SUBHADITYA NEWS CHANNEL PRESENTS NEWS OF THIS WEEK : SCIENCE, POLITICAL,SPORTS ,MOVIES AND BOOK NEWS THIS WEEK

 

1) Scientists discover 100 potential new deep-sea species, including mystery creature By Katie Hunt, CNN

Marine researchers on a mission to record life hidden in the world’s oceans have reported they found about 100 potential new species — including one mystery starlike creature.

The expedition team focused its investigation on the 500-mile (800-kilometer) long Bounty Trough, a little-explored part of the ocean off the coast of New Zealand, east of South Island. The scientists’ three-week voyage aboard the research vessel Tangaroa, which belongs to the country’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, occurred in February.

The team collected almost 1,800 samples from depths as far down as 3 miles (4,800 meters), finding species of fish, squid, mollusk and coral that they believe are new to science. “You’ve got this big area off the east coast of New Zealand where there’s just an absolutely paucity of data points. We don’t know anything about it,” said Dr. Daniel Moore, expedition science manager of Ocean Census, a new alliance launched in April 2023 that aims to identify 100,000 unknown species in the next 10 years. “It was true exploration, very exciting.”For the next three weeks, a team of scientists will sort and describe the deep-sea finds to confirm whether they are newfound species.

The team’s scientists have been puzzled by one find, which they initially thought was a type of sea star or sea anemone.

“It is still a mystery. We can’t even describe it to family. We don’t know where it is in the tree (of life) as of yet, so that’ll be interesting,” Moore said.Dr. Michela Mitchell, a taxonomist at the Queensland Museum Network, said in a statement released by Ocean Census it could be a type of deep-sea coral called octocoral.“Even more excitingly, it could be a whole new group outside of the octocoral. If it is, that is a significant find for the deep sea and gives us a much clearer picture of the planet’s unique biodiversity,” she said in the statement.Moore said he was surprised that the team found a new species of fish known as an eelpout that was “instantly recognized as being different to the others.”

“Finding new vertebrates is rare. There’s hundreds of thousands of invertebrates in the sea that we still don’t know. Vertebrates, we like to think that we know what’s out there, but the reality is, we just don’t,” he said.To collect the samples, the vessel towed three different types of sleds depending on the terrain. These included a traditional beam trawl that towed a net to collect samples, a heavy-duty seamount sled for rocky surfaces and another device that sampled the water just above the seafloor, as well as a towed underwater camera.

Huge gaps remain in scientific knowledge of the ocean depths. Of the 2.2 million species believed to exist in Earth’s oceans, only 240,000 have been described by scientists, according to Ocean Census.

2) Migration of hominins out of Africa may have been driven by the first major glaciation of the Pleistocene by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

A pair of planetary scientists, one with the University of Milan, the other with Columbia University, has found evidence that the exodus of hominins out of Africa approximately 1 million years ago may have been driven by the first major glaciation of the Pleistocene.

In their study, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Giovanni Muttonia and Dennis Kent more accurately dated the onset of the first major Pleistocene ice age and compared it with genetic evidence of a hominin population bottleneck described in prior research efforts.

Prior research has shown that a major migration of hominins out of Africa occurred sometime between 1.1 and 0.9 million years ago. Research has also suggested that there was a hominin population bottleneck (drop in numbers) roughly around the same time that triggered the migration. In this new study, the researchers sought to better explain the timing and reason for the migration.

The team began by studying shifts in oxygen isotopes (found in rock sediment layers), which allowed them to see that the first major Pleistocene began approximately 900,000 years ago. They turned their attention to the results of prior studies that showed a population bottleneck approximately 200,000 years earlier. In that work, the team found that the results were not reliable—it is possible, they note, that population numbers were higher but there were areas where they were not being counted.

They then pointed out that evidence in past research showed hominin habitation all across Eurasia started approximately 900,000 years ago, which coincides with the onset of the first Pleistocene ice age. As the ice age began, ocean levels would have dropped, allowing hominins an easier route from Africa. Also, conditions in Africa would have become more difficult for the hominins living there, making migration a tempting proposition. And the researchers note that many animals also began migrating out of Africa around the same time.The team suggests that the true reason for the migration was climate change—and it happened approximately 0.9 million years ago.

3) Newly discovered fossil of giant turtle is named after Stephen King novel character :by Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum

An international research team led by Dr. Gabriel S. Ferreira from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen has described a new species of giant turtle from the late Pleistocene.Peltocephalus maturin is between 40,000 and 9,000 years old and comes from the Brazilian Amazon. With a shell length of about 180 centimeters, the species is one of the largest known freshwater turtles in the world. The armored reptile was named after the giant turtle "Maturin," a fictional character created by best-selling author Stephen King.

With a maximum shell length of 140 centimeters, the Asian narrow-headed softshell turtle (Chitra chitra) together with the approximately 110-centimeter-long South American river turtle (Podocnemis expansa) is one of the largest freshwater turtles alive today.

"In the past, we only know of a few turtles living in fresh waters that had a shell length of more than 150 centimeters," explains Dr. Ferreira. "Such large animals are most recently known primarily from the Miocene, the period around 23 to 5 million years ago."

Ferreira and an international team have now discovered a giant representative of this order of reptiles from the end of the Pleistocene period, around 40,000 to 9,000 years ago, and described it as a new species. The fossil remains—part of the turtle's lower jaw—were collected by gold miners at the "Taquaras" quarry in Porto Velho, Brazil.

Based on various characteristics, the research team assumes a close relationship with the modern big-headed Amazon turtle (Peltocephalus dumerilianus) and an omnivorous diet. "We named the new species after the giant turtle Maturin, an overarching protagonist in the Stephen King multiverse. Maturin is responsible for the creation of the universe in King's novels and films," explains Dr. Ferreira. The paper is published in the journal Biology Letters.Referencing the turtle's extremely large size, Dr. Ferreira says, "This is very surprising because freshwater turtles—in contrast to their terrestrial and marine relatives—rarely have such gigantic forms and the youngest giant fossils known to date come from Miocene deposits."

