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Today, India celebrates the <keyword id="68074" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="National-Education-Day">National Education Day</keyword> 2019 to mark the birth anniversary of the country’s first Education Minister <keyword id="255326" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Maulana-Abdul-Kalam-Azad">Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad</keyword>. In September 2008, the Human Resource and Development Ministry declared November 11 as the National Education Day. Maulana, who shaped the scientific research and education system believed that schools are laboratories that will shape the future of the country. He established the country’s first elite engineering college — Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He also founded the University Grants Commission (UGC), Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) among others. Here are the <keyword id="747357" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="educational-reforms">educational reforms</keyword> that India witnessed in the recent times.

On National Education Day, here’s a look at the recent reforms in India

<ul><li>India accounts for only 0.25% of the 4,000 highly-cited scientists across the globe, according to <keyword id="4393714" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="clarivate-analytics">Clarivate Analytics</keyword>. </li><li>The number has doubled since 2017 but that’s only because the company added an additional category to include ‘cross field’ researchers. </li><li>India’s neighboring country, <keyword id="1334" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>, stands at the third position with nearly 482 scientists.</li></ul>With only 10 Indian scientists featuring in the list of 4,000 highly-cited researchers across the globe, the country lags far behind China in new contributions towards science and innovation,<a href="https://clarivate.com/blog/news/global-highly-cited-researchers-2018-list-reveals-influential-scientific-researchers-and-their-institutions/"> said a recent report by</a> Clarivate Analytics — a company that names people with multiple papers ranking in the top 1% by citations for their field and year. Interestingly, most of the science experts listed do not come from highly ranked institutes in India that are always creating buzz for their scientific innovation. However, a professor from each IIT-Kanpur, IIT Madras, JNU, and NIT-Bhopal are on the global list. Meanwhile, China is among the top three countries with 482 science experts. India couldn’t even make it up to the top 10 countries. <keyword id="23050" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sweden">Sweden</keyword> (53%), Austria (53%), Singapore (47%), Denmark (47%), China (43%) and South Korea (42%) are among the nations that have 40% of their Highly Cited Researchers selected in the cross-field category. India and China used to be on the same page in terms of contribution about 15 years ago but now China accounts for nearly 16% This could be considered a victory for India since the number of scientists on the list has doubled since 2017. But Dinesh Mohan, one of the scientists on the list, says that’s only because the report includes an additional category of ‘cross field’ researchers. The list highlights the need to improve the research ecosystem in India and deal with <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06048-2">problems </a>like predatory journals. According to experts, Indian academicians lack focus on quality research. Ashok Pandey, a researcher featured on the list, claims that poor representation in science is a matter of national concern and need to be addressed by lawmakers, government and other respective stakeholders. Analysts add that India has a negligible representation in the world’s highly cited researchers primarily because the nature of research is theoretical. Here are the Indian figures featured on the list - Alok Mittal <ul><li>Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology </li><li>Specialisation: Environmental Science, Water Treatment and Chemistry. </li></ul>Ashok Pandey <ul><li>Council of Scientific &amp; Industrial Research (CSIR)</li><li>Specialisation: Microbial and Enzyme Technology, Food and Fermentation Technology Industrial Biotechnology </li></ul>Rajeev Varshney <ul><li>International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics</li><li>Specialisation: Applied Genomics, Molecular breeding, Crop Biotechnology. </li></ul>Jyoti Mittal <ul><li>Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology </li><li>Specialisation: Environmental Science, Water Treatment and Surface Chemistry. </li></ul>Dinesh Mohan <ul><li>Jawaharlal Nehru University</li><li>Specialisation: Water and wastewater monitoring, biofuels products. </li></ul><keyword id="3690833" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="avinash-kumar-agarwal">Avinash Kumar Agarwal</keyword> <ul><li>IIT-Kanpur</li><li>Specialisation: bio butanol, biodiesel development, Engine combustion investigation.</li></ul>Rajnish Kumar <ul><li>IIT-Madras</li><li>Specialisation: Carbon dioxide capture, methane and hydrogen storage, and Gas hydrates. </li></ul>Sanjeeb Sahbo <ul><li>Institute of Life Sciences,</li><li>Specialisation: Use of nanotechnology in cancer drug delivery, especially cancer cure</li></ul>CNR Rao: Is <keyword id="100256" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bharat-Ratna">Bharat Ratna</keyword> <ul><li>Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research</li><li>Specialisation: Structural Chemistry, solid state, and material chemistry</li></ul>Sakthivel Rathinaswamy <ul><li>Bharathiar University</li><li>Specialisation: Applied Mathematics (control theory)</li></ul>See more- <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/latest/culture-of-fear-india-fifth-deadliest-country-for-journalists/articleshow/67178072.cms">Culture of fear — India fifth ‘deadliest’ country for journalists</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/miners-trapped-in-meghalaya-for-over-two-weeks/articleshow/67257937.cms">15 miners have been trapped in a rat hole mine for two weeks — Indian government at a loss for solutions</a>

