New Delhi,  Ten media outlets from India have been selected for receiving YouTube innovation funding as part of the Google News Initiative (GNI) to help newsrooms and publishers strengthen their online video capabilities and experiment with new formats for video journalism.

These 10 news organisations – Asianet News Media and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., Bharatiya Digital Party (BhaDiPa), FACTLY, Gaon Connection, India Today Group, Live Data Visualisation Pvt. Ltd., NDTV, NYOOOZ, ShepHertz and Video Volunteers — are among the 87 selected from 23 countries. 

“Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to supporting a strong future for news video,” Timothy Katz, Director of News Partnerships, YouTube, said in a blog post on Tuesday. 

“Hailing from 23 countries around the world, they represent a diverse array of broadcasters, traditional and digital publishers, local media, agencies and creators, but all share a commitment to quality journalism and a spirit of innovation,” Katz added.

As part of the launch of Google News Initiative in March, YouTube committed $25 million funding to support the future of news. 

Many of the projects selected for the innovation funding are focused on expanding newsroom video operations and trying out new ways of reporting news through video — from reaching younger audiences online to exploring live and fact-checking formats. 

Other projects look at the sustainability of news organisations, including work on new business models and programmes to support a healthy news ecosystem. 

“Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing insights gained from the projects and giving newsrooms the opportunity to benefit from the learnings,” Katz added.

Twitter Inc shares fell almost 7 percent after the company said it was investigating unusual traffic that it said might be from state-sponsored hackers.

In what appeared to be an unrelated issue, a security firm also said that hackers used the platform to try to steal user data.

Twitter said in a blog that it discovered suspicious traffic to a customer-support forum while investigating a security bug that exposed user data, including users’ phone country codes and details on locked accounts. It said the bug was fixed on November 16.

Twitter said it observed a large amount of traffic to the customer support site coming from individual internet IP addresses in China and Saudi Arabia.

“During our investigation, we noticed some unusual activity involving the affected customer support form API. Specifically, we observed a large number of inquiries coming from individual IP addresses located in China and Saudi Arabia,” Twitter said in a press release.

“While we cannot confirm intent or attribution for certain, it is possible that some of these IP addresses may have ties to state-sponsored actors,” the blog said.

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Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter blamed the share price tumble on concerns that news of a breach could hurt growth and user engagement.

“Clearly, a breach like this impairs user trust in the platform,” he said.

Separately, security software maker Trend Micro Inc said in a blog earlier on Monday that attackers sent out two tweets in October in a bid to steal data from previously infected machines.

The hackers hid instructions in tweeted memes that secretly ordered infected devices to send information, including usernames, screen images and other content, Trend Micro said.

A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment on the Trend Micro report.

New Delhi,  The year leading up to the 2019 general elections was defined by a slowdown in investment, slackening growth, falling GST revenues, the biggest bank fraud and a credit crunch that provoked the most significant crisis in government-RBI relations.

It was topped up by the abrupt resignation of Urjit Patel as the RBI Governor, a rare phenomenon in the banking world. He was immediately replaced by former Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das the man who was the vocal face during demonetisation and seen as a ‘yes’ man of the government.

India, meanwhile, continued to be the fastest growing big economy during 2018 with its gross domestic product (GDP) rising at above 7 per cent, after having slipped to 6.7 per cent in the previous financial year, mainly on account of the impact of demonetisation. 

Even as it is projected to overtake China by GDP in the coming year, India jumped 23 spots in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings to 77th place, continuing its impressive climb on this score for the third year running. 

The pace of the country’s GDP growth slowed substantially during the second quarter of the current fiscal to 7.1 per cent, from 8.2 per cent in the previous quarter, mainly on the back of a drop in manufacturing, agriculture and mining. By criteria of gross value added (GVA), which includes taxes and excludes subsidies, growth fell to 6.9 per cent from 8 per cent during the April-June period.

