Tuesday, October 25, 2016

25th Oct 2016 Trending News

After Note 7 fiasco, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge explodes in US: Report


After the Note 7 fiasco, a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge owner in the US has claimed that the device which he received as a replacement for the Note 7 exploded while charging.
According to the PhoneArena website, the person went to a popular US wireless carrier's store with a damagedSamsung Galaxy S7 edge -- the highest-selling device from the South Korean tech giant.(more)



Only 57 borrowers have defaulted on bank loans worth a whopping Rs 85,000 crore. The Supreme Court said this after perusing a report submitted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about persons who have taken loans worth over Rs 500 crore and defaulted and asked the central bank why their names should not be made public.(more)

Ratan Tata, patriarch of one of India's most influential families, will take over as interim chairman of Tata Sons after the salt-to-software conglomerate's board ousted Cyrus Mistry, who had sought to shake up the firm's management.
Tata, who had stepped down as chairman and was replaced by Mistry in late 2012, will head the group for four months while the company seeks a replacement.(more)

Tata Group stocks, such as Tata Motors, TCS, Tata Steel, Tata Communications, Tata Metaliks, Titan Company and Tata Chemicals reacted sharply in early deals, and lost 1% - 3% a day after Cyrus Mistry was removed as the chairman of the Group. However, Tata Motors and Titan recovered some lost ground as trade progressed. By comparison, the benchmark indices – the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50 were trading 0.2% lower.(more)
Akhilesh vs Mulayam: Why the SP infighting is bad news for BJP



The split in the Samajwadi Party (SP), which increasingly looks imminent, is bad news for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), not just for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls but also for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
With the Congress weakened, the BJP effort has been to dent the support base as well as credibility of regional political parties that have the potential to form the nucleus of a strong third front in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. (more)

Monday, October 24, 2016

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Final US Presidential Debate: As it happened



08:11 AM
Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump do not shake hands after final debate

08:07 AM
I'm reaching out to all Americans...because we need everybody to make our country what it should be: Hillary Clinton

08:06 AM
We are going to make America strong again, we are going to make America great again. We can't wait for four more years: Trump

08:03 AM
Hillary Clinton accuses Trump of being 'most dangerous' White House candidate in modern history
  


08:03 AM
Will repeal ObamaCare. It is a bad healthcare and it has to go: Trump

08:01 AM
I am going to create tremendous jobs. The GDP will grow from 1% to 4% . I am going to create a country that we were: Trump

08:01 AM
He has been criticising our government for decades. In 1997 he brought out an advertisement that said we were laughing stock of the world: Hillary Clinton. Read 

07:52 AM
Hillary Clinton should have never been allowed to run for presidency: Donald Trump referring to email row

07:51 AM
We will go after Baghdadi like we went after Bin Laden when you (Trump) were doing celebrity apprentice: Hillary Clinton

07:50 AM
Hillary: Once again Donald is denying he supported invasion of Iraq. Trump says : Wrong. Hillary says Google it. Trump: Wrong

07:50 AM
We had Mosul. But when she left, she took everybody out, we lost Mosul: Trump

07:49 AM
Onslaught on Mosul is only happening because Clinton is running for president: Trump

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Over 5.7 million watched a Facebook live link, waiting for Samsung Note 7 to explode


Ever since Samsung Galaxy Note 7 burst into flames, the company has been struggling to restore confidence and trust in the firms products despite the unreleting attack from users who bought t'he smartphone. The blitzkrieg is even more severe on social media. On Monday, Dose, a viral content website, decided to test whether Note 7 catches fire or not by charging it for four hours and broadcasting it live on its Facebook page. Although many waited eagerly to see the premium phone explode, it did not burst into flames. The video has garnered more than 58k shares and 5.7 million views till now.

