Tag: India

  • ‘Propaganda’: DG ISPR dismisses social media reports of possible martial law

    ‘Propaganda’: DG ISPR dismisses social media reports of possible martial law

    Director-General (DG) of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, on Tuesday, held a press conference solely to brief the media on terrorist attacks that have recently taken place in the country.

    However, a journalist asked the DG about social media reports that claimed that martial law is going to be imposed in the country.

    Terming the reports as “baseless”, the general said that every day and night there are accounts on social media with or without names that spread this kind of this propaganda.

    Pointing out that every person is entitled to have an opinion, he stated, “we think the talks on social media against the army, institutions and their officeholders are not only irresponsible and unwise but unconstitutional.”

    “Our discipline doesn’t give us permission to respond to each and every speculation”, he stated at one point.

    He also reaffirmed that the army doesn’t support any particular political party. “All political parties and all leaders are respectable for us”, the Major General said.

    He was also of the view that it is not in the best interest of the country that the army should be involved in political matters.

    Talking about India, Sharif said New Delhi’s “aggressive designs and baseless accusations and claims” would not change history or occupied Kashmir’s internationally recognised status.

    “If need be, we can take this battle into the enemy’s territory. I also feel it is important to say that if India thinks of any misadventure due to any miscalculation or misunderstanding, then let there be no doubt that the army would give a befitting response with national support.”

  • ‘Socho thorda sa’: Indian singer Shaan reacts to backlash over Eid post

    On Saturday, Bollywood playback singer Shaan Mukherjee wished Eid Mubarak to his Muslim fans by posting a picture of himself wearing a white shalwar kameez and prayer cap. However, the picture got backlash from extremist Indian trolls, to the point that the singer decided to restrict comments on his post.

    Now, the ‘It’s The Time To Disco’ singer has addressed the reaction, calling for his audience to be more empathetic and kind towards each other as both Muslims and Hindus celebrated their religious festivals on the same day this year.

    Fans in Pakistan and India have applauded Mukherjee’s empathetic and sensible post, a rare move in the time when religious extremism is rising in India, as the BJP continues to marginalise Muslims.

    Twitter users praised Shaan for calling for his followers to respect all religions.

    https://twitter.com/mariamdurrani/status/1650487512626806784?s=20

  • Indian court acquits 69 people of murder of 11 Muslims in Gujarat massacre trial

    Indian court acquits 69 people of murder of 11 Muslims in Gujarat massacre trial

    A court in India has declared 69 people, which includes a former minister from the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), not guilty of the killing of 11 Muslims during communal riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002.


    The case pertains to the killing of 11 Muslims who died in February 2002 during communal riots in Ahmedabad, when Hindu mobs set their homes on fire and rampaged through the city. An investigation into the attack found that the Muslims received no assistance from the police and were left at the mercy of the attackers.


    The Gujarat riots erupted after a train carriage carrying Hindu pilgrims being set on fire. Suspecting that Muslims had carried out the attack, Hindu groups started retaliatory attacks, and the incident soon turned into one of the most severe outbreaks of religious violence in India’s history after independence. While the official death toll of the violence was approximately 1,000 people, with most of the victims being Muslims, non-governmental organizations argue that the actual number of casualties was much greate

  • BBZ is going to India next month for the Shanghai Cooperation Org

    BBZ is going to India next month for the Shanghai Cooperation Org

    In a major diplomatic development, Foreign Minister (FM) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will be visiting India to attend Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) which is set to take place on May 4-5 in Goa, India, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch has confirmed.

    The minister is going to India at the invitation of the country’s External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

    Pakistan is currently preparing for the meeting.

    It is pertinent to mention that Bilawal’s visit to India will be the first by a Pakistani foreign minister in nearly 12 years. In 2011, the then-top Pakistani diplomat, Hina Rabbani Khar, now Bhutto-Zardari’s deputy in the foreign ministry, visited India.

    If Bilawal’s visit goes as per plan, it is likely that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit India too for the summit, reports Express Tribune.

    ​Bilawal also attended the last meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers held in July last year in Tashkent.

    The SCO is a regional political and security bloc whose members include Russia, China, India and Pakistan.

