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Britain is not a racist country, says Sunak

On the education system, he added: “We will introduce the new rigorous, knowledge-rich Advanced British Standard which will bring together A-Levels and T-Levels into a new, single qualification for our school leavers…reports Asian Lite News

Rishi Sunak addressed his first Conservative Party conference as party leader in Manchester on Wednesday and used his own elevation as Britain’s first Indian-origin Prime Minister as proof that the UK is not a racist country and that his skin colour was not a “big deal”.

Dubbed as the most important speech of his political career nearly a year after he took charge as Tory leader, there was a lot riding on the 43-year-old leader’s address to the governing party activists ahead of a general election expected next year.

After a warm and personal introduction by wife Akshata Murty, who praised his “honesty, integrity and strength of character”, Sunak went on to lay out his plans for what he hopes would win him the British public’s mandate at the next polls.

“Never let anyone tell you that this is a racist country. It is not,” said Sunak. “My story is a British story. A story about how a family can go from arriving here with little to Downing Street in three generations,” he said.

He went on to point to his frontline Cabinet members in the audience, among them Indian-origin Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho, as reflective of what the Tories offer migrant families, including “even the chance to become Prime Minister”.

Reflecting on when he was first chosen by the local Conservative Association to contest from the stronghold of Richmond in North Yorkshire, a seat he has held as MP since his win in 2015, Sunak claimed people in other countries couldn’t understand it.

“One American magazine even sent a reporter to Yorkshire to write about how ‘a candidate of the wrong race [could] cost the Tories one of the safest seats in England?’ But they should not have projected their own prejudices onto our country. The people of North Yorkshire were not interested in my colour, but my character,” shared Sunak.

“I am proud to be the first British Asian Prime Minister, but you know what, I’m even prouder that it’s just not a big deal. And just remember: it was the Conservative Party who made that happen, not the [Opposition] Labour Party,” he added.

During the speech that will define the remainder of his term as Prime Minister until the next elections, Sunak’s mantra was long-term decisions to transform the UK for a brighter future. He drew a line under an issue that had been brewing for days and cancelled the remainder of the High Speed-2 (HS2) railway project to instead invest GBP 36 billion in wider transport projects.

Besides, he also made a series of announcements across the health and education sectors, including plans to increase the smoking age.

“I propose that in future we raise the smoking age by one year, every year. That means a 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette and that they — and their generation — can grow up smoke free. We know this works,” he said.

On the education system, he added: “We will introduce the new rigorous, knowledge-rich Advanced British Standard which will bring together A-Levels and T-Levels into a new, single qualification for our school leavers. First, this will finally deliver on the promise of parity of esteem between academic and technical education, because all students will sit in the Advanced British Standard.

“Second, we will raise the floor, ensuring that our children leave school literate and numerate, because with the Advanced British Standard all students will study some form of English and maths to 18, with extra help for those who struggle most.”

ALSO READ-Sunak sparks Tory civil war over HS2 move

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Tory peer accuses Braverman of ‘racist rhetoric’

On 2 April, when outlining government measures to tackle grooming gangs, Braverman singled out British-Pakistani men as a major source of concern…reports Asian Lite News

A senior Conservative peer has urged Rishi Sunak to distance the party from Suella Braverman’s “racist rhetoric” or risk ruining his legacy as the first Asian prime minister.

Sayeeda Warsi, the first Asian person to chair the Tory party, said Braverman’s ethnic origin has “shielded her from criticism for too long”, claiming Conservatives had been “hesitant to hold an ethnic minority MP to account in the same way they would a white MP”.

Lady Warsi said it was time for the party to realise that “black and brown people can be racist too”, adding how “painfully disappointing” it had been to hear the home secretary single out British-Pakistani men as being of special concern in relation to child sexual cases, as part of the most diverse cabinet in history.

Warsi told Gurdian, “I do not believe Sunak shares Braverman’s extreme views. In his own statement on government plans to tackle child sexual exploitation, he did not use the same language as Braverman and looked uncomfortable when questioned about it. But as head of the party, the responsibility stops with him. As the first prime minister from an ethnic minority background, he should not want to be remembered for presiding over a government that engaged in racist rhetoric. The prime minister must now reach out to the people who have been harmed by Braverman’s comments – those diverse communities who are suffering the direct impact of her inaccuracy. He must address the concerns raised by those diverse and varied leaders and organisations who have written him letters in their hundreds calling for an end to this irresponsible and divisive language. His legacy depends on him having the strength to stamp out this rhetoric, and stop it becoming a part of this government’s identity.”