Problems started for Samsung when reports about Galaxy Note 7 catching fire trickled in. The company tried to address the issue by replacing it with new phones but with similar complaints about the new phones emerging, the company said it was stopping the production and killing the product.
According to a report in Reuters, Samsung India issued an apology to customers in India who pre-ordered the Galaxy Note7. To make it up to them, the company is now offering them an "exclusive"Samsung Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge, with a Samsung Gear VR and a Samsung Level U stereo wireless headset at no additional cost.
Research firm CMR had said Samsung's smartphone shipment to India may fall short by 4 million units in 2016, hit by global recall and halt in production of its flagship Note 7 smartphone. This translates to Rs 6,457 crore in terms of revenues for the company. According to projected growth,Samsung was expected to touch revenues of Rs 45,446 crore in CY 2016, an increase of 46 per cent compared to previous calendar year.Read more.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

BRICS summit: How India failed to convince other nations on Pakistan

BRICS summit: How India failed to convince other nations on Pakistan

The Indian side, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his officials, pushed for the BRICSSummit Goa Declaration to specifically mention “cross-border terrorism” that India was faced with and also the names of Pakistani-based terror outfits. However, it failed to convince the other member states.
The Goa Declaration didn’t refer either to the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is headed by Masood Azhar, the man India believes was behind the Pathankot terrorist attack, or the Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Saeed is considered to be the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks.
It did, however, name such groups as the Islamic State, Jabat-al-Nasra, the Syrian Islamist rebel group, and other UN designated groups. Amar Sinha, India’s chief negotiator in the BRICS, said that India couldn’t get a consensus on naming Pakistan-based terrorist outfits since it doesn’t concern all the BRICS countries.
Later, Islamabad criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement where he called Pakistan “the mothership of terrorism”. Sartaj Aziz, foreign affairs advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said that Modi’s statement was misleading and a desperate attempt to hide India’s brutalities in Kashmir. “Pakistan joins all the members of BRICS and BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) in condemning terrorism and reaffirms its full commitment to fight the menace of terrorism,” Aziz said.Read more.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Surgical strikes achieve tactical closure, not strategic detente: Former NATGRID CEO

Surgical strikes achieve tactical closure, not strategic detente: Former NATGRID CEO

Military power is never about the number of troops, tanks, ships or aircrafts. If military power was all a country needed to establish superiority, America would not have been beaten by Vietnam, the Soviet Union would not have been routed by Afghan tribes and the juggernaut that is the Indian Army would not have been held at bay by a few thousand Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
A country’s military power is actually determined by a combination of economic realities, governance frameworks, national will and strategic thinking – which work together to deliver a punch worthy of its weight.
Surgical strikes : Comparing India’s military power to Pakistan’s from this perspective actually yields a startling conclusion.
In 1999, Pakistan’s army chief at the time was mid-air when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif decided to sack him. Denied permission to land in Pakistan and faced with the option of making an emergency landing on Indian soil, the sacked general decided to land in Karachi anyway. He communicated his orders to his military subordinates through the civilian aviation channel and by the time his plane landed, Pervez Musharraf was firmly back in the saddle while Sharif had been toppled off his. That is the power of the Pakistani military.
Now compare the Pakistani army’s swiftness to India’s handling of the Kandahar hijacking in 1999. When the Indian Airlines flight was taken over by terrorists and parked in Amritsar over the course of its long journey, the Indian establishment could not decide between blocking the aircraft’s departure or letting it go. That ambivalence cost India the advantage it had in being able to control events happening on its own turf.Read more.
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Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Sell-by date of Pakistan's anachronistic approach over: India

Sell-by date of Pakistan's anachronistic approach over: India

The "sell-by date" of Pakistan's "anachronistic approach" is long over and the country should "abandon" its "futile quest" for Kashmir, India has said in a strong rebuttal to Islamabad's allegations that New Delhi is escalating the current situation.
India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin strongly rejected remarks by Pakistan's envoy Maleeha Lodhi, who said during a General Assembly debate on 'Report of the Secretary General on the Work of the Organisation' that India has created conditions that pose a threat to peace and security in the region by its recent "declarations and actions."
Akbaruddin responded sharply by saying that Pakistan's claims in the UN are finding no resonance and it should abandon its quest for Kashmir, which is an integral part of India.
"Our response to Pakistan is consistent. Abandon your futile quest. The state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will remain so," Akbaruddin said asserting that no amount of "misuse" of international platforms by Pakistan will change that reality.
"The sell-by date of Pakistan's anachronistic approach is long over," he said on Wednesday.
Akbaruddin said claims by Pakistan, a global epicenter of terrorism, on Kashmir find no resonance amongst the international community, with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif raising the Kashmir issue in his General Assembly address also finding no support.Read more