On the inflation front, lower food prices kept headline inflation down, which touched a 13-month low of 3.3 per cent in October, and fell further to 2.3 per cent last month. Core inflation, however, continued to remain elevated.

Following the release of the GDP numbers, US agency Fitch Ratings lowered India’s growth forecast for the fiscal to 7.2 per cent, from an earlier projection of 7.8 per cent rise, “on weaker-than-expected momentum in the data, higher financing costs and reduced credit availability.”

The year witnessed the biggest fraud in Indian banking history with the Rs 14,000 crore scam on state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) committed over a number of years and reported in February. The fraud was committed from 2011 till 2017 by illegally issuing letters of undertaking and rolling over foreign letters of credit to diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi from PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai. 

Both are currently absconding and Interpol has issued red corner notices against them.

Twin storms hit the country in September — rising fuel prices that climbed new highs daily and a falling rupee that spiralled down to new lows against the US dollar before recovering somewhat towards the end of the month.

The year’s global protectionist measures unfolding through the US-China trade war, along with high crude oil prices, put the rupee on a downward spiral, dragging it down to a record low of 72.98 against the US dollar on September 18.

According to analysts, concerns over a rise in inflation rate, growing protectionism in global trade and an outflow of foreign funds from the country’s equity markets have had an adverse impact on the Indian currency. It fell nearly 15 per cent since the start of the year to become Asia’s worst-performing currency.

On the other hand, transport fuel prices in the country began going up almost daily since August 1, incessantly recording new highs across the country, even as the UK Brent crude oil climbed to $86 per barrel. A weak rupee and high excise duty added to the heady mix that made for high petrol and diesel prices in the country before beginning to fall from late October in tandem with global crude prices. 

“The widening of the current account deficit amidst tighter global financing conditions should put downward pressure on the currency, and we forecast the rupee to weaken to 75 against the dollar by end-2019,” Fitch said. 

The defining moment, however, came in December with the resignation of the RBI Governor nine months prematurely and the first such instance since Independence, which prompted Patel’s predecessor Raghuram Rajan to say that it should be a cause of concern for all Indians. 

The historic tensions in government-central bank relations were re-ignited in October when, in a public lecture, RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya talked about the independence of the Reserve Bank, arguing that any compromise could be “potentially catastrophic” for the economy. 

The government responded with the Finance Ministry seeking discussions with the central bank under the never-used-before Section 7 of the RBI Act which empowers the government to issue directions to the RBI Governor, who then summoned a meeting of the bank board. 

Central to the issue was the government’s demand that the RBI hand over its surplus reserves by making changes to the “economic capital framework”. Analysts noted that the government’s demand came in the face of a huge fiscal deficit and the need to boost the economy in an election year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Governor Patel before the board meeting and what emerged on November 19 was seen as settling the debate on the central bank’s autonomy and clearly establishing the government as a stakeholder in policy making.

The current liquidity crunch, particularly among non-banking finance companies, follows a series of defaults in late October by the privately-run IL&FS. 

In hindsight, the words of Sudipto Mundle on the Board of Governors of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, after the November board meeting proved prophetic.

“The RBI-government fight has been pushed down, abated for now and postponed, but the NPAs issue continues to remain,” he said. 

Chennai,  (IANS) Indian space agency ISRO has shortlisted 14 companies out of over 100 companies that showed interest in its lithium ion cell technology, said a senior official.

“Over 100 companies showed interest in our lithium ion cell technology. Out of them, 14 have been shortlisted. We will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with them once they agree for the same,” S. Somanath, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), told IANS.

The VSSC is part of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Somanath said ISRO has already transferred the technology to BHEL for production of space grade lithium ion batteries.

In June it announced its decision to transfer its own lithium ion cell technology to the Indian industry on a non-exclusive basis for use in automobiles for Rs 1 crore.

The space agency had said the initiative will accelerate the development of the indigenous electric vehicle industry.

