GUWAHATI, India — In India’s northeastern state of Tripura, where sometimes finding a right adapter means scoping out a dozen shops, Harjeet Nath was determined to build a robot against all odds when Covid-19 struck. Last year, Tripura was declared ‘coronavirus free’ with only three confirmed cases having fully recovered by April. Only to have a pandemic emergency a month later, first with the outbreak of over 100 cases in the Border Security Force battalion in the Dhalai district followed by an influx of stranded residents from different parts of India. Closer to mid-May, Harjeet had already watched videos on the…
Author: zenger.news
PUNE, India — Tesla is coming to India but no one knows yet if Elon Musk will open a Gigafactory — in which the firm not only makes its cars but the batteries that go into them — in the country. Bhavish Aggarwal, though, plans to open a similar ‘Gigafactory’ for his own firm Ola — only it would be the biggest in the world and would be only for electric two-wheelers. The work on this 500-acre factory — approximately 140 kilometers (87 miles) from the southern Indian city of Bengaluru — in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu will start soon,…
“Live with dignity”, declares Gangubai Kothewali, the godmother of Mumbai red-light district Kamathipura. “Don’t fear anyone — police, politicians, minister, or pimp!” In the recent teaser released of the eponymous Bollywood film “Gangubai Kathiawadi”, Alia Bhatt plays the title role, based on the real-life sex worker and brothel owner. With her connections in the underworld, Kothewali allegedly ran sex rackets, peddled in drugs, and even ordered hitjobs. In the early 1960s, she also met India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to find a solution for the plight of sex workers. Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, known for his larger-than-life films, “Gangubai Kathiawadi”…
PUNE, India — “India has thriving wildlife and biodiversity — 70 percent of global tiger population, 70 percent of Asiatic lions, 60 percent of leopard population. The @narendramodi government is working on the reintroduction of the Cheetah, which went extinct in 1952. This Big Cat will be a reality soon,” Indian Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, tweeted recently with the hashtag #WorldWildlifeDay. The last [three] recorded Asiatic Cheetahs [in India] were shot by Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Koriya [a princely state of British Empire in India in the state of Chhattisgarh] in 1947, according to a tweet by Indian Forest…
As thousands of doctors leave Algeria for better pay, working conditions and opportunities, the North African country’s healthcare sector is under stress. An estimated 500 to 1,000 Algerian doctors move to France, Germany, Canada and Gulf countries, among others each year. The National Council of the Order of Physicians estimates that 15,000 doctors in total have left the country, according to Dr. Mohamed Bekkat Berkani, president of the National Order of Physicians and a member of Algeria’s Scientific Committee to Combat COVID-19. With the exodus due to deteriorating working conditions, the quality of medical care in the country has declined. About seven…
SYDNEY, Australia – The Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, Australia, celebrated the birth of a critically endangered black baby rhino on Feb. 24. As the zookeepers reached the premises next morning, they were greeted with the little calf standing next to her mother Bakhita in a special area of the enclosure. “This is the fourth calf for experienced mother Bakhita, who is the Zoo’s most successful Black Rhino breeding female and also the first female Black Rhino born here,” said Steve Hinks, Taronga Western Plains zoo director. Both the mother and child are under observation of the keepers through CCTV…
Amid increasing reports of violence against women in Zimbabwe during the pandemic, three women are coming forward to tell of their beatings at the hands of police. While the women were sitting on the verandah at one of their homes, police showed up and beat them before following them into the house to beat them some more, one of the victims told Zenger News. Naomi Burayimu, 42, suffered a broken hand. Sabina Jiri, 50, and Eunice Muchenje, 52, were beaten on their backs, chests, feet and buttocks, and are still dealing with their injuries. Burayimu, a street vendor, and her…
BIRMINGHAM, UK – A British car thief who led officers into a dangerous pursuit through snow-covered roads was tasered at the wheel and arrested after the officers managed to box him in with their patrol cars. The incident took place in the city center of Birmingham, West Midlands. Road cameras helped the police locate the stolen Porsche 911. The 31-year-old man, who later identified himself as Lee Smythe, sped through a red light. When the officers spotted him, he led them into the pursuit. Smythe tried to drive around a traffic island but soon spun the vehicle where the officers…
The Hindi film industry, popularly known as Bollywood, has seen a lot of changes in its 70 years of existence. But one thing has remained consistent — their idea of ‘beauty’, recent research has claimed. The Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based computer analysis, led by Indian-origin researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in the US, revealed that babies whose births were depicted in Bollywood films from the 1950s and 60s were more often boys; in today’s films, new-borns are about evenly split. “Our argument is simple,” the researchers wrote in their paper. “Popular movie content reflects social norms and beliefs in some form or shape.”…
SOUTHLAKE, USA — The Southlake Department of Public Safety has released a hair-raising video of a speeding vehicle crashing into a parked car with three kids in the back seat. The incident took place in the Southlake region at around 10.35 PM on Sept. 12, 2020, after which the accused was questioned by the cops. The local authorities released the video footage of the accident on March 3 to warn the citizens about the risks of speeding. “We warn you this is a graphic video. We are so grateful and thankful that none of our officers or the occupants of…