BENGALURU TUESDAY JUNE 11, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 20 LATE CITY EDITION THE FUTURE OF AUDIO AND VIDEO PHONE CALL IS POSSIBLY HERE Pekka Lundmark AS THOUGH YOU ARE NEAR THE CALLER Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark made the first call using the new 3GPP Immersive Voice and Audio Services (IVAS) codec that allows users to hear sound spatially in real time. Imagine getting a call from a relative abroad, and being able to hear everything in their environment as if you are near them. A smartphone and a 5G network were all it took to make the call Nokia billed the immersive audio, video call as the biggest leap in live voice calling since the introduction of monophonic telephony ■ 3D audio MASSIVELY IMPROVED LISTENING EXPERIENCE ■ “It takes you to the caller’s environment creating a spatial and massively improved listening experience for voice and video calls,” Lundmark said During his call with Stefan Lindström, Finland’s ambassador of digitalisation, Lundmark showed the distinctive acoustic dimensions that can be experienced with the new IVAS technology, Nokia said USES MULTICHANNEL MICROPHONES TO CAPTURE SOUND FROM ALL DIRECTIONS 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 Vaishnaw to handle I&B; Chirag Paswan food processing; Rammohan civil aviation Top ministers retain 2.0 charges, Shivraj gets agri, HDK heavy industries & steel Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs the first meeting of his new Cabinet, attended by the newly inducted ministers, at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg in New Delhi on Monday | PTI RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi THERE were no surprises in the portfolios allocated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to his 72-member ministry as all key charges continued to be with his colleagues from the outgoing cabinet. As this newspaper said on Sunday , it indicated continuity while being alive to the needs of coalition dynamics. Heavyweights like Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar retained their portfolios of defence, home, road transport and highways, finance and external affairs respectively This newspaper had . earlier reported that the BJP was unlikely to part with any of its core ministries — home, defence, finance, external af- SAFEGUARDING BORDER TOP PRIORITY: RAJNATH “Safeguarding India’s border will remain our topmost priority and we shall continue protecting India’s integrity & sovereignty,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said adding efforts will continue to take defence manufacturing and exports to greater heights fairs, railways, IT and law — to the NDA allies. Former chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Manohar Lal Khattar got the important ministries of agriculture and housing and urban affairs, respectively Their experience . in governance is expected help them deal with the crucial portfolios. Khattar also has the charge of power. Ashwini Vaishnaw, who is credited with the rollout of the Vande Bharat trains and many other mega projects, retained railways, electronics and information technology The impor. tant portfolio of information and broadcasting got added to his bouquet on Monday . Dharmendra Pradhan and Piyush Goyal retained their education and commerce and industry ministries respectively while Hardeep Singh Puri continues to be the petroleum and natural gas minister. J P Nadda returned to the health ministry he held before he became BJP president. Thanking Modi for letting him retain his portfolios, Shah said the home ministry will continue to accelerate and strengthen security initiatives and introduce new approaches to realise the PM’s vision of a @ Bengaluru AS Narendra Modi signed a file clearing PM Kissan Nidhi instalment after taking oath as prime minister, the Karnataka government on Monday decided to release Rs 3,000 each to over 17.09 lakh small farmers. Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda told reporters that a list of beneficiary farmers is getting ready. This will be a compensation. “Farmers depending on rain and those in the tail-end regions of canals where water supply is poor will get this compensation,” he said. At a Cabinet sub-committee meeting, the decision to pay Rs 3,000 to each farmer was taken. “Because of the model code of conduct for LS and Council elections, we could not take this decision,” he said. “NDRF has released Rs 232 crore, which is not sufficient. Hence, we added Rs 232 crore more from SDRF,” the minister said. Apart from this compensation, farmers will be given crop insurance money. “A sum of Rs 1,654 crore has been paid and Rs 136 crore is yet to be released,” he said. The minister said the state received excess rain after the arrival of monsoon on June 1. This has eased the drinking water crisis to an extent. “We have directed the officials to take precautionary measures in places where it is raining heavily,” he added. CABINET MINISTERS Rajnath Singh: Defence Amit Shah: Home; Cooperation Nitin Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways J P Nadda: Health; Chemicals and Fertilizers Shivraj Singh Chouhan: Agriculture; Rural Devel. Nirmala Sitharaman: Finance; Corporate Affairs S Jaishankar: External Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar: Housing and Urban Affairs; Power H D Kumaraswamy: Heavy Industries; Steel Piyush Goyal: Commerce and Industry Dharmendra Pradhan: Education Jitan Ram Manjhi: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Lalan Singh: Panchayati Raj; Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Sarbananda Sonowal: Ports; Shipping and Waterways Dr Virendra Kumar: Social Justice and Empowerment Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu: Civil Aviation Pralhad Joshi: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; New and Renewable Energy Jual Oram: Tribal Affairs Giriraj Singh: Textiles Ashwini Vaishnaw: Railways; I&B; Electronics and Information Technology Jyotiraditya Scindia: Communications; development of Northeast Bhupender Yadav: Environment, Forest and Climate Change Gajendra Singh Shekhawat: Culture; Tourism Annpurna Devi: Women and Child Development Kiren Rijiju: Parliamentary Affairs; Minority Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri: Petroleum and Natural Gas Mansukh Mandaviya: Labour and Employment; Youth Affairs and Sports G Kishan Reddy: Coal, Mines Chirag Paswan: Food Processing C R Patil: Jal Shakti MINISTERS OF STATE INDEPENDENT CHARGE Rao Inderjit Singh: Statistics and Programme Implementation; Planning; Culture MoS Jitendra Singh: Science and Technology; Earth Sciences; MoS