The VSSC, located in Kerala, will transfer the lithium ion cell technology to the successful Indian industries/start-ups on a non-exclusive basis to establish production facilities in the country that can produce cells of varying size, capacity, energy density and power density catering to the entire spectrum of power storage requirements, ISRO had said.

The ISRO makes lithium ion cell batteries of various sizes and power (1.5 ampere to 100 ampere) to power its rockets and satellites.

Presently, the lithium ion battery is the most dominant battery system finding applications for a variety of societal needs, including mobile phones, laptops, cameras and many other portable consumer gadgets apart from industrial applications and aerospace.

Recent advances in the battery technology have made it the preferred power source for electric and hybrid electric vehicles also.

Bengaluru,  (IANS) Despite an increase in the number of women excelling in the tech world, women still remain highly underrepresented with just 2 per cent being promoted to leadership roles, a survey revealed on Monday.

The survey titled “Women in Technology 2018: Breaking Gender Barriers” conducted by HackerEarth, an innovation management and talent assessment company, explored the state of women technologists across the globe and the challenges faced by them in the workplace. 

It shows that only one-third of all tech teams comprised of women, demonstrating a stark disparity in the number of women employed by tech organisations.

Despite 86 per cent of the study respondents having a formal degree in computer science, most experienced a stagger in their career growth, and only 2 per cent could make it to the top roles. 

“While the number of women graduating in CS has been on a steady rise, when it comes to career growth, the numbers are staggeringly low,” Vivek Prakash, CTO and Co-Founder, HackerEarth, said in a statement. 

“Implementing policies to support women in the workplace and providing them with training and resources will help reduce the high attrition rates we have observed amongst women technologists,” Prakash added.

In a bid to seek work with emerging technologies, flexibility as well as better pay, more than 50 per cent women developers were found to move to a new job. 

Importantly, 50 per cent of the women technologists believed that “gendered wordings” in job adverts discouraged them from applying for technical positions. 

Solutions such as blind recruitments, building family-oriented policies, and upskilling opportunities will help women excel in their careers and reduce gender disparity in every organisation, the survey suggested. 

For the survey, HackerEarth surveyed over 1000 women from 35 countries holding technology positions in various organisations. 

By : Pramesh S Jain

Around 100 Illegal shops razed in Violating Vendors norms on S P Road by BBMP :

“Illegal shops violating vendors norms demolished in S P Road Bengaluru”.
“Encroachments on pavements removed in SP Road “.
In a joint operation by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike south zone officials with Bengaluru city police with additional force for no untoward incident take place KSRP platoons were deployed to maintain law and order situation in the area on Saturday conducted a three-hour drive on Saturday to remove encroachments on pavements along S.P. Road in Bengaluru. 
Close to Hundreds shops were demolished  which were floating vendors norms were demolished a drive was carried out at 9am till 12pm it has demolished the illegal shops encroaching Land to dust. 

H.Nagaraj, Assistant executive engineer told media persons that, there were dozens of complaints from the residents of SP Road that many have encroached the pavement by establishments on road and we are unable to walk and based on complaint we have carried a demolition drive.With heavy police protection,We  have arrived at S.P. Road,which is a hub for electronic goods, at 10 a.m. and removed around 20 structures that had occupied pavements and a portion of the road.The structures, which included hotels,tea stalls, and mobile repair shops, were unauthorised.The encroachments on the road were eating into the carriage way, causing traffic snarls.Twenty shops were removed on Saturday.There are a few more left, which we will be removing in the coming days,” said H. Nagaraj, Assistant Executive Engineer, BBMP south zone.

BBMP Mayor,Gangambike Mallikarjuna, told media persons that,A joint operation was carried out by our officers and with heavy police protection we have carried a demolition drive and it is a alarm bell to encroachers and said I will be holding a meeting with all the engineers who have arrived now and will arrive at a consensus as to what action can be taken against all the encroachers in the city and a massive drive will be done in coming days we will take strict action on those who are encroaching Land illegally in the Bengaluru city she added.

