India set for accolade at Cannes film event
Anurag Thakur on Wednesday said that India will be the ‘Country of Honour’ at the Marche’ Du Film, also known as Cannes Film Market, organised alongside the Cannes Film Festival this year. Thakur said France and India are marking 75 years of their diplomatic ties and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Paris and meeting with President Emmanuel Macron takes even more significance in this context. Thakur said, “This is the first time such an honour is being bestowed to any country.” The minister said that
India is also the country of honour at Cannes Next. “The ‘Country of Honour’ status thereby ensures India’s presence as a focused country at the opening night where on one hand India can showcase its cinema, culture and heritage,” Thakur said.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes his three-nation tour of Europe, there is a new energy in India’s ties with the West. India has maintained its position on the Ukrainian crisis even as the West ups the pressure on Russia. But western governments seem to comprehend India’s challenges, and so, in an ironic way, this crisis has provided the means for New Delhi and the West to come closer, writes Harsh V Pant, vice-president, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. This shift can be attributed to three factors. First, with the centre of gravity of global politics and economics now located in the Indo-pacific, China’s challenge to the international order can no longer be brushed. For the West, a partnership with India has become a necessity. The second factor has been a reassessment by western Europe of its own identity. The final element is today’s India has a new voice on the global firmament — clear, rooted in domestic realities and civilisational ethos, he writes.
Elon Musk said on Tuesday Twitter Inc might charge a “slight” fee for commercial and government users, a part of the billionaire entrepreneur’s push to grow revenue which has lagged behind larger rivals like Facebook. “Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/ government users,” Musk tweeted. “Some revenue is better than none!” he added. Twitter declined to comment on the matter. Last week, Reuters reported Musk told banks he would develop new ways to monetise tweets and crack down on executive pay to slash costs at the company. Musk also told the banks he planned to develop features to grow business revenue, including new ways to make money out of tweets that contain important information or go viral, people aware of the matter said.