In order to further secure candidates and campaign staff vulnerable to hackers and nation-state actors during the elections, Facebook has introduced additional tools to protect political campaigns in the US and around the world.

The social media giant has launched a pilot programme to expand its existing protections for users associated with US political campaigns ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections.

“Candidates for federal or statewide office, as well as staff members and representatives from federal and state political party committees, can add additional security protections to their Pages and accounts,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy at Facebook, wrote in a blog post late on Monday.

“We’ll help officials adopt our strongest account security protections, like two-factor authentication, and monitor for potential hacking threats,” Gleicher added.

Over the past year, the company has invested in new technology and more people to stay ahead of bad actors who are determined to use Facebook to disrupt elections.

“This pilot programme is an addition to our existing security tools and procedures, and we will apply what we learn to other elections in the US and around the world,” said Facebook.

“As we detect abuse, we will continue to share relevant information with law enforcement and other companies so we can maximise our effectiveness,” it added.

According to a report in Download, a working paper released last week revealed a significant drop-off in the engagements 570 fake news sites received on Facebook since the 2016 US presidential elections.

“At its peak, there were 200 million monthly engagements with the sites. As of July 2018, that’s dropped to 70 million,” the report added.

In April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of the US Senate, saying they were too slow to spot and respond to Russian interference.

“Our sophistication in handling these threats is growing and improving quickly. We now have about 15,000 people working on security and content review. We’ll have more than 20,000 by the end of this year,” he told the lawmakers.

The Facebook CEO apologised for what happened and took responsibility for everything. He also said that there is an online propaganda “arms race” with Russia and it was important to make sure no one interferes in any more elections, including in India.

“The most important thing I care about right now is making sure no one interferes in the various 2018 elections around the world,” he testified before a 44-Senator panel.

(IANS)

Weak global markets amid the US-China trade concerns plunged the key Indian equity indices on Monday afternoon, with the S&P BSE Sensex losing around 400 points so far.

The wider NSE Nifty50 also lost over 100 points during the intra-day trade. Among the sectors, heavy selling pressure was witnessed in banking, consumer durables and auto stocks.

Globally, market sentiments were subdued on reports that the US might announce fresh tariffs on Chinese imports.

At 12.50 p.m., the Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange traded at 11,410.00 points, lower by 105.20 points or 0.91 per cent from the previous close.

The BSE Sensex, which had opened at 38,027.81 points, traded at 37,680.58 points, lower by 410.06 points or 1.08 per cent from the previous close of 38,090.64 points.

So far, it has touched an intra-day high of 38,027.81 points and a low of 37,597.05 points.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel, Wipro, IndusInd Bank, Power Grid and Bharti Airtel, while the major losers were HDFC, NTPC, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Tata Motors (DVR).

(IANS)

CM H D Kumaraswamy plans to slash taxes on fuel and is said to have directed the finance department to take necessary steps to reduce duty on petrol and diesel by at least Rs 2 to Rs 2.50 per litres.

The decision is expected to roll out on soon.

Kumaraswamy, had in his budget announced on July 5, had raised the tax percentage on petrol from 30 to 32 per cent and on diesel from 19 to 21 per cent. By this, the petrol rates were increased by Rs. 1.14 and diesel Rs. 1.12.

The Indian rupee is “tracking closer to its fair value” and the scope for further rapid depreciation appears unlikely, though the time is appropriate for policy interventions to anchor negative sentiments, experts said on Saturday.

“Currently, the rupee is tracking closer to its fair value as per our fair value computation. From here on, the scope for rapid depreciation appears unlikely,” Yes Bank’s Group President and Chief Economist Shubhada Rao said.

The Indian rupee on Friday closed at 71.85, recovering 34 paise from its previous close of 72.19 per greenback.

She, however, said policy interventions are required to anchor the “negative sentiments”.

“The government and Reserve Bank can make policy interventions now. If it does not, the expectations get un-anchored. It is very important to anchor the expectations and time is appropriate to do it,” she said on the sidelines of an event organised by the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

According to her, there could be short term measures to contain the trade imbalance. In order to stop further depreciation of the rupee and widening of current account deficit (CAD), the government on Friday took some measures and a broad policy decision to curb non-essential imports and increase exports.

