Global chip maker Intel trained 99,000 developers, students and professors in Artificial Intelligence (AI) since April 2017 for ready talent in India, said the US-based firm on Wednesday.

“We have trained over 99,000 developers, students and professors since April 2017 for making AI-ready talent available in the country,” said Intel India in a statement here.

Philips, Mphasis, and arya.ai collaborated with Intel as partners and customers to power AI solutions on its architecture.

To mark the occasion, the semiconductor firm held a developers conference in this tech hub where 500 developers, including experts in data science, machine learning, application development and research participated.

“The conference served as a platform to share updates on real-world applications of AI that can benefit businesses and people, a said the statement.

Intel will also speed up the accessibility of AI tools across industries and drive the next wave of computing by investing in developer education.

“Though we had committed to training 15,000 developers, students, and professors in AI initially through training and workshops, we exceeded the target over seven-fold by roping in many of them from 100 organizations,” said Intel India Managing Director Prakash Mallya.

Intel India is also working with Philips and Mphasis to deploy its AI portfolio in the local ecosystem.

Representatives from corporates like Reliance Jio, Flipkart, Airtel, Amazon, Wipro and Microsoft Ventures and IIT Hyderabad deliberated on the various facets of AI, ranging from its evolution to create new revenue streams to the ethical component and its impact on the people worldwide.

“The conference in India is a testament to our local collaborations for developing AI technology, and growing the ecosystem” added Gadi Singer, Intel Vice President for AI.

A set of Indian firms demonstrated how they are using AI to further their business and shape the end-user experience.

Their insights and solutions reflect the great potential that India has for AI technology development.

Intel will also engage AI developers and startups in India through its Academy and AI builders’ programme.

LG Launches G7+Thinq In India – #Livenow

LG Electronics India recently announced the launch of the latest premium Smartphone the LG G7+ThinQ in India. The LG G7+ThinQ is the perfect Smartphone for people who love to live in each moment.

Being an amalgamation of unique features like 1000nit Super Bright FullVisionTM display, IP68 for dust & water resistance, BoomBoxSpeakers & Dual 16+16 MP AI (Artificial Intelligence) Camera, LG G7+ThinQ is set to redefine the Smartphone experience of the consumers by helping them live the important moments like a true companion.

Powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 845 Mobile Platform, the LG G7+ThinQ offers 6GB of RAM & 128 GB of internal storage to run even the most demanding tasks & apps with ease.

The all-new LG G7+ThinQ comes deeply integrated with Artificial Intelligence that has a dedicated button which triggers AI tools like Google Assistant & Google Lens. With Super Far-Field Voice Recognition & highly sensitive microphone, it can recognize voice commands from up to five meters. LG has also added new features that make photography on the LG G7ThinQ even more enjoyable than ever. By using either the standard or AI-enabled Super Wide Camera, it gives the shutterbugs even more creative options to live the moment.
The LG G7+ThinQ sports a new design aesthetic in G-series. Carrying on the heritage of LG’s focus on great Smartphone sound, the LG G7+ThinQ is equipped with DTS:X & Hi-Fi Quad DAC for incredibly rich sound especially when paired with high-impedance earphones. Sporting a new design aesthetic for G series, the LG G7+ThinQ is rated IP68 & MLT-STD 810 for durability. With a more polished look & unique features, it gives the users the freedom to Live Now!
LG G7+ThinQ will be only available on Flipkart at INR 39,990 starting 10th Aug 2018.

The LG G7+ThinQ has been upgraded with Dual 16MP+16MP lenses on the back in both standard & Super Wide Angle configurations and with an 8MP camera on the front for higher resolution photos with more details. LG’s signature wide angle camera now captures even more beautiful landscapes with less edge distortion and selfies are clearer and look more natural compared with previous LG phones.

AI CAM now offers 19 shooting modes, up from 8, for even more intelligence-optimized shots. And users can improve their photos further by choosing among 3 other effect options if the one recommended by AI CAM doesn’t suit their tastes.

Low light photography on LG G7+ThinQ is taken to a whole new level with the new Super Bright Camera with images that are up to 4 times brighter typical of photos shot in dim light. Through the combination of pixel binning & software processing, the AI algorithm adjusts the camera settings automatically when shooting in low light.

