#Narendra Modi speech network marketing

[prwizard]

Revolutionary Entrepreneur Dr. Sumesh Saini, Aged 32, Leads Shiksha Infosys Towards Transformative Impact in the Digital Landscape

At the youthful age of 32, Dr. Sumesh Saini, a visionary entrepreneur and the Founder & CEO of Shiksha Infosys, is spearheading a mission to revolutionize lives through cutting-edge technology. Established in 2010, Shiksha Infosys, an IT Services and Digital Marketing company based in Jalandhar, Punjab, is at the forefront of innovation under Dr. Saini's dynamic leadership.

Over the past decade, Dr. Sumesh Saini has passionately pursued his vision of "Changing Lives" by envisioning and implementing the establishment of an IT Village at the roots of Punjab. With a thriving team of 50+ dedicated employees, Shiksha Infosys has rapidly evolved into a pioneering force within the digital industry, showcasing the potential to generate hundreds of thousands of white-collar jobs across various sectors in India.

Holding a Ph.D. in Network Enabled Technology from Canada, Dr. Saini has become a recognized and sought-after speaker, gracing prestigious platforms such as TEDx, corporate events, the United Nations, IITs/IIMs, and other elite institutes. His speeches often delve into topics of entrepreneurship, technology, and philanthropy.

On 28th April, 2022, at the age of 32, Dr. Sumesh Saini was honored to receive an invitation from the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, as a distinguished "Sikh Delegate from the Corporate World" at the Prime Minister's Residence. This invitation was a recognition of Dr. Saini's remarkable contributions and exceptional work in the field of entrepreneurship. He has also received invitations from various government ministries across India, including the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of North Eastern Region, and Ministry of MSME, further underscoring his impact and recognition.

Sumesh Saini's journey is a testament to resilience, determination, and a deep-rooted commitment to leveraging technology for societal and economic growth. His endeavors exemplify the potential to transform not just businesses but lives on a grand scale, propelling India forward in the global arena.

About Dr. Sumesh Saini and Shiksha Infosys Dr. Sumesh Saini, aged 32, is a pioneering entrepreneur and the founder & CEO of Shiksha Infosys, a leading IT Services and Digital Marketing company based in Jalandhar, Punjab. He envisions a future where technology-driven initiatives uplift lives and catalyze socioeconomic growth. Shiksha Infosys, founded in 2010, stands as a testament to his unwavering commitment to this vision, providing innovative solutions that shape the digital landscape.

[coolflywings-blog]

Best Motivation Speech By Narendra Modi Ji || About The Network Marketing In India || How To People Success In Our Life................See Video

[newstfionline]

Saturday, March 6, 2021

U.S. birth rates plunged in 2020, a sure sign ‘things are not going well for a lot of people’ (The Week) As if we needed more evidence that the pandemic has been rough on everyone, experts say sinking U.S. birth rates point to widespread societal challenges, and could cause further complications later on. Data from 29 states showed a 7.3 percent drop in births in December 2020, nine months after the pandemic began in the U.S., CBS News reports. Birth rates have been declining for years, and its not surprising major economic disruption would cause a dip, but preliminary numbers suggest the pandemic has led to an especially notable drop—in the wake of the Great Recession, birth rates fell by 3 percent, CBS notes. University of Maryland sociologist Phil Cohen told CBS the “scale of this is really large,” and argued the decline “means things are not going well for a lot of people.” A column by two Brookings Institution economists in The New York Times outlines some of the struggles that have people postponing or avoiding expanding their families: a weak labor market, job and income loss, school closures, and fewer social activities, to name some.

The most desirable countries and cities for workers looking to relocate in 2021 (CNBC) Canada is now seen as the most desirable destination for overseas workers when it comes to choosing a country to relocate to, a global survey has found, knocking the U.S. off top spot. This is according to a poll of 209,000 people in 190 countries that aimed to find out whether and in what circumstances respondents would move to a foreign country for work. The survey was conducted between October and December 2020 by management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group and global recruitment alliance The Network. The authors of the report said the U.S. had been “hurt by an inconsistent pandemic response, the adoption of more nationalistic policies, and social unrest.” Meanwhile, they said Canada and Australia, which placed narrowly behind the U.S. as the third most desirable country for relocation, had both done a “far better job of pandemic management.” “They are also seen as having better social systems and more open cultures than the U.S.,” the authors added.

Texas Farmers Tally Up the Damage From a Winter Storm ‘Massacre’ (NYT) Texas farmers and ranchers have lost at least $600 million to the winter storm that struck the state last month, according to an assessment issued this week by economists at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Damage and disruption from the bitter blast of cold and snow, which farmers are calling “the St. Valentine’s Day massacre,” is likely to cause some gaps on grocery shelves in the eastern part of the country and push prices higher. The storm also caused a severe shipping and processing bottleneck that continues to challenge the food-supply chain. Truck drivers were stuck for days waiting to load or unload produce. Processing plants had no power. Dairies were forced to dump 14 million gallons of milk, said Sid Miller, the Texas commissioner of agriculture. In a state that sells $25 billion worth of agricultural products each year and has more farms and ranches than any other, the damage is spread far and wide. The storm killed newborn calves, acres of newly planted watermelons and nearly the entire crop of Valencia oranges.

U.S. detained nearly 100,000 migrants at U.S.-Mexico border in February—sources (Reuters) U.S. border agents detained nearly 100,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in February, according to two people familiar with preliminary figures, the highest arrest total for the month of February since 2006. The figures, which have not been previously reported, show the scope of a growing surge of migrants arriving at the southwest border as U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, seeks to roll back some of the restrictive policies of former President Donald Trump, a Republican. U.S. Border Patrol agents caught more than 4,500 migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in a single day on Wednesday, according to government figures shared with Reuters, a sign that illegal entries could continue to rise in March.

Pope Francis flies to Baghdad, beginning the first-ever papal trip to Iraq (Washington Post) Pope Francis on Friday began the first-ever papal trip to Iraq, flying to a country with an extraordinary biblical history but that is also experiencing a serious coronavirus outbreak and ongoing political turmoil. Francis’s four-day visit is his first international trip since the start of the pandemic and marks a return to the globe-trotting diplomacy—especially to minority-Christian countries—that had been his hallmark. It amounts to a show of encouragement for a nation trying to recover from the chaos of a U.S.-led invasion and the brutality of the Islamic State, a group that once vowed to “conquer Rome.”

India’s farmer protests (Foreign Policy) Indian farmers are planning another major road blockade outside New Delhi on Saturday, as protests against agricultural laws reach their 100th day. “We believe that after these 100 days, our movement will put a moral pressure on the government to accede to our demands, because the weather will also worsen,” said Darshan Pal, a spokesperson for the farmer unions’ coalition. “It will weaken the government, which will have to sit down with us to talk again.” The protests have contributed to a significant decline in Indian soft power, Sumit Ganguly writes, as Narendra Modi’s BJP makes a “risky calculation” between domestic dominance and international condemnation.

China sets growth target ‘over 6%,’ tightening HK control (AP) China’s No. 2 leader set a healthy economic growth target Friday and vowed to make the nation self-reliant in technology amid tension with the U.S. and Europe over trade and human rights. Another official announced plans to tighten control over Hong Kong by reducing the public’s role in government. The ruling Communist Party aims for growth of “over 6%” as the world’s second-largest economy rebounds from the coronavirus, Premier Li Keqiang said in a speech to China’s ceremonial legislature. About 3,000 delegates gathered for its annual meeting, the year’s highest-profile political event, under intense security and anti-virus controls. It has been shortened from two weeks to one because of the pandemic. The party is shifting back to its longer-term goal of becoming a global competitor in telecoms, electric cars and other profitable technology. That is inflaming trade tension with Washington and Europe, which complain Beijing’s tactics violate its market-opening commitments and hurt foreign competitors.

People wasting almost 1bn tonnes of food a year, UN report reveals (The Guardian) People waste almost a billion tonnes of food a year, a UN report has revealed. It is the most comprehensive assessment to date and found waste was about double the previous best estimate. The food discarded in homes alone was 74kg per person each year on average around the world, the UN found. In the UK, which has some of the best data, the edible waste represents about eight meals per household each week. The UN report also includes data on food waste in restaurants and shops, with 17% of all food dumped. Some food is lost on farms and in supply chains as well, meaning that overall a third of food is never eaten. The researchers said nobody bought food with the intention of throwing it away and that small amounts discarded each day might seem insignificant. Therefore increasing people’s awareness of waste was key, they said.

