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Centre Asks States Not to Levy Charges on E-Payments to ULBs

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Centre Asks States Not to Levy Charges on E-Payments to ULBs

The Centre has asked state governments to ensure that no additional charges are levied on e-payments to urban local bodies and also consider rolling out incentives like cash back on utility bills paid through digital means.

“I request you to motivate all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in your state to switch over to electronic transactions for their payments as well as receipts,” Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu said in letters to state urban development ministers.

He said ULBs can play “very important and motivational role” in the drive towards cashless economy by arranging awareness camps and opening accounts, among other steps.

The Urban Development Minister suggested ULBs to consider launching incentives like giving one per cent cash back on utility bills paid through various e-platforms.

“We must incentivise digital transactions and ensure that no additional fees, charges, etc, are levied for such transactions,” he said.
He said ULBs on one hand can switch over to 100 percent e-payment of all their incomes– like collection of taxes, charges, license fee, lease rent– and can ensure electronic payments for salaries, contractual obligations and other benefits like social security pensions.

Naidu said the Centre has launched a “massive drive” to promote payments through cards and digital means which will help India move towards a “less-cash economy”, which will offer benefits like anywhere-anytime availability of services, real-time update of records and ease and transparency in transactions.

Earlier, the Urban Development Ministry had held a video conference with 4,041 cities and states officials to sensitise and motivate them to switch over to e-payments.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Internet

Google Asks for Airspace Access for Project Loon Internet Balloons

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Google Asks for Airspace Access for Project Loon Internet Balloons

Google, which is hoping to beam the internet to remote areas of the world via balloon, went before the UN’s aviation agency to ask member states to let it ply their airspace.

The company’s X Lab, which was created to pursue big-vision projects, said it hopes to establish a network of helium balloons floating in the stratosphere that will emit a powerful 4G signal to rural and difficult-to-access areas.

The new initiative – launched in 2013 and dubbed “Project Loon” – saw its first balloon take off from South America in February only to crash at a tea plantation in Sri Lanka, where it was discovered by villagers.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, had partnered with Sri Lanka to bring the internet to remote areas there. The country’s Information and Communication Technology Agency, which coordinated the tests with Google, described the landing as controlled and scheduled.

Loon has “significantly improved the balloon design, manufacture and launch procedure,” X Lab told the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Wednesday, according to a document seen by AFP.

“The balloons are now robust, remaining aloft well beyond the targeted 100 days, and are launched through a custom developed auto-launcher, allowing rapid multiple launches,” X Lab told the organization’s executive committee.

After compiling publicly available wind data with its own flight data, Project Loon was able to model the stratosphere’s air flow, allowing its balloons to “change altitude to ‘catch’ the winds moving at the speed and direction necessary to a given service area,” the document said.

Alphabet requested the assistance of ICAO member states as they met for its 39th triennial assembly, asking them in particular to “establish bilateral or multilateral letters of agreement with adjacent states and Project Loon to allow Loon balloons to safely transit flight information region boundaries.”

“Safety and coordination with the international civil aviation community is very important to Project Loon,” a X Lab spokeswoman told AFP.

Loon is currently working to finalise a safety plan and set up its operations center.

In July, leading social network Facebook launched a similar attempt to bring internet access to remote areas via solar drones.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Tech Update

Trai asks for retraction and apology over COAI’s wrong remarks

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

 

Taking strong exception to remarks byCellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) director general Rajan Mathews, following an industry meeting on interconnection issue, the telecom watchdog has sought both a retraction and an apology.

“In order to set the record straight, the director general, COAI may be directed to retract his false statement made in the media and issue apologies for the same,” the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a letter to the association chairman Gopal Vittal.

The sectoral regulator — which sternly told the telecom players to resolve the matter amicably — said no association was invited for the meeting held on September 9, and that this position clarified to Mathews as well.

“In view of the above, the statement of director general, COAI, in electronic media alleging that he was not allowed by TRAI to participate in the said meeting at the behest of Reliance Jio is to say the least patently wrong, mischievous and perhaps made with a malafide intention.

What the regulator took exception to was a comment by Mathews pertaining to Friday’s meeting. “COAI has been kept out of the TRAI meeting at the insistence of Reliance Jio and TRAI acquiesced to their demand in an unprecedented manner.”

Representatives of the service providers, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio,Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, met with the watchdog to discuss the issue of network interconnection among players.

