MS Dhoni is an entertainer, he never steps over the boundary

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MS Dhoni is an entertainer, he never steps over the boundary

Mr. Cool, calm and collected — these are the adjectives which have been used for former India skipper MS Dhoni over the years.

But it turns out that even this composed captain can lose his temper. There have been many instances in his career, be it in the Indian Premier League or India, where Dhoni lost his cool.

Having played with Dhoni across all formats of the game, former India opener Gautam Gambhir said: “People say that they have never seen him lose his cool, but I have on a couple of times.

“It was during the 2007 World Cup and in other World Cups when we haven’t done well.”

“He’s human and he’s bound to react as well. It’s absolutely fair enough to do that. Even at CSK, if there’s a mis-field or if someone has dropped a catch. Yes, he’s cool, he’s probably much cooler than the rest of the other captains. Much cooler than me for sure,” he added while speaking on Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’.

Former Australia speedster Brett Lee agreed with Gambhir and said: “We want entertainers, we want people to do that and MS Dhoni is an entertainer.”

“He never steps over the boundary. If he does, it’s very rare. But we are all human as Gautam Gambhir said.”

In the IPL, the likes of Ravindra Jadeja and Deepak Chahar all have faced Dhoni’s wrath at some point or the other.

In 2019, Chahar bowled consecutive no-balls against Kings XI Punjab in the 19th over of the chase and Dhoni was furious. The young pacer learned quickly and bowled Chennai Super Kings to victory.

A few days later, Dhoni was at the epicentre of extra-ordinary scenes during CSK’s chase in Jaipur. After the umpire’s no-ball call was controversially over-ruled by his colleague at square-leg, Dhoni stormed onto the field from the dugout to give the umpires a piece of his mind. MSD didn’t get his way, but CSK ended up winning the game.

Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan also cited an example when the wicketkeeper-batsman lost his cool during a warm-up session.

“It was in 2006-07. During the warm-up, we had a game where the right-handed batsman would bat with the left hand and vice-versa. After we finished the warm-up, we used to get into our practice. So, during the warm-ups, there were 2 teams,” recalled Pathan.

“Once MS Dhoni was given out which he didn’t think he was. He threw his bat and made a dash to the dressing room and came late for the practice. So, he does get angry,” he added.

Over the years, Dhoni has forged a close bond with Jadeja. Back in 2015, even the left-handed all-rounder got an angry stare from his skipper for not doing his job in the field.

Dhoni last played for India during the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. He was slated to lead CSK in the 13th IPL edition which currently stands indefinitely suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic.

AWS announces enterprise search service Amazon Kendra

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AWS announces enterprise search service Amazon Kendra

The Ecommerce giant Amazon’s Cloud arm Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday announced the general availability of Amazon Kendra, an enterprise search service powered by machine learning.

Amazon Kendra uses machine learning to enable organizations to index all of their internal data sources, make that data searchable, and allow users to get precise answers to natural language queries.

Amazon Kendra is currently available in US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), and EU West (Ireland), with other regions coming soon.

“We’re excited to make Amazon Kendra available to our customers and enable them to empower their employees with highly accurate, machine learning-powered enterprise search, which makes it easier for them to find the answers they seek across the full wealth of an organization’s data,” explained Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President, Amazon Machine Learning, AWS.

Companies like 3M, PwC and Allen Institute are among the customers and partners who are already using Amazon Kendra.

According to AWS, businesses can use Amazon Kendra to search internal documents spread across portals and wikis, research organizations can create a searchable archive of experiments and notes, and contact centers can use Amazon Kendra to find the right answer to customer questions across the complete library of support documentation.

Amazon Kendra requires no machine learning expertise and can be set up completely within the AWS Management Console.

“Using keywords is counterintuitive, and the results returned often require scanning through many irrelevant links and documents to find useful information,” said Sivasubramanian.

Amazon Kendra provides a wide range of native cloud and on-premises connectors to popular data sources such as SharePoint, OneDrive, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Amazon Simple Storage Service, and relational databases, with more being added throughout this year.

Developers can quickly and easily add data sources to their Amazon Kendra search index by selecting the connector type, and those connectors will maintain document access rights.

Vivo launches V19 in India, price begins from Rs 27,990

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Vivo launches V19 in India, price begins from Rs 27,990

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo on Tuesday launched Vivo V19, the latest addition to the V-series portfolio in India.

