Rohit Sharma will lead the team in Sri Lanka tri-series:
The Indian team is set to play a T20I tri-series in Sri Lanka (2018 Nidahas Trophy) this March, and the top cricketers are likely to be rested for the tournament. According to Times of India, skipper Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya won’t be part of the squad for the series.
In skipper Kohli’s absence Rohit Sharma will lead Team India. Also a few youngsters could be a part of the team. Rohit had earlier captained India in an ODI series against Sri Lanka in 2017. The team had won two games under his leadership, and lost one.
India has been playing non-stop cricket for the past few months, and have been on the South Africa tour since Jan this year. So the BCCI and the key players have mutually agreed to give series a miss.
“What is the point of sending these cricketers after such a hectic South African tour,” a team source said.
The team for the tournament is likely to be picked on Sunday. Among some of the youngsters, Delhi keeper-batsman Rishabh Pant could could get the nod as chief selector MSK Prasad was seen having a chat with him, during a Vijay Hazare match at the Palam cricket ground recently.
The Nidahas Trophy will be played from March 6 to March 18. Bangladesh will be the third team in the competition.
BMW mistakenly installs the wrong emissions software :
German high-end car maker BMW has admitted to authorities that it built software that misleads regulatory emissions tests into some models, potentially staining the auto giant’s clean image, Der Spiegel magazine reported Friday.
BMW “admitted to the (vehicle licensing authority) KBA that it built software that manipulates the exhaust system into two models” from its flagship 7-series and mid-range 5-series, the magazine wrote.
Around 11,000 of the latest diesel models, supposed to meet the latest European Union “Euro 6” emissions standards introduced in late 2015, were affected in Germany alone, it added.They are checking whether the software was built into cars for export.
A BMW’s spokesman told Spiegel that the software had mistakenly been loaded into the engine control systems of vehicles fitted with six-cylinder engines, whose exhaust system “does not function optimally” in conjunction with the programme.
“We do not consider the software to be a ‘defeat device’,” the spokesman added.
So-called “defeat devices” are deliberately designed to make cars appear less polluting in laboratory tests than in real on-road driving.
Volkswagen — parent company of BMW competitor Audi — admitted in 2015 to building such software into 11 million vehicles around the world, and has since paid over 20 billion euros in fines, buybacks and compensation.
Unlike Volkswagen, BMW has so far managed to uphold a reputation for emissions honesty.
After the KBA recently found no issues with a 3-series car that environmental activists had suggested might include a defeat device, the development chief Klaus Froehlich stated baldly that “vehicles from the BMW group were not manipulated.”
“Our diesel engines are clean. The public, politicians and above all our customers and employees can count on that,” he added at the time.
Ester Ledecka became the first woman to claim gold medals in two sports at a Winter Olympics with a win in the snowboarding parallel giant slalom.
The 22-year-old Czech, who earned a shock victory in the skiing super G last Saturday, beat Germany’s Selina Jorg to win her second gold.
She is the fifth athlete to win in two sports at one Games and the first in unrelated events with the previous double wins coming in Nordic events.
Ledecka’s win on skis was one of the biggest shocks of the Pyeongchang Games, coming in an event she had never earned a podium finish, but she dominated the field in her favoured snowboard event.
The two-time reigning world champion qualified more than a second ahead of her rivals and looked serene throughout the knockout rounds.
The final was close in the early stages but Ledecka pulled away to win by 0.46 seconds.
“It’s probably the best story of these Games, absolutely incredible. What an athlete. It’s hard enough doing one discipline in alpine skiing.” BBC Sport commentator and five-time Olympian Graham Bell said.
Ester Ledecka started skiing aged two and snowboarding at five but only started on the skiing circuit in 2016.
Her super G win was described as “one of the most astonishing Olympic stories of all time” as she won on borrowed skis.
The partnership summit 2018 : More than 2500 delegates from India and 40 other countries will converge in Vishakhapatnam from Saturday to Monday at the CII Partnership Summit 2018, the annual flagship event of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and is organized in association with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and the Andhra Pradesh Government.
The 24th edition of The Partnership Summit is a special platform that would enable close examination of the partnerships and synergies that spark the next phase of global growth and develop strong multi-country linkages and networks to assist the transformation of the global economy. The Summit will debate the next phase of global growth and play a proactive role in building new bridges to the emerging world.
The Summit started in 1995 to commemorate CII’s centenary year. With over two decades of active engagement and collaboration of India at a global level, the Summit attracts around 1500 delegates every year with over 40 per cent participation from overseas.
Vice-President of India M Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry Suresh Prabhu and AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, will address the inaugural session of the Summit in which senior ministers and officials from both the Central and State Government as well as a galaxy of leading industrialists will also be participating at the session.
Andhra Pradesh – India’s Sunrise State – is a gateway to growing markets and promising opportunities. Endowed with a strong leadership, transparent governance, and best-in-class policies and the Summit will highlight the investment opportunities in the state to implement its Vision 2050 as a leading investment destination in the world.
The theme for this year’s Summit is “Charting New India’s Global Integration Strategy”.
The key sessions at the Summit include: “Sunrise Andhra Pradesh”; “The Reform Calculus: Promoting Ease of Doing Business”; “World Trade on the Comeback Trail in the Midst of Trade Agreements Facing Turbulence”; “Future Sectors: Can India Lead Industry 4.0”; “The Matrix of Skills: Leveraging India’s Workforce”; “Redefining the Global Value Chain: The Challenges of Integrating SMEs from Developing World”; “The New Geostrategic Dimension: India as Nodal Point”; “Connectivity and Communication: Fast-tracking Infrastructure Development and Financing”; “Starship Enterprise: The Universe of Startups”. Besides, there will be country sessions and B2B meetings on the sidelines of the Summit.
Google Assistant is about to learn a bunch of new tongues.
