Amazon Music launches in India as part of Prime

March 1, 2018

E-commerce major Amazon India on launched its ad-free music streaming service, Amazon Prime Music, for the Prime members, at no extra-cost.

The service offers unlimited offline downloads and includes a wide range of songs across international and Indian music labels in over 10 languages, the American e-tailer said in a statement. It will be available at no extra cost to members of Prime, the world’s largest online retailer’s customer loyalty plan that costs an annual 999 and offers faster deliveries, access to early deals and a subscription to its video streaming service.

“Our entire music organisation — Seattle, San Francisco, Bangalore, Mumbai — we have all spent a lot of time, invested our time personally and our engineering resources in India, it’s a big priority for us,” Sean McMullan, Director International Expansion at Amazon Music, told reporters.

“With ad-free streaming at no additional cost to the Prime members, we offer a welcome break from text and voice ads that come between the music,” said Sahas Malhotra, director at Amazon Music India. When asked if the company is planning to monetise the service, he said there is no plan on the cards as of now.

The music service will compete, among others, with Tencent-backed local rival Gaana, which is raising $115 million in new funding, and Apple Inc’s music service. Amazon sees big growth potential in India and had committed to investing $5 billion in the country.

The Seattle, Washington-headquartered company is engaged in a high-stakes battle with home-grown Flipkart for a bigger piece of India’s fledgling online retail market that Morgan Stanley expects to grow to be worth $200 billion in a decade.

Amazon Prime Music, which was launched in 2014 across 30 countries, will now be available on Android and iOS mobile platforms, as well as desktops in the country. It will also be available on Fire TV sticks and Echo devices. Prime Music service can also be voice controlled with Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant that was launched last month in the country.

Also read : MWC 2018: Asus ZenFone Max (M1) Launch, Has 4000mAh Battery

MWC 2018: Asus ZenFone Max (M1) Launch, Has 4000mAh Battery

March 1, 2018

MWC 2018: Asus ZenFone Max (M1) Launch, Has 4000mAh Battery

The flagship smartphone launch of the largest technology show MWC 2018 is in progress. On Tuesday, Asus took curtains from the three new smartphones, including its flagship smartphone Asus ZenFone 5Z (ZS620KL) at this event. The company launched these three phones in the ZenFone 5 series.

In addition to this series on Tuesday, the company also launched Asus ZenFone Max (M1) (ZB555KL). The most special feature of this phone is being discussed and it is the battery of this phone. The company has introduced this phone with 4000mAh battery.

The features and designs of Asus Zenfone Max (M1) are very similar to Zenfone Max Plus (M1), which are worth close to 9000 rupees. Looking at its price and features, it can be said that the company is going to present ZenFone Max (M1) in the budget smartphone category. Currently, about the features and specifications of Asus Zenfone Max (M1).

Features and Specifications of Asus ZenFone Max (M1) (ZB555KL)

This phone has a 5.5-inch HD + IPS display, which comes with 720×1440 pixel resolution. Its aspect ratio is 18: 9. This phone comes with 2.5D good quality glass protection. The fingerprint sensor in the back panel of this phone is given. The company claims that it can unlock the phone in 0.5 seconds. The company has introduced this phone in Black, Sunlight Gold and Ruby Red Color variants.

8 MP camera – 4000mAh battery is available

Asus Zenfone Max (M1) runs on Android 8.0 Orio. It has the company’s custom skin Zenui 5.0. The phone coming with dual sim support is given 4000 mAh battery. The company claims that the battery of this phone gives 36 hours talk time and 41 days of standby time on 3G network. For connectivity, this phone includes 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 B / G / N, Bluetooth V4.0, GPS / A-GPS, Micro-USB and 3.5mm headphone jack such features.

Also read : WhatsApp ‘Forwarded Message’ Feature spotted testing

WhatsApp ‘Forwarded Message’ Feature spotted testing

March 1, 2018

आता WhatsApp च्या माध्यमातून मिळणार घराजवळच्या लसीकरण केंद्राची माहिती; जाणून घ्या प्रक्रिया

WhatsApp could soon mark messages that have been forwarded from another or same chat as ‘Forwarded message’. According to a report in WABetaInfo, a fan site that tests new WhatsApp features, the feature is available for Android beta version 2.18.67 and is currently disabled. Users can join the beta program on Google Play Store for WhatsApp, and the latest features in testing will be available for them.However, the feature is also disabled by default, WaBetaInfo notes.

“Today, ‘WhatsApp’ has modified the behaviour of the feature, that will show on the bubble (when the feature will be enabled in future), a ‘Forwarded Message’ string, if the message has been forwarded from another chat (or from the same chat),” read the information on the website.

WhatsApp recently debuted the Group Description feature in its beta for Android and Windows Phone. Unlike the Forwarded Message and Sticker features, this is visible to users and does not need to be enabled via code. Any member in the group can edit the text in the new group description tab, although it might be looking to restrict access to admins in future updates. The maximum character limit for group descriptions is 500 characters. This move is expected to offer better context to public groups after chat invite links were launched by WhatsApp in 2016.

Meanwhile, Stickers feature is also under development for Android and will be available soon, reports the website. The Facebook-owned app has added support to forward stickers to other chats, a feature that is currently disabled. “Today, WhatsApp has modified the behavior of the feature, that will show on the bubble (when the feature will be enabled in future), a Forwarded message string, if the message has been forwarded from another chat (or from the same chat),” the report reads.

Earlier this month, WABetaInfo spotted new terms of service (ToS) in the Android beta. The leaked ToS indicated how WhatsApp would share data with Facebook, and how sponsored content would make its way onto the Facebook-owned messaging platform that recently began offering small businesses the ability to message users with special features.