International Monetary fund (IMF) Senior Resident Representative for India, Nepal, Bhutan, Andreas W. Bauer, said as per their assessment, the real exchange rate level is “broadly in line with the fundamentals”.

Citing a study prepared by the lender, Rao said the recent phase of relative depreciation has reduced the misalignment of the Indian rupee from fair value based on real effective exchange rate (REER) rebased to FY12.

Estimated overvaluation is likely to have reduced to 3.7 per cent in August from 9.9 per cent in the corresponding month last year, she said.

(IANS)

The Karnataka High Court sought response from the BBMP’s on a petition challenging the civic body’s circular asking businesses to reserve 60% of space on their name boards for Kannada.

The Retailers Association of India challenged the BBMP order seeking all licensed retailers to ensure 60% of display in Kannada language on their name board in bold letters and 40% in other languages.
However, the HC asked the association as to promote the Kannada language in educational institutions and not in commercial establishments.

It also added that promoting languages cannot be done by keeping name boards as a medium.

The order had rules mentioned and had warned that retailers would lose their trade licences if they failed to abide by the norms. However, they asked the court to quash the order, saying it was illegal, arbitrary and against the provisions of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976.

The court asked the BBMP to submit a reply on the sustainability of its order, and adjourned the case.

(PTI)

In New Delhi, petrol is being sold 35 paise higher at Rs 81.63 per litre, while the price of diesel has been hiked by 24 paise to Rs 73.54 per litre.

Fuel prices have yet again witnessed a hike on Saturday, with petrol and diesel breaching earlier figures to touch new record highs.

In New Delhi, petrol is being sold 35 paise higher at Rs 81.63 per litre, while the price of diesel has been hiked by 24 paise to Rs 73.54 per litre.

Mumbai continues to be the worst affected by rising fuel prices, with petrol retailing at a staggering Rs 89.01 per litre and diesel at Rs 78.07 per litre.

The union government has been facing flak in the past few weeks for not implementing stringent measures to curb prices.

Earlier this week, the Congress Party and 21 other regional and national parties observed a ‘Bharat Bandh’ on account of the consistent rise in fuel prices and urged the government to take necessary steps to reduce citizens’ woes.

However, the Centre has maintained that external factors, including a rise in international crude oil prices, are influencing domestic fuel prices.

(PTI)

The Indian space agency expects to fly its first small rocket with a carrying capacity of about 500-700 kg sometime next year, according to a top official.

“The developmental work for our small rocket that can carry satellites weighing around 500 kg is on. The first flight of the small rocket is expected to happen sometime next year,” ISRO Chairman, K.Sivan told IANS.

He said the small rocket will be launched from the existing rocketport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

In a recent interaction with IANS in Bengaluru, S.Rakesh, Chairman-cum- Managing Director, Antrix Corporation said the low-cost small rocket requires a dedicated launch pad with a simple vertical launch mechanism.

“Though SSLV will be initially launched from our rocketport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, we want to have a separate spaceport for it later,” Rakesh had said.

Queried about Rakesh’s views on the separate spaceport Sivan said initially the small rocket will be flown from Sriharikota. Antrix may have its own plans for the future.

Incidentally, Antrix is calling Indian nationals to apply for the post of `Head, Manufacturing & Marketing of Space Systems’. The job description being: “Preplanning activities of new Space Transport Systems which Antrix is envisaging to put into production. Establishment of production facilities in co-ordination with ISRO and Industries for Technology Transfer and production of the System.”

Sivan also said the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is evaluating the various proposals it has received for its lithium-ion battery technology and is expected to complete the process in a month’s time.

“In a month or so the first level of screen of the proposals will be over,” Sivan said.

Over 130 companies had shown interest in the Indian space agency’s lithium-ion cell technology.

In June this year, ISRO had announced its decision to transfer this technology to the Indian industry on a non-exclusive basis for usage in automobiles for Rs 1 crore.

The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre located in Kerala, will transfer the technology to the successful Indian industries or start-ups on a non-exclusive basis to establish production facilities in the country that can produce cells of varying sizes, capacities, energy densities and power densities catering to the entire spectrum of power storage requirements, ISRO had said.

At present, 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.

