NCB ‘question bank’ for Sara, Deepika, Shraddha

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NCB ‘question bank’ for Sara, Deepika, Shraddha

Three Bollywood divas — Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, and Shraddha Kapoor — are being questioned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a drugs-related case linked to the death of an actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

The agency after questioning several other accused in the case has prepared a list of questions that it is seeking answers to from the three actors which can spell trouble for them.

According to NCB sources, the three actors have been asked to join the probe after several alleged chats came to light where drugs were being discussed. The source said that Deepika will be first asked to identify the mobile number in the alleged chat with her former manager Karishma Prakash. She will also be asked if she sent those messages or someone on her behalf sent the alleged messages enquiring about “maal” from Karishma.

The sources said that the NCB will also ask Deepika, who is the daughter of badminton icon Prakash Padukone, if she used to consume drugs, if yes, from where she used to procure them and who made the payment for the drugs.

Deepika Padukone

The NCB will also ask her if she was procuring the drugs for her personal consumption or for someone else and since when she has been using these substances and who all were the persons who provided her these drugs. She will also be asked for how long she has known Karishma and Sushant’s former talent manager Jaya Saha, who worked with Kwan Talent Management Agency.

Similarly, Shraddha, who is the daughter of actor Shakti Kapoor, will be asked about her alleged chats with Saha to get the CBD oil. The NCB source said that she will be asked since when she was procuring drugs and for whom and whether she consumed them and who paid for them.

The source said that Shraddha, who starred with Sushant in “Chichhore”, will also be questioned about her visits to the Pawna resort, where the alleged drugs party was hosted, along with Sushant. She will be asked for how long she knew Sushant and did they consume drugs together and who procured the drugs for the parties, and who made the payment for them.

Meanwhile, Sara, daughter of actor Saif Ali Khan, is also being questioned in the case and will be asked if she too consumed drugs. Sara’s troubles began after Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty in a television interview claimed that the late actor got into the habit of smoking marijuana during the shooting of “Kedarnath”.

Sara and Sushant were the lead actors of “Kedarnath”. Sara will also be questioned if she knew of the drug usage by Sushant during the shooting of the film and from where these drugs came and who paid for them.

Shraddha Kapoor1
The NCB has already recorded the statement of Sushant’s former manager Shruti Modi, Bollywood actor Rakul Preet Singh, Dharma Productions former executive producer Kshitij Prasad Ravi, Kwan Talent Management Agency CEO Dhruv Chitgopekar, producer Madhu Mantena Varma and several others.

The NCB has arrested Rhea, her brother Showik, Sushant’s house manager Samuel Miranda, personal staff Dipesh Sawant and 16 drug peddlers in the case.

The NCB registered a case under the NDPS Act after the Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing a money laundering case linked to the death of Sushant on the basis of a Bihar Police FIR, wrote to the NCB. The ED had detected several drug chats from the seized electronic devices of the accused.

Google Pixel 5 128GB variant to cost $699 in US: Report

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Google Pixel 5 128GB variant to cost $699 in US: Report

Google is prepared to launch the Pixel 5 smartphones during its annual hardware event on September 30 and now a new report claims that the smartphone will be priced at $699 in the US.

According to Jon Prosser, a reliable Apple insider and serial leakster, Pixel 5 with 128GB storage will be priced at $699 which is $200 more than Pixel 4a 5G.

“Pixel 5 5G 128Gb $699, 100 percent,” Prosser said in a tweet.

Furthermore, the Vodafone Germany leak reveals Pixel 5 pricing as €630.

The Google Pixel 5 recently appeared on AI Benchmark and the listing confirms that it is powered by the SD765G SoC.

The presence of the SD765G inside the device reveals that it will debut as the first 5G-ready Pixel phone.

The device will be the first Pixel phone to come with 8GB RAM. However, the AI Benchmark has no information on the other specs of the device.

The upcoming Pixel 5 smartphone is also expected to feature a larger 6.67-inch, 120Hz OLED panel.