Also read : Apple is designing its largest iPhone ever

Mithali Raj to lead India in three-match ODI series against Australia

March 1, 2018

Mithali Raj to lead India in three-match ODI series against Australia:

Opener Mithali Raj will lead a 15-member Indian women’s team in the three-match ODI series against Australia to be held at Vadodara from March 12-18, BCCI said on Tuesday.

“The All-India Women’s Selection Committee has named the India Women’s squad for the Paytm ODI series against Australia Women. The three-match series that will be held in Vadodara is part of the ICC Women’s Championship (2017-2020),” BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary said.

The Indian women’s team had a highly successful tour of South Africa as Mithali led the ODI side to a 2-1 win, while Harmanpreet Kaur guided a young squad to an emphatic 3-1 victory in a five-match T20 International series to complete a rare double. They become the first cricket team to win two formats in the Rainbow nation.

Those victories showed that Indian women’s performance in the ICC ODI World Cup wasn’t a mere flash in pan and the women showed little rustiness even though they played their first series in seven months. In the entire South Africa tour, the biggest positive was winning a T20 series -a format where the Indian women have not done well traditionally.

India will start the three-match series with the first one-dayer on March 12, followed by the second and third game on March 15 and Match 18 respectively at Vadodara. “The ODI series will be followed by the T20I tri-series and the squad for the same will be named later,” BCCI said in a release.

India Women’s ODI squad is as below:

Mithali Raj (Captain), Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Smriti Mandhana, Punam Raut, Jemimah Rodrigues, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mona Meshram, Sushma Verma (wicket-keeper), Ekta Bisht, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shikha Pandey, Sukanya Parida, Pooja Vastrakar, Deepti Sharma.

Also read : Virat Kohli’s Indian cricket team all set to rule the world, believes Yuvraj Singh

NEET to be Conducted in 150 Cities : Prakash Javadekar

February 28, 2018

The government has increased the number of cities where the NEET examination would be conducted this year, from 107 to 150, to make it easier for the students to reach the venues, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday.

“Forty-three new centres granted for #NEET2018 exam. For the first time NEET exam would be conducted in 150 cities. In 2017 NEET exam was conducted in 107 cities,” he tweeted.

43 new centres granted for #NEET2018 exam. For the first time NEET exam would be conducted in 150 cities. In 2017 NEET exam was conducted in 107 cities. #TransformingIndia #IT4MHRD #NewIndia @CBSEINDIA @ciet_ncert

— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) February 27, 2018

“All the cities from where 4,000 and more candidates have applied and which were not the centres in 2017 have been added as centre cities for #NEET2018 exam,” the minister said.

New centres have been set up in Andhra Pradesh (5), Assam (2), Gujarat (3), Maharashtra (6), Odisha (4), Tamil Nadu (2), Kerala (5), Telangana (2), West Bengal (3), Uttar Pradesh (3) and one new centre each in Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Karnataka and Uttarakhand.

NEET is scheduled to be conducted on May 6 for admission to MBBS/BDS courses in India in medical/dental colleges run with the approval of the Medical Council of India (MCI)/ Dental Council of India. The registration began on February 8 and will be concluding on March 9.

Also, the Delhi High Court today stayed the CBSE’s notification on upper age limit and other criteria for NEET. Two MBBS aspirants from Kerala filed a petition challenging the MCI’s decision to set an upper age limit of 25 years and 30 years for reserved category and disabled candidates respectively.

Last year, the government introduced the upper age limit which led to massive protest among medical aspirants. After several petitions, the apex court had allowed students above 25 years to sit for the exam.
This year, NEET will be held on May 6.

Online application process began on February 8, and March 9 is the last date to register. The last date for successful payment of fee online is March 10 till 11.50 PM.

Virat Kohli’s Indian cricket team all set to rule the world, believes Yuvraj Singh

February 28, 2018

Out of the national team reckoning for a while now, India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh says he will continue playing cricket till 2019 before taking a call on his retirement.

Yuvraj, who last played for India in June 2017 in an ODI, said the upcoming IPL holds great significance for him as a good performance in the T20 event will help him keep in the fray for a spot in the 2019 World Cup.

“I am looking forward to a good IPL. It’s a very important tournament for me as it will only set me to play cricket till 2019. I am looking to play cricket till 2019, whatever cricket I get to play and take a call after that,” Yuvraj said.

A regular in the Indian ODI team till the 2011 World Cup triumph before his career was jeopardised by a rare germ cell cancer, Yuvraj’s only regret was that he could not cement his place in the Indian Test side.

“Definitely, in the first 6-7 years of my career when I was at my best I did not get a lot of opportunities because there were such great players in the (Test) team and when I got an opportunity I was diagnosed with cancer. So that regret will always be there but these things are never in my control. I am just looking forward to whatever cricket I get to play,” the 36-year-old all-rounder said.

Yuvraj, who is here as a Laureus ambassador from India, praised Virat Kohli and his men for the character they showed to bounce back in the limited overs series after the close 1-2 loss in the Test rubber.

“I think it is a pretty great performance. They showed a lot of character after losing the Test series. It was as a hard-fought Test series, could have gone either way. But it was a very convincing win in the ODI series. Kohli led from the front with some big runs,” the left-handed batsman said.

“Spinners bowled very well especially Kuldeep (Yadav) and (Yuzvendra) Chahal and got South Africa into trouble. And then they stepped on the gas and won the T20 series 2-1. Going abroad playing three series winning two definitely shows India’s dominance.”

