Microsoft text-to-speech tool now supports Hindi, Indian English

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Microsoft India on Tuesday announced the addition of English (India) and Hindi to its neural text-to-speech service (Neural TTS) language setting.

The two are among the 15 new dialects added to the service, enabled with state-of-the-art AI audio quality.

Microsoft’s Neural TTS can be used to make interactions with chatbots and virtual assistants more natural and engaging.

It is also being used to convert digital texts such as e-books into audiobooks and being deployed for in-car navigation systems, the company said in a statement.

“Through the inclusion of English (India) and Hindi in Neural TTS, we are demonstrating our continued commitment to refining speech and voice-based services for personal and business use in India,” said Sundar Srinivasan, General Manager, Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt Ltd.

Organizations in sectors like telecom, media, and entertainment, retail, manufacturing, and product/ service development are using Neural TTS.

Udaan, India’s largest online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, is using text-to-speech in Azure to develop conversational interfaces for their voice assistants, Microsoft said.

Neural TTS is a part of Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services and converts text to lifelike speech for a more natural interface.

The service also provides customizable voices, fine-tuned auto control, and flexible deployment from cloud to edge.

With a natural-sounding speech that matches the stress patterns and intonation of human voices, Neural TTS significantly reduces listening fatigue when users are interacting with AI systems.

The service enables human-like natural and clear articulation and uses deep neural networks to overcome the limits of traditional text-to-speech systems in matching the patterns of stress and pitch in spoken language.

Overall, Microsoft TTS supports 110 voices and over 45 languages and variants.

Gionee returns, launches budget smartphone for Rs 5,999 in India

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Breaking its silence after a long hiatus in the smartphone market, Gionee on Tuesday launched a budget device Gionee MAX for Rs 5,999 in India.

The smartphone will go on sale on Flipkart starting August 31 and will be available in three colors – black, red, and blue.

“Gionee’s partnership with Flipkart will lead to a better understanding of the pulse of the ‘Bharat’ consumer. Gionee Max’s launch is the beginning of a new era for the Gionee brand in India,” Pardeep Jain, Managing Director, JIPL that manages Gionee in the country, said in a statement.

In terms of specifications, the smartphone features a 6.1-inch HD+ screen with Full View Dew Drop Display along with 2.5D curved glass.

The device comes with a powerful 5000mAh battery and according to the company, it offers 28 days standby time, 24 hours music, over 9 hours movie time, 42 hours of call time, and 12 hours of gaming.

The device is powered by an Octa-core processor (up to 1.6 GHz), 2GB RAM, and 32GB ROM (expandable up to 256GB).

The device is equipped with 13 MP + Bokeh Lens dual rear camera and 5 MP front camera.

Gionee in June launched three affordable smartwatches in India, the Gionee Watch 5 (GSW5), Gionee Watch 4 (GSW4), and Gionee Senorita (GSW3).

Hepatitis drugs may be effective against Covid-19: Study

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New research adds to the growing body of evidence that sofosbuvir and daclatasvir, a drug combination commonly used for the treatment of hepatitis C, can improve clinical outcomes in patients with moderate or severe Covid-19.

Three studies, published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, researched the use of sofosbuvir and daclatasvir for the treatment of Covid-19.

These three studies come from Iran, which has developed its own pill containing sofosbuvir and daclatasvir, and is in a position to test this in a large clinical trial as Iran is a massively impacted country, reporting some 2,500 cases and 200 deaths a day.

“Despite the encouraging initial results, it is too early to reach a verdict. Larger, well-designed studies are required to confirm our results,” said Shahin Merat, the lead author of one of the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy articles, from Tehran University in Iran.

Currently, no effective antiviral therapy has been found to treat Covid-19. The aim of the trials was to assess if the addition of sofosbuvir and daclatasvir, a drug combination commonly used for the treatment of hepatitis C, improved clinical outcomes in patients with moderate or severe Covid-19.

In one trial, researchers recruited 66 patients and allocated them to either the treatment group or the control group. The study found that clinical recovery within 14 days was achieved by 88 percent in the treatment group and 67 percent in the control group. The treatment group had a significantly shorter median duration of hospitalization (six days) than the control group (eight days).

