Latest news with #Pranav
Time of India
3 days ago
- Time of India
Kutch businessman loses Rs 3cr in imported machines deal
Rajkot: A deal with an acquaintance to import a special machine used in urea production led to an expensive setback for a businessman from Gandhidham town of Kutch after he lost nearly Rs three crore. Pranav Agrawal lodged a complaint against Ramratan Agrawal, a resident of Hyderabad's Banjara Hills of defrauding him of Rs 2.93 crore, part of a larger Rs 7.5 crore deal involving the procurement of 23 Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) machines from Egypt. The two had first met at a family function in 2015, and in early 2024, their professional engagement began. During a meeting in Hyderabad, Ramratan claimed he could arrange DEF machines from abroad. Trusting him, Pranav transferred Rs 7.5 crore to Ramratan's company account between Jan 11 and Feb 12, 2024. However, only Rs 4.56 crore was returned between March 2024 and May 2025, with Ramratan assuring that the remaining amount would be cleared by delivery of eight machines. Despite repeated promises, neither the machines were delivered nor was the balance refunded. Pranav filed a complaint with the Gandhidham City 'A' Division Police Station
Time of India
4 days ago
- Time of India
Man duped of Rs 38L by lawyer's son on pretext of facilitating IAS officer's job
Lucknow: In an unusual case of fraud, a 21-year-old man from Sultanpur was duped of Rs 38 lakh by a lawyer, his son and associates who promised to secure for him the post of an IAS officer using their "high-level political connections". The accused even gave him forged appointment letters for senior administrative roles like chief development officer and the district magistrate to win his trust. The case came to light after the victim, Pranjal Tripathi of Laxmanpur locality in Sultanpur, filed a complaint with Kotwali Nagar police station. Following a preliminary inquiry ordered by superintendent of police, Kunwar Anupam Singh, an FIR was lodged against seven people on charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy, and intimidation late on Tuesday night. Tripathi claimed that he appeared for UPSC civil services preliminary examination in 2022 after which he met Pranav Dwivedi, son of a local lawyer Bajrang Dwivedi. Pranav gradually gained access to Pranjal's house and built a rapport with his family. He later claimed that he had strong connections with Union ministers who helped several aspirants become IAS and PCS officers. He convinced the family to arrange funds to secure Pranjal's selection to the IAS. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Everybody Is Switching To This Enterprise Accounting Software [Take a Look] Accounting ERP Click Here Undo Over a period of time, Pranav collected Rs 38 lakh through multiple bank accounts – Rs 26.5 lakh to the account of Bajrang Dwivedi, Rs 7 lakh to a neighbour Manish Dubey, Rs 80,000 to a friend Shreyansh Agrahari, Rs 2 lakh cash to Deepak Patel, and Rs 10,500 to Pranav's account. On Jan 18, 2023, Pranav, in the presence of his associates Raj Mishra and Utkarsh Dwivedi, handed over a file to Pranjal claiming that it contained an admit card for UPSC Mains and interview. The documents bore Pranjal's photo and name and appeared authentic. Later, he also gave him two fake appointment letters –dated June 22, 2023 (delivered by Raj Mishra in Kurebhar) and dated Sep 8, 2024 (handed over by Manish Dubey) at a local petrol pump. When Pranjal insisted on joining, Pranav allegedly claimed that he was working to secure posts like CDO, DM, or SDM for him. He allegedly threatened Pranjal not to go to the police or media, saying that "ministers and their sons" would get his family killed if the issue became public. After an investigation, led by circle officer Prashant Singh, confirmed the allegations, Kotwali Nagar SHO Dheeraj Kumar registered a case against Bajrang Dwivedi and Pranav Dwivedi, and their associates Manish Dubey, Ashish Dubey, Raj Mishra, Shreyansh Agrahari, and Deepak Patel. The SHO confirmed that multiple teams had been formed to nab the accused. Additional SP Akhanda Pratap Singh said an in-depth investigation was underway and action would be based on verifiable evidence. Pranjal submitted call recordings, screenshots, WhatsApp chats, forged documents, and full bank transaction statements as evidence. He said that his family took loans and sold jewellery to arrange the money handed over to the accused.