The new find is the youngest known occurrence of giant freshwater turtles and suggests a coexistence of Peltocephalus maturin with early human inhabitants in the Amazon region.

"People settled in the Amazon region around 12,600 years ago. We also know that large tortoises have been on the diet of hominins since the Paleolithic. Whether freshwater turtles, which are much more difficult to catch due to their agility, were also eaten by early humans and whether Peltocephalus maturin—together with the South American megafauna—fell victim to human expansion is still unclear.

"Here we need more data from the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene deposits of the Amazon Basin," says Ferreira, giving an outlook on future work.

4) Our bacteria are more personal than we thought, new study shows:by Sarah C.P. Williams, Stanford University Medical Center

The trillions of bacteria that call your body home—collectively known as the microbiome—appear to be unique to you, like a fingerprint. That's one conclusion of a detailed study of the gut, mouth, nose and skin microbiomes of 86 people. Over the course of six years, the bacteria that persisted best in each person's microbiome were those that were most particular to the individual, rather than those shared by the entire population.

Our results underscore the idea that we each have individualized microbiomes in our bodies that are special to us," said Michael Snyder, Ph.D., the Stanford W. Ascherman, MD, FACS Professor in Genetics and director of the Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine. "Your genetics, your diet and your immune system are all shaping this ecosystem."

The new study, led by Snyder in collaboration with Jackson Laboratory biologist George Weinstock, who passed away in 2023, was part of the National Institute of Health's Integrative Human Microbiome Project and is published online in Cell Host & Microbe.

The research also found several correlations between the microbiome and health: For example, people with type 2 diabetes showed a less stable and less diverse microbiome.

"We think that with insulin resistance, the altered lipids, proteins and other metabolites in your blood change what kind of nutrients are available for the microbiome and affect the growth of these bacteria," said Xin Zhou, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scholar in genetics and the lead author of the paper.Long-term tracking

Scientists have recently gained an appreciation for the role of the human microbiome in health and disease. But the massive size of the microbiome—around 39 trillion microbes in an average person's body—and the fact that it can constantly change make it difficult to study. Researchers have struggled to determine whether there is one ideal microbiome composition and whether altering someone's microbes can alleviate disease.

Snyder, Zhou and their colleagues set out to track people's microbiomes for up to six years to better understand how the microbes in an individual's body shift with short infections or with the onset of chronic disease. They collected quarterly microbiome samples from the stool, skin, mouth and noses of 86 people ranging in age from 29 to 75 years.

When participants had a respiratory illness, received a vaccination or took an antibiotic, an additional three to seven samples were taken over a five-week period. Each microbiome sample was genetically sequenced to reveal the bacteria it contained.At the same time, the researchers collected a plethora of other clinical data on the participants' health to study how a variety of factors correlated with changes in the microbiome.In total, the researchers analyzed 5,432 biological samples and generated 118,124,374 measurements.

"Studying microbes from different body sites over this long a period of time allowed us, for the first time, to look at the entire microbiome as a single, fluid system," Snyder said.

Focus on stability

Confirming what had been found in previous studies, the new research revealed a handful of bacteria that were often found in the microbiomes of healthy people, as well as a pronounced shift in people's microbiomes during infections and other diseases. Far more telling than individual types of bacteria, however, was the stability of the microbiome. In periods of health, a person's microbiome rarely underwent drastic changes. During an infection, or during the development of diabetes, the bacteria making up the microbiome fluctuated more.

"We found that when you get sick with something like a cold, you have this temporary change in the microbiome; it becomes very dysregulated," Zhou said. "With diabetes, that signature is the same in many ways except that it is long-term rather than temporary."

When the researchers focused on which microbes were most likely to change over the course of years, they were surprised to find that the bacteria most particular to an individual were the most stable.

"A lot of people would suspect that the bacteria shared among us would be the most important and thus the most stable," Snyder said. "We found the complete opposite—the personal microbiome is the most stable. It further suggests that our personal microbiome, different from everyone else's personal microbiome, is pretty integral to our health. This makes sense because all have different healthy baselines."

The data turned up another surprise: The microbiomes in different places in the body were highly correlated. Even though different types of bacteria are present, when the microbiome of one body area changes, the others also shift. If the nasal bacteria change at the onset of a respiratory infection, for instance, the gut, mouth and skin microbes quickly start to change as well. When the gut bacteria shift with diabetes, so do the bacteria on the skin, mouth and nose.Connections to health

Based on the blood samples taken throughout the study, Snyder's team suspects the immune system is the common link connecting the microbes in different areas of the body—and connecting overall health within the microbiome. Levels of certain immune proteins in the blood changed in sync with the microbiome. In addition, lipids—fats in the blood—were also associated with changes in microbiome stability, explaining some of the link to diabetes.

The group pinpointed several environmental factors that played roles in shaping the microbiome: Microbes predictably shifted with the seasons, for instance, likely due to changing humidity and sunlight levels as well as fresh food availability. But these environmental factors, including diet, still didn't explain much of the variability between people.The new data, the researchers said, closes the door on the idea that there is a gold standard microbiome everyone should be trying to achieve for optimal health.

"Instead, we're moving toward this idea that we have a personal microbiome that is incredibly important for our own metabolic and immune health. Our metabolic and immune health also greatly affect our microbiome—it is all tied together. The microbiome varies enormously between people," Snyder said. "How you feed it and what it's exposed to probably makes a big impact on your health, and we still have to work that out in many ways."

Researchers from University of Oxford, Ohio State University, uBiome, Oregon Health & Science University, Yale University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, Texas Tech University, Agrosavia, and University of Connecticut were also involved in the study.