It is expected to arrive with more premium features, IP water rating, and wireless charging support.

Mortal remains of legendary singer SPB laid to rest

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Mortal remains of legendary singer SPB laid to rest

The mortal remains of famous playback singer and Padma awardee S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, popular as SPB or Balu in the movie world, was laid to rest with police honors at his farmhouse near here on Saturday.

At about 12.30 p.m. SPB’s body was lowered into a dug-up pit bringing to end a great musical era.

The legendary singer who has recorded over 40,000 songs in 16 languages over a period of five decades, died on Friday afternoon due to cardio-respiratory arrest at the M.G.H. Healthcare.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of people stood in a long queue to pay homage to the singer as well as celebrities from the movie world at the farmhouse.

The singer’s family performed the last rites.

The mortal remains were brought to the farmhouse on Friday evening.

On Friday, a large number of people gathered at his residence here to have a last glimpse of the singer and pay their respects.

Later in the evening, his body was taken in a van to his farmhouse at Thamaraipakkam. Enroute several people stood on the pavement and bade SPB a tearful goodbye.

On August 5, in a Facebook post, the 74-year-old SPB said that he was suffering from a very mild attack of coronavirus and had got himself hospitalized to take a rest.

He had said that though the doctors had advised him to stay at home and take a rest, he decided to be in a hospital, as at home his family members would get concerned.

SPB hoped to get discharged from the hospital in two days. But it was not to be.

NTPC stops land acquisition for greenfield coal-based projects

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NTPC stops land acquisition for greenfield coal-based projects

In a big change in its business strategy, the country’s largest coal-fired power producer NTPC proposes to completely stop land acquisition for greenfield thermal projects and rather look for reducing its carbon footprint through an aggressive renewable energy push.

“We have taken the decision not to acquire any further land for greenfield thermal projects in near future and the focus will be on reducing the carbon footprint,” NTPC chairman Gurdeep Singh said in a statement to the shareholders at a recently concluded AGM.

As part of its initiative to transform itself into a renewable player, NTPC has also decided to set up a separate green-focused subsidiary.

By 2032, state-owned NTPC plans to add 32 GW of renewable generation capacity to its portfolio through organic and inorganic routes. Non-fossil fuel-based generation capacity will make up nearly 30 percent of its portfolio, which, at present, is less than 10 percent. Short term target is to reach 10 GW of renewable capacity up to 2022.

“In order to get access to large tracts of land for RE projects, discussions are in progress with state governments of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh for allocation of land parcels for setting up of renewable projects. These would be developed under the Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Power Parks scheme of the government of India,” the company chairman informed the shareholders.

NTPC plans to become a 130 GW power producing company by 2032 investing over Rs 1 lakh crore ($14 billion) by 2024.

The capacity will have a diversified fuel mix of 65.4 percent coal, 4.6 percent gas, 1.5 percent nuclear, and 28.5 percent renewable energy, including hydel generation capacity. The firms’ total thermal generation capacity is around 57 GW, and the shift in focus is to ensure long-term sustainability.

Recently, it issued a tender to enlist engineering, procurement, and construction vendors for floating and ground-mounted solar projects in the country. It also floated a request for proposal to acquire 1 GW of operational solar projects across India.

The company has also invited interested entities to invest in setting up manufacturing parks in surplus land with it operational power projects.

Having pets linked to better mental health during lockdown

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Having pets linked to better mental health during lockdown

Sharing a home with a pet appeared to act as a buffer against the psychological stress during the lockdown, say researchers adding that keeping pets linked to better mental health and reduction in loneliness.

The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that having a pet was linked to maintaining better mental health and reducing loneliness. Around 90 percent of the 6,000 participants who were from the UK had at least one pet.

The strength of the human-animal bond did not differ significantly between species with the most common pets being cats and dogs followed by small mammals and fish.

More than 90 percent of respondents said their pet helped them cope emotionally with the lockdown and 96 percent said their pet helped keep them to remain fit and active.