Straits Times
15-06-2025
- Science
- Straits Times
AI misuse in Indian colleges and how professors are arresting the situation
Even as most Indian universities forbid using generative AI for assignments, students are drawn to the time-saving, modern tool. PHOTO: JAMIE KELTER DAVIS/NYTIMES AI misuse in Indian colleges and how professors are arresting the situation - When creative writing professor Pranav V.S. in Bengaluru congratulated his student over text about a cultural performance, he received a reply that began with : 'You can express your gratitude with a simple note or message. Here's a suggestion: Thank you so much, Sir, for your kind words...' His heart sank. 'Can college students these days not even compose a personal thank-you message without getting help from artificial intelligence (AI) tools?' he wondered. Prof Pranav, who teaches at St Joseph's University in Bengaluru, is not alone in his despair over the use of AI by students. Even as most Indian universities forbid using generative AI for assignments, students are drawn to the time-saving, modern tool, many professors told The Straits Times. They said that students write entire essays and e-mails, as well as produce presentations, using generative AI. Instead of taking class notes and reading books and technical modules, they feed the PDFs into their favourite AI tools to generate simple summaries of three or four pages. Professors worry that students' use of AI disrupts the learning process, fosters impatience with studying and diminishes the importance of writing and reading. Prof Pranav said it also drives a wedge in interactions between teachers and students . 'It's a shortcut for students. But for teachers, it's more laborious to separate the AI content from the students' content. The joy of teaching is gone,' said Dr Adil Hossain , who teaches history and sociology in Azim Premji University in Bengaluru. Independent thinking is vanishing Assistant Professor Ananya Mukherjee from Azim Premji University in Bhopal, who has been teaching biology for nine years, shared that despite her picking controversial topics like genetics and reproductive choice to encourage her students to express their genuine opinions, many students use AI tools ChatGPT and Gemini to come up with talking points for class discussions. 'Independent thinking, which is the whole point of science, is getting lost,' she said. Assistant Professor Prem Sagar, who teaches computer applications at St Joseph's University in Bengaluru, told ST that he often faces the challenge of balancing his efforts between teaching his technical students how to build and train AI models for the future and discouraging their misuse in the present. 'AI is good at debugging errors and completing code, but when students depend on it entirely, their logical reasoning – which is what programming is all about – takes a hit,' he said. Still, students defend their use of AI as natural and inevitable. 'What's wrong with using an efficient way to learn?' asked computer engineering graduate Tejas P.V., 22. 'AI saves time. It helps us research by locating references. For lengthy, boring 120-page documents that professors assign us, AI helps to identify the crucial 30 pages for us to focus on,' he added. But while Mr Tejas said he used AI largely for research and expanding his 'own short points into full sentences', he admitted that he, too, has generated 'entire AI essays in high-credit subjects' that he felt were 'not important'. Ms Keerthana S., 21, who is pursuing a bachelor's degree in environmental science in a Bengaluru college, said that 'ChatGPT is always a temptation', especially when deadlines are close. In a group project to calculate the carbon footprint of shops within the college neighbourhood – a hyperlocal assignment her teacher had clearly crafted to force the students to avoid AI tools – Ms Keerthana attempted to use ChatGPT to generate what she called 'a cool introduction'. 'But the language was so technical, jargon-filled and so unlike my writing that I decided to write the introduction myself,' she said, adding that generative AI's high energy consumption also gives her second thoughts. According to some estimates, interactions with AI tools such as ChatGPT could consume 10 times more electricity than a standard Google search. Another engineering student said that he often uses AI tools to complete his programming code because, as he explained, 'even after I get a job, my bosses are not going to expect me to waste time on manually doing these basic things.' According to English professor Greeshma Mohan, students use AI because of insecurities that their own writing and ideas are not good enough, and because AI 'sounds fancier'. Teaching in an English-medium college in the small town of Bhopal in central India, where many students come from Hindi-medium schools, Prof Mohan said she empathised with their anxiety. However, she is worried that 'if they didn't experiment without the use of AI and get things wrong', they would never learn. Even after she welcomed fragmented sentences and inconsistent tenses as long as it was the students' own work, students were 'already too dependent on AI to stop using it'. 