In the next few months the search company’s digital assistant will be able to respond by text in Danish, Dutch, Hindi, Indonesian, Norwegian, Swedish and Thai on Android phones and Apple iPhones. By the end of this year, the assistant will be available in more than 30 languages, reaching 95 percent of all eligible Android phones worldwide, Nick Fox, Google’s vice president of product, said in a blog post Friday.
The assistant currently responds in eight languages by text on Android phones: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.
Fox said Google Assistant will also gain multilingual speech later this year, allowing the assistant to understand you fluently in multiple languages, instead of just one language. This feature will start with English, French and German, with support for more languages coming later. On the Google Home smart speaker, the assistant can currently be set to understand one language: English, French, German or Japanese.
“If you prefer to speak German at work, but French at home, your assistant is right there with you,” he said in the post.
Google also said Friday that starting over the next week, the company will add two new features to its assistant: routines and location-based reminders.
Routines allow you to get the assistant to do multiple things all at once with one command. For example, saying a command like, “Hey Google, good night,” could turn out the lights, draw the blinds and turn on calming music from your Google Home device.
In the coming weeks, you also be able to set reminders on your phone based on locations. That way you can get your assistant to remind you to buy more eggs or bread while at the grocery store.
India 7th most targeted country for Web Application Attacks : Nearly 40 percent of over 53,000 cyber-attacks in India occurred in the financial services sector during 2017, placing it at the seventh spot in the list of targeted countries for Web Application Attacks (WAA), a new report said on Wednesday. India 7th most targeted country for Web Application Attacks
Security incidents like phishing, website intrusions and defacements, virus and ransomware targeted the rapidly growing of the Banking, Financial services and Insurance (BFSI) sector in India, warranting a robust infrastructure and planned roadmap for cybersecurity, said the report from content delivery network services Akamai Technologies.
“A key motive of attackers has always been financial profit. In the past few years, we have seen adversaries move to more direct methods to achieve that goal such as ransomware,” noted Martin McKeay, Senior Security Advocate at Akamai.
“Crypto-mining offers attackers the most direct avenue to monetise efforts by putting money immediately into their cryptowallets,” McKeay added.
The report, titled “Akamai State of the Internet Security Q4 2017,” also stated that the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack frequency in the BFSI sector increased by 50 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 over the last quarter.
It also placed India seventh in the list of the top source countries for WAA.
“While India maintained the same position in the third quarter last year, it is interesting to note that the attacks sourced have seen a drop of approximately four million in number as compared to last quarter,” the report said.
The newly-released data that analysed more than 7.3 trillion bot requests per month found a sharp increase in the threat of credential abuse, with more than 40 percent of login attempts being malicious.
This indicates that DDoS attacks remain a consistent threat and the Mirai botnet is still capable of strong bursts of activity.
Akamai’s findings also confirmed that the total number of DDoS attacks last quarter increased 14 percent from the same time last year.
“The hospitality industry suffered as the biggest target of fraudulent credential attacks, with 82 percent of their login attempts being from malicious botnets, the report said.
The financial industry saw a sharp increase in the number of DDoS attacks, experiencing 298 DDoS attacks against 37 distinct organisations last quarter.
There was a 31 percent increase in DDoS attacks sourcing from the US last quarter compared to the same timeframe in 2017, the report said.
India’s ranking in the annual corruption index, released by Berlin-based non-government organisation Transparency International (TI), slid to 81 among a group of 180 countries. The Corruption Perception Index 2017 also singled out India as one of the “worst offenders” in the Asia-Pacific region. India is 81st corrupted country.
In 2016, India was in the 79th place among 176 countries. India’s ranking in the index had plummeted in 2013 and 2014 in the wake of the spectrum and coal scams. The ranking has improved since then, but seems to be showing signs of weakening.
The index, which measures perception of corruption in the public sector, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. India’s score remained intact at 40 points in both 2016 and 2017.
New Zealand and Singapore scored the highest scores with 89 and 84 out of 100, respectively. Somalia was found to be the most corrupt country in the world. A majority of the world’s countries scored below 50 on the index with the global average score coming at around 43. India’s score of 40 in 2017 puts it below the global average.
Transparency International said the results from the 2017 index show that corruption in many countries is still strong. In some countries across the Asia-Pacific region, journalists, activists, opposition leaders and even staff of law enforcement or watchdog agencies are threatened, and in worst cases, even murdered, the report stated.
“Philippines, India and the Maldives are among the worst regional offenders in this respect. These countries score high for corruption and have fewer press freedoms and higher numbers of journalist deaths,” it added.
In the last six years alone, 15 journalists working on corruption stories were murdered in these Asian countries, TI pointed out using figures reported by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Globally, more than 9 out of 10 journalists were killed in countries that score 45 or less on the index.
TI said it found crackdowns on non-government organisations (NGOs) and media were associated with higher levels of corruption in the world.
“Given current crackdowns on both civil society and the media worldwide, we need to do more to protect those who speak up,” said Patricia Moreira, managing director, TI.
The 2017 index revealed that despite attempts to combat corruption, most countries were moving too slowly with their effort. In the past six years, many countries have made little to no progress, TI said.
SpaceX took a critical step Thursday toward making one of Elon Musk’s dreams a reality: the largest satellite network ever built, bringing high speed internet to billions around the world.
Musk’s space company successfully deployed a satellite into low Earth orbit for the Spanish government, which was the primary customer aboard the previously flown Falcon 9 rocket. Tucked alongside the 1½ ton satellite for Spain’s military, however, were SpaceX’s own, smaller additions.
Known as Microsats 2a and 2b in documentation filed to the Federal Communications Comission, the two satellites are the first built by SpaceX. These craft will gather data to test and demonstrate the viability of SpaceX building a constellation of 4,425 Ka/Ku band low Earth orbit satellites. Musk confirmed Wednesday the inclusion of the two satellites on the launch, saying in a tweet that “if successful” the new satellite network would serve the “least served” around the world.
Starlink – a name SpaceX filed to trademark last year – is an ambition unmatched by any current satellite network. The largest existing constellation is built by Iridium. The company is halfway through launching a constellation of 75 Iridium Next satellites and is set to finish deployment in the next year.
