News Analysis India

Tag: Chennai

  • Chennai: Eight-Month-Old Infant Falls On Tin Roof From Balcony; Watch Dramatic Rescue Video |

    Dramatic and terrifying footage has gone viral on social media from an apartment complex in Avadi of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. In the video, an infant was seen lying on the edge of a tin roof after falling from a balcony. In the viral video, people can be seen holding a bedsheet open on the ground to catch the child if she falls. People were also seen risking their lives by climbing atop the balcony to save the child. 

    The three-minute-long viral video shows the dramatic rescue of the child who fell from the fourth-floor balcony and landed on a tin shade on the second floor. The clip was recorded by another resident of the same complex. In the video, eight-month-old Harin Magi can be seen lying on her hands and knees near the edge of a tin shade. A slighter movement would have led to her fall from there.

    Today morning in my cousins apartment in Chennai  pic.twitter.com/VAqwd0bm4d
    — (கலைஞரின் உடன்பிறப்பு) (@RengarajMr) April 28, 2024

    While the screams of residents can be heard in the video, three men climbed up from a first-floor window to grab the child. A mattress was placed underneath the bedsheet to ensure the infant didn’t get hurt.

    As the tension mounts in the video, the baby edges nearer to the roof’s edge, her tiny legs nearly dangling over the abyss. Shrieks intensify as a man emerges from a first-floor window, balancing on the railing to reach for the child. With two others steadying him, he extends his arm, snatches the infant, and safely transfers her to a waiting figure indoors.

    This comes days after a video went viral in which a mother was seen placing her infant inside a fridge unknowingly while talking on her phone. The video that went viral days ago shows the parents searching for their child impatiently.

    No wayyyyyy  pic.twitter.com/lfaiEnH9iP
    — Instablog9ja (@instablog9ja) April 28, 2024

    The father then hears the child’s cry and moves towards the refrigerator, opening the door to find the child crying inside. 

  • Annamalai hails PM Modi for using AI tools for speeches: ‘Game changer in Indian politics’ – The Economic Times Video

    Chennai: Tamil Nadu BJP President hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 18 for using AI translation tools for speeches. He said this would be a game-changer in Indian politics. He said, “We all know Prime Minister is a person who is very close to technology. He has experimented artificial intelligence for a real-time translation of his voice in Hindi to Tamil. I am sure that this is going to be a game changer in the years to come. I am sure this will be a game changing moment in Indian politics, especially in southern parts of India when Prime Minister’s voice can be felt by any common person real-time.”

  • CBI searches Karti Chidambaram’s Chennai house in Chinese visa case

    By IANS

    NEW DELHI: In the latest development in the Chinese visa case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday conducted searches at the residence of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram in Chennai and recovered some incriminating documents from there.

    A CBI source said that when the probe agency conducted searches at the residence of Karti Chidambaram in May, a portion of the house had to be sealed as the keys were with the Congress MP’s wife, who was reportedly out of the country then.

    “Today, Karti Chidambaram’s wife joined the probe and we opened this portion of the house. We have recovered some incriminating evidence and documents,” said the source.

    According to the CBI FIR, in 2011, a Mansa (Punjab) based private firm, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, took the help of a middleman and allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to get visas issued to Chinse nationals to help get a project completed before the deadline.

    “The private firm was in the process of establishing a 1,980 MW thermal power plant which was outsourced to a Chinese company. The project was running behind its schedule. In order to avoid penal actions for the delay, the said private company was trying to bring more and more Chinese professionals to its site in Mansa district. For this it needed project visas over and above the ceiling imposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs,” said a CBI official.

    The official said that for the said purpose, the representative of the private firm approached a person in Chennai through his close associate and thereafter they devised a back-door ploy to get permission to re-use 263 project visas allotted to the said Chinese company’s officials.

    In pursuance of the same, the said representative of the Mansa-based company submitted a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking approval to re-use the project visas allotted to the company, which was approved within a month and permission was issued to the firm.

    “A bribe of Rs 50 lakh was allegedly demanded by the said private person based in Chennai through his close associate which was paid by the Mansa-based company. The payment of the said bribe was routed from Mansa to the person in Chennai and his close associate through a Mumbai-based company, reportedly controlled by Karti Chidambaram, as payment of false invoice raised for consultancy and out-of-pocket expenses for Chinese visa-related works,” said the CBI official.

    Karti Chidambaram’s father P. Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister then.

  • Sameer Wankhede, former NCB officer who probed drugs-on-cruise case, transferred to Chennai

    By IANS

    NEW DELHI: In a latest development in connection with the cruise ship raids case in which Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was placed under arrest, few NCB officials including Sameer Wankhede involved in the alleged shoddy probe have been transferred to Chennai.

    Wankhede, the former head of the Mumbai zone of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), has been transferred from Directorate of Revenue Intelligence to DG TS, Chennai.

    Other NCB officials who have been transferred are P. Ram Mohan and T. Rajashree.

