Google's Flagship Project Loon Impresses PM Modi

WASHINGTON:  Impressed by Google's flagship Project Loon - that takes internet to the remote and inaccessible areas - Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes this has multiple uses like long distance education, rural schools and telemedicine, officials said.

He was given a briefing about Loon during his tour to the Google headquarters in the Silicon Valley over the weekend.

Google officials told PM Modi that they were already doing a pilot project in Andhra Pradesh and the idea is to target rural areas which still do not have internet penetration.

"So, the Prime Minister felt that this could be a very very significant innovation to help us with rural connectivity," Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vikas Swarup said.

The Google officials said their research tells them that 160 million people can be lifted out of poverty if given internet access.

"So, the Prime Minister immediately felt applications of Project Loon in areas such as long distance education, rural schools and telemedicine etc. And they said that the technology exists to scale up," Mr Swarup said.

"As of now, it simply a means to deliver internet to places where no internet exists, but depending on what the requirements are, this could be scaled up," he added.

In his interaction with Google officials, the Prime Minister talked about his favourite concept called 'JAM' where the 'J' stands for the Jan Dhan Yojana, the 'A' stands for the Aadhaar platform and the 'M' stands for mobile governance.

PM Modi told them that the Jan Dhan Yojana is more or less done, 180 million people who were outside the banking sector have now been covered by bank accounts.

The Aadhaar project is about 90 per cent done. "But mobile governance is where he wanted to move on next and that is where he sought inputs from Google, how that could be made possible," Mr Swarup said.

Specifically, there was a discussion on the possibilities of Google technologies for the agricultural sector in terms of if they could develop algorithm etc. to predict rainfall or to say what is going to happen next in terms of crop patterns etc. which could really be of transformative use in agriculture, he added.

Here's how the cartoonists saw Narendra Modi's US visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently on the last leg of his six-day-long tour to the United States that has been creating quite a buzz. Apart from taking forward India’s bid for the coveted United Nations Security Council permanent membership, Modi is out wooing tech giants and investors to support his Digital India initiatives. He has already checked out Facebook, Google and Tesla Motors off the list by visiting their respective headquarters and pitching his vision.

Even though the enthusiasm of the press in the US has been somewhat lukewarm this time, the media in India has been giving it saturation coverage, beaming his meetings and speeches live.

While editorials in newspapers are heaping praise on his vision and diplomacy while dissecting the potential outcome of the prime minister's visit, cartoonists have focussed on the concerns back home about internet access, privacy and net neutrality, which the Modi government itself is currently grappling with, and, of course, on noisy controversies such as the one caused by Modi's signature,  on the national flag which resulted in a social media outrage.

Here’s a roundup of some of the cartoons that appeared in major newspapers over the last few days:

The Economic Times  

The Hindustan Times

The Indian Express

The Hindustan Times

The Hindustan Times

 
 
 

Activists ask Mark Zuckerberg to wash his hands after meeting with Modi

Among the highest points of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US tour was his meeting on Sunday with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. At the end of the mutually congratulatory encounter, Modi wrote on the real wall at the Facebook headquarters. "Ahimsa is the greatest Dharma," declared the message, written in Gujarati.

Ironically, Modi's alleged refusal to adhere to the precept of Ahimsa, has motivated a group of activists called the Alliance for Justice and Accountability, to start a campaign called Zuck, Wash Your Hands! In response to the Modi-Zuckerberg meet, they aim to send hundreds of bottles of hand sanitiser to the Facebook founder to help wash the blood off his hands – reference to Modi's failure to halt religious riots that left nearly 1,000 people dead in Gujarat in 2002 when he was chief minister.

"The American public – and in particular, the leaders of Silicon Valley – must remember that Modi is not simply a prime minister making a trade visit, he is a man responsible for genocide," said a spokesperson for the collective.

The campaign invites people to fill out a form and have a bottle of sanitizer sent to Zuckerberg on their behalf. A total of 250 bottles have been sent out so far, the website reports. Each bottle bears the name of one of the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Modi's message at Facebook would almost seem to be a response to allegations against his complicity in the riots. Modi frequently invoked Gandhi's legacy of non-violence on his tours abroad. He has so far unveiled Mahatma Gandhi busts in Australia, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and a Centre for Gandhian studies in China.

