Nasheman News : Amid reports of Apple halting a production boost for its newest iPhones due to slower than expected demand, a new survey of US customers revealed that more Android users switched loyalty to Apple this year than in previous years.

Leading the transition for Android users is iPhone XR, a relatively cost-effective model that debuted alongside the iPhone XS and top-of-the-line XS Max this year, according to the survey by US-based research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). 

The findings showed that 16 per cent of iPhone buyers upgraded from an Android phone in the 30-day period after the launch of the iPhone XR, CNBC reported on Wednesday. 

This is much higher than the 12 per cent of iPhone buyers who upgraded from an Android phone after the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus were released in September 2017.

That number was 11 per cent when the iPhone X was released in November 2017, the report said. 

“It appears that iPhone XR did serve to attract current Android users,” said Mike Levin,
CIRP Partner and Co-Founder. 

“Of course, Apple doesn’t just state plainly its launch strategy. But, based on the pricing and features, we can infer that Apple positioned the iPhone XR to appeal to potential operating systems switchers from Android,” Levin said. 

The CIRP research found that the new iPhone XR accounted for 32 per cent of total US iPhone sales in the 30-day period, while the XS and XS Max together accounted for 35 per cent.

The 32 per cent share of iPhone sales for the XR model compares favourably to the 30 per cent share for iPhone X in the similar timeframe last year, but lags the combined share of iPhone 8 and 8 Plus during that period last year, the report said. 

CIRP based its findings on its survey of 165 US Apple customers that purchased an
iPhone in the US in the 30 days following the launch of iPhone XR on October 26, 2018. 

Nasheman News : Throwing away clothing that is no longer needed is a missed opportunity to turn the fabric into new products such as building materials, as well as address our unsustainable landfill problems, says an Indian-origin professor.

According to Veena Sahajwalla from University of New South Wales(UNSW) in Sydney, the abundance of cheap clothes and short-lived fashion trends generate 10 million tonnes of landfill in the US alone each year, which decompose and release toxic chemicals and greenhouse gases.

“It could be said that consumers and the fashion industry have a lot to answer for, given that clothing is now one of the biggest consumer waste streams, with 92 million tons estimated to be thrown out a year globally,” said Sahajwalla, who is a Mumbai-born IIT Kanpur alumna. 

“The clothing and textiles industry is the second most polluting sector in the world, accounting for 10 per cent of the world’s total carbon emissions.

Not only is this bad for the environment, it also misses the opportunity to turn valuable clothing fibres into new products, Sahajwalla explained.

To create new building materials, Sahajwalla and her team collected a random assortment of garments from charity bins.

After removing zippers, buttons, buckles, they passed the leftover mix of cotton, polyester, nylon and other fabrics through a fine-grained shredder.

They then treated the resulting fleece with a chemical to help the different fibre components stick together, then compressed it under heat to form solid panels.

In a series of tests, the panels proved to be strong, water-resistant and minimally-flammable. Their properties could also be fine-tuned by mixing the fleece with other waste products such as sawdust filler from old couches.

The panels had different textures and colours resembling wood, ceramic or stone “depending on their mix of components” making them suitable for use as floor tiles, wall panels or other interior finishes, Sahajwalla noted.

Their strength could also make them suitable for load-bearing applications.

Sahajwalla showcased these building products at a thematic session on emerging building technologies at the 10th TERI-GRIHA summit in New Delhi last week. 

Sahajwalla and her team have been scientifically reforming common waste items using prototype technology developed for a laboratory-scale “green microfactory” to be launched in 2019.

Nasheman News :  Karnataka suffered an estimated Rs 20,000-crore loss during the kharif season owing to floods and landslides in its southwest districts and acute drought conditions in other regions, an official statement said on Wednesday.

“The prevailing condition is unprecedented, as the state was affected by floods and landslides and is facing acute drought conditions during kharif and rabi seasons, impacting the state’s economy,” the state Revenue Department said in the statement.

Of the southern state’s 30 districts, 45 taluks (sub-districts) in 8 districts were affected by floods and landslides while 100 taluks are reeling under drought due to scanty rainfall in the rabi season, it noted.

Heavy monsoon rains, which caused floods and landslides in Chikkamagaluru and Kodagu districts led to widespread destruction of crops, houses and infrastructure, besides displacing hundreds of people.

During the north-east monsoon period (October to December), the state, however, faced 49 per cent deficit rainfall, with north interior region that accounts for 90 per cent of rabi sowing, recorded 66 per cent rain deficit.

Seeds or saplings are sown during July-October for kharif crops and November-March for rabi crops.

During the rabi season, 153 taluks have been affected by drought so far, the statement added.

