NEW DELHI: Govt on Sunday unveiled India’s first comprehensive AI governance guidelines, choosing a light-touch, principle-based rulebook over a rigid new law to manage the risks of artificial intelligence while keeping innovation on track. The framework seeks to curb bias, misuse and opacity in AI systems without slowing down adoption, signalling India’s intent to shape responsible AI governance ahead of the five-day AI Impact Summit 2026, which begins on Monday.The guidelines lay out how AI should be developed and used across sectors such as healthcare, education, agriculture, finance and governance. Instead of prescribing strict controls, the framework is anchored in seven broad principles, or “sutras”, that are meant to guide both policymakers and industry.These include trust as the foundation, ‘people first’, innovation over restraint, fairness and equity, accountability, understandable by design, and safety, resilience and sustainability. Together, they emphasise that AI systems must support human decision-making, remain transparent, avoid discrimination and be deployed with clear safeguards.A key feature of the guidelines is reliance on existing laws. Officials said many AI-related risks are already covered under current legal frameworks such as IT rules, data protection laws, and criminal statutes. Instead of rushing into a standalone AI law, govt has opted for periodic reviews and targeted changes as technology evolves.The framework also proposes creation of new national institutions to oversee AI governance. These include an AI governance group to coordinate policy across ministries, a technology and policy expert committee to provide expert inputs, and an AI safety institute to focus on testing standards, safety research and risk assessment.The guidelines spell out expectations for AI developers and deployers. They call for transparency reports, clear disclosures when AI-generated content is used, grievance redressal mechanisms for people harmed by AI systems, and cooperation with regulators. High-risk applications, especially those affecting safety, rights or livelihoods, are expected to follow stronger safeguards and human oversight.Officials said the approach reflects India’s belief that AI should not remain limited to a few firms or countries, but be widely deployed to solve real-world problems while remaining trustworthy.By prioritising innovation alongside safeguards, govt aims at positioning India not just as a major user of AI, but as a global voice in shaping responsible, inclusive AI governance aligned with the vision of ‘Viksit Bharat 2047’.

Virat Kohli bats during the T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan in Melbourne, Australia.

India and Pakistan have faced each other eight times in ICC T20 World Cup history. While the head-to-head record stands at 7-1 in India’s favour, the contests have often been close. From their two meetings in the 2007 edition, including the final, to the 2024 clash in New York, the rivalry has rarely followed a one-sided script.The pattern has continued in the 2020s. India have won two of the three T20 World Cup meetings this decade, with Pakistan winning once. Yet each match has been defined by decisive passages rather than clear dominance.

As India and Pakistan get ready for yet another encounter on Sunday, here’s a look at the matches between both sides in T20 World Cups in this decade:

2021, Group Stage, Dubai – Pakistan win by 10 wickets

After years of near misses, Pakistan broke through in a World Cup fixture. The 10-wicket win in Dubai was set up by Shaheen Shah Afridi, who removed India’s top order early. Six years after their previous T20 World Cup meeting, Pakistan responded firmly — 151 was not enough on a Dubai pitch where chasing was the preferred route.Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan completed the chase without losing a wicket, finishing the game with control and without appearing under pressure.For India, it marked their most disappointing ICC campaign since the 2007 ODI World Cup, and the loss to Pakistan defined that tournament.

2022, Group Stage, Melbourne – India win by 4 wickets

The 2022 contest in Melbourne produced a finish remembered for key moments. Pakistan scored 159, a total that did not appear beyond reach. However, India were reduced to 31/4 and were staring at consecutive defeats.Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya rebuilt the innings steadily, keeping the target within sight. When India needed 48 from the last three overs, the situation looked difficult. Then came the over from Haris Rauf. Kohli struck a straight six that changed the mood of the game, prompting Harsha Bhogle’s call: “Kohli goes down the ground, Kohli goes out of the ground.”The final over brought further twists — no-balls, wickets, run-outs and wides — before Ravichandran Ashwin lifted the winning run over cover to seal the result.

