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Facebook takes aim at Zoom with video chat upgrade

Facebook on Friday unveiled a new video chat service with virtual "rooms" where people can pop in to visit friends, aiming at users turning to the popular Zoom platform during the pandemic.




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Unacademy database of 22 million users hacked, up for sale

Unacademy said that basic information related to 11 million learners had been compromised but no sensitive information such as financial data, location, or passwords had been leaked




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Chinese hacking group targeting governments across Asia: Report

The group has been very active during the last five years, especially in 2019-20.




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Hackers disrupt virtual S.African parliament meeting with porn

Hackers on Thursday disrupted a virtual session of South Africa's parliament, posting pornographic images in the second such incident since the coronavirus outbreak.




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Facebook to ramp up promotions in India

Facebook also recently announced the appointment of Avinash Pant as the marketing director for India to drive the consumer marketing efforts of its family of apps.




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PM Narendra Modi mulls giving up social media on March 8

Government officials remained tightlipped on the reasons and said the PM would reveal more in a day or two. It was also not clear whether Modi, who has used social media to communicate directly with the masses, would be giving up the platforms for a long time or only for a day on Sunday — which also happens to be the International Women’s Day.




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Instagram updates web application, allows users to send DMs and watch live videos on desktop

Direct messages on the desktop have been in the works for a while now.




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Microsoft joins tech race to clean up shipping with big data

Maritime ships, which transport around 90 percent of the world’s goods across the seas, generate about 3 percent of global carbon emissions.




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How an Indian Tech startup helped brands execute their IPL campaigns

For the recent IPL season, Roanuz partnered with various brands and offered their product to run IPL campaigns, key ones being Zomato, RCB, and Book My Show.




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Global lobbying groups call for delay to India's new digital tax

The tax also applies to advertising revenue earned from companies overseas if those advertisements eventually target customers in India. Google is particularly concerned that it would not be able to swiftly identify countries where such advertising arrangements were in place, Reuters has reported.




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PC demand surges but shipments fall 8% due to a supply chain hit by COVID-19: Canalys

Strict lockdown measures around the world has caused severe delays and logistical issues leading to worldwide PC shipments falling by 8%, technology market analyst firm Canalys said.




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Essential supplies severely impacted in hotspots

With authorities completely sealing the areas, FMCG companies said they are facing problem moving trucks through such localities to other places.




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Millions of mobile phones, thousands of appliances pile up for repairing amidst lockdown

There are more than 30,000 microwave ovens, AC and washing machines which needs repair at a time when Indians are locked indoors and doing household chores themselves due to the lockdown.




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Indians spent 4.3 hours a day on smartphones in March, up 24%

India also saw the biggest jump in video consumption of 40% to over 2.9 billion hours during the week starting March 22 as compared to the last week of December 2019




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How Facebook’s Reliance deal upends a $1 trillion digital arena

Reliance and Facebook know a friction-less payments service is key to successful online commerce — but so are mom and pop shops. JioMart and WhatsApp’s embryonic Mumbai service is intended to first get Indians accustomed to messaged transactions with local businesses known as kirana: the tiny neighborhood stores where most Indians buy daily essentials.




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Warehousing, logistics space in the limelight as e-tail steps up

Changing user consumption patterns and rapid adoption of omni-channel models drive demand.




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IIT-Madras startups develop PPEs from 3D printers and regular stationery materials

Initial batches have been supplied in Chennai, while some were in the process of being scaled up towards mass production for use in hospitals and clinics across the country.




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Jio is in talks with NPCI to get UPI apps on its phones

​​A majority of Jio's last reported 388 million subscribers use devices that run on KaiOS, which is different from Android or Apple’s iOS.




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Digital rights group moves IT panel on data privacy in Aarogya Setu app

IIF urged that the hearing should specially involve medical health professionals, academics from IITs and digital rights and public policy experts to provide inputs.




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‘IoT can be a cash cow amidst economic slump provided telcos step up their game’

As revenues dry up from traditional streams of mobility services amidst slowdown, intense competition and price wars, telcos are now focusing on emerging technologies and core emerging services, especially in the areas of IoT




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Xiaomi launching disrupting IoT products in India in 2020: Manu Jain

Xiaomi's arch rival, Madhav Sheth-led Realme, has revealed plans to become a tech-lifestyle company in India next year, with introducing a bouquet of IoT products. Others are following suit too. Xiaomi has already shared how its AIoT (AI+IoT) dual strategy is going to shape its product vision.