Kolkata, (IANS) Amid the row over the Supreme Court verdict on Rafale jet deal, Union Minister Smriti Irani on Monday demanded an explanation from the Congress as to why it tried to play with matters of national security and create doubts about the credibility of the Indian Air Force by spreading “constant lies” in the last one year.

Targeting Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who has been relentlessly attacking the Narendra Modi government at the Centre over the defence deal with a French company, Irani said the Congress leader must reveal his source of information about the alleged anomalies in the deal.

For the last one year Congress has been playing with the nation’s security by spreading a series of lies regarding the Rafale deal. 

“However, lies do not last long. The Honourable Supreme Court has exposed the lies spread by Congress on this issue in front of the whole nation after scrutinising all the aspects of the deal,” Irani told the reporters at the state BJP headquarters here.

“Rahul Gandhi must tell people, who was his source of information? Who inspired him to humiliate the Indian Air Force, and defame the country on international platforms,” she added.

Tel Aviv, (IANS) Facebook temporarily banned Yair Netanyahu, son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for posting anti-Muslim posts, the media reported on Monday.

According to a report in The Times of Israel, Yair’s Facebook account was blocked for 24 hours on Sunday after he called for “avenging the deaths” of two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers who were killed at the West Bank shooting last week.

“Unbelievable. Facebook blocks me for 24 hours for simply criticizing it! Thought police,” Yari wrote on Twitter.

Facebook is yet to comment on this.

After the controversial Facebook post was removed, he wrote that the social media giant was “trying to shut our mouths in the only place where we have the right to express our opinions”.

Yari also posted a screenshot of the original post along with new posts criticising Facebook.

“Do you know where there are no terror attacks? In Iceland and Japan. Coincidentally there’s also no Muslim population there,” he posted.

This is not the first time Yair has been in the spotlight.

According to The Jerusalem Post, in 2017, Yair posted a diagram featuring antisemitic tropes such as Jewish billionaire George Soros, who funds left-wing causes and organizations in several countries.

“The post depicted Soros controlling the world via other conspiracy theory figures like lizard people, known as Reptilians, and the Illuminati or Freemasons,” the report added.

 A day after the Supreme Court dismissed petitions seeking a probe into the Rafale deal, the political dogfight over the issue intensified with the Congress accusing the Narendra Modi government of “misleading” the apex court that resulted in “factual bloomers” in the judgment. The opposition party demanded that the Attorney General and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) be summoned by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament in this connection.

The Centre’s ruling BJP, which has been touting the verdict as a “clean chit”, hit back charging the Congress with trying to sabotage the country’s security preparedness by raking up the deal again and again. 

The CAG report, relying on which the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions, turned out to be the latest flashpoint over the Modi government’s decision to buy 36 French built fighters. 

While the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi-led bench in the verdict said that the “pricing details have been shared with the CAG, and the report of the CAG has been examined by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)”, the Congress maintained that “no portion of the CAG report has been placed before Parliament or placed in the public domain”. 

Keeping the pot boiling, PAC Chairman and senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said he will press for summoning the Attorney General and the CAG to ask them when was the public auditor’s report tabled and when did the PAC examine it.

“The government lied in the Court that the CAG report was presented in the House and in PAC. They also told the Court that the PAC has probed it. They claimed that the report was in the public domain. Where is it,” Kharge told the media here. 

He said the CAG will be questioned as to when was the report presented, when was it accepted, when was it brought to PAC, when was the evidence taken and when was it presented in Parliament.

Subsequently addressing a media conference here, Congress leader and advocate Kapil Sibal said the Supreme Court verdict had “factual bloomers” for which the Modi-led Centre was responsible. 

“There are factual bloomers in the judgment for which the government is responsible and not the court. If you give wrong facts to the court and on that basis, the court makes factual assertions, in that case it’s the government which is responsible,” said Sibal. 

