New Delhi: Indian TV manufacturers Monday said that while the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup that starts from October 5 and the festive season are set to boost consumer electronics sales, challenges like ongoing supply chain issues may leave some buyers disappointed.

Looking back at past festive seasons, when big events like festivals and sports tournaments happen together, it drives up consumer electronics sales in the country.

“We’re estimating an impressive 35-40 per cent surge in sales of big-screen TVs. People are excited because they can watch the matches in high quality (FHD and 4K). This World Cup is going to be a huge deal in India, especially because some matches will be free on streaming platforms,” Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO of Blaupunkt TV, Germany-based electronics brand, told IANS.

But it’s not all smooth sailing as “there are some challenges we’re keeping an eye on,” he mentioned.

“Things like supply chain issues and how people’s preferences might change could affect what products are available and what people want to buy,” added Marwah, who heads Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL) that also manufactures other popular brands like Thomson.

Some smartphone companies are also in the TV business now in the country but there have been some service problems at their end.

According to Videotex, a smart TV manufacturer for Realme, Toshiba, Lloyd, Vise, BPL, Hyundai and over 15 leading brands of India, they have observed a substantial surge in the demand for smart TVs.

“TV manufacturers in India have proactively increased their stock levels, reflecting the heightened consumer interest. It appears that Indian consumers now have greater affordability, leading to a preference for larger-screen TVs for an enhanced content viewing experience,” said Arjun Bajaj, Director, Videotex.

Furthermore, the availability of diverse financing options has significantly bolstered consumer demand. While 32-inch TVs were traditionally the most sought-after, their demand has decreased, with consumers now favouring larger sizes in 4K.

Also read: Justin Trudeau trying to crush free speech: Musk

“Despite the consistent rise in Open Cell prices, a critical component of smart TVs, we have managed to maintain competitive pricing thanks to our robust supplier relationships, brand partnerships and supply chain planning,” said Bajaj.

Being a strategic partner to manufacture webOS-operated smart TVs (operating system by LG), the company dominates over 85 per cent market share among the licence manufacturers of webOS Hub TVs.

After a rocky first three quarters this year, online sellers, especially small ones, expect at least a 15 per cent jump in festive sales year-on-year, with the median growth figure of 26 per cent sales increase expected, according to market research firm Redseer.

Driven by about 140 million shoppers, India is likely to witness Rs 90,000 crore worth online gross merchandise value (GMV) in the festive month this year — up 18-20 per cent from last year’s festive month sales.

According to Marwah, Thomson this year aims to be the number 1 online selling smart TV brand.

“With two major smartphone brands existing in the Indian market, Thomson will be aggressive and will try to capture maximum market share,” he added.

IANS

San Francisco: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Monday slammed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to crush free speech in his country, saying this is “shameful”.

He reacted after the Canadian government made it compulsory for online streaming platforms to register with the government for “regulatory controls”.

Author-Journalist Glenn Greenwald posted on X: “The Canadian government, armed with one of the world’s most repressive online censorship schemes, announces that all online streaming services that offer podcasts must formally register with the government to permit regulatory controls”.

The Canadian government, armed with one of the world's most repressive online censorship schemes, announces that all "online streaming services that offer podcasts" must formally register with the government to permit regulatory controls:https://t.co/wHOloLgnY2 pic.twitter.com/6noTYceVsg

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 1, 2023

Musk reacted: “Trudeau is trying to crush free speech in Canada. Shameful.”

Trudeau is trying to crush free speech in Canada. Shameful. https://t.co/oHFFvyBGxu

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 1, 2023

When one of his followers posted that Trudeau should change his name to “Falsedeau”, the tech billionaire reacted with a crying face emoji.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that India’s diplomatic row with Canada was discussed in his meeting with top US officials — Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan — and he gave them both an exhaustive account of India’s case, which included its assessment of “a very permissive Canadian attitude towards terrorists”.

The US has been supportive of Canada’s allegation that India was behind the killing of Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June.

The US has publicly and privately urged India to cooperate with the investigation.

New Delhi has dismissed the allegations as “absurd” but has said that if Canada has anything, it would take a look at it.

But Ottawa has not provided any evidence to India or presented it publicly.

New Delhi: As India set to become the largest wearable market globally, London-based consumer technology brand Nothing has launched a sub-brand called CMF (Colour, Material, and Finish) to woo users in the country.

It just unveiled a budget-friendly smartwatch — “CMF Watch Pro” in Dark Grey colour. Inside the box, you get a dial, wrist straps, a charging cable and a user manual.

Let us find out about the smartwatch in detail.

Starting with design and display, the CMF by Nothing Watch Pro features a square design with a single function button on the right side. The button can be used to wake up the watch, go back, open the menu, and pause workouts. There is also a speaker below the button.

A microphone is located on the other side. The case of the watch is made of aluminium alloy with an anodised finish. On the back, there is a heart rate and SpO2 sensors which have glowing green and red LED lights when you use them to measure heart rate and blood oxygen.

