अरविंद केजरीवाल सरकार के 2 प्रमुख मंत्रियों मनीष सिसोदिया और सत्येंद्र जैन ने अपने पद से मंगलवार को त्यागपत्र दे दिया. उनके इस्तीफे के बाद कैलाश गहलोत और राजकुमार आनंद को इन दोनों मंत्रियों के विभागों को अतिरिक्त प्रभार के तौर पर सौंपी गई है. मनीष सिसोदिया के प्रमुख विभाग वित्त, PWD, गृह और जल की जिम्मेदारी कैलाश गहलोत को दी गई है.
तेलंगाना में समय से पहले विधानसभा चुनाव की अटकलों के बीच भारतीय जनता पार्टी ने तैयारी शुरू कर दी है. बीजेपी ने फैसला लिया है कि पार्टी अगले एक महीने राज्य में बड़ा अभियान चलाएगी.
Honor Magic 5 series was unveiled by the company on the first day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 in Barcelona, Spain. The flagship lineup from the Shenzen-based company includes Honor Magic 5, and Honor Magic 5 Pro. The smartphone company also unveiled the Honor Magic Vs, which is its first foldable flagship to debut outside China. The Honor Magic 5 series smartphones come equipped with Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. Moreover, the Honor Magic 5 Pro packs a bundle of significant upgrades.
The MWC 2023 witnessed the launch of latest flagship smartphones from Honor, which included non-foldable Magic 5 series and company's first global foldable smartphone — the Honor Magic Vs. The Honor Magic 5 Pro comes five colour variants — Black, Glacier Blue, Meadow Green, Orange and Coral Purple, while the vanilla Magic 5 variant comes in Blue and Black colour options. Similarly, the Honor Magic Vs also offers Cyan and Black colour variants.
The Honor Magic 5 will be available at the stating price of EUR 899 (nearly Rs. 78,800), while the Honor Magic 5 Pro comes at EUR 1199 (nearly Rs. 1,05,100) for the 12GB RAM and 512 GB storage model. On the other hand, the Honor Magic Vs offers similar configuration at EUR 1599 (nearly Rs. 1,40,300).
The company has not revealed any date regarding the availability of the smartphones yet.
The smartphone features a 6.81-inch OLED display with 19.54:9 aspect ratio. It gets quad-curved floating screen with support for gestures. The Honor Magic 5 runs on MagicOS 7.1, based on Android 13. It packs a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC coupled with Adreno 740 GPU.
For optics, the smartphone gets a triple unit rear camera unit led by a 50-megapixel wide primary sensor, a 50-megapixel ultra wide camera and a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto lens with OIS. It also sports a rear single LED flash in the camera unit. Meanwhile, users get a 12-megapixel front snapper with 3D depth camera for selfies and video calls.
The Honor Magic 5 Pro packs a 5,100 mAh battery with 66W SuperCharge charger and 50W support for wireless charging. The dual-SIM smartphone gets connectivity support for 5G, WiFi, Bluetooth and USB Type-C. It is IP68-rated for water and dust resistance.
On the other hand, the Honor Magic 5 offers a 6.73-inch OLED display with 19.54:9 aspect ratio. The smartphone has similar details as its high-end variant when it comes to operating system and processor.
Meanwhile, the tripe rear camera setup includes a 54-megapixel wide main camera, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 32-megapixel telephoto lens, along with a 12-megapixel front camera for selfies and video calls. The Honor Magic 5 is backed by a 5,100mAh battery. Other specifications are similar to the Honor Magic 5 Pro.
Claimed to be the company's first foldable smartphone to be launched outside China, the Honor Magic Vs offers 7.9-inch inner display and 6.45-inch external screen, with screen-to-body ratio of 90 percent.
The smartphone is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC coupled with Adreno 730 GPU. The keyboard supports gestures and comes equipped with three-key navigation. Just like the other two smartphones in the Magic series, the Honor Magic Vs also runs on Android-13 based MagicOS 7.1.
The optics specifications of the smartphone include a 54-megapixel led triple camera setup and a 16-megapixel front snapper. The rear camera unit also has a 50-megapixel ultra-wide shooter and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens.
It gets a 5,000mAh coupled with an HONOR 66W SuperCharge charger. With USB Type-C cable, the Honor Magic Vs gets WiFi, Bluetooth, and 5G connectivity support.
पंजाब के सीएम भगवंत मान ने कहा कि बीजेपी ऐसा करके हमें डराने की कोशिश कर रही है. मनीष सिसोदिया एक क्रांतिकारी शिक्षा मंत्री हैं. हम इस गिरफ्तारी की निंदा करते हैं.
दिल्ली के CM अरविंद केजरीवाल ने कहा- "मनीष सिसोदिया साहसी व्यक्ति हैं, जो देश की सेवा लगे रहते हैं. देश देख रहा है कि उन्होंने कैसे हर गरीब के बच्चे को शिक्षा देने की कोशिश की है."
Xiaomi 13 series will be launched in Barcelona on February 26, a day before the Mobile World Congress 2023 begins. The company will unveil three models in this series — the Xiaomi 13, the Xiaomi 13 Pro, and the Xiaomi 13 Lite. While the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro were already launched in China, the global series will reportedly have one more addition i.e, the Xiaomi 13 Lite. The details about all three devices have been doing rounds on the internet. Now, the Xiaomi 13 Lite has appeared on a Geekbench listing, suggesting the processor and its performance.