In the drought-hit regions, drinking water is being supplied to 283 villages through 524 water tankers and 315 private borewells (through pipelines) in 17 districts of the state.

“Since sowing has been impacted during the rabi season, fodder shortage is likely in the coming months. Fodder will be supplied at subsidised rates through its banks,” the statement said.

The state government has also increased man-days in the drought-hit districts to 150 days from 100 days across the state this year.

“Awareness campaign is being held in drought-affected villages to ensure greater participation of workforce and prevent migration from rural to urban areas,” it added.

A man-day refers to the work accomplished by a person in a day.

About 6 lakh man-days are generated per day and 1 crore per month across the state, the statement said, estimating over 10 crore man-days to be generated by March 2019

By : Faizan Rizwan

The upcoming 5G mobile Smart phone is expected to be launched in India in 2019 ,

Smart phone companies are like Samsung, Nokia One plus, Huawei, Xiomi, Vivo Etc are in gearing up for 5G technology. It has been in test for the past few years. Now finally we will see the launch of the Smartphone the ultra fast 5G networks.

Streaming will become a breeze & Connectivity in general will improve dramatically. Phone are expected to support super speed of up to 10 GBPS. The network is touted to be 100 times faster than 4G network. It is said that one plus 7 will be first smart phone company to launch 5G Smartphone device in India by 2019.

Nasheman News : Although the number of Indian research journals has spiraled to over 21,000 in 10 years, they are sadly not making a mark globally, says Subash Lakhotia, a leading academician at the Banaras Hindu University.

In a hard-hitting editorial in the “Current Science” journal that is likely to kindle a fierce debate, the emeritus professor with over 50 years of research experience has put the blame for this predicament squarely on the country’s science establishment, academies and its top scientists.

While on one side a large proportion of research journals from India are “predatory” or bogus, “it is a matter of concern that even the journals of long-standing do not attract high-quality research output even from (scientists) within the country,” the editorial says.

According to Lakhotia, India’s older and established journals were started decades ago by well-known scientists and learned societies “with a clear conviction that a country needs to have its own good research journals to support growth of competitive and quality research”.

“Unfortunately today, most of our established and reputed scientists do not like to publish in Indian journals,” he says. The present tendency to publish in journals outside India “will retard the process of building up a scientific tradition for India and keep her in a position of semi-dependence in the world of science”, the editorial warns.

Top Indian scientists not only fail to publish their work in local journals but think it below their “level” to review the manuscripts of other researchers for journals published in India.

Lakhotia says he found many young researchers around the country are willing to publish their research results in journals from India but “their single major inhibiting factor is the fear that they would receive low or no scores for publications in Indian journals when their seniors evaluate them”.

The editorial puts the blame partly on India’s scientific establishment, saying it does not seem to have strong faith in the quality of research journals published within the country “as none of them” has a significant impact factor — frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field.

The editorial also notes that a large number of Indian research journals now have “co-publishing” arrangements with commercial publishers abroad ostensibly to improve their global visibility. Lakhotia says this justification “is fallacious and not much change has occurred in the quality of what is published in their pages”.

The only advantage is that the journals can share a percentage of profits earned by their co-publishing commercial houses that charge substantial amounts for the journal articles down-loaded from their sites. “In my perception such acts impinge on the academic autonomy of the academies/learned societies that publish these journals.”

Lakhotia says India’s science establishment continues to look down upon papers and researchers who publish in Indian journals, notwithstanding their association with a “foreign” brand name.

If established scientists in the country do not wish to publish in Indian journals, do not wish to review manuscripts for these journals and, more importantly, directly or indirectly penalise those who publish in them, “these journals would continue to struggle and fail to become internationally competitive”, Lakhotia warns.

The editorial adds: “Our established researchers should publish some of their original research output in Indian journals, participate in critical review of manuscripts when invited by an editor, and, more importantly, must not look down upon researchers just because they have published in Indian journals.”

Lakhotia concludes by saying that “as a community, we need to strive hard to be proud of our journals rather than be apologetic. Individuals and institutions must be assessed on the basis of what they publish rather than where they publish.”

“I am in substantial agreement with Lakhotia,” Professor Mamannamana Vijayan at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru and former President of the Indian National Science Academy, told this correspondent, adding: “However, I do not know how to completely solve the problem when the centre of gravity of world science remains in the West.”

“Of course, Professor Lakhotia is right,” says Subbiah Arunachalam, a Chennai-based information consultant who had been editor of several scientific journals.

“Many (or most) senior scientists in India have abandoned their responsibility to nurture science. No doubt they are keen to do good research and publish in top journals, but what about contributing to the development of a community of active researchers or supporting research institutions (and smaller universities and colleges) in the neighborhood?”.

Professor Lingadahalli Shashidhara, at the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Pune, says he only partly agrees with Lakhotia.