The smartwatch has a 1.96-inch 58Hz AMOLED display with 410 x 502 resolution and a peak brightness of 600 nits. It also has an always-on display feature that can be customised manually.

While using, we found the screen brightness to be adequate; there will be no issues seeing the time or looking at the workout numbers in direct sunlight. Touch response is ideal and the watch UI is also smooth, which enhances the beauty of the AMOLED display.

Moving on to the performance and health features, the Watch Pro comes with built-in GPS with support for five satellite positioning systems, IP68 rating, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, SpO2 monitoring, step counting, and 110 sports modes.

We tested out all the health features of the Watch Pro and found that the brand has put in a lot of effort to ensure accuracy.

The sleep tracking feature works well. Heart rate and SpO2 readings are good when compared to a pulse oximeter, in both resting and active states. Stress data is also available, but you need to enable this manually.

The Watch Pro provides nearly accurate data and is comparable to other budget-friendly smartwatches.

In terms of performance, the Watch Pro is reliable without any lags or jitters. It uses the CMF Watch app on Android and iPhone. The health tab displays all crucial information.

You also have the option to include up to 20 contacts for swift dialling, although there’s no search function, which necessitates manual scrolling through your contact list.

The watch has a built-in calling feature with a microphone and speaker, so you can make and receive calls. It also has a call log and dial pad, so you can easily manage your calls.

Indoors, the calling experience is good, and the microphone picks up the voice well. The speaker output is adequate for indoor use but only decent outdoors.

The Watch Pro has a 340mAh battery, and the company promises up to 13 days of battery life with typical use, and up to 11 days with heavy use. However, as per our experience, the battery lasts for about nine to 10 days on a single charge with typical use, which is still pretty good.

Available in metallic grey and dark grey, the Watch Pro is priced at Rs 4,999 and Rs 4,499, respectively, and is now available to buy from online and offline stores.

Conclusion: The CMF Watch Pro is an affordable smartwatch with an AMOLED display, quality voice calling, great battery life and GPS support for outdoor activities.

IANS 

A team of scientists has decoded how superbolts — Earth’s strongest lightning — occur.

Superbolts make up less than 1 per cent of total lightning, but when they do strike, they pack a powerful punch.

According to the new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, superbolts are more likely to strike the closer a storm cloud’s electrical charging zone is to the land or ocean’s surface.

These conditions are responsible for superbolt “hotspots” above some oceans and tall mountains.

While the average lightning strike contains around 300 million volts, superbolts are 1,000 times stronger and can cause major damage to infrastructure and ships, said the researchers.

The new study provides the first explanation for the formation and distribution of superbolts over land and sea worldwide.

“Superbolts, even though they’re only a very, very tiny percentage of all lightning, they’re a magnificent phenomenon,” said lead author Avichay Efraim, a physicist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.

A 2019 report found that superbolts tend to cluster over the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Altiplano in Peru and Bolivia, which is one of the tallest plateaus on Earth.

“We wanted to know what makes these powerful superbolts more likely to form in some places as opposed to others,” Efraim said.

To determine what causes superbolts to cluster over certain areas, Efraim and team used lightning data to extract key properties from the storms’ environments, including land and water surface height, charging zone height, cloud top and base temperatures, and aerosol concentrations.

They then looked for correlations between each of these factors and superbolt strength, gleaning insights into what causes stronger lightning — and what doesn’t.

The researchers found that contrary to previous studies, aerosols did not have a significant effect on superbolt strength.

Instead, a smaller distance between the charging zone and land or water surface led to significantly more energised lightning. Storms close to the surface allow higher-energy bolts to form because, generally, a shorter distance means less electrical resistance and therefore a higher current. And a higher current means stronger lightning bolts.

The three regions that experience the most superbolts — the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Altiplano — all have one thing in common: short gaps between lightning-charging zones and surfaces.

“The correlation we saw was very clear and significant, and it was very thrilling to see that it occurs in the three regions,” Efraim said. “This is a major breakthrough for us.”

IANS 

Jerusalem: A team of scientists has decoded how superbolts — Earth’s strongest lightning — occur.

Superbolts make up less than 1 per cent of total lightning, but when they do strike, they pack a powerful punch.

According to the new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, superbolts are more likely to strike the closer a storm cloud’s electrical charging zone is to the land or ocean’s surface.

These conditions are responsible for superbolt “hotspots” above some oceans and tall mountains.

While the average lightning strike contains around 300 million volts, superbolts are 1,000 times stronger and can cause major damage to infrastructure and ships, said the researchers.

The new study provides the first explanation for the formation and distribution of superbolts over land and sea worldwide.

“Superbolts, even though they’re only a very, very tiny percentage of all lightning, they’re a magnificent phenomenon,” said lead author Avichay Efraim, a physicist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.

