Coronavirus Scare In Stock Market: Investors Lose Rs 10 Lakh Cr, Sensex Sheds 1100 Points
February 28th, 2020 is turning out to be a Black Friday for the stock market investors. Within minutes of opening of trading, Rs 4 lakh crore of investors? wealth was lost as sensex lost 1100+ points.
Ast the time of writing, BSE Sensex was 38,597.01, down by 1148 points or 2.89%.

Why is this happening? Here are the highlights:

The sudden drop in sensex and eroding of investors? wealth has been primarily due to the coronavirus scare, which has gripped the entire world.
The drop in sensex was triggered by drop in Dow Jones, which fell by 1191 points overnight.
IT and Finance companies are losing maximum ground, as their shares are plunging at a fast rate. While Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra and Tata Steel were lost between 4% and 5% points, TCS, RIL, HDFC and Infosys shed 2.5% to 3.5% points.
The fear gauge of sensex: India VIX index was up by 15%, which clearly showcases the fear and apprehensions among stock investors, directly linked with coronavirus.
In the last 5 sessions, sensex has lost 1550 points, thereby making this week as one of the worst in the last few years
Although Govt will announce the GDP numbers for December, there isnt much hope for the investors. A poll predicted 4.7% growth, which seems highly unlikely, under current situation. Last quarter, the growth was 4.5%
The panic is not limited to the big companies: even BSE small and midcap indices fell by 2.5%
Share market in Japan and China also tripped, shedding upto 3.5% points in last 24 hours
While Bank of America has predicted a slowest growth forecast this year, since the global recession, ratings agency Moody?s has declared that there will be a global recession in the first half of 2020.
Now, the fear is mounting over coronavirus, since new cases have reduced in China, but increasing elsewhere. Iran, Italy and South Korea are the countries where maximum new cases are being discovered now.
More than 2800 people have died due to coronavirus, whereas 83,000 people have been infected, globally.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.

Every Indian Consumes 11GB Data/Month, More Than US, China; 96% Of Data Used Was 4G, 3G Loses 30% Share
Thanks to super tailored and affordable data packs available today, along with budget and pocket friendly smartphones, the average data consumption per user in India has grown to about 11.2 GB a month, according to telecom gear maker Nokia.

Monthly Usage of 4G Data by Indians

In its annual Mobile Broadband India Traffic Index report, Nokia tallied that the overall data traffic in India increased by 47% in 2019, driven by continued 4G consumption.
4G data constitute 96% of the total data traffic consumed across the country, while 3G data traffic registered its highest ever decline of 30%.
In fact, the data consumption in India is probably the highest globally, ahead of markets like China, the US, France, South Korea, Japan, Germany and Spain. However, broadband penetration in India is at 47%, which is significantly lower than China (95%) and other European nations at around 95 -115%.
Nokia also stated that mobile data usage in India can increase further as broadband penetration approaches the level of similar developed geographies. Also, data prices in India are among the lowest in the world at about Rs 7 per GB.
The number of 4G data users in the country is estimated to be 598 million, while that of 3G were at about 44 million. Also, generally 1 GB data allows users to stream about 200 songs or watch an hour of video. The amount of data consumed goes up depending on the quality of the content being streamed.

OTT Platforms Contribute Majorly

Video consumption in the country has been on the rise with spurt in number of over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and more. Players are adopting aggressive distribution and pricing strategies, including sachet pricing and mobile-only packs.
It has been found that the average time spent on OTT platforms in India is about 70 minutes a day and an average single session lasts for about 40 minutes.
The upcoming 4K/8K videos and Industry 4.0 solutions that promises to enhance productivity and bring down expenses for the industries across different verticals, demand ultra high speed and extremely low latency.
The report noted that the number of 4G handsets devices grew by 1.5 times to reach 501 million units in 2019 from 330 million a year-ago. The number of Voice over LTE (VoLTE)-enabled smartphones grew to 432 million.

Realme X50 Pro 5G Launched: Full Specs, Top Features, Price, Availability
Realme X50 Pro 5G has been launched in India. The latest Realme flagship starts at Rs 37,999 offering the latest features. Realme X50 Pro is the first 5G smartphone in India running on the top Snapdragon 865.

Realme X50 Pro 5G packs in a 64MP powered quad camera system.

The company also unveiled the top 65W Super Dart charging. Here?s everything you need to know about Realme X50 Pro 5G.

Realme X50 Pro 5G: Specs, Features

Realme X50 Pro 5G comes with a 6.44-inch Full HD+ display offering a screen resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels. The display offers a 90Hz refresh rate, with a complete glass body on the out protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
Under the hood, Realme X50 Pro 5G comes with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC.
The Qualcomm flagship chip pairs with Adreno 650 GPU and up to 12GB of RAM.
Coming to optics, Realme X50 Pro 5G has a quad rear camera setup at the back. The four camera system includes a 64-megapixel primary Samsung GW1 sensor with an f/1.8 aperture, which is a six-piece lens.
The quad camera setup further includes an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle sensor, 12-megapixel telephoto sensor and a 2-megapixel portrait camera.
Upfront, Realme X50 Pro 5G comes with a dual selfie camera setup featuring a 32-megapixel Sony IMX 616 primary sensor with an f/2.5 aperture and an 8-megapixel secondary ultra-wide-angle lens.
Realme X50 Pro 5G comes with the latest Android 10 with the latest Realme UI on top.
Realme X50 Pro 5G comes in these storage units: 128GB and 256GB. It?s UFS 3.0+ storage offering 5G on NSA/ SA and mainstream bands, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.1 with a USB Type-C port. Realme X50 Pro 5G packs a sizable 4,200mAh battery with the brand new 65W Super Dart charging.

Realme X50 Pro 5G: Price In India, Availability

Realme X50 Pro 5G price in India starts at Rs 37,999 for the base model with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant. The mid-end 8GB RAM with 128GB storage model is priced at Rs 39,999, and the top 12GB RAM model with 256GB storage is priced at Rs 44,999.
Realme X50 Pro 5G in India will be available in two colour options: Mass Green and Rust Red. Realme X50 Pro 5G will sell in India via Flipkart and Realme.com.

12 Crore BSNL Customers Badly Hit Due To VRS Scheme; Why BSNL Employees Striking Now?

BSNL is right now in a state of mess, and only BSNL is responsible for it.

On one hand customers are complaining about terrible services and lack of any support, existing BSNL employees, and retired employees are on strike, since they have not yet received the promised relief package.
Who will handle this mess?
And will BSNL be able to get this mess cleared?

BSNL Customers Complain Against Terrible Services

Ever since BSNL?s survival plan was launched, and around 80,000 employees took VRS to lessen the financial burdens on the state-run telecom carrier, things have been going downhill for them.
Across India, complaints are rising over terrible service, and more importantly, due to lack of any support from staff.
Infact, around 92,000+ employees have retired from BSNL and MTNL, and they are facing an acute staff crunch.
Support staff, technical staff and administrative staff are no more there, and there is very few trained employees to take care of 12.3 crore BSNL customers, across India.
Take for example, Vinod Desai, who is a retired bank official living in Ahmedabad, and a long time, loyal BSNL user. Now, due to the pathetic service, especially after the VRS campaign, he is planning to shift to a private player.
He said, ?Officials say the recent voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) has reduced the workforce and that is hampering the service quality,?
In Gujarat circle, there were more than 10,000 employees, but now, after the VRS scheme, only 6532 employees remain. And this is directly affecting the operations and customer support service.
However, PK Purwar, chairman & managing director, BSNL claims that the employees are managing the staff crunch, and things are working fine. But it is the customers who are suffering, and things aren?t looking good for the 12.3 crore customers.

BSNL Employees On Strike

It is not only the customers who are suffering.
Even the employees are angry, and hurt, and the reason is delay in releasing the relief package, as promised by the management.
The The All Unions and Associations of BSNL (AUAB) has announced a hunger strike today, (February 24, 2020), for the same reason.
As per the Union, despite Govt allocating Rs 69,000 crore relief package, things are not moving. Thousands of employees, are yet to receive their relief package, and they are getting restless. Around 92,000 employees have retired, and the company has failed to resolve their grievances.
The strike is also for the future of BSNL ? 4G spectrum waves have still not been granted, and the monetisation via asset sales is taking forever.
Things are looking grim for BSNL, as of now.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.

Mi Mix Alpha With 108MP Camera, All Glass-Body Launching In India; Already Available In Some Stores!
Mi Mix Alpha, the innovative and highly-priced all-glass body, 108MP smartphone from Mi is finally coming to India.

This has been confirmed by the company.

In fact, in some selected stores, it is already available to buy.

Mi Mix Alpha With 108 MP Camera Launching In India

Launched last September, Mi Mix Alpha gained attention due to its unique design, and whooping 108MP camera.
Now, Mi has listed this smartphone its website, which confirms that it will sold online, and is available in India.
Infact, few days back, Mi?s Twitter handle had announced the availability of Mi Mix Alpha at some selected outlets, where anyone can buy it.
To start with, Mi Mix Alpha is right now available at Mi Homes in Embassy Tech Village and Indiranagar ? Bangalore.

Mi India #108MP IS COMING!

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@XiaomiIndia
Mi fans, the future is coming to Mi Homes.
The #MiMIXAlpha, India's first #5GSmartphone is coming to select Mi Homes across the country starting tomorrow at Mi Homes in Embassy Tech Village and Indiranagar - Bangalore.
Go, check it out.
Coming soon to other Mi Homes.
Embedded video
1,838
3:34 PM - Feb 21, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
387 people are talking about this
Now, this announcement of the availability of Mi Mix Alpha at selected outlets, and the listing on the website is indeed interesting, because of the timing.
Mobile-Desktop-Post-Middle-Fluid-Dec2017 Realme X50 Pro has been declared as the first 5G phone in India, whereas Mi Mix Alpha too has 5G capability.
This is a direct clash between Realme and Mi, over the claim of launching India?s 1st 5G smartphone.

Mi MIx Alpha Specs

The two biggest USPs of Mi Mix Alpha are: 108MP camera, and all glass body: It has a surround display, which wraps itself around the smartphone.
Due to this, there is no selfie in this smartphone.
The display is 7.92-inch flexible OLED screen wth a screen resolution of 2088 * 2250 pixels.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus powers this smartphone, which efficiently supports 12GB RAM.
The 108MP rear camera of Mi MIx Alpha has Samsung HMX sensor, and in the rear, you can also find 20MP wide-angle camera, and a 12MP camera for portraits.
The 4,050mAh battery supports 40W fast charging support, making it one of the fastest charging smartphone.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.

TCS, Infosys Open Up Their Skilling Programs: Get Certified In These High Demand Skills!
As per the reports, India?s largest software exporters, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys are exploring options to open up their internal e-learning courses directly to consumers said top company executives, marking a first for the IT services companies as they look to build new streams of revenue.

How Did This Happen?

India?s largest IT companies Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) are exploring new ways to take their e-learning courses to those outside the company.
So far, both companies use their skilling platforms ? Infosys? Lex and TCS? Ion ? to train over 700,000 employees, as they look to reskill their workforce.
The CEO of Infosys, Salil Parekh said ?If you take the Wingspan-Lex story, there is a very small amount of work to be done to make it a consumer platform?We are not blind to it,?.
?Our main focus is still the large enterprises, but we are looking at some of these things which might morph into it over time,? he added.

What Is The Plan?

Moreover, the company?s mobile-based skilling platform ? which measures the time spent by an individual in learning a new software program, identifies gaps and prods further learning ? has been rebranded as Wingspan to sell it to its existing enterprise customers.
Basically, the plan is to now explore options beyond to create a consumer-facing business, top executives said.
The IT major Tata Consultancy Services has over 446,000 employees, is also looking to make its learning platform available to consumers at large.
It opened up the platform to students who had failed to make the cut on the national qualifier tests that it conducts while hiring freshers in 2019.

What Does TCS Say?

The chief operating officer, Tata Consultancy Services, Ganapathy Subramaniam said ?The opportunity is there to? open it up to others, beyond the talent pool and the supply chain that we have,?.
You can say that skilling is a particularly hot topic in India. According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), a tenth of the users on skilling platforms globally are from India.
The demands for skills has sky-rocketed, as technology becomes an increasingly key part of all industries.
It is expected that the reskilling and certification market in India would grow to $500 million by 2021, according to a 2017 report by Google and KPMG.
Also, it accounts for a quarter of the $2.1 billion online education market.
According to the experts, IT services companies will likely require a different group (of executives) to run a consumer-facing business.
The founder of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research, Ray Wang said ?They would need a separate subsidiary in order to focus on consumer needs or license out a joint venture,?.
Now Infosys has a team working on a consumer strategy for Wingspan-Lex and a commercial model.

