My government committed to freeing India from colonial mindset: PM Modi
NEW DELHI:
PM Modi
asserted that his government is committed to freeing the nation from the colonial mindset and advancing it with equal emphasis on development and heritage, while safeguarding the enduring vitality of Indian languages.
He was addressing the centenary celebrations of Jain saint Acharya Vidyanand Maharaj at Vigyan Bhawan on Saturday. "We are promoting mother tongues in higher education. And that is why I said from the Red Fort that we must free the country from the mentality of colonialism. We must move forward with development and heritage together," he said countering opposition from some states to the Centre's three-language formula and accusation of Hindi imposition.
Modi highlighted the govt's recent recognition of Prakrit as a classical language in Oct 2024, alongside efforts to digitise ancient Jain scriptures and promote mother tongues in higher education.
On the occasion, the PM was conferred with the title of 'Dharma Chakravarti', to which he said, "I do not consider myself worthy of it, but our tradition teaches us to accept what is given by saints as prasad. Therefore, I humbly accept this prasad of yours and dedicate it at the feet of Mother India." he also referred to the preceding speech of a Jain seer, noting that he was blessing "
Operation Sindoor
".
PM's mere mention of "Jo humein chhedega (those who trouble us)" brought massive cheers from the audience, but he did not dwell any further on the issue. Before Modi's address, Acharya Pragya Sagar Maharaj endorsed "Operation Sindoor", saying the PM demonstrated unprecedented leadership, conveying the message that India doesn't believe in conflicts but is capable of giving a befitting reply in case someone throws a challenge.
Modi said Acharya Vidyasagar Maharaj used to say, "life can become imbued with dharma only when life itself becomes service." "This thought is connected to the essence of Jain philosophy and India's consciousness. India prioritises service (and) humanity. When, for thousands of years, the world was trying to quell violence with violence, India taught the power of non-violence. We placed the spirit of serving humanity above all.
"
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
11 minutes ago
- Hans India
How AI-powered data center revolution will transform India's economy
Withover 1.4 billion people, India has a massive user base for internet services, social media, e-commerce and digital payments. This surge in data has necessitated India's rapid emergence as a global hub for data centers and Artificial Intelligence (AI), with unprecedented investments flowing from both government initiatives and private sector commitments. This transformation goes beyond traditional data storage - we're witnessing the evolution of data centers into 'AI factories', specialized facilities designed to handle the massive computational demands of artificial intelligence. The AI-powered data center segment is propelled by the increasing adoption of AI technologies, the expansion of Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), and the explosive growth of AI workloads that require fundamentally different infrastructure than traditional computing. Unlike conventional data centers that consume 10-20 kW per rack, AI-powered facilities demand 40-140 kW per rack, with some advanced deployments reaching up to 200 kW. This exponential increase necessitates a complete reimagining of data center design, cooling systems, and power infrastructure. Indian govt's AI vision drives infra revolution The Indian government has been instrumental in promoting the growth of AI-ready data centers through ambitious initiatives. The landmark IndiaAI Mission, with an allocation of Rs 10,732 crore ($1.24 billion), specifically targets AI infrastructure development. This builds upon existing programs like the Digital India campaign, which aims to enhance digital infrastructure and connectivity across the country. Policies such as the Data Protection Bill and the push for data localization have further fueled demand for local AI-capable data centers. The state governments are also leading the charge with dedicated AI data center policies. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh have introduced specialized frameworks, offering subsidized land, tax benefits, and streamlined approvals for AI infrastructure projects. The central government's Viksit Bharat 2047 - aimed at making India a $30 trillion economy—places AI and data centers at the core of the nation's digital transformation strategy. Technical revolution: From storage to AI computing With India's transformation from an emerging market to a developed economy, there will be an optimal environment for AI-powered data centers, creating considerable demand for specialized real estate in this sector. The country's growing AI-ready data center capacity ensures robust infrastructure to support global digital transformation efforts powered by artificial intelligence. However, the technical requirements for AI have fundamentally altered data center architecture. Currently, India ranks 13th in the world in the data center market with around 140-150 data centers, but has the potential to become number one as AI drives exponential infrastructure demand. As of now, India has relatively few large-scale data centers compared to global leaders. However, this apparent disadvantage actually presents a significant strategic opportunity. While other regions, particularly the United States, are burdened with legacy infrastructure, India can leapfrog directly to next-generation systems with an AI edge. Economic transformation through AI infra India's economic growth has been bolstered by a surge in digital adoption across industries, which translates to massive AI-driven data consumption. With strong foreign exchange reserves exceeding USD 697.93 billion (as of June 20, 2025) and increased government