A 2019 report found that superbolts tend to cluster over the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Altiplano in Peru and Bolivia, which is one of the tallest plateaus on Earth.

“We wanted to know what makes these powerful superbolts more likely to form in some places as opposed to others,” Efraim said.

To determine what causes superbolts to cluster over certain areas, Efraim and team used lightning data to extract key properties from the storms’ environments, including land and water surface height, charging zone height, cloud top and base temperatures, and aerosol concentrations.

They then looked for correlations between each of these factors and superbolt strength, gleaning insights into what causes stronger lightning — and what doesn’t.

The researchers found that contrary to previous studies, aerosols did not have a significant effect on superbolt strength.

Instead, a smaller distance between the charging zone and land or water surface led to significantly more energised lightning. Storms close to the surface allow higher-energy bolts to form because, generally, a shorter distance means less electrical resistance and therefore a higher current. And a higher current means stronger lightning bolts.

The three regions that experience the most superbolts — the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Altiplano — all have one thing in common: short gaps between lightning-charging zones and surfaces.

“The correlation we saw was very clear and significant, and it was very thrilling to see that it occurs in the three regions,” Efraim said. “This is a major breakthrough for us.”

IANS

New York: A team of researchers has created a novel wearable patch that can detect specific glucose levels in human sweat for three weeks while simultaneously monitoring body temperature and pH levels.

Continuous monitoring of sweat can reveal valuable information about human health such as the body’s glucose levels.

The researchers from Penn State University in the US have now created a new wearable sensor with a laser-modified graphene nanocomposite material.

“Sweat is ideal for real-time, continuous and non-invasive biomarker detection. But low biomarker concentration levels in sweat and variability of other factors such as pH, salinity and temperature have pushed previous sweat biosensors past the limits of their detection and accuracy,” said principal investigator Huanyu “Larry” Cheng.

“This device is able to account for this variability while measuring glucose with needed specificity for weeks at a time,” Cheng added in a paper published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

By heating the gold and silver alloy nanocomposite material with a simple laser treatment, Cheng said the material also resists “agglomeration” (a mass or collection of things).

The device allows for the calibration of glucose measurements based on fluctuations in sweat, pH and body temperature from activities such as exercise and eating.

Worn as a patch roughly twice the width of a postage stamp and affixed to the skin with adhesive tape, it can wirelessly communicate its collected data to a computer or mobile device for real-time monitoring and analysis.

“The result of our work is a sensor with the notable sensitivity and stability to monitor glucose levels over multiple weeks,” Cheng said.

“It is a low-cost platform offering convenient, accurate and continual analysis of sweat in diverse conditions, which has great potential for individual and population health, personalised medicine and precision nutrition,” he added.

IANS

London: Several authors have been left shocked after seeing artificial intelligence (AI)-generated ripoffs of their books being sold on e-commerce giant Amazon.

Writer-journalist Rory Cellan-Jones recently saw a memoir on Amazon he wrote with a “naively designed cover by someone he had never heard of,” reports The Guardian.

“I thought: ‘This is strange — who’s writing a biography of me?'” Cellan-Jones was quoted as saying.

It was revealed that his memoir had text apparently generated by AI, as ChatGPT has enabled people to generate pages of text without them writing those.

The biography and other titles by the pseudonymous author were removed by Amazon but “plenty more get through the filters intended to weed out low-quality books,” the report said.

Fifteen AI-generated books by someone known as ‘Steven Walryn’ were published in one day but removed by Amazon months later.

In August, author Jane Friedman, who writes about publishing, forced Amazon to remove five bogus titles in her name that were AI-generated.

“Amazon is clearly facing significant challenges with the influx of AI-generated products in its stores, and it appears to be playing catchup,” Nicola Solomon, the chief executive of the Society of Authors (SoA), was quoted as saying in the report.

Authors such as Margaret Atwood, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Pullman are also concerned their work is being used in large language models to train AI without their consent, compensation or credit.

An Amazon spokesperson said that the company invests significant time and resources to “ensure our guidelines are followed and remove books that do not adhere to them”.

“While we allow AI-generated content, we don’t allow AI-generated content that violates our content guidelines, including content that creates a disappointing customer experience,” the company added.

Last month, The Authors’ Guild and 17 well-known authors like Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, and Jodi Picoult filed a fresh lawsuit in the Southern district of New York against OpenAI.

According to the complaint, OpenAI “copied plaintiffs’ works wholesale, without permission or consideration” and fed the copyrighted materials into large language models.

In the same month, authors Michael Chabon, David Henry Hwang, Rachel Louise Snyder and Ayelet Waldman alleged in a lawsuit that OpenAI benefits and profits from the “unauthorised and illegal use” of their copyrighted content.

IANS

New Delhi: Apple Sunday said it has identified a few conditions which can cause new iPhones to run warmer than expected, including a bug in the iOS 17 software update and some third-party apps like Instagram.

