Author: admin_fijitimes

New Delhi, March 7 (IANS) India is close to achieving the target of Rs 20 lakh crore worth mobile phone production in the last 10 years, while crossing Rs 1.20 lakh crore worth phone exports in the current fiscal year (FY24) — a whopping 7,500 per cent increase in exports over a decade — top electronics industry body India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) said on Thursday. The industry had set itself a target of Rs 20 lakh crore worth mobile phone production over the last 10 years (2014-2024). “It finished the decade at Rs 19,45,100 crore cumulative production. In…

New Delhi, March 2 (IANS) Meta-owned WhatsApp banned over 67 lakh bad accounts in India in the month of January, in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021 Between January 1-31, the company banned “6,728,000 accounts”. About 1,358,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users, WhatsApp said in its monthly compliance report. The most popular messaging platform, which has over 500 million users in the country, received another record 14,828 complaint reports in January in the country, and the records “actioned” were 10. “Accounts Actioned” denotes reports where WhatsApp took remedial action based on the report…

New Delhi, March 3 (IANS) Obesity, a known precursor for many conditions like diabetes, hypertension, mental health and cancers, must be efficiently controlled to curb these non-communicable diseases, said experts here on Sunday, a day ahead of World Obesity Day. World Obesity Day is observed every year on March 4 to raise awareness about the condition and its implications. A recent global analysis, published by The Lancet, showed that every eighth person or more than 1 billion people worldwide are living with obesity. While 43 per cent of adults were overweight in 2022, the numbers more than doubled worldwide in…

New Delhi, March 3 (IANS) As embattled edtech firm Byju’s finds itself mired in several controversies, one learning that startups can take from this episode is to ensure “financial discipline”, Simplilearn Co-founder and COO Kashyap Dalal said on Sunday. Facing an uphill battle with the investors, Byju’s is yet to process the salaries of its more than 20,000 employees for the month of February. The amount raised through the rights issue is currently locked in a separate account “at the behest” of some key investors, its founder and CEO Byju Raveendran has told employees. Dalal told IANS that the entire…

New Delhi: In the background of India’s clear stand on the Hamas-Israel conflict denouncing the “terror” attack of Hamas on Israel on October 7 last year and endorsing the support of the US for the initial Israeli response to the same, and the country’s independent line on the much older Ukraine-Russia military confrontation which led India to even abstain from voting on the anti-Soviet resolution moved early on by the US in the UNGA, it was no surprise that at the Munich Security Conference held from February 16 to 18, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar faced some searching questions…

New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) Fitness-tech startup Fittr on Wednesday announced the launch of its FITTR HART smart ring that is designed to improve health and performance monitoring. Priced at Rs 18,999, the smart ring offers comprehensive health tracking with monitoring of sleep duration and quality, physical performance metrics, and real-time measuring of heart rate variability (HRV), the company said. The smart ring goes beyond conventional tracking by also measuring skin temperature, a critical indicator of overall wellness and physiological changes. This can aid in the early detection of health imbalances. It also helps set personalised activity goals based on…

Mumbai, Feb 25 (IANS) Geeta Batra, an Indian economist, has been named as the new Director at the Independent Evaluation Office of the World Bank’s Global Environment Facility (GEF), making her the first-ever woman from a developing country to hold the coveted post. Batra, 57, is currently the Chief Evaluator & Deputy Director for Evaluation at the GEF’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), affiliated to the World Bank. Her name was unanimously recommended for the coveted position at the 66th GEF Council Meeting held in Washington on February 9 and was announced last week. “My top priorities will be to deliver…

Mumbai, Feb 27 (IANS) The late ghazal singer, Pankaj Udhas, who passed away after his battle with cancer, was given a state funeral in Mumbai on Tuesday. The band and troops gave him a hero’s farewell. His mortal remains were wrapped in tricolour at his residence, 6A, Hill Side in Mumbai. The visuals show the band and troops giving a farewell to the ghazal legend. His mortal remains were brought to his residence by an ambulance from the Breach Candy hospital. The videos showed a portrait of Pankaj Udhas kept in the garden area of his house. His family members,…

New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) X owner Elon Musk on Wednesday continued his tirade against Google, saying its artificial intelligence (AI) model Gemini is super racist and even “sexist”. The billionaire responded to a follower who said that Google Gemini replied to his prompt that “white people should absolutely acknowledge their white privilege”. “Google Gemini is super racist and sexist,” said the Tesla and SpaceX CEO. Another follower commented to Musk’s post that “Gemini holds Asians to similar standards as Whites when it comes to privilege”. “This just shows more and more how Gemini is programmed with the exact same…

Chennai, Feb 28 (IANS) India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should grow in the region of 6.7-6.9 per cent during the third quarter (Q3) of FY24, said a top economist with the State Bank of India (SBI). In his latest report Dr. Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Advisor said, “Factoring the slight decline in economic activity in Q3 FY24, we estimate that the GDP should grow in the range of 6.7-6.9 per cent with a gross value added (GVA) growth of 6.6 per cent.” The SBI Composite Leading Indicator (CLI) Index (a basket of 41 leading indicators which includes parameters…