Latest news with #Roy
Gulf Today
an hour ago
- Business
- Gulf Today
Royex Technologies: AI spiraling business growth
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping how businesses operate today, according to Rajib Roy, Founder and CEO of Royex Technologies, a leading AI and digital transformation company headquartered in Dubai. 'From real-time decision-making to predictive analytics, AI empowers companies to move faster, operate smarter, and serve customers more efficiently,' said Roy, author of four AI and technology focused books. Reactive management to proactive strategy 'It's transforming manual tasks into intelligent workflows, enabling businesses to scale without proportional increases in cost or workforce. More importantly, it's helping leaders shift from reactive management to proactive strategy, based on data-driven insights. The real transformation lies in how AI allows companies to focus more on innovation and customer experience—two key drivers of long-term success,' explained Roy. Significant drop in operational cost of business Sharing an example of how AI transformation is scaling business operations, Roy said one of Royex Technologies' product EYAANA – an AI-first communication platform has made a positive impact on multiple industries. In particular, it has made massive strides with a real estate company where EYAANA has automated over 80% of lead interactions for the business across phone, WhatsApp, and web chat. 'This has resulted in a massive response time drop from hours to seconds. Beside, conversion rates improved by 27%, and the sales team could focus on closing deals rather than chasing leads. All this has led to a significant reduction in operational costs, for the real estate company as AI has replaced two full-time resources.' Maximising human resources In the hospitality sector, Royex Technologies partnered with a hotel group that previously had a team of 16 people managing customer support across WhatsApp, web chat, and social media. After integrating EYAANA's AI agents across all platforms, they were able to reallocate 12 staff members to other departments, retaining just two people for overseeing customer service operations. What previously required 16 human agents is now managed with an AI-augmented team of two people resulting in a cost saving of nearly 75% in that department, while maintaining 24/7 responsiveness and improved customer satisfaction. Beside the reallocation of the staff to other departments also meant their productivity was put to full use elsewhere. Giving clarity to businesses to move faster Strategically, AI creates value in multiple areas. It helps businesses better understand customer behavior and forecast future trends, enabling more personalized and targeted offerings. Roy said: 'Pricing and marketing strategies can be optimized using real-time data, while AI-powered tools support improved risk management and fraud detection. In supply chain operations, AI enhances planning, demand forecasting, and logistics efficiency. Additionally, by automating repetitive tasks and augmenting human capabilities, AI significantly improves employee productivity. In essence, AI acts as a decision-making accelerator, giving businesses the clarity and confidence to move faster and adapt smarter in a competitive environment.'
Time of India
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Deepak Tijori reveals he was asked to teach Hindi to Rahul Roy during Aashiqui: 'I take care of him like he's my baby...'
Deepak Tijori remembers his close relationship with Rahul Roy during Aashiqui. He helped Roy with Hindi and guided him through early fame. Director Mahesh Bhatt entrusted Tijori with Roy's well-being. Tijori describes their bond as a genuine brotherhood. He fondly recalls their reunion on The Kapil Sharma Show. Tijori says their connection remains strong despite Roy's health challenges. More than three decades after Aashiqui became a musical milestone in Bollywood, actor Deepak Tijori has opened up about the real bond that blossomed behind the scenes. In a heartfelt recollection, Tijori revealed how director Mahesh Bhatt entrusted him with helping a then-newcomer Rahul Roy—guiding him through language hurdles, personal struggles, and the emotional rollercoaster of fame. A reunion full of nostalgia While looking at an old photo of himself with Rahul Roy , Deepak fondly recalled in an interview with Bollywood Bubble, their surprise reunion on The Kapil Sharma Show , celebrating 30 years of Aashiqui. At the time, Tijori hadn't planned on returning to acting—he was still focused on directing—but the gathering stirred deep nostalgia. He shared that the moment brought back a flood of memories and that he's remained close to both Rahul Roy and Pooja Bhatt over the years. A bond beyond the screen He went on to express his deep affection for Rahul Roy, calling him 'like a baby' he still looks after with care. Despite Roy's health challenges in recent years, Tijori said their bond remains unshakable, describing it as the 'real Aashiqui.' He shared that Mahesh Bhatt had entrusted him with guiding Roy during the filming, as Tijori had already faced life's struggles, while Roy was a newcomer from the modelling world. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo Their off-screen brotherhood, he added, was as genuine as the love story depicted in the film. Helping Rahul Roy find his voice Deepak fondly recalled how, during the filming of Aashiqui, he was often tasked with helping Rahul polish his Hindi. Coming from a modelling background, Roy's Punjabi-tinged Hindi needed work, and Mahesh Bhatt would ask Tijori to 'take him to the corner' and help him get the dialogues right. This mentorship turned into a deep friendship, with Roy often confiding in Tijori about his personal life. Their behind-the-scenes camaraderie, built on trust and laughter, made their connection truly special. 'He was always like a baby to me,' Tijori concluded. Aashiqui, released in 1990, is a landmark Indian musical romantic drama directed by Mahesh Bhatt. Starring Rahul Roy, Anu Aggarwal, and Deepak Tijori, the film marked the beginning of the Aashiqui franchise. Renowned for its unforgettable soundtrack, the film catapulted music composer duo Nadeem–Shravan, singer Kumar Sanu, and the music label T-Series to national fame, setting a new benchmark for Bollywood music-driven romances.