The smartphone will be available in two color options – piano black and mystic silver for Rs 27,990 (8+128GB) and Rs 31,990 (8+256GB), respectively.

The device will go on sale starting May 15 on Vivo India e-store, Amazon.in, Flipkart and other major e-commerce websites along with all offline partner retail stores across India said the company.

“Our V-series has always surprised the audience with its path-breaking camera features and the latest V19 is a splendid addition which will enhance customer experience further,” Nipun Marya, Director Brand Strategy, Vivo India, said in a statement.

The smartphone features a 6.44-inch LIV Super AMOLED FHD+ display is made of the latest E3 OLED and features an aspect ratio of 20:9.

It also offers to bring vibrant and authentic colors to come to life with its 100 percent DCI-P3 color gamut and supports HDR 10 standard.

The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 series processor paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB/256GB internal.

The smartphone houses quad rear camera setup — 48MP main camera, 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, 2MP macro camera and 2MP bokeh camera. V19 also offers the 120-degree ultra-wide lens to capture everything in one frame.

The device also features dual front camera setup, 32MP main camera and an 8MP super wide-angle camera.

V19 runs on 4,500mAh battery and has 33W Vivo FlashCharge 2.0 technology.

Experts tell why some states recovering faster from COVID-19

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Experts tell why some states recovering faster from COVID-19

Even as the Health Ministry said there were 70,756 cases of novel coronavirus so far in India, health experts on Tuesday said there were various reasons why states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu had reported the highest number of cases while others had lesser cases as well as better recovery rates.

Speaking to IANS, Dr. Vivek Nangia, HOD and Director of Pulmonology Department at Fortis Hospital, said: “There can be different possibilities — better control of lockdown, better contact tracing and isolation, lesser number of people returning from abroad and hotspot zones and, finally, a younger population in which recovery rate is higher.”

It is pertinent to mention here that Goa is COVID-free since all 7 corona patients were cured and no casualty was reported. Similarly, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram is at present coronavirus-free. In Manipur also, two patients have since recovered.

Kerala set an example of constantly improving the recovery rate. It was the first Indian state to report corona positive case and saw a sudden spike afterward. But, the state not only flattened the curve but bent it. Of the total 519 cases so far, 489 people have recovered, with only 4 deaths. The recovery rate, based on the total cases, till Tuesday, is 94 percent.

Speaking on this trend, Dr. Nangia said that the primary reason is a better containment strategy adopted by the state. “Kerala specifically has had episodes of Nipah and Zika virus outbreaks in the past. They have learnt how to contain such pandemics in a more effective manner by early identification, contact tracing, and isolation or quarantine.”

As for temperature or climate playing an important role in the transmission or killing of the virus, Dr Nangia said” “It is a novel virus — we are still learning about it. As of now, there does not seem to be much influence of weather or climate on the infection potential of the virus.”

Dr. Saurabh Jain of Indegene, a health tech solutions company, told IANS that robustness of health infrastructure, immunity levels among the population, strict adherence to isolation and quarantine, and aggressive testing seem to be the reason for varying rates of infections and recovery in different states.

“States not able to get suspected patients to hospitals early enough or with not enough healthcare infrastructure could have high incidence and low recovery rates. In states which have high public awareness, robust public health system and extensive testing of symptomatic cases could have better outcomes.”

He added: “Eastern states, especially like Odisha, face a majority of India’s natural disasters, which means that crisis precautions were already in place. Most of this infrastructure was used to fight against COVID – 19.”

Another expert, Oommen John, Senior Research Fellow at George Institute for Global Health, said: “In some of these states, it is likely that they were able to identify those at risk early on and so intervene early. States with high mortality could be those with a large number of very seriously ill patients at the time of hospital admissions. Therefore, their outcomes are worse.”

Indian Railways earns Rs 16 crore on day 1 of booking

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Indian Railways earns Rs 16 crore on day 1 of booking

The Indian Railways, which started the booking for the 15 pairs of Special trains almost two months after suspending the passenger, mail and express train services, have earned Rs 16.15 crore from over 45,500 tickets booked on Monday, officials said.

The railways have started taking bookings for the 15 pair of Special air-conditioned trains on Monday at 6 p.m. online on its IRCTC website. A senior railway ministry official said that on Monday tickets valued at Rs 16.15 crore were sold with 45,533 PNR generated.