Realme C3s To Come With Triple Cameras, Fingerprint Sensor In India: Pricing, Specs, Launch Details The same Thai Realme C3 is being speculated to come to India as the Realme C3s.
Realme C3 in India starts at Rs 6,999, the device launched in Thailand starts at THB 3,999 (around Rs 9,150). The Thai version of the Realme C3 has similar specifications with some additional upgrades.

Here?s everything you need to know about Realme C3s.

Realme C3s In India: Thai Realme C3 To Launch In India As Realme C3s

Realme C3 Thailand variant is expected to come to India as Realme C3s sometime later. While Realme C3 has been found to be listed on some of the certification sites, the Thai Realme C3 will most probably launch in India as Realme C3s.
The recently leaked Realme C3 doesn?t offer any upgraded features compared to the current Indian Realme C3.
The Thai Realme C3 on the other hand comes with a rear triple camera system and a fingerprint sensor, both not available on the Indian Realme C3. So, chances are high in India the Thai Realme C3 will launch as Realme C3s sometime later.

Realme C3s Specs: Triple Cameras, Fingerprint Sensor Android 10

Realme C3 Thailand variant is expected to come to India as Realme C3s. Starting with the features, Realme C3s will come with a 6.5-inch LCD HD+ display with a water drop notch on top. The design on the out remains the same.
But, Realme C3s in India will have a fingerprint scanner on the back. The Thai Realme C3 can be unlocked in 0.27 seconds.
As the Indian Realme C3, the Realme C3s will be powered by the newly launched gaming-centric MediaTek chip, the Helio G70 SoC.
Realme C3s in India is expected to be available in two variants: 3GB and 4GB RAM models with 32GB and 64GB storage options. Both the models will support additional storage via an external microSD card.
Coming to optics, Realme C3s will pack a triple camera setup on the back. The three camera setup on Realme C3s will comprise of a 12-megapixel primary camera with f/1.8 aperture, a secondary 2-megapixel portrait and a tertiary 2-megapixel macro lens.
The camera will support AI HDR, 4x digital zoom and multiple AI modes.
Upfront, Realme C3s will come with a 5-megapixel sensor with f/2.4 aperture supporting AI beauty and AI HDR modes.
Realme C3s will support Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with the latest Bluetooth 5.0 and has a 3.5mm headphone jack and micro-USB port. Realme C3s will ship with the latest with Realme UI 1.0 and Android 10 OS out-of-the-box.
Realme C3s will pack a large 5,000mAh battery with support for reverse charging technology.

Pricing: Realme C3s Launch, Realme C3s Price

The new Realme C3 has been launched starting at THB 3,999 (around Rs 9,150) in Thailand. Realme C3 Thailand variant is expected to come to India as Realme C3s sometime later.
The Thai Realme C3 will most probably launch in India as Realme C3s.
The recently leaked Realme C3 doesn?t offer any upgraded features compared to the current Indian Realme C3.
The Thai Realme C3 on the other hand comes with a rear triple camera system and a fingerprint sensor, both not available on the Indian Realme C3. So, chances are high in India the Thai Realme C3 will launch as Realme C3s sometime later.

SAP India Employees Test Positive For H1N1; Offices Shut Down, Work From Home For All Employees Two SAP employees in Bengaluru were found positive, when tested for H1N1 virus. This has prompted SAP to shut down offices across India, in Gurgaon, Mumbai, besides their Bengaluru office.
Entire office premises across three locations are being clinically checked so that there is no contamination due to the virus.
Closing down offices in Mumbai and Gurgaon along with Bengaluru does signify that SAP India is taking every precaution possible to stop the spread of this virus.
Besides, all the employees across three locations: Bengaluru, Gurgaon, and Mumbai have been asked to work from home, between February 20th to February 29th.
In a statement, the company said, ?Two SAP India employees based in Bangalore (RMZ Ecoworld office) have tested positive for the H1N1 virus. Detailed contact tracing that the infected colleagues may have come into contact with is underway,?
SAP has said that the health and wellness of their employees are of paramount importance, and there shall be no compromise on this issue.
The company has strongly advised all employees to seek medical advice, in case any relative or friends are showing symptoms such as cold, fever and sore throat, running nose, body ache, chills, fatigue, which are common with H1N1 infection.
H1N1, also known as swine flu, can spread via air and on physical contact with the infected patient.
H1N1 is a subtype of influenza A virus, which spread globally in 2009, and is also responsible for the infamous Spanish flu of 1918.
Sanitizing hands regularly, and wearing masks are recommended to avoid getting infected.
Here is a detailed blog on 10 things that you should avoid to prevent swine flu or H1N1 infection.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.

5 Reasons Why Every Rail Passenger Can Get Tatkal Tickets Easily Now Via Online Booking Yes, you heard it right! Now You can book Tatkal tickets easily.
Till now the Tatkal ticket availability is Big bonanza from Indian Railways! Until recently when Railway authorities had come up with some significant changes.

How Did This Happen?

As per the reports, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) weeded out various illegal software systems and arrested several agents who used them to block such train tickets.
According to the information provided by RPF officials, illegal software systems such as ?Jaguar?, ?MAC?, and ?ANMS? would bypass the log in the captcha of IRCTC, booking captcha as well as bank OTP to generate tickets.
On the other hand, a genuine user has to go through all these processes while booking a ticket.
Usually, for a general user, the booking process usually takes around 2.55 minutes.
While for those using these illegal software systems could do the booking in just around 1.48 minutes.

Mobile-Desktop-Post-Middle-Fluid-Dec2017

Since the removal of these busting software, the time duration for which tatkal tickets are available will go up and Indian Railways passengers will have a better chance to get tickets.

Why Would The Tatkal Ticket Availability Gets A Boost?

There had neeb a drive against agents was conducted on 11 February 2020 and 12 February 2020. In this, a total of 319 agents were arrested as well as 317 agent ids were identified by the RPF for blacklisting. Additionally, tickets worth Rs 37.86 lakh were blocked and used tickets worth Rs 1.19 crore were recovered by the RPF.
As of date, illegal ANMS and MAC software have stopped working with effect from 23 January and 8 February respectively. Further, RPF shut down I-Ball and Red Bull as well as the new software systems that are capturing the market, such as N-GET, Jaguar, Cycle, Star V2.
Now, the RPF is closely working with CRIS and IRCTC. On top of that, the new security features are continuously being updated by CRIS, which is the IT arm of Indian Railways, disrupting the function of the illegal software.
Till today, all the illegal software systems are facing disruption. Though some fraudsters are selling fake software online, it has been reported that they do not work.
Although, some auto-fill forms like Google Chrome extension are being used, however, they do not bypass OTP or auto-read captcha.

How Will This Benefit The Travelers?

To understand the benefits of the new system, as an example of the tatkal booking for train number 20802 Magadh Express 3rd AC class on 26 October 2019 closed at 10.02.18 hours and on 27 October 2019, at 10.01.38 hours.
Consider another date on 9 February 2020, the booking for the train closed at 20.21.16 hours and on 10 February 2020, at 15.30.55 hours.
Another case where train number 12393 Sampoorna Kranti Express all AC classes, the booking on 16 November 2019 closed at 10.04.11 hours and on 8 February 2020, booking closed at 10.17.26 hours.
This clearly shows that there is an improvement in the time duration for which tatkal ticket bookings are available.

Govt. Aims To Make UPI Transactions Free For All: Can This Impact Google Pay, Paytm? Remember just some time back we informed you about the government?s decision to not charge any MDR charges on transactions done via UPI and RuPay modes, in order to promote and achieve a ?less-cash? economy.
So now, after the abolishment of Merchant Discount Rate (MDR), banks have been looking out desperately for a zero switching fee and payment service provider fee (PSP). The news that?s in is that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is all set to abolish PSP and interchange fees till April 30.

NCPI to Abolish PSP

As per the MoM of the NPCI working committee released on February 14, the latter shall release a circular to waive-off interchange and PSP fee and it will be effective from Jan 1, 2020.
What this implies is the fact that this waive-off on April 30 will be an interim measure and the move will be implemented with retrospective effect of Jan 1, 2020. The question to be asked here is what happens to the fees already collected, shall this be implemented?
Well in that case, the beneficiary banks shall not make any money on UPI-based transactions, i.e. peer-to-merchant or P2M. As of now, beneficiary banks make Rs 0.25 on transaction up to Rs 1,000, Re 1 on a transaction worth Rs 25,000 and Rs 5 on up to Rs 75,000.

This Will Affect UPI Ecosystem Adversely

Waiver of PSP fee would leave no room for companies like Google Pay, PhonePe, Amazon Pay and Paytm to earn anything on UPI transactions. On average, they make about Rs 0.30-0.35 through PSP fee on every P2M transaction.
If in case the MDR issue isn?t resolved, according to the NCPI, the steering committee meeting will be held in April to discuss and decide the future course of action.
Like we?d informed you previously, the government had already abolished the MDR fees on the transactions done via UPI and RuPay modes from December 30, 2019.
Now since the banks aren?t charging MDR on RuPay and UPI transactions, they have no funds to pay to any other stakeholder, hence to make money.
Not just those, the UPI portals like PhonePe, Google Pay, Bharatpe and Amazon Pay who have been spending several million dollars every year to capture a high market share in the UPI ecosystem, shall not be able to make a single rupee out of it.
Theoretically speaking, after removal of the PSP fees, there will be no future revenue model that exists for these third-party apps in the merchant-based UPI ecosystem.

Pune Techie Robbed Of Rs 92,000 While Ordering Nailpolish Of Rs 388: Never Do This Ever! Yet another news about Online Theft! The punishment for Internet fraud under Section 420 in the Indian Penal Code deals with Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property. The maximum punishment which can be awarded is imprisonment for a term of 7 year and fine.

A 25-year Pune Techie got duped of Rs 92,446 for a bottle of nail polish worth Rs 388!

Cyber Crook Disguised as a Customer Care Executive Dupes a Pune Woman!
According to the police, the incident happened between December 17 and 30, 2019. On Saturday, the victim lodged an FIR against the fraudsters with the Wakad police. Two persons have been booked by the police under the provisions of the Information and Technology Act and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
A 25-year-old software engineer, had ordered a nail polish bottle worth Rs 388 from an e-commerce website using an application on her smartphone. A police officer said, ?She transferred Rs388 from her bank account to a private bank.?
The person possibly disguised as a customer care executive for the said company told her over the phone that they have not received the payment for the product. Next, the executive assured the victim that her refund will be initiated and asked for her mobile number.
The techie fell prey for the promise peddled by the crook and shared her contact number, police say. After a while, five transactions took place from two of her private bank accounts and a total sum of Rs 90,946 was deducted. Later, a debit transaction of Rs 1,500 took place from her public sector bank account.
A police officer said that an account totalling to Rs 92,446 has been debited from the victim?s account and the money has been transferred to another account. The woman repeatedly insisted that she had not shared any information regarding her bank accounts to anyone. The police investigation is under progress.

How To Avoid Internet Frauds?

Do not share account information like cvv, otp, expiry date, etc with anyone. No bank employee or online payment app employee is authorized to ask such information.
Do not connect with the bank or any online payment app by searching for customer care numbers on Google or social media platforms.
Do not pick up calls from unidentified numbers claiming to be bank or online payment app.
Do not enter UPI pin or pay money when you are receiving money.
Do not install third party apps like Screen Share, Teamviewer, etc
Do not pay any amount to secure a job. No job or internship providing site asks you to pay any amount to secure a job.

Upto 40% Salary Appraisal For BPO, Finance Employees; Bengaluru Will Get Highest Increment! As per the reports, corporate India is expected to roll double-digit salary hike this appraisal season and the average appraisals in 2020 and according to surveys, this will be higher than the annual increment of 2019.

How Did This Happen?

As per the findings of a new TimesJobs survey, salaries across different sectors would witness an increment of up to 30 per cent.
Talking about the TimesJobs survey, titled as ?Decoding Appraisal Trends for 2020? that recorded responses of 1,296 hiring managers from different industry verticals noted that a majority (80 per cent) of the hiring managers claimed that the average appraisals in 2020 will be higher than the annual increment of 2019.

What Does The Survey Predict?

According to this, around 41 per cent of HR managers feel that location-wise, the IT capital of the country Bengaluru, would lead the appraisal front this year.
On the other hand, professionals from Delhi-NCR and Mumbai would bag the second and third highest appraisals this year.
Moreover, the TimesJobs survey findings revealed that BFSI, BPO, and automobiles sectors may witness dull appraisals in 2020 largely owing to dismal business scenarios in these sectors at this point.

What About the Experts?

The Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig, Sanjay Goyal said, ?Although, various factors have influenced the appraisal models over the years, but in this cut-throat market competition where every company wants to own the best ?talent? available, monetary satisfaction continues to play a crucial role in attracting and retaining the high potential employees,?.
On the other hand, the senior executives at HR consultancy firm Aon said the dip is a sign of a maturing economy and indicative of a slowdown, the survey showed that double-digit salary hikes are not history with 39% of organizations projecting a salary increase of over 10%.
While most (68 per cent) hiring managers surveyed by TimesJobs said that middle-level professionals will receive the best appraisals this year ? about 20-30 per cent in their salary.
Further, almost 44 per cent of HR professionals said top-level professionals will bag the highest appraisal this year.
While the increments at senior levels could be up to 40 per cent, the survey said.

Amazon, Flipkart Will Not Be Investigated, High Court Finds No Evidence; CCI On Backfoot? In a big relief to ecommerce portals Amazon and Flipkart, Karnataka High Court has not found any evidence which suggests that these two ecommerce majors are breaking any rules.

Is CCI on backfoot now?

Karnataka High Court: No Evidence Against Amazon, Flipkart

During the hearing of a plea by Amazon and Flipkart in Karnataka High Court, to stop CCI or Competition Commission of India from investigating them, the Bench observed that there are evidence found.
In fact, CCI has informed that they planned to start the investigation solely on the basis of a complaint filed by brick and mortar shops.
The High Court said, ?The contention urged on behalf of the petitioner (Amazon) that CCI has imagined (the) existence of ?some agreement? merits consideration,?
This way, the High Court has granted interim relief to both Amazon and Flipkart, and have stopped CCI from investigating them.
This is big boost to the entire ecommerce industry, because if the investigation had started, then every ecommerce company in India could have been under the radar.
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What Is The Case All About?

Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, a trade union of traders and retailers having brick and mortar shops/showrooms had complained to CCI that Amazon and Flipkart are breaking anti-competition rules.
They had claimed that Amazon and Flipkart forge partnerships with smartphone makers, and then sell new smartphones at huge discounts, thereby killing the business of offline retailers.
CCI was about to start an investigation against Amazon and Flipkart, based on the complaint.
But then, both Amazon and Flipkart joined forces, and appealed in Karnataka High Court against this investigation by CCI.
They argued that there is no proof or evidence with CCI which proves that they have underhand deals with smartphone makers.
Quashing the claims made by CCI, the High Court has clearly stated: ?it is recorded in paragraphs No. 22 and 23 (of the CCI order) that there ?appears? to be exclusive partnership between smart phone manufacturers and ecommerce platforms. This finding is based on allegations made in the complaint,?
Now, the next move of CCI is awaited
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.

Watch 200 TV Channels For Rs 130 Starting From March 1st; Save Upto 57% In Cable Expenses/Month! (TRAI Order)
In March 2017, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) notified the ?New Regulatory Framework? for Broadcasting and Cable services, which came into effect on December 29, 2018, as per which the customers had the freedom to select the television channels of their choice.
Unfortunately, once this framework came into effect, there came in innumerable complaints regarding improper execution of this rule. TRAI later through various techniques and tactics brought this problem under control.
Now, TRAI?s new tariff order 2020, or NTO 2.0 is confirmed to come into effect on March 1, not to forget that there?s already open cases going on against it in high court, regarding the same issue.

TRAI?s NTO 2.0

The cable operators along with DTH (direct-to-home) providers are together known as Distribution Platform Operators (DPOs).
The telecom regulator has directed the broadcasters and DPOs to publish the required information about this new tariff order on their respective websites, in order to allow customers to exercise their choice of channels and bouquets before March 1.
Earlier, TRAI had stated all broadcasters were required to report to the regulator and as well publish on their websites:
any change in retail prices per month of channels and bouquets
composition of bouquets by January 15.
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It also instructed the DPOs to report and simultaneously publish on their websites:

Network capacity fee

distribution retail prices of pay channels
composition of bouquets of pay channels
composition of bouquets of free-to-air channels
network capacity fee for additional connection beyond first connection in multi TV homes
network capacity fee for long term subscriptions by January 30.
It also directed the service providers to inform the consumers on their websites the expiration of all those existing bouquets which do not conform to the provisions of Tariff Order 2020.
Unfortunately, despite the regulatory board?s efforts, these broadcasters and DPOs failed to report to Trai or publish the required information on their respective websites. It also noted that most of the existing bouquets of pay channels are not in compliance with the Tariff Order 2017 as per information on broadcaster channels.
TRAI Pretty Serious to Implement NTO 2.0 from March 1
As per TRAI, it is trying its best to implement the Tariff Amendment Order 2020 from March 1, 2020. It has insisted the service providers to ensure all the activities to be conducted in a timely manner so that the customers get ample time to choose from the channels before March 1.
The IBF, which represents the broadcasters in India has approached several local courts seeking relief from the Trai?s new amendments to the tariff regime. Amidst this war between TRAI and the broadcasters, it shall be interesting to see how broadcasters respond to this notice from the regulatory body.
Once the broadcasters publish their revised channel prices and packs on their respective websites, DTH & Cable TV operators will follow the same immediately.

Jio Conquers Netflix ISP Speed Test 1st Time Ever; Vodafone 4G Has Best Upload Speed In India!
Netflix released the January ISP speed test results for India. Reliance Jio Fiber has consistently maintained its position among the fastest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Netflix?s ISP speed index, but for the past few months, it had shot down. Now, for the month of January, Jio Fiber has regained the top position of the fastest ISP.
According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data, Jio has average 4G download speed 20.9 Mbps, the highest in India whereas Vodafone topped in the 4G upload speed category in January, 2020.

Jio With the Highest ISP Speed!

Jio launched its fiber broadband service in India September, 2019
The leaderboard showed Jio GigaFiber climbing up a spot with 3.63 Mbps data speeds. The competition between Jio Fiber and 7 star digital was a tough one wherein the latter had speed of 3.62 Mbps.
The 3rd position was secured by Spectra at 3.50 Mbps followed by Airtel at 3.48 mbps and Vodafone-backed You Broadband at 3.41 mbps.
Jio Fiber saw lower speeds from April, 2019 wherein it had gone down to fifth position and had been in between the top five ranks. It finally managed to climb up the top spot in 2020. Till August 2019, Jio Fiber was in its testing stage and available to select users in beta.

Vodafone has Top Upload Speed!

TRAI computes the average speed based on the data it collects across India with the help of its MySpeed application on a real-time basis.
Jio saw a dip in its download speed in November, 2019 with a record of 27.2 Mbps. The speed was still three times the download speed of it rival Bharti Airtel.
The TRAI data shows the average 4G download speed for Bharti Airtel as 7.9 Mbps, Vodafone 7.6 Mbps and Idea 6.5 Mbps. Vodafone and Idea have not yet merged, hence the separate measurement of performance.
Vodafone secured the highest rank in the upload speed with a data speed of 6 Mbps. Idea ranked second with 5.6 Mbps followed by Reliance Jio with 4.6 Mbps and Airtel at 3.8 Mbps.

According to the latest leaks, Apple is ready with their new smartphone, which will be unveiled in mid-March.
All the Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphones come with similar displays with specs running on the latest Snapdragon 865 in the US, and are powered by in-house Exynos 990 for some of the markets.
Let?s check out the top trending smartphones from this week.

iQoo 3

iQoo 3 price and India launch date are out, and the latest Vivo sub-brand smartphone will be unveiled in India on February 25. iQoo 3 will come with the latest flagship Snapdragon 865 SoC and will be available exclusively via Flipkart. iQoo 3 India launch and China debut will happen on the same day. Vivo has already officially confirmed that it?s sub-brand iQoo will debut in India later this month as a separate entity.
As other sub-brands, the iQoo by Vivo will mainly focus on gaming-centric phones as Black Shark by Xiaomi.

Pixel 5 XL

Leaked on Front Page Tech YouTube channel, the upcoming Google Pixel 5 XL is said to come with a similar sort of look as Pixel 4 upfront with a new design at the back. The prototype device is said to be Google Pixel 5 XL a new camera module. Currently, the Pixel 4 devices have a square camera setup along with the motion sensor on top.
Pixel 4 was introduced with a motion sensor, first of its kind where you can use your hand to wave over the smartphone to direct actions without touching the screen.

Galaxy S20 Series: S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra

All the Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphones come with similar displays with specs. Galaxy S20 comes with a 6.2-inch Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED display, Galaxy S20+ with a 6.7-inch display and Galaxy S20 Ultra with a 6.9-inch display. All the three displays on the S20 smartphones support 120hz refresh rate and are HDR10+ certified.
The smartphones run on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 in the US, and are powered by in-house Exynos 990 for some of the markets featuring top cameras.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

Samsung unveiled its second foldable smartphone this year, successor to the Galaxy Fold, Galaxy Z Flip. The folding Z Flip features a 6.7-inch full-HD foldable Dynamic AMOLED panel. The display comes with 1080 x 2636 pixels in an 21.9:9 aspect ratio with a pixel density of 425ppi. There?s a secondary display as well on top, a 1.1-inch Super AMOLED cover display.

Redmi 8A Dual

Xiaomi India has unveiled a new budget smartphone under 7,000 rupees, and it?s not Redmi 9A. The latest Redmi A series device is Redmi 8A Dual, an improved model of the existing Redmi 8A. The Redmi 8A Dual packs in similar features with a few upgrades.
Alongside Redmi 8A dual, the company also unveiled its latest Power Bank series under the Redmi brand.

Realme C3

Realme C3 has been unveiled in India. It?s the successor to the much-popular Realme C2, one of the most sold smartphones of 2019 in India. The latest Realme C3 comes with a 5,000mAh battery, dual cameras and all new Realme UI. Realme C3 is also the first smartphone from Realme to run the latest Realme UI out of the box.
The new Realme smartphone comes with top features on-board running on a brand new gaming-centric chipset with a huge battery backing it.

Mi 10, Mi 10 Pro

Mi 10, Mi 10 Pro has been launched in China. Starting at around Rs 40,000 (converted), the latest Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro has a lot to offer out of the box. Running on Snapdragon 865, the devices pack in 108MP main sensors. The new Mi 10 Pro supports 50W fast charging with 30W wireless charging.
Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro have the best specs backing them, starting with the best-in-industry Snapdragon 865 SoC, a curved AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate, top-end cameras and more.

iPhone 9

The leaks say that Apple is ready with their new smartphone, which will be unveiled in mid-March. The name is yet to be confirmed by the company, and it?s either going to be iPhone 9 or iPhone SE 2. The iPhone 9 / iPhone SE 2 will be available at a cheaper price than other premium priced flagships in the same segment. iPhone 9 testing is complete, and is ready to hit the markets.
The device will come with a single main camera, probably the 12-megapixel camera with thick bezels on both sides with a physical home button, same as iPhone 8.

OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro

OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro pricing has been leaked including launch details. The company will launch OnePlus smartphones sooner this year. OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro may also have a new military green like color variant. Coming to OnePlus 8 series launch date, the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro are tipped to launch by March-end or April.
OnePlus may also launch a Power Bank as hinted by the company CEO recently via a tweet. It?s said to be bringing an innovative power bank, which will come some top features including fast charging support.

RBI Can Cancel Bank Of Baroda License Over Payment Dispute; Calcutta HC Issues Strict Order
The Calcutta High Court has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to consider ?appropriate steps? against Bank of Baroda (BoB), including revoking its banking license, for failing to honour a bank guarantee given by a third party to Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL).
The division bench comprising of Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Kausik Chanda said in the order on 10 February, ?Considering the conduct of the appellants, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should consider what appropriate steps may be taken against the Bank of Baroda, including revoking its licence or the authority to carry on banking business, if necessary.?

The Story Behind Such Action!

Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) told the court that it had entered into an agreement with Simplex Projects Limited in 2017 for operating certain work at the Bongaigaon facility of IOCL in Assam.
To undertake the work, Simplex was required to provide a bank guarantee on account of security deposit. An unconditional bank guarantee was furnished by the lender on behalf of Simplex for about ?6.97 crore.
According to the order, there was no work coming in from Simplex, hence IOCL issued several notices and finally invoked the bank guarantee.

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What did Bank of Baroda do?

The order read, ?It is submitted on behalf of IOCL that notwithstanding the bank having no right to stall immediate payment upon the invocation of an unconditional bank guarantee, the bank in this case sought some time.? IOCL asserted that the bank had no right to hamper immediate payment of the unconditional bank guarantee, let alone seek extra time.
IOCL has also claimed that Bank of Baroda must have informed Simplex about the invocation and the company immediately instituted proceedings under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 before the Delhi High Court, by virtue of the arbitration agreement contained in the contract between IOCL and Simplex.
The order also read, ?IOCL submits that despite Simplex failing to obtain any order in such proceedings and the Delhi High Court observing that the bank guarantee was unconditional and payment thereunder could not be avoided once the guarantee was invoked, an appeal was preferred which was withdrawn by or about June 1, 2018,?
Bank of Baroda still refused to release the payment in terms of the unconditional guarantee on the grounds that the money may not have been made available by Simplex to the bank.
On 24 June, 2019 through another order the court had directed the bank to pay immediately, in which the regulator had not been required to look into the conduct of the Bank of Baroda.
Therefore, in the current appeal by IOCL was filed in the form of a cross objection, to consider the conduct of the bank and seeking directions to the RBI to take steps against the bank, since it has behaved in an inappropriate manner despite being a nationalized bank.