LG has also added new features that make photography on LG G7+ThinQ even more enjoyable than ever. Live Photo mode records one second before & after the shutter is pressed for snippets of unexpected moments or expressions that would normally be missed. Sticker’s uses face recognition to generate fun 2D & 3D overlays such as sunglasses & headbands that can be viewed directly on the display.

New to G series, Portrait mode generates professional looking shots with out-of-focus backgrounds. This bokeh effect can be generated using either the standard or Super Wide Angle lens, giving shutterbugs even more creative options.

LG G7+ThinQ will be one of the 1st ever devices to get upcoming Google Lens features. Google Lens is a new way to search using latest in AI & computer vision. Available inside Google Assistant & Google Photos, it can deliver more information on objects such as landmarks, plants, animals, books as well as identifying text. Visit websites, add a business card to contacts, add events to the calendar or look up an item on a restaurant menu, all right from Google Lens. More details on Google Lens will be revealed at Google I/O.

Located just below the volume is a button that launches the phone’s AI functions. A single tap of this button will launch the Google Assistant while 2 quick taps will launch Google Lens, a 1st ever on any phone. Users can also hold down the button to start talking to Google Assistant.

With Super Far-Field Voice Recognition (SFFVR) & smartphone’s highly sensitive microphone, the Google Assistant can recognize voice commands from up to 5 meters away. SFFVR is able to separate commands from background noise, making LG G7+ThinQ a great alternative to a home AI speaker even when TV is on. LG customer commands for the Google Assistant have been increased in the LG G7+ThinQ so users can get even more stuff done with their voice alone.

The 1st ever thing customers will notice about LG G7+ThinQ will likely be the new 15.49cm QHD+ (3120 x 1440) display sporting a 19.5:9 FullVisionTM screen ratio & a bottom bezel which is almost 50% slimmer than LG G6. Powered by LG’s new LCD technology, Super Bright Display, LG G7+ThinQ can be viewed easily even under direct sunlight with brightness up to an industry-leading 1,000 nit, displaying 100% DCI-P3 color gamut.

And depending on the type of content, the display can be set to 6 different viewing modes: Auto, Eco, Cinema, Sports, Game & expert. In Auto mode, the phone automatically analyzes the content of games or photos & optimizes display & power consumption. The user can fine tune the image even further by adjusting the screen temperature & RGB levels individually.

The smartphone’s New 2nd Screen gives users flexible options when it comes to setting up the display to fit their tastes & style. The display can be fully expanded for a bezel-less look or it can be set to a more traditional style where the notification bar is completely blacked out. Users can even change the notification bar to another color for a more personal effect.

Continuing LG’s commitment to deliver an unrivaled audio experience on its smartphones, the LG G7+ThinQ offers premium audio innovations that remain unmatched in the industry. Available for the 1st time ever in LG G7+ThinQ, Boombox Speaker utilizes the internal space of LG G7+ThinQ as a resonance chamber to deliver double the bass of conventional smartphones for powerful “boombox” sound without the need for external speakers. When placed on a solid surface or box, the smartphone utilizes its resonance chamber as a woofer to amplify the bass effect even more.

The LG G7+ThinQ is also the 1st ever smartphone to offer DTS:X to deliver virtual 3D sound for all content, up to 7.1 channel audio with earphones. Carrying on the heritage of LG’s focus on great smartphone sound, the LG G7+ThinQ is equipped with a Hi-Fi Quad DAC for incredibly rich sound especially when paired with high-impedance earphones.

Two Indian businessmen who were abducted in Malaysia earlier in August have been rescued, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said.

“R.P. Vaidya and K.P. Vaidya who had gone to Malaysia for business purposes were abducted on August 3,” Sushma Swaraj tweeted late on Tuesday.

“I am happy to inform that with the efforts of our High Commissioner Mridul Kumar and his team, Malaysian Police has secured the release of both Indian nationals on August 6.”

According to media reports, the Vaidya brothers from Dombivli near Mumbai who run a fish export company, informed their family after reaching Malaysia on August 1 that they have been abducted by unknown men who were asking for Rs 1 crore as ransom.

Following this, the family sought help from Sushma Swaraj and the Indian Embassy in Malaysia besides the police in India.