What’s Catalyzing Catalytic Converter Thefts? (Washington Post) Rhodium is a metallic element used in an automobile’s catalytic converter. It’s unparalleled in its ability to remove the most toxic pollutants from vehicle exhaust. 80% of rhodium comes from South Africa, as a byproduct of that country’s platinum mining industry. Because rhodium is a byproduct of platinum, it’s only produced when mining platinum is profitable. A surplus of platinum has existed in South Africa for years, keeping prices so low there’s been no incentive to mine platinum, ergo rhodium isn’t being produced. At the same time demand for the metal has soared as countries in Europe, the Americas, and East Asia raise emission standards for new vehicles. The shortage has driven the price of rhodium to astronomical heights, currently 15 times more than the price of gold. But apparently not enough to restart platinum mining. And that explains why there’s been a huge rise in thefts of catalytic converters in the US in recent months. Thieves are taking a hacksaw to multitudes of tailpipes. Keep a close eye on your car’s exhaust pipe.

[nutritiontohealths]

Narendra Modi speech network marketing | motivational speech by bussines...

Narendra Modi  and Donald trump speech network marketing man ki baat modi ke ssath jano network marketing business ka histry motivational speech by bussiness opportunities ideas #bussiness #motivational video

[virat-uae-blogs]

From 1G to 5G, India is moving toward a new-age telecom business

“The launch of 5G will have a lasting impact. It'll be the future of the internet. 5G will bring a change to each person's life be it small businessmen, farmers, doctors, or students. It will also drastically affect our startup ecosystem” – Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MoS Electronics & IT.

India is the second-largest wireless market in the world, dominated by Reliance Industries Ltd. (Jio), Vodafone Idea, and Bharti Airtel Ltd. Reportedly, out of these, Airtel has launched its 5G services in eight cities and Jio would roll it out soon in four metro cities.

SkyTrust believes that this fifth generation (5G) is a much-awaited and long-term evolution (LTE) in the telecom sector. Its fast internet speed, large network capacity, 1ms latency rate, and increased reliability will result in a uniform user experience unleashing new economic opportunities and societal benefits.

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi launched 5G at the 6th India Mobile Congress at Pragati Maidan, Delhi on October 2, 2022. Its cumulative economic impact is estimated to reach USD 450 billion by 2035.

The initial 5G services map will be rolled out in 13 Indian cities namely, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Jamnagar, Gurugram, Chennai, Gandhinagar, and Mumbai. However, only some restricted areas will have the access to the 5G network in these cities.

“India's techade is here! With 5G, semiconductor manufacturing and Optical Fibre Cable (OFCs) in villages, we are bringing a revolution through Digital India to the grassroots level," said The Prime Minister in his Independence Day speech at the Red Fort.

Supporting the Prime Minister’s concern, SkyTrust also believes that industrial growth comes from the grassroots, and the MSMEs, street vendors, and organized sector workers need to be strengthened to be future-ready.

5G services work in three categories of band spectrums – low-band, mid-band, and high-band. Low-band frequency ranges from 600 MHz to 900 MHz, which is similar to the 4G range. The mid-band uses between 1.7 GHz to 4.7 GHz frequency and the high-band ranges from 24 GHz to 47 GHz. As per a report, Indian telecom services are likely to use the mid and high-band 5G spectrum.

Telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also focused on the availability of 5G services in more than 200 cities in the coming six months. He said, “Attempts being made to make 5G services available in 80-90% of the country in next 2 years.”

This digital India movement is highly focused on strengthening the three major sectors of health care facilities, and education. The results can be time taking but are worth adopting.  

About SkyTrust

SkyTrust is founded in March 2021 to help businesses grow their online presence. For further information about the company’s services follow them on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/skytrustitsolution Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/skytrustitsolutions/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/SkytrustIT LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/skytrust-it-solutions/ Pinterest - https://in.pinterest.com/skytrustitsolutions/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8buygdv-p_cJxNRmXGTBHA

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[asclepiusayurveda]

https://youtu.be/beYNgVB-Dzw Network Marketing Best motivational speech by Narendra Modi #narendramodi (at India) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYTvm5FpOZn/?utm_medium=tumblr

[net4news]

PM Narendra Modi moves to carve a piece of $13 trillion green hydrogen pie for India - Net4News

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday formally announced the National Hydrogen Mission, putting a truly zero-carbon fuel – ‘green hydrogen’ – at the heart of India’s energy security as well as climate action and assuring investors of policy support. Setting the tone for rapid energy transition in his Independence Day speech, PM Modi set a 2047 deadline for becoming self-reliant in energy through a mix of electric mobility, 20% ethanol-blending of petrol and expanding city gas networks to raise the share of less-polluting natural gas in India’s energy basket. "For India to progress, for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India)’, energy independence is necessary. India has to take a pledge that it will be energy independent by the year we celebrate the 100th year of Independence," PM Modi said in his address to the nation. "Green hydrogen will give India a quantum jump in achieving its climate targets," PM Modi said, unveiling his vision of turning India into a global green hydrogen production and export hub. He said faster transition to new-age fuels is needed to reduce the country’s dependence on energy imports entailing annual spending of Rs 12 lakh crore, or five times the current health budget. Currently all hydrogen consumed in India is extracted from fossil fuels, which emit CO2. Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysing water using electricity from renewable sources and expected to emerge as a $12-13 trillion global industry by 2050. "The Prime Minister’s initiative can help the industry build a domestic green hydrogen ecosystem worth $2-3 trillion in 20-25 years," Manoj K Upadhyay, chairman of solar player ACME Group, said. The intent for a national hydrogen mission was announced in Budget 2021. Since then, Reliance Industries Ltd, IndianOil, JSW Energy and NTPC have announced green hydrogen forays. NTPC has floated a tender for hydrogen blending of CNG. Renewable energy minister RK Singh said graded use of green hydrogen is to be made mandatory for refineries and fertiliser units to create a market. It will be expanded to other industries gradually. Energy, either in terms of access or transition, has been one of the leitmotifs of PM Modi’s I-Day speeches since taking over in 2014. The focus has so far been on access. Beginning with village and household electrification as well as providing clean cooking fuel to the poor, the focus of his discourse progressed to renewables. The hydrogen mission shifts the focus on new-age solutions, building upon the 100 gigawatts green energy capacity achieved recently. Source link Read the full article

[pmsocialmedia]

Twitter restricts accounts in India to comply with government legal request

Twitter disclosed on Monday that it blocked four accounts in India to comply with a new legal request from the Indian government.

The American social network disclosed on Lumen Database, a Harvard University project, that it took action on four accounts — including those of hip-hop artist L-Fresh the Lion and singer and song-writer Jazzy B — to comply with a legal request from the Indian government it received over the weekend. The accounts are geo-restricted within India but accessible from outside of the South Asian nation. (As part of their transparency efforts, some companies including Twitter and Google make requests and orders they receive from governments and other entities public on Lumen Database.)

All four accounts, like several others that the Indian government ordered to be blocked in the country earlier this year, had protested New Delhi’s agriculture reforms and some had posted other tweets that criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s seven years of governance in India, an analysis by TechCrunch found.

A Twitter spokesperson told TechCrunch that when the company receives a valid legal request, it reviews it under both its own rules and local laws.

“If the content violates Twitter’s Rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only. In all cases, we notify the account holder directly so they’re aware that we’ve received a legal order pertaining to the account,” the spokesperson added.

The new legal request, which hasn’t been previously reported, comes at a time when Twitter is making efforts to comply with the Indian government’s new IT rules, new guidelines that several of its peers including Facebook and Google have already complied with.

On Saturday, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had given a “final notice” to Twitter to comply with its new rules, which it unveiled in February this year. The new rules require significant social media firms to appoint and share contact details of representatives tasked with compliance, nodal point of reference and grievance redressals to address on-ground concerns.

Tension has been brewing between Twitter and the government of India of late. Last month, police in Delhi visited Twitter offices to “serve a notice” about an investigation into its intel on classifying Indian politicians’ tweets as misleading. Twitter called the move a form of intimidation, and expressed concerns for its employees and requested the government to respect citizens’ rights to free speech.

Late last month, Twitter had requested New Delhi to extend the deadline for compliance with the new rules by at least three months.

