HYDERABAD  FRIDAY  SEPTEMBER 06, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 56  LATE CITY EDITION SEBI STAFFERS PROTEST DEMANDING CHAIRPERSON BUCH’S RESIGNATION A large number of employees protested outside the Securities Exchange Board of India’s headquarters in Mumbai on Thursday REGULATOR’S PRESS RELEASE SPARKS ANGER The protesters demanded the resignation of Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch. They are also wanted the capital markets regulator to withdraw a press release issued on Wednesday refuting allegations of toxic work culture at its offices. Last month, some 500 Sebi employees signed a joint letter to the finance ministry highlighting the alleged harassment faced by them ■ 1st OVER 200 EMPLOYEES TOOK PART IN PROTEST ■ The protesting employees, numbering over 200 as per one estimate, assembled in front of Sebi headquarters in the morning and stood there for about 90 minutes. None of them spoke to the media In the press release, Sebi claimed that some “external elements” were misleading and instigating its employees to further their interests MADHABI PURI BUCH IS THE FIRST FEMALE CHAIPERSON OF SEBI 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 Putin proposes India mediation on Ukraine war Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi Are we ready to negotiate with them? We have never refused to do so, but not on the basis of some ephemeral demands, but on the basis of those documents that were agreed and actually initialled in Istanbul —Vladimir Putin Meet today on fresh aid to Ukraine Pentagon will on Friday host a meeting in Germany of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, comprising over 50 nations that have funded and armed Ukraine, to discuss fresh aid for the war RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that he trusted partners like India to resolve the ongoing war with Ukraine. “India, China, Brazil are countries we have trust and confidence in and they will provide us a helping hand in resolving the conflict with Ukraine,’’ President Putin said while fielding questions during a discussion at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. Putin was in conversation with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Chinese Vice President Han Zheng. He said he was in touch with these countries and they had confidence in one another. Putin said the basis of the talks could be an aborted deal reached between the two sides in Istanbul in 2022. Its terms were never made public. “We managed to reach an agreement, that is the whole point. The signature of the head of the Ukrainian delegation who initialled this document testifies to this, which means that the Ukrainian side was generally satisfied with the agreements reached,” Putin said. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Ukraine on August 23, he had urged President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sit across the table with President Putin to resolve the matter, adding India was ready to play an active role to restore peace in the region. Days later, he briefed Putin on the outcome of his dialogue with Zelenskyy . Separately, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, referring to the “highly constructive, even friendly relations” between Modi and Putin, said the Indian PM can “lead the line on getting first-hand information from the participants in this conflict”, as he “freely communicates with Putin, Zelenskyy and the US.” He, however, said there are “no specific plans” on Modi mediating on the issue. Ukraine had earlier said it wouldn’t directly engage with Russia but was looking at a coalition of intermediaries to end the war. hyderabad september 2024 WITH THIS ISSUE CITY’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 56 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) AND 20-PAGE VINAYAKA CHAVITHI SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT Yr before federal poll, Trudeau govt reduced to a minority Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi WITH the left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP) led by Khalistani sympathiser Jagmeet Singh snapping ties with Canada’s ruling Liberal Party Prime , Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has been reduced to a minority . The simple majority mark in the House of Commons at present is 167 since there are four vacancies. Trudeau’s Liberals with 154 MPs are 13 short of a majority It was NDP with . 24 MPs that had propped up the Liberals since 2022, forcing Trudeau to bend over backwards to keep it happy by taking a soft line on Khalistanis, annoying New Delhi in the process and making the country a sanctuary for anti-India forces. This break-up has increased the chances of a snap federal election, which was scheduled in October 2025. Singh accused Trudeau of taking credit for their ideas. He said that they introduced the pharmacare framework and instilled the idea of a Palestine state with Trudeau. According to the Indian diaspora, Trudeau’s popularity has dipped due to his position on temporary migrant workers — which has a big percenta g e of Indians. TG TAKES FIRST STEP TO BECOME AI HUB OF INDIA NVIDIA to help set up AI Centre of Excellence, support 300 startups annually with $150K–$300K A J A Y T O M A R @ Hyderabad TELANGANA is set to introduce an AI curriculum in government schools. Speaking to TNIE at the Global AI Summit here on Thursday, Jayesh Ranjan, special chief secretary of the IT department, said, “We need to identify an agency to help develop the curriculum and decide on what will be taught in Class 6 and further. All these are the intentions