LIVE News | Bill Gates lauds Andhra’s AI-driven growth

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (February 17) adjourned to April 22 the hearing on a plea filed by the CBI challenging the bail granted by the Jharkhand High Court to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in a scam related to the Deoghar treasury. A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh deferred the matter, noting that the pleadings were not complete and some accused have died.

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the CBI, argued that the high court has passed an illegal order and the sentence has been suspended in violation of law.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Lalu, submitted that some accused have not been served notice.

The court observed, "Both of us know what this special leave petition is. We think both of you know what the result is. We all know what the question of law is. The persons are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. The files are just languishing. We will give a date in April. Those cases in which the respondent has died, we will close them," the bench said.

The Jharkhand High Court in July last year admitted an appeal by the CBI for increasing the period of sentence given to Yadav. Yadav was convicted in the scam related to the Deoghar treasury, which involved alleged defalcation of Rs 89 lakh. The special CBI court had convicted Yadav in the case and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for 3.5 years.

Microsoft founder and Gates Foundation chairman Bill Gates on Tuesday (February 17) hailed Andhra Pradesh’s rapid development, saying it was exciting to see the state’s growth being accelerated through AI and technology.

Following his visit to Amaravati, Gates expressed his admiration for the southern state’s innovations across health, agriculture and education.

“Thank you for the warm welcome, N Chandrababu Naidu. It’s exciting to witness Andhra Pradesh’s growth being accelerated through AI, technology, and innovations across health, agriculture & education,” he said in a post on X.

On Monday, Gates engaged in several activities in the greenfield capital city of Amaravati, beginning with an interaction with the CM and others, reviewing presentations on the use of technology in governance and also a visit to a banana orchard by the Krishna river bank in Undavalli village in Guntur district.

According to the tech czar, India is leading the global digital revolution.

He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Naidu for their key role and heaped praise on Naidu for his long-term vision, saying a majority of IT experts, including many at Microsoft, are from the Telugu states.

A 19-year-old student from Telangana allegedly died by suicide at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Haryana’s Kurukshetra district.

The student, identified as Angod Shiva, was reportedly found hanging from a ceiling fan in his hostel room on Monday.

He was a resident of Maheshwari village in Rangareddy district, Telangana, and a first-semester student pursuing a degree in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at the institute and was staying in a hostel room on the campus.

No suicide note was found at the spot, police said.

At the time of the incident, Shiva was reportedly alone in his room. His two roommates, both from Haryana, had gone for lunch. Earlier in the morning, Shiva had attended his classes around 10 am. After the class, he reportedly returned to his room while his roommates left for lunch.

When Shiva did not come to the mess for lunch, one of his roommates went back to call him. The room was locked from the inside. Despite repeated knocking, there was no response. The roommate then went around to the rear side of the building and looked through a window, where he allegedly saw Shiva hanging from the ceiling fan.

Police have informed Shiva’s family members, who are expected to arrive soon. Further action will be taken based on the statement of the family.

Three persons were injured and nearly 80 others rescued after a slab from a fifth-floor flat collapsed onto the floor beneath in a residential building in Maharashtra’s Thane city early on Tuesday.

One of the injured persons is reportedly critical.

The incident occurred at 3.07 am at the five-storey Nutan Neelam Apartment, located at Shantinagar in Wagle Estate. The building is reportedly around 35 years old.

The slab from a fifth-floor flat crashed onto a house on the fourth floor, injuring a resident of the upper flat and two occupants below, Thane Municipal Corporation’s disaster management cell chief Yasin Tadvi said.

All three were rushed to a hospital in Thane, but the critically injured person was shifted to a medical facility in Mumbai for advanced treatment, he said.

“Nearly 80 to 85 residents were living in the building. We have rescued all occupants. About half of them have been shifted to a TMC School in Shantinagar for temporary shelter, while others arranged accommodation themselves,” Tadvi said.

The building has been sealed.