The device may feel warmer during the first few days after setting up or restoring the device because of increased background activity, the company said in a statement.

“We have also found a bug in iOS 17 that is impacting some users and will be addressed in a software update,” the iPhone maker said.

The new titanium material on iPhone 15 Pro, paired with its aluminum substructure and new system design, result in better heat dissipation than any prior stainless steel Pro models.

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max do not suffer from overheating due to their design, contrary to some reports. Apple said that another issue involves some recent updates to third-party apps that are causing them to overload the system.

“We’re working with these app developers on fixes that are in the process of rolling out,” said the company.

Third-party apps that Apple is currently aware of that overload the CPU and cause the iPhone to run warmer than normal include Asphalt 9, Instagram and Uber.

The tech giant will continue to investigate to see if there are others and work with those developers to implement fixes.

Instagram already issued a fix September 27 (v302) to address its issue.

However, the bug fix coming in iOS 17 does not involve reducing performance to address iPhone temperature.

The new iPhones feel warmer when users set up their devices for the first time, restore from a backup, wirelessly charge their device, use graphics-intensive or processor-intensive apps, games, or features, including augmented-reality apps; and/or stream high-quality video.

These conditions are normal, and the device will return to a regular temperature when the process is complete or when a user finishes their activity.

If a user’s device doesn’t display a temperature warning, they can keep using their device.

Those who use a larger USB-C power adapter (20W +) should expect iPhone temperature to temporarily increase while fast charging, according to the company.

The iPhone still regulates power into the device at up to 27W so long as the adapter is compliant with the USB-C PD (Power Delivery) standard.

This temporary increase in temperature will not impact the long term performance of the iPhone and is not a safety or injury risk.

IANS

Chennai: India’s space-based solar observatory Aditya-L1 has successfully escaped the sphere of Earth’s influence and has travelled over 9.2 lakh km till date, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said Saturday.

According to Indian space agency, the Aditya-L1 is now navigating its path towards the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1 (L1).

“This is the second time in succession that ISRO could send a spacecraft outside the sphere of influence of the Earth, the first time being the Mars Orbiter Mission,” it said.

This is also the fifth consecutive time the ISRO has successfully transferred an object on a trajectory toward another celestial body or location in space. It has transferred its spacecraft thrice towards the moon and once towards Mars.

The Aditya-L1 was orbited in low earth orbit (LEO) September 2 by Indian rocket, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle –XL (PSLV-XL) variant. The spacecraft’s orbit has been raised by the ISRO four times since then.

As the spacecraft travels towards Lagrange Point (L1) after exiting the earth’s gravitational sphere of Influence (SOI), the cruise phase will start and subsequently, it will be injected into a large halo orbit around the L1 — the point where the gravitational pull of two large bodies – Sun and Earth – will be equal and hence the spacecraft will not gravitate towards any one of them.

The total travel time from launch to L1 would take about four months for Aditya-L1 and the distance will be about 1.5 million km from the Earth.

IANS 

Bengaluru: In a bid to further strengthen its presence in Karnataka, Texas-based technology conglomerate Dell is considering a fresh investment in its research and development (R&D) centre in Bengaluru, an official statement said Saturday.

The Dell team comprising Michael Dundas of Global Manufacturing Operations and Technology, Alan Richey, Senior Vice President, Legal, and Tabrez Ahmad, Director, Asia Pacific and Japan, Govt Affairs and Public Policy held meetings with Karnataka Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure Minister M.B. Patil, in Austin, Friday, as per the state Large and Medium Industries Ministry.

The company also sought support from the Karnataka government to overcome import restrictions on Special Economic Zone (SEZ) operations, which would enhance cost sustainability for Dell’s expansion in India.

Dell also put forth its requirements with respect to ESDM ecosystem players and suppliers in the state.

The company, which is valued at $50 billion, already operates a prominent research and development centre in Bengaluru.

At the global level, Dell operates around 25 manufacturing facilities with 14 of these facilities dedicated to R&D.

The Karnataka business delegation is visiting various states in the US to attract investments into the state. Principal Secretary, Commerce and Industries, Dr S Selvakumar, and Industrial Development Commissioner and Director, Industries and Commerce, Gunjan Krishna, are accompanying the minister.

The delegation also met leading Semiconductor Manufacturing company Global Foundries (GF), which expressed interest in increasing its workforce in Bengaluru with an addition of 200 skilled workers.

Patil assured to extend the government’s support in this regard and will also help Global Foundries to establish connections with customers and suppliers. The $30-billion Global Foundries has also expressed interest in establishing and expanding its Aerospace and Defence (A&D) presence in Karnataka, with plans for further engagement to develop a comprehensive business strategy.

The delegation headed by Patil also attended a Business Roundtable hosted by the US-India Chamber of Commerce and AKKA and organised jointly by TiE Austin, and the Austin Chamber of Commerce. The roundtable saw an attendance of around 60 entrepreneurs including senior VPs, and CEOs.