However, 68 percent of the pet owners reported having been worried about their animals during the lockdown, for example, due to restrictions on access to veterinary care and exercise or because they wouldn’t know who would look after their pets if they fell ill.

“Findings from this study also demonstrated potential links between people’s mental health and the emotional bonds they form with their pets,” said study lead author Elena Ratschen from the University of York in the UK.

“We also discovered that in this study, the strength of the emotional bond with pets did not statistically differ by animal species, meaning that people in our sample felt on average as emotionally close to, for example, their guinea pig as they felt to their dog,” Ratschen added.

The study also showed that the most popular interaction with animals that were not pets was birdwatching. Almost 55 percent of people surveyed reported watching and feeding birds in their gardens.

“This work is particularly important at the current time as it indicates how having a companion animal in your home can buffer against some of the psychological stress associated with lockdown,” said the study authors.

“However, it is important that everyone appreciates their pet’s needs too, as our other work shows failing to meet these can have a detrimental effect for both people and their pets,” they wrote.

PV Sindhu to present web series titled ‘The A-Game’

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PV Sindhu to present web series titled ‘The A-Game’

After the success of their first two digital media properties, ‘Double Trouble’ and ‘The Finish Line’, Baseline Ventures is back with its third series titled ‘The A-Game’. The show will be presented by Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu and would feature five athletes across episodes.

“I would like to congratulate Baseline on conceptualizing shows that allow athletes to go back in time and relive those monumental moments that shaped their careers,” said Sindhu as per a media release.

“I am honored to present their latest show called ‘The A-Game’ which will take a deep dive into how elite athletes think and react in high-pressure situations,” she added.

The series will document five Indian athletes who brought out their a-game at very important moments in the history of Indian sport.

Each episode will capture the narrative of a particular athlete’s a-game moment through pictures, video footage, and stories from the athlete, and help the audience relate to how they brought out their a-game at crucial moments.

Microsoft suspends 18 Azure accounts tied to China-based hackers

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Microsoft suspends 18 Azure accounts tied to China-based hackers

Microsoft has suspended 18 Azure Active Directory applications on its Cloud infrastructure that were being used by a Chinese nation-state actor to execute their attacks.

The apps were part of the malicious command and control infrastructure by the Gadolinium – A china-based nation-state activity group that has been compromising targets for nearly a decade with a worldwide focus on the maritime and health industries.

As with most threat groups, Gadolinium tracks the tools and techniques of security practitioners looking for new techniques they can use or modify to create new exploit methods, according to Ben Koehl from Microsoft Threat Intelligence Centre (MSTIC).

Gadolinium uses cloud services and open source tools to enhance weaponization of their malware payload, attempt to gain command and control all the way to the server and to obfuscate detection.

“These attacks were delivered via spear-phishing emails with malicious attachments and detected and blocked by Microsoft Defender, formerly Microsoft Threat Protection (MTP), and able to be detected using Azure Sentinel,” Microsoft said.

Recently, Microsoft observed newly expanded targeting outside of those sectors to include the Asia Pacific region and other targets in higher education and regional government organizations.

“Gadolinium has been experimenting with using cloud services to deliver their attacks to increase both operation speed and scale for years,” the tech giant said in a blog post this week.

Two of the most recent attack chains in 2019 and 2020 were delivered from Gadolinium using similar tactics and techniques.

Gadolinium used several different payloads to achieve its exploitation or intrusion objectives including a range of PowerShell scripts to execute file commands to potentially exfiltrate data.

In mid-April 2020, Gadolinium actors were detected sending spear-phishing emails with malicious attachments.

The filenames of these attachments were named to appeal to the target’s interest in the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Gadolinium uses an Azure Active Directory application to configure a victim endpoint with the permissions needed to exfiltrate data to the attacker’s own Microsoft OneDrive storage.

“Gadolinium will no doubt evolve their tactics in pursuit of its objectives. As those threats target Microsoft customers, we will continue to build detections and implement protections to defend against them,” Microsoft said.