  • India’s 5 million coders face uncertain future amid AI advancements

    India’s 5 million coders face uncertain future amid AI advancements

    If the technology underlying ChatGPT were to displace software engineers, India would be the country most affected, as it is home to over 5 million coders. This prospect is causing concern for newly qualified engineers like Palash Hade, who anticipates a reduction in software jobs in India.

    To increase his employability, Hade enrolled in an online degree program in data science and analytics from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

    In the past, India’s outsourcing firms were desperate for talent and were willing to train engineers from different backgrounds. However, with the rise of generative artificial intelligence and ChatGPT, firms are now looking for candidates with these specific skills. India’s largest outsourcer, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., made 46,000 campus offers this year, but the CEO of Tech Mahindra warns that change is fast approaching due to advanced AI.

    While students at elite schools like the Indian Institute of Science are not worried about the impact of AI on their future job prospects, tens of thousands of engineers without degrees from such institutions have reason to worry. Entry-level coding jobs are at risk of being eliminated, according to Shraddha Kulkarni, a 21-year-old engineering student in Bangalore who has been actively using ChatGPT.

    According to Bloomberg, developers on Reddit and Quora are also expressing anxiety about the potential impact of AI on their industry. They fear that the time and effort they invested in developing their skills may be rendered obsolete by AI-based programming.

  • Apple CEO Tim Cook to meet India’s PM Modi during store opening

    Apple CEO Tim Cook to meet India’s PM Modi during store opening

    Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, is scheduled to meet India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and the country’s deputy IT minister as part of his visit to inaugurate the tech giant’s first retail store in India.

    Cook’s visit to Mumbai and New Delhi to open the first official company-owned outlets in the country highlights Apple’s growing interest in India, despite only having a 3 per cent market share.

    The company has been expanding iPhone assembly through contract manufacturers and increasing its exports. Cook will meet Modi on Wednesday in New Delhi, and he is also expected to meet India’s deputy IT minister, Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

    Apple and the IT ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Modi’s office declined to comment. Cook’s meetings with Indian officials come as Apple focuses more on India, which is the world’s second-largest smartphone market.

    According to data from the India Cellular and Electronics Association, iPhones accounted for more than 50 per cent of the $9 billion worth of smartphones exported from India between April 2022 and February 2023.

    On Monday, Apple opened its first store in Mumbai, but only for a private event where bloggers and tech analysts reviewed the store layout and design. The Mumbai store is located in the Reliance Jio World Drive mall, which is home to luxury clothing and jewellery brands like Michael Kors, Kate Spade, and Swarovski. It is 20,800 square feet, far larger than the planned Delhi outlet, according to local registration documents.

    Apple has sold its products in India through resellers or e-commerce websites such as Amazon. The Mumbai store will open to the public from Tuesday, while a second store will be inaugurated inside a New Delhi mall on Thursday.

    In India, iPhones are assembled by three of Apple’s contract manufacturers – Foxconn, Wistron Corp, and Pegatron Corp. Apple plans to assemble iPads and AirPods in India as well.

  • 13 years later, Hassan and Bano’s tragic love story in ‘Dastaan’ is still a fan favourite

    Television in Pakistan went through a seismic shift when 13 years ago, the drama ‘Dastaan’ debuted on our screens. Featuring a star-studded cast like Fawad Khan, Sanam Baloch, Saba Qamar and Ahsan Khan, the series was an adaptation of the novel ‘Bano’ by Razia Butt, an exploration of the aftermath of the subcontinent’s partition.

    The main leads, Hassan (played by Khan) and Bano (played by Baloch), are two lovers who meet when their relatives Suraiya and Salim get married. At first Hassan tries to befriend Bano, but Salim refuses to let them marry because he wants to marry her off to another man. However, just as their families approve and both are engaged, Hassan has to leave for University, and then the partition of 1947 takes place after which their lives are completely changed.

    Pakistani dramas today can’t seem to move on from saas-bahu kay jhagray and toxic love stories where women are nothing but a prop for men, so many remember the magic of ‘Dastaan’ especially the tragedy of the love story between Hassan and Bano.