Analysts partly attribute the fall of rupee to a global crisis and Trump’s ‘declaration of a trade war’.
The Indian rupee, which has fallen by more than 12 percent this year against the US dollar, is currently the worst performing currency in Asia.

A strong US dollar and high oil prices, coupled with investors dumping emerging markets’ currencies and a record high current account deficit – a measurement of a country’s trade where the value of its imports exceeds the value of its exports – are proving a toxic mix for the rupee.

On Wednesday, it hit a record low of 72.91 against the US dollar.

The slide has pushed up prices of imported items such as petroleum products, commodities, electronics and engineering equipment – and analysts warn the “worst is not yet over”.

India’s cash crunch persists as swap deadline passes
“In the medium term, India should brace for more rupee weakness, due to a further pickup of inflation. We expect the rupee to reach a steady rate of somewhere around 75 [against the US dollar],” said Hugo Erken, chief economist at the Dutch multinational RaboBank.

Late on Friday evening, the Indian government announced several immediate measures that it said are aimed at arresting the rupee fall.

Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday that the government plans to take measures to cut down “non-necessary” imports, ease overseas borrowing norms for the manufacturing sector and relax rules around banks raising rupee-denominated overseas bonds.

The announcement was preceded by an economic review meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Further measures are expected to be announced on Saturday.

‘Global crisis’
A number of emerging economies – including Turkey and Argentina – have seen the value of their currencies drop against the US dollar in recent months amid rising trade tensions between the United States and China that have rattled international investors.

Mohan Guruswamy, former economic adviser to the Indian government, said the international instability has added to the rupee’s woes.

“The crisis is ongoing. The rupee fall is partly a global crisis as well, all thanks to [US President Donald] Trump and his declaration of a trade war which is adding to the pressure and the uncertainty,” Guruswamy told Al Jazeera.

India’s policymakers have long blamed offshore traders for aggravating falls in the rupee with speculative bets in currency-based contracts traded in financial centres such as Singapore.

WATCH: Millions of Indians are lining up to exchange obsolete bank notes
“The short-term sell-off that we have seen is worrying,” said Erken, citing a combination of factors contributing to it.

“Global tensions over trade, stubbornly high oil price and, of course, country-specific turmoil in Turkey (central bank independency and inflation), Brazil (elections), South Africa (deteriorating institutional quality) and Argentina (low reserves, high inflation, high foreign currency debt),” he said.

Impact of rupee slide
Higher oil prices pose significant risks to the economy of India, which imports more than two-thirds of its fuel needs.

Burgeoning oil import bills could put further downward pressure on the rupee and widen the country’s trade deficit – according to official figures, India’s imports last month stood at $45bn while exports were almost $28bn.

“If you have persistent trade imbalances, persistent current account deficit, the rupee would keep on falling. There is a greater demand for dollars as the rupee weakens,” said Guruswamy.

In such a situation, more people tend to sell rupees to buy dollars, or any other foreign currency that they require.

The weaker currency is also sparking foreign sales of bonds and stocks, which in turn is further pressuring the rupee.

“Money is flowing back to America amid a stronger dollar and incentives for people to keep their money in the US,” said Guruswamy.

He added that the steady slump in the Indian currency has a negative impact on Indian consumers “as petrol and diesel prices are going up” but provides exporters with a “short-term” gain “by making them more competitive”.

Checking the fall
The rupee’s defence in recent years has largely rested on a strategy from the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to drain cash from domestic money markets and raise short-term interest rates.

On Tuesday, the central bank sold dollars in the market to stem the rupee’s weakness.

But Guruswamy warned, “There’s a limit to how much the central bank can defend” the rupee. “In the past few weeks, they have sold over $20bn. We cannot deplete our foreign reserves.”

According to estimates, India’s foreign reserves currently stand at $400bn, down from a record high of $426bn in April.

On Friday, the rupee strengthened by 50 paisa to 71.68 against the dollar in early trade in the foreign exchange market, on the back of a government assurance that all steps would be taken to ensure the domestic currency does not depreciate to “unreasonable levels”.

However, analysts such as Erken, of RaboBank, warn against over-intervention.

“[The government] has to tread carefully. Large-scale currency interventions have the same effect as raising rates and the RBI certainly would not want to derail the current economic growth momentum,” Erken said.