SpaceX will begin launching an initial constellation of 4,425 Ka/Ku band low Earth orbit satellites in 2019, with the system becoming operational once at least 800 satellites are deployed, FCC documents show. The two test satellites will orbit about 700 miles above Earth, in the same range as the eventual constellation.
The space company also attempted to catch the fairing – the bulbous nose cone on top of the rocket — using a high speed boat known as “Mr. Steven.” Musk tweeted after the launch the boat missed catching the fairing “by a few hundreds meters,” adding that the fairing slowed down enough to land “intact” in the Pacific Ocean.
There’s some good news for music lovers. Amazon Prime Video has released the trailer of its latest original venture, which is a musical reality show. The show, called The Remix, will not follow any script.
On the reality show, DJs and music composer/singers will join hands to produce some remix tracks and give their own spin to Bollywood’s hit numbers.
The Remix, just like any other musical show, will also have a panel of judges, including some popular names from the industry such as Sunidhi Chauhan, Amit Trivedi and Nucleya.
Created and produced by Greymatter Entertainment, the show will show pairs of one singer and one DJ, battle each week to rejig, reshuffle and remix popular songs and win the prize. The contestants will be judged by playback singer Sunidhi Chauhan; music composer Amit Trivedi and DJ Nucleya; while heartthrob Karan Tacker will add an element of humour as the host of this new reality series.
Vijay Subramaniam, Director, Content, Amazon Prime Video, India, said, “The overwhelming response we have received for our first two Prime Originals, Inside Edge and Breathe, shows us that Indian audiences are ready for new content that has never been seen before. With The Remix we’ve taken two things that Indian customers have told us they love – reality TV and Bollywood music and made a unique music show that we hope will appeal to the whole family. With the launch of this show, we are set to give 10 dynamic musical duos an opportunity to present their unique talent to a global audience.”
Over the course of 10 episodes, one team will be crowned the winner of The Remix and the new faces of Indian music walking away as The Remix title winner and Rs 50 lakh.
Bollywood playback singer Sunidhi Chauhan , whose voice remains unforgettable because of songs like ‘Ruki Ruki’ and ‘Mehboob Mere’, is all set to be seen in the upcoming music reality show The Remix, which will stream on Amazon Prime Video India. She will be judging the contestants along with music composer Amit Trivedi, and DJ Nucleya. Ahead of the show’s launch on 9 March, the celebrated singer spoke to Firstpost about reality shows on TV, the state of Bollywood music these days and the lack of essence in newly released songs.
Sunidhi Chauhan, along with her contemporary Shreya Ghoshal, were the most successful female playback singers in the Hindi film industry after 2002. Both Chauhan and Ghoshal are also counted among those voices in Bollywood who had a successful transition from TV reality shows to recording studios. They enjoy a massive fan following, have an array of awards and accolades to their name, and have critical as well as commercial appeal.
Sunidhi Chauhan was first spotted in the 1996 reality show Meri Awaaz Suno, hosted by Annu Kapoor and judged by Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, Pandit Jasraj and Bhupen Hazarika. The show was backed by Doordarshan, Mangeshkar and Yash Chopra’s Metavision. Since then, Chauhan has been part of many reality shows as a jury member, but she claims The Remix is very different. “While the previous ones were singing talent shows, The Remix has a DJ paired along with a singer, both contributing equally to the song and recreating it. Of course, those are Bollywood songs (old ones as well as new), but the whole idea of creating something absolutely new, regardless of whether it is relevant or not, and then making those songs sound new, is very exciting,” says Chauhan.
She adds, “What I love about the show is that a pair (DJ and vocalist) is given two to three days to prepare a song, so you also get to see the whole process of how it is made. People usually don’t know what goes into it, what makes it sound so different. Also, it’s not the regular, commercialised remix that the contestants do; they actually recreate, recompose sounds, add elements to it… So it is totally different. This way, I think, people will be more educated about the remixes, in a more tasteful way.”
Over the years, many listeners have disapproved of the growing trend of revamping old Bollywood classics and changing them completely. As the industry continues to use this formula of remixing songs, the distinct sound of the originals is lost in the process. Speaking about this phenomenon, the two-time Filmfare Award-winner says, “If you are touching anything belonging to the classic era, it has to be done very tastefully, with a lot of thought and with a lot of love. You have to understand the intensity and sensibility of the song, and remix it accordingly. Only then will it sound good, and sometimes also enhance the original composition. As long as the emotion of the song is kept intact, it’s fine.”
“The problem arises when the emotion of the song says something and you end up creating something else. But if you get the feel within the sound correctly, you can get as close to what it actually was when it was created the first time,” adds Sunidhi Chauhan. She further explains, citing examples from the The Remix, “There were a few songs in the show which were really nice in spite of being overly produced. They made the songs from the 90s sound totally new and fresh. I know that the genre has been done to death, but the contestants did some good rap — the right kind of rap — minimalist, to three lines, in a way that it doesn’t seem imposed and overpowering. At the same time, there would also be aalaps here and there, so it is a new definition of remix that you will see on the show.”
Sunidhi Chauhan had a great time at the show with Trivedi and Nucleya as fellow judges, and also learnt a great deal. “I enjoyed a lot, I had no idea about DJ-ing; I didn’t know what turning tables meant. I was really fascinated by the whole idea; it was a completely new world for me. When I found out that the two other judges on the panel were Amit [Trivedi] and Nucleya, it was all the more exciting as all of us come from different musical backgrounds. We were constantly educating each other, learning from each other and at the same time, learning from the performances. So it was a good change talking about something other than singing,” says Chauhan.
