Indian-origin American biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is much in the news lately. The reason:
Vivek Ramaswamy, who was born to Indian immigrant parents in Cincinnati, is soon going to join Donald Trump’s government along with billionaire Elon Musk to lead the newly-proposed Department of Government Efficiency. This is great news not just for the 39-year-old entrepreneur but also quite inspiring for many Indian immigrants in the USA.
While much is known about his professional life, his personal life remains away from the spotlight. To know him better, let’s have a look at Vivek Ramaswamy’s unusual love story with his wife Apoorva Ramaswamy here.
Vivek and Apoorva Ramaswamy’s love story

Apoorva Ramaswamy, wife of Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy recently revealed how they both met. Vivek posted a video on X, formally Twitter, in which Apoorva can be heard narrating their love story to a small crowd during a campaign in Iowa.
Vivek, who was standing beside her and participated in the conversation, captioned the video, “Voters in Iowa want to know the story of how Apoorva and I met. Here’s how.”
In the video Apoorva explains, “I was in my first week of med school and Vivek was a law student there. It was a party, probably, the last party I went to.” She noticed Vivek as the “most interesting person in the room” and decided to approach him. “So, I went up and introduced myself to him,” she said.
The crowd laughed as Apoorva recounted how her introduction didn’t quite go as planned. “When Vivek introduced himself, I unfortunately told him I had met another Vivek in med school,” she recalled, humorously adding, “He didn’t look that interested. Actually, he just walked away.”
Despite the awkward start, the evening didn’t end there for the couple. Later that night, they ran into each other again and quickly discovered that they had many things in common, including the fact that they were neighbours. “We realised how much we have in common, how much we shared, and the fact that we were neighbours,” said Apoorva. “(And) Here we are, we’ve been together ever since.”

Vivek, who stood beside her during the conversation, reflected on the importance of marriage, a lesson he learned from his parents. “Who you marry matters,” he stated, adding that this value is something he and Apoorva aim to pass on to their two sons.
He also shared insights into his humble upbringing. “Neither of us grew up in economic privilege,” Vivek clarified. “However, we had the great blessing of having two parents at home, who instilled in us a strong emphasis on education and a faith in God.”
Vivek went on to discuss their current goals as parents, saying, “We are trying to give our two sons that same upbringing now in Ohio. But I see no reason why every kid in this country shouldn’t at least have a chance to enjoy that privilege too.” He emphasized that this philosophy is central to the values they hope to promote if they reach the White House. “I think that’s part of the example we want to set as a family in the White House.”
Reflecting on their journey together, Vivek emphasized the importance of shared values in their relationship. “Our relationship has always been built on mutual respect and common goals,” he said. “We both come from families that valued education and faith, and that’s something we’ve carried forward in our own lives.”
Apoorva added that their connection has only grown stronger. “We’ve always supported each other, and that’s what has made our partnership so strong,” she said.

X (formerly known as Twitter) is said to be testing a free version of the platform’s native artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok, several users posted. On Sunday, some users claimed to have received access to Grok despite not being a paid subscriber on X. There are some limitations to the free tier of the chatbot, as per the users, and its availability is said to be limited to certain regions. Notably, the development comes just a week after xAI released the Grok API and announced several incentives for developers to use it.

X Said to Be Testing Free Version of Grok

Several X users including app researchers and AI enthusiasts posted on the platform that the social media company is testing a free version of the chatbot, allowing even those who have not purchased the X Premium subscription to access it. Notably, Grok was released in November 2023, and so far, it has only been limited to the platform’s subscribers.

In a report, TechCrunch confirmed that X is testing the free tier of Grok in New Zealand, however, other regions might also have access to the chatbot. Gadgets 360 staff members were not able to verify the existence of the test. The AI bot also appears to not be available in India. Apart from the free version, Grok is also said to be getting a new logo. The current “Grok” word logo is said to be replaced with a socket-like logo.

One of the X users also detailed several limitations for the free version. According to a reply to another comment, Grok will only be available to accounts that are at least seven days old and have a phone number linked to it.

Currently, non-subscribers are said to get 10 Grok 2 questions every two hours, and 20 Grok 2 mini questions in the same duration. Further, the free tier of the chatbot can also analyse up to three images per day.

Separately, xAI, the company behind Grok, rolled out a Grok API last week. The company also announced several incentives for developers to try out the API such as free credits worth $25 (roughly Rs. 2,100) per month till the end of the year. Additionally, all the developers who have already purchased prepaid credits for the API were given free credits worth the same amount every month till the end of 2024.

X (formerly known as Twitter) announced the roll out of a new block function on Sunday. The social media platform first announced the decision to change the way block works last month. With the new system, blocked users can see the profile, posts, as well as followers and following lists of the users who had blocked them. Several users of the platform expressed their concern over the move highlighting the threat to their safety as well as the higher potential of content theft.

X Begins Rolling Out Updated Block Function

Blocking users on social media platforms has always worked the same way. Once blocked, the one on the receiving end cannot see the profile of the one who has blocked them. This also means they cannot see or interact with their posts, check their bio or other information, and cannot send private messages to them.

However, last month X announced a change to its traditional block feature. The company said that with the updated policy, blocked users can see the profile and posts of the one they have been blocked by, although they would not be able to reply, retweet, or like their posts. They also cannot send them a direct message (DM).

The earlier version of the policy did not mention the follower or following lists but the new support page highlighted that blocked users can also see them, reducing the safety guardrails of users further. Explaining the move, the official Engineering page of X said in a post, “Today, block can be used by users to share and hide harmful or private information about those they’ve blocked. Users will be able to see if such behaviour occurs with this update, allowing for greater transparency.”

User reception towards this update has largely been negative. Responding to X’s post about the feature’s roll out, one user said, “Those of us who have stalkers on here and content thieves don’t appreciate this change at all and shouldn’t need to lock our accounts to protect ourselves from predatory types.”

Tracy Chou, developer of the Block Party app which allows social media users an easier way to block people, also objected to the update and highlighted that “making it easy for a creeper to creep is not a good thing!!”

New York
CNN
 — 

Twitter’s traditional bird icon was booted and replaced with an image of a Shiba Inu, an apparent nod to dogecoin, the joke cryptocurrency that CEO Elon Musk is being sued over.

Musk addressed the change Monday afternoon, tweeting, “as promised” above an image of a year-old conversation in which another user suggested that Musk “just buy Twitter” and “change the bird logo to a doge.”

The doge logo appeared on the site two days after Musk asked a judge to throw out a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit accusing him of running a pyramid scheme to support the dogecoin, according to Reuters.

Lawyers for Musk and Tesla called the lawsuit by dogecoin investors a “fanciful work of fiction” over Musk’s “innocuous and often silly tweets.”

It wasn’t clear whether the logo change was permanent. Musk has been known to use Twitter to troll both his fans and his critics.

The price of dogecoin, which is typically volatile, was up more than 20% over the past 24 hours, to about 9 cents. It was trading just under 8 cents Monday morning.

Dogecoin was created December 6, 2013, by a pair of software engineers — as a joke. The name is a nod to the “doge” meme that became popular a decade ago. Its Shiba Inu mascot mimicks that meme: a dog surrounded by a bunch of Comic Sans text in broken English.