New Zealand confirms 7 new COVID-19 cases

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New Zealand confirms 7 new COVID-19 cases

New Zealand reported seven new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The new confirmed cases, all from community transmission, took the overall caseload total to 1,258, reports Xinhua news agency.

Six were already linked to previous cases in the cluster outbreak, and one remained under investigation, it was said.

The total number of active Covid-19 cases in New Zealand was 56, of which 37 were from the recent community outbreak, and 19 were imported cases in managed isolation and quarantine facilities, said the ministry.

Of the 37 cases, 35 were linked to an identified cluster, and two remained under investigation, but are believed to be linked to the same cluster, said the ministry.

National tracing service had 1,090 close contacts identified with 934 having been contacted on Saturday morning, and they were all self-isolating, the Ministry said.

“We are in the process of contacting the remaining close contacts. If you are called by our contact tracers please take or return the call.”

On Friday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared the Alert Level 3 lockdown for Auckland region and Alert level 2 restriction for the rest of the country to continue for 12 days until August 26.

New Zealand went to a month-long national Alert Level 4 lockdown in late March and declared an early success of the Covid-19 battle in June.

New cases resurfaced in the country earlier this week after a gap of 102 days.

Huawei patents foldable smartphone with stylus, sub-display

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Huawei patents foldable smartphone with stylus, sub-display

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has patented a new foldable smartphone with a stylus and a sub-display.

Huawei filed the design patent back in 2019 with the CNIPA (China National Intellectual Property Administration) which has now got approval and published, reports GizmoChina.

According to the patent images, the foldable smartphone will come with a stylus and a sub-display right next to the primary screen, which follows an inward folding design.

“This sub-display is narrow and long, covering the entire length on the left side, and features two cutouts for a dual front-facing camera system”.

Huawei recently filed a patent for smartphones with all-screen fingerprint unlock technology.

In addition, the firm disclosed that the new full-screen fingerprint technology will allow the users to respond to text messages without the need to unlock the phone.

The users will still have the option to “activate sensors in a chosen area on the screen while deactivating the rest on the screen space.”

Study reveals why walking to work better for health

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Study reveals why walking to work better for health

Researchers have found that walking with a purpose — especially walking to get to work — makes people walk faster and leads to health benefits.

The study, published in the Journal of Transport and Health, found that walking for different reasons yielded different levels of self-rated health.

People who walked primarily to places like work and the grocery store from their homes, for example, reported better health than people who walked mostly for leisure.

“We found that walking for utilitarian purposes significantly improves your health and that those types of walking trips are easier to bring into your daily routine,” said study researcher Gulsah Akar from the Ohio State University in the US.

For the findings, the research team analyzed self-reported health assessments from 125,885 adults between the ages of 18 and 64.

Those adults reported the number of minutes they spent walking for different purposes – from home to work, from home to shopping, from home to recreation activities, and walking trips that did not start at their homes.

And, the survey respondents ranked how healthy they were on a scale of one to five. The dataset the researchers analyzed included more than 500,000 trips.

The researchers found that walking for any duration, for any purpose, increased how healthy a person felt.

But they also found that an additional 10 minutes of walking per trip from home for work-based trips – say, from a person’s house to the bus stop 10 minutes away – increased that person’s odds of having a higher health score by six percent compared with people who walk for other reasons.

People who walked from home for reasons not connected to work, shopping or recreation were three percent more likely to have a higher health score.

The researchers also found that walking trips that begin at home are generally longer than walking trips that begin somewhere else.

The team found that 64 percent of home-based walking trips last at least 10 minutes, while 50 percent of trips that begin elsewhere are at least that long.

The findings suggest that building activity into parts of a day that are otherwise sedentary – commuting by foot instead of by car, for example – can make a person feel healthier.

“That means going to a gym or a recreation center aren’t the only ways to exercise,” the study authors wrote.

Renewed Digital India push: PM assures OFC to each village in 3 years

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Renewed Digital India push: PM assures OFC to each village in 3 years

Giving a new fillip to the Digital India vision Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced that every village in the country will be connected by the optical fiber cable (OFC) in the next 1,000 days, nearly 3 years.