In another study, subjects suffering from Covid-19 were divided into two groups with one group receiving ribavirin and the other receiving sofosbuvir/daclatasvir. All participants also received the recommended national standard treatment which, at that time, was lopinavir/ritonavir and single-dose hydroxychloroquine.

The results indicated that the median duration of stay was five days for the sofosbuvir/daclatasvir group and nine days for the ribavirin group. The mortality in the sofosbuvir/daclatasvir group was six percent and 33 percent for the ribavirin group. The relative risk of death for patients treated with sofosbuvir/daclatasvir was 0.17 percent.

The results of these studies suggest that the addition of sofosbuvir and daclatasvir to standard care may reduce the duration of hospital stays for Covid-19 patients compared to standard care alone.

Earlier, a study published in the journal The Lancet, found that hepatitis C virus drugs may be effective in treating patients with Covid-19.

Cong ‘dissenters’ miffed as content of letter not discussed

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A day after the tumultuous Congress Working Committee (CWC)meeting, the dissenters are miffed because in the din the contents of the letter were not discussed at all.

As tables ‘turned’ on the dissenters over the so-called “letter bomb” on Monday during the CWC, the majority of the members focussed on the timing of the letter connecting it with the loyalty factor. And, in all this, the contents of the letter were not discussed in the seven-hour long meeting as the four signatories, who were part of the CWC meeting, were cornered by the loyalists.

In the dramatic events which unfolded on Monday, the dissenters thought that the contents of the letter would be discussed in detail. This did not happen as the deliberation went on the timing and purpose of such a letter.

During the CWC, some leaders asked the letter signatories why the questions were not raised in the internal party meetings, the signatories replied that there were no meetings held. In this reply, the General Secretary Organization gave a detailed list of meetings that took place during the year.

The content of the letter was not discussed in the meeting except the paras referred by Sonia Gandhi in her statement which was read by K. C.Venugopal at the onset of the Monday meeting.

While the signatories maintained that the matter ended after it was taken up by the Congress working committee meeting, but after the meeting on Monday the signatories assembled at Ghulam Nabi Azad’s residence to discuss future strategy. This has not been disclosed, but sources say that discontent is not yet over and they are waiting for a moment and timing again.

Former Union Ministers Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma and Kapil Sibal reached Azad’s residence on Monday evening and met for more than an hour, but it was not clear what transpired there.

In the Congress Working Committee meeting, Sharma, Azad, and Wasnik were cornered by Gandhi loyalists, with even former Union Minister Ambika Soni targetting Azad, and demanded action, saying ‘that he has not been without power for decades, so what problem does he have now’, sources said.

The dissenters, meanwhile, maintained that the letter was not against the Gandhis but for reforms within the party, and it was not to question the leadership of Gandhis. But some of the signatories are saying that the letter should not have been leaked to media. They say that there was only one copy of the letter, thus casting aspersions on the other side for leaking the letter.

One of the strongest advocates of the party reforms, Sanjay Jha said in the early morning Tuesday tweet: “This is just the end of the beginning.”

Meanwhile, the Congress is likely to appoint a panel of senior leaders to assist interim chief Sonia Gandhi till she is at the helm of affairs, say sources. Though the party maintains all is well but the discontent, evinced by a letter seeking a leadership change, may not have been fully doused.

Sources say that the party may appoint a panel of four persons to take important decisions.

The Congress Working Committee, the party’s highest decision-making committee, which met on Monday, in the wake of the letter seeking change, has authorized the Congress President to affect “necessary organizational changes” that she may deem appropriate to take on the challenges.

“In the light of the above deliberations and conclusions, the CWC unanimously requests Sonia Gandhi to continue to lead the Congress until such time as circumstances will permit an AICC session to be convened,” party General Secretary, Organisation, K.C. Venugopal said, after the key meeting.

But after the events, Sonia Gandhi has emerged stronger as the dissenters did not find wide support which they had anticipated.

