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Mint
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
Two films show our present is the future we once feared
If Hindi films often turn to dystopia to grapple with technological dread, then filmmakers Udit Khurana and Aranya Sahay chart a more unsettling course—rooting their narratives in real-life premises. For Khurana, the starting point for Taak lay in 2020 headlines that detailed how Chandigarh's sanitation workers were being forced to wear GPS-enabled tracking watches under the guise of efficiency. Sahay's Humans in the Loop on the other hand, draws from reporting that illuminated the invisible workforce sustaining artificial intelligence: indigenous women employed in data-labelling offices set up by tech companies across rural India. Both films don't imagine the future as much as reveal the overlooked realities of the present where the burdens of surveillance and automation fall most heavily on marginalised lives. Since its premiere at Mumbai MAMI Film Festival last year, Sahay's 72-minute feature debut has had an award-garlanded festival run, most recently winning the Grand Jury Prize at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) in May. Set in Jharkhand, Humans in the Loop follows Nehma (Sonal Madhushankar), a tribal woman who returns to her ancestral village after a separation. In order to gain custody of her teenage daughter and infant son, Nehma—a college graduate—takes up a job as a data-labeller at a nearby centre, effectively feeding information into systems that power an American tech company. Alongside other women hunched in front of their computer screens, Nehma spends her time labelling images of crops, weed and pesticides. On some days, she marks parts of the human body—right arm, left knee—so that when the algorithms are eventually shown a hand or a leg, they know what they are looking at. And on others, she is training it to recognise a football foul or differentiate between turmeric and ginger. It's slow, repetitive work, but essential. For all its promise, artificial intelligence can't build itself. Instead, it is realised through countless hours of 'ghost work", a term coined by American anthropologist Mary L. Gray to address the kind of underpaid back-end labour that propels the artificial intelligence revolution. Yet as Nehma delves deeper into the job, she begins to see the limiting worth of her own intelligence. Her American clients don't define her labour as knowledge—even though the job routinely necessitates her judgement and insight. When she refuses to label a caterpillar as a pest, arguing that it only feeds on rotting parts of the plant thus protecting it, her manager receives a complaint about poor data quality. Even when Nehma likens artificial intelligence to a child, saying it will learn the wrong things if fed the wrong input, she is told to stop using her brain. 'If the client says it's a pest, it's a pest," her supervisor snaps. A graduate of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Sahay directed short films and assisted Patrick Graham and Imtiaz Ali before helming Humans in the Loop. With the film, Sahay set out to examine how new, cutting-edge tech still echoes old hierarchies, prejudices, and inequalities. As Humans in the Loop suggests, when algorithms are built almost entirely on data sanctioned by the West, marginalised voices and knowledge systems disappear and progress becomes just another name for exclusion. With his directorial debut Taak, Khurana, much like Sahay, turns his gaze toward the politics of technology—how it becomes a tool that weaponises and perpetuates class and gender divisions in society. Like Humans in the Loop, the action in Taak, which also showed last year at MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, is located in the workplace. The 39-minute short revolves around Shalini (a magnetic Jyoti Dogra) and Komal (Ambika Kamal), two former wrestlers now working as bouncers at a testosterone-soaked Delhi nightclub. After a serious security breach one night, the club's management responds with a new rule: all staff members must now wear smartwatches, supposedly for safety—but clearly for control. Held accountable for her team's lapse, Shalini—the older of the two women—is pressured to ensure that no one resists the new rule. She complies immediately, believing the management's pitch that the watches are there to boost efficiency with location-tracking and attendance-clocking. But Komal, younger and more wary, sees it for what it really is: constant surveillance. She's hiding from a violent past and her safety depends on staying unseen. With the watch, which has facial recognition built into it, being found becomes all too easy. Komal's resistance ends up as a sore point between the two. But more crucially, Taak underlines, it also turns Shalini into both a victim of constant monitoring and the oppressor expected to enforce it. In that, Taak reveals a disturbing truth: in today's digital world, the working class is often made complicit in their own subjugation. Khurana, who previously shot Chhatrapal Ninawe's Ghaath (2023) and Sumanth Bhat's Mithya (2024), transforms the nightclub and the cramped bylanes of the Capital into a sharp metaphor for a surveillance state. A sense of danger pervades every exchange, every gesture in the film. By interweaving the plot with CCTV footage, the filmmaker employs sound and image to heighten this sense of entrapment and alienation—creating the feeling of being cornered in plain sight. In a way, most films consumed by the idea of a dystopian future often get caught up in their own dazzling visions. So it's oddly moving to see two independent films—made outside of the constraints that plague the Hindi film industry—resist framing technology's threats as a sudden catastrophe. Instead, they lavish attention on structures and spaces designed to ensure that technology's grip tightens little by little, settling into workplaces, into homes, and into bodies. Few Hindi films respond to our anxieties as they unfold. Taak and Humans in the Loop go one step further and remind us that our present is the future we once feared. 'Humans in the Loop' and 'Taak' screen at the New York Indian Film Festival this month. Poulomi Das is a freelance film and culture writer based in Mumbai.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Investors Are Running From Garmin Stock Today
