FirstUp: PM Modi roadshow, SC to hear Shahi Idgah plea... today's top stories

It’s Tuesday. And there’s a big day of news ahead. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will lead a road show today ahead of the inauguration of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit on Wednesday. The  Mathura’s Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah mosque dispute continues with the Supreme Court set to hear a leave petition against the Allahabad High Court order. The Privileges Committee of Rajya Sabha is set to meet as 11 Opposition MPs suspended for unruly conduct during Parliament’s Winter Session get a chance to defend themselves. The Consumer Electronics Show 2024 begins in Las Vegas as the world’s leading tech companies come together under one roof to display their wares. The picturesque Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is set to hold general elections today as serious economic challenges put into question its longstanding policy of prioritising “Gross National Happiness” over growth. Let’s take a closer look at today’s big-ticket items: Modi-UAE president roadshow Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will lead a road show on Tuesday from outside the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport here a day ahead of the inauguration of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit. The three-kilometre-long roadshow will start in the evening after the prime minister receives the UAE president at the airport. “The roadshow will culminate at Indira Bridge, which connects Ahmedabad with Gandhinagar. From the bridge circle, both dignitaries will head to their respective destinations in Gandhinagar,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic-East), Ahmedabad city, Safin Hasan told reporters on Monday. Elaborate security arrangements are in place. SC to hear Leave Petition against Allahabad HC order The Shahi Masjid Idgah Committee has filed a Special Leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court order in the Krishna Janmabhoomi case. The apex court in December had refused to intervene after the Allahabad High Court approved the conduct of a scientific survey on the Shahi Idgah complex at Mathura. “The committee has now filed the SLP through advocate-on-record RHA Sikander formally challenging the high court order,” Tanveer Ahmed, secretary for the management committee of the Shahi Idgah mosque, told The Times of India. The committee in its suit has contended that the court ought to have considered its plea for rejection of the complaint before deciding on any other miscellaneous applications in the suit. A total of 18 civil suits are pending in the case. Justice Mayank Jain of Allahabad High Court is hearing the case. RS Privileges Panel meets The Privileges Committee of the Rajya Sabha, chaired by Deputy Chairman Harivansh, has convened a meeting today. The committee has various matters pending before it including the matter pertaining to the suspension of 11 MPs during the recently concluded winter session. The MPs will continue to remain suspended until their case is considered by the House after receiving the report of the Privileges Committee. [caption id=“attachment_12979212” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Representational image.[/caption] A total of 146 MPs, 100 from Lok Sabha and 46 from Rajya Sabha, were suspended during the recently concluded Winter session of Parliament after they brought placards and raised slogans, demanding a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the issue of breach of Parliament security. Notably, 11 MPs from Rajya Sabha were suspended for creating “grave disorder” in their respective Houses on December 18 which led to their suspension and their cases being referred to the Privileges Committee. The Privileges Committee of Lok Sabha is also scheduled to meet on 12 January to discuss the suspension of three MPs–K Jayakumar, Abdul Khaleque and Vijayakumar Vijay Vasanth–from the House during the Winter Session for ‘unruly behaviour’. CES begins in Las Vegas The eyes of the world are on Las Vegas today where the CES is set to begin.

CES 2024, which will run from 9 to 12 January, is expected to see Artificial Intelligence dominate.

“It’s the year of AI in everything,” said Maribel Lopez, tech analyst at Lopez Research. “If you don’t have AI in your product, don’t show up, it’s not worth talking about.” But one person who will be giving the CES 2024 a miss is OpenAI boss Sam Altman. Funding for generative AI projects exploded last year, surging more than fivefold to $23.78 billion through the beginning of December from 2022, according to PitchBook data. OpenAI’s influence at the show despite Altman’s physical absence is reminiscent of Apple and its founder Steve Jobs, whose clout was felt despite him avoiding the show, with many firms jockeying to display gadgets compatible with the company’s sleek products. Bhutan Parliamentary polls Who will prevail in the polls in Bhutan? The Bhutan Tendrel Party (BTP) is taking on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the kingdom battles an unemployment crisis and an exodus of youth. “We don’t need more new roads or bridges,” farmer Kinley Wangchuk, 46, said. “What we really need is more jobs for young people.” Bhutan’s youth unemployment rate stands at 29 per  cent, according to the World Bank. Meanwhile, economic growth has sputtered along at an average of 1.7 per cent over the past five years. Young citizens have left in record numbers searching for better financial and educational opportunities abroad since the last elections, with Australia the top destination. [caption id=“attachment_13290522” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Bhutan is set to go to the polls today. Reuters[/caption] Career civil servant Pema Chewang of the Bhutan Tendrel Party (BTP), said the country was losing the “cream of the nation”. “If this trend continues, we might be confronted with a situation of empty villages and a deserted nation,” the 56-year-old added. His opponent, former Prime Minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Tshering Tobgay, 58, sounded the alarm over Bhutan’s “unprecedented economic challenges and mass exodus. Regardless of which way it goes, China and India will be watching closely. On this day… It was on this day in 2007 that Apple CEO Steve Jobs at Macworld Expo in California’s San Francisco introduced the one phone to rule them all. Jobs, in his trademark black turtleneck, took to the stage to introduce,  in his words, “three revolutionary products.” The crowd on hand went wild. The first, he said, was a “widescreen Ipod with touch controls.” The second, he added, was a “revolutionary mobile phone.”

And the third, he said, was a “breakthrough internet communicator.”

Jobs paused and surveyed the crowd. “These are not three separate devices,” he said. “This is one device.” That device, the iPhone, he vowed, would ‘reinvent the phone.” Even Jobs’ harshest critics would be hard-pressed to argue that he didn’t fulfill his promise. With inputs from agencies