TikTok?s New Viral Challenge Is Dangerous: Parents Stop Your Kids From Doing Skullbreaker Challenge!
Smartphones and mobile internet have revamped our lives in unquestionable ways. There have been various threats posed by these smartphones and their modern-day apps. The latest in the list is a trend that has been going viral on the popular video app Tik Tok.

The Skullbreaker Challenge

The latest social media trend to grab eyeballs and the attention of authorities, the Skullbreaker challenge, unlike most of its contemporaries, is dangerous and even life-threatening.
This bizarre challenge, also called tripping jump, has been taken up by several students across Europe and South America. We are yet to see a video from India, but we don?t want to speak too soon.
The challenge gets its name from the Spanish word Rompcráneos, which in English translates to ?Skullbreaker?. It started off as a joke between two school students in Spain but soon went viral on TikTok and many users posted their videos doing this prank.
In this painful and nasty challenge, three people stand side by side. The person in the middle jumps high while those on the sides kick the jumper?s legs just when he is about to land. This leads to the middle person losing his stature and landing flat on his back and in many cases with chances of severe head injury.

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Like with most social media trends, it is unknown who first came up with it. However, one of the first videos that went viral was shot in a school in Venezuela. It then went on to trend in Europe and United States.

Parents and School Authorities on High Alert!

This Skullbreaker challenge is nothing but life-threatening. Many school students have taken this challenge and filmed themselves doing so. Some even ended up in intensive care after conducting it.
Schoolgirls in Mexico also used the arms of a sweater to trip their classmate as seen on one of the TikTok videos. Several European schools have issued warnings and advisories to create awareness about this challenge.
Doctors have said that this prank can lead to serious fractures. In a free fall, doctors warn, there are chances of fracturing the knee, ankle, hip and other joint and there are also chances of ligament tear. If you are very unlucky, you might also end up hitting your head, splitting your skull or getting a concussion.
A mother from Arizona took to Facebook after her son was admitted to the hospital with a head injury, stitches to his face, and severe cuts to his mouth. She clarifies in the post that her son was told it was a ?jumping contest? and that ?two boys kicked him? when they jumped together and he landed hard on the floor and became unconscious.
As the challenge gained momentum, more kids have taken up the challenge and have shared the video of the same on various social media platforms.

87% Of Indians Received US Green Card In 2019; Indians Grabbed 50% Of All Employer Green Cards As per the data from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Indian nationals received almost half the employer-sponsored green cards issued by the US in fiscal 2019.
Also, the number of applicants whose files have been kept pending has increased sharply.

How Did This Happen?

According got the data, the US approved green cards to 56,608 of the 64,906 Indians who had applied for permanent residency during its reporting year through September 2019.
Although 1,352 applications were rejected, another 6,946 cases remained undecided as of September end.
Also, the number of applications from Indians was equivalent to the annual quota of H-1B visas given by the US for those with Bachelor degrees.
Total 1,48,415 applications received by the agency for an employer-sponsored green cards during the year.
Apart from Indians, Chinese has also applied with 20,481 applications. So in total, US issued 1,15,458 green cards during the period.

Why Higher Number Of Pending Cases?

While there is no explanation provided by the USCIS on the high number of pending cases, which rose sharply from 239 in the case of Indians in the previous year.
The managing attorney at immigration law firm Immigration.com, Rajiv S Khanna said ?In lawsuits, we have filed, we have alleged that we see a drastic rate in slowdown in the rate of adjudication, which could be indicative of a concerned policy to slow down applications creating an invisible wall against legal immigration,?.
Basically, the I-140 immigrant petition for alien worker is submitted by an employer to get permanent residency for the applicant.
Normally, this is done in cases when the worker is either considered to have extraordinary skills/talent or if there are no qualified workers for that position in the US.

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Hence it is different from green cards received under other categories where the beneficiary files the application himself.
Which Company Has Filed Most Of These Applications? According to the data, in the past few years, Indians have been receiving almost half the employer-sponsored green cards barring fiscal 2018, when their share dropped to about 45%.
The USCIS data for the past decade shows that the number of employer-sponsored green cards has risen significantly from 57,040 applications in 2009.
Also within this time period, the number of Indian applicants has increased from 15,060 in 2009 to 64,906 in fiscal 2019.
Citing the trend in the last few years, American tech companies like Amazon, Apple and Google have emerged the biggest beneficiaries of this programme, sponsoring green cards for their employees in large numbers.
Also, eight out of the top 10 companies that applied for green cards for their employees in fiscal 2019 were US firms, as per data released by the US labor department.
As per the data, Amazon had filed 3,247 permanent residency applications, followed by Cognizant and Google at 2,927 and 2,425, respectively.
The other top-10 companies list included Intel, Facebook, Microsoft, Cisco and Deloitte, besides Indian firms Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, all with more than 1,000 applications each.

Why Would This Happen?

The main reason for companies resorting to this route is to be able to hold on to high-skilled people, who typically enter the US on an H-1B visa for a period of three years, which can be further be extended by another three years.
Although, in the last few years, there has been a high number of denials for visa extensions, forcing workers to leave the country.
While sponsoring an employee?s green card ensures that the worker can remain in the US at least till the case is processed.

Flipkart's Mobiles Bonanza sale has kicked off with discounts and bundled offers on several popular smartphones. The five-day sale will offer regular discounts, exchange offers, and no-cost EMI options on smartphones. In addition, Axis Bank customers can avail 10 percent instant discount on credit and debit card transactions. Flipkart's Mobiles Bonanza sale will be open until February 21. In case you're looking to buy a new smartphone or upgrade from an older device, this week seems like a good time to get one. Today, we've handpicked the best deals you can grab on Flipkart's Mobiles Bonanza sale.
Flipkart Mobiles Bonanza Sale 2020: Best offers on smartphones available today

Samsung Galaxy A50

Flipkart is selling Samsung's Galaxy A50 (4GB, 64GB) at a discounted price of Rs. 12,999 (MRP Rs. 21,000) this week, during its Mobiles Bonanza sale. The Galaxy A50 features a triple rear camera setup and a Super AMOLED display. If you're looking to upgrade from an older smartphone, Flipkart is offering up to Rs. 12,950 as an additional instant discount on the purchase.
Price: Rs. 12,999 (MRP Rs. 21,000)
Samsung Galaxy A50 (Blue, 64 GB)(4 GB RAM)
(38% off)

Apple iPhone XS

The iPhone XS is again available at a discounted price of Rs. 54,999 (MRP Rs. 89,900). This is similar to the previously discounted price we spotted on Flipkart during a sale earlier. In case you missed out, here's another chance to grab the iPhone XS at a low price. Flipkart is also offering an exchange offer with up to Rs. 14,050 as an additional instant discount. The iPhone XS features a dual rear camera setup consisting of two 12-megapixel cameras along with a 7-megapixel front-facing camera. The phone is powered by Apple's A12 Bionic chip. Price: Rs. 54,999 (MRP Rs. 89,900)
Apple iPhone XS (Space Grey, 64 GB)
(38% off)

Oppo Reno 10X Zoom

You can buy the Oppo Reno 10X Zoom at an effective price of Rs. 26,990 (MRP Rs. 41,990) during the Flipkart Mobiles Bonanza sale this week. The extra Rs. 10,000 discount is valid if you pay online using any online payment method. You can further add value to your purchase by using the bundled exchange offer that can help sweeten the deal further by up to Rs. 14,050. Flipkart is also offering a no-cost EMI payment option on select payment methods. Price: Rs. 26,990 (effective after prepaid discount)
OPPO Reno 10x Zoom (Ocean Green, 128 GB)(6.0 GB RAM)
(11% off)

Google Pixel 3a (4GB, 64GB)

What's a Flipkart sale without a decent deal on Google Pixel phones? This time around, the Google Pixel 3a (4GB, 64GB) is down to Rs. 27,999 (MRP Rs. 39,999). That's around Rs. 2,000 less than the last official price cut. The Google Pixel 3a comes with a 5.6-inch full-HD+ display. It features a single 12.2-megapixel primary rear camera along with an 8-megapixel selfie camera. The phone is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 670 SoC, supported by 4GB of RAM.
Price: Rs. 27,999 (MRP Rs. 39,999)
Google Pixel 3a (Just Black, 64 GB) (4 GB RAM)
(30% off)

Asus 6Z

Flipkart is promising the 'lowest price' on the Asus 6Z smartphone during its Mobiles Bonanza sale this week. The 6GB RAM, 128GB storage variant of the Asus 6Z is down to Rs. 26,999 (MRP Rs. 38,999) during Flipkart's sale this week. The Asus 6Z comes with a 6.39-inch full-HD+ display and is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 SoC. As for the cameras, the Asus 6Z features two rear cameras with a 48-megapixel primary camera sensor. On the front, there's a 48-megapixel primary camera sensor and a 13-megapixel secondary camera.
Price: Rs. 26,999 (MRP Rs. 38,999)
Asus 6Z (Black, 128 GB)(6 GB RAM) (30% off)

Realme XT

Realme XT is also available at a discounted price of Rs. 14,999 (MRP Rs. 16,999) during the Flipkart Mobiles Bonanza sale this week. The smartphone features a quad rear camera setup consisting of a 64-megapixel primary camera sensor. The Realme XT comes with a 6.4-inch display and is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 712 chipset. Flipkart is also offering a bundled exchange offer that can further cut down the listed price by up to Rs. 14,050.
Price: Rs. 14,999(MRP Rs. 16,999)
Realme XT (Pearl Blue, 64 GB) (4 GB RAM) (11% off)

Samsung Galaxy S9

Samsung's Galaxy S9 is again down to Rs. 22,999 (MRP Rs. 62,500) during Flipkart's Mobiles Bonanza sale. The Walmart-owned online marketplace is also offering an instant discount worth up to Rs. 14,050 if you're willing to exchange your old smartphone with your purchase. The Galaxy S9 features a 5.8-inch quad-HD+ display, a single 12-megapixel rear camera, and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.
Price: Rs. 22,999 (MRP Rs. 62,500)
Samsung Galaxy S9 (Coral Blue, 64 GB) (4 GB RAM) (63% off)

In fact, NHAI or The National Highways Authority of India is earning close to Rs 5 lakh per day, due to this.

Is this fair?

Vehicle Owners Paying Double Toll For Using Cash In Karnataka, toll plazas are now forcing motorists to pay double toll, if they have FASTags, but still paying in cash.
Around 40% of all cars and bikes passing via Karnataka?s toll plazas still pay by cash, and but if they want to pass via FASTag lane and paying cash, they will need to pay double.
In case the vehicle owners have FASTags, but don?t have the minimum balance, then also they are being asked to pay double toll.
In the toll plaza near to Bengaluru airport, passengers don?t argue and pay the double fees since they have a flight to catch.
However, this trend is coming down, and daily 2-3% more motorists are getting the FASTags.
P. Somashekar, general manager and project director, NHAI said, ?But FASTag users are gradually increasing. The number of cash lanes at toll plazas has reduced. On average, 60% of the vehicles passing through toll booths are making payments through FASTag. This increases by 2-3% every day,?

Is This Fair?

This double toll seems like a forceful decision, and motorists are arguing and questioning this move.
Those who need to catch a flight cannot even argue, and waste time, and they pay the amount, but in other locations, issues are erupting.
A toll booth employees said to The Hindu: ?As per the instructions, double the fee must be collected from such motorists. So if the toll rate is ?90, they have to pay ?180 for a single trip to Kempegowda International Airport,?
Govt. has made FASTags free till February 29th, and they hope that more and more people will use them now.

Samsung has already produced two smartphones with a foldable display, offering the Galaxy Fold and the Galaxy Z Flip. We?ve previously heard about a Samsung Galaxy Fold sequel, tentatively dubbed Galaxy Fold 2, and more details may have leaked. Korean outlet Aju News and Ross Young, founder of Display Supply Chain Consultants (h/t: XDA-Developers), have both reported that the device might have an under-screen selfie camera. Young adds that it could potentially arrive with ultra-thin glass (UTG) as well, although that?s apparently dependent on supply challenges being met. The two sources also report that the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 is currently code-named Champ, with Young adding that the phone is scheduled for a Q3 2020 launch date. Aju News, meanwhile, drills down even deeper and says the phone will launch in July. The display executive adds that the phone will fold out to offer a 7.7-inch display, meaning the screen is slightly larger than the 7.3-inch Galaxy Fold panel. Otherwise, the Korean news outlet says it?s tipped to have a similar price to the original model, with Young also saying it?ll be more expensive than clamshell foldables. Either way, the Galaxy Z Flip has set the bar high for Samsung foldable phones in 2020. So you can be sure that the company will want to achieve a similar level of polish with the Galaxy Fold 2, leaving memories of the Galaxy Fold?s original launch in the dust.

