New Delhi: Millions of users worldwide, including in India, were left clueless on Friday night when Facebook and its family of apps including WhatsApp and photo-sharing platform Instagram entered a global outage.

People took to Twitter to share their experiences.

Independent tracking portal Downdetector showed a spike in the outage reported by users. There was no official word from the company on the reasons for the outage.

On Twitter, #whatsappdown was the top trending topic. 

Users faced specific problems rather than the entire app not working.

On Facebook, users reported that specific posts or photos did not appear, but that the page was loading.

Millions of users had problems sending photos, videos and voice messages on WhatApp in India. Only the text messages were being shared on the mobile messaging service.

Services, however, were restored after a while. 

BENGALURU: Next time you post on Facebook or Instagram, or tweet a meme about a government policy, beware! For, even if a couple of your hundreds of contacts have signed up to be a volunteer for the Ministry for Home Affairs ‘Cyber Crime Volunteer Programme’, they can report any post that annoys or worries them.

These ordinary citizens are being asked to judge if a post threatens — anything from sovereignty of our nation and public order, to international relations and child rights — and alert the national-level agency.

The volunteer programme is supposed to act as a facilitative tool between ordinary citizens and the government for the prevention of cybercrime. Any citizen can register himself/herself under one of three categories: ‘Cyber Volunteer Unlawful Content Flagger’, ‘Cyber Awareness Promoter’, and ‘Cyber Expert’. Post-registration, the individual can directly report “unlawful content” being circulated over the Internet, which presumably includes social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, among others.

Maitreyi Krishnan, advocate, said, “This is a violation of the fundamental right to privacy. On what basis is the government asking people to spy on each other? This will lead to all kinds of vigilantism.”Vivek Sood, senior advocate, Supreme Court and Delhi High Court, said it was a violation of the right to privacy of the citizens. 

“These volunteers can be said to be the informers of the Big Brothers (George Orwell’s 1984) alias the law enforcement agencies,” Vivek Sood, senior advocate, Supreme Court and Delhi High Court, said.
Meanwhile, the Internet Freedom Foundation has written to the MHA, urging it to withdraw the programme immediately. The Foundation has stated that the offences included in the scope of this programme in the ‘National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal’ are already cognizable and can be reported to the police by any person. Therefore, there is confusion as to the necessity of this programme, it said.

“Under the programme, I4C (The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre) and the MHA have allowed a person to register as a ‘Cyber Volunteer Unlawful Content Flagger’ without fulfilling the requirement of any prior verification (KYC). Since no verification is required and the nature of the position itself is voluntary, it absolves the I4C and the MHA of any liability or guilt in cases of misuse,” the Foundation said.

NEW DELHI:  The Centre on Thursday announced sweeping regulations for social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, online streaming or over-the-top (OTT) services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, and messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram to protect users’ interest and curb fake news and other harmful content.

The rules make social media firms responsible for the content on their platforms. They will have to deploy automated tools to remove objectionable data. In the case of a government or court order, they must take down the flagged item within 36 hours.

The regulations require messaging platforms to enable the ‘traceability’ feature so that senders of mischievous messages could be identified. But this might compromise end-to-end encryption.  If a social media platform decides on its own to remove a user’s content, it must inform the customer in advance and state the reasons. 

Notably, digital news media publishers will now have to follow Press Council of India’s norms of journalistic conduct and adhere to the programme code under the Cable TV Networks Regulation Act. This, according to the government, will provide a level-playing field to all media platforms. 

The new laws, called Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, came into effect from Thursday.

However, social media platforms will be given an additional window of three months to come under the purview of the new regime. 

According to the government, these rules will establish a “soft-touch self-regulatory architecture and a Code of Ethics and three-tier grievance redressal mechanism” for news publishers, OTT platforms and digital media.

The grievance redressal mechanism stipulates that publishers must address complaints within 15 days. 
The self-regulating body will be led by a retired judge or an eminent person and have not more than six members. However, cyber experts are not impressed.

