IMC 2017: Sunil Mittal and Mukesh Ambani in sync to make India a digital society

Idea Cellular MD emphasised that about 900 million Indians use 2G networks for connectivity and spend Rs 80-100 a month

IMC 2017 : The first edition of the India cellular Congress, that kicked off on Wednesday in Delhi, turned out to be a showstopper as the two biggest opponents in the telecom enterprise — Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani and Bharti leader Sunil Mittal — shared the same level and spoke in similar language to make digital India a achievement tale. while Ambani and Mittal cited every other as “desirable buddy” and bonded on stage, the target audience, which includes government and enterprise representatives, watched in wonder. Reliance Jio and its “predatory pricing” turned into saved at the side for some time. |Today's Paper

The common subject for which the 2 industrialists agreed to return to the identical platform turned into their backing of government’s signature campaign virtual India, to attach every citizen of the u . s .. The fierce opponents admitted that to serve the 1.3 billion human beings of India, who are going to devour and use digital media, absolutely everyone has to paintings together.

Ambani said, “We must damage silos and forge partnerships. No corporate, nor the government, can do it on my own. together, we can acquire the inconceivable.”

The perspectives of Ambani discovered an echo in Mittal’s speech. He generic that even though they compete head-on, organizations need to collaborate and share infrastructure. “you have a high Minister and a government this is dedicated to the use of virtual structures to serve the society, and this aggregate offers me wish that India will become one of the main telecom markets at the globe. truly, as Mukesh (Ambani) mentioned, one of us can’t do it by myself, we all should come together. even as we compete head-on for the benefit of customers, we need to collaborate among ourselves, use not unusual towers, not unusual fibre, submarine cables,” Mittal said. | Readmore...

Beyond bullet train: Will India gift Japan's Abe the diamond of his dream?

For over a decade, Japan PM Shinzo Abe has been courting India to join his proposed 'security diamond' quad for countering China's might in the Asia-Pacific waters

Today's Paper : Japanese top Minister Shinzo Abe’s India visit earlier this month could be remembered, amongst different matters, for the release of the bold bullet educate task. Even as the visit showed his dedication to his united states of america’s ties with India, it also highlighted India’s significance, notably, in another of his key commitments – constructing a counterweight to China’s growing would possibly in the Asia-Pacific waters, an exercising he started out greater than a decade ago.

In 2007, during one in all his visits to India, Abe had courted New Delhi to shape a coalition of democracies securing ‘broader Asia’ – a geographic and financial assemble that might evolve right into a community spanning the whole Pacific Ocean, and incorporating the us of america and Australia.

At some point of his speech in India’s Parliament, Abe had known as for the two nations to work collectively and ensure the Pacific and Indian Oceans have become “seas of freedom and prosperity”. specifically, he had spoken of India and Japan’s shared interest inside the security of sea lanes.

In a December 27, 2012, oped piece that he wrote, days before securing a 2d time period as Japan’s prime minister, Abe constructed upon his ‘Confluence of the two seas’ speech brought inside the Indian Parliament five years earlier. Titled ‘Asia’s Democratic security Diamond’, the oped known as for “a approach whereby Australia, India, Japan, and the usa kingdom of Hawaii shape a diamond to protect the maritime commons stretching from the Indian Ocean vicinity to the western Pacific”. even as the 2007 speech had no longer explicitly named China, the 2012 oped made it clean that China’s naval would possibly and movements had to be challenged. | Readmore...

Soon, cricketers to be sent off field for misconduct under new ICC rules

The ongoing India-Australia limited-overs series will continue to be played as per the old rules

Today's Paper : Players being sent off for misconduct is all set to become a reality in cricket with the ICC's revamped playing rules, which will be effective in all series starting September 28 or later.
The significant changes also include a restriction on the dimensions of the bat and changes to the Decision Review System. However, the ongoing India-Australia limited-overs series will continue to be played as per the old rules.
All of these rules will come into effect from the two upcoming Test series -- when South Africa host Bangladesh and Pakistan take on Sri Lanka in the United Arab Emirates.
The ICC playing conditions will now incorporate the relevant clauses from the MCC Laws of Cricket (2017 Code), meaning that all the playing regulations will be captured in one document for each format.
"Most of the changes to the ICC playing conditions are being made as a result of changes to the Laws of Cricket that have been announced by the MCC. We have just completed a workshop with the umpires to ensure they understand all of the changes and we are now ready to introduce the new playing conditions to international matches," ICC General Manager (Cricket) Geoff Allardice said.
To maintain the balance between bat and ball, the size of the edges of the bats, as well as their thickness, will now be restricted.
"The restriction on the length and width of bats remain unchanged but the thickness of the edges can't be more than 40mm and the overall depth can be 67 mm at the most. Umpires will be issued with a new bat gauge, which they can use to check a bat's legality," the ICC stated. | Readmore...