Kohli might have set his sights on winning the upcoming tours of England and Australia but Yuvraj said India will need consistent performances from the players to achieve the goal.

Ravichandran Ashwin To Lead Kings XI Punjab in Indian Premier League 2018

“It’s a good start to believe that you can dominate outside. If you can consistently do that in England and Australia you definitely will have the belief,” he said. “Now the team is set to conquer the world. England and Australia will be testing series but if we can get some consistent performances it will give a lot of self belief to the players,” he added.

Yuvraj himself has climbed up the ladders of age group cricket to stand where he is today and so he offered some words of advice for the likes of young Prthivi Shaw and Shubman Gill, who have already fetched big money from their respective franchises in the last IPL auctions.

“The more they get better the more money they will earn. So they don’t have to worry about money. They have to focus on how quickly they can do better and play for India,” he said when asked about the Indian Under-19 cricketers.

“I think Prithvi, Shubman, Abhishek Sharma are great talents and hopefully in the next coming years we will see them play for India. I am sure the IPL will give them a great platform to learn from other international players and feel the hype of international cricket. So it’s very important tournament for them and they should enjoy it,” Yuvraj signed off.

Maharashtra may make Marathi compulsory in CBSE, ICSE schools : Vinod Tawde

February 28, 2018

Maharashtra may make Marathi compulsory in CBSE, ICSE schools till Class 10

The Maharashtra government is considering making Marathi language a compulsory subject up to class 10 in CBSE and CISCE schools, education minister Vinod Tawde told the Legislative Council on Tuesday..

Tawde’s response came during a discussion on Marathi language on the occasion of ‘Marathi Bhasha Gaurav Din’— the birth anniversary of late poet V V Shirwadkar, also known as Kusumagraj.

At present, Marathi is a compulsory subject up to class 8 in schools run by the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), a private board which conduct ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education) examination.

Legislative Council chairman Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar moved a resolution recommending the state government to ensure Marathi is valued as a language of knowledge and to take further steps for its development.

Members of the Opposition and ruling benches raised several issues like making Marathi compulsory in CBSE and CISCE schools, according a classical language status to Marathi etc.

BJP MLC Bhai Girkar demanded Marathi be made compulsory till class 12 from the upcoming academic year, which begins in June.

Opposition parties have raised the pitch for Marathi following a goof-up in translating the Maharashtra governor’s address to the state legislature yesterday.

Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde (NCP) said there was no full time secretary in the Marathi language department and that 40% posts in the department are lying vacant. Claiming that the state’s official language is being neglected by the government, he said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis speaks in Hindi and English at various public events whereas IAS and IPS officers write their (file) notings in English.

Tawde said, “At present, Marathi is a compulsory subject up to standard 8 in CBSE and ICSE schools. We are considering to make it compulsory up to class 10. However, the decision will be taken by the education board”.

He said a delegation comprising prominent littérateurs and leaders of various parties would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of according a classical language status to the language after the Budget session.

Also read : Attend IDP’s UK, USA, Canada & New Zealand Education Fair

National Science Day 2018 Celebration in India

February 28, 2018

National Science Day is celebrated all over India with great enthusiasm on 28th of February every year in order to commemorate the invention of the Raman Effect in India by the Indian physicist, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman on the same day in the year 1928. For his great success in the field of science in India, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was awarded and honored with the Nobel Prize in the Physics in the year 1930.

HISTORY OF NATIONAL SCIENCE DAY IN INDIA
28th of February, 1928 was the great day in India when an invention in the field of Indian science was completed by the famous Indian physicist, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman. He was a Tamil Brahmin and first one in the science, who had researched such invention in India. To commemorate and honor this event always in the future, 28th of February was asked to the Indian Government to designate as a National Science Day in India by the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) in the year 1986.

From then, the national science day was started celebrating all across the India as a great event in the field of Indian science. It is celebrated every year by students, teachers, scientists and researchers in all the schools, colleges, universities, educational institution including scientific, academic, medical, technical and research institutions of India. On the first celebration ceremony of the National Science Day in India, the National Council for Science and Technology Communication had declared the institution of the National Science Popularization awards in order to recognize an excellent and wonderful endeavor in the field of science communication and popularization.

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman had worked from 1907 to 1933 at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, West Bengal in India during which he had researched on many topics of the Physics from which the Raman Effect (effect on scattering of light when passing through different materials) became his great success and discovery which has been marked in the Indian history. For his big invention he was honored through the various Indian awards including the Nobel Prize in the year 1930. From the year 2013, the “Raman Effect” has been designated as an International Historic Chemical Landmark by The American Chemical Society.

During the national science day celebration of the year 2009, the Indian Department of Science and Technology has awarded the five Indian institutions through the National Award for Science Communication in order to recognize the big efforts and achievements of the Indian scientists of the government and non-government organizations for popularizing and leading the modern science in the country. The Vikram Sarabhai Community Science Centre was given the highest award in the year 2009 to recognize its big contribution to the science.

OBJECTIVES OF CELEBRATING NATIONAL SCIENCE DAY

National Science Day is being celebrated every year to widely spread a message about the significance of scientific applications in the daily life of the people.
To display the all the activities, efforts and achievements in the field of science for human welfare.
To discuss all the issues and implement new technologies for the development of the science.
To give an opportunity to the scientific minded citizens in the country.
To encourage the people as well as popularize the Science and Technology.

THEME OF NATIONAL SCIENCE DAY 2018

The theme of the year 2018 is “Science and Technology for a sustainable future.”

Water Might Be All Over the Moon, New Research Shows

February 28, 2018

In 2009, three spacecraft confirmed that water exists on the moon, but until now, astronomers thought most of that water was confined to “cold traps” at the moon’s poles. Now, a new analysis of two lunar missions throws doubt on that theory and suggests that water could actually be spread across the moon’s surface.