“The new rules can be interpreted to target websites/platforms. It may hamper right to free speech and expression,” said cyber lawyer Ankur Raheja.

• Social media platforms must remove content depicting nudity, sexual acts or morphed images of women within 24 hours of receipt of complaints
• A grievance officer should be appointed to deal with complaints
• If a social media platform removes any content on its own, it must explain the reason to the user, who will have the opportunity to contest it
• Social media intermediaries to publish a monthly compliance report on complaints received, action taken, and content removed proactively
• Code of Ethics for OTT platforms, online news and digital media entities
• OTT platforms to self-classify content into five age-based categories – U (Universal), U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A (Adult) 
• OTT platforms must deploy age verification mechanisms for A-rated content and implement parental locks for U/A 13+ or higher

The Economic Survey, which is presented on the opening day of the budget session, provides a summary of the annual economic development across the country during the financial year

NEW DELHI: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table the Economic Survey 2020-21 in Parliament on Friday, two days before the Union Budget is presented during the budget session of Parliament.

The Economic Survey, which is presented on the opening day of the budget session, provides a summary of the annual economic development across the country during the financial year.

The annual survey analyses the trends in infrastructure, agricultural and industrial production, employment, prices, exports, imports, money supply, foreign exchange reserves and other factors having an impact on the Indian economy and the budget.

The survey also puts out economic growth forecasts, provides justification and detailed reasons why it believes the economy will expand faster or decelerate. Sometimes, it also argues for some specific reform measures.

The Union Budget 2021 will be telecast live on Lok Sabha TV. Chief Economic Adviser KV Subramanian will address a press conference at 2.30 pm today in New Delhi after the presentation of Economic Survey 2020-21 by the Finance Minister in Parliament.

The Budget Session will begin today with an address by President Ram Nath Kovind to the joint sitting of two houses of Parliament.

The first part of the session will continue till February 15. The second part of the session will be held from March 8 to April 8.

Rajya Sabha will function from 9 am to 2 pm and Lok Sabha from 4 pm to 9 pm with Zero Hour and Question Hour.

Members of Parliament have been requested to undergo an RT-PCR test against COVID-19 before the start of the Budget session.

New Delhi: Petrol price on Saturday breached the Rs 83 per litre-mark in Delhi for the first time in more than two years after a rally in international oil prices forced the 13th increase in rates in the last fortnight.

Petrol price on Saturday was raised by 27 paise per litre and diesel by 25 paise, according to a price notification of oil marketing companies.

Petrol price in Delhi rose to Rs 83.13 per litre from Rs 82.86. Diesel rates went up from Rs 73.07 to Rs 73.32 per litre.

This is the highest rate for petrol and diesel since September 2018 and followed the 13th increase in rates since November 20 when oil companies resumed daily price revision after nearly a two-month hiatus.

In 16 days, the petrol price has gone up by Rs 2.07 per litre and diesel rate has risen by Rs 2.86.

ICICI Securities said vaccine hopes are driving oil prices up.

Brent crude oil is up 34 percent from lows in end-October 2020 driven by the hope that COVID-19 vaccines would lead to demand recovery.

“The oil price surge is despite a second wave of Covid in Europe and US (which has led to demand recovery reversal), and surge in Libyan oil output from 0.1 million barrels per day (BPD) to 1.25 million BPD,” it said.

Oil cartel OPEC plus its allies like Russia, (called OPEC+), deciding to raise output from January 2021 more modestly than earlier agreed is likely to ensure global supply deficit even in the first quarter of 2021. “Thus, OPEC+ has done its part to prevent supply surplus until the vaccine boosts demand,” it added.

Brent has risen from USD 36.9 per barrel on October 30 to USD 49.5 on December 4.

IEA estimates the global oil supply deficit at 2.1-2.8 million BPD in Q3-Q4 calendar year 2020. However, a surplus of 0.4 million was likely in Q1 2021 if OPEC+, as agreed in April 2020, was to prune output cuts from 7.7 million BPD to 5.8 million BPD from January.