Egyptian national Eman Ahmed, world's 'heaviest' woman, dies in UAE

Eman was admitted to the Abu Dhabi hospital in May and was under the supervision of over 20 doctors

Today's Paper : Egyptian national Eman Ahmed Abdelaty, once known as the world heaviest woman, passed away here on Monday, a media report said.

According to medical experts at Burjeel Hospital in Abu Dhabi, Eman died at 4.35 a.m. due to "complications from the underlying comorbid conditions, including heart disease and kidney dysfunction", the Khaleej Times reported.

Eman Ahmed was admitted to the Abu Dhabi hospital in May and was under the supervision of over 20 doctors from different specialities, who were managing her medical condition from the time she arrived in the United Arab Emirates.

The 36-year-old, who initially weighed 500 kg, had undergone a drastic weight reduction surgery in Mumbai in March.

Eman had shed at least 300 kg since undergoing several medical procedures, according to reports.
She was brought to Mumbai from Alexandria on February 11 by an Egypt Air fully-equipped cargo flight. Eman underwent the weight reduction surgery on March 7 at the city's Saifee Hospital and was put on oral fluids. | Readmore...

Dera has Rs 75 cr in 473 accounts; Ram Rahim has Rs 7.72 cr to his name

Haryana govt has frozen 504 bank accounts belonging to the Dera Sacha Sauda and its bodies

Ram Rahim's business empire
He may claim to be a Godman, but in real life, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has hardly kept himself from material interests. Like many other self-styled Godmen in India, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief’s business interest straddles across sectors – from education and healthcare services to FMCG and movie production. And, with 60 million followers across the globe with whom he enjoys a larger-than-life status, Singh is the face of all entities and products. While Singh personally holds a stake in the FMCG business, to the rest he is linked through cross-holdings and related-party transactions. (Read our full report on Ram Rahim's business empire) | Today's Paper

No end in sight for Ram Rahim's troubles
As reported earlier, final arguments in two murder cases where Ram Rahim is an accused are underway in a special CBI court.

The cases, related to the murder of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati and former Dera manager Ranjit Singh, allegedly carried out by functionaries and followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect, are being heard in the court of special CBI judge Jagdeep Singh. (Read all the details of the murder cases against the Dera chief here)

On August 25, after the CBI court convicted Ram Rahim for raping two of his female disciples, violence erupted in Panchkula and Sirsa in which 41 people died. The court sentenced him to 20 years in prison on August 28.

Honeypreet on the run
As reported earlier, the jailed Dera chief's adopted daughter, Honeypreet Insan, has been booked for allegedly inciting violence following the conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
Honeypreet has been booked at Sector 5 police station in Panchkula.

The police added her name in FIR number 345 as an accused in connection with the violence that took place in Panchkula on August 25.

"She is an accused in the case now," said Panchkula Police Commissioner A S Chawla.
Further, according to agency reports, patrolling has been stepped up along the Indo-Nepal border in Maharajganj and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh to nab Honeypreet, who has been absconding from the law. |Readmore...

Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar arrested in South Mumbai

Kaskar was picked up from his south Mumbai residence in connection with an extortion case

Today's Paper : Police in Maharashtra's Thane have detained Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar, brother of absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, for questioning in an extortion case, official sources said late on Monday.

Kaskar was picked up from his south Mumbai residence by a team of Thane Anti-Extortion Cell headed by former 'encounter specialist' Pradeep Sharma.

The action follows a complaint by a city businessman alleging he had been getting extortion calls from some mafia gangsters owing allegiance to Iqbal Kaskar.

Acting on the complaint, Sharma picked up Dawood's brother Kaskar, who is presently being questioned by sleuths, the sources said.

Marshal of IAF Arjan Singh's state funeral today; nation mourns air warrior

The national flag will fly at half-mast on Monday as the funeral is held in Delhi

 

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lays a wreath and pays her tributes to Marshal of Air Force Arjan Singh at his last rites ceremony.

Today's Paper : The funeral procession of the sole Marshal of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Arjan Singh, began on Sunday in the national capital.

The procession was followed by the last rites, which were performed at the Brar Square. The wreath laying ceremony was to take place at 9:00 am.