According to a report by Gizmochina, the upcoming Xiaomi 13 Lite has been spotted on the Geekbench certification site with model number 2210129SG. The listing suggests that the handset will be powered by a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC coupled with 8GB RAM. The phone is hinted to come pre-installed with Android 12, paired with MIUI 13 skin. Additionally, the listing reveals that the phone has scored 793 in single-core tests and 2,938 in multi-core tests.
While the Geekbench listing has only this much information, the phone was recently spotted on German e-retailer CyberPort for a brief time. The listing reportedly revealed its detailed specifications and pricing. Xiaomi 13 Lite is speculated to be available in two shades – Black and Pink.
The other two models — Xiaomi 13 and 13 Pro — were already launched in the Chinese market in December 2022. The global variants of the phone are speculated to carry the same features as their Chinese variants. The vanilla variant in the series runs MIUI 14 and has a 6.73-inch 2K OLED display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC coupled with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM.
The phones also appeared on a European retail site, suggesting that the Xiaomi 13 will be priced at EUR 999.90 (roughly Rs. 88,300) for 8GB RAM and 256GB storage variant, while the Xiaomi 13 Pro will cost EUR 1,299.90 (roughly Rs. 1,14,700). Both smartphones are said to be available in lack and white colour options.
Meta Platforms introduced a research tool for building artificial intelligence-based chatbots and other products, seeking to create a buzz for its own technology in a field lately focused on internet rivals Google and Microsoft.
The tool, LLaMA, is Meta's latest entry in the realm of large language models, which “have shown a lot of promise in generating text, having conversations, summarizing written material and more complicated tasks like solving math theorems or predicting protein structures,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in an Facebook post on Friday.
For now LLaMA isn't in use in Meta's products, which include social networks Facebook and Instagram, according to a spokesperson. The company plans to make the technology available to AI researchers.
“Meta is committed to this open model of research,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Large language models are massive AI systems that suck up enormous volumes of digital text — from news articles, social media posts or other internet sources — and use that written material to train software that predicts and generates content on its own when given a prompt or query. The models can be used for tasks like writing essays, composing tweets, generating chatbot conversations and suggesting computer programming code.
The technology has become popular, and controversial, in recent months as more companies have started to build them and introduce tests of products based on the models, spotlighting a new area of competition among tech giants. Microsoft is investing billions in OpenAI, the maker of GPT-3, the large language model that runs the ChatGPT chatbot. The software maker this month unveiled a test version of its Bing search engine running on OpenAI's chat technology, which raised immediate concerns over its sometimes-inappropriate responses.
Alphabet's Google has a model called LaMDA, or Language Model for Dialogue Applications. The internet search and advertising leader is testing a chat-based, AI-powered search product called Bard, which also still has some glitches.
Meta previously launched a large language model called OPT-175B, but LLaMA is a newer and more advanced system. Another model Meta released late last year, Galactica, was quickly pulled back after researchers discovered it was routinely sharing biased or inaccurate information with people who used it.
Zuckerberg has made AI a top priority inside the company, often talking about its importance to improving Meta's products on earnings conference calls and in interviews. While LLaMA is not being used in Meta products now, it's possible that it will be in the future. Meta for now relies on AI for all kinds of functions, including content moderation and ranking material that appears in user feeds.
Making the LLaMA model open-source allows outsiders to see more clearly how the system works, tweak it to their needs and collaborate on related projects. Last year, Big Science and Hugging Face released BLOOM, an open-source LLM that was intended to make this kind of technology more accessible.
© 2023 Bloomberg LP
In yet another clampdown on big tech companies, China has instructed them not to offer access to ChatGPT services on their platforms, either directly or via third parties, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Nikkei Asia.
Beijing's clampdown on ChatGPT, the hugely popular AI-powered chatbot, comes as little surprise to many in China's tech industry.
Chinese state media outlet blasted the chatbot for spreading US government 'misinformation' amid growing alarm in Beijing over the AI-powered chatbot's uncensored replies to user queries, reported Nikkei Asia.
On Monday, state-owned media outlet China Daily said in a post on Weibo, China's heavily censored equivalent of Twitter, that the chatbot "could provide a helping hand to the US government in its spread of disinformation and its manipulation of global narratives for its own geopolitical interests."
Tencent Holdings and Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, have been instructed not to offer access to ChatGPT services on their platforms.
The sources added that tech companies will also need to report to regulators before they launch their own ChatGPT-like services.
ChatGPT, developed by Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI, is not officially available in China but some internet users have been able to access it using a virtual private network (VPN), reported Nikkei Asia.
There have also been dozens of "mini programs" released by third-party developers on Tencent's WeChat social media app that claim to offer services from ChatGPT.
Under regulatory pressure, Tencent has suspended several such third-party services regardless of whether they were connected to ChatGPT or were in fact copycats, people familiar with the matter told Nikkei.
This is not the first time that China has blocked foreign websites or applications. Beijing has banned dozens of prominent US websites and apps.
Between 2009 and 2010, it moved to block Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Between 2018 and 2019, it instituted bans on Reddit and Wikipedia.