“However, we now estimate supply deficit of 0.5 million BPD in Q1 2021 and 0.2-2.8 million BPD in Q2-Q4 as OPEC+ has decided to raise output by just 0.5 million BPD in January 2021 and by not more than 0.5 million BPD in later months and only after deliberations,” ICICI Securities said.

Prior to the November 20 hike in rates in India, petrol prices had been static since September 22, and diesel rates hadn’t changed since October 2.

Public sector oil marketing companies – Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) – revise rates of petrol and diesel daily based on benchmark international oil price and foreign exchange rate.

They had, however, resorted to calibrating the rates since the pandemic broke out with a view to avoiding volatility in retail prices.

The 58-day hiatus in petrol price revision and 48-day status quo on diesel rates were preceded by no change in rates between June 30 and August 15 and an 85-day status quo between March 17 and June 6.

In Mumbai, the petrol price on Friday was raised to Rs 89.78 per litre from Rs 89.52, while diesel rates went up from Rs 79.66 to Rs 79.93.

Rates vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.

Sectors which recorded negative growth include petroleum, marine products and leather goods.

NEW DELHI: Showing signs of improvement, the country’s exports grew 22.47 per cent year-on-year to USD 6.75 billion in the first week of November, mainly driven by healthy growth in pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery and engineering sectors, an official said on Tuesday.

The exports during the first week of November last year was USD 5.51 billion.

Imports in November (1st – 7th) this year too increased by 13.64 per cent year-on-year to USD 9.30 billion as against USD 8.19 billion, the official said.

Imports, excluding petroleum, jumped 23.37 per cent during the week, the official added.

Trade deficit during the week stood at USD 2.55 billion.

Exports of pharmaceuticals, and gems and jewellery grew 32 per cent to USD 139.12 million and 88.8 per cent to USD 3,360.71 million, respectively.

Similarly, the outbound shipments of engineering goods increased by 16.7 per cent to USD 215.13 million during the week.

Sectors which recorded negative growth include petroleum, marine products and leather goods.

During the period, exports to the US, Hong Kong and Singapore rose by 53.91 per cent, 176.2 per cent and 90.76 per cent, respectively.

The country’s export had also recorded positive growth in September but declined 5.4 per cent to USD 24.82 billion in October.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 15 percent drop in second-quarter net profit after a slump in core oil and chemicals business dragged down continued good showing in consumer-facing verticals such as telecom.

Net profit attributable to owners at Rs 9,567 crore in July-September compared with Rs 11,262 crore a year back, Reliance said in a stock exchange filing.

The oil-to-telecom-to-retail conglomerate saw consumer-facing units doing well amid the lockdown easing but the core business continued to face pressure.

The firm’s net addition of 7.3 million subscribers and per-user revenue rising to Rs 145 helped the telecom business soar.

Digital services, which include the telecom arm Jio, saw pre-tax profit surge 53 percent to Rs 8,345 crore as revenues soared by more than one-third.

With markets gradually opening up in the second quarter after a strict lockdown, revenue from the retail business was almost flat at Rs 39,199 crore and EBITDA was 14 percent lower at Rs 2,009 crore.

Petrochemicals revenue fell 23 percent to Rs 29,665 crore and pre-tax profit dropped 33 percent at Rs 5,964 crore.

Refining EBITA almost halved to Rs 3,002 crore as revenue slumped 36 percent.

The firm’s twin refineries earned USD 5.7 per barrel on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel.

The profit in Q2 was lower sequentially as well as the April-June earning of Rs 13,248 crore included a one-time gain of Rs 7,629 crore from sale of 49 percent stake in petro retailing business to BP.

The company has sold a minority stake in the retail and telecom businesses to investors such as Silver Lake and KKR. It raised Rs 1.52 lakh crore from the sale of stake in Jio Platforms and another Rs 37,710 crore from the sale of an 8.48 percent stake in its retail unit.