Addressing the nation on Independence Day, Modi said that the Union Territory of Lakshadweep on the Arabian Sea will be connected with submarine optical fiber cable. The announcement comes days after a similar submarine optical fiber cable connectivity was announced to the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Noting that around 1.5 lakh villages have been connected by optical fiber in the last six years, he said: “In the next 1,000 days every village of the country will be connected by optical fiber.”

Comparing the progress under previous governments, he said that till 2014 only 60,000 villages were connected, which multiplied in the next 6 years.

Under the ambitious BharatNet, optical fiber cable under which 1,54,999 Gram Panchayats have been connected as of August 8, 2020, according to government data. The second phase of the project is underway. India has over 6 lakh villages and with the latest announcement by the PM around 4.5 lakh villages will have to be connected in the stipulated time of 1,000 days

However, the progress has been slow in comparison to the target set by the government, with concerns of low funds also raised by several states.

Prime Minister’s renewed emphasis and the target would, however, give a major push to the project of making rural India truly digital.”

Applauding the role of Digital India’ mission amid the pandemic, he said that in the last month, transactions of nearly Rs 3 lakh crore took place just through BHIM UPI last month.

Among other major announcements, from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Modi announced the government is working on a multi-modal connectivity infrastructure with the Rs 110 lakh crore National Infrastructure Pipeline in place.

Pak batsmen employing defensive approach, scared of playing shots: Inzamam

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Pak batsmen employing defensive approach, scared of playing shots: Inzamam

Former skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq has lashed out at Pakistan batsmen for their defensive approach in the ongoing second Test against England being played at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton.

Pakistan has so far scored 223 runs for the loss of nine wickets in their first innings in the 86 overs played across the two days of the Test match, with rain and bad light playing spoilsport on both the days. Only Abid Ali (60) and Mohammad Rizwan (60*) have been able to tackle the England bowlers so far in the match.

“Pakistan batsmen were scared of playing their shots. If you look at most of their dismissals, their bat was behind their leg,” Inzamam said on his YouTube channel.

“When you meet the ball, your bat should be ahead of your leg. You are getting caught at slips because you are employing a defensive approach.”

The 50-year-old said that Pakistan should play an aggressive brand of cricket as only then they can defeat England in their own backyard.

“I request the batsmen and team management to play aggressive cricket, in order to beat England. Otherwise, we will be depending on rain to save us in this Test,” he said.

Pakistan is 0-1 down in the ongoing series after losing the opening Test by three wickets at Old Trafford. They need to win or draw the ongoing Test to keep the three-match series alive.

Why India needs a strong cybersecurity policy soon

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Why India needs a strong cybersecurity policy soon

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reiterated that the government will soon unveil a new cybersecurity policy.

During his speech from the Red Fort on the 74th Independence Day, Modi said that India is alert, cautious and is taking decisions to counter cyber threats and is constantly developing new systems.

The draft of National Cyber Security Strategy 2020, which envisages creating secure cyberspace in India, is ready and is likely to be finalized this year.

“The threats from cyberspace can endanger all these aspects of Indian life. The government is alert to this threat and is taking all the necessary action,” Modi said.

The government recently banned several Chinese apps to protect the personal data of Indian users.

As nation-state bad actors from countries like China, Russia, and Pakistan amid the demand to keep the data of Indians to remain within the boundaries of the country, the government has envisioned the “National Cyber Security Strategy 2020”.

“Cyber intrusions and attacks have increased in scope and sophistication targeting sensitive personal and business data, and critical information infrastructure, with an impact on national economy and security. The present cyber threat landscape poses significant challenges due to rapid technological developments such as Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, 5G, etc,” according to the draft.

“New challenges include data protection/privacy, law enforcement in evolving cyberspace, access to data stored overseas, misuse of social media platforms, international cooperation on cybercrime & cyber terrorism, and so on”.

Digitization in India will dramatically rise in a post-COVID-19 scenario which in turn will increase demand for greater cybersecurity and privacy, according to experts.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, as businesses are still coping up, cybersecurity is being seen as a core technology to keep companies secure as they go online and virtual, and as emerging deep tech such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain evolves, investment in cybersecurity will be a key differentiator for companies offering such services.

“We have joined hands with DSCI (the Data Security Council of India) in establishing a National Centre of Excellence to accelerate innovation and make India an attractive cybersecurity market,” Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said recently.