“Some introspection is needed on why we need Indian journals in a digital world,” Shashidhara told this correspondent. “If we publish in Indian journals the kind of work that is being published by hundreds of other such journals, we tend to lose out on quality if we only depend on Indian submissions,” he added.

“Considering that the Indian scientific community is large enough to spin out its own schools of thoughts (evolution, biodiversity-ecology, high-energy physics, astrophysics/astronomy — to name a few), Indian journals should focus on such topics giving not only appropriate platforms to Indian community, but also pushing the frontiers of knowledge,” Shashidhara contended.

Nasheman News :Services of banks are likely to be affected on Wednesday due to a nationwide strike call given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) to protest against bank mergers and pay revision.

The strike is likely to affect the country’s banking sector. It has been called to oppose the amalgamation of Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank by the consortium of nine unions in the banking sector which includes the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and the National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW).

“10 lakh bank employees and officers of the 21 public sector banks, old generation private banks and foreign banks under the banner of the UFBU will join the one-day strike on December 26 against merger of public sector banks and wage revision of bank employees,” NOBW Vice President Ashwani Rana was quoted as saying in a statement issued on Tuesday.

On wages, the unions are demanding a hike of 25 per cent, increment for all bank employees under scale 1 to 7 (instead of the IBA’s offer to only those employees in junior scale of 1 to 3) and rejection of the proposal to introduce variable pay.

Though wage revision in state-run banks happens every five years, it may be difficult for them to raise wages substantially as high NPAs and losses have hurt the sector.

“Bank employees wage revision is due since November 1, 2017. So far the IBA (Indian Banks’ Association) has offered 8 per cent wage hike which is not acceptable to the United Forum of Bank Unions,” he said.

According to Rana, the Additional Labour Commissioner had called a conciliation meeting on December 20 to wade off the strike. 

“The United Forum of Bank Unions served a strike notice to the Indian Bank Association and the MDs of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank on merger of these banks. Since there was no assurance by the IBA on stopping the merger of these three banks and fresh offer on wage revision, the UFBU decided to go ahead with the strike on December 26,” Ranan said.

Nasheman News : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday hinted that the country may eventually have a single standard rate of GST through merging of 12 and 18 per cent slabs, adding that the 28 per cent slab will soon be phased out, except in case of luxury and “sin goods”.

He said the country should eventually have a Goods and Services Tax (GST) structure which would have only slabs of zero and five per cent and a standard rate, with luxury and “sin goods” as an exception. 

“A future roadmap could well be to work towards a single standard rate instead of two standard rates of 12 per cent and 18 per cent. It could be a rate at some mid-point between the two. Obviously, this will take some reasonable time when the tax will rise significantly,” Jaitley said in a Facebook post.

Regarding the highest tax slab of 28 per cent, the Minister said with the GST transformation completed, India was close to completing the first set of rate of rationalisation by phasing out the highest slab except in luxury and sin goods.

“The sun is setting on the 28 per cent slab… Today, barring tobacco products and some luxury goods, almost all items had been transferred from 28 per cent slab to 18 and 12 per cent. 

“Only cement and auto parts are items of common use which remain in 28 per cent slab. Our next priority will be to transfer cement into a lower slab. All other building materials have already been transferred to 18 and 12 per cent… The 28 per cent slab is now a dying slab,” he said.

Attacking the Congress and other opposition parties, Jaitley said their criticism of the GST was “ill-informed” and “motivated”.

He said during the pre-GST regime, a large number of commodities were taxed heavily and that the Congress legacy was a 31 per cent indirect tax. 

“Those who oppressed India with a 31 per cent indirect tax and consistently belittled the GST must seriously introspect. Irresponsible politics and irresponsible economics is only a race to the bottom,” he added.

Jaitley said the political noise outside the GST Council was inconsistent with the harmony inside as at its 31 meetings, the body has “behaved with utmost responsibility” taking several thousand decisions unanimously and with consensus. 

Referring to the government falling short of the collection targets, the Minister said the targets set in the GST regime were unprecedentedly high, with a 14 per cent increase over 2015-16 tax collections guaranteed. 

“Thus, even when 18 months have not been finished since the launch of GST, on this day every state has a target of improving its revenue with three 14 per cent increases compounded annually over the base year of 2015-16. This is close to a 50 per cent being reached in the second year itself,” he said.

“It is almost an unachievable target. Yet six states have already achieved it, another seven are within a striking distance of achieving it and only 18 are still more than 10 per cent away from achieving it.” 

Jaitley said that those states which do not achieve the target of 14 per cent are paid out of the compensation cess. 

“The requirement of compensation cess in the second year is expected to be much lower than the first year,” he said, adding the average monthly tax collected in the first year was Rs 89,700 crore as compared to Rs 97,100 crore per month in the second year.