    The SIT formed in the case might be filing a report with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to fix responsibility for conducting shoddy probe in the matter, sources in the NCB said.

    The report will fix the responsibility of the officials who were involved in the investigation due to which Aryan Khan and others were given clean chit.

    The MHA is keeping an eye on the matter.

    Earlier, NCB official Ashish Ranjan Prasad was placed under suspension. However, his suspension was later revoked, and he was transferred to CISF.

    Another NCB official who faced the music was Intelligence Official V.V. Singh who filled the arrest memo of Aryan Khan. Singh was placed under suspension which has not been revoked till now.

  • J&K acid attack victim flown to Chennai hospital

    Express News Service

    SRINAGAR:  A 24-year-old Srinagar woman who suffered injuries on eye in an acid attack last week was flown to Chennai for specialised treatment on Monday. A family member of the victim said she would be examined by a team of doctors at Chennai’s Sankara Nethralaya on Tuesday. She is accompanied by four persons including her parents.

    The girl was injured in an acid attack at Wantpora, Hawal in downtown Srinagar in the evening on February 1 when she was returning home from the business unit where she used to work. The cornea of both eyes have sustained injuries in the attack.

    Doctors at SMHS hospital in the J&K capital, where she was admitted following the attack, said Sankara Nethralaya in Chennai — one of the prestigious eye-care hospitals in the country —  is the best option for a corneal reconstruction. One of the doctors said, “The acid attack victim may require advanced stem cell therapy and eye surface reconstruction.”

    Meanwhile, police has arrested three persons including the attacker, his associate and a mechanic who had sold acid to the attacker. The J&K administration is bearing the entire cost of treatment of the acid attack victim. “All the medical expenses, our lodging and boarding in Chennai is being taken care of by the government,” said the family member.

    The acid attack against the young woman by the boy with whom the girl’s engagement had been called off by the girl’s family has caused outrage across the state with politicians and people demanding awarding of capital punishment to the acid attacker.

  • Covid-19: India’s R value drops to 2.2 between January 7 and 13, shows IIT Madras analysis

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: India’s ‘R-value’, which indicates how rapidly COVID-19 is spreading, was recorded at 2.2 between January 7 and 13, a drop from the previous two weeks, according to a preliminary analysis by IIT Madras.

    The R value of Mumbai was 1.3, Delhi 2.5, Chennai 2.4 and Kolkata 1.6, according to the analysis by IIT Madras’ Department of Mathematics and Centre of Excellence for Computational Mathematics and Data Science headed by Prof Neelesh S Upadhye and Prof S Sundar.

    It was close to 2.9 nationally from December 25 to December 31 while it was 4 between January 1 and 6. The R value marks the number of people an infected person can spread the disease to. A pandemic is considered to end if this value goes below 1.

    Dr Jayant Jha, an assistant professor in the department of mathematics at IIT Madras, said the R value depends on transmissibility probability, contact rate and expected time interval in which infection can happen.

    India added 2,71,202 new coronavirus infections to the Covid case tally that reached 3,71,22,164 on Sunday, including 7,743 cases of the Omicron variant.

    The country saw 1,702 new cases of Omicron variant, the highest in a day so far, and an increase of 28.17 per cent since Saturday.

    Experts said it is not possible to undertake genome sequencing of each and every sample, but stressed that this wave is largely being driven by Omicron.

  • Police arrest UP man from Chennai held for spreading misinformation on Covid on social media

    By Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Police on Monday arrested a man hailing from Jaunpur in the state from Chennai on the charges of spreading misinformation on Covid through videos on social media.

    He was produced in Jaunpur court by the district police on Monday and was given in two days’ judicial custody. The police lodged the FIR against the person taking cognizance of the viral videos.

    A UP police team had gone to Chennai to arrest the person booked on charges of releasing videos with alleged unscientific information to create panic among people during the second wave of Covid.

    The accused, Manmohan Mishra, originally belonged to Jaunpur and had shifted to Chennai about 35 years ago.

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    Jaunpur SP Ajay Sahani on Monday said:  “Accused  Manmohan Mishra, 60, was arrested in Chennai n Saturday. After securing a transit remand, he was brought here and produced at a court. This man had made videos viral on social media with unscientific information and comments on the Covid-19 pandemic, increasing the possibility of creating panic among people.”

    “Taking note of Mishra’s video clips on social media, the Kotwali cops had lodged an FIR against him under sections 505 (statements relating to public mischief) of IPC, IT Act, and Epidemic Act. After lodging a case about a week ago, police found his location in Chennai after which a police team was sent there to arrest him.”

    Making false claims on Covid-19, Mishra had also made objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media, said Jaunpur police. During the police investigation, it came to light that Mishra of Jaunpur, who had moved to Chennai about 35 years ago and was currently living at Madhavaram in Chennai suburbs with his family, said the police sources.