Warsi admitted she had found it difficult criticising Braverman because she was a party colleague but also because she was a woman of colour.

“I am cautious about the language I use in speaking about Braverman’s comments,” she added. “As someone who’s faced racism all my life, I recognise it when I see it. And however difficult it may be, I will not let cultural sensitivity and the colour of the home secretary’s skin stop me from speaking out.”

Albie Amankona, a Tory campaigner who co-founded the race relations group Conservatives Against Racism For Equality, said on Twitter: “I don’t understand how it’s possible for one person, Suella Braverman, to find themselves almost weekly at the centre of so much racial insensitivity. I’ve said it before, there is something not right there.”

Warsi’s comments follow letters sent to Sunak calling for him to act over Braverman’s rhetoric, including from the British Pakistan Foundation, which accused the home secretary of seeking to portray all British-Pakistani men in a “divisive and dangerous way”.

On 2 April, when outlining government measures to tackle grooming gangs, Braverman singled out British-Pakistani men as a major source of concern.

ALSO READ-Healthcare professionals seek apology from Braverman 

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-Top News India News

IIT-B celebrates alumnus’ rise to Twitter CEO

Waves of excitement swept Mumbai, particularly IIT-B, soon after Twitter Inc. announced Dr Parag Agrawal as its new CEO, a hardcore ‘Amchi Mumbaikar’ replacing Jack Dorsey, reports Quaid Najmi

Waves of excitement swept Mumbai, particularly IIT-B, soon after giant microblogging service provider, Twitter Inc. announced Dr Parag Agrawal as its new CEO, a hardcore ‘Amchi Mumbaikar’ replacing the founder-CEO Jack Dorsey.

The proclamation was greeted with pride at his alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B), at Powai, where he studied between 2001-2005 and graduated in B. Tech from the department of Computer Science & Engineering.

IIT-B Director Prof. Subhasis Chaudhari said that the significance of any university is often judged by the collective achievements of its alumni and the glory they bring to their alma mater, and Agrawal “is one such alumnus that IIT is proud of”.

“The education and ambience that IIT-B provided to Agrawal, not too long ago, helped in bringing out the best in him. Building on top of it with hard work and dedication, he has reached the top. Our congratulations to him and we hope that IITB can continue to produce such achievers,” Prof Chaudhari said in a warm tribute.

A beaming Prof Supratim Biswas, his teacher at IIT-B’s Computer Science & Engineering Department, who taught him a couple of subjects, recalls Agrawal being the topper of the course in 2005 and bagging a coveted Silver Medal.

“He was extremely well-organised, very bright, well-behaved and focussed in life. He was the typical topper-type material and had all the qualities of an achiever,” he recalled.

He pointed out how IIT-B gets toppers from all over India and to excel them requires “special calibre”, which Agrawal displayed. “No wonder he has got this huge honour at such a young age.”

Born in Mumbai to a Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) officer and a schoolteacher, Agrawal studied at the Atomic Energy Central School No. 4, at Anushakti Nagar in north-east Mumbai, where his schoolmate was famed playback singer Shreya Ghoshal.

After cracking the IIT-JEE in 2000, he graduated from the IIT-B, and later proceeded to the US where he obtained his doctorate in Computer Science from Stanford University in 2011.

In between, in 2001, he bagged the gold medal at the International Physics Olympiad in Turkey, one of the many feathers in his cap.

After collaborative stints with Microsoft Research, Yahoo! Research, AT & T Labs for research in large-scale data management, in Oct. 2011 Agrawal joined Twitter Inc. as a distinguished software engineer and exactly six years later was appointed as the Chief Technology Officer in October 2017.

At Twitter Inc., Agrawal is responsible for its technical strategy, overseeing machine learning and AI across the consumer, revenue and science teams in the company.

Since 2011, he has led efforts on scaling Twitter Ads systems, and re-accelerating user growth by improving home timeline relevance.

Significantly, just 24 months ago in December 2019, ex-CEO Dorsey had deployed Agrawal as in-charge of Project Bluesky – “an independent team of open source architects, engineers and designers to develop an open and decentralised standard for social media that would help better control abusive and misleading information on its platform.”

November 29 marked a milestone for Agrawal as Dorsey announced his quitting from Twitter and passed him the powerful ‘handle’.