Ransomware-related cyber attacks on the Indian enterprises saw a significant rise in the first three months of the year, and the increase has been enabled by operators offering ransomware as a service (RaaS) to cyber attackers.

The report from Global cybersecurity major K7 Computing also found that Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad recorded the highest rate of infections amongst Tier-I cities.

Guwahati, Jaipur, and Jammu had the highest infection rate of 38 percent each, followed by Patna at 35 percent among Tier-II cities.

One in two Indian companies have experienced a data breach involving the loss or theft of more than 1,000 records containing sensitive or confidential customer or business information in the past two years and the Covid-19 has only accelerated the cyberattacks, according to Sandip Patel, General Manager, IBM India/South Asia.

For 46 percent of Indian firms, data breaches led to significant disruption to their IT and business processes, according to a recent global survey conducted by Ponemon Institute and sponsored by IBM Security.

Tesla developing training computer ‘Dojo’ to process video data

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Tesla developing training computer ‘Dojo’ to process video data

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that the EV maker is working on a neural network (NN) training computer called Dojo to process vast amounts of video data.

“Tesla is developing a NN training computer called Dojo to process truly vast amounts of video data. It’s a beast! Please consider joining our AI or computer/chip teams if this sounds interesting,” Musk said in a tweet on Friday.

A neural network is a type of machine learning which models itself after the human brain, creating an artificial neural network that via an algorithm allows the computer to learn by incorporating new data.

Musk said ‘Dojo’ would be available in a “limited public release in 6 to 10 weeks.”

“Project Dojo” was revealed during the recent Tesla Autonomy Investor Day held recently, Musk mentioned “Dojo” as the key to labeling visual data, which is currently a very difficult task.

“Project Dojo” is Tesla’s attempt to create a computer that can engage videos of driving to become more proficient at the skill.

“Dojo” is made in order to train a host of multiple AI that will enable Tesla electric cars to drive on their own.

According to Musk, the goal is to take in huge amounts of image and video data and perform unsupervised learning.

“Project Dojo” is likely to be unveiled during next year’s road to autonomy Tesla event.

Patriotism comes from love, jingoism from hatred: Filmmaker Raja Krishna Menon

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Patriotism comes from love, jingoism from hatred: Filmmaker Raja Krishna Menon

Filmmaker Raja Krishna Menon is gearing up for his next film, the war action drama titled Pippa, and he says there is a marked line separating patriotism, nationalism, and jingoism as portrayed on screen.

“I think defining patriotism is important, and there is a fine line between patriotism and jingoism. Patriotism comes from a love for your motherland, for the place that you come from, and it holds a sense of belonging. It does not come by hating a community or people or land. It has to be about love and not about hate. For me, my love for my country is not about my hate towards others,” Menon told IANS.

Considering the fact that we are living in effervescent socio-political times when nationalism is a sensitive topic, how do films play a role in influencing people?

Menon, who made a mark with his 2016 release “Airlift”, said: “I do not think it is about socio-political times, I think it is about the choices we make. Living in an age of information and technology that we use excessively, our mind is filled with the knowledge that is good, bad, and ugly.”

He recalled an incident from his “Airlift” days: “I remember when I went to a theatre to check reaction after the release of ‘Airlift’, the entire audience stood up in the last few minutes as if what happened on screen was their achievement! I think with films, we can penetrate some kind of collective consciousness.”

His take on patriotism is clear: “Patriotism is about a sense of achievement on real issues — of good roads, clean drinking water, employment, social harmony, saving the lives of people. War is dark, the business of war is darker. For me, therefore, patriotism is about feeling proud of my nation. That pride comes from our achievement, not from hatred towards others,” the filmmaker signed off.

Menon’s upcoming film “Pippa” stars Ishaan Khatter in the central role, and is produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur.

Sri Lanka Cricket willing to host India-England Tests next year: report

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Sri Lanka Cricket willing to host India-England Tests next year: report

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has reportedly indicated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) their willingness to host India’s Test series against England scheduled to be played early next year if need arises amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a report in ‘The Island’, England’s five-match Test series in India could be in doubts with the host nation struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and SLC is willing to host the contest between the two cricketing nations.

The report further said that England is scheduled to tour Sri Lanka in early January next year to conclude their series which was postponed in March this year. And thus there is a possibility of the Three Lions to stay back after their two Tests in Sri Lanka to play the series against India.

