Job aspirants in Dharwad protest demanding recruitment drive to fill vacant govt posts
Dharwad (PTI): Several job aspirants on Monday staged a protest here demanding that the Karnataka government launch a recruitment drive to fill vacancies across various departments.
Police said 35 people, including women, were detained.
The demonstration was organised by Janasamanyara Vedike and Udyogakankshigala Horata Samiti.
Aspirants had planned to march from Srinagar Circle to the District Commissioner’s office, but police intervened and detained many of the participants.
Students from different parts of the city assembled in the Srinagar area and raised anti-government slogans.
They urged the government to announce a clear policy during the upcoming winter session of the state legislature to fill all vacant posts and introduce more student-friendly measures.
Police had earlier denied permission for the protest, citing traffic congestion and potential law-and-order issues. Despite this, the organisers went ahead with the demonstration.
Speaking to reporters later, Dharwad Police Commissioner N Shashikumar said the job aspirants had sought permission, but it was withheld due to security concerns.
"They claimed around 30,000 students would join the protest. Some PG and library science students had spoken about holding an indefinite dharna and blocking junctions. We asked for clarification on who would lead the protest and how many would actually participate," he said.
He noted that around 80,000 students live in the area and that it is surrounded by schools, colleges and hospitals.
"If miscreants misuse such a situation in a student-populated area, law and order could easily deteriorate. For these reasons, permission was not granted," he said.
According to the commissioner, the organisers failed to provide complete information to the authorities. On Monday morning, nearly 200 local students and aspirants gathered to demonstrate.
"I told the organisers that the protest was unlawful. Even one wrong act could have led to serious problems. We explained that the government had already taken certain steps, but they insisted on marching to the DC office," he said.
He added that the route passes several coaching centres and that police detained the protesters as a precaution. "We have detained 35 people, including women," he said.
Shashikumar recalled that during an earlier protest by the same group, some individuals had shouted "inappropriate" slogans and blocked Jubilee Circle, inconveniencing the public.
"There is no question of suppressing protests. Everyone has the right to protest, but it must be done as per the rules," he said.
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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.
