New Delhi, Mar 14 (PTI): The Assam government has decided to hike the dearness allowance by 4 per cent for its employees and pensioners on the occasion of Rongali Bihu in April, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday. The increase in DA will be effective from January 1, and the arrears of the first three months will be paid in instalments in May, June and July respectively, Sarma said at a press conference here. The DA hike will benefit around four lakh government employees and 3.5 lakh pensioners, he said. The total DA payable to the employees will

London (AP): Artificial intelligence is supercharging the threat of election disinformation worldwide, making it easy for anyone with a smartphone and a devious imagination to create fake – but convincing – content aimed at fooling voters. It marks a quantum leap from a few years ago, when creating phony photos, videos or audio clips required teams of people with time, technical skill and money. Now, using free and low-cost generative artificial intelligence services from companies like Google and OpenAI, anyone can create high-quality “deepfakes” with just a simple text prompt. A wave of AI deepfakes tied to elections in Europe

New Delhi (Reuters): Behind the doors of a small, non-descript office in the heart of New Delhi lies the headquarters of an electoral trust run by just two men that is the largest-known donor to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to a Reuters review of public records. The Prudent Electoral Trust has raised $272 million since its creation in 2013, funnelling roughly 75% of that to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party. The trust’s donations to the BJP total 10 times as much as the $20.6 million it issued to the opposition Congress party, the records show. The previous

New Delhi (Reuters): Police in the Indian capital put up barricades, stepped up security and warned of traffic congestion on Thursday as thousands of protesting farmers were due to arrive for a rally in support of their demand for higher crop prices. Thousands of farmers began a ‘Delhi Chalo’ (Let’s go to Delhi) march last month to demand higher guaranteed prices for their crops but were stopped by police armed with tear gas and water cannons about 200 km (125 miles) north of the capital, where they have remained camped since. The protesters, most of who belong to the northern