tirupati l friday l january 24, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Indian representation confirmed at oscars 2025 as anuja gets nod a lien, i’m not a robot among competitors Anuja, a short film set in New Delhi, bagged a nomination in the Live Action Short category at the 97th Academy Awards on Thursday Monga, Priyanka executive producers Anuja tells the story of a gifted nine-year-old, who must make a choice between education and factory work. Directed by Adam J Graves and Suchitra Mattai, the film stars Sajda Pathan and Ananya Shanbhag. Other nominees for the Live Action Short category are: A Lien, I’m Not a Robot, The Last Ranger, and The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent ■ ■ Anuja has two-time Oscar winning producer Guneet Monga on board as executive producer. Recently, actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas also boarded the project as an executive producer The film is produced by NGO Salaam Baalak Trust, which supports street children, along with Shine Global, and Krushan Naik Films March 2 when the 2025 Academy Awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles 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 5,300 yrs ago Iron Age began in tamil soil, says CM, cites scientific proof T M u r u g a n a n d h a m @ Chennai Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday, based on the results of scientific dating of archaeological samples, declared that iron was used in the present Tamil-speaking region even in the mid third to fourth millennia, thereby pushing the Iron Age period back by around two millennia. The results establish that iron was used in the region over 5,300 years ago, he said. Releasing the report titled, ‘Antiquity of Iron: Recent Radiometric Dates from Tamil Nadu’ in Chennai, Stalin said he was making the remarkable anthropological announcement, not only to India but to the whole world, that the “Iron Age began on Tamil soil”. The results were based on samples sent from various archaeological sites including Sivagalai in Thoothukudi district, Adichanallur in Tirunelveli district, Mayiladumparai in Krishnagiri district to three renowned laboratories — Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow; Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad; and Beta Analytic Lab, Florida, USA. While the samples were sent to Indian labs for Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) analysis, the samples from the same sites were sent for radiometric analysis to the Beta Analytic Lab in Florida. Similar results have been received from all the three labs. Stalin said the state’s Archaeology Department has established through chronometric dating that smelting technology to extract iron from ore was first introduced in the Tamil landscape. 3 5 4 2 Current global consensus regarding Sites and samples sent 1 Iron age 1 Swords Anchor hook Sivagalai (Thoothukudi): Charcoal samples collected from urn burials with iron objects in the habitation mound called Valappalanpillai-thiradu. Three samples have been dated to 2953 BCE, 3259 BCE and 3345 BCE 2 Adichanallur (Tirunelveli): Samples associated with an iron object were dated to 2517-2513 BCE 3 Mayiladumparai (Krishnagiri): Samples of iron objects dated to 2172 BCE Iron objects 4 Mangadu (Thelunganur) in Salem: Iron sword dating back to 1263 BCE found 5 Iron sword Graves Iron metal production from ore is believed to have begun in the mid-2nd millennium BCE. Iron Age is so far believed to have started in Anatolia and the Caucasus around late 2nd millennium BCE (~1300 BCE), with the transition occurring in the Ancient Near East during the 12th century BCE (1200–1100 BCE) Iron Age period in various regions 900 800 BCE in BCE in China Kilnamandi (Tiruvannamalai): Age of iron objects found in the site falls between 1769 BCE and 1615 BCE Where were the samples tested? Birbal Sahani Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow; Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad & Beta Analytic, Florida, USA Arial view of Iron Age graves at Mayiladumparai Shashi Bhushan Kumar issued the relevant orders on Thursday . Of the total `275.07 crore, the Central government’s contribution is `163.39 crore, while the State government will extend the remaining `111.68 crore under PMJANMAN (Pradhan Mantri Ja n j at i A d iva s i N yaya Maha Abhiyan) Batch-1 for the P4 year 2024-25. Maruti Suzuki India will hike prices by up to `32,500 across various models from February 1 to partially offset the rise in input cost. “We are constrained to pass on some of the increased expenses to the market,” it said in a statement | P10 The State government has granted administrative sanction for the construction of 76 road works, benefiting 90 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) habitations, with an estimated cost of `275.07 crore. Principal Secretary (Panchayat Raj and Rural Development) cars to cost more from February 1 Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma gets 3 months in jail in cheque bounce case S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai A Mumbai court convicted filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma and sentenced him to three months of simple imprisonment in a seven-year-old cheque bounce case. A company Shree, represent, ed by Maheshchandra Mishra, had filed a case against Ram Gopal Varma’s firm under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act in 2018. The Andheri Magistrate Court on Tuesday found Varma guilty . Varma was directed to pay a compensation of `3.72 lakh to the complainant within three months, failing which he will face another three months of imprisonment. The filmmaker has faced financial troubles in recent years, which was exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic when he had to sell his office. As Varma was absent during the proceedings, the court issued a nonbailable warrant for his arrest, instruct- Central Northern Northern and Europe Scandinavian Western Europe Europe Samples discovered from