The analysis, published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Feb. 12, could help researchers understand where the moon’s water comes from and how helpful the water would be as a resource for Earth, whether it’s collected for drinking water or converted into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel or into air for future space explorers.

Although this new analysis doesn’t give researchers a sense of how accessible the water is, it does suggest that both H2O and OH (a molecule known as hydroxyl) are spread across the moon’s surface and can be found day and night.

“We find that it doesn’t matter what time of day or which latitude we look at; the signal indicating water always seems to be present,” Joshua Bandfield, a senior research scientist with the Space Science Institute and lead author of the study, said in a statement from NASA. “The presence of water doesn’t appear to depend on the composition of the surface, and the water sticks around.”

Previous studies suggested that water and hydroxyl — a relative of H2O that’s made with just one oxygen molecule and one hydrogen molecule — were found mostly at the poles in “cold traps,” regions that are so cold that water vapor and other volatiles will remain stable there for up to several billion years. The researchers also found that the strength of the reflective signal used to detect water depended on the lunar day (which is equal to 29.5 Earth days), the statement said.

Also read : Humans to meet aliens within next century but they may not be friendly

AirAsia India To Commence Flight Operations To Nagpur And Indore

February 28, 2018

Budget passenger carrier AirAsia India on Tuesday announced the addition of Nagpur and Indore to its network effective from March 17, 2018.

AirAsia India announced the induction of its 16th aircraft and addition of Nagpur and Indore to its list of destinations on Tuesday.

According to the airline, it has introduced new routes connecting Nagpur to Bengaluru and Kolkata and Indore to Bengaluru and Goa.

“The brand has introduced new routes connecting Nagpur to Bengaluru and Kolkata and Indore to Bangalore and Goa,” said a press release issued by AirAsia India. Indore, Nagpur, Kolkata and Bengaluru have a unique mix of consumers comprising of students, SMEs and traders and corporates, among others and AirAsia India takes pride in empowering them to travel faster at affordable costs.

Speaking about the development, Amar Abrol, managing director and CEO, AirAsia India said: “2018 is already proving to be a great year for us as we have inducted our second aircraft in the very first quarter of the year. With the addition of Indore and Nagpur, we are connecting across the length and breadth of India. With 26% of our flyers being first-time flyers ever, providing regional connectivity is of utmost priority for us. Our ultimate vision is to focus on revolutionizing air travel in the markets that we operate in.”

Passengers can book their flights on www.airasia.com or the AirAsia mobile app and avail fares from as low as Rs 1999 for flights connecting Bengaluru to Nagpur, Rs 1999 Bengaluru to Indore, Rs 2499 Indore to Goa and Rs 1999 Nagpur to Kolkata, said the airline. Bookings for all the new sectors are open for sale as of Tuesday.

Currently, AirAsia India flies to 17 destinations with its hubs in Bengaluru, New Delhi and Kolkata covering Kochi, Goa, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Pune, Guwahati, Imphal, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Srinagar, Bagdogra, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar and Chennai.

Also read : First 2 intermodal stations to come up in Nagpur and Varanasi

Humans to meet aliens within next century but they may not be friendly

February 27, 2018

New Delhi: During a Reddit AMA last week, Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist, and futurist predicted that humans will come face to face with aliens for the first time within the next century.

However, he wasn’t very certain about the nature of that encounter, saying that he wasn’t sure whether it would be friendly.

On Thursday, Kaku was asked whether he thought we would make contact with alien civilizations. The professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York said that while he was sticking his neck out, he believed we would make contact within this century.

According to Kaku, radio technology may soon allow us to listen in on alien conversations. Just because we can hear them and know they are there, though, doesn’t mean we will understand what they are saying, Newsweek reported.

“Talking to them will be difficult since they could be tens of light years away,” explained Kaku. “So, in the meantime, we must decipher their language to understand their level of technology.”

If aliens stop by Earth for an in person (or in-creature) meeting, Kaku explained that the scenario could unfold in one of two ways: Either they are expansive and aggressive, similar to to the aliens in War of the Worlds, or they are peaceful and simply want to announce that they exist.

As per Newsweek, he said he thinks the latter “is unlikely since we would be like forest animals to them, that is, not worth communicating with.”

The search for alien life has been going on for years and those involved in alien hunting or UFO hunting have many a time, come close enough to provide evidence justifying it.

While many UFO/alien hunters from around the world have sworn that extraterrestrial life exists, NASA has dismissed these claims, leading alien hunters to believe that the space agency is deliberately trying to hide alien existence.

However, this is where the ‘Zoo Theory’ – a popular idea about alien contact – comes into the picture, which suggests that aliens know we exist and observe us without making contact, just like zookeepers, in order to allow us to evolve on our own, without outside interference.

Also read: With eye on future outposts, ISRO planning ‘igloos’ on the Moon

Yuvraj Singh will be integral part of KXIP : Ravichandran Ashwin

February 27, 2018

Yuvraj Singh will be integral part of KXIP : Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin was on Monday named the captain of Kings XI Punjab for the upcoming Indian Premier League season 11 and promised to never be predictable.

Ashwin, who played with Chennai Super Kings from 2009 to 2015 and for Rising Pune Supergiant in 2016 and 2017, was bought by KXIP for Rs 7.60 crore in the player auction in January.

Despite former captain Yuvraj Singh in the fold, team director Virender Sehwag and the management chose to go with Ashwin, keeping in mind the age factor.

