India’s COVID-19 count on Thursday crossed two grim milestones of 10 lakh cases and 25,000 deaths, according to official data from states, even as the Centre said active cases now constituted one-third of the total infections. The total coronavirus caseload stood at 10,00,202 while there were 25,553 deaths from the disease, according to a PTI tally at 9.30 pm based on reports from states and union territories. India is ranked third in the global COVID-19 tally after the US and Brazil. According to the Union Health Ministry, India has 3,31,146 active COVID-19 cases, which is around a third of the…
Author: Our Correspondent
“Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said after official accounts of prominent personalities from political, tech, entertainment, and other spheres like Barak Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian and tech companies such as Apple and Uber were hacked for promoting a bitcoin scam. In the event, some of the leading cryptocurrency sites were also affected. There is still no clear information on who was responsible for cryptocurrency scam but Twitter said it is investigating the matter and will get back with details soon. Twitter acknowledged the hacking incident almost…
Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Wednesday its corporate Gmail customers would now be able to edit documents and other files without leaving the email service, as it aims to lure clients from rivals by making its tools more integrated. The announcement was made at Google’s cloud unit’s annual customer and partner conference, which has been turned into a virtual gathering over several weeks because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Google has been trying for more than a decade to catch up with Microsoft Corp’s Office, which dominates the global market for corporate email and document-editing tools. Both companies have been…
Tencent Games has released the PUBG Mobile Lite 0.18.3 beta update with a host of new features and additions. These new features will be rolled out to the public, when the company rolls out the PUBG Mobile Lite 0.18.0 update. The new PUBG Mobile Lite 0.18.3 beta update brings in new locations, an improved companion system, new achievements and more. Apart from this, the company in the earlier beta updates has added a new Popularity mode, TDM ruins mode and Slide feature. PUBG Mobile Lite will be celebrating its first anniversary on July 25. Within a year, the game has…
Facebook Inc is calling for clearer, standardized user data privacy policies as part of a white paper focused on potential regulation while governments around the world move to tighten restrictions on how companies can collect information. Customer privacy policies — the often long, complicated outlines for how companies collect and use data — are too difficult for people to find and understand, according to Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan, the paper’s author. Presenting important information via push notifications and pop-ups is also flawed, Egan wrote, as they have become so common that many people don’t always read them. “In…
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s subsidiary UC Web is slashing staff in India after a ban on 59 Chinese-origin mobile apps that includes UC Web’s browser and two other products, according to staff and a company letter seen by Reuters. India last month outlawed the apps following a skirmish between Indian and Chinese forces on a disputed stretch of Himalayan border in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed. It said the apps threatened India’s sovereignty and security and its tech minister described the ban as a “digital strike”. UCWeb, which entered India a decade ago and operated the browser along with…
Home Minister Amit Shah has sent a letter demanding CBI probe in Sushant Singh Rajput’s demise to the concerned department. Bihar MP Pappu Yadav addressed the letter to Shah, and in turn received a confirmation that the letter which he sent on June 16 has been taken forward to the concerned department. Pappu Yadav shared the confirmation letter from Amit Shah on July 14, exactly a month after Sushant’s demise. The actor was found hanging in his Bandra home on June 14, 2020, and the Mumbai Police has declared the actor died by suicide. On Wednesday, former Union Cabin Minister…
India has got its first locally developed pneumonia vaccine, reducing its dependence on imports for immunisation against a disease that contributes to most deaths in children under five years of age. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Tuesday approved Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine developed by Serum Institute of India. The Pune-based company can now manufacture the vaccine in India for use. This vaccine is used for active immunisation against invasive disease and pneumonia caused by “streptococcus pneumonia” in infants. “Having an indigenous pneumococcal vaccine will be a game-changer in our endeavour to reduce child mortality. Pneumonia is…
Rhea Chakraborty shared her first Instagram post since Sushant Singh Rajput’s death on July 14, a month after the actor died by suicide. Rhea was being blamed for Sushant’s death and was even being accused of using the 34-year-old actor by many social media users. Today (July 16), Rhea Chakraborty shared a screenshot of the message that she received on Instagram where the user threatened to get her raped and killed. The actress wrote that she kept quiet when she was called a gold digger, murderer and was slut-shamed but no one has the right to tell her that…
Amid tension between India and China over the Ladakh border dispute – fuelled by the killing of 20 Indian soldiers last month – the armed forces have been granted special powers to purchase up to Rs 300 crore of weapons and equipment for “emergent operational requirements”, the Defence Ministry said Wednesday. https://twitter.com/DefenceMinIndia/status/1283377485841698818?s=20 The decision, taken at a DAC (defence acquisition council) meeting led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, will shrink procurement timelines and ensure the military gets new arms and equipment within 12 months of placement of the order. “DAC delegated powers for progressing urgent capital acquisition cases, up to…