“The possibility of England staying back after their two Tests in Sri Lanka to complete the series against India has been given some thought after SLC came up with the suggestion,” said the report.

Last week, the BCCI and the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed that England’s white-ball tour of India, originally scheduled for late September to early October this year, has been postponed until early 2021.

England was scheduled to tour India in September as part of the FTP to play three T20Is and as many ODIs and then return again in January 2021 to play five Test matches.

Over 25 lakh coronavirus cases have been reported in India so far while more than 49,000 people have lost their lives due to COVID-19. Whereas in Sri Lanka, the situation is much better as around only 3,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported till now.

Pankaj Tripathi: Films can’t alter reality but can steer conversation

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Pankaj Tripathi: Films can’t alter reality but can steer conversation

Actor Pankaj Tripathi says films cannot entirely alter reality but can steer a conversation that will subsequently change mindsets, systematically and over time.

In his latest release “Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl”, Pankaj plays a father who is also a feminist of sorts. The film, directed by Sharan Sharma, stars Janhvi Kapoor in the title role.

The actor always wanted to focus on a film like “Gunjan Saxena” — a tale of empowerment that aims to inspire young girls to strive harder to fulfil their dreams.

“There was this beautiful line in the film that said — Plane ladka udaaye ya ladki… dono ko pilot hi kehte hain’. In a beautiful simple line, the film and its story simply smashed years of set gender roles. Being a father to a daughter myself, the story shifted something within me. I want more fathers to be like Anuj Saxena (his character) and more daughters to be like Gunjan,” he said.

The father of a 14-year-old daughter, Pankaj says the film reminded him of several stories of his female colleagues, acquaintances, even people in his family.

“I drew a lot from my own experiences for this film and kept recounting every instance of sacrifice I have seen women make to fit into gender normative roles assigned by the patriarchal society. Yes, probably films can’t entirely alter reality but they can steer a conversation that will subsequently change mindsets, systematically and over a prolonged period of time,” he concluded.

Covid-19 patients with heart problems more likely to die: Study

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Covid-19 patients with heart problems more likely to die: Study

In a major study, researchers have found that Covid-19 patients with cardiovascular comorbidities or risk factors are more likely to develop heart complications while hospitalized, and more likely to die from the virus.

According to the study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, it is crucial for clinicians working with cardiovascular patients to understand the clinical presentation and risk factors for Covid-19 infection in this group.

“For most people, the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) causes mild illness, however, it can generate severe pneumonia and lead to death in others,” said study authors from the Magna Graecia University in Italy.

In the new study, the research team analyzed data from 21 published observational studies on a total of 77,317 hospitalized Covid-19 patients in Asia, Europe, and the US.

At the time they were admitted to the hospital, 12.89 per cent of the patients had cardiovascular comorbidities, 36.08 per cent had hypertension and 19.45 per cent had diabetes.

The findings showed that cardiovascular complications were documented during the hospital stay of 14.09 per cent of Covid-19 patients.

According to the researchers, the most common of these complications were arrhythmias or palpitations; significant numbers of patients also had myocardial injury.

Myocardial injury is considered acute if there is a rise and fall of cardiac troponin concentrations exceeding biological and analytical variation.

When the researchers analyzed the data, they found that pre-existing cardiovascular comorbidities or risk factors were significant predictors of cardiovascular complications, but age and gender were not.

The study showed that both age and pre-existing cardiovascular comorbidities or risk factors were significant predictors of death.

“Cardiovascular complications are frequent among Covid-19 patients and might contribute to adverse clinical events and mortality,” the study author concluded.

Gonzalo Higuain not planning to leave Juventus

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Gonzalo Higuain not planning to leave Juventus

The father of Gonzalo Higuain has denied speculation that the Argentinian striker could leave Juventus this summer.

The 32-year-old has a year left on his contract but media reports have linked him with a move to his former club River Plate following a disappointing 2019-20 season in which he scored just 11 goals in 44 matches.

“He is not going to give up his contract to go to any team,” Jorge Higuain told Buenos Aires radio station Planeta 947 on Friday, reports Xinhua news agency.

“I think he will fulfill his current contract and only then will he think about going to River or any other club. Right now it’s almost impossible for Gonzalo to go to River.”