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Former ‘Real Housewives of Miami' star Lea Black shares post after losing husband
Lea Black reached out to friends, family and fans Tuesday after word spread that her husband had passed away. Top criminal defense lawyer Roy Black, whose clients included numerous celebrities and prominent figures, died at age 80 Monday after battling an unknown illness. 'Thank you for all your blessings,' the former 'Real Housewives of Miami' star wrote on social media. Fans were introduced to the power couple and their young son RJ in the first season of 'RHOM,' which first aired in 2011. They lived in a sprawling, historic mansion in Coral Gables, and Lea gave the Miami Herald a grand tour that year. The pair's annual gala turned into a major plot point after ex cast member Cristy Rice crashed the charity event with two people, and a feud between her and Lea ensued for many, many episodes. Lea, 69, ended up leaving in Season 3 and did not show up for the Peacock reboot in 2021. The Texas native born Lisa Douthit went on to run a successful eponymous skincare company. The philanthropist added that details of a tribute and celebration of life for Roy will be forthcoming 'in a few weeks.' A service will reportedly be held at the New York native's alma mater, the University of Miami. In the comments, condolences poured in from prominent locals like chef Ingrid Hoffman, artist Romero Britto and politician Michael Gongora as well as from former castmates Lisa Hochstein, Karent Sierra and Romain Zago. A few of Roy's onetime clients also chimed in with good wishes, like Joe Francis. In 2008, the 'Girls Gone Wild' creator pleaded no contest to charges of videotaping underage girls, and was released after serving 11 months. The Blacks married in 1994, three years after Lea served as a juror in the highly publicized William Kennedy Smith rape trial, which ended in Roy getting the scion acquitted. The ex reality star told the Herald Tuesday that her late husband always 'fought for the underdog and people's civil rights,' regardless of who they were. 'He understood that we all have our flaws,' she said. 'He was able to separate people's behavior from their character. He wanted the best for everyone.'
News18
a day ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Anurag Kashyap Supports Songs Of Forgotten Trees, India's Official Entry to Venice Film Festival
Anurag Kashyap supports Anuparna Roy's debut film Songs of Forgotten Trees, premiering at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, starring Naaz Shaikh and Sumi Baghel. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has extended his support to Songs of Forgotten Trees, a powerful new film by debutant director Anuparna Roy, by joining the project as presenter. The film has earned a significant milestone, being the only Indian title selected for a world premiere at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. The festival is scheduled to take place from August 27 to September 6 at Venice Lido, Italy. Songs of Forgotten Trees will be screened in the Orizzonti section, which showcases global cinema that reflects fresh voices, innovative styles, and independent storytelling. The film stars Naaz Shaikh and Sumi Baghel in lead roles and is produced by Bibhanshu Rai, Romil Modi, and Ranjan Singh, with co-production by Navin Shetty and Roy herself. Kashyap, known for championing emerging voices in Indian cinema, said in a statement: 'I have always believed in backing new talent, especially those who want to say something different, challenge the set norms by their ideas and beliefs… Anuparna is definitely one such voice and we feel proud and happy to back her first feature." Set in Mumbai, the film explores the evolving dynamic between two migrant women—Thooya, an aspiring actress navigating the city's chaos through charm and survival instincts, and Swetha, a corporate professional who becomes her unexpected housemate. According to the official synopsis, what begins as a shared living arrangement slowly unfolds into a deeper connection shaped by empathy, vulnerability, and past traumas. Roy, who self-financed the film while juggling three corporate jobs, said the narrative was deeply personal. 'Despite having one of the largest film industries in the world by volume, we rarely tell stories of the marginalised—of those excluded by class, caste, and gender," she shared. The story was born from Roy's search for her childhood friend Jhuma Nath, a survivor of child marriage. 'This film carries her memories," Roy added. (With inputs from PTI) First Published: Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
How different constitutional drafts imagined India
