7-8 senior legislators, ministers in race for CM post; administration has collapsed: Vijayendra
Sirsi (PTI): Karnataka BJP President B Y Vijayendra on Monday claimed that the state’s administrative machinery has "completely collapsed" amid intensifying competition within the Congress for the chief minister’s post with at least seven to eight senior legislators and ministers reportedly in the race.
Alleging that the Siddaramaiah government has "neglected farmers in distress" amid the ongoing power tussle, he said the opposition will press for discussions on a host of issues, including farmers’ welfare and north Karnataka, during the winter session of the legislature in Belagavi from December 8, and seek accountability from the administration.
"The competition for the chief minister's chair is intensifying day by day. According to information I have, at least seven to eight senior legislators and ministers in the ruling party are competing to somehow become the CM," Vijayendra said.
Speaking to reporters, he said that as a result, the administrative machinery has completely collapsed.
Asked if the BJP would be ready if a faction within the Congress came out and sought to form a government with the BJP, Vijayendra said, "The voters of the state have given a clear mandate to the Congress and have made the BJP sit in the opposition. The BJP will function as an effective opposition and has no intentions to form the government."
Accusing the Siddaramaiah-led government of neglecting farmers since coming to power, Vijayendra said, "When the PM Kisan Yojana was introduced by the central government, the BJP government in the state, led by B S Yediyurappa, paid an additional Rs 4,000 to farmers, but that has now been stopped."
"When Basavaraj Bommai was the CM, he introduced the Raita Vidya Nidhi scheme (scholarship for agricultural labourers' children), but that too was stopped. It is unfortunate that the Siddaramaiah-led government is unable to come to the rescue of farmers, who are in distress due to rains and floods," he added.
"None of the ministers have visited affected areas or met farmers. On the whole, the government has completely forgotten the interests of the farmers. Amid internal fighting in the ruling party for the CM post, the administrative machinery has completely collapsed," Vijayendra further said.
Noting that he has held discussions with the Leader of Opposition, party leaders, and alliance partner JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy regarding the plan of action for the upcoming winter session, Vijayendra said, "Issues concerning north Karnataka are usually neglected and discussed on the last day during the winter session at Belagavi, just for the sake of it."
"But this time, the opposition parties have decided to press for discussion on issues concerning north Karnataka, farmers, and irrigation in the first three to four days itself," he added.
Alleging a "conspiracy" by the Congress government in the state for not properly implementing central government schemes, he said, "To get the money released for the central government schemes, the state government will have to submit a progress report."
"Without doing any of that, if they say central funds are not coming, and the state government is responsible for it, it is not right. To hide its failures, the state government puts the blame on the Centre, and it has become a habit for them," he added.
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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.