Zoom CEO apologises after long partial global outage

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Zoom Founder and CEO Eric Yuan have apologized after an hours-long outage hit users across the US, UK, and several other countries.

Due to the outage, thousands of users including students, teachers, and business executives working from home on Monday found trouble connecting to the video conferencing platform which became immensely popular among people across the world in the midst of the pandemic.

“Today @zoom_us had a service disruption that affected many of our customers. We know the responsibility we have to keep your meetings, classrooms & important events running,” the Zoom CEO said in a tweet

“I’m personally very sorry and we will all do our best to prevent this from happening in the future,” he said.

According to Zoom’s status page, all systems are not operational.

“Everything should be working properly now! We are continuing to monitor the situation. Thank you all for your patience and our sincere apologies for disrupting your day,” Zoom said in a tweet.

The video conferencing platform which claims to have some 300 million daily meeting participants did not disclose the cause of the outage.

Sensex trades above 38,900; finance, auto stocks rise

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The key Indian equity indices rose on Tuesday morning, on the back of healthy buying in finance and auto stocks.

Around 10.10 a.m., Sensex was trading at 38,929.95, higher by 130.87 points or 0.34 percent from the previous close of 38,799.08.

It opened at 38,948.46 and has touched an intra-day high of 39,008.89 and a low of 38,861.33 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 11,498.50, higher by 32.05 points or 0.28 percent from the previous close.

The top gainers on the Sensex were IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank and the major losers were Nestle India, HCL Technologies and Ultratech Cement.

Egypt reports 138 new Covid-19 cases

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Egypt has reported 138 new Covid-19 cases, raising the total infections in the country to 97,478, said the Health Ministry.

On Monday, Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said that 18 patients died in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 5,280, reports Xinhua news agency.

Meanwhile, 890 others were cured and discharged from hospitals, increasing the recovered cases to 66,817, the spokesman said in a statement.

Egypt’s single-day cases have been falling below 200 since August 2, after they hit a record of 1,774 on June 19.

Coronavirus-related daily fatalities have also been below 20 for the past 10 days in a row.

A record of daily deaths was seen in mid-June when 97 patients died.

The most populous Arab country announced its first confirmed Covid-19 case on February 14 and the first death from the highly infectious virus on March 8.

Amid declining deaths and fatalities, Egypt has been easing relevant restrictions over the past two months as part of a coexistence plan to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming economic activities.

Sushant was poisoned and autopsy forcibly delayed, alleges Swamy

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BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has alleged that Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was poisoned before his death.

Swamy tweeted on Tuesday morning alleging that Sushant was poisoned and his autopsy was deliberately delayed so that the poison in his stomach was dissolved by the digestive fluids.

“Now the diabolical mentality of the killers and their reach is being slowly revealed: autopsy was deliberately forcibly delayed so that the poisons in SSR’s stomach dissolves beyond recognition by the digestive fluids in the stomach. Time to nail those who are responsible,” Swamy tweeted from his verified account.

Throughout Monday, netizens trended a hashtag on Twitter demanding that the CBI, which has now taken over the investigation of the case should grill the doctors at Cooper Hospital who performed Sushant’s autopsy.

On Monday evening, Swamy had tweeted suggesting Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty should be subjected to custodial interrogation.

“If Rhea Chakravarty keeps giving evidence which contradicts her conversation with Mahesh Bhatt then CBI will have no alternative but to arrest her and subject her to custodial interrogation to get at the truth,” reads Swamy’s tweet.

Recently, screenshots of a WhatsApp conversation, which took place on June 8 allegedly between Rhea and Mahesh Bhatt, went viral on social media with netizens alleging that Rhea’s “sugar daddy” Mahesh Bhatt encouraged her to break up with Sushant.

Apple acquires AR tech startup Spaces: Report

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Apple has quietly acquired an AR technology startup Spaces, a former project of DreamWorks Animation for an undisclosed amount.

“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” a company spokesperson told Protocol via email.

Spaces announced last week that it was shutting down its existing services, telling visitors on its website that it was “heading in a new direction,” without revealing further details.