CSK batsmen need to have glucose, says Virender Sehwag

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CSK batsmen need to have glucose, says Virender Sehwag

Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag feels Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batsmen have not been able to play freely and score quickly so far in the 13th Indian Premier League (IPL) edition and thus they need to have “glucose” to add intensity to their game.

“Chennai ke batsman simply not getting going. Glucose chadwaake aana padega next match se batting karne. (CSK batsmen are not getting going. They need to have glucose when they come out to bat in the next match),” Sehwag said in a tweet on Saturday.

On Friday, the MS Dhoni-led side suffered their second defeat of the tournament, losing by 44 runs against Delhi Capitals. Chasing 176, the Men in Yellow could only muster 131/7 in their allotted 20 overs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

After the conclusion of the match, Dhoni also admitted his side was lacking steam in the batting department.

“I don’t think it was a good game for us. The wicket did slow down a bit, there was no dew, but I think we are lacking steam in the batting department. We need to figure that out,” the 39-year-old said after the match.

CSK has a six-day break before their next outing and the skipper said that the imminent return of Ambati Rayudu for their next game against Sunrisers Hyderabad would help their team balance.

“The break in the next seven days is the best chance we could get: give them match simulation and look for the right balance,” said Dhoni.

Telangana continues to see surge in Covid cases

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Telangana continues to see surge in Covid cases

The Covid-19 cases in Telangana continued to surge as the state reported 2,239 new infections on Saturday.

This has pushed the state’s tally to 1,83,866 cases. Eleven more people succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 1,091.

The fatality rate in the state remains at 0.59 percent against the national average of 1.58 percent.

The daily count shows a spike in both Greater Hyderabad and the districts.

The state again reported more recoveries than new cases in a day. With 2,281 recoveries, the cumulative number has gone up to 1,52,441.

The recovery rate has gone up further to 82.90 percent against the national average of 81.98 percent.

The number of active cases in the state stands at 30,334 including 24,683 in-home/institutional isolation.

According to a media bulletin released from the office of the director of public health and family welfare, 58,925 tests were conducted during the last 24 hours ending 8 p.m. Friday. These include 25,927 primary contacts.

With this, the state has so far tested 28,00,925 samples. Samples tested per million population improved further to 75,438. Officials say the daily testing target for the state is 5,600 per day as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day.

A total of 17 government-run laboratories, 43 private laboratories, and 1,076 rapid antigen test centers are conducting the tests.

The district-wise daily count of cases shows that the state capital Hyderabad continues to top the list. It reported 316 new cases, a drop from 386 the previous day.

The spike in districts continued. Rangareddy district recorded the second-highest number of cases at 192, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri (164), Nalgonda (141), Karimnagar (106), Bhadradri Kothagudem (91), Warangal Urban (91), and Siddipet (79).

The bed status in 62 government hospitals treating Covid-19 patients shows that 6,564 out of 8,841 beds are vacant.

A total of 225 private hospitals treating Covid-19 patients have 9,469 beds, of which 6,097 are vacant.

The data also shows that 65.23 percent of those tested positive were in the age group of 21-50 years while 21.82 were above 51 years of age. The positive cases include 12.95 percent who were below 20 years.

Officials said 64.83 percent of those tested positive were male while the remaining 38.17 percent were female.

Diesel gets cheaper, petrol prices unchanged

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Diesel gets cheaper, petrol prices unchanged

Diesel prices fell again on Saturday continuing its southward movement in tandem with fall in global product prices and steady crude prices.

Oil marketing companies, however, kept petrol prices unchanged for the fourth consecutive day.

In the national capital, diesel prices fell by 16 paise per liter to Rs 70.94 a liter down from Rs 71.10 per liter on Friday. Petrol prices remained static at Rs 81.06 a liter.

In the other metros of Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata as well diesel prices fell between 15-18 paise per liter.

The price fall is on the back of expectation of slowing demand for oil globally as the second wave of coronavirus spike threatens further derail economic activity.