5) How do neural networks learn? A mathematical formula explains how they detect relevant patterns:by University of California - San Diego

Neural networks have been powering breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, including the large language models that are now being used in a wide range of applications, from finance, to human resources to health care. But these networks remain a black box whose inner workings engineers and scientists struggle to understand. Now, a team led by data and computer scientists at the University of California San Diego has given neural networks the equivalent of an X-ray to uncover how they actually learn.

The researchers found that a formula used in statistical analysis provides a streamlined mathematical description of how neural networks, such as GPT-2, a precursor to ChatGPT, learn relevant patterns in data, known as features. This formula also explains how neural networks use these relevant patterns to make predictions.

"We are trying to understand neural networks from first principles," said Daniel Beaglehole, a Ph.D. student in the UC San Diego Department of Computer Science and Engineering and co-first author of the study. "With our formula, one can simply interpret which features the network is using to make predictions."

The team present their findings in the journal Science

Why does this matter? AI-powered tools are now pervasive in everyday life. Banks use them to approve loans. Hospitals use them to analyze medical data, such as X-rays and MRIs. Companies use them to screen job applicants. But it's currently difficult to understand the mechanism neural networks use to make decisions and the biases in the training data that might impact this

"If you don't understand how neural networks learn, it's very hard to establish whether neural networks produce reliable, accurate, and appropriate responses," said Mikhail Belkin, the paper's corresponding author and a professor at the UC San Diego Halicioglu Data Science Institute. "This is particularly significant given the rapid recent growth of machine learning and neural net technology."

The study is part of a larger effort in Belkin's research group to develop a mathematical theory that explains how neural networks work. "Technology has outpaced theory by a huge amount," he said. "We need to catch up."

The team also showed that the statistical formula they used to understand how neural networks learn, known as Average Gradient Outer Product (AGOP), could be applied to improve performance and efficiency in other types of machine learning architectures that do not include neural networks.

"If we understand the underlying mechanisms that drive neural networks, we should be able to build machine learning models that are simpler, more efficient and more interpretable," Belkin said. "We hope this will help democratize AI."The machine learning systems that Belkin envisions would need less computational power, and therefore less power from the grid, to function. These systems also would be less complex and so easier to understand.

Illustrating the new findings with an example

(Artificial) neural networks are computational tools to learn relationships between data characteristics (i.e. identifying specific objects or faces in an image). One example of a task is determining whether in a new image a person is wearing glasses or not. Machine learning approaches this problem by providing the neural network many example (training) images labeled as images of "a person wearing glasses" or "a person not wearing glasses."

The neural network learns the relationship between images and their labels, and extracts data patterns, or features, that it needs to focus on to make a determination. One of the reasons AI systems are considered a black box is because it is often difficult to describe mathematically what criteria the systems are actually using to make their predictions, including potential biases. The new work provides a simple mathematical explanation for how the systems are learning these features.

Features are relevant patterns in the data. In the example above, there are a wide range of features that the neural networks learns, and then uses, to determine if in fact a person in a photograph is wearing glasses or not.

One feature it would need to pay attention to for this task is the upper part of the face. Other features could be the eye or the nose area where glasses often rest. The network selectively pays attention to the features that it learns are relevant and then discards the other parts of the image, such as the lower part of the face, the hair and so on.Feature learning is the ability to recognize relevant patterns in data and then use those patterns to make predictions. In the glasses example, the network learns to pay attention to the upper part of the face. In the new Science paper, the researchers identified a statistical formula that describes how the neural networks are learning features.Alternative neural network architectures: The researchers went on to show that inserting this formula into computing systems that do not rely on neural networks allowed these systems to learn faster and more efficiently."How do I ignore what's not necessary? Humans are good at this," said Belkin. "Machines are doing the same thing. Large Language Models, for example, are implementing this 'selective paying attention' and we haven't known how they do it. In our Science paper, we present a mechanism explaining at least some of how the neural nets are 'selectively paying attention.'"

1) ₹1L annually to poor women, 50% quota in govt jobs: Rahul Gandhi promises 5 guarantees

Thursday was the second day of the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ that covered Dhule, Malegaon and reached Nashik by late evening.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi unveiled five ‘Mahila Nyay’ guarantees to empower women by pledging support such as ₹1 lakh annually deposited into the bank accounts of women from poor financial backgrounds and ensuring 50% reservation in government jobs if his party attains power. The announcements were made in the backdrop of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be declared anytime soon. If Modiji can give ₹16 lakh crore to billionaires, we can give ₹1 lakh to crores of women under ‘Mahalaxmi Guarantee’ scheme,” he said while addressing a women’s convention in Dhule on Wednesday afternoon.

Gandhi also vowed to double the central government’s budgetary allocation for women engaged in crucial roles such as ASHA workers, anganwadi workers, and those involved in mid-day meal schemes by bringing ‘Shakti Ka Samman’ scheme.

Further emphasising empowerment, he announced the ‘Adhikar Maitri’ scheme that will enable the government to appoint nodal officers to educate women about their rights and assist them in legal battles at each and every gram panchayat of the country.“If we came to power, hostels for working women would be opened in all the districts across the country. This would be done under ‘Savitribai Phule Chhtrawas’ scheme,” he declared.

Additionally, the Wayanad MP declared to implement women’s reservation soon after coming to power in the general elections. He said, “There is no need to wait for a survey that will be conducted ten years from now and then implement reservation for women. Congress will give reservations in all the fields as soon as we come to power.”