Only 10 scientists from India featured in the world’s ‘highly-cited’ researchers list compared to 482 from China

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesFacebook must become more transparent about how its ad categories are generated, experts say, and how people are grouped into them.</div></div></div><ul><li>Facebook's ad-targeting engine allows marketers to target people by a number of political triggers.</li><li>They could be used by governments, political parties, or others looking to sway opinions or stir up divisions.</li><li>Moving forward, experts say, Facebook must become more transparent about how its ad categories are generated and how people are grouped into them. </li></ul> Ever since Facebook acknowledged that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-says-fake-accounts-linked-to-russia-bought-ads-during-us-election-2017-9">Russian operatives meddled</a> in last year's presidential election by targeting ads to narrow interest groups based on divisive issues like race and immigration, the social network has promised to build in safeguards to ensure that postings on sensitive issues receive human scrutiny. The safeguards are meant to help screen out ads making use of overtly hateful categories like "<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-enabled-advertisers-to-reach-jew-haters">Jew Haters</a>," which was tested by ProPublica as a real filter for a hypothetical advertiser that made it past computer screening. A scan for other, albeit less inflammatory filters, shows that the social network still has its work cut out for it - around the world. Consider: As of Monday, a prospective advertiser could type the keywords "Azad Kashmir" or "Free Kashmir" in the "Detailed Targeting" section of Facebook's ad targeting system and deliver ads to a potential audience of over 3.2 million people between the ages of 18 and 65-plus, respectively, across India and Pakistan, according to a test by Business Insider. Kashmir the hotly disputed territory between the two countries. Similarly, ads targeting the words "Free Palestine" revealed the potential to reach over 1.8 million users in 21 different Arab countries, barring Syria, and Assemblea Nacional Catalana (of the Catalan National Assembly, which is leading the movement for Catalonia to secede from Spain) could reach 220,000 people.<h2>A structural, fundamentally global problem</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Facebook" title_caption="A screenshot shows " detailed="" targeting="" for="" Kashmir.="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59e7b650ddd0631c1e8b4d90-960/screen shot 2017-10-18 at 41330 pm.png"></a>FacebookA screenshot shows "detailed targeting" for Kashmir.</div></div></div>These ad categories, called interest segments, are by themselves simply identifiers of people interested in certain topics, such as Palestinian statehood or the India-Pakistan conflict. But all three of these issues have also led to or inspired civil strife, violence, terrorism or warfare, and the issue Facebook has to contend with is that the targeting mechanisms can be misused to stir up divisions or promote disharmony. As <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-ad-targeting-means-voters-can-be-swayed-at-low-cost-2017-10">in the case of Russian interference</a> in US elections, it doesn't take much for small amounts to go a long way as far as reach and engagement on the platform are concerned."This is not a one-off problem directly linked only to one political campaign," said Taylor Owen, assistant professor of digital media and global affairs at the University of British Columbia and a senior fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. "Facebook has a structural problem and, fundamentally, a global problem."Facebook is working on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-sheryl-sandberg-introduces-manual-reviews-of-ad-targeting-after-propublica-article-reveals-anti-semitic-categories-2017-9">checks and balances aimed at addressing</a> overtly problematic interest segments. But the social networking giant still contains a large swath of ad targeting options, including the above, that lie in the gray zone and can be misused if backed by the wrong intentions.<h2>Violence in Kashmir</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Facebook" title_caption="A screenshot shows targeting for the Assemblea Nacional Catalana." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59e8b141ddd0631c008b5639-960/screen shot 2017-10-18 at 23939 pm.png"></a>FacebookA screenshot shows targeting for the Assemblea Nacional Catalana.</div></div></div>Take Kashmir, for example. The region of Jammu and Kashmir has been a thorny issue between the two countries since they gained independence from Great Britain in 1947.Over the past seven decades, the two sides have fought three full-blown wars and one smaller war over the region, which is half administered by India and half by Pakistan.