    A viral tweet on Twitter had asked about a couple from a drama series that had devastated them, and the most popular reply in the Pakistani context had to be Hassan and Bano’s tragedy from ‘Dastaan’.

    https://twitter.com/MaryamAmir59627/status/1647221392369147906?s=20
    https://twitter.com/arij_mirza/status/1646962218855182336?s=20

  • ‘Ill-informed, ignorant, wanted to blame Pakistan for Pulwama’: Former Indian Governor on Modi

    ‘Ill-informed, ignorant, wanted to blame Pakistan for Pulwama’: Former Indian Governor on Modi

    Satya Pal Malik, the last governor of the now Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) before it was divided has claimed that Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi is extremely “ill-informed’.

    Malik, who was governor during the Pulwama terror attack of February 2019 and during the scrapping of Article 370 in August the same year, said that Modi is “ignorant” about Kashmir and told him [Malik] not to speak about the Union home ministry’s lapses which led to the killing of dozens of paramilitary troops in India-held Jammu and Kashmir.

    He said removing Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood was a mistake and it should be restored immediately. He said, “Modi mast hain apne mein – to hell with it! This is his attitude.”

    Conversing with acclaimed Indian journalist Karan Thapar, Malik said during the interview with The Wire, that he immediately realised that Modi wanted to use the Pulwama attack to blame Pakis­tan for the benefit of his government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

    The former Indian governor said, “Mein safely keh sakta hoon Prime Minister ko corruption se bahut nafrat nahin hain” (‘I can safely say the PM has no real problem with corruption’). 

    He further revealed that the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Pulwama was a result of “incompetence” and “carelessness” by the Indian system, specifically the CRPF and the home min­i­­stry. Malik gave details of how the CRPF had asked for aircraft to transport its personnel, but was refused by the home ministry.

    He said all of these lapses were raised by him directly when Modi called him from outside Corbett Park, shortly after the Pulwama attack. He said the prime minister told him to keep quiet about this and not tell anyone.

  • ‘Petty and unnecessary’: Twitter slams Neetu Kapoor for barb at Ranbir’s ex-girlfriends

    Twitter has lashed out at Veteran Bollywood actor Neetu Kapoor for a questionable Instagram post. The actor uploaded a photo on Instagram which many felt was aimed directly at her son Ranbir Kapoor’s ex-girlfriends, Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif.

    The picture was of a poster on a wall, which read: “Just because he dated you for seven years doesn’t mean that he would marry you. My uncle studied medicine for six years and now he is a DJ.”

    Kapoor and Padukone had dated for two years before parting ways while the ‘Tu Jhooti Mein Makkar’ actor was in a relationship with Kaif for six years.

    Finding the post problematic, fans lashed out at Kapoor for resorting to sexist and degrading jokes.

    https://twitter.com/lentopapi/status/1644933408433242115?s=20

    Many shared previous clips detailing the late Rishi Kapoor and Neetu’s marriage problems, when he had been caught cheating on her with several women to point out the irony in Kapoor’s comment.

    https://twitter.com/Erica59747578/status/1644933549878046720?s=20

    Twitter users also criticised Kapoor for making such sexist comments about women, rather than directly addressing how it is men who refuse to be faithful in relationships and even pointed to how this has led to her son, Ranbir Kapoor, behaving in such a misogynist manner in several interviews towards his wife Alia Bhatt.

  • Dalai Lama apologises after kissing young boy and asking him to ‘suck his tongue’

    The Dalai Lama has apologised for kissing a young boy on the lips and asking him to “suck his tongue” at a public event in India.


    The incident happened on February 28 at the Dalai Lama’s temple in Dharamshala.


    Video of the event show the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize seated in a chair, while the unnamed youngster is standing in front of him, surrounded by numerous people.


    The video shows the Dalai Lama kissing the youngster on the lips while holding the boy’s hand. The spiritual leader then places his forehead on the boy’s forehead and says, “And suck my tongue,” while sticking out his tongue.


    “A video clip has been circulating that shows a recent meeting when a young boy who asked his Holiness, the Dalai Lama, if he could give him a hug,” said a statement from the leader’s Twitter account said.


    “His Holiness wishes to apologise to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused,” the statement read, adding that the spiritual leader “often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident”.