Thursday was the second day of the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ that covered Dhule, Malegaon and reached Nashik by late evening. In Malegaon, Gandhi held a road show that got a tremendous response from the people.Agniveer scheme will result in more casualties’

The Congress leader has slammed the contentious ‘agniveer’ recruitment scheme brought by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government saying that it will result in a high number of casualties in case of a direct confrontation with the Chinese troops because ‘agniveer’ provides training for a limited period of six months which is not enough to fight a war.China provides training of three to four years to its soldiers. One requires two to three years to become a pro in using modern high-skill weapons. Instead ‘agniveer’ scheme provides only six months of training to our soldiers. Imagine what will happen on the battlefield in case of a conflict, there will be high casualties on our side,” Gandhi stressed while addressing a public meeting in Dhule during ‘Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra’.

Further criticising the scheme, the Congress leader also said the scheme has snatched their honour from the soldiers by not giving them martyr status even after giving their lives for the country.

“Earlier, our soldiers and their families used to get pensions and the honour of a martyr status in case of a casualty. With ‘agniveer’ Modi ji made two types of martyrs, one who be honoured as a martyr as they were not recruited under ‘agniveer’ scheme and second the one who will not be honoured as a martyr as they were recruited under the scheme,” Gandhi remarked.

2)Farmers in large numbers gather at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan for ‘Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat’

Farmers gathered at Ramlila Ground for a "Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat" on Thursday to protest against BJP-led Centre's farming policies.

Various farmer unions gather at Ramlila Maidan for a Kisan Mahapanchayat in New Delhi on Thursday. On February 22, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of 37 farm unions, initiated the call for the 'mahapanchayat'.(PTI)

Farmers are pressing for legislation ensuring legal status for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their crops. They voiced their discontent against the Union government's policies at the protest venue. Although the SKM did not actively participate in the "Delhi Chalo" march, it has supported splinter groups.(PTI)

Security personnel are on guard during the Kisan Mahapanchayat at Ramlila Maidan, with the Delhi Police permitting the event under certain conditions, including a cap of 5,000 attendees and no tractor trolleys or marches.(PTI)Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait speaks to PTI during the Kisan Mahapanchayat in New Delhi. Various farmer unions converge at Ramlila Maidan for the Kisan Mahapanchayat. Earlier, farmers from Punjab attempted to demonstrate peacefully at the site on February 13 but were halted at the Punjab-Haryana border by the police According to the SKM, farmers will issue a 'Sankalp Patra' or resolution letter at the Mahapanchayat “to intensify the fight against what they perceive as pro-corporate, communal, and dictatorial policies of the Modi government.”

The event caused traffic snarls around Ramlila Maidan, prompting the Delhi traffic police to issue traffic regulations and route diversions advisories on Thursday.

3) Rahul Gandhi announces Congress' 5 big poll promises to farmers: MSP, agriculture loan waiver…

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday announced five big promises to farmers under its 'Kisan Nyay’ guarantee.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday announced the grand old party's five big promises to farmers under its 'Kisan Nyay’ guarantee ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha election. This comes amid the ongoing farmers' stir as they continue to press the Centre to accept several of their demands.

The Congress' five big poll promises to the farmers include -

Guarantee of legal status to MSP under the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations.

Guarantee to create a permanent 'Agriculture Loan Waiver Commission' to waive off the loans of farmers and determine the amount of loan waiver.

Guarantee to ensure payment directly into the bank account of farmers within 30 days in case of crop loss by changing the insurance plan.

Guarantee to make new import-export policy keeping the interest of farmers ahead.

Guarantee to make farmers GST-free by removing GST from agricultural commodities.

“My salute to all the food providers of the country! Congress has brought five such guarantees for you which will eliminate all your problems from the roots…Congress aims to make the lives of the farmers who irrigate the soil of the country with their sweat, happy and these five historic decisions are steps taken in that direction,” Gandhi wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter.On Wednesday, the Congress announced five key poll promises under the party’s ‘Nari Nyay (Women’s Justice) Guarantee. These included financial assistance of ₹1 lakh per annum for poor women, a right to half the new posts under the central government and working women’s hostels in every district.

4) ‘Rigged’: Congress’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary on appointment of election commissioners

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary alleged that the system was rigged in favour of the government as the selection committee consisted of the PM and the home minister A high-powered selection committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday appointed two retired IAS officers – Gyanesh Kumar (Kerala cadre) and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu (Uttarakhand cadre) – as election commissioners, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.

Chowdhury, who is the sole opposition member in the panel, criticised the selection process of the new appointments, saying it was “fait accompli” that the government’s pre-decided candidates would be chosen for the posts Addressing reporters at his home soon after the meeting ended on Thursday, Chowdhury expressed his dissent on the selection process, claiming that he was given a list of six shortlisted names only 10 minutes before the panel meeting began.

He said as the opposition member, he was given a list of 212 names to examine only last night. “In a single night, [you tell me] whether it is humanly possible for me to examine the 212 names to find out the most competent person amongst them. It was fait accompli,” he said. Chowdhury said that there was no clarity on how six names were shortlisted, adding that the Chief Justice of India should have been part of the selection panel.

“If the CJI had been there, it would have been a different matter,” he said, further alleging that the law was amended to ensure that the CJI was removed from the selection process.

According to the new act, the selection process consists of two committees – a three-member search committee led by the Union law minister and constituting two government secretaries; and a three-member selection committee headed by the PM and consisting of a Union minister recommended by the PM and the leader of opposition.Thus, of the six individuals involved in the process, three are members of the government and two are employed by the government, Chowdhury said and alleged that the system was already rigged in favour of the government as the selection committee consisted of the prime minister and the home minister on one side and a single leader of the opposition on the other.

The search committee, as per the act, is required to recommend five names to the selection committee but the latter is empowered to select commissioners from outside this list as well.However, Chowdhury said that Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, who headed the search committee, came out with these six names. He said that was immaterial as he had no input in shortlisting these names.Singh and Kumar fill the two vacancies came about following the resignation of Arun Goel on March 8 and Anup Chandra Pandey’s retirement on February 14.