Crude prices also remained soft on Saturday falling to $41 a barrel from over $42 a barrel just a day before.

For domestic auto fuel consumers, the price fall has been a bonanza amidst the current tough economic conditions. With the price cut on Saturday, diesel has now become cheaper by Rs 2.62 per liter in Delhi this month.

‘Vitamin D cuts complications, risk of death in Covid patients’

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‘Vitamin D cuts complications, risk of death in Covid patients’

New research adds to the growing body of evidence that patients with sufficient levels of Vitamin D are less likely to experience complications and die from Covid-19.

According to the study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, hospitalized Covid-19 patients who were vitamin D sufficient, with a blood level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D of at least 30 ng/mL (a measure of vitamin D status) had a significantly decreased risk for adverse clinical outcomes and death.

In addition, they had lower blood levels of an inflammatory marker (C-reactive protein) and higher blood levels of lymphocytes (a type of immune cell to help fight infection).”This study provides direct evidence that vitamin D sufficiency can reduce the complications, including the cytokine storm (release of too many proteins into the blood too quickly) and ultimately death from Covid-19,” said study author Michael F. Holick from the Boston University in the US.

For the findings, a blood sample to measure vitamin D status (measured serum level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D) was taken from 235 patients were admitted to the hospital with Covid-19.

These patients were followed for clinical outcomes including clinical severity of the infection, becoming unconscious, having difficulty in breathing resulting in hypoxia (low oxygen level), and death.

The blood was also analyzed for an inflammatory marker (C-reactive protein) and for numbers of lymphocytes. The researchers then compared all of these parameters in patients who were vitamin D deficient to those who were vitamin D sufficient.

In patients older than 40 years they observed that those patients who were vitamin D sufficient were 51.5 percent less likely to die from the infection compared to patients who were vitamin D deficient.

Holic believes that being vitamin D sufficient helps to fight consequences from being infected not only with the coronavirus but also other viruses causing upper respiratory tract illnesses including influenza.

“There is great concern that the combination of influenza infection and a coronal viral infection could substantially increase hospitalizations and death due to complications from these viral infections,” Holick noted.

Earlier this month, another study published in the journal JAMA Network Open, revealed that that vitamin D deficiency may raise the risk of getting novel coronavirus.

Pak resorts to unprovoked ceasefire violation on LoC

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Pak resorts to unprovoked ceasefire violation on LoC

Pakistan army on Saturday targeted Indian positions by using small arms and mortars on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district, officials said.

“At around 11.15 a.m. today, Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and shelling with mortars along the LoC in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district,” Defence Ministry spokesperson Colonel Devender Anand said.

“Indian army is retaliating befittingly,” he added.

Pakistan has been violating the bilateral ceasefire agreement signed by India and Pakistan in 1999 with impunity since the beginning of this year.

At least 24 civilians have been killed and over 100 injured in more than 3,186 ceasefire violations by Pakistan on the LoC since January 2020.

The frequent cross-border shelling has brought insurmountable suffering into the lives of thousands of people living along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.

Facebook fixes Instagram bug that turns phones into spying tools

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Facebook fixes Instagram bug that turns phones into spying tools

Facebook has patched a critical vulnerability in Instagram that could have given an attacker the ability to take over a victim’s Instagram account, and turn their phone into a spying tool, simply by sending them a malicious image file.

When the image is saved and opened in the Instagram app, the exploit would give the hacker full access to the victim’s Instagram messages and images, allowing them to post or delete images at will, as well as giving access to the phone’s contacts, camera, and location data, according to cybersecurity researchers at Check Point.

An attack can be triggered once a malicious image is sent via email or WhatsApp and then saved on a victim’s device.

The researchers revealed the critical vulnerability as remote code execution (RCE) that allows an attacker to take over a computer or a server by running arbitrary malicious software (malware).

“This vulnerability can allow an attacker to perform any action they wish in the Instagram app. Since the Instagram app has very extensive permissions, this may allow an attacker to instantly turn the targeted phone into a perfect spying tool – putting the privacy of millions of users at serious risk,” the cybersecurity firm revealed in a blog post on Friday.