The latest move by regulators comes amid an official backlash against ChatGPT. Sources in the tech industry say they are not surprised by such a clampdown, reported Nikkei Asia.
"Our understanding from the beginning is that ChatGPT can never enter China due to issues with censorship, and China will need its own versions of ChatGPT," said one executive from a leading tech company.
An executive from another leading Chinese tech player said that even without a direct warning his company would not use ChatGPT, reported Nikkei Asia.
"We have already been a target of the Chinese regulator [amid the tech industry crackdown in recent years], so even if there were no such ban, we would never take the initiative to add ChatGPT to our platforms because its responses are uncontrollable," the person said.
"There will inevitably be some users who ask the chatbot politically sensitive questions, but the platform would be held accountable for the results."
Since ChatGPT took the tech world by storm, Chinese tech giants, including Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu, have rushed to unveil their own plans for developing ChatGPT-like services.
These companies have been cautious about wording their announcements, however, with all of them stressing that their services are ChatGPT-like but do not integrate ChatGPT itself, reported Nikkei Asia.
China's clampdown on ChatGPT comes as tensions between the world's two largest economies continue to escalate.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this week that new information suggests Beijing could provide "lethal support" to Russia in the Ukraine war, triggering concerns over a new Cold War. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the claims were false and accused Washington of spreading lies.
Telecom equipment maker Ericsson will lay off 8,500 employees globally as part of its plan to cut costs, a memo sent to employees and seen by Reuters said.
While technology companies such as Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet have laid off thousands of employees citing economic conditions, Ericsson's move would be the largest layoff to hit the industry.
"The way headcount reductions will be managed will differ depending on local country practice," Chief Executive Borje Ekholm wrote in the memo.
"In several countries the headcount reductions have already been communicated this week," he said.
On Monday, the company, which employs more than 1,05,000 worldwide, announced plans to cut about 1,400 jobs in Sweden.
While Ericsson did not disclose which geography would be most affected, analysts had predicted that North America would likely be most affected and growing markets such as India the least.
The company said in December it would cut costs by 9 billion crowns ($880 million or nearly 7,300 crore) by the end of 2023 as demand slows in some markets, including North America.
"It is our obligation to take this cost out to remain competitive," Ekholm said in the memo. "Our biggest enemy right now may be complacency."
Many telecom companies had beefed up their inventories during the height of the pandemic which is now leading to slowing orders for telecom equipment makers.
Verizon, one of the largest telecom companies, plans to spend between $18.25 billion (nearly Rs. 151,400 crore) and $19.25 billion (nearly Rs. 1,59,700 crore) this year, down from a capital expenditure budget of $23 billion last year.
Ericsson Chief Financial Officer Carl Mellander had earlier told Reuters that cost cuts would involve reducing consultants, real estate and employee headcount.
Nordic rival Nokia has not announced any plans to lay off employees.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
कांग्रेस नेता पवन खेड़ा की गिरफ्तारी पर सुप्रीम कोर्ट का अहम आदेश आया है. सुप्रीम कोर्ट से पवन खेड़ा को बड़ी राहत मिली है.
दिल्ली के मुख्यमंत्री अरविंद केजरीवाल और उपराज्यपाल विनय कुमार सक्सेना के बीच 'ट्विटर वॉर' छिड़ गया है. दरअसल, सीएम केजरीवाल ने एक ट्वीट करके उपराज्यपाल पर तंज कसा था जिसका उप राज्यपाल ने उसी अंदाज में जवाब दिया है.
उत्तर प्रदेश के वित्त मंत्री सुरेश कुमार खन्ना ने बृहस्पतिवार को राज्य विधानसभा में बजट पेश किया. यह योगी आदित्यनाथ सरकार के दूसरे कार्यकाल का पहला बजट है.
एक्ट्रेस उर्वशी रौतेला को आज जुहू में स्पॉट किया गया. अपनी कार से बाहर निकलते ही वह फ्लोरल ड्रेस में काफी खूबसूरत लग रही थीं.
G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will discuss debt troubles in developing economies, crypto currencies and global inflationary pressures at a meeting later this week, Indian officials said on Tuesday.
The February 22-25 meeting in the Nandi Hills summer retreat near Bengaluru is the first major event of India's G20 presidency. The meeting straddles the February 24 anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the war is likely to be high on the agenda.
Unblocking debt restructuring for distressed economies and boosting aid for Ukraine is expected to take prominence at the meeting, where US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is also expected to press China to "quickly deliver" on debt relief for low and middle income countries.
India's presidency of the bloc comes at a time when neighbouring South Asian countries Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan have sought a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the past year due to an economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war.
Reuters reported last week that India is drafting a proposal for G20 countries to help debtor nations by asking lenders, including China, the world's largest sovereign creditor, to take a large haircut on loans.
"While thinking about debt concerns faced by countries, it is also important to think about what we can do to forestall them," India's Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran told reporters at a news conference ahead of the G20 meeting.
"So the discussions would be aimed both at handling them before they arise and after they arise as well."
Other items on the agenda include rules on cryptocurrencies, reform of multilateral development banks, international taxation and securing adequate finance to combat climate change, the officials said.
