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For an idea of how different the R323-generation Mercedes SL is to its predecessor, consider the press pack, which runs to nearly 20,000 words. A dissertation-length work, it contains an onslaught of information that explains Mercedes’ repositioning of the model from aristocratic two-seat tourer with sporting undertones to something much more muscular, aggressive and, according to at least one exec, with the basic ingredients to tempt people out of their Porsche 911 Cabriolets and Targas. Long story short, the SL has been properly AMG-ified. It starts with an all-new aluminium platform. The material used isn’t surprising, given the SL has since 2011 been constructed from lightweight aluminium, but this time the structure is dramatically more rigid (the old R231 was hardly a damp flannel, either) and the development has been undertaken not at Sindelfingen but by AMG in Affalterbach. That alone is quite the statement of intent, at least in dynamic terms, and the upcoming replacement for the Mercedes-AMG GT will inherit plenty of this new SL's hardware. The long-snounted roadster also now comes with front driveshafts and rear-axle steering, for added performance and agility, and returns to having a lighter fabric (rather than a metal folding) roof. Lastly, and for the first time ever, there are back seats. So the SL is overhauled, and has a new game plan. But is it any good on the road? We thought so when we drove the range-topping 577bhp, £176,000 Mercedes-AMG SL 63 in the US, where its ability to engage one moment and coddle you over distance the next seemed outstanding – even if at that price, in that balmy weather, and on those smooth roads, you’d absolutely expect as much. The less spectacular SL 55 driven here, on wintry UK roads, has an altogether tougher task. For one thing, and like its bigger brother, it’s hardly in bargain territory. For the £148,000 Mercedes-AMG asks, you could buy the faster-on-paper Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS and have enough change to get a Volkswagen Up GTI. At that price you might also reasonably expect the power output figure to start with a ‘5’ if not a ‘6’. Instead, the SL 55 makes do with 469bhp. However, less than outright top-end power, it's the easy-going sledgehammer manner of AMG’s twin-turbocharged M177 4.0-litre V8 that informs much of the car's personality, and 516lb ft delivered from only 2000rpm is pretty emphatic. It means that while SL 55 lacks truly jaw-dropping performance, it is ready to shift itself at almost any speed and in any gear. This engine is decently free of lag, too, so the performance really is press-and-go. Unsurprisingly such effortless pace plays nicely into the car’s GT credentials, which are in general excellent, but for the ever so slight brittleness that creeps into the ride quality on poor surfaces. Perhaps the SL 63 - with its McLaren-esque, anti-roll-bar-less, cross-linked hydraulic damping system – will do better in this respect, though the SL 55, on traditional semi-active suspension, is hardly what you’d call rustic. With a comfortable, plush, cosseting cabin and free-breathing vertical body control, most of time it just gobbles up big miles without thought. Back to top It eats up B-roads with less natural ease but plenty of enthusiasm nonetheless. Traction is superb, to the extent that this chassis will take full power and torque in second gear on a cold, greasy surface. The agility-enhancing effects of the rear-wheel steering, which works in contrary motion to the front wheels at anything below 60mph, are also apparent, and impressively fluent. This is an easy car to place at speed and it gives you the confidence to chase the throttle and revel in that monster V8. As a luxury, cross-country, all-season GT of surprising precision, the SL 55 works well. And there are, of course, many, many chassis and engine modes that give the car pretty staggering breadth. But as a proper 911 rival? I’m not so sure. At almost 1900kg, the SL 55 is too heavy, and while clever in the way it manages its mass, the car can never escape its effects. You, the driver, are always aware of it, waiting for it to tug the nose off line through an unexpectedly tight corner, or for the body to fall a step behind what the road is doing. That neither of these things ever really happens is a mark of just how well sorted the SL 55 is, but the point is that you feel as though they might, and that's not so enjoyable. Back to top The electromechanical steering is also somewhat soulless compared with the electrohydraulic set-up in the AMG GT and the four-wheel-drive chassis can be a touch too neutral at times, though perhaps this is one of the car’s virtues. It depends what you're after. If material plushness and dynamic solidity are your priorites, you'll enjoy the Mercedes and love using it. But if you want a sports car that does more than hold you at arm's length, charming you superficially with its thumping engine and easy pace... So, altogether the SL 55 is an immensely capable car. Perhaps there are some unflattering interior plastics for this price point, and the fact that the wind deflector is manual not automatic is pretty unforgivable at this price, but in the main it's a complete product all right. So complete, in fact, that you might wonder whether it's trying to do too much. Fast and agreeable to live with the car might be, but the GT-leaning driving experience lacks bite and never really gets under your skin, or at least it didn't in an afternoon or two of driving on some of the UK's best roads. It’ll be interesting to see if the fire-breathing, more technically sophisticated SL 63 does better over here, or whether it too will feel built more with base-covering in mind than real intent. Source

