NewsBytes

Bill Gates meets PM Modi

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Wednesday said he is impressed by how innovation in India is driving "progress locally -- and globally", as he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed a host of subjects including technology, innovation and sustainability.

Gates also met Union Health Minister J P Nadda when the collaboration between the government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the healthcare sector was reviewed.

The philanthropist also met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar who said they had a thoughtful conversation on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue.

"Discussed development challenges, the promise of innovation and the relevance of India," Jaishankar posted on X.

Gates also had a meeting with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and they discussed leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics to improve service delivery in the fields of healthcare, education, agriculture, and employment generation.

Ludhiana among 9 cities vulnerable to heatwaves: Study

A new study mentions that Ludhiana is among India's most vulnerable cities to future heatwaves. The study, published on Wednesday, also highlighted that long-term measures to deal with the issue are rare in the country.

The analysis by the Sustainable Futures Collaborative, a New Delhi-based research organisation, examines how nine major Indian cities — Bengaluru, Delhi, Faridabad, Gwalior, Kota, Ludhiana, Meerut, Mumbai and Surat — are preparing for the increasing threat of extreme heat.

These cities together account for over 11 per cent of India's urban population.

Without effective long-term strategies, India is likely to witness more heat-related deaths due to more frequent, intense and prolonged heat waves in the coming years, the authors said.

JFK assassination US releases unredacted files

More than 63,000 pages of records related to the 1963 assassination of President John F Kennedy were released following an order by President Donald Trump, many without the redactions that had confounded historians for years and helped fuel conspiracy theories.

The US National Archives and Records Administration posted to its website on Tuesday roughly 2,200 files containing the documents. The vast majority of the National Archives' collection of over 6 million pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts related to the assassination have previously been released.

Larry J Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Centre for Politics and author of “The Kennedy Half-Century,” said it will take time to fully review the records. “We have a lot of work to do for a long time to come, and people just have to accept that,” he said.

Trump announced the release while visiting the John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington, saying his administration would be releasing about 80,000 pages.