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms globally, with over 100 million photos uploaded every day, and nearly 1 billion monthly active users.

“The vulnerability we found was in the way that Instagram used Mozjpeg– an open-source project used by Instagram as its JPEG format image decoder for images uploaded to the service,” the researchers explained.

The company disclosed the findings to Facebook and the Instagram team.

Facebook described the vulnerability as an “Integer Overflow leading to Heap Buffer Overflow” and issued a patch to remediate the issue on the newer versions of the Instagram application on all platforms.

“The patch for this vulnerability has already been available for 6 months prior to this publication, giving time to the majority of users to update their Instagram applications, thus mitigating the risk of this vulnerability being exploited,” the researchers informed.

“We strongly encourage all Instagram users to ensure they are using the latest Instagram app version and to update if any new version is available”.

Bhumi: Education the significant channel to raise climate awareness

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Bhumi: Education the significant channel to raise climate awareness

Actress and environmentalist Bhumi Pednekar feels education is a significant channel to raise awareness on climate conservation.

“The changes we are observing are real and are an undeniable threat to our civilization. This year we have witnessed the Australian bushfires burning 18 million hectares of land. One billion animals were killed and many endangered species in the country were driven to extinction,” Bhumi said.

“We saw the oil spill in Russia’s Arctic region, and the Uttarakhand forest fires burning 51 hectares of land. We faced Cyclone Amphan in West Bengal and Odisha. It was the strongest to hit West Bengal in over a decade, with 86 deaths in the state. Finally, we witnessed the California wildfires, where 3,154,107 total acres burned,” she added.

“The effects are already visible and will be catastrophic unless we act now. We need everyone to join hands to ensure that we leave behind barrels of hope and prosperity for the current generations and generations to come. Education is a significant channel to achieve this goal. Let us join hands and make a difference,” said the actress, who has collaborated with the global initiative, Climate Action Project, which reaches out to 10 million students across 107 countries.

Indian ‘Highway Men’ wrap up travel series on just iPhone, iPad

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Indian ‘Highway Men’ wrap up travel series on just iPhone, iPad

Imagine shooting an entire travel vlogging series on an iPhone, edit it on an iPad Pro and you are done to showcase your digital masterpiece to the world which would have otherwise cost you a bomb, involving several crew members, specialized cameras, audio and video, fancy gimbals and more.

Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma, the acclaimed travelers and foodies whom we know as ‘Highway Men,’ took the daunting task to shoot a unique, digital-exclusive travel vlogging series titled #RoadTrippinWithRnM, with just an iPhone 11 Pro Max and an iPad Pro (for editing) in their kitty post-lockdown.

They got behind the wheels for the 14-day road-trip across Rajasthan (with only a cameraperson), churning out over 60 minutes of content daily at over eight locations. They drove over 200 km daily for a 16-hour long day in the 40 degree Celsius heat, keeping the social distancing norms in mind.

“You won’t believe this but no one has ever done this before. The entire #roadtrippinwithrnm journey was shot and edited only on an iPhone 11 Pro Max and iPad Pro. We had to maintain social distancing so we found this the best way to go out in a vehicle and shoot,” Mayur told IANS.

According to Rocky, the whole digital experience was so awesome that they did not miss the hustle and bustle of being part of a TV show or long post-production hours.

“We never thought that just two Apple devices will be enough to produce such a wonderful series. It was seamless to work on these devices at your leisure and produce such wonderful content. This is the future of creative content production for TV and cinema,” Rocky said.

The triple-camera system on iPhone 11 Pro Max takes Portrait mode to a new level with the ability to choose Wide and Telephoto framing, enabling Portrait mode with a wider field of view, great for taking portraits of multiple people.

The next-generation Smart HDR uses advanced Machine Learning to recognize subjects in the frame and intelligently relight them for more natural-looking images with greater detail.

