facing an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation nearly five months into the war started by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.  

Israel’s relentless military campaign to eliminate Hamas has killed more than 30,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

The UN estimates that the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people are threatened with famine, particularly in the north where destruction, fighting and looting make aid delivery almost impossible. 

According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, just over 2,300 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip in February, down by around 50 per cent compared to January. 

Thursday’s bloody incident spurred a heated exchange at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Mohammad Khraishi confronted his Israeli counterpart on the reported casualties and said: “Are these human shields? Are these Hamas combatants?”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Middle East

Iran, Qatar discuss latest efforts aimed at cessation of Israel's war on Gaza

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Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (R) and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani

Iran and Qatar’s foreign ministers have discussed the latest political efforts that have been taken towards potential cessation of the Israeli regime’s ongoing war of genocide against the Gaza Strip.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani held the discussion during a telephone conversation on Thursday.

The top diplomats addressed the initiatives that had been proposed so far towards potential establishment of a ceasefire, exchange of captives, and transfer of international humanitarian supplies to the war-hit people of Gaza.

More than 30,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed as a result of the military onslaught so far.

Israel launched the campaign on October 7 last year following al-Aqsa Storm, a surprise operation by Gaza’s resistance movements against the occupied territories, during which hundreds were taken captive.

A week-long humanitarian ceasefire in late November saw an exchange of 240 Palestinian abductees held by Israel with 105 captives, including 81 Israelis and 24 foreigners, in Gaza.

Israel believes 130 captives still remain in Gaza, while there are roughly 7,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, many of whom have been detained without charge.

On Tuesday, Qatar’s Al Jazeera television network reported details of an alleged prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas, under which the occupying regime would free 400 Palestinian abductees in exchange for the release of 40 held in captivity by the Gaza-based resistance group.

The swap deal, which will be accompanied by a six-week-long truce, came as part of recent talks in Paris among Israeli, American, Egyptian, and Qatari representatives, the report said.

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Watch: Vishwak Sen’s ‘Gaami’ trailer a visual treat; out now

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Gaami, an adventure drama, written and directed by Vidhyagar Kagita, is set to be released on March 8

Published Date – 29 February 2024, 08:45 PM


Watch: Vishwak Sen’s ‘Gaami’ trailer a visual treat; out now


Hyderabad: Gaami, an adventure drama, written and directed by Vidhyagar Kagita, is set to be released on March 8. The film was hugely crowdfunded and produced by Karthik Sabareesh. V Celluloid is presenting the film. The makers released the trailer for the film today, and one can only call it ‘Incredible’.

Gaami stars Vishwak Sen as an orphan who lives with Aghoras and fights with a rare condition where he can never experience human touch. After leaving his clan, he is suggested by a sage to reach the Himalayas and grab a rare flower that is available every 36 years to treat any conditions of the human touch. Interestingly, destiny also plays a huge role in his life, where his condition and pain are threaded with the lives of two other characters, a Devadasi and a Scientist.

Gaami is truly a rare visual spectacle that Indians can experience. Every visual in the trailer reflects the standards at the international level, and the credit completely goes to the visionary Vidhyagar and the cinematographer Vishwanath. The VFX and DI teams equally need big applause. Achieving this kind of big-screen output on a small budget, and that too with the crowdfund, is a rare feat in Indian cinema.

Vishwak Sen’s transformation and presentation for the role, and that too six years ago, are truly worthy of a standing ovation. His efforts are marvelous.

On a whole, Gaami is superiorly adventurous, ambitious, and of course, an awaiting movie ever since its trailer release.

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Bajrang Punia Refuses To Appear In WFI Selection Trials

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Rejecting the Wrestling Federation of India’s invitation to compete in the upcoming national trials, ace Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia has moved an urgent joint petition in the Delhi High Court, seeking a stay on the selection competition being organised by the WFI in New Delhi on March 10-11. It has been learnt from reliable sources that Bajrang, Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and her husband Satywart Kadiyan moved the court on Wednesday and the matter will be heard on Friday. While Bajrang did not confirm filing a petition, he questioned the government’s silence on the issues concerning Indian wrestling.

The Indian team for the Asian Wrestling Championships Olympic Qualifier in Kyrgyzstan next month will be selected on the basis of the trials at Delhi’s IG Stadium.

Bajrang told PTI from Russia, where he is training for the last two months, that he has spent a fortune abroad but he won’t compete in trials if they are conducted by the Sanjay Singh-led WFI.

“I would not spend Rs 30 lakh on my training if I were to not compete in the trials, but how the suspended WFI is conducting the trials? I don’t get what the government’s compulsion is (on allowing WFI to conduct trials)?” Bajrang said.

“I don’t understand how a sports body suspended by the Indian government issue a circular and announce the trials. Why is the government silent? We will appear in the trials only if the ad-hoc panel or the government conducts it. How can a suspended body announce the trials?” he asked.

WFI president Sanjay Singh had appealed to the protesting wrestlers to forget the past and appear for the trials.

The trio had led a prolonged protest at Jantar Mantar, demanding the arrest of then WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who they had accused of sexual harassment.

Bajrang, the Tokyo Olympics bronze winner, said that not just him but Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat will also skip the trials.

“This decision to not appear in trials is a joint decision taken by us. We are together in this,” he said.

PTI tried to reach out Sakshi and Vinesh for confirmation but the former did not return calls and the latter could not be contacted.

Asked specifically if they have moved court against the trials, Bajrang denied the development but a source in the WFI confirmed to PTI that four wrestlers have approached the Delhi High Court.

The United World Wrestling (UWW) had lifted the suspension on the WFI earlier this month but the government, which had also suspended the national sports federation (NSF) for flouting rules, has not yet made such a decision.

Sakshi has already announced her retirement while Vinesh, one of the most decorated Indian wrestlers, made a winning comeback to competitive wrestling by winning gold at the Nationals in Jaipur earlier this month.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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