IANS

Bengaluru: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is reportedly ending work-from-home or hybrid work from October 1, and has asked employees to attend office for five days a week.

In an internal email, cited by multiple media reports, the company has signalled the end of work-from-home policies. The company will, however, continue flexibility/hybrid policies and make exceptions wherever necessary, the reports mentioned.

“As communicated by CEO and chief human resources officer (CHRO) in various town-halls, it is mandatory for all associates to attend office on all the working days (5 days per week if there are no holidays) starting 1 October 2023,” read a portion of the email accessed by CNBC-TV18. The email has not gone out to all teams, according to the report. TCS declined to comment, as it is in the “silent period at the moment.”

The company had nearly 615,318 employees (as of June 30). In its FY23 annual report, the company said that new employees benefit from physical interactions with senior colleagues and leaders to acculturate and learn from their behaviours and ways of thinking. At present, employees need to be in office for only three days a week.

During the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, TCS’s then CEO, Rajesh Gopinathan, had introduced the “25×25 model,” aiming to bring back 25 per cent of the workforce to the office by 2025.

IANS

New Delhi: The Finance Ministry has notified October 1 as the date for implementation of the amended GST law provisions for taxing e-gaming, casinos and horse racing.

According to the changes to the Central GST Act, these supplies will henceforth be treated as “actionable claims” similar to lottery, betting and gambling and subject to 28 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) on full face value of bets.

The amendments to Integrated GST (IGST) Act makes it mandatory for offshore online gaming platforms to take registration in India and pay taxes in accordance with domestic law.

In its meetings in July and August, the GST Council, comprising finance ministers of Centre and states, had approved amendments to the law to include online gaming, casinos and horse racing as taxable actionable claims, and clarified that such supplies would attract 28 per cent tax on full bet value.

Parliament last month passed amendments to the Central GST and Integrated GST laws to give effect to the Council’s decision.

The Finance Ministry has now notified that October 1 will be the appointed date for implementation of these provisions.

The GST Council in its meeting in August had decided that the amended provision to classify these supplies as actionable claims and clarifying the taxation provisions would come into effect from October 1.

A review of the implementation was proposed to be carried out after six months, which is April 2024.

PTI

Washington: US space agency NASA has selected four small explorer missions to conduct concept studies to expand knowledge of the dynamics of the Sun. These missions will aim to shed light on related phenomena such as coronal mass ejections, aurora, and solar wind to better understand the Sun-Earth connection.

“These four mission concept studies were selected because they address compelling science questions and could greatly impact the field of heliophysics,” said Nicky Fox, the associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“These mission proposals are exciting because they build upon and complement the science of our current mission fleet, have the potential for broad impact and could provide new and deeper insight into the solar atmosphere and space weather,” Fox said in a statement late on Friday.

The Cross-scale Investigation of Earth’s Magnetotail and Aurora (CINEMA) mission would work to understand the structure and evolution of Earth’s plasma sheet — a long sheet of denser space plasma in the magnetic fields flowing behind Earth, known as the magnetotail — using a constellation of nine CubeSats flown in sun-synchronous, low Earth orbit.

The Chromospheric Magnetism Explorer (CMEx) mission would attempt to understand the magnetic nature of solar eruptions and identify the magnetic sources of the solar wind. Meanwhile, the Extreme ultraviolet Coronal Mass Ejection and Coronal Connectivity Observatory (ECCCO) consists of a single spacecraft with two instruments, a wide-field extreme ultraviolet imager and a unique imaging EUV spectrograph.

The primary objective of the Magnetospheric Auroral Asymmetry Explorer (MAAX) mission would be to improve our understanding of how electrodynamic coupling between Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere regulates auroral energy flow.

“The potential to gain new insights and answer longstanding questions in the field while building on the research and technology of our current and legacy missions is incredible,” said Peg Luce, acting Heliophysics division director at NASA Headquarters.

New Delhi: In a bid to retain users on its platform, X Corp (formerly Twitter) has paid nearly $20 million (more than Rs 166 crore) to creators so far, its CEO Linda Yaccarino has revealed.

The social media platform started paying creators in July for a share of the ad revenue they earned from ads served in the replies to their posts to other verified users.

“Create. Connect. Collect all on X. We’re enabling the economic success of new segments like creators,” Yaccarino posted on X late on Friday.

“And so far we’ve paid out almost $20 million to our creator community,” she added.

The first payment in July was around $5 million, according to X owner Elon Musk.

Creators are now being incentivised to get users to reply to their tweets.

X began paying creators, including in India, their share of ads revenue under its newly launched ‘ads revenue sharing programme’ for creators.

Several creators worldwide have shared how much money they received from the micro-blogging platform via its new programme.