While the new “True Tone” flash is over 30 percent brighter. Deep Fusion is a new image processing system enabled by the Neural Engine of A13 Bionic chip.

Deep Fusion uses advanced machine learning to do pixel-by-pixel processing of photos, optimizing for texture, details, and noise in every part of the photo.

“We were able to control the shoot and edit on the two Apple devices and the final output was so superb that you will be left thrilled,” Rocky said.

The iPad Pro packs creative apps from Adobe, Autodesk, and Procreate.

For creative professionals, there is a high-performance USB-C connector that brings a whole new set of capabilities. They can connect iPad Pro to cameras, musical instruments, external monitors, even docks, and get data transfer done in a jiffy.

Improvements to Photo Import and support for native RAW image editing give photographers efficient ways to work on the device.

“For us, it was like going back to the basics. This gives up hope at a time when the TV and film industry is suffering in the pandemic times,” Rocky noted.

The duo, who came to prominence with their TV show ‘Highway on My Plate,’ posted daily vlogs, pictures and engaged in Live Q&A sessions on social media while going through the 14-day road shooting trip.

Result: Over 5.5 crore organic impressions and 16 million views in 14 days.

The organic impressions are now nearing almost 10 crores.

“We are now looking to replicate the experience with exploring more such highways, like in Uttaranchal or Himachal Pradesh, hoping for more brands to relive the fantastic journey with us,” Mayur said.

You always were a winner Dean Jones, says Brett Lee

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You always were a winner Dean Jones, says Brett Lee

Ex-Australia speedster Brett Lee has paid a rich tribute to Dean Jones, saying the former batsman was always a winner.

On Thursday afternoon, Jones — who was part of the Star Sports commentary panel for the 13th Indian Premier League (IPL) edition being held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — died in a Mumbai hotel after suffering a cardiac arrest.

“I love this video of Dean Jones. Absolutely sums up who he was a person. Deano, myself, and Scott Styris trying to keep busy a few days ago in lockdown. Life isn’t fair sometimes. You always were a winner Deano. Miss you,” Lee wrote on Friday along with a video he shared on Twitter in which he, Jones, and Styris are seen playing golf in the hotel lobby.

According to reports, when Jones collapsed in the lobby of the hotel after suffering the cardiac arrest, Lee desperately tried to revive him.

“Daily Mail Australia understands Jones collapsed in the lobby of the hotel as he entered with former fast bowler Brett Lee, who desperately tried to revive him with CPR,” wrote the newspaper on its website.

Jones, 59, played 52 Tests for Australia, amassing 3,631 runs at 46.55 with 11 centuries and 14 fifties. In 164 ODIs, he scored 6,068 runs at 44.61 with seven tons and 46 fifties. One of his most memorable Test innings came in 1986 when in the heat and humidity of Chennai, he battled exhaustion and illness to make a heroic 210 in what would be only the second tied Test ever.

New app to let users stream Xbox One games on iPhones

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New app to let users stream Xbox One games on iPhones

Microsoft is planning to release a new Xbox app for iOS that allows users to stream their Xbox One games on their iPhones.

The new Xbox app will arrive in the App Store soon that includes a remote play feature, which lets Xbox One console owners stream their games to an iPhone, reports The Vege.

This new app and its remote play capability are different from Microsoft’s xCloud gaming service.

Whereas xCloud allows players to stream Xbox games directly from Microsoft’s servers to their phone in any location, remote play on the new Xbox app on iOS requires players to be connected to their own Xbox.

One will be able to access an Xbox console over Wi-Fi, or even an LTE or 5G connection, too.

Just like the recently-launched Xbox app on Android, the iPhone version will also include the same new design and new features.

One can quickly download or share game clips and screenshots captured on an Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S console, and can even manage console space and delete games.

In addition, this new Xbox app is also a lot faster than the previous iOS version.

Currently, Microsoft is testing the Xbox app with TestFlight members and will be available generally in the App Store soon for everyone to download.