He said, for 45,533 PNRs a total of 82,317 passengers will be traveling in the first week from these Special AC trains. The railways have on Sunday announced to partially operate 15 pairs of Special trains from May 12.

The railways has asked the passengers to arrive at the railway station 90 minutes prior to the departure of the train. Thermal screening of passengers will be done before they will be allowed to enter the station premises. The official said that wearing masks has been made mandatory. Passengers have been encouraged to carry their own blankets, water and food for the travel.

The national transporter has set special norms for air-conditioning inside the coaches and temperatures will be kept slightly higher than the usual. The official said that the Special trains will run at full capacity, but railway zones have been instructed to ensure that there are separate entry and exit gates at stations to the extent feasible so that there is no face-to-face movement or contact of passengers.

For now, the Indian Railways have issued a timetable for trains to be run between May 12 and May 20. They will run as daily, weekly or bi-weekly trains.

These trains will run between New Delhi and all major cities across the country: Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.

We will do everything to make podium finish in Tokyo: Nikki

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We will do everything to make podium finish in Tokyo: Nikki

India women’s hockey team midfielder Nikki Pradhan that all the members of the squad want to be known as Olympic medallists, and not just Olympians and that’s why they would do everything to make it to the podium in the Tokyo Games.

The 26-year-old was a part of the team which qualified for the Rio Olympics 2016.

“It was a huge moment for all of us in 2016, I think we were overwhelmed that we had made it there after 36 years. But I believe that was just the start,” said Nikki.

The Tokyo Games were scheduled to take place in July-August this year but due to the coronavirus pandemic, they have been postponed to next year.

“I have always dreamt of an Olympic medal, and I know the rest of the girls also want to be known as Olympic medallists, and not just Olympians. So whenever we step foot in Tokyo, we will do everything to make it to the podium,” she added.

Having grown up in the district of Khunti in Jharkhand, Nikki remembered she wasn’t always that confident, and had to take the hard road during her journey to the Indian team, but says it was worth it. “I come from a place which is actually the hotbed of women’s hockey, and it was definitely a very tough journey because back then you would have limited resources.

“At times it was difficult for me to imagine being a professional hockey player, but I think the hard work that I put in, and the support that I received from everyone around me, really proved to be a boost. I started representing the state, which eventually led me to a national team call-up,” said Nikki.

“I think another factor was that I had some big names from my state that I looked up to, especially in women’s hockey. I decided I would do everything possible to give my best and represent India one day, and here I am,” added Nikki, who has over 110 international caps for India.

Having witnessed a lean phase, Nikki said that hockey is on the rise again in Jharkhand, and she expects more girls to make it to the national set-up.

“With Salima (Tete) in the squad, you can see how talented the players in Jharkhand are. She (Salima) has developed really well in the past couple of years, and its good to see someone from my region in the team,” she said.

“It also proves that the sport is again developing constantly and that players are taking it seriously. I certainly expect a lot more players to make it to the squad in the upcoming years.”

Personal data of top celebrities including Priyanka Chopra hacked

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Personal data of top celebrities including Priyanka Chopra hacked

A large media and entertainment law firm in the US representing top-notch celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Bruce Springsteen, and more has experienced a major data breach where hackers got access to personal data of these celebrities.

The trove of data stolen from the New York-based firm by hackers “a total of 756GB” includes contracts, nondisclosure agreements, phone numbers and email addresses, and “personal correspondence “, reports Variety.

The law firm Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, or gsmlaw.com for short, experienced a ransomware attack that apparently involved the appropriately named REvil malware.

Other celebrities whose sensitive personal data has been hacked are Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Jessica Simpson, Naomi Campbell, Robert De Niro, Sofia Vergara, Spike Lee, the Osbournes (Ozzy, Sharon and Kelly), and several more.

Representatives for the law firm did not issue comment and their website gsmlaw.com was effectively offline, displaying only its logo.

In addition, top companies on the firm’s client list include Discovery, EMI Music Group, Facebook, HBO, Imax, MTV, NBA Entertainment, Playboy Enterprises, Samsung Electronics, Sony Corp. Spotify, Tribeca Film Festival, Universal Music Group and Vice Media Group, among others.

According to global cybersecurity firm Sophos, rather than simply knocking the law firm out of action temporarily, the ransomware crooks have stolen personal data from a laundry list of celebrity clients.

In such ransomware attacks, said Sophos, cybercriminals use the threat of releasing the stolen data as leverage to extort payment.