In a separate tweet, Sushma Swaraj said that two Indians suffering from heatstroke on a ship without air conditioning or electricity, off the United Arab Emirates (UAE) coast are being repatriated.

“We are repatriating Rohit Pal and Rishab Gupta, crew members of MV Maharishi Vamdeva, from Fujairah,” she said.

She added that the Indian Consul General in Dubai has provided provisions to other crew members and is repatriating them as well.

Riding on the fourth industrial revolution with disruptive technologies, global computer data storage major Dell EMC is building IT infrastructure for citizen services like Aadhaar in “Digital India”.

“As a leading hardware vendor, we build IT infrastructure also for the government to provide citizen services like Aadhaar, passports, invoices of customs and GST settlements,” Dell EMC India Managing Director Rajesh Janey told IANS here.

Though US-based Dell Technologies has been hard-selling its computers, laptops, tablets, and servers in India over the years, it began providing data storage, hybrid Cloud and data protection solutions to enterprises and state-run organizations following its acquisition of EMC in 2016 for a whopping $67-billion (Rs 4.61 lakh crore).

In September 2016, Dell Technologies acquired Massachusetts-based data-storage systems major EMC Corp, founded in 1979 and named after its founders Richard Egan, Roger Marino and John Curly, in one of the largest deals in the technology sector, worldwide.

“Data on the unique identification card (Aadhaar) issued to citizens is run and stored on our server racks managed by third-party vendors,” Janey said in an exclusive interview.

Similarly, passports are archived on the company’s storage while Customs and Excise departments use Dell IT infrastructure to raise invoices for businesses.

The company sells IT infrastructure products and services, including flash-based storage, data protection, security, hyper-converged infrastructure, backup solutions for small and medium businesses.

“The central and state governments also use our digital platforms for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) settlements by traders on the GST Network across the country, Janey asserted.

In the enterprise segment, leading banks and telecos use Dell EMC’s hardware for computing, storage and data security.

“Our products and solutions enable enterprises to undergo digital transformation as part of the fourth industrial revolution, leaving behind legacies such as mainframes, client servers and networked work stations,” Janey said.

The first industrial revolution occurred in the 18th century when agrarian practices and rural life under went industrial change with the roll out of the steam engine; the second from 1870 to 1914 marked mass production in industries and the third, from the 1980s, and subseqeuntly witnessed the emergence of personal computers and internet.

In the fourth revolution, disruptive technologies have been replacing the conventional platforms with artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), Cloud, robotics and automation.

Hinting that new technologies would disrupt the functioning of many businesses, Janey said the increasing use of AI would make humans digital conductors, telling machines what they have to do.

“More mundane and routine tasks will get offloaded to machines,” he noted.

According to industry estimates, the number of IoT devices — devices, home appliances and vehicles connected through the internet — will explode to 200 billion over the next decade from 20 billion in 2020.

“Dropping cost of networking is fuelling the growth of IoT devices. At the same time, when we have so many devices with data, we need AI to analyse and convert it into actionable intelligence, thereby removing the routine tasks,” the top executive noted.

The evolution of sectors will happen as these technologies are being introduced into them, said Janey, who was earlier EMC’s President for India and the South Asia region.

“The future requires rethinking of what an intelligent human being can do. Our belief is the skilling of workforce will change. People will move away from mundane tasks to higher level skills. Secretarial work will be passe,” he pointed out.

With around 1.3 billion people and growing, India is a huge market for any industry, Janey admitted.

“Skilling our people through initiatives like the government’s Skill India and courses by educational institutions on Big Data are key, as sectors are undergoing digital transformation,” he added.

With India among the top five markets in the world for Dell EMC’s services, after America, China, Europe and Britain, the company is planning to hire more techies in India, Janey said, but did not specify the present workforce present and how many are being hired in the subcontinent.

Dell EMC claims to be the leader in India’s storage market with 43 per cent share by revenue and second-largest in server market with 26 per cent share by revenue.

The company is also said to have leadership in flash-storage and hyper-converged infrastructure segments.

“We are investing $4.5 billion on research and development in fiscal 2018-19. India contributes significantly to the research, particularly in servers,” Janey stated.