Speaking about the creative and musical exchanges she witnessed during the show, Chauhan says it is the basic understanding of music and the feel of it which struck a chord with the three judges, in spite of coming from different musical spaces. “The basics were the same. Nucleya told me he learnt how to sing during his childhood and was probably was trained in classical music for some time. Amit is a natural composer. He likes the roots of Indian music, and at the same time he can create something which is very contemporary. His music is something anybody can sing, which is very hard to crack. See, difficult songs are difficult, but you can crack it if you are trained, know how to play the harmonium, take bits from ragas and then put it all together… but a tune that comes straight from the heart, however simple it might sound, is difficult to sing,” she says. “My roots are based in Lata Mangeshkar. Whether it classical songs, thumris, light songs – she is everything. Whether she has sung it or not, she is my school; I look up to her in that way. I guess many others do too, or perhaps the whole nation does. So all of this was possible because we come from same roots. Whenever we commented on anything, we were always on the same page, all the time,” explains Chauhan.
Facebook has spent the last few years trying to turn Messenger into the communication platform. Many different features have been added to Messenger over the years, but one that seems crucial – the ability to add people to your in-progress video calls – has been missing since video calling launched back in 2015. That all changes today.
Facebook has announced that you can now add people to existing video calls, which is something many users will likely find handy. Previously, the only way to add more people to a video call was to hang up your in-progress call, create a new group chat with everyone you wanted to involve, and then begin the video call anew. It was a headache, to say the least.
Now, all you need to is tap the screen while you’re chatting, select the “add person” icon that pops up, and then select the person you’d like to add to your call. Once the call is finished, you’ll maintain a text group chat with the other participants in your Messenger inbox. The process as a whole seems fairly straightforward, and that ease of use is something Facebook has promised to focus on throughout 2018.
It kind of goes without saying that Messenger feels a little bloated these days. Back in January, Facebook said that it would attempt to trim the fat when it comes to Messenger features that haven’t caught on with users as we move through the year. We haven’t seen a whole lot of movement on that front, but then again, it’s only been a month since this new initiative was announced.
In any case, cutting back on some unnecessary features while improving features that see a lot of use will be key to continuing Messenger dominance in the world of communication apps. This new feature is live now in the iOS and Android versions of the app, so if you make frequent video calls through Messenger, go ahead and give it a spin.
A prototype of the 2018 Hyundai Creta facelift was recently spotted testing in India. The car was caught on the camera by an enthusiast in Chennai, near Hyundai India’s manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu. The updated Hyundai Creta is expected to come with some cosmetic changes and a revised cabin with a few new features. This will be the first facelift for the car in India, which went on sale in the country in early 2015 and since then has been one of the top players in the compact SUV space with an average sale of over 9000 units a month.
The new spy images don’t reveal much about the new Hyundai Creta facelift, apart from the fact that the SUV will get a new set of alloy wheels, which aren’t as flashy the current ones. This could mean that Hyundai will offer two options of alloy wheels and while this will be for the mid-variants, the top-end model could get diamond cut alloys. Possible we might also see some revised character lines, but it’s hard to tell right now with all that camouflage. Having said that based on the previously seen spy images of the SUV, we know that the car will come with a redesigned face, especially a new cascading grille in line with the carmaker’s latest design language. The headlamps are also expected to see some revision along with a redesigned front bumper and new foglamps.
Hyundai Creta Facelift could offer the option of two different set of alloy wheels.
The rear end of the car is also expected to come with some cosmetic updated mainly a set of tail lamps and revised tailgate and rear bumper. The car will also get a revised cabin with new upholstery and updated dashboard, along with a new infotainment system with Apple Car Play and Android Auto.
The engine option for the 2018 Hyundai Creta facelift is expected to remain unchanged and will continue to come with the existing pair of 1.6-litre petrol diesel engine and the smaller 1.4-litre diesel engine. All three engines come mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox as standard, but there is a 6-speed automatic torque converter also on offer as an option for both 1.6-litre petrol and diesel motors.
Hyundai recently launched the updated i20 facelift and i20 Active facelift during the recently concluded Auto Expo 2018. Last year, the company launched the new-gen Verna sedan and before that updated the Grand i10 hatchback and Xcent subcompact sedan, which makes the Creta facelift, the next big launch from the South Korean carmaker. Upon launch, the 2018 Hyundai Creta will continue to rival the likes of the Renault Captur, Duster, and the Jeep Compass.
NEW DELHI: Scripting history, flying officer Avani Chaturvedi has become the first Indian woman to fly a fighter aircraft, an IAF official said.
” Avani Chaturvedi became the first Indian woman to fly a fighter aircraft solo when she flew a MiG-21 bison in her first solo flight,” the official.
She undertook the sortie from IAF’s Jamnagar base on Monday, he said.
Three women pilots, Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh, had undergone strenuous training programme to fly fighter jets.
They were commissioned as flying officers in July 2016, less than a year after the government decided to open the fighter stream for women on an experimental basis.
The IAF has already selected the next batch of three women trainee pilots for the fighter stream.
On 16 December 2017 two women from the second batch to enter the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force were commissioned after graduating from the Air Force Academy, Dindigul.
In Navy, women officers are inducted through short service commission, in Logistics, Law, Observers, Air Traffic Control (ATC), Pilots (Maritime Reconnaissance Stream), Naval Armament Inspectorate cadre (NAIC), Naval Architecture and Education Branch.
It was only in 1992 that the armed forces began recruiting women to streams, other than the Medical stream.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has pioneered the entry of women as officers in flying and ground duty.
In the IAF since 1993, women officers have been inducted in all branches and stream as Short Service Commissioned Officers except in the fighter stream. However, IAF has revised Short Service Commission scheme to induct women into the fighter stream on experimental basis for five years.
The IAF has already selected the next batch of three women trainee pilots for the fighter stream.
Avani Chaturvedi’s achievement has put India on the list of the countries such as Britain, the United States, Israel, and Pakistan, where women are allowed to fly fighter jets.
Looks like WhatsApp doesn’t wish to stop anytime soon. WhatsApp is giving people the ability to add a description to group chat.
This feature, as the name suggests will let users add a description to their respective groups, similar to what we have been doing in our personal profiles all this while. The feature is currently seen on WhatsApp beta for Android and Windows and expect it to roll out the feature very soon.