<a href="https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21725099-three-score-and-ten-years-after-their-acrimonious-split-india-and-pakistan-remain">In the 1990s, Pakistan backed a guerrilla insurgency in Indian Kashmir</a>, with both countries alleging that state-sponsored groups continue to cause unrest in their respective parts till this day.In short, it is a highly charged and hot-button geopolitical issue. And it's entirely possible that extremist elements could advantage of Facebook's tools to attempt to spread propaganda and aggravate the situation."Nefarious elements, if they wanted, could presumably veer into the Russian-style of fake news spreading and ad targeting, using even more subtle issues and topics to influence the other side," said Shailesh Kumar, a senior analyst at Eurasia, who analyzes political and economic risks and developments in South Asia.Kumar also analyzed some of the pages associated with the issue, including many pages linked to Azad Kashmir (Independent Kashmir) - the name used by Pakistan for the part of Kashmir it administers. According to him, many of these are replete with images of extremists wielding weapons or photos of people allegedly killed by Indian authorities, which are "definitely divisive and driven by a clear agenda.""This is far more than just a US problem," Sara M. Watson, a technology critic and an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, told Business Insider in an interview. "The combination of personalization and microtargeting on Facebook can make for several morally ambiguous categories which can be used as proxies for more sensitive issues."<h2>How interest segments are created and regulated</h2>According to a Facebook representative, such politically sensitive interest segments don't violate the company's standards and that targeting could be done legitimately. For instance, Azad Kashmir could be used as an interest segment by an advocacy or issues-based group or a news outlet looking to promote a documentary film on the topic.And Facebook added that it had put several safeguards in place to ensure that they weren't being misused. When it <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/10/hard-questions-russian-ads-delivered-to-congress/">announced its handover of the Russian ads</a>, the company said it would automatically send certain types of campaigns through an additional human review-and-approval process, if they included social, political, or religious interests. According to the company representative, the interest-segments part of this story were "likely a part of" that list.The company also explained how the "detailed targeting" section is created, saying that the categories in the section comprise interest segments, which the company creates, and 5,000 self-reported interests, which have been reviewed after the ProPublica investigation.As for the audience that is pulled in for the interest segments, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/technology/facebook-ads.html">The New York Times reported</a>, users sort themselves into categories by liking and visiting pages on Facebook, and a variety of other activities they engage in on the network.If, for example, Facebook creates an interest segment around Mediterranean food, people who engage with Facebook pages related to the topic are likely to be included in the target audience associated with the segment. Advertisers, such as cookbook publishers in this case, can push their messages to those users.<h2>Exploitative microtargeting</h2>But the system is far from perfect. After Russian troll farms placed ads on polarizing topics like race and immigration, Facebook said it would block ads that included overtly racist content or directed users to a webpage promoting racist ideas. Despite oversight, and the checks and measures outlined above, Facebook continues to falter.This week, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-18/facebook-and-google-helped-anti-refugee-campaign-in-swing-states">a Bloomberg investigation</a> revealed the company worked with the conservative nonprofit group Secure America Now to showcase ads that contained anti-Islam rhetoric. This was not just evidently hateful, but also can't be explained away as an algorithm glitch.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-google-secure-america-now-ads-2017-10">As Business Insider's Steve Kovach wrote</a>, the issue goes beyond the question of whether or not <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-political-ads-should-be-regulated-online-2017-9">political ads need to be regulated on tech platforms</a>. Tech companies, including both Facebook and Google, need to be more transparent about political <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword> on their platforms.Transparency is the problem, said Watson.Detailing her concerns in an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/10/12/russias-facebook-ads-show-how-internet-microtargeting-can-be-weaponized/?utm_term=.4fa0fb8c9e54">op-ed for The Washington Post</a>, Watson argues that Facebook allows for exploitative microtargeting. Facebook's personalization and categorization are largely based on inferring your likes, dislikes, and inclinations based on an algorithm, which it doesn't outline in any detail.This is problematic, she wrote, as people have no idea what inputs actually go into their personalized feeds or determine the categories they become a part of."The big question is, why are some of these morally ambiguous categories allowed to exist?" she told Business Insider. "Why can they be monetized at all? They are clearly there because there is some potential financial gain."Facebook cannot keep ducking for cover and blame everything on algorithms. And that's because it has no choice, said Owen."Facebook does not want to regulate and determine what is acceptable beyond the most extreme cases because it is not in their commercial interest," he said. "And the governments, who have traditionally had regulation in their domain, don't have the tools to do so."Because of this huge disconnect, it is an unprecedented and complex global issue." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/i-tried-tom-brady-diet-and-workout-plan-nfl-new-england-patriots-fitness-2017-10">I went on the Tom Brady diet and workout plan and it changed my life - here's what it was like</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Facebook's targeting lets advertisers push political hot buttons all over the world

