Innholdsfortegnelse for Monday, December 4, 2023 i India Today

Seeing is believing. That old truism is no longer true. Just days ago, a video of Bollywood actress Kajol changing into an outfit did the usual heated rounds of social media before it was flagged as a ‘deepfake’. Her face had been grafted onto the video of another person in so believable a fashion that most people would fall for it. Just before that came another deepfake which created a big brouhaha when one of the current divas of popular cinema, Rashmika Mandanna, went through the same ordeal. And the video went wildly viral before it was revealed that the body actually belonged to British-Indian social influencer Zara Patel. Such events threaten to become emblematic of our age. Luckily, they left no lasting scars, but the episodes did point to…

It might be all the rage in the Indian cricket team, but in politics a beard still carries the old sense of renunciation or penance. That’s exactly the spirit in which Uttam Kumar Reddy, who was made Telangana Congress chief in the run-up to the 2018 assembly poll, declared after that resounding loss that he would not shave till the Grand Old Party reclaimed India’s youngest state. So all these years, with the Congress showing no signs of being out of the woods, he let the foliage grow on his face—almost symbolising a certain defeatism. The occasional trim wasn’t enough to dilute those connotations. But he stayed true to his vow, unfazed even when the TRS/BRS likened him to a grizzly bear. Now, with the razor-sharp Revanth Reddy at the…

Don’t know Rajasthan Congress beyond Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot? Well, here are two worthies worth your attention, if only for the frequency with which you can hear them being dissed in Narendra Modi-Amit Shah speeches. Urban development minister Shanti Dhariwal, who’s just turned 80, is the man behind the magniloquent (and “corruption-riddled”) makeover of his constituency, Kota. He also courted fame when, on the subject of rape, he offered the opinion that “Rajasthan is a state of men”. Subsequent apologies made no difference, as they should not. Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation bossman Dharmendra Rathore, meanwhile, is famed for his diligence. He used to painstakingly update his diary with daily jottings—but alas, his aide-memoire was made public by a dissident minister. The BJP calls it the Red Diary, rife with…

IT ACT, 2000 Section 66D: Cheating by personation Punishment ↘ Imprisonment of up to 3 years and fine up to Rs 1 lakh Section 66E: Violation of privacy; capturing/circulating image of a person’s private areas without consent Punishment ↘ Imprisonment of up to 3 years or fine up to Rs 2 lakh, or both Section 67: Publishing obscene material in electronic form Punishment ↘ Imprisonment of up to 3 years and fine of up to Rs 5 lakh in first conviction; up to 5 years and Rs 10 lakh subsequently Sections 67A & 67B Material containing sexually explicit acts in electronic form and material depicting children in such acts Punishment ↘ Imprisonment of up to 5 years and fine up to Rs 10 lakh for first conviction; up to 7 years and Rs 10…

At the Asian Para Games in Hang-zhou in October, Sumit Antil was far from his best. A bulging disc in the back had been causing him trouble for a few months and he knew he had to preserve his body during the competition. “Since the leg with which I block is an artificial limb, the entire load goes to the back and creates a lot of stress on it. It’s an old injury and we’ve been working on it, but I had to ensure that I don’t aggravate it during competition,” he says. Antil needed just three throws to pick up gold in the F64 category. And with his third throw of 73.29 metres, the 25-year-old had rewritten his own world record (70.83m) that he managed at the World Para…

The Lok Sabha election is less than six months away, but the the opposition INDIA bloc has yet to get its act together. On November 19, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would contest all 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab and the lone one in Chandigarh. After Delhi, it now seems that AAP and Congress are unlikely to have a seat-sharing alliance in Punjab too. The alliance partners are at loggerheads in Punjab, with Mann’s vigilance bureau going after Congress leaders. With the Enforcement Directorate tightening the noose, Delhi CM and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal could do with the outside support he can get. But Mann’s actions seem to have shut the door on the Congress, the largest party in the INDIA bloc.…

Vasundhara Raje may be off the roster as the BJP’s main face but she’s the only local eminence there for other candidates, even if only those on her side are being graced with a rally (she’s doing 60) in her whirlwind state tour. All other names being propped up as alternate chief ministerial faces are tied down to their own constituency. Like leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore. He has good reasons to stick to the bleak Shekhawati beauty of Taranagar. Despite seeking refuge here from neighbouring Churu, Rathore may still be driving on loose sand. PM Narendra Modi, who has taken it upon himself to be the sole BJP mascot, surprised everyone when he dropped by on November 19—for one of his 26 rallies (as against 12 in 2018). With…