According to media reports, Higuain’s future has been clouded by the Juventus board’s decision to replace manager Maurizio Sarri with Andrea Pirlo.

Sarri was Higuain’s head coach at Napoli and Chelsea and was responsible for the center-forward’s move to Turin in July 2019.

Higuain began his professional career at River Plate in 2004 and scored 15 goals in 41 matches for the Buenos Aires outfit before his January 2007 transfer to Real Madrid.

‘God bless our great nation’: Kohli leads wishes on 74th Independence Day

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‘God bless our great nation’: Kohli leads wishes on 74th Independence Day

Team India captain Virat Kohli on Saturday took to social media as he led the wishes from cricket fraternity on the occasion of the country’s 74th Independence Day.

“Wishing everyone a Happy Independence Day! God bless our great nation and its countrymen especially the ones who are away from their families, fighting on the front lines to keep us safe. Jai Hind,” Kohli said in a tweet.

Rohit Sharma tweeted, “Wishing every Indian a happy #IndependenceDay. Nothing like stepping out for your country.”

“Going out and playing for my nation is a matter of pride! Happy #IndependenceDay, India,” said Shikhar Dhawan.

“The Jallianwala bagh massacre made my heart cringe, the swadeshi movement made my heart swell in pride. We marched on to liberate ourselves in 1947 and we will march on to get over this pandemic soon enough. Happy Independence today to the billion Indians. #IndependenceDay2020,” said Ravichandran Ashwin.

Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, meanwhile, posted a video on the microblogging website where he reminisced the Independence Day celebrations in his school days and urged fellow countrymen to stay safe amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

“Happy Independence Day. Let’s celebrate the freedom & salute our freedom fighters who are still fighting to protect us. Can’t thank you enough for your patriotism & all the sacrifices you make. Prosperity, happiness, and health to all!” wrote Suresh Raina.

“Pride. Passion. Euphoria. Nothing can even come close to the feeling of donning my country’s jersey. Happy #IndependenceDay!” said Mayank Agarwal.

“As we celebrate 74th #IndependenceDay, let’s pay our respect to freedom fighters & jawans for their countless sacrifices to build an independent #India. Our strength is in what India can do on its own, and not on what it can import/buy #VocalForLocal #MakeInIndia Jai Hind,” tweeted head coach Ravi Shastri.

“On this day, let’s pay tribute to all the freedom fighters who made our freedom possible. May the tricolor always keep flying high. Warm wishes to everyone on the occasion of Independence Day,” said BCCI secretary Jay Shah.

Want to emulate the way Harmanpreet Singh plays, says Sanjay

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Want to emulate the way Harmanpreet Singh plays, says Sanjay

Indian junior men’s hockey team defender Sanjay has taken a lot of cues from the way Harmanpreet Singh has performed as the defender and the vice-captain for the senior team in the last few years.

Sanjay, who was the vice-captain during India’s Silver medal-winning campaign at the Sultan of Johor Cup last year, has expressed that he is always amazed to see how Harmanpreet covers a lot of ground during matches and how he is always there at the right place at the right time.

“It’s always amazing to see the way Harmanpreet plays his game. He has made an immense contribution to many of India’s victories in the recent past. He shows a lot of energy during matches by covering a lot of ground and being a great bridge between the midfielders and the defenders,” said the 19-year-old.

“He has scored a lot of goals as well, which goes to show that he is not focussing only on the defense side of things,” he added.

Sanjay, who has played 31 matches for the junior team since October 2017, also said that he couldn’t have asked for a better start to his junior international career.

“All of us judge our performances on the basis of how we play in big tournaments and I have been very fortunate to contribute to the Indian junior team’s success in the last few years. The Sultan of Johor Cup 2017 was the first junior international tournament that I played and we won a bronze medal there. And then we went on to clinch silver at the 3rd Youth Olympic Games 2018. So, it’s been a great start to my junior international career and I hope I get to play many more matches in the future,” said the defender.

While speaking about his biggest dreams, Sanjay firmly mentioned that his only goal at the moment is to find a place in the Indian senior team.

“I have been pretty happy with the way things have gone for me at the junior level, but I certainly want to take my game to the next level and hopefully one day I will make the transition to the Indian senior team. It’s the ultimate goal for any aspiring hockey player and I am no different.