in PMO; MoS in Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; MoS in the Dept of Atomic Energy; MoS on Dept of Space Arjun Ram Meghwal: Law and Justice, MoS in Parliamentary Affairs Jadhav Prataprao Ganpatrao: Ayush; MoS in Health and Family Welfare Jayant Chaudhary: Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; MoS in Education 2 BJP workers stabbed, 1 beaten up in Mangaluru 17.09L state farmers to get `3k each EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE secure Bharat. Also, the ministry of cooperation will remain committed to empowering farmers and villages, he said. As for the allies, former Bihar chief minister and HAM founder Jitan Ram Manjhi got the ministry of micro, small and mediums enter prise (MSME). JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy got heavy industries and steel, and JD(U)’s Lalan Singh panchayati raj, fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying. TDP’s K Rammohan Naidu has be given civil aviation. LJP (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan was allocated food processing. RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary has been allocated the skill development and entrepreneurship ministry while Shiv Sena leader Jadhav Prataprao Ganpatrao will handle the Ayush ministry . KNOW YOUR MINISTERS SOLAR SECRETS The ISRO has released photos of dynamic activities of the Sun captured by the Solar Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) and the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) payload onboard the Aditya-L1 satellite. The first image shows the bright, magnetically active regions on the Sun’s surface. Large solar flares may originate in these active regions due to changes in magnetic field. The second image of continuum emission shows the sunspots in the active regions | P9 EXPRESS READ State govt to split BBMP into five corporations Sharif greets Modi in first exchange after polls Bengaluru: The state government is likely to hold elections to the BBMP only after splitting it into five city corporations through legislation in the forthcoming joint session of the legislature in July. After the split, suburban areas under BDA will also come under city corporation, covering over 840 sqkm under greater Bengaluru | P2 New Delhi: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday congratulated Narendra Modi in the first communication between the estranged neighbours after the latter took oath as India’s Prime Minister. “My warm felicitations to Modi Ji on assuming office for the third time,” Sharif wrote on X | P10 E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Mangaluru TWO BJP workers were stabbed and another beaten up after they raised slogans in front of a mosque during a procession to mark swearing in of NDA leader Narendra Modi as PM, at Boliyar near Konaje on the outskirts of Mangaluru on Sunday evening. The CCTV footage shows BJP workers on motorcycles raising slogans and waving their party flags as they passed by the mosque around 8.51 pm. Six minutes later, three people, who were returning from the procession on their bikes, shouted ‘Bharat Matha Ki Jai’ in front of the mosque. This enraged some people who were standing near the mosque. They chased the trio, caught them near a bar 2 km away and attacked them. Mangaluru city police commissioner Anupam Agarwal said after an altercation, the accused stabbed the two BJP workers and beat up another. Mohammed Shakir, 28, Abdul Razak, 40, Aboobakar Siddique, 36, and Monu, 24, were arrested in connection with CONTINUED ON: P4 the attack. A mini desert atop Gajendragad hillocks? R A G H O T TA M K O P PA R @ Gadag A group of nature lovers, including two from Bengaluru, stumbled upon a small desert atop the hillocks in Gajendragad recently . The group has teamed up with geologists and researchers to conduct a study on this desert spread over 30 acres of land. According to researchers, the sand there is similar to those found in deserts and can’t be used for building or construction purposes. It is not compact like river sand. It is loosely bound like desert sand. The researchers said that this could be the first mini desert of The mini desert atop Gajendragad hillocks north Karnataka. The nature lovers went to the hillocks along with biodiversity researcher Manjunath Nayak from Ron and environmentalist Santosh to study the rocky structures there. On their return, the two nature lovers showed the sand samples to some geology professors and geolo- gists in Bengaluru. After studying the samples, the professors and geologists opined that the sand is similar to those found in deserts. However, it is thicker than the desert sand. They favoured a thorough research into it, according to Nayak. Nayak said, “We went to the hillocks after visiting Kalakaleshwar, Nagendragad, Bhairapur and other places. We saw a mini desert at Talakad some time ago. But this one is different in many aspects.” An official from the Mines and Geology Department said, “The department will conduct a study We . will soon visit the place along with geologists and other experts.” Now, Sena says it’s not happy with MoS post S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai A day after the Ajit Pawar-led NCP rejected a Minister of State (MoS) position in the Narendra Modi cabinet saying it wants a Cabinet post, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena said it was not happy with the MoS berth given to it. Prataprao Jadhav is the sole representative of Shindeled Sena in the new government. He has been allocated the AYUSH ministry as MoS with independent charge and also health & family welfare as MoS. Expressing disappointment over the issue, Shiv Sena MP Shrirang Barne said his party is one of the oldest allies of the BJP and deserves a cabinet minister. “In this election, the strike ratio of Shiv Sena was higher than that of the BJP in Maharashtra. The Shiv Sena contested 15 seats and won 7, while the BJP contested 28 seats but won only 9. Our performance is better,” said Barne. “Injustice has been done to the Shiv Sena. Even smaller allies have got Cabinet ministers, but we have been given only MoS,” he added. He pointed out that Chirag Paswan was made a Cabinet minister though his party won only five seats. Similarly, the JD(S) with just two Lok Sabha MPs got a Cabinet post, Barne contended. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ekanth Shinde held a meeting of Shiv Sena MLAs and MPs on Monday to discuss the party’s strategy and plan of action going forward. The meeting was held at Varsha Bungalow, the CM’s official residence.
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