kochi l saturday l February 24, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city 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 Chandrasekhar 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 Zelenskyy, 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 Chandrasekhar 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 | P10 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 March on pause till farmers announce next plan on Feb 29 Family rejects H1 crore relief, wants justice for slain tiller; Haryana Police drop proposal to invoke NSA H a r p r ee 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 The proposal to invoke NSA against a few farm union leaders of Ambala district has been dropped — Sibash Kabiraj, IGP Two days after putting their Dilli Chalo march on hold, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) on Friday said the next decision on their agitation will be announced on February 29. In the interregnum, a candlelight march will be held at both the Shambhu and Khanauri interstate borders between Punjab and Haryana on Saturday . Sarwan Singh Pandher, general secretary of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, said seminars on the World Trade Organization will be held on Sunday in which intellectuals will also take part. On Monday, effigies of big corporates and BJP leaders will be burnt. Next day, the SKM (non-political) and KMM will hold their own internal meetings. It will be followed by a joint meeting on Wednesday and the next plan of action will be announced on Thursday. “Till then we will not move further,’’ he said. In Haryana, the state police softened its stand against protesting farmer leaders, saying it had dropped a proposal to invoke the draconian National Security Act (NSA) against them. But it used tear gas to disperse farmers in Haryana’s Hisar who wanted to proceed to the Khanauri interstate border to join other protesters. In Punjab, CM Bhagwant Mann announced a compensation of `1 crore and a government job for the sister of farmer Shubhkaran Singh who died during the protest, but his family rejected it saying they want justice instead. The family said they would not allow his post-mortem till the person who shot Shubhkaran is booked. The Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan), which is part of the SKM, said it held demonstrations at 47 places in 17 Punjab districts in protest against Singh’s death. Byju’s investors vote out founder U m a K a nn 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 termed “invalid and ineffective”. The edtech firm said the Karnataka High Court had granted it interim relief that Raveendran in Dubai 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 any decisions made during the meeting would not be given ef fect 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 EXPRESS READ Court quashes govt order allotting land to church at R100 per acre Kochi: The High Court on Friday overturned a controversial move by the state government to allot 5.5358 hectares (around 14 acres) of land to St George Forane Church, Kallodi, in Mananthavady taluk of Wayanad district at an astoundingly low rate of H100 per acre. The court termed it a strange case where land was assigned for a meagre amount when hundreds of tribal persons are waiting to get land for shelter. P5 Autopsy reveals six deep wounds on CPM local secretary’s body Kozhikode: CPM Koyilandy local secretary P V Sathyanathan, who was hacked to death on Thursday night, had six deep wounds on his body, the inquest as well as the autopsy have revealed. P4 16 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express 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 Think & Learn; 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 decision-making processes.” Meanwhile, some investors have moved the National Company Law Tribunal against suppression of investor rights and mismanagement of the firm. LSG bypolls LDF and UDF win 10 seats each, NDA three In the 23 seats that faced bypolls, LDF doubled its tally from five to ten. UDF’s seats came down from 13 to 10. P4 ‘Nothing but insult’, feel IUML workers over denial of 3rd seat E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Malappuram Faced with discontent among its ranks over denial of the party’s “rightful claim” for a third seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the IUML has been forced to remain adamant on its demand, upsetting the smooth sail of seat-sharing discussions within the UDF. The grassroots-level workers want the IUML to resort to drastic decisions, including contesting the elections on its own, to “protect the pride” of the party . The party leadership has resolved not to budge on the issue. We hope that the deliberations will yield a positive outcome for the IUML P M A Salam, IUML state general secretary Though the Congress agrees in principle that the IUML deserves more seats, it cited its own internal dynamics for denying the “just demand”. This time, the IUML cannot put forward the usual theory of “sacrificing” its legitimate claim for the sake of maintaining unity within the UDF as a good number of its workers believe that safeguarding the front’s unity is not the responsibility of IUML alone. The LDF move to field K S Hamza, the expelled IUML state secretary, from Ponnani has also made it difficult for the party. There are reports that the CPM is eyeing the votes of disgruntled segments in Samastha, who have a score to settle with the IUML. If the equation works out in the entire Malabar region, not just IUML but the Congress too will have reasons to worry ● More on P4 .
Express Network Private Limited publishes thirty three E-paper editions of The New Indian Express newspaper , thirty two E-paper editions of Dinamani, one E-paper edition of The Morning Standard, one E-paper edition of Malayalam Vaarika magazine and one E-paper edition of the Indulge - The Morning Standard, Kolkatta.