“I have learned how to play in pressure situations and I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the leadership group during the Sultan of Johor Cup last year. I am certainly going to hone my skills further and be absolutely ready when the big opportunity of playing for my country comes my way,” said Sanjay.

India to spend Rs 100L Cr on 7K infra projects

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India to spend Rs 100L Cr on 7K infra projects

Aimed at eliminating silos, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced that India will spend Rs 100 lakh crore on 7,000 National Infrastructure projects.

For this, the Prime Minister said, a very big plan has been prepared to connect the entire country with Multi-Modal Connectivity.

“About 7,000 projects of different sectors have also been identified. It would be like a new revolution in infrastructure. The country is moving towards spending more than Rs 100 lakh crore on this project,” Modi said during his speech from the Red Fort on the 74th Independence Day.

Mentioning the need to eliminate silos in the era of infrastructure, Modi said there is a need to give a new direction to the overall infrastructure so that India moves towards modernity at a fast pace.

“This need will be met with the National Infrastructure Pipeline Project.” He said many big companies of the world are turning to India presently and that “we have to move forward with the mantra of Make in India as well as Make for World”.

At the event, the Prime Minister also announced that a new national cybersecurity strategy has been drafted in the country. He said India is alert, cautious and is taking decisions to counter these threats and is constantly developing new systems.

Modi further announced that every village in the country will be connected with optical fibre in the coming 1,000 days and that the goal will be met.

Informing that only five dozen panchayats in the country were connected with optical fibre before 2014, Modi said 1.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country have since been connected with optical fibre in the last few years.

He said Lakshadweep will also be connected to submarine optical fibre cable.

To give modern infrastructure to the farmers of the country, he said, an Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of Rs 1 lakh crore has been created.

The Prime Minister stressed on border and coastal infrastructure mentioning its big role in the security of the country, saying “be it the Himalayan peaks or the islands of the Indian Ocean, today there is an unprecedented expansion of road and internet connectivity in the country, expanding rapidly”.

“There are more than 1,300 islands in our country. In view of their geographical location, considering their importance in the development of the country, work is underway to start new development schemes in some of these selected islands,” he said.

He mentioned a special campaign was also being worked on with a holistic approach to reduce pollution in 100 selected cities of the country.

The Prime Minister also announced that another big campaign, National Digital Health Mission, is going to be launched in the country from Saturday to bring a new revolution in India’s health sector.

WhatsApp rival Telegram finally adds video call support

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WhatsApp rival Telegram finally adds video call support

WhatsApp’s closest rival Telegram has announced that it is launching video call functionality in all its desktop and mobile apps.

The feature, currently available in Telegram beta, will officially arrive with version 7.0 of the application.

“You can start a video call from your contact’s profile page, and switch video on or off at any time during voice calls,” the company said in a statement on Friday.

Like all other video content on Telegram, video calls support picture-in-picture mode, “allowing you to scroll through chats and multitask while maintaining eye contact”.

As with the voice calls, all video calls in Telegram are being end-to-end encrypted.

The app will show four emoji on screen for the user and the call partner. If both have the same four emoji, the call is encrypted.

In addition, Telegram has also added more animated emoji options for commonly used emoji. If you type any of these emoji in chat, a larger, animated version will appear instead.

Earlier, Telegram rolled out a substantial update, adding Profile Videos along with improved People Nearby features, unlimited file sharing with up to 2GB per file, and more.

Facebook begins merging Instagram, Messenger chats: Report

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Facebook begins merging Instagram, Messenger chats: Report

In a fresh bid to allow cross-messaging among its family of apps, Facebook has reportedly started merging Instagram and Messenger chats.
First spotted by The Verge, the update is for both iOS and Android devices.

The update comes with the message: “There’s a New Way to Message on Instagram”.

“Once you hit the update, the regular DM icon in the top right of Instagram is replaced by the Facebook Messenger logo,” the report mentioned.

Currently, the functionality to message Facebook users from Instagram is not possible.

Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion.

In another step to integrate its family of apps that are being used by 3.14 billion users globally, Facebook has also integrated Messenger rooms with WhatsApp on the Web.

People can now access Messenger Rooms which allow group video calls of up to 50 people with no time limit via WhatsApp on the desktop.

The Messenger Rooms integration is yet to arrive on WhatsApp on mobile.