Over 500 call centre employees detained in Thane for duping US citizens

Over 500 call centre employees detained in Thane for duping US citizens

In a major raid, over 500 employees of some call centres were detained for allegedly threatening US citizens and siphoning off their money in Mira Road area here, police said today.
The raid was carried out by over 200 police personnel, mostly from the Crime Branch, late last night and continued in the wee hours today, they said.
The persons operated from call centres in Mira Road locality, which comes under the jurisdiction of Thane Rural Police, and posed as officials of US Tax Department, which is equivalent to the Income Tax Department in India, police said.
They would call up the US citizens and demand their financial and bank details, failing which they would allegedly threaten them with dire consequences, including legal action.
After obtaining the requisite details from the American citizens, these call centre employees would siphon off money from their accounts, police said, adding daily turnover of such dealings was estimated to be over Rs 1 crore.Read more

In sickness and in health, a parallel in the journeys of MGR and Jayalalithaa

In sickness and in health, a parallel in the journeys of MGR and Jayalalithaa

When M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) was shot by fellow actor M.R. Radha on January 12, 1967, I was probably a few weeks old in my mother’s womb. MGR’s next near-brush with death was 32 years ago, and as an aware 17-year-old, I have distinct memories of it. MGR was admitted to the same Apollo Hospital where his protégé J. Jayalalithaa is now apparently battling for life. The parallels are stronger than mere calendrical coincidence.
MGR was then 68 – so far as birth records are reliable for a man who came from such humble beginnings as him, about the same age as Jayalalithaa is now. He had suffered a kidney failure, and was soon flown to Brooklyn Hospital, New York for treatment. In the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination on October 31, 1984, Rajiv Gandhi went in for snap polls a few months ahead of schedule. MGR’s All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(AIADMK) was in alliance with the Congress.
Those were pre-satellite channel days, and the media had great prestige but could easily be thwarted by the government. During the long months of treatment, there was little real news of MGR’s condition but for the periodical press releases that H.V. Hande – now a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, a physician himself and a minister in his cabinet – issued. The press releases carried little credibility, and in one of his famous wordplays, MGR’s erstwhile friend, sworn political enemy and many-time chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi, called it ‘Hande pulugu, anda pulugu, aakasa pulugu’. The line is untranslatable, but the rhyming reference is to ‘blatant lies of universal proportions’.Read more

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Google launches AI-powered Pixel smartphone; will cost Rs 57,000 in India

Google launches AI-powered Pixel smartphone; will cost Rs 57,000 in India

With an aim to lead the world of Smartphones with its artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology, Google on Tuesday launched much-awaited Pixel — a new premium device completely designed by the tech giant with Google Assistant built right-in — at a special event here.
India is among the first six countries where Pixel is being launched. Starting at Rs, 57,000, it will be available for pre-order in India starting October 13 on e-tailer website Flipkart and at over 1,000 plus multi-brand retail stores, including Reliance Digital, Croma and Vijay sales, among others.
The launch also ended the Nexus branding under which the company has always released phones in partnership with other original equipment manufacturers like LG (for Google Nexus 5) and Huawei (for Google Nexus 6P).
Although HTC has manufactured the smartphones, the new device bears Google branding.
With curved sculpted edges and a unibody made up of combination of aerospace grade aluminum and glass, the device comes in two sizes — 5 and 5.5-inch with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protected super AMOLED display. Pixel is available in two — quite black and very silver colours in India.
Pixel is first smartphone with Google Assistant — a built-in AI programme that works as an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator.
With the Google Assistant, users can have a natural conversation with Google to find answers or get things done on the go. Say "Ok Google" or touch and hold the Home button and the Assistant is ready to help.
"Ask it for a brief update on your day or to play a video on YouTube, look up traffic on the way home from work, find photos or when the nearest pharmacy closes. The Assistant can also offer help with what's on-screen in any app. So if your friend texts you to meet up at a new restaurant, you can just say 'navigate there'," the company said in a statement.Read more