During the event, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plans to hold a virtual meeting with the World Bank, India, China, Saudi Arabia, the United States and other Group of Seven (G7) nations to try to reach understandings on common standards, principles and definitions on how to restructure distressed country debts.
India also supports a push by the IMF, the World Bank and the United States for the so-called Common Framework (CF) — a G20 initiative launched in 2020 to help poor countries delay debt repayments — to be expanded to include middle-income countries.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
Tough capital rules for banks holding cryptoassets must be fast-tracked in the European Union's pending banking law if Europe wants to avoid missing a globally-agreed deadline, the bloc's executive has said.
The global Basel Committee of banking regulators from the world's main financial centres has set a January 2025 deadline for implementing capital requirements for banks' exposures to cryptoassets such as stablecoins and bitcoin.
"For the time being, banks have very low crypto-asset exposures and only a limited involvement in providing crypto-asset-related services," the European Commission said in an informal discussion paper seen by Reuters.
"Banks have expressed interest in trading crypto-assets on behalf of their clients and to provide crypto-assets-related services."
Basel's standards are applied in the EU with a law, and a delay could mean that banks have to wait longer to enter the cryptomarket as separate EU rules for trading cryptoassets come into force in 2024.
To enforce Basel's crypto rules, the EU could either propose a new law, or expand the banking law it is now finalising as called for by the European Parliament.
Parliament and EU states have equal say on the banking law and are due to start negotiating the final text, which could include the provisions on cryptoassets, the paper said.
This would give banks clarity on their requirements for crypto-asset exposures and would ensure that risks stemming from these are adequately addressed, the Commission paper said.
"From an international perspective, it would also allow the EU to fully align itself with the implementation deadline agreed on at Basel level."
A separate draft law would not be forthcoming until the end of 2023 at the earliest, the paper said. Parliament goes to the polls mid-2024, making it harder to approve a new law in time for 2025.
The Commission paper also suggests that the bloc's European Banking Authority (EBA) could coordinate with the EU's securities watchdog ESMA to ensure that cryptoassets are properly categorised.
Basel has set punitive capital charges on unbacked crypto currencies like bitcoin, and less conservative charges on stablecoins, which are backed by an asset or fiat currency.
It could also be useful to mandate EBA, in cooperation with ESMA, to maintain a list of how existing cryptoassets are categorised, the paper said.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
Binance has pulled back on some potential investments in the United States, its CEO Changpeng Zhao said on Friday, following a Bloomberg report that the major crypto exchange was considering ending relationships with US business partners.
"We pulled back on some potential investments, or bids on bankrupt companies in the US for now. Seek permission first," Zhao wrote in a tweet, without elaborating.
The Bloomberg report, which cited an unnamed person familiar with the matter, said Binance is considering ending business relationships with banks and services firms in the United States, amid heightened regulatory scrutiny of the company.
Binance is also reassessing US venture capital investments and will consider de-listing tokens from any US-based projects, including the major stablecoin USD Coin, the report said.
Word that Binance may drop its US partners comes a day after Reuters reported that the global Binance exchange, which is not licensed to operate in the United States, had secretly moved more than $400 million (nearly Rs. 3,310 crore) from accounts held by its purportedly independent US partner. That money, according to company messages, was shifted to a trading firm managed by Binance CEO Zhao.
"Like every other blockchain company, we are conducting a careful cost-benefit analysis and will pivot our business as necessary to protect our global user base," a Binance spokesperson said. The company did not immediately respond to questions on which US investments Binance had pulled back from.
US regulators have stepped up scrutiny of crypto companies this year. The regulatory action comes after multiple meltdowns in the crypto sector last year that saw a string of major industry players in the United States and beyond collapse.
On Monday, New York's top financial regulator ordered the company behind Binance's stablecoin to stop issuing the token.
Earlier this month Binance said it had suspended all dollar bank transfers after a US banking partner, Signature Bank, dialled back exposure to crypto firms.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday proposed a $175,000 (nearly Rs. 1.45 crore) civil penalty against SpaceX for failing to submit some safety data to the agency prior to an August 2022 launch of Starlink satellites.
The FAA said SpaceX was required to submit the information, known as launch collision analysis trajectory data, directly to the agency at least seven days prior to an attempted launch. The data is used to assess the probability of the launch vehicle colliding with one of the thousands of tracked objects orbiting the Earth. SpaceX has 30 days to respond to the FAA after receiving the penalty notice.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposed penalty is SpaceX's latest bout of tension with the FAA as the Elon Musk-owned company's fast-pace launch business tests US launch and rocket reentry regulations.
In 2020, the FAA found SpaceX in violation of launch regulations for allowing a prototype of the company's giant Starship rocket to liftoff without securing approval of key data involving the vehicle's potential blast radius.
In 2021, the FAA revised SpaceX commercial launch requirements to mandate that an FAA safety inspector be present for every flight at its Boca Chica launch facility after the FAA said the company violated license requirements for a Starship launch.
Earlier this month, SpaceX announced its plans to fire up all 33 engines powering its massive Starship launch system ahead of its first orbital launch, a key milestone in the company's efforts to reach the moon and Mars. The announcement comes about two weeks after the company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, filled the rocket and booster with propellant in a “wet dress rehearsal.”