GST e-invoicing mandatory from October

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GST e-invoicing mandatory from October

No further relaxation is likely in terms of e-invoicing as the Centre is set to go ahead with the decision to make GST e-invoicing mandatory for companies with annual turnover of over Rs 500 crore for their business-to-business transactions starting October 1.

Industry representatives, however, have urged the government to not make it mandatory and rather allow voluntary compliance.

The relief, however, would be there for relatively smaller businesses, as the threshold for mandatory e-invoicing, a step to improve tax compliance, was earlier planned to be kept at Rs 100 crore, is set to be raised to Rs 500 crore on the recommendations of an empowered panel of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council.

The initial date for its rollout was April 1, 2020, but the Centre notified October 1, 2020, as the revised date for the implementation of e-invoicing.

As per the website of the Good and Service Network ‘e-invoicing’ has many advantages for businesses such as standardization, interoperability, auto-population of invoice details into GST return and other forms (like an e-way bill), reduction in processing costs, reduction in disputes, improvement in payment cycles and thereby improving overall business efficiency.

Important to stay motivated when there are no competitions, says Lakra

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Important to stay motivated when there are no competitions, says Lakra

Indian men’s hockey team defender Birendra Lakra believes it’s important for the side to stay motivated when there are no competitions around amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

“This situation is something no one would have faced before but as athletes, we need to have a positive outlook and it is important to remain motivated,” Lakra said.

“When I was injured, it used to bother me a lot that I couldn’t do most of the things I could have normally done, I was dependent on someone else. Also watching my teammates play matches and I couldn’t, it was difficult. But that phase has helped me face the challenges during the lockdown,” the 30-year-old added.

With global hockey resuming with the FIH Hockey Pro League starting earlier this week, Lakra is optimistic about the team’s future.

“Personally, I feel it’s great that we could return to the national camp. Thanks to Hockey India, we are probably one of the few sports in the country who are able to begin sports activities and ensure our preparations for the Olympics are not too hampered,” explained the experienced defender.

“Though there is no competition in the upcoming months, it was very important to return to camp so that we could start slow, not rush into getting back to form. It was important to do this in order to avoid any injuries because we were restarting after a long gap,” he added.

Covid during pregnancy not linked to complication in newborns

TB Team
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Covid during pregnancy not linked to complication in newborns

Researchers have found that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, during pregnancy was not associated with complications in the newborn child.

For the study, published in the journal JAMA, the research team has examined the association between a positive SARS-CoV-2 test during pregnancy and complications in mothers and their newborn babies.

Almost two out of three pregnant women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were asymptomatic and the researchers found no higher prevalence of complications during delivery or of ill-health in the neonates.

However, preeclampsia was more common in infected women.

“One possible reason for the latter is that both preeclampsia and Covid-19 impact several organs and can present similar symptoms,” said study lead author Mia Ahlberg from Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden.

The researchers have collected the data and linked them to data from the Swedish Pregnancy Register for all 2,682 women who gave birth at the hospital between March 25 and July 24, 2020.

In order to investigate the association between test positivity and medical outcomes in both mother and neonate, the researchers compared test-positive women with test-negative women.

A total of 156 women (5.8 percent) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Out of these women, 65 percent were asymptomatic.

That the majority of test-positive pregnant women were asymptomatic is in line with other research results where screening has been used.

There was no statistically significant difference in terms of mode of delivery, hemorrhage, use of epidural, preterm birth, length of hospital stay, or breastfeeding between infected and not infected women.

Nor was there any difference between the groups regarding the infants’ Apgar scores or birth weight.

Women who tested positive for the new coronavirus had, for reasons that remain unclear, a lower prevalence of induced labor and a higher prevalence of preeclampsia.

The fact that the majority of the test-positive women were asymptomatic likely affect the results of the study, the researchers wrote.

“The proportion of women with symptoms was too small to be able to investigate if these women have a higher risk of complications,” Ahlberg said.

“Larger studies should be conducted to be able to identify if women with symptoms and different degrees of symptoms constitute a risk group for adverse outcomes such as preterm birth,” she noted.

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