EMMANUEL MACRON launched a fresh attack on NATO as he demanded fellow members "clarify the many issues" plaguing the alliance as he joined celebrations to mark the alliance's 70th Anniversary in London.
MELANIA TRUMP appeared to struggle as she walked down the steps of Air Force One in hand with US President Donald Trump on Monday night ahead of the NATO summit.
MELANIA TRUMP and Donald Trump were left awkwardly standing outside of Number 10 Downing street ahead of meeting Boris Johnson and other world leaders.
THE RAF feared they may accidentally drop a faulty nuclear bomb on the likes of Iran or Turkey during a risky weapons movement programme, documents seen by Express.co.uk reveal.
DONALD TRUMP alongside 28 other NATO leaders will meet today for formal talks as they gathered to mark the alliance's 70th anniversary. But how can you watch Donald Trump speaking live today?
JAPAN has waded into a bitter ongoing dispute involving its superpower neighbour China by purchasing an uninhabited island in the East China Sea, in an apparent attempt to shore up its defences.
MICHELLE OBAMA revealed she is going to donate more than half a million dollars from the sales off her memoirs merchandise to her foundation's efforts on girls' education.
Tepco removed tainted soil near the sports complex where the 2020 Olympic torch relay will start in Japan after Greenpeace Japan found radiation hot spots there, utility spokesman Koichiro Shiraki said Wednesday.
Tepco cleaned a tainted area in Fukushima prefecture on Tuesday after it conducted its own survey and found that the radiation level there exceeded the government-set tolerance level of 0.23 microsieverts per hour, Shiraki said. Humans on average are exposed to 2,400 microsieverts of radiation annually, according to Japan’s Ministry of the Environment.
“We are checking why the radiation level in the area was so high,” Shiraki said by telephone Wednesday. The tainted soil was moved to the cleanup site at the Fukushima Dai-Ni nuclear plant.
Radiation levels around J-Village sports training center in the town of Naraha in Fukushima were as high as 71 microsieverts per hour at surface level, according to the survey done by Greenpeace Japan.
“The report alarmed the Japanese authorities enough that they checked it, confirmed the data, and got the hotspot cleared up,” Andrew DeWit, a professor at Rikkyo University in Tokyo said in an email.
J-Village, built by Tepco opened in 1997, was Japan’s first national training center for soccer. It is located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Tepco’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, which suffered one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents after Japan’s northeast coast was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
J-Village was used for about seven years as a staging area for workers cleaning up the crippled nuclear plant. It has since re-opened as a sports facility, where it was used as a training ground for the Rugby World Cup this year. According to a monitor placed near the facilities headquarters, radiation levels were 0.111 microsieverts per hour on Wednesday afternoon.
Cleanup of Naraha after the 2011 nuclear disaster was completed in March 2014, paving the way for evacuees to return, according to Kishiko Yokoyama, deputy counselor at Japan’s Ministry of the Environment.
“We are waiting for the result of Tepco’s investigation into this case,“ Yokoyama said. The ministry may take additional measures if necessary, she said.
South Korean actor Cha In-ha was found dead in his home, police said Wednesday, making him the third young entertainer to die in the country in the last two months.
Police said the 27-year-old’s cause of death is not yet known, reports Reuters.
Cha, whose real name was Lee Jae-ho, made his film debut in 2017 and was previously a member of K-pop group Surprise U, which released two albums, according to Reuters.
The day before his death, the up-and-coming actor left an Instagram post urging fans to take care of themselves in the cold winter.
Cha’s talent agency, Fantagio, released a statement expressing “deep mourning for his passing.” It also cautioned against spreading rumors about what had happened to him.
The news about Cha comes after the recent deaths of two prominent female K-pop idols. On Nov. 24, 28-year-old Goo Hara was found dead in her Seoul home, while Sulli, 25, reportedly ended her life in October. Before her death, Sulli had spoken out about cyber bullying and the backlash she faced over her lifestyle.
The string of untimely deaths has sparked conversations in the country about the intense pressure and personal attacks Korean celebrities face. While the K-pop industry projects a wholesome image on stage and on screen, it has been rocked by recent reports of sexual abuse, as well as by a series of apparent suicides.
K-pop has gained popularity worldwide with viral sensations like BTS and Blackpink topping Billboard charts.
In August, BTS announced they were going on a “period of rest” in order to “enjoy the ordinary lives of young people in their 20s,” according to a statement by the group’s management company. The group has championed the topic of mental health, and spoken about how they were impacted by the suicide of mega star Kim Jong-Hyun from the group SHINee in December 2017.
After news of Cha’s death broke, fans posted condolences in several languages under his Instagram pictures. “So sad, breaks my heart,” one wrote.
(WASHINGTON) — The world continues to increase the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide it pumps into the air, but it’s not rising as fast as in the previous couple years.
Led by big jumps from China and India, the world is projected to spew 40.57 billion tons (36.8 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide into the air in 2019. That’s up nearly 255 million tons (231 million metric tons) from 2018, according to two scientific studies released Tuesday. The studies by Global Carbon Project, a group of international scientists who track emissions, show a 0.6% increase from last year.
In previous years, global carbon dioxide emissions grew by 2.1% and 1.5% after a few years in the mid 2010s when global emissions barely rose, according to the studies in Environmental Research Letters. Carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas has caused 1.8 degrees of warming (1 degree Celsius) since pre-industrial times and world leaders are meeting in Madrid to try to limit warming to another 1.8 degrees from now.
“Emissions grew more slowly than last year but we still set a global record. It’s hard to be upbeat about that,” said study co-author Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist. “The U.S. National Academy of Sciences sounded the alarm on carbon and climate 40 years ago. Since then, global carbon dioxide emissions have doubled, and the world is hurtling towards catastrophic climate change.”
The 2019 estimate is based on data through the first nine to ten months of the year, with a few national estimates based only on six months of data, said co-author Glen Peters, a climate scientist in Norway. Past projections have proven pretty accurate, he said.
That means every second this year people put 2.57 million pounds of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere. That’s the equivalent weight of two Airbus A380s, the world’s largest passenger airliner, going into the air every second.
Both the United States and the European Union saw emissions drop 1.7% from 2018 to 2019, but China saw a 2.6% increase and India had a 1.8% rise. China is by far the biggest carbon polluter, with 28% of the 2019 emissions. The United States is No. 2 at 14.5%.
“Generally, I think this is bad news. Not terrible news, but bad news,” said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald, who wasn’t part of the report. “A stronger switch from coal to solar or wind needs to happen to reach low climate targets.”
Led by 10% drops in both the United States and Europe, carbon pollution from coal dropped worldwide nearly 1% but increased 2.6% from cleaner natural gas, according to the studies. Coal still is the No. 1 source of man-made carbon pollution putting 16 billion tons (14.6 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide in the air this year, followed by oil and then gas. Coal generally emits 76% more carbon dioxide than natural gas to produce the same amount of energy, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“I don’t think we have completely seen the end of coal yet, but it is certainly in the death throes,” Peters said. “Though, I would imagine a slow and protracted decline of coal because of the young infrastructure in Asia.”
But with coal dropping or even just plateauing, it is now apparent that the world is not quite on the worst-case scenario carbon emissions path of the four charted by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Peters said. But the next two highest emission scenarios, which the world is closer to, are not “pleasant worlds to live in,” he said.
Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer, who wasn’t part of the study, called the numbers grim: “Stepping back and looking at 30 years of data, there is nothing at all that reveals any reason to be optimistic that the world is about to turn the corner on reducing carbon dioxide emissions.”
The United States, which is in the early part of a year-long process of pulling out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, has reduced its carbon dioxide pollution by 9.7% between 2000 and 2018, Jackson calculated. Critics of the Paris agreement said the U.S. is the world leader in reducing emissions, but Jackson’s numbers show 11 other nations have had bigger percentage cutbacks this century.
From 2000 to 2018, the United Kingdom has cut its carbon pollution by about one-third, Greece and Italy cut their emissions by more than 28%. At the same time, China’s carbon pollution has tripled and India’s has increased by 157%.
“The numbers show that the U.S. is not leading in terms of overall emissions reductions and this proves that we could be doing better,” said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck. “This highlights that more, not less, U.S. international leadership is urgently needed. I’m still hopeful we can turn this all around… If we don’t, the planet is cooked.”
(BEIRUT) — Lebanon’s outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Tuesday he supports the nomination of a prominent contractor to become the next premier, a move that will likely pave the way for the formation of a new Cabinet amid a severe economic and financial crisis.
The news of the possible nomination of Samir Khatib, the head of a major contracting and construction company, sparked spontaneous late-night protests. Hundreds gathered at a strategic intersection in Beirut, known as the Ring Road, blocking the road and chanting against Khatib. Security forces tried to prevent the protesters from blocking the road that links east to west Beirut, and after a warning, used tear gas to disperse them.
“We will not accept this as people, and we will not accept this as revolutionaries, because we know that we are heading toward the abyss with this government,” Elie Kayrouz, an anti-government protester at the Ring Road, said, describing Khatib and other names leaked to the media who may form the new Cabinet as connected to the outgoing one.
After briefly dispersing, protesters attempted to gather again to block the road.
Hariri resigned on Oct. 29 amid nationwide protests and a stalemate with political rivals over forming a new government. Meanwhile, Lebanon, one of the world’s most indebted countries in terms of debt-to GDP ratio, is reeling under the pressure of an unprecedented economic crunch that has only worsened amid the political crisis.
The currency has lost nearly 40 percent of its value in the face of the dollar. Lebanon is also grappling with high unemployment and an expected sharp contraction of the economy in 2020. Local banks have imposed capital control measures unseen before in the country known for its free-market economy.
Hariri withdrew his candidacy last week, saying he hoped it would clear the way for a solution to the political impasse amid nearly eight weeks of protests.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday night, Hariri said he backs Khatib to become the next prime minister. “There are still some details and God willing something good” will happen, he said. “Everyone is trying to get through this difficult period.”
Khatib heads one of Lebanon’s largest engineering and contracting companies and did not hold any political roles in the past. The protesters perceive him as too close to the ruling elite, against which they have been protesting, though it is not clear if his official nomination would spark wider protests.
Over the past weeks, politicians failed to agree on the shape and form of a new government. Hariri had insisted on heading a government of technocrats, while his opponents, including the militant group Hezbollah, want a Cabinet made up of both experts and politicians.
Asked if he is going to take part in the new Cabinet, Hariri said: “I will not nominate political personalities but experts.”
The protesters have been demonstrating against widespread corruption and mismanagement in the country. They have resorted to road closures and other tactics to pressure politicians into responding to their demands of forming a new government and holding new elections.
They have insisted that a new Cabinet be made up of independent figures outside the elite who have been running the country since the 1975-90 civil war ended.
President Michel Aoun now is expected to call for binding consultations with heads of parliamentary blocs to name the new prime minister. But since Hariri, the most powerful Sunni leader in the country, said he will back Khatib, the contractor is widely expected to get the post.
According to Lebanon’s sectarian-based political system, the prime minister comes from the Sunni Muslim community, while the president is chosen from the Maronite Christian community. The parliament speaker is chosen from the ranks of Shiite Muslims. Cabinet and parliament seats are equally split between Christians and Muslims.
Earlier in the day, outgoing Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil hinted that he will not be part of the new government telling reporters that “the success of the Cabinet is more important than our presence in it.
The protests late Tuesday come a day after protesters hurled stones at soldiers while opening a highway south of Beirut, injuring several troops. The Lebanese army said in a statement on Tuesday that one of the protesters in the town of Naameh fired bullets from a pistol the night before adding that the shooting made the troops fire in the air to disperse the protesters.
A landmark appeals court case is being heard in the U.K. challenging the government on the issue of gender neutral passports.
The U.K. government have refused to issue gender-neutral passports, which would include an option to mark ‘X’, indicating a holder’s sex as ‘unspecified’, rather than ‘F’ and ‘M’ for female and male. In June 2018, the U.K’s High Court ruled the government’s passport policy was lawful.
But the ruling is being appealed today at the U.K. Court of Appeal, in a case being brought by non-gendered activist Christie Elan-Cane. The hearing is expected to last two days.
Under current legislation, when applying for a U.K. passport, applicants must indicate whether they are male or female — affording no provision for those who do not identify with a gender. Elan-Cane argues that this is in breach of the right to respect for private life and the right to identify as non-gendered under the European Convention for Human Rights (ECHR).
Elan-Cane has campaigned for more than 25 years to promote the rights of people of non-gendered identity.
“It is unacceptable that someone who defines as neither male nor female is forced to declare an inappropriate gender in order to obtain a passport,” Elan-Cane said in a statement.
“The U.K. Government has consistently and consciously shown a determined unwillingness to accommodate non-gendered peoples’ legitimate needs,” Elan-Cane continued. “We are socially invisible and we are ‘inconvenient’ in a society where so much—even the legislative system— is bound and classified in accordance to gender.”
Currently, gender-neutral passports are permitted in a number of countries, such as Australia, Germany, Canada, and Pakistan. The U.K. government does recognize ‘X’ passports issued in another country as a valid travel document.
More than 80 U.K. members of parliament (MPs) supported a motion in 2017, which called for ‘X’ passports for people who do not associate with a particular gender. Only two MPs from the governing Conservative party signed the motion.
Anne Collins, who works as an associate for Clifford Chance, the law firm helping to represent Elan-Clare in the appeals case, argues that ‘X’ passports are crucial for human rights.
“This case raises important questions regarding the right to respect for individuals’ gender identity for those who do not identify exclusively as male or female, including members of the trans community, intersex people and those who identify as non-gendered,” Collins said in a statement.
“X Passports are crucial to the protection of the human rights of this group of individuals, and Clifford Chance is proud to be working with Christie to appeal the High Court’s decision on the issue,” she added.
The Home Office, which oversees the U.K.’s Passport Office, said that they were unable to comment because the case is ongoing.
President Donald Trump and French President Emanuel Macron held a tense meeting on the first day of the NATO summit in London, after exchanging harsh words about each other earlier in the press. The pair spoke about trade, immigration, combating terrorism, NATO, and the U.S.’s relationship with Turkey; all topics on which the two leaders disagree to an extent.
Earlier Tuesday morning, Trump had responded to Macron’s criticism in The Economist of the U.S.’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria without consulting NATO allies, a move Macron said was an example of the alliance “experiencing the brain death of NATO.”
“I think that’s very insulting,” the U.S. President had told reporters. “Nobody needs NATO more than France. And frankly, the one that benefits really the least is the United States… We’re helping Europe,” he continued. “I think when France makes a statement like they made about NATO, it’s a very dangerous statement to make.”
Sitting with Trump, Macron addressed his comments. “My statement created some reactions,” he said. “I do stand by it.”
The two went on to speak about Syria, in the meeting held before reporters. When asked if France had committed to take back detained ISIS fighters still in the region, Trump joked to Macron, “Would you like some nice ISIS fighters?”
“Let’s be serious,” Macron cooly responded, adding that there needs to be a larger push to defeat ISIS overall.
“This is why he’s a great politician, because that’s one of the greatest non-answers I’ve ever heard,” Trump responded.
Macron also brought up the issue of Syria earlier in the meeting. “When I look at Turkey, they are fighting against those who fight with us, shoulder to shoulder, against ISIS,” Macron said, turning to Trump. Trump decided to withdraw troops from the region after speaking with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the phone. President Erdogan subsequently launched an attack on Syrian Kurds following the U.S.’s withdrawal from the region, which some have argued constitutes ethnic cleansing. Syrian Kurds were key allies in the U.S.’s fight to defeat ISIS.
Macron also demanded “clarifications from the Turkish side” on its purchase of Russian-made air defense missile systems. “How is possible to be a member of the alliance … and to buy the S-400s from the Russians?” Macron asked.
Earlier that day, President Trump answered questions from reporters for nearly an hour. On top of Macron’s comments, the House of Representative’s impeachment inquiry, the trade war with China and the upcoming British election all came up.
The two-day summit is meant to mark the 70th anniversary of the geopolitical military alliance, and leaders from 29 countries will be attendance. Pressing foreign policy issues like North Korea’s nuclear program, Turkey’s assault on the Syrian Kurds and the rise of China will all likely come up. The assembling of global leaders also comes just nine days before the United Kingdom’s general election, which will determine whether U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in power.
What Did Trump say about Macron before their meeting?
He added that the U.S. is “turning its back on us.” Trump recently moved to cut a large part of its contribution to NATO’s collective budget, moving it from 22% of the budget to 16% of the budget, per CNN.
Macron warned other European countries that they can no longer depend on the U.S. to defend its allies, and said Europe needs to rethink its geopolitical strategy. “You have no co-ordination whatsoever of strategic decision-making between the United States and its NATO allies. None,” Macron said in the interview.
Speaking at a meeting Tuesday with NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, President Donald Trump responded to Macron’s comments.
“President Macron said that NATO is brain dead. I think that’s very insulting,” the President told reporters. He added it was a “very, very nasty statement” towards the world leaders at the summit. “Nobody needs NATO more than France. And frankly, the one that benefits really the least is the United States… We’re helping Europe,” he continued. “I think when France makes a statement like they made about NATO, it’s a very dangerous statement to make.”
The U.S. President is himself a longtime critic of NATO, having called it “obsolete” and campaigning on the promise to member countries “you gotta start paying your bills.”
The U.S. and France have also recently sparred over trade. France’s new digital services tax will affect U.S. tech companies like Google, Facebook and Apple, and in response the U.S. has said it might impose punitive duties on up to 100% of French imports of Cheese and Champagne, among other goods.
Macron and Trump once had a less adversarial relationship; Macron famously brought Trump to Bastille Day, a trip that went so well some described their friendship as a “bromance.” Those honeymoon days seem to be over.
What did Trump say about impeachment?
On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold its first public hearing of the ongoing impeachment inquiry into the President. Experts will speak about the legality of impeaching the President for pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, former Vice President and current 2020 presidential contender Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The White House declined the Committee’s invitation to take part in the hearing. The Judiciary Committee is tasked with deciding if the evidence against Trump warrants a formal House vote on his impeachment.
““I think it’s very unpatriotic of the Democrats,” Trump said, when asked about the inquiry. “I think it’s a very bad thing for our country.” Trump repeated that he “did nothing wrong” and called the Democrats “crazy.”
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are scheduled to release a report on Tuesday on their findings from the inquiry so far. The Republicans on the Committee will release a rebuttal.
What did Trump say about the U.K.?
The summit begins place just nine days before the U.K.’s general election on Dec. 12, which comes after months of political deadlock over the U.K.’s repeated failed attempts to reach a deal to exit the European Union.
Although he said he’s a “fan of Brexit,” Trump said “I’ll stay out of the election. He added that he thinks “Boris is very capable and he will do a good job,” but said he could “work with anybody.”
Trump schedule doesn’t currently include a one-on-one meeting with the British Prime Minister, despite the precent of the U.S. President usually meeting with the leader of the summit’s host country. However, Trump will meet with Johnson Tuesday night at meeting that includes several leaders, before heading to a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles.
What did Trump say about China?
The President also spoke on his ongoing trade war with China, and suggested he might delay plans to reach a deal. “The China trade deal is dependent on one thing: do I want to make it,” he said, adding that he has “no deadline.”
“In some ways I think it’s be better to wait until after the election [with China], you want to know the truth,” he continued.
The rise of China as a geopolitical force will likely come up again at the summit.
(LISBON, Portugal) — Climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in Portugal on Tuesday after a three-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, telling cheering supporters that the journey had “energized” her for the fight against climate change.
The Swedish teen, whose one-woman protests outside the Swedish parliament helped inspired a global youth movement, sailed into the port of Lisbon after making a last-minute dash back from the United States to attend this year’s U.N. climate conference.
Thunberg has been steadfast in her refusal to fly because of the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by planes, a stance that put her planned appearance at the meeting in doubt when the venue was moved from Chile to Spain a month ago.
“We’ve all been on quite an adventure,” Thunberg told reporters shortly after stepping off the catamaran La Vagabonde, on which she’d hitched a ride back home to Europe. “It feels good to be back.”
Thunberg’s appearances at past climate meetings have won her plaudits from some leaders — and criticism from others who’ve taken offense at the angry tone of her speeches.
“I think people are underestimating the force of angry kids,” Thunberg said. “If they want us to stop being angry, then maybe they should stop making us angry.”
The 16-year-old said she planned to spend several days in the Portuguese capital before heading to Madrid, where delegates from nearly 200 countries are discussing how to tackle global warming.
“We will continue the fight there to make sure that within those walls the voices of the people are being heard,” she said.
The white 48-foot (15-meter) yacht carrying Thunberg, her father Svante, an Australian family and professional sailor Nikki Henderson sailed into Lisbon amid blue skies, with a small flotilla of boats escorting it to harbor.
Her trip contrasted with the many air miles flown by most of the U.N. meeting’s 25,000 attendees.
Thunberg wanted a low-carbon form of transport to get to the climate meeting, which was switched at short notice to Spain from Chile due to unrest there.
The yacht leaves little or no carbon footprint when its sails are up, using solar panels and hydro-generators for electricity.
“I am not traveling like this because I want everyone to do so,” said Thunberg. “I’m doing this to sort of send the message that it is impossible to live sustainable today, and that needs to change. It needs to become much easier.”
Chile’s Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt, saluted Thunberg’s role speaking out about the threat of climate change.
