An Indian-American doctor has filed a lawsuit here against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, and business tycoon Gautam Adani on a host of issues, including corruption and Pegasus spyware. The US District Court for the District of Columbia has issued summons to all these leaders, along with several others, which were served on them in India earlier this year. Eminent Indian-American attorney from New York Ravi Batra has termed it a “dead on arrival lawsuit”.

The lawsuit against Modi, Reddy and Adani has been filed by Richmond-based gastroenterologist Dr Lokesh Vuyurru. Among others named in the lawsuit is Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and chairman of the World Economic forum. Without any documentary evidence, the Indian-American physician, who comes from Andhra Pradesh, alleged that Modi, Reddy and Adani, along with others, are engaged in corruption, including massive cash transfers to the US and use of Pegasus spyware against political opponents.

The lawsuit was filed on May 24, following which the court issued the summons on July 22. The summons were served on them in India on August 4 and to Schwab in Switzerland on August 2.Dr Vuyyuru submitted the evidence of submission of the summons before the court on August 19.Asked about the lawsuit, Batra said Vuyyuru had too much free time on his hands.

“Lokesh Vuyyuru has too much free time on his hands, seeing his improper use of our federal courts by filing his 53-page complaint to defame and disparage an American ally, India, and despite the presumption against extra-territoriality and foreign sovereign immunity act – something we helped flush out by repeatedly winning dismissal of SFJ v INC and SFJ v Sonia Gandhi – he slashes and burns indiscriminately as if there was no Rule 11 to teach him respect for Article III courts,” he told PTI.

“That no lawyer agreed to sign this toilet paper ‘complaint’ speaks volumes, for this is a dead on arrival lawsuit,” Batra said in response to a question. “He has a birds-eye complaint about corruption – as he sees it – and he doesn’t specify – RICO and Fraud require,” he said.

An Indian American teenager has invented a low cost tool to spot elephant poachers with machine-learning-driven software that analyzes movement patterns in thermal infrared videos of humans and elephants.

Anika Puri, the 17-year-old wildlife lover, from Chappaqua, New York, thought of doing something when during a visit to India with her family four years ago, she came across a market in Bombay filled with rows of ivory jewelry and statues.

Globally, ivory trade has been illegal for more than 30 years, and elephant hunting has been prohibited in India since the 1970s.

“I was quite taken aback,” Puri told Smithsonian Magazine. “Because I always thought, ‘well, poaching is illegal, how come it really is still such a big issue?’”

Curious, Puri did some research and discovered a shocking statistic: Africa’s forest elephant population had declined by about 62 percent between 2002 and 2011. Years later, the numbers continue to drop.

Drones are currently used to detect and capture images of poachers, and they aren’t that accurate, Puri explains.

But after watching videos of elephants and humans, she saw how the two differed vastly in the way they move—their speed, their turning patterns and other motions, the magazine wrote.

“I realized that we could use this disparity between these two movement patterns in order to actually increase the detection accuracy of potential poachers,” she was quoted as saying.

Over the course of two years, Puri created ElSa (short for elephant savior), a low-cost prototype of a machine-learning-driven software that analyzes movement patterns in thermal infrared videos of humans and elephants.

Puri told the Smithsonian the software is four times more accurate than existing state-of-the-art detection methods. It also eliminates the need for expensive high-resolution thermal cameras, which can cost in the thousands, she says.

ElSa uses a $250 FLIR ONE Pro thermal camera with 206×156 pixel resolution that plugs into an off-the-shelf iPhone 6. The camera and iPhone are then attached to a drone, and the system produces real-time inferences as it flies over parks as to whether objects below are human or elephant.

Puri submitted her project to this year’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, the world’s largest international pre-college STEM competition.

Her eloquence in describing her research and its potential impact on society earned her the $10,000 Peggy Scripps Award for Science Communication. She also won a top award in the competition’s earth and environmental sciences category.

Puri first learned about the capabilities of artificial intelligence just after ninth grade, when she was selected to attend Stanford AI Lab’s summer program.

“Initially, my enthusiasm for artificial intelligence was based off of this limitless possibility for social good,” she told Smithsonian. But she soon discovered that because data is collected and analyzed by humans, it contains human biases, and so does AI as a result.

“It really has the capability to reinforce some of the worst aspects of our society,” she says. “What I really realized from this is how important it is that women, people of color, all sorts of minorities in the field of technology are at the forefront of this kind of groundbreaking technology.”

About a year later, Puri founded a nonprofit called mozAIrt, which inspires girls and other underrepresented groups to get involved in computer science using a combination of music, art and AI.

To create her model, Puri first found movement patterns of humans and elephants in multiple protected areas in Africa. Sifting through the data, Puri identified 516 time series extracted from videos that captured humans or elephants in motion.

Puri used a machine learning algorithm to train a model to classify a figure as either an elephant or a human based on its speed, group size, turning radius, number of turns and other patterns.

In the fall, Puri will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she wants to study electrical engineering and computer science.