The feature isn’t available for everyone just yet, but you can look for it by opening a group and tapping the info bar that appears at the top of it.If you do have access to it, you can then hit “Add Group Description”.
For now, all members of a group chat – who have access to the feature, that is – have the ability to add or change the group’s description, which will inevitably lead to a certain amount of mischief and regular modifications. However, this could change in the near future.
According to WABetaInfo, which first spotted the new feature, group administrators will soon be able to prevent non-admins from modifying a group description.
“The group description is visible to participants of this group and people invited to this group,” the group description page on the WhatsApp app says.
When somebody new is added to a group, they’ll also see the description at the top of the chat screen.
While the option to add group descriptions isn’t a hugely significant new feature, it could prove useful for certain types of WhatsApp group chats, for instance, those created around an event.
The person or people organising the event could post key information in the description box, which other members will be able to find easily, without having to scan the entire conversation or ask for details to be repeated.
Currently, the Group description feature is seen in the testing stage on Android and Windows beta versions of the app. There is still no word if at all the feature will hit the iOS devices or not. However, looking back at the track record of the messaging application, chances are WhatsApp will most likely bring the feature to iOS as well, but the users might have to wait for some more time.
Indian government wants mobile number to have 13 digits and not 10. Indian government has asked telecom companies to move to SIM cards with 13-digit phone numbers in some cases. And BSNL has already made plans to do so. But the key phrase here is some cases and it won’t affect you.
The important bit to note here is that, the 13-digit move won’t change your existing mobile number or affect the phone users in India. The 13-digit mobile number are meant only for M2M (machine2machine) SIM cards, or in other words the cards that will be used in automated machines. The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has written to telecom companies that they should issue only 13-digit M2M numbers and that they should convert all the existing 10-digit M2M numbers into 13-digit numbers from October 1, 2018 onwards. The deadline to complete the conversion is December 31, 2018.
Sources within Jio, one of the biggest telecom operator in India, have confirmedthat the 13-digit numbers are only for the M2M SIM cards. The DoT will directive will not affect regular users at all. “This is for machine to machine.no impact on regular mobile (numbers),” said a person familiar with the DoT directive.
According to a directive that BSNL has sent to its hardware vendors ZTE and Nokia, DoT in a meeting on January 8 decided that the M2M SIM cards in India need to have 13-digits. Accordingly, BSNL informed its vendors that it will need infrastructure that can handle 13-digit M2M numbers from July 1, 2018 onwards. Also, it informs vendors that migration of existing M2M numbers, which have 10-digits just like the regular phone numbers used by people, to 13-digit numbers will start from October 1, 2018 and will be completed by December 31, 2018.
The move, contrary to speculations doing rounds right now on social media, will not affect phone users. It is meant only for the SIM cards that are used in machines, such as internet-connected appliances.
We are also hearing that most of the telecom operators in India already issue a 11 or 15-digit number for M2M SIM cards. BSNL, however, does not and that is why it has issued a circular after the DoT decision. For other operators, even for the M2M SIM cards, it’s the business as usual.
The M2M SIM cards are used in automated machines that require network connectivity. These could be large industrial machines part of automated assembly lines or they could be small gadgets, part of the Internet of Things, such as the fire alarm in your house that may require internet or cellular connectivity to send out alerts.
The trailer of Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani starrer ‘ Baaghi 2 ‘ is all set to release on February 21.
To add to the adventure, the team will have real-life Baaghis to give them company at the trailer launch.
Baaghi 2 is an upcoming Indian martial arts action film produced by Sajid Nadiadwala under his banner Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment and directed by Ahmed Khan. The film features Tiger Shroff in lead role. It is a sequel to the 2016 superhit film Baaghi.
It will also see Jacqueline Fernandez recreating Madhuri Dixit’s iconic number ‘Ek Do Teen’. Director Ahmed Khan, who assisted choreographer Saroj Khan in ‘Ek Do Teen’, will give the chartbuster a modern twist with Jacqueline. Ganesh Acharya, on the other hand, will choreograph the song.
Tiger Shroff was last seen in Munna Michael while Disha Patani’s previous release was Kung Fu Yoga.
After Baaghi 2, Tiger Shroff will be seen next in Karan Johar’s Student Of The Year 2 and the Indian remake of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo.
The film is scheduled to be released worldwide on 30 March 2018.
On 19 February 2018, The sequel of the film was announced under the title of Baaghi 3, with Nadiadwala the producer, Ahmed Khan the director, and Tiger Shroff starring in the lead role.
The first schedule of ‘Baaghi 3’ will begin in December in China. They will later head to Japan. This is Tiger’s fourth collaboration with Sajid after his debut film ‘Heropanti”, ‘Baaghi’ and ‘Baaghi 2’. Talking about the movie, Sajid said, “‘Baaghi 2’ has been a fruitful journey and a beautiful experience for all of us.”
“Tiger is a talented and dedicated actor. Ditto Ahmed Khan, who has helmed the film. Together, we have a great story to tell in ‘Baaghi 3’. I am happy to announce this film even before the trailer of ‘Baaghi 2’ is out.”
International Mother Language Day is observed on February 21 every year. It is marked to celebrate and protect all mother languages spoken around the world.
International Mother Language Day has been observed annually since 2000 to promote peace and multilingualism around the world and to protect all mother languages. It is observed on February 21 to recognize the 1952 Bengali Language Movement in Bangladesh.
Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.
Remembering Dhirendranath Dutta and others who died for Bengali language On February 25, 1948, Dhirendranath Dutta had urged the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan (CAP) to recognise Bengali as one of the official languages. Dutta till his last breath fought for the independence of his country and was tortured to death in the Mainamati Cantonment in 1971.
UNESCO gives suggestions on how to celebrate International Mother Language Day in schools:
School teachers should encourage children to use their mother languages to introduce themselves and talk about their families and culture. They should let the students read poetry, tell a story or sing a song in their mother tongues. Paintings and drawings with captions in mother languages can also be displayed.