The Jack Dorsey-led company has grappled with several tough situations in India, one of its biggest market by users, this year. After briefly complying with a New Delhi order early this year, the company faced heat from the government for restoring accounts that had posted tweets critical of the Indian government’s policy or the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two faced off again publicly in April after New Delhi ordered Twitter and Facebook to take down posts that were critical of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

via Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2T8iZ0q

[orbemnews]

He might maintain the successful ticket in tech and Silicon Valley is aware of it The recipient of all these billions is Jio Platforms, a part of Ambani’s sprawling conglomerate Reliance Industries. Jio began as a cell community in 2016. Since then it has amassed round 400 million customers and launched a streaming service, a video conferencing app, a fiber broadband community and digital funds. Its super-cheap knowledge has helped carry a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of Indians on-line for the primary time. When Ambani launched Jio, India had fewer than 350 million web customers. Now, it has 750 million. Jio has turn into the gateway to India’s web, and Ambani holds the keys. “Numerous this variation, particularly by way of bringing individuals on-line, has occurred on the again of the constructive disruption that Jio triggered,” Ajit Mohan, Fb’s vp and managing director in India, advised CNN Enterprise. “Jio has been the hero in that story by way of offering that entry, and I feel that units the context for our funding and Jio and our partnership, as a result of… we noticed alignment of the imaginative and prescient.” Ambani’s imaginative and prescient retains getting greater. After elevating greater than $20 billion for Jio Platforms, Reliance went courting buyers for its retail enterprise. Between late September and early November, Reliance Retail raised round $6.4 billion, a lot of it coming from Jio buyers together with Silver Lake, Common Atlantic, TPG in addition to the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. Ambani’s retail chain is the most important in India, with greater than 12,000 shops. And he has made no secret of his ambitions to mix his retail and tech empires to tackle two large US gamers. Amazon (AMZN) and Walmart’s (WMT) Flipkart dominate on-line procuring in India, controlling greater than 60% of the market between them. Ambani is making an aggressive play for a slice. He is doing that with JioMart, an initiative introduced in 2019 to carry on-line 1000’s of India’s mom-and-pop shops often called “kiranas.” And Reliance Retail not too long ago acquired one among its greatest Indian rivals, Future Retail, for $3.3 billion — a deal that has kicked off a protracted and sophisticated authorized battle with Amazon. Whilst he digests all of that, India’s richest man is already trying to the following large factor — bringing 5G to India within the second half of 2021. “It is going to be powered by an indigenous developed community, {hardware}, and know-how parts,” Ambani advised a digital viewers on the India Cellular Congress in November, in a potential nod to requires China’s Huawei to be excluded from constructing the nation’s 5G community. Any a kind of plans by itself can be an enormous enterprise and executing all of them collectively is a big ask even for one of many world’s high billionaires. His ambition is to essentially rework the best way greater than a billion individuals talk, do enterprise and make purchases. And the last word aim is to achieve billions extra. “We’re creating compelling homegrown options in training, well being care, agriculture, infrastructure, monetary companies and new commerce,” Ambani stated in his speech. “Every of those options, as soon as confirmed in India, will probably be supplied to the remainder of the world to handle world challenges.” Geography vs Expertise However the billionaire, who’s reportedly trying to take Jio public in america, might discover it difficult to parlay the corporate’s meteoric rise in India into success on the worldwide stage. “Reliance doesn’t have anyone space the place it has a technological edge and superiority like say Google’s search, Fb’s portfolio of social networks, Amazon’s e-commerce engine, Alibaba’s mixture of strengths in e-commerce and funds or Tencent’s tremendous app,” stated Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi, analysis director on the Institute for Enterprise within the International Context at Tufts College’s Fletcher Faculty. Relatively, Jio’s dominance has been largely geographical, helped by a regulatory regime that helps homegrown gamers. “One can be onerous pressed to give you a significant record of technological improvements and IP that Jio created that could possibly be the idea for its enlargement overseas,” Chaturvedi added. India is, after all, a large prize in itself that Jio has largely already captured. The nation’s on-line inhabitants of 750 million — second solely to China, which has shut out US corporations for many years — is the most important draw for world tech. Fb, Google, Amazon, Netflix (NFLX) and Uber (UBER), to call just a few, have already spent a number of years and billions of {dollars} to crack open the market. “For Silicon Valley, the Indian market alone is larger than the 5 subsequent greatest shopper markets — by inhabitants — on the planet mixed,” stated Chaturvedi. The place China has its “Nice Firewall” of on-line censorship that retains out US tech corporations en masse, Ambani has succeeded in making a “Nice Indian Paywall” that runs by means of Jio, Chaturvedi argues. International tech companies have been pressured to navigate a sequence of regulatory hurdles from an Indian authorities that has proven a higher willingness to clamp down on overseas gamers — whether or not blocking Fb’s efforts to offer free web, altering how corporations can retailer and gather knowledge or, extra not too long ago, shutting out Chinese language tech corporations over a border dispute. Ambani has been the most important beneficiary of lots of these laws, and the billionaire has been a vocal champion of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his marketing campaign for a “self-reliant” India. Just a few cracks — albeit small ones — have began to seem in Ambani’s dominance. Barely a day into 2021, the Securities and Trade Board of India ordered Reliance Industries and Ambani to pay a $5.5 million wonderful over what the regulator described as a “fraudulent and manipulative buying and selling scheme” over a former subsidiary in 2007. However that is unlikely to dent his tech ambitions. Ambani, who declined a number of requests to be interviewed for this text, is used to creating audacious bets and having them repay — often with huge sources at his disposal and a good political wind at his again. “In spite of everything he is India’s richest man, he has due to this fact the deepest pockets on this nation,” stated Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, journalist and co-author of Gasoline Wars: Crony Capitalism and the Ambanis. “I can say with none threat of contradiction that he has been supported by a positive political dispensation and a regulatory regime,” he added. From Oil to Jio The company empire that Ambani presides over in the present day appears to be like somewhat completely different to the one he inherited. His father, Dhirubhai, began a small yarn buying and selling agency in Mumbai in 1957 that he subsequently spun right into a thriving textile enterprise. Over many years, it grew into the sprawling conglomerate Reliance Industries spanning power, petrochemicals and telecommunications. Dhirubhai’s loss of life in 2002 kicked off an acrimonious succession battle that cut up the enterprise in two. Mukesh Ambani in the end took over the corporate’s predominant oil and petrochemicals belongings, whereas his youthful brother Anil assumed management of the newer ventures, together with telecom and digital companies. Then, in September 2016, Mukesh Ambani stormed onto his brother’s turf with a proposal that blew the lid off India’s telecom and web development. Jio gave each new buyer six months of free 4G web and Indians signed up by the hundreds of thousands, triggering a brutal value conflict. “You lure your customers by giving one thing free, and as soon as they have hooked onto it, you steadily begin growing the costs,” Thakurta stated. “It is the traditional approach all types of monopolies work throughout the globe.” One of many main casualties of the value conflict was Anil Ambani. His Reliance Communications firm introduced in late 2017 that it will promote most of its belongings and exit the cell enterprise. Two days later, Jio acquired Reliance Communications. And two years later, the elder Ambani underscored the divergence within the brothers’ fortunes by serving to repay an $80 million debt to Ericsson (ERIC), retaining Anil out of jail. Jio’s meteoric rise has helped offset a few of the volatility in oil that value Ambani billions final yr and arrange Reliance for a future that is additional faraway from its core enterprise. In actual fact, an organization spokesperson beforehand advised CNN Enterprise that the title Jio — which suggests “to dwell” in Hindi — was chosen partly as a result of it is a mirror picture of the world “oiL.” The daring try to remodel his $170 billion conglomerate faces a large check in 2021 as the Indian financial system recovers from its first recession in practically 1 / 4 of a century. Like different tech corporations world wide, Jio has strengthened throughout the pandemic, however the query is whether or not it may well proceed to develop quick sufficient for the corporate to meaningfully transition away from oil. Ambani charted his course years in the past. “Information is the brand new oil,” he stated in 2017, simply six months into his marketing campaign to disrupt India’s tech panorama. India first, then the world For American tech giants, having an enormous homegrown participant in your nook typically makes life simpler abroad, and Jio is by far the most important in India. “Why did Fb, why did Google…put of their cash in Jio at a time when the world financial system is in a large number, the Indian financial system is in recession, why would they do it? Clearly as a result of there may be greater than an financial angle,” stated Thakurta. “It is also I imagine, not directly… a political insurance coverage of kinds.” Mohan, Fb’s India head, denied that authorities regulation was a part of the dialog. “That did not have something to do with our funding in Jio or the partnership,” he stated. “It actually did come from recognizing that this was a particular firm that had finished fairly superb work in reworking the digital infrastructure of India in a brief time frame.” From Ambani’s perspective, a wide-ranging coalition of a few of the greatest names in tech is only a solution to additional Jio’s command over all facets of India’s web. The corporate already controls a lion’s share of the pipes by means of its huge cell community. By means of Fb, it’s working to combine JioMart with WhatsApp, the one platform in India with a person base akin to Jio’s. With Google, it is gunning for management of cell gadgets by collectively creating an “entry stage, inexpensive smartphone” for India’s big center class. And it is even acquired a watch on the chip know-how that underpins these networks and gadgets by means of companions reminiscent of Qualcomm. “As digitization of the Indian financial system and Indian society picks up velocity, the demand for digital {hardware} will develop enormously. We can’t depend on large-scale imports,” Ambani stated final month. “I clearly foresee India changing into a significant hub for a state-of-the-art semiconductor business.” Qualcomm, a longtime Jio companion, joined the funding bandwagon by spending round $97 million in July for a 0.15% stake. Jio’s dedication to constructing out its personal community whereas additionally creating a smartphone offered the chipmaker with a novel alternative to become involved on either side of Ambani’s web entry plan, in response to Quinn Li, senior vp and world head of the corporate’s funding arm Qualcomm Ventures. “For those who have a look at operators the world over, not many are that vertically built-in,” he advised CNN Enterprise. “Given we are the know-how provider to the business, we’re I feel finest outfitted to work with Jio each on the gadget entrance in addition to infrastructure.” Ambani seems able to leverage the worldwide backing for Jio and Reliance Retail into IPOs, saying in June that he would “transfer in the direction of itemizing of each these corporations throughout the subsequent 5 years.” An IPO for Jio Platforms on Nasdaq may come as quickly as 2021, in response to a number of media studies and business analysts. Reliance didn’t reply to a request for touch upon its IPO plans. “I would not be shocked within the least,” stated Thakurta. “When you’re on Nasdaq, you give all these buyers exit route.” Ambani appears assured he can get the world to purchase into India’s second, anchored in his firm. And given his monitor document to date, he has no purpose to not be. “Associates, we’re about to step into a wonderful decade of the India story,” he declared. “Nothing can cease India’s rise, not even Covid-19. That is our likelihood to create historical past.” Supply hyperlink #Hold #IndianbillionaireMukeshAmbanimayholdthewinningticketintechandSiliconValleyknowsit-CNN #Silicon #Tech #ticket #Valley #Winning

