Latest news with #VijaySingh
Time of India
11 hours ago
- Science
- Time of India
Python gulps 2 birds, rests in poultry shed
Navi Mumbai: A 10 ft long Indian rock python, which slithered into a poultry shed near A forest in Vangani village of Mhasala, Raigad, was released into the wild Thursday. The python gobbled up two chickens and killed another bird at the shed, after which it became lethargic to digest the ingested food. Wildlife researcher Shantanu Kuveskar, sid the presence of the large snake caused panic among the workers. —Vijay Singh
Time of India
09-06-2025
- Time of India
No evidence: HC acquits 6 accused in human trafficking & rape case
Bhopal: A division bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court acquitted six accused, including four women, who were sentenced to 10 years in jail by a Pocso court in Chhindwara for human trafficking and the rape of a minor. During the hearing, the court found that the mother of the minor girl lodged a complaint about her 'missing' daughter almost a year after she went missing. A week later, the girl lodged a complaint at the police station, naming the accused in her FIR. The court further noted that the girl in question eloped with other boys twice earlier. There were no documents to prove that she was a minor. The court acquitted all the accused in the absence of credible evidence. According to the prosecution, the girl went missing on March 16, 2013. However, her mother lodged a report about her missing daughter on March 12, 2014. The girl surfaced a week later and lodged a complaint that she was sold by some persons and raped by the person who bought her. She also named the accused in the FIR. In her statement to the police, the girl said she was a student at Rani Laxmibai School and, since her mother was not keeping well, she also started working as domestic help with one of her friends. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Good News: You May Be Richer Than You Think Undo The accused, Anjum, Shanti Bai, her daughter Rajni, and son-in-law Kailash Yadav, took her and her friend to Bhopal, where they met Anjum's mother, Khairunnisa. From Bhopal, they went to Susner through Shujalpur. In Susner, she was sold to Vijay Singh. She was asked to wear a saree, and some cash was put in her lap. She was 17 years of age then. Vijay forcibly married her and sexually exploited her for nearly a year until she escaped and reached the police station. The Chhindwara police investigated the case and charge-sheeted it in a Pocso court. The court sentenced all the accused to 10 years in jail. The bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Anuradha Shukla, hearing the criminal revision petition of the accused, observed that there was no force used to take the girl to Susner and hand her off to Vijay Singh. The girl appeared to have gone with them on her own. In her statement, she said that at Susner, she was asked to wear a saree, and some cash was put on her lap. An engagement ceremony was being performed without informing her. The girl was a student, and she must have seen ceremonies like this taking place before marriage. There was no document to substantiate that she was a minor at that time, except for the date of birth written in the school document based on the information given by her parents. The medico-legal test on the girl failed to give a conclusive opinion on rape, as she was with Vijay Singh for almost a year. The mother of the girl lodged a complaint about her missing daughter a year after she went missing. She didn't inquire from any of the accused about her daughter during this period either. It appeared that the girl went with the accused after informing her mother. The court believed that it was with the agreement of the girl that she was taken to Susner and married to Vijay Singh. The girl's friend, in her statement, said that she 'eloped' with other boys on two occasions earlier. Her mother was aware of it. There was no evidence regarding the age of the girl. In such a situation, the accused were acquitted for want of credible evidence, and the Pocso court order was set aside, the court said.
Time of India
05-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
JEE rankers choose MIT over IIT for research, global options
Mumbai: Devesh Bhaiya, All India Rank 8 this year in the fiercely contested JEE Advanced, has decided to turn his back on India's elite engineering institutions and head for MIT instead. He won't be alone. Ved Lahoti, last year's Rank 1 and the candidate who has scored the highest in the entrance exam (352/360) in recent history, is also wrapping up his Powai chapter in exchange for a fully funded scholarship at MIT. There's a murmur of a trend here. In 2020, it was Chirag Falor who chose MIT over IIT. Before that, it was Chitraang Murdia, who spent a year at IIT Bombay before transferring to MIT. He now holds a PhD from Berkeley. "It seems like MIT trusts the rigour of JEE Advanced and the promise of our Olympiad stars," said Prof Vijay Singh, once at IIT Kanpur, who later superannuated from the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. Jalgaon's Devesh has a record that goes far beyond the JEE rank: three gold medals, two from International Junior Science Olympiads in 2021 and 2022, and one from the International Chemistry Olympiad in 2024. In 2020, he was awarded the Bal Shakti Puraskar. At 12, when most children were still tracing constellations in the sky, Devesh was mapping their vanishing — authoring a paper on light pollution. He received admission to MIT in March but sat for JEE Advanced anyway — a "back-up," he calls it. Devesh is not alone. But the others chose to stay for a year, to feel the pulse on Indian campuses, before going overseas. They too were accepted by American universities, whose doors — as Professor Vijay Singh notes — open wide for those with Olympiad medals and high JEE scores. The students' reasons for the switch are apparent. "I'm fully satisfied with IIT Bombay. But it lags in research. Globally, it's not even in the top 100. So, I applied to MIT — and when it came through, I took it. A lot of students have taken transfer to MIT and when I asked them, they said the transfer was truly worth it," said Lahoti. Nishank Abhangi, who spent 2019–2020 immersed in IIT Bombay's rigour before packing for MIT, and Mahit Gadhewala, All India Rank 9 in 2022, who also left after a year at IITB, are the other examples. Prof Singh said the first such student to do so was Raghu Mahajan, who spent a year at IIT Delhi, then took off to MIT, completed his PhD at Stanford, and is currently spending a year at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bengaluru. "He was very committed to coming back to India," recalled Prof Singh. Lahoti too shares the same feelings. "I have no plans to settle in the USA."