Your parents need your financial support and so do your children. However, you also need to consider a plan for your own retirement and debt reduction. Finances are often stretched for the Sandwich Generation and it is necessary to prioritise them. The Sandwich Generation may wish to not be a financial burden on their children, but for that to happen, they need to plan for their retirement before getting into addressing other pressing financial needs. For the Sandwich Generation, you need to evaluate your own financial needs before you can assist other family members. Make contributions, savings and investments towards your retirement, however small it may be. For someone in their mid-40s, retirement may still seem a good 15-20 years ahead, but that is also the time needed for contributions…

Every once in a while the investment market for mutual fund products witnesses the introduction of new fund offers, or NFOs. An NFO allows an asset management company (AMC) to raise funds from the public to operate a scheme based on the investment idea on which it is being launched. The subscription period of an NFO is generally 10 to 15 days and the units are available for Rs 10 each. Often, this seemingly attractive price is the main draw for new investors opting for an NFO. Investing based purely on this logic is not in the best interest of an investor, because unlike certain other categories of new product launches—where products are test-marketed before a formal launch—an NFO doesn’t have any such testing. Yes, an NFO may have a…

An underrated aspect of India’s World Cup campaign was how good they were in the field. They rarely dropped catches and fielded like their lives depended on it. The introduction of the ‘best fielder’ medal, handed out in the dressing room after every game, had the desired effect. Such was the determination to excel that K.L. Rahul, a stand-in wicket-keeper at best, pulled off some absolute blinders behind the stumps, was solid with his glove work and was rated by experts as being amongst the best in the tournament…

↘ The risk weights for consumer credit exposure of commercial banks and NBFCs, including personal loans, increased by 25 percentage points to 125 per cent ↘ The risk weights on credit card receivables raised by 25 percentage points to 150 per cent and 125 per cent for commercial banks and NBFCs, respectively ↘ The risk weights on banks’ exposures to NBFCs up by 25 percentage points in all cases where the existing risk weight as per external rating of NBFCs is below 100 per cent ↘ Banks should have board-approved internal limits for unsecured consumer credit exposure, which shall be monitored by the risk management committee ↘ All top-up loans against movable assets which are inherently depreciating in nature shall be treated as unsecured loans THE PRIME CONCERNS ↘ Personal…

Tamil Nadu finance, planning and electricity minister Thangam Thennarasu was addressing the 70th Cooperative Week celebrations in Tirunvelveli on November 16 when the lights went out. Resuming his address later, Thennarasu pointed out that the media had got ‘breaking news’ from the event—a power cut when the electricity minister was speaking. “I was searching for a topic when the lights went out,” he said cheekily before going on to counter the charge of power-tripping in the state.…

Indian gods can be moody. And their worshippers must cope with the fluctuating benevolence. But Gunda Ravinder has had enough of it, and is contemplating apostasy. His deity? None other than Bharat Rashtra Samithi supremo K. Chandrashekar Rao. A staunch statehood campaigner, Gunda had struck a personal rapport with KCR during the “struggle and sacrifice” days. So taken was he that, in 2016, he built a temple in front of his home at Dandepalli, Adilabad district, installed a KCR idol, and began praying for his deity’s good health and the welfare of Telangana. But, but…his attempts to meet God in real life always went in vain. He’s disillusioned enough to now want to sell off the temple. And why not? He doesn’t get support “even to maintain the temple”,…

Before you hit the forward button on your smartphone app next time, pause for a minute. That irresistibly funny image or suggestive video you are sharing may look convincingly real but could easily be a deepfake. Like the one of actress Rashmika Mandanna featured on the previous spread. You see her in a black outfit stepping into an elevator. What it actually is her face swap on a video of British-Indian influencer Zara Patel, posted only a few weeks earlier. Explanation is pointless, the video has already gone viral. “Something like this is honestly extremely scary not only for me but also for each one of us who today is vulnerable to so much harm because of how technology is being misused,” the actress said. “…if this happened to me…

CRAIYON Previously called DALL-E Mini, Craiyon is an AI image generator that has taken the internet by storm. It has a user-friendly interface and can create images based on just textual descriptions JIGGY Lets you make deepfakes of GIFs or put yourself in any GIF you like. You just have to choose a photo of yourself and select a GIF of your choice FACEMAGIC An AI-based face swap app that lets you use a face of your choice in videos and images. The in-app feed also gives you prompts to perform face swaps FACE SWAP LIVE Not really a deepfake tool, but it lets you switch faces with your friends or a photo in videos. You can record videos, take photos, add stickers and post directly on social media FACEAPP…