“India is ahead of other developing nations in the use of digital infrastructure,” he disclosed.
The country is also at par with the developed nations in innovation as advancements in e-commerce industry like cash-on-delivery and video subscriptions allowing download options by streaming sites are Indian innovations for the world, driven by consumer needs, the official said.

With its diverse offerings through hardware, software and data storage areas, the company is upbeat about its market share increasing in India as businesses head for disruption.

Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams is among the nine astronauts named by NASA on Friday for its first human spaceflight programme from the US soil since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.

The astronauts will fly on the spacecraft developed by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and global aviation firm Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, as part of the US space agency’s Commercial Crew programme to send humans to the ISS on private US spacecraft.

Williams has been named for the Boeing programme to the ISS — the first test flight scheduled to take place in the middle of 2019.

“For the first time since 2011, we are on the brink of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

Born in Euclid (Ohio), Williams came to NASA from the Navy where she was a test pilot and rose to the rank of captain before retiring.

Since her selection as an astronaut in 1998, she has spent 322 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for Expeditions 14/15 and Expeditions 32/33, commanded the space station and performed seven spacewalks, the US space agency said in a statement.

“The men and women we assign to these first flights are at the forefront of this exciting new time for human spaceflight,” said Mark Geyer, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“It will be thrilling to see our astronauts lift off from American soil, and we can’t wait to see them aboard the ISS,” he added.

In 2014, Boeing and SpaceX were awarded a combined $6.8 billion in contracts from NASA to develop spacecraft capable of flying crews to the space station.

SpaceX is targeting November 2018 for Crew Dragon’s first uncrewed demonstration mission (Demo-1), three months later than the previous schedule released by NASA early this year.

The crewed demonstration flight, with two astronauts on board, will follow in April 2019, four months later than previously announced.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, on the other hand, will likely perform two crucial test flights next year, instead of this year as planned.

Each test flight will provide data on the performance of the rockets, spacecraft, ground systems, and operations to ensure the systems are safe to fly astronauts.

The crew for Boeing’s Crew Flight Test and SpaceX’s Demo-2 flights will each include at least a flight commander and pilot aboard to test out the systems.

After successful completion of the flight tests with crew, NASA will review flight data to verify that the systems meet the agency’s safety and performance certification requirements and are ready to begin regular servicing missions to the space station, the US space agency said.

Additional crew members will be assigned by NASA’s international partners at a later date.

 
The Shiv Sena on Thursday predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will get a ‘demonetization-like’ shock in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

It said that winds of changed in favour of the opposition alliance were blowing in almost all the states and that people had “made up their minds since one-and-half years” to give a big jolt to the BJP.

“A major obstacle has come up on the ‘Delhi route’, via Uttar Pradesh with the coalition of the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party. There are similar reports emerging from Bihar where Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal are forging alliances with other parties. There are strong signals of a change of power at the Centre,” the Sena said.

Political pundits are already speculating that in the next parliamentary elections, the tally in Uttar Pradesh may be reversed compared to 2014 when the BJP swept with 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats.

“For now, the bouquet of ‘jumlas’ (falsehoods) has now wilted. The last resort is to create caste divisions and polarization,” the Sena said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece ‘Dopahar Ka Saamana’.

Disillusionment with the BJP was now evident in every state and when people demand answers to past promises, the best option was to confound them in caste politics.

The rulers (BJP) seem to have realized this and have already launched their poll campaign, it said.

“In normal circumstances, such haste has never been witnessed ever when the government and its head have plunged into full-fledged canvassing almost a year before the elections.”

“Now, the masses feel that in order to strengthen democracy, the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers must keep away from the poll campaign arena on moral grounds. The people have elected you to do their work, not carry out your party’s duties. The people who feel cheated know too well how to teach them a lesson, similar to the ‘demonetization’ bombshell,” the Sena warned.

The editorial said there was growing unrest in all parts of the country including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Revenue collection under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) crossed the Rs 95,000 crore mark in July for the second month in a row and stood at Rs 96,483 crore, the government said on Wednesday.

The government said the revenue was broadly on expected lines and that Rs 3,899 crore was released to the states as GST compensation for the months of April and May.

The GST revenue collected till July 31 was for the month of June and it was significantly higher than the average monthly collection of Rs 89,885 crore during 2017-18. It was also higher than Rs 95,610 crore collected in June (for the month of May).