“This increase in the tax collection has to be factored keeping in mind the significant rate reduction which has taken place in the GST” which amounts to about Rs 80,000 crore per year, he said.

 The Latest Info On Hyundai Santro 

Hyundai has recently launched their highly anticipated small family car, the 2018 Santro. Based on a new platform, the tallboy has transformed into a properly modern hatchback. It packs in quite a lot of kit, including a touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto & Apple CarPlay, a reverse camera, rear-AC vents as well as steering-mounted audio controls.

 Powering the new Santro 2018 is a 1.1-litre, 4-cylinder engine that makes 68PS/99Nm (petrol) & 58PS/84Nm (CNG) respectively. The petrol version will be available with a 5-speed AMT over & above the standard 5-speed manual gearbox. 

As expected Hyundai, has aggressively priced the Santro 2018 with prices starting at Rs 3.89 lakh, & topping out at Rs 5.65 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

 Hyundai Santro Variants 

Hyundai Santro prices start at Rs. 3.90 lakh for petrol & goes up to Rs. 5.47 lakh. Hyundai Santro is available in 9 variants & 7 colors. Santro is also a most trusted car, and even today many people have version 1 & 2 type of Santro. Many people have trusted this hatchback car & also known as the best hatchback car even today. 

Car Review By : Faizan Rizwan

In yet another interruption in service in the Purple Line of Bengaluru’s Namma Metro, trains running on Monday morning faced a brief technical snag. This resulted in unforeseen delays causing inconvenience to passengers. For a brief period between 10am and 11am, information boards in the train stations went blank and trains came to a halt or moved slower than usual. Some passengers were stuck in stations for more than 30 minutes.

Trains have been plying at intervals of 15 minutes since December 12 when structural damage in the metro track’s bridge near the Trinity Metro Station were spotted. Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has already announced that trains will not run between MG Road and Indiranagar from 8pm on December 28 to December 30.

A metro passenger said, “Not only are the trains running late, but it is stopping for more than three-five minutes in every station.” The metro officials and security personnel in the stations were not informed of the problem.

“There is a technical glitch in Purple Line between MG Road to Baiyappanahalli. Trains will be running slow till restored in this section. Hence expect delays in this line . Inconvenience regretted,” Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited tweeted.

The resultant delays in the stretch in turn caused a disruption in the services along the entire stretch between Mysore Road and Byappanahalli. Train services along the Green Line were, however, unaffected.

After the issue was resolved, the Chief Public Relations Officer Chavan told media, “Our priority is to ensure that the rest of the services are running smoothly. We are trying to ascertain what caused the problem.”

BMRCL officials said that the delays were caused due to a problem in the metro’s signaling system in both directions between the two stations. Informed sources said the snag was caused by an interruption of power supply but it is yet to be ascertained.

Nasheman News : A day ahead of the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his successor Narendra Modi on Monday released a commemorative Rs 100 coin to honour the late leader, who passed away in August.

Addressing a gathering at the Parliament House Annexe here, Modi said Vajpayee never compromised on the ideologies of the party and always spoke about national interest.

“For some people, power is oxygen…they can’t live without it…A long part of Atalji’s career was spent in the opposition benches but he spoke about national interest and never compromised on the ideology of the party. 

“For long, the voice of Atalji was the voice of the nation,” Modi said.

“I assume that there must be invitations from other ideologies for joining hands to remain in power. Such things must have happened. But he never compromised. 

“He was among those who could die for the nation, but would never compromise on the ideologies,” Modi said.

Vajpayee wanted democracy to be supreme. He built the Jana Sangh but when time came to rescue democracy he and others went to the Janata Party, Modi added.

“Likewise, when the choice was between remaining in power or comprising on ideology, he left Janata Party and formed the Bharatiya Janata Party” which “has become among the largest of political parties”, the Prime Minister said.

Hailing Vajpayee as “the best orator”, Modi said “the mind is not ready to believe that Atalji is no longer with us. He was a stalwart loved and respected across all sections of society.

Modi said e would go to Vajpayee’s memorial on Tuesday — his birth anniversary — to reiterate his commitment to the ideology and path shown by the leader.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Minister of State for Culture Mahesh Sharma, BJP national President Amit Shah and veteran BJP leader and Vajpayee’s contemporary L.K. Advani were also present at the event to release the coin.

Commemorative coins are usually issued to celebrate some special occasion or to mark a special event. They also have been issued as a mark of respect towards some distinguished individuals or monument.

The coin, Modi said, is a small effort to show our respect to the former Prime Minister, “whose life is a message for all of us”.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away on August 16 at the age of 93 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here following a prolonged illness.