BHUBANESWAR, India & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2025--
In a noteworthy development underscoring growing academic collaboration between India and the United States, the City University of New York (CUNY) has launched a dedicated research platform—the Achyuta Samanta India Initiative of the CUNY CREST Institute (ASIICCI).
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250529012005/en/
Named after Dr. Achyuta Samanta, a noted Indian educationist and social worker, the initiative focuses on academic research in Indian social and educational sectors, with a particular lens on Odisha. This marks one of the rare instances of a living Indian being honoured with such a naming in an American public university system.
Dr. Samanta, who hails from Odisha, is the founder of two major institutions—Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) and the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS). KIIT is a multidisciplinary university offering a wide range of professional programmes to over 40,000 students. KISS, on the other hand, provides free education, accommodation, healthcare, and food to more than 40,000 tribal children. His pioneering work in ensuring free quality education and holistic development to marginalised communities has earned him global recognition.
Over the years, Dr. Samanta has been conferred with 67 honorary doctorate degrees (honoris causa) from universities across the globe—one of the highest such recognitions received by any Indian academician or social worker.
Speaking on the rationale behind the initiative, representatives at CUNY noted that Dr. Samanta’s model—integrating education with empowerment—offers a replicable example for institutions worldwide. The platform aims to provide scholars with an opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary research centred on India’s developmental challenges and contributions. Additionally, it will facilitate an in-depth exploration of Samanta’s educational model that has successfully integrated academic excellence with social impact.
The official inauguration, held earlier this week, was attended by senior academics including Dr. Milton Santiago, President of Bronx Community College, part of the CUNY system. With over 300,000 students from 122 nationalities, CUNY is one of the largest and most diverse public university systems in the United States.
While institutions in the U.S. have occasionally recognised Indian cultural figures posthumously, ASIICCI is unique in being named after a living Indian educator. The initiative is expected to foster long-term academic engagement between Indian and American scholars.
The development has been noted in academic circles as a gesture of cross-cultural recognition, adding to the growing discourse on inclusive, socially driven education models.
Dr. Milton Santiago, President of Bronx Community College, and Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Founder of KIIT & KISS, jointly inaugurate the Achyuta Samanta India Initiative of CUNY CREST Institute (ASIICCI) with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in New York.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk's company xAI, as concerns grew among global authorities that it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images.
The moves reflect growing scrutiny of generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text and concern that existing safeguards are failing to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children.
Last week, Grok limited image generation and editing to paying users following a global backlash over sexualized deepfakes of people, but critics say it didn’t fully address the problem.
An emailed request for comment by The Associated Press to xAI resulted in an automated reply from the media support email address which stated, “Legacy Media Lies.” This was the same message received from a different email when asked for comment regarding the global backlash.
Regulators in the two Southeast Asian nations said that existing controls weren't preventing the creation and spread of fake pornographic content, particularly involving women and minors. Indonesia’s government temporarily blocked access to Grok on Saturday, followed by Malaysia on Sunday.
"The government sees nonconsensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity and the safety of citizens in the digital space,” Indonesian Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said in a statement Saturday.
The ministry said the measure was intended to protect women, children and the broader community from fake pornographic content generated using AI.
Initial findings showed that Grok lacks effective safeguards to stop users from creating and distributing pornographic content based on real photos of Indonesian residents, Alexander Sabar, director-general of digital space supervision, said in a separate statement. He said that such practices risk violating privacy and image rights when photos are manipulated or shared without consent, causing psychological, social and reputational harm.
In Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission ordered a temporary restriction on Grok on Sunday, after what it said was “repeated misuse” of the tool to generate obscene, sexually explicit and nonconsensual manipulated images, including content involving women and minors.
The regulator said that notices issued this month to X Corp. and xAI demanding stronger safeguards drew responses that relied mainly on user reporting mechanisms.
“The restriction is imposed as a preventive and proportionate measure while legal and regulatory processes are ongoing,” it said, adding that access will remain blocked until effective safeguards are put in place.
Launched in 2023, Grok is free to use on X. Users can ask it questions on the social media platform and tag posts they’ve directly created or replies to posts from other users. Last summer, the company added an image generator feature, Grok Imagine, that included a so-called spicy mode that can generate adult content.
The Southeast Asian restrictions come amid mounting scrutiny of Grok elsewhere, including in the European Union, the United Kingdom, India and France.
On Monday, the U.K.'s media regulator said that it launched a formal investigation into whether Grok “complied with its duties to protect people in the U.K. from content that is illegal.”
The regulator, Ofcom, said that Grok-generated images of children being sexualized or people being undressed may amount to pornography or child sexual abuse material.
“The content created and shared using Grok in recent days has been deeply disturbing," Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said.
Edna Tarigan reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.
FILE - Workers install lighting on an "X" sign atop the company headquarters, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
FILE - Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Oval Office of the White House, May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
