
Need incentives for farmers to adopt non-chemical fertiliser-based farming: Agri secretary
farming
practices, agriculture secretary
Devesh Chaturvedi
has said. Addressing an event organised by policy research institute Pahlé India Foundation (PIF), Chaturvedi, secretary in the Department of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare, also suggested that natural farming need not to remain confined to a niche market and said it should be mainstreamed so as to make nutritional products available for the common people.
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Also speaking at the event, former NITI Aayog Vice Chairman
Rajiv Kumar
said that to achieve nutritional, ecological and health security, a paradigm shift in agriculture is necessary and rigorous empirical research is needed to establish the viability of non-chemical farming in this regard.
Harpinder Sandhu
of Federation University, Australia, and Aditi Rawat, PIF, presented a methodology for a pan-India study to assess the viability and scalability of regenerative farming across diverse agro-climatic zones. The study aims to generate scientific evidence to guide future policy and practices.
Other experts at the event also emphasised the urgent need for scientific data, scalable models, and stronger collaboration among researchers, government, and practitioners to accelerate adoption of regenerative farming across India's agro-climatic zones.
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Hindustan Times
20 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Before They Can Rule the World, Chinese Robots Need to Master Basic Chores
BEIJING—Humanlike robots are great for entertainment. Menial labor? Not so much. At the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing this weekend, more than 500 humanoid robots competed in both sporting events and real-world tasks such as moving boxes, delivering luggage and cleaning rooms. Some were remarkably fast and agile, but most were clumsy and inconsistent. Throwing away nine pieces of trash in a mock hotel room took more than 17 minutes for one robot competitor. In a pharmacy simulation, a robot spent nearly five minutes grabbing three boxes of medicine. In a factory scenario, a robot spent about two minutes placing two containers on designated shelves. 'Everything that is easy for humans is a challenge for robots,' said Diana Kleingarn, a Ph.D. student from Germany who helped train soccer-playing robots. China has said it wants to be a world leader in humanoid robots by 2027. The Olympic-style event, however, suggested that truly useful humanoids are still years away. Two robots fight in a free-combat event. A robot trained by the Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence in collaboration with Unitree Robotics, a leading Chinese robot maker, competed in a hotel reception scenario, using a three-fingered hand to drag a suitcase to a designated door. It moved in small, stomping motions, freezing at times. 'Many of our humanoid robot algorithms are still in the lab demo stage,' said Huang Siyuan, an institute researcher. Another competition simulating a hotel environment involved entering and exiting through a door and navigating through a room containing a bed and furniture to pick up and throw away nine pieces of trash. Some robots finished in under 10 minutes, while others were a lot slower. A team of students from Renmin University of China entered a two-armed, wheeled robot made by Chinese manufacturer AgileX Robotics into the hotel-cleaning event. It was operated by a human team member using virtual-reality goggles and controllers. After two months of training, the robot took more than 12 minutes to finish. It tried to throw a plastic bag in the trash bin but missed. Zhao Yihan, a student on the team, said getting the operator's movements to translate to the robot's arms smoothly was a challenge, especially with a spotty signal in the arena. Humans and robots take part in the opening ceremony of the robots play keyboards, ahead of the opening ceremony. Still, China, contending with an aging population and shrinking workforce, hopes humanoid robots can eventually replace humans in some boring or dangerous jobs. Chinese companies have jumped headfirst into developing humanoid technology, encouraged by official subsidies and praise. Some robot makers say they have managed to produce useful machines for commercial settings. On Friday, a wheeled robot from startup UniX AI completed the room-cleaning task in as little as eight minutes and 21 seconds while operating autonomously, ultimately winning the gold medal for the competition. Company founder Fred Yang said UniX AI has already deployed several hundred robots, priced from around $12,000, many at hotels. Yang, who interrupted his Ph.D. studies at Yale to start his company in the eastern city of Suzhou last year, said training robots through large AI models—analogous to the large-language models that train AI chatbots—has led to improvements in manipulation and perception. That has allowed robots to operate in generic scenarios, he said. In a combat match at the robot games, humanoids punched and kicked one another, striking opponents in the gut. At times, the contestants jabbed at the air with their backs to one another. Nearby, on a small soccer field, robots rhythmically stomped on the field, pushing a ball along and crashing into one another. Occasionally the humanoid athletes would fall or abruptly pass out and their human caretakers dashed over to pull the machines off the field. Humanoid robots compete in a soccer match at the games. On the track, robots ran, some quickly, some slowly, as humans controlling the machines jogged nearby. A few humanoids lost their way. After reaching the goal, one stalked toward a group of photographers but got too close, resembling a celebrity upset at paparazzi. A team that competed with Unitree's H1 robot won a gold medal in the 1,500-meter race at six minutes, 34.4 seconds. That is around three minutes slower than the human world record. Still, its human controllers couldn't keep up, Unitree founder Wang Xingxing said in an interview published by the game organizer. 'For our next competition, we'll definitely choose autonomous mode,' Wang said. Write to Hannah Miao at and Yoko Kubota at Before They Can Rule the World, Chinese Robots Need to Master Basic Chores Before They Can Rule the World, Chinese Robots Need to Master Basic Chores Before They Can Rule the World, Chinese Robots Need to Master Basic Chores


