Latest news with #Majid


Qatar Tribune
6 days ago
- Qatar Tribune
Ministry of Culture organises trip to South Africa to visit historical landmarks
QNA Doha With the aim of building bridges of human and cultural communication between peoples, and contributing to building a thoughtful and aware personality among participants, through openness to diverse cultures, acquiring new experiences in an educational and interactive context, and introducing them to Qatari culture and traditions, the Ministry of Culture, represented by the ministry's Nomas Center, is organising a cultural trip to the Republic of South Africa, during the period from August 1 to 9, under the theme science, literature and the company of Majid for the age group of 9-14 years. Marking the occasion, Director of the Nomas Center Ghanem Abdulrahman Al Kuwari said that this trip, which brings together a group of children from various age groups, builds on previous trips the center has organized to Norway, Malaysia, and Uzbekistan. The goal is to learn about other cultures and exchange cultures between us and them by organizing trips and visits to the most prominent heritage sites in South Africa. He said that such trips provide children with various skills, particularly self-reliance and the discovery of an aspect of South African culture. He indicated that the trip aims to promote cultural exchange and enrich the participants' historical knowledge. He also addressed the schedule of events that the center will organize in South Africa, which includes field visits to a number of landmarks, in addition to holding heritage workshops. He highlighted that the schedule of events is diverse and comprehensive, aiming to provide participating students with the greatest possible knowledge and exposure to the cultural aspects of South Africa. The trip programme includes field visits to several of Cape Town's key cultural and tourist attractions, including the Castle of Good Hope, one of Africa's oldest colonial forts, and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art, which celebrates modern African art. Participants will also visit the Cape Town Science Center, where they will engage in interactive science experiences that foster critical thinking and exploration.


Focus Malaysia
08-07-2025
- Focus Malaysia
Disturbing fake AI video of Pahang Sultan raises concern on identity theft
LOOKING at the way things are going, artificial intelligence (AI) will do more than displaced humans and take their jobs. AI has already demonstrated its ability to steal our identities. This is best demonstrated by a recent video where AI generated a very convincing video of the Sultan of Pahang. The alarming video showed the Sultan stating that Malaysians who have debt can have it settled by Datuk Abdul Majid. The AI generated figure said he trusted Majid and added that people should follow, comment and send WhatsApp messages to this poor Datuk Abdul Majid, whoever he is. Istana Pahang memaklumkan bahawa penyebaran video menggunakan teknologi kecerdasan buatan (AI) yang memaparkan wajah menyerupai Sultan Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah berkaitan tawaran bantuan kepada rakyat adalah tidak benar. Berita penuh… — Berita AlHijrah (@beritaalhijrah) July 6, 2025 According to Istana Pahang, via the official Facebook account of the Pahang Royal Household, clarified that the video circulated through several TikTok accounts is false and constitutes a misuse of Al-Sultan Abdullah's image for fraudulent purposes and to deceive the public. 'The public is advised not to share the video, not to believe any links or information contained within it, and to report any suspicious content to the authorities immediately,' said the statement. On another note, how does AI generate such realistic videos of people without any difficulty? The secret lies in the power of machine learning. According to the website Snapbar, AI video generators rely heavily on machine learning algorithms that are trained on vast amounts of data. Through this training, the algorithms learn to recognise patterns, visual cues, and emotional nuances—allowing them to piece together videos that appear strikingly real. These systems can interpret and process elements such as objects, settings, and facial expressions to craft visuals that are not only coherent but also emotionally engaging. What's truly remarkable is that the more data these AI models are exposed to, the better they become. Over time, their outputs grow more polished and realistic, thanks to this continuous learning loop. This ongoing refinement is what enables AI video generators to produce content that is both captivating and impressively lifelike. —July 1, 2025 Main image: @beritaalhijrah (X)


Scroll.in
05-07-2025
- General
- Scroll.in
‘The Hyderabadis': Displacement, broken geographies, and evolving identities in the city's history