He also asserted that the apex court was neither the right forum to examine the corruption in the deal nor the verdict was a “clean chit” for the BJP-led Centre.

“The Supreme Court is not the appropriate forum because, it cannot examine all the file notings or examine witnesses on oath including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who needs to be questioned as also defence ministry officials. 

“It is childish that the government and the BJP is claiming victory,” Sibal said ridiculing Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for their assertions that the verdict was a clean chit to the Modi government and accusing the Congress of jeopardising national security by politicising the defence deal. 

“The court said that it cannot go into issues of pricing and matters relating to technical suitability of the jets, so how can the government claim that the deal is clean and there is no corruption. The court nowhere said that,” Sibal said iterating that only a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe can unearth the “corruption and crony capitalism” in the deal. 

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party continued its attack on the Congress saying the grand old party was trying to “sabotage India’s security preparedness by raking up the Rafale deal issue, despite the Supreme Court ruling that there was no need for a probe”.

“This is nothing but sabotage of our security preparedness. We have already said that (Congress President) Rahul Gandhi owes an apology to the nation, to the defence forces and Lok Sabha also,” Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar told the media in Panaji. 

“The Supreme Court has clearly exposed the falsehood of Congress and also gave a clean chit to the deal by saying that no further enquiry was needed. Still if the Congress persists with the issue, the only conclusion is that it wants to stop the deal which will weaken the security preparedness of the country,” he added.

The Supreme Court on Friday junked the pleas seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged financial and procedural “irregularities” in the Rafale deal, but the issue has continued to reverberate both inside and outside parliament. 

IANS

BENGALURU: Due to the ongoing restoration work on the concrete beam supporting the rail tracks at Trinity Metro station, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) will affect a shutdown in operations between MG Road and Baiyappanahalli either this weekend (December 16-17) or the next (December 23-24). Trains won’t run on this portion of the Purple Line, which covers Baiyappanahalli, Indiranagar, Swami Vivekananda Road, Halasuru, Trinity and MG Road stations.

This 6.7km portion of the East-West Corridor was the first Metro line here to be declared open for commercial operations on October 20, 2011. Trains along this portion began operations late on Thursday (7 am). It may have a delayed run even on Friday, depending on the work being carried out through the night near Trinity Metro station. Operations between MG Road and Mysuru Road will continue as usual.

BMRCL Managing Director Ajay Seth told media that work to restore the concrete beam to its previous state are on in full swing. “There is a process of grouting that needs to be followed. We need to pump in adhesive solutions and chemicals to ensure that all gaps on the beam are closed. The curing process will take 30 to 36 hours. So we will have to effect a shutdown in operations then.” An action plan will be readied shortly with the help of experts, he added.

BMRCL chief public relations officer Y L Chavan said, “This is the first time we are facing this kind of problem. Experts from the Indian Institute of Science and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation are arriving tomorrow (Friday) to guide us in the restoration process.”

No problem in Baiyappanahalli
Rubbishing rumours of a major crack on the rail tracks near Baiyappanahalli, chief public relations officer of BMRCL Y L Chavan said, “These are structural joints that bind structures together. They are present throughout our network.” Due to panic spread since Wednesday, some were taking pictures and posting them on social media and WhatsApp groups.  “It is wrong information, “ he said. “The ridership did not suffer due to the temporary stoppage of trains. Metro registered 3.88 lakh commuters on Wednesday.”

STRENGTHENING OF CONCRETE BEAM BEING DONE
Explaining the work being undertaken on pier 155, Chavan said that due to the appearance of air voids similar to the gaps on a honeycomb in the beam,  the portion had slipped. The beam absorbs vibrations caused by running of trains. “We are filling the gaps and strengthening the segment so that it goes back to its previous position. It is a fault, so we are rectifying it,” he said.

News Agencies