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Amdocs launches SI capabilities, to upskill 5,000 Indian employees to cloud-based solutions

The company on Wednesday announced systems integration (SI) capabilities including consulting, agile devOps, cloud migration, cloud capacity optimization and the Future Mode of Operation aimed at taking the communications industry to the cloud at an accelerated pace.




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Chinese hacking group targeting governments across Asia: Report

The group has been very active during the last five years, especially in 2019-20.




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Hackers disrupt virtual S.African parliament meeting with porn

Hackers on Thursday disrupted a virtual session of South Africa's parliament, posting pornographic images in the second such incident since the coronavirus outbreak.




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Covid-19 Impact: Demand for data centers surge as remote working catches up

The emergence of new business environment in the wake of Covid-19 is expected to boost cloud services and digitisation as companies overhaul their digital infrastructure to deal with new ways of working, they said.




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Digital rights group moves IT panel on data privacy in Aarogya Setu app

IIF urged that the hearing should specially involve medical health professionals, academics from IITs and digital rights and public policy experts to provide inputs.




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Modular data centres eliminate the need for specialised support skillsets: Opinion

Modular data centres are attractive options to power next-gen applications such as Internet of Things (IoT), industrial process control and smart cities. Radical edge computing possibilities are on offer.




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Nutanix sets up second customer support centre in India

The new center takes the total number of Customer Support Centres of Excellence to ten, five of which are based in Asia.




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Amazon beefs up cloud business, data centre infrastructure in India

Amazon is beefing up its data centre infrastructure and cloud services business in India as the clamour around data localisation grows louder everyday.




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Indian companies operating data centres ramp up capacity

The data centre market, currently pegged at around $4 billion, is likely to grow to $7 billion by 2020 or 2022, say industry players.




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HDFC Ergo and IBM to jointly setup data lab in India

The first project is to develop an automated real-time email-communication solution for customer queries and reduce turn-around time on redressal.




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Covid-19 Impact: Demand for data centers surge as remote working catches up

The emergence of new business environment in the wake of Covid-19 is expected to boost cloud services and digitisation as companies overhaul their digital infrastructure to deal with new ways of working, they said.




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Updating the monetary value of biodiversity

New research has updated a major report on the monetary value of biodiversity. The second EU-funded Cost of Policy Inaction (COPI II) report has expanded the existing valuation database to include more regions, more ecosystems and more information on the services they provide and their economic values. The new data could be used to calculate a more accurate figure for the global value of biodiversity and ecosystem services.




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Scaling up ecosystem valuations for high level policymaking

A new European Environment Agency (EEA) report analyses approaches to estimating the value of ecosystem services on a large scale. The report provides suggestions for combining and scaling up data from individual, local studies to generate European or global valuations of ecosystems.




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How will biodiversity loss compromise Earth's life support systems?

Scientists have evaluated two decades of research into declining biodiversity and concluded unequivocally that loss of species richness leads to a reduction in how well ecosystems function. The researchers evaluated the evidence for key biodiversity theories and predicted that scientific progress in the next five to ten years will provide the information we need to efficiently conserve certain ecological processes.




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Ecosystem-based adaptation can support food security

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) to climate change could help avoid future food crises in Africa, a new review suggests. By examining United Nations EbA projects implemented across Africa, the authors demonstrate that such approaches help improve the climate change resilience of production systems and the communities dependent upon them.




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Increasing aridity will disrupt soil nutrient cycles in global drylands

The drying of soils under global warming could disrupt the balance of nutrients in large areas of the Earth's land surface, according to new research. The study focused on ‘drylands' – arid areas with low levels of rainfall – which support over 38%% of the world's population. Such nutrient imbalances could diminish the provision of ecosystem services, such as food production and carbon storage, the researchers say.




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Soil biodiversity reduces nitrogen pollution and improves crops’ nutrient uptake

Increased soil biodiversity can reduce nitrogen pollution, improve nutrient uptake by plants and even increase crop yields, new research suggests. The two-year study found that levels of nitrogen leaching from soil with an abundant soil life were nearly 25% lower than for soil with a reduced level of soil life. Practices which enhance soil biodiversity such as reduced tilling, crop rotation and organic farming may therefore help reduce the environmental impacts of fertilisers and improve agricultural sustainability, the researchers say.