Creepy-crawlies with a menacing bite that can trigger an insatiable itch, ants are the stuff of nightmares for many people. A close-up image of one of these pint-size terrors from Nikon's Small World Photomicrography Competition 2022(opens in new tab) is eliciting a horrified response that has spread across the internet like venom through the lymphatic system. Eugenijus Kavaliauskas, a Lithuanian photographer, captured the horrific sight, which earned him an "Images of Distinction" nod from the judges. Appropriately titled "Ant (Camponotus)," the image was captured by magnifying the ant's alien-like face five times under a stereo 10x microscope. Kavaliauskas called it an example of "God's designs and the many interesting, beautiful, unknown miracles under people's feet," according to The Washington Post So, what makes this zoomed-in image so frightening? Perhaps it's the insect's antennae, which look eerily similar to a demon's piercing red eyes. Or maybe it's the insect's razor-sharp teeth built to pierce its victim's flesh with a single bite The creepy image isn't the only scary thing about ants. Entomologists have documented ants morphing into zombies after coming into contact with mind-controlling parasites, vomiting into each other’s mouths to form social bonds and queens willingly sacrificing themselves as a way to retain the throne. The ant image wasn't the only one that caught the judges' attention. Other spooky snaps that earned awards included a tiger beetle devouring a fly, a hulking blob of slime and a psychedelic image of a stained dinosaur bone. Source

Born: December 30, 1917 Achievement: Founder of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd; Awarded with Padma Shri Bhai Mohan Singh can be called as the doyen of pharmaceutical industry in India. He is the founder of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. Bhai Mohan Singh was born on December 30, 1917 in Rawalpindi district. His father Bhai Gyan Chand was a Hindu and his mother Sunder Dai was a Sikh. Bhai Mohan Singh began his business career in the construction business during the Second World War. His firm bagged a contract to build roads in the North East. After Partition, he left Rawalpindi and settled down in New Delhi. Bhai Mohan Singh started business as a moneylender. Ranbaxy was started by his cousins Ranjit Singh and Gurbax Singh. Ranbaxy's name was a fusion of Ranjit and Gurbax's names. They were distributors for A. Shionogi, a Japanese pharmaceutical company manufacturing vitamins and anti-TB drugs. When Ranbaxy defaulted on a loan, Bhai Mohan Singh bought the company on August 1, 1952, for Rs 2.5 lakh. Bhai Mohan Singh collaborated with Italian pharma company Lapetit Spa and later on bought it. Bhai Mohan Singh made his mark in the pharmaceuticals industry in the late 1960s when he launched his first superbrand, Calmpose. Calmpose was an imitation of Roche's valium. But Roche had not patented it in India. In early 1970s when Indian adopted a regime of process patents in the Bhai Mohan Singh quickly realised that one could make any product in the world through reverse engineering. He established an R&D facility at Mohali and launched one blockbuster pill after the other, such as Roscillin, Cifran etc. Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd went public in 1973. At this time Bhai Mohan Singh introduced his eldest son Parvinder Singh in the company, who later on became the company's Managing Director in 1982. Bhai Mohan Singh also co-founded Max India with his youngest son, Analjit Singh. With liberalisation differences arose between Bhai Mohan Singh and Parvinder Singh over the expansion and professionalisation strategy of Ranbaxy. Subsequently, in 1999 in a boardroom coup of sorts Bhai Mohan Singh was forced to bow down and Parvider took over the company. This broke Bhai Mohan Singh's spirit and he retired from active company affairs. He died on March 27, 2006. Bhai Mohan Singh was a former vice president of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and was awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution in civic matters. For his contribution to the industrial development of Punjab, the Punjab Goverment had named an Industrial Township near Ropar after Bhai Mohan Singh. Source

