chennai l saturday l february 24, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l vellore EDITION Govt sees red over Google AI’s response to a query about Modi A query on Gemini on whether the prime minister was a fascist, fetched a response that IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekar said violated the IT Act circumspect in Response to trump query Violations of India’s IT act, says govt To the query on Narendra Modi, the platform responded that he has been “accused of implementing policies some experts have characterised as fascist.” For a similar query on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Gemini responded saying “no simple answer” and for former US President Donald Trump it said, “Elections are a complex topic... try Google Search” ■ ■ “These are direct violations of Rule 3(1)(b) of Intermediary Rules of the IT Act and violations of several provisions of the criminal code,” minister Rajeev Chandrasekar said in his post on X Reports suggest the IT ministry is in the process of issuing a notice to Google over Gemini’s “problematic and illegal” responses 8 Years since google began work on artificial intelligence CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Byju’s investors vote out founder Free WiFi at 500 cm launches scheme Raveendran in Dubai U m a K a n n a n @ Bengaluru IN a setback for embattled edtech firm Byju’s, its shareholders who control nearly 60% of its parent firm Think & Learn on Friday voted to remove founder CEO Byju Raveendran, his wife Divya Gokulnath, and brother Riju Raveendran from the board. The extraordinary general meeting (EGM) passed resolutions seeking removal of the current management and reconfiguration of the board, among others. According to sources, those who attended the virtual EGM include Prosus, Owl Ventures, Peak XV and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, among others. However, Byju’s said only 20% of the shareholders attended the virtual meet, which it ter med “invalid and ineffective”. Byju Raveendran, who is in Dubai, might conduct a board meeting soon and will discuss whatever happened in the EGM held on Friday. In a recent letter to shareholders, he said the $200 million the company raised through rights issue will take care of current liabilities The edtech firm said the Karnataka High Court had granted it interim relief that any decisions made during the meeting would not be given effect until the next hearing. Sources said many shareholders could not join the online meeting, which was marred by tech glitches. Prosus, one of the shareholders, said: “At the EGM, shareholders unanimously passed all resolutions. These include a request for the resolution of the outstanding governance, financial mismanagement and compliance issues at Byju’s; the reconstitution of the board of directors, so that it is no longer controlled by the founders of T&L; and a change in leadership of the company .” However, Byju’s said: “These resolutions merely request the board to “consider” the recommendations passed at the EGM. They do not have any binding effect whatsoever on the company or its decisionmaking processes.” Meanwhile, some investors have moved the National Company Law Tribunal against suppression of investor rights and mismanagement of the firm. March on pause till farmers announce next plan on Feb 29 Family rejects `1 crore relief, wants justice for slain tiller; Haryana Police drops proposal to invoke NSA on Thursday. “Till then we will not move further,’’ he said. Two days after putting their Dilli In Haryana, the state police sofChalo march on hold, the Samyukta tened its stand against protesting Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the farmer leaders, saying it had dropped Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) on a proposal to invoke the draconian Friday said the next decision on their National Security Act (NSA) against agitation will be announced on Feb- them. But it used tear gas to disperse ruary 29. In the interregnum, a can- farmers in Haryana’s Hisar who dlelight march will be held wanted to proceed to the at both the Shambhu and Khanauri inter-state border Khanauri inter-state borders to join other protesters. between Punjab and HaryaIn Punjab, Chief Minister The proposal to na on Saturday . Bhagwant Mann announced invoke NSA Sarwan Singh Pandher, a compensation of `1 crore general secretary of the against a few farm and a government job for union leaders of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh the sister of farmer ShubAmbala district Committee, said seminars has been dropped hkaran Singh who died duron the World Trade Organiing the protest, but his famSibash Kabiraj, IGP sation will be held on Sunily rejected it saying they day in which intellectuals want justice instead. The will also take part. family said they who would not allow On Monday, effigies of big corpo- his post-mortem till the person who rates and BJP leaders will be burnt. shot Shubhkaran dead is booked. Next day the SKM (non-political) and , The Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta UgKMM will hold their own internal rahan), which is part of the SKM, meetings. It will be followed by a said it held demonstrations at 47 joint meeting on Wednesday and the places in 17 Punjab districts in pronext plan of action will be announced test against Singh’s death. H a r p r e e t B a j w a @ Chandigarh An elderly farmer participating in a ‘Black Day’ protest at the Shambhu border in Patiala district on Friday | PTI 30 police personnel injured so far Sibash Kabiraj, IGP (Ambala Range) said 30 Haryana Police personnel have been injured at Shambhu. As for initiating proceedings to seize the assets of farmers who damaged public property, he said it did not apply since farmers from Punjab have not entered Haryana yet Working on bringing back Indians lured to Russia: MEA Y e s h i s e l i @ New Delhi The Ministry of External Affairs is working closely with the Indian Embassy to bring back Indians who have been recruited as helpers by Russia for its ongoing war with Ukraine. About 100 Indians joined the Russian army in non-combat roles as helpers a year ago. “We are aware that a few Indian nationals have signed up for support jobs with the Russian Army. The Indian Embassy has regularly taken up this matter with the relevant authorities for their early discharge,” said MEA spokesman Randhir Jaiswal in New Delhi on Friday . Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi in a letter to MEA on January 25 wrote that Indians are being misled by agents for jobs to Russia. They are recruited by the Russian Army and no proper training is given to them, he added. A recent online video report showed that though the Indians were recruited for non-combat roles, now they are being asked to fight alongside Russians in its war with Ukraine. Relatives of many of these Indian nationals have said that their family members have been duped by recruiters and have been forced to join the Wagner Group, which is a state funded army of irregulars. They have infrastructure support from the Russian army . The MEA has urged its nationals to exercise due caution and stay away from going for jobs in conflict areas, Jaiswal said. express read Tangedco allows sale of meters by private players Days after accusing HI of bias, Schopman resigns Chennai: After five years, Tangedco has again decided to allow people to buy power meters from private players. “We will finalise the list of vendors and sales points soon. Meters will be allowed to be taken to sales points after inspection,” an official said | P2 Chennai: Days after Janneke Schopman hit out at Hockey India (HI), the women’s coach resigned, effective immediately. Schopman, whose contract was to end in August after Pro League, decided to step down with a few months remaining | P11 sand mining case How can TN contest ED summons to five collectors, asks SC Su c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Tamil Nadu government regarding the writ petitions filed before the Madras High Court against summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate to five district collectors in connection with money laundering cases. A two-judge bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal said the officials are duty bound to respond to the summons and cooperate with probes initiated by investigative agencies. The bench was hearing a special leave petition filed by the ED against a November 28 ruling of the Madras HC that stayed the operation of the summonses issued by the agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. During the hearing, Justice Trivedi asked the Tamil Nadu government to demonstrate its locus standi to file the writ petition. “How can the state file this writ petition? Under which law...You satisfy us on how state is interested and how it can file this writ petition against the ED. How is the state aggrieved? The SC said the summons could have been challenged by the collectors themselves in their personal capacity before the HC. P5 Chennai public spots in 1st phase E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday launched the first phase of the state government’s free Wi-Fi hotspots in public spaces scheme in Chennai, and said it his dream to see Tamil Nadu become a trilliondollar economy and human resources capital of the world. The DMK government had announced in the budget that free Wi-Fi will be rolled out at 1,000 places across major city corporations in Tamil Nadu, including Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli and Salem. Chennai will now have free Wi-Fi hotspots at 500 public places, including parks, bus stands, and beaches. Speaking at the inauguration of the two-day IT summit, UmagineTN 2024, Stalin recalled the role played by former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi in revolutionising the IT sector, especially his foresight in unveiling the first IT policy in the country and establishing a separate department for IT in 1997. The IT summit is being held under the aegis of the state IT and digital services department at the Nandambakkam Trade Centre in Chennai, Information Technology and Digital Services Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan highlighted the state’s ambition to provide free Wi-Fi to 12,600 villages through Tamil Nadu FibreNet Corporation (TANFINET, a special purpose vehicle). TANFINET aims to provide 1 Gbps bandwidth connectivity to all 12,525 village panchayats in the state. Continued on p5 PTR made IT min to reform sector: CM Chennai: Putting to rest speculation on why minister PTR Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, who was handling the finance portfolio, was moved out to the Information Technology ministry in May last year, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday said the decision was taken as the IT sector needed reforms and changes to improve its functioning. The CM also lauded Thiaga Rajan for his efforts in ushering in several changes during his stint as finance minister | P4 DMK red-flags VVPAT arrangement Chennai: The DMK on Friday, at a meeting of the Election Commission of India held under CEC Rajiv Kumar, raised concerns about the proposed placement of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) between the Ballot Unit (BU) and the Control Unit (CU). The arrangement creates apprehension about potential vote tampering, the party said | P4
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