For students, it suggests – observe how many mother languages your fellow classmates can speak. Make a survey of the languages by interviewing them. The UN agency also advises students to help organise cultural activities such as films, plays and music that celebrate different languages.
In Bangladesh, the International Mother Language Day is celebrated as Language Martyrs’ Day or Martyrs’ Day to honour the Bengali Language Movement of 1952 in which several students died for defending Bengali language for themselves and for the future generations. The day is observed as a public holiday since 1953.
Thoda saaf bol Stand-up special by Abhishek Upmanyu:
Abhishek Upmanyu, one of the funniest guys in Indian stand-up scene, is ready with one hour of new jokes, observations and never minds in his new special unceremoniously titled ‘ Thoda Saaf Bol ‘.
Artists Info :
ABHISHEK UPMANYU
Abhishek Upmanyu is a stand-up comedian, writer and a haiku enthusiast. He looks and sounds like a regular Delhi boy, except that he is harmless. He does kill though, mostly on stage, and has done so at the biggest of stages on the stand-up circuit. Upmanyu covers seemingly everyday topics with insightful and hilarious effects. With his Shatabdi-fast delivery and writing prowess, rap is an alternate career option for Abhishek but he refuses on principal. Having moved to Mumbai recently for ‘better prospects’ that may or may not materialize but is bound to make for some crazy material.
Abhishek Upmanyu entered the Delhi comedy circuit in December 2013, and since then has been performing regularly at various kitty parties and birthdays of kids with low IQ. Known for his super fast, extremely quick, faster than light delivery style, he does hours of material in minutes.
Date and Timing details:
Date: 4 march 2018
Time: 8:00 pm
Venue details:
Chitnavis Center: Nagpur
Mimosa Hall, Civil Lines, Civil Line Road, Tamarind Hall, Nagpur, Maharashtra 440001, India
Terms and Conditions:
Age limit: 16+.
Once tickets are bought they cannot be adjusted according to a different show date or time, and no refund will be provided either.
NEW DELHI: The number of Internet users in the country is expected to reach 500 million by June 2018, a joint survey by IMAI-Kantar IMRB showed.
India was estimated to have 481 million Internet users in December 2017, a growth of 11.34 per cent over December 2016 figures.
According to the report, as on December 2017, the overall Internet penetration is 35 per cent of total population.
“The number of Internet users is expected to reach 500 million by June 2018,” the report ‘Internet in India 2017’ released after a joint survey conducted in 170 cities and 750 villages by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and Kantar IMRB.
There were 362.87 million broadband subscribers in the country at the end of December 2017, as per recent data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
“Trai gives number of connections but one person may have multiple connection or one connection may be used by many. This survey was conducted at individual level. If two member of a family having Internet or broadband connection say they use Internet we count them as 2,” an IAMAI spokesperson said.
The survey was conducted between June to August 2017 covering 60,000 individuals in urban India across 170 cities and 15,000 individuals across 750 villages in rural area, the spokesperson said.
According to the findings of the report, urban India witnessed a growth of 9.66 per cent from December 2016 and is presently estimated to have around 295 million Internet users as on December 2017.
On the other hand, rural India witnessed a growth of 14.11 per cent from December 2016 and is presently estimated to have around 186 million Internet users as on December 2017, the report said.
As per the survey 86 per cent Internet user in urban India access it for online communication, 85 per cent for entertainment, 70 per cent for social networking, 44 per cent online finance and transactions and 35 per cent for online services.
In rural India, as per the survey, entertainment is top content for 58 per cent Internet users followed by online communication for 56 per cent, social networking 49 per cent, online services 35 per cent and online finance and transaction 16 per cent.
In terms of other parameters of demography, according to the report, students and youngsters accounting for around 60 per cent of all Internet users in India, followed by young men, non-working women, older men, working women and illiterate below age of 18 years.
“Among the Rural Internet users, the ratio between male to female Internet users is 64:36. The proportion of Internet users by gender in Rural India has seen much change over last year with Internet users among rural females growing steadily. The increasing gender parity in Internet usage is a welcome development,” the report said.
Want to Change Medal Colour From Silver to Gold at Tokyo Olympics- PV Sindhu: India ace shuttler PV Sindhu , on Tuesday, said she wants to change the colour of her Olympic medal from silver to gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
“I want to change the colour (of the medal) from silver to gold. I would be chasing my dream for that and definitely I hope I would do it,” said the Hyderabad-based badminton player, who had finished second at the Rio Olympics, here.
PV Sindhu, currently ranked fourth in BWF rankings, was made the brand ambassador of the tyre company, which is associated with the Olympic movement, last year.
Bridgestone added four more Indian athletes – shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, London Olympics bronze medallist boxer MC Mary Kom and Rio Games bronze medallist grappler Sakshi Malik and steeplechaser Lalita Babar – to its worldwide brand ambassadors’ list.
“For me it was a very close quarter-final match in 2016 (Olympics), so I want to change the scenario now and go deep into the tournament – go to the final and win that medal, so that’s the dream I have and definitely I will chase that dream,” said Srikanth, currently ranked 5th in the world.
“As just now Sindhu said that she has to change the colour (of her medal), I have to get the colour (medal in the Tokyo Olympics 2020). (In the 2016) Olympics, I came in the best (top) 10. I will fight for colour (medal) in the 2020 Olympics and try to do well,” said Lalita.
Sakshi too wanted to improve on her Rio display in Tokyo. “In my weight category I have a strong Japanese opponent. The dream which I have to chase is to defeat the Japanese and win the gold. When I started wresting, I was told that Japanese wrestlers are strong.
“We were standing on the same podium in Rio (Olympics) and my dream now is to defeat her (Kaori Icho) and win a (gold) medal for the country,” she said.
Bollywood’s first comedy in 3D, Welcome to New York, is a laughter riot to be enjoyed by all, says Lara Dutta, who is part of the cast of the multi-starrer.
Lara Dutta says, “shooting for the movie has been a blast. We didn’t know that it was going to be in 3D when we were shooting it.”