“She has been a leader that has been able to move and open hearts for many young people and many people all over the world,” Schmidt told The Associated Press at the summit in Madrid.
“We need that tremendous force in order to increase climate action,” she said.
Near to the conference, some 20 activists cut off traffic in central Madrid and staged a brief theatrical performance to protest climate change.
Members of the international group called Extinction Rebellion held up a banner in Russian that read: “Climate Crisis. To speak the truth. To take action immediately.”
Some activists jumped into a nearby fountain while others threw them life jackets. They chanted: “What Do We Want? Climate Justice.”
Others dressed in red robes with their faces whitened to symbolize the human species’ peril danced briefly before police moved in to end the protest.
Meanwhile, the U.N. weather agency released a new report showing that the current decade is likely to set a new 10-year temperature record, providing mounting evidence that the world is getting ever hotter.
Preliminary temperature measurements show the years from 2015 to 2019 and from 2010 to 2019 “are, respectively, almost certain to be the warmest five-year period and decade on record,” the World Meteorological Organization said.
“Since the 1980s, each successive decade has been warmer than the last,” the agency said.
While full-year figures aren’t released until next March, 2019 is also expected to be the second or third warmest year since measurements began, with 2016 still holding the all-time temperature record, it said.
This year was hotter than average in most parts of the world, including the Arctic. “In contrast a large area of North America has been colder than the recent average,” the U.N. said.
The World Meteorological Organization’s annual report, which brings together data from numerous national weather agencies and research organizations, also highlighted the impacts of climate change including declining sea ice and rising sea levels, which reached their highest level this year since high-precision measurements began in 1993.
___
Jordans reported from Berlin.
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PSTET Syllabus 2019 – Punjab State Education Board is going to conduct the exam on 22nd December 2019 to fill the various Teacher’s vacancies. Candidates who are done with the registration process for the Punjab State TET Exam get complete details regarding the syllabus and the exam pattern. For the reference of candidates, we have provided the exam pattern details and Syllabus in this article. Go through the section and start preparing for the Punjab TET Exam 2019.
Candidates have to answer the 150 MultiChoice Questions within 2 hours 30 Minutes. There is No Negative Marking for the Wrong Answers. So start the preparation for the PSTET Exam with reference to Punjab TET Previous Papers. Download the PSTET Syllabus 2019 PDF through the link given below. Get more information about the Examination to achieve your Teacher Job in Punjab State Education Board.
Competitors who have applied for the PSTET Exam 2019 should be qualified among the selection rounds conducted by the State Council of Educational Research & Training, Punjab.
Written Examination.
Interview.
PSTET Exam Syllabus 2019
Paper I – Primary Teachers (Classes I To V)
I. Child Development and Pedagogy
Child Development (Primary School Child)
Concept of Inclusive Education and understanding children with special needs
Learning and Pedagogy
II. Language- I (Punjabi)
Language Comprehension
Pedagogy of Language development
III. Language – II (English)
Comprehension
Pedagogy of Language development
IV. Mathematics
Content
Pedagogical Issues
V. Environmental Studies
Content
Pedagogical Issues
Paper-II –Secondary Teachers (Classes VI To VIII)
I. Child Development and Pedagogy
Child Development ((Elementary School Child)
Concept of Inclusive Education and understanding children with special needs
TS Postal Result 2019 will be released soon @ appost.in. Telangana Postal Circle announced the recruitment of GDS Posts. Many Candidates have applied for TS Postal Gramin Dak Sevak posts. Candidates start searching for the TS postal results date 2019. Here, we are there to help regarding this search. Therefore, the India Post Ministry Of Communications is planning to declare the TS postal results in the month of December 2019 (Tentatively). Hence, we will update the link to download the TS postal exam results after the official announcement. And also, aspirants can get details of TS Postal GDS Cut Off Marks, Merit List 2019 from this site.
TS Postal Result 2019 – Download TS GDS Result here
India Post has announced this Postal recruitment is to fill 970 vacancies of GDS in the Telangana postal department. Moreover, TS Postal Gramin Dak Sevak Result 2019 is completely based on the marks obtained by the Candidates in the SSLC/10th Examination. On this page, we have also given the direct link to check all-State Postman & Mail Guard Result 2019 Indian Post Office Result 2019. So, all the applicants can download the Telangana Gramin Dak Sevak Result 2019 by using this webpage. And the Telangana Post Office GDS Result 2019 link will activate at the time of the official announcement.
Telangana Gramin Dak Sevak Result 2019- Overview
Telangana Postal Circle GDS Merit List 2019 – Get Cut off Marks
The aspirants who applied for the Telangana Post Office GDS recruitment can get information about the Telangana Gramin Dak Sevak Merit List 2019. TS Post GDS Selected Candidates List 2019 will decide, after the completion of the Document Verification Process. Candidates will get details about Gramin Dak Sevak Result online mode. And also, we gave information like how to download the Telangana GDS Result 2019, Document Verification and other related details. We gave a direct link to download TS Postal Result 2019
TS Postal GDS Cut Off Marks 2019
In this section, we can have the information about the Telangana Postal GDS Cut Off Marks 2019. The TS GDS Cut Off Marks will be based on the candidate’s performance in their 10th Exam. The Board will provide TS Postal GDS Cut Off Marks 2019 according to the categories of SC, ST, OBC, Physically handicapped.
Telangana GDS Merit List 2019
Here, we can see about TS Postal GDS Merit List 2019. Most importantly, the Selection is purely based on the Maximum marks scored in the 10th class. Hence, Candidates with a high score can get a chance in Ts Postal Department. In the upcoming section, we have given a stepwise procedure to access the TS Postal GDS Result 2019.
How to download Telangana GDS Result 2019?
Firstly, Candidates must visit the official website of the Gramin Dak Sevak Engagement portal www.appost.in.
Then, on the home page, search for the "Results" tab.
Click on the "Telangana ( 970 Posts)" link.
The desired merit list for Telangana GDS will be download by clicking the respective link
Finally, Check the name in the Telangana Postal Circle GDS Result 2019
MGU Results 2019 released by Mahatma Gandhi University for MPEd, B.Ed, MTTM, and various other courses. Aspirants who had written the semester exam can check out for the direct links from the below section of this page. Candidates can get the Mahatma Gandhi University UG/ PG Semester Exam Results. The direct links provided below will take you at the official site of the university without any confusion. Hence, Check other information of MGU Kerala Results in the below sections of this page. Also, visit the official website i.e, mgu.ac.in to know about admissions & course details.
MGU Exam Results 2019 @mgu.ac.in
Students of Mahatma Gandhi University here is great news for you all. Get the updated Regular, Supplementary, Revaluation results for the Mahatma Gandhi University. As the university offers all kinds of courses like UG/PG/Ph.D. and other courses people from all over Kerala are studying. Candidates can evaluate their performance through below attached links. Make sure you get down the full section. Also, find the latest updates about MG University Results included with MGU UG 1st year Results 2019.
MGU Result 2019-20 Released
Examination Name
Result Link
IV Semester MPEd (Regular 2017 admission, Supplementary) Degree Examinations June 2019
I Semester Master of Travel and Tourism Management (Regular MTTM 2018 admission, Supplementary MTTM 2016,2017 Admission & Supplementary MTA prior to 2016 Admission onwards) Degree Examinations December 2018
Ist (First) Year BSc Medical Radiological Technology (MRT) – Supplementary – (Prior to 2016 Admission & 2016 Admission) Degree Examination December 2018
Mahatma Gandhi University was established on 2 Oct 1983 in Kerala State. The university has 100 affiliated colleges over 5 districts in central Kerala. It is also known as MG University. MGU is one of the top 50 Universities in India. It is only the university from south India. This university offers maximum of 299 academic programs like Bachelor's, Masters, Doctoral degrees in the fields of Pure and Applied Sciences, Technology, Paramedical Studies, Nursing, Management, Engineering, Gandhian Thought, International Relations, Politics, Physics, Nano Science, Disability Studies, Rehabilitation Sciences, Special Education, Psychology, Behavioral Medicine, Tourism, Journalism, Chemical Sciences, Polymer Engineering, Hospital Administration, Environmental Sciences, Disaster Management, Business Studies, Commerce, Economics, Arts, Pedagogical Studies, Hotel and Hospitality Management, Catering Science etc.
Regular/ Supplementary Results for MGU
Students of MGU should get to know the details regarding the Revaluation Results. Once after the main examination is conducted, the University will give you one more chance. In case you fail or score low marks in the semester exam, the university will give you a second chance called Revaluation mode. Applicants do check with the Official Website to know about the Revaluation procedure. Students can get the Regular, Revaluation and Supplementary Results for the MGU here. This Revaluation process may take a few weeks to process the results.
Through the process of revaluation, students can increase their semester exam ranking or those who failed in the examination will get a chance to pass. The exam paper will be evaluated once again for those who have applied for the Revaluation process. So, we advise the candidates to stay updated with our webpage or with the Official website to gather more information about the MGU Revaluation Results.
Do you want CBSE Sample Papers for Class 10? Don’t worry. The CBSE Sample Papers for Class 10 2019 are available here to download. Hence, the students who are going to appear for the Class 10 Final Exams can refer our provided CBSE Last Year Question Papers. You can get papers for all subjects. All the papers are given according to the Latest CBSE Syllabus 2019 and Exam Pattern. Refer these papers and prepare well for the exam. The CBSE Solved Question Papers for Class 10 are prepared by the experienced faculties of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Therefore, don’t waste your time and start preparation with the help of these papers from now. If you practice CBSE Model Question Papers for Class 10, you will understand how the questions are asking for the examination.
CBSE Sample Papers for Class 10 – www.cbse.nic.in
Name of the Education Board
Central Board of Secondary Education
Class Name
10th Class
Previous Papers available subjects
English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Maths, Science, Social Science, etc
CBSE Latest Exam Pattern for Class 10 | CBSE Syllabus
Scholastic Area:
Total 100 Marks (Syllabus for assessment will be Only Class-X)
Subjects
80 Marks (Board Examination)
Student has to secure 33% marks out of 80 marks in each subject
20 Marks (Internal Assessment) Student has to secure 33% marks out of overall 20 marks earmarked in each subject
Periodic Test (10 Marks)
Notebook Submission (5 Marks)
Subject Enrichment Activity (5 Marks)
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
Language 1
Board will conduct Class-X Examination for 80 marks in each subject covering 100% syllabus of the subject of Class-X only.
Individuals Subjects includes Grades and Marks.
9-point grading will be same as followed by the Board in Class XII.
Periodic written Test, restricted to three in each subject in an Academic Year. Average of the best will considered for final result calculation.
This will cover:
Regularity
Assignment & Completion
Neatness & upkeep of notebook
Speaking and listening skills
Language 2
Speaking and listening skills
Science
Practical Lab work
Mathematics
Maths Lab Practical
SocialScience
Map Work and Project Work
6th Additional Subject
Scheme of studies for the 6th additional subject is detailed in Annexure – I. Note: In case, student opts a language as 6th additional subject the modalities defined for Languages 1 and 2 shall follow.
(i) Periodic Test (10 Marks):
All the schools must conduct three periodic written tests in the entire academic year and the final result will include the average of the best two. However, for the purpose of gradient learning, CBSE Board is conducting three tests, one is the mid-term test and other the two are pre mid and post mid-term.
(ii) Notebook Submission (5 Marks):
Notebook submission as a part of the internal assessment is aimed at enhancing seriousness of students towards preparing notes for the topics being taught in the classroom as well as assignments. This also addresses the critical aspect of regularity, punctuality, neatness and notebook upkeep.
(iii) Subject Enrichment Activities (5 Marks):
These are subject-specific application activities aimed at the enrichment of the understanding and skill development. These activities are to be recorded internally by respective subject teachers.
Languages: Activities conducted for subject enrichment in languages should aim at equipping the learner to develop effective speaking and listening skills.
Mathematics: They need to follow the listed laboratory activities and projects, as given in the prescribed publication of CBSE/NCERT.
Science: They need to carry out listed practical works/activities as per the CBSE curriculum.
Social Science: They also need to undertake map and project work as per the CBSE curriculum.
Co-Scholastic Activities:
Every school should include co-curricular activities for the holistic development of the student. These activities will be graded on a 5-point grading scale (A to E).
Activity
To be graded on a 5-point scale (A-E) in school
Areas and Objectives (as prescribed in the Scheme of Studies for Subjects of Internal Assessment)
Work Education or Pre-Vocational Education
By the concerned Teacher
Work education is a distinct curricular area for students for participation in social, economic and welfare activities. Student gets a sense of community service and develops self-reliance.(for Pre-Vocational Education as per Scheme of Studies)
Health & Physical Education (Sports / Martial Arts / Yoga / NCC etc.)
By the PE Teacher
Health & Physical Activity preferably sports must be given a regular period. Students should be provided opportunities to get professionally trained in the area of their interest. Indigenous sports, yoga and NCC must be encouraged in the schools creating a sense of physical fitness, discipline, sportsmanship, patriotism, self-sacrifice and health care.
Art Education
By the VA/PA or the concerned teacher
Art Education constitutes an important area of curricular activity for the development of wholesome personality of the students. Students will select one or more forms of creative arts.
Latest CBSE Previous Year Question Paper for Class 10 Pdf
The CBSE Board Sample Papers for Class 10 are very useful for those students who are going to appear for the upcoming Class 10 Examination. It will help the student to gain good marks in the examination. The 10th class is the basis for the higher education. So, students must score high marks in the examination. Hence, to help those people with proper guidance, we have provided CBSE Sample Papers for Class 10 with Solutions. Candidates can check the subject wise CBSE Question Paper Class 10 SA1 & SA2 from the below free downloading links.
Advantages of Practicing CBSE Previous Paper for Class 10
By referring the Previous Year Question Papers for Class 10 CBSE, you will get an idea of Exam Pattern and difficulty of the paper.
Also, you can find the same questions from the CBSE Board Sample Papers for Class 10 Science SA2.
Since the previous year papers cover the entire syllabus, you can answer any question by practicing those papers.
After attempting the CBSE Sample Papers for Class 10, evaluate your answers with the key. By doing this, you can remember the mistakes done by you. So that you cannot repeat them again in the final examination.
Direct Links to Download Free Solved Sample Papers for Class 10 CBSE
The interested students can find the free downloading links for CBSE Class 10 Previous Year Question Papers Pdf. So, download the materials by clicking on the links of the Last Year Question Paper of CBSE Class 10.
But don’t forget that these papers are only for the purpose of reference. So, never think that Central Board of Secondary Education Class 10 Question Papers alone is sufficient for the exam. Hence, prepare all the topics in the prescribed syllabus and use the sample papers for testing your level of knowledge. Interested students can also download the Central Board of Secondary Education Practice Papers of Class 10 from the official website www.cbse.nic.in.
LIC AAO Result 2019 Released – Here we have provided the Latest important updates regarding LIC AAO Result 2019. Candidates can check all essential details of LIC AAO Result 2019 & LIC AAO Mains Result 2019 instantly here and Through this LIC AAO Result schedule, candidates can make the strategy for the Preparation of exam. Also here on this page, we have provided a direct link to check the recent updates on LIC AAO Result & Mains Result. All important dates for results and related events are in the following table below. We furnish up to date information on LIC AAO Result upon official release/publishing of results by LIC. Those who have qualified the Examination can download the respective Admit cards and attend the Main Examination very Well. Follow the article and keep yourself updated on LIC AAO Result.
LIC AAO Final Result 2019Declared– Life Insurance Corporation has announced the LIC AAO Final Result on 30th November 2019. LIC Assistant Administrative Officer 2019 interview scheduled on 07th August 2019. The Candidates who have done the LIC AAO Interview process can check your results from the below link as well as on the official website i.e, www.licindia.in.Check your results via the link mentioned below. Hence, all those might be looking for the LIC Assistant Administrative Officer Final result now!
LIC AAO Final Result 2019 – Click Here LIC AAO Final Result 2019 (Generalist) – Click Here LIC AAO Final Result (CA) – Click Here LIC AAO Final Result 2019 (IT) – Click Here LIC AAO Final Result 2019 (Rajbhasha) – Click Here LIC AAO Final Result 2019 (Actuarial) – Click Here
LIC AAO Mains Result 2019 – Life Insurance Corporation has announced the LIC AAO Final Exam Result 2019 on 29th July 2019. LIC Assistant Administrative Officer 2019 Main examination held on 28th June 2019. The Candidates who have attended the LIC AAO interview can check your results from the below link as well as on the official website i.e, www.licindia.in. Check your results via the link mentioned below. Hence, all those might be looking for the LIC Assistant Administrative Officer result now!
LIC AAO Result 2019 – Life Insurance Corporation has announced the LIC AAO Result 2019 on 05th June 2019. LIC Assistant Administrative Officer 2019 preliminary examination held on 04th & 05th May 2019. The Candidates who have done LIC AAO Preliminary Examination can check the results from the official website i.e, www.licindia.in. Those who have been shortlisted from this Preliminary Examination should attend the Main Exam which is scheduled on 28th June 2019. Check your results via the link mentioned below. Hence, all those might be looking for the LIC Assistant Administrative Officer result now!
LIC AAO Online Exam is the first and only stage of Written Examination. Candidates are expected to secure both Sectional and Overall cut off to be shortlisted for the next process. LIC first publishes the list of shortlisted candidates in PDF format and candidates can check the PDF to know their result. Mark sheet/Scorecard and Cut Off marks are released after a few days of the declaration of results. The result published specifies the eligible candidates for the next phase of the selection process.
After the preliminary exam, the marks of candidates are calculated. Then those who obtain cut off marks as fixed by LIC of India are declared as shortlisted for Mains exam. Marks in prelims are not considered for final merit. LIC of India will release LIC AAO Cut Off 2019 with the final result. Candidates who appeared in the preliminary exam held in online mode can check whether they qualified it or not through LIC AAO Result 2019. Candidates should clear sectional as well as overall cut off.
LIC AAO 2019 Scorecard | www.licindia.in
Candidates can finally check individual score through scorecard of LIC AAO Result 2019. Last and final round of selection process that determines merit, is interview round. The final merit list is compiled using marks of the interview as well as the main exam. However, there will be minimum qualifying marks in the interview also. Those who qualify as per this list have to then go for pre-recruitment medical examination. However, get ready with your hall ticket and follow the steps to check your results.
How to check LIC AAO Final Result 2019?
Visit the official website of LIC Life Insurance Corporation of India i.e, www.licindia.in
In the home page Click on the Careers link from the bottom
In that Click on the Recruitment of Assistant Administrative Officer 2019 link
You can see the links which related to the AAO Post
Everyone can click on the appropriate result link
Download or take a print of the LIC AAO Result for further reference.
Here is the CBSE Sample Papers for Class 9. Interested students who are going to appear for the upcoming Class 9 Examination can download these papers from the links. All the Latest Previous year Question Paper of CBSE Class 9 Maths, Physics, Social, Science, Sanskrit, Hindi are available on this page. Hence, the students can refer those CBSE Board Sample Papers with Solutions Pdf to start their preparation. We have updated the resources as per the Central Board of Secondary Education Latest Syllabus and Exam Pattern. These papers contain the entire previously asked question. The Previous Year Question Papers of CBSE Class 9 are given by the experts of the board. Hence, students who are studying in 9th Class can make use of these CBSE Solved Previous Year Questions for their preparation. Candidates can also visit the official website i.e., www.cbse.nic.in for more CBSE Question Papers along with their Solutions.
CBSE Sample Papers for Class 9 2019 Details – www.cbse.nic.in
Name of the Board
Central Board of Secondary Education
Class Name
9th Class
Sample Papers Available Subjects
English, Hindi, Maths, Science, Social Studies, Sanskrit
Latest CBSE Exam Pattern for Class 9 | CBSE Syllabus
The assessment comprises of two terms i.e., Term-1 and Term-2.
Subjects
TERM-1 (100 Marks) (1st half of the session)
20 Marks Periodic Assessment + 80 Marks for Half Yearly Exam
TERM-2 (100 Marks) (2nd half of the session)
20 Marks Periodic Assessment + 80 Marks for Yearly Exam
Language 1
Language 2
Mathematics
Language 3
Science
Social Science
Any other subjects
PA 20 marks
Periodic Test 10 marks with syllabus covered till announcement of test dates by school
NoteBook Submission 5 marks at term-end
Sub Enrichment 5 marks at term-end
Half Yearly Exam
Written Exam will be of 80 marks with syllabus covered till announcement of Half Yearly exam dates by school
PA 20 marks
Periodic Test 10 marks with syllabus covered till announcement of test dates by school
NoteBook Submission 5 marks at term-end
Sub Enrichment 5 marks at term-end
Yearly Exam
Written Exam will be of 80 marks with syllabus covered as below:
10% of 1st term covering significant topics + entire Syllabus of 2nd term
Download CBSE Previous Year Question Papers Class 9 with Answers
The CBSE Class 9 Question papers are very important for the students to pass the 9th class exam with good marks. Hence for the sake of students, we provide all the CBSE Previous Question Papers for various subjects on this page. Also, we gave the complete CBSE Syllabus and Exam Pattern for class 9 in the below section. Therefore, students appearing for the Class 9 exam can click on the links to download and use these CBSE Sample Papers for Class 9 SA1 and SA2 exams.
The given CBSE Sample Question Papers are prepared by experienced faculties as per the latest exam pattern and new syllabus.
All the Class 9th Practice Papers are in Pdf format and are available for free download.