[dipulb3]

India is the biggest prize in tech. Meet the gatekeeper

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/india-is-the-biggest-prize-in-tech-meet-the-gatekeeper/

India is the biggest prize in tech. Meet the gatekeeper

Between March and November last year, even as the coronavirus upended lives and devastated economies around the world, India’s richest man was handed more than $27 billion to make a bet on the future of the internet.

The recipient of all those billions is Jio Platforms, part of Ambani’s sprawling conglomerate Reliance Industries. Jio started as a mobile network in 2016. Since then it has amassed around 400 million users and launched a streaming service, a video conferencing app, a fiber broadband network and digital payments.

Its super-cheap data has helped bring hundreds of millions of Indians online for the first time. When Ambani launched Jio, India had fewer than 350 million internet users. Now, it has 750 million.

Jio has become the gateway to India’s internet, and Ambani holds the keys.

“A lot of this change, especially in terms of bringing people online, has happened on the back of the positive disruption that Jio triggered,” Ajit Mohan, Facebook’s vice president and managing director in India, told Appradab Business. “Jio has been the hero in that story in terms of providing that access, and I think that sets the context for our investment and Jio and our partnership, because… we saw alignment of the vision.”

Ambani’s vision keeps getting bigger.

After raising more than $20 billion for Jio Platforms, Reliance went courting investors for its retail business. Between late September and early November, Reliance Retail raised around $6.4 billion, much of it coming from Jio investors including Silver Lake, General Atlantic, TPG as well as the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.

Ambani’s retail chain is the biggest in India, with more than 12,000 stores. And he has made no secret of his ambitions to combine his retail and tech empires to take on two big US players. Amazon (AMZN) and Walmart’s (WMT) Flipkart dominate online shopping in India, controlling more than 60% of the market between them. Ambani is making an aggressive play for a slice.

He’s doing that with JioMart, an initiative announced in 2019 to bring online thousands of India’s mom-and-pop stores known as “kiranas.” And Reliance Retail recently acquired one of its biggest Indian rivals, Future Retail, for $3.3 billion — a deal that has kicked off a protracted and complex legal battle with Amazon.

Even as he digests all of that, India’s richest man is already looking to the next big thing — bringing 5G to India in the second half of 2021.

“It will be powered by an indigenous developed network, hardware, and technology components,” Ambani told a virtual audience at the India Mobile Congress in November, in a possible nod to calls for China’s Huawei to be excluded from building the country’s 5G network.

Any one of those plans on its own would be a big undertaking and executing them all together is a huge ask even for one of the world’s top billionaires. His ambition is to fundamentally transform the way more than a billion people communicate, do business and make purchases.

And the ultimate goal is to reach billions more.

“We are creating compelling homegrown solutions in education, health care, agriculture, infrastructure, financial services and new commerce,” Ambani said in his speech. “Each of these solutions, once proven in India, will be offered to the rest of the world to address global challenges.”

Geography vs Technology

But the billionaire, who is reportedly looking to take Jio public in the United States, may find it challenging to parlay the company’s meteoric rise in India into success on the global stage.

“Reliance does not have any one area where it has a technological edge and superiority like say Google’s search, Facebook’s portfolio of social networks, Amazon’s e-commerce engine, Alibaba’s combination of strengths in e-commerce and payments or Tencent’s super app,” said Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi, research director at the Institute for Business in the Global Context at Tufts University’s Fletcher School.

Rather, Jio’s dominance has been largely geographical, helped by a regulatory regime that supports homegrown players.

“One would be hard pressed to come up with a meaningful list of technological innovations and IP that Jio created that could be the basis for its expansion abroad,” Chaturvedi added.

India is, of course, a massive prize in itself that Jio has largely already captured.

The country’s online population of 750 million — second only to China, which has shut out US companies for decades — is the biggest draw for global tech. Facebook, Google, Amazon, Netflix (NFLX) and Uber (UBER), to name a few, have already spent several years and billions of dollars to crack open the market.

“For Silicon Valley, the Indian market alone is bigger than the five next biggest consumer markets — by population — in the world combined,” said Chaturvedi.

Where China has its “Great Firewall” of online censorship that keeps out US tech companies en masse, Ambani has succeeded in creating a “Great Indian Paywall” that runs through Jio, Chaturvedi argues.

Global tech firms have been forced to navigate a series of regulatory hurdles from an Indian government that has shown a greater willingness to clamp down on foreign players — whether blocking Facebook’s efforts to provide free internet, changing how companies can store and collect data or, more recently, shutting out Chinese tech companies over a border dispute.

Ambani has been the biggest beneficiary of many of those regulations, and the billionaire has been a vocal champion of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his campaign for a “self-reliant” India.

A few cracks — albeit small ones — have started to appear in Ambani’s dominance. Barely a day into 2021, the Securities and Exchange Board of India ordered Reliance Industries and Ambani to pay a $5.5 million fine over what the regulator described as a “fraudulent and manipulative trading scheme” over a former subsidiary in 2007.

But that’s unlikely to dent his tech ambitions. Ambani, who declined multiple requests to be interviewed for this article, is used to making audacious bets and having them pay off — usually with enormous resources at his disposal and a fair political wind at his back.

“After all he’s India’s richest man, he has therefore the deepest pockets in this country,” said Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, journalist and co-author of Gas Wars: Crony Capitalism and the Ambanis. “I can say without any risk of contradiction that he has been supported by a favorable political dispensation and a regulatory regime,” he added.

From Oil to Jio

The corporate empire that Ambani presides over today looks rather different to the one he inherited.

His father, Dhirubhai, started a small yarn trading firm in Mumbai in 1957 that he subsequently spun into a thriving textile business. Over decades, it grew into the sprawling conglomerate Reliance Industries spanning energy, petrochemicals and telecommunications. Dhirubhai’s death in 2002 kicked off an acrimonious succession battle that split the business in two.

Mukesh Ambani ultimately took over the company’s main oil and petrochemicals assets, while his younger brother Anil assumed control of the newer ventures, including telecom and digital businesses.

Then, in September 2016, Mukesh Ambani stormed onto his brother’s turf with an offer that blew the lid off India’s telecom and internet growth. Jio gave every new customer six months of free 4G internet and Indians signed up by the millions, triggering a brutal price war.

“You lure your users by giving something free, and once they’ve got hooked onto it, you gradually start increasing the prices,” Thakurta said. “It’s the classic way all kinds of monopolies work across the globe.”

One of the major casualties of the price war was Anil Ambani. His Reliance Communications company announced in late 2017 that it would sell most of its assets and exit the mobile business. Two days later, Jio acquired Reliance Communications. And two years later, the elder Ambani underscored the divergence in the brothers’ fortunes by helping pay off an $80 million debt to Ericsson (ERIC), keeping Anil out of jail.