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Tesla said it would recall 3,62,000 US vehicles to update its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta software after US regulators said on Thursday the driver assistance system did not adequately adhere to traffic safety laws and could cause crashes.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the Tesla software allows a vehicle to "exceed speed limits or travel through intersections in an unlawful or unpredictable manner increases the risk of a crash."
Tesla will release an over-the-air (OTA) software update free of charge, and the electric vehicle maker said is not aware of any injuries or deaths that may be related to the recall issue. The automaker said it had 18 warranty claims.
Tesla shares were down 1.6 percent at $210.76 (nearly Rs. 17,420) on Thursday afternoon.
The recall covers 2016-2023 Model S, Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3, and 2020-2023 Model Y vehicles equipped with FSD Beta software or pending installation.
NHTSA asked Tesla to recall the vehicles, but the company said despite the recall it did not concur in NHTSA's analysis. The move is a rare intervention by federal regulators in a real-world testing program that the company sees as crucial to the development of cars that can drive themselves. FSD Beta is used by hundreds of thousands of Tesla customers.
The setback for Tesla's automated driving effort comes about two weeks before the company's March 1 investor day, during which Chief Executive Elon Musk is expected to promote the EV maker's artificial intelligence capability and plans to expand its vehicle lineup.
Tesla could not immediately be reached for comment.
NHTSA has an ongoing investigation it opened in 2021 into 8,30,000 Tesla vehicles with driver assistance system Autopilot over a string of crashes with parked emergency vehicles. NHTSA is reviewing whether Tesla vehicles adequately ensure drivers are paying attention. NHTSA said on Thursday despite the FSD recall its "investigation into Tesla's Autopilot and associated vehicle systems remains open and active."
Tesla said in "certain rare circumstances, the feature could potentially infringe upon local traffic laws or customs while executing certain driving maneuvers."
Possible situations where the problem could occur include traveling or turning through certain intersections during a yellow traffic light and making a lane change out of certain turn-only lanes to continue traveling straight, NHTSA said.
NHTSA said "the system may respond insufficiently to changes in posted speed limits or not adequately account for the driver's adjustment of the vehicle's speed to exceed posted speed limits."
Last year, Tesla recalled nearly 54,000 US vehicles with FSD Beta software that may allow some models to conduct "rolling stops" and not come to a complete stop at some intersections, posing a safety risk, NHTSA said.
Tesla and NHTSA say FSD's advanced driving features do not make the cars autonomous and require drivers to pay attention.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
Telecom subscriber base rose marginally to 1,170.38 million in December 2022 on account of an increase in fixed line connections, according to official data.
The total subscriber base in the country was at 1,170.17 million in November last year.
"The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,170.18 million at the end of November to 1,170.38 million at the end of December, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.02 percent," telecom regulator TRAI said in its monthly subscriber report for December 2022 released on Thursday.
Wireline subscribers increased to 27.45 million in December from 27.13 million in November, with a net increase of 0.32 million in the wireline subscriber base.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report showed that the growth in the wireline segment was driven by Reliance Jio with an addition of 2,92,411 new customers. Bharti Airtel added 1,46,643 new landline customers, BSNL (13,189) and Quadrant (6,355).
State-owned MTNL lost 1,10,168 fixed line customers in December while Vodafone Idea lost 15,920 fixed line customers, Reliance Communications (6,292) and Tata Teleservices (5,849).
The mobile subscriber base in the country declined marginally to 1,142.93 million in December from 1,143.04 million in November.
The growth in the wireless segment was adversely impacted with Vodafone Idea (VIL) losing 2.47 million subscribers.
While Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel added 1.7 million and 1.52 million new customers, respectively, the loss of subscribers of Vi, BSNL (8,76,429), MTNL (3,450) and Reliance Communications (214) hindered the growth in the wireless segment.
The broadband subscriber base grew marginally to 832.2 million in December from 825.38 million in November, with mobile devices accounting for 798.69 million customers in the segment.
"Top five service providers constituted 98.41 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of December-22. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm (432.16 million), Bharti Airtel (234.46 million), Vodafone Idea (123.87 million), BSNL (26.35 million) and Atria Convergence (2.14 million)," the report said.
YouTube Chief Executive Officer Susan Wojcicki will be stepping down after nine years at the helm of the world's largest online video platform, she said in a blog post on Thursday.
YouTube's chief product officer, Neal Mohan, will be the new head of YouTube, she said.
Wojcicki, 54, said she will focus on "family, health, and personal projects I'm passionate about." Wojcicki, who was previously a senior vice president for ad products at Google, became CEO of YouTube in 2014.
She was among Google's earliest employees and has been with the parent company Alphabet for nearly 25 years.
Before Google, Wojcicki worked at Intel and Bain & Company.
Mohan, a Stanford graduate, joined Google in 2008 and is the chief product officer at YouTube where he been focusing on building YouTube Shorts and Music. Mohan has also worked with Microsoft and sits on the board of Stitch Fix and genomics and biotechnology company 23andMe.
Alphabet shares were barely changed for the day, down less than 1 percent after the news.
In December last year, YouTube faced issues in India after the government asked the social media company to take down three channels for making false and sensational claims about various public welfare initiatives and spreading fake news. The three channels were declared as peddlers of fake news by the Press Information Bureau Fact Check Unit.