Modi in US: Emphatic posturing on climate change

India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), to be unveiled on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday on October 2 for added moral dimension, are keenly awaited across world capitals after Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointedly apprised leading western nations, notably the United States, France and Britain, of the third world’s need for access to finance and technology for clean energy to combat climate change without hurting their development. By making developmental priorities non-negotiable, Modi put the onus of the success of the Paris summit (Nov 30-Dec 11, 2015) on the developed world.

Climate change is real. Earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, melting ice caps, polluted air and water are taking a severe toll on human and animal life. The vagaries of the weather afflict agriculture, putting food security at risk. The warning bells have tolled unheeded for over three decades, but now global warming, ozone depletion, and rising sea levels threaten the very existence of several small island nations from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Of special concern are the Pacific Island countries that helped Indian scientists to track the movement of the iconic Mars mission, a point Modi pointedly made in his speech at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York, where he demanded “climate justice” and urged acceptance of “common but differentiated responsibilities”.

It’s a huge challenge. At least $100 billion annually will be needed to help developing countries cope with and fight climate change; as world finance ministers meet in Lima, Peru (Oct. 7-8), it is uncertain if they can agree on that figure. Yet the man-made crisis is so serious that a further rise in temperatures must be kept below 2 degrees Celsius, or climate change will become irreversible.

Beijing, the greatest greenhouse gas emitter, made a deal with Washington two years ago to peak its emissions by 2030, before beginning reductions. Delhi may announce its peak emission target on October 2, but the government is adamant that combating poverty and giving over 300 million Indians access to energy has priority over reducing its carbon footprint. Modi’s hopes of accessing technology were raised when Microsoft founder Bill Gates joined his meeting with President Hollande.

Claiming that India is already implementing many of the Agenda 2030 goals adopted at the summit as these coincide with the philosophy of BJP ideologue, Deendayal Upadhyaya, who placed the welfare of the last man at the centre of his concerns, Modi urged cooperation in developing renewable sources of energy through innovation, finance and technology. He felt the developed world must make lifestyle changes to arrest environmental degradation through “sustainable consumption”, and was adamant that there would be no compromise with his election promises of housing, power, water and sanitation for all, which are critical for welfare, human dignity, and female empowerment.

India’s development agenda, Modi stressed, is compatible with the Sustainable Development Goals. It includes a financial inclusion scheme for poverty alleviation (Jan Dhan Yojana) under which 180 million new bank accounts have been opened; a nationwide skill development programme; direct transfer of benefits; funds to the unbanked; insurance for all; pension for all; smart cities projects; Swachh Bharat campaign in cities and villages; and plans to provide clean drinking water and 24×7 electricity. The ‘save the girl child’ and ‘educate her’ campaign has made powerful inroads across the country, while the prime minister’s advocacy of a “blue revolution” (fisheries) converges with anxieties regarding global warming and the danger to island states.Much of India’s new economic growth will come from individual enterprises supported by microfinances, start-ups and innovations, but India has to revive her manufacturing sector and make massive investments in infrastructure to realise the smart cities which are seen as sustainable engines of progress. India is also working to make farms more productive and better connected to markets, so farmers are less vulnerable to inclement weather.

Aware that his ambitions may trigger fears that India might be lax in reducing emissions, Modi reminded his audience that Indian culture regards the Earth as Mother, and pointed to his government’s stated ambitions to produce 175 GW of electricity through renewable energy sources in just seven years (by 2022), and undertake a host of energy efficiency measures, including a tax on coal; improving public transportation; using household waste to generate electricity; and a huge afforestation programme, especially along national highways.

Asserting that India’s developmental paradigm includes its development partners in Asia, Africa and the island states from the Pacific to the Atlantic, Modi cannily insisted that the developed world must fulfill its financing commitments for development and climate change, without clubbing the two under the same head! In a swipe at the hitherto unchallenged Patent Raj of the west, he hoped the Technology Facilitation Mechanism would turn technology and innovation into an instrument for global public good, not just private returns.