Budget 2018-19

The Oppo F7 is said to sport a 6.23-inch fullHD+ screen, with a notch on top, and a 19:9 aspect ratio screen. It might feature a MediaTek processor, coupled with the company's NeuroPilot AI technology   Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo is gearing up to launch the selfie-centric smartphone, expected to be called the Oppo F7, on March 26. The smartphone could feature a system-wide artificial intelligence technology, along with a notch-based screen, and a 25-megapixel selfie camera. While some images, purportedly of the Oppo F7 , have been leaked in the past, this time it is the specifications that have, apparently, found their way to the internet. These leaks hint at several things that you could expect from the upcoming smartphone. According to leaked specifications, the Oppo F7 would sport a 6.23-inch fullHD+ screen, with a notch on top, in 19:9 aspect ratio. It would feature a MediaTek Helios P60 processor, coupled with the company’s NeuroPilot AI technology. T...

United Kingdom-based Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group have appointed Balesh Sharma as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the merged entity to be created as the local units of the two telecom majors come together for the India market. The appointment of Sharma has not come as a surprise to Vodafone employees, who have seen him taking control of the day-to-day functions of the company over the past year as its chief operating officer (COO). According to several employees of the company, over the past year or so, Sharma was the man responsible for running the company, with Vodafone India CEO Sunil Sood taking a backseat for routine activities. When everybody was guessing about the CEO of the new entity, there were a few people in Vodafone who were sure about Sharma taking the reins of the new company. Sharma, having worked in different positions for over 25 years, has been a Vodafone veteran.He was specially called to India in April 2017 as COO from the Czech Republic. Th...

India may be in a position where it would want to retaliate, a top Trump administration official said on Thursday, even as the US continues to be on the cusp of triggering a global trade war by unveiling high import tariffs on a number of items.The US Trade Representative (USTR), Robert Lighthizer, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing that India's system is not open and has a lot of  "vulnerabilities". "My guess is that India may be in a position where they want to retaliate. I think there's some vulnerability there. India has a substantial trade surplus with the US and they have a system which is not particularly open," Lighthizer said. "They have a system that has a number of vulnerabilities. So to the extent, there are individuals who have this problem, all I can say is we'll try to work with them. It's a serious problem and one that we have considered," the USTR said. He was responding to a question from Sen...

Attention, Delhiites! If you use an Ola or Uber cab for your daily travel to office or elsewhere in Delhi-NCR, you might have to look at alternative modes of transport today. Drivers of the two leading app-based cab aggregators are planning a complete shutdown in the city on Friday to press for their demands, according to a media report. The announcement of an indefinite nationwide strike in the key cities of Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune had been made by the Ola and Uber drivers on March 19. However, a significant impact had so far been seen only in Mumbai; the other metros faced minimal impact. Here are the top 10 developments so far in the Ola-Uber strike and stir: Uber, Ola plan a complete shutdown in Delhi-NCR today: Drivers, with the support of the Sarvodaya Drivers Association, are likely to protest against their low earnings. They are currently paid Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 a month, according to media reports. 2.Fifth day of strike: The strike, w...

Aadhaar data unbreachable as UIDAI blind, CEO tells SC: Top 10 developments Trying to allay the fears over security and privacy of Aadhaar, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, the Chief Executive Officer of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the nodal agency implementing the project, told the Supreme Court on Thursday that it would take the world’s fastest computer “the whole universe’s strength to break the Aadhaar encryption system”. In a first-ever powerpoint presentation in open court, the constitution bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, and Justice A K Sikri, Justice A M Khanwilkar, Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Ashok Bhushan was told that Aadhaar data in an encrypted form were "very very secure". The UIDAI CEO had said the biometric and demographic information of people enrolled for Aadhaar was secure, while no one would suffer loss of benefits for its absence. According to tweets by lawyer Prasanna S (@Prasanna_s), who was present at...

In Uttar Pradesh, BJP's decision to field an extra candidate has transformed the routine election into a prestige contest with the SP and the Congress backing the BSP Voting for the Rajya Sabha elections 2018 in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana, commenced on Friday. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is also in the fray for one of the UP Rajya Sabha seats. With the drubbing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received recently in the state bypolls for the Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats, there is only one question hanging in the air: Can the BJP snatch a ninth seat or will the newfound bonhomie between former arch-rivals Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party prevail? In UP, the SP and the Congress are backing Mayawati's candidate. The SP is keen to ensure a clean vote transfer because that could ease the way to an alliance with the BSP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections against the Narendra...