The Fact Check unit of the Press Information Bureau said these YouTube channels spread false and sensational claims about the Supreme Court of India, chief justice of India, government schemes, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and farm loan waivers among others.
Lost, now streaming on Zee5, is a full-length feature film that delves into the topic of missing persons across India, and how many of these cases might not be as easy to solve as they seem. The film, directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury (whose previous film Pink was a critical and commercial success in 2016), stars Yami Gautam as a crime reporter investigating the case of a missing 26-year-old Dalit theatre activist. Unfortunately, Lost doesn't quite hold itself together beyond the halfway mark; read on for my spoiler-free review of this new film.
Set in modern-day Kolkata, Lost uses its setting to tie into topics that strongly affect the youth of contemporary India: caste-based discrimination, politics, political influence over the police, and the dangers of activism. While the film features a strong cast who put in decent individual performances, a lack of cohesion lets the story down, and overshadows its attempts to raise reasonable points. The film is largely in Hindi for wider appeal, but does occasionally switch to easy-to-understand Bengali phrases for a bit of locational character.
The film starts off with journalist Vidhi Sahani (Yami Gautam), who sees a woman crying in a police station after filing a missing-person report for her 26-year-old brother Ishan (Tushar Pandey). This draws her into the investigation, which eventually leads to an accusation of the missing man being a Naxalite who got indoctrinated and disappeared to pursue a specific agenda.
Others involved in the case are a charismatic state minister Ranjan Varman (Rahul Khanna), Ishan's ambitious ex-girlfriend, Ankita Chauhan (Pia Bajpiee), and his sister (Honey Jain) who maintains that despite his beliefs and activism, he was firmly against violence and would never join a Naxalite or terror outfit. Vidhi also receives guidance from her grandfather (Pankaj Kapur) with whom she lives, and maintains a dicey long-distance relationship with her boyfriend Jeet (Neel Bhoopalam).
The film remains engaging for the first half, on the back of good casting choices and acting performances. Yami Gautam, Pankaj Kapur, and Rahul Khanna stand out, with Khanna portraying the role of a wily, charismatic, and power-hungry politician with particular skill. Pankaj Kapur, too, has a couple of important scenes in which he pulls off the impression of being unafraid and far too smart to be threatened, despite his obvious fears.
However, the motivations of the various characters seem sketchy, and the movie often feels like a fashion show for Yami Gautam to flaunt her collection of urban-chic outfits as she wanders around Kolkata looking to interview those involved. The movie also spends far too much time on unimportant matters such as Vidhi's relationship with her wealthy, image-conscious parents, and the largely unexplained motivations and ambitions of Ankita Chauhan.
Lost does manage to produce some good scenes with meaningful exchanges when Vidhi offers support to Ishan's sister Namita through her own marital struggles; in showing how her boyfriend Jeet, like her parents, thinks very little of the struggles of lower-caste people; and even in exploring her own motivations.
“Ek Dalit ladka ja ke Maoist ban gaya, it's not Earth-shattering, it happens all the time,” says Jeet, with Neel Bhoopalam putting on his best posh South-Bombay accent for added effect. It's this scene that best tells the real story of the film, strangely enough. People usually jump to the easiest-sounding conclusion, and are often unwilling to consider another point of view or dig deeper to find the truth.
Unfortunately for Lost, there is far too much going on, with far too much time spent on unnecessary matters and not enough done to explain the motivations of many of the characters. Ranjan Varman and Ankita Chauhan's roles in the matter are largely brushed over as simply being somewhat connected and having motives to bump Ishan off, and their actions remain largely unexplained and illogically out of proportion till the end.
The movie starts to unravel soon after the halfway point, when it becomes hard to keep track of what is going on. Meaningless interviews of Varman and police officials by Vidhi take up too much screen time, and the clock seems to run out on Lost before it can really solve any of the various mysteries it created. The final 20 minutes of the movie are rushed, disconnected, and completely out of touch, and the end only left me confused.
All of this finally culminates in a message, which while good and entirely relatable, feels weirdly out of place in this film because of the lack of explanation as to where it really came from. It's fair to say that Lost pretty much gives up on itself. Its acting performances, occasional positive messages, and technical quality are simply not able to hold up its awkwardly disjointed script. Let me know in the comments if you're as confused as I was after watching this movie.
The Department of Telecommunications has asked sector regulator TRAI to make quality of service norms stricter in order to curb call drops and improve call quality, an official source said on Tuesday.
The move comes after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) collected feedback from the public through an IVRS call around call drop, quality of calls etc.
"Quality of service is very important for customer satisfaction and protection of their interests. DoT has requested TRAI for improvement in the present quality of service (QoS) through more stringent parameters," an official said.
The source said that the DoT also observed few key performance indicators while broadly studying global best practices on QoS.
"Same has been shared with Trai today," the source added.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has called a meeting with telcos on February 17 to discuss measures and action plan for improving service quality, review of norms, benchmarks for 5G services, and unsolicited commercial communications.
The move is aimed at improving the telecom service quality and check call drops. It also comes at a time when ultra high speed 5G services are being rolled out across the country.