CBSE Class 9 Sample Papers will give you an idea of questions asked in the exam.
By practicing these CBSE Previous Papers of Class IX SA1, you will get perfection of all the topics in the syllabus.
The questions papers are prepared on different difficulty levels and cover the entire syllabus. Hence, when you practice these papers, you can answer any type of the question in the exam.
The weak students will also Pass in the Examination without any worry about Fail by studying all the questions in the sample papers.
Central Board of Secondary Education Question Papers – Free Download PDF
Students of 9th class can download Central Board of Secondary Education Exam Papers from the free downloading links given below. Students can also download CBSE Class 9 Sample Papers from the official website www.cbse.nic.in.
DDU Result 2019 – Hello Students !! Yes, Let’s start to check your results from this Webpage. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University has declared the results for the various courses every day. Students who have appeared for those Examinations can check the DDU Result 2019 from the official website of the University i.e, ddugu.ac.in. Currently, the University has released the results for Journalism, P.G. Diploma, M.A. Political Science (Final), M.A. Visual Art (Fine Art) Previous, M.A Education, M.A Urdu, M.A English, M.A Political Science, M.A Urdu, and others. We are here to help you out the candidates, We have updated the latest results and provided a direct link to get your results.
DDU Result 2019 | DDUGU Results 2019
Here on this page, we have updated all the latest information regarding the DDU Result, Exam Time Table, Admit Card and others. The Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University conducts various Examinations for Undergraduate, Postgraduate of Regular and Supplementary Courses, All the Students can get the results from this web page recruitment.guru. Also, We used to update the latest updates regarding the DDU Results. Also, we will be providing the Upcoming DDU Result link, once it gets officially announced by the University. We advise the Students to click on the below link to get the DDU Result 2019.
Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University or simply Gorakhpur University is located in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. The University of Gorakhpur is a teaching and residential-cum-affiliating University. It actually started functioning since 1 September 1957, when the faculties of Commerce, Law, Arts, and Education were started. In the following year, 1958, the faculty of science came into being. Faculties of Medicine, Engineering, and Agriculture came into existence in later years. Graduates from the Chemistry Department are traditionally well respected and serving nationally and internationally at various top and responsible positions.
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University Supply/Revaluation Results
Those students who have attended the regular examination under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University and still failed. Here comes one more opportunity to clear the examination. To increase the scoring along with that students to fail in the previous examination will get a chance to clear through Revaluation Exams Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University Results. For each and every semester Students can apply for the revaluation after the announcement of the main examination results. The Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University will take a week or more to process the exam papers to announce the Revaluation results. Do stay updated with the University to know about the Revaluation Exam Results.
Supreme Court Result 2019 – All the candidates who were appeared in the written examination of the Supreme Court Jr. Court Attendant / Chamber Attendant, Law Clerk now searching for the result. The Result of Supreme Court JCA/CA Written Exam 2019 has published on the official website at www.sci.gov.in in. We have shared the direct link to check your results here. Interested candidates can follow the below given direct link to check the Supreme Court Jr. Court Attendant Result and SCI Law Clerk Final Result 2019.
Latest Update: Supreme Court Has Released Junior Court Attendant & Chamber Attendant Written Exam Result For Skill Test…Check Your Result & Qualified Candidates List Through The Links Given Below
Supreme Court of India Personal Assistant Result 2019 – Dear Applicants!! Supreme Court of India has conducted the Senior Personal Assistant (SPA), Personal Assistant (PA) Written Examination on 01st December 2019. And the Board is planning to release the Supreme Court of India PA, SPA Result 2019 in the month of December 2019 (Tentatively). So, the aspirants can Check Personal Assistant Result 2019 using our webpage. And also can download the Supreme Court of India SPA, PA Merit List, Cut Off Marks 2019. Hence, Candidates can visit this page frequently to get the latest updates about Supreme Court Results.
Supreme Court of India SPA, PA Result 2019
Organization Name
Supreme Court of India
Post Name
Senior Personal Assistant (SPA), Personal Assistant (PA)
SCI Senior Personal Assistant, Personal Assistant Result 2019 – Click Here
Junior Court & Chamber Attendant Result 2019 – Dear Applicants!! We know that everyone may wait for the Supreme Court Exam Result 2018-2019. Finally, the Supreme Court of India is all set to release the Supreme Court Junior Court and Chamber Attendant Result 2018-2019. We are here to help you out from the Result announcement. Because we have provided a quick link to analyze your result with other candidates and predict your result. Applicants can click the below link to download your Junior Court & Chamber Attendant Result 2019.
Junior Court & Chamber Attendant Result 2019 – Released Roll Number wise result of Written Test for the post-Junior Court Attendant – Click Here Roll Number wise result of Written Test for the post of Chamber Attendant (R) – Click Here List of candidates shortlisted to appear in the Skill Test for the post of Junior Court Attendant – Click Here List of candidates shortlisted to appear in the Skill Test for the post of Chamber Attendant (R) – Click Here
SCI Law Clerk Final Result 2019 – Supreme court of India (SCI) has recently uploaded the final result for the Post of Law Clerk Recruitment 2019 on 30th July 2019. Those candidates who have appeared this Recruitment Exam can download the Final result now. Here we have provided a quick link to check and download your SCI Law Clerk Final Result 2019. Supreme Court of India (SCI) has declared the Law Clerk Interview Result. Candidates can download the Result from the link provided in the table. However, applicants can check your results from the official website www.sci.gov.in.
The higher officials of the Supreme Court of India have announced the preliminary Examination Answer Key for both Junior Court Attendant and Chamber Attendant. Applicants who have taken part in the Supreme Court Attendant Examination can check their answers with the Answer Key. It will help the Candidates to know their status. Also, we advise the applicants to prepare for the next round of Interviews. The Supreme Court Attendant Merit List 2018-2019 and Cut off Marks will announce it by officials.
Supreme Court Exam 2018-19, the officials will publish the Cut Off Marks list. This will play an important role in the Interview and it will help to attain the Merit List. Candidates should get the minimum or equal to the Cut Off Marks. The Cutoff marks will differ for every candidate. Because the officials will consider some categories to set the Cutoff marks for all candidates. For all these, Candidates should secure more marks, so that it will be easy for the Applicants to achieve the Supreme Court JCA and Chamber Attendant Result 2018-2019 Cut Off Marks.
Supreme Court Attendant Merit List 2018-2019 | Supreme Court Result
After Uploading the Supreme Court Attendant Result 2018-2019 the officials will publish the Merit List. Supreme Court Attendant Merit List 2018-2019 will consist of Name of the Candidates, Marks. If the Candidates name will appear in the top merit list, they will get a huge priority in their Interview Process. According to the merit list, the Candidates will be select in the Interview. Therefore, based on the Merit list they will call for the Interview Process.
Steps to check Supreme Court Attendant Result 2018-2019
FirstlyApplicants should click the official website Supreme Court of India link i.e. www.sci.gov.in
Secondly, In the Home page, click on the Recruitment button which on the left side of the page
Candidates need to click on the Supreme Court Attendant Result 2018-2019 tab
Now they can see the Supreme Court Junior Court and Chamber Attendant Result 2018-2019 in PDF format
Check the name and marks which is mentioned in the result
Finally, Download or take a print out of the file for further reference.
Direct link to download Supreme Court Result 2018-19
Even professional tax preparers can make mistakes. Make sure to choose a tax advisor that is qualified, but here's what to do in case a mess up happens.
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While a falling unemployment rate sounds like a good thing, it can actually be indicative of people leaving the labor force because they can't find a job.
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Rights of accumulation are rights that allow a shareholder to receive reduced sales commission charges when the amount of mutual funds purchased plus the amount already held equals a rights of accumulation (ROA) breakpoint.
Explore the factors that make Belize one of the most modern and corporate-friendly tax havens in the world, including its tax policies and privacy protections.
Find out how Giphy's GIF content library and GIF creator work, and how the recent startup expects to make money from advertising and content licensing deals.
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Understand the maximum Social Security benefit amount for someone retiring at full retirement age and the basics of how benefit amounts are calculated.
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A nondiscrimination rule states that all employees of a company are able to receive the same benefits, regardless of their position within the company.
MUMBAI: Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal's ArcelorMittal has approached the government seeking immunity from likely future investigations pertaining to Essar Steel and its erstwhile promoters, the Ruia family, four people familiar with the matter told ET.Mittal wants to avoid a recurrence of any controversy akin to the one involving Bhushan Power and Steel (BPSL), when the Enforcement Directorate attached the firm's assets after it was acquired by JSW Steel from the National Company Law Tribunal.ArcelorMittal has told government officials and ministers that any future or ongoing probe into past dealings of the Ruia family should not impact the assets of Essar Steel. The steel giant has reached out to the home, finance, law and defence ministries, according to one of the persons. "ArcelorMittal has held talks with several ministers and civil servants, and has received a positive reply," said a person aware of the developments. "It has been a long battle for the Mittals, and this is their way of preventing future troubles after they transfer money to the banks. ArcelorMittal is very clear it doesn't want any ambiguity around any present or future liabilities," the person said.ArcelorMittal declined to comment. Questionnaires sent to the four ministries did not elicit a response till press time Tuesday. 72358050 Essar Steel was admitted to the bankruptcy court in June 2017 and several bidders showed interest, including ArcelorMittal, which finally bagged the asset after numerous legal and procedural twists and turns. ArcelorMittal wants legal clarity from the government before it transfers money into the escrow account."Banks are yet to receive the money, but they are hopeful it will come in before the end of the month, which will help bump up their December quarter earnings," another person, requesting anonymity.Mittal's worries stem from the BPSL case, where the ED attached assets of the company after it was taken over by JSW Steel. The agency was investigating the Singal family, the former promoters of BPSL, on charges of money laundering.In October, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) came down heavily on the ED and directed it to release BPSL's assets. "You are going to kill the economy of the country... (You are) playing with fire," the NCLAT bench headed by Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya told the agency. "No outsider will come and purchase (distressed companies)... IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code) cannot be annulled in this manner. Money laundering is by an individual," it said.The Supreme Court last month reinforced the supremacy of the committee of creditors and financial lenders in deciding the payment schedule for creditors in bankruptcy cases, clearing the decks for ArcelorMittal's purchase of Essar Steel.Lenders will recover almost 92% of the Rs 54,500-crore owed to them by Essar Steel. Operational creditors will receive Rs 1,196 crore. Banks, which have made provisions of 50-100% for Essar Steel, will not only be able to improve provision coverage ratios but also consider write-backs that will boost profits.
NEW DELHI: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is set to embark on a comprehensive review of the tax structure in the wake of growing revenue concerns when it meets on December 18.The review will include exempted items, GST and compensation cess rates and revenue augmentation measures. The GST Council secretariat has sought inputs from state governments on all these issues.Rate calibration to address the inverted duty structure, compliance measures other than those currently under implementation and any other revenue augmentation measures will also be up for review."I would request you to provide your suggestions or inputs or proposals as regards measures on compliance as well as rates which would help in augmenting revenue," said a November 27 letter sent to state GST Commissioners that ET has seen. Experts said this means the effective GST could also rise.The move comes against the backdrop of states complaining about the Centre delaying compensation payments to them as revenues have slowed. However, after declining for two consecutive months, GST collections grew 6% to Rs 1,03,492 crore in November following the festive season sales push.The letter said lower GST compensation cess collections have been a concern in the last few months. Compensation requirements have risen and are unlikely to be met from the compensation cess, it added. 72358075 Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at the ET Awards for Corporate Excellence on November 30 that GST rate simplification was under consideration. "As regards the rationalisation of the taxation… too many rates, too many high rates and so on, we are having good conversation with all the states," she had said. The government wants to ensure that essential items are kept at the lowest rate if not exempted from GST. "But for the rest of them we are trying to rationalise."GST has as many as seven rates though the bulk of goods fall in the 12% and 18% slab. The thinking is that these two could be merged into a single slab of around 15%.Experts said the GST Council may opt for revenue augmentation steps."Possible hikes in the cess to manage the compensation payouts to states and some rate changes in exempted and low rate items could figure as revenue augmentation measures in the next GST Council meeting slated for this month," said MS Mani, partner, Deloitte.In the past year or so, the government has taken several steps to simplify compliance, going after tax evaders through more efficient use of technology and data analytics without having to resort to increasing tax rates."As such, unless the government is willing to consider taxing education and healthcare, there may not be many items under exempt schedule that can be brought under GST easily," said Pratik Jain, national indirect taxes leader, PwC. "However, on the compensation cess, government might be running out of options as states need to be compensated for revenue shortfall, which is higher than expected."
NEW DELHI: Kishore Biyani-led Future Group company Future Consumer is set to take its portfolio of over two dozen personal care, snack and homecare products to general stores across the country, competing with consumer goods giants Hindustan Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser and PepsiCo amid slowing consumption in India."So far, we have been distributing only a few of our own brands in general trade in a limited way. We will aggressively distribute our brands in general trade outlets now," Future Consumer managing director Ashni Biyani said.The portfolio including Tasty Treat snacks, Voom fabric care, Dreamery dairy items, Mother Earth organic staples and Kara personal care products are sold mainly in Future Group's retail chains such as Big Bazaar and Easyday. 72357909 "Building a strong distribution network beyond Future Group is our next growth frontier to win. We will focus on building robust distribution and create the right go-to-market strategy as we distribute in general trade," she said.Consumption in India has slowed across channels, especially in the rural markets. The FMCG sector grew 7.3% by value in July-September, down from 16.2% a year earlier, Nielsen said in a report in October.Future Consumer on Tuesday named former Jyothy Labs chief operating officer Rajnikant Sabnavis its new chief executive officer, effective January 1, 2020. Sabnavis was previously with HUL for over two decades. Devendra Chawla, who was chief of Future Consumer, quit over two years ago to join rival Spencer's Retail as CEO.Biyani said the company's focus would be on consolidation and strengthening distribution of existing products and not acquisitions.While Tasty Treat biscuits and Kara wipes are available across 30,000 general trade outlets, dairy brand Dreamery reaches 3,000 general stores, besides online platforms Amazon, BigBasket and Grofers, the company said. Dreamery milk, milkshakes, curd and yoghurt have been launched in partnership with New Zealand's Fonterra.Snacks such as Terra Chips and Sensible Portions will be available across 32,000 cities by next year, it said. Both are marketed under Hain Future Natural Products, a venture between US-based Hain Celestial Group and Future Consumer.
By Shira OvideGoogle's parent company took an obvious step on Tuesday to replace its absentee chief executive officer. And while Alphabet Inc.'s leadership change removes a cloud hanging over the company, it also creates potential new ones. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Alphabet, wrote that Sundar Pichai will become the CEO of the corporate parent of Google in addition to the post as Google boss that he has held since 2015. This change was long overdue. Page had grown increasingly invisible inside and outside the company, and he was no longer doing the job required of a powerful corporate chieftain in 2019.It's not that his company necessarily suffered from Page's reluctance or inability to fulfill his role. Pichai has been running all the functional, important parts of the company such as web search, YouTube, cloud computing and more. Alphabet has done more than fine. But as long as Page was the Alphabet CEO, there was a problem of split authority — or a perception of it — between the figurehead boss and the the functional one. It no longer felt tenable for Page to do only the bits of the CEO job he liked and ignore everything else. That problem is gone. Brin will also step down from his role as president of Alphabet; both he and Page will remain on the board, and they will remain the ultimate authority through their control of the company's voting stock. Answering the leadership question, however, raises a couple of fresh ones. The first is whether Pichai is up for the horrible, unpleasant task of being the official CEO of a big tech company. It's an awkward question to ask, in part because no one can possibly be prepared for what has become an even more demanding and personally grueling job as the tech industry becomes more muscular and less unquestionably admired.Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has become extremely practiced at apologizing. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, had his personal life splashed on the pages of tabloids. Apple Inc.'s Tim Cook is at the White House so often he should have a West Wing frequent visitor card. This is probably not what any of them imagined the job would be.Pichai remains relatively untested at making decisions that will make him enemies no matter what he does — whether it's dealing with demands from governments around the world or leading a workforce that is increasingly divided about policies and culture. To borrow a line from my Bloomberg News colleague Mark Bergen, what Alphabet needs as much as a capable technologist is a charismatic champion and a good politician.We'll see how Pichai does in those roles, or if he perhaps leans on Google's top lawyer or other more political- and policy-minded executives. That is what Page did in much of his time as Google's CEO with Eric Schmidt as chairman. The second question is whether the Alphabet structure has outlived its usefulness. One original motivation for creating an umbrella structure over Google in 2015 was to give operational independence and a separate budget to nascent projects inside the company such as driverless cars, health-care initiatives and novel approaches to internet services.The company's shareholders back then were anxious that Google was pouring money into long-shot projects that might never pan out and diluting the earnings potential of Google's cash-minting businesses. Creating the Alphabet structure let the company put all those projects into a money-draining box — the "here be dragons" portion of the company's P&L — and spotlight the earnings power of Google's mostly advertising-focused businesses. The idea was that Page and Brin could focus on the big picture and leave the day-to-day stuff to Pichai and others.But shielding Google from those "other bets" such as driverless cars no longer seems so urgent. Alphabet and other tech titans — particularly those effectively controlled by their founders — have a relatively long leash from investors to invest in both the projects that generate earnings now and on whatever comes next. Amazon, for example, spent $14 billion to buy a niche grocery store chain, and it's investing in far-flung businesses such as health care and entertainment.Amazon has always received a longer leash to tinker than most other companies, but I think Google's cash firepower also lets it experiment without creating an artificial structure to shield Google from its less mature corporate cousins. There may be a reason that Alphabet never became a blueprint for other technology companies that wanted to keep up with the times. They could keep up with the times, or not, without the blueprint. It is a credit to Page, Brin, Pichai and many others that Google has outlasted all predictions of its doom. It was a popular Silicon Valley parlor game a decade ago to say that Google would be rendered irrelevant by the smartphone age. No one would need to search in the app age, the thinking went. Google would become the next in the long list of technology companies that couldn't escape revolutionary technology changes. Google defied the odds and made that leap across the evolutionary gap. The next challenges for the company are technological, political and cultural. They're just as existential as the last challenge of keeping up with an evolutionary technology shift. And now we'll see if Pichai, and the structure Page left him, are up to the task.
