Karnataka Cong chief slams govt for curtailing chapters on Tipu Sultan, Hyder Ali

Bengaluru, Mar 16: A 23-year-old mobile app developer was arrested on Saturday for allegedly forging the signature of Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty to rope in Telugu actor Vijay Devarakonda as an app’s ambassador.

The arrest of Laveti Sai Krishna alias Krishna ML, a resident of Hyderabad, comes a year after the case was registered. Jayanagar police registered a case against Krishna on February 26, 2019 based on a complaint filed by Lt Col (retd) M Ramesh, representative of Infosys Foundation. The complaint was filed after the forged letter didn’t reach Devarakonda and came back to Infosys Foundation instead.

App developer is a B.Pharma holder

“We conducted an investigation and traced the app designer. We caught him and based on information provided by him, we learnt that Krishna was the brain behind the forged signature,” a senior police officer said.

Krishna confessed that he developed a mobile app — ‘Offer nearby’ — and planned to launch it in a big way. He wanted Telugu actor Vijay Devarakonda to be the app’s brand ambassador and tried contacting him. Krishna, however, was unable to meet Vijay.

Krishna then thought he could easily reach the actor if he sent a recommendation letter in the name of Sudha Murty.

“He forged the letterhead of Infosys Foundation and Sudha Murty’s signature. We are verifying his antecedents to know if he committed any other offence earlier,” said Rohini Sepat-Katoch, DCP (south). Rohini said Krishna is a B.Pharma holder and worked with an advertisement firm. Later, he planned to develop an app that provides details of offers for retail customers. He floated Laveti Technologies, and with help from a friend, developed ‘Offer nearby’.

As per the complaint, Krishna created a fake letterhead in the name of Sudha Murty and wrote to Devarakonda, asking him to become the brand ambassador/ partner for his mobile app. Krishna sent it through SpeedPost mentioning the sender’s address as Infosys Foundation. Krishna’s game was up when the letter, which wasn’t delivered to Devarakonda, came back to Infosys Foundation.

New Delhi, Feb 20: Microsoft has begun testing its free open-source software called "ElectionGuard" in a small Wisconsin town in the US that aims to make voting more secure, verifiable and efficient.

"ElectionGuard" will enable end-to-end verification of elections, open results to third-party organisations for secure validation, and allow individual voters to confirm their votes were correctly counted.

It enables government entities, news outlets, human rights organisations or anyone else to build additional verifiers that independently can certify election results have been accurately counted and have not been altered, according to the company.

The software would create a paper trail and assure voters their votes were properly tallied.

"On Tuesday, Fulton residents are using the technology while choosing who will join the local school board and hold a seat on Wisconsin's state Supreme Court," reports CNBC.

With the test, the company aims to see if voters like the experience and make sure everything works fine.

In May last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced "ElectionGuard".

According to Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President, Customer Security and Trust, voting system manufacturers will be free to build ElectionGuard into their systems in a variety of ways.

"These are exciting steps that enable individual voters to confirm their vote was properly counted, and assures those voters using an ElectionGuard system of the most secure and trustworthy vote in the history of the US," Burt said in a recent blog post.

"ElectionGuard" is not intended to replace paper ballots but rather to supplement and improve systems that rely on them, and it is not designed to support internet voting.

The software provides each voter a tracker with a unique code that can be used to follow an encrypted version of the vote through the entire election process via a web portal provided by election authorities.

During the process of vote-casting, voters have an optional step that allows them to confirm that their trackers and encrypted votes accurately reflect their selections.

But once a vote is cast, neither the tracker nor any data provided through the web portal can be used to reveal the contents of the vote.

After the election is complete, the tracker codes can be used by voters to confirm that their votes were not altered or tampered with and that they were properly counted, said Microsoft.

On the security front, "ElectionGuard" uses something called homomorphic encryption - which enables mathematical procedures "like counting - to be done with fully encrypted data".

Kalaburagi, Feb 6: The State government will take steps to ensure that Kannada as a language is taught in all private schools, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa announced today at the 85th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in Kalaburagi.

This comes in the wake of the demand by some Kannada activists for making Kannada medium compulsory in all schools in the State. Sammelana president H.S. Venkatesh Murthy, who spoke after the Chief Minister, also made this demand.

The Chief Minister said “We are committed to putting in place a series of steps to see that Kannada is taught in all schools, aided and private, as a language. Kannada should be taught as the first or second language. We will also take steps to strengthen government schools. However, the government alone cannot do much. The community and parents should offer support to make sure that government schools provide quality education to all.”

To inculcate the spirit of scientific inquiry, the State government is setting up mobile planetariums. This will increase the interest of children in space technology and India’s efforts in space exploration.

The government is committed to protecting the interests of the State in Mahadayi and other river water disputes. It will take the border row issue, based on the Mahajan Commission report pending in the Supreme Court, to its logical end.

The government will also address backwardness and related issues. It will make sure that adequate funds are allocated to the development of Kalyana Karnataka. Among other things, it will establish a hostel for students from Kalaburagi region in Bengaluru. Land has been allotted in Nagarabavi for the hostel that can accommodate around 200 students. The government has decided to celebrate Kalyana Karnataka Utsav once every two years. This will showcase the culture of the region.

“We are working towards forging sentimental and emotional unity of the State other than unity based on language or administration. Our dream is to see that Karnataka remains a homogeneous unit with equality and equal opportunity for all,’’ the Chief Minister added.

Kambar bats for technology

Chandrashekar Kambar, Sahitya Akademi president and former president of the Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, favoured effective implementation of technology in administration and for universal use of Kannada in computing and e-governance.

Speaking at the Sammelana inauguration, he said “Several years ago, at the insistence of writer Poornachandra Tejaswi, I appealed to the State government to give a push to Kannada computing. We were convinced that no language can survive without the use of modern technology and use of the language in computers. The Department of Kannada and Culture, headed by then director Manu Baligar, released ₹2 crore for the project. The work began in earnest and teams of technologists came up with software and fonts. Some departments started using Kannada software. But this work has stopped or slowed down at some level. I appeal to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to continue the work and ensure that computerised Kannada is used at all levels of government and in e-governance.’’

Supports dubbing

Mr. Kambar batted for content dubbing of informative TV channels in Kannada. Channels such as Discovery and History produce good quality content that can be educative and informative. They are very useful for children. These channels are now available in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi and some other Indian languages. But they are not available in Kannada. That is because some people in the film industry are opposing dubbing. Such opposition is not good. Informative channels are our window to the world and allowing dubbing will enhance our knowledge base. There is no merit in not allowing dubbing. I appeal to C.T. Ravi, Minister for Kannada and Culture, to allow dubbing in Kannada, he said.

Mr. Kambar favoured primary education in the mother tongue of the child and urged the State government to introduce universal and compulsory education in Kannada medium in all schools. “This will help preserve our culture. Nothing else can,’’ he said.

He blamed the East India Company administration for inculcating a craze for English education among the people. “The introduction of English education by the British was strongly welcomed by the masses in India as they had been denied the opportunity for education for millenia. The deprived classes and Dalits who had not been exposed to education till then, were excited about the opportunity. However, along with English education, the British were successful in introducing inferiority in our minds. We are yet to escape from this inferiority complex.”

Quoting from Greek mythology, Mr. Kambar said that Hercules had killed his children and relatives in a fit of alcohol-induced rage. “We should not behave like that. We may be very strong, but we should not kill our mother tongue, in our power-induced rage,’’ he said.