REVil, also known as Sodin or Sodinokibi, isn’t just operating on the old-school ransomware model of “scramble your files and offer to sell you back the decryption key”.

The latest trend in ransomware attacks is to use a double-barrelled weapon that gives victims two reasons to pay up.

According to Sophos, the original criminal plot behind ransomware was that if you didn’t have reliable backups that you could restore quickly, then you might have little choice but to pay up to decrypt all your scrambled files and get your business moving again.

In recent months, however, the cybercriminals have doubled down on their leverage.

Before scrambling all your files as a way of grabbing your attention, the crooks quietly upload huge troves of so-called acetrophy data” that they use to blackmail anyone who is hesitant to pay up.

In other words, the financial extortion is no longer just a “kidnap ransom” to get your files back, but also a blackmail demand to stop the crooks leaking your data – or, worse still, your customers’ data – to the world.

“Indeed, the REvil crew has already followed through on its threats to embarrass victims who don’t pay,” Sophos said in a statement on Tuesday.

Given that ransomware crooks are no longer just keeping you away from your data but also threatening to put the rest of the world in touch with it, prevention is very much better than cure, said Sophos.

Less star-studded but no less worrying is a simultaneous report that global mailing equipment company Pitney Bowes has experienced an attack by the Maze ransomware.

According to Sophos, Maze is another cybercrime gang that goes in for huge ransoms and threatens to expose stolen data, infamously demanding about $6,000,000 last year from cable and wire manufacturer Southwire.

Southwire hit back by filing a so-called John Doe (the name used in the USA where defendants haven’t yet been identified) civil lawsuit against the as-yet-unknown criminals behind Maze.

I’m back: Mike Tyson hints at comeback in training video

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I’m back: Mike Tyson hints at comeback in training video

Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has once again teased fans about his possible comeback to the ring by posting a cryptic message on social media.

In the latest video put on Instagram, Tyson can be seen growling through a workout hitting the pads. “Anything is possible when you are smart about it. Train Smart. Recover Smarter,” he wrote as the caption.

Towards the end of the video, he can be seen saying: “I am back.”

Last week, the 53-year-old had hinted about a possible return to the boxing world when he posted a short video of a workout.

If Tyson does make a return to the boxing ring, New Zealand rugby player Sonny Bill Williams, Australian former NRL player Paul Gallen and Evander Holyfield could be one of his potential opponents.

Tyson, who became the youngest heavyweight champion of all time when he defeated Trevor Berbick in 1986 aged 20, won 50 of his 58 professional fights before retiring after his loss to Kevin McBride in 2005.

Apple may invest $330mn in Taiwanese Mini LED, micro LED factory

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Apple may invest $330mn in Taiwanese Mini LED, micro LED factory

Apple is reportedly planning to invest nearly $334 million in a Taiwan-based factory, owned by Hsinchu Science Park, to produce both LED and micro-LED displays for future devices.

The factory will be built in conjunction with Taiwan’s LED lighting manufacturer Epistar and flat-panel maker AU Optronics, according to a report in Economic Daily News on Tuesday.

Apple has also sent a development team to Taiwan to work on the project and the new factory is aimed at expanding the company’s operations in the area.

Meanwhile, famed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo now claims that iPhone maker’s plan to adopt mini-LED display technology for future hardware products has been pushed back to 2021 owing to the global health crisis.

In a research note with TF International Securities, Kuo said mini-LED chip, panel, assembly, and terminal assembly are expected to begin mass production in the third quarter of 2020, the fourth quarter, the end of the fourth quarter, and the first quarter of 2021, respectively.

Aarogya Setu mandatory for passengers of special AC trains

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Aarogya Setu mandatory for passengers of special AC trains

Even as the 15 pairs of special trains would be operated on select routes from Tuesday nearly two months after all regular passenger services were suspended by the Indian Railways amid the Covid-19 outbreak, the national transporter has made it “mandatory” for passengers to download the Aarogya Setu app.

A senior railway ministry official told IANS, “Aarogya Setu application is mandatory for all passengers traveling by the Special AC trains.” He said it has been made mandatory by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Indian Railways shared the link of downloading the mobile application on its Twitter handle on Monday night.

The official also said that as per the MHA guidelines, on arrival at their destination, the traveling passengers will have to adhere to such health protocols as are prescribed by the destination state or the union territory. “Before commencing the journey, passengers are advised to check their destination state regarding all such protocols,” the ministry said in a tweet.