On his special memories associated with IITB, Agrawal says: “Working with friends to build shared storage and streaming services over the Hostel intranet and spending time near Vihar Lake behind Hostel 4 with close friends”.

And his unique Mantra for Success: “The whole can be much greater than the sum of parts.”

Agrawal is married to Vineeta, a general partner with a California-based VC firm Andreessen Horowitz and they have a son.

Musk praises Agrawal

Soon after Parag Agrawal, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, became Chief Technology Officer (CEO) of Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk took to the micro blogging site to praise Indian talent in the US.

Musk said that the US benefits greatly from India’s talent. Musk noted while reverting to a tweet by Stripe CEO Patrick Collison.

“Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks and now Twitter run by CEOs who grew up in India. Wonderful to watch the amazing success of Indians in the technology world and a good reminder of the opportunity America offers to immigrants. (Congrats, Parag Agrawal),” Collison wrote. Musk then tweeted, “USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!”

Netizens slam new Parag

Parag Agrawal, the new Indian-origin CEO of Twitter replacing Jack Dorsey, was trolled on Tuesday on his own platform for an 11-year-old tweet that carried racist remarks.

In 2010, when he was not even an employee of Twitter, Agrawal quoted a comedian mocking racism and Islamophobia in America.

“If they are not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists,” Agrawal said in the tweet posted on October 26, 2010.

Questioning this, Republican Ken Buck, who represents Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District, asked how users could trust Twitter’s new CEO to treat everyone equally.

However, Agrawal was quick to clarify his comments to a user. “I was quoting Asif Mandvi from The Daily Show. The article you are reading seems too deep for my current mental state,” he posted.

Agrawal also posted about Facebook and noted that the social media giant is simply a waste of time. “Facebook is like a jail. You sit around, waste time, have a profile picture, write on walls and get poked by guys you don’t know (via gizmodo),” he wrote.

Agrawal had earlier tweeted: “Facebook is seriously messed up. The https settings revert back to http when you use any app that doesn’t do https.”

Meanwhile, Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday tweeted: “Wishing you the very best ahead @jack, and congrats @paraga and @btaylor – excited for Twitter’s future!”

“Wishing you the very best ahead @jack, and congrats @paraga and @btaylor – excited for Twitter’s future,” Pichai said in a tweet.

Agrawal will take over from Dorsey as the CEO in 2022. Agrawal joins a select group of CEOs of Indian origin heading technology companies in the US.

ALSO READ-IIT man Parag is new Twitter CEO

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-Top News Sports UK News

Johnson condemns racial abuse of English players

Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka all missed the chance to net goals in the penalty shootouts. The English players were then abused on social media…reports Asian Lite News.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday condemned the “appalling” racial abuse of players on social media following the Three Lions’ loss in the Euro Cup final against Italy.

Italy ended England’s dream to win the Euro 2020 here at the Wembley Stadium on Sunday (local time). Azzurri defeated England 3-2 on penalties after the normal 90-minute action had finished at 1-1 and even extra time was not able to break the deadlock.

Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka all missed the chance to net goals in the penalty shootouts. The English players were then abused on social media.

The British Prime Minister said England players “deserve” to be lauded for their heroics and shouldn’t be “racially abused” on social media.

“This England team deserve to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media. Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves,” Boris Johnson tweeted.

England’s Football Association in the early hours of Monday morning also condemned racist abuse of players. “The FA strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and is appalled by the online racism that has been aimed at some of our England players on social media,” an official statement read.

“We could not be clearer that anyone behind such disgusting behaviour is not welcome in following the team. We will do all we can to support the players affected while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible,” it added.

The England football team said it felt “disgusted” when the players were subjected to “discriminatory abuse” on social media following the Euro Cup final loss.

“We’re disgusted that some of our squad — who have given everything for the shirt this summer — have been subjected to discriminatory abuse online after tonight’s game. We stand with our players,” the England team tweeted.

After England got off to a flying start, Leonardo Bonucci got the equaliser for Italy as he netted the ball into the goalpost in the 67th minute, bringing the scoreline level at 1-1.

No more goals were scored in the match, and hence the game had to progress to extra time. The extra time was also not able to separate the two teams, and hence the game progressed to the much-dreaded penalty shootout. In the penalty shootout, Italy edged out England 3-2 and as a result, Italy won their second Euro title. (ANI)

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