Early voting is fully underway in Georgia as voters head back to the polls to determine the last outstanding Senate race of the midterm elections: the runoff contest between Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker. While Democrats have been guaranteed control of the Senate, they have an opportunity to expand their majority after outperforming expectations in the Nov. 8 elections. Both Warnock and Walker failed to earn more than 50% of the vote in Georgia's general election, triggering a runoff election Dec. 6 between only the two candidates. What is a runoff? Georgia has a unique election system where a runoff election is held with only the top two vote-getters if no candidate earns more than 50% of the vote. The runoff election acts as a political tiebreaker, where a candidate has to earn a majority of the vote. After the Nov. 8 elections, Warnock led Walker by more than 30,000 votes, but only earned 49.4% of the total votes – Walker earned 48.5%. Chase Oliver, the libertarian candidate, won 2.1% of the vote which triggered the runoff. What’s happening? In 2020, Georgia proved itself to be a battleground state, not to be taken for granted by either Democrats or Republicans. In his last runoff election, Warnock defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler by only 2 percentage points at 51%to 49%. This runoff is looking to be just as close. Both parties are pulling out all the stops for the race. The campaign arm of Senate Democrats, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, announced a $7 million investment in field organizing efforts since the Nov. 8 election. National Republicans have borrowed the po[CENSORED]r political machine of Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. The Senate Leadership Fund, a PAC with ties to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is investing $2 million of its own money into the operation which includes voter outreach and data analytics. High profile campaign surrogates are getting in the mix as well. Former President Barack Obama will head down to Georgia on Thursday to stump for Warnock. Obama was previously in Georgia in late October, and blasted Walker as “a celebrity that wants to be a politician.” Kemp recently campaigned with Walker for the first time this fall. Walker lagged behind his Republican colleagues on the ballot on Nov. 8. Kemp won reelection with 2.1 million votes against Democrat Stacey Abrams but Walker earned just over 1.9 million votes – about 200,000 fewer votes than Kemp. Far-right candidates struggled:Who's to blame? Experts say Trump, GOP Kemp implored voters to not “believe the polls. Don’t believe the political pundits that are saying this race doesn’t matter anymore. It matters.” What’s at stake? Democrats won control of the Senate after flipping Pennsylvania’s Senate seat blue and defending key seats in Nevada and Arizona. But if Warnock wins, Democrats would expand their razor-thin advantage in the Senate to an outright 51-49 majority. 'Least of two evils':Why swing voters in Pa. backed Democrats in a midterm destined for the GOP In early 2021, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had to negotiate a power sharing agreement with McConnell because the chamber was split evenly between 50 members of the Democratic caucus and 50 Republicans. Vice President Kamala Harris and her tie-breaking vote gave Democrats the majority. A win in Georgia would also boost Democrats ahead of the 2024 elections, when 33 seats are up for reelection and Democrats will be defending 23 of them. “It’s not about this December. It’s gonna be about November two years from now and the future of our country y’all,” said Kemp, stumping for Walker. Source

