Nasheman News : India and Bhutan on Friday reviewed the progress of hydroelectric projects in the Himalayan kingdom during a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering here.

“Development of hydrolectric projects is an important part of the long history of India’s aid to Bhutan,” Modi said in a joint address to the media with Tshering after the meeting.

“Today we reviewed our aid for all related projects in this important sector,” he said.

India is a leading development aid partner for Bhutan. There are a number of institutional mechanisms between India and Bhutan in areas like security, border management, trade, economy, hydroelectricity, development cooperation and water resources.

New Delhi has set up three hydroelectric projects in Bhutan with a total capacity of 1,416 MW, which are operational. About three-fourth of the power generated is exported to India and the rest is used for domestic consumption. 

Stating that space science is a new area of cooperation between the two countries, Modi said that a ground station will be soon be developed in Bhutan by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to the reap the benefits of the South Asian Satellite.

He also expressed happiness at Tshering conveying him the news that Bhutan will soon launch the RuPay cards.

Appreciating Tshering’s vision of “Narrowing the Gap” on ties between India and Bhutan, Modi said that it complements India’s Neighbourhood First Policy.

On his part, Tshering said that the main aim of his visit, taking place on the golden-jubilee year of India-Bhutan diplomatic ties, is to take the bilateral relationship to much greater heights.

He also said that there are “many, many miles to go” India’s aid for development of hydroelectric projects in Bhutan.

He invited Modi to visit Bhutan at the earliest. 

Earlier, Tshering was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here. 

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also called on the visiting dignitary.

Tshering arrived here on Friday on a three-day visit to India, his first official trip abroad after assuming office in October.

Tshering’s Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) party, formed in 2013, won 30 of the 47 National Assembly seats in the elections in the Himalayan kingdom held in October.

The country of 800,000 people, located between India and China, has chosen a different party to rule at each election since the end of absolute monarchy in 2008.

Nasheman News : Amid speculations that the Narendra Modi government could announce a major relief plan for farmers ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, former Union Minister and Congress veteran P. Chidambaram on Thursday asked how the government will fund the new plan.

On a day when Modi accused the Congress of “deceiving farmers” with promises of loan waivers, Chidambaram took to Twitter to ridicule the Prime Minister’s mega relief plan for farmers. 

“Prime Minister says that Congress governments’ loan waivers are only to win elections. So, shall we assume that PM’s ‘Farmers’ Relief Plan’ is intended to lose elections?

“Eight months’ revenue collection is less than 50 per cent of target, fiscal deficit is 115 per cent of estimate. Where is the money for the new plan,” asked the former Finance Minister. 

“BJP government’s plan will imitate the previous Madhya Pradesh government’s plan of paying the farmer the difference between MSP and market price. Remember, the MP Govt plan brought no relief to the indebted farmers.

“The ‘pay the difference’ plan will help only the farmer who has a marketable surplus. What about the farmer who has no marketable surplus? He is also in debt,” he added.

Chidambaram’s remarks come a day after Modi held consultations with top BJP leaders, including party chief Amit Shah, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on issues concerning farmers amid indications that agrarian problems could be a factor in the BJP’s ouster from three Hindi heartland states in the recently concluded Assembly elections.

Nasheman News :  Samsung’s Galaxy M series smartphones, set to make their global debut in India in January 2019, will sport a 6.4-inch Infinity V display and a large battery, probably the largest ever on any Samsung smartphone, according to industry sources.

The South Korean tech giant is likely to launch up to four smartphones in the Galaxy M series,M10, M20, M30 and M40, the sources told IANS.

The launch of the M series in India, following months of R&D carried out by Samsung India, would be in line with the company’s strategy to consolidate its position among the country’s millennials.

This new series comes on the heel of Galaxy A7 and A9 — Samsung’s first triple and quad-rear camera devices.

In 2018, Samsung’s flagship devices — Galaxy S9, S9+ and Galaxy Note9 — became bestsellers, while Galaxy ‘J’ series continue to rule the mid-price segment, according to industry experts.

Samsung India is also set to launch other interesting products across domains early in 2019 to maintain its leading position in the country.

Nasheman News : The moderators at Facebook who carry out the critical task of removing dangerous content from its platform rely on material based on incorrect interpretation of certain Indian laws, The New York Times has reported.

The documents that are used to guide Facebook’s more than 7,500 moderators span more than 1,400 pages which often contain inaccuracies and outdated information, said the report on Thursday. 

One of these documents tells moderators that any post degrading an entire religion violates Indian law and should be flagged for removal.

But the law prohibits such posts only in certain conditions, such as when the intention of the users is to inflame violence, Chinmayi Arun, a legal scholar, told NYT.

Another document for moderators instructs them to “look out for” the phrase “Free Kashmir” – though the slogan, common among activists, is completely legal, the report said.

The moderators are even warned that ignoring posts that use the phrase could get Facebook blocked in India.

According to data compiled by Statista, India has the highest number of Facebook users – 294 million (as of October 2018) – 90 million more than the number of Facebook users in the US which has the second-biggest users-base for the social network.

As Facebook faces severe criticism for allowing extremist content in some countries, and censoring legitimate posts in some other places, the job of moderators who need to monitor billions of posts every day in over 100 languages is very critical.

Those moderators, at times relying on Google Translate, have mere seconds to recall countless rules and apply them to the hundreds of posts that dash across their screens each day, the NYT report said.

An examination of the documents for moderators by the paper revealed numerous gaps, biases and errors, which are limited not only to interpretation of Indian laws. 

For example, the moderators were once told to remove fund-raising appeals for volcano victims in Indonesia just because a co-sponsor of the drive was on the social network’s internal list of banned groups. 

Similarly, in Myanmar, a paperwork error allowed a prominent extremist group, accused of fomenting genocide, to stay on the platform for months, the report said.

While admitting that perfection was not possible, Facebook’s Head of Global Policy Management, Monika Bickert said that the company had been successful to a great extent in achieving its primary goal of preventing harm.

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.