So far, 5G services have been launched in over 300 cities in India. The next generation of technology that promises turbocharged speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G) and low latency connectivity.
Issues around service quality have been in the spotlight over the last few months. The telecom department back in December met operators to discuss rising instances of call drops and service quality-related issues, as it deliberated on policy measures that can be considered for improving call quality.
Launch of 5G services was expected to improve call quality, but instead people have complained about deterioration in quality of service.
According to an online survey by LocalCircles released in mid-January, 42 percent of 5G subscribers surveyed report no improvement while 19 percent report deterioration in call connection and call drop issues after moving to 5G services.
Half of the respondents in the survey shared that they face call connection and call drop issues with over 25 percent of their calls and 28 percent of them claim they have issues with over 50 percent of their calls.
Telecom operator Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have been rolling out 5G services across the country.
State-run BSNL and debt-ridden Vodafone Idea are yet to roll out 5G services.
The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday unveiled its electric vehicle (EV) policy 2023 which aims to garner investments to the tune of Rs. 50,000 crore and generate 1.50 lakh jobs, in a boost to the EV industry.
Chief Minister M K Stalin formally released the new policy in the presence of government officials at the Secretariat.
The policy was launched in the backdrop of the government expecting battery operated vehicles to play a crucial role in the electrification of last mile connectivity.
"To support this goal, Tamil Nadu aims to electrify the vehicular fleets operating in the State by leveraging its vibrant automotive ecosystem comprising original equipment manufacturers, auto component ancillaries, highly skilled workforce and robust R&D capabilities," the policy document said.
During the last five years, the state has transformed into a leading EV manufacturing hub with new entrants including Ather Electric and Ola Electric having set up their production facilities.
According to the policy, Tamil Nadu has signed memorandum of understandings with companies committing investments of nearly Rs. 24,000 crore and employment potential of 48,000 jobs in the EV value chain.
The state government is cognizant of the sectoral challenges and seeks to address these through interventions mapped out across the supply, demand and ecosystem segments in this policy.
"Tamil Nadu has a vision of attracting Rs. 50,000 crore worth of investments in EV manufacturing, creation of 1.5 lakh new jobs, and development of a robust EV ecosystem in the State," the document read.
The new policy shall be valid for a period of five years.
It also mentioned that the government would encourage adoption of electric vehicles in the state with 100 percent road tax exemption among others.
"100 per cent road tax exemption will be provided till December 31, 2025 for the EV battery operated vehicles — two wheelers, private cars, three-seater auto-rickshaws, transport vehicles, light goods carriers." The state government would develop industry-academia linkages to create a skilled workforce pool for EVs besides promoting Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Salem, Tirunelveli as pilot cities for implementing 'e-mobility solutions'.
The policy also proposes to support electrification of commercial and public transport fleets. It offers several incentives to companies engaged in manufacturing of EVs including, 'reimbursement of SGST', turnover-based subsidy and capital subsidy.
Electric vehicle projects undertaken by the company would be entitled to 100 percent exemption on stamp duty on purchase or lease of land obtained from the government.
State Transport Undertaking operated buses which constitute a substantial percentage of the public transport India would be electrified through a phased augmentation and replacement plan. "The state shall endeavour to increase the share of electric buses to 30 percent of the fleet by 2030", the policy said.
After a delay of several months, the first air-conditioned double-decker electric bus in the country was inducted into the fleet of BEST — the civic transport public body in Mumbai, on Monday, officials said.
The wet-leased e-bus will be registered at the Regional Transport Office before it hits the road for the public. This bus is likely to ply on the routes in suburbs where conventional double-decker buses that run on diesel are currently operated.
Lokesh Chandra, general manager of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking, said they are scheduled to receive 4-5 more double-decker air-conditioned e-buses in the next 8-10 days and a total of 20 such buses before March-end from Switch Mobility, a subsidiary of automobile manufacture Ashok Leyland. The number of the double-decker e-buses will reach 200 by this year-end, he added.
"Today is a historic moment. Mumbai's iconic double-decker bus is being introduced in public service in a new electric double-decker form. Very soon this bus will be dedicated to the public," Chandra said, adding these buses will be operated on the traditional double-decker bus routes in south Mumbai and city suburbs.
Unlike the conventional double-decker versions, the new e-bus has two doors and an equal number of staircases for accessing upper decks. The new buses will be equipped with facilities like digital ticketing, CCTV cameras, live tracking, digital display, and a panic button for emergencies, among others.
The fare of these buses will be the same which is applicable for single-decker AC buses.
According to BEST, the double-decker e-buses' passenger carrying capacity is almost double compared to their single-decker counterparts. The new buses have a seating capacity of 65 and including standing passengers, they can carry 90 to 100 passengers.
The prototype air-conditioned e-bus of the county was unveiled on August 17, 2022, by Union minister Nitin Gadakari in Mumbai when BEST announced to introduce double-decker e-bus in public service from October 2022 after completing the certification and registration process.
Switch Mobility executives said the certification was delayed mainly due to the revised certification process of the Centre.
As the certificate was received from the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), line production of the double-decker e-buses will be undertaken at a workshop in Patalganga in the Raigad district of Maharashtra.
