Delhi Confidential: Nobel Name

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is in London to attend the global AI summit, “bumped into” billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk at Bletchley Park. During the chat, Musk told him that his partner Shivon Zilis is half Indian and their son’s middle name is ‘Chandrasekhar’. When the minister asked him why he chose that name, the owner of social media platform X said he named his son after Indian American theoretical physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who won the 1983 Nobel prize for physics. The minister responded by saying his son’s name is also Chandrashekhar.

No political bonds

Hearing in the electoral bonds matter on Thursday saw Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and senior advocate Kapil Sibal emphatically denying any link to the BJP and the Congress respectively. Leading to this was Mehta’s reference to a hypothetical situation to illustrate how a contractor wanting to donate to the Congress would not want the BJP to know about it. As soon as he took Sibal’s name in the example, the latter objected, albeit in a lighter vein, saying the S-G seemed to have forgotten that he was no longer associated with Congress. Mehta responded he had said so as Sibal was representing a Congress leader from MP. Sibal was quick to point out that the S-G too was appearing for the government but was not a part of the party. “Absolutely not”, said Mehta. “So I am also not,” replied Sibal.

Clearance Sale

The Centre has earned Rs 500 crore from disposing of office scrap in the past one year. Various ministries have been clearing scrap from their departments as part of the annual Swachhata campaign, which concluded October 31. MoS for Personnel Jitendra Singh said between 2021 and 2023, Rs 1,100 crore revenue was generated by disposing of office scrap. He said the campaign had been undertaken in 2.53 lakh sites and it resulted in freeing up of 154 lakh square feet of space for office use.