Time of India
09-08-2025
- Time of India
James Cameron warns AI weapons could trigger ‘Terminator-style apocalypse'
Acclaimed filmmaker James Cameron has raised urgent concerns about the growing role of artificial intelligence in modern weaponry, particularly nuclear systems, warning that its unchecked integration could plunge humanity into a 'Terminator-style apocalypse.' In a recent Rolling Stone interview promoting his upcoming film adaptation of Ghosts of Hiroshima, Cameron highlighted the peril of rapid-response military environments where decision-making speeds may surpass human capacity. He cautioned that even having a 'human in the loop' may not be enough to prevent catastrophic errors, urging world leaders to implement strict safeguards and act swiftly to avoid consequences comparable to a nuclear disaster. Terminator director James Cameron highlights three existential threats Cameron emphasised that humanity now faces three concurrent existential crises: climate change and environmental degradation, nuclear proliferation, and super-intelligent AI. He noted that all three are 'manifesting and peaking at the same time,' creating a level of risk unlike any previous period in history. His warning echoes recent findings, such as a Stanford survey where 36% of AI researchers believed AI could trigger a 'nuclear-level catastrophe,' and conclusions from a University of Chicago summit envisioning the near inevitability of AI pairing with nuclear systems. AI in film, useful but not creative replacement by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like These Are The Most Beautiful Women In The World Undo Despite his concerns about AI's role in weaponry, Cameron supports its limited and intentional use in filmmaking, particularly for tasks like visual effects, where it can halve production costs without reducing artistic staffing. In 2024, he joined Stability AI's board and has voiced optimism that generative tools can accelerate creative workflows. However, he stands firm in his belief that AI cannot replace screenwriters or actors. 'You have to be human to write something that moves an audience,' Cameron said, dismissing AI-generated scripts as emotionally hollow "word salad." A moral through-line from Terminator to Hiroshima Cameron's warnings are grounded in decades-long themes from his body of work, including The Terminator's portrayal of an AI-dominated apocalypse and his longstanding fascination with nuclear threats. His upcoming Ghosts of Hiroshima project continues this through-line. He hopes the film not only chronicles humanity's darkest moments but also inspires empathy and introspection. 'If I do my job perfectly,' he said, 'everybody will walk out of the theatre in horror after the first 20 minutes. But then they'll care.' AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now


NDTV
08-08-2025
- NDTV
James Cameron's Chilling Warning About AI: "There's Danger Of Terminator-Style Apocalypse"
Hollywood director James Cameron has warned that integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with global weapons systems could recreate the dystopian future shown in his Terminator franchise. Cameron, who is working on a script for Terminator 7, has previously suggested that it was getting harder for him to write science fiction as modern technology continues to eclipse any fictional world he might create. "I do think there's still a danger of a Terminator-style apocalypse where you put AI together with weapons systems, even up to the level of nuclear weapon systems, nuclear defence counterstrike, all that stuff," Cameron said in an interview with Rolling Stone. "Because the theatre of operations is so rapid, the decision windows are so fast, it would take a super-intelligence to be able to process it, and maybe we'll be smart and keep a human in the loop. But humans are fallible, and there have been a lot of mistakes made that have put us right on the brink of international incidents that could have led to nuclear war. So I don't know." Cameron warned that three major existential threats were peaking at the same time, which posed a major challenge to all of humanity. I feel like we're at this cusp in human development where you've got the three existential threats: climate and our overall degradation of the natural world, nuclear weapons, and super-intelligence. They're all sort of manifesting and peaking at the same time. Maybe the super-intelligence is the answer." Notably, Cameron's 1984 Terminator movie, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is set in a world where humanity is ruled by an AI defence network called Skynet. 'It gets more scary' Cameron is not the only one to sound the alarm about AI. Geoffrey Hinton, regarded by many as the 'godfather of AI', recently stated that the technology could soon develop its own language, making it impossible for humans to track the machines. "Now it gets more scary if they develop their own internal languages for talking to each other," said Mr Hinton. "I wouldn't be surprised if they developed their own language for thinking, and we have no idea what they're thinking." Mr Hinton added that AI has already demonstrated that it can think terrible thoughts, and it is not unthinkable that the machines could eventually think in ways that humans cannot track or interpret.