Though no state mourning was announced, the Home Ministry said the national flag would fly at half-mast on the day of the funeral in Delhi on all buildings where it is flown regularly.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday stated that along with a state funeral and an appropriate gun salute, a flypast might take place, depending on the weather conditions, to honour the contribution of the Air Force Marshal.

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday led the nation in mourning the death of Marshal of IAF Arjan Singh.

Remembered for his role in leading the fledgling IAF in the 1965 war with Pakistan, Arjan Singh died in a hospital in New Delhi on Sunday after a massive heart attack. He was 98.

His mortal remains were kept at his residence 7A, Kautilya Marg for people to pay respects to the war hero -- the first five-star officer of the IAF. | Readmore...

Full coverage: Modi, Abe kick off India's first bullet train but several hurdles remain

Is the bullet train financially viable? BS decodes

Today's Paper : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on Thursday laid the foundation stone for the proposed Ahmedabad-Mumbai High-Speed Rail Network, commonly known as the bullet train, in the Gujarat city.

"My good friend Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a far-sighted leader. He took a decision two years ago to bring high-speed train in India and to create a new India," he said.

35 trains a day: India to get its first bullet train by 2022
The Centre is confident of starting the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train on August 15, 2022, to commemorate the 75th year of India's Independence, a year ahead of its schedule.Initially, the route is expected to have 35 trains per day. This might increase to 105 by 2050. Read all the details here.

However, land acquisition could be a major hurdle for the project
Acquiring 825 hectares of land may become a major hurdle for the completing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project by 2022.Experts said advancing the project’s deadline by a year to August 2022 may not be feasible considering the complex land acquisition process involved. Of the Rs 1.10 lakh crore investment required for the project, Japan is providing Rs 88,000 crore as a soft loan at 0.01 per cent interest. However, release of the Japanese funding is linked to land acquisition.

And is the travel on a bullet train really affordable?
Though the fare structure for Rs 1.10 lakh crore is yet to be finalised, the initial estimates suggest that the high-speed rail fares are likely to be 1.5 times the existing first class AC train tickets. The current fare of AC first class on Ahmedabad-Mumbai route is in the range of Rs 1,700-2,300, while flight tickets start from Rs 2,000 onwards. This means a traveller will have to pay much more than existing flight ticket prices to travel on bullet trains. Read more here

Is the project economically and financially viable?
In an otherwise investment starved economy, this is an example of routing low-cost surplus capital available globally to build infrastructure in the country. Similar to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation becoming a consultant to metro rail projects across the country, if successful, this project could play a similar role for HSR. Gaining experience of under-sea tunnels and advanced signalling technology could be added benefits, writes Neelkanth Mishra. Read his analysis here where he also debates if there will be 15 million passengers a year willing to travel in a train at the targeted Rs 2,500-3,000 ticket price? (READMORE)

Apple iPhone X first look: Get ready for your close-up, the phone's all about cameras

People unlock their phones hundreds of times a day, so this selfie ritual will turn iPhone X owners into the most-photographed population ever.

Today's Paper : When you pick up Apple Inc.’s new iPhone X, instead of unlocking with your thumb, you stop and grin at the phone’s front unibrow as a bank of cameras and sensors check to see if it is really you. At a demo after Tuesday’s launch event, I timed the process at about a second.

ALSO READ: Apple unveils iPhone X, iPhone 8, Apple Watch, hails 'biggest leap forward'

Special cameras, special effects
The reward for changing your muscle memory is, beyond the face-unlocking trick, a new way to think about what you can do with a camera. Apple is now putting a lot of energy (and money) into opening up the world of augmented reality, which I agree has huge potential—even if its current applications are more goofy than serious.

The front-facing cameras, buried in the screen’s funny notch, get the biggest boost. They include infrared sensors to map your face. You can take selfies with artfully blurred-out backgrounds. A new effect that Apple calls Portrait Lighting lets you create dramatic lighting on and around your subjects. One of the most compelling demos I saw placed my head, live, in fun contexts, including the Millennium Falcon from “Star Wars.”

ALSO READ: Apple yet to make a dent in India's mid-range smartphone market

New… and Improved?
I won’t have all the answers until I review the phone, but here’s my initial takeaway: With the iPhone X, Apple’s best no longer looks like a three-year-old phone. (Apple’s other new phone, the iPhone 8, still does.) Readmore...

35 trains a day: India to get first Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train by 2022

The train, to run between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, will be commissioned a year before the original deadline of December 2023

Today's Paper : India's first bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is likely to be completed by 2022, the year marking 75 years of India's Independence.

Railway Minster Piyush Goyal told the media on Monday that the India's first bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai project would be completed by 2022, much before the earlier deadline of December 2023. The foundation stone of the project, which will get a soft loan of Rs 88,000 crore from Japan, will be laid on September 14 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.