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Bees in the city: urban environments could help support pollinators

Urban areas may support higher levels of bee diversity than expected, new research has shown. The UK-wide study compared three different habitat types - nature reserves, farmland, and urban areas - and found a higher number of different bee species in urban areas than farmland. However, the overall pollinator diversity, which included species of bees, flies, hoverflies and butterflies, did not differ significantly between all three landscape types. The researchers call for more attention to be paid to the role of green spaces in cities which can be important habitats for pollinators.




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Private land conservation in Poland lacks landowner support

Conservation on private land in Poland is supported by less than half of landowners, a new study suggests. The authors conclude that both conservation agencies and landowners could benefit from voluntary conservation schemes, financial incentives and more participatory decision-making processes, while civic organisations could play a vital coordinating role.




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Wetland biodiversity is supported by temporary flooding and sustainable grazing

The preferred habitats of wetland bird species - including 12 that are endangered - have been identified by a new study. From conducting counts at 137 sites across Sweden, it was found that total species richness was highest in sites that had a tendency to flood; wet grassland areas that were grazed as opposed to mowed; and sites that were far from areas of woodland. The authors suggest this research could help determine the most suitable locations for future wetland conservation projects.




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What is ‘favourable conservation status’ for species? Researchers clear up misinterpretations

‘Favourable conservation status’ (FCS) is a critical but often misinterpreted legal concept in the EU’s Habitats Directive. Now, law and ecology researchers have teamed up to help clarify some of the most disputed aspects of this term for species. Correctly applied, the concept will help environmental managers, policymakers and scientists effectively protect biodiversity.




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New trait-based method predicts whether mammals can keep up with climate change

A new approach to modelling the spread of mammal populations under climate change has been developed. The method overcomes the problem of missing ecological data for most species by using information on species characteristics, or ‘traits’, associated with population demographic rates and individual movements to deduce which species move too slowly to escape climate change’s effects on their habitat. The model’s results suggest that around 30% of mammal species may not be able to disperse quickly enough to survive.




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Moth behaviour disrupted by street lighting, may affect pollination

Street lighting reduces the number of moths at ground level and increases flight activity at the level of the lights, shows new research. Less pollen was transported by moths at lit sites in the UK study as a result of the disruptive effects on moth behaviour. The study highlights the need to consider both the direct and indirect ecological impacts of artificial light.




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How does climate change affect birds? New tool provides accurate measurements to support biodiversity targets

A new long-term monitoring study is the first to demonstrate that climate changes are having divergent effects on populations of bird species across Europe and the United States. The study identifies broad-scale impacts on the abundance of common bird species over a 30-year period, to show that, overall, populations of bird species across both continents are being affected by changes in climate. The research adds to a growing body of evidence that climate change is affecting biodiversity either positively or adversely, depending on species’ climate preferences.




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Wildflower planting supports a range of beneficial insects, not only bees

A study of wildflower planting within agri-environment schemes has demonstrated that the practice can support a diverse array of economically beneficial insect species, not just prominent pollinators such as wild bees and hoverflies. The study demonstrates the high conservation potential of wildflower planting within agricultural landscapes and the value of insects outside the traditional focus of conservation efforts.




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New tool evaluates options for cleaning up oil spills

The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has highlighted the need to effectively evaluate possible response strategies. A new decision support tool can be used to consider the environmental, socio-economic and management effects of different responses to spills, translating them into monetary terms to provide a common currency for comparison.




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Methods for estimating importance of chemicals in occupational health

A new study examines different methods for assessing the health impacts of chemicals that people are exposed to at work. Combining two different approaches may help reduce the effect of the shortcomings of each approach and provide greater assurance that the most damaging chemicals are prioritised for regulatory action.




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More research needed on endocrine disrupters

There has been an established increase in reproductive disorders and other hormonal diseases, according to a recent European Environment Agency (EEA) report. The report documents a growing body of research that indicates this increase is influenced by growing levels of chemical pollutants in the environment known as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).




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Dangerously high levels of endocrine disrupting chemicals found in marine sediments

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can interfere with the hormonal systems of both humans and wildlife. New research quantifying EDCs in marine environments in Greece found concentrations which present significant risks to sediment-dwelling organisms.