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Joe Biden announced in his State of the Union address the plans for providing aid to Gaza by sea, the Army's 7th Transportation Brigade and other units were scrambling to pull equipment together. They received their orders before the speech: Build a floating dock off the Gaza coast to provide food and other desperately needed assistance to residents of Gaza. The aid is needed because Israel has sharply restricted land routes into Gaza, slowing the flow of aid to a trickle. It's a complex operation, involving as many as 1,000 US troops, and it won't happen overnight. Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters it will take weeks for this to come together. Some officials say it will take about two months. And beyond the logistical challenges, the operation will depend on Israel's cooperation, which isn't assured. A look at what's known about the operation:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the kind of work done by his government in the last five years in the Northeast, the Congress would have taken 20 years to do it. The PM was addressing a public meeting in Arunachal Pradesh's Itanagar after unveiling development projects worth Rs 55,600 crore in the region. «The Northeast is going to become a strong link in India's trade, tourism and other relations with South Asia and East Asia. Today, projects worth over Rs 55,000 crore have been unveiled here,» he said. «Congress would have taken 20 years to do what we have done in the last five years in the Northeast,» he added.

revdi. These schemes are meant to empower women socially and economically. But how is it going to help the beneficiary and what are the economic implications of the scheme and its sustainability in the long run? Mint explains Madhya Pradesh’s experiment with Ladli Behna Yojna, some say, delivered the goods for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Assembly elections held in November 2023.

equity market. Reading the tea leaves always gives some indications of how markets move during this tumultuous period. There are definite data points and trends that investors can look at to chart out their equity map during India’s moves in the elections.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) and was Chennai West Deputy Organiser (NRI Wing) until he was dismissed permanently from the party on February 25 over his links with the drug cartel. Also Read : International drug racket in Delhi: Film producer identified as mastermind; NCB, Delhi Police seize illegal substance His links led to political war of words with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), opposition parties in Tamil Nadu, mounting attack on DMK over Jaffer.

Narendra Modi on Saturday unveiled projects worth Rs 55,600 crore in the Northeast, including the strategic Sela tunnel which will provide all-weather connectivity to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. The PM unveiled the projects spread across Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh at a programme in Itanagar. The Sela tunnel, constructed at a cost of about Rs 825 crore, is an engineering marvel. It will provide all-weather connectivity to Tawang across Sela pass on the Balipara-Chariduar-Tawang Road in Arunachal Pradesh, a statement said. The project, the foundation stone of which was laid by PM Modi in February 2019, will not only provide a faster and more efficient transport route in the region but is of strategic importance to the country as it is located near the frontier with China.

India is set to tie duty reductions associated with the trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) to investments made by companies from member nations, including Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, reported TOI. These nations have collectively pledged to invest $100 billion over a span of 15 years. The FTA is scheduled to be signed on Sunday following its clearance by the Union cabinet on Thursday evening. Negotiations for the agreement commenced in 2008 but were halted after the Modi government assumed office in 2014, as per a TOI report.

Ford exited India in 2021 but it has not completely left the country. Infact, Ford India is now in an expansion mode but in a slightly different context. As per a report in the Times of India, Ford is expanding its Chennai tech hub and is planning to hire an additional 3,000 employees in the next two to three years to develop electric vehicle (EV) applications for its global EV platforms. The Chennai hub currently has 12,000 employees.

Indian Army following their successful completion of rigorous training at the Officers Training Academy (OTA) on Saturday. Additionally, three officer cadets and six women cadets from friendly foreign countries successfully completed their training, fostering bonds of camaraderie and cooperation across international borders, the OTA said. Reviewing the impressive and meticulously turned out passing out parade by the contingents at the Parameshwaran drill square, OTA, Chennai, Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari said warfare was undergoing a fundamental change with the emergence of new technology and radically newer doctrines. «India's security dynamics involves multi-faceted threats and challenges. It would require us to build multi-domain capabilities and execute operations simultaneously and in shortened timeframes,» he said and called upon the young officers to stay abreast with technological advancements.

China’s hacking industry, leaked internal documents reveal, is vast in size and scope but also suffers from shady business practices, disgruntlement over pay and work quality, and poor security protocols

PTI, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai announced this decision after watching the film, which focuses on the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir, at a mall in the evening. A day before, the BJP government in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh had decided to give the film the tax-free status. “Sai was accompanied by wife Kaushalya Devi Sai and cabinet colleagues Ramvichar Netam and Kedar Kashyap," a statement issued by the state public relations department said.

Ramadan lights installation at Piccadilly Circus to start Ramadan 2024 celebrations He said that the great thing about Ramadan lights is that it gives Muslims Brits a sense of belonging. It sends a message ‘we are not simply tolerated but respected, embraced and celebrated. Also, not only Muslims, but even non-Muslims enjoy these lights.

By Daniel Trotta

graphic processing units (GPUs) that are deemed essential for the creation of artificial intelligence-based applications and models is a “good starting point” as it strives to stay apace with global leaders in the rapidly evolving area of AI innovation, top investors and technologists said. The Rs 10,372-crore Artificial Intelligence (AI) Mission, announced on Thursday, will operate on a public-private partnership model. It will extend GPUs as a digital public infrastructure that can offer AI-as-a-service.

Goldman Sachs has set up a facility in India to train both engineers and non-engineers in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to explore the usage of the technology in its businesses. Since 2006, Goldman Sachs has invested more than $7 billion in India. Starting off as a support function, the Indian operations have now become the second largest for Goldman Sachs globally.

(Reuters) — S&P Global said on Friday it considers it a «virtual certainty» that Ukraine will default on its external commercial obligations and cut the country's long-term foreign currency (FC) credit rating deeper into junk territory.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose NATO-member country has sought to balance its close relations with both Ukraine and Russia, offered during a visit Friday from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to host a peace summit between the two countries. Erdogan, who has repeatedly discussed brokering a peace deal, said at a news conference in Istanbul following his meeting with Zelenskyy that he hoped Russia would be on board with Turkey’s offer.

an article in the MIT Tech Review, a slew of new tools. ‘Nightshade’ is one such tool that offers artists a chance to fight back against AI. The tool was created by Ben Zhao, a professor at University of Chicago.

AstraZeneca is in the process of 15 new launches in India including novel products and new indications of existing assets in two years, said Sanjeev Panchal, managing director of AstraZeneca Pharma India. «We would be doing 15 new launches starting 2023 until 2025,» he told ET. The products would be in the therapeutic segments of oncology; cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic (CVRM) diseases; respiratory and immunology; and rare diseases. Some of the new products would be biologics or monoclonal antibodies, Panchal said. To expand access to its innovative therapies, AstraZeneca is working on strategies such as public-private partnerships (PPPs) for screening and early diagnosis, entering licensing deals with India pharmaceutical companies to enhance reach, and following a country-wise or tiered pricing approach in India linked to economic indicators, ensuring the prices of the drugs are relatively lower than advanced countries, he said.

panel for a comprehensive review of the country's statistical systems, which have been criticised for poor survey methodology and delayed report releases. The decision to set up an expert committee to look into all the issues related to data was taken at a review meeting held by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in February, people familiar with the deliberations told ET. «The committee is likely to find solutions for addressing recurring concerns over data quality,» one of the persons said. «PMO also favoured a tech upgrade of the entire system,» the person said.

Election Commission of India on Friday held a meeting with the Ministry of Home Affairs to take stock of security requirements for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar and election commissioner Arun Goel held a meeting with Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla to discuss deployment of central forces for the general elections. It is gathered that officials from the Ministry of Railways were also part of the deliberations in order to plan smooth movement of central forces across the country. The discussions come just ahead of the commission members' visit to Jammu & Kashmir next week. The deliberations will help in scheduling Lok Sabha and assembly polls in the Union Territory. Kumar and Goel are scheduled to visit Jammu and Kashmir on March 12-13.