The railways has asked the passengers to arrive at the railway station 90 minutes prior to the departure of the train. Thermal screening of passengers will be done before they will be allowed to enter the station premises.

The official said that wearing masks has been made mandatory. Passengers have been encouraged to carry their own blankets, water and food for the travel. The national transporter has set special norms for air-conditioning inside the coaches and temperatures will be kept slightly higher than the usual. The official said that the Special trains will run at full capacity, but railway zones have been instructed to ensure that there are separate entry and exit gates at stations to the extent feasible so that there is no face-to-face movement or contact of passengers.

For now, the railways has issued a time table for trains to be run between May 12 and May 20. They will run as daily, weekly, or bi-weekly trains. These trains will run between New Delhi and all major cities across the country: Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.

The Indian Railways has suspended the passenger, mail and express train services since March 25 amid the nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19. Only freight and special parcel trains were running to ensure the supply of the essential items across the country. From May 1, the railways started running the Shramik Special trains to transport the stranded migrant workers, students, pilgrims and tourists from several states. Till date, the railways has run over 513 Shramik Special trains and transported over six lakh people.

New York to end statewide shutdown on Friday

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New York to end statewide shutdown on Friday

New York, the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, will end its statewide shutdown on Friday by reopening three regions where the health crisis has shown signs of weakening, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

Addressing the media on Monday, Cuomo said three regions in the northern part of the state — the Southern Tier, Mohawk Valley, and the Finger Lakes — will enter the first of four reopening phases, reports Xinhua news agency.

Some low-risk businesses including landscaping and gardening, as well as recreational activities such as tennis, can also resume across the state on Friday, said the Governor.

“We are starting a new chapter in the fight against this virus — we’ve worked together as a state to flatten the curve and the decline has finally reached a point where it is just about where we started this journey, so now we can turn to reopening,” said Cuomo.

The seven metrics for determining whether a region could reopen include a decline in total hospitalizations, decline in deaths, new hospitalizations, hospital bed capacity, ICU bed capacity, diagnostic testing capacity and contact tracing capacity.

Industries including construction, manufacturing, wholesale supply chain, agriculture, forestry and fishing could restart operating during the first phase, and a two-week monitoring period is required before entering the next phase, Cuomo said.

If a region sees a failure in meeting all the seven metrics, the reopening effort would be paused until those metrics are met again, he said.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday that non-essential businesses will not reopen before June “unless something miraculous happens”.

He said that the city, which has reported over 185,000 COVID-19 cases, was “clearly not ready yet”, while “by June we will make progress if we keep up what we have been doing”.

New York state has also reported as many as 93 cases of children with a rare inflammatory syndrome likely linked to COVID-19, said Cuomo.

He said at least three children have died, while two more fatalities were under investigation.

According to Cuomo, the syndrome has features that resemble those of Kawasaki Disease or Toxic Shock Syndrome.

Most of the kids have tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies or novel coronavirus, though the connection between the disease and the virus is not yet determined.

This new condition has been reported from across the country during the past week, and the state’s health department is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop national criteria to help health experts in other 49 states to identify and respond to the disease.

So far, a total of 337,055 COVID-19 cases have been reported in New York state, accounting for 25 percent of the national total, with 26,721 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

Equity indices fall, Sensex down 600 points

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Equity indices fall, Sensex down 600 points

The key Indian equity indices plunged on Tuesday morning tracking weakness in the Asian markets, with the BSE Sensex falling over 600 points.

Around 10.05 a.m., Sensex was trading at 30,900.41, lower by 660.81 points or 2.09 percent from the previous close of 31,561.22.

It had opened at 31,342.93 and touched an intra-high of 31,342.93 and a low of 30,895.17.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 9,054.60, lower by 184.60 points or 2 percent from its previous close.

UK coronavirus recovery plan unveiled in detail

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UK coronavirus recovery plan unveiled in detail

The UK government has published a detailed document of the long-expected COVID-19 recovery plan, hoping to gradually ease the lockdown measures while at the same time getting the pandemic under control.

Named as “Our Plan to Rebuild: The UK Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy”, the document published on Monday sets out the three-phase approach, starting this week with further lockdown easing at the start of June and further changes potentially from July 4, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to the 50-page document, those with jobs in food production, construction, manufacturing, logistics, distribution and scientific research in laboratories should return to the workplace from this week.