Time of India
30-05-2025
- General
- Time of India
Clock Tower stops ticking again; original patron's kin raise concern
Dehradun: The iconic Clock Tower in Dehradun—one of the city's oldest landmarks—has stopped functioning once again amid ongoing beautification work. For the family that originally commissioned the structure in the 1940s, the sight of malfunctioning clocks and repeated alterations is disheartening. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The maintenance work led to the clocks stopping several weeks ago. Spot visits this week revealed inconsistent functioning—while five of the tower's six clocks showed the correct time on Thursday evening, one remained out of sync. "The state to which this iconic landmark has been reduced is disappointing and disheartening," said Vijay Singh, grandson of Lala Balbir Singh, in whose memory the structure was commissioned. Completed in 1953, the tower stands at one of Dehradun's busiest intersections. It was commissioned by Lala Sher Singh, a prominent landlord, in memory of his father, at a cost of nearly ₹1.5 lakh. Originally, six clocks were imported from Switzerland, contributing to its rare hexagonal design. The structure also bears the names of freedom fighters, adding to its historical significance. Over time, however, the original Swiss clocks were replaced—though authorities are unaware of when or how the change occurred. "Sometimes we regret handing the tower over to the city council. This was a historic landmark; it still is. It meant so much to our family and the whole city. Now it has become a prop that undergoes a facelift every few months, it seems. Authorities should be focused on maintaining the existing structure. Instead, they keep revamping the whole thing, adding new embellishments that don't last long," Singh told TOI. The family also said they only learn about changes through news reports. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "We are never informed or involved in this process. Not even historians are. Authorities keep experimenting with this iconic landmark. At the time of its commission, it created history for its hexagonal structure. Now it is being lost," he added. In Sept last year, the tower fell silent for two days after unidentified individuals stole its wiring. In Dec, it suffered further damage when a truck rammed into its boundary wall. Over the years, TOI has reported multiple such incidents that have left the landmark defaced. Authorities have stated that the current restoration will offer long-term protection, with a double boundary to prevent vehicle collisions and a green belt around the main structure. While the Dehradun Municipal Corporation has jurisdiction over the tower, the ongoing beautification is being executed by Dehradun Smart City Limited.
Irish Independent
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Padraig Harrington surges into major contention at Senior PGA Championship
Starting on the back nine, the Dubliner (53) birdied the 14th and 16th to get to three under. But after getting distracted thinking about how he was swinging well and hitting fairways and greens, he bogeyed the 18th and first and immediately switched to scoring mode. Three birdies in his last eight holes helped him card a three-under 69 and leap to tied fourth on four-under, just two shots behind leaders Vijay Singh, Cameron Percy and YE Yang. 'I played quite well for the first 26 holes, then made a couple of bogeys around the turn,' Harrington said after Darren Clarke shot 70 to share 11th on three under. 'After that, I got a lot better into what I was doing and played a lot more getting the job done and not really worrying about swinging the club well or playing well. 'It was nice to come home in three under par from there on in.' He added: 'I was playing well and hit most fairways and greens, and sometimes you get lost in that. 'When I dropped a shot on 18 and on the first, I'm just knuckling down and really not caring too much about how I'm doing, just get it done. It was definitely a better mindset over the last seven or eight holes.' As the three-time major winner and former US Senior Open champion headed to his 11th hole, caddie Ronan Flood reminded him that rather than the usual 54-hole sprint, this was a 72-hole marathon. 'Ronan said it to me when we got through the first hole; he said, look, we've only played 28 holes,' Harrington explained. 'There's still a long way to go in this tournament. 'But the problem with the Champions Tour is that this week we have four rounds, which is a huge relief, but the Champions Tour, you've got to be near the lead nearly. 'It's actually starting to show up on the PGA Tour. You've got to be inside the top 10 if you're going to compete in these tournaments. 'Very rarely do you see people coming nowadays from well back. Years ago, it used to happen, but I think they're pretty much showing you want to be in the top 10 nearly after day one, if not after day two, in order to have a chance of winning a tournament.' That means Seamus Power or Scottie Scheffler will unlikely win the PGA Tour's Charles Schwab Championship in Forth Worth. Scheffler carded a one-over 71 at Colonial in round two and goes into the weekend ten strokes off the lead in a tie for 49th on one-under. Ben Griffin and Germany's Matti Schmid fired a seven-under 63s to lead by two shots on 11-under from first-round pacesetter John Pak. Power shot a bogey-free, three under 67 to get back to level par but only discovered he had made the cut on the mark late in the day. But there will be no weekend action for Leona Maguire in the Mexico River Maya Open at Mayakoba. She bogeyed her last two holes to card a second successive 75 and miss the four-over cut by two shots. The Co Cavan star (29) has fallen from 52nd to 75th in the world this year and now needs to turn things around for next week's US Women's Open at Erin Hills. Jenny Bae shot a second-round 69 in Playa del Carmen and leads by a shot on six-under at halfway from China's Miranda Wang and American Brianna Do.