After the meeting, Reliance Jio Infocomm board member Mahendra Nahata told reporters: “This is a fight of justice for the Indian customer. This is not about Jio customer, Idea customer, Vodafone customer or Airtel customer.”

[Source:- Indiatimes]
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Internet

Centre Asks States to Follow Andhra Pradesh for BharatNet Project

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Centre Asks States to Follow Andhra Pradesh for BharatNet Project

The Centre has asked states to follow the Andhra Pradesh model in laying optic fibre cable lines over electric poles to complete the BharatNet project, touted as the ‘backbone forDigital India’, by December 2018.

BharatNet, called the National Optical Fibre Network, is aimed at providing 100 Mbps broadband connectivity to more than 2.50 lakh gram panchayats across the country.

The progress of the BharatNet project implementation has been slow due to a variety of reasons, including the “inability of Bharat Broadband Network Limited” to procure optical network termination equipment in time as well as “major gaps in the implementation strategy”, Union Secretary for Information Technology and Communications J S Deepak said.

On April 30, the Telecom Commission approved a revised strategy for a three-phase implementation of the BharatNet project.

The first phase envisages providing one lakh gram panchayats with broadband connectivity by laying underground OFC lines by March 2017, Deepak said in a letter to Chief Secretaries of all states last week.

“The second phase will provide connectivity to all 2,50,500 gram panchayats in the country using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media. It is to be completed by December 2018,” the Union Secretary said.

“For success in phase-2, which will also involve laying of OFC over electricity poles, the participation of states will be important. This is a new element of the BharatNet strategy as the mode of connectivity by aerial OFC has several advantages, including lower cost, speedier implementation, easy maintenance and utilisation of existing power line infrastructure,” he pointed out.

Further, in phase-2, the last mile connectivity to citizens was proposed to be provided creating Wi-Fi hotspots in gram panchayats, he said.

In the third phase from 2018 to 2023, state-of-the-art, future-proof network, including fibre between districts and blocks, with ring topology to provide redundancy would be created, Deepak elaborated.

In laying aerial OFC, the states and power distribution companies have a critical role, which would include digital mapping of the locations of substations and electrical poles from Blocks down to GPs.

Andhra Pradesh has followed an innovative approach in using technology for mapping lines using resources of MGNREG scheme and those of the power department, he said.

“The most remarkable feature of Andhra Pradesh mapping has been that the entire state-wide mapping was accomplished in a week. After the mapping, the state has laid about 10,000-km of aerial OFC on electrical poles in a time of three months,” Deepak said.

“As connectivity in BharatNet phase-2 is planned partly through aerial OFC and since each state has robust power infrastructure up to the gram panchayat level, this could be used for laying of aerial OFC cable on top of electricity poles. However, the first step in this is mapping of electricity lines, from block down to gram panchayats, urgently.

“States are, hence, encouraged to follow the procedure adopted by Andhra Pradesh,” the Union Secretary told the Chief Secretaries in the letter.

Digital mapping of power lines would be a useful tool that could be used for other applications, including installation of smart meters in rural areas in future, he said.

The Department of Telecom would provide funds for GIS mapping of power lines from block to gram panchayats and the quantum would depend on the size of the state, he said.

BharatNet, launched in 2013, is being implemented by the Department of Telecom. It is funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

The project executing agency Bharat Broadband Network Limited is implementing it through three Central Public Sector Enterprises BSNL, Power Grid and RailTel.

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Internet

Delhi High Court Asks Centre, Google About ‘Right to Be Forgotten’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Delhi High Court Asks Centre, Google About 'Right to Be Forgotten'

Does right to privacy include right to delink from the Internet the irrelevant information, the Delhi High Court has asked the Centre and Google.

Justice Manmohan sought the responses of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MOC & IT), Google Inc., Google India Pvt Ltd and IKanoon Software Development Pvt Ltd on a plea of an NRI seeking that he be “delinked” from information regarding a criminal case involving his wife in which he was not a party.

The petitioner has sought the relief saying it would affect his employment opportunities as companies often search about prospective employees on the Internet and as the criminal case pops up on searching his name, it might give an impression that he was involved in it.

His petition has raised the question “whether data controllers or intermediaries such as Google, are required to delete information that is inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant if they receive a request for removal of such data”.

The petitioner, in his plea filed through advocates Rohit Madan and Akash Vajpai, has said the criminal case involving his wife and his mother against each other pops up when his name is searched on the Internet.

“Petitioner got to know that anyone who searches his name on Google will find the aforesaid judgment (of the criminal case) on the second number of search result and consequently giving the impression to everyone that was involved in some sort of criminal proceeding in India,” the plea said.