Garmin raised full-year revenue guidance after a record first quarter. Investors may be focusing on an expected dip in profit margin. Garmin has built a robust cash position that represents 11% of its market cap. Garmin (NYSE: GRMN) this morning reported record first-quarter revenue that jumped 11% year over year. Bottom-line profits grew even faster at 13%. The maker of GPS-enabled devices even boosted revenue guidance for the year. So investors might be wondering why the stock plunged by as much as 12.6% Wednesday morning. While it recovered some of that drop, Garmin shares were still down by 9% as of 3:15 p.m. ET. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » Garmin had a strong quarter by most accounts. Revenue beat consensus estimates and the new guidance exceeds current analyst expectations for full-year revenue. Management noted "a continuation of the positive business trends" it's been experiencing over the longer term. But it didn't raise net income guidance due to an expected slide in profit margin. That's due to a current assumption of $100 million of increased costs due to tariff impacts. While the tariff situation is fluid, Garmin management is taking a conservative approach for investors. Its assumptions are based on "tariff structures that are most likely to impact Garmin," CEO Cliff Pemble said on the earnings call. About 25% of Garmin's sales in the U.S. are generated from products manufactured outside the country, mostly at its Taiwan facilities. While it is currently benefiting from temporary tariff exemptions, guidance is not based on those exemptions remaining. That could lead to potential upside should existing exemptions be made permanent. Today's drop has the stock down almost 15% in the last month. It also means shares are trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 23.5 based on 2025 earnings estimates. That's below the average of the past year of about 26. As mentioned, Garmin's business remains strong. It achieved double-digit year-over-year sales growth in three of its five segments. That's after a very strong 2024 when revenue soared by 20% overall. The company has no debt and a strong cash position that represents about 11% of its market cap. It easily covered its dividend payment with free cash flow in the first quarter. Today's drop looks like a good opportunity for buy-and-hold investors. Before you buy stock in Garmin, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Garmin wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $607,048!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $668,193!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 880% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 161% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of April 28, 2025 Howard Smith has positions in Garmin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Garmin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Investors Are Running From Garmin Stock Today was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Arab News
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Punjab to track listed extremists with GPS devices amid rising militant violence in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Amid an uptick in militant attacks in Pakistan, authorities in Punjab have approved the use of electronic tracking devices to monitor individuals listed under the country's Fourth Schedule as security risks, the provincial home department said on Thursday. The Fourth Schedule of Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Act includes the names of individuals suspected of involvement in militant or sectarian violence. Those placed on the list are subjected to intense scrutiny and movement restrictions. Under the new policy, GPS-enabled tracking bands will be attached to these individuals, allowing round-the-clock monitoring of their movements. 'This is a major decision aimed at enhancing surveillance using globally recognized practices,' the Punjab Home Department said in a statement, adding that new devices equipped with advanced micro-tracking chips would also be imported. The devices will be distributed among the province's key security agencies, including the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Crime Control Department and the Parole Department. According to the statement, a high-level meeting chaired by Punjab Home Secretary Noor-ul-Amin Mengal approved the deployment of 1,500 tracking devices in the first phase. Of these, 900 will be allocated to the CTD, 500 to the Crime Control Department and 100 to the Parole Department. The decision follows expert recommendations advocating continuous surveillance of high-risk individuals and the adoption of internationally accepted tools for law enforcement and counterterrorism. The development comes amid a surge in militant attacks in Pakistan. While such violence has largely remained confined to the two western provinces bordering Afghanistan, Punjab, the country's most populous region, also remains vulnerable, with militants in the past targeting cities like Lahore and Rawalpindi.
Reuters
19-02-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Garmin forecasts 2025 results above estimates on strong outdoor wearables demand
Feb 19 (Reuters) - Swiss navigation device maker Garmin forecast full-year results above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, banking on continued momentum in its outdoor and auto OEM segments. Garmin makes wearables designed for a niche market of professionals and specializes in GPS-enabled products for defense and recreational needs, charging a premium for its high-end, specialized products. Its strong and specialized business advantage has helped it fend off competition from smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung, which have launched wearables in the high-end market — that Garmin currently dominates — with the launch of the Apple Watch Ultra and Galaxy Watch Ultra wearables, respectively. For the full-year 2025, Garmin expects revenue of approximately $6.80 billion, above analysts' estimate of $6.72 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. On a pro forma basis, it expects to report a full-year adjusted profit of $7.80 per share, beating an estimate of $7.74 per share. Garmin's outdoor segment, its largest by revenue, saw strong demand for its adventure watches in the holiday-season quarter, reporting quarterly revenues of $629.4 million, trouncing an estimate of $585.6 million. Revenue from its auto OEM segment jumped 30% to $165.8 million, led by increased shipments of domain controllers to automakers such as BMW. For the quarter ended December 31, Garmin reported revenues of $1.82 billion, above analysts' estimate of $1.7 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. On a pro forma basis, its profit was $2.41 per share, while analysts expected a profit of $2.03 per share.