Currently, BEST operates less than 50 double-decker buses, including a few open-deck buses, that operate on diesel. Most of these buses are on the verge of the end of their Codal life (normal average life of machine/equipment as per working shift). Therefore, BEST has decided to introduce the double-decker e-buses on a wet lease wherein the maintenance of vehicles and the driver expenses are borne by private operators.
Chandra said the BEST currently has 3,300 buses, including 400 single-decker e-buses, which transport around 34 lakh passengers daily. The BEST has planned to add 3,000 more e-buses including 900 double-decker e-buses in its fleet and awarded contracts.
After seeing promising results in Eastern Europe, Google will initiate a new campaign in Germany that aims to make people more resilient to the corrosive effects of online misinformation.
The tech giant plans to release a series of short videos highlighting the techniques common to many misleading claims. The videos will appear as advertisements on platforms like Facebook, YouTube or TikTok in Germany. A similar campaign in India is also in the works.
It's an approach called prebunking, which involves teaching people how to spot false claims before they encounter them. The strategy is gaining support among researchers and tech companies.
“There's a real appetite for solutions,” said Beth Goldberg, head of research and development at Jigsaw, an incubator division of Google that studies emerging social challenges. “Using ads as a vehicle to counter a disinformation technique is pretty novel. And we're excited about the results.”
While belief in falsehoods and conspiracy theories isn't new, the speed and reach of the internet has given them a heightened power. When catalyzed by algorithms, misleading claims can discourage people from getting vaccines, spread authoritarian propaganda, foment distrust in democratic institutions and spur violence.
It's a challenge with few easy solutions. Journalistic fact checks are effective, but they're labor intensive, aren't read by everyone, and won't convince those already distrustful of traditional journalism. Content moderation by tech companies is another response, but it only drives misinformation elsewhere, while prompting cries of censorship and bias.
Prebunking videos, by contrast, are relatively cheap and easy to produce and can be seen by millions when placed on popular platforms. They also avoid the political challenge altogether by focusing not on the topics of false claims, which are often cultural lightning rods, but on the techniques that make viral misinformation so infectious.
Those techniques include fear-mongering, scapegoating, false comparisons, exaggeration and missing context. Whether the subject is COVID-19, mass shootings, immigration, climate change or elections, misleading claims often rely on one or more of these tricks to exploit emotions and short-circuit critical thinking.
Last fall, Google launched the largest test of the theory so far with a prebunking video campaign in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The videos dissected different techniques seen in false claims about Ukrainian refugees. Many of those claims relied on alarming and unfounded stories about refugees committing crimes or taking jobs away from residents.
The videos were seen 38 million times on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter — a number that equates to a majority of the population in the three nations. Researchers found that compared to people who hadn't seen the videos, those who did watch were more likely to be able to identify misinformation techniques, and less likely to spread false claims to others.
The pilot project was the largest test of prebunking so far and adds to a growing consensus in support of the theory.
“This is a good news story in what has essentially been a bad news business when it comes to misinformation,” said Alex Mahadevan, director of MediaWise, a media literacy initiative of the Poynter Institute that has incorporated prebunking into its own programs in countries including Brazil, Spain, France and the US.
Mahadevan called the strategy a “pretty efficient way to address misinformation at scale, because you can reach a lot of people while at the same time address a wide range of misinformation.”
Google's new campaign in Germany will include a focus on photos and videos, and the ease with which they can be presented of evidence of something false. One example: Last week, following the earthquake in Turkey, some social media users shared video of the massive explosion in Beirut in 2020, claiming it was actually footage of a nuclear explosion triggered by the earthquake. It was not the first time the 2020 explosion had been the subject of misinformation.
Google will announce its new German campaign Monday ahead of next week's Munich Security Conference. The timing of the announcement, coming before that annual gathering of international security officials, reflects heightened concerns about the impact of misinformation among both tech companies and government officials.
Tech companies like prebunking because it avoids touchy topics that are easily politicized, said Sander van der Linden, a University of Cambridge professor considered a leading expert on the theory. Van der Linden worked with Google on its campaign and is now advising Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, as well.
Meta has incorporated prebunking into many different media literacy and anti-misinformation campaigns in recent years, the company told The Associated Press in an emailed statement.
They include a 2021 program in the US that offered media literacy training about COVID-19 to Black, Latino and Asian American communities. Participants who took the training were later tested and found to be far more resistant to misleading COVID-19 claims.
Prebunking comes with its own challenges. The effects of the videos eventually wears off, requiring the use of periodic “booster” videos. Also, the videos must be crafted well enough to hold the viewer's attention, and tailored for different languages, cultures and demographics. And like a vaccine, it's not 100 percent effective for everyone.
Google found that its campaign in Eastern Europe varied from country to country. While the effect of the videos was highest in Poland, in Slovakia they had “little to no discernible effect,” researchers found. One possible explanation: The videos were dubbed into the Slovak language, and not created specifically for the local audience.
But together with traditional journalism, content moderation and other methods of combating misinformation, prebunking could help communities reach a kind of herd immunity when it comes to misinformation, limiting its spread and impact.
“You can think of misinformation as a virus. It spreads. It lingers. It can make people act in certain ways," Van der Linden told the AP. "Some people develop symptoms, some do not. So: if it spreads and acts like a virus, then maybe we can figure out how to inoculate people.”
