New Delhi, April 7: Tech giant Google on Monday announced that it is all set to empower 20 Indian startups through the second edition of its ‘Google for Startups Accelerator: Apps’ programme.

The initiative, supported by Google Play, is designed to help app-based startups in India make the most of artificial intelligence (AI) and scale their products effectively.

The programme is being run in collaboration with the MeitY Startup Hub, whose support, Google said, has played a key role in extending the reach and impact of the initiative.

In a statement, Google said India’s startup and developer ecosystem is a ‘hotbed of innovation’ and the company is proud to support its growth.

With the accelerator, the US-based tech major aims to equip emerging app startups with cutting-edge AI tools, expert guidance, and mentorship from its top engineers and researchers.

The programme will run for three months and is open to Indian startups that are already using AI or are looking to integrate AI into their apps.

“To be eligible, startups must have a published app on the Play Store, be incorporated in India, and be funded between Seed and Series-A stage,” said Paul Ravindranath, Programme Manager, Google for Startups Accelerator India.

The second cohort will focus heavily on AI, recognising its growing importance in the future of app development.

Through personalised mentorship and collaboration with Google experts, these startups will receive support to improve their AI capabilities, enhance user experience, strengthen security, and accelerate user growth.

Google highlighted that the first cohort of 20 startups saw major progress in technology, design, and engagement, thanks to hands-on mentorship and access to Google’s resources.

The upcoming cohort will also benefit from similar support, including custom reports to help them perform better on Google Play.

Applications are open until May 15 and the programme will begin in July with a week-long bootcamp. During the application period, interested startups can also attend weekly virtual open forums every Thursday to learn more and ask questions, according to the company.

New Delhi, April 7: The pleas in the Supreme Court challenging the recent amendments introduced to the Waqf Act were mentioned on Monday before Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna for urgent listing.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal urged CJI Khanna to give an urgent hearing on the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.

In response, the CJI, who is the master of the roster, asked the senior counsel if he had moved an email containing the mentioning letter. When informed that the same had already been done, CJI Khanna said, “I will get the letter and do the needful this afternoon.”

Several petitions have been filed before the apex court challenging the amendments immediately after the Parliament passed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, on Friday.

After the legislation was passed in both Houses of Parliament, the Indian National Congress announced it would challenge the Waqf (Amendment) Bill before the Supreme Court. Congress claimed that it was an attack on the basic structure of the Constitution and was aimed at “polarising” and “dividing” the country on the basis of religion.

In his petition, Congress MP and party whip in Lok Sabha Mohammad Jawed contended that the amendments violated Articles 14 (right to equality), 25 (freedom to practice and propagate religion), 26 (freedom of religious denominations to manage their religious affairs), 29 (minority rights), and 300A (right to property) of the Constitution.

Similarly, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Akbaruddin Owaisi has moved the top court, saying that the impugned amendments are “ex facie violative of Articles 14, 15, 21, 25, 26, 29, 30, 300A of the Constitution of India and manifestly arbitrary”.

The concept of ‘Waqf’, rooted in Islamic laws and traditions, refers to an endowment made by a Muslim for charitable or religious purposes, such as mosques, schools, hospitals, or other public institutions. The government said that crores of poor Muslims will benefit from this legislation, and in no way does it harm any single Muslim.

Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju has said the legislation did not interfere with the Waqf properties, adding that the Modi government works with the vision of ‘Sabka Saath and Sabka Vikas’.

Kolkata, April 7: As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee prepares to meet a group of job losers in state-run schools on Monday, following the Supreme Court’s order that annulled 25,753 teaching and non-teaching jobs last week, questions are arising about whether this is a political gimmick or a genuine effort to solve the problem.

The Chief Minister, as promised, will be present at the meeting to listen to these job losers about their contentions and suggest ways to resolve the looming crisis.

The first confusion is whether the “tainted” candidates, who reportedly got jobs after paying money, will also be present at the meeting along with the “genuine” ones who lost jobs because of the failure to segregate “tainted” from “genuine candidates.

Several reportedly “genuine” candidates, who have received entry passes for the proposed meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium in central Kolkata, said they had received the passes because they were the “genuine” ones and, hence, will not allow “ineligible” ones without entry passes to be present at the meeting.

However, another section, who have not received entry passes, claimed that since the entire panel of 25,753 jobs was cancelled because of the segregation failure, how can it be decided now — who is “genuine” and who is not?

The second complication or confusion over the meeting is where the entry passes for the said meeting were issued. While those who have received such entry passes have claimed that those were issued from the state secretariat of Nabanna, those who have not received such entry passes have claimed that they are not aware of who the actual organiser of the scheduled meeting was and hence who issued such passes.

However, officially, the state government has maintained that the convener of the meeting is an association of jobless people who are now deprived of jobs because of the apex court order, and the Chief Minister is going there to listen to them on humanitarian grounds.

Already, candidates — those having entry passes and those who do not have the passes — have assembled in front of the Netaji Indoor Stadium, and there have been several rounds of altercations between the two groups. A huge police contingent is already present at the spot, trying to keep the two groups at a distance.

The third complication is that an eminent painter and a prominent writer from West Bengal are also scheduled to speak at the proposed meeting. Political observers feel that the invitation to the painter and the writer is redundant since the entire matter of finding a solution is purely “legal” and “administrative.”