Both entertaining and educational, these maps are packed full of important info like which countries are sans Big Mac, and where most Canadians really live.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Matt Kiddle went out for a leisurely ride with his 4-year-old son. In addition to the fresh air and the coastal view, there were some ancient human remains along the way.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
How do trees find their sense of direction as they grow? Researchers are getting to the root — and the branches — of how the grandest of plants develop.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world's leading cloud provider by a wide margin. That's why certified cloud experts make the big bucks. You can become one with help from this bundle, now available for $59.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Thai police and soldiers have stormed a shopping mall where a gunman is believed to be hiding after a mass shooting in the north-eastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, which has killed at least 20 people and left many injured.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Seventeen countries declared independence in 1960, which became known as the Year of Africa. And with the coming of its 60th anniversary, the idea for this project was born.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
The script of the 2019 adaptation is the backbone of the movie, placing everyone where they need to be and bending time in a way that's never been done to Louisa May Alcott's classic novel.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
* US embassy staff in hazmat suits were seen boarding a State Department plane home from Wuhan Friday * Shocking pictures taken during the boarding process of the cargo plane at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport on February 7 show staff dressed in white hazmat suits and masks and blue 'U.S. Embassy' bibs * The first coronavirus death of an American citizen was confirmed by the US government Saturday morning * The unnamed US national, aged 60, passed away Thursday from the virus in Wuhan * Latest figures showed coronavirus has infected 34,957 people worldwide and killed 725, up by 88 in a day * Number of fatalities is now higher than the death toll from the SARS outbreak of 2003 * On Friday, the last two flights that the US State Department chartered to evacuate Americans from the coronavirus outbreak's epicenter in Wuhan, China, landed in Texas and California * One passenger on each plane developed symptoms that could indicate coronavirus * Currently 12 Americans on US soil have been diagnosed with coronavirus and a dozen passengers - including Americans - on a cruise ship docked in New Jersey are to be tested for the virus * The first US coronavirus patient has been discharged after treatment in Washington state * Thursday, a Chicago couple - the first US case of human-to-human transmission left hospital * US health officials say Americans should expect more cases of coronavirus as testing ramps up * HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a Friday press briefing the Trump Administration will commit up to $100 million to fighting the coronavirus outbreak in the US and abroad * Development of a treatment for coronavirus is proceeding 'without glitches,' said the NIH, and is expected to begin clinical trials in two-and-a-half months
US embassy staff in white hazmat suits were seen boarding a State Department plane in Wuhan on Friday, as the first coronavirus death of an American citizen was confirmed and the global death toll leaps by 87 overnight.
Shocking pictures of repatriation efforts of US and Canadian citizens have emerged showing the lengths necessary in order to try to limit the spread of the disease as people are brought back from China onto US soil.
Embassy staff were pictured during the boarding process of the cargo plane at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport on February 7.
In the images, staff are dressed head to toe in white hazmat suits and masks, with their blue 'U.S. Embassy' bibs over the top.
The inside of the plane is partially covered in white sheeting and cargo appears to be transported in black bin liners. Other passengers appear to be in regular clothing except for face masks.
Three months ago, Wuhan resident Zhang Yi was sitting next to two local Hubei province reporters at a restaurant. He overheard them talking about the Provincial Party Committee secretary, who was upset about a news story. The official told the reporters negative stories would no longer be published.
A month later, a mysterious virus started spreading though Wuhan's residents, causing pneumonia-like symptoms.
In early January, Chinese officials called this new virus "preventable and controllable." They said they had seen "no evidence of person-to-person transmission." Throughout the week of January 11, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission published the same number of confirmed cases: 41.
Those official statements failed to convince Zhang. In his mind, he kept hearing what he'd overheard the reporters talking about in the restaurant.
* A total of 774 died in the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak between 2002 and 2003 * Comes as a clip believed to be in Changqing Garden, Wuhan, shows man sprinting away from officials * Five more Britons, including a 9-year-old boy, have virus in France after one of them went to Singapore * Another clip, said to be taken in Suzhou, shows suspected coronavirus sufferers dragged from their homes
he coronavirus death toll has hit 805, overtaking the number who died from the SARS pandemic, as the communist regime in China rounds up suffers in Wuhan before taking them to camps.
A total of 774 died in the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak between 2002 and 2003 - another coronavirus that jumped from animals to humans in China.
Earlier today, the last evacuation flight carrying more than 150 British passengers back home left coronavirus-hit Wuhan for the UK.
It comes after a video showing a man suspected of having coronavirus desperately sprinting away from officials trying to put him in quarantine has emerged.
The clip, believed to be taken in Changqing Garden, Wuhan, shows a group of officials approaching the man who who is backed up against a wall.
Elections to renew the central African country's legislature and local councils are taking place for the first time in seven years, after two postponements.
Despite the delays, the campaigning has been low key.
In the capital Yaounde, the few banners put up by the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (RDPC in its French initials) are barely more numerous than posters calling on people to pick up their litter.
* Sergeant Major Jakrapanth Thomma went on a killing spree in Korat, 155 miles from Thai capital Bangkok * Thomma hijacked an army vehicle, shot an officer and soldiers, and sprayed a volley of bullets at civilians * He's then believed to have taken hostages at a shopping centre that Thai forces later tonight laid siege to * Authorities have rescued hundreds of trapped shoppers but suspect still at large in the northeastern city * There were fears the shooter could try to hide in the panicked crowd as they ran out of the shopping centre * Thai media said the suspect's mother was being taken to the shopping mall to try to persuade him to give up * Volleys of gunfire were heard ringing out from inside the besieged mall where the gunman is still holed up
A Thai commando has been killed as security forces desperately try to capture a rogue soldier who has killed at least 21 people in a gun rampage inside a shopping mall - where he is still holed up more than 12 hours after he first struck.
Sergeant Major Jakrapanth Thomma, 32, is hiding out in the Terminal 21 shopping mall in Nakhon Ratchasima, a city 155 miles northeast of Bangkok, after opening fire on terrified civilians this afternoon.
He began his murderous rampage at his barracks, where he executed his commanding officer along with two other soldiers, before commandeering a humvee and tearing away from the scene.
* Exchange of gunfire took place in eastern Afghanistan province of Nangarhar * US special forces are in region to help government clear area of Taliban fighters * US military said there were six casualties, though unclear how many fatalities * It is also unclear what precipitated the firefight