When the most powerful bureaucrat in the country, Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha, called for a meeting to discuss the RBI's much reviled February 12 order on treatment of defaults by borrowers, the then Governor Urjit Patel did not believe it was worthwhile to send even a representative to present the reasons behind it.A year later, when the regulator had to come up with an alternative provision for the now illegal rule, Governor Shaktikanta Das took 65 days as he consulted scores of bankers, industrialists and colleagues to figure out the possible outcomes. The new rule was as onerous as the previous one, but the difference was the perceived human touch.Das' entry into the RBI headquarters last December was the most turbulent time in the relationship between the government going into an election amid sputtering economic growth, and a defiant academics-headed central bank passionately guarding its independence. A hostile political opposition accused the government of diluting the autonomy of a revered institution.That a bureaucrat has been parachuted from New Delhi raised the spectre of government pulling the strings in the matters of banking policy, diluting the autonomy that has withstood the test of time. Former finance minister P Chidambaram, who has had many run-ins with RBI governors, even said the appointment 'worries' him.Twelve months later, bankers, industrialists and investors are not complaining. In fact, those who were skeptical about the autonomy have been more or less silent."He has brought in a lot of calm to an institution that was in turbulence," says Indira Rajaraman, economist and a former member of the RBI's Central Board. "Das protects RBI's autonomy…there's no need to advertise that you are doing so with the armour on… He doesn't see any demand from the government as a challenge to the authority or autonomy of the RBI. He's willing to engage and look for a solution without any compromise."Patel abruptly resigned on December 10, a Monday, citing personal reasons. That it came a few days after an acrimonious board meeting and a meeting of the Board of Financial Supervision of the RBI, which declined the government's plea for releasing a few banks from the Prompt Corrective Action regime, a corrective measure for financially weak banks, make the exit a mystery.Apart from the PCA dispute, RBI and the government were at loggerheads on issues such as a special liquidity window for nonbanking finance companies, transfer of surplus capital to the government, the February 12 circular which forced a resolution process a day after missing payment, interest rate cuts, surplus liquidity, and converting the role of RBI board from consulting to that of an executive nature. These were in public, while many more were behind closed doors.THE DAS DIFFERENCEHow have those issues that led to Patel's exit evolved under Das?Even since Das came in, the Monetary Policy Committee has delivered a 135-basis point reduction in interest rate. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. The long prevailing policy of deficit liquidity for effective transmission has been turned on its head into surplus.The number of banks under the PCA is six compared with 12 at the time of Patel's resignation. Lakshmi Vilas Bank was added under Das' watch. Five banks were taken out of PCA after the government invested Rs 20,870 crore capital in them.The NBFC lobby is not tired of seeking a liquidity window. But Das is unmoved on the demand and has maintained the position of his former deputy and New York University professor Viral Acharya that these institutions need to adjust their asset-liability mismatch rather than be given a lifeline.But there have been adjustments in lock-step with government and the state-run banks on providing support to the securitisation programmes of NBFCs and giving relief to mortgage companies. Still bond investors believe that his heart lies in the government given that he's yet to acknowledge the fiscal risk and the crowding out effect of public sector borrowing on which he differed with Acharya."He has delivered some of what the government wanted — lower interest rates, surplus banking liquidity, and higher surplus transfers to the government," says Ananth Narayan, professor of finance at SPJIMR. "There are some areas where one wishes he would push back more. The quality and extent of fiscal deficit appears to be far worse than is acknowledged. Yet successive MPC statements do not even mention possible fiscal slippage as a macro risk. Likewise, he has allowed forbearance in some SME loans, somewhat diluting the credibility gains from the AQR."On transfer of surplus capital, an issue that many critics labelled as the government raiding the central bank, the RBI was aligned with what the Jalan Committee recommended. The key element of transfer of realised gains from foreign currency transactions going into the profit & loss account instead of the balance sheet was recommended by the Malegam Committee, but Raghuram Rajan and Patel did not do so."He came in at a time when it was difficult for both the real economy and the financial markets," says Sonal Varma, economist at Nomura Securities. "People made a lot of assumptions because he was from Delhi. But policy decisions have been based on the underlying economic fundamentals."Critics have been painting all the bureaucrats with the same brush when they arrive.Duvvuri Subbarao, a predecessor of Raghuram Rajan, faced the same charge. I was accused of "compromising the Reserve Bank's already fragile autonomy by allowing government to dictate policy, confirming what some people suspected at the time of appointment," Subbarao wrote in his memoirs Who Moved My Interest Rate. Subsequently, he was celebrated as an autonomy crusader when he defied Chidambaram on rate cut that provoked the minister to say he would 'walk alone' to give impetus to growth.DANCING TO TUNES?Measures such as releasing weak banks from PCA, or surplus liquidity, or even the capital transfer could be interpreted as the RBI dancing to the tunes of the government. But are the differences between the two over? Is the relationship that of the master and pupil?One of the boldest decisions of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government was the decision to raise US dollar funds by selling sovereign bonds in overseas markets. But that has been given a quiet burial, thanks to opposition from the RBI.The conservative central bank stood its ground yet again. Das wrote to the government arguing against such a move as the costbenefit would be against the sovereign, said people familiar with the matter. He is said to have argued that the state would unnecessarily be bearing the currency risk and the flow that would have come into India would get diverted to markets elsewhere.Furthermore, when the financial stability became a hot topic after the collapse of the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services and the freezing of credit to Dewan Housing Finance, he managed to wrest the supervision of mortgage firms from the National Housing Bank. It is a clear power shift from the time when the RBI was to be stripped of powers under the controversial Srikrishna panel recommendations.When the bureaucracy in North Block was adamant on having a chapter in the Financial Stability Report on RBI's weakness in its supervisory functions, he is said to have convinced that it wouldn't serve the purpose."Since Governor Das came in, with his pleasant and congenial demeanour, the relationship between RBI and the government appears to have become a lot healthier," says Narayan of SPJIMR. "It also appears that behind closed doors, he has pushed the government back on occasions.PERSONALITY PLAYThe government-central bank differences are as ancient as the mountains. But what makes the difference is the personalities involved in the drama.Many mastered the art of dealing with bureaucratic ego.The legendary Reddy captures it in his memoir Advice and Dissent. "With regard to structural measures, Jalan was particular that we mention in our policy statements that we could take up the matter with the government, or would consult the government, or that we are acting upon the budget speech, and so on. He was also particular that we mention in the policy statements that we had consulted experts and market participants," which ensured clash of egos don't stall policy.Patel, who was labelled by critics as Modi's man for presiding over demonetisation and delivering an interest rate cut in his first MPC meeting, became a torch bearer of autonomy when he clashed with the government. But Patel has always had the courage of conviction to air his views. As a junior officer in his first stint at the RBI, he wrote a research paper countering the towering Reddy's public speech and presented the same to the then deputy governor. While Patel was rigid in his beliefs, so was SC Garg, the then economic affairs secretary. If Patel was half responsible for the public spat, the remaining lies on the doors of Garg, say people familiar with the developments."In eighty years that the Reserve Bank has been in existence, the government has not invoked this provision (Sec. 7) even once," writes Subbarao. "This is a tribute to the sense of responsibility of both the government and the Reserve Bank."But that record came crumbling down when Section 7 of the RBI Act that gives powers to the government to give directions to the central bank was invoked. That was the straw that broke the camel's back.CHALLENGES BEFORE DASRBI governorship is such a role that hardly anyone goes without having to handle a crisis. For Subbarao, it was baptism by fire as Lehman Brothers collapsed the month he came in. Jalan and Rajan faced currency crises. Patel demonetisation.Apart from Das' diplomacy, the external factors were also favourable to him. Benign inflation and a calm currency market helped him deliver on interest rate cuts and easing liquidity."He'll have a dilemma in the future as economic situation is now getting challenging with growth and inflation moving in opposite direction," says Varma of Nomura.Inflation for October rose to 4.62%, against the target of 4%, in a 2 percentage point band on either side. Growth has collapsed to 4.5% in the latest quarter, the worst in six years.On hand is the lurking financial instability. The collapse of DHFL and the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank has left a blot on the supervisory capabilities of the central bank.He might have driven a point of sticking to rules by rejecting the merger between Indiabulls Housing Finance and Lakshmi Vilas, but his biggest challenge may well be in the financial sector with the NBFCs still reeling under the credit squeeze.Managing the first year may have turned out to be easier than what lies ahead. "Das sees the need for engagement," says economist Rajaraman. "In the current circumstances, we could not have hoped for a better governor."
MUMBAI: Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal's ArcelorMittal has approached the government seeking immunity from likely future investigations pertaining to Essar Steel and its erstwhile promoters, the Ruia family, four people familiar with the matter told ET.Mittal wants to avoid a recurrence of any controversy akin to the one involving Bhushan Power and Steel (BPSL), when the Enforcement Directorate attached the firm's assets after it was acquired by JSW Steel from the National Company Law Tribunal.ArcelorMittal has told government officials and ministers that any future or ongoing probe into past dealings of the Ruia family should not impact the assets of Essar Steel. The steel giant has reached out to the home, finance, law and defence ministries, according to one of the persons. "ArcelorMittal has held talks with several ministers and civil servants, and has received a positive reply," said a person aware of the developments. "It has been a long battle for the Mittals, and this is their way of preventing future troubles after they transfer money to the banks. ArcelorMittal is very clear it doesn't want any ambiguity around any present or future liabilities," the person said.ArcelorMittal declined to comment. Questionnaires sent to the four ministries did not elicit a response till press time Tuesday. 72358050 Essar Steel was admitted to the bankruptcy court in June 2017 and several bidders showed interest, including ArcelorMittal, which finally bagged the asset after numerous legal and procedural twists and turns. ArcelorMittal wants legal clarity from the government before it transfers money into the escrow account."Banks are yet to receive the money, but they are hopeful it will come in before the end of the month, which will help bump up their December quarter earnings," another person, requesting anonymity.Mittal's worries stem from the BPSL case, where the ED attached assets of the company after it was taken over by JSW Steel. The agency was investigating the Singal family, the former promoters of BPSL, on charges of money laundering.In October, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) came down heavily on the ED and directed it to release BPSL's assets. "You are going to kill the economy of the country... (You are) playing with fire," the NCLAT bench headed by Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya told the agency. "No outsider will come and purchase (distressed companies)... IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code) cannot be annulled in this manner. Money laundering is by an individual," it said.The Supreme Court last month reinforced the supremacy of the committee of creditors and financial lenders in deciding the payment schedule for creditors in bankruptcy cases, clearing the decks for ArcelorMittal's purchase of Essar Steel.Lenders will recover almost 92% of the Rs 54,500-crore owed to them by Essar Steel. Operational creditors will receive Rs 1,196 crore. Banks, which have made provisions of 50-100% for Essar Steel, will not only be able to improve provision coverage ratios but also consider write-backs that will boost profits.
ET Intelligence Group: Shares of Vedanta are trading at an estimated dividend yield of almost 10 per cent. Going by historical record, investors can expect the dividend in less than six months. Vedanta's Tuesday's closing price was Rs 139. According to Bloomberg, Vedanta is expected to give a dividend of Rs 13.84 per share in FY20. It gave dividend of Rs 19.45, Rs 21.2 and Rs 18.85 in FY17, FY18 and FY19, respectively.The company has been giving heavy dividends over the past three years – more than 100 per cent payout ratio – as the parent has high debt. India-listed Vedanta remains the key source of income for the parent company to meet its debt obligations.Moreover, the dividend ex-dates in FY17 and FY18 were in the months of March and April. For FY19, the dividend ex-date was in November. In FY20, the company hasn't yet paid out the dividend.Dividend payout expectations in the following fiscal are even higher according to Bloomberg consensus. If this remains unchanged, it could mean Vedanta investors make more than 10 per cent on dividends for the coming two years. For instance, dividend per share for FY21is Rs 15.1.Despite weak set of numbers and guidance cuts, the Vedanta stock has remained fairly stable after results. 72358314 India's largest mining conglomerate has operations across oil & gas, zinc, aluminium, iron ore, copper, lead and silver and power, but zinc and oil and gas remain the key segments at present as they contribute most of the company's EBIDTA.For the September quarter, the company posted an EBIDTA of Rs 4,420 crore, down 15 per cent on year-on-year. Consolidated net profit rose by 44 per cent to Rs 2,730 crore as it benefited from one-time deferred taxes of Rs 1,891 crore. Vedanta sales fell marginally by 3 per cent to Rs 21,739 crore.Following a weak first half, the management lowered the production guidance across segments and increased the cost guidance. However, the management said the second half could be much better."We hope to have a stronger finish in the second half and deliver topline profitability in key verticals, having already seen a recovery in the commodity cycle, with prices rising across the commodity basket in the past 20 days," CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan told ET after the results last month.The positive was the sharp reduction in total debt. Gross debt shrunk by Rs 11,000 crore and net debt by Rs 7,000 crore in the past one quarter. Net debt to EBIDTA is now 0.9.Vedanta stock is now trading at 4 times EV/EBIDTA and less than one time price to book, near a 3-year low. With such valuations, strong balance sheet and a dividend yield of near 10 per cent, the stock offers a good risk to reward ratio for the investors.
ET Intelligence Group: The volume growth in the passenger vehicles (PV) segment in India has contracted in 15 out of the past 16 months with a drop of 10 per cent during the period.Despite this, the stock of Maruti Suzuki India, the country's largest PV maker, trades at 29 times one-year forward earnings. That's 66 per cent higher than its 10-year average valuation on hopes of volume recovery.A lot, however, depends upon whether its dealers would prefer to refill their inventories following upbeat sales during the latest festive season and to what extent.In addition, the company faces stiff competition in the SUV segment at a time when it has vacated the diesel segment amid regulatory changes. These factors may make volume improvement an uphill task.The slowdown and liquidity problem faced by dealers has led to a reduction in inventory across most carmakers and focus on retail sales as opposed to wholesale volumes (vehicles despatched to dealers). 72358397 This is evident from the divergence in the retail and wholesale sale volumes. For instance, in October, retail sales rose by11 per cent, according to data provided by the Federation of Auto Dealers Associations, while wholesale data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed a measly growth of 0.3 per cent.The carmakers made concerted efforts to reduce inventory to 25-30 days in October from 50-60 days a few months ago to ease the burden on dealers. Wholesale volume growth will largely depend on whether the companies refill dealer inventories to levels existing before the slowdown. This is also dependent on whether the dealers would risk piling up inventories at a time when demand continues to remain weak.Maruti Suzuki's volume fell 24 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal. It is expected to fall 15-17 per cent for the full FY20, the worst decline in over five years.Maruti Suzuki has launched its eight petrol models ahead of new emission norms effective from April 2020. However, the company will not be manufacturing diesel vehicles in the medium term as it is evaluating cost competitiveness of diesel cars under BS-VI.Kia Motors has launched its sports utility vehicles (SUVs) Seltos in both petrol and diesel variants. Even as the fate of diesel vehicles remain uncertain under BS-VI regime, a sizeable number of bookings is for the diesel variant.Maruti may also face a loss of market share in the fast growing compact SUV space due to lack of diesel models. According to Kotak Institutional Equities, Maruti has lost 190 basis points of market share yearon-year in the current fiscal so far primarily driven by 15 per cent loss of market share in the compact SUV segment. These factors makes it a tough task for it to revive volumes, which may affect its stock valuation.
Kolkata: Panasonic Corp revenue from the Indian market dipped for the second consecutive year with Japan's leading consumer electronics maker facing intense competition in the smartphone and television markets, and consumers shifting to buy value for money Chinese and online focussed brands amidst an economic slowdown.As per Panasonic India's latest regulatory filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) accessed through business intelligence platform Veratech Intelligence, revenue from operation dropped 10.6% year on year in 2018-19 at Rs 4,758.62 crore, while its net loss more than tripled at Rs 459.58 crore against Rs 131.88 crore in FY18.The company in its filings said sale of products in FY19 has dipped vis-à-vis last year, while the proceeds from sales of services has increased by 22% as compared to last year. It said the operation of the company was affected during the year "due to certain internal and external factors and risk scenarios."Panasonic India has also amended its memorandum of association (MoA) to allow it enter new businesses such as IT infrastructure management in areas like cloud, networking and IT security, as per its RoC filings and analysed by Veratech Intelligence."The company had first amended its memorandum in 2015 when it decided to expand its portfolio of goods and services in India. Despite, the same company's topline hasn't seen any remarkable growth. The current measure of venturing into new businesses seems to be a part of the same strategy of diversifying and opening new revenue streams," said Mohit Yadav, founder at Veratech IntelligencePanasonic India's consumer electronics and home appliances revenue dropped by 14.6% at Rs 4057.48 crore in FY19, while its B2B business such as automotive systems and welding systems increased revenue, as per RoC filings.Panasonic in the filings said the television market in India witnessed a slowdown due to volatile exchange rates and higher custom duties on open cell TV panels which impacted the company's performance. It said the refrigerator business grew strongly, and in B2B segment the SMT machine/smart factory solutions business grew by more than four times.When contacted, a Panasonic India spokesperson said the drop in profit is due to few factors such as exchange rate impact with rupee depreciating during that period, impact of capex investments and drop in mobile phone revenue.The person said the company has shifted its mobile retail business mostly on e-commerce platform and focusing on limited models. The company's appliances business specifically refrigerators grew by 74% growth in FY19 while the industry recorded a negative performance of 3%. "With respect to TV, the industry has seen a de-growth hence we also de-grew but maintained market share," the spokesperson said.Panasonic India spokesperson further added that the company has invested significantly in B2B and smart factory solutions which has grown over four times. "We believe this will help us boost our revenues by 50% in the coming times," the person said.
Kolkata: Indian School of Business (ISB), which has started placements for the Class of 2020, has seen 1,383 offers on Day 1 in comparison to 1,194 offers last year, the institute said in a release on Tuesday. Average CTC on Day 1 of placements stood at Rs 26.15 lakh - a 124 per cent increase from the pre-ISB average CTC.The School saw hiring from recruiters across a wide spectrum of industries such as Consulting, IT/ITES/Technology, E-Commerce, BFSI, FMCG/Retail, Healthcare, Education, Media and Entertainment, Real Estate and Infrastructure, and Global Capability Centres.Consulting companies led the pack with 22.75 per cent of the offers with Accenture, Alvarez and Marsal, AT Kearney, Bain and Company, Boston Consulting Group, Dalberg, Deloitte India, Deloitte USI, E&Y, EY Parthenon, GEP, KPMG, McKinsey & Company, PWC DIAC, PWC India, Roland Berger, Siemens Management Consulting and ZS Associates making a total of 314 offers between them.IT/ITES, E-commerce and Technology companies put up a strong showing with ADP, Amazon, Blackbuck, Byju's, Electronic Arts, Flipkart,Google, InMobi, Media.Net Software Services, Mfine, Microsoft, Myntra, Nagarro Software, Nykaa, Ola, Paysafe, PhonePe, RazorPay,ThoughtWorks, Udaan, Uber, VMWare and Zomato being among the regulars while Bounce, MyGate and Rupeek Fintech, among many others, joined the list of recruiters this year. BFSI companies such as Axis Bank, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Estee Advisors, ICICI Bank, Matrix Partners and Yes Bank continued to hire in large numbers while Investment Banking and Private Equity firms such as American Express, Barclays, Bexley Advisors, Kingfish Private Equity, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (GOI), RBS, Waterfield Advisors and Wells Fargo came on board this year.FMCG/Marketing companies accounted for over 7 per cent of all offers made. AB InBev, Coca-Cola, Colgate Palmolive, Godrej, HUL, L'Oreal, Nestle, Procter and Gamble and Samsung continued to hire from ISB; ITC and Marico joined the list of recruiters this year.Hiring for Leadership roles also saw an upswing with conglomerates such as Aditya Birla Group, Adani, CK Birla Group, Essar, Hinduja, Piramal, Reliance Industries, RPG and Shapoorji Pallonji making offers for roles ranging from Management Trainees to Executive Assistants to CXOs.With several students having prior international experience, international recruiters including Apple (South Asia), Deloitte Middle East, EY Parthenon and Landmark Group continued to hire from ISB for senior management positions.Hiring of women students also saw an upsurge with Axis Bank, along with a host of other companies hiring for leadership roles in good numbers. The PGP class of 2020, at 39 per cent , has the largest-ever representation of women.
Figuring out just what an AI is good at is one of the hardest thing about understanding them. To help determine this, OpenAI has designed a set of games that can help researchers tell whether their machine learning agent is actually learning basic skills or, what is equally likely, has figured out how to rig the system in its favor.
It’s one of those aspects of AI research that never fails to delight: the ways an agent will bend or break the rules in its endeavors to appear good at whatever the researchers are asking it to do. Cheating may be thinking outside the box, but it isn’t always welcome, and one way to check is to change the rules a bit and see if the system breaks down.
What the agent actually learned can be determined by seeing if those “skills” can be applied when it’s put into new circumstances where only some of its knowledge is relevant.
For instance, say you want to learn if an AI has learned to play a Mario-like game where it travels right and jumps over obstacles. You could switch things around so it has to walk left; you could change the order of the obstacles; or you could change the game entirely and have monsters appear that the AI has to shoot while it travels right instead.
If the agent has really learned something about playing a game like this, it should be able to pick up the modified versions of the game much quicker than something entirely new. This is called “generalizing” — applying existing knowledge to a new set of circumstances — and humans do it constantly.
OpenAI researchers have encountered this many times in their research, and in order to test generalizable AI knowledge at a basic level, they’ve designed a sort of AI arcade where an agent has to prove its mettle in a variety of games with varying overlap of gameplay concepts.
The 16 game environments they designed are similar to games we know and love, like Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., Asteroids, and so on. The difference is the environments have been build from the ground up towards AI play, with simplified controls, rewards, and graphics.
Each taxes an AI’s abilities in a different way. For instance in one game there may be no penalty for sitting still and observing the game environment for a few seconds, while in others it may place the agent in danger. In some the AI must explore the environment, in others it may be focused on a single big boss spaceship. But they’re all made to be unmistakably different games, not unlike (though obviously a bit different from) what you might find available for an Atari or NES console.
Here’s the full list, as seen in the gif below from top to bottom, left to right:
Ninja: Climb a tower while avoiding bombs or destroying them with throwing stars.
Coinrun: Get the coin at the right side of the level while avoiding traps and monsters.
Plunder: Fire cannonballs from the bottom of the screen to hit enemy ships and avoid friendlies.
Caveflyer: Navigate caves using Asteroids-style controls, shooting enemies and avoiding obstacles.
Jumper: Open-world platformer with a double-jumping rabbit and compass pointing towards the goal.
Miner: Dig through dirt to get diamonds and boulders that obey Atari-era gravity rules.
Maze: Navigate randomly generated mazes of various sizes.
Bigfish: Eat smaller fish than you to become the bigger fish, while avoiding a similar fate.
Chaser: Like Pac-Man, eat the dots and use power pellets strategically to eat enemies.
Starpilot: Gradius-like shmup focused on dodging and quick elimination of enemy ships.
Bossfight: 1 on 1 battle with a boss ship with randomly selected attacks and replenishing shields.
Heist: Navigate a maze with colored locks and corresponding keys.
Fruitbot: Ascend through levels while collecting fruit and avoiding non-fruit.
Dodgeball: Move around a room without touching walls, hitting others with balls and avoiding getting hit.
Climber: Climb a series of platforms collecting stars along the way and avoiding monsters.
Leaper: Frogger-type lane-crossing game with cars, logs, etc.
You can imagine that an AI might be created that excels at the grid-based ones like Heist, Maze, and Chaser, but loses the track in Jumper, Coinrun, and Bossfight. Just like a human — because there are different skills involved in each. But there are shared ones as well: understanding that the player character and moving objects may have consequences, or that certain areas of the play area are inaccessible. An AI that can generalize and adapt quickly will learn to dominate all these games in a shorter time than one that doesn’t generalize well.
The set of games and methods for observing and rating agent performance in them is called the ProcGen benchmark, since the environments and enemy placements in the games are procedurally generated. You can read more about them, or learn to build your own little AI arcade, at the project’s GitHub page.
Noted Silicon Valley venture capital fund Sequoia Capital has raised nearly $1 billion for later-stage U.S. investments and roughly $2.4 billion for venture and growth deals in China, according to paperwork filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.
The firm, famous for its investments in U.S. companies like Google, Instagram, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Snap and WhatsApp, is also an investor in some of China’s most successful startups.
These are companies like Alibaba, China’s e-commerce answer to Amazon; Ant Financial, a multibillion-dollar financial services powerhouse; JD.com, another e-commerce powerhouse; ByteDance, the owner of America’s latest social media sensation, TikTok; and Yitu, one of the national leaders in the development of machine learning applications.