In his literary debut, The Hyderabadis: From 1947 to the Present Day, writer and researcher Daneesh Majid curates stories of ten distinctive lives shaped by the cruelties of police action in 1948. Some of his older subjects were witnesses as well as targets of violence and displacement across what is now Maharashtra's Marathwada region and northeast Karnataka. The Nizam state's Telugu-speaking districts had not been spared of the bloodshed before and after Hyderabad's accession to a newly independent India. He chronicles their trajectories with dignity while constructing meaningful identities that evolved as a result of upheavals from Police Action to the present day. The lives are not just casual selections. Rather, they are aggressive assertions about the authentic Hyderabad experience, deliberately challenging stereotypical hedonistic depictions of Deccani Muslims. The book also traces varied migratory patterns. Some subjects travelled to the Gulf for economic opportunity, others resettled in Karachi or Canada, while many sought refuge within Hyderabad city itself, arriving from places like Latur and Gulbarga. Filling the gap When it comes to showcasing these varied histories in an accessible manner, it is often the prodigal and adopted children of Hyderabad who tend to step up. In the vein of Majid's returns from the Middle East and North America, many of us who return to Hyderabad after time away find that distance can paradoxically deepen our attachment, those who migrated from Hyderabad often become its most fervent custodians, perhaps more Hyderabadi in their exile than those who never left, driven by an emigrant's compensatory performance to both explore and preserve what physical separation threatens to dissolve. The book's exploration of displacement resembles partition literature's central themes: broken geographies, reconstructed belonging, and constantly evolving notions of identity. However, while extensive scholarship has focused on Punjab, Bengal, North India, and Sindh, Hyderabad's particular trauma has been largely unexplored until recently. University of Pennsylvania professor Afsar Mohammad's Remaking History examined how Hyderabadi writers processed the 1948 state violence through literary responses. His focus was 'Muslimness' during the 1947–50 era, before and after the Police Action. Where Mohammad's academic approach emphasised memory-keeping through Urdu and Telugu literature, Majid tackles a more compelling question: how did ordinary people actually rebuild their lives after such profound disruption? Through this, Majid doesn't attempt a common minimum definition of what constitutes a Hyderabadi. Instead, his selections implicitly argue: negotiate this difficult version of Hyderabadi identity first, and the rest will follow. Remarkably, it is not the Charminar on the book's cover but the modest literary institution Idara-e-Adabiyat-e-Urdu near the Irrum Manzil station that perfectly illustrates the author's underlying emotional current. During countless commutes, I caught fleeting glimpses of this building, but never investigated its significance. Through Mejid's reverent telling and imagery, we learn of Idara founder Professor Zor's dream to transform this library-cum-learning centre into a premier Urdu university. Zor's persistence and love for Urdu pushed him to manifest a fragment of his vision, while Majid's drove him to document this partial realisation. This pattern echoes Hyderabad's story itself. Conceived as the preeminent city in the modern Islamic world, diminished by historical forces, yet sustained in fragments through successive acts of intellectual commitment. What moved me in this chain of devotion is how an enduring love for abstractions (language, city) becomes concrete through those who refuse to let dreams disappear. Works like this transform readers into chroniclers themselves, ensuring that the real Hyderabad passes forward, with fragments becoming seeds of possibility. Alongside the Idara, the narrative's expanse encompasses overlooked geographies within the erstwhile Hyderabad state, like Latur, Kohir, and Basavakalyan. And this canvas includes localities within the present-day city itself, like Falaknuma, Doodhbowli, Gowliguda, Haribowli, and Mughalpura. Even if they appear as casual name-drops at times, their specificity evokes the same curiosity I feel when riding a bus as the conductor calls out an unfamiliar stop like 'Ghode-ka-khabar!' And that immediate urge to discover the origins behind such intriguing names is exactly what makes Majid's geographic sensibility so endearing! 'Hyderabadis still kept their heads down no matter the exploitation in the Gulf [...] The economic power that came about because of Gulf money has also made it possible for us to take the othering happening in present-day India somewhat in our stride.' — ~ Chapter 3 of the book. The survival lens The prism of survival and breadwinning, however purposeful, creates systematic blind spots. All chapter titles belong to men, an inevitable consequence when examining resistance to Razakar attacks, earning abroad, communist politics, and academic pursuits within historical patriarchal structures. Women appear as supporting characters (Halima Bi, Oudesh Rani Bawa, Amena Begum, Shruthi Apparasu), but their narratives remain peripheral. Given this gap, I recommend readers supplement The Hyderabadis with Professor Nazia Akhtar's Bibi's Room, which centres around three women of 20th-century Hyderabad. The survival framework also obscures the aesthetic dimensions that animate Hyderabadi life. While Majid identifies Hyderabad as the 'humour capital', we encounter neither examples of this wit nor critical examination of the occasionally misogynist mizahiya mushaira programs. Also absent are the entrepreneurial innovations (Zinda Tilismath, the iconic medicinal products magnate), popular cinematic expressions (like The Angrez released in 2005), or matrimonial traditions (Dakhni Dholak Ke Geet or folk wedding songs). These omissions flatten Hyderabad – once considered the apex of the Muslim world – to gritty perseverance devoid of grandeur. Yet, there is much to relish in Majid's research process, revealed through little