so far outlined in our roadmap. Moving forward, some parts of the curriculum will be developed in-house, aiming to develop it into a detailed implementation plan.” During the summit, the government announced that it has entered into 26 MoUs with tech giants such as NVIDIA, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon Web Services, as well as academic institutions, startups and notfor-profit organisations. Microsoft has agreed to train 50,000 secondary school students, 10,000 vocational students, 20,000 industry workers and 50,000 government officials in AI, digital productivity, and cybersecurity through the “A d v a n t a g e T e l a n g a n a ” initiative. Additionally, the gover nment has entered into a strategic three-year partnership with NVIDIA Corporation. This collaboration will provide AI training to 5,000 students from 200 technical and higher education institutions through NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Institute (DLI) programme. NVIDIA has also agreed to work with the government to establish an AI Centre of Excellence focused on driving innovation HC allows challenge to GO on med college admissions E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad A bench of the Telangana High Court on Thursday allowed a batch of 53 writ petitions challenging the validity of Rule 3(a) of the Telangana Medical and Dental Colleges Admission (MBBS and BDS courses) Rules, 2017, as amended by GO 33, dated July 19, 2024. The petitioners, who are permanent residents of Telangana, sought dire c t i o n s f ro m t h e bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe to be treated as local candidates for admission to MBBS and BDS courses under the 85% local quota rule in the medical colleges in the state. They argued that Rule 3(a), which pertains to the criteria for local candidates, violated their rights, as they had completed their Intermediate education in Andhra Pradesh and other neighbouring states but were still permanent resi- dents of Telangana. The court, after hearing the arguments presented, directed that Rule 3(a) should be interpreted to include students who are permanent residents of Telangana, even if they had completed their education outside the state. The court clarified that the petitioners would be eligible for admission under the local quota, provided they can prove their domicile or permanent residency in Telangana. The court also noted the absence of clear guidelines from the government to determine a student’s permanent residency or domicile status. As a result, the bench granted the government the liberty to frame appropriate guidelines to define when a student qualifies as a permanent resident of the state. The University will then apply these guidelines on a case-byCONTINUED ON P5 case basis. Artificial Intelligence to be part of govt school curriculum from Class 6, Microsoft to train 50K secondary students TG signs MoUs with Meta, OpenAI & others to train 50K secondary school students, 10K vocational students, 20K industry workers, and 50K government officials in AI, digital productivity, and cybersecurity The state government has entered into 26 MoUs with academic institutions, big-tech companies and startups including Meta, NVIDIA, Amazon Web Services and J-PAL, cofounded by Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee  MoU signed with Telangana to support startup ecosystem and government  OpenAI to provide API credits worth $25,000, to be allocated to startups selected by the government. To engage with startup and developer ecosystem through targeted technical interaction  To work with TG government to help it leverage AI tools and improve citizen engagement  To collaborate with IIIT-H on linguistic research  Strategic 3-year partnership with chip giant to train 5,000 students from 200 technical and higher education institutions in AI through NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Institute (DLI) programme  NVIDIA, government to also establish an AI Centre of Excellence focused on driving innovation and research  Support to be provided through NVIDIA Startup Inception programme to 300 AI startups, each with an annual provision of $150,000–$300,000 ABDUL LATIF JAMEEL POVERTY ACTION LAB to set up an Artificial Intelligence Research Lab to leverage tech to improve governance services and processes across various sectors, including agriculture, health & education META  Two-year partnership with TG govt to empower public officials and citizens with AI to enhance e-governance and citizen services  Parent company of Facebook, Insta & WhatsApp to deploy advanced e-governance solutions By sharing openly available AI models, we’re driving innovation and democratising access. This mission converges with our dedication to e-governance, leveraging digital technologies to enhance government services, transparency, and citizen engagement in the state of Telangana Shivnath Thukral, vice president and head of Public Policy, Meta India Amazon Web Services to collaborate with TASK to deliver AI, Generative AI, and cloud computing courses Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy along with IT Minister D Sridhar Babu at the Global AI Summit in Hyderabad on Thursday The role of technology is significant in bringing about a transformation in society. State government is committed to promoting AI. T-AIM in partnership with NASSCOM will assist the government in implementing AI framework in Telangana A Revanth Reddy, chief minister YOTTA DATA SERVICES  Yotta Data Services to design a specialised AI-Data Centre in Hyderabad, featuring GPU-based AI cloud infra. C-DAC to provide