The world of social media is soon going to change as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg inches closer to fulfill its dream of integrating all his services into one cross-platform movement of personal data among Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Zuckerberg has revealed his plans to integrate its chat services to let billions of users message one another across platforms. Calling it a long-term project, Zuckerberg had said the cross-app functionality will happen in 2020 or beyond.

More than the commercial benefits of the chat integration between the apps, he said he was concerned about data encryption.

65K Covid cases in 24 hours, 41 died every hour

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65K Covid cases in 24 hours, 41 died every hour

A total of 65,002 cases of COVID infection across India was reported in the last 24 hours, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday stressing that 71.61 percent of Corona patients so far have recovered.

A total of 49,036 people have lost their lives to the virus so far, the ministry stated as 996 people lost died in the past one day, over 41 people every hour.

India is the third worst-hit nation by the pandemic. The total number of COVID cases reported to date is 25,26,192 and the number of people who recovered stands at 18,08,936.

As per the records of the ministry, in the last 24 hours, a total of 57,381 people have recovered. It also pointed out that there are at present 6,68,220 active cases across the country.

Maharashtra remained the worst-hit state with 1,51,865 active cases. A total of 4,01,442 people have recovered from the infection in the state and 19,427 lost their lives, 364 of them in the last 24 hours.

In Karnataka, there are 79,209 active cases and 1,28,182 people have recovered from the deadly virus. A total of 3,717 people have succumbed to the 104 in the past one day.

In Andhra Pradesh, a total of 89,907 cases are active. A total of 1,80,703 people have recovered and 2,475 succumbed to the virus.

Delhi has 11,366 active cases and 1,35,108 people have recovered from the virus. So far, 4,178 people have lost their lives.

As many as 8,68,679 samples were tested on Friday, taking the total to 2,85,63,095 being tested to date, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Independence Day celebrated in Odisha

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Independence Day celebrated in Odisha

The Independence Day was celebrated across Odisha on Saturday with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik hoisting the Tricolour at Exhibition Ground here and paying tribute to COVID warriors in his address to the state.

The Chief Minister also paid rich tribute to freedom fighters who have sacrificed their lives in freedom movements.

For the first time, the flag hoisting ceremony was held without the participation of the public.

“India has been fighting Covid-19 for the past five months. I pay my tribute to COVID warriors martyred in the battle,” he added.

He said Covid-19 has posed a huge challenge not just for India or the world but to the entire human race.

It has deeply affected education, health, economy, tourism, transport as well as human society. Crores of people are losing their livelihood due to the pandemic, said the Chief Minister.

He said the government has set up dedicated COVID hospitals and taken every step so that the patients are not deprived of any treatment available. In view of the prevailing Coronavirus situation, Independence Day was celebrated in schools without students’ participation.

Following COVID guidelines issued by the government, only headmasters and teachers attended the events.

PM Modi gives call for Aatmanirbhar Bharat from Red Fort

TB Team
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PM Modi gives call for Aatmanirbhar Bharat from Red Fort

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of 74th Independence Day on Saturday gave a clarion call for Aatmanirbhar Bharat, saying it is need of the hour and that India will realize this dream.

The Prime Minister said now the time is to eliminate silos in the era of infrastructure and emphasized “vocal for the local campaign”.

“It is the need of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. I am confident that India will accomplish this dream. I am confident of the abilities, confidence, and potential of my fellow Indians. Once we decide to do something, we do not rest till we achieve that goal,” the Prime Minister said while addressing the nation from Red Fort.

Stressing on the “vocal for local” campaign, Prime Minister said, “After all, for how long the raw material from our country will be used by others to deliver us the finished products”.

The Prime Minister said, “To fulfill the Atmanirbhar Bharat dream, we need an integrated infrastructure.” For this, we have prepared a huge plan to connect the entire country through a multi-modal connectivity infrastructure, he added.

Talking about inclusive development, he said we need balanced development where everyone gets the benefits.

Modi also said India has always believed that the entire world is one family and that while we focus on economic growth and development, humanity must retain a central role in this process and our journey.

Talking about the people who have recovered from Corona, PM said, “Over 1,500 “coronaviruswinners” who recovered from the disease, are present at the function as a symbol of the citizens’ determination to fight the pandemic and emerge winners.

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