New Delhi After being pulled up by the government to take concrete steps to stop the spread of misinformation and fake news on its platform, Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Wednesday said it has launched the second phase of its radio ad campaign in the country to create awareness and empower users.

The first phase of the educational campaign was kicked off on August 29 with ads across 46 radio stations of All India Radio (AIR) in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The second phase of the campaign started on Wednesday on September 5 with radio ads across 83 AIR radio stations in Assam, Tripura, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.

These campaigns will run in eight regional languages — Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, Oriya and Tamil — for a 15-day duration, WhatsApp said in a statement.

The campaign has been designed in an easy to understand format to help user’s spot misinformation and further sensitize them about the challenges of fake news and addressing these as a society.

“WhatsApp stands committed in its efforts to address these issues jointly with civil society, stakeholders and the government,” the company said.

These radio campaign highlights tips like understand when a message is “forwarded”; check information that seems unbelievable and photos carefully; question information that upsets you and be thoughtful about what you share.

WhatsApp has also roped in New Delhi-based non-profit Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) to create awareness among its users about the need to verify information.

“Our goal is to help keep people safe by creating greater awareness about fake news and empowering users to help limit its spread,” Ben Supple, Public Policy Manager at WhatsApp, said in a statement.

As part of the new partnership with WhatsApp, DEF has committed to holding 40 training sessions for community leaders in 10 states across the country where there have been worrisome cases of violence and where there will be state polls before the end of the year.

In a meeting with WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels on August 21, Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad instructed the Facebook-owned platform to comply with the law of the land and take “suitable” steps to prevent its misuse.

The meeting took place after several lynching incidents were linked to the spread of misinformation on the instant messaging platform which has over 200 million monthly active users in India.

WhatsApp has also taken some technological measures to curb the problem of disinformation, including the introduction of the “forwarded” tag and limiting forwarding to five chats at once.

“In addition to the steps we are taking within WhatsApp, we believe impacting lives through the power of education is critical to helping achieve the vision of a ‘Digital India’,” Supple added.

[IANS]

The Indian rupee plunged to a fresh record low of 71.75 to a dollar during the morning trade session on Wednesday.

Around 10.40 a.m. the Indian rupee traded at 71.75 to a dollar — the lowest ever mark — it has touched against the greenback.

It opened the day’s trade at the Inter-Bank Foreign Exchange Market at 71.44 to a dollar from its previous close of 71.58 to a greenback.

Commuters all over the state, who have been already burdened by the increasing prices of diesel and petrol, will have to brace up to meet an increase in bus fare. It is learnt that state transport corporations run by the government have been suffering an average loss of Rs 186 crore per month as diesel price has gone up steeply during the last three months. As this loss is expected to go up further, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation has submitted a proposal to the government, seeking permission to hike bus fares by 18 percent.

The government is examining this proposal. Sources said that instead of 18 percent, the government might permit a lower rate of hike in fare. Transport minister, D C Thammanna, briefing about the financial condition of the transport corporations, revealed that the corporations had approached the government with a request for fare hike about two and half months back. He said that the proposal would be discussed with the chief minister and a final decision would be taken within a week. He added that when taking a decision on increasing the bus fare, it will be ensured that the passengers are not unduly burdened, and the transport corporations too do not face heavy losses. He said that on account of diesel price hike, the transport corporations are facing financial stress and to meet this situation, they are left with no other option other than increasing bus fare.

Thammanna stated that 40 new buses will be acquired by the transport corporations as there is good demand for sleeper coaches on long distance routes. “We propose to run additional buses to far away destinations during the holiday season. In phases, the menace of private buses will be reined in. The confusion on free passes to students will be addressed within a week,” he assured.

High crude oil prices and negative global cues pulled the Indian rupee to a new record low of 71.43 per US dollar in the late on Tuesday afternoon.

The Indian rupee which opened at 71.24 per US dollar surpassing the previous low of 71.37 per dollar, which it had touched around 9.15 a.m. on Tuesday.

Around 2.45 p.m., the Indian rupee crossed the 71.43 per US dollar mark — the lowest ever mark — against the greenback at the Inter-Bank Foreign Exchange Market.

Indias passenger carriers are suffering from a “double whammy” of a steep rise in fuel costs and the decline in the Indian rupees value, global airlines association IATA said on Tuesday.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the rise in fuel costs was particularly acute for Indian carriers as it makes up 34 per cent of operating costs well above the global average of 24 per cent.

“While it is easy to find Indian passengers who want to fly, it’s very difficult for airlines to make money in this market,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO at the International Aviation Summit being held here.

“India’s social and economic development needs airlines to be able to profitably accommodate growing demand. We must address infrastructure constraints that limit growth and government policies that deviate from global standards and drive up the cost of connectivity.”

IATA’s growth forecast for India indicate a trebling of passenger demand by 2037 when some 500 million people are expected to fly to, from or within India.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on Tuesday said it has sanctioned Rs 334.75 crore in August, under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), to West Bengal for 158 minor irrigation and 23 flood protection projects.

The projects were expected to benefit 20,506 hectare covering 3.09 lakh population in 699 villages of the 22 districts while the flood protection projects would address the problem of rapid bank erosion caused by rivers, according to a statement.

The developmental bank said the implementation of 23 flood protection projects would save around 5,080 hectare of fertile agricultural and home stead lands of farmers of 64 villages which are under area of erosion.

With this cumulative RIDF loan assistance to the state government during the year stands at Rs 1,172.16 crore.