WASHINGTON – Four months after the Supreme Court temporarily blocked President Joe Biden's power to prioritize certain immigrants in the country illegally for deportation, the justices will revisit the issue Tuesday in the first major immigration case of the term. Biden's administration wants to focus enforcement on immigrants who pose a threat to national security or public safety. But that approach, which officials announced last year, represents a departure from the Trump administration's more sweeping tactics. And two conservatives states, Texas and Louisiana, sued over the strategy. The case is one of several challenging Biden's authority to make policy without explicit authorization from Congress – an issue likely to become more prominent now that Republicans will control the House of Representatives. Biden's record at the high court on that question has been spotty, with the 6-3 conservative majority shutting down his COVID-19 eviction moratorium and vaccine-or-testing mandate for large employers. Immigration advocates question whether Texas and Louisiana should be allowed to sue. The states claim Biden's policy forced them to spend more money on law enforcement, health care and education. But critics say the states have sought to increase their po[CENSORED]tions and that those costs would rise with an influx of non-immigrants as well. "Just because you say it's a drain on resources doesn't actually mean that that is real," said Sirine Shebaya, executive director of the National Immigration Project, whose group co-authored a brief in the case supporting Biden's position. "They are actively targeting this group and breaking it apart from the rest of the po[CENSORED]tion, even though federal and state law require that all residents of a state be treated similarly." Louisiana Solicitor General Liz Murrill pushed back on that argument, asserting that states should be permitted to prioritize their resources as they see fit. "We do not have a money tree in the backyard, nor can we print money," Murrill said. "Any argument that our position on illegal immigration is somehow in conflict with a policy of encouraging growth in our states is falsely equating two things that are wildly dissimilar." Texas and Louisiana told the Supreme Court this year in their brief that other states have been allowed to sue on similar grounds. The states told the court that officials have an obligation to "protect the health and well-being of their residents by protecting them from criminal aliens that Congress has ordered detained." The federal government doesn't have the resources to detain and deport every immigrant in the country illegally. Like previous administrations, the Biden administration sought in a Department of Homeland Security memorandum last year to focus its immigration enforcement on people it believes pose a threat to national security or public safety or who are recent border crossers. But the states say that federal law demands more than that: It requires the federal government detain immigrants who have committed certain crimes, such as aggravated felonies or human trafficking. The Biden administration doesn't have the power, they say, to pick and choose which of those immigrants to target for enforcement. A federal district court in Texas sided with the states and halted the policy's enforcement. A three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit – all three of whom were nominated by GOP presidents – declined to put the district court's ruling on hold. Biden then filed an emergency request in July asking the Supreme Court to review the 5th Circuit's decision. Days later, a 5-4 majority of the court declined Biden's request, barring his ability to carry out the policy. But the court also agreed to hear oral arguments, shifting the case off its emergency docket and delving more deeply into the merits of the legal questions at issue. The court's three liberal justices – joined by conservative Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett – said they would have granted the Biden administration's request. Though the Biden administration has lost several high-profile cases dealing with administrative policies and regulations, it secured a major win this year in another immigration dispute that had some key arguments in common with the current case. In the final opinion handed down in the term that ended in June, a 5-4 majority allowed the Biden administration to end a Trump-era immigration policy that required migrants seeking asylum to remain in Mexico while their cases are reviewed, ending a yearlong legal fight over a policy critics said contributed to a humanitarian crisis on the border. Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the court's liberal wing in that decision. Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Barrett dissented. Roberts, writing for the majority, said that the lower court's ruling against the administration "imposed a significant burden upon the executive’s ability to conduct diplomatic relations with Mexico." That's because, Roberts noted, the United States cannot unilaterally return migrants who are from Central America to Mexico. Those returns must be negotiated with Mexican officials. A decision is expected next year. Source