Silver lining
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party acknowledges that the currency’s fall is a matter of concern, but dismisses doomsayers’ predictions for the economy.

It insists the economic fundamentals remain sound, with some saying the rupee’s depreciation will help make exports more competitive and reduce imports.

“Rupee is not weakening, rather it is the dollar strengthening against all other currencies,” ruling party spokesperson Zafar Islam told Al Jazeera.

“In fact, India is in a much better position than other countries like Turkey and Argentina who have huge external debt and hence much more exposed to currency risk than us,” he added.

“The fall in the value of the rupee has also helped our exports. This month’s export figures are stronger than expectations.”

According to the ruling party, the rupee was still performing better than some other currencies and the country had sufficient foreign exchange reserves.

Analysts such as Erken say India is experiencing a “Goldilocks moment” which is reasonably low inflation and high growth, clocking an 8.2 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the three months through June.

What lies ahead?
“From a policy perspective, the government has been pushing hard to implement key reforms and shape a more business-friendly environment,” he said.

But others argue policymakers cannot deflect blame for the lack of investment in the economy or policies that have allowed the current account deficit to reach unsustainable levels.

There’s no quick fix to the crisis, warned Guruswamy.

“Trade imbalances have to be dealt with, current account gap has to be bridged. You have to shore up confidence among the investor community. There’s a serious trust deficit in the government. People who are investors, who deal with money, builders of the economy have no trust in the government,” he said.

Global financial firm Nomura warns of further turbulence for the rupee as India gears up for a general election by May next year.

“The key risks [to the rupee] stem from the government turning more populist ahead of the 2019 general elections [worsening domestic fundamentals] and a sharper-than-expected domestic growth slowdown [triggering equity outflows],” a company statement released on 10 September said.

For his part, Erken said India should brace itself for the effect of further US punitive measures against China.

“Another spoiler would be further protectionist announcements by the Trump administration. We expect another $200bn of Chinese imports to be levied before the [US] midterm elections,” he said.

“This would fuel anxiety among investors, and we can expect another round of emerging market currency sell-offs.”

(Aljazeera)

Idli Sambar is probably one of the most beloved food items among a majority of the Indian crowd. Soon, or more accurately by the year 2022, Indian astronauts will be able to eat their fill of the savoury idli and sambar while travelling in space… if all goes according to plan.

Not wanting to lag behind other space agencies such as NASA and other counterparts, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is also planning to send humans on space voyages, and this also includes making preparations for sustenance, AKA food.

Considering that the food in the space shuttle cannot be sent back to the kitchen if it is inedible, ISRO has to see that the food being given to the space voyagers, should not fall apart in zero-gravity conditions. To help with this, Mysuru based Defence Food Research Laboratory has been working hard at trying to prepare such “zero-gravity defying food” and has also held discussions with the ISRO authorities regarding the same.

Prof. Semwal, at the symposium and exhibition of food technology on the topic “Strengthening Army Through Food Technology” held here on Wednesday, September 12, said that food and drink items such as idli sambar, mango juice, frozen fruit juice etc. could be provided in the proper packaging. He added that, as of now, food that can be supplied has not yet been finalised and that the existing packages were not suitable for space. He, however, is hopeful that this can be accomplished by 2022.

(PTI)

Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will put into orbit on Sunday two foreign satellites – NovaSAR and S1-4 – together weighing 889 kg, said a top official.

“The September 16 rocket launch will be a fully commercial launch. The rocket will be carrying only the two foreign satellites,” K. Sivan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told IANS on Thursday.

He said such commercial launches were not new for ISRO as it has done that several times earlier.

The PSLV rocket will blast off from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The two satellites belong to Surrey Satellite Technologies Ltd (SSTL), UK, under commercial arrangement with Antrix Corp Ltd – the commercial arm of ISRO.

According to ISRO, the two earth observation satellites will be launched into a 583 km Sun Synchronous Orbit.

NovaSAR is a S-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite intended for forest mapping, land use and ice cover monitoring, flood and disaster monitoring.

S1-4 is a high resolution Optical Earth Observation Satellite, used for surveying resources, environment monitoring, urban management and for disaster monitoring.

(IANS)