The prices of petrol and diesel hiked again on Monday, hitting an all-time high in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Oil marketing companies (OMCs) increased fuel rates for the ninth consecutive day. A litre of petrol is selling at Rs. 79.15 in Delhi, Rs. 86.56 in Mumbai, Rs. 82.24 in Chennai and Rs. 82.06 in Kolkata. Diesel rates on Monday were hiked by 39 paise a litre, the steepest increase since the daily revision in prices was introduced in mid-june 2017.
Diesel prices rose to its highest levels of Rs. 71.15 a litre in Delhi and Rs. 75.54 in Mumbai today. Diesel is retailing at a price of Rs. 75.19 per litre in Chennai and Rs. 74.00 per litre in Kolkata, according to daily price notification issued by state-owned oil firms.

Fuel prices vary from state to state due to local levies. The revised rates are applicable from 6 am on September 3, 2018. The surge in fuel prices is largely attributed to the recent rise in crude oil cost and the high excise duty levied on transportation fuel in the country.

Since August 16, petrol prices have risen by over Rs. 2 per litre. Diesel prices on the other hand have risen by Rs. 2.42 a litre during this period. Diesel rates had hit Rs. 69.31 a litre on May 28, but this record was breached on August 27 and on Monday they hit a fresh high.

According to officials, the spike in rates is on account of exchange rate falling to a record Rs. 71 to a dollar, depreciating by Rs. 2.5 in a month. Also, crude oil has gained $7 a barrel in a fortnight, driven by fears that the US sanctions on Iran will likely contract supplies.

Globally, oil prices fell on Monday amid rising supply from OPEC and the United States, outweighing concerns that falling Iranian output will tighten markets once US sanctions bite from November. Output from the producer cartel of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose by 220,000 barrels per day (bpd) between July and August, to a 2018-high of 32.79 million bpd, a Reuters survey found.

Many analysts have warned that an economic slowdown because of trade disputes between the United States and other major economies including China and the European Union would drag on oil demand, reported Reuters.

(PTI)

San Francisco, Microsoft is redesigning Skype’s interface for both mobile and desktop, eliminating the less used features on the app and simplyfying its core functions like voice calling, video chatting and messaging.

“This past year, we explored some design changes and heard from customers that we overcomplicated some of our core scenarios,” Peter Skillman, Director of design for Skype and Outlook wrote in a blog post.

The redesign concentrates on decluttering the mobile app interface and shifting chats, calls, contacts and notifications options to the top left of the window, providing a central navigation point for desktop users.

Microsoft is also removing the “Highlights” feature which was added to Skype last year and was inspired by photo-messaging app Snapchat. It allowed users to post a thread of photos and videos for friends to view and react to with emoticons.

“Calling became harder to execute and ‘Highlights’ didn’t resonate with a majority of users. We needed to take a step back and simplify,” wrote Skillman.

The video-and-voice platform would now also come with light and dark theme options to choose from.

“We toned down the visual range of the gradients and re-introduced a simplified Skype ‘Classic’ blue theme-adjusted for contrast and readability,” Skillman added.

More updates, focussing around calling, chats and contacts would be rolling out in the months to come, the post noted.

Microsoft has also reportedly rolled out end-to-end encryption for private conversations on Skype that would ensure that the chat content between two people is hidden in both, the chat list and the notifications.

[IANS]

San Francisco Despite Chairman and CEO Elon Musk claiming that Tesla will ramp up production of its Model 3 car to 6,000 units per week, the electric carmaker has reportedly missed the goal and made only 4,300 units in the last week of August.

“Tesla is on track for a production record this quarter but slightly behind its ambitious Model 3 goal,” the ELetrek reported late on Sunday.

Model 3 comes with a base price tag of $35,000.

“Based on the same reliable source familiar with Tesla’s production, the automaker built about 6,400 vehicles during the last week (last seven days) of August (from 24th to 31st midday) including about 4,300 Model 3 vehicles,” the report claimed.

Earlier in August, buoyed by the increased production of Model 3 cars, Tesla reported a revenue of $4 billion in the second quarter of 2018, with $2.2 billion in cash in hand.

“We are proud of our team for producing roughly 7,000 Model 3, Model S and Model X vehicles during the last week of June.

“A total vehicle output of 7,000 vehicles per week, or 350,000 per year, should enable Tesla to become sustainably profitable for the first time in our history, and we expect to grow our production rate further in Q3,” Elon Musk, CEO Tesla, said in a statement.

In July 2018, Model 3 not only had the top market share position in its segment in the US, but it also outsold all other mid-sized premium sedans combined — accounting for 52 per cent of the segment overall.

“Having achieved our 5,000 per week milestone, we will now continue to increase that further, with our aim to produce 6,000 Model 3 vehicles per week by late August.

“We aim to increase production to 10,000 Model 3s per week as fast as we can. We believe that the majority of Tesla’s production lines will be ready to produce at this rate by the end of 2018,” Musk said.

[IANS]

Budget airline GoAir on Sunday said one of its Bengaluru-Pune flights had suffered a technical glitch mid-air and it returned safely to Bengaluru as is the standard operating procedure in such cases.

An airline spokesperson said there were around 169 passengers on board on Saturday’s disrupted flight, who have now been all accommodated on alternate flights.

“Flight G8-283 BLR-PNQ suffered a technical glitch. As a standard operating procedure the captain returned back to Bengaluru. Post landing, all passengers were cared for and accommodated on alternate flights,” a Go Air statement said.

“GoAir sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused to its passengers. GoAir is committed to the highest degree of safety of passengers and its own crew members and the crew operated within the established guidelines to provide for safe travel,” it added.

The airline spokesperson said that the flight in question was an Airbus A320 neo plane fitted with Pratt and Whitney (P&W) engines.

Indian aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has grounded several A320 neo planes with P&W engines that were being operated by low-cost carriers IndiGo and GoAir.

(IANS)