Congress has asked the BJP whether it would register an FIR against Cambridge Analytica and its Indian arm Ovleno Business Intelligence   Cambridge Analytica scandal, data mining, and Facebook data breach -- as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Congress political slugfest over who has links with the controversial data consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) escalates, these terms have come to replace the usual cudgels of 'scam', 'corruption' and 'anti-national' that political parties beat each other with. The BJP claims that the firm has been involved in Congress President Rahul Gandhi's social media campaign, while the Congress is asking if the government will lodge an FIR against the company and its India partner Oveleno Business Intelligence (OBI). Both the Indian National Congress and the BJP are accusing each other of having availed of the services of the controversial firm accused of stealing data and influencing elections. The Congr...

Shami will represent Delhi Daredevils in IPL 2018 Shami has been given a Grade 'B' annual contract, which will make him richer by Rs 30 million. He will also be free to play in the Indian Premier League for his franchise the Delhi Daredevils, starting April 7. The BCCI had decided to withhold Shami's contract after Jahan made a series of allegations, including adultery and domestic violence, and lodged a police complaint against him. Shami has denied all the allegations. The Committee of Administrators (CoA) specifically asked its ACU chief Neeraj Kumar to investigate charges that the bowler accepted money from one Mohammed Bhai through a Pakistani woman named Alishba. "The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) had requested Mr Neeraj Kumar, former Police Commissioner of Delhi and Head of BCCI Anti-Corruption Unit, to investigate the allegations against Mohd. Shami in so far as they pertain to the provisions of the...

Wednesday martyred in an ongoing encounter in Kupwara's Halmatpora. Two cops have sustained injuries. According to J&K Director General of Police SP Vaid, two policemen and one Army personnel have been martyred. The encounter was triggered when terrorists fired at a joint party of the Army and  Special Operations Group (SOG) of J&K Police, said defence spokesman (Srinagar) Col Rajesh Kalia.The operation was aided by the Army's Para Commandos.A police officer said that a joint team of the Army's 41 Rashtriya Rifles and SOG launched the operation following inputs about the movement of seven foreign terrorists in the area. Top 10 Developments Mufti pays tributes to 4 security personnel killed in Kupwara Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today paid rich tributes to the four security forces' personnel killed in a fierce gunbattle in Kupwara district. In a statement issued by the information department, the chief minister paid rich...

The rollout would take place in three batches, the first of which would get the over-the-air (OTA) update starting from the last week of March   Technology : Chinese technology product maker Xiaomi on March 20 announced the rollout of its next iteration of Android-based operating system MIUI. Dubbed the MIUI 9.5, the Android-based OS global stable ROM would roll out to 30 of Xiaomi’s smartphones, including the recently launched Redmi 5, Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro. The rollout would take place in three batches, the first of which would get the over-the-air (OTA) update starting from the last week of March. The supported devices in the first batch include the Redmi Note 3 Special Edition, Redmi Note 3 Qualcomm, Redmi Note 4 Qualcomm/Redmi Note 4X, Mi Max, Mi Max Prime, Redmi 3S, Redmi 4 Prime, Redmi 4A and Redmi Note 4 MTK. The second batch of devices would get the update in early April and the supported devices are the Redmi Note 5A Prime/Redmi Y1, R...

The top court will hear pleas from the consortium of banks and RCom against stay of assets sale by HC on April 5   The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that status quo be maintained on Reliance Communication's sale of assets to R-Jio on pleas by a consortium of banks. The apex court bench, comprising Justices A K Goel, R F Nariman and U U Lalit, refused to lift the stay ordered by Bombay High Court on R-Com asset sale. The top court will hear pleas from the consortium of banks and RCom against stay of assets sale by HC on April 5. The State Bank of India had yesterday moved the apex court challenging a tribunal's order, which was upheld by the Bombay High Court, allowing Ericsson to stake a claim on RCom Consolidated's assets. RCom owes Indian lenders Rs 420 billion. RCom Consolidated incorporates the Anil Ambani-led group's Reliance Communications, Reliance Infratel and Reliance Telecom. Apart from SBI, 24 other Indian lenders const...