“Thank you to our users and partners who participated in our awesome VR video conferencing product and the many people who enjoyed our VR location-based entertainment attractions found at theme parks, theatres, and more,” the statement said.

Spaces spun out of DreamWorks Animation in early 2016 and developed a range of location-based VR experiences, including ‘Terminator Salvation: Fight for the Future’.

The company had to shut down its VR centers at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, laying off several staff members.

Apple recently confirmed it has acquired NextVR, a live streaming AR/VR company.

Apple’s rumored augmented reality (AR) glasses are also under development and may launch by 2022.

The company is developing two head-worn products, including a combination AR/VR headset for release in 2022 and “full-fledged” AR glasses for release by 2023.

7,012 fires burn 1.5 mn acres of land in California

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At least 7,012 fires in California have burnt 1.5 million acres of land in the state so far this year, according to authorities.

At this time last year, 4,292 fires had burned 56,000 acres, Xinhua news agency quoted California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) as saying on Monday.

Northern California’s LNU Complex fire, the largest blaze in the state which grew to 350,000 acres in size as of Monday, has destroyed 871 buildings, damaged 234, and threatened 30,500, while its containment grew to 22 percent, Cal Fire reported.

Five people have died in the LNU Complex, bringing the state’s total toll to seven.

Of the 350-plus recreation sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, only about 150 are still open.

Parks were being closed due to smoke, dangerous fire conditions or fire activity, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said Monday that more than 14,000 firefighters and more than 2,400 engines now are working to contain the hundreds of wildfires.

Some 2,200 residents are in emergency shelters around the state.

Bodies of two boys found hanging from tree in UP

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Bodies of two boys were found hanging from a tree in a village under Usrahar police circle in Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah district, police said on Tuesday.

According to police, the boys had gone out to purchase ‘samosa’ on a bicycle on Sunday evening and did not return home.

They were identified as Akash, 16, and Ankul ,15, of Mahua Patiyat village. While Akash was a student of intermediate, Ankul was a high school student.

“Serious injury marks were found on the bodies of the two friends. The investigation is on to ascertain the exact cause,” the police said.

ASP Rural Omveer Singh said, “We are waiting for the postmortem report. Their family members were questioned and we have also seized their mobile phones. We are also questioning their friends to zero-in on the accused.”

Ankur’s sister Kalpana said, “When they did not return till late on Sunday evening, the family began searching for them. A group of locals found their bodies hanging from the branch of a mango tree located in the outskirts of their village on Monday.”

The police questioned the family members and relatives if there could be any kind of foul play in the case, but could not get any clue so far.

Akash’s father, Rakesh Kamal, said the family was in shock.

“My son and Ankle were very good friends. They seemed fine when they left their respective homes on a bicycle to purchase ‘samosa’. We hope the police will find the accused soon,” he said.

Google fixes serious bug in Chrome web browser

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Google has fixed a high-severity flaw in the latest version of the Chrome browser that could lead to code execution.

The Google Chrome web browser had a use-after-free vulnerability in its “WebGL” component that could allow a user to execute arbitrary code in the context of the browser process.

A hacker could manipulate the memory layout of the browser in a way that they could gain control of the use-after-free exploit, which could ultimately lead to arbitrary code execution.

According to Jon Munshaw from Cisco Talos, the security researchers worked with Google to ensure that these issues are resolved and that an update is available for affected customers.

“This vulnerability specifically exists in ANGLE, a compatibility layer between OpenGL and Direct3D that Chrome uses on Windows systems,” Munshaw informed in a statement on Monday.

With proper memory layout manipulation, an attacker can gain full control of this use-after-free vulnerability which could ultimately lead to arbitrary code execution in the context of the browser.

Another bug was found in Google’s Chromium-based browsers in early August that could allow hackers to bypass the Content Security Policy (CSP) on websites, in order to steal data and execute rogue code.

Hackers could also exploit an unpatched flaw in Google Drive to distribute malicious files disguised as legitimate files on systems worldwide.

The Hacker News reported that Google is aware of the latest security issue that is found in the “manage versions” functionality in Google Drive.