Jio’s meteoric rise has helped offset some of the volatility in oil that cost Ambani billions last year and set up Reliance for a future that’s further removed from its core business. In fact, a company spokesperson previously told Appradab Business that the name Jio — which means “to live” in Hindi — was chosen in part because it’s a mirror image of the world “oiL.”

The bold attempt to transform his $170 billion conglomerate faces a massive test in 2021 as the Indian economy recovers from its first recession in nearly a quarter of a century. Like other tech companies around the world, Jio has strengthened during the pandemic, but the question is whether it can continue to grow fast enough for the company to meaningfully transition away from oil.

Ambani charted his course years ago.

“Data is the new oil,” he said in 2017, just six months into his campaign to disrupt India’s tech landscape.

India first, then the world

For American tech giants, having a big homegrown player in your corner often makes life easier in a foreign country, and Jio is by far the biggest in India.

“Why did Facebook, why did Google…put in their money in Jio at a time when the world economy is in a mess, the Indian economy is in recession, why would they do it? Obviously because there is more than an economic angle,” said Thakurta. “It’s also I believe, indirectly… a political insurance of sorts.”

Mohan, Facebook’s India head, denied that government regulation was part of the conversation.

“That didn’t have anything to do with our investment in Jio or the partnership,” he said. “It really did come from recognizing that this was a special company that had done pretty amazing work in transforming the digital infrastructure of India in a short period of time.”

From Ambani’s perspective, a wide-ranging coalition of some of the biggest names in tech is just a way to further Jio’s command over all aspects of India’s internet.

The company already controls a lion’s share of the pipes through its vast mobile network. Through Facebook, it is working to integrate JioMart with WhatsApp, the only platform in India with a user base comparable to Jio’s. With Google, it’s gunning for control of mobile devices by jointly developing an “entry level, affordable smartphone” for India’s huge middle class. And it’s even got an eye on the chip technology that underpins those networks and devices through partners such as Qualcomm.

“As digitization of the Indian economy and Indian society picks up speed, the demand for digital hardware will grow enormously. We cannot rely on large-scale imports,” Ambani said last month. “I clearly foresee India becoming a major hub for a state-of-the-art semiconductor industry.”

Qualcomm, a longtime Jio partner, joined the investment bandwagon by spending around $97 million in July for a 0.15% stake. Jio’s commitment to building out its own network while also developing a smartphone presented the chipmaker with a unique opportunity to get involved on both sides of Ambani’s internet access plan, according to Quinn Li, senior vice president and global head of the company’s investment arm Qualcomm Ventures.

“If you look at operators across the world, not many are that vertically integrated,” he told Appradab Business. “Given we’re the technology supplier to the industry, we’re I think best equipped to work with Jio both on the device front as well as infrastructure.”

Ambani appears ready to leverage the global backing for Jio and Reliance Retail into IPOs, saying in June that he would “move towards listing of both these companies within the next five years.” An IPO for Jio Platforms on Nasdaq could come as soon as 2021, according to several media reports and industry analysts. Reliance did not respond to a request for comment on its IPO plans.

“I wouldn’t be surprised in the least,” said Thakurta. “Once you’re on Nasdaq, you give all these investors a good exit route.”

Ambani seems confident he can get the world to buy into India’s moment, anchored in his company. And given his track record so far, he has no reason not to be.

“Friends, we are about to step into a glorious decade of the India story,” he declared. “Nothing can stop India’s rise, not even Covid-19. This is our chance to create history.”

[datafloq]

By Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil NEW DELHI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - Facebook and its top lobbying executive in India, Ankhi Das, are facing questions internally from employees over how political content is regulated in its biggest market, according to sources with direct knowledge and internal posts seen by Reuters. The world's largest social network is battling a public-relations and political crisis in India after the Wall Street Journal reported that Das opposed applying the company's hate-speech rules to a politician from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party who had in posts called Muslims traitors. In the United States and around the world, Facebook employees are raising questions about whether adequate procedures and content regulation practices were being followed by the India team, sources familiar with discussions told Reuters. An open letter written to Facebook's leadership ...Read More on Datafloq

[aapnugujarat1]

Soros and India

By: Chitra Patel Is George Soros angry with Modi or with his failed ambitions? Billionaire Philanthropist George Soros recently delivered a speech in Davos where he accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of creating a Hindu National State and threatening to deprive millions of Muslims for their citizenship. But who George Soros exactly is and what are his connections to India? In 1969, George Soros started hedge fund management and eventually grew through the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 where he sold short more than $10 Billion in pounds profiting for $1 Billion. He is tagged as the ‘the man who broke Back of England’ and caused Black Wednesday. With this profit he started “Open Society Foundation” George Soros developed he theory of reflexivity which states that “market values are often driven by fallible ideas of participants, not only by economic fundamental situations”. Ideas and events influence each other in reflexive feedback loops. In short, theory of reflexivity is a redefined and implementable session of psychological war. This is the reason Soros is regarded as ‘the puppet master’ of various global controversies and crises. George Soros: Financial Spectator, Stock Investor, Philanthropist and Liberal Political Activist. Soros first visited India in December 2006, where he described India as a favourable nation with tremendous opportunities. He declared that he will be investing in India. In 2008, Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), Omidyar Network and Google.org announced $17 Million to small to medium enterprise companies for India – “Song Investment” at Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. In 2010, Soros bought 4% stake in Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) from Dubai Holdings. Twilight Saga – Soros and Omidyar It is believed that 2014 National Elections was funded by Omidyar Network India in support of Modi Government. Jayant Sinha, profiled as Venture Capitalist, Senior Advisor and Independent Director was the Director of Omidyar Network India that time, was also a BJP candidate (Winner) from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, India. Open Society Foundation was in the list of 11000 banned foreign NGOs by the Indian Government in 2014-15 session. This might have triggered the hatred of Soros towards Modi as his foundation was involved heavily in Indian NGOs and SMEs. More importantly Soros criticised Modi for specially banning Christian NGOs, he also said that Modi’s vision is to eliminate every community from India other than Hindus as he himself originated from RSS, a Hindu devoted organization. The Make Over – Aspada Aspada was founded in 2009 and believed to be managing $100 Million in capital. In 2011, Aspada Foundation acquired Song, majority stakes of which were owned by SEDF. In 2013, Aspada Foundation committed $10 million to early stage businesses to make education, healthcare, and financial services more accessible to low-income people in India. Aspada also invested in agricultural supply chain companies in an effort to support small holder farmers. Aspada Foundation received that $10 million from the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF) and worked to promote economic opportunity and sustainable impact in India. In 2014, they committed additional $15 Million to Aspada. Additionally, in March same year, it invested Rs 10 crore in Mumbai-based non-banking financial company Neo Growth Credit, a NBFC firm funded by Aspada. In 2019, LGT Group, the largest family-owned private banking and asset management group, originally known as The Liechtenstein Global Trust, owned by the Princely House of Liechtenstein, acquired the majority stakes of Aspada from SEDF. Aspada is now LGT Lightstone Aspada but with the same ‘so called’ visionary approach as Soros. Rooted in 90’s In 1994, George Soros and his offshore company Quantum Fund were in India, obviously looking for some easy form of cash. Then Soros Fund Management (SFM), reputed to be one of the world's leading fund manag­ers, had already taken up a 33% stake in its tie-up with the GIC Mutual Fund. Another Soros company, Chatterjee Petro­chemicals Ltd. (CPL), run by a Soros money handler, Pur­nendu Chatterjee, has secured 25% equity in Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd., a 36-billion-rupee project near Calcutta. There were also reports that the Quantum Fund NMV, a Netherlands Antilles-based investment house, was picking up stocks from the Bombay stock exchange. Soros's procurement of 33% of the GIC Mutual Fund and investment in the Bombay stock exchange was no surprise, since Soros was considered as “a shark who follows money instead of blood”. But the CPL's procurement of the 25% equity in Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd. offered a clear insight into how the Soros operation functions. According to the reports of Ramtanu and Susan Maitra (renown journalist/authors), the CPL frontman was on Purnendu Chatterjee, a New York-based entrepreneur with ethnic ties into West Bengal. Chatterjee was given a boost by the local media as an investor par excellence, and, in due time, he made contact with the ostensibly Marxist Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu. Basu, whose British connections were always underplayed, went through with the deal without really checking the pedi­gree of the CPL, Soros, Quantum Fund, et al. As Ramtanu and Susan Indian puts it, it was a case of "naïve cunningness" on Chatterjee's part. The Economic Times, a leading daily, was asked on Aug. 17, 1994 that why CPL's mysterious silence about the source of its funding was ignored, The paper reported that Chatterjee had acquired a poor reputation because of his troubles with the American Secu­rities Exchange Commission, and it evinced surprise that he had developed direct contact with the West Bengal chief minister, Jyoti Basu. It would not be the first time in India that non-resident Indian investors, under the guise of giving back to their country some profit of their labour elsewhere, had taken the country for a ride. However, the Indian government's avowed commitment to "globalization" and free-market liberalization, and obsession with money, will no doubt bring more of the sharks like Soros into this rather desperate economic scene. But Soros, whose Quantum Fund N.V. board members include luminaries from such powerful financial operators as N.M. Rothschild and Sons merchant bankers and London ­based St. James Place Capital, has also been linked to the underground. According to reports from US State Depart­ment officials, Quantum Fund raised a huge amount of mon­ey to demolish European monetary stability in 1992. During this operation, such well-known criminals as Marc Rich, a fugitive metals and oil dealer now based in Switzerland, and Israeli arms merchant Saul Eisenberg were silent investors, along with a third Soros partner, Rafi Eytan, known as "Dirty Rafi," who had served in London previously as the Israeli Mossad's liaison to British intelligence. Offerings in 2000’s On 28 July 2010 SKS (www.sksindia.com), India’s largest microfinance institution (MFI) with 5.8 million clients, became the first MFI in India to float its shares through an initial public offering (IPO).1 The IPO was successful by any financial market standard: the offering was 13 times oversubscribed and attracted leading investment groups, such as Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and George Soros’ Quantum Fund. Also, in 2010 The Indian state of Andhra Pradesh experienced a staggering 200 suicides by farmers in land.  It was believed that SKS Microfinance which gave them loans was somehow credible. An 18-year-old girl drank pesticide after she was forced to hand over money meant for an exam fee, leaving a note, “Work hard and earn money. Do not take loans.” Later that year SKS secured an initial US$64 million from a group of 18 anchor investors who agreed to buy 18 percent of the offering at the top of the offering window of INR 985 per share. The anchors included JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, India ICICI Prudential, Reliance Mutual Fund, and George Soros’ Quantum Fund. Connection to India India’s peculiar Ideology of democracy and the population boom provides potential market attracts businessmen all over the world. It is suspected that the Indian Economy is not being driven by India’s policies or Government, it is more to do with such ‘Internal Businessman’ like George Soros. Like Hillary Clinton in United States (2006 Elections), George Soros through hid numerous ventures, was one of the major funder/donors for Prime Minister Modi. “Not so Digital India” Under PM Modi’s vision of Digital India, The Government of India introduced biometric-based identification (AADHAR), a Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to  help citizens of India enjoy services like opening a bank account, filing tax returns, and availing rations swiftly by digitally authenticating their identity. A team of researchers from the Indian School of Business (ISB) and Digital Identity Research Initiative (DIRI) investigates and monitors the back-end servers of UIDAI. DIRI, launched in 2017, is funded by Omidyar Network India and in 2019 they had given a grant of $1.8 Million to DIRI and committed $500000 more for future grants. “Open Society and Ford Foundation – Under FCRA Scrutiny and Anti-India” George Soros financed radical environmental groups partnering in “Global Climate Strike” to the tune of nearly $25 million. At least 22 of the left-wing activist groups listed as partners in the Global Climate Strike received $24,854,592 in funding from liberal billionaire George Soros between 2000-2017 through his Open Society Network. Among the organizations receiving Soros funding were Fund for Global Human Rights, Global Green Grants Fund, 350.org, Amnesty International, Avaaz, Colour of Change, and People’s Action. Each of these groups has climate-related agendas and goals spanning from reducing global carbon emissions to less than 350 parts per million and 100 percent “clean energy,” to the elimination of new fossil fuel projects and a “green civil rights movement.” The group 350.org, founded by Bill McKibben in 2008, has fought against coal power in India. It is not clear how much funding the Global Climate Strike has actually received from these groups or in total. And, of course, Soros’ funding is over 18 years, so the numbers highlighted are not immediately relevant. But what the investigation does show is how the Strike is being funded by a wide range of left-wing foundations, many of which in turn have relied on Soros money at some stage in the past. This is the list of the relevant Soros donations:

Most of the organisations mentioned above were listed in the banned NGOs under FCRA act by Indian Government in 2014. Open Society has also funded US based NGO Greenpeace, which came under heavy scrutiny by the Indian Government in 2014, which claimed that the NGO’s activities, research, and peaceful protests were “working against the economic progress of the country.” Greenpeace’s FCRA registration was then cancelled in August 2015 due to alleged failure to disclose the movement of funds properly. This cancellation was seen by many observers as heralding a new phase in the interpretation of FCRA regulations wherein the Government of India altered the definition of activities considered harmful to the national interest. The Ford Foundation has faced similar challenges. In March 2015, the foundation was placed in the “prior permission” category after the MHA reportedly found that it was funding non-FCRA registered NGOs, a violation of Section 7 of the FCRA. Earlier that year, the Gujarat government filed a complaint with the MHA that the Ford Foundation’s funded “anti-India” activities of two NGOs–Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace and requested that the FCRA registration of these two NGOs be cancelled. After several months of seeking ministry clearance to process any foreign contributions, the Ford Foundation was taken off the government watch list and was granted the ability to fund its affiliates after registering under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), which falls under the jurisdiction of the finance ministry and maintains even tighter regulations that that of FCRA. Read the full article

[xtruss]

George Soros Takes Aim at 'Authoritarian' Presidents Xi, Trump and Hindu Fascist Criminal Prime Minister Modi of Randia

— By Daniel Thomas, Business reporter, BBC News, | January 24, 2020

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has launched a stinging attack on the "authoritarian rulers" of both the US and China.

He said President Donald Trump was a "conman and the ultimate narcissist" who had breached the limits of the US constitution.

And he said China's President Xi Jinping was using technology to exert total control over Chinese life.

"The world would be a better place if they weren't in power," Mr Soros said.

Using his annual speech at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, the financier warned of a growing threat from populism and climate change, while pledging $1bn towards a new global university network to tackle intolerance.

But the businessman - who is a major donor to the US Democratic party - said Beijing and Washington posed the biggest threat to "open societies".

"Both [leaders] try to extend the powers of their office to its limit and beyond.

"Trump is willing to sacrifice the national interests for his personal interests and he will do practically anything to win re-election.

"By contrast, Xi Jinping is eager to exploit Trump's weaknesses and use artificial intelligence to achieve total control over his people."

The White House was approached for comment.

Mr Soros also targeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the Indian state was "imposing punitive measures on Kashmir, a semi-autonomous Muslim region, and threatening to deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship". He was referring to two controversial decisions made by Mr Modi's Hindu nationalist government.

The first was to strip the disputed Kashmir region of its semi-autonomous status and place it under virtual lockdown.

The second is the introduction and passage of a controversial citizenship law that critics say is discriminatory towards Muslims.

It seeks to fast-track Indian citizenship to non-Muslim minorities from three nearby Muslim-majority countries.

The US and China recently struck a deal to de-escalate a major trade war which has seen both sides impose tariffs on billions of dollars worth of exports.

But Mr Soros said President Xi's had stifled China's economy, while Mr Trump had "overheated" his.

"US stock markets are high but can't be kept at boiling point for too long."

Mr Soros, a Jew who survived Nazi occupation by forging identity documents, became infamous for his involvement in the devaluation of the British pound, known as Black Wednesday.

But it is his philanthropic and political activities that have made him a divisive figure in the US, Europe and beyond.

He has spent billions of his own money funding human rights projects and liberal democratic ventures around the world, and has become a frequent target for criticism by right-wing groups due to his support for liberal causes.

Much of the criticism aimed at him has been criticised as having anti-Semitic undertones.

The financier, who is a regular at the elite World Economic Forum, said his new university network would help promote "critical thinking" in an age of intolerance.

The move will be seen as a riposte to Hungarian President Victor Orban, who has repeatedly tried to shut down the Central European University, a private institution set up by Mr Soros in the country in 1971.

Mr Orban's populist nationalist government claims Mr Soros has a secret plot to flood Hungary with migrants and destroy the nation, an accusation Mr Soros denies.

Mr Soros said the network would be "the most important and enduring project of my life and I should like to see it implemented while I am still around".

[thisdaynews]

BREAKING: I will donate $1B to fight Donald Trump, He is a crook – George Soros, American Billionaire

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/breaking-i-will-donate-1b-to-fight-donald-trump-he-is-a-crook-george-soros-american-billionaire/

BREAKING: I will donate $1B to fight Donald Trump, He is a crook – George Soros, American Billionaire

George Soros, US financier and philanthropist, donates 1 billion dollars for a new university network project to battle the erosion of civil society in a world increasingly ruled by “would-be and actual dictators” and beset by climate change.

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During his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he says, humanity was at a turning point and the coming years would determine the fate of rulers like President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping as well as the world itself.