The government said in a statement that out of the total GST collection, Rs 15,877 crore was collected as Central-GST (CGST), Rs 22,293 crore as state-GST (SGST), and Rs 49,951 crore as integrated-GST (IGST) which included Rs 24,852 crore collected on imports. Additionally, Rs 8,362 crore was collected as cess.

The total number of GST returns filed till July 31 was 66 lakh compared to 64.69 lakh returns filed in the previous month, it added.

The construction of the 103-km long Kolhapur-Vaibhavwadi link on Konkan Railway in Maharashtra, providing the first connection from the state’s hinterland to the coastal regions, will start soon, an official said on Wednesday.

The railway link would also boost the proposed Nanar refinery complex in Ratnagiri.

The decision on this project, estimated to cost around Rs 3,000 crore, was taken at a review meeting of Koknkan Railway Corporation (KRC) chaired by Union Minister for Industry and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu in Delhi on Tuesday. Among those present were the Chairman of Railway Board, the Chairman and Managing Director of KRC, and other officials.

The Minister said that the construction of this section would be a game-changer not only for the KRC, but also for the coastal Konkan and the state’s economy.

It will link the coastal region of Maharashtra with western Maharashtra, boost tourism, lead to development of ports and harbours, including the Jaigarh and Dighi ports and allow flow of goods from the hinterland to the coast.

Additionally, it will facilitate the movement of petroleum from the proposed world’s largest integrated refinery-cum-petrochemicals complexes coming up at Nanar, near Vaibhavwadi in Ratnagiri district, he added.

The $40 billion mega-refinery complex, scheduled for commissioning by 2022, is being built by the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).

The refinery complex will have a capacity to process 60 million tonnes per annum and the Kolhapur-Vaibhavwadi rail link will facilitate movement of petroleum and petrochemicals from the refinery to the interiors.

However, currently it is mired in a huge controversy with major political parties including ruling ally Shiv Sena and the opposition Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, local villagers, environmentalists and others strongly opposing the project and the $16 billion Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project also planned in the same district.

Prabhu explained that the future economic growth of Maharashtra hinges on the connectivity of its coastal areas — separated by the tall hills in the Western Ghats — with the rest of the state and the country.

KRC CMD Sanjay Gupta told the minister that in order to improve services of the Konkan Railway (KR) network to cover more villages and towns, 10 new stations are also being constructed en route, with the first slated for inauguration in January 2019.

The Indian Railways had sanctioned the Kolhapur-Vaibhavwadi line in which the Central government will bear 50 per cent of the total cost and the rest will be footed by Maharashtra.

In its bid to curb foreign meddling in US elections, Facebook has removed 32 accounts for suspicious activities and hiding their true identities ahead of the mid-term Congressional polls in November.

“This kind of behaviour is not allowed on Facebook because we don’t want people or organisations creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they’re doing,” Facebook said in a statement in a statement on Tuesday.

The social network said that these bad actors involved in “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” had connection with protests that are planned in Washington next week.

Among the deleted pages was one called “Resisters,” which had created a Facebook Event – “No Unite the Right 2-DC” – a counterdemonstration to Unite the Right 2-DC rally planned for August 12 in Washington.

“We’re still in the very early stages of our investigation and don’t have all the facts… We are sharing what we know today given the connection between these bad actors and protests that are planned in Washington next week. We will update this post with more details when we have them, or if the facts we have change,” Facebook added.

The social network founded by Mark Zuckerberg found itself at the centre of controversy during the 2016 presidential election for the use of its platform to spread fake news and sowing seeds of discontent among voters.

Referring to the 32 pages and accounts that it removed, Facebook said that “whoever set up these accounts went to much greater lengths to obscure their true identities than the Russian-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) has in the past.”

IRA is accused by Facebook and the US Department of Justice of having played a key role in the campaign of hoaxes and fake news on controversial and divisive issues designed to try to influence the 2016 election in which Donald Trump won the White House, Efe reported.

In the current probe, the tech giant eliminated eight Facebook Pages and 17 profiles, as well as seven Instagram accounts.

“In total, more than 290,000 accounts followed at least one of these Pages, the earliest of which was created in March 2017,” said Facebook.