Ashwin, who will captain Kings XI come April, would lead an IPL team for the first time and mentioned that his strengths lied in being “innovative and change things up.” He said Yuvraj will be his go-to man in the IPL and he will look to give Yuvraj much more freedom.

Ravichandran Ashwin To Lead Kings XI Punjab in Indian Premier League 2018

“For me, it is all about Yuvi paaji trying to go out there and entertain the fans. It is very important we play an aggressive brand of cricket. And as far as I’m concerned, I would love to see him play freely and hit those big shots. I’m looking to give him as many overs as possible. I think he will be one of the best batsmen in our team.”

Along with the bowling, Ashwin said he would want Yuvraj to bowl more overs and get some crucial wickets in the middle. Yuvraj bowled just two overs in 12 matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad but Ashwin wants Yuvraj to spread his “pie chucker” magic this season.

“More than anything else, I would love to see the pie chucker in Yuvi paaji. One of my strong points is to try and be innovative and try and change things up. And Yuvi paaji will be a very, very internal part of our team. He will be a very big lynchpin for me to try and go for sort of advice on the field.

“The pie chucker in him is somebody that I really like. Many great batsmen including the likes of Kevin Pietersen couldn’t play him properly. We can utilise that and get a few big wickets this time.”

Ashwin and Sehwag both agreed that all-rounders in Axar Patel and Marcus Stoinis will be integral to the team’s plans. However, Afghanistan’s mystery spinner Mujeeb Zadran is someone Ashwin is really keen to see up and close.

Apple is designing its largest iPhone ever

February 27, 2018

Apple’s 2018 iPhone lineup may literally be its biggest ever. According to Bloomberg in a Monday report, Apple is designing what would be its largest iPhone ever, an upgraded edition of 2017’s iPhone X and a cheaper iPhone that would keep the iPhone X design while making concessions for a lower price.

Citing “people familiar with the products” who spoke anonymously, Bloomberg says Apple is running production tests with suppliers involving the three new iPhone models. Previous rumors have pointed to the possible existence of three 2018 iPhone models, but this latest report includes many details about the specs and improvements that might be on the way.

The largest of the three would have a screen close to 6.5 inches packed into a body that’s about the size of the current iPhone 8 Plus, made possible using the same fullscreen design of the current iPhone X. Other specs Bloomberg expects in this alleged iPhone include:

A screen resolution of 1,242 by 2,688 pixels.
An OLED display, similar to what the current iPhone X has.
Face ID scanner.
An A12 processor.

The upgraded edition of the current iPhone X is also expected to have the A12 processor, and Bloomberg says Apple is considering a gold color option for both high-end phones. The current iPhone X is available in silver or space gray. Other additions expected for both phones include:

iOS 12.
Upgraded augmented reality capabilities.
Deeper integration of the Siri assistant.
Animojis in FaceTime.

The third iPhone will still have an iPhone X-like design, but is aiming for a lower price by including an LCD display, aluminum edges and a glass back similar to the current iPhone 8. It would not include stainless steel as the iPhone X does. And according to a January report from KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, this cheaper iPhone would have a 6.1-inch screen and not include the 3D Touch feature included with most new Apple phones since the iPhone 6S.

Apple also may be considering a dual-SIM card option in some markets for the larger model to make swapping carriers easier, but the report says the company might also wait for E-SIM technology to be embraced by carriers. Apple has been offering a version of E-SIM technology in its iPad lineup since 2014, which lets customers switch their carrier from the device instead of switching out SIM cards.

Also read : Nokia 8110 4G banana phone launched: Specs, features, India price

First 2 intermodal stations to come up in Nagpur and Varanasi

February 27, 2018

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has conducted detailed pre-feasibility studies for setting up Intermodal Stations at Nagpur and Varanasi, and the development of DPRs for this is in final stages of completion. Fifteen cities across the country have been prioritized for development of IMS of which Nagpur and Varanasi have been selected as pilot projects.

Intermodal Stations are terminal infrastructure which integrate various transportation modes like rail, road, mass rapid transit system, bus rapid transit,inland waterways, auto-rickshaws, taxis and private vehiclesetc, so that people can move from one mode to another seamlessly, with minimum use of automobiles. In most cities today, transport hubs like bus terminals, railway stations and others are located far from each other, so inter-modal transfers create pressure on the already congested roads. By bringing the different transport modes at one point, IMS will reduce congestion on roads and vehicular pollution. IMS will also aid in city decongestion by encouraging the use of public transportation and by effectively using ring roads and National Highways for entry and evacuation of inter-city bus traffic.

Intermodal Stations are being planned in an integrated manner along with road network development through new connecting roads, bridges, flyovers etc. The stations will cater to passenger volumes for the next 30 years and will have world-class amenities like FOBs with travellators, subways, common waiting rooms, clean toilets and restrooms, integrated public information systems, modern fire-fighting and emergency response services, convenience stores, lifts and escalators, adequate circulation space and commercial establishments.

Multiple benefits exist in developing inter-modal stations over standalone terminals:

Aggregated footfall: Inter-modal stations witness higher footfall than disaggregated transport terminals

Improved passenger experience: Facilities are better managed due to collaboration of multiple entities and commercial development is driven by aggregated footfalls. In addition, passengers do not need to spend time and money to transit between terminals.

Sharing of resources: Shared infrastructure like FOBs, waiting rooms, concourses, public conveniences leads to reduced investment and land requirement.

This lowers the investment requirements while increasing the overall synergies in the system

Development of inter-modal stations will also give a boost to commercial development and economic activity in cities, which can significantly alter the socio-economic profile of the development area.