2024, Group Stage, New York – India win by 6 runs

In New York, the teams played a low-scoring contest that later proved important in India’s run to the title. By then, the venue had gained a reputation as a difficult ground for batting, making India’s 119 all out close to a competitive total.Defending the score required disciplined bowling, and Jasprit Bumrah delivered. He finished with 3/14 from four overs, including the wicket of Mohammad Rizwan with an off-cutter that moved sharply. As the final overs approached, India held their nerve to defend the total by six runs.The victory extended India’s record over Pakistan to 7-1 and came on their way to lifting their first ICC trophy in 11 years.

Margao: FC Goa coach Manolo Marquez wasn’t bluffing when he said debutants Inter Kashi FC will be better than many teams in the Indian Super League (ISL).In the first half of their ISL opener at Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, Inter Kashi took the lead in added time, looked good enough to create an upset in the second, until a late penalty – that resulted in a red card – ruined plans as Goa equalised to end the game 1-1.It was Prasanth K who provided Inter Kashi the lead in the second minute of first-half added time with a nice lob over the onrushing goalkeeper. At half time, when the teams moved to the dressing room, Manolo was furious, telling his team that if he had a choice he “would have substituted all 11 players, not just for the (poor) football but also attitude.”Goa seemed better in the second half with Abdul Rabeeh brought in to add pace on the right wing. But it was not until the 83rd minute that Goa found the equaliser when Kashi goalkeeper Lluis Tarres brought down Muhammed Nemil inside the box, prompting referee Crystal John to award a penalty and send off the Spanish goalkeeper.Dejan Drazic stepped up to take the penalty and comfortably beat substitute goalkeeper Shubham Dhas.Kashi’s experiment of using a goalkeeper as one of their four foreign starters on the field turned out to be a bittersweet experience. Tarres, a 24-year-old keeper with experience of playing in the Copa del Rey, seemed unbeatable for 80 minutes, denying Drazic – Goa’s liveliest attacker – twice from close range, and Nemil with a brilliant reflex save.Then, when the team, in typical Antonio Lopez Habas mould, showed defensive solidity, defending a narrow lead in numbers, Tarres needlessly tried to dribble past Nemil inside the box and pulled down the Goa forward when the ball was snatched from his feet.Goa had only two foreign players – Drazic and defender Pol Moreno – while Kashi had four on the field, which included two forwards, Alfred Planas Moya and Nauris Petkevicio, goalkeeper Tarres and captain Sergio Llamas.Planas tested Goa keeper Hrithik Tiwari early in the game and Rohit Danu tried his luck with a long ranger. Just when it seemed like the first half would end goalless, Haobam Tomba Singh did well to beat two of his markers inside his own half and relay a long ball to Prasanth, who beat off challenge from Aakash Sangwan and lobbed the ball past the goalkeeper.After Manolo’s fury in the dressing room, Goa showed urgency in the second half. There were forward movements, crosses, attempts, but in the end the Super Cup champions benefitted from a rare misjudgement by the Kashi goalkeeper.At the end of the final whistle, neither team was happy. Both left the field thinking they could have got something more.

India 8-1 Pakistan. This is the scoreline in the history of T20 World Cups after the February 15th match in Colombo. India defeated their archrivals Pakistan by a 61-run margin at the R. Premadasa Stadium.

Ishan Kishan was the star performer of the match. Suryakumar Yadav, Team India captain, praised the top-order batter for upholding a brilliant batting display under pressure. Because of Kishan’s 77-run knock, India successfully posted the challenging total on the scoreboard.

Suryakumar Yadav praised Ishan Kishan’s effort to rescue Team India from the early setback

Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha surprised every cricket fan by plucking the wicket of Abhishek Sharma in the first innings of the match. Sharma’s departure for a duck put the Men in Blue in a tough situation. But Ishan Kishan was there for the rescue work.

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Despite batting in a watchful manner, the left-handed batter continued his batting in an aggressive way—a counterattack at its best. The pitch was not ideal enough for batting flawlessly; Pakistan batters released that thoroughly as they lost all of their 10 wickets for only 114 runs in 18 overs.