“Well, I guess it’s thrice the fun for audiences watching in the theatres. It has been a blast shooting the film.”
Dutta also said that it was first time a Bollywood film was created around a real-life event, in this case the IIFA Awards held in New York – hence the name of the movie.
“It’s an interesting concept as for the first time a bit of real life activity features in a film.”
Dutta says the story of Welcome to New York revolves around two commoners who dream of making it big in the film industry.
“And they get an opportunity to be part star-studded events, rub shoulders with stars, and just the journey that these two people make, and what it is actually like for somebody who is not part of the industry, who always dreams of what it’s like.
“I think the audience will get a very clear insight into what that world is like.”
Movie maker Karan Johar returns to the screen with Welcome to New York in a double role – as Karan and Arjun.
“I’ve done some multi-starrers before, but this movie is totally and completely different, it has some of the biggest names in the Bollywood who have made an appearance in this film,” Dutta says.
“A laughter riot – big stars making fun of each other, no egos involved.
“It was a great experience.”
Welcome to New York also stars Diljit Dosanjh, Sonakshi Sinha, Ritiesh Deshmukh, Boman Irani, Sushant Singh Rajput, Aditya Roy Kapur, and Rana Daggubati.
Preity Zinta, Salman Khan, Tiger Shroff, Sunil Shetty, Shahid Kapoor, Neha Dhupia, Mohit Sinha, Kriti Sanon, Tapsee Pannu, and Disha Patani feature in cameo appearances.
Google is working to improve the nationwide 911 system by testing new technology that will better pinpoint the location of callers.
Digital Trends reported that the tech giant gave several 911 centers in Texas, Tennessee and Florida access to their data to locate callers in a two-month trial.
According to the data collected, 80 percent of callers detected with Google’s technology were located within an average radius of 121 feet, compared to an average of 522 feet provided by wireless carriers.
The system locates a caller’s location using Wi-Fi, GPS and cell tower data. The current 911 system locates callers with only cell tower location and assisted GPS.
These tests were done in collaboration with two companies West Corp. and RapidSOS, these companies have tie-ups with 911 emergency service as they provide caller’s location information. According to The Verge report, “RapidSOS says that using Google’s technology, about 80 percent of the 911 calls had more accurate location data within the first 30 seconds.” Google’s data has been efficient in these tests and has shrunk the radius of call’s location from 522 feet to 121 feet, which is normally faster than carrier data’s respective data.
According to The Wall Street Journal report, saving a minute in response times can save up to 10,000 lives a year. Improved location data can also help dispatchers in instances where the caller might not speak English, or in a state of panic, gives the wrong address. “We can validate what the caller is saying,” says Bob Finney III, director of communications for the Collier County Sheriff’s Office in South Florida. “We’ve never been able to do that because it’s never been good enough.”
Google has already launched the system in several other countries, and said plans are in the works to incorporate the technology into more 911 centers around the United States.
This Google’s efficient new technology is targeted to enter the US, this year and is already available in 14 countries.
NAGPUR: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has proposed to develop a multispecialty hospital on sprawling 69,940 sq ft land on PPP model on VIP Road, Dharampeth. The project will come up where Dik Dispensary, school and office of water works department are situated currently.
Mayor Nanda Jichkar has called a general body meeting on Tuesday, where the proposal will be put up. NMC Dharampeth Zone is seeking permission to demolish structures of Dik Dispensary, school and office of water works department.
NMC had proposed to develop multispecialty hospital only on Dik Dispensary land last year. Office of water works department and school are situated behind Dik Dispensary. Recently, office of water works department shifted to NMC’s new administrative building at Civil Lines. Then the civic body revised its plan and proposed project on entire land. Accordingly, NMC also shifted the students to nearby schools.
NMC officials told the project will also comprise some commercial shops to make it feasible. “Consultant to prepare detailed project report was already appointed. Now, scope of work has been revised. NMC is likely to float expression of interest within a few months,” he said.
NMC official added the state government has changed the reservation on the land recently. “Land was reserved for government and semi-government purpose. Now, reservation has been changed to commercial. Developer will get benefit of commercial floor space index (FSI). Also, the land is situated at prime location. Therefore, chances of getting good response to the project are more,” he said.
The civic body had planned to develop multispecialty hospitals at four locations — Dik Dispensary, Indira Gandhi Rugnalaya, Isolation Hospital, and Devadiya Bhavan — in 2009. Unfortunately, the project remained on paper due to recession and other reasons. If it materializes, it will be NMC’s first multispecialty hospital.
Chandrayaan-2 to be launched in April; lunar mission to attempt first-ever landing on moon’s south pole
New Delhi: Chandrayaan-2, the lunar mission under which the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will for the first time attempt to land a rover on the moon’s south pole, will be launched in April, Jitendra Singh, in-charge of the Department of Space said.
The rover of India’s second lunar mission, costing nearly Rs 800 crore, will be made to land near the yet-unexplored south pole, Indian Space Research Organisation’s newly-appointed chairperson K Sivan said.
“India is going to launch Chandrayaan-2 in April 2018. It is under the Chandrayaan-1 mission that the Indian Space Research Organisation spotted water on the moon. Chandrayaan-2 is a further extension of the project and it is as good as landing a man on the moon,” Singh told reporters.
Chandrayaan-2 will be Indian Space Research Organisation’s first inter-planetary mission to land a rover on any celestial body.
Sivan noted that the window to launch the mission is between April and November this year. “The targeted date is April. In case we miss the April date, we will launch it in November,” Sivan added.
Citing the reason behind landing the rover near the south pole, Sivan said it is a “very tricky area” with rocks formed a million years ago.
“It has very old rocks. This could possibly help us understand the origin of the universe,” he said.
Another reason that he cited behind landing the rover near the south pole was that the area has not been explored by other missions. “Most of the lunar missions in the past have explored the area around the equator of the moon,” Sivan added.
NAGPUR: The state board has launched its helpline centre for counselling students and parents as the board exams seasons kicks off from February 21 with HSC (Std XII).