Preparations For Trump's Visit To India Show 'Slave Mentality': Shiv Sena US President Trump is scheduled to visit Gujarat on February 24. (File) Mumbai: The Shiv Sena today said the ongoing preparation for the upcoming visit of US President Donald Trump to India is a reflection of the "slave mentality" of Indians. Donald Trump's India trip is like the visit of a "Badshah" (emperor), an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said.
US President Trump is scheduled to visit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat on February 24. He will visit the famous Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad and take part in a roadshow with PM Modi. After that, the two leaders will inaugurate a new cricket stadium in Motera and address a gathering there, with an expected audience of over a lakh people.
Taking a dig at the construction of a wall on a plot having several slum structures in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, ahead of Donald Trump's visit there, the Sena said the US president's trip would neither stop the fall of rupee's value in forex market nor offer betterment to those (slum dwellers) behind the wall.
"Before Independence, British King or Queen used to visit one of their slave nations like India. The kind of preparations going on from taxpayers' money for the arrival of Donald Trump is similar to it. This reflects the slave mentality of Indians," it said.
The Sena also took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's (AMC) move to build wall on a plot to "hide the slums" on the route through which Mr Trump's convoy would pass.
"Former prime minister Indira Gandhi had once given the slogan 'Garibi Hatao', which was ridiculed for a long time. It seems now Modi's plan is 'Garibi chupao' (hide poverty)," the Marathi publication said.
It also raised several questions on the wall: "Is there any financial allocation for such a wall being built in Ahmedabad? Is the US going to offer loan to India to build such walls across the country?"
"We have heard Trump is going to be in Ahmedabad for only three hours but the wall construction is costing almost Rs 100 crore to the state exchequer," it said.
It is basically a political arrangement between PM Modi and US President Trump, the Sena claimed.
Last year, 'Howdy, Modi!' (a mega event jointly addressed by PM Modi and Donald Trump) was organised in the US, it noted. A similar programme, "Kem Chho Trump" (Gujarati expression for how are you Trump), has been now organised (in Ahmedabad) ahead of the US elections, chiefly because of a sizable number of Gujarati people living in America, the Shiv Sena claimed.
"But this visit of President Trump is neither going to stop further fall of rupee in the forex market nor offer betterment to those behind the wall (being built in front of slums in Ahmedabad)," it said.
The Sena said Mr Trump is "not someone very wise or a statesman or someone who cares for the whole world", but he has to be treated with respect as he represents the mighty US.
"Sometimes you have to treat someone with respect to get your things done," it quipped.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation on Friday said the construction of the wall, around four feet in height, was approved much before Trumps Gujarat visit was finalised.
While it was earlier speculated that the programme would be called "Kem Chho Trump", the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation on Sunday tweeted a series of posters confirming that the event is now christened as "Namaste Trump", apparently to give it a pan-India appeal.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the six other ministers in the newly-formed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government took charge of their offices on Monday. To start with, Kejriwal, in his third stint as chief minister, is aiming to roll out the free bus ride for students and doorstep delivery of ration schemes within the first three-four months.
Hindustan Times takes a look at the top five projects which the Delhi government is kicking-off its term with:
Deshbhakti curriculum: The first priority of the AAP government in education sector will be to introduce the patriotism curriculum in all government schools. Announcing the move on the eve of Independence Day in 2019, Kejriwal said that the curriculum would help build ?a class of patriotic citizens?. It was also included in the AAP?s manifesto for the assembly elections. Speaking to HT, Manish Sisodia, who is going to be the deputy chief minister of Delhi and is likely to retain the education portfolio, said that the government is aiming to introduce this curriculum in its schools from the session which starts from April 1.
Ration delivery: Kejriwal?s flagship project, the doorstep delivery of ration, which aims to offer free home delivery of essential supplies to ration-card holders, is going to be the other project which the government is planning to roll out in its first few months. Officials associated with the project said that the file, which once was the cause of a major flashpoint between the Lieutenant Governor, the bureaucracy and the Delhi government, has now received ?all the necessary clearances?.
Source apportionment of air pollution: The Delhi government in collaboration with Washington University will start giving out real-time data identifying area-wise sources of air pollution in the city from April. ?We have base level data for almost a year now. The comparison with the previous year?s pollution source data will begin from April. The machines have been set up at our air quality monitoring centre near India Gate. Once it starts, details of air pollution and its sources will be provided in an interval of every four hours which will help agencies to take area-specific pollution control initiatives,? said an official on condition of anonymity.
Free bus rides for students: The AAP?s promise to extend its free bus ride scheme to students, mentioned in Kejriwal?s 10-point guarantee card ahead of the assembly elections, is likely to be executed within three months of the government assuming office. The AAP government offers free rides to women in all state-run buses since October. The scheme will have to be tabled in the Cabinet and then will have to be approved in the Board of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC). Officials said this procedure should not take more than three months.
Decongesting Delhi: As Kejriwal in his swearing-in ceremony on Sunday talked about greater cooperation with the Central government, the AAP government is looking to collaborate with the Delhi police smoothening major traffic bottlenecks in the city. The government is likely to revise speed limits of all roads across Delhi and it will also kick-start a project to re-design roads with location-specific solutions with the held of experts.
While in most projects and schemes, the Kejriwal government will require little intervention from the Lieutenant Governor or the central government, a few others such as developing a riverfront along the Yamuna and increasing the number of mohalla clinics and reducing vehicular traffic in the city will need the cooperation of the Centre.
Against its target of setting up 1000 mohalla clinics, the AAP government in its last tenure was able to build only over 400 of them because of unavailability of land, most of which is under the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) that is controlled by the Central government.

Walmart owned Flipkart, which is fighting the battle against Amazon, and to be launched Jiomart in India has now come up with a new strategy to lure more consumers into their fold.

Soon, you would be allowed to touch and feel products, before buying them on Flipkart!

How will this work out?

Flipkart?s New Strategy: Touch & Feel Products

Flipkart chief corporate affairs officer Rajneesh Kumar has said that their buyers in India would be able to touch and feel products, before buying them online.
A special ?buy zone? will be created, wherein any customer can walk in, touch and feel the product to get more clarity.
This will especially help those who are looking to buy mobiles and fashion related products such as accessories and apparel.

How Will This Work Out?

Flipkart has carried a pilot project for this strategy, in Hyderabad, where smartphones sold at some kiosks were open for such touch and feel sessions.
Consumers were asked to visit the kiosk, and checkout the product firsthand to gain more insights and experience.
Mobile-Desktop-Post-Middle-Fluid-Dec2017 However, there is a catch: The product had to be ordered online itself, via Flipkart app or website.
We are not sure how the arrangement worked with the kiosk owners, since the product was eventually bought from the online store.
Rajneesh Kumar said, ?Our pilot project was successful in Hyderabad with mobiles where we partnered with local kirana stores for a touch and feel experience. But the order has to be taken online from a kiosk installed there,?
Flipkart?s Already Existing Network Will Help This New Plan Flipkart has already partnered with more than 27,000 offline outlets, across 700 cities in India, and this massive network will help Flipkart to execute this new strategy.
Soon, Flipkart customers can visit these partner outlets, which includes mobile stores, kirana outlets and showrooms, where they can checkout the products firsthand.
Reliance has already partnered with 10,000+ kirana outlets for launching their JioMart ecommerce portal, which will be an O2O or Offline to Online model.

Don't buy an external graphics card ? just build a PC or get a gaming laptop, seriously More and more we're seeing thin and light laptops and Ultrabooks that are being marketed as both gaming and productivity machines, on the promise that you can attach external graphics to boost power when you need it at home.
The sales pitch is this: you can have a thin and light Ultrabook like the Lenovo Yoga C940 ? which we used for testing ? and connect an EGPU via Thunderbolt 3 to turn it into a gaming or productivity device at home. The idea is that you'll be able to leverage the power of a full desktop graphics card like an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 in apps like Adobe Premiere or in games, without having to settle for a bulkier gaming laptop.
However, it doesn't quite work that way. While an external GPU will certainly boost performance over the integrated graphics that a lot of gaming laptops offer, it's generally not enough to justify the hugely inflated cost that one of these bulky boxes necessarily brings.
So we decided to test just how much extra performance you can expect from one of these graphics boxes, and whether or not you should just opt for a full gaming laptop instead.

First, a bit of background

The original Razer Blade Stealth launched way back in 2016, along with the Razer Core V1. The laptop was marketed as a thin and light "gaming laptop", even though it used an Intel U-series processor with integrated graphics ? not something especially great for gaming.
Instead, Razer urged users to pick up the Razer Core V1 alongside the Razer Blade Stealth in order to boost gaming performance when at home.
This external graphics box would connect to the laptop through Thunderbolt 3 ? still the only connection with enough throughput to power external graphics ? and rely on the user to slot in the graphics card of their choosing. Pretty much no matter which graphics card they slotted in, they'd get much better gaming performance.
But here's the issue. Especially when you take high-performance graphics into consideration, there's only so much an external graphics card can do. You see, typically when you connect one of the best graphics cards to a motherboard you're able to use the full 16 PCIe lanes for the GPU - Thunderbolt 3, as magical as it is, is limited to just two.
So right off the bat, there's a lot less bandwidth the GPU can harness, but then you also have to take into consideration that the processor is orders of magnitude slower than a desktop chip. For instance, in our review for the laptop we used for testing, we found that the processor was able to score 605 points in Cinebench R15, compared to the 1,463 scored by the Intel Core i7-9700K. That means the processor isn't fast enough to keep up with the graphics card, especially in situations that tax both components.

Let's talk performance

TEST SYSTEM SPECS This is the desktop system we used for comparison CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X (12-core, up to 4.6GHz) CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X62 RAM: 32GB HyperX Predator RGB @ 3,000MHz GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Motherboard: X570 Aorus Master SSD: Samsung 860 QVO 1TB Power Supply: Phanteks Revolt X 1200 Case: Praxis Wetbench
In order to test the performance of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 on an EGPU, we paired it with a Lenovo Yoga C940 with an Intel Core i7-1065G7, 12GB of RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD.
We tested that against the laptop without an EGPU, an Alienware m15 R2 with an Intel Core i7-9750H, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 and 16GB of RAM, and finally, our test bench with an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, 32GB of RAM and the same Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 tested in the external GPU box.
And, when we just look at synthetic benchmarks through 3DMark, it's
looking pretty good for the external GPU. For instance, in Time Spy, the Lenovo Yoga C940 goes from 885 points all the way up to 7,629 when connected to the graphics box. Similarly in the hardcore Firestrike Ultra, the EGPU enables the Yoga to score a whopping 5,990 points to the 650 it gets on its own.
Even compared to the Alienware m15, the Yoga with an EGPU is looking quite nice. In Time Spy, the Alienware scores 7,446 to the EGPU's 7,629. It's a small difference, but it does mean that the stronger graphics card is indeed stronger.
However, when you look at what the graphics card can do when connected to a PC that can fully take advantage of it, there's no comparison. When connected to our test bench the RTX 2080 scores 10,970 in Time Spy, which 31% faster. So, if you're investing in a high-end graphics card for one of these external graphics boxes, just know you're probably not going to see the full potential of that GPU.
Everything kind of falls apart when we take a look at actual gaming performance, however. We tested this setup in Metro Exodus, which we admit is a big ask for even the best gaming laptops. However, while the Lenovo Yoga C940 does jump up from 6 fps to 23 fps when attached to the EGPU, the Alienware m15 is nearly twice as fast at 44 fps. Then, there's our test bench which jumps all the way up to 63 fps.
This is entirely because the processor in this laptop just isn't up to snuff for high-end gaming. If you're dead-set on picking up a laptop with an external graphics solution, just keep in mind that the reality is not quite as rosy as it might seem.

Should I buy an EGPU?

One thing is abundantly clear through our testing, especially when it comes to synthetic benchmarks: you certainly are getting much higher performance. If you're a traveling creator that wants a super thin and light laptop to take to meetings, and then attach it to a EGPU to get hardcore work done when back at a desk, it's honestly an awesome solution.
However, if you're looking to play the best PC games, it simply isn't a great solution. Now, the Lenovo Yoga C940, the Razer Core X and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 will run you about $2,299 (about £1,760, AU$3,400), where the Alienware m15 will run a bit more at $2,499 (£2,499, AU$4,419). But for that small bump in price, you're getting nearly double the performance in actual games.
And, if you want to game at home and have a thin and light laptop to carry around, there's an easy solution: pick up one of the best Chromebooks and call it a day. You can build a PC that can outperform this setup for nearly half the price, and then spend the rest on a nice little portable laptop that won't break the bank. This is the solution that we use at home, and it's one we wholeheartedly recommend for aspiring PC gamers out there.

