Indian shuttlers Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy have finally got some time to pause and reflect due to the COVID-19 pandemic and they are making the most of it by creating a database to analyse their past performances while waiting for another shot at Olympic qualification. The coronavirus outbreak has left over 1.2 lakh people dead and infected nearly 2 million globally, and brought all sports activities, including badminton, to a halt after countries imposed lockdowns. Ashwini and Sikki are doubles specialists and endured an underwhelming season last year. The time at hand has given them a chace to analyse the past performances.

"We don't have any one to sit and do analysis for us, so now that we have time, I'm doing some analysis of our performance. I am jotting down points, about areas where I can improve. I started with my matches and then other players on tour," Ashwini, who represented India at the London and Rio Olympic Games, told PTI. "You can always watch and analyse and understand the patterns but it is different when you see things on paper. It is more concrete. So trying to set up a complete database. My brother will help me out. He made an app for me in the past." Ashwini and Sikki fell at the first hurdle 13 times in 20 tournaments last year, and exited from the second round thrice.

Ashwini also picked up a calf injury during the Syed Modi International but the duo was still confident of qualifying by performing well in the remaining Olympic qualifiers. But with Badminton World Federation (BWF) cancelling all tournaments due to the coronavirus pandemic, their fate remains uncertain. "The problem is we don't know the new BWF rules regarding the qualification. There is one year left now, you can't take a two year old performance to select for Olympics, it has to be present performance, so we have to wait," said Sikki. "In badminton, there is a ranking cut off, so how will they accommodate the cancelled qualifiers, how will they count the ranking points, everything is too messed up now," she added. Sikki and Ashwini had reached the finals at Hyderabad Open Super 100 and Maldives International Challenge, last year.

The Indian pair is ranked 28th and will need to be inside top 16 on April 29, 2021 -- the new Olympic cut off date. Ashwini said: "Me and Sikki were confident of doing well in the 4-5 tournaments left but now no one knows what would be the criteria of Olympic qualification and BWF can't really say anything with things changing every moment." They are using the coronavirus-forced break to learn cooking, besides doing some wall practice and exercises for physical fitness. Talking about the effects of the lockdown on mental health, Sikki said: "We have been travelling a lot all these years and now for a month, we are at home, it is fine. But what if it is for 2-3 months, then it will get tough to stay away from the game.

"So it is important to stay motivated for once the lockdown is lifted because you will in a comfortable zone in the break and then all of a sudden you will need to push yourself." Ashwini added: "...now that Olympics have been postponed, nothing is certain and it is tough, you have to be really strong." The economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak has hit sports hard and Ashwini said badminton too will be affected. "It will hit in terms of sponsors, in terms of tournaments being conducted because countries need sponsors to host events, and after this, I'm not sure what the economic status of many countries would be. "The way things are, it is will be tough to host tournaments, it will not be easy for countries to have tournaments with many big companies shut and struggling to survive," she signed off.

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San Francisco: A data set of over 3 million Facebook users collected via a personality app was available to download freely for anyone for almost four years, New Scientist reported. The data set was collected via the personality quiz app "myPersonality" by academics at the University of Cambridge.

"The data was highly sensitive, revealing personal details of Facebook users, such as the results of psychological tests.

"It was meant to be stored and shared anonymously, however such poor precautions were taken that deanonymising would not be hard," the report said.

The data sets were controlled by David Stillwell and Michal Kosinski at the University of Cambridge.

"More than 6 million people completed the tests on the myPersonality app and nearly half agreed to share data from their Facebook profiles with the project," said the report.

Alexandr Kogan, at the centre of the British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica scandal, was previously part of the project.

"Cambridge Analytica had approached the myPersonality app team in 2013 to get access to the data, but was turned down because of its political ambitions," the report said.

Facebook last month suspended "myPersonality" from its platform, saying the app may have violated its policies.

The social media giant on Monday said that is auditing each and every app that has access to the data of its users and has already suspended 200 apps which failed to comply with its policies.

The company CEO Mark Zuckerberg had promised a thorough investigation and audit into apps that had access to information before Facebook changed its platform policies in 2014 -- significantly reducing the data apps could access.

"To date, thousands of apps have been investigated and around 200 have been suspended -- pending a thorough investigation into whether they did in fact misuse any data," Facebook said.

If Facebook finds evidence that these or other apps did misuse data, it will ban them and notify users via Help Centre on its website.