In Nagpur division, all six districts have a dedicated counsellor to handle queries from students. The queries can be related to mental stress or even about the exam itself (marking system etc).
Shriram Chavhan, Nagpur divisional board secretary, said, “Students can call in with their queries from 8am to 8pm. The helplines will be functional till the examinations end in March.” Board officials said it is natural for students to feel anxiety but it should not affect their academic performance.
“It is quite common for students to have various questions in the mind and sometimes it can be bothersome. We want that students should keep their minds absolutely free from every worry and focus only on the exams. To create that stressfree environment every year the board starts the helpline project,” said Chavhan.
Since every district has been given a dedicated helpline number, students and parents have been urged to contact them specifically. Both SSC and HSC exams will wind up by March 20 and results are expected in June.
The board has initiated strong anti-copying measures to make sure that malpractices do not spoil the exam mood. Flying squads have been prepared to crack down on cheaters and the board has been taking stern action against them.
Students in Nagpur can contact counsellor Vishal Gosami on 8275039252 / 9371168840
NEW DELHI: HMD, few days ahead of its MWC 2018 launches, launched its 4GB RAM version of the Nokia 6 in India. The handset will be going on sale from today (February 20) exclusively from Flipkart. Until now, the smartphone was available in India with 3GB RAM. Besides one extra gig of RAM, everything else stays the same including the specifications and the design. The price however, has been slightly bumped up.
Nokia 6 (4GB) Flipkart price and offers
The smartphone is available at the best buy price of Rs 16,999 and will be up for grabs from 12PM IST on the e-commerce portal. As the listing page suggests, users can buy the Nokia 6 (4GB) smartphone at Rs 825 per month. Flipkart is also offering extra Rs 1,500 off, after which the cost of the handset comes to Rs 16,999. As a part of a bank offer, Axis Bank Buzz Credit Card users get 5% off. In addition to this, if you are buying a smartphone for the first time from Flipkart, you get 10% off on select fashion products when purchased from the e-commerce website.
Nokia 6 (4GB) specifications
The Nokia 6 (4GB) has a 5.5-inch full HD (1080×1920 pixels) resolution IPS LCD display with 2.5D curved glass coating and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Under-the-hood it comes with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor along with Adreno 505 GPU.
On the storage front, the Nokia 6 (4GB) comes with an inbuilt 64GB storage, which can be expanded via a microSD card up to 128GB. It is powered by a 16MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, Phase Detection Autofocus and f/2.0 aperture. There is also an 8MP front-facing camera with 84-degree wide angle lens and f/2.0 aperture.
The 4G LTE –supporting device comes with Bluetooth v4.1, GPS, USB OTG and Wi-Fi as connectivity options and packs a 3000mAh battery
NASA’s next exoplanet-hunting space telescope has arrived in Florida:
NASA’s next exoplanet-hunting space telescope has arrived in Florida, two months ahead of its planned launch. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was delivered via truck to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Monday (Feb. 12), agency officials said. The spacecraft made the journey from the Dulles, Virginia, facilities of the aerospace company Orbital ATK, which had spent the last year building and testing TESS.
TESS is scheduled to lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than April 16 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is next door to KSC.
The spacecraft will then spend at least two years studying more than 200,000 of the sun’s closest and brightest stellar neighbors, looking for tiny brightness dips caused by planets trekking across the stars’ faces. NASA’s prolific Kepler space telescope has found nearly 2,500 confirmed exoplanets using this same “transit” technique.
TESS team members have said they expect to find several thousand planets during the spacecraft’s mission. If all goes according to plan, a handful of these will be studied in depth by NASA’s $8.9 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch next year.
James Webb should be able to scan for water vapor, methane and other gases in the atmospheres of some of the closest exoplanets, helping astronomers better gauge those worlds’ potential to host life. And, if researchers get really lucky, Webb may even spot a combination of gases that’s suggestive of life itself.
The TESS mission is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). George Ricker, of MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, is the principal investigator.
FoodEx 2017-18: The largest food and beverages tech exhibition in central India
Vidarbha Industries Association proudly presents the 2nd edition of FoodEx 2017-18, the largest food and beverages tech exhibition in central India with about 15000 square feet of exhibition space.
FoodEx 2017-18 is a great networking and tie-up platform for technology providers, machine manufacturers, turnkey solution providers, financial institutions, marketing brands, logistics partners, service providers, food processors and budding entrepreneurs.
This concurrent conference will have eminent speakers from all over the country to inform you on various issues pertaining to the food processing sector, new trends, governments measures and policies, incentives and various other important aspects.
Key takeaways:
1. One stop platform for wheat, pulses, soyabean, spices, flour, dairy, poultry etc processing packaging solutions and other allied services.
2. Technical tie-ups, Business, and financial collaborations.
Network with key food Processing associations and their members in the region.
3. Meet technology consultant, bankers, and potential partners.
4. Meet over 100 exhibitors from across the globe showcasing the latest technologies in processing, packaging, conveying and automation technology.
5. Witness live demo of the machines.
6. Source for new suppliers and technologies and much more
Date and timing details:
23-24 Feb 2018
10:30 am
Venue: Chitnavis Centre, 56, Temple Road, Next to Hislop College, Civil Lines Road, Nagpur, India
Celebrate the Festival of Colors Holi with unlimited food and snacks!
Join the Biggest Holi party with color along with mesmerising Bollywood DJ music, huge Rain Dance party, Paint Ball, kayaking and play Holi with organic colors to splash on your friends and family.
VIP and Stage passes available.
Inclusions: VIP pass(Rs.999)
Each ticket grants entry to 1 people that includes Unlimited food(Veg/Non-Veg) + Thandai + Limited beverages.
Stage pass(Rs.599)
Each ticket grants entry to one person and includes Soft drinks + Paid beverages and Thandai.
Internet handling fee per ticket may be levied. Please check your total amount before payment.
We recommend that you arrive at least 20 minutes prior at the venue to pick up your physical tickets.
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