Don't buy into the hype of gaming laptops that can't actually play games ? the performance numbers just aren't there.

Realme C3 is set to go on sale in India today for the first time. The new Realme smartphone that was launched in the country last week comes as the successor to the Realme C2. It comes with an HD+ display and includes the MediaTek Helio G70 SoC. Other key highlights of the Realme C3 include a dual rear camera setup, waterdrop-style display notch, and up to 4GB of RAM. The smartphone will be available for purchase in three distinct colour options. The Realme C3 competes against the Redmi 8A Dual that Xiaomi launched recently as an upgrade to the Redmi 8.

Realme C3 price in India, sale offers

The Realme C3 price in India is set at Rs. 6,999 for the 3GB RAM + 32GB storage variant, while its 4GB RAM + 64GB storage model carries a price tag of Rs. 7,999. Both options come in Blazing Red and Frozen Blue colour shades. The phone will be available for purchase through Flipkart and Realme.com starting 12pm (noon) IST today.
Sale offers on the Realme C3 include Jio benefits worth Rs. 7,550 on a recharge of Rs. 349 plan. Customers purchasing the smartphone through Flipkart during the first sale are also entitled to avail a minimum of Rs. 1,000 discount in lieu of their old smartphone.

Realme C3 specifications, features

The dual-SIM (Nano) Realme C3 runs Android 10 with Realme UI 1.0 on top and features a 6.5-inch HD+ (720x1600 pixels) display with 89.8 percent screen-to-body ratio and 20:9 aspect ratio. The phone is powered by the octa-core MediaTek Helio G70 SoC, paired with up to 4GB of RAM. For photos and videos, the dual rear camera setup of the Realme C3 includes a 12-megapixel main sensor with an f/1.8 lens and a 2-megapixel secondary sensor with an f/2.4 lens. The smartphone also has a 5-megapixel selfie camera that supports features such as HDR and AI Beautification.
On the storage front, the Realme C3 has 32GB and 64GB of onboard storage options that both are expandable via microSD card (up to 256GB). Connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v5, GPS/ A-GPS, Micro-USB, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Sensors on the phone include an accelerometer, ambient light, magnetometer, and a proximity sensor. Besides, the phone packs a 5,000mAh battery with 10W charging support and measures 164.4x75.0x8.95mm.
Is Realme C3 price likely to usher in a budget smartphone revolution? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

KEY SPECS

Display
6.52-inch
Processor
MediaTek Helio G70
Front Camera
5-megapixel
Rear Camera
12-megapixel + 2-megapixel
RAM
3GB
Storage
32GB
Battery Capacity
5000mAh
OS
Android 10
Resolution
720x1600 pixels

Amid the worldwide epidemic outbreak of Coronavirus which has so far claimed more than 1,000 lives, the virus now has been officially named ?Covid-19? by the World Health Organisation on Tuesday. The virus was temporarily named as Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP) by China's National Health Commission. Earlier in the day, the WHO chief labeled the outbreak as ?a very grave threat? for the rest of the world. While speaking at the global research and innovation forum in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday said that it is hard to believe that the virus was completely unknown to them two months ago. Ghebreyesus reportedly said that the coronavirus outbreak is a test of political, financial, and scientific solidarity. He opined that it is the time to find whether the world can come together to fight a common enemy that does not respect borders or ideologies. ?Whether the world will invest now in fighting the coronavirus outbreak, or pay more later to deal with its consequences,? said the WHO chief, as per reports. "We need your collective knowledge, insight, and experience to answer the questions we don?t have answers to, and to identify the questions we may not even realize we need to ask," he added. China tests 10.59 million citizens in Wuhan for Coronavirus China's ruling Communist Party on Monday confirmed that authorities have carried out tests on 10.59 million people in Wuhan city of Hubei province to identify coronavirus patients. According to Chinese state media, 99 per cent of the city's population has undergone the test while the remaining one percent would be completed by Tuesday. The city of 11 million people is living under the threat of deadly coronavirus since December last year. The virus was first identified in China on December 31. Coronavirus outbreak According to the latest reports, the coronavirus outbreak has claimed more than 1,000 lives and over 42,000 new cases have been confirmed in the country as of February 10. The country recorded its highest number of deaths in a single day since the outbreak as it reported 108 deaths on Monday. US Center for Disease Control (CDC) has said that the virus has already spread to 27 countries. United States President?s Coronavirus Task Force on Friday informed that the development of a vaccine is progressing well and it would hopefully be ready within three months. Media reports had earlier suggested that the virus originated from a seafood market in China's Hubei province, where animals were being traded illegally.

WASHINGTON:

US President Donald Trump has said that he is looking forward to his first visit to India later this month and indicated that the two countries may sign a trade deal. At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump is slated to travel to India on February 24 and 25. In addition to New Delhi, he will stop in Ahmedabad in Gujarat to address a joint public meeting with Modi at a stadium. "He (Modi) is a great gentleman and I look forward to going to India. So, we'll be going at the end of the month," Trump told reporters in his Oval Office, a day after the White House announced dates of his anticipated India trip. Responding to a question, the president indicated that he is willing to sign a trade deal with India if it is the right one.
"They (Indians) want to do something and we'll see ... if we can make the right deal, (we) will do it," said Trump, a fortnight ahead of his visit to the country as the 45th US president. India's new Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu told PTI that Trump's forthcoming visit is a "reflection of the strong personal rapport" between Trump and Modi. "It also demonstrates their strong desire to take the relationship to new heights," said Sandhu, who had presented his credentials to Trump in Oval Office last week. Over the last three years, Trump and Modi have developed a personal friendship and in 2019, the duo met four times including their joint address before a strong 50,000 crowd of Indian-Americans in Houston. This year, they have spoken over the phone on two occasions, including the one over the weekend. "Just spoke with Prime Minister Modi," Trump told reporters on Tuesday in response to a question on his India visit. Excited to travel to India later this month, said Trump referring to his conversation with Modi during which the Prime Minister apparently told him about the hundreds and thousands of Indians who would be there to welcome him in Ahmedabad. Trump jokingly told reporters that now he will "not feel good" about the size of the crowd that he addresses in the US which is usually between 40,000 to 50,000. "He (Modi) said we will have millions and millions of people. My only problem is that last night we probably had 40 or 50,000 people ... I'm not going to feel so good ... There will be five to seven million people just from the airport to the new stadium (in Ahmedabad)," Trump said. "And you know (it) is the largest stadium in the world. He's (Modi) building it now. It's almost complete and it's the largest in the world," Trump said. The two leaders are expected to joint address a massive public rally at the newly build Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad. Being built at an estimated cost of $100 million, the Motera Stadium with a seating capacity of 100,000 spectators will be the world's largest cricket stadium overtaking the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia.

Apart from its usual set of flagship smartphones, Samsung focused on the budget and mid-range segments with the Galaxy-M and Galaxy-A series last year. Moving into 2020, the company is now focusing on the affordable flagship category, specifically the sub-Rs 40,000 price segment. OnePlus has been dominating and has been successful in this segment for a while now, so much so, that Xiaomi and Realme have been trying to compete with the ?Flagship Killer.?
The new Galaxy S10 Lite, according to Samsung offers the premium Galaxy S experience at a more affordable price. Now even though it has S10 in its name, it doesn?t look anything like the original Galaxy S10 series. First of all, there is a flat AMOLED display and the punch hole has moved to the center, just like the Galaxy Note 10. The triple cameras at the back are placed in a raised rectangular module, very similar to the one we saw on the Galaxy M30s.

Design

The handset also makes use of what Samsung calls ?Glastic? which is a combination of glass and plastic. The use of this plastic fused glass also helps in shedding some weight. This was one of the first things that I noticed when I got my hands on the device. It feels light considering its size and dimensions and the fact that it loaded with a large 4,500mAh battery. According to the company, this material offers a premium finish similar to glass, but at the same time, it doesn?t shatter like glass. Oh, and it also attracts a lot of fingerprints. In-person, I did not have any complaints.
Overall the handset looks and feels worthy of the price, almost as good as the OnePlus 7T. But there are some important things that I need to point out. First of all, there is no headphone jack on this phone, but thankfully there is a pair of USB Type-C earphones in the box. Also, there is only one speaker sitting at the bottom of the phone.
Samsung has been a pioneer when it comes to its mobile displays, and the Galaxy S10 Lite is no exception. The 6.7-inch Super AMOLED panel covers almost the entire front with slim bezels all around. It offers a Full HD+ resolution of 2400x1080 but somehow Samsung?s OneUI makes the icons look bigger than expected. The panel is definitely bright, offers punchy colours and of course you can fine-tune the colours and white balance according to your liking. There is a fingerprint scanner under the display as well, although it isn?t the same as the one we saw on the Galaxy S10 series. More on this later.
Now the display does feel at par with the OnePlus 7T?s Fluid AMOLED panel. It is comparable in terms of colour reproduction as well as brightness, but OnePlus offers a 90Hz refresh rate, which makes a huge difference. Now I am not saying the panel on the S10 Lite is bad, in fact, I felt it was a tad bit brighter. But once you move to that fast 90Hz refresh rate, everything else just seems less fluid.

Performance

On the inside, the handset is loaded with some solid specs. There is a Snapdragon 855 processor paired with 8GB of RAM. There is a 6GB variant as well, but the company has decided not to introduce the variant at launch. You get 128GB of internal storage and if that feels less, there is the option of adding a microSD card of up to 512GB in capacity. Samsung usually relies on its own range of processors, especially for devices launching in India, but the S10 Lite is an exception and could attract customers.
Performance is pretty solid. The new One UI 2.0 brings some small refinements along with Android 10 goodness. Samsung?s UI skin somehow feels a bit too much, especially if you are coming from a stock Android smartphone. Surprisingly, it is smooth and in my two weeks of usage, I hardly faced any glitches or slowdowns. I just wish that Samsung brings support for third-party icon packs apart from the themes and wallpapers on offer.
As a daily driver, the phone is very responsive and smooth. Multitasking is handled flawlessly and apps open quickly. Overall I found the phone to be quite snappy and probably one of the best in its class. It just a notch behind the OnePlus 7T purely because of that faster 90Hz refresh rate and a cleaner Android experience with OxygenOS.
Gaming performance is really good considering the Snapdragon 800 series processor. PUBG Mobile can go the maximum Smooth + Ultra settings and after 20-25 minutes the phone does get a little warm, but nothing unbearable.
The in-display fingerprint sensor works fairly fast, even though it is not the same as the Ultrasonic one that is used on the original S10 series. There is a single bottom-firing speaker, which is decent but not as good as some of the competitors. Speaking of audio, Samsung does offer Dolby Atmos enhancement using wired or Bluetooth headphones. Notably, there is no headphone jack, but Samsung is bundling a pair of decent USB Type-C earphones.

Camera

Moving to the camera department, Samsung claims that the S10 Lite offers a ?Pro Grade Experience.? There is a triple rear camera setup with a 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor with an f/2.0 lens along with OIS (optical image stabilisation). This is paired with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with an f/2.2 aperture and 123-degree field of view along with a 5-megapixel macro camera with an f/2.4 lens. At the front, there is a 32-megapixel camera with an f/2.2 lens. The company has stressed on the fact that the main camera comes with an OIS system paired with the company?s Super Steady software, which was originally announced with the S10 series. The module tries to mimic a gimbal to stabilise your videos, like most flagship phone cameras, combined with Super Steady, which is basically the company?s electronic image stabilisation solution.
Apart from the Macro mode, the camera offers a variety of other features including Pro, Super slow-mo, Hyperlapse, Night and Food modes. Like most manual modes, the Pro mode lets you take control of the exposure, white balance, and ISO. It would have been great if Samsung added the ability to manually control the autofocus and shutter speed. There is also the Live focus feature that lets you add blur to your pictures or videos in real-time.
Now I compared some shots I had taken with the S10 Lite with the OnePlus 7T. In bright conditions, the camera on the S10 Lite manages to produce good punchy colors with a wide dynamic range. Sharpness is mostly good but as seen on Samsung phones, there were certain shots that looked soft for no good reason. The HDR mode also does a pretty good job and doesn?t take a lot of time to render images, even in low light conditions.
I really liked the ultra-wide camera as apart from offering a wider field of view compared to the OnePlus 7T, it manages to capture almost similar colours and dynamic range as the primary sensor, although not as sharp. Low-light performance is pretty good thanks to the OIS, and in certain scenarios, it manages to produce better pictures than the OnePlus 7T. The dedicated night mode manages to bring out some details in the shadow areas, but highlights can go for a toss. The macro mode definitely is far better than most of the handsets that I have tested so far but is neck to neck when it comes to the OnePlus 7T.
As for video recording, the S10 Lite lets you shoot 4K video at 30fps from the regular as well as the ultra-wide camera, which is nice to see. As mentioned above, you can turn the Super Steady mode on, but that only works on the main camera and only for 1080p videos. Videos do look pretty stable when you mix and match the settings, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Battery

This is one area that the Galaxy S10 Lite really impresses. The 4500mAh battery manages to keep the phone running all-day long. As a daily driver, I used the phone to check emails, listen to some music on Spotify, take a few pictures and play PUBG Mobile for about 2 hours. I still had about 40 percent left at the end of my day. Samsung bundles a 25W charger that fully juices up the device in about an hour. The company says that it does also support 45W charging, but you would need a separate charger for that.