People should aim to wear a face-covering in enclosed spaces where social distancing is not always possible and they come into contact with others that they do not normally meet, for example on public transport or in some shops, according to the document.

For students, the government wants children of key workers and those who are vulnerable to go back to school at once and all English primary school children to have at least a month’s teaching before the summer holidays.

Homemade cloth face-coverings can help reduce the risk of transmission in some circumstances, said the government.

People can exercise outside as many times each day as they wish from Wednesday instead of just once a day, according to the government.

Depending on the situation, the government is also planning to allow cultural and sporting events to take place behind-closed-doors for broadcast from June.

The third phase, starting at the earliest by July, may see the government reopen some of the hospitality industry and other public places.

Those measures will for now be carried out in England only.

And when traveling to outdoor spaces, the document said it is important that people respect the rules in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and do not travel to different parts of the UK where it would be inconsistent with guidance or regulations issued by the relevant devolved administrations.

As of Tuesday morning, there were 224,332 COVID-19 cases in the UK with 32,141 deaths.

Atal Pension Yojana achieves 2.23 crore enrolment in 5 yrs

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Atal Pension Yojana achieves 2.23 crore enrolment in 5 yrs

The government’s flagship social security scheme, Atal Pension Yojana (APY), has achieved a milestone of 2.23 subscribers as it completes five years of its implementation.

Launched on May 9, 2015, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an objective of delivering old age income security, particularly to the workers in the unorganized sector, the scheme still remains relevant for addressing the challenges of the rapidly increasing aging population of India.

Under the scheme, the government provides the guarantee of minimum pension after 60 years of age.

In its sixth year, the scheme has now been implemented comprehensively across the country covering all the states and Union Territories with male to a female subscription ratio of 57:43.

The journey of APY over these five years has been phenomenal and as on May 9, 2020, the total enrolment under the scheme stood at 2,23,54,028.

During the first two years of its launch, almost 50 lakh subscribers were enrolled, which doubled to 100 lakh in the third year while the milestone of 1.50 crore was achieved in the fourth year.

In the last financial year, almost 70 lakhs subscribers were enrolled under the scheme.

Supratim Bandyopadhyay, Chairman, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), which administers the Atal Pension Yojana, said: “This feat of bringing in the most vulnerable sections of the society under the coverage of pension was possible only with the untiring efforts of public and private banks, regional rural banks, payments banks, small finance banks, department of posts and the support extended by the state-level bankers’ committees.”

APY can be subscribed by any Indian citizen in the age group of 18-40 years having a bank account and its uniqueness is attributable to three distinctive benefits. First, it provides a minimum guaranteed pension ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 on attaining 60 years of age. Secondly, the amount of pension is guaranteed for a lifetime to the spouse on the death of the subscriber. Finally, in the event of the death of both the subscriber and the spouse, the entire pension corpus is paid to the nominee.

“Going forward, we have a humongous task of increasing the pension coverage as only 5 percent of the eligible population has been covered under APY till date. Recognizing the social importance of this scheme, we continuously undertake proactive initiatives for achieving exponential growth and addressing unexpected scenarios as and when they arise,” Bandyopadhyay said.

Twitter introduces new labels, warnings to fight COVID-19 rumours

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Twitter introduces new labels, warnings to fight COVID-19 rumours

Twitter on Monday started introducing new labels and warning messages that will provide additional context and information on some tweets containing disputed or misleading information related to COVID-19.

Twitter said it will take action based on three broad categories:

These include “misleading information” — statements or assertions that have been confirmed to be false or misleading by subject-matter experts, such as public health authorities.

The other two categories are “disputed claims”, statements or assertions in which the accuracy, truthfulness, or credibility of the claim is genuinely contested or unknown; and “unverified claims”, information (which could be true or false) that is unconfirmed at the time it is shared.

Labels will be applied to misleading information and disputed claims.

These new labels will link to a Twitter-curated page or external trusted source containing additional information on the claims made within the tweet.

Depending on the propensity for harm and type of misleading information, warnings may also be applied to a tweet.

These warnings will inform people that the information in the tweet conflicts with public health experts’ guidance before they view it.

For example, a message saying “some or all of the content shared on this tweet conflicts with guidance from public health experts regarding COVID-19” may appear before a user tries to open a tweet with a disputed claim.