A gauge of capacity utilisation is also provided by the RBI data on working capital loans   There are early signs of an uptick in capacity utilisation in select sectors, which could be a precursor to an investment revival.Utilisation rates are on the rise in cement, automobile ancillaries, engineering, casting and sheet metals, industry players told Business Standard.A gauge of capacity utilisation is also provided by the RBI data on working capital loans. In line with the trend of rising capacity utilisation rates, working capital loans grew 6.4 per cent in the July-September quarter of 2017-18, up from 4.8 per cent in the preceding quarter. It had plummeted to a low of 1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016-17.“Our order intake has risen 20 to 25 per cent in 2017-18, signalling 80 per cent capacity utilisation in certain sectors like cement. Some of the sectors with high orders included food processing, alcohol and the carbon black industry,” said M S Unnikrishnan...

The OnePlus 6 price has been leaked online in an alleged price comparison sheet which shows that the phone might cost $749 in Canada, which translates to $575 in the US and around Rs 39,000 in India  Technology:  Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus started its journey with a power-packed premium flagship smartphone – the OnePlus One -- costing nearly one-third the price of Samsung and Apple flagship phones. With every successive generation, the prices of the OnePlus smartphone have increased. Yet, the company has managed to build smartphones at an effective cost much lower than other premium flagships. Now, the next iteration, the OnePlus 6 , is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2018. Bit the phone’s purported specifications and features have been leaked on the web. The smartphone’s price, according to a price comparison sheet doing the rounds of the internet, will be more than its predecessor, but still be in range to give it an 'inexpensive...

Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018 is one of the most keenly awaited electoral battles of 2018.   Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018  is one of the most keenly awaited electoral battles of 2018. Here the two national parties the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will go head to head against each other and against the regional heavy weight Janta Dal Secular JD(S). Currently the Congress party holds a simple majority of 123 seats in the 224 constituencies’ strong Karnataka legislative assembly. The BJP holds 44 and the JD(s) has 40 seats respectively. In the last assembly elections held on 5th May 2013, Congress was successful in winning the state back from BJP by surpassing the magical figure of 113 seats to gain a simple majority and form the government with ease. In 2018, the Karnataka electoral battle becomes that much more interesting as Karnataka is one of the last two big states along with Punjab that is held by the Congress. Ka...

He said in a post on Facebook that the company "made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it" Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that the social media company made mistakes that allowed data about users to end up with the analytics firm Cambridge Analytica and said the company would make changes. Zuckerberg, in his first comments since the company disclosed on Friday the misuse of personal data, said in a post on Facebook that the company "made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it." In his Facebook post, he also narrated the timeline of events as it happened and how Cambridge Analytica managed to obtain this data. In 2013 a Cambridge University researcher named Aleksandr Kogan created a personality quiz app which was installed by around 300,000 people who had shared their data as well as some of their friends' data with Kogan's app. In 2015, Faceboo...

Anorexia or Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that affects 1 to 2% of women. This disease mainly affects girls from 12 to 20 years old, but can appear as early as 9 or 10 years old. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that affects 1 to 2% of women. This disease mainly affects girls from 12 to 20 years old, but can appear as early as 9 or 10 years old. Boys are less affected, as 9 out of 10 anorexic patients are girls. Anorexia results in an obsession with weight loss resulting in severe dietary restrictions. Often, these restrictions are accompanied by intense physical activities to lose weight along with obsessive fear of getting fatter. The desire for thinness can lead to other abnormal behaviours such as binge eating, use of laxatives and diuretics, vomiting and more. Other psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, withdrawal, addictions to drugs or alcohol and even suicidal tendencies may also occur. Many a time, teenage girls may have aberrant eatin...

From Rahul Gandhi calling Congress-BJP contest as Pandava-Kaurava battle to Urjit Patel offering to make RBI Neelkantha of Indian banking's Samudra Manthan, leaders are resorting to myths too often While Congress President Rahul Gandhi recently referred to his party's contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party as being like the Kurukshetra battle between the Pandavas and Kauravas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier termed his critics as Shalya. Similarly, while Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel recently said the Samudra Manthan required to cleanse the Indian banking system would also need a Neelakantha to swallow the poison so that the larger economy could avail of the benefits of the nectar that would follow, his deputy Viral acharya had earlier said the Indian banking system needed a Sudarshan Chakra more than an Indradhanush. A K Bhattacharya reads into these allusions and their implied meanings and assesses what else these might mean in the light o...