The implementation and operation of the IMS will be done by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) between Ministry of Road Transport & Highways through National Highways Authority of India , Ministry of Railways and respective State Governments. Members of the SPV will provide paid up capital or land as part of their equity contribution to the SPV. MoRTH / NHAI will fund the construction of the terminal infrastructure including railway infrastructure, ISBT, common areas (concourse, waiting rooms, transport retail), parking and other station facilities. Indian Railways / State Government will provide the land for construction of the IMS. Construction and O&M will be bid out to a private concessionaire on a hybrid annuity model (HAM). The commercial development rights will be bid out on a PPP mode, post commencement of operations of the IMS. The returns from commercial development will be used to recover the construction costs.

For the pilot project, the satellite railways stations at Ajni in Nagpur and Kashi in Varanasi have been selected for development of IMS.

Also read : The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has proposed to develop a multispecialty hospital

Ravichandran Ashwin To Lead Kings XI Punjab in Indian Premier League 2018

February 26, 2018

Ace India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been named the skipper of IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab, for the upcoming edition of the tournament. The announcement was made during a Facebook Live session by Virender Sehwag.

During the IPL Auctions in January, Ashwin was bought by the Punjab side for a whopping 7.6 crore, after Chennai Super Kings did not retain the spinner. After being named the captain, Ashwin told the team website, “I feel honoured to be trusted with the responsibility of leading such a talented bunch of cricketers.”

“I am confident of bringing out the best out of team mates. This is indeed a proud moment for me.”

He further added, “There is no additional pressure on me as such. I first led my state side in first class cricket when I was 21. I have done it in the past and I am sure that I will enjoy the challenge.”

The reports of Ashwin leading the side had surfaced earlier, but an official word had to come in from the side.

“There was also talk in the management about making Yuvraj captain. Yuvraj is a great friend, but in cricketing matters, you keep friendships aside and we all felt Ashwin will be a great leader for us”, Sehwag was quoted as saying.

Ashwin has previously played for CSK till 2015, and in the last two years appeared for Rising Pune Supergiant. In 111 IPL matches so far, Ashwin has picked 100 wickets at an average of 24.99 and at an economy rate of 6.55.

The team took to Twitter and wrote, “We have a new #KingOfTheNorth! Sheron, give a big welcome to the Protector of the Realm! Our new captain, @ashwinravi99! #LivePunjabiPlayPunjabi.”

Neither can we @bendwarshuis! #KingOfTheNorth #LivePunjabiPlayPunjabi pic.twitter.com/jOqrZQS6sT

— Kings XI Punjab (@lionsdenkxip) February 28, 2018

The Chennai lad will be the tenth player to lead Kings XI Punjab. Previously, the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Murali Vijay, David Miller, George Bailey, David Hussey, Adam Gilchrist, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Yuvraj Singh have led the team.

Kings XI Punjab Squad: Ravichandran Ashwin (C), Axar Patel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, David Miller, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, Manoj Tiwary, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb Zadran, Barinder Sran, Andrew Tye, Akshdeep Nath, Ben Dwarshuis, Mayank Dagar, Pradeep Sahu, Chris Gayle, Manzoor Dar.

Also read : Rohit Sharma will lead the team in Sri Lanka tri-series

Force India take the wraps off new F1 car

February 26, 2018

Force India take the wraps off new F1 car in Barcelona :
Having kept a low profile all winter, Force India finally showed their hand on Monday morning as Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon pulled the covers off their vivid 2018 challenger, the VJM11, in the Barcelona pit lane.

The Silverstone-based team, who have a proud reputation for punching above their weight, have finished fourth in the constructors’ standings in each of the last two seasons.

However, repeating the trick – or going better – in 2018 will be no easy feat, with the likes of Renault, Williams and a revived McLaren all vying for position in what promises to be an extremely competitive field.

An evolution of its predecessor, the Mercedes-powered VJM11 features tighter sidepods and an updated pink livery for 2018. As part of the launch, the lack of Force India branding on the team kit was notable as the team weighs up a potential name change.

Perez and Ocon were extremely closely-matched during 2017, leading to a number of incidents during the season, but chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer expects a more productive partnership between the team mates this year.

“We will, of course, remind them [of their responsibilities], but not really sit down and talk to them,” Szafnauer said. “You’ll remember after we clinched fourth place, we allowed them to race again with the same rules that we had before we said no more racing and they performed admirably.

“So I think just a reminder and I think they’ve come into their own maturity – Checo as a father and Esteban having more than doubled his experience in Formula 1 – they understand, and they will act accordingly for the good of the team, which is ultimately for the good of themselves too.

“I’m quite confident that they will race respectfully, competitively, but for the good of the team.”

And Szafnauer is also confident Force India are set to see Perez close to reaching his peak in the coming season, with Ocon only entering his second full year of racing in F1.

“Checo is a great racer on Sunday. I think that won’t change. I think he’ll work hard to make sure that he qualifies well. Checo’s probably at the peak of his career, he’s done loads of races and is coming up to his late-twenties now.

“There are some good guys out there racing until their mid-thirties, so I think Checo can maintain this level if not get marginally better for a few years. As you know, Esteban is really young and is still learning, so it’s a good combination.”

Also read : BMW mistakenly installs the wrong emissions software

Former India football captain Bhaichung Bhutia quits Trinamool Congress

February 26, 2018

One of Indian football’s modern day greats Bhaichung Bhutia has announced that he will no longer continue with his career in politics. Bhutia, who had joined the All India Trinamool Congress in West Bengal has contested elections twice.

The legendary striker took to social media to announce his decision and tweeted, “As of today I have officially resigned from the membership and all the official and political posts of All India Trinamool Congress party. I am no longer a member or associated with any political party in India.”