“We live at a transformational moment in history. The survival of open societies is endangered and we face an even greater crisis: climate change,” said the Hungarian-born billionaire.

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He described the plan of the Open Society University Network (OSUN) as “the most important project of my life” and would be an international platform for teaching and research that existing universities all over the world would be able to join.

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It would seek to reach out to “places in need of high quality education and in serving neglected populations” such as refugees, prisoners, the Roma and other displaced peoples like the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, he said.

“To demonstrate our commitment to OSUN, we are contributing one billion dollars to it,” said Soros in his traditional annual Davos address.

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Soros’s Central European University (CEU) was forced to leave Hungary after pressure from the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said the project was needed at a time when open society was at more risk than ever.

He expressed grief that the world’s strongest powers — the United States, China and Russia under President Vladimir Putin — were “in the hands of would-be or actual dictators and the ranks of authoritarian rulers continued to grow.”

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He again slammed Trump, describing the US leader as a “conman and the ultimate narcissist” but said the current surge in economic strength for the United States may have come too soon for the US leader as he faces re-election later this year.

With nationalism making further headway around the world, Soros said that the “biggest and most frightening setback” was in India, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “creating a Hindu nationalist state.”

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He again slammed Trump, describing the US leader as a “conman and the ultimate narcissist” but said the current surge in economic strength for the United States may have come too soon for the US leader as he faces re-election later this year.

“Trump… has managed to overheat an already buoyant economy. An overheated economy can’t be kept at the boiling point for too long,” warned Soros, credited with correctly predicting major market swings in his career as an investor.

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“If all this happened close to the election it would have assured his election. His problem is that the election is still 10 months away and, in a revolutionary situation, that’s a lifetime.”

But Soros also expressed particular alarm over Xi, who he said had broken with Communist Party tradition by concentrating power around himself, with the Chinese economy losing its previous flexibility.

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While Xi Jinping “became a dictator as soon as he gained sufficient strength” his “success is far from assured” as demographics caused by the one child policy work against China.

He said that most troublingly, Xi was seeking to bring into existence “a new type of authoritarian system and a new type of human being who is willing to surrender his personal autonomy in order to stay out of trouble.”

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“Once lost, personal autonomy will be difficult to recover. An open society would have no place in such a world.”

[orbemnews]

After Barring Trump, Fb and Twitter Face Scrutiny About Inaction Overseas LONDON — In Sri Lanka and Myanmar, Fb saved up posts that it had been warned contributed to violence. In India, activists have urged the corporate to fight posts by political figures focusing on Muslims. And in Ethiopia, teams pleaded for the social community to dam hate speech after a whole bunch have been killed in ethnic violence infected by social media. “The offline troubles that rocked the nation are totally seen on the web area,” activists, civil society teams and journalists in Ethiopia wrote in an open letter final yr. For years, Fb and Twitter have largely rebuffed calls to take away hate speech or different feedback made by public figures and authorities officers that civil society teams and activists stated risked inciting violence. The businesses caught to insurance policies, pushed by American beliefs of free speech, that give such figures extra leeway to make use of their platforms to speak. However final week, Fb and Twitter lower off President Trump from their platforms for inciting a crowd that attacked the U.S. Capitol. These selections have angered human rights teams and activists, who at the moment are urging the businesses to use their insurance policies evenly, significantly in smaller nations the place the platforms dominate communications. “After I noticed what the platforms did with Trump, I believed, ‘You need to have finished this earlier than, and it’s best to do that constantly in different nations world wide,’” stated Javier Pallero, coverage director at Entry Now, a human rights group concerned within the Ethiopia letter. “Around the globe, we’re on the mercy of once they resolve to behave.” “Generally they act very late,” he added, “and generally they act by no means.” David Kaye, a legislation professor and former United Nations monitor for freedom of expression, stated political figures in India, the Philippines, Brazil and elsewhere deserved scrutiny for his or her habits on-line. However he stated the actions in opposition to Mr. Trump raised tough questions on how the ability of American web corporations was utilized, and if their actions set a brand new precedent to extra aggressively police speech world wide. “The query going ahead is whether or not it is a new type of customary they intend to use for leaders worldwide, and have they got the assets to do it?” Mr. Kaye stated. “There’s going to be an actual enhance in demand to do that elsewhere on the planet.” Fb, which additionally owns Instagram and WhatsApp, is the world’s largest social community, with greater than 2.7 billion month-to-month customers; greater than 90 p.c of them dwell exterior the US. The corporate declined to remark, however has stated that the actions taken in opposition to Mr. Trump stem from his violation of present guidelines and don’t symbolize a brand new international coverage. “Our insurance policies are utilized to everybody,” Sheryl Sandberg, Fb’s chief working officer, stated in a current interview with Reuters. “The coverage is you could’t incite violence, you may’t be a part of inciting violence.” Twitter, which has about 190 million every day customers globally, stated its guidelines for world leaders weren’t new. In reviewing posts that would incite violence, Twitter stated the context of the occasions was essential. “Offline hurt because of on-line speech is demonstrably actual, and what drives our coverage and enforcement above all,” Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief govt, stated in a submit on Wednesday. But, he stated, the choice “units a precedent I really feel is harmful: the ability a person or company has over part of the worldwide public dialog.” There are indicators that Fb and Twitter have begun performing extra assertively. After the Capitol assault, Twitter up to date its insurance policies to say that repeat offenders of its guidelines round political content material would have their accounts completely suspended. Fb took motion in opposition to plenty of accounts exterior the US, together with deleting the account of a state-run media outlet in Iran and shutting down government-run accounts in Uganda, the place there was violence forward of elections. Fb stated the takedowns have been unrelated the Trump determination. Many activists singled out Fb for its international affect and never making use of guidelines uniformly. They stated that in lots of counties it lacks the cultural understanding to determine when posts might incite violence. Too usually, they stated, Fb and different social media corporations don’t act even once they obtain warnings. In 2019 in Slovakia, Fb didn’t take down posts by a member of parliament who was convicted by a court docket and stripped of his seat in authorities for incitement and making racist feedback. In Cambodia, Human Rights Watch stated the corporate was sluggish to behave to the involvement of presidency officers in a social media marketing campaign to smear a distinguished Buddhist monk championing human rights. Within the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte has used Fb to focus on journalists and different critics. After a wave of violence, Ethiopian activists stated Fb was getting used to incite violence and encourage discrimination. “The reality is, regardless of good intentions, these corporations don’t assure uniform utility or enforcement of their guidelines,” stated Agustina Del Campo, director of the middle for research on freedom of expression at College of Palermo in Buenos Aires. “And oftentimes, once they try it, they lack the context and understanding wanted.” In lots of nations, there’s a notion that Fb acts based mostly on its enterprise greater than human rights. In India, house to Fb’s most customers, the corporate has been accused of not policing anti-Muslim content material from political figures for concern of upsetting the federal government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling get together. “Developments in our nations aren’t addressed significantly,” stated Mishi Choudhary, a know-how lawyer and founding father of the Software program Freedom Regulation Heart, a digital rights group in India. “Any takedown of content material raises the questions of free expression, however incitement of violence or utilizing a platform for harmful speech shouldn’t be a free speech matter, however a matter of democracy, legislation and order.” However at the same time as many activists urged Fb and Twitter to be extra proactive to guard human rights, they expressed anger in regards to the energy the businesses have to manage speech and sway public opinion. Some additionally warned that the actions in opposition to Mr. Trump would trigger a backlash, with political leaders in some nations taking steps to forestall social media corporations from censoring speech. Authorities officers in France and Germany raised alarms over banning Mr. Trump’s accounts, questioning whether or not personal corporations ought to be capable of unilaterally silence a democratically elected chief. A draft legislation into account for the 27-nation European Union would put new guidelines across the content material moderation insurance policies of the most important social networks. Barbora Bukovská, the senior director for legislation and coverage at Article 19, a digital rights group, stated the danger is especially pronounced in nations whose leaders have a historical past of utilizing social media to stoke division. She stated the occasions in Washington supplied momentum in Poland for a draft legislation from the ruling right-wing nationalist get together that will high quality social media corporations for taking down content material that’s not explicitly unlawful, which might enable extra focusing on of L.G.B.T.Q. folks. “These selections on Trump have been the correct selections, however there are broader points past Trump,” stated Ms. Bukovská. Supply hyperlink #barring #Face #Facebook #inaction #Scrutiny #Trump #Twitter

[magzoso-tech]

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Twitter's Top Lawyer Vijaya Gadde Is Final Word on Blocking Tweets - Even Donald Trump's

Whenever somebody on Twitter takes issue with the network’s rules or content policies, they almost always resort to the same strategy: They send a tweet to @jack. A quick scan of Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey’s mentions show just how often he’s called upon to lay down the law for the service he helped create. But what users don’t know is that they’re imploring the wrong Twitter Inc. executive. While Dorsey is the company’s public face, and the final word on all things product and strategy, the taxing job of creating and enforcing Twitter’s rules don’t actually land on the CEO’s shoulders. Instead, that falls to Twitter’s top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde.