5) Haryana CM News Highlights: Nayab Singh takes oath as the new Chief Minister, floor test likely tomorrow

Haryana CM News Highlights: Haryana CM and his cabinet have resigned today as BJP-JJP cracks emerge. BJP's Nayab Singh Saini took oath as the new CM of Haryana on Tuesday.

BJP's Nayab Singh Saini replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as the new chief minister of Haryana after taking oath in front of Governor Bandaru Dattatreya in Chandigarh on Tuesday.

After the oath-taking ceremony, he presented a letter of support of 48 MLAs to the Governor and asked him to convene an assembly session on Wednesday for a floor test.

The development has come after Manohar Lal Khattar resigned after a seat-sharing dispute between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its alliance partner, the Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) for the Lok Sabha elections. Manohar Lal Khattar's Cabinet ministers also submitted their resignations to Governor Bandaru Dattatreya on Tuesday

The government fell apart over the seat-sharing differences between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its alliance partner, Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024.

The Opposition has targeted the BJP and called the change of CM in Haryana a scripted drama.“What happened today in Haryana is a well-planned drama that was scripted six months ago. I have been saying this on public platforms that BJP and JJP have decided to break their alliance," said Congress leader Deepender Hooda.

6)SBI electoral bonds data: PVR, Bajaj Auto, Vedanta, Sun Pharma and more – list of top 10 donors as EC releases details

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday made the electoral bonds data public as per the orders of the Supreme Court of India. The data was released after the State Bank of India (SBI) submitted the details to the election body on Tuesday.According to the list published, top donors to political parties include major corporates such as Grasim Industries, Megha Engineering, and Piramal Enterprises. The list also includes Apollo Tyres, Lakshmi Mittal, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wine, Welspun, and Sun Pharma. Torrent Power, Bharti Airtel, DLF Commercial Developers, and Vedanta Ltd also lead the list of big donors to political parties.

The startling fact was that the biggest purchaser of the electoral bonds turned out to be an unknown Coimbatore-based lottery firm that had splashed out Rs 1,368 crore in 21 separate bouts of purchases between October 21, 2020, and January 9, 2024.

Future Gaming is led by “lottery king” Santiago Martin. In October last year, the Enforcement Directorate reportedly raided four premises linked to Martin in Tamil Nadu.

The second biggest buyer was the Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and

Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL) which bought bonds worth Rs 967 crore.

MEIL is present in verticals like hydrocarbons, transportation, power, irrigation, drinking water and manufacturing. The websites of both these groups witnessed heavy traffic after the electoral data was announced and more granular details about their businesses could not be ascertained.The Ambanis, the Tatas and the Adani group did not figure in the list.

But there was a fair spattering of tycoons and large corporate groups including London-based billionaire Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto and Bajaj Finance, DLF group, Dilip Shanghvi’s Sun Pharmaceuticals, Cipla, Kumar Mangalam Birla’s Grasim Industries and Century Textiles, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Piramal Enterprises, Apollo Tyres, and Goa-based Dempo Industries.

Aditya Birla firm Essel Mining too figured, with its cumulative contribution amounting to Rs 220 crore. Group firm UltraTech Cement bought a modest Rs 35 crore worth of bonds. Utkal Alumina, another Birla group company, purchased bonds worth nearly Rs 147 crore.

The pecking order was rounded off by Navi Mumbai-based Qwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd (Rs 410 crore), Haldia Energy (Rs 377 crore) and Anil Agarwal’s mining and metals giant Vedanta (Rs 376 crore).

Piramal Enterprises Ltd, Muthoot Finance Limited, Pegasus Properties Private Limited, Finolex Cables Ltd, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, Edelweiss Housing Finance Ltd, GHCL Ltd, Jindal Poly Films Limited, and ITC Limited are also on the list, reported ANI.Aggraval’s Vedanta Ltd donated ₹398 crore via bonds, whereas Bajaj Auto bought EC bonds worth ₹25 crore, and Sun Pharma Laboratories purchased bonds worth Rs25 crore.

Top 10 donors on SBI bonds list

On the list of donors who purchased SBI bonds, Future Gaming And Hotel Services (Lottery Martin), and Megha Engineering And Infrastructure Ltd are the top two donors.

Future Gaming And Hotel Services (Lottery Martin) purchased bonds worth ₹1,368 crore. Megha Engineering And Infrastructure Ltd bought bonds worth ₹980 crore, according to EC sources. However, Livemint could not independently verify the claim.

SBI EC bond donor name (Top 10)       Donation amount (Rs. crores)

1. Future Gaming and Hotel Services   1,368

2. Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd    966

3. Qwik Supply Chain Private Ltd         410

4. Vedanta Ltd 400

5. Haldia Energy Ltd     377

6. Bharati Group           247

7. Essel Mining and Industries Ltd       224

8. Western UP Power Transmission      220

9. Keventer Foodpark Infra Ltd 194

10. Madanlal Ltd           185

According to the data uploaded by ECI, Future Gaming purchased 1,368 electoral bonds worth ₹1 crore each since 2019, totalling ₹1,368 crore. Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited, Haldia Energy Limited, Vedanta Limited, Essel Mining and Inds Ltd, Western UP Power Transmission Company Ltd, Keventers Foodpart Infra Limited, Madanlal Limited, and Bharti Airtel Limited were among the top 10 donors on the SBI electoral bonds list released by the EC today.Top recipients of funds through electoral bonds are BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JDS, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, and SP.