India's path to becoming a republic was paved with a range of constitutional visions articulated by diverse political thinkers and movements before the adoption of the 1950 Constitution. Between 1895 and 1948, various drafts were proposed reflecting contrasting ideologies — from early liberalism to Gandhian decentralism to radical socialism. These five key constitutional drafts that preceded the final Constitution offer insights into differing interpretations of sovereignty, governance, economic justice, and cultural identity. Early constitutional visions The Constitution of India Bill, 1895, attributed anonymously but often linked to early nationalists like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, was one of the earliest efforts to frame a constitution for self-rule within the British Empire. Containing 110 articles, this draft proposed representative government, individual rights, legal equality, and a clear separation of powers. It emphasised civil liberties such as freedom of speech, the right to property, and equality before the law, setting forth a legalistic and liberal vision inspired by British constitutional models. It was more an aspiration for dominion status than a call for complete independence. In contrast, M.N. Roy's Constitution of Free India: A Draft (1944), created under the Radical Democratic Party, was grounded in the philosophy of radical humanism and advocated a participatory form of democracy. Roy envisioned a federal India composed of linguistically organised provinces and promoted popular sovereignty as the bedrock of governance. His draft introduced the right to revolt as a safeguard against tyranny and featured a robust Bill of Rights encompassing civil and socio-economic guarantees. Citizens' committees were proposed to ensure grassroots participation, making Roy's vision strikingly ahead of its time in its emphasis on decentralisation, transparency, and social accountability. This document went well beyond traditional liberalism, promoting direct democratic control and economic equity. A distinctive feature of Roy's draft was its rejection of parliamentary sovereignty in favour of a constitutionally entrenched republic where citizens, not legislators, were the ultimate locus of power. Roy's insistence on institutionalising political education, through mechanisms such as citizens' committees, highlighted his commitment to transforming subjects into active citizens. The draft was also unique in its clarity and precision: the Preamble defined the republic as a 'free, secular, federal, and democratic' polity, and the structure of government envisioned checks against bureaucratic centralism through provincial autonomy and public participation. Importantly, Roy's draft placed economic and social rights on equal footing with civil liberties — anticipating the eventual Fundamental Rights–Directive Principles split in the 1950 Constitution. Yet unlike the non-justiciable nature of the Directive Principles, Roy's socio-economic rights were enforceable and binding. Homogenous yet secular The Constitution of the Hindusthan Free State Act (1944), associated with nationalist right-wing circles such as the Hindu Mahasabha, presented a sharply contrasting perspective. It proposed a unitary state structure and declared India a sovereign 'Hindusthan Free State,' emphasising cultural unification through one language, one law, and one national culture. Yet, contrary to prevailing assumptions, the draft did explicitly guarantee religious freedom and equal treatment across castes and creeds. It affirmed freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practise, and propagate religion subject to public order and morality. It barred the State from endowing any religion or discriminating based on religious belief. The draft also explicitly rejected any state religion for the Hindusthan Free State or its provinces and prohibited the use of public funds for sectarian purposes. These provisions underscore a commitment to formal secularism and non-discrimination in public employment and education, despite the document's culturally homogenising tone and emphasis on national unity. The juxtaposition of these liberal guarantees with an overarching nationalist framework reflects the tensions within the ideological thrust of the draft. In addition, the 1944 draft was one of the few to contain an explicit reference to the right of secession, stating that provinces could opt out of the Union under certain conditions — an unusual feature given its otherwise unitary orientation. It also mandated the state to promote 'moral and spiritual values,' thus embedding a civilisational mission into its constitutional logic. Its provisions for emergency powers and the duties of citizens echoed a strong state-centric ethos, while still including democratic processes such as direct election to the legislature and regular judicial review. Decentralism to socialist democracy On a very different note, the Gandhian Constitution for Free India, drafted in 1946 by Shriman Narayan Agarwal with a foreword by Mahatma Gandhi, sought to ground India's constitutional framework in indigenous traditions and moral values. This draft was built upon Gandhi's principles of non-violence, trusteeship, and rural self-sufficiency. It proposed a confederation of self-sustaining village republics (gram swaraj) as the basic unit of governance. Rejecting both industrial capitalism and Western legalism, the Gandhian model envisioned decentralised, minimalist governance led by ethical self-regulation rather than law enforcement. With its strong focus on khadi, agriculture, and cottage industries, it aimed to create a self-reliant, spiritually grounded republic, though critics found it impractical for governing