US-led coalition airstrikes continued to hit ISIS targets in northern Iraq in the first half of September, as Iraqi ground forces reportedly prepare to launch operations to retake the terrorist group's biggest remaining city, Mosul.On September 12, <a href="http://www.inherentresolve.mil/Portals/1/Documents/Strike%20Releases/2016/09%20September/20160913%20Strike%20Release%20Final.pdf?ver=2016-09-13-061636-093" target="_blank">three strikes</a> hit an ISIS headquarters building that Operation Inherent Resolve officials have said was also used as a chemical-weapons facility.In those strikes, part of which are shown in the GIF below, "U.S. F-15Es, A-10s, B-52s, F-16s, and Marine Corps F-18Ds destroyed more than 50 points of interest, removing a significant chemical threat to innocent Iraqis," a US Air Force Central Command official told Business Insider by email.<div></div>"Intelligence indicated that Da'esh converted a pharmaceutical plant complex into a chemical weapons production capability, using chlorine or mustard gas," the US Air Force Central Command official told Business Insider, referring to ISIS by another name."This represents another example of Da'esh's blatant disregard for <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> <keyword id="6355470" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Law">law</keyword> and norms."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Chemical-weapons facilities in Mosul <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/airstrikes-target-isis-chemical-weapons-sites-2016-3" target="_blank">were targeted</a> by the US-led coalition earlier this year, around the time US special-operations forces captured Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, who <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/airstrikes-target-isis-chemical-weapons-sites-2016-3" target="_blank">worked on</a> chemical and biological weapons under Saddam Hussein and became <a href="http://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/690456/information-from-captured-isil-leader-enables-counter-chemical-strikes" target="_blank">known as ISIS' "emir"</a> of chemical and traditional weapons manufacturing.In Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, the highly regarded science facilities of the city's university were one of <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-state-hijacks-mosul-university-chemistry-lab-for-making-bombs-1459503003" target="_blank">the most valuable spoils</a> taken by ISIS when the group captured the city in summer 2014.By spring 2015, dozens of scientists and engineers working for the terrorist group had set up shop on the university's labs and workspaces, building chemical bombs and suicide vests, The Wall Street Journal <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-state-hijacks-mosul-university-chemistry-lab-for-making-bombs-1459503003" target="_blank">reported</a> in April 2016."The University of Mosul is the best Daesh research center in the world," an Iraqi general <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-state-hijacks-mosul-university-chemistry-lab-for-making-bombs-1459503003" target="_blank">told The Journal</a> at the time. "Trainees go to Raqqa, [Syria], then to Mosul university to use the existing facilities."See video of the September 12 strike below:<div></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/green-beret-america-terrorism-strategy-isis-impact-2016-7">GREEN BERET: Why our strategy against terrorism is making things worse</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="txamV2NDE6NSkaxx39NG0PCeSmvHMH3q" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Watch US-led coalition airstrikes wipe out 'a significant chemical threat' near ISIS' biggest city