The data reveals the information of donors who have purchased bonds of three denominations, ie ₹1 lakh, ₹10 lakh and ₹1 crore - dating back to April 12, 2019. Notably, electoral bonds are money instruments that act as promissory notes or bearer bonds that can be purchased by individuals or companies in India. They are issued specifically for the contribution of funds to political parties. These bonds were issued by the SBI and were sold in multiples of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, and ₹1 crore. The electoral bonds scheme was first announced by former finance minister Arun Jaitley during the 2017 Budget session, It was later notified in January 2018 as a source of political funding by way of money bills introducing amendments to the Finance Act and the Representation of the People Act. However, last month, the Supreme Court struck down the scheme, terming it as “unconstitutional”.

7) Mamata Banerjee injured after a fall at home, now back from hospital after treatment

Four stitches had to be made. She is better now and will improve soon,said Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata’s nephew and Trinamul all-India general secretary, while leaving the SSKM Hospital with his aunt for her Kalighat residence Chief minister Mamata Banerjee was hospitalised on Thursday evening after she injured her forehead apparently after a fall at home. By 9.45 pm, a bandaged Mamata was on her way home after having received multiple stitches.

Though the wound on the forehead was deep, the mandatory tests conducted at the SSKM hospital’s Woodburn ward where she was admitted for a while revealed no serious damage. “Four stitches had to be made. She is better now and will improve soon,” said Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata’s nephew and Trinamul all-India general secretary, while leaving the SSKM Hospital with his aunt for her Kalighat residence.Abhishek was at 30B Harish Chatterjee street--- Mamata’s residence--- when the accident happened, though how she fell is not clear. Apparently, the chief minister was taking a walk in the premises of her Kalighat residence when the accident took place.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee was hospitalised on Thursday evening after she injured her forehead apparently after a fall at home. By 9.45 pm, a bandaged Mamata was on her way home after having received multiple stitches.Mamata is likely to stay at home for the next few days till she fully recovers and takes charge of the Trinamul’s Lok Sabha poll campaign.Ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls Mamata had fractured her leg while campaigning in Nandigram from where she lost.

Doctor Manimay Bandyopadhyay, SSKM superintendent, says, "The hon'ble chief minister Mamata Banerjee reported to our hospital around 730 pm with a history of a fall in the vicinity of her home due to some push from behind."

"She had a cerebral concussion and had a sharp cut on her forehead and nose which was bleeding profusely. Initially, she was assessed by senior doctors of the neurosurgery, medicine, and cardiology departments of our institute and her vitals were stabilised. Three stitches were applied on her forehead, and one on her nose and the required dressing was done. Investigations like ECG, echocardiogram, CT-Scan, and Doppler were done," he added.Bandopadhyay said the chief minister was advised to remain at the hospital for observation but she preferred to go home.

"She will continue to be under close watch and treatment. She will again be assessed tomorrow and subsequent treatment will be decided accordingly," he said.

 

 

1) All England badminton: Lakshya Sen in second round

He runs into world No.3 Anders Antonsen in the next round of the BWF Super 1000 tournament being held in Birmingham U Vimal Kumar was animated as ever while giving tips to Lakshya Sen during mid-game intervals of both games at the All England Open badminton on Wednesday. Even though his ward was leading, the darts that were flying in from the racquet of Magnus Johannesen were enough to make the coach anxious.

Johannesen, 22, is rated highly in Europe and is considered the ‘next big thing’ in Danish men’s badminton. Being a southpaw also helps as it rattles even the best of right-handers on the tour.But Sen postponed the Dane’s rise by eliminating him in the first round of the $1.3 million event in Birmingham. The Commonwealth Games champion was clearly the better player at the net and was patient during longer rallies to notch a 21-14, 21-14 victory in the first meeting between the two.

Though the 22-year-old has got off to a strong start, the path ahead will only get tougher. “Yes, but tomorrow will be a real test for Lakshya,” Vimal, who was sitting in Sen’s corner alongside former All England champion Prakash Padukone, said.Sen will take on Johannesen’s compatriot and world No.3 Anders Antonsen in the Super 1000 event on Thursday. While Sen had won the first time they met, the three-time World Championships medallist has got the better of the Indian the last three meetings with the head-to-head tilted 3-1 in the Dane’s favour.

This is the third successive year that the two will face each other at the All England Open. And for a third year on the trot the two will face in Round 2. While Sen ended Antonsen’s journey two years back on way to a sensational run to the final, it was the Dane who trumped the diminutive Indian before losing in the semi-finals to eventual winner Li Shi Feng of China.Antonsen has been in brilliant form this year too, winning Malaysia Open – the only other Super 1000 event yet – and Indonesia Masters in January.

Priyanshu Rajawat suffered a 19-21, 21-11, 9-21 loss to Indonesian Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo, his fifth successive loss in the first two rounds on the BWF World Tour.

In women’s doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa beat Yeung Nga Ting and Yeung Pui Lam for a second time in as many months– they beat the Hong Kong pair at the Badminton Asia Team Championships – to enter the second round. Following their 21-13, 21-18 win, they will next take on Chinese fifth seeds Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand though lost late on Tuesday. They went down 18-21, 12-21 to Indonesia's Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti.

2) India rout England in Dharamsala to take 4-1 series victory

Ravichandran Ashwin marked his 100th Test with a record 36th five-wicket haul and India beat England by an innings and 64 runs England were blown out of the park in Dharamsala in just over a session with Ravichandran Ashwin taking a record 36th Test five-wicket haul in his 100th match in the longest format for India.(AFP)

England were blown out of the park in Dharamsala in just over a session with Ravichandran Ashwin taking a record 36th Test five-wicket haul in his 100th match in the longest format for India.(AFP)

Shoaib Bashir then finished his five-wicket haul, thanks in part to some lightning-fast glovework from Ben Foakes, to end the Indian innings on 477 and India took a first innings lead of 259 runsJasprit Bumrah captained India during England's second innings with Rohit Sharma sitting out due to a stiff back.