These investments have not come without their share of controversy abroad. Yitu has been linked to the technology dragnet currently in place in Xinjiang, where an estimated 1 million religious and ethnic minorities are currently interned. Meanwhile, TikTok’s popularity in the U.S. has come with accusations of censorship in its treatment of posts that were supportive of both Xinjiang’s imprisoned population and the dissidents protesting mainland China’s increasing control over Hong Kong politics.
Setting politics aside, Sequoia has brought in $1.8 billion for its Sequoia Capital China Growth Fund V and about $550 million for Sequoia Capital China Venture Fund VII, per filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It’s a sign that when valuations are concerned (ByteDance alone is now worth $78 billion, according to some reports), investors can overlook the potential political pitfalls of dealing with China.
Sequoia, led by Doug Leone, Michael Moritz, Roelof Botha and others, recently sought $8 billion for a global fund, its largest-ever fundraise, holding a first close of $6 billion in June 2018. In addition, the firm operates Sequoia Capital India, with offices in Menlo Park, Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
News of the fund comes at the tail end of another strong year for venture capital fundraising in the U.S. Firms, including 41-year-old NEA, filed to raise as much as $3.6 billion for a single fund. Meanwhile, Norwest Venture Partners, DCVC and Accel all closed new vehicles exceeding $500 million.
Fronted, a new London-based startup aiming to make life easier for renters, is breaking cover today.
The company, founded by Jamie Campbell, Simon Vans-Colina and Anthony Mann — former employees at Bud, Monzo and Apple, respectively — will launch early next year with a fintech product to help renters finance their rental deposits.
The plan is get accepted into the FCA “sandbox” program (run by the U.K. financial services regulator) to begin lending cash that can only be used for a rental deposit.
The thinking is that by using Open Banking and other financial technology and offering a credit product designed to finance deposits directly, Fronted can lend more cheaply than existing options, such as credit cards, pay-day lenders and overdrafts, or insurance-backed membership schemes, and at lower risk.
“Renting sucks — anyone who rents knows it,” Fronted CEO Jamie Campbell tells me. “There are so many problems to solve and we intend to tackle them all bit by bit. But first, we are going to pay people’s rent deposits for them so they can pay us back in bite-size manageable amounts. Deposits are a large upfront expense and most people either use mum and dad to sort it out or stay where they are (in the worst cases they do to pay-day lenders).”
In a call late last week with Campbell and CTO Vans-Colina, the pair explained that renters that apply to use the Fronted service will be asked to link their bank using Open Banking, therefore sharing their recent transaction data, and provide details of the property they wish to rent. Then, once Fronted has run the required checks and agreed to provide credit, the startup sends the money directly to the estate agent to be placed in the U.K.’s Deposit Protection Scheme, meaning that the loan never touches the renter’s hands (or wallet).
“Customers will have a direct debit to pay us back over a set schedule, or they can pay it all off when they have the money to do so, [and] we don’t charge any fees,” says Campbell. There is also a planned “holiday mode” that will allow customers to temporarily reduce their monthly payments in order to help avoid falling into financial difficulty.
“Ultimately this first product is designed to be very convenient and we believe people will opt for this more manageable alternative to a normal deposit,” adds Campbell. “There are customers of ours that will be in ‘hidden households’ unable to move because of the upfront fees… Deposits can [also] sometimes take a long time to be returned from the schemes (something the government recently launched an enquiry into). Fronted wants to serve people who might otherwise be ‘double-exposed’ by deposits. We hope this first product increases social mobility by providing liquidity when people need it.”
Initially, Fronted will generate revenue through interest charged. It then plans to extend its fintech product offering with additional money-advance services “to help smooth out the bumps of renting.”
“We also intend on rolling out a ‘turn up and turn on’ service for utilities and internet,” says the Fronted CEO.
Instagram dodges child safety laws. By not asking users their age upon signup, it can feign ignorance about how old they are. That way, it can’t be held liable for $40,000 per violation of the Child Online Privacy Protection Act. The law bans online services from collecting personally identifiable information about kids under 13 without parental consent. Yet Instagram is surely stockpiling that sensitive info about underage users, shrouded by the excuse that it doesn’t know who’s who.
But here, ignorance isn’t bliss. It’s dangerous. User growth at all costs is no longer acceptable.
It’s time for Instagram to step up and assume responsibility for protecting children, even if that means excluding them. Instagram needs to ask users’ age at sign up, work to verify they volunteer their accurate birthdate by all practical means, and enforce COPPA by removing users it knows are under 13. If it wants to allow tweens on its app, it needs to build a safe, dedicated experience where the app doesn’t suck in COPPA-restricted personal info.
Minimum Viable Responsibility
Instagram is woefully behind its peers. Both Snapchat and TikTok require you to enter your age as soon as you start the sign up process. This should really be the minimum regulatory standard, and lawmakers should close the loophole allowing services to skirt compliance by not asking. If users register for an account, they should be required to enter an age of 13 or older.
Instagram’s parent company Facebook has been asking for birthdate during account registration since its earliest days. Sure, it adds one extra step to sign up, and impedes its growth numbers by discouraging kids to get hooked early on the social network. But it also benefits Facebook’s business by letting it accurately age-target ads.
Most importantly, at least Facebook is making a baseline effort to keep out underage users. Of course, as kids do when they want something, some are going to lie about their age and say they’re old enough. Ideally, Facebook would go further and try to verify the accuracy of a user’s age using other available data, and Instagram should too.
Both Facebook and Instagram currently have moderators lock the accounts of any users they stumble across that they suspect are under 13. Users must upload government-issued proof of age to regain control. That policy only went into effect last year after UK’s Channel 4 reported a Facebook moderator was told to ignore seemingly underage users unless they explicitly declared they were too young or were reported for being under 13. An extreme approach would be to require this for all signups, though that might be expensive, slow, significantly hurt signup rates, and annoy of-age users.
Instagram is currently on the other end of the spectrum. Doing nothing around age-gating seems recklessly negligent. When asked for comment about how why it doesn’t ask users’ ages, how it stops underage users from joining, and if it’s in violation of COPPA, Instagram declined to comment. The fact that Instagram claims to not know users’ ages seems to be in direct contradiction to it offering marketers custom ad targeting by age such as reaching just those that are 13.
Instagram Prototypes Age Checks
Luckily, this could all change soon.
Mobile researcher and frequent TechCrunch tipster Jane Manchun Wong has spotted Instagram code inside its Android app that shows it’s prototyping an age-gating feature that rejects users under 13. It’s also tinkering with requiring your Instagram and Facebook birthdates to match. Instagram gave me a “no comment” when I asked about if these features would officially roll out to everyone.
Code in the app explains that “Providing your birthday helps us make sure you get the right Instagram experience. Only you will be able to see your birthday.” Beyond just deciding who to let in, Instagram could use this info to make sure users under 18 aren’t messaging with adult strangers, that users under 21 aren’t seeing ads for alcohol brands, and that potentially explicit content isn’t shown to minors.
Instagram’s inability to do any of this clashes with it and Facebook’s big talk this year about its commitment to safety. Instagram has worked to improve its approach to bullying, drug sales, self-harm, and election interference, yet there’s been not a word about age gating.
Meanwhile, underage users promote themselves on pages for hashtags like #12YearOld where it’s easy to find users who declare they’re that age right in their profile bio. It took me about 5 minutes to find creepy “You’re cute” comments from older men on seemingly underage girls’ photos. Clearly Instagram hasn’t been trying very hard to stop them from playing with the app.
Illegal Growth
I brought up the same unsettling situations on Musically, now known as TikTok, to its CEO Alex Zhu on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2016. I grilled Zhu about letting 10-year-olds flaunt their bodies on his app. He tried to claim parents run all of these kids’ accounts, and got frustrated as we dug deeper into Musically’s failures here.
Thankfully, TikTok was eventually fined $5.7 million this year for violating COPPA and forced to change its ways. As part of its response, TikTok started showing an age gate to both new and existing users, removed all videos of users under 13, and restricted those users to a special TikTok Kids experience where they can’t post videos, comment, or provide any COPPA-restricted personal info.
If even a Chinese app social media app that Facebook CEO has warned threatens free speech with censorship is doing a better job protecting kids than Instagram, something’s gotta give. Instagram could follow suit, building a special section of its apps just for kids where they’re quarantined from conversing with older users that might prey on them.
Perhaps Facebook and Instagram’s hands-off approach stems from the fact that CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t think the ban on under-13-year-olds should exist. Back in 2011, he said “That will be a fight we take on at some point . . . My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age." He’s put that into practice with Messenger Kids which lets 6 to 12-year-olds chat with their friends if parents approve.
The Facebook family of apps’ ad-driven business model and earnings depend on constant user growth that could be inhibited by stringent age gating. It surely doesn’t want to admit to parents it’s let kids slide into Instagram, that advertisers were paying to reach children too young to buy anything, and to Wall Street that it might not have 2.8 billion legal users across its apps as it claims.
But given Facebook and Instagram’s privacy scandals, addictive qualities, and impact on democracy, it seems like proper age-gating should be a priority as well as the subject of more regulatory scrutiny and public concern. Society has woken up to the harms of social media, yet Instagram erects no guards to keep kids from experiencing those ills for themselves. Until it makes an honest effort to stop kids from joining, the rest of Instagram’s safety initiatives ring hollow.
2019 offered a blistering catalog of books to peruse, on top of the prodigious publishing schedules of the past few years (if you think we are at Peak TV, you might want to check out your local bookstore for a counterpoint).
We already checked in with Extra Crunch readers and did a sort of reader's choice selection of their twelve favorites, but I also asked our TechCrunch editorial staff about what they read this year and would recommend. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they came back with a mix of books (and audiobooks!) on tech, startups, biographies, graphic novels, and true crime fiction like the proper nerds we all are over here.
The criteria was that the book had to be read in 2019, but didn't necessarily have to be published this calendar year. In part, that's because books that may not have been all that interesting in the past suddenly got their turn in the spotlight for whatever reasons (headlines, viral influencer recommendations on Goop, or what have you).
In short, here are eleven writers at TechCrunch and the thirteen books that made the largest impact on them, any one of which would make a great gift for that techno-geek friend of yours.
Zack Whittaker
Sandworm: A New Era Of Cyberwar And The Hunt For The Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers by Andy Greenberg
Zack has long covered the daily breaches, cybersecurity hacks, and other data leaks that plague our world today (just last month: hacks at Macy's and Magic: the Gathering). So perhaps unsurprisingly, his favorite book of the year was about none other than Russian hackers:
Andy Greenberg's latest book on Sandworm, the group of Russian hackers blamed for the most disruptive cyberattack in history, is a real page-turner. Greenberg's Sandworm is a gripping tale of the group's discovery and their attacks, from shutting off the electric grids in Eastern Europe to the spread of the NotPetya ransomware attack, which froze hospitals, railways, and ATMs. Although written for the layperson, it's detailed enough to satisfy any expert, and the use of first person draws in the reader to the story's narrative. This incredibly detailed detective-style book — leaving no stone unturned — and the refreshing addition of footnotes — is a must-read for anyone interested cybersecurity.
Andy Greenberg himself has long covered security and hacking, and is currently a senior writer at Wired. This is his second book, following publication of This Machine Kills Secrets in 2012 about Julian Assange.
Sarah Perez
The Baddest Bitch in the Room by Sophia Chang
Audible Original by Hello Sunshine / 8 hours / September 2019
Sarah has long taken a deep view into the world of mobile and apps (among a huge host of other topics), but her favorite audiobook this year comes from a behind-the-scenes player in the music industry who carefully puts herself out into the spotlight:
You don't have to be a huge hip-hop fan to love Sophia Chang's new memoir, but her Audible Original does include some impressive name-dropping. A music industry veteran, Chang managed rap and R&B stars like the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA, GZA, and ODB, as well as A Tribe Called Quest, Raphael Saadiq and D'Angelo.
But her story is more than a music industry retrospective. Chang is also the fiercely independent child of Korean immigrants who left Vancouver for New York, as well as a woman who fell in love with a Shaolin monk, learned kung fu, shaved her head to shred stereotypes of Asian women, and became a mother, all while working her way up in her career.
In her self-narrated memoir (which includes some 24 guest appearances!), she steps into the limelight after a life spent behind the scenes helping talented artists tell their stories. She's smart, funny, and inspirational — and someone, as her story shows, who has really earned the title "baddest bitch."
Walter Thompson
Testosterone: An Unauthorized Biography by Rebecca M. Jordan-Young and Katrina Karkazis
Harvard University Press / 288 pages / October 2019
Heading in the other direction a bit, our new senior editor at Extra Crunch Walter Thompson recommends a "biography" of a well-known but surprisingly misunderstood steroid that is getting its own time in the limelight:
Written by a sociomedical scientist and a cultural anthropologist, the book explodes many of the common myths surrounding the hormone erroneously associated with male virility and masculinity. Jordan-Young and Karkazis delve into science and history to explain how testosterone has been generally misrepresented by popular culture and the medical industry by exploring how 'T' impacts aggression, reproduction, power, parenting, sports and risk-taking.
Given the increasing attention to these issues, the book's auspicious timing and deeply researched foundations are already having a huge effect on an important cultural conversation today.
Josh Constine
SAGA: Compendium One by writer Brian K Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples
One of Josh’s book recommendations for 2019 is a graphic novel that is expansive in scope (as one would hope for a paperback that runs for more than a 1,000 pages):
Possibly the greatest non-superhero action graphic novel, this is a tale of star-crossed lovers from different planets trying to raise their child amidst an intergalactic war. The imaginative inventions, gorgeously colorful artwork, and mix of laser fights and suspenseful drama will transport you. The paperback is a great way to entertain yourself without staring at a screen (though it's available on Comixology's app too).
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / 272 pages / September 2018
Josh has been a prolific reporter and critic of social network and media companies like Facebook and Twitter. These days, though, there is a new social network that is garnering outsized attention: Tik Tok. Josh has been covering the company and its predecessor Musical.ly for years, and has also been writing about how Facebook should confront this new competitive threat. So perhaps it's no surprise that Josh's first recommendation is for a book that addresses precisely the rise of Chinese-owned apps and the fight for the future of artificial intelligence:
If you want to understand how artificial intelligence is going to impact employment and geopolitics, this is a must read from the former head of Google China. It recounts wild stories of tech startup competition and the rise of the ecosystem in the country, and explores why every country but the US and China have hard times ahead.
AI Superpowers was also the most recommended book by Extra Crunch readers in our survey, and also a book I can personally endorse as well (thanks Josh for stealing my recommendation).
Danny Crichton (i.e. yours truly)
Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age by Stephen R. Platt
Speaking of China, the trade war continues unabated between the U.S. and the Middle Kingdom. Whereas AI Superpowers focuses on the present and future, Stephen Platt's Imperial Twilight rewinds us back in time to the era of the Opium War, when Western forces led by a fascinating cast of characters from Britain, the U.S., and elsewhere used trade as a tool to force open China's borders, popularize a heavily addictive drug among its people, and engorged on capital flows out of the country in a raw moment of pure political power against an incredibly weakened Qing dynasty.
The book is one of those works that every publisher wants to have in their catalog, complete with an extraordinarily well-written narrative, a deeply textured and nuanced look at a key historical event, and a perfectly timed publication date pegged to one of the most topical news stories of the year. In short, it's a smash hit.
Catherine Shu
Continuing this China theme a bit, Catherine has covered tech developments in Asia for years (actually, seven with us as of yesterday) from her perch in Taiwan. But she also has interests outside of the latest new startups, and that includes true crime fiction.
I've been a fan of true crime since I was a teenager, but over the last year, I have become uneasy about my attachment to the genre. To be blunt, a lot of books and podcasts are fueled by voyeurism, and I am not comfortable with being culpable in the transformation of tragedy into entertainment. So I welcome new books that take a step back and examine famous cases within their cultural context.
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
Catherine's first recommendation flips the lens on one of the most well-known serial murderers in history:
"The Five" by Hallie Rubenhold is probably the first book to comprehensively document the lives of Jack the Ripper's victims. Rubenhold's research uncovered myths about the women, including that not all were prostitutes, a misconception that started with contemporary police and press reports (and may ultimately have hindered the investigation), but continues to be perpetuated by the industry that has grown around the murders.
Rubenhold did an enormous amount of research, but ultimately the book's impact comes from the very simple but powerful act of restoring these five women's humanity — an admirable feat considering that their violent murders have been commodified and romanticized for over a century.
Meanwhile, her second recommendation takes a more expansive view of a famous axe murder case than has traditionally been the norm in the real crime genre:
"The Trial of Lizzie Borden" by Cara Robertson is one of the best books about the case I've read (and I've read a lot). In addition to providing an exhaustive but extremely compelling account of the legal proceedings that concluded in Lizzie Borden's acquittal, Robertson, a lawyer, also analyzes the case as an example of contemporary attitudes toward gender, class, and criminality.
Her examination of newspaper accounts reveals how the case almost immediately became a media sensation and also that many of the trial's spectators were dismissed as "a crowd of morbid females" by one reporter — a misogynistic label that continues to be attached to true crime fans, many of whom are women.
Devin Coldewey
Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight by David A. Mindell
Devin has had long-standing interests in space, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and other hard science and tech subjects. His recommendation this year is a classic of the genre written by David Mindell, a long-time MIT professor of engineering history who also is founder of the startup Humatics, which has raised some serious venture capital dollars to make location detection inside of buildings (think robots in factories) a reality. On Digital Apollo, Devin says:
The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 is a great opportunity to learn about one of the program's most fascinating aspects: the computers that ran it. But Digital Apollo is far more than some survey of early computing hardware. Mindell documents the fascinating people and processes behind the creation of this unprecedented system. Stubborn astronauts, idealistic engineers, and skeptical officials face off while the hard deadline looms, making this an interesting and inclusive story as well as a highly informed history.
Not only is it a great story, it's one that will be recognizable to any engineer that has ever had to ship product while dealing with other humans.
Kirsten Korosec
Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt
Kirsten has vigorously reported on the transportation sector (you should sign up for her weekly transportation newsletter The Station), including the rise of companies like Tesla and whole new categories of startups like self-driving cars and scooters. Yet despite all the futurism in the industry, she wanted to take a step back in her recommendation to a book that discusses some of the first principles that 'drive' mobility in the first place:
This book is a decade old and yet it's more relevant than ever before as our cities become more dense and we look for ways out of the congestion. If you want to understand opportunities and challenges for automakers, cities, and even startups around mobility, start here.
With Traffic, Vanderbilt's goal is to show that humans have cognitive limits, and those limits have a direct effect on our traffic systems and the designs of our mobility products. As we increasingly enter a world of human/AI hybrid cars and people speeding rapidly down Market Street on rickety scooters, his book offers us a panorama view of just how hard it it to get mobility right and make it safe.
Matt Burns
Billy, Alfred, and General Motors: The Story of Two Unique Men, a Legendary Company, and a Remarkable Time in American History by William Pelfrey
Among our longest tenured editors, Matt Burns has been writing about automotive topics among others for more than a decade here. He brings us a book about one of the most storied companies (positively and negatively) in American history:
This is the story of General Motors and how a successful carriage maker purchased the Buick name and turned it into the largest automaker in history.
And then how Billy Durant ran the company into the ground and lost control.
So what did Billy Durant do? He founded another company, Chevrolet, the only car to ever be manufactured in New York City, and used wild stock manipulation to regain control of General Motors. And then he lost control again and ended up managing a bowling alley in Flint, MI until he died nearly broke.
Meanwhile, there's Alfred Sloan, a methodical manager of an auto supply company who took over General Motors, devised the yearly model update and eventually wrote the book on managing corporations.
The story of Billy Durant founding General Motors resonates today. It's the story of a wild entrepreneur who's vision and command of the stock market led to the creation of a mega corporation but who lacked the management skills to scale. The book details his incredible rise and fall through vivid stories and first-hand accounts found in Durant's unpublished autobiography.
Darrell Etherington
Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber by Mike Isaac
W. W. Norton & Company / 408 pages / September 2019
Darrell has chronicled the tech industry for many years (picking up a theme here?) and has picked a chronicle of a tech industry luminary which has since lost much of its luster:
This account mostly focuses on Uber founder Travis Kalanick, from his pre-Uber entrepreneurial formative years, right through the corporate power struggle that led to his ousting in 2017.
What I especially enjoyed about it was its depiction of Bill Gurley – an interesting counter-positioning of this Silicon Valley legend with Kalanick's foil that may or may not match your understanding of the real story, depending on who you hear it from.
If you had to pick the "startup profile book of the year award," Super Pumped would almost certainly take the crown this year. The book was also recommended pretty heavily by Extra Crunch readers in our survey as well, although it didn't quite make the cut.
Manish Singh
Big Billion Startup – The Untold Flipkart Story by Mihir Dalal
Manish joined us relatively recently to expand our tech coverage more heavily in India, where the startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem has been exploding crazy fast the past decade plus. Perhaps no startup better represents the potential for India than ecommerce giant Flipkart, which is the focus of Manish's recommendation:
"Big Billion Startup – The Untold Flipkart Story," by journalist Mihir Dalal, is a fascinating look at the making of India's largest ecommerce platform. Flipkart, which sold a majority stake to Walmart last year for a sweet $16 billion, was founded in 2007, six years before Amazon started its online shopping business in India.