Bhutia, retired from professional football in 2011 and decided to give a career in politics a shot from West Bengal, a state where he has been afforded a lot of affection right through his playing days. The former India captain joined the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress who came to power in the state in 2011.

Bhutia joined the TMC in 2013, and expressed the need for more sportspersons to take up politics. A year later, in 2014, the lethal striker contested the Lok Sabha Elections from Darjeeling but unfortunately lost out to BJP’s SS Ahluwalia by a margin of 1,96,795 votes.

A Padma Shri winner in 2008, Bhutia though continued his work with the Trinamool, but in recent times he has gone against the party line by expressing his support for a separate Gorkhaland.

Bhutia, who now is very actively involved with the Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools in New Delhi, also contested the State elections in 2016 but lost out to CPI(M) veteran Ashok Bhattacharya in Siliguri by a margin of 14,072 votes.

Bhutia had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Darjeeling and the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections from Siliguri.

The TMC declined to comment on Bhutia resigning from the party. However, Bhutia had informed the TMC about his decision one month ago as he was no longer interested in being associated with any political party.

Scientists to develop AI-powered robot clones of dead people!

February 26, 2018

Scientists to develop AI-powered robot clones of dead people!:

Swedish scientists believe that artificial intelligence (AI) can be harnessed to create ‘fully conscious copies’ of our loved ones after they die, according to Sputnik News. Scientists are looking for volunteers who are willing to offer up their dead relatives for the study. They would use AI to reconstruct the voices of those who’ve died to allow family members to communicate with their deceased loved ones. Scientists also want to build AI-powered robot clones replicas that look exactly like family members and friends who have died, the report claims. What’s more, the scientists hope AI can be used to make the robot clones capable of completing more sophisticated tasks.

India 7th most targeted country for Web Application Attacks

The robots might be equipped to answer simple questions related to the weather, what time it is and more.

The technology sounds purely like science fiction, but if it ever comes to fruition, digital immortality could become a real phenomenon of the future.These scientists aren’t the first to develop ideas around preserving our loved ones and our memories of them.Prominent futurist Dr Michio Kaku believes we could soon be able to upload our minds to machines, allowing us to speak to our loved ones after we or they die.The machine, or avatar, would contain memories and personality that can interact with relatives just as you would have when they were alive.

‘They would, in effect, become immortal,’ Kaku explained. Kaku believes it’s ‘only a matter of time’ before these technologies become a reality. He’s not the only one who thinks we may be able to harness and preserve our memories in the near future. Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk has an entire company dedicated to potentially do just that, called Neuralink.

Neuralink is developing ‘neural lace’ technology, which implants tiny brain electrodes that may one day upload and download thoughts.

Musk has said that the chips will help ‘humanity to achieve symbiosis with machines.’ He believes this could possibly give humans greater control over artificial intelligence, which Musk has expressed fears about before.’I think if we can effectively merge with AI, like improving the neural link between the cortex and your digital extension of yourself, which already exists but just has a bandwidth issue, then effectively, you become an AI-human symbiote,’ he said.’We don’t have to worry about some evil dictator AI,’ Musk said, ‘because we are the AI collectively.’

Nokia 8110 4G banana phone launched: Specs, features, India price

February 26, 2018

HMD Global at MWC 2018 on Sunday unveiled its new lineup of Nokia-branded phones that included 4 smartphones and a feature phone. In an attempt to bring back the nostalgia, HMD brought back the much-loved Nokia 3310 last year. In a similar fashion, the company this time revived the Nokia 8110 “banana phone” or the “Matrix phone” that was first launched back in 1996. The new Nokia 4G brings back the slider design along with a revamped look and updated specs to make it relevant in today’s day and age.

“The Nokia-8110 4G” is the second feature phone to be launched under HMD Global’s “Originals” series. The company hopes to recreate the success of the Nokia 3310 by bringing back another memorable Nokia feature phone. The company will target key markets like India where there is still a large market for feature phones. The new Nokia 8110 4G largely brings the same banana form factor and slider cover that protects the keyboard. However, there have been a few design and hardware tweaks to make it look a lot more fashionable and relevant over 20 years later. Here are the key specs and features that you need to know about the Nokia 8110 4G.

Nokia 8110 4G Specifications:

Display: The Nokia 8110 4G sports a 2.4-inch QVGA display

Processor: It is powered by a 1.1GHz dual-core Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform

RAM: The feature phone comes with 512MB LPDDR3 of RAM

Internal storage: The handset will be offered with 4GB of internal storage

Rear camera: The Nokia 8110 4G feature phone sports a 2-megapixel rear camera

Software: The revamped “banana phone” will run Smart Feature OS

Battery: The feature phone houses a 1500mAh battery that promises to deliver a standby time of up to 25 hours and talk time of 9.32 hours on VoLTE.

Connectivity: Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS/AGPS, micro-USB 2.0, FM, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Nokia 8110 4G Special features:

The Nokia 8110, popularly known as the “banana phone” comes with a unique curved design with a slider cover that hides the keyboard. You can slide it to answer a call and close it to end it. Much like the Nokia 3310 last year, the Nokia 8110 4G will come preloaded with the revamped Snake game as well.
Users will be able to sync their contacts and calendar through Gmail and Outlook. You will also be able to share data via wireless hotspot.
The Nokia 8110 4G runs Smart Feature OS and supports apps like Facebook and Twitter. WhatsApp support isn’t available as yet but HMD Global says that the company is working on bringing more apps in the future.