The plea has also said, “petitioner tried to contact Respondent 4 (IKanoon) and made a request for taking down the aforesaid judgment through letter dated January 25, 2016 as petitioner wanted this order to be expunged, from website of Respondent 4.”

It also said that the petitioner had contacted Respondent 2 and 3 (Google Inc and Google India) and sent an email for removing the concerned Uniform Resource Locator (URL) from the search result.

According to the petition, it was requested in the email that “material detrimental to the petitioner must not be the first hit in the search result as he has no role in the aforesaid case and because it was giving a bad name to the Petitioner which will further jeopardize his prospective employment opportunities, being an NRI living in Dubai employed with prestigious organisation.”

“This issue pertaining to the criminal case in which his name has appeared had been fully resolved and therefore that reference to his name in the aforesaid criminal case is now entirely irrelevant,” the petition has contended adding that not removing the same “violates his right to privacy” and also “creates a bad social image” about him.

The petition has also referred to a European Court of Justice verdict ordering Google “to remove the links related to a person on its website and effectively read a ‘right to be forgotten’ or ‘right to delink’ into existing European Union data protection law”.

“Right to delink broadly, provides that an individual may be allowed to control the information available about them on the web by removing such information in certain situations,” the petition has said.

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Education

Sir Tom Hunter asks Nicola Sturgeon why English education reforms ignored

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Nicola Sturgeon is facing questions over why she is ignoring successful school reforms in England

Nicola Sturgeon has been told to take her head out of the sand after one of Scotland’s most high-profile entrepreneurs questioned her why education reforms that have closed the attainment gap in England have not been adopted in Scotland.

Sir Tom Hunter praised the freedom to innovate and academic success at academy schools south of the Border, which are outside local authority control, and asked the First Minister “why we wouldn’t give our kids a chance to have this?”

Speaking during a programme broadcast by BBC Scotland tonight, Mr Sturgeon repeated her insistence that her drive to close the gulf between the best and worst state schools was not limited by political ideology.

But the First Minister has previously said she is not convinced that freeing schools from the control of Scotland’s 32 local authorities would help and she has instead focused on directing more public money to the councils with the worst-performing schools.

Liz Smith, Scottish Tory young people spokesman, accused Ms Sturgeon of having her head in the sand, saying: “The First Minister promised to turn this problem around and said that she was open to new ideas, but so far there has been little evidence of this.

“The time has come for radical action to dismantle the damaging, one-size-fits-all approach which provides parents with no choice and which holds back head teachers from making the innovative reforms to help raise attainment.”

Entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter launchs a university entrepreneurship programme with Scottish first minister Alex Salmond (not pictured) at Dynamic Earth, EdinburghSir Tom Hunter praised an English academy he visited  

The businessman concluded at the end of the programme, which is titled BBC Scotland Investigates: Educating Sir Tom, that one model of schooling “doesn’t fit all” and questioned whether Scotland’s political leaders were “afraid” of taking the steps required.

He added: “I would say we’d be doing Scotland’s children a disservice if we were afraid.” The programme sees the businessman visit King Solomon Academy in London, which serves a poor area but has achieved the best GCSE results of any non-selective school in England.

One in five state-funded schools south of the Border is now outside local authority control. Academies receive direct funding from Whitehall and have power over their curriculum, budget and staffing.

Max Haimendorf, King Solomon’s head teacher and an Oxford graduate, told Sir Tom the school was found in 2007 by ambitious business leaders who wanted to do things differently and “eradicate” the attainment gap.

Among the series of innovations adopted were a longer school day, all youngsters learning a musical instrument, students shadowing professionals such as lawyers in the City of London and classrooms being named after the universities teachers attended to help motivate the children.

It often uses the Teach First scheme to recruit staff, which places many of the brightest university graduates in the most challenging schools. However, Ms Sturgeon told MSPs last month that she had been advised to be “cautious” about the scheme.

In his interview with the First Minister at the conclusion of the half-hour programme, Sir Tom told Ms Sturgeon: “It seems to me there are innovations which we don’t have in Scotland. I just wonder why we wouldn’t give our kids a chance to have this.”

The First Minister replied that she had examined the experience of the London Challenge, which helped some inner-city schools in the capital, adding: “I’m not ideological about this and I am absolutely clear.