The book, released in October, not only documents the struggle, pain, and setbacks two former Amazon employees went through to build the business from a crummy apartment in Bangalore, but it also reminds us of how different India's startup ecosystem was then.
As we wrote last month, India's tech startups have already raised a record $11.3 billion this year. But in the early days, there were very few VCs who believed in India and even a $50 million check to a startup was unheard of. Flipkart was the trailblazer that paved the way for others to build great startups.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin just announced that Google CEO Sundar Pichai will be replacing Page as the CEO of parent company Alphabet.
In addition, Brin is stepping down from his role as Alphabet’s president.
Alphabet first came into existence in 2015 as “a collection of companies” that separates Google from “other bets” that aren’t part of its core businesses, such as Waymo (self-driving cars), Verily (life sciences), Calico (biotech R&D), Sidewalk Labs (urban innovation) and Loon (rural internet access via balloon).
At the time, Page shifted from the Google CEO role to Alphabet CEO, with Pichai stepping in to lead the search giant. However, Page and Brin wrote today that “Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and a President. Going forward, Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet.”
Pichai has been Google’s public face for a while now, but this move cements his leadership of the larger company, while moving Page and Brin out of the limelight.
“I'm excited about Alphabet and its long term focus on tackling big challenges through technology,” Pichai said in a statement. “I'm looking forward to continuing to work with Larry and Sergey in our new roles. Thanks to them, we have a timeless mission, enduring values, and a culture of collaboration and exploration. It's a strong foundation on which we will continue to build."
About Pichai, Page and Brin wrote:
Sundar brings humility and a deep passion for technology to our users, partners and our employees every day. He's worked closely with us for 15 years, through the formation of Alphabet, as CEO of Google, and a member of the Alphabet Board of Directors. He shares our confidence in the value of the Alphabet structure, and the ability it provides us to tackle big challenges through technology. There is no one that we have relied on more since Alphabet was founded, and no better person to lead Google and Alphabet into the future.
And rather than framing this as a departure, the pair suggested that they’ve “never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there's a better way to run the company” and that they remain “deeply committed to Google and Alphabet for the long term, and will remain actively involved as Board members, shareholders and co-founders.”
As of 5:04pm Eastern, Alphabet’s stock is up 0.68% in after-hours trading.
Investment in space startups is significant and growing, and the opportunities available to commercial players in space exploration, research and industrialization are multiplying. But for non-expert investors and observers, these opportunities can seem obtuse and obscured, buried in technical jargon and a heady amount of hype.
That's a great time to consult with those already active in space investing — like François Chopard, CEO of global aerospace and defense accelerator Starburst.
Chopard recently presented a deck detailing the current state of the space industry, specifically from the perspective of early-stage startup and investment activity. The Starburst CEO essentially pegs the beginning of the current upturn in space and defense startup investing as getting off the ground in around 2015, right around the time that SpaceX started ramping its launch cadence after more than a decade of development, testing and early commercial launch service.
Notably, Chopard says that Starburst has a database holding more than 6,000 aerospace and defense startups put together by its scouting team, and that while he personally expected some kind of plateau or slow in the rate of growth in the sector to have come into play by now, in fact there has been no such slowdown.
This year alone, there was a total of $5 billion in disclosed funding — and that's data that doesn't include the final three months of the year. Taken together, that represents four percent of the overall VC market, per Starburst's calculations.
Chopard also outlines trending opportunities that Starbust is seeing in terms of the space and defense industry's development, citing the "ground segment" as the "next bottleneck," for instance.
Essentially, that means that all these new satellite companies who are able to get their hardware to space thanks to the advent and availability of affordable launch vehicles will need Earth-based infrastructure to handle the data they gather, both in terms of transmission and storage, and that's going to be a booming opportunity for new and emerging companies.
This deck is a great look at what's interesting and exciting to investors about aerospace and defense, and why it's a category that has seen a lot of growth in terms of VC investment in recent years despite seemingly high technology hurdles and perceived long development timelines.
NASA is going to be sending something it calls a “robot hotel” to the International Space Station aboard the next commercial resupply mission, which is set to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket this week. The robot hotel is more formally known as the “Robotic Tool Stowage” unit, or the RiTS for short, because NASA loves nothing quite so much as it loves acronyms.
Depending on how eager you are to anthropomorphize robots, the “hotel” designation might not be quite as appropriate as “garage” — this unit is essentially a protected parking space for robots when not in use, helping to protect them from potential dangers presented by being in space, including exposure to radiation, and the potential to get hit by micrometeors and other debris.
The first guests at the hotel will be two robots called Robotic External Leak Locators (RELL — because acronyms). They do what it says on the tin, finding leaks in the ISS exterior hull from the outside, which is a key job. And in the past, they’ve been stored inside the ISS when not in use, but space is at a premium in the station itself, so any time you can save some it’s good news for astronauts and for ongoing research and other equipment.
Plus, the RELLs need to be calibrated when they’re sent out to do their job, a process that requires 12 full hours. Because their new storage environment is already external, it’ll be much easier and quicker for the station’s Dextre robotic arm to retrieve them and set them to work.
Books are fundamentally about stories, and 2019 (and really, the past decade) has been the story of technology's domination of every industry and function of society. Founders and tech executives are more powerful than ever, and how we use that power for good or evil will deeply shape the future of our world.
Whether it's the sudden rise of TikTok and the ubiquity of social networks in business, economics, and politics, or the coming conflagration of climate change, or the challenges of personal and professional development, or just finding your way in building a startup, there was just an avalanche of books published this year on every topic near and dear to a technologist's and founder's heart.
I wanted to get a sense of what our readers thought were the best books they read this year, and so I reached out to our Extra Crunch membership to ask for their recommendations. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a group of people who actually pay for deeper journalism, our EC readers submitted dozens and dozens of book recommendations on every subject imaginable.
From those recommendations, I carefully selected a list of just 12 books that seemed the most recommended by our readers and also captured the zeitgeist of the times we are living in. Every book here is great and important, and I only wish we had more time to read them all.
How to handle the coming total disruption of society by technology
Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries by Safi Bahcall
Anyone who has worked long enough in innovation and technology knows that great ideas can come from anywhere. But how do those ideas actually go from mere thoughts to actions and products, while avoiding the organizational politics that often prevent them from seeing the light of day in the first place?
Safi Bahcall, a PhD physicist from Stanford who co-founded and led Synta Pharmaceuticals as CEO through its IPO on NASDAQ in 2007, has been thinking about serendipity in science for years, and Loonshots is his first book. In it, Bahcall borrows concepts from science to move beyond looking purely at organizational culture to investigating organizational structure, investigating how we design our teams and how that can play an outsized role in whether new ideas flourish — or are killed on the spot.
Widely lauded by luminaries and a bestseller on Amazon and the Wall Street Journal, the book asks one of the most important questions in innovation today and gives a series of vignettes on how to improve our ability to handle spontaneity. A great book for the disrupting — and the disrupted.
The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation by Carl Benedikt Frey
Princeton University Press / 480 pages / June 2019
Digital disruption is all around us. Artificial intelligence is quickly eliminating millions of middle-class jobs, and fears of automation are growing among more and more workers, polarizing our politics and complicating the future of business.
Yet, all of this has happened before. More than a century ago, technologies like replaceable parts and the steam engine combined to create one of the greatest transformations our society has ever seen in the Industrial Revolution. But just how did the Industrial Revolution happen, and how did it affect everyday people in England, America, and elsewhere?
Carl Benedikt Frey, a fellow at Oxford University and director of the Programme on Technology & Employment at the Oxford Martin School, investigates the short, medium, and long-term consequences of the Industrial Revolution on workers, finding that in fact the changes had extraordinarily negative consequences in the short term. His lessons from this pivotal moment in history can help technology leaders avoid the biggest risks today in how we design human/AI systems in the coming age of automation.
Digital Transformation: Survive and Thrive in an Era of Mass Extinction by Thomas M. Siebel
You've re-built your structure based on Loonshots, and learned the lessons of The Technology Trap, but ultimately, many leading enterprise companies today are facing extinction from a number of new technology waves like elastic cloud computing and the internet of things. For those not doing the disrupting but rather on the receiving end, what exactly are you supposed to do?
Billionaire entrepreneur Tom Siebel, who founded Siebel Systems and eventually merged it into Oracle in 2006 for nearly $6 billion, wrote his first book in almost two decades on the topic of how legacy companies can navigate these turbulent times. Through Digital Transformation, Siebel tries to offer the disrupted a primer on just what is going on in AI and other big tech waves to help executives understand what strategies they can use to defend their businesses.
A brisk and reasonably short read, Digital Transformation offers key lessons, even if they may well be ignored by most before it is too late.
How to deal with tech's inadequacies and head-banging, stupid behavior
Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech by Sara Wachter-Boettcher
While we love writing about the growth of innovative products and startups here at TechCrunch, the other side of that coin is that there has been a constant cavalcade of dumb actions by founders and engineers the past few years that has turned many sour on the future of our industry. Whether it is sexism in financial underwriting or employee political controversies (stories just from the last few days), technology is increasingly under a microscope — and the industry doesn't look good at full resolution.
Technically Wrong, a book by consultant and tech critic Sara Wachter-Boettcher, tries to take a more playful approach to all these challenges by just sort of splaying them all out together for the world to see. While ostensibly targeted at the general public, the idiocies that Wachter-Boettcher identifies should be taught in every software engineering, product management, and UX design class.
As one Extra Crunch member wrote in their endorsement:
This is my favourite book. It highlights examples of bias in tech and how this has led to negative or even harmful applications in society. It makes a strong case for any developer to consider how their tech may be biased or have potential to be used for harm. A must read.
Given the plague of scandals hitting tech, the book is perhaps a tad out of date just two years post-publication, but its lessons are invaluable and will stand the test of time.
Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again by Brittany Kaiser
Perhaps no scandal has rocked the tech industry — or politics in general — quite like the Cambridge Analytica imbroglio that not only showed the power that Facebook and other social networks have over us through our user data, but also the scale to which that data influences purchasing decisions and of course, our elections.
Brittany Kaiser was a consultant and former Obama campaign worker who joined Cambridge Analytica hoping to make a difference. I guess in a way she did, eventually learning the true nature of big data and how that intersects with the needs of campaign managers. Through Targeted, she writes about her experience on the ground floor of the organization, and also places the company in the context of the broader challenges facing technology and ethics going forward. It's a cri de coeur for other tech industry workers to think about how their work is affecting society and perhaps tapping out in much the way that Kaiser did.
Targeted is competing directly with Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America by Christopher Wylie for this year's best memoir on the sordid story. Targeted got the recs from EC readers though, and it's certainly a story that deserves more than one point of view.
How to think about the biggest news stories this year
We Are The Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / 288 pages / September 2019
Climate change was all over the news this year, and perhaps nowhere more than in tech's central headquarters of Silicon Valley, which faced fires and repeated blackouts this year as utility company PG&E struggled to deliver power amidst California's changing climate. But climate change isn't just something that is "happening" — it's being driven by the choices we make every single day.
Long-time novelist Jonathan Safran Foer returns to the theme of his sole non-fiction book Eating Animals to look at how our decisions around food are directly impacting the health of the planet. While it may seem like what we eat for breakfast is but a minor drop of carbon in a massive ocean, the reality is that our collective and aggregated decisions have huge implications for how our food systems are organized.
Foer brings his literary talents to bear on the subject, creating a textured and at times stream-of-consciousness account that interleaves climate change fear, personal anecdotes, and short stories to create a compelling case for changing our daily habits in ways that align with the needs of our environment. It may not be tuned to every reader's preferred style, but few books connect all the dots on this subject quite like We Are The Weather
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / 272 pages / September 2018
Another storyline that just kept rearing its head in the headlines this year was China. From the trade war and tariffs between Trump and Xi, to the increasing security risks of Chinese industrial espionage, to the surveillance technology that companies like Huawei are exporting to undergird digital authoritarianism, China's actions are transforming our world (and at least from this side of the Pacific, not for the positive).
One locus of competition between the U.S. and China though remains focused on artificial intelligence, and which country will take the lead in this critical new market. China has invested prodigious amounts of funding into the industry through its Made in China 2025 plan, while the United States continues to have some of the leading research groups and companies in the space.
Kai-Fu Lee, a well-known trans-Pacific venture capitalist, tries to demystify and de-intensify the arms race story by carefully investigating what is really taking place in the AI labs and products from leading companies like Didi, Baidu, and Google. Less focused on fear than on analysis, Lee brings to bear his decades of experience on the subject to offer readers an in-depth, sober, and ultimately compelling look at how Chinese and American efforts around AI differ, and just how they can learn from each other. It was also our most recommended book by EC members, and I've also personally loved it (and discussed it a bit, although never truly got around to reviewing it – sorry!)
How to think about stories
Crafting Stories for Virtual Reality by Lakshmi Sarah and Melissa Bosworth
McLuhan's oft-repeated and often wrongly-interpreted "the medium is the message" is a key aspect of communications studies, but another angle is that the medium determines the types of stories that can be communicated. Books, radio, and television are platforms that offer storytellers certain tools and constraints, and over the decades (and for books, centuries), we have learned how to mold and optimize our visions to those intrinsic limits.
Virtual reality though is a whole new field, and as a medium, it is just getting started. How do we take advantage of the immersiveness intrinsic to VR? What are the new limits on storytelling, and what norms around plot and characters are going to have to be established to make this medium accessible to viewers?
Multimedia journalists Lakshmi Sarah and Melissa Bosworth wrote Crafting Stories for Virtual Reality as a primer for any storyteller that wants to learn more about how immersive media, augmented reality, and virtual reality are going to transform storytelling, reporting, and entertainment into the future.
As one EC reader wrote in their recommendation:
It provides a really good overview of different types of virtual reality and how they can be shaped to resonate with audiences in different ways. For anyone considering VR, it's incredibly helpful.
It's certainly early days, and books like this almost certainly have a short half-life. Nonetheless, for those looking to explore stories in VR, this is just the title to get up-to-speed on this small but rapidly growing segment of the tech industry.
Our EC readers are heavy on the non-fiction, but we did occasionally get some recommendations for fiction. One popular novel was Richard Powers' The Overstory, which won this year's Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. So, okay, clearly a critic favorite. But what makes the novel so unique and compelling in a year that had a serious number of great entries?
Similar to Foer above, Powers is concerned about how humans and climate change are coming together to devastate our natural environment and particularly, our trees and forests. The Overstory is really a multitude of stories of Americans who connect with nature and each other to start to take action to address the massive changes coming and already in progress.
This is the twelfth novel for Powers, who in addition to literature, has a background in physics and was formerly a computer programmer. His work on The Overstory was partly inspired by time he spent in Silicon Valley while at Stanford, where he observed California's famed redwood trees. If you are looking for a thought-provoking novel, you don't need to look too much farther.
How to help yourself in the tech world
The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhuo
There is an archetypical story that happens at rapidly growing startups. A founder hires friends and people they know, builds a team, launches a product, and strikes gold. As growth continues unabated, more and more people are hired — forcing the startup to invent a management structure to bring some level of organization to the chaos. But managers are hard to find, and there are already employees with some level of tenure at the company. And so those early employees are often moved up rapidly to managerial and executive roles, suddenly handling direct reports with no experience whatsoever.
Julie Zhuo, VP of Design at Facebook, has written a guide for exactly these first-time, suddenly-promoted managers on exactly what they should be doing to begin bringing order to the chaos. This book is definitely in the self-help, management guru wing of the bookstore, but Zhuo's personal experience going through this transformation shows through in her examples and clearly defined points for improvement.
One EC reader wrote in their recommendation:
One of the biggest org fallacies of fast-growing startups is promoting great ICs into first-time management roles and expecting they'll quickly turn into great people managers with little training, mentorship, or role-models. Since that almost always works to plan, Julie, the first designer and later head of design at Facebook, wrote a book outlining all the challenges of being that first-time manager and the learnings along the way. A book I recommend to my team across the board.
The Making of a Manager targets a unique audience with unique insights and is worth a read.
Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive by Marc Brackett
This was a surprising recommendation from the EC membership, but once I investigated it, completely understood why it fits on this list. One of the biggest challenges for children is their emotional development — how do they interact with the world and with other people? How do they listen to themselves and how they are feeling?
It's not just children though, since all of us can improve how we respond to the daily stresses on our lives.
That's why Marc Brackett, the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, explores how we handle our emotions and why it is important to give and receive "permission to feel." He offers an acronym (of course he does) called RULER to manage our emotional lives better:
Recognizing emotions in oneself and others.
Understanding the causes and consequences of emotion.
Labeling emotions with precise words.
Expressing emotions taking context and culture into consideration.
Regulating emotions effectively to achieve goals and wellbeing.
Considering that tech can often be one of the least emotionally hospitable industries out there, Brackett's thoughts and solutions seem like a perfect fit for improving the quality and well-being of our workplaces and lives.
Isaacson is probably best known today for his 2011 biography of Steve Jobs, but he has followed up that magnum opus with another dive into another entrepreneur, this time quintessential Renaissance man Leonardo Da Vinci. You've got all the typical Isaacson accoutrements here: the storyline, the characters, the life lessons, the inspiration. I don't know how anyone can walk away from a book like this and not be deeply inspired by the power of a single human to change the world (or at least invent new ones!)
As one EC member wrote in their recommendation: "Curiosity and imagination lead to awareness and innovation. He perfected the art. A lesson for all."
The book first came out two years ago with a paperback version coming out about a year ago, so perhaps noteworthy that our EC members still find deep value in this biography and its lessons.
What kinds of businesses might be able to operate in space? Well, data centers are one potential target you might not have thought of. Space provides an interesting environment for data center operations, including advanced analytics operations and even artificial intelligence, due in part to the excellent cooling conditions and reasonable access to renewable power supply (solar). But there are challenges, which is why a new partnership between Florida-based space startup OrbitsEdge and Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) makes a lot of sense.
The partnership will make OrbitsEdge a hardware supplier for HPE’s Edgeline Converged Edge Systems, and basically it means that the space startup will be handling everything required to “harden” the standard HPE micro-data center equipment for use in outer space. Hardening is a standard process for getting stuff ready to use in space, and essentially prepares equipment to withstand the increased radiation, extreme temperatures and other stressors that space adds to the mix.
OrbitsEdge, founded earlier this year, has developed a proprietary piece of hardware called the “SatFrame” which is designed to counter the stress of a space-based operating environment, making it relatively easy to take off-the-shelf Earth equipment like the HPE Edgeline system and get it working in space without requiring a huge amount of additional, custom work.
In terms of what this will potentially provide, the partnership will mean it’s more feasible than ever to set up a small-scale data center in orbit to handle at least some of the processing of space-based data right near where it’s collected, rather than having to shuttle it back down to Earth. That process can be expensive, and difficult to source in terms of even finding companies and infrastructure to use. As with in-space manufacturing, doing things locally could save a lot of overhead and unlock tons of potential down the line.
AWS announced a new local zone today in LA, designed to provide customers in southern California with a set of higher bandwidth, lower latency compute resources. It’s not a coincidence that this area is the epicenter of the entertainment industry.
Having a local zone gives LA-area companies, whether that’s related to video processing, gaming, ad tech or machine learning, access to a much more localized set of resources, wrote Jeff Barr of AWS in a blog post announcing the new zone.
“Today we are launching a Local Zone in Los Angeles, California. The Local Zone is a new type of AWS infrastructure deployment that brings select AWS services very close to a particular geographic area. This Local Zone is designed to provide very low latency (single-digit milliseconds) to applications that are accessed from Los Angeles and other locations in Southern California,” Barr wrote
As he pointed out, LA is home to a lot of companies that require this kind of local compute for gaming, 3D modeling and rendering, video processing (including real-time color correction), video streaming and media production pipelines.
The LA zone is actually part of a broader US West (Oregon) Region. Those customers who want to take advantage of the new zone will have to opt in by selecting it in the Local Zones console. It will be billed separately, but also includes access to savings plans.
India’s Vikram lander was very near making its proud creators the fourth country in history to touch down on the Moon — but it was not to be, and the craft was lost. Now India has a bit of closure: The remains of the lander have been located on the Moon’s surface.
After the accident, the United States’ Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter made a pass over the intended landing zone and snapped some pictures. Shanmuga Subramanian, an engineer in Channai, India, was poring over them when he noticed what appeared to be the marks of debris.
“Using the data I calculated and from ISRO’s live telemetry data, I deduced that it might be something like [2-2.5 kilometers around] the landing site,” Subramanian told India Today. He spent hours every day looking over imagery of the area. “I did find a small white little dot which was something different from the surroundings. When I compared with old images from 2010, I found this was not there, so I thought, it has to be a piece of the lander.”
He emailed his findings to NASA, which got back to him a short while later confirming what he had found. ISRO had originally said the lander impacted 500 meters from its intended landing site, and the actual point was some 750 meters to the northwest.
Closer inspection by experts revealed the impact site itself, as well as a number of pieces of debris and the trails they left in the lunar soil as they tumbled.
It’s little comfort for ISRO and the agency’s supporters to see the parts of their cherished spacecraft scattered across the surface of the Moon, but it’s a visceral reminder of how incredibly close they got to making that mission a success, and how proud the country can be of that accomplishment.
Just as Qualcomm was starting to highlight its 5G plans for the coming years, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg hit the stage at AWS re:Invent to discuss the carrier's team up with the cloud computing giant.