“Our teams are using and improving on internal systems to proactively monitor content related to COVID-19. These systems help ensure were not amplifying Tweets with these warnings or labels and detecting the high-visibility content quickly,” Twitter’s Head of Site Integrity Yoel Roth and Director for Public Policy Strategy Nick Pickles wrote in a blog post.

“Additionally, well continue to rely on trusted partners to identify content that is likely to result in offline harm. Given the dynamic situation, we will prioritize review and labeling of content that could lead to increased exposure or transmission,” they added.

Twitter, however, said that embedded tweets and tweets viewed by people not logged into Twitter may still appear without a label.

Amazon reportedly in talks to acquire struggling theatre chain AMC

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Amazon reportedly in talks to acquire struggling theatre chain AMC

Struggling movie theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings saw its stock zooming over 40 percent on Monday after a media report claimed that Jeff Bezos-owned Amazon is in talks to acquire it.

Daily Mail reported, citing sources, that AMC Entertainment Holdings and the e-commerce giant Amazon, also the parent of Amazon Studios, have previously held talks.

AMC is the parent of the AMC and Carmike theatre chains in the US and the Odeon Cinemas chain in the UK.

AMC has been struggling since the COVID-19 pandemic led to shutdowns of movie theatres across the globe.

“A deal would mark a pivotal moment in the history of the film industry and would give the streaming giants an even tighter grip on Hollywood,” said the report.

AMC is reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy, giving Amazon the opportunity to snap it up on the cheap.

“Amazon is understood to have held talks about running the National Lottery in recent months and is said to be eyeing a takeover of satellite company OneWeb, the British firm backed by Sir Richard Branson, which filed for bankruptcy in March in the US,” the report added.

AMC which has about 10,000 screens around the world is now valued at just $420million.

Last month, AMC announced it would no longer screen films made by Universal Pictures, one of the largest studios in Hollywood and behind new Bond film ‘No Time To Die’.

Amazon declined to comment on its interest in AMC. AMC also did not comment on the report.

Speculations fly, but airlines remain grounded

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Speculations fly, but airlines remain grounded

Speculations were rife on Monday regarding the opening up of domestic passenger flight operations in the coming few days.

According to industry insiders, these speculations got triggered after a team of senior bureaucrats from the Civil Aviation Ministry visited the Delhi airport on Sunday.

The visit was to inspect the preparations made by the airport for the eventual restart of passenger operations.

In fact, the senior leadership of the airport’s management accompanied the Ministry team at Terminal 3.

Lately, various machines to sanitize and smoothly manage passenger entry and exit from the terminal building have been installed at the airport.

The airport has made several technology-based unique facilities operational such as UV (ultraviolet) based tunnels to disinfect checkpoint trays and baggage, mobile UV tower to disinfect surfaces in the terminal area, and hand-held UV devices.

In addition, passenger trolley disinfection systems and walk-in shoe sanitizer mats are also unique facilities for passenger safety.

Besides, the limited re-start of railway services from Tuesday has also given life to the idea that immediate approval for the civil aviation operations will be given.

“We expect to get a notification soon on the restart of services from the government and the bookings thereafter,” a senior executive with a travel products company told IANS.

However, there was no official comment on the same.

Even the airline industry contends that it will take time for the operations to restart, as booking inventories are required to be loaded on to online platforms, and the necessary airworthiness certificates obtained for the grounded aircraft.

“There are many areas that need to be addressed like route planning. We have no idea on how many services will be allowed in phases and from where to where these services will be allowed to operate,” an airline industry insider told IANS.

At present, all domestic and international passenger services are banned except for cargo or flights for which special clearances have been taken from the regulator.

In biggest spike so far, Telangana reports 79 new cases

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In biggest spike so far, Telangana reports 79 new cases

In the biggest spike so far, Telangana on Monday reported 79 Covid-19 cases, all from Greater Hyderabad, taking the state’s tally to 1,275.

For a third consecutive day, the state saw a huge jump in the number of cases. As many as 142 cases were reported in three days and barring five migrants, all were recorded in Greater Hyderabad.

There was no immediate official word on how the cases suddenly surged and which are the areas recording new infections.

According to the director of public health and family welfare, 50 people were discharged from hospitals. With this, the number of people cured/discharged rose to 801. There are 444 patients undergoing treatment at Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad.

The death toll remained unchanged at 30 as no death was reported on Monday.

The Covid-19 cases were showing a declining trend for the last 7-10 days and the government was confident that there would be no cases by May 8. However, the sudden spike has dealt a blow to the government’s efforts.