anecdotes about discovering fascinating primary and secondary sources via fellow Hyderabad enthusiasts. In Chapter 10, a bookstore recommendation leads to an unexpected narrative thread; a family friend connects him to Mr Saxena, whose late wife, Sheela Raj, turned out to be the very author of the material he had been studying. These serendipitous connections situate the academic fervour driving this work. The book also deftly navigates Andhra–Telangana tensions in the 1960s and 70s while examining caste associations, favouritism, water politics, and land disputes. Particularly illuminating is how committed Marxists Chukka Ramaiah (Chapter 7) and Raj Bahadur Gour (Chapter 9) wrestled with Mulki versus Andhra Telugu identities, especially when the centralising communist agenda called for 'Visalandhra', a project originally conceived in opposition to the Nizam. What remains conspicuously absent from the book is the Muslim voice during this tumultuous period. Did survival struggles suppress their assertiveness? Why did MIM maintain such dominance over democratic challengers like MBT (Majlis Bachao Tehreek), which broke away precisely to contest dynastic control and corruption? What wisdom might figures like Bahadur Yar Jung, one of the early MIM ideologues of the 1920s and 30s, offer for today's political calculations? The absence of these perspectives carries added weight given Majid's concluding calls for greater integration. With migration options to the Gulf and North America considerably narrowing, Hyderabad's Muslims must anchor themselves more firmly in soil that belongs as much to them as to anyone else. Perhaps the very resilience documented in these ten lives offers a foundation for more confident Muslim politics today. Surya Teja is a Researcher and Software Engineer at Avanti Fellows, a non-profit developing open-source tech for public schools.


Business Recorder
04-07-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Tax on imported solar panels: what does it mean for Pakistan's renewable energy future?
KARACHI: The recent move in the federal budget 2025-26 to impose a 10% tax on imported solar panels marks a critical turning point in the country's renewable energy journey, while impacting consumers and dealers, according to economic nationalists and clean energy advocates. It could also ramp up investments in local solar panel manufacturing. After an initial proposal of an 18% tax was rolled back after the industry's reaction-cum-pushback, the newly-approved 10% levy is due to push up panel prices by 8%–10% starting from July 1, directly impacting consumers and dealers. The government insists this decision balances fiscal needs while maintaining support for clean energy. However, Pakistan has witnessed a historic solar boom, while becoming the world's largest importer of solar panels in 2024. Ali Majid - LONGi Green Energy Technology Co Ltd General Manager Central Asia and Middle East and North Africa - said Pakistan's solarisation momentum faces challenges with the 10% tax on imported panels. Speaking to Business Recorder, he said he believes a long-term drive for clean energy, along with local initiatives to boost domestic solar manufacturing and optimize supply chains, can help mitigate cost impacts. LONGi said it is committed to working with stakeholders, offering efficient, cost-competitive products and solutions, to support Pakistan in sustaining its solar growth trajectory despite these short-term hurdles. Majid said for households and industries, the tax-driven price hike will add to energy cost burdens. But LONGi aims to ease the impact. According to Majid, 'We'll leverage our global scale, research and development (R&D) strength, and local presence to provide high-efficiency, reliable solar products at optimized costs.' 'By promoting distributed generation and energy-saving solutions, we help reduce long-term energy expenses, supporting both sectors to navigate inflationary pressures and still embrace solar benefits.' 'Solar continues to be the smarter long-term choice' Meanwhile Livoltek's Pakistan Director Sales, Max Ma, said the 10% tax will slightly scale up solar system costs, but grid electricity remains significantly more expensive and unreliable. He told Business Recorder that while some price-sensitive customers may hesitate initially, solar continues to be the smarter long-term choice—especially with net-metering and financing options. He said, 'At Livoltek, we're focused on easing this transition by offering high-efficiency inverters and energy storage solutions that maximize return on investment.' 'Our nationwide support network and after-sales service ensures customers feel confident in choosing solar. We believe the shift to clean energy will continue, and Livoltek remains committed to making it both accessible and sustainable for Pakistani households and businesses.' He added that this policy could be a stepping stone toward local manufacturing—if supported by government-backed incentives, infrastructure investment, and R&D facilitation. As a global clean energy brand with a growing footprint in Pakistan, Livoltek says it is already exploring localized assembly and partnerships to enhance supply chain resilience and cost efficiency. Max Ma said, 'We are prepared to play an active role in building a stronger local ecosystem. Encouraging domestic manufacturing can reduce import reliance, create jobs, and stabilize prices. But it requires a collaborative effort between the private sector and policymakers to turn this into a national success story.' 