A BJP leader said the chief minister’s yatra will focus on three things - "mood, media, mahol". The second phase of his campaign began in Maiyar, the abode of local presiding deity Maa Sharada, in Bhind district on July 18. "The Congress has nothing to say against me. Hence, the party is spreading lies about me and my government," said Mr Chouhan, while addressing a roadside meeting from his chariot. Even children are coming forward to wave and greet the chief minister," Mr Agrawal claimed. The Congress won 57, the BSP got four, apart from three independents. While male members greet the chief minister by waving their hands, women members shower flower petals on him from roof tops.The response from people clearly indicats that Mr Chouhan still enjoys the confidence of the people, he added.Secondly, it will help in mobilisation of party cadres and leaders who have been entrusted various responsibilities to make the crucial event successful in their respective areas ahead of the year-end polls.The Congress chariot will virtually chase its rival BJP "rath" to negate the goodwill generated by the chief minister among the voters for his party during tour.The chief minister is scheduled to address more than 700 roadside meetings and over 500 road shows during the yatra."By the end of the yatra, BJP will be assured of getting 200 out of total 230 seats in the year-end assembly polls," BJP national president Amit Shah had said while kicking off the yatra.The youth, women and other wings of the party, including the IT cell, will function in a coordinated manner to ensure success of the event, a strategist of the event told this newspaper.

Flagged off by BJP president Amit Shah, Mr Chouhan’s yatra, like the two earlier such campaigns he had held before the 2008 and 2013 Assembly elections, is billed to set the tone for the coming elections high speed injection molding machine Factory by re-establishing the popularity of the chief minister in a state which has a history of seeing two-party contests between the BJP and the Congress. "Our ‘pol khol’ (expose) yatra will call chief minister’s bluff," said Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedy..He claimed that his party’s "Jan Jagaran Yatra" would expose various omissions and commissions in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government and, thus, negate the impact of Mr Chouhan’s campaign."The ‘Jan Jagaran Yatra’ of the Congress is being led by second rung leaders of the party such as Jitu Patwari, Ramnivas Rawat, Surendra Choudhury and Bala Bachhan, indicating lack of seriousness on the part of the party in the campaign.The Congress, however, has alleged that the BJP is misusing government machinery to make its campaign a success.But, the chief minister appears unfazed.The chief minister is scheduled to address at least one huge public meeting in 224 constituencies and several roadside meetings from his chariot for which strategic places have already been identified along the route of his journey.

The attempt is to create a pro-establishment mood among people, ensure extensive coverage in media and generate a feel-good factor among people, he said.Mr Chouhan’s yatra covered three districts, Ujjain, Ratlam and Dhar in the first phase."Local administrations have been directed unofficially to arrange people for the chief minister’s meetings," Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Ajey Singh alleged. This, in a way, will also set the momentum for the Lok Sabha polls in 2019."The state has been divided into two parts for coverage of the ‘Jan Ashirvad Yatra’ which is planned in such a way that Mr Chouhan will cover different regions simultaneously with the help of two chariots," said BJP spokesman Rajnish Agrawal. Besides, this has demonstrated that the Congress has no mass leader to match Mr Chouhan’s charisma," Mr Agrawal said.Bhopal: All eyes are on the "Jan Ashirvad Yatra", the 51-day poll campaign launched by Madhya Pradesh’s three-time chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on July 14 from the temple city of Ujjain to drum up support for the ruling BJP in the Assembly elections in November.The BJP hopes that Mr Chouhan’s poll journey would harvest goodwill for the party in the year-end polls helping it retain power in the state for fourth time in a row.The political significance of the BJP’s "Jan Ashirvad Yatra" (drive to seek blessings from people) can be gauged from the knee jerk response it has evoked from the Congress that has launched a counter march called the "Jan Jagaran Yatra", public awareness campaign, on July 18 from Ujjain within just four days after Mr Chouhan began his 8,000 km poll journey in a luxury bus converted into a chariot."We are getting enthusiastic responses from people to the event.Firstly, it will strengthen the connect between the chief minister and the electorates when Mr Chouhan wades through the streets greeting people and attracting reciprocating gestures from them, besides giving them the accounts of his government’s performances.The yatra, which is scheduled to end on September 25 and coincide with the birth anniversary of BJP ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, will serve twin-purposes.In 2013 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 166 seats in the 230-member Assembly

