Union Home Minister Amit Shah has announced that India would fence the border along Myanmar in a bid to restrict free movement into India. The announcement comes amid a high number of Myanmar soldiers fleeing into India to escape ethnic clashes. 

“India’s border with Myanmar to be protected like border with Bangladesh,” Amit Shah said at passing out parade of Assam Police commandos.

Nearly 600 Myanmar Army soldiers have crossed into India in the last three months. They took refuge in Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district after their camps were captured by the Arakan Army (AA) militants – an ethnic armed group in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine – government sources said.

Installing a fence along the border, India will scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between the two countries. People living on border regions will soon require a visa to enter the other country.  

The FMR was brought in the 1970s as people living along the India-Myanmar border have familial and ethnic ties.

A 24-year-old arrested for creating and circulating a deepfake video of actor Rashmika Mandanna told police that he wanted to gain followers on Instagram. The mastermind in the case, which sparked a debate on deepfakes around the country, was arrested in Andhra Pradesh and is being brought to New Delhi.

Deepfakes are a form of synthetic media crafted using artificial intelligence, employing sophisticated algorithms to manipulate both visual and audio elements. The term gained prominence in 2017 when a Reddit user introduced a platform for sharing manipulated videos.

The accused has been identified as Eemani Naveen, a digital marketer. Delhi Police zeroed in on Naveen after examining over 500 social media accounts associated with the deepfake video.

During investigation, the 24-year-old confessed to the crime said he created the video to gain followers on Instagram.

Naveen said he is a fan of Rashmika Mandanna and used to run a fan page of the actor. He created a deepfake video of the ‘Animal’ actor and shared it on the page. He told police that the post went viral within minutes and there was a significant increase of followers on the account.

Realising that this could land him in trouble, Naveen deleted the posts and changed the Instagram channel name. He also removed relevant digital data from his devices.

The video in question initially showcased British-Indian influencer Zara Patel, entering a lift in a black outfit. However, through the use of deepfake technology, Ms Patel’s face seamlessly morphed into that of Ms Mandanna.

The aftermath of the viral deepfake video prompted the Centre to issue an advisory to social media platforms, stressing the legal provisions covering deepfakes and the potential penalties associated with their creation and circulation.

Once a year a special ‘surya tilak’ will adorn the forehead of Ram Lalla. On every Ram Navami, or on the birthday Ram Lalla the incarnate will get a gift of special surya tilak designed by Indian scientists.

Scientists from a top government institution have designed a special mirror- and lens-based apparatus which will ensure that every Ram Navami day at noon, there is a ray of sunlight that falls directly on the forehead of the ‘achal Ram Lalla’ statue.

It is officially called the ‘Surya Tilak mechanism’. It was a scientific and engineering challenge to get it right.

“The Surya Tilak mechanism would be fully operational when the full temple is constructed,” says Dr Pradeep Kumar Ramancharla, Director of the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee.

CBRI is India’s top institution, which is also a part of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Currently, only the structure till the first floor has been made, says Dr Ramancharla. “All the equipment that was to be installed in the garba griha and ground floor has been completed.”

The Surya Tilak mechanism is designed by a team of scientists from the CBRI in such a manner that sunrays will fall on the forehead of Lord Ram’s idol at 12 pm on Ram Navami day every year for about six minutes.

A gearbox and reflective mirrors and lenses have been arranged such that sunrays from the third floor near the shikara will be brought to Garbha Griha using well-known principles of tracking the Sun’s path.

The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, provided technical support on the Sun’s path and Optica, a Bengaluru-based company, is involved in manufacturing the lenses and brass tubes.

The fabrication and installation of this device will be carried out by Rajendra Kotaria, MD of Optica. The team from CBRI was led by Dr SK Panigrahi, along with Dr RS Bisht, Kanti Lal Solanki, V Chakradhar, Dinesh, and Sameer.

CBRI scientist Dr Pradeep Chauhan, who helped in the design of the Ram temple, says, “100 per cent the Surya Tilak will anoint the forehead of the statue of Ram Lalla.”

Since the date of Ram Navami is fixed using the lunar calendar, special arrangements of 19 gears had to be put in place to make sure that the auspicious anointment takes place as scheduled. “No electricity or battery or iron is used in the gear-based Surya Tilak mechanism,” Dr Chauhan says.

India’s foremost institution on all issues astronomy, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) came up with the solution to bridge the seemingly intractable confluence of the lunar and solar (Gregorian) calendars.

“We have the necessary expertise on positional astronomy,” says Dr Annapurni Subramaniam, director of IIA. “This domain knowledge was translated so that the Sun’s rays in the form of a surya tilak could then anoint the idol of Ram Lalla every Ram Navami.”

The IIA also had the expertise with optics as they have designed some of India’s best telescopes. That was extended to make sure this periscope-like device brings sunlight into the enclosed garba griha.

“It was an interesting scientific experiment where the 19-year repeat cycle of the two calendars’ helped solve the problem,” says Dr Subramaniam.

Even as the Sun’s energy will be harvested and directed to the forehead of the statue of the Ram Lalla, another equally ambitious project to make the Ram temple complex green and near net-zero by using solar energy panels to generate electricity could not be implemented.

“The presence of many monkey troops led to the abandoning of the solar energy project,” says Nripendra Misra, chairperson of the temple construction committee of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

“There are so many monkeys, and they are all revered. They would have damaged the exposed solar panels,” he says.

A similar surya tilak mechanism already exists in some Jain temples and at the Sun Temple at Konark, but they are engineered differently.