Prominent environmental scientist James Lovelock, famous for his proposal that the Earth behaves as a living being, died in his home in Dorset, England, on his 103rd birthday (July 26) following complications from a fall, according to a statement posted on Twitter on behalf of his family. “I am devastated by Jim’s death. He was a source of inspiration to me for my entire career.” Richard Betts, a climate researcher at the University of Exeter, tells BBC News. “Jim’s influence is widespread, profound and long-lasting.” Lovelock was born in 1919, about 30 miles north of London. While he avidly read science and history books growing up, he was not a high-achieving student, according to The New York Times. Nonetheless, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, and doctorates in medicine and biophysics from different institutions in the UK, according to Lovelock’s website. Lovelock’s scientific contributions were many. In the 1940s and 1950s, he studied the effects of temperature on living cells at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, reports NPR. According to his website, his research showed that the mechanisms of cellular damage during freezing depend on salt concentrations. He also participated in experiments that successfully froze and thawed living hamsters. In 1956, Lovelock invented an electron capture detector that paved the way for gas chromatography technology. According to the Times, his detector helped scientists understand how toxic chemicals contaminate the environment, that human-made pollution causes smog, and that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) once used in aerosol cans and air conditioners were accumulating in the atmosphere; however, he initially concluded that CFCs posed no harm, which he later admitted was “a gratuitous blunder,” the outlet reports. But it was in the late 1960s, the Times reports, that Lovelock presented his most famous idea: that the Earth self-regulates its climate and temperature much like how a living organism regulates its metabolism, and that all living things participate in this global homeostasis. He named this idea the Gaia hypothesis after the Greek goddess of the Earth. Though controversial at first, it slowly gained acceptance and has become influential in the study of the causes and effects of climate change, according to the Times. “He had a great mind and a will to be independent,” renowned environmentalist and author Bill McKibben tells the Times. “As global warming emerged as the greatest issue of our time, the Gaia theory helped us understand that small changes could shift a system as large as the Earth’s atmosphere.” In 2004, Lovelock stirred controversy again when he proclaimed that nuclear energy was essential to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reports the Times. Lovelock also authored numerous books, including The Revenge of Gaia and A Rough Ride to the Future, which both cover aspects of climate change. His most recent was 2019’s Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence, which posits that a new era of life marked by the rise of artificially intelligent beings has already begun. Lovelock received numerous accolades throughout his career, including the Amsterdam Prize for the Environment from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts in 1990 and the Blue Planet Prize—considered by many as equivalent to a Nobel Prize for environmental work—from the Asahi Glass Foundation in 1997 for pioneering trace-element detection technology and for formulating his Gaia Hypothesis. Lovelock is survived by his wife, Sandra, and their four children, Christine, Jane, Andrew, and John. “To the world, he was best known as a scientific pioneer, climate prophet, and conceiver of the Gaia Theory,” the family’s statement reads. “To us, he was a loving husband and wonderful father with a boundless sense of curiosity, a mischievous sense of humour, and a passion for nature.” Source

Live Performance Title: Raftaar | All Black Signer Name: Raftaar Live Performance Location: / Official YouTube Link: Your Opinion About the Track (Music Video): 08/10

Nick Movie: Cirkus Time: 23|12|22 Netflix / Amazon / HBO?: - Duration of the movie: / Trailer:

Artist: Alka Yagnik Real Name: Alka Yagnik Birth Date /Place: 20|03|1966 / Kolkata, India Age: 56 Social status (Single / Married): Married Artist Picture: Musical Genres: Filmi Awards: National Film Awards Top 3 Songs (Names): Tip Tip Barsa Paani , Ladki Badi Anjani Hai, Chura Ke Dil Mera Other Information: Alka Yagnik (born 20 March 1966) is an Indian playback singer who works predominantly in Hindi cinema. She has been described in the media as one of the most prominent and successful playback singers in Bollywood. In her career spanning over four decades she has recorded over 20000 songs for films and albums in various Indian languages and received several accolades including two National Film Awards, two Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards and a record seven Filmfare Awards for Best Female Playback Singer[note 1] from a record of thirty-six nominations.

Musician Name: Alka Yagnik Birthday / Location: 20|03|1966 / Kolkata, India Main instrument: Vocals Musician Picture: Musician Awards & Nominations: National Film Awards Best Performance: Tip Tip Barsa Paani, Ladki Badi Anjani Hai, Chura Ke Dil Mera Other Information: /

Music Title: MAAL WALI AUNTY Signer: Bilal Shaikh Release Date : 19|04|2015 Official Youtube Link: Informations About The Signer: / Your Opinion About The Track (Music Video): 10/10