Verdict

On its own, I would definitely recommend the Galaxy S10 Lite as it addresses most of the customer pain points. Having said that, the competition in the smartphone market is stiff and one cannot ignore the likes of the OnePlus 7T, Realme X2 Pro or the Redmi K20 Pro for that matter. There are definitely some areas where the S10 Lite is better than its competition, like the long battery life, a marginally bigger display, and good camera performance. But it isn?t the best phone in its segment. It is, however, definitely one of the highly recommended options if you are looking for a smartphone under Rs 40,000.

Samsung Galaxy M31 is set to launch in India on February 25, a microsite officially created by the company revealed. The new Samsung phone, which will debut as the successor to the Galaxy M30, will include a 64-megapixel primary shooter. The microsite on the Samsung India website also shows the presence of a quad rear camera setup on the Galaxy M31 that would be available in a rectangular-shaped module. The Galaxy M31 is also seen to retain the gradient back finish that was featured on the Galaxy M-series phones last year.
The official microsite shows that the Samsung Galaxy M31 launch in India will take place at 12pm (noon) IST on February 25. However, it is unclear whether Samsung will host an event to conduct the launch or just live stream the development through its social media channels.

Samsung Galaxy M31 specifications

Apart from revealing the launch schedule, the microsite created by Samsung highlights some of the key specifications of the Galaxy M31. It shows that the smartphone will feature a full-HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-U Display panel. The microsite also shows the rear camera setup of the smartphone that will offer a 64-megapixel primary shooter, as initially teased last week. A rear-mounted fingerprint sensor can also be seen on the renders featured on the microsite.
Besides, the microsite notes that the Samsung Galaxy M31 will pack a massive 6,000mAh battery. This is bigger than the 5,000mAh battery powering the Samsung Galaxy M30.
The given list of specifications suggest that the Samsung Galaxy M31 will debut as a new affordable contender by the South Korean company against the likes of the Redmi Note 8 Pro and Realme 5 Pro. However, the exact pricing of the new smartphone is yet to be revealed to help us give a clear judgement.
If we go by the recent rumours, the Samsung Galaxy M31 would run Android 10 with One UI 2.0 on top and come with the Exynos 9611 SoC, paired with up to 6GB of RAM. The phone is also rumoured to have two distinct configurations -- 4GB RAM + 64GB storage and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage.
Alongside the Galaxy M31, Samsung is speculated to have the Galaxy M11 and Galaxy M21 as two of its other new smartphone models under the Galaxy M series. The company, however, hasn't yet revealed any details beyond the arrival of the Galaxy M31. Display
6.40-inch
Processor
Samsung Exynos 9611
Front Camera
Yes
Rear Camera
64-megapixel + 12-megapixel + 5-megapixel
RAM
4GB
Storage
64GB
Battery Capacity
6000mAh
OS
Android 10

Delhi Results Live Updates: Delhi Results: AAP Heavyweights Including Atishi Trailing, Nail-Biter For Manish Sisodia Election Results 2020: AAP's Arvind Kejriwal is seeking a third term in Delhi.

New Delhi:

Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party is racing ahead of the BJP in the counting of votes for the Delhi election. Early trends show the Delhi-based party leading in over 50 seats while its closest rival BJP is ahead in 20 seats. "Our victory will prove that real patriotism is that if you get the opportunity in politics, you must work for the people. Work on education, hospitals," said AAP's Manish Sisodia, taking a swipe at the BJP which centred its campaign on nationalism. Although AAP is well ahead of the BJP, the Delhi-based party is trailing in at least 20 seats it had won in the 2015 elections. For the BJP, which ran a high-voltage campaign for the February 8 election, early trends show a gain of 20 seats. Exit polls have predicted another term for Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party, the BJP, which powered its campaign on the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests at Shaheen Bagh, is likely to put up a good show. The campaign for the Delhi Election 2020 has been bitter and polarised, the political discourse bogged down by threatening slogans and foul language. The ruling AAP has sought to retain power on the work done in the field of education, health, and in providing cheap electricity and water, while the main opposition BJP conducted a massive campaign, roping in most of its 70 union ministers, 270 MPs and leaders and Chief Ministers from various states, to deliver it's campaign message on anti-CAA protests and nationalism. Delhi election 2020 was held on Saturday, with 62.59 per cent of the city's voters coming out to exercise their democratic right. The voter turnout in the previous assembly election in 2015 stood at 67.5 per cent. Exit polls released after the conclusion of voting predicted as many as 56 of the 70 assembly seats for AAP, leaving 14 for the BJP and zero for the Congress. Health warning: Exit polls usually get it wrong. Here are the live updates on Delhi Assembly Election Results 2020

With WhatsApp Pay on Your Phone, Will You Still use Paytm, Phonepe And Google Pay?

It has been a fairly long wait to WhatsApp Pay in India. The Facebook-owned WhatsApp set the wheels in motion in the winter of 2018 when they requested the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking approval to offer digital payments services to WhatsApp users in India.
Just a few days ago, that journey has seemed to reach its logical conclusion. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has given the regulatory approval, which means you and I may soon be making digital payments on WhatsApp.
As will more than 400 million other WhatsApp users in the country, in a phased manner?these official numbers are from July last year and would have only gone up in the subsequent period. Should the likes of Paytm, PhonePe, Amazon Pay, Google Pay and others be worried? Yes, that is the simple answer.
So, how does WhatsApp Payments work? It is quite simple, actually. Even more so if you are already a part of the 1 million users who already have access to this feature as part of a trial period. If you can see the Payments option in the Settings options in WhatsApp on your phone, you can proceed to link this with your bank account via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The authentication is done with the registered mobile number with your bank via SMS, and once that is complete, you can make and receive payments from other users from your bank account. Buying stuff at a store, online shopping, mobile bills, prepaid recharge or splitting the bill at a restaurant after a nice dinner with friends, WhatsApp Pay UPI will make all that simpler than it probably already is.
How incredibly easy and convenient for the 400 million or so WhatsApp users in India. No need to switch to another app to make payments. As Facebook says, ?sending payments will be as easy as sending a message?. You will be able to make payments by scanning a QR code, send money to any UPI ID or do Money transfer to friends who have WhatsApp Pay. Expect online stores and offline shops integrate the WhatsApp Pay payments option in the months ahead.
Would it be fallacious to assume that most users would perhaps start using WhatsApp Pay by default? More so because WhatsApp is the default messaging app for a large demographic of the 400 million user base in India. To use any other payments app, including Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay, you still have to head to a separate app. That?s another step.
Another hurdle. It is worse in the case of Amazon Pay and Airtel Payments Bank for instance, because you need to dig for them in another app. Perhaps not, then.
India is just the start. The launchpad. Insights that will help later. Facebook has global ambitions with the digital payments? product, something Mark Zuckerberg made very clear at the F8 conference keynote last year. Now factor in WhatsApp?s 1.6 billion user base (and growing) globally, and rivals are no doubt worried.
To be honest, the digital payments space in India perhaps needed this disruption. "When I look out at all the different ways that people interact privately, I think payments is one of the areas where we have an opportunity to make it a lot easier, that?s among the most important things that we can do here," Zuckerberg had said about WhatsApp payments, at the F8 conference last year.
Facebook has already made a submission to the Supreme Court of India that it would fully comply with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines for payments apps, including the data localization norms.
Paytm, which is presently the most popular digital payments apps in India has around 250 million users. It plans to clock 12 billion transactions this year. It has also built a whole ecosystem of products around the payment?s app, including the Paytm First subscription bundle and the Paytm Mall shopping website.
Once WhatsApp Pay rolls out fully in India, Facebook will have reached out to a WhatsApp user base which is already more than Paytm?s user base. That is before we even factor in how easy it will be for Facebook to make this common across its other apps too, including Messenger, which itself has 1.3 billion users globally.
The Flipkart owned payments service PhonePe has around 170 million users, as of late last year. Google Pay has more than 67 million users in India as of September last year. Amazon Pay on its part is beefing up the offerings by now adding the UPI option to iOS users as well?Apple iPhone users can now use UPI as a method for making payments, an year after Android users got the same functionality.
According to research firm McKinsey, the payments business would be worth $2 trillion by the year 2020. The Niti Aayog?s estimates suggest the digital payments space in India will be around $1 trillion by the year 2023.
The big advantage that WhatsApp Pay will have, as do other UPI based payment services, is the lack of effort required for the Know Your Customer (KYC) process for users. The regulations in India don?t require apps to do mandatory KYC for UPI transactions, since these are linked to the bank account of individuals, which are already KYC compliant.
Earlier this year, the RBI extended its deadline for the physical KYC which mobile payment apps are required to do?Amazon Pay, Paytm and any other apps that allow your pay using a variety of methods including credit cards, have to mandatorily do a fresh round of physical KYC for all users who wish to continue using the services. No wonder then that Paytm and Amazon Pay are pushing UPI payments.

According to an IE report, the new Mi 10 will look very different from its predecessor Mi 9 which was launched last year. The report further added that Mi 10 could sport four rear camera sensors. Xiaomi, new Xiaomi phones, Mi phones, Mi 10 launch, Mobile world congress, Smartphones in India, Smartphones launch in 2020, New smartphones in 2020, Xiaomi, Mi 10 launch, Xiaomi new phonesThe launch has been scheduled a day ahead of the Mobile World Congress. (Photo: Twitter/ Xiaomi)[/caption] Xiaomi Smartphone launch: Chinese Smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi is set to launch Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro on February 23 in Spain?s Barcelona. The date for the launch of the Mi 10 series was announced by Xiaomi on Twitter. The launch has been scheduled a day ahead of the Mobile World Congress (MWC). Xiaomi had in December revealed at the Snapdragon Tech Summit that Mi 10 would have the latest Snapdragon 865 mobile platform. Xiaomi Co-Founder Lin Bin had at the summit claimed that Mi 10 would be one of the first flagship smartphones to utilize the Snapdragon 865. Snapdragon 865 is a 5G-enabled platform and Bin?s announcement in December had hinted that the Mi10 series could come with the 5G feature. Another key highlight of the series could be 108MP PentaCam, which is being hinted at by the official Twitter handles and posts of Xiaomi and Mi India. According to an IE report, the new Mi 10 will look very different from its predecessor Mi 9 which was launched last year. The report further added that Mi 10 could sport four rear camera sensors, likely to be aligned in a vertical strap on the left side of the back cover. Apart from this, the report adds, Mi 10 is expected to come with an in-display fingerprint sensor, much like its predecessor. A leaked banner revealed that Mi 10 could have two colour options, i.e., a black variant and a white variant with a blue tint. The display of the Mi Note 10 could feature a 6.57-inch OLED display and 90hz refresh rate, the report further states. According to a list of leaked features, the Mi 10 could have up to 12GB RAM and 256GB internal storage. It could have a 4,500mAh battery with fast charging support. Meanwhile, the report stated that the Mi 10 Pro variant would have similar specifications with slight upgradations in terms of camera and battery. The Pro variant could likely have 108MP+48MP+12MP+8MP quad-camera at the back and its battery could be 5,250mAh.

Top 15 off page SEO techniques for 2020.

1. Creating Shareable Content

Amazing content is always the KING in search engine optimization. Creating amazing and shareable content is a smart way to generating more and more natural backlinks to our website or blog. Research often and keep your content always fresh and updated.

2. Influencer Outreach

If you have created any kind of content which is share worthy, then don?t hesitate to reach out influencers in your industry. Tell them to check your blog and ask for link backs from their blog. Make sure you get the links from completely relevant domains.

3. Contribute as Guest Author

There are a number of good and quality blogs that are open for guest post from various authors. Write an amazing research piece and reach them with the content for guest post. Don?t focus on quantity of links but rather focus only on quality links. Also don?t keep posting multiple times on the same guest blog site.

4. Social Media Engagement

A major Off-page SEO technique is social media engagement. If you want to make your business, website or blog popular, engage with people on multiple social media platforms. Social media presence will help grow your business and also help you get more back links.

Top social networking sites

http://www.linkedin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/

http://www.twitter.com/ 94

https://www.pinterest.com/

https://www.instagram.com/

5. Social Bookmarking Sites

Social bookmarking sites are one of the best platforms to promote your website. When you bookmark your webpage or blog post on popular social bookmarking websites, you gain high traffic to your webpage or blog.