free access to PARAM Siddhi AI and AIRAWAT PoC for T-AIM powered startups  IIIT Hyderabad, NIT Warangal, NALSAR, BITS Pilani-Hyderabad and ISB ink MoUs with government to contribute to AI Research & Collaboration Network and research Inaugurating the summit at HICC here on Thursday, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said that no Indian city was as perfectly ready for AI as Hyderabad. Unveiling the logo of AI City, a 200-acre hub near Hyderabad dedicated to R&D, Revanth said: “This summit is our declaration that we are ready for AI. We invite everyone to join us in making the Future City a prominent AI hub in the world.” IT Minister D Sridhar Babu PM SPEAKS 6 Maoists shot dead in Manuguru, first major encounter in TG since ’18 Want to create Singapores in India: Modi Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi INDIA and Singapore on Thursday elevated their ties to a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’ after the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Singapore PM Lawrence Wong. The two sides also signed four MoUs for cooperation in the semiconductor industry, digital technologies, skill development, and healthcare. Modi extended an invite to Wong to visit India, which he accepted. “Singapore isn’t just a partner country; it is an inspiration for any developing country We in India also want to cre. ate many Singapores within itself. I am happy to state that we will progress on this front together. Our ministerial roundtable is a path breaking mechanism for cooperation in skilling and digitalisation,’’ said Modi. said that Telangana is not just participating in the AI revolution but leading it. At the heart of Telangana’s strategy is the establishment of the AI City, he pointed out and noted that the government’s vision was to elevate Telangana into a trillion-dollar economy . “This AI City will be the cradle of innovative advancements, affirming our status as a technological powerhouse. We also plan to launch an AI school within the city,” he said. CONTINUED ON P3 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Khammam GREYHOUNDS commandos shot dead six Maoists, including two women, in the Karakagudem forest area of Manuguru division, Bhadradri Kothagudem district early on Thursday This was the first . major encounter in Telangana since March 2018 when 10 Maoists were killed in an encounter in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district. A release from the police said that two Greyhound commandos sustained bullet injuries during the shootout. According to Kothagudem SP B Rohith Raju, they were rushed to the Bhadrachalam area hospital where their condition was described as stable. The police said that the security personnel recovered two AK-47 rifles, one SLR, a 303 rifle and a pistol, along with two live rounds, kit bags and other material The AK-47, a pistol and other firearms seized from the Maoists following an encounter between Greyhounds commandos in Bhadradri Kothagudem on Thursday from the spot. Meanwhile, sources said the slain Maoists have been identified as Kunja Veeraiah alias Lacchanna, the Manuguru area secretary and dalam commander, Tulasi, Sukram, Ramu, Durgesh and Kosi. However, the SP refused to shed light on this, saying: “Their identities are yet to be confirmed.” He said that the shootout last- ed about 30 minutes. The police spotted seven Maoists in the forest and asked them to surrender, but the ultras opened fire, forcing the security personnel to respond in self-defence. After the exchange of gunfire, six bodies, including those of the two women, were found along with the recovered weapons and other materials, the SP said. CONTINUED ON P4 KHAMMAM HERO Hailed as a saviour, left to fend on his own B S AT YA N A R AYA N A R E D D Y @ Khammam Sk Subhani File picture of people stranded on a bridge on Munneru river during the recent floods A 47-year-old JCB driver from Haryana, Sk Subhani, disabled by polio, emerged as a hero after saving nine people, including a woman and two children, who were trapped on the Prakashnagar bridge in Khammam during the recent floods. Subhani’s act has garnered praise from all walks of life while many hailed him as a saviour. However, despite the praise, his financial situation remains dire, as he struggles to support his family of six. Speaking to TNIE over phone from his village in Haryana on Thursday, Subhani expressed his gratitude for the praise but voiced his concern about his ongoing struggles. “People are praising me, which is fine, but who will help solve my own problems?” he asked. Subhani, who has been disabled in his right leg since childhood, is known for his kindness and bravery He hails from Gan. gavai in Mewat district. After completing the rescue, Subhani left for his native place to care for his ailing wife, without expecting any recognition. In fact, he had planned to leave for his village on Sunday due to his wife’s health, but he believes fate intervened to keep him in Khammam for the rescue. According to reports, O Srinivasa Rao, a local businessman making cement bricks and rings, along with his workers and son, was near the Munneru river when they noticed the ris- ing floodwaters. They moved to the middle of the Prakashnagar bridge for safety but soon found both ends of the bridge submerged by the flood. Locals gathered at the scene and appealed for help from the government. Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao and police officials arrived but were unable to secure a helicopter for rescue. Frustrated, the locals protested, raising slogans against the government’s inaction. CONTINUED ON P5