Researchers digging in Peru's Ocucaje desert have uncovered the skull of an enormous marine predator thought to be the ancestor of modern whales and dolphins. Four feet long (1.2 meters) and lined with knife-like teeth, the skull appears to be a new species of Basilosaurus — a genus of ferocious marine mammals that lived some 36 million years ago during the Eocene epoch, researchers from the National University of San Marcos (UNMSM) in Lima told Reuters. From snout to tail, the creature probably measured about 39 feet (12 meters) long, or about the size of a city bus. For now, researchers are calling this ancient beast the "Ocucaje Predator." It won't be formally named until the team publishes a scientific description of the species in a peer-reviewed journal. "It was a marine monster," Rodolfo Salas, founder and director of the paleontology department at the Museum of Natural History at UNMSM, told Reuters and other media outlets at a news conference on March 17. "When it was searching for its food, it surely did a lot of damage." According to the researchers, the Ocucaje Desert was once the bottom of an ancient ocean. Basilosaurus and its ferocious cousins swam these seas as apex predators from 41 million to 34 million years ago, gliding through the water with bodies that resembled enormous snakes, but with a large pair of flippers near their heads. "Basilosaurus" means "king lizard," and the creature's serpentine skeleton was once mistaken for a marine reptile, according to Smithsonian. Scientists now know that Basilosaurus was a mammal — a fully aquatic cetacean, like the whales and dolphins that would follow it millions of years later. Earlier whale ancestors were mammals who lived on land full-time, then gradually evolved to be semi-aquatic over millions of years, Live Science previously reported. Beginning about 55 million years ago — 10 million years after the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs — whale ancestors finally became fully aquatic, giving rise to the first cetaceans. Today, there are more than 90 species of cetaceans. The Ocucaje desert is abundant in fossils, some dating back more than 42 million years, according to the researchers. Previous excavations have uncovered other early whale ancestors, dolphins, sharks and other creatures of the ancient deep. Source

Fifteen months ago, BMW’s M division celebrated one of its performance car icons with a fast and aggressive-looking special edition: the 626bhp BMW M5 CS. We road tested it in July last year, and it became the only car in 2021 to be awarded a five-star score. Now here we are at the end of 2022 with a sense of déjà vu, as Munich sets out to hit even greater heights with a BMW M4 whose jib is cut in similar – if not identical – style. The BMW M4 CSL marks a celebration of a quite different magnitude: the 50th birthday of BMW M. It is only the third car yet to bear the ‘CSL’ identifier and the first in almost 20 years. So while there have been few BMW CSLs over the decades, this one meets with huge expectations. Not least, perhaps, because this car’s immediate predecessor, the ‘E46’ M3 CSL of 2004, is still regarded as the finest-handling car BMW has yet produced. That the CSL isn’t just another roll-caged, track-intended limited-run special is what ought to make the following pages so fascinating. How has BMW defined what CSL needs to stand for today, as distinct from how it has defined a BMW M4 GTS more recently, for example? Is this just the fastest, lightest, grippiest and most powerful M4 that it can make in 2022? Or has BMW targeted other qualities to make its ultimate mid-sized M car truly stand out? Range at a glance The BMW M3 may once have been a homologation-special coupé, but it has since become an extensive range of models. Among them is a four-door saloon, two-door coupé and convertible, and also now an M3 Touring fast estate option as well as the new CSL special edition. If you’re buying a regular M4, there are the M Carbon, M Pro and Technology packages, or there’s the £11k Ultimate package if you want every option in the brochure. Source

Azim Premji Profile Born: July 24, 1945 Achievements: Chairman of Wipro Technologies; Richest Indian for the past several years; Honored with Padma Bhushan in 2005. Azim Premji is Chairman of Wipro Technologies, one of the largest software companies in India. He is an icon among Indian businessmen and his success story is a source of inspiration to a number of budding entrepreneurs. Born on July 24, 1945, Azim Hashim Premji was studying Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA when due to the sudden demise of his father, he was called upon to handle the family business. Azim Premji took over the reins of family business in 1966 at the age of 21. At the first annual general meeting of the company attended by Azeem Premji, a shareholder doubted Premji's ability to handle business at such a young age and publicly advised him to sell his shareholding and give it to a more mature management. This spurred Azim Premji and made him all the more determined to make Wipro a success story. And the rest is history. When Azim Premji occupied the hot seat, Wipro dealt in hydrogenated cooking fats and later diversified to bakery fats, ethnic ingredient based toiletries, hair care soaps, baby toiletries, lighting products and hydraulic cylinders. Thereafter Premji made a focused shift from soaps to software. Under Azim Premji's leadership Wipro has metamorphosed from a Rs.70 million company in hydrogenated cooking fats to a pioneer in providing integrated business, technology and process solutions on a global delivery platform. Today, Wipro Technologies is the largest independent R&D service provider in the world. Azim Premji has several achievements to his credit. In 2000, Asiaweek magazine, voted Premji among the 20 most powerful men in the world. Azim Premji was among the 50 richest people in the world from 2001 to 2003 listed by Forbes. In April 2004, Times Magazine, rated him among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. He is also the richest Indian for the past several years. In 2005,Government of India honored Azim Premji with Padma Bhushan. Source