'How can I help a student whose mistakes I never see? Then what am I doing here as a teacher?' she asked. See if you can penalise me for using AI The fear of repercussions is often the sole deterrent to students against using AI, said many teachers. Most major Indian universities require every instance of AI misuse to be reported , but as the scope of generative AI is still evolving, professors are also granted the flexibility to determine appropriate disciplinary measures. Some faculties are strict and will fail a student. Some ban all gadgets in class, and assign only handwritten essays. Others permit grammar corrections or AI-assisted research, while some require students to rewrite their essay multiple times until it is completely AI-free. While most Indian universities use plagiarism trackers, and detecting AI use is now a function of software like Turnitin and the Indian-developed tracker DrillBit, they are not foolproof. In November 2024, law student Kaustubh Shakkarwar sued O.P. Jindal Global University in northern India's Haryana state over being failed for allegedly using AI-generated content in an assignment on law and justice in the globalising world . Claiming that he had done all the research himself, the student questioned the accuracy of the university's Turnitin plagiarism detection software, also powered by AI, and said it had a history of generating false positives. The university finally issued Mr Shakkarwar a new academic transcript and revised its decision to fail him. A practising lawyer today, he is ready to offer pro bono representation to 'any student who wants to sue their college over AI use'. However, many professors said they have often detected AI use, even in cases where detection software had not. Common indicators included the use of em dashes, sentences beginning with 'that being said' and 'all things considered', and essays with a balance of opinions that seemed, well, artificial. Some students also use humanising software like BypassGPT , WriteHuman and QuillBot to make AI-generated text read naturally and human-like, but many Indian students told ST that the best services were not affordable. Most of all, teachers said they could tell if AI was used because they knew their students. 'All of a sudden, a student writes fascinating prose. Who are they kidding?' asked Bengaluru-based AMC Engineering College Professor Pallavi K.V., who now conducts oral quizzes on the students' own written assignments to determine if they have even read their AI-generated work before submission. Indian professors are now devising assignments and pedagogical innovations to subvert the use of AI. One anthropology lecturer asks for audio recordings of field interviews; a law professor crafts simulation exercises inspired by landmark cases; many others set live handwritten exams that students hate because they struggle to write longhand. Dr Swathi Shivanand, who teaches historiography at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education in Bengaluru, said: 'I suppose I have more failures than successes (at weeding out AI use).' An effective assignment she devised involved asking students to imagine a dialogue between two historical figures. Professors suggested that the key to escaping AI is to make assignments as personal and imaginative as possible. In Prof Pranav's writing class, during a workshop session on horror stories, including those written by AI, the standout piece was an original story set in the college with characters named after some of the students. Ms Keerthana recalled 'a brilliant assignment' – one that few classmates used AI for – in her environmental impact assessment class, where a teacher asked them to map all the processes and components that went into making a sewing needle. Optimal use of AI Recognising the use of AI as inevitable, some professors are upskilling themselves to stay a few steps ahead of their students. For instance, Assistant Professor Arpitha Jain, who teaches English at St Joseph's University in Bengaluru, said she gave her students printed copies of prescribed non-fiction readings. But, turning the tables, she used ChatGPT to generate multiple-choice questions for them to answer. 'They hated me for it, but, later, some of them applied this method (of generating short questions from long texts) to study other subjects closely,' she said. Prof Sagar now trains other faculty in his university to use AI not just to build presentations and create lesson plans, but also to evaluate students and give more granular feedback, using data analytic tools that can notice patterns of performance and what modules someone is weak in. Prof Pallavi, concerned that her students were unable to tell when AI content was 'wrong, biased, hallucinating or actually harmful', said she now advocates responsible, conscious use of AI. When job recruiters used data-driven AI models for resume scanning, she showed how the technology's inherent sexist and racial biases resulted in a higher selection rate for men over women for software developer roles. Using the example of the viral Ghibli image trend, she also warned her students about uploading their photos for a moment of fun without realising how they may be putting their personal data at risk. Dr Rahul Dass, a former journalist who now teaches at Mahindra University in Hyderabad, recently asked his class to give five different prompts to ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot to generate an article about a major fire breaking out in a city. 'The AI outputs all described the fire, but none of the articles began with the number of people dead and injured, as a journalist would have. I want students to understand these kinds of gaps in using generative AI,' he said. Rohini Mohan is The Straits Times' India Correspondent based in Bengaluru. She covers politics, business and human rights in the South Asian region. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Time of India