Popular and high PR Bookmarking Websites

http://digg.com

http://slashdot.org

https://www.reddit.com

http://diigo.com

https://www.tumblr.com/

6. Forum Submission

Participate in search forums which are related to your website and business and make a connection with that community. Reply to threads, answer people?s questions and give your suggestions and advice. Make use of ?Do-Follow? forums.

List of high PR forums

https://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/

https://www.addthis.com/forum

https://bbpress.org/forums/

https://www.careerbuilder.com

https://www.chronicle.com/forums

7. Blog Directory Submission

Directory Submission is constantly working to build quality back links. Choose an effective directory and select a proper category. It takes quite some time to deliver good results, but these results stand out over a longer time period.

Free directory submission list

https://industrydirectory.mjbizdaily.com/

https://directory.entireweb.com/

http://www.elecdir.com

https://www.sitepromotiondirectory.com/

http://www.a1webdirectory.org/

8. Article Submission

Submit your articles in a high PR article submission directory. You can also give links to your website. Make sure your content is unique and of high quality. Low quality content and content that has more keyword stuffing might get rejected. Choose the correct category and give a good title to your content.

Free Article Submission sites

http://hubpages.com/

http://ezinearticles.com

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/

http://www.brighthub.com/

http://www.magportal.com

9. Question and Answer

One of the best ways you can get high traffic is from question and answer websites. Join high PR question and answer sites and search for questions related to your business, blog or website and give clear answers to these questions. Give a link to your website which will help in bringing you more visibility.

Question and Answer Websites

https://www.quora.com/

https://answers.yahoo.com/

http://www.ehow.com/

http://answerbag.com/

http://www.blurtit.com/

10. Video Submission

If you want to make your videos popular, head to popular video submission sites. Give a proper title, description, tags and reference links. It is one of the more popular ways to get quality back links because all video submission websites have high PR.

Video sharing sites

https://www.youtube.com/

https://vimeo.com/ 97 96

https://www.dailymotion.com/in

https://vine.co/ 90 71

https://www.metacafe.com/

11. Image Submission

Share your photos on popular image submission websites. Before submitting your images please optimize them with the correct URL and title tag. Before submitting your images, check if they have a proper title, description and tags.

Image sharing sites

https://www.mediafire.com/

https://in.pinterest.com/

https://instagram.com/

https://www.flickr.com/

https://imgur.com/

12. Infographics Submission

Make creative infographics. These days, infographics are getting popular on the internet. Submit your infographics on infographics submission websites and give reference links to your webpage or blog. The image sizes differ with different websites.

Infographics Submission Sites

http://www.reddit.com/r/Infographics

http://visual.ly/ 78 70

http://www.infographicsarchive.com/

http://submitinfographics.com/

http://www.nerdgraph.com/

13. Document Sharing

Create attractive documents relating to your business or blog. The documents should have unique content and should be in either pdf or ppt formats. Submit these documents in the document sharing websites.

Document Sharing Sites

https://www.slideshare.net/

http://issuu.com/

https://www.scribd.com/

https://www.box.com/

http://en.calameo.com/

14. Press Release

Press Release Websites

https://www.prnewswire.com/

https://www.prlog.org/

https://www.openpr.com/

https://express-press-release.net/

https://www.issuewire.com/

15. Web2.0 Submission

Above all, Web2.0 is just another technique where we can create sub domains in high domain authority website. For example medium.com, tumbler, blogger, wordpress etc.,

Best Tips for web2.0:

Keep sharing the great content Update the site regularly Build backlink for published article

16. Use Google My Business

Google My Business is another Google product for free. Optimize this platform for best local SEO ranking. There are n number of places where you can smartly optimize the content and links and from that we can generate decent number of social traffic and brand awareness.

Best Tips for Google My Business

Have a proper description with 250 character. Make sure your primary is available in the first paragraph along with your city name. Regularly update the posts or gallery or products or offers. Keep watching your reviews and reply them instantly. Upload real photos under proper categories.

FAQs

1. What is SEO?
ans: The process of bringing the website in to the top of the search result is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
2. What are the main stages of SEO
ans: SEO is broadly classified in to three types. a) Technical SEO, b) On-Page SEO and c) Off-Page SEO
3. What is the most important part of SEO
ans: All the mentioned SEO techniques are important
4. What is technical SEO
ans: The process of letting the Search Engine crawl and index the webpage without any issue is called technical Search Engine Optimization
5. What is On-Page SEO
ans: The process of optimizing the content for search engine as well as user is called On Page Search Engine Optimization
6. What is Off-Page SEO
ans: The process of generating backlinks to our website is called Off Page Search Engine Optimization

Conclusion

In conclusion, proper On-page and Off page SEO optimization work will give a better position to your website in SERP. The above websites are listed based on the website?s PA (Page Authority), DA (Domain Authority) and PR (Page Rank). Please comment here if you know any other qualities that we can add to this list which we might have forgotten. Note: Google Page Rank (PR) is no longer a valid quality factor for any webpage, hence you can ignore that column and above mentioned PA, DA may vary a little bit with the current data. We will come up with more list as well as off page seo techniques, trends and strategies with more insights.

What is the virus causing the illness in Wuhan?

It is a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city, which also sold live and newly slaughtered animals.

Have there been other coronaviruses?

New and troubling viruses usually originate in animal hosts. Ebola and flu are other examples, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals. In 2002, Sars spread virtually unchecked to 37 countries, causing global panic, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing more than 750. Mers appears to be less easily passed from human to human, but has greater lethality, killing 35% of about 2,500 people who have been infected.

What are the symptoms caused by the Wuhan coronavirus?

The virus causes pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. If people are admitted to hospital, they may get support for their lungs and other organs as well as fluids. Recovery will depend on the strength of their immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.

Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?

China?s national health commission has confirmed human-to-human transmission, and there have been such transmissions elsewhere. As of 9 February, there have been at least 800 deaths from the virus worldwide. Infections inside China stand at almost 37,200 and global infections have passed 280 in 28 countries. The mortality rate is 2%. Two members of one family have been confirmed to have the virus in the UK, a third person was diagnosed with it in Brighton, and a fourth is being treated in London, after more than 400 were tested and found negative. The Foreign Office has urged UK citizens to leave China if they can. Five new cases in France are British nationals, and British nationals are also among the 64 cases on a cruise liner off Japan. The number of people to have contracted the virus could be far higher, as people with mild symptoms may not have been detected. Modelling by World Health Organization (WHO) experts at Imperial College London suggests there could be as many as 100,000 cases, with uncertainty putting the margins between 30,000 and 200,000.

Why is this worse than normal influenza, and how worried are the experts?

We don?t yet know how dangerous the new coronavirus is, and we won?t know until more data comes in. The mortality rate is around 2%. However, this is likely to be an overestimate since many more people are likely to have been infected by the virus but not suffered severe enough symptoms to attend hospital, and so have not been counted. For comparison, seasonal flu typically has a mortality rate below 1% and is thought to cause about 400,000 deaths each year globally. Sars had a death rate of more than 10%. Another key unknown, of which scientists should get a clearer idea in the coming weeks, is how contagious the coronavirus is. A crucial difference is that unlike flu, there is no vaccine for the new coronavirus, which means it is more difficult for vulnerable members of the population ? elderly people or those with existing respiratory or immune problems ? to protect themselves. Hand-washing and avoiding other people if you feel unwell are important. One sensible step is to get the flu vaccine, which will reduce the burden on health services if the outbreak turns into a wider epidemic.

Should I go to the doctor if I have a cough?

Anyone who has travelled to the UK from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau in the last two weeks and is experiencing cough or fever or shortness of breath should stay indoors and call NHS 111, even if symptoms are mild, the NHS advises.

Is the outbreak a pandemic?

Health experts are starting to say it could become a pandemic, but right now it falls short of what the WHO would consider to be one. A pandemic, in WHO terms, is ?the worldwide spread of a disease?. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in about 25 countries outside China, but by no means in all 195 on the WHO?s list. It is also not spreading within those countries at the moment, except in a very few cases. By far the majority are travellers who picked up the virus in China.

Should we panic?

No. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. The WHO has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, and says there is a ?window of opportunity? to halt the spread of the disease. The key issues are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital. Often viruses that spread easily tend to have a milder impact. Healthcare workers could be at risk if they unexpectedly came across someone with respiratory symptoms who had travelled to an affected region. Generally, the coronavirus appears to be hitting older people hardest, with few cases in children.

BULK MESSAGING

Bulk messaging is the dissemination of large numbers of SMS messages for delivery to mobile phone terminals. It is used by media companies, enterprises, banks and consumer brands for a variety of purposes including entertainment, enterprise and mobile marketing.

BULK EMAIL

Bulk email software is software that is used to send emails in large quantities. Bulk email software usually refers to standalone software, while there are bulk email sending web-based services as well.

BARCODE SOLUTIONS

A barcode system is a network of hardware and software, consisting primarily of mobile computers, printers, handheld scanners, infrastructure, and supporting software. Barcode systems are used to automate data collection where hand recording is neither timely or cost effective. Barcoding systems are not radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems even though the companies that provide barcode equipment will often also provide RFID equipment and many companies use both technologies as part of larger resource management systems.

HARDWARE

There is a wide range of hardware that is manufactured today for use in Barcode Systems. The best known brand of handheld scanners and mobile computers is Symbol, which is now a division of Motorola. Other manufacturers include Intermec, HHP (Hand Held Products), Microscan Systems, Unitech, Metrologic, PSC and PANMOBIL.

SOFTWARE

While there is a range of hardware on the market, software is more difficult to find from the hardware manufacturers. Some ERP, MRP, and other inventory management software have built in support for barcode reading and some even allow the software to run directly on a mobile computer. Besides full management software, there are more than a few software development kits on the market that allow the developer to easily produce custom mobile interfaces and that handle the connect to the database. One such software is RFgen another is PeopleVox. Then there is always the option of developing a custom software solution, using a language such as C++, C#, Java, Visual Basic.NET, and many others. Often developing a custom interface using software such as RFgen or developing new, personalized software is the most effective method since it allows the individual to have a solution that is fitted to their exact needs.

TYPICAL SYSTEM

A typical barcode system consist of some infrastructure, either wired or wireless that connects some number of mobile computers, handheld scanners, and printers to one or many databases that store and analyze the data collected by the system. At some level there must be some software to manage the system. The software may be as simple as code that manages the connection between the hardware and the database or as complex as an ERP, MRP, or some other inventory management software.

ECOMMERCE SOLUTION

Want Your Store Online & Increase Revenue? It?s time for eCommerce ? Buy/Sell on Web Most of us want to buy/sell, products/services from the web, not interested in crowd and queue. We can implement a successful integrated eCommerce solution for you and increase your revenue. Digital Strategy requires lot of knowledge discovery, workflow revision, identifying business objectives & vision, customer perspective, customer engagement and stakeholder expectations even more. Web applications are the common need for any business. There are lot of advantages of web applications like data centralization, access-anywhere and more. Almost 90 percent of applications are web applications.

ECOMMERCE KEY FEATURES:

Store Management

Shopping Cart Management

Product Search

Billing and Payment Management

Mobile/Tab Shopping Apps

User Dashboard

Customer Management

Vendor Management

Shipment Tracking

Communication Management

Back-office Administration

Business Reporting & Analysis(KPI)

Order Return Management

Customer Support System

Integration Requirements

Email

Payment Gateway

SMS

SSL Security

Social Media

Shipment Tracking

WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Let?s centralize everything and experience access-anywhere trends Our web application is powered with rock solid Secure Business Logic and Rich User-Experience(UX). Digital Strategy requires lot of knowledge discovery, workflow revision, identifying business objectives & vision, customer perspective, customer engagement and stakeholder expectations even more. Web applications are the common need for any business. There are lot of advantages of web applications like data centralization, access-anywhere and more. Almost 90 percent of applications are web applications.

HOW WE DO IT?

Our we application development is based on Rich UX using HTML5, JQuery, and AJAX powered with loosely coupled(decoupled) server side technologies and business components(middle-tier : DB, Transaction, MOM, Logging and Security etc). The web development follows Model-View-Controller(MVC) design pattern for separation of logic. MVC helps in development and maintenance of complex and secure web portals. Most of our experience is related to Struts, Spring MVC framework and Drupal.

HOW WEB APPLICATION CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS?

Simplify information and content management

Centralized information management and accessible anywhere from mobile, tab, website and desktop etc

Reduces expenses and boost up Return of Investment(ROI)

Handle everything from anywhere

Quick decision making

Boost business productivity, Streamline workflow and Reduce business risk

Information security

Go green and Go digital initiative! Save trees

Reduces mistakes

Better Customer engagement