spending on infrastructure, India's Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) reached a historic high of 34.1 percent of GDP in FY24. This economic growth underscores the increasing reliance of businesses on AI solutions and the critical need for robust AI-capable data center infrastructure. Consequently, the data center market in India is projected to reach USD 21.87 billion by 2032, up from USD 7.21 billion in 2023, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.37 per cent. Crucially, AI workloads are expected to constitute 27 per cent of total data center capacity by 2027, up from just 14 per cent today, driving much of this growth. Investment commitments are also unprecedented, with over $100 billion expected by 2027 for AI-ready data center infrastructure across India. Further, as of today, 95 per cent of India's data centers are installed in metro cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi, and Pune. However, the AI revolution presents a unique opportunity for second and third-tier cities like Vizag, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Mysore, Bhopal, Lucknow, Kanpur, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Vijayawada, Madurai, Hosur, Jhansi, and Nashik to emerge as AI data center hubs. News jobs galore The proposed massive investments for AI-ready data centers are expected to generate a large number of employment opportunities in India in the coming years. Further, the growth of startups, fintech companies, and AI firms requires robust infrastructure that will be fueled by cutting-edge computing, driving the need for real-time data processing and low-latency AI applications. This creates an entirely new employment ecosystem. Industry estimates suggest that the AI data center sector segment in India will generate over 500,000 new jobs by 2030, ranging from high-skilled AI engineers to entry-level data annotators, many benefiting women in rural areas. Additionally, the construction phase of AI-ready data centers will also generate thousands of jobs. So is also the supply chain which includes AI equipment manufacturing and maintenance. Future Outlook: India as an AI superpower The growth of AI-powered data centers across India will bring a transformative experience, positioning the nation as a supercomputing giant and global AI hub. The AI-transformed Bharat has the potential to be the epicenter of not just the data center industry, but the global AI economy. Besides, by promoting AI data center investments in semi-urban areas, state governments can achieve more balanced regional development while positioning India as a global AI leader. This transformation can help reduce economic disparity between urban and rural areas, ensuring that the benefits of AI-powered digital transformation are more evenly distributed across the country. In nutshell, the convergence of data centers and AI isn't just transforming infrastructure - it's reshaping India's destiny in the digital age. (Krishna Kumar is a technology explorer & strategist based in Austin, Texas in the US. Rakshitha Reddy is AI developer based in Atlanta, US)
Indian Express
13 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Sudhir Mishra on rebellion being at the heart of his films: ‘Ours is the last generation to believe life's not only about loving your parents'
Your film 'Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi' (2005) had the Emergency as a backdrop as does your upcoming eight-part series 'Summer of '76'. How do you look back at the events of those days? Fifty years on, it's complicated when you look at it. You have to see that those who fought against it, what happened to them, were they very different from those they opposed? Of course, the imposition of the Emergency was, for want of a better word, a not-so-great chapter in Indian history. It gave permission to a lot of petty tyrants. There was a government and from the village-level up, there were tin-pot tyrants who ruled the roost. Anybody could arrest anyone, say he is a Naxal and shoot him. This is what caused the actual problem. What Mrs Gandhi and her people did not understand was that it was a 'conference of the upset' movement against the Emergency, against them. There was a whole disappointed generation. My series is about this moment. There was a generation that did not agree with the idea of India that was handed to them by their parents who had fought for freedom. They felt a sense of betrayal. Problem is those who rebelled didn't realise that those who took power after that were actually worse than those they were opposing. What is the 'Summer of '76' about? It draws from the autobiography of my maternal grandfather, DP Mishra, who had been in the Congress and had two stints as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. He was one of the few people who fought or manipulated — call it what you want — for Mrs Gandhi to be the prime minister. But he was a follower of Sardar Patel and was opposed to Nehru. He was the only one to resign from the Congress over Nehru but was brought back as chief minister, and then campaigned for Indira Gandhi. He was sort of a Centrist. However, a Left-wing fantasy had started that thought that through Mrs Gandhi, they could bring in a revolution. They became very disappointed during her imposition of the Emergency because of Sanjay Gandhi. He had started a coterie, which was non-democratic, entitled and had a 'Babalog view' of the world, which alienated the youth in non-metro India from the English-speaking upper class. My grandfather saw that there was a kind of undeclared emergency within the Congress and so before they could kick him out, he walked away. He had joined the Congress as a 20-year-old and was an understudy to Motilal Nehru, so he said he couldn't work under the great-grandson. As with your film Hazaaron…, will youth be at the centre of Summer of 76 too? Yes, but it's much wider. I follow people all over the country. 