14-06-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
History made! Arjun Erigaisi, Srinath Narayanan's Team MGD1 becomes first Indian team to win FIDE World Rapid Team Championship
Team MGD1 made history by becoming the first Indian team to win the FIDE World Rapid Team Championships in London on Friday, securing 10 wins in 12 rounds over three days. The sixth-seeded team emerged victorious after an intense battle with Team Hexamind in the prestigious tournament, which featured 104 grandmasters including 5 from the world's top 10, competing for a record prize purse of €500,000. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. Team MGD1, who had previously won silver and bronze medals in past editions, started strong with an undefeated record on day one. However, they faced setbacks with a draw against Team Freedom and a loss to Team Hexamind, requiring exceptional performance on the final day. The team responded by winning all four rounds on the last day. Team MGD1 consisted of GMs Arjun Erigaisi, Tsolakidou Stovroula, Pentala Harikrishna, Leon Mendonca, David Anton Guijarro, Pranav, Atharva Tayade, and team captain Srinath Narayanan. "This is very special! With the Indian team in the Olympiad we were the favourites to win and out here with Team MGD1 we were the underdogs. And yet we won Gold again!" said Team Captain, GM Srinath Narayanan. Team MGD1 finished with 21 points, one point ahead of Team Hexamind, while Team Freedom, featuring Viswanathan Anand, secured third place with 17 points. World number 3 Arjun Erigaisi led the team's final day charge, scoring 3.5 points out of 4 after a difficult second day where he managed only half a point. He defeated GM Richard Rapport, drew against GM Nihal Sarin, and won against GMs Jose Martinez and Luke McShane. "Team MGD1 is all about Team Spirit. I was having a bad day on day 2 and others stepped up to keep the momentum going. Also Atharvaa's performance was out of this world!" Arjun stated. IITian Atharvaa Tayade, competing on the Recreational Board, won 11 of 12 games and helped secure a 3:3 draw against Team Freedom when other boards split points and Arjun lost to Anand. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Pranav maintained perfect form on the final day, winning all four games including a victory over GM Ivan Saric, finishing with 7.5/8 points overall. "I am really happy! With this team it's mainly about a great culture! Even though I'm an amateur player they didn't make me feel like one. Also my entire college was rooting for me that was very special. I have to go back and get back my attendance!" said Atharvaa Tayade, who is pursuing his management degree from IIM Kolkata. The teams will now compete in the Blitz competition, with Team MGD1 aiming to achieve a double victory.
India.com
10-06-2025
- Sport
- India.com
Meet this bowler who bowls at 150 kmph, started his career as runner, his name is...
Vellore-born R D Pranav Raghavendra is making a lot of headlines in the Indian cricket circles these days. At just 17 years of age, the right-arm pacer has already made a name for himself with his sheer pace and discipline. During a recent training session, he bowled at a speed of 147.3 kmph, which shows his tremendous speed. Seeing such a fast pace from a young player has created excitement among both coaches and fans. Interestingly, Pranav was not always on the cricketing path. He started out as a sprinter in his childhood and excelled in the 100-meter race. The shift to cricket came when a doctor advised his parents to enroll him in a team sport after he became socially withdrawn after the birth of his younger sibling. That small suggestion changed his future. Once he stepped on the cricket field, Pranav became obsessed with speed and dedicated himself to becoming a true fast bowler. However, he is not just focusing on speed. He knows that consistency, control and fitness are equally important. Pranav said, "I love speed and I want to bowl fast. It always feels great when you scare batsmen with bouncers and hit the ball hard on their gloves. To continue this, I have to work on many aspects including accuracy, which is why I don't keep an eye on the speed gun." It was during a session at BCCI's Bengaluru-based Centre of Excellence that he registered a mark of 147.3 kmph. According to The Indian Express, this is the fastest ball bowled by any Indian U-19 cricketer till date. The feat is a testament to Pranav's sheer pace and potential, putting him at the forefront of India's young fast bowlers. Pranav's fast bowling development is also being guided by top mentors. He trained under Australian great Glenn McGrath at the MRF Pace Foundation and impressed everyone by clocking 139 kmph at just 16 years of age. His progress has continued apace. MRF Pace Foundation head coach M Senthilnathan has high hopes from the young pacer. With his natural pace and growing experience, many believe that Pranav could cross the 150 kmph milestone very soon - a rare feat for any young Indian bowler. This makes him a very exciting prospect for the future of Indian fast bowling, with him expected to lead the pace attack for the national team.