“I think this is for India. We played the same brand of cricket that we wanted to play. Batting first was the better option on this wicket. Ishan thought something out of the box. After 0/1, someone had to take responsibility, and the way he took it was amazing,” Suryakumar Yadav said in the match after the presentation ceremony.

Suryakumar Yadav explained the situation was challenging for the batting first team

The situation was not the best for Team India as they went to bat first. Pakistan has been playing their T20 World Cup 2026 matches in Sri Lanka; it is their known ground. For India, the circumstances were new. The weather was also not ideal for batting.

Throughout the day, Colombo was under a layer of clouds. For the cricketer, it was very hard to predict anything early about the nature of the pitch as well as the nature of the ground.

India will try to gain fourth win in a row

“It’s difficult to say when you’re batting first. Because you never know if there will be dew or how the pitch will play under lights. But we felt it was 15 above par. 155 could’ve been a tight game. It was great to see everyone contributing with the ball. We’ll go back, have a good time together as a team, and then think about the other games when we take the flight to Ahmedabad,” Suryakumar Yadav explained.

India will face the Netherlands on February 18 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad at 7.00 PM IST. Ahead of the match, they have secured three wins in a row.

Read More: The execution was missing with the ball: Salman Ali Agha blames spinners after loss against India

NEW DELHI: By admitting to murder-for-hire and money laundering charges, Indian national Nikhil Gupta may have secured a substantial reduction in the 40-year maximum sentence the charges entail through an “acceptance of responsibility” credit. The guilty plea not only reduces his jail-time but also helps him avoid a high-profile trial, besides limiting his trial testimony.Gupta, who has been at a Brooklyn detention centre since his 2024 extradition from Prague, has pleaded guilty before US magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn on three counts: murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced by US district judge Victor Marrero on May 29, 2026, according to a statement by FBI and DEA.While the combined charges carry a maximum statutory punishment of 40 years in prison, a guilty plea typically triggers a reduction in the offence level under federal sentencing guidelines for “acceptance of responsibility”. Legal experts pointed out this often results in a 20% to 30% reduction in the maximum exposure, though the final decision will rest solely with the sentencing judge.“Gupta is likely to receive a 2- to 3-level reduction, the standard reward for saving the court the time and expense of a trial,” said a source. Going by the US prosecutors’ recommendation, a 20-year sentence or less seems likely, sources said. There could be further reduction if the state files such a motion by May 29 when the sentencing will be announced.Gupta (54) may still have to serve around 80% of the awarded jail time with all mitigating parameters like good behaviour in place. Under US law, if he receives a sentence longer than 12 months, he would be eligible for up to a 15% reduction (roughly two months a year) for good behaviour while incarcerated.Legal experts also said that it was yet to be ascertained whether Gupta’s plea deal included “substantial assistance”, which means he will become a cooperating witness against other individuals. Pleading guilty in a US court does not necessarily require the person to provide information or testify against anyone.