But Brady argues that robot-human collaboration at the Staten Island facility, which employs more than 2,000 people, has given them a "beautiful edge" over the competition.New York: Hundreds of orange robots zoom and whiz back and forth like miniature bumper cars, but instead of colliding, theyre following a carefully plotted path to transport thousands of items ordered from online giant Amazon. Since Amazon went all-in on robotics with the 2012 acquisition of logistics robot-maker Kiva, gains have been indisputable, Brady says.A young woman fitted out in a red safety vest, with pouches full of sensors and radio transmitters on her belt and a tablet in hand, moves through their complicated choreography. This robot ballet takes place at the new Amazon order fulfilment centre that opened on Staten Island in New York in September. Robotics and artificial intelligence bring clear benefits to humanity, in terms of our health, welfare, happiness and quality of life," said Lynch, who believes public policy has a key role to play in ensuring those benefits are shared, and that robotics and AI do not sharpen economic inequality.The high-tech vest, worn at Amazon warehouses since last year, is key to the whole operation, it allows 21-year-old Deasahni Bernard to safely enter the robot area, to pick up an object that has fallen off its automated host, for example, or check if a battery needs replacing.

"But its easier to predict the jobs that will be plastic injection molding machine Manufacturers lost than the jobs that will be created. What role do Amazon employees play in what Brady calls the human-robot "symphony?"At every stage, the goal is to "extend peoples capabilities" so the humans can focus on problem-solving and intervene if necessary, according to Brady.But despite Bradys enthusiasm for a robotic future, many are suspicious of the trend, a wariness that extends to the corporate giant, which this month scrapped high-profile plans for a new New York headquarters in the face of local protests.Attempts by Amazon employees to unionise, at Staten Island and other sites, have so far been successfully fought back by the company, further fuelling criticism.Many suspect Amazons investment in robotics centres aims to eventually automate positions currently held by humans.

For Kevin Lynch, an expert in robotics from Northwestern University near Chicago, the development of collaborative robots is "inevitable" and will indeed eventually eliminate certain jobs, such as the final stage of packing at Amazon for instance. "Its a myth that robotics and automation kills jobs, its just a myth," according to Brady. "The data really cant be denied on this: the more robots we add to our fulfilment centres, the more jobs we are creating," he said, without mentioning the potential for lost jobs at traditional stores."I also think other jobs will be created," he said."What used to take more than a day now takes less than an hour," he said, explaining they are able to fit about 40 per cent more goods inside the same footprint. For some, these fulfilment centres, which have helped cement Amazons dominant position in global online sales, are a perfect illustration of the looming risk of humans being pushed out of certain business equations in favour of artificial intelligence. "We are not robots, we are human beings," Long said.Amazon now counts more than 25 robotic centres, which chief technologist for Amazon Robotics Tye Brady says have changed the way the company operates.In an 80,000 square-meter (855,000 square-foot) space filled with the whirring sounds of machinery, the Seattle-based e-commerce titan has deployed some of the most advanced instruments in the rapidly growing field of robots capable of collaborating with humans.Theyve created 300,000 new jobs, bringing the total number of worldwide Amazon employees up to 645,000, not counting seasonal jobs. Bernard only has to press a button and the robots stop or slow or readjust their dance to accommodate her. "The real question is, how do we prepare for our future with robots?". At a press briefing held last month as part of the unionisation push, one employee of the facility, Rashad Long, spoke out about what he said were unsustainable work conditions."The growth of robotics and AI is inevitable," he said.He is convinced the use of "collaborative robots" is the key to future human productivity and job growth. At the age of 51, he has worked with robotics for 33 years, previously as a spacecraft engineer for MIT and on lunar landing systems of the Draper Laboratory in Massachusetts