'Demand for solar remains resilient' Business Recorder also spoke to analyst Usman Suhail said the 10% levy on imported solar panels is likely to increase retail prices, creating immediate cost pressure on both residential and commercial buyers. This price hike may temporarily slow down new solar installations, especially in the lower-income and small business segments that were driving the recent boom. However, demand for solar remains resilient due to ongoing grid instability and rising electricity tariffs. 'Rather than a mass shift back to grid electricity, we may see a slowdown in new installations, not a reversal. On the upside, this move could incentivize serious investment in local solar panel manufacturing, which has long struggled to gain traction due to cheaper imports. But establishing competitive local supply will require policy support, quality assurance, and technology transfer,' he said. In the short term, price sensitivity could reduce sales volume, but the long-term market fundamentals still favor solar—if supported by consistent policy and incentives for local production.

The National
29-06-2025
- Politics
- The National
Palestine Action documentary brought forward due to ban
The online release of To Kill a War Machine was brought forward to this week after it emerged that the Home Office is going to proscribe Palestine Action after activists from the group broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and spray-painted two military planes red. Days after the incident, the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the 'disgraceful attack' was 'the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action'. A draft of a proscription order against Palestine Action will be presented to parliament on Monday. READ MORE: Met police drops second terror charge against Kneecap The ban under terror laws would make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group and would be punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The film's directors have been scrambling to take legal advice and fear they will end up being in breach of counter-terror laws if they continue distributing their documentary, according to the Guardian. Showings of the film have been lined up across Britain in the coming days and weeks but plans to ban the group have cast doubt over whether the screenings can go ahead. To Kill a War Machine was made available to watch online on Tuesday and has been downloaded by people from all over the world. However, its London-based directors, Hannan Majid and Richard York, are concerned that Britain could end up being the only place in the world where people would not be able to see the film. 'We've operated around the world and have a lot of experience of regimes telling us what we can and can't do,' Majid told the Guardian. 'We've had authorities in Bangladesh telling us we shouldn't even be editing footage of garment workers and activists advocating for their rights, and we've been followed by the police in Cambodia, but we have never encountered anything like this in Britain.' Majid has been working with York since 2006 through their production company, Rainbow Collective, which focuses on documentaries about human rights issues and have collaborated with organisations including Amnesty International. To Kill a War Machine took six months of work and was made independently by the filmmakers from Palestine Action. The documentary uses real-time bodycam and phone footage that the group had put into the public domain. In the film, activists are seen smashing and occupying weapons factories across the UK while explaining their motivation for their actions, which they view as legitimate in the face of alleged war crimes in Gaza. (Image: @IMDmilo) There are also interviews with two activists from Palestine Action, Sohail Sultan and Joe Irving, both of whom were acquitted of charges of causing criminal damage. However, the move by the UK Government to proscribe Palestine Action means there are now questions looming over whether the documentary and events, including a London premiere on July 18, can be continued after the group is banned. 'We set out to make this film in a completely legitimate and legal manner, as we have done with other films. It's been certified by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and it is good to go but now we are being advised that the curtailing of Palestine Action could have a major knock-on effect for us as it could become not only illegal for others to voice support for them but also for us, as film-makers, to distribute this film,' said York. Majid added: 'People are still excited and there has been a tremendous outpouring of support on social media. 'Hopefully we can still go ahead with much of our plans, but we have had to rush things forward and do the digital release this week rather than waiting for September and try to build on the awards we have already picked up. 'That all changed on Monday night and there has been a spike as soon as we put it online.' The filmmakers are having discussions with distributors in the UK and the US about the potential risks of showing the film. 'On the basis of some of our legal advice, we may not even be able to distribute it in other countries and territories if the film is seen as being somehow in support of a group which is proscribed. We are still hoping to be able to show it in cinemas within the law,' said York. They are also considering whether they will have to withdraw submissions for a range of international film festivals.