With the news of demise of J&amp;K Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed goes a dignified man from this world who lived the life of a true Indian Muslim to say the least. Born to a humble family in south Kashmir’s Bijbehara area of Anantnag district on January 12, 1936, he looked at the conflicted region of Kashmir through the prism of Indian ethos. 
 
Several times, he lifted the tricolor in the Valley knowing that it was life-threatening from him to do so. In a political career spanning nearly six decades, the veteran politician who entered the political field in the 1950s emerged as a rival power centre to the mighty Abdullahs, making friends with parties following conflicting ideologies to suit his political agenda. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Jammu-and-Kashmir-CM-Mufti-Mohammad-Sayeed-passes-away-at-79/articleshow/50478820.cms">ALSO READ: Jammu and Kashmir CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passes away at 79</a> 
 
Childhood: Born in Baba Mohalla of Bijbehara, Sayeed had his early education at a local school and graduated from SP College, Srinagar. He went on to obtain a law degree and Master's degree in Arab History from Aligarh Muslim University. 
 
Late 1950s: He cut his political teeth early, having joined the Democratic National Conference of GM Sadiq in the late 1950s. Recognising the potential of the young lawyer, Sadiq appointed him as the District Convenor of the party. 
 
1962: Sayeed was elected to the state assembly from Bijbehara, the seat which he retained five years later. He was appointed a Deputy Minister by Sadiq, who by then had become Chief Minister. However, he fell out with the party a few years later and joined the Indian National Congress, a courageous but risky decision at that time given the unstinted support of most Kashmiris to Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who was in jail. Considered an astute organiser and administrator, Sayeed ensured that Congress not only got a foothold in the Valley but created pockets of staunch support for the party. 
 
1972: He became a Cabinet Minister and also Congress party's leader in the Legislative Council. He was made the state Congress president a couple of years later. As he rapidly grew in stature, Sayeed saw himself as the next Chief Minister of the state. However, all hopes he might have harboured of occupying the hot seat were dashed when the then Prime Minister <keyword id="6354478" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indira-Gandhi">Indira Gandhi</keyword> entered into an accord with Abdullah and facilitated his return as chief minister after a hiatus of 11 years, much against the wishes of Congress workers in general and Sayeed in particular. 
 
Not the one to give up easily, Sayeed engineered a coup of sorts ahead of the 1977 elections as Congress withdrew support to Abdullah's government. The aim was to have a Congress Chief Minister - which would have been Sayeed - in place for elections to control the official machinery but Governor LK Jha brought the state under Governor's rule. It was the first time that Jammu and Kashmir was brought under Governor's rule. . 
 
1977: Assembly election results killed Sayeed's dream of becoming the Chief Minister as Abdullah's National Conference came to power with a thumping majority. 
 
1986: As Farooq Abdullah warmed up to <keyword id="12596" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rajiv-Gandhi">Rajiv Gandhi</keyword> in 1986 to ensure his return as Chief Minister ahead of the 1987 assembly elections, Sayeed was shifted to Delhi and appointed as the Union Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation. <keyword id="222693" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-National">The National</keyword> Conference and Abdullahs have privately held the wily man from south Kashmir responsible for the intra-party rebellion against and subsequent dismissal of Farooq Abdullah by Governor Jagmohan in 1984. The power tussle between Farooq and his brother-in-law GM Shah led to a permanent estrangement and also saw the latter becoming Chief Minister with Congress support. 
Sayeed was a key player when Governor's Rule was imposed for the second time in the state in 1986. Shah's tenure also did not last long as Congress headed by Sayeed withdrew support to his government leading to imposition of Governor's rule for the second time in 1986. 
 
1987: Sayeed meanwhile quit as tourism minister in 1987 and later co-founded Jan Morcha with VP Singh, who had quit Congress over the Bofors scandal. 
 