The functionality allows users to upload and manage different versions of a file.

Luis Suarez set to leave Barcelona, says radio station

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FC Barcelona striker Luis Suarez looks to be on his way out of the club after local radio station RAC1 reported that new coach Ronald Koeman has told the Uruguayan that he doesn’t form a part of his plans for the coming season.

The radio station, which has very close links to the club, reported that Koeman phoned Suarez this Monday and gave him the news in a brief conversation, writes Xinhua news agency.

Suarez’s contract at the Camp Nou is due to expire at the end of June 2021 and the 33-year-old’s lawyers will presumably speak to the club to try to rescind that deal to allow him to become a free agent.

Suarez arrived in Barcelona in 2014 from Liverpool and he has since scored 198 goals and given 109 assists in 283 appearances to become the third-highest scorer in the history of the club.

RAC1 broke this news just two days after Suarez spoke to Spanish newspaper El Pais to say that “nobody” had discussed his future with him.

“It would be good if the person in charge speaks directly to me. My idea today is to continue, but if the club decides that I am expendable, I have no problem talking,” he commented, adding that he wanted to “continue contributing everything I can,” and that he would have no problem if he had to be a substitute.

While Suarez looks to have one foot out of the door at Barcelona, left-back Jordi Alba’s future looks more secure after RAC1 revealed that Koeman had informed the 31-year-old Spain international he wanted him in next season’s squad.

Western & Southern Open: Thiem crashes out, Djokovic advances

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Second-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem lost to 32nd-ranked Serbian Filip Krajinovic in the round of 32 of the ongoing Western & Southern Open in New York.

Krajinovic stunned Thiem 6-2, 6-1 on Monday, losing only two service points en route to the third round of the tournament.

“I think I started really well today. I was aggressive and I’m really happy that I’m in the third round,” said Krajinovic as per the ATP Tour website. “I don’t think Thiem was playing today good tennis, but I took the chance and I think I deserved to win.”

Krajinovic will next play Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics, who beat 14th seed Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.

Meanwhile, world No.1 Novak Djokovic didn’t have the luxury of easing back into tournament play in his first match back since the end of the ATP Tour suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Djokovic had to fight it out against Lithuania’s former junior World No. 1 Ricardas Berankis and he eventually triumphed 7-6(2), 6-4 to improve his perfect record in 2020 to 19-0.

The Serb, who became the first singles player in history (since 1990) to capture all nine ATP Masters 1000 titles when he defeated Federer in the 2018 Cincinnati final, has advanced to the third round where he will face American Tennys Sandgren.

Ronaldinho released from house arrest

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Ronaldinho has been released from house arrest in Paraguay after nearly six months in custody for using a fake passport.

A judge suspended charges against the 40-year-old and his brother Roberto Assis on Monday after they struck a plea bargain with prosecutors, reports Xinhua news agency.

“The precautionary measure of arrest is lifted, there are no more restrictions placed by Paraguayan justice,” Judge Gustavo Amarilla told a court hearing in Asuncion.

Ronaldinho and Assis spent more than a month in prison before being relocated to the four-star Palmaroga Hotel after paying $1.6 million in bail.

Media reports said the brothers would fly back to Rio de Janeiro on a private plane on Tuesday.

Under terms of the deal with investigators, Ronaldinho agreed to a $90,000 fine and must report to a federal judge in Brazil every three months for two years.

“There is no indication that he has any personal characteristics or criminal behavior that … would put society at risk,” one of the prosecutors in the case said.

Assis was ordered to pay $110,000 and will not be allowed to leave Brazil over a two-year period. He will also maintain a criminal record in Paraguay.

Ronaldinho and Assis traveled to the South American country on March 4 to participate in a children’s charity event and promote a new book. They were arrested later that day on accusations of presenting false travel documents to immigration officials.

The pair have denied any wrongdoing and said they were presented with the passports as a “gift” upon arriving in Asuncion.

Ronaldinho retired from football in 2018 after a career that included spells at Gremio, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Milan, and Atletico Mineiro, among other clubs. He was a part of the Brazil team that won the 2002 World Cup and was twice voted the FIFA world player of the year.