TOTAL POPULATION 130,725,310 NO. OF CASTES 215 AFFIRMATIVE ACTION Bihar will now have 65 per cent reservations from 50 per cent earlier for the underprivileged, besides the 10 per cent quota for the economically weak PICTURE OF POVERTY TOTAL NO. OF HOUSEHOLDS 27.67 MILLION EARNING < ₹6,000 A MONTH 9.44 MILLION (34.13%) EARNING >₹50,000 A MONTH 1.08 MILLION (3.9%) LIVING IN POVERTY WHAT NITISH HAS PROMISED ₹ 2 lakh One-time financial assistance to BPL households ₹ 1 lakh Additional funds to 63,840 homeless families, mostly Dalits, to build houses ₹ 2.5 lakh crore Cost to the exchequer over the next five years THE SOCIAL PROFILE LITERACY RATE 79.7% EDUCATED UP TO CLASS 5 22.67% GRADUATES APART FROM DOCTORS AND ENGINEERS 6.11% OCCUPATIONAL BREAK-UP (% of Bihar’s population)…

Old-time residents of Malleswaram will remind you of many historical events associated with the locality. It has pockets where generations have continued to reside and have long-standing bonds. Like many other homes here, the Shastri household has four generations living in an independent house, which has stood here for over half a century. Over time, the house has witnessed its share of modifications to meet the changing needs of the family as well as to address the issues of modernity. “My father inherited this house from his father and the house has a history that dates back to over a hundred years,” beams a proud 56-year-old Seshadri Shastri. The two-storey house is home to Seshadri and his wife, his octogenarian parents, his mother-in-law who will be soon turning 80, his…

We all love to save money in our own ways, especially when it comes to choosing financial products and services. For instance, when it comes to insurance, some people buy a smaller cover than what they need to save money. Likewise, some people end up buying a policy that may not fully cover the kind of risk they need covered. To overcome this dilemma, insurance, especially general insurance, which includes policies that cover healthcare, property or automobiles, have a provision of a ‘deductible’. Insurance deductible is the amount of money you pay when you raise an insurance claim, before the insurer starts to pay towards the claim. Simply put, when a claim arises, you agree that the insurer will pay up only when the claim amount crosses a pre-agreed threshold.…

Devdutt Pattanaik has never been shy of expressing an opinion, even if it’s an unconventional one. This is perhaps his greatest strength as a mythologist, storyteller and public speaker. A doctor by training, he started writing while still working in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. His first book was Shiva: An Introduction (1997). Eventually becoming a full-time writer, Pattanaik must have written about every major god under the sun by now. Several of his works have challenged conventional interpretations of the epics or highlighted marginalised characters and narratives. These include The Man Who Was a Woman and Other Queer Tales from Hindu Lore (2002), The Pregnant King (2008), Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana (2013), Shikhandi: And Other Tales They Don’t Tell You (2014) and Olympus: An Indian Retelling…

When renowned costume designer Bhanu Athaiya, the first Indian to win an Academy Award, passed away on October 15, 2020 at the age of 91, her daughter, Radhika, decided it was time to open the doors to the warehouse in Colaba where Athaiya had preserved objects from eight decades of an eventful career. They included not just sketchbooks and costumes but utensils from her family home in Kolhapur, illustrations from her stint at Eve’s Weekly magazine, the Usha Deshmukh gold medal she won as a student of the JJ School of Art in then Bombay and oil and watercolour paintings. Many of these treasures will be on display at Bharat Through the Lens of Bhanu Athaiya, an exhibition that runs from December 6 to 17 at Aguad, Candolim in Goa.…

This stunningly original book can be read in many ways: as stories of India’s finest women athletes, as a commentary on all that is wrong with Indian sport, as a cry for sensitive handling of sex and gender issues, as a treatise on patriarchy and its pernicious influence, as a challenge to such patriarchy, and, as the subtitle suggests, A Women’s History of India Through the Lens of Sport. It is a rewarding experience, even if it does force us to hang our heads in shame at various points. Our international wrestlers protesting the behaviour of an official is merely the most recent of India’s continuing battle against male entitlement. It has ever been thus, whether you are an international sportswoman or a ‘hobby runner’, like the author. “The 2020s…

Q. Youtuber, actor and now a voice actor. How challenging was dubbing for the game show Takeshi’s Castle? On Instagram, I used to do dubbing, so I am familiar with it. The challenge was to write the entire show, record something and not find it funny a week later. The first episode took me two months to finish. When you work with a platform [Amazon Prime], a lot of legalities are involved. So you work under a restrictive umbrella and have to be creative. Q. It’s quite a cult show with a devoted fanbase. What is its inherent appeal? We love to see people fail. We enjoy it, especially when they are falling. There’s that cult gag of slipping on a banana peel. With Takeshi’s, the participants have signed up…