    Mishra worked as an agent to arrange PAN, Aadhaar, and other government Mishra documents for people, especially from north India in Chennai to earn a livelihood.

  • Indian Railways to start large scale production of AC Economy coaches at ICF Chennai, Kapurthala

    Express News Service
    CHENNAI: With the completion of mandatory testing and trials, the Indian Railways is set to commence large scale production of AC Three Tier Economy coaches. The Integral Coach Factory in Chennai will build 344 such coaches this year, while the Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala is tasked with the production of 250 coaches.

    Official documents revealed that the ICF had been assigned to build the newly designed coaches which completed mandatory trials by Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and other organizations a few months ago. The AC 3 tier economy coach was designed and the first prototype was produced by RCF, Kapurthala last year. Upon completion of safety trials in March 2021, the railways announced that a new variant of AC coach will be inducted in Express trains running with Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) rakes after necessary sanctions.

    AC 3-tier economy class coaches are “economical” class and it will be in between the current AC three-tier and non-AC sleeper class. The new class coach can carry 83 passengers as against 72 persons in conventional 3 tier AC coaches. “Electrical switch gears had been shifted to under slung, thereby providing space for 11 berths additionally,” said sources.

    Unlike conventional AC coaches, the new coaches had been designed to provide enhanced passenger comfort such as AC ducting to provide individual vents for all berths. Improved passenger conveniences in the form of foldable snack tables in both longitudinal and transverse bays, the coach has a modular design of seats. It has holders for water bottles, mobile phones and magazines, said a railway statement. Besides, individual reading lights, mobile charging points are provided for each berth.

    The key feature of the coach is the ergonomically improved design of ladder for accessing the middle and upper berths and Indian and the Western style lavatories.

    “The coach has been provided with luminescent aisle markers. Illuminated berth indicators integrated with night lights with luminescent berth numbers will provide better ambience for passengers,” added the railways.

  • Indian Railways to start large scale production of AC coaches at ICF Chennai. Kapurthala

    Express News Service
    CHENNAI: With the completion of mandatory testing and trials, the Indian Railways is set to commence large scale production of AC Three Tier Economy coaches. The Integral Coach Factory in Chennai will build 344 such coaches this year, while the Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala is tasked with the production of 250 coaches.

    Official documents revealed that the ICF had been assigned to build the newly designed coaches which completed mandatory trials by Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and other organizations a few months ago. The AC 3 tier economy coach was designed and the first prototype was produced by RCF, Kapurthala last year. Upon completion of safety trials in March 2021, the railways announced that a new variant of AC coach will be inducted in Express trains running with Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) rakes after necessary sanctions.

    AC 3-tier economy class coaches are “economical” class and it will be in between the current AC three-tier and non-AC sleeper class. The new class coach can carry 83 passengers as against 72 persons in conventional 3 tier AC coaches. “Electrical switch gears had been shifted to under slung, thereby providing space for 11 berths additionally,” said sources.

    Unlike conventional AC coaches, the new coaches had been designed to provide enhanced passenger comfort such as AC ducting to provide individual vents for all berths. Improved passenger conveniences in the form of foldable snack tables in both longitudinal and transverse bays, the coach has a modular design of seats. It has holders for water bottles, mobile phones and magazines, said a railway statement. Besides, individual reading lights, mobile charging points are provided for each berth.

    The key feature of the coach is the ergonomically improved design of ladder for accessing the middle and upper berths and Indian and the Western style lavatories.

    “The coach has been provided with luminescent aisle markers. Illuminated berth indicators integrated with night lights with luminescent berth numbers will provide better ambience for passengers,” added the railways.

  • Chennai corporation begins drive to make public walls poster-free

    Express News Service
    CHENNAI: The Chennai corporation has undertaken a drive to remove posters defacing public walls across the city. While making an appeal to keep residents from defacing walls in public places, conservancy and engineering staff have been instructed to remove such posters as and when they see them.

    Every day, five bus route roads will be selected in each of the 15 city corporation zones where walls will be stripped of illegal posters, according to a statement on Thursday,

    A senior corporation official told The New Indian Express that the walls will be painted in black and white stripes or murals to beautify the city.

    When asked whether punitive action will be taken against those putting up posters, the official said that such measures will be considered only after a period of time and the aim at present was to make a persuasive appeal to residents to cooperate with corporation officials and to change the general mindset among the people.

    The civic body has warned of strict action against those putting up posters in public spaces such as bus shelters, street signage, and walls carrying public announcements in the long term. Political parties also contribute to the city’s share of illegal posters. The corporation had set out to remove such political posters and writings ahead of the elections this year.

    The city corporation’s conservancy workers have begun to remove illegal posters from Government-owned walls, bridges, and pillars in public areas.

    “I feel like we can succeed only if there is a mass movement and positive thoughts in the minds of the community,” the official said.

    City residents who want to register complaints regarding illegal posters may do so through the toll-free 1913 helpline, according to the city corporation statement.