The surge continued despite the focus of authorities on Hyderabad, the worst among the state’s 33 districts. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), which covers Hyderabad and its surroundings, account for nearly 60 percent of all the cases registered so far.

Meanwhile, the number of districts that reported no new cases for the past 14 days further mounted to 26. Three districts have not reported a single case.

The state has already requested the Centre to upgrade 14 districts from the orange zone to the green zone and three districts from the red zone to the orange zone.

This will leave the state with just three red zone districts – Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, and Medchal.

Instagram rolls out new features to help businesses

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Instagram rolls out new features to help businesses

Facebook-owned Instagram on Monday announced new features to help businesses which are facing immense challenges during the Covid-19 crisis.

Instagram launched a ‘Support Small Business’ sticker that users can incorporate into their Stories to talk about their favorite small businesses.

Other Instagram users will be able to see who is using the sticker via a shared Story, raising awareness and visibility for those businesses.

“As many stores remain closed and social media serves as an online Main Street, the shift to doing business online is more urgent than ever,” Instagram said in a statement.

“We’re announcing new ways for people to support and discover small businesses, along with more tools for keeping businesses informed and connected with their customers,” the photo-sharing app added.

The company is also making it easier for businesses to communicate with customers by adding a dedicated Business Inbox in the Messenger app, reports TechCrunch.

Instagram also said that Facebook’s Businesses Nearby feature can be used to find information on which local businesses are still providing goods and services, message those businesses and buy from them via third-party apps, giving those businesses more virtual foot traffic.

“We want to do everything we can to support small businesses right now, whether that’s building new tools to help them stay in touch with customers or giving people the power to easily show their love to businesses they care about,” said Instagram COO Justin Osofsky.

Businesses on Facebook can also tag posts related to COVID-19 on their pages in order to keep people updated.

Delhi cases up by over 2,600 in 10th of outbreak

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Delhi cases up by over 2,600 in 10th of outbreak

The 10th week of the coronavirus outbreak in Delhi saw it record over 2,600 new cases as the national capital entered the 11th week on Monday.

The data from the Health Department says the 10th week (May 4-10) saw 2,684 new cases — highest in a week.

In a gradual rise, the seventh week (April 13-19) witnessed 849 positive cases, the eighth week (April 20-26) 915 cases and the number of positive cases in the ninth week (April 27-May 3) crossed the four-digit figure to reach 1,631.

The first case of the coronavirus infection in the national capital was reported on March 4 and the first week had only witnessed three cases.

While the number of cases were increasing in double digits till the fourth week (March 23-29), the first week of April — the fifth week of the outbreak — had seen a huge jump of 431 new cases.

The tally of cases in the first week was only three; at the end of the second week (March 9-15), there were only seven cases in the city with one death.

By the third week, the count of the positive cases reached 30 but in the next(March 23-29) more than doubled to 72 and the toll was two.

It was at the end of the fourth week when the Markaz incident was reported and early in the fifth week, more than 2,300 people were evacuated from its building in Nizamuddin.

People from different parts of the country and world were found living under one roof without following any social distancing.

By the end of the fifth week — between March 30 and April 5 — the total cases reported in the national capital had crossed 500-mark and stood at 503, with seven deaths.

In the sixth week, more than 650 new cases were reported and the total count of coronavirus infection had touched 1,154. In this week, total of 17 deaths were reported in the city, taking the toll to 24.

The next week — between April 13 and 19 — not just saw 849 new cases reported, but the death count had also seen a steep hike with 21 deaths — highest in a week so far.

By April 19, while the cases reported touched 2,003, the toll mounted to 45.

In the eight weeks (April 20-26) there were even more positive cases reported in the city. With 915 new cases, the positive patient count reached 2,918 with the toll touching 54.

The ninth week of the coronavirus infection in the city witnessed 1,631 new cases with the tally reaching 4,549 by the night of May 3. With 10 new deaths reported that week, the toll stood at 64.

The last week or the week between May 4 and 10, not just witnessed the highest number of cases reported in a week but also broke twice the record of cases reported in a day.

With 2,684 new cases reported last week, the total cases on Monday stood at 7,233. Nine deaths were reported last week and the toll is 73 now.

In terms of the number of cases reported in a day, May 6 and May 7 stood at the top of the chart with 428 and 448 cases respectively.

Before that, 384 cases were reported in a day on May 3.

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