To be eligible for creator ads revenue sharing, you must be subscribed to X Premium or Verified Organisations, have at least 5 million organic impressions on your cumulative posts within the last 3 months and have at least 500 followers.

Eligible users are able to join and set up payments from within the Monetisation section of the app.

Once you click “Join and setup payouts” you will be redirected to our payment processor, Stripe, to set up an account to receive your share. “This Stripe account will be where you will be able to transfer funds to your external bank account,” according to X.

Once you opt in, you will receive payouts at a regular cadence, so long as you have generated more than $10.

New York: Lack of sleep and reduced physical activity during pregnancy may increase the risk of premature birth, according to a study.

The team used a machine learning (ML) algorithm to detect fine-grained changes in sleep and physical activity patterns of 1,000 women whose data was collected by devices worn by them throughout pregnancy.

“We showed that an artificial intelligence algorithm can build a ‘clock’ of physical activity and sleep during pregnancy, and can tell how far along a patient’s pregnancy is, but some patients don’t follow that clock. When patients’ sleep and activity levels don’t change on a typical trajectory, the study showed, it’s a warning sign for premature birth,” said Nima Aghaeepour, Associate Professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine and of paediatrics at Stanford School of Medicine.

The study, published in the journal npj Digital Medicine, also identified a variety of risk factors for premature delivery, including greater levels of inflammation in the pregnant woman, specific immune-system changes, higher levels of stress, history of having a preterm birth and certain types of bacteria in the mother’s microbiome.

“Our patient population experiences a lot of adversity, and our preterm birth rates are much higher than at Stanford,” said co-author Sarah England, Professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

“The study participants included women experiencing a variety of stressors linked with higher rates of preterm birth, such as racism, low socioeconomic status and living in areas with higher crime rates,” said England.

Surprisingly, sleeping better and being more physically active than usual for her stage of pregnancy was linked with a 48 per cent reduction in risk for preterm delivery. Conversely, if a woman was sleeping worse and being less physically active than usual for her stage of pregnancy, her risk for preterm delivery was 44 per cent higher than for pregnant women with typical sleep and activity patterns.

“The results suggest that scientists should run studies to test whether tracking and modifying pregnant women’s sleep or physical activity could lower their prematurity risk. It’s telling us where to go for future interventions,” said Aghaeepour.

IANS

Leicester(England): Every year, around 2.4 million people in the UK get food poisoning – mostly from viral or bacterial contamination. Most people recover within a few days without treatment, but not all are that lucky.

As a microbiologist, I’m probably more acutely aware of the risk of food-borne infections than most. Here are some of the things I look out for.

Eating outdoors

I rarely eat alfresco – whether picnics or barbecues – as the risk of food poisoning goes up when food is taken outdoors.

Keeping your hands clean when handling food is key to not getting sick, but how often do you find hot running water and soap in a park or on a beach? You can use alcohol hand gels (they’re better than nothing), but they don’t kill all germs.

Also, food tends to attract an array of flying and crawling critters, such as flies, wasps and ants, all of which can transfer germs, including E coli, Salmonella and Listeria, to your food.

Keeping perishable food cold and covered is essential as germs can double in numbers if food is allowed to warm up to 30 degrees Celsius for more than a few hours.

For barbecues, meat needs to be thoroughly cooked, and a meat thermometer is a good investment to avoid food poisoning. Do not eat meat if its internal temperature is less than 70 degrees Celsius.

Also read: World Tourism Day: Three must-visit tourism sites in Odisha

Buffets

Knowing what food-related conditions bacteria prefer to grow in, I am very mindful of the microbiological safety of hot and cold buffet displays.

Indoors, food can be exposed to contamination from insects, dust and above all, people. Food poisoning is, therefore, an inevitable risk when dining at a buffet.

Contamination comes from buffet visitors touching food, and germs can be sprayed on to buffets from people sneezing or coughing close to the food.

Even indoors, one must consider contamination by insects, such as flies or wasps, settling on the uncovered food. Also, germs may be deposited from the air, which is rich in bacteria, fungi and viruses.

I always look at the clock when I’m at a buffet as there is a two-hour catering rule: perishable food will become unsafe to eat within two hours if not kept covered and refrigerated.

The problem is buffets tend to be laid out before you arrive, so it is difficult to tell if the platters of cooked meat, seafood, salads, desserts and appetisingly arranged fruit and vegetables will have been sitting for more than two hours when you come to eat them.

For hot buffets, such as those served at breakfast in hotels, I always avoid lukewarm food, as bacteria that cause food poisoning can grow quickly when food is kept at less than 60 degrees Celsius.

Hot food should be served hot, that is at a temperature of at least 60 degrees Celsius.

If there is any uncertainty about the safety of the food on offer, I reluctantly breakfast on freshly toasted bread and individually packaged marmalade.