Appearing before the US Congress in April, Zuckerberg told lawmakers that his own personal data was part of 87 million Facebook users that was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

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50,000
The approximate books in the library of what used to be Mahatma Gandhi's Bombay headquarters during the freedom struggle

360
Books read by Gandhi that are housed in the museum

45
Books written by Gandhi that are part of the collection log on to gandhi-manibhavan.org

Six
The number of double decker tram models in the collection, which ran in the city from 1920 to 1964. Two of them are still functional

One
A trolley bus model that ran on an electric route between Gowalia Tank and Mazgaon from 1962 to 1971

Five
The total types of ticket-issuing machines in the museum log on to bestundertaking.com

82,795
Total documents (the oldest being from 1830s; with papers revealing the genesis of the company, and architectural and technical drawings including those of typewriter keyboards in regional languages)

52,006
Photographs (oldest being from 1880s with some taken by well-known industrial photographer Mitter Bedi in 1970s) in the archives

1,266
Memorabilia (including the ballot box made for the first election of independent India, along with models of typewriters, that of a refrigerator from 1958, steel cupboard from 1930s, safes, etc.)
Log on to: archives.godrej.com

780
Clay models in the collection of the oldest museum in the city

92
Miniature paintings

230
Total metal objects including artefacts in brass, bronze, copper, bell metal, koftagiri, bidri and photographs on metal
Log on to: bdlmuseum.org

60,000
Total exhibits, which include paintings, sculptures and numismatic

5,000
Natural history specimens in the collection of which 430 are currently on display

2,000
Chinese and Japanese art exhibits in the collection of which 1,100 are on display

4,000
Indian and non-Indian paintings and prints
Log on to: csmvs.in

10,000
Total exhibits of Indian coinage, paper currency, financial instruments and monetary curiosities

1,500
Exhibits that provide a ringside view of the birth of currencies
Log on to: rbi.org.in

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India is to receive bank account information from HSBC, after Switzerland's highest court ruled that the bank is obligated to provide data requested where the leaked data has not been purchased.

Officials from Switzerland and India have discussed the automatic exchange of tax information and free trade.

Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration has announced the exchange of information on millions of financial accounts with 75 partner countries.

Jio has also announced new add-on data packs under work from home theme

Switzerland's agreements for the automatic exchange of financial account information with Hong Kong and Singapore have entered into force.

Appleby, the offshore law firm, has spoken out against recent media coverage, which implies but does not allege that there is wrongdoing in the papers recently exposed that include information on its clients' tax affairs.

Tax agencies from 31 countries discussed the ways they are using data analysis tools to improve tax enforcement and administration, at the first meeting of the IOTA Forum on Tax Debt Management, held in Prague, Czech Republic, On October 1-3, 2019.

Switzerland's agreements for the automatic exchange of financial account information with Hong Kong and Singapore have entered into force.

Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration has announced the exchange of information on millions of financial accounts with 75 partner countries.

The Australian Taxation Office has announced that it is expanding its data matching program to focus on information it receives from partner organizations on shares held by taxpayers.

The Australian Taxation Office has welcomed a significant ruling from Australia's High Court, which enables the tax agency to use information obtained from data leaks, even if leaked from a law firm.

Tax agencies from 31 countries discussed the ways they are using data analysis tools to improve tax enforcement and administration, at the first meeting of the IOTA Forum on Tax Debt Management, held in Prague, Czech Republic, On October 1-3, 2019.

Switzerland has made its first exchanges under the new international automatic exchange of information framework, the Common Reporting Standard.

Germany's IT systems are not ready for the VAT "quick fix" simplifications that entered into force on January 1, 2020, according to the European Commission.

A new IWMI partnership with Digital Earth Africa (DEA) will leverage state of the art remote-sensing and data management technologies to enhance the ability of African Governments, communities and companies to better manage their water.

IWMI plans to use the data from Futurepump’s 4,000 pumps to calculate how much water is being extracted at any given time, which can help governments ensure it is used sustainably, with limits on extraction or a shift to less water-intensive crops.

A new International Water Management Institute (IWMI) partnership with Digital Earth Africa (DEA [1]) will leverage state of the art remote-sensing and data management technologies to enhance the ability of African Governments, communities and companies to better manage their water.

And when it comes to adapting to climate change, knowledge is power, which is why a new programme to gather continent-wide information on water could be a game-changer.

The Centre has launched online data pool of human resource, comprising details of doctors, other healthcare professionals and auxiliary help, to fight against COVID-19.

A new IWMI partnership with Digital Earth Africa (DEA) will leverage state of the art remote-sensing and data management technologies to enhance the ability of African Governments, communities and companies to better manage their water.

A new International Water Management Institute (IWMI) partnership with Digital Earth Africa (DEA [1]) will leverage state of the art remote-sensing and data management technologies to enhance the ability of African Governments, communities and companies to better manage their water.

And when it comes to adapting to climate change, knowledge is power, which is why a new programme to gather continent-wide information on water could be a game-changer.

A network of solar irrigation pumps equipped with sensors that connect to the Internet will potentially provide a world first database of groundwater usage in sub-Saharan Africa.

Microsoft said its Cheyenne datacentre in Wyoming will now be powered entirely by 237 megawatts of wind energy.

Virginia-based security firm Kryptowire recently reported that there are few Android devices from a Chinese company that are infected with software that collects users’ personal information and conversation made through text messages and calls.

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Company: RM Infotech
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Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501)

Company: P & I Management Consultants
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According to a report, the number of coronavirus deaths reported by Lok Nayak Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College and the Delhi and Jhajjar centres of AIIMS stand at 116, while Delhi govt reported only 66 deaths until Thursday night.

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Company: Vibrant Hr Consultancy
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