As part of Verizon's (TechCrunch's parent company, disclosure, disclosure, disclosure) upcoming focus on 5G edge computing, the carrier will be the first to use the newly announced AWS Wavelength. The platform is designed to let developers build super-low-latency apps for 5G devices.
Currently, it's being piloted in Chicago with a handful of high-profile partners, including the NFL and Bethesda, the game developer behind Fallout and Elder Scrolls. No details yet on those specific applications (though remote gaming and live streaming seem like the obvious ones), but potential future uses include things like smart cars, IoT devices, AR/VR — you know, the sorts of things people cite when discussing 5G's life beyond the smartphone.
"AWS Wavelength provides the same AWS environment — APIs, management console and tools — that they're using today at the edge of the 5G network," AWS CEO Andy Jassy said onstage. Starting with Verizon's 5G network locations in the U.S., customers will be able to deploy the latency-sensitive portions of an application at the edge to provide single-digit millisecond latency to mobile and connected devices."
As Verizon's CEO joined Vestberg onstage, CNO Nicki Palmer joined Qualcomm in Hawaii to discuss the carrier's mmwave approach to the next-gen wireless. The technology has raised some questions around its coverage area. Verizon has addressed this to some degree with partnerships with third-parties like Boingo.
The company plans to have coverage in 30 U.S. cities by end of year. That number is currently at 18.
Today at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas, the company announced a new search tool called Kendra, which provides natural language search across a variety of content repositories using machine learning.
Matt Wood, AWS VP of artificial intelligence, said the new search tool uses machine learning, but doesn't actually require machine learning expertise of any kind. Amazon is taking care of that for customers under the hood.
You start by identifying your content repositories. This could be anything from an S3 storage repository to OneDrive to Salesforce — anywhere you store content. You can use pre-built connectors from AWS, provide your credentials and connect to all of these different tools.
Kendra then builds an index based on the content it finds in the connected repositories, and users can begin to interact with the search tool using natural language queries. The tool understands concepts like time, so if the question is something like “When is the IT Help Desk is open,” the search engine understands that this is about time, checks the index and delivers the right information to the user.
The beauty of this search tool is not only that it uses machine learning, but based on simple feedback from a user, like a smiley face or sad face emoji, it can learn which answers are good and which ones require improvement, and it does this automatically for the search team.
Once you have it set up, you can drop the search on your company intranet or you can use it internally inside an application and it behaves as you would expect a search tool to do, with features like type ahead.
Back in February, we wrote that Postscript “wants to be the Mailchimp for SMS.” Now they’ve raised $4.5 million to help get it done.
This round was led by Accomplice, and backed by Kayak co-founder Paul English, Wufoo co-founder Kevin Hale, Klaviyo co-founder Andrew Bialecki, Drift co-founder Elias Torres, Front co-founder Mathilde Collin and Podium co-founders Eric Rea and Dennis Steele. The Postscript team is currently made up of 14 people.
Postscript is meant to help e-commerce companies — specifically Shopify shops, currently — connect with their existing customers over SMS. Their Shopify plugin lets store owners run SMS marketing campaigns with customers who’ve opted in, have two-way conversations with users who respond and analyze the data to figure out what’s working.
Got a new product hitting the shelves and want to let your most frequent customers know first? Plug the message into Postscript’s dashboard, tell it what segment of your customer base you want to receive it and send away. Their analytics backend will tell you how many people received it, how many actually clicked through and how much revenue you pulled in from those clicks.
If a customer types out a text and responds, it’ll pop up in the backend like a support ticket. Shop owners and employees can respond and have direct conversations, answer questions and close out the ticket through the dashboard — or they can automatically pipe them into services like Zendesk or Zapier.
But what about spam? Our text message inboxes tend to feel like the last refuge from the overwhelming onslaught of marketing messages that have ruined e-mail; do we really want shops pinging our phones directly every time they’ve got a new pair of pants?
It seems like Postscript is pretty mindful of this, and is building things in a way that limits just how “spammy” anyone on the platform can be — partly because (as we’ve seen with e-mail) flooding users with unwanted messages ensures that messages just don’t get opened, and partly because SMS is much more tightly regulated than many other messaging protocols. Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in the U.S., for example, SMSing marketing messages to someone without an explicit opt-in can get the company nailed with fines of thousands of dollars per text.
The opt-in process for phone communications is already a bit more codified in the U.S., and as companies attempt to stay in the good graces of GDPR for fear of the EU god, it might be more likely they tread carefully.
As such, everything is opt-in, and easily opted out of if a user changes their mind. It also helps, of course, that sending SMS isn’t free for the companies. Each SMS you send to a customer who doesn’t care is money wasted — so there’s interest on all sides on limiting messages to just the folks who actually want them.
Postscript pricing varies depending on how many messages a shop is looking to send each month. Paid plans start at $50 a month for 1,500 SMS, climbing up to $2,000 per month for 83,000 messages — after that, they ask shops to reach out for a custom plan. Postscript co-founder Alex Beller tells me the company currently has around 530 paying customers, each spending anything from $50 per month to “the mid five figures.”
SoftBank is continuing to expand its Mexican portfolio, which now includes used car buying platform Kavak andpayments startup Clip. Aside from Mexico, SoftBank has primarily focused its $5 billion Latin America fund on Brazil — and recently marked its entry into Argentina with an injection into financial services company Uala in a $150 million investment co-led by Tencent.
As traditional banks shy away from small to medium-sized business loans in Mexico, Konfio’s credit underwriting service provides a faster alternative. Konfio uses a data-first approach to enable fast credit assessment for SMBs looking to grow their businesses. The service can disburse credit in a one-day turnaround, as opposed to locking users into a traditional months-long approval process that can often require collateral.
Meanwhile, if you're a startup gathering massive amounts of data on Latin America's growing middle class, SoftBank might be interested in your growth funding. The Japanese conglomerate seems to want to know everything it can about Latin America’s consumer spending habits, mobile usage and personal banking user behavior.
Watch Konfio founder and CEO David Arana’s panel at TechCrunch’s São Paulo event here.
When the storied venture firm Sequoia likes a deal, it will sometimes not only lead one of its financing rounds but fund it exclusively — no matter how that impacts earlier investors. Given the firm’s powerful brand, it’s hard to complain (too much), even if it means that earlier backers see their stakes diluted.
Such looks to be the case with Dolls Kill, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based online boutique for “misfits” and “miss legits,” that began selling platform shoes and other club-type clothing and has apparently grown like a weed, alongside the festivals that its customers attend, from Burning Man to Coachella.
The company has just raised $40 million in Series B funding from Sequoia, and when we talked yesterday with co-founder and CEO Bobby Farahi about the deal — which brings Dolls Kill’s funding to roughly $60 million — he said there was “no room” for earlier backers, including the consumer-focused venture firm Maveron.
He quickly added that the company’s board members — specifically Maveron partner Jason Stoffer, along with former Hot Topic CEO Betsy McLaughlin — have been instrumental in helping the company “think through growth while maintaining authenticity.”
It’s easy to appreciate enthusiasm around the brand, which employs around 400 people, has retail stores in both San Francisco and LA and sells its own clothes under an array of different labels, as well as sells the clothing of third parties whose aesthetic happens to fit that of Dolls Kill at any particular moment in time.
As says Farahi, “Right now there’s a resurgence in ’90s fashion, but in another year, we could move on to other third-party brands that we believe will resonate with our customers.”
Farahi doesn’t break out how much of the company’s clothing is made by the startup itself — in China and the U.S., among other “international” locations, according to Farahi. He shies from sharing many metrics at all, in fact. But the company, whose counter-culture approach began at the fringes of society, has seemingly gone mainstream as young shoppers increasingly ditch logos and look to express who they are through what Farahi calls their “inner IDGF.”
Adds Farahi, “The macro world changed a lot to give us a lot of tailwinds.”
Dolls Kill also has — for now, at least — a deep connection to its customers, thanks partly to its creative approach. When the company told its three million Instagram followers earlier this year that it would drive an ice cream truck filled with a particular combat boot called the Billionaire Bling Boot to dozens of U.S. cities, customers “four blocks long” waited in line to buy them, says Farahi.
In another inventive twist, it opened its LA location — which looks more like a nightclub — to shoppers at midnight on Black Friday and it stayed open the following 24 hours.
Sequoia — which reached out to the company directly — told Farahi that it had looked at a lot of fashion brands and “they said we believe you’re the next generation-defining brand, the way The Gap was in the ’80s,” recounts Farahi. “I think they see the company not just as a brand but also a movement.”
Certainly, Sequoia’s Alfred Lin — who as Zappos’s COO helped grow the company into the giant that Amazon acquired in 2009 — understands such things, given the famously strong early emphasis at Zappos on company culture and growing while remaining true to its early employees and customers.
As for the name Dolls Kill, the brand was the idea of Farahi’s wife and co-founder Shoddy Lynn, who liked the “dichotomous words, one very soft and one very hard,” says Fahari, explaining that while “the brand is very girly, these girls aren’t taking shit from anybody.”
Lauren McCaslin is a vulnerability verification specialist with application security leader WhiteHat Security.
Each company's culture is defined by a variety of factors.
One major factor is its leadership, and the type of workplace environment they choose to create. For example, are they approachable and encourage collaboration from all levels of the organization? Or do they prefer to maintain a tightly knit power structure, working only within the C-suite, from a rigid, top-down structure?
I'm quite fortunate to work for an employer with a culture that focuses on empowering and valuing the contributions of women equally to men at all levels of the organization. I recognize the gift that this culture is because sadly, not every company is like this. Tech companies especially must increase efforts to enable and encourage women with inspiration and opportunities that drive success. In fact, research has shown that companies with gender diversity in leadership experience greater financial returns.
So, how can other companies become more inclusive? The goal is identifying the right mix of ideas to create or institute programs that are unique but fit within the company's mission and workplace culture. While the program at my employer is still being defined and developed, we have some great ideas for kickstarting an inclusive program that can be successful for your team, such as:
Create a community and attend events that expand your network
Getting involved in community events that are focused on women, like Women of Silicon Valley, is one way my team has made critical connections with the local talent pool and other female leaders in the Bay area. This creates significant value for our organization over time, and the investment in participation cannot be overstated. Partnering with those outside your company can also foster inclusive workforces, and that is a win-win.
Taking this a step further, we've also invited speakers to speak to our female employees on topics ranging from career development or tips and tools for avoiding imposter syndrome, to strategies for engaging with peers in the workplace and fostering more productivity.
As a developing program, I believe the inclusive initiatives at my company put them ahead of many others in Silicon Valley. The organization partners with our PR firm to identify and take advantage of industry speaking engagements, such as DefendCon and the Women in Tech Summits, to highlight female thought leaders, as well as industry award programs like Women in IT, that recognize significant achievements of female engineers in our market.
We are also currently pursuing a workshop for women to help them maximize their professional LinkedIn profiles. Here, our female employees will examine their own profiles to determine if their value is clearly articulated. They will be given suggestions on strengthening their profiles and representing their experience, and also have professional photos taken.
Finally, our company looks for ways to lift up women employees and celebrate their presence. As an example, we recently acknowledged International Women's Day with a luncheon hosted by executive leadership for women in all departments, praising their contributions and the vital role they have in our company's continued success.
Keep interoffice communication productive and professional, but also social
Having a dedicated interoffice communication channel where women engineers can go to ask questions or offer support to other women is very beneficial.
At my company, female employees at every level of the organization utilize a Slack group to collaborate and share information. Here, inclusion is immediate as you're welcomed on your first day of employment and invited to contribute to the group.
The general vibe of our Slack channel is about 'women empowering women.' We encourage and lift each other up. Our team vice president also keeps us informed about special events and opportunities that might be of interest.
We also use the channel as a professional resource, whether it's to brainstorm ideas, to share industry articles featuring other powerful women killing it in tech, or to communicate opportunities for professional development and upskilling that might benefit us all.
This exclusively women's outlet has grown quite important to us, especially as our company was acquired earlier this year. As roles have evolved, women are finding support from one another and receiving encouragement as they adjust to new tasks and responsibilities.
This cultural empowerment is a movement for our company, and you can see it in how women will flock toward each other. For example, it's noticeable in meetings how colleagues celebrate the successful completion of a project or amplify a great idea by eagerly offering support and congratulations.
These obvious benefits have spawned the idea to create group 'empowerment chapters' in each of our global offices in Houston, Belfast, and San Jose, where women will take turns acting as a chairperson and coordinator for that particular location. Since a company's culture is also impacted by its physical geography within the world, or whether it is located in an urban or rural area, these chapters can enhance our understanding of colleagues in different parts of the world.
Use same-gender mentorship to build a more diverse workforce
Executive leaders are recognizing that in order to promote continued learning, stronger job performance, and swift career advancement that results in employees remaining with their organization longer, they must provide inclusive and effective mentors and sponsors. For men or women, the emphasis can be less on hierarchy and more on reciprocity, so companies can develop and provide mutual mentoring pairs.
The mentoring program for my team focuses women employees on increasing the inclusivity of women in the workspace; sharing motivational messages on being a woman in tech and recognizing and celebrating the successes of individuals within a group. These relationships help women to overcome individual challenges with the existing organizational hierarchy and quickly address progress-killing power dynamics that might be in play.
As an expansion of our mentorship program, we have also made a point to impress upon the recruiters and hiring consultants that we work with, to help with our efforts by identifying and delivering a more diverse pool of job candidates to apply for open positions within the organization. Being upfront and transparent about this requirement means that we're actively fostering greater inclusion and diversity from the very beginning of a woman's career with us – and it is supported from the top-down in the org chart. We even target colleges and universities with a favorable diversity profile to recruit interns and entry-level employees.
The U.S. recently celebrated Women's Equality Day, commemorating the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting the right for women to vote. This amendment was hard-earned by 19th century women, who previously had little opportunity to assert their opinions or individuality.
Generations of women since then have had a vastly different life experience. Our aim as women is to keep pushing this effort forward. One way to do that is recognizing how much women contribute to the workplace and impact our corporate culture.
I heard a quote once that really resonates with me: "Diversity is being invited to the party, but inclusion is being asked to dance." Explicitly defining and sharing criteria for advancement, offering exciting assignments to all employees, and most importantly, expecting, reinforcing and rewarding intentional inclusion can go a long way toward strengthening a positive corporate culture.
It's expected that corporate culture may change over time, being re-shaped or molded by the influx of new people, new places and new ideas. Therefore, it takes some effort to develop a strong culture that continues to reflect the company's values and ensures that any changes are still appropriately meeting the needs of every employee, while delivering on the company's core mission.
We must address the workplace status quo and force organizations to address biases and stereotypes, or risk reinforcing gender inequalities. Promoting a corporate culture where talented professional women associate and engage with other professional women or advocates of women at varied career levels may be the revolution needed to truly transform workplace gender inclusion.
This morning at its annual Snapdragon summit in Hawaii, Qualcomm offered a glimpse at two new Snapdragon chips. You know how this works: the chipmaker offers some insight into the components that will power the vast majority of Android flagships over the course of the coming year.
The two headliners for the event are the flagship-level Snapdragon 865 and the lower-end 765. No surprise, Qualcomm is focused on 5G and AI for both systems — the latter of which has become an increasingly important piece of the mobile ecosystem, while the former is expected to start driving a majority of smartphone purchases beginning next year.
Here’ Qualcomm:
The flagship Snapdragon 865 Mobile Platform, which includes the Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System, is the world's most advanced 5G platform, delivering unmatched connectivity and performance for the next generation of flagship devices. The Snapdragon 765/765G brings integrated 5G connectivity, advanced AI processing, and select Snapdragon Elite Gaming experiences.
Notably, the mid-range 765 features an integrated 5G option, unlike the higher-end 865, which utilizes the separate X55 5G modem. Likely the latter decision is a sign of the relatively slow roll out of 5G handsets this year. They’ll surely become more of a mainstay in 2020, but many manufacturers will likely continue to offer non-5G options, particularly in countries where carriers have been slower to introduce the next-gen network.
Right now, it’s just a glimpse of what’s to come. Expect more information to be rationed out the next few days of the summit. We also may get a look at some of the first handsets this week in Hawaii, but likely the announcements will really begin in earnest come CES and MWC in early-January and late-February, respectively.
Also new is Sonic Max, a new fingerprint-scanning technology. The hook here is a much larger surface area for the in-screen scanner — 17x larger, according to Qualcomm’s numbers.
Instagram is hiding Like counts to make people feel better. But what if you’re curious, competitive or just petty? Now you can re-embrace the popularity contest by installing the Socialinsider Chrome extension that reveals Instagram Like and comment counts. “The Return of the Likes” extension overlays the numbers of Likes and comments on the top-right corner of posts on Instagram’s website. If you don’t want Instagram’s overprotective helicopter parenting, now you can download the extension here to put an end to it.
Obviously, it’s not as useful as showing Like counts right in the Instagram mobile app. You probably aren’t going to switch to browsing Insta just on the web, but if you see a post you want to know the Like count of, you can easily send yourself the permalink and open it on a computer.
Instagram is currently testing hiding Like counts with a percentage of users in every country worldwide. It started the experiment in Canada in April before adding six more countries in July and then the U.S. last month. Facebook launched a similar hidden likes experiment in Australia in September.
TechCrunch tested Return of the Likes and verified that it works. It comes from social media analytics company Socialinsider, which offers software for measuring engagement and benchmarking performance against competitors. The company insists that “No data is sent to Socialinsider servers.” We asked Instagram if the Chrome extension was in compliance with the app’s rules, and will update if we hear back.
As social media evolves, the emerging trend is for platforms to step in to protect users. In many cases, it’s warranted. Like counts can hurt people’s well-being by leading them into envy spirals comparing themselves against peers, or coercing them to self-censor to avoid an embarrassingly low Like count. Still, the question remains whether users deserve control over their own experience. Should we be able to opt back in to seeing Like counts, the way we have controls over block lists of offensive words?
After the platforms step up to ensure safety, we’ll have to decide when we want to step in and demand to see what’s been covered up.