As Twitter’s head of legal and policy issues, Gadde has one of the most difficult jobs in technology: Her teams write and enforce the rules for hundreds of millions of internet users. If people break the rules, the offending tweets can be removed, users can be suspended, or in extreme cases booted off Twitter altogether. Dorsey may have to answer for Twitter’s decisions, but he’s taken a hands-off approach to creating and enforcing its content policies.

“He rarely weighs in on an individual enforcement decision,” Gadde said in a recent interview. “I can’t even think of a time. I usually go to him and say, ‘this is what’s going to happen.’”

That leaves Gadde, 45, as the end of the line when it comes to account enforcement — a delicate position in a world where Twitter’s rules are both an affront to free speech and an invitation to racists and bigots, depending on who’s tweeting at you. “No matter what we do we’ve been accused of bias,” Gadde said. “Leaving content up, taking content down — that’s become pretty much background noise.”

Like most corporate lawyers, Gadde generally operates in the background herself, though her influence has helped shape Twitter for most of the past decade. A graduate of Cornell University and New York University Law School, Gadde spent almost a decade at a Bay Area-based law firm working with tech startups before she joined the social-media company in 2011. Her eight-plus years at Twitter are about equal to the amount of time Dorsey has worked there over the years.

But as Twitter’s role in global politics has increased, so has Gadde’s visibility. She was in the Oval Office when Dorsey met with US President Donald Trump last year, and joined the CEO when he met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2018. When Dorsey posted a photo with the Dalai Lama from that trip, Gadde stood between the two men, holding the Dalai Lama’s hand. InStyle just put her on “The Badass 50,” an annual list of women changing the world. “Vijaya defines the word,” tweeted Twitter Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland.

When Gadde first joined Twitter, the internet was a different place. At the time, a lot of politicians were just getting familiar with the platform. Trump primarily used his Twitter to share announcements about his TV appearances (though this would quickly change). The official presidential account, @POTUS, wouldn’t even come into existence until 2015, under then-President Barack Obama.

When Gadde took over as general counsel in 2013, the social-media service had an “everything goes” mentality. A year prior, one of Twitter’s product managers in the U.K. famously said that Twitter viewed itself as “the free speech wing of the free speech party,” a label later repeated by then-CEO Dick Costolo. The company simply “let the tweets flow,” said one former employee.

That freedom is part of what drew Gadde to Twitter in the first place. An immigrant from India, Gadde moved to the US as a child and grew up in east Texas, where her dad worked as a chemical engineer on oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, before moving to New Jersey in middle school. “I was the only Indian child most of my education until I went to college,” she says now. “You feel voiceless. And I think that that’s kind of what drew me to Twitter — this platform that gives you a voice, and gives you a community and gives you power.”

Twitter’s commitment to giving everyone a voice, though, has also come with a general reluctance to take it away. Twitter’s decisions in recent years to ban certain users, including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and far-right media troll Milo Yiannopoulos, were news in part because Twitter’s decisions to act were so uncharacteristic. Gadde acknowledges the change, saying that the company has come to realize in recent years the responsibility it has to protect the safety of its users, including when they’re not using the product. “I would say that the company has shifted its approach dramatically [since I started],” she said.

Perhaps no user presents a bigger quagmire for Gadde and her team than Trump, the platform’s most famous user, whose tweets often push the boundaries of Twitter’s rules. The president’s habit of blasting messages to his 70.9 million followers has taken on a new vigor thanks to a looming impeachment trial and re-election bid. Following the US drone strike in early January that killed a top Iranian general, Trump threatened Iran with military force in a number of tweets, including the targeting of cultural sites. That prompted many observers, including some former Twitter employees, to ask why he hadn’t been suspended — a cycle that has played out several times following other Trump tirades.

Last month, Trump attacked his Democratic rivals, blasted Congress over impeachment proceedings, and even mocked teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg from his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account. According to a USA Today analysis, his tweets contain more negative language than ever. The study looked at whether Trump tweeted words with positive or negative connotations, and found he “is posting fewer tweets with words that convey joy, anticipation and trust, and more that convey anger.” Trump sent or retweeted more than 1,050 messages in December, according to Hootsuite — more than any other month since taking office.

“The way he uses social media is a reflection of just how unusual a candidate, and now a president, Trump is. A big part of that is that he breaks all the rules,” said Patrick Egan, a professor of politics and public policy at New York University. “Something that a lot of people really like about him is that he says the kind of things he’s not supposed to say, and of course that’s exactly the kind of thing that can get you into trouble on social media.”

@realDonaldTrump: Total Tweets + Retweets Inside Twitter, Trump’s tweets are a frequent topic of conversation among employees, and Gadde’s authority also means that she has the unique job of punishing the world’s most famous tweeter — should it ever come to that. “My team has the responsibility to do that with every single individual who uses Twitter, whether it’s the president of a country or it’s an activist or it’s somebody we don’t know,” she said. “I honestly do my best to treat everyone with that same degree of respect.”

Twitter has so far decided that Trump hasn’t crossed any lines, but the company is prepared for such a scenario. While it’s unlikely that Twitter would ever suspend a well-known politician – the company also has a newsworthiness policy, which means it’s less likely to take action on tweets from elected officials — it’s devised another penalty for world leaders: A warning screen unveiled last summer that hides a tweet from public view and limits its distribution, but still allows people to view the tweet with the click of a button. It’s a way to publicly acknowledge that a politician has violated Twitter’s rules while admitting what they said is too newsworthy to be taken down. “It’s preserving a record of what is said in the public interest,” Gadde explained.

The process is designed like this: A content moderator, who may be a third-party contractor, reviews a tweet that has been flagged and determines whether it violates Twitter’s rules. If they decide that it does, moderators can usually enforce punishment at this stage, but Twitter requires a second layer of review for offenders who are considered public figures — in this case, a verified politician with more than 100,000 followers, Gadde said.

The tweet is then sent to Twitter’s trust and safety team, and if they also agree that the post violates the rules, Twitter convenes a special group of employees from across the company to review it. This group, about a half-dozen people from various teams, is meant to bring in a diverse set of perspectives, Gadde explained. That panel then makes a recommendation to Del Harvey, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, and her boss, Gadde, for a final decision.

Barring some kind of emergency, using the label will ultimately be Gadde’s call. “Vijaya has a young kid still, so she’s very used to being woken up any hour, which is helpful,” Harvey joked to a group of reporters last summer.

Gadde won’t go so far as to say the new warning label was created with Trump in mind — “We try to think of these things globally and not just about the United States,” she said — but added that even though the screen, referred to internally as the Public Interest Interstitial, hasn’t been used since its debut last June, it will eventually make an appearance. Gadde said Twitter has used the newsworthiness policy a “handful” of times in the past as justification for leaving offending tweets up. But the company didn’t have the warning label back then, so the general public didn’t know anything had even been discussed behind the scenes, she said. “We know it happens, and that it will happen.”

Twitter actually pointed to this policy in September 2017 when answering questions about the decision to leave up a tweet from Trump that appeared to threaten North Korea with nuclear war. Twitter also has a policy against threats of violence. A White House spokesman, Steven Groves, declined to answer questions about Trump’s use of Twitter.

Historically, Twitter’s rules around free speech have been so lax that a number of celebrities and journalists, including singer Lizzo, actress Millie Bobby Brown and New York Times writer Maggie Haberman, have stepped away from the service — at least temporarily — with many citing bullying and harassment. US Senator Kamala Harris, a former Democratic candidate for president, thought Twitter’s enforcement weak enough that she implored the company to suspend Trump in a letter in October, saying he uses his account to obstruct justice and intimidate people, including the whistle-blower whose report ultimately led to his impeachment. Twitter responded that Trump’s tweets didn’t break the rules.

The newsworthiness exemption gives Twitter a lot of wiggle room when it comes to removing high-profile tweets, but Gadde said the point of the warning label, and the company’s attempt to explain it, are part of a broader effort to be more transparent about how and why the company makes decisions — something she admits hasn’t always been clear. As Twitter has grown, so has the company’s understanding that it can’t simply sit by and let people tweet whatever they want, Gadde said. It’s one of the many ways her job has evolved over the years.

“We’re trying to do so much more of our work in public,” she said. “I want people to trust this platform.”

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