NEW DELHI: The US department of justice’s indictments against Nikhil Gupta do not read like a high-stakes espionage thriller; they, if true, point to an amateur crude plot conceived and sought to be executed with no regard to the basics of intelligence tradecraft. Serving and retired security establishment officials feel, going by the claims of FBI, the whole affair seemed to brazen violate every rule in the book that even rookie interns at any agency across the globe wouldn’t, a recklessness that is associated with an overzealous operative in a terrible hurry who was not bothered with irritants like protocol requiring restraint.“Forget a senior, any mid-level officer in an agency in the know would have shut it down instantly given the amount of red flags the whole thing generated,” said a retired govt officer.From the outset, the operation violated the cardinal rule of tradecraft – never link an agency directly to the street. DOJ documents show the conversation stressed on unnecessary involvements.“Handlers never communicate directly with low-level criminal middlemen using traceable electronics. Yet, DOJ documents reveal that Vikash Yadav and Gupta exchanged routine messages on encrypted platforms that were clearly compromised,” said an officer. The handlers, sources said, always use “dead drops or cut-outs” – multiple layers of individuals who don’t know each other – to ensure if one person is caught, the trail to the state ends immediately. DOJ documents show Yadav sending his own contact information and even a “selfie” to Gupta. The photograph showed him in an official military uniform, complete with visible insignia. This single act effectively handed FBI the “who” of the operation before it had even begun.“In a real operation, a handler is a ghost; here, Yadav comes across as a digital pen pal. The ‘trap’ was not just visible; it was screaming. When Gupta sought a hitman, he reached out straight away to a ‘criminal associate’ who was, in reality, a confidential source of the US’s Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), a place teeming with double agents like Pakistani American David Coleman Headley aka Daood Gilani of 26/11 notoriety and those who have been responsible for breakthroughs in the drive against Latin American drug cartels as well as stunning failures. This source then introduced Gupta to a ‘hitman’ who was a DEA undercover officer,” another official said.An agency would have spent months vetting these assets. Instead, Gupta and Yadav sprinted into the ambush. The financial trail was equally catastrophic. On June 9, 2023, the conspirators arranged for an associate to hand over $15,000 in cash to the undercover agent in a car in Manhattan. This was a ‘Financial Op-Sec’ suicide. By moving physical cash in a place like Manhattan to a man they had never met, they turned a geopolitical plot into a common street crime captured on federal surveillance. In a real operation, money for “wetwork” is laundered through complex front companies or transferred via untraceable methods to avoid physical exposure.Perhaps the most damning evidence of their “continuing despite the trap” was the aftermath of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar killing in Canada. Rather than going “dark” to avoid regional heat, Yadav allegedly sent Gupta a video of Nijjar’s bloodied body and a message stating that the New York target was now a “priority”. “By discussing an assassination so casually and explicitly linking the two hits, they surrendered all deniability and handed DOJ the narrative of a transnational repression plot,” an official said.By the time Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic, he wasn’t a victim of a brilliant sting; he was the inevitable casualty of an eagerness, whose parenthood remains doubtful, that broke basic rules while the trap was being set in plain sight.

Mumbai: One family member was dead, two others were hospitalised, and a wedding trip turned into a nightmare after a parapet segment of an underconstruction Metro 4 viaduct structure fell on an autorickshaw and a car passing below on LBS Road in Mulund on Saturday.On Sunday, the family asked: If MMRDA would recover Rs 5 crore in fines from the contractor, why should they accept anything less than Rs 1 crore?The relatives refused to accept the body of the deceased, Ramdhan Yadav (50), until press time, as their demand remained unmet. “His body is the proof of the tragedy on us. Once we take his body back to our village and proceed with cremation, we will be left on our own,” said Sarvesh Yadav, a relative. Ramdhan, a sarpanch of Barsathi village in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur, is survived by three daughters aged 24, 16 and 12. By evening, MMRDA announced a compensation package of Rs 35 lakh-Rs 40 lakh, which included Rs 15 lakh financial aid from the authority, an insurance sum of Rs 15-20 lakh, and a Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia payment.As the tragedy fell on the day of a family wedding, several relatives were already in Mumbai. The next day, the family was scattered: some kept watch at Upasani Hospital, where Mahendra (52) and Rajkumar (25) remained in critical condition; others gathered at Mulund police station. However, most of them were at the office of MLA Mihir Kotecha, seeking justice, with one govt job for the immediate kin of Ramdhan and a total compensation of no less than Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore. “Their logic was that if MMRDA fined the contractor Rs 5 crore, that money should reach the family, as they lost a human being. We sympathise with the family and are willing to help them to the best of our capacity,” said Kotecha. However, a source close to the MLA said the family was going too far in their demands.Standing outside the hospital, Rajkumar’s cousin Urmila Yadav said, “No politician came forward to even fix our food and water for the day.” She said that even the washroom facilities at the hospital were limited for the female members; the hospital allowed only a handful inside the building.No statement came from the hospital, nor was the press allowed to interact with the doctors or the staff. Relatives said Rajkumar, the autorickshaw driver, underwent an operation, but he was still not conscious. They said the damage to the leg was extensive, and his upper body was also severely injured. He has a 21-year-old son and a teenage daughter, and he is the only earning member. While Mahendra could speak, he had broken ribs and remained critical.