She has plans to expand her movement pattern research into other endangered animals. Next up is rhinos, she says. And she wants to begin implementing her software in national parks in Africa, including South Africa’s Kruger National Park.

Covid-19 restrictions delayed some of her plans to travel to these parks to get her project off the ground, but she hopes to explore her options after she starts college.

Because drones only have a battery life of a few hours, she is currently creating a path-planning algorithm to ensure maximum efficiency in the drone’s flight course, Puri told the Smithsonian.

After External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s successful visit to Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay last week, the Narendra Modi government is going to intensify engagement with Latin America as these countries want to deepen bilateral cooperation with India. Jaishankar become the first Indian foreign minister to visit Latin America in nine years after UPA’s Salman Khurshid visited some of these countries way back in 2013.

It is learnt that EAM Jaishankar was given a red-carpet treatment by his Brazilian, Argentinian, and Paraguayan counterparts with head of state of all three countries taking out time to meet the Indian Foreign Minister. The leadership of the three countries was appreciative of India’s stance on Ukraine, Indo-Pacific, and the way the Indian Army is standing up to the PLA in East Ladakh. These countries were particularly appreciative of PM Modi’s strong leadership in context of strategic autonomy and India’s global vaccine support when the coronavirus was ravaging the world with deaths all around.

The success of EAM Jaishankar’s visit reflected the rising clout of India as it assumes the Presidency of the G-20 later this year while remaining a member of the UNSC till end of January 2023. One must remember that when Minister Khurshid went to Latin America in 2013, India was a smaller economy than Brazil and its position shaky within the BRICS grouping. Today, India is on way to become the fifth largest economy in the world with the potential of becoming at least number three economy this decade.

The appreciation of India’s rising stature and PM Modi’s leadership was evident during EAM’s visit as Latin American leadership finds the Indian Prime Minister not afraid to take stands on strategic issues in national interest be it on Ukraine or on Indo-Pacific. It was during the visit that EAM Jaishankar made it very clear that the rood to bilateral normalcy with China goes through Ladakh with Beijing honoring the 1993 and 1996 bilateral agreements and restoring April 2020 status quo in East Ladakh sector. He made it amply clear that restoration of status quo ante in East Ladakh and tranquility on the LAC were the prime conditions for normalization of ties with China. It was during Jaishankar’s trip that the Indian embassy in Sri Lanka replied in kind to an uncouth outburst from Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka over India’s security concerns over berthing of Chinese satellite and missile tracker ship Yuan Wang 5 at Hambantota Port this month.

The inauguration of Indian embassy in Paraguay by the EAM and his recent visit to Kenya in June are clear signals that the Modi government will increase India’s diplomatic footprint and specially engage those countries who have been supportive of New Delhi over the years.

Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi has asked the police in Dallas to prosecute to the full extent of the law the woman responsible for the hate-motivated harassment and assault on four women of Indian descent last week, saying such bigoted attacks victimise not only those targeted by them but also broader communities.

The Indian-American women have been racially abused and smacked by a Mexican-American woman in Dallas in the US state of Texas, who hurled racist slurs at them that they are “ruining” America and should “go back to India”.

“Such bigoted attacks motivated by racism, xenophobia, and other forms of hate victimise not only those directly targeted by them, but also broader communities through creating an atmosphere of fear and danger,” Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat, said.

Esmeralda Upton from Plano in Texas was arrested for the racially-motivated physical and verbal assault of the four women at a parking lot last Wednesday.

“I’m appalled by the footage of the hate-motivated harassment and assault on four women of Indian descent and urge police to prosecute the woman responsible to the full extent of the law,” the Indian-American Congressman said in a statement.

“As our country continues to combat the surge in anti-Asian hate since the beginning of the pandemic, I urge all Americans to come together and prove that our country and our people are better than this,” he said.

Upton identified herself in the video as a Mexican-American.

“I hate you Indian. All these Indians come to America because they want a better life,” she was seen saying in the video.

The video showed her telling the group of women to “go back to India”.

In a separate statement, representatives of Indian-American organisations in New England on Sunday strongly condemned the recent act of anti-Asian violence in Plano, Texas.

“We are very disturbed by this and recently increased acts of violence and hate crimes against Indians, South Asians, and Asian Americans in general. We do commend the Plano Police department for responding to the incident with urgency and understanding,” they said.

Asian-Americans, like all other immigrants, have made significant contributions to this great land despite facing ongoing prejudice based on accents, colour, religion, or perceptions of leadership or other abilities, they said.

“We believe in the fair treatment of all human beings regardless of age, education level, race, ethnicity, gender expression and identity, nationality, national origin, creed, accent, physical and mental ability, political and religious stance, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, socioeconomic status, veteran status, profession, or any other human differences, the organisations said.

“We unequivocally and unapologetically condemn the divisive forces of hate, inequity, and injustice. We stand united in love and peace and stand against racist, discriminatory, violent acts against any community,” they said.