A woman has been arrested and her daughter booked in Meerut for allegedly spying for Pakistan’s ISI and residing in the country without valid citizenship.

According to the police, Ruksana, a resident of the Delhi Gate police station area, submitted a complaint to the Senior Superintendent of Police and the Additional Superintendent of Police (City), alleging that Saba Farhat, who lives in Nadir Ali Building in Jali Kothi, had travelled to Pakistan in 1988 and married a Pakistani national, Farhat Masood, there.

The complaint stated that her daughter, Aiman Farhat, who was born in Pakistan in 1993, was brought to India on a Pakistani passport and later enrolled in a school here, but was never granted an Indian citizenship.

The complainant further alleged that the woman had prepared forged documents to obtain a passport for her daughter and procured two separate identity documents in her own name.

It was also alleged that both the women were spying for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and collecting confidential information, the police said.

The Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Monday again passed the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill without any changes, despite objections raised by the governor.

The Bill was passed during the Winter session of the assembly and awaited governor’s assent.

The governor, however, returned the Bill for reconsideration with some objections, but the House passed the bill again without any change.

The amendment Bill was introduced by Town and Country Planning Minister Rajesh Dharmani. It seeks to make chief secretary the chairperson of the committee that appoints chairman and members of Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA)—instead of the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court.

The assembly also passed the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Corporation Amendment Bill, seeking to extend the term of mayors and deputy mayors from two and a half to five years.

The Bill, replacing the Ordinance was also returned by the governor for reconsideration, but the assembly passed it again in its original form.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (February 17) said India was looking forward to the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron and advancing the bilateral relations to new heights.

Modi said this while commenting on a post of Macron on X, where the French President said he was en route to India and during his three-day visit to Mumbai and New Delhi, both leaders will take the strategic partnership of the two countries even further.

“Welcome to India! India looks forward to your visit and to advancing our bilateral ties to new heights. I am confident that our discussions will further strengthen cooperation across sectors and contribute to global progress. See you in Mumbai and later in Delhi, my dear friend @EmmanuelMacron,” PM Modi wrote on X.

The Mumbai Police have arrested the suspected shooter who fired gunshots at filmmaker Rohit Shetty's house and six others from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in a multi-state operation.

Investigators have claimed that the crime was carried out by Lawrence Bishnoi gang member Shubham Lonkar with the intent to cause harm to the filmmaker and to instil fear and supremacy.

The city police's anti-extortion cell, with the help of the special task forces (STF) from the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana Police, apprehended the alleged shooter, Deepak Rameshchandra Sharma, a resident of Agra, and six others involved in the February 1 incident, on Sunday in a multi-state operation.

A Mumbai court has remanded the accused persons in police custody till February 25.

At least 175 people, most of them children, fell ill after they allegedly consumed contaminated food at a fair organised on Mahashivratri in Jharkhand’s Palamu district.

The incident was reported from Dwarka village under the Panki Police Station limits when these people became sick due to “food poisoning”, Palamu Civil Surgeon Dr Anil Kumar Shrivastav said.

Most of the patients were suffering from vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain since Sunday night, another official said.

“Altogether, 175 people were admitted to the Panki Community Health Centre (CHC), but now only 22 of them are undergoing treatment. The initial symptoms indicate food poisoning. The exact cause will only be ascertained after the investigation reports come,” Shrivastav said.

After the “Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan”, the Congress in Madhya Pradesh has now announced the launch of a “Talent Hunt Programme” to recruit a new batch of party spokespersons.

At a press conference attended by Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Umang Singhar, along with other senior leaders, it was announced that the campaign would look for spokespersons, research coordinators and publicity coordinators.

The opposition party clarified that the candidates selected through the campaign will be given the opportunity to represent the Congress at the district, division, state and national levels.

Mukesh Nayak, head of the party’s media department in Madhya Pradesh, said 20 state spokespersons, several media panellists and two spokespersons each at the division and district levels will be selected through the campaign.

In addition, two national-level panellists and one dedicated English-media panellist will also be selected, he added.