'Hazaaron…' is about these college students, 'Summer of '76' is about those who got involved in the JP movement. It's also about Ramesh Dixit, one of the students arrested in JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University), and on Pushpesh Pant's book, 'Portrait of a Student Activist'. So, factual parts of it come from there, then there are a lot of stories, fiction and imagination. The series is about what happens to the passionate, who think they are not living in the best of all possible worlds and want to change it. It's an exciting journey of seven young people and the problems they will face. The Emergency is a metaphor. This is a story of any time. It's a tribute to youth, to curiosity, to rebellion, to holding each other's hands, to taking risks. Rebellion is often at the heart of your films. At the time of the Emergency, I was very young but I know how my grandfather felt about it. He died in 1988 and I was a filmmaker by then. I'm not a faithful family boy, I have a point of view and everything's filtered through my eyes. I'm a scientist's son, a mathematician's son. So when I see a hypothesis, I need to evaluate if it's true or not. And if it's not, then I look at it straight in the face. We are, perhaps, the last generation that believes life is not only about loving your parents or obeying your parents. There were many rebellions happening at that time. Women were breaking free, landless peasants were attempting to break free, many lower castes were coming to the fore, claiming their place in India, the Dalit movement was gaining strength. This is what the Congress didn't see. Unfortunately, sometimes it ended up being led by the wrong people but that desire to break free was genuine. Your films have captured the angst and idealism of a generation. Do you think people are less idealistic now? I don't blame the youth because this is the world we gave them. The poor are bereft of one kind of nutrition; the upper class or the so-called middle class are bereft of another. The whole education system is geared to mugging up information and vomiting it out. It is not geared to create a mind which can analyse, understand and take things forward. Curiosity is not encouraged. So you have a nation of educated illiterates. You have prepared a world where anything can be said and the majority will believe it, which is why most of them will be replaced so easily by AI. There is extreme self-centeredness and a disrespect of any kind of idealism. It's not only that they do not want to be idealists but they disrespect them. And then there is a pseudo-Left, a cultural Left, which I think is the fig leaf of the Right. So there is actually no real opposition and everybody is the same. The censorship that started then, do you see its shadow in current times? Yes, a nation starts getting used to self-censoring. Anyway, it's not so difficult in our country because we always say, 'badon ke saamne aise nahi bolna chahiye' (you shouldn't speak like that before elders). We have a culture of censorship. Be polite, don't say this in front of your grandfather. If you have censorship in your head, then you cannot be scientific, right? Do you think there are still ways of saying what you want to say? Well, in Iran, filmmakers say what they want to say and make films. So, you can. If you have a negative mindset and say I cannot express myself, then what is the message you send to other people? You become a bore. You should keep expressing yourself in a rational, non-sensationalist way but you should be prepared for repercussions that may happen.
Time of India
15 minutes ago
- Time of India
50 years of Emergency: ‘At that time, truth itself was censored'; press silenced & journalists jailed, fear gripped newsrooms
Veteran journalist JP Shukla recalls how truth was suppressed, dissent was stifled, and journalists faced arrest LUCKNOW: Referring to press censorship and the role of the press during Emergency, BJP veteran LK Advani once famously remarked, 'When the media was asked to bend, it crawled'. This quote captures the dark chapter in Indian journalism when the press surrendered before the state. Veteran journalist JP Shukla, who served with both 'The Hindu' and the Press Trust of India (PTI), recalled the grim picture of press freedom during 1975-77. 'It was a time when truth itself was censored, and journalists were either silenced or turned into targets,' he said. On the night of June 25, 1975, when the Emergency was declared, newspapers across Delhi were forced to shut down. 'No newspaper was printed the next day,' said Shukla. In Lucknow, news agency services went silent. What followed was complete press censorship. 'Every news item had to be submitted to censor office under the information department before publication. Original stories filed by reporters were not published, instead pre-approved agency copies with the byline mentioning 'Staff Reporter' became the norm,' he said. 'Initially, censorship was limited to news content, and many editors used the editorial space to express dissent. However, once this was noticed, even editorial freedom was revoked. Some newspapers protested by leaving editorials blank or printing them with black borders. A few journalists and editors were arrested. One editor in Varanasi openly criticised the PM and was jailed with the publisher,' he said. Shukla recalled an incident involving Chaudhary Charan Singh. 'He delivered a three-hour speech in the Assembly but the newspapers were allowed to print only one line: 'Chaudhary Charan Singh criticised the govt'. The rest was censored,' he said. 'Many journalists went underground to avoid arrest. PK Roy of 'The Hindu', against whom an arrest warrant was issued, continued to report secretly from Lal Kuan office of 'Amar Ujala' in Lucknow. Ironically, journalists who remained free were sometimes mocked by their pro-govt peers, with comments like, 'You haven't been jailed yet?'' recalled Shukla.