“If something can be proven to work we should try it … Making sure that our young folk get the best education is the only thing that matters to me and if something can be shown to work in doing that or if something’s worth trying to do that, then I’ll certainly be in the market for it.”

[Source:- Telegraph]

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News Update

Arun Jaitley asks Congress to respond to facts after Randeep Surjewala slams Union minister for writing scathing FB posts

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Arun Jaitley asks Congress to respond to facts after Randeep Surjewala slams Union minister for writing scathing FB posts

The state of the economy was the focus of the verbal slugfest between Arun Jaitley and the Congress on Thursday with the union minister saying that abuse is not the answer in political discourse and the opposition party accusing the government of “economic mismanagement”.

The barbs flew thick and fast as Jaitley, who attacked Congress president Rahul Gandhi yesterday saying that wisdom has to be acquired through learning and cannot be inherited, telling Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala that he should respond on facts.

Surjewala accused the union minister of “economic mismanagement” in the country after Jaitley claimed that India had emerged as the fastest growing economy from being among the ‘fragile five’ during UPA. The Congress leader again hit back, saying exports are in a free fall, the promise of two crore jobs a ‘jumla‘, NPAs had soared to Rs 10 lakh crore and loots and scams a norm under this government.

“This is a political discourse. Abuse is not the answer. Please respond to the facts,” Jaitley told Surjewala on Twitter, a response to Wednesday’s attack in which the Congress leader said the union minister was writing “hollow and wasteful” blogs to regain political relevance.

“When you abuse and berate the Congress leadership, even Supreme Court and many others by distorting facts, it is ‘political discourse’ for you, but when you are shown the ‘mirror of truth’ with hard facts, you get ‘unnerved’ and call it ‘abuse’? Politics of Convenience?” Surjewala asked on Thursday in response to Jaitley’s comments on the Congress chief.

Jaitley hit back, saying, “… surely the journey from India being part of the ‘fragile five’ and ‘policy paralysis’ to the world’s fastest-growing economy could not be a result of economic mismanagement — Another case of ignorance.” Surjewala responded by saying that growth under Modi government was at a four-year low. “Exports are in free fall, the promise of 2 crore jobs is a ‘Jumla‘, NPA’s are soaring to Rs 10 lakh crore, investment is down, banks are paralysed and ‘loot scams’ a norm, GST flawed, schemes failing! Isn’t this Economic Mismanagement?”

Jaitley had started the verbal duel by taking a jibe at Gandhi for his “anti-Narendra Modi tirade” on Wednesday.
“In dynastic parties political positions are heritable. Unfortunately, wisdom is not heritable. It has to be acquired through learning,” he said in a post titled “Is Congress Becoming Ideology-less? Is Anti-Modism its only ideology?” he had said on his Facebook page.

[“source=firstpost”]

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Internet

Amazon asks FCC for permission to launch internet satellites

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Amazon is moving fairly quickly on its plan to deploy thousands of internet satellites. The company has filed for FCC permission to launch 3,236 satellites as part of Project Kuiper. The spacecraft would be grouped into 98 orbital planes, and fly at altitudes between 366 and 391 miles. The filing reiterated Amazon’s plans to connect “tens of millions” of people around the world, although the company warned that it couldn’t cover everything — it asked for a waiver on a requirement to serve the whole US as its satellites wouldn’t cover parts of Alaska.

They’d use Ka-band frequencies like those Iridium is using in its latest satellites, and Amazon is asking for clearance to use anti-interference technology to avoid headaches. And yes, Amazon is aware of the potential problems with space debris. The satellites would deorbit themselves in less than 10 years whether or not they were still in contact with Earth.

Amazon didn’t mention a timeline for putting the satellites into orbit. However, the FCC filing shows that it has been thinking about this plan for a while. Whether or not it’s timely is another story. SpaceX is already launching its first broadband satellites, and plans roughly three times as many. Although it will take years for satellite constellations like these to roll out, there’s a concern that Amazon might already be at a disadvantage.

[“source=engadget”]

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Tech Update

Microsoft asks users not to miss Windows 10 Fall Creators update

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Next big update for Windows 10 is coming next month.

ext big update for Windows 10 is coming next month.

Microsoft wants users to keep their software up to date in order to avoid another series of deadly cyber attacks such as WannaCrypt that impacted worldwide PCs that were running an outdated Microsoft software.

Two new ransomware families like “WannaCrypt” and “Petya” targeted dated Windows operating systems and created havoc across the world, including at some places in India.