Ravichandran Ashwin took three wickets in the first 10 overs itself and England were found hobbling shortly after resumption. Ben Stokes ended up falling to Ashwin in the last over of the session, with Kuldeep Yadav ending Jonny Bairstow's cameo to be the only wicket taker for India apart from Ashwin in that session. England crumbled further in the second session and Ashwin eventually got his 36th five-wicket haul. He thus went past Anil Kumble's record of 35 Test fifers and now leads that list for Indians. Ashwin is now level with Richard Hadlee at third in the overall list of players with most Test five-wicket hauls and is just one away from equalling Shane Warne's tally of 37 above him. The list is led by Muttiah Muralitharan and Ashwin might not climb that mountain. The Sri Lanka legend retired with 67 five-wicket hauls.

Joe Root played pretty much a lone hand in the England second innings. The former England captain scored his 61st Test half-century. He was the last man to fall for England, going for a big shot and holing out to Bumrah at long-on off Kuldeep at 84 off 128 balls.

3) Paris Olympics: India stare at boxing crisis after Bernard Dunne's resignation

BFI will quickly need to decide on the future course with the last Olympic qualifiers just two months away in Thailand from May 23. Four months before the Paris Olympics, Indian boxing is staring at a crisis with high-performance director Bernard Dunne resigning from his position following the team's disastrous show at the Olympic qualifiers in Italy.

India failed to win a single quota from Busto Arsizio, Italy, with eight boxers crashing out in opening rounds. Dunne, who did not return to India with the team, sent his resignation to Boxing Federation of India. "We have received his resignation letter and we have called an executive committee meeting on Friday to take a stock of the situation," said Boxing Federation India secretary general Hemanta Kalita.

The BFI top brass was unhappy with Dunne's way of functioning. The Irishman changed the selection policy, bringing in an evaluation process in the national camp. That did not go down well with BFI. The final straw was the performance in Italy.

Foreign coach Dmitry Dmitruk, who was brought by Bernard, is in India currently and his fate hangs in the balance. BFI will quickly need to decide on the future course with the last Olympic qualifiers just two months away in Thailand from May 23.In such a short time, it will not be possible to hire foreign coaches, BFI therefore will have to fall back upon trusted coaches at home.

There is some talk that BFI might recall coach Bhaskar Bhatt for the women's team. Bhatt, who was head coach of women's team till June last year, is currently SAI HPD of boxing in NCOE Rohtak. He reportedly had differences with Dunne over training and selection process of the team, following which he left.

The men's team head coach CA Kuttapa has been there for a long time along with Dharmendra Pradhan. "We will look at all the options before finalising," said a BFI member.

The biggest stumbling block may be the selection policy. Since 2023, Indian teams have been picked through evaluation process -- be it Asian Games or world championships. No selection trials were held and boxers have also knocked the doors of the court. A change in policy at this point, so late in the Olympic cycle, might start a fresh debate."I have not been comfortable with the evaluation process for selection. We don't get to know how we are being marked and why certain boxers are getting opportunity again and again. I have raised my concerns many times," said a national camper who could not make it to the team in Italy.

A coach, aware of developments, said you need one Olympic cycle to bring changes. "To bring change into any system it takes time. The evaluation process he introduced is followed in some other countries also. It is good and boxers were getting used to it. When we won four medals at world championships, nobody was complaining," said the coach.

Dunne joined late in October 2022, after BFI dragged its feet over the contract extension of previous HPD Santiago Nieva for a year losing crucial time in preparation for Paris Olympics. When Dunne joined, he had the responsibility to prepare the team for world championships and Asian Games and wanted a focussed approach with small set of elite boxers in the national camp. At the Asian Games, Nikhat Zareen, Lovlina Borgohain, Preeti Saipawar and Parveen Hooda, won Paris berths, but the men boxers let him down there.

4) Novak Djokovic to skip Miami Masters after shocking Indian Wells exit: Report

Novak Djokovic will reportedly skip the upcoming Miami Masters, after his Indian Wells defeat.Making his first Indian Wells appearance since 2019, Novak Djokovic crashed to a Round of 32 defeat against Italy's Luca Nardi, 4-6 6-3 3-6, on Tuesday. It was a huge win for the 20-year-old Nardi, who is also ranked No. 123, as he dropped his racket and brought his hands to his face almost in disbelief before greeting boyhood idol Djokovic at the net.

The Italian also became the lowest-ranked player to defeat Djokovic in a Grand Slam or ATP Masters 1000 level event, surpassing No. 122 Kevin Anderson in 2008 in Miami.After Indian Wells, Djokovic was expected to participate at the Miami Masters, scheduled to begin on March 22. But now it looks like he won't be playing in Miami, as reported by Serbian journalist Sasa Ozmo.

Djokovic did the same after losing to Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open semi-final, opting to skip tournaments in February and then returned to action at the Indian Wells.

Speaking in a press conference after his defeat, Djokovic said, "Yeah, for the moment, Miami is there, so let's see. Let's see, obviously 10 minutes ago I was on the court, so I'm still hot-headed a bit. I need to take a day or two and then see what I want to do next."

Complimenting Nardi, he said, "He got in as a lucky loser' to (the) main draw, so he really didn't have anything to lose. So he played great. Deserved to win. I was more surprised with my level. My level was really, really bad."

Meanwhile, Nardi said, "This is a miracle. I'm a 20-years-old guy, 100 in the world, and beating Novak. So, crazy. Crazy. Before this night, no one knew me. I hope now the crowd enjoyed the game. I'm super happy with this one."