Additional reporting by Lucas Matney
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చిరంజీవి మినహాయిస్తే సీనియర్ హీరోలు ఎప్పుడో తమ మార్కెట్ కోల్పోయారు. నాగార్జున వరుస ఫ్లాపులతో ఇబ్బంది పడుతున్నాడు. వెంకటేష్ తన సొంత బ్యానర్ లో గుంభనంగా సినిమాలు చేసుకుంటున్నాడు. బాలయ్య తక్కువ మొత్తానికే బ్యాక్ టు బ్యాక్ సినిమాలు చేస్తున్నాడు. ఇలాంటి టైమ్ లో ఉన్నట్టుంది తన మూవీ బడ్జెట్ ను అమాంతం పెంచేశాడు బాలయ్య. తన అప్ కమింగ్ మూవీకి ఏకంగా 60 కోట్ల బడ్జెట్ ఫిక్స్ చేశాడు. అవును.. బోయపాటి శీను దర్శకత్వంలో బాలకృష్ణ […]
మూవీ రిజల్ట్ సంగతి పక్కనపెడదాం. ట్రయిలర్స్ వరకు మారుతి సినిమాలు చాలా బాగుంటాయి. ట్రయిలర్ లోనే తనదైన మార్క్ చూపిస్తాడు ఈ డైరెక్టర్. మంచి థీమ్ మ్యూజిక్ ప్రజెంట్ చేస్తాడు. హీరో-హీరోయిన్ల క్యారెక్టరైజేషన్లను చక్కగా చూపిస్తాడు. మంచి కామెడీ బిట్స్ కూడా ఉంటాయి. ఓవరాల్ గా మారుతి సినిమా ట్రయిలర్స్ అన్నీ హిట్టే. మరి ప్రతి రోజూ పండగే సినిమా ట్రయిలర్ సంగతేంటి? డిసెంబర్ 4 న ఈ సినిమా ట్రయిలర్ విడుదలకాబోతోంది. ఇది ఎలా ఉండబోతోందనే […]
అమ్మాయిలపై అత్యాచారం చేస్తున్న వారికి సంబంధించి జనసేన అధ్యక్షుడు పవన్ కల్యాణ్ సంచలన వ్యాఖ్యలు చేశారు. రేప్ చేసిన వారిని చంపే హక్కు ఎవరికీ లేదని, ఆ విషయాన్ని సమాజం గుర్తించుకోవాలన్నారు. ”హైదరాబాద్లో రేప్ చేసిన నలుగురిని తీసుకెళ్లి పోలీస్ స్టేషన్ లో పెడితే వేలాది మంది వచ్చారు. ఉరి తీయాలంటున్నారు. ఒక సారి ఒక రేప్ కేసులో ఢిల్లీ స్థాయిలో ఒక జడ్జి.. రేప్ చేసిన వారి మర్మాంగాలు కోసేయాలన్నాడు. జడ్జికి కూడా అంత కోపం […]
దేశాన్ని కుదిపేసిన ఢిల్లీ నిర్భయ ఘటన దోషులకు మరో నెల రోజుల్లో మరణ శిక్ష అమలు చేయబోతున్నారు. ఈ నేపథ్యంలో తీహార్ జైలు అధికారులు ఉరి తీసే తలారీ కోసం వెతుకుతున్నారు. తీహార్ జైలులో ప్రస్తుతం తలారీ లేకపోవడంతో కాంట్రాక్టు ప్రాతిపదికనైనా తలారీని నియమించేందుకు ప్రయత్నిస్తున్నారు. నిర్భయ ఘటనలో నలుగురికి సుప్రీం కోర్టు ఉరి శిక్షను ఖాయం చేసింది. వారిలో వినయ్ శర్మ అనే దోషి మాత్రమే క్షమాభిక్షకు దరఖాస్తు చేసుకున్నాడు. రాష్ట్రపతి వద్ద ఆ వినతి […]
తెలుగుదేశం పార్టీ అనుకున్నది ఒకటి అయితే జరుగుతోంది మరోకటి. రాష్ర్టంలో గడచిన ఆరునెలల్లో ముఖ్యమంత్రి వై.ఎస్.జగన్మోహన్ రెడ్డి చేపడుతోన్న అభివృద్ది, సంక్షేమ కార్యక్రమాల అంశాలపై టీడీపీ సుదీర్ఘంగానే సమీక్షించింది. జగన్ పాలనపై ఆరునెలల వరకూ ఎలాంటి అంశాల్లోనూ స్పందించకుండా ఉండాలని ముందుగా టీడీపీ భావించింది. కానీ జగన్ వేగం చూసి, ఆరునెలల వరకూ ఆగితే అందనంత దూరం వెళతారనే నిశ్చయానికి వచ్చిన టీడీపీ ఎదురు దాడి చేపట్టింది. దీనికి ముందుగా ప్రజాభిప్రాయ సేకరణ చేసింది. జగన్ పాలనపై […]
ఏపీలో వైసీపీ అధికారంలోకి వచ్చి ఆరు నెలలైంది. ఇప్పటికే పలు నామినేటేడ్ పోస్టుల భర్తీ పూర్తయింది. జిల్లా స్థాయిలో నామినేటేడ్ పోస్టుల భర్తీ జరుగుతోంది. ఈ పదవుల పందేరం విషయంలో ఇప్పుడు కార్యకర్తల నుంచి నిరసన స్వరాలు వినిపిస్తున్నాయి. ఇన్నాళ్లు పనిచేసిన వారిని పక్కనపెట్టి…మధ్యలో వచ్చినవారికి…. ముఖ్యంగా బ్రోకర్లకు పదవులు ఇస్తున్నారని కార్యకర్తలు ఆవేదన వ్యక్తం చేస్తున్నారు. కర్నూలు జిల్లాలో ఇటీవలే కొన్ని నామినేటేడ్ పోస్టులు భర్తీ చేశారు. ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్ వ్యవసాయ విద్యాలయం పాలకమండలి వర్గ సభ్యుడిగా […]
బ్యాడ్మింటన్ ఫైనల్స్ కు సింధు మాత్రమే అర్హత చైనాలోని గాంగ్జావో వేదికగా డిసెంబర్ 11 నుంచి జరిగే 2019 బ్యాడ్మింటన్ సీజన్ ఆఖరి టోర్నీ, ప్రతిష్టాత్మక బ్యాడ్మింటన్ పైనల్స్ సమరానికి భారత్ కు చెందిన పీవీ సింధు మాత్రమే అర్హత సంపాదించింది. మొత్తం ఐదు విభాగాలలో కేవలం ఒక్క విభాగానికి మాత్రమే భారత్ పరిమితం కావాల్సి వచ్చింది. పురుషుల సింగిల్స్, మహిళల సింగిల్స్, మహిళల, పురుషుల డబుల్స్, మిక్సిడ్ డబుల్స్ విభాగాలలో సీజన్ ఫైనల్స్ టోర్నీనిర్వహించనున్నారు. మహిళల సింగిల్స్ లో […]
లోక్సభలో వైసీపీ ఎంపీ నిద్రపోయారు. అది కూడా హైదరాబాద్ దిశ సంఘటనపై హాట్హాట్గా చర్చ జరుగుతున్న సమయంలో. ‘జస్టిస్ ఫర్ దిశ’ అంటూ లోక్సభలో సభ్యులు గళమెత్తిన వేళ వైసీపీ హిందూపురం ఎంపీ గోరంట్ల మాధవ్ కునుకు తీశారు. మాధవ్కు ముందు వరుసల్లో ఉన్న ఎంపీ ఒకరు ప్రసంగిస్తున్న సమయంలోనే మాధవ్ కునుకు తీయడంతో ఆ దృశ్యాలు ప్రసారం అయ్యాయి. దాంతో నెటిజన్లు ట్రోల్ చేస్తున్నారు. ఇంత సీరియస్ అంశంపై చర్చ జరుగుతుంటే ఎంపీ నిద్రపోవడం ఏమిటి […]
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Watery eyes can be very irritating, and they might be due to anything from allergies to bacterial infections. Regardless of what's bothering your eyes, there are several things you can do to stop them from watering. Common remedies include removing potential environmental eye irritation triggers, such as dust, pollen, pollution, and makeup, along with washing the skin around your eyes and eyelashes, gently rinsing your eyes with water, using eye drops, and using a warm compress. If these remedies don't work, see your doctor, who may be able to diagnose and treat the problem. There are also some things that you can do to prevent watery eyes, such as wearing goggles, wearing sunglasses, and wearing your own makeup.
Flush your eye gently with water if you have a foreign object or debris in it. If you have something stuck in your eye, it may be causing your eye to water. Flush your eye out with water to attempt to remove the object or debris. Hold your eye open under a gentle stream of lukewarm running water. You can also do this in the shower by allowing the water to hit your forehead and holding your eye open as the water runs down your face. Or, you can wash your eye with an eyewash station or an eyecup.[1]
Do not try to pull a foreign object out of your eye with your fingers or tweezers.
Seek medical attention if you're certain there's something in your eye and flushing it with water does not work.[2]
Use eye drops or artificial tears if your eyes are dry. Dryness can actually cause your eyes to water more than usual. Eye drops moisten and lubricate the eyes, which may decrease the production of tears. To use eye drops, tilt your head back and pull down your lower eyelid with you fingertip. Hold the eye drop bottle away from your eyes. Do not allow the bottle tip to touch your eyes. Squeeze the bottle to dispense an eye drop into your open eye and repeat 2 to 3 times.[3]
You can purchase eye drops over-the-counter at a drug store.
Follow the manufacturer's instructions for how often to use eye drops.
Remove your contact lenses if you wear them. If you wear contact lenses and your eyes are watering, try removing your contact lenses. Contacts can make watery eyes worse while also potentially preventing eye drops from working. Talk to your ophthalmologist if you think your contacts might be to blame for your watery eyes.[4]
Follow your eye doctor's instructions for keeping your contact lenses clean. If you use disposable contact lenses, never wear them more than once. Always dispose of them after use.
Never sleep with your contact lenses in unless your eye doctor says it is okay.
Avoid wearing your contact lenses when swimming or showering.
Make an eye compress to soothe irritated eyes. First, remove any eye makeup you have on, and wash your face and the skin around your eyes. Then, hold a clean washcloth under warm to hot water, and squeeze out the excess water. Lie down or recline in a chair, and lay the washcloth across your closed eyes. Keep the cloth in place for 5 to 10 minutes.[5]
Repeat 3 to 4 times per day to soothe your eyes.
Warm compresses help to remove crust from the eyes while also working to loosen up anything that might be blocking your tear ducts. They also help to reduce the redness and irritation that often comes with watery eyes.
Talk to your doctor about antihistamines for watery eyes from allergies. Taking an antihistamine, or allergy pill, can help to reduce eye irritation caused by allergies. Talk to your doctor if you are unsure about whether your watery eyes are the result of allergies and if antihistamines might be helpful for your watery eyes.[6]
The most common antihistamine drug is the capsule form of diphenhydramine, which is taken orally. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for how to take this medication.[7]
Ask your doctor about antibiotics for a bacterial eye infection. If you go to see a doctor about your watery eyes, they may prescribe an antibiotic if they suspect that you have a bacterial eye infection. Bacterial infections respond well to antibiotics; however, if your watery eye is caused by a virus, the doctor might not prescribe any medication and will ask you to wait for a week to see whether the condition improves or not.[8]
The most common antibiotic prescribed for watery eyes is tobramycin. Tobramycin is an antibacterial eye drop drug specifically made for eye infection. Use the medication as directed by your doctor. Usually, this means you apply 1 drop of tobramycin on the affected eye twice a day for 7 days — once in the morning and once in the evening before going to sleep.[9]
Consider the medications you are taking that might cause eye watering. Some medications can cause watery eyes as a side effect. Check the labels of your prescription medications and ask your doctor if you are not sure. If watery eyes is a lasting side effect of a medication you are taking, talk to your doctor about the possibility of switching to something else. Do not stop taking your medication without consulting your doctor first. Some common types of medicine that may cause watery eyes include:[10]
Epinephrine
Chemotherapy drugs
Cholinergic agonists
Some eye drops, such as echothiophate iodide and pilocarpine
Discuss other possible causes of watery eyes with your doctor. There are a wide variety of medical conditions that can cause watery eyes. If you have not been able to determine the cause of your watery eyes, ask for help from your doctor. Some conditions that may cause watery eyes include:[11]
Allergic conjunctivitis
Allergic rhinitis
Blepharitis (inflamed eyelids)
Blocked Tear Duct
Common Cold
Ingrown Eyelashes
Pink Eye
Hay Fever
Sty
Tear duct infection
Talk to your doctor about procedures to treat blocked tear ducts. If you are having frequent problems with watery eyes due to plugged tear ducts, you may need to have an irrigation, intubation, or surgical procedure to clear the blockage. These options would only be required if other methods of clearing the blockage did not work or your watery eyes are chronic. Some options may include:[12]
Punctal dilation. If tears cannot properly drain through the tear duct openings, punctal dilation may be done. The ophthalmologist will apply local anesthesia on the affected eye. An instrument will be used to widen the opening of the tear duct so that the tears can drain properly through it.[13]
Stenting or intubation. In this procedure, the doctor threads a piece of thin tubing through one or both of your tear ducts. The tubing widens the opening of your tear ducts, which makes it easier for tears to drain. The tubes are left in for about 3 months. This procedure may be performed under local or general anesthesia.[14]
Dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR). DCR is a surgical procedure that may be required if a less invasive method does not work. DCR creates a new channel for tears to drain through. The surgeon uses the existing tear sac in your nose to create the channel. DCR requires local or general anesthesia.[15]
Protect your eyes from foreign objects and debris with goggles. Make sure that you wear goggles or other protective eyewear when working with chemicals, power tools, or around lots of airborne particulates, such as sawdust. These materials can become lodged in your eyes and cause your eyes to water. Wearing goggles will also help protect your eyes from large or small objects that might hit you in the eye and cause damage.[16]
You can purchase goggles in a hardware store. Choose a pair that protects your eyes from all sides.
Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes from the sun. Sunglasses shield your eyes from harsh UV rays that can cause your eyes to water. Sunglasses can also act as a shield against particles and other debris that gets swept up by the wind and could potentially blow into your eyes.[17]
Before putting on your sunglasses, make sure that you wipe off any dust that might have collected on them.
Run an air purifier in your home to reduce environmental irritants. An air purifier can help to filter out dust and other potential irritants in the air. Try keeping an air purifier in a central area of your home and running it during the day, or placing an air purifier in your bedroom and running it at night.[18]
This may be especially helpful if you suffer from indoor allergies, such as dust and pet dander.
Cleanse your eyes thoroughly to remove eye makeup or avoid using it. Avoid eyeliner and any eye makeup you apply along the waterline. Applying makeup to these areas of your eyes can irritate your eyes. Also, not cleansing your eyes thoroughly after wearing any kind of eye makeup may result in plugged tear ducts along your lash line.[19]
Use a gentle facial cleanser to wash your face and then wipe your eyes with a washcloth to wipe away any remaining eye makeup.
Take care when disposing of tissues or washcloths you have used to wipe your eyes. If you have a bacterial or viral infection, you can spread the infection to someone else if they come in contact with your tissue or washcloth.
If your watery eyes persist, see a doctor. You may have a viral or bacterial infection.
Avoid activities that require good vision, like driving, until your eyes stop watering. Having watery eyes can make vision-oriented activities difficult or even dangerous.
Don't use perfumes, hair sprays, and other scented aerosol products. These can cause your eyes to water.
Giving is extremely rewarding, and most of us really want to lend a helping hand. Lending a helping hand doesn't have to mean giving money. Everyone can donate their time, compassion, or even patience to someone else. To get started on a giving journey, think about the different things you have to give (money, possessions, time, compassion), and focus on ways to make giving a habit. Then, jump into action by giving your time as a volunteer, donating goods or money, giving to friends and family, and furthering your giving mindset.
Donate old clothing and household goods to charity. Most homes are filled with items that go unused all year round. By donating old items to charity, you can declutter your space and contribute to a good cause all at once! There are many national and local organizations that will accept your old household items (from clothing to kitchen appliances to furniture) and give them to those in need.
Consider donating to your local Goodwill, which operates as a kind of thrift shop and provides job training to the unemployed. In 2017, Goodwill placed more than 288,000 people into jobs through extensive job training efforts.[1]
You could also donate to the Salvation Army, which provides disaster relief and help to the homeless; Vietnam Veterans of America, which helps veterans; Operation Give, which distributes supplies abroad; or any number of national and local organizations.
Gather up old books to give to literacy projects. Most of the books on our bookshelves sit there, lonely and unopened, for years at a time. Declutter your bookshelves and put your books to good use in the fight for global literacy. Many local, national, and even international organizations will accept your books and donate them to kids and adults who are learning to read, or provide them to people who don't have access to new books, like soldiers or prisoners.[2]
International Book Project, the Global Literacy Project, and Darien Book Project are a few examples of organizations fighting for literacy in the US and abroad.
Books Through Bars sends books to prisoners, while Books for Soldiers directs books overseas to US military.
Give away old electronics, professional clothes or sports equipment to specialized non-profits. If you think something couldn't possibly be useful to an organization, think again. There are thousands upon thousands of organizations coming up with ways to recycle and treasure old items, and you can help them fulfill their missions with your old stuff.[3]
Instead of sending old electronics to the landfill, you can give old video games to Games for Heroes, computer supplies to World Computer Exchange, and even used cell phones to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
For old sports equipment, you can donate to a number of organizations, including Bicycles for Humanity, One World Running, and Bikes for the World.
Donate old suits to Career Gear, Dress for Success, or the Women's Alliance, to help provide professional clothing to low-income individuals who are job searching.
Contribute money to charity regularly if you have the extra funds. If you have gotten to a point in your life where you are comfortably earning and spending money without debt, try establishing a giving allowance in your monthly budget. Maybe you can cut down on personal spending in one area, like dining out or buying to-go coffees, to find some extra giving money.[4]
When donating money, choose effective organizations to financially support. Charity Navigator, BBB Wise Giving Alliance, and GiveWell are examples of organizations which rank the effectiveness and accountability of charities to help you maximize the possible difference you can make when you donate.
Chip in to disaster relief efforts in times of crisis. Whenever there is a tsunami, an earthquake, or any other kind of natural disaster, multiple organizations will spring into action to provide relief in the affected areas. Be on the lookout for ways you can help, like donating money, clothes, or food, whenever something shows up in the news that will affect a lot of people.
You want to make sure the money you're donating is going to as many people as possible, so research the track record and the effectiveness of the charity you're donating to.
Find sporadic volunteer opportunities if you have a busy schedule. A hectic schedule can make volunteering seem intimidating, but you really only need a couple of hours for many volunteer opportunities. For example, you could volunteer at a park or beach clean-up, spend a few hours organizing cans at a food pantry, or spend a weekend working on a habitat house.[5]
VolunteerMatch.org, Idealist.org, and HandsOn Network are all good websites to search for volunteer opportunities in your area.
When political campaigns are going on, you can volunteer your time to support a local candidate in an election. All campaigns need people to man the phones and help others register to vote.
A lot of volunteering organizations aren't going to be picky about how much time you give them. They will appreciate a few hours here and there if you're doing good work.
Find recurring volunteer positions to give back to your community. Going back week after week is the best way to get invested in a cause and build relationships with those you are working for and serving.[6] Search online sites like Volunteer Match for recurring tutoring gigs, teaching fellowships, or fundraising positions at local and national organizations.
Choose volunteer jobs that take advantage of your talents. For example, if you're musical, you could sing or play at nursing homes. With sports skills, you can coach a sport on a volunteer basis, perhaps working with special needs kids or underserved communities.[7]
Inquire about volunteer positions at local non-profits. Call or email local non-profits, working on issues like poverty, homelessness, or animal welfare in your area, and ask if there are ways you can help. Some national organizations, like the YMCA and the Red Cross, consistently need volunteers and are great places to engage with your community.[8]
On top of being a great way to give back, volunteering can also give you invaluable experience working in a field or cause you're excited about.
Volunteering can also be a good way to see if certain career paths would be a good fit for you. Volunteering in hospitals, for example, could help you decide whether you might in the future want to pursue medicine.
Serve in a full-time volunteer position, like the Peace Corps. It is possible to spend 1-2 years working full-time in a volunteer position. These kinds of positions allow you to make a more sustainable impact on people than once-a-week volunteering jobs. In the Peace Corps, volunteers spend two years in another country, working on a specific sector of development, like education, health, or agriculture.
Teach for America is a well recognized volunteer organization in the US, where volunteers spend two years working as teachers in public schools and receive teacher training.[9]
To make an impact on a place that is sustainable, it is important to do your research, work with a quality organization, and spend time getting to know a place before you jump in to help.
Be wary of "voluntourism," or going to other countries for short periods of time to serve, which sometimes does more harm than good.[10]
Give friends and family gifts on holidays or birthdays. Even though material gifts aren't the most important thing you can give a person, a carefully selected present can brighten a holiday or birthday. Pay attention to what your friends, family, and significant others enjoy in their daily life and use that knowledge to give them personal gifts.
Think about what food and drinks your friend loves. For example, if your friend is a total coffee lover, you can buy them really quality coffee beans.
Think about other things your friend enjoys, like certain books or movies, and come up with gifts that relate to those. You could get them a Princess Bride T-Shirt or a pair of Game of Thrones socks, for example.
When you can't think of something personal, go with something classic, like ice-cream or flowers.
Make your friends homemade gifts for an affordable, personal option. If giving a gift to a close friend, create a photo collage, make them a CD mix with songs you both love, or write them a poem about your friendship. Making gifts yourself shows you put in effort into the gift giving process, and your friend, teacher, parent, or sibling will definitely appreciate it.
You can also give non-material gifts, like an afternoon in the park, a promise to visit your grandfather once a month, or a massage for a romantic partner.
Purchase small trinkets to give to friends when you're traveling. This can be a nice way to let people know you were thinking about them on your journey. To make it more special, buy something you know the person will value, like a painting, or get them something they can eat or drink, like tea or coffee.
Most people don't want to accumulate a bunch of random trinkets, so choose something special that you know your friend will enjoy.
Give special gifts randomly and "just because." Sometimes there's nothing better than receiving a gift just because someone thought of you. For instance, if you see a book your friend has been talking about wanting to read, you could buy it for them as a surprise.
Letters, postcards, and care packages are another great "just-because" kind of gift to give someone. Especially if you are far from a friend, these items can help you communicate and stay connected.
You can also give your friends "rainy-day" gifts for when they're not doing too well. If you know your friend's favorite ice cream flavor, give them a carton of that ice cream on a bad day to make that person smile.
Provide support to people in your life. When you have the ability to help someone through a difficult time, be there for them in whatever way you can. You can provide support by listening, driving someone somewhere they need to go, offering advice, or comforting them when they're sad.
Always be honest when giving advice. If you have no experience with the difficulty the other person is dealing with, say so.
Or, just listen. Oftentimes, people simply need a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on.
Give praise to those who deserve it. Everyone needs a little encouragement sometimes. Giving an honest word of praise without being prompted can help boost the receiver's self-esteem and self-confidence, even on a bad day.[11]
The praise you give should always be honest. Insincere praise can do more harm than good.
Show patience with people and loved ones. Even the best of people will have an "off" day every now and then. Do your best to be understanding and patient with someone in a bad mood. The gift of patience might be exactly what that person needs to calm down.
If you find that patience is impossible for you at some point in time, consider stepping away from the situation. Spend some time calming yourself down before dealing with this person again.
Grant respect and kindness to the people around you. Respect and kindness are two of the most basic gifts you can give someone, and they're also two of the most important. Show respect and kindness to everyone, not just to people who are "above you" in a hierarchy or who are your elders. Treat everyone, from a homeless man on the corner to a CEO with respect and compassion.
Treat people with sincerity. Don't answer seriousness with sarcasm.
Any action meant to demean or cut someone down should be left behind.
Empathizing with others can help you treat them with kindness. Consider people's situations and empathize with the fact that people can have hard days.[12]
Develop a generous attitude towards others. To further your giving mindset, take note of reasons you have to be grateful, maintain a positive attitude, and spend time with generous people. It's important to believe in your own ability to positively impact the lives of others. Giving will be easier if you trust that your contribution will make a difference.
For daily practice, try writing down three things you are grateful for each day in a journal.
Friends and family influence you more than you might realize. When you surround yourself with generous people, their giving nature will begin to rub off on you.
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Having a single regulator and tight auditing norms can help prevent bank frauds.The PMC Bank case exposes chinks in the regulatory armour, but it's not the first one to do so Source: LM
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PSTET Syllabus 2019 – Punjab State Education Board is going to conduct the exam on 
IV Semester MPEd (Regular 2017 admission, Supplementary) Degree Examinations June 2019 
