12 suspended Congress councillors in Ambernath join BJP
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Thane (PTI): Twelve newly elected councillors in the Ambernath Municipal Council, suspended by the Congress for aligning with the BJP after the polls, have formally joined the saffron party.
Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party president Ravindra Chavan announced the development at the BJP office here late Wednesday night, asserting the move was not motivated by power but driven by a shared commitment to development.
"The people elected these councillors and they had promised development to the citizens. They have come with us because the government is working in a dynamic manner and is capable of delivering justice and development to the people," he said.
Following the local polls held on December 20, the BJP joined hands with its arch-rival, Congress, under the banner of 'Ambernath Vikas Aghadi' (AVA) to form the Ambernath Municipal Council (in Thane district) leadership, sidelining ally Shiv Sena, which emerged as the single largest party. The Aghadi also includes Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The AVA secured a majority of 31 seats in the 60-member local body. In recent elections, Shiv Sena won 27 seats, falling just four short of a majority. The BJP secured 14 seats, Congress 12, NCP 4, while 2 independents were also elected.
With the support of one independent, the three-party coalition's strength has risen to 32 councillors, crossing the majority mark of 30.
Left red-faced with the awkward arrangement, the Congress on Wednesday suspended its 12 newly elected councillors along with the block president.
The move by the 12 suspended councillors to join the BJP has significantly altered the political equations in the municipality.
BJP, NCP and Shiv Sena are partners in the ruling Mahayuti.
Chavan maintained that the councillors' move reflected growing confidence in the BJP-led government.
"They believe that only through the BJP can the promises made to the people be fulfilled effectively," he said, adding that the party would continue to focus on governance and development at the local body level.
Mahayuti ally Shiv Sena has called the development a betrayal of "coalition dharma" as the arrangement in Ambernath was aimed at keeping the Eknath Shinde-led party from holding reins of the local body.
On the BJP joining hands with the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM in the Akot Municipal Council in Akola district, Chavan said a show-cause notice has been issued to their Akot MLA, Prakash Bharsakhale.
Chavan noted that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has expressed strong displeasure over the role of local BJP leaders in the matter and made it clear that the party would not tolerate actions that go against its stated policies.
Frowning upon the alliances between ideological rivals, CM Fadnavis on Wednesday said such arrangements were not approved by the BJP leadership and violated discipline.
Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) has said the arrangements reflect the BJP's double standards and its readiness to do anything to grab power.
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Ambani, Adani pledge USD 210 bn for India's AI push
New Delhi (PTI): Conglomerates run by billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani committed USD 210 billion investment to creating infrastructure that will help India emerge as an AI development hub.
At the India AI Impact Summit, Ambani announced a Rs 10 lakh crore (about USD 110 billion) investment in artificial intelligence over the next seven years in gigawatt-scale AI-ready data centres in Jamnagar, leveraging up to 10 GW of green power surplus, and a nationwide edge-compute layer integrated with telecom and digital operator Jio's networks to deliver low-latency AI across India.
"Our resolve is clear: make intelligence as ubiquitous as connectivity," he said. "When compute becomes infrastructure, innovation will become inevitable."
Adani, on the other hand, unveiled a USD 100-billion investment to develop renewable-energy-powered, hyperscale AI-ready data centres by 2035 -- one of the world's largest integrated energy-compute commitments.
The initiative is expected to catalyse an additional USD 150 billion across server manufacturing, cloud platforms, and supporting industries, creating a projected USD 250 billion AI infrastructure ecosystem in India.
India must architect its own artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure rather than rely on imports, Adani Group executive director Jeet Adani said on Thursday, warning that AI will redefine national sovereignty.
Other major investments announced at the Summit included USD 50 billion commitment by Microsoft by the end of the decade to expand artificial intelligence access across the Global South. "India, not surprisingly, is one of the largest," its vice chair and president, Brad Smith, said.
The firm had unveiled USD 17.5 billion investment in AI investments in India last year.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new subsea cable initiative to boost AI connectivity between India, the US and other locations, alongside partnerships for cloud infrastructure platform support to over 20 million public servants across 800 districts.
Yotta Data Services, backed by a real estate group headed by Niranjan Hiranandani, announced over USD 2 billion spend on Nvidia's latest chips in an artificial intelligence computing hub it is setting up just outside the national capital.
While Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) signed up ChatGPT parent OpenAI as its first customer for its data centre unit under the global AI infrastructure initiative Stargate, infrastructure major Larsen & Toubro announced a proposed venture with Nvidia to build AI-ready data centre infrastructure, advanced computing platforms, and ecosystem enablement required to support large-scale AI workloads.