a complex modern state. Strikingly, however, the draft included a provision for the right to bear arms — a somewhat ironic inclusion in a constitution guided by Gandhian non-violence. Article 6 of the draft proclaimed that 'every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms in accordance with such regulations as may be made by the Legislature,' revealing a pragmatic concession to the need for self-defence or resistance, even within a pacifist framework. This dissonance between the ideal of ahimsa and the constitutional recognition of arms underscores the tensions inherent in attempting to reconcile ethical philosophy with the imperatives of statecraft. By 1948, the Socialist Party, under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan, offered its Draft Constitution of the Republic of India as a counter-proposal to the official draft prepared by the Constituent Assembly. This document was firmly rooted in Marxist and democratic socialist thought, advocating the nationalisation of all major industries, banks, and key services. It called for the abolition of private ownership of the means of production and proposed land reforms and workers' control over factories. This socialist draft envisioned a unicameral legislature composed of representatives from key social groups —workers, peasants, and intellectuals — thus rejecting the traditional liberal representative model in favour of a class-based system. It went further to assert that all land and natural resources were national property, and that planning would be conducted by a Central Planning Commission accountable to the legislature. Strikingly, the draft also offered an early commitment to gender equality and prohibited caste discrimination in any form. Civil liberties were acknowledged, but the document prioritised economic democracy, with socio-economic rights taking precedence over procedural safeguards. While it was bold in its redistributive commitments, the draft was less detailed in its administrative and judicial architecture, assuming that radical economic transformation would organically support political democracy. Comparative analysis When viewed comparatively, these drafts reflect divergent paths for India's future republic. The 1895 Bill and Roy's draft both championed democracy, but Roy's version expanded it through mechanisms like the right to revolt and participatory governance, departing significantly from the legalistic, elite-centred liberalism of the earlier proposal. Centralisation versus decentralisation is another crucial axis of comparison. While the Hindusthan Free State Act and the Socialist Party draft leaned towards a strong centralised authority to preserve national unity or effect economic restructuring, Roy's and the Gandhian drafts were deeply committed to decentralised governance, albeit in different ways — Roy through institutional federalism and democratic oversight, and Gandhi through autonomous village self-rule grounded in moral authority. Economically, the spectrum ranged from the minimalist and agrarian Gandhian model, to Roy's emphasis on democratic economic planning, to the Socialist Party's full-fledged state socialism. The Hindusthan Free State draft, while largely silent on economic redistribution, offered a more complex picture than often presumed — it prioritised national cohesion but enshrined specific liberal protections around religious freedom and equality. Meanwhile, the 1895 Bill reflected an absence of economic radicalism, concerned primarily with civil liberties and political representation. Cultural and identity politics also played out markedly differently. The Hindusthan Free State draft projected a homogenised, majoritarian cultural identity, in contrast to the pluralistic and secular ethos implicit in Roy's draft and the Socialist Party's vision. The Gandhian model, while rooted in Indian traditions, emphasised unity through moral and communal harmony rather than cultural uniformity. On civil liberties, the 1895 Bill and Roy's draft were strongest, both incorporating detailed rights frameworks. The Socialist Party draft prioritised economic rights over political ones, whereas the Gandhian draft focused more on duties and community values than on formal rights. The Hindusthan Free State draft, while ideologically nationalist, nevertheless provided robust constitutional guarantees for religious freedom and non-discrimination, challenging the assumption that it was devoid of liberal principles. In all, these constitutional drafts capture a vibrant pre-independence debate on the nature of the Indian state, reflecting ideological diversity and differing assumptions about governance, society, and citizenship. Though none of these drafts were adopted wholesale, elements from each filtered into the 1950 Constitution. Roy's ideas on decentralisation and rights, the Gandhian notion of panchayati raj, the Socialist commitment to economic justice, and even the legalistic structure of the 1895 Bill all left their mark. Their greatest contribution, however, may lie in showcasing the democratic imagination at play even before the republic was born — a testament to India's rich constitutional legacy and the multitude of futures it once contemplated.