Nokia 8110 4G Price and availability:

The Nokia 8110 4G feature phone has been priced at EUR 79 (approx Rs 6,300) and will be available sometime in May 2018. India will likely be among the first markets to see the Nokia-8110 4G. HMD is yet to announce the India pricing of the Nokia-8110 4G, but you can expect to see it well under Rs 4,000. To recall, the Nokia 3310 was priced at Rs 3,310 when it was launched in India, so the pricing of the Nokia 8110 4G shouldn’t be too different.

Also read : Google Assistant is about to learn new languages.

With eye on future outposts, ISRO planning ‘igloos’ on the Moon

February 26, 2018

In what’s likely to become India’s biggest science programme in the next few years, ISRO has started work on building igloos on the Moon. These ‘lunar habitats’, as scientists call them, will be built by sending robots and 3D printers to the Moon, and by using lunar soil and other material.

The project has seen progress with a working model – created using a 3D printer – sitting in the space agency’s lunar terrain test facility. Scientists have drawn up five designs of the lunar habitats, and hope their work could contribute to plans of creating outposts on the Moon. Although there’s no mission plan yet, Isro wants to have the technology ready for building these structures.

Isro Satellite Centre (Isac) director M Annadurai likened the igloos on the Moon to India’s outpost in Antarctica. “We are planning to use the Moon as an outpost – like missions in Antarctica. In the long run, the space station is likely to be scrapped. Many countries, including the US, are considering building more permanent structures on the Moon and working out of there. When that happens, we want India to have contributed,”.

According to the report, ISRO has made progress with a working model of the 3D printer that they plan to use during the mission, in the terrain test facility.

According to him, astronauts going to the Earth’s satellite in the future will spend more than just a few hours there. “To keep them safe and help them work from there, we need smart materials, which is what we are focusing on building,” he said.

SpaceX mission successfully deploys first test satellite

Annadurai said the space agency has mastered the process of creating lunar simulant (material that approximate the properties of lunar soil), and it has about 60 tonnes of it. Its properties match 99.6% with the samples brought from Moon by Apollo missions.

Although there is no mission plan ready yet, ISRO hopes to have the technology ready soon. Their scientists have already chalked out five designs of the ‘habitats’.

PNB top officials questioned, 21 Nirav Modi properties worth Rs 523.72 crore attached

February 25, 2018

Two top officials of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) were questioned Nirav Modi on Saturday as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) widened its probe into the Rs 11,400-crore fraud in the country’s second-largest lender.Separately, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached 21 immovable properties of diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who, along with his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi, are among several people accused in one of the biggest frauds in the country’s banking history.

A CBI official familiar with the probe said PNB’s managing director and chief executive officer Sunil Mehta and executive director Brahmaji Rao were called for questioning in Mumbai to seek their “clarification” on certain aspects of the fraud that remained undetected for almost seven years.

“Their questioning went on the whole day,” the official added.

The official, however, refused to offer comment when asked whether the two top bank executives are being treated as suspects or just witnesses in the case.

The fraud, detected in January, was allegedly committed in connivance of two PNB officials who bypassed the core banking system to generate fraudulent letters of undertaking to overseas branches of other Indian banks which lent money to the jewellers based on the guarantee from PNB.

Modi government rolls out Rs 80,000 a month PhD grant to plug brain drain

Continuing its crackdown on Modi, the ED on Saturday attached properties of Modi that include included a farm house in Alibaug, a solar power plant, 135 acre land in Ahmed Nagar and residential and office properties in Mumbai and Pune. The properties, worth Rs 523.72 crore, were attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Modi – a flamboyant diamond designer who owns a chain of stores under the brand name ‘Nirav Modi’ – is suspected of using dummy and shell companies to transfer funds in the alleged fraud.

The ED – the country’s financial crime probe agency – has so far attached or seized or put a freeze on moveable and immovable assets worth Rs 6,000 of Modi and Choksi. Both Modi and Choksi have denied any wrongdoing and claim they have been implicated on false charges.

Modi, along with his wife Ami, brother Neeshal and Mehul Choksi left India in the first week of January before the PNB accused them of committing the fraud. The ED has issued summons to Nirav, Ami and Choksi. But two days back Modi wrote to ED that he cannot come back to India as he was dealing with the fallout of multi-agency probe launched against him.

The external affairs ministry on Friday cancelled the passports of Modi and Choksi in order to force them to return to India. “I am yet to get information about any revocation of passport of my client,” said Sanjay Abbot, lawyer for Mehul Choksi.

Rohit Sharma will lead the team in Sri Lanka tri-series

February 24, 2018

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.

Also read : Winter Olympics : Ester Ledecka wins second gold medal in Pyeongchang

BMW mistakenly installs the wrong emissions software

February 24, 2018

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.

Also read other automobile news : Hyundai Creta Facelift Spotted Testing In India

Winter Olympics : Ester Ledecka wins second gold medal in Pyeongchang

February 24, 2018

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 begins today in Vishakhapatnam

February 24, 2018

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 new languages.

February 24, 2018

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.

Also read : Facebook Messenger now lets you add more people to in-progress calls

India 7th most targeted country for Web Application Attacks

February 24, 2018

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.

Internet users in India likely to cross 500 million by June 2018

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 corruption perception index falls to 81

February 24, 2018

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.

Martyred soldier’s body arrives at Air Force Station, Nagpur

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 mission successfully deploys first test satellite

February 23, 2018

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.

Also read :Chandrayaan-2 to be launched in April; lunar mission to attempt first-ever landing on moon’s south pole

The Remix : Get ready to party with 10 popular DJs & Singers

February 22, 2018

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.”

Sunidhi Chauhan talks about The music reality shows.

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.

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