1989: He won the Lok Sabha election from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh as a <keyword id="123462" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Janata-Dal">Janata Dal</keyword> candidate and became Union Home Minister in VP Singh's cabinet. The high-points in the political journey of Sayeed, who would have turned 80 on January 12, was his being catapulted to the chair of free India's first Muslim Home Minister at a time when militancy broke out in Kashmir and, years later, becoming the Chief Minister of the restive state for a second time in 2015, heading a coalition with BJP, which had its first brush with power in the only Muslim-majority state. 
 
Sayeed's stint in the Home Ministry, at a time when militancy had begun to rear its ugly head in his home state, would, however, be most remembered for the kidnapping of his third daughter Rubaiya by JKLF. The militants demanded freeing five of their comrades in exchange for Rubaiya's freedom and let her off only after their demand had been met. The kidnapping and subsequent release of the militants, according to Sayeed's rivals, projected India as a "soft state" for the first time. He appointed Jagmohan as Governor despite protests by Farooq Abdullah, who resigned and the state came under Governor's rule again in 1990. 
 
1998: Towards the end of PV Narsimha Rao's tenure as Prime Minister, Sayeed returned to Congress fold with daughter Mehbooba Mufti. Sayeed won the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat in 1998 general elections, while Mehbooba became Congress MLA in 1996. 
While the state was brought under <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/A-Fractured-Verdict-Paves-Way-For-Governors-Rule/articleshow/45826306.cms">Governor's Rule in 2002 and 2014</a> due to Sayeed taking time to thrash out coalition dispensations with Congress and BJP respectively, it was his manoeuvrings that saw a democratically elected government give way to administration by the Raj Bhawan in 2008. 
 
1999: With his dream of becoming Chief Minister of the state still unfulfilled, Sayeed parted ways with Congress and floated a regional outfit - Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) - in 1999. Some of the things associated with the PDP are considered exemplary of Sayeed's political genius. 
The green flag and pen-inkpot election symbol of the PDP were lifted straight from the Muslim United Front (MUF) - the Jamaat-e-Islami-led conglomerate of anti-National Conference, anti-Congress parties in 1987 assembly elections. 
 
2002: Though MUF received wide public support in the Valley, it had only four seats to show. Its symbols found ready acceptance in the Valley as PDP made significant gains and won 16 seats in the 2002 assembly elections. Although way short of majority in the 87-member house, Sayeed managed to bargain with Congress and secure a three-year stint as the Chief Minister on rotational basis. Sayeed was sworn in as the ninth chief minister of state on November 2, 2002 - fulfilling a long-standing dream. 
 
2008: The wily politician, who enjoyed good relations across the political spectrum at national level, saw his PDP grow to 21 seats in 2008 Assembly elections but surprisingly decided to sit in the opposition. He withdrew support to coalition government headed by Congress' Ghulam Nabi Azad in July 2008 following widespread protests over the Amarnath land allotment row that pitted the people of Hindu-dominated Jammu region against the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley. 
 
2014: The youngest party in the state continued to gain in strength as it not only won all the three Lok Sabha seats in the Valley in 2014 general elections but also emerged as the single largest party in the state elections later in the year. Sayeed became the unanimous choice for Chief Minister when PDP and BJP reached an agreement to form a coalition government and took oath on March 1, 2015. 
 
(image credits: JKPDP website)

You Searched For "azad engineering" and got 6 results

On National Education Day, here’s a look at the recent reforms in India

Prerna Sindwani

Only 10 scientists from India featured in the world’s ‘highly-cited’ researchers list compared to 482 from China

BI India Bureau

Facebook's targeting lets advertisers push political hot buttons all over the world

Tanya Dua

Watch US-led coalition airstrikes wipe out 'a significant chemical threat' near ISIS' biggest city

Christopher Woody

How this two-time J&K CM rose from being a lawyer to becoming a political powerhouse #RIPMohammadMuftiSayeed

Anushree Singh

Full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's first address to the Parliament as the 17th Lok Sabha gets underway

BI India Bureau

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