Oysters

There are some foods I never eat, and raw shellfish, such as oysters, is one of them. This is because oysters are filter feeders and can concentrate germs, such as Vibrio and norovirus, in their tissue.

A Vibrio-contaminated oyster does not look, smell, or taste different, but can still make you very ill.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 80,000 people get Vibrio infections from raw oysters, and in the US alone 100 people die from vibriosis each year.

It is also possible to pick up food poisoning from eating any raw shellfish (clams, mussels, whelks, cockles). I only eat shellfish that are well-cooked because heat effectively kills harmful germs.

Bagged salads

I never eat bagged salads, largely because one of my research areas is fresh salad safety. It has been found that bagged lettuce can contain food poisoning germs such as E coli, Salmonella and Listeria.

My research group has found that these pathogens grow more than a thousand times better when given juices from salad leaves, even if the salad bag is refrigerated.

Worryingly, the same germs use the salad juices to become more virulent, and so better at causing an infection.

For those salad lovers alarmed by this information, most bagged salads are safe if stored refrigerated, washed well before use (even ready-to-eat salad should be washed) and eaten as soon as possible after buying it.

Cooking practices

In terms of cooking practices, I have a list of dos and don’ts.

For perishable foods, I regularly check use-by dates, but if it is before the expiry date and the food package looks swollen, or when opened the food looks or smells different than expected, I throw it in the bin as it could be contaminated.

I never use the same chopping boards for raw and cooked foods, and washing my hands before and after handling food is instinctual.

One of my “never do” practices is reheating cooked rice. This is because uncooked rice can contain spores of Bacillus cereus, a food-poisoning germ.

Although the Bacillus cells are killed by cooking, the spores survive. If the rice is left to cool and sit at room temperature, the spores grow into bacteria, which will increase in numbers quickly as rice is a good Bacillus culture medium when at room temperature.

The rice-cultured Bacillus can produce toxins that, within a few hours of ingestion, can cause vomiting and diarrhoea lasting up to 24 hours.

Dining out

I find that having a high level of food safety awareness causes me to be first in line for buffets, to be cautious about eating from breakfast bars, and to watch the clock for how often perishable food is replaced.

I never collect “doggy bags” of food leftovers (they have usually exceeded the two-hour time limit), even if they really are intended for a pet.

The benefits of being a microbiologist are that we know how to avoid food poisoning and, in return, people have confidence our cooking is very safe to eat.

By Primrose Freestone, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Microbiology, University of Leicester

The Conversation

New Delhi: Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Friday said India is one of the first countries in the world to ensure net neutrality and “pushed back against Telcos wanting to be gatekeepers of the Internet”.

The minister’s comments came as the proposal by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on selective banning of OTT or Internet services has resulted in a fierce debate among industry bodies, internet companies and startup founders.

“Net Neutrality in India was a hard fought battle for those who remember — which started during the UPA govt and peaked in 2015-2016. I led an effort where over 5 lakh Indians wrote to TRAI opposing efforts of some Telcos to cabelize the Internet and double dip/charge,” Chandrasekhar posted on X.

He further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision made India one of the first countries in the world to ensure Net Neutrality and “push back against Telcos wanting to be gatekeepers of the Internet”.

“That decision of PM Modi was an important factor in India becoming a world-leading innovation economy with this vibrant global standard startup ecosystem that we see today,” said the minister.

The IAMAI once again countered the TRAI’s proposal on selective banning of OTT/Internet services Thursday, saying such demands for imposing revenue sharing mechanisms between Internet companies and telecom services providers (TSPs) “smack of rent-seeking”.

According to IAMAI members, by requiring “largest” OTT service providers to pay TSPs for data used by consumers, TSPs would effectively be charging twice for the same service – as they already charge consumers for data.

In any case, “surging data traffic” is merely data consumed by consumers that they have already purchased from telecom companies.

Therefore, the “strain” on infrastructure of TSPs occurs when they sell data to consumers beyond their infrastructural capacity – a fact that has been conveniently ignored, the IAMAI argued.

The IAMAI also flagged demands made by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) in favour of telecom service providers.

The IAMAI highlighted that such demands fail to recognise that telecom service providers are subject to a special regulatory and licensing regime by virtue of the control that they exercise over valuable national resources such as spectrum.

Earlier this week, at least 128 startup founders urged the TRAI to rethink any move towards over-regulation of internet services being described as OTT services, which may have discriminatory consequences. the TRAI, in July, started the process to examine the issue of regulating OTT communication apps.

Earlier this month, 11 consumer groups said the proposal would lead to over-regulation and would create regulatory uncertainty in the domestic market.

IANS

New Delhi: Amazon has announced that the ‘Amazon Great Indian Festival’ (GIF) will start from October 8, with 24 hours of early access for Prime members.

Customers will also get early access to more than 25,000 products till October 6 through Kick Starter Deals.