The first tranche of the loan, Rs 6,000 crore, will be released immediately, while the remaining tranches will come after the completion of land acquisition. Japan is providing the loan at a minuscule interest rate of 0.1 per cent, and the repayment will begin only after 15 years. The interest on the entire loan will be Rs 7-8 crore a month.

"The initial tranche of Rs 6,000 crore will mainly be for the dedicated high-speed rail training institute and for building the Sabarmati station. We are confident about completing the acquisition of 825 hectares of land within a year," said an official close to the development.

Initially, the route is expected to have 35 trains per day. This might increase to 105 by 2050. The trains are set to run at a speed of 320-350 kilometres per hour and will cover 12 stations -- Bandra Kurla Complex, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.

SIM cards not linked to Aadhaar may be deactivated after Feb 2018

Unlinked phones will be deactivated after February 2018

Today's Paper : The government is moving ahead with linking Aadhaar with mobile SIM cards and all unlinked phones will be deactivated after February 2018, said informed sources.

The sources said Aadhaar mobile linkage is being done as per the orders of Supreme Court passed in February this year in Lokniti foundation case and all SIM cards have to be verified with Aadhaar within a year from the date of judgement, with all unlinked phones to be deactivated after February next year, so criminals, fraudsters and terrorists cannot use the issued SIMs.

The sources said that biometrics cannot be stored by the mobile operators nor they have access to any of the other personal data.

They said biometrics collected should be encrypted by telecom company and sent to UIDAI at that moment itself and any storage of biometric by a service provider is a criminal offence punishable with up to three years of imprisonment under the Aadhaar Act 2016.

The Central government had told the Supreme Court in February that it would put in place, within a year, an effective mechanism for the verification of pre-paid mobile users who constitute 90 per cent of the total subscribers.

Asking the government to put in place the mechanism for the verification of existing pre-paid mobile connection holders "as early as possible", the court disposed of the petition by Lokniti Foundation seeking the scrutiny of the subscribers so that those having pre-paid mobile connections on fake identities are weeded out. 

IPL media rights: Winner Star TV will now have monopoly over cricket

Star walked away with all the rights and full honors, laying claim to 300 days of cricket over 5 years, at a price tag about Rs. 54.5 crore a match

Today's Paper :  The CEO of the BCCI, Rahul Johri, had predicted before the IPL media auction that the rights would fetch Rs 18,000 crore. He was not far wrong. The winner, Star TV, on Monday picked up the 5-years broadcast and digital rights for an eye-popping Rs16,348 crore to stump out incumbents Sony who held the rights of the IPL since its very inception 10 years ago, having bid Rs 8,200 crore in 2008.

The initial tender documents had been picked up by 24 entities: Star India Pvt. Ltd., Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd., Followon Interactive Media Pvt. Ltd., Taj TV India Pvt. Ltd., Sony Pictures Networks Pvt. Ltd., Times Internet Ltd., Supersport International (Pty) Ltd., Reliance Jio Digital Services Pvt. Ltd., Gulf DTH FZ LLC, GroupM Media India Pvt. Ltd., beIN IP Ltd., Econet Media Ltd., SKY UK Ltd., ESPN Digital Media (India) Pvt. Ltd, BTG Legal Services, BT PLC, Twitter Inc., Facebook Inc., DAZN / Perform Group, Discovery, Yupp TV, Airtel and BAM Tech and Oath (Yahoo). Of these, only 14 showed up yesterday at the auction. Prominent amongst those missing were e-commerce giant Amazon and microblogging site Twitter. Also missing from the lineup were Discovery, Yahoo and ESPN Digital. Group M, the media buying company, who were expected to bid on behalf of a consortium of clients, gave it a miss.

The highest bid for the broadcast rights came from Sony Pictures Network. They bid Rs 11,050 crore. The highest bid for digital rights came from none else but Facebook who placed an offer of Rs 3,900 crore. Telecom operators Airtel and Reliance Jio were not far behind Facebook, bidding Rs 3,280 crore and Rs 3,075 crore, respectively. Star actually lagged in each category bid, offering Rs 6,196 crore for broadcast rights and a mere Rs 1,443 crore for digital rights. But eventually, Star proved to be the smartest bidder, and a winner, with a global bid of Rs 16,348 crore that beat the sum of the highest bids in individual categories which totaled Rs 15,820 crore. Star walked away with all the rights and full honors, laying claim to 300 days of cricket over 5 years, at a price tag about Rs 54.5 crore a match. | Readmore...