Dharmendra Pradhan, Lindy Cameron Discuss Deepening India-UK Academic Collaboration

By Deepak Arora

NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan met the British High Commissioner to India, Ms Lindy Cameron, and had engaging discussion on deepening academic collaboration between the two countries. The High Commissioner shared updates on the upcoming University of Southampton campus in Gurugram, set to open in July 2025. The two also had engaging discussions on deepening academic collaboration encouraging more UK students to Study in India as well as top UK universities to establish campuses in India, and strengthening the India-UK education partnership....more

New UK-India Cultural Agreement To Boost Creative Industries

NEW DELHI: The UK and India have signed a Programme of Cultural Cooperation, enhancing cultural exchange through the arts, heritage and creative industries, helping drive growth and opportunity. India's Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and the UK’s Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy signed on Friday the India–UK Programme of Cultural Cooperation....more

UP Government Launches Atal Scholarship For Higher Studies In UK

LUCKNOW, Aug 20: The Uttar Pradesh government has rolled out a new international scholarship programme named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Chevening UP Atal Scholarship will give talented students from the state a chance to study in the United Kingdom with full financial support.

The scheme is designed for students who have shown exceptional academic results. Under it, the government will cover almost all expenses including tuition fees, exam charges, accommodation, food, and yearly travel between India and the UK.

Officials estimate the cost of sponsoring each student at around Rs 45-48 lakh. In its first phase, five students have been selected to pursue their master's degrees in England.

The initiative has been made possible through a partnership between the Uttar Pradesh government and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth And Development Office (FCDO). The agreement was signed at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's residence in Lucknow.

Speaking about the launch, the Chief Minister said that the scholarship will help prepare UP's youth for leadership roles on the global stage. The scheme will initially run for three years.

Half of the scholarship cost will be borne by the UP government, while the other half will be funded by the FCDO. British High Commissioner to India, Lindy Cameron, met CM Yogi Adityanath and welcomed the collaboration, calling it a step towards strengthening educational ties.

Eligibility criteria include holding an undergraduate degree and applying to at least three recognised master's courses in the UK. Candidates must secure an unconditional offer from at least one programme to qualify.

Apart from covering university fees, the scholarship also provides a monthly stipend, travel allowance, visa cost, and grants to attend Chevening events in the UK.

The scheme aims to open global opportunities for bright students of Uttar Pradesh and nurture them into future leaders.

'OpenAI Will Eat Microsoft Alive': Elon Musk On GPT-5 Launch, Satya Nadella Reacts

LOS ANGELES, Aug 9: Tesla CEO Elon Musk warned Microsoft chief Satya Nadella of OpenAI "eating" his company alive - on the day the Sam Altman-led tech giant rolled out GPT-5 across its platforms.

"Today, GPT-5 launches across our platforms, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Azure AI Foundry," the Microsoft CEO said. "It's the most capable model yet from our partners at OpenAI, bringing powerful new advances in reasoning, coding, and chat, all trained on Azure."

Nadella said it had been only two and a half years since OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined him in Redmond to debut GPT-4 in Bing, and said the progress since then had been "incredible".

"The pace of progress is only accelerating, and I can't wait to see what developers, enterprises, and consumers will do with this latest breakthrough," he added.

Responding to Musk's "eat Microsoft alive" remark, Nadella said, "People have been trying for 50 years and that's the fun of it! Each day you learn something new and innovate, partner, and compete. Excited for Grok 4 on Azure and looking forward to Grok 5!"

Cursor AI, an AI-powered code editor based on Visual Studio Code, also confirmed GPT-5 integration, calling it "the most intelligent coding model our team has tested" and launching it free "for the time being."

Musk, who backs the Grok AI platform, added, "Except that Grok 4 Heavy is still the most powerful AI."

Earlier, Sam Altman said he felt "useless" after GPT-5 flawlessly solved a challenging email problem he struggled with. Speaking on a podcast, Altman described the experience as a "weird feeling," seeing AI's speed and precision.

Testing GPT-5, he said he was "scared" and compared the moment to the Manhattan Project. He cited physicist Robert Oppenheimer and suggested GPT-5 could have "permanent effects" on a similar scale, though not in a destructive sense.

OpenAI on Thursday rolled out ChatGPT-5 free to all users, touting "significant" AI capability upgrades as global competition in the sector intensifies. Altman called GPT-5 "clearly a model that is generally intelligent" and a "significant step" toward artificial general intelligence, though it does not yet learn continuously. He compared progress across versions: GPT-3 felt like a high school student, GPT-4 like a college student, and GPT-5 like a PhD-level expert.

The new model excels at autonomous "agent" tasks and "vibe coding", which generates apps on demand and is designed to be more trustworthy.

Indian CEO Offers Rs 2 Lakh Per Month Internship, No Degree Needed, Even High Schoolers Welcome

NEW DELHI, Aug 8: Siddharth Bhatia, co-founder and CEO of Puch AI, announced on X (formerly Twitter) a unique internship opportunity offering a monthly stipend between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh. The roles available are for an AI engineer and a "growth magician".

Remarkably, the positions are open to all, including high school students, with no formal degree required. The application process is unconventional: interested candidates are encouraged to comment directly on Bhatia's post, showcasing their skills and enthusiasm.

What sets this opportunity apart is its inclusivity: no formal degree is required, and even school students are eligible to apply. The internships are fully remote, allowing flexibility for candidates across India. To apply, interested individuals simply need to comment on CEO Siddharth Bhatia's LinkedIn post, explaining why they should be selected and what excites them about working at Puch AI.

In his post, Sidharth Bhatia added, "Comment why we should choose you and what you'd be excited to work on at Puch AI (no DMs, please)." He also encouraged referrals, stating, "Know someone who's a perfect fit? Tag them. If they're hired, you win an iPhone! (One tag per comment)."

In a postscript, he mentioned that Puch AI is also hosting a hackathon. Winners will receive an internship offer, while those who place in the top 10 will get a direct interview with the founders.

The lucrative stipend offer has made the post go viral, attracting significant attention from LinkedIn users. It has received nearly 1,000 likes and over 500 comments, with the comment section filled with application pitches from eager candidates. It appears the CEO's strategy was successful, effectively reaching the target audience and generating a strong response.

71st National Film Awards: Shah Rukh Khan And Vikrant Massey Win Best Actor For Jawan And 12th Fail

NEW DELHI, Aug 1: Shah Rukh Khan received the National award for Best Actor in Jawan. It was a tie as Vikrant Massey too won the Best Actor award for 12th Fail. This is the first National award for both Shah Rukh Khan and Vikrant Massey.

The winners of the 71st National Film Awards were announced here celebrating the best in cinema from 2023. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting revealed the winners on Friday at a press conference.

The 71st National Film Awards recognises films certified by the censor board from January 1 to December 31, 2023.