As the Ukrainian government worked to restore power and water following recent Russian military strikes, Ukrainians were mourning a Moscow-backed atrocity that began 90 years ago: the Holodomor. The Holodomor, which translates roughly to “death by hunger” in Ukrainian, is also known as the Great Famine. More than 3 million people died over two years as the Soviet government under Josef Stalin confiscated food and grain supplies and deported many Ukrainians. Pope Francis linked the current suffering of Ukrainians to the 1930s man-made famine, describing it Wednesday as “genocide artificially caused by Stalin.” He noted that Saturday marks the 90th anniversary of the start of the famine, which Ukraine commemorates every fourth Saturday of November with a Day of Memory. “Let us pray for the victims of this genocide and let us pray for so many Ukrainians – children, women, elderly, babies – who today are suffering the martyrdom of aggression," Francis said. Ninety years after the atrocity, Russia has "unleashed a full-scale war against us and wants to organize Holodomor 2.0," Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said Saturday on Twitter. "The crime must be punished," he said. "The world must hold the aggressor accountable." What is the Holodomor and what caused it? The Holodomor translates roughly to “death by hunger” in Ukrainian. It is how Ukrainians refer to the mass starvation deaths of millions in Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. The Holodomor was part of a larger famine that swept the Soviet Union as Stalin collectivized the agricultural economy by taking over small farms and prohibiting independent farmers from selling their crops. But specific policy decisions targeting Ukraine intensified the famine there, leading Ukraine and many nations to recognize the Holodomor as a genocide. It’s held that Stalin allowed Ukrainians to starve in order to quash Ukrainian resistance to the reorganization of its farms. When did the Holodomor start? The Holodomor took place from the early 1930s. Did Stalin deny the Holodomor? Stalin and the Soviet Union never recognized the Holodomor as a genocide. Discussion of the event was heavily repressed inside the Soviet Union and the USSR undertook a campaign to conceal the atrocity from the rest of the world. As Anne Applebaum reported in the Atlantic, journalists in the Soviet Union were subject to intense censure from Moscow. Western reporters, including New York Times reporter Walter Duranty, a Pulitzer-prize winner, downplayed the situation in Ukraine. “Conditions are bad, but there is no famine,” he infamously wrote in one 1933 story. The present-day Russian government minimizes what happened. In 2017, Russian Spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters that the characterization of the starvation as a genocide “contradicts historical facts.” Last year, Biden released a statement that said the millions of Ukrainians who died were “victims of the brutal policies and deliberate acts of the regime of Joseph Stalin.” “As we remember the pain and the victims of the Holodomor,’ the statement read, “the United States also reaffirms our commitment to the people of Ukraine today and our unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.” The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have passed resolutions recognizing the Holodomor as genocide, as have more than 20 U.S. states. The Holodomor Museum lists the U.S. among the 16 states in addition to Ukraine that have recognized the famine as genocide: Australia, Ecuador, Estonia, Canada, Colombia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, and the Vatican. Some other countries, such as Argentina, Chile and Spain, have condemned it as “an act of extermination.” Why is the Holodomor important? Despite the death of millions resulting from deliberate policy decisions by Stalin's regime, the Holodomor isn’t widely known in the United States. But it is a key part to understanding the deep divisions between Russia and Ukraine. It marks an early and brutal example in what many Ukrainians say is a long history of Moscow’s hostility toward its southwestern neighbor. Russians and Ukrainians are now retracing much of the history that has long been at the core of the tension between the two former Soviet Republics. One of Vladimir Putin’s central justifications for launching a war against Ukrainewas his claims that the two countries constitute one people. Source