Now, with the official rollout of Windows 10 “Fall Creators” update slated for October, Microsoft wants to stay one step ahead in identifying and preventing security threats.

“If you are running Windows 10 and have the ‘Fall Creators’ update, then you are completely protected from those specific malwares,” Vineet Durani, Director, Windows and Surface Business, Microsoft India, told IANS in an interview.

The “Fall Creators” update would feature “controlled folder access” inside its Windows Defender Security Centre that would enable users to secure data through “protected” folders.

“This is an ever-changing landscape. If anybody comes and says, hey, here is a piece of technology and you are completely protected for life, that is not going to happen. That is the reason we build an update or version twice a year because we want to stay a few steps ahead of whatever is out there,” Durani noted.

Microsoft spends over $1 billion every year on cyber safety and security-related research and development.

The company advises users and organisations to install all available security updates — including the previous patch MS17-010 — and ensure that automatic updates are enabled.

Windows 10 OS includes mitigations that prevent common exploitation techniques by cyber threats.

“As India gets more digital (which is now happening at a faster pace than ever), we now have the advantage of moving fast because we do not have too much of a legacy (digital) as a country,” Durani said.

The company has also introduced security features such as Microsoft “Credential Guard” and Microsoft “Hello”.

“We have this tech called the ‘Credentials Guard’ that basically stores your credentials in the hypervisor layer — that is the layer between hardware and software. It does not come with the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) version. One has to buy it as an additional capability so that larger organisations can use it,” Durani told IANS.

“We have worked with partners like Intel and AMD to enable it. The feature is enabled on modern hardware like 5th-gen Intel processors and onwards,” the Microsoft executive added.

Windows “Hello” lets the user set up a quick biometric login instead of a password. With this feature, the user is promised enterprise-grade security without having to type in a password.

Microsoft devices such as Surface Pro 4, Surface Book and most personal computers (PCs) with fingerprint sensors are already compatible with Windows “Hello” and more devices that can recognise your face and fingerprints will be available in the near future.

According to Microsoft’s “Security Intelligence” report, financial institutions have always been popular phishing targets because of their potential for providing direct illicit access to bank accounts of the victims.

Sites that targeted financial institutions accounted for the second-largest share of both attacks and impressions during the first quarter of 2017 and accounted for the largest share of impressions in February and March this year, the report said.

Microsoft would roll out the “Fall Creators” update for Windows 10 on October 17 which will include Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) support.

Announcing the availability at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) industry show in Berlin earlier this month, Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President for Windows and Devices, said that the free update will also include a new photo app and many tweaks to the overall design and usability of Windows 10.

[“Source-hindustantimes”]

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Gadgets News

Pixel, Nexus Users Report Bluetooth Issues on Android 8.0 Oreo; Google Asks for More Information

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Pixel, Nexus Users Report Bluetooth Issues on Android 8.0 Oreo; Google Asks for More Information

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Pixel and Nexus users on Android 8.0 report Bluetooth issues
  • Google asking for more information on the issue
  • Issues largely related to Android Auto

Now that everyone knows that Android 8.0 will go by the name of Oreo, we can look forward for the update, which will be a gradual and slow process for a majority of Android users out there. But Pixel and Nexus users who have managed to hop on to the latest update are now reporting the first set of bugs. After installing the final version of Android 8.0, some users have reported facing Bluetooth issues, and Google is asking for feedback to address the matter.

Pixel and Nexus users on the latest OTA update have been asked by Google for additional information via the above-linked individual forums. The Search giant has divided Bluetooth-related issues into three main parts – Car/ Auto, Headphones, and Bluetooth Speakers – under which users are to provide specific details of the products that are facing connectivity issues.

Bluetooth-related issues with Android are getting fairly common now. A similar situation was faced by users last year when Google rolled out Android 7.1.1 Nougat that caused in-car Bluetooth connectivity issues. Google managed to quickly solve the bug, and will likely get the kinks sorted for Android 8.0 soon as well.

Users have largely complained about issues faced when pairing with Android Auto such as media content not displaying correctly, or it shows as paired but no audio plays, or frequent stuttering while music is playing, to name a few. Other issues related to headphones include audio cuts every 5-20 seconds and “skipping or clipping sounds like scratched CD.”

Google will likely roll out a fix for the issues once it gets as much information as it can and before Android 8.0 rolls out to other smartphones such as the Lenovo K8 Note, HTC U11, OnePlus 5, to name a few. You can check out the full list of smartphones expected to get the Android 8.0 Oreo update here.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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