Queen Elizabeth II has Modi over for lunch

Jan 30: BJP leader and West Bengal party head, Dilip Ghosh has yet again made a controversial statement. He said that one has to go to jail in order to gain respect or become a political leader.

"You will not be a leader if you don't go to jail, if Police don't take you, then you must go there yourself. If they don't give you any scope, you do something to go to jail, only then will people respect you. There is no place for soft people in politics," ANI quoted Ghosh as saying.

Earlier, Ghosh had triggered a controversy by saying that anti-CAA protestors in Assam and Uttar Pradesh were shot dead "like dogs", and similar punishment should be given to protestors in Bengal.

New Delhi, Jun 23: The Delhi High Court Tuesday granted bail to Jamia student Safoora Zargar, who is pregnant and was arrested under anti-terror law UAPA in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta did not oppose it on humanitarian grounds.

At the outset of the hearing, Mehta, representing Delhi Police, submitted that Zargar can be released on regular bail on humanitarian grounds and the decision has not been taken on merits of the case and should not be made a precedent.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher, who conducted the hearing through video conferencing, released Zargar, who is 23-week pregnant, on bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 10,000 and surety of like amount.

The court said she shall not indulge in any activity for which she has been charged with and shall not hamper the investigation or influence the witnesses.

Jan 22: Microsoft Corp’s chief executive officer said he worries that mistrust between the US and China will increase technology costs and hurt economic growth at a critical time.

Using the $470 billion semiconductor industry as an example of a sector that is already globally interconnected, Satya Nadella said the two countries will have to find ways to work together, rather than creating different supply chains for each country.

“All you are doing is increasing transaction costs for everybody if you completely separate,” Nadella said in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at Bloomberg’s The Year Ahead conference in Davos. That’s a concern as the executive said the world is on the cusp of a revolution around technology and artificial intelligence.

“If we take steps back in trust or increase transaction costs around technology, all we are doing is sacrificing global economic growth,” he said.

The agreement signed last week between the US and China was “not sufficient,” said Nadella, but represented “progress” on the issue of intellectual property protections for US technology companies working with China.

Nadella said he worries about the development of two separate internets, noting that to some degree they already exist “and they will get amplified in the future” with massive technology companies already in place in China.

The viewpoint clashes with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who has been sceptical about the idea that ongoing US-China trade tensions could ever lead to a bifurcated system of two internets.

China and the US are the two leading AI superpowers, however the cooling political relations between them have slowed the international collaboration.

Nadella also warned that countries that fail to attract immigrants will lose out as the global tech industry continues to grow. The CEO has previously voiced concern about India’s Citizenship Amendment Act, calling it “sad.”

“However, Nadella said he remained hopeful.

“The fact that there is a 70-year history of nation-building, I think it’s a very strong foundation. I grew up in that country. I’m proud of that heritage. I’m influenced by that experience.”