ST. LOUIS — A 19-year-old woman is asking a federal court to allow her to watch her father's death by injection, despite a Missouri law barring anyone under 21 from witnessing an execution. Kevin Johnson faces execution on Nov. 29 for killing Kirkwood, Missouri, police officer William McEntee in 2005. Johnson's lawyers have appeals pending that seek to spare his life. Meanwhile, Johnson has requested that his daughter, Khorry Ramey, attend the execution, and she wants to be there. On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed an emergency motion with a federal court in Kansas City. The ACLU's court filing said the law barring under 21 serves no safety purpose and violates Ramey's Constitutional rights. Ramey, in a court declaration, called Johnson "the most important person in my life." "If my father were dying in the hospital, I would sit by his bed holding his hand and praying for him until his death, both as a source of support for him, and as a support for me as a necessary part of my grieving process and for my peace of mind," Ramey said. Johnson, now 37, has been incarcerated since Ramey was two years old. The ACLU said the two have been able to built a bond through visits, phone calls, emails and letters. Last month, she brought her newborn son to the prison to meet his grandfather. ACLU attorney Anthony Rothert said if Ramey can't attend the execution it will cause her "irreparable harm." Meanwhile, Johnson's lawyers have filed appeals seeking to halt the execution. They don't challenge his guilt but claim racism played a role in the decision to seek the death penalty, and in the jury's decision to sentence. Johnson is Black and McEntee was white. Johnson's lawyers also have asked the courts to intervene for other reasons, including a history of mental illness and his age — he was 19 at the time of the crime. Courts have increasingly moved away from sentencing teen offenders to death since the Supreme Court in 2005 banned the execution of offenders who were younger than 18 at the time of their crime. In a court filing last week to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Missouri Attorney General's Office stated there were no grounds for court intervention. "The surviving victims of Johnson's crimes have waited long enough for justice, and every day longer that they must wait is a day they are denied the chance to finally make peace with their loss," the state petition stated. McEntee, a husband and father of three, was among the police officers sent to Johnson's home on July 5, 2005, to serve a warrant for his arrest. Johnson was on probation for assaulting his girlfriend, and police believed he had violated probation. Johnson saw officers arrive and awoke his 12-year-old brother, Joseph "Bam Bam" Long, who ran next door to their grandmother's house. Once there, the boy, who suffered from a congenital heart defect, collapsed and began having a seizure. Johnson testified at trial that McEntee kept his mother from entering the house to aid his brother, who died a short time later at a hospital. Later that evening, McEntee returned to the neighborhood to check on unrelated reports of fireworks being shot off. That's when he encountered Johnson. Johnson pulled a gun and shot the officer. He then approached the wounded, kneeling officer and shot him again, killing him. The execution would be the first of three in the coming months in Missouri. The state plans to execute convicted killers Scott McLaughlin on Jan. 3 and Leonard Taylor on Feb. 7. Sixteen men have been executed in the U.S. this year. Alabama inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith had been scheduled to die Thursday for killing a preacher's wife in a murder-for-hire plot, but the execution was halted because state officials couldn't find a suitable vein to inject the lethal drugs. Source

Alysson Muotri shares how tapping into his inner creative spark fuels his pursuit of science. Alysson Muotri, a professor at the University of California, San Diego and director of the Stem Cell program, pushes the boundaries of neuroscience research. He builds brains for a living, then sends them on missions to outer space. Motivated by curiosity and creativity, his work is advancing scientists’ understanding of brain development and aging. In this episode narrated by Niki Spahich, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Alysson to learn more about what being a scientist means to him. Science Philosophy in a Flash is a series of mini podcasts produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. With a focus on the people behind the science, this podcast highlights researchers’ unique outlook on what motivates their pursuit of science and what it means to be a scientist. Source