On opening night of RNC, Nikki Haley urges Americans to re-elect Trump

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Less than a week after Kamala Harris made history by becoming the first Black and Indian-American woman of color to be chosen for a major party’s presidential ticket, former US Ambassador to the UN and breakout Indian-American star Nikki Haley took the stage on the opening night of the Republican National Convention (RNC) and urged Americans to give President Donald Trump four more years in the November election.

On Monday night, Haley tore into the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign plans, describing in detail what she called a “radical left” future fuelled by “anarchy”, “riots” and “cancel culture”.

She pushed back against critics who cast the Trump White House as racist.

“America is not a racist country. This is personal for me. I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. My parents never gave in to grievance and hate. I was a brown girl in a black and white world.

“America is a story that is a work in progress,” Haley added.

Republicans opened Monday night’s prime-time convention with dark warnings about America’s future if Trump doesn’t win a second term, casting him as a protector of religious freedom, the right to bear arms, and much more.

Haley is one of two people of color who spoke at the RNC on Monday night. The other is South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate.

Taken together, both Harris and Haley’s presence at their party’s convention gigs speaks to the steady rise of Indian-Americans in US politics.

Haley was the first Indian-American to serve in the US cabinet when Trump appointed her as the Permanent Representative to the UN with cabinet status.

A star of the Republican Party, she left the post at the end of 2018 and has been active in politics.

There has been speculation about her running for President in 2024.

A poll by Leger early this month found that she ranked third as the choice of Republicans to be the party’s candidate in 2024 with 11 percent support, behind Vice President Mike Pence with 31 percent and the President’s son, Donald Trump Jr, with 17 percent.

Haley became the first woman and non-White to be elected governor of South Carolina in 2010 and the second Indian-American to be elected to the office after fellow Republican Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.

Republicans will spend the week trying to convince the American people that Trump deserves four more years.

Trump’s supporters are casting the 2020 election as a choice between the American values of freedom and what they cast as the “radical left” world of the Biden-Harris ticket.

Urvashi Rautela on shooting for debut Telugu film amid new normal

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Urvashi Rautela is in the city for her debut Telugu film, Black Rose, and she says it is difficult to shoot amid the new normal but work must go on.

“We are following all precautionary measures amid the COVID pandemic. It’s ‘lights, camera, mask on and action’. We are following all-new norms for ‘Black Rose’. It is a difficult time but work has to go on,” Urvashi said about shooting for the Sampath Nandi directorial.

About the film, which will also release in Hindi, she said: “My character is like Shylock in William Shakespeare’s play ‘The Merchant Of Venice’. ‘Black Rose’ deals with the point from (the perspective of) Kautilya’s ‘Arthashastra’. She is the owner of a large group of companies called Lotus Capitals.”

Despite COVID restrictions, though, Urvashi says it feels amazing to be back on sets.

“This is one of the first films to start shooting in the time of COVID pandemic along with Akshay Kumar sir’s ‘BellBottom’,” noted the actress, who has in the past worked in the Kannada film, “Mr. Airvata”.

Baiju Mangeshkar: Never intend to use my surname to get work

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Baiju Mangeskar, the nephew of playback legends Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, says it is tough to be in the Bollywood music business but he wants to find his voice using his merit rather than a family name.

Baiju’s first solo album, “Within You”, has released. Asked why he seems more interested in exploring the independent music scene rather than film playback for a career, he says he is too introverted to push himself aggressively for opportunities in Hindi film music.

“The music business has changed, from the days when my father and aunties were working. I always wanted to find my own voice as an artist rather than go by my family name. By nature, I am an introverted person so I cannot push myself aggressively to find opportunities in Hindi film music. I did sing for a Bollywood film but it did not release. The project did not materialize. I lent my voice in Marathi film music, too. So, I did start my career as a playback singer,” Baiju told IANS.

Baiju, who is composer Hridaynath Mangeshkar’s son, added: “As an individual, I do not differentiate between film and non-film music. If you look at the career of Lata aunty and Asha aunty, they also pursued music in different regions and on different platforms – be it film or independent albums. In our household, music is a sacred thing. There is no distinction between genres.”