The firm had a gross debt of Rs 279,251 crore as of September 30, down from Rs 336,294 crore in the previous quarter. After considering Rs 185,711 crore of cash and Rs 30,210 crore received from stake sale deals that have closed and another Rs 73,586 crore pending from the strategic investors, the firm had a surplus of Rs 10,250 crore.

Commenting on the results, Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said, “We delivered strong overall operational and financial performance compared to the previous quarter with recovery in petrochemicals and retail segment and sustain growth in the digital services business.”

“Domestic demand has sharply recovered across our oil-to-chemical (O2C) business and is now near the pre-Covid level for most products. Retail business activity has normalized with strong growth in key consumption baskets as lockdown ease across the country,” he added.

With large capital raise in the last six months across Jio and retail business, several strategic and financial investors have joined the Reliance family, he said.

“We continue to pursue growth initiatives in each of our businesses with a focus on the India opportunity,” he further said.

The local unit opened at 73.77 at the interbank forex market, down 16 paise over its last close. On Friday, the rupee had settled at 73.61 against the greenback.

The rupee depreciated 16 paise to 73.77 against the US dollar in opening trade on Monday as muted domestic equities and strong American currency weighed on investor sentiments

The local unit opened at 73.77 at the interbank forex market, down 16 paise over its last close. On Friday, the rupee had settled at 73.61 against the greenback.

“Governments across Europe have imposed stricter measures to contain the virus as cases have surged to record highs on account of the second wave. We could see the risk sentiment sour on account of this development,” said Abhishek Goenka, Founder and CEO, IFA Global.

Goenka further added that market participants would look to adjust their positioning across asset classes ahead of the US elections next week.

“We could see some risk on bets being rolled back. The overall mood is likely to be that of caution. Markets would also become less hopeful of a pre-election agreement on fiscal stimulus between the Democrats and the White House,” he said.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.16 per cent to 92.91. On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex was trading 80.91 points lower at 40,604.59 and the broader NSE Nifty fell 27.65 points to 11,902.70.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 906.93 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to provisional exchange data. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 1.72 per cent to USD 41.05 per barrel.

With the gradual re-opening of the economy, the number of air passengers has witnessed continuous growth.

NEW DELHI:  With the gradual re-opening of the economy, the number of air passengers has witnessed continuous growth. The number grew by nearly 43 per cent between June and August, while aircraft movement has recorded a growth of nearly 28 per cent. 

However, there was still an average gap of nearly 76% in the movement of passengers and 64% gap in aircraft movements in August this year compared to the same month last year, domestic air traffic data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Airport Authority of India revealed.

Smaller cities like Patna, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Jaipur, Coimbatore etc. have seen larger growth in aircraft movements in last three months —from 1,148 to 1,676 in Patna, 111 to 202 in Kozhikode and from 860 to 1,288 in Lucknow between June and August.

While the government believes that domestic traffic is likely to reach pre-COVID level by the year-end, industry analysts say the recovery is only marginal.

Harsh Vardhan, aviation expert and former CEO of Vayudoot, said while the recovery is a good sign, it may take till end of 2022 for the aviation sector to return to last year’s levels. “Almost 60-70% fleet is still on the ground. I don’t see anything before 24 months when reasonable operations are stablised…There are restrictions. There is very limited international operation,” he said.

“You have to also realise that what you have lost in last 10 months has created a big hole… the problem of the airline industry is how to get over these crises.” 

Kinjal Shah, Vice President, ICRA, informed that the average number of passengers per flight in September this year was 98 against an average of 133 in September 2019.

“It is expected that the domestic aviation industry operated at a passenger load factor of about 63% in the month as against 85.5% last year,” he said.

Earlier this week, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri said he expected the number of daily air passengers to rise to 2,00,000 by October-end, while pre-COVID figures of 3,00,000 passengers per day could be reached between Diwali and New Year.

Aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said, “We are now gearing up to face the challenge of welcoming more people in the airports.”