“Customers will get access to thousands of new launches from leading brands, and lakhs of sellers across India. Our teams, including our delivery associates, are excited to make Amazon Great India Festival 2023 the biggest ever for millions of customers across Bharat,” Manish Tiwary, Vice President & Country Manager, India Consumer Business, Amazon, said in a statement.

The Great Indian Festival will feature the latest smartphones starting from Rs 5,699 with 5G mobiles starting from Rs 8,999, electronics & accessories starting from Rs 99, up to 65 per cent off on appliances, up to 60 per cent off on TVs, up to 60 per cent off on daily need items, up to 18 months no cost EMI on top mobiles, TVs, appliances, laptops, electronics, and more, the company said.

Customers will also get to shop in eight languages of their choice, including English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bangla, and Marathi.

During the sale, Amazon Business customers can save up to 28 per cent extra with GST invoice and 40 per cent more with bulk discounts on their purchases across categories like laptops, desktops and monitors, appliances, among others.

In addition to existing Amazon.in offers like deals, bank offers, and coupons, business customers will get bonus cashback of up to Rs 7,500 on large purchases, the company mentioned.

IANS

New York: Skin behind the ears and between the toes can host a collection of unhealthy microorganisms that can lead to many skin diseases, finds a study.

The microbiome, or the collection of microbes living on and in the human body, play a role in human health, and the skin is no different.

The study by a team at the George Washington University (GW) in the US has shown that the composition of the skin microbiome varies across dry, moist and oily regions of the skin. “My grandmother always instructed the kids in the family to scrub behind the ears, between the toes and in the belly button. So our team decided to test what we call ‘the Grandmother Hypothesis’,” said Keith Crandall, Director of the Computational Biology Institute and Professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at GW.

“These hotspots are normally washed less often compared to the skin on the arms or legs and thus may harbour different types of bacteria,” Crandall added.

The findings of the study was published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology. For the study, the team designed an innovative genomics course and then unleashed a team of 129 students who were taught to collect their own data by swabbing certain moist and oily hotspots, behind the ears, between the toes and in the naval as well as from control dry areas like the calves and forearms.

Then they extracted and sequence the DNA in the skin samples in order to compare the microbes living in the hotspots to those in the control regions. The researchers found that forearms and calves which are often cleaned more thoroughly at bath time had a greater diversity and thus potentially a healthier collection of microbes compared to the samples taken in the hotspots.

“When certain trouble-making microbes take over the microbiome they can shift the balance away from health and If the microbiome tips in favour of detrimental microbes, skin diseases like eczema or acne can be the result,” Crandall added.

“The students proved the grandmother hypothesis and their results suggested that cleaning habits can change the microbes living on your skin and consequently its health status,” he added.

IANS

New Delhi: Air India Friday said it has completed the acquisition of its first A350-900 aircraft by way of a finance lease transaction with HSBC through the GIFT City.

This is also the first wide body aircraft to be leased through the GIFT City, the country’s first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).

In a release, the airline said the transaction was facilitated by its wholly-owned subsidiary AI Fleet Services Ltd (AIFS) and is also the first financing transaction from the orders for 470 aircraft that were made earlier this year.

Tata Group-owned Air India, which has embarked on an ambitious transformation plan, expects the first A350-900 aircraft to arrive in India by the end of this year.

According to the release, the airline has successfully acquired India’s first Airbus A350-900 aircraft through a finance lease transaction with HSBC.

“This landmark transaction marks the beginning of our aircraft leasing business from GIFT IFSC, as AIFS will be the primary Air India Group entity for wide body aircraft financing, playing a pivotal role in the future aircraft financing strategy for us and our subsidiaries,” Air India’s Chief Commercial & Transformation Officer Nipun Aggarwal said.

International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) Executive Director Dipesh Shah said it has been working with the stakeholders to develop regulatory enablers for aircraft leasing and financing.

“The steps taken by Air India by establishing a finance company for the purpose of aircraft leasing and financing at IFSC will go a long way in developing IFSC as a preferred destination for aircraft leasing and financing in India as well as globally,” he added.

The airline has ordered six A350-900 planes and five of them are scheduled for delivery through March 2024. Apart from these, the airline’s firm orders for 470 new aircraft include 34 A350-1000s, 20 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, 10 Boeing 777Xs, 140 A320 neos, 70 A321 neos and 190 Boeing 737MAXs.

Air India signed purchase agreements to acquire these aircraft with Airbus and Boeing in June this year.

Currently, Air India has a fleet of 116 planes, including 49 wide body aircraft.

The total includes 27 B787-8s, 14 B777-300s, 8 B777-200LRs, 14 A319s, 36 A320 neos, 13 A321 ceos and 4 A321 neos.

Meanwhile, Tata Group is in the process of consolidating its airline business as part of which AIX Connect is getting merged with Air India Express and Vistara will be merged with Air India.

Vistara is a joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines, which holds a 49 per cent stake in the carrier.