“These days the whole system is different. At times, five singers are made to record the same song, and the final decision on whose voice will be retained in the album is taken by people who are not necessarily musically educated. Earlier, the final call was taken by the music director. These days, at times it is the producer, the film director, the actor — the list goes on,” added the singer who released his Sufi album “Ya Rabba” along with aunt Lata Mangeshkar in 2014.

“Even I recorded two songs — I do not want to name the songs — but in the final album, my voice was not kept,” claimed Baiju.

“Within You” comprises six songs sung by Baiju around the theme of Sufism. The album has been musically arranged by Jatin Sharma and young poetess Amruta.

The singer-composer also collaborated with veteran international musicians like jazz harp instrumentalist Susan Mazer and the master of woodwinds and saxophone, Dallas Smith.

Abhishek Bachchan: Web series lets you move away from usual storytelling tropes

Actor Abhishek Bachchan is intrigued by the psychological interplay of his dual role in his debut web series, Breathe: Into The Shadows, and says he would love to explore the character further.

In the show, Abhishek’s character suffers from a split personality disorder — as Dr. Avinash Sabharwal, a distraught father on a lookout for his missing child, and the sinister J.

Looking back at the challenges he faced while getting into the skin of Avinash, Abhishek told IANS: “There were several challenges we faced when we started to flesh out Avi. (Director) Mayank Sharma and I spent weeks, if not months working on all his characteristics and nuances. There were much debate and discussion. We tried our best to make him as relatable as possible. We wanted the viewers to feel that maybe they could know somebody like Avi. He was not designed as your archetypical ‘Hero’.”

“A web series gives you the ability and liberty to move away from the usual tropes of story-telling and characterizations we tend to use in India. But, I feel the biggest challenge was to make it believable that he was capable of doing all the things he is made to do during the show. Also, (it was a challenge) how to incorporate very faint shades of J in certain mannerisms of his,” he added.

Abhishek researched a lot to get the nuances of the things associated with the disorder right.

“Thankfully, since they were two different personalities there weren’t any conflicts to deal with. The director, writers, and I researched the disorder as much as possible to be as accurate as we could. Apart from extensive reading up on the subject we viewed many videos of patients and also has a consultant on board,” he said.

What themes would he like to explore through the character if the story was carried forward? “I would love to explore J. He intrigues me — the way he thinks, behaves and responds to situations,” Abhishek replied.

“Breathe: Into The Shadows” was released on July 10 on Amazon Prime Video, with Abhishek, Nithya Menen, Amit Sadh, and Saiyami Kher leading the show.

Global Covid-19 cases top 23.5mn: Johns Hopkins

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The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 23.5 million, while the deaths have increased to over 811,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Tuesday morning, the total number of cases stood at 23,571,084 and the fatalities rose to 811,748, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US accounted for the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 5,739,068 and 177,248, respectively, according to the CSSE.

Brazil came in second place with 3,622,861 infections and 115,309 deaths.

In terms of cases, India ranks third (3,106,348), and is followed by Russia (959,016), South Africa (611,450), Peru (594,326), Mexico (563,705), Colombia (541,139), Spain (405,436), Chile (399,568), Iran (361,150), Argentina (350,867), the UK (328,620), Saudi Arabia (308,654), Bangladesh (297,083), Pakistan (293,261), France (282,414), Italy (260,298), Turkey (259,692), Germany (236,122), Iraq (207,985), Philippines (194,252), Indonesia (155,412), Canada (127,313), Qatar (117,266), Ukraine (109,234), Bolivia (109,149), Ecuador (108,289), Kazakhstan (104,718) and Israel (104,472), the CSSE figures showed.

The other countries with over 10,000 deaths are the Mexico (60,800), India (57,542), UK (41,519), Italy (35,441), France (30,533), Spain (28,872), Peru (27,663), Iran (20,776), Russia (16,406), Colombia (17,298), South Africa (13,159) and Chile (10,916).