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has confirmed that the 39 Indians who went missing in Mosul in Iraq in 2014 were killed by the Islamic State After four long years of hope for the familiesof the Indian construction workers kidnapped by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014 from Iraq's city of Mosul, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday told Parliament that all 39 of them had been killed and buried in a mass grave. The revelation set off a row with the Opposition, which accused the Narendra Modi government at the Centre of being insensitive in noting informing the victims' kin first. Swaraj's suo motu statement on the fate of the kidnapped Indian workers confirmed the worst fears of the kidnapped Indians' families after keeping alive hopes of their survival for four years. The revelation would have come as a shock to the families and kin of the 39 deceased workers abducted in Iraq since Swaraj had earlier made statements, including one o...

Petitions for H1-B visas for financial year 2019 will be accepted from April 2; premium processing for all H-1B petitions, subject to annual caps, stands suspended Wish to live the American dream, especially as an information technology (IT) professional looking to work in the land of promise? Take note: Petitions for H1-B visas for financial year 2019 will be accepted from April 2, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Wednesday. Further, the USCIS announced that premium processing for all H-1B petitions, subject to annual caps, stands suspended. The USCIS has said that the temporary suspension of H-1B premium processing would help reduce the overall H-1B visa processing time. The H-1B petition filing is for fiscal 2019, which begins from October 1, 2018. The H-1B filing season comes after the Donald Trump administration earlier this months delayed its decision on terminating work authorisation for the spouses of H-1B visa holders until...

The recent development followed Congress' worst performance in recent Lok Sabha bypolls to Gorakhpur and Phulpur Raj Babbar on Wednesday resigned from the post of Uttar Pradesh Congress chief, a party source said. A report on India Today said that till the time Babbar's resignation is confirmed, he will continue working as the state party president. The report also quoted sources as saying the party is eyeing a prominent leader from the Brahmin community as Babbar's replacement. Jitin Prasad, Rajesh Mishra and Laliteshpati Tripathi were to be considered as possible replacements for Raj Babbar's recent resignation, the report added. Taking the resignation into consideration, former union minister Salman Khurshid said that unnecessary speculation in connection with  Congress state party chiefs stepping-down one after another must be avoided. Khurshid told ANI that to jump on to any conclusion without any evidence would be unfair. "...

Recently, Facebook come under scrutiny after reports emerged that the data analytics company Cambridge Analytica accessed the company's user data for over 50 million accounts without their permission The Mark Zuckerberg-led social media company Facebook in 2014 acquired instant messaging app WhatsApp, which had been co-founded in 2009 by former Yahoo employee Jan Koum and Brian Acton. While Koum continues to lead the messaging platform, Acton has since left the company and started his own venture, Signal. Now, Brian Acton, the estranged co-founder of WhatsApp, seems to have turned against Facebook. In a Tweet that might raise many questions, Acton wrote, “It is time”, with a hashtag, to "#deletefacebook".  The Mark Zuckerberg-led social media company Facebook in 2014 acquired instant messaging app WhatsApp, which had been co-founded in 2009 by former Yahoo employee Jan Koum and Brian Acton. While Koum continues to lead the messaging platform, Acton has...

Hafeez Contractor, Kukreja roped in; 11 architects to be empanelled Soon your nearest railway station may bear the stamp of India’s top architects as the government is set to come up with an empanelled group to design 600-odd stations announced in the Budget. Top architecture firms belonging to Hafeez Contractor and C P Kukreja have offered to design a few stations free of cost. The railways will approach the Cabinet in a month with a station redevelopment policy to give more financial independence to Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC). It will have the powers to raise money from the markets for station development. Noted architect Hafeez Contractor had offered to design some stations, including major ones in Mumbai such as Dadar, Parel, Wadala, Bandra, and Khar. “We have offered to design at least 19 stations free of cost through a unique model. If they accept the model, the railways can generate more funds and push for developing those cit...

According to Railways officials, all the four lines between Matunga and CSMT have been affected, while police and Railways officials are conducting talks with the agitating railway job aspirants Mumbai railway traffic resumed between Dadar and Matunga after hundreds of thousands of Mumbai local commuters faced difficulties today, with scores of agitating students blocking rail traffic, including suburban services between the two stations, demanding jobs in the Railways. The agitating students, according to a Central Railway official, blocked the rail track at 7 in the morning today, forcing the Railways to stop the suburban and express trains in the affected section between Matunga and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT). The agitating Railways job aspirants were still present at the spot where they have been protesting, between Matunga and CSMT. Railways officials have told a national daily that they are running special trains for the Kurla station in the down di...