various archaeological sites in Tamil Nadu, which were sent for dating, have revealed that iron objects found here dated to 3345 BCE and 2172 BCE. This pushes the current Iron Age period back by at least around two millennia Maruti @ Vijayawada 500 BCE in What do the new findings in TN say? Govt sanction for `275 cr roads to connect tribal areas E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e 600 BCE in ing the concerned police station to execute the sentence. The court said since Varma had not spent any time in custody during the trial, there was no provision for a set-off for him under Section 428 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. For his part, Varma took to X, stating that the case relates to a cheque of `2,38,000 from a former employee. He emphasised that his legal team is addressing the matter. T’gana seals mega deals at WEF; AWS to invest `60,000 cr MA N DA RAVI N D E R R E DDY @ Hyderabad the Telangana government’s delegation to the World Economic Forum in Davos secured investment commitments to the tune of `1,78,950 crore, which could create nearly 50,000 jobs in the state. Telegana’s delegation, led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, signed MoUs with several firms, the biggest of which came from Amazon Web Services (AWS). It would invest `60,000 crore in Telangana to expand data centres. The other investments include `45,500 crore from Sun Petrochemicals and `15,000 crore each from Tillman Global Holdings and Megha Engineering. Among software companies, HCLTech proposed to create 5,000 jobs, while Infosys said it would accommodate 10,000 employees in its upcoming new campus at Pocharam in Hyderabad and would ramp up the workforce by 7,000 more later. Another IT giant, Wipro, unveiled its plans to add 5,000 jobs in the state. Data centres were a major focus area, yielding rich dividends for Telangana. Amazon, ‘China Plus One’ In his presentation at WEF, Reddy said the state will build on its core strenths and expand in new areas. He said with supply chain disruptions necessitating alternatives to China, the state seeks to establish itself as a proactive ‘China Plus One’ destination Tillman, Usra, CtrlS and Sify announced plans for new facilities and expansions. The state also achieved breakthroughs in cuttingedge sectors such as solar cell manuf acturing, rocket manufacturing, aircraft interior design and UAV production. Defence investments by the Jindal group was another feather in the state’s cap. The state delegation also managed to secure investments in private industrial parks, with the Ramky Group offering to invest in integrated industrial parks, a dry port, and townships. The MTS Group also committed significant investments in the state. Unilever proposed to set up two manufacturing units. express read Naidu wraps us Davos visit, leaves for Delhi Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu wrapped up his four-day visit to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, and left for New Delhi on Thursday. Naidu held meetings and roundtable discussions with leaders of multinational corporations, and explained to them the investorfriendly policies in the State | P4 Statewide rollout of ASTraM on cards Vijayawada: Taking inspiration from the successful implementation of ASTraM, an AI-driven tool for traffic and crowd management in the NTR district, the State police are considering its rollout across all districts. DGP Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao recently reviewed the system during Dasara festivities in Vijayawada | P3 IT Minister hints at ‘good news’ from Cognizant, invites HCL to expand ops E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada IT and HRD Minister Nara Lokesh has hinted at the possibility of Cognizant Technology Solutions launching operations in Andhra Pradesh. During his visit to Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF), Lokesh met Cognizant’s CEO S Ravi Kumar and urged him to consider establishing operations i n t i e r- 2 c i t i e s s u c h a s Visakhapatnam.   Lokesh emphasised that 2.2 Apple glitch Central govt issues notices to Ola, Uber over price disparity E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi The Centre has issued notices to Ola and Uber over complaints that they were charging different prices from customers depending on whether the booking was from an iPhone or an Android smartphone. The notices were issued by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), a regulatory body under the Union consumer affairs ministry . “As a follow-up to the earlier observation of apparent differential pricing based on the different models of mobiles (iPhones/ Android) being used, Department of Consumer Affairs through the CCPA, has issued notices to major cab aggregators Ola and Uber, seeking their responses,” said Prakhar Joshi, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution & New and Renewable Energy on social me, dia platform X. Uber spokesperson said the platform does not set prices based on the operating system of the consumer’s phone. “We look forward to working with the Central Consumer Protection Authority to clear up any misunderstanding.” Ola is yet to comment. The Centre has also sent a notice to Apple to respond to the technical issues reported by iPhone users after a recent software update. A survey revealed that 60% of iPhone users experienced service problems. IT Minister Lokesh with Cognizant Technology Solutions CEO S Ravi Kumar million square feet of co-working space is available in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Tirupati. After the meeting, Lokesh said on X, “Had a terrific meeting with the delightful @imravikumars, CEO of technology giant @Co gnizant. GOOD NEWS COMING SOON! STAY T U N E D ! ! # I nve s t I n A P #WEF2025.” Ravi Kumar informed Lokesh that Cognizant plans to relocate 80,000 employees currently based in tier-1 cities to tier-2 locations, and that a positive decision on the proposals from the State government will be P4 made soon.