Nardi entered the draw as a lucky loser, which is a player who lost in the final qualifying hurdle, but made it to the main draw as a replacement for an injured player, who pulled out before the first round. At the Indian Wells, Nardi came in for Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

5)Sharath Kamal upstages world No.13 Darko Jorgic at S'pore Smash table tennis

The 41-year-old, looking to shake off his poor singles run, rallied to upstage the Slovenian and enter the last 16 in this prestigious event.Sharath Kamal produced a stunning upset at the Singapore Smash, beating Slovenian world No.13 Darko Jorgic 3-1 (8-11, 11-6, 11-8,11-9) to march into the singles Round of 16 of the prestigious table tennis tournament on Wednesday.The 41-year-old Commonwealth Games singles champion, now ranked 88 in the world, scripted a gritty comeback after losing the first game to turn the tables on the Slovenian who is the 2022 European Championships silver medallist. Sharath, who earned a main draw place after winning three qualifying rounds, will take on 22nd-ranked Egyptian Omar Assar on Thursday for a place in the quarter-finals.

The result would give a boost to Sharath, both in terms of his confidence and rankings. The veteran paddler has had little to cheer in singles of late, struggling to find his level after recovering from back issues that had troubled him last year. Losing to even younger Indian players at home and on the WTT tour, the multiple-time national champion admitted to feeling a slump in his mindset and intent.With the World Team Championships as his goal, Sharath put in the work in the off-season to peak at the tournament that offered Paris Olympics spots. While he did deliver a few wins in the team Worlds last month in Busan, Singapore is where he appears to be showing signs of getting back to top shape. After winning his three qualifying rounds, he beat 51st-ranked Nicolas Burgos 3-0 on Monday before rallying to down Jorgic.

With the team spot for Paris Games secured that also brought along two singles quotas, Sharath’s singles revival — if he can maintain his steady rankings rise over the last few months — could make things interesting in terms of the singles representation in Paris. Down in the 100s a couple of months ago, Sharath is set to jump considerably in the rankings from 88 after his Singapore showing.Currently, Harmeet Desai (No.64) and Manav Thakkar (83) are above him. After India secured the team qualification earlier this month, Sharath said his focus will be on doing well individually in the team event and, “if the singles qualification happens along with it, it happens.”

Asian Games bronze medallists Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee went down 3-1 (4-11, 14-12, 3-11, 9-11) to the Romanian-Spanish combine of Adina Diaconu and Maria Xiao in the women's doubles Round of 16.

 

 Murder Mubarak:

A street-smart detective races against the clock as he delves into the lives of suspects, with each encounter challenging his initial assumptions and drawing him further into the shadows of the case.

IMDb rating – To Be Announced

Streaming on – Netflix

Starring – Sara Ali Khan, Vijay Varma, Karisma Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, Tisca Chopra, and Sanjay Kapoor

Release Date on OTT – March 15th, 2024

IRON REIGN – NETFLIX

Iron Reign. The thriller drama revolves around Joaquín Manchado, a powerful drug lord who is known for ruling the port of Barcelona with an iron fist until a new shipment derails his operations. The upcoming Spanish series stars Eduard Fernández, Chino Darín, Jaime Lorente, Natalia de Molina, Sergi López, and Enric Auquer.

YODHA – THEATRES

Sidharth Malhotra, Disha Patani, and Raashi Khanna come together for director-duo Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha’s action-packed thriller titled Yodha. The upcoming edge-of-the-seat drama follows a soldier who rescues the passengers onboard a flight who have been taken hostage by a group of terrorists.

BRAMAYUGAM – SONYLIV

After doing good business at the box office, Malayalam period horror film Bramayugam arrives on OTT later this week. The plot of the Mammootty starrer revolves around a folk singer from the Paanan caste who escapes slavery and learns an ancient tradition.

BASTAR: THE NAXAL STORY – THEATRES

Bastar: The Naxal Story marks filmmaker Sudipto Sen and actress Adah Sharma‘s second outing after The Kerala Story. The plot of the upcoming movie is based on the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency in the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh. The film also features Indira Tiwari, Shilpa Shukla, and Raima Sen in pivotal roles.

KUNG FU PANDA 4 – THEATRES

After three successful outings, the makers of Kung Fu Panda are back with a new instalment that continues to follow Po who searches for his successor. However, the situation turns dark when an evil sorceress (The Chameleon) derails his plan. Watch him collaborate with a fox (Zhen) to take down the sorceress.

BOOK OF THIS WEEK:

Until August: The Lost Novel from the Winner of the Nobel Prize by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Sitting alone, overlooking the still and blue lagoon, Ana Magdalena Bach surveys the men of the hotel bar. She is happily married and has no reason to escape the world she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels here to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover.

Amid sultry days and tropical downpours, lotharios and conmen, Ana journeys further each year into the hinterland of her desire, and the fear that sits quietly at her heart.

Constantly surprising and wonderfully sensual, Until August is a profound meditation on freedom, regret, and the mysteries of love, from one of the greatest writers the world has ever known.

'The master of magic realism’s slim and inventive last novel is a tale of forbidden love in later life. I read it straight through in one sitting, then got up the next day and did it again' The Times

‘No writer since Dickens was so widely read, and so deeply loved, as Gabriel García Márquez’ Salman Rushdie

‘One of the greatest visionary writers – and one of my favourites from the time I was young’ Barack Obama

‘Few writers can be said to have written books that have changed the whole course of literature. Gabriel García Márquez did just that’ Guardian

'A novel both sexy and disturbing... The lasting impression of Until August is one of deep feeling, astutely observed and beautifully conveyed' Telegraph

 Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Latin American Spanish 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo ([ˈɡaβo]) or Gabito ([ɡaˈβito]) throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, particularly in the Spanish language, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.

García Márquez started as a journalist and wrote many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories. He is best known for his novels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) which sold over fifty million copies, Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981), and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have achieved significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for popularizing a literary style known as magic realism, which uses magical elements and events in otherwise ordinary and realistic situations. Some of his works are set in the fictional village of Macondo (mainly inspired by his birthplace, Aracataca), and most of them explore the theme of solitude. He is the most-translated Spanish-language author.