People Know Nation Is "On Cusp Of Take-Off": PM Modi On 2024 Polls

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underscored the BJP's hopes for a third term in the 2024 general election, saying the people of India trust the party that brought them this far.

In an interview with Financial times, PM Modi said, "They realise that our nation is on the cusp of a take-off... They want this flight to be expedited, and they know the best party to ensure this is the one which brought them this far."

In the wide-ranging interview, the Prime Minister also spoke of India's foreign policy that in a world that is "interconnected as well as interdependent", job creation, comparisons with China and the government's focus on Make in India.

His government, he said, has shown steady improvement in job creation and focussing on efforts that would make India the next big destination for investment.

"We aspire to create conditions where everyone sees value in being in India to invest and expand their operations here," the Prime Minister told FT.

"We envision a system where anyone from around the world feels at home in India, where our processes and standards are familiar and welcoming," he added.

This path is expected to be smoothed by the country's upward trajectory in terms of relations with world powers -- including the improved relation with the US and the increasing suspicion towards Beijing. .  

"Our foremost guiding principle in foreign affairs is our national interest," PM Modi said. "This stance allows us to engage with various nations in a manner that respects mutual interests and acknowledges the complexities of contemporary geopolitics."

Regarding comparisons with China, where many feel India's growth spurt should be bigger than the current rate and concerns about corruption, administrative hurdles, and skills gap among the young, PM Modi said India cannot be compared to China.
 
"You have done a comparison with China, but it might be more apt to compare India with other democracies," he said.

"It is important to recognise that India wouldn't have achieved the status of the world's fastest-growing economy if the issues you've highlighted were as pervasive as suggested," he said. "Often, these concerns stem from perceptions, and altering perceptions sometimes takes time," he added.

Asked about Opposition allegations against his government that includes "targetting" of his detractors, PM Modi said there is a "whole ecosystem that is using the freedom available in our country to hurl these allegations" through media.

They have the right to do so, but "others have an equal right to respond with facts," he added.

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"Very Very Cool": Alia Reacts To Katrina's Merry Christmas Trailer

Katrina Kaif just dropped the trailer of her upcoming film Merry Christmas alongside Vijay Sethupathi and her friends from Bollywood cannot stop fawning over it. Alia Bhatt, who will be working with the actress in Farhan Akhtar's Jee le Zaraa, reacted to the trailer on Wednesday in the most adorable way. She shared the trailer on her Instagram story and wrote, "Okay this is very very cool. I am excited. Just must  Her reacted was also shared by Katrina on her feed.

Take a look at what Alia Bhatt had to say about Merry Christmas trailer:

Besides Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif's husband Vicky Kaushal and industry friend Varun Dhawan also reacted to the trailer. Vicky Kaushal wrote, "One of the best cut trailers. Can't wait for this this gem from the genius." Varun Dhawan, who has worked with director Sriram Raghavan in Badlapur wrote, "The twisted genius Sriram R is back."

Take a look at their reactions below:

The trailer of Merry Christmas was shared by Katrina Kaif on her Instagram feed alongside the caption which read, "Presenting the #MerryChristmasTrailer - Tamil. In cinemas on 12th Jan." Watch the trailer below:

Merry Christmas has been filmed in both Hindi and Tamil and marks Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi's first project together. Produced by Ramesh Taurani, Sanjay Routray, Jaya Taurani & Kewal Garg, and directed by Sriram Raghavan, Merry Christmas will be released on January 12.

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17 Worlds Outside Our Solar System May Have Life's "Essential Ingredient"

A recent NASA study looking for life beyond the solar system has discovered 17 exoplanets that could have oceans of liquid water beneath icy shells. The search for life usually involves finding exoplanets that exist within their host star's "habitable zone," a distance where temperatures allow liquid water to persist on their surfaces. However, it's possible for an exoplanet that's too distant and cold to still have an ocean underneath an ice crust if it has enough internal heating.

As per Space.com, these worlds, much like the icy moons of Jupiter, could therefore be promising places to search for chemical signs of life. Notably, Jupiter's Moon Europa and Saturn's Enceladus do not receive sufficient sunlight but still have liquid oceans beneath their icy crust.

For the first time, @NASAExoplanets science teams have estimated that 17 worlds outside our solar system could have oceans of liquid water, an essential ingredient for life, beneath icy shells. Dive in: https://t.co/8wIm2qhUDE pic.twitter.com/OP7eXhrz6E

— NASA (@NASA) December 15, 2023

''Water from these oceans could occasionally erupt through the ice crust as geysers. The science team calculated the amount of geyser activity on these exoplanets, the first time these estimates have been made. They identified two exoplanets sufficiently close where signs of these eruptions could be observed with telescopes,'' NASA said. 

These icy worlds, including two that are near our solar system, might have conditions capable of supporting life. 

"Our analyses predict that these 17 worlds may have ice-covered surfaces but receive enough internal heating from the decay of radioactive elements and tidal forces from their host stars to maintain internal oceans," Lynnae Quick of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said in a statement. 

''Thanks to the amount of internal heating they experience, all planets in our study could also exhibit cryovolcanic eruptions in the form of geyser-like plumes," Mr Quick added.

According to NASA, these exoplanets are roughly Earth-sized but less dense and much colder, suggesting that their surfaces are covered in ice. 

Researchers said geyser activity on two of the exoplanets Proxima Centauri b and LHS1140 b, could exceed Europa's by hundreds to thousands of times.

''Since our models predict that oceans could be found relatively close to the surfaces of Proxima Centauri b and LHS 1140 b, and their rate of geyser activity could exceed Europa's by hundreds to thousands of times, telescopes are most likely to detect geological activity on these planets," said Mr Quick. 

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Haryana To Recruit 10,000 Workers For Israel, Opposition Trains Guns On BJP

Struggling with a high unemployment rate, the Haryana government has released an advertisement recruiting 10,000 construction workers who will be sent to Israel, a country that has been locked in a war with Hamas for over two months and faces an acute shortage of labourers. 

The advertisement has been criticised both by some workers and the opposition, who have slammed the state for considering sending Indians to a "warzone". It was posted just a day after the Ministry of External Affairs informed Parliament that no discussions have been held with Israel regarding a possible replacement of Palestinian construction workers with Indians.

The Haryana government has, however, defended the move, saying that the aim was to ensure that travel agents cannot fleece people by offering them jobs in other countries and that there is no compulsion for labourers to go to Israel if they are not comfortable doing so.

According to the health ministry in Gaza, at least 19,600 people - most of them women and children - have been killed in Israeli attacks on the strip of land since October 7, when Hamas launched a multi-pronged attack on the Jewish country, killing around 1,200 civilians. Around 240 people had also been taken hostage.

Employment Dilemma

The advertisement, which appeared in some newspapers on December 15, was issued by the Haryana Kaushal Rojgar Nigam, a state public sector company. It comes at a time when Haryana has the highest unemployment rate in the country, according to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), and Israel is facing a massive shortage of construction workers because of the cancellation of work permits of around 90,000 Palestinians.

The unemployment rate in Haryana was 2.9 per cent in 2013-14 (when the Congress was in power), which increased to 9 per cent in 2021-22.  As of July 31, 2023, 5.44 lakh unemployed youth have been registered with employment exchanges in the state

Data from the CMIE, released in January this year, showed that, at 37.4 per cent Haryana had the highest unemployment rate in India, compared to the national unemployment rate of 8.3 per cent. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar of the BJP has dismissed the CMIE data and pointed to recruitments in the Staff Selection Commission and Haryana Public Service Commission, among others, to buttress his claims of providing employment. 

The Punjab and Haryana High Court order last month, which struck down a 2020 law providing 75% reservation in private jobs to residents of Haryana, has also opened up the Khattar government to criticism over youth not getting employment.

'Give Us Jobs Here'

A worker from Kurukshetra said the government should give them jobs in India. "Israel is involved in a war, why is the government sending us there? The government keeps saying that our country is becoming wealthy," said Chandan, a construction worker. 

The opposition has also trained its guns on the BJP-led government in Haryana.  "Everyone knows Israel is a warzone. The state government should give our youth jobs in Haryana itself," said Congress MLA Neeraj Sharma. 

Government's Take

The Haryana government has pointed out that its aim was to prevent cheating and people don't have to go to Israel if they don't want to. 

"This is a unique initiative by the government, which will ensure that travel agents can't fleece people. We receive complaints about that every day. There is no compulsion to go to Israel, it's only for people who want to go," said Haryana Education Minister Kanwar Pal Gujjar. 

In response to a query by Congress MP KC Venugopal, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan had told the Rajya Sabha on December 14 that the Centre has not held any discussions with Israel regarding a possible replacement of Palestinian labourers with Indian workers.

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"Bulldozed...": Congress Cites Ex Army Chief's Book Over Agnipath Scheme

Citing a new book written by former Army chief General M M Naravane, the Congress alleged on Tuesday that the Agnipath scheme for short-term recruitment into the armed forces was "bulldozed" through, "without meaningful consultations" with those who were being directly impacted by such a "disastrous policy".

In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "The headlines are being hogged by the mass suspension of INDIA MPs that has reached 142 till now. But these headlines should not minimise the importance of other news." 

Former Chief of Army Staff General M M Naravane has disclosed in his memoir that the Agnipath or Agniveer scheme came as a total surprise to the Army, Air Force and Navy chiefs, Mr Ramesh said.

"He (Naravane) has now confirmed what had been commonly believed when the Agnipath/Agniveer scheme was bulldozed through without meaningful consultations with those who were being directly impacted by such a disastrous policy," he said.

At a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi weeks after becoming the Army chief, General Naravane sounded out in early 2020 about the "Tour of Duty" scheme for inducting soldiers for short tenures but months later, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) came up with a formulation with a much wider scope to include all the three services.

This is what General Naravane has written in his memoir, titled "Four Stars of Destiny", while elaborating on the birth of the Agnipath scheme -- considered India's most radical military recruitment policy.

After the formulation of the new scheme, General Naravane has said the Army was "taken by surprise by this turn of events, but for the Navy and Air Force, it came like a bolt from the blue".

"When I had first sounded out the prime minister about the Tour of Duty scheme, it was more on the lines of a short-service option at the soldier level, similar to the Short Service Commission scheme for officers that was already in vogue," the former Army chief has written.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Jacqueline Fernandez Asks Court To Drop Case Against Her By Probe Agency

Actor Jacqueline Fernandez has filed a petition in Delhi High Court, seeking that the case against her by the Enforcement Directorate be dismissed.  Ms Fernandez is accused in a Rs 200 crore money laundering case involving alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar. She was made an accused in the case in a supplementary chargesheet filed by the Central agency.

In the petition she has claimed that the money laundering allegations against her are false. Sukesh Chandrashekhar, who cheated Aditi Singh of Rs 200 crore, also trapped her, she has claimed.

Ms Fernandez has been accused of enjoying the proceeds of the alleged extortion of 200 crore from Aditi Singh, the wife of former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Singh.

In October 2019, Shivinder Singh was arrested in a case related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd.

Sukesh Chandrasekhar allegedly posing as a Central government official, persuaded Aditi Singh to pay him, promising to secure his bail.

He ran the scam from jail and convinced her by repeated phone calls to transfer the money.

"The petitioner is an innocent victim of Sukesh Chandrasekhar's maliciously targeted attack. There is absolutely no indication that she had any involvement whatsoever in aiding him to launder his purportedly ill-gotten wealth. Hence she cannot be prosecuted... under the prevention of money laundering Act," the petition read.

The petition claimed that one of the accused, Pinki Irani, had introduced Sukesh Chandrasekhar to Ms Fernandes as a fan who was connected to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, owned a production house and wanted to make a movie starring her.

Pinki Irani, the petition said, also compelled her to accept gifts from Chandrasekhar and tried to push her into a relationship with him. For this, she was offered Rs 12 crore.

At the time, Sukesh Chandrasekhar was in jail, but Pinki Irani has shown the actor photos of him in private jets and "roaming as a free man".

The petition contended that the Central agency had contended that she "might have known" he was in jail and still accepted gifts from him and so they have named her as an accused in the money laundering  case.

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AI-Generated Pics Show Jaipur Covered In Snow, Internet Awestruck

Needless to say, we are living in the era of Artificial Intelligence. AI has changed the landscape of visual art, literally and figuratively, and has given wings to an artist's imagination. This powerful technology is changing the world around us and redefining our perception of reality. Artists across the globe are using several AI tools to produce unique and unimaginable results that instantly capture the internet's attention. 

Recently, an Instagram page imagined what the city of Jaipur would look like if it were covered in layers of snow. The clip shows locations like the World Trade Park, Panch Batti, Jal Mahal, Jagatpura, Isarlat, City Park, R Tech Mall, and JLN Marg and Albert Hall, draped in a beautiful blanket of snow. Needless to say, the images look dreamy and magical. 

''What if…jaipur had snowfall?'', the video was captioned was by Instagram page called Jaipur Dronie.

Watch the video here:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jaipur Dronie (@jaipurdronie)

The post has received close to 2 lakh likes on the platform. Instagram users were left fascinated with these AI images and heaped praises on the creative approach. 

One user wrote, ''If there was snowfall in Jaipur then India's most beautiful city would have been Jaipur.''

Another commented, ''Jaipur would have become more beautiful than Kashmir.''

A third said, ''Snowfall or without snow Jaipur is still the most beautiful city with its peak heat and cold.'' A fourth added, ''If it is real then it will be fun … People will come to Jaipur after leaving Kashmir, Manali.''

Previously, a Reddit user had envisioned the blue city of Jodhpur covered in blankets of snow, with the help of AI. The user shared four pictures of the city's blue houses and forts, in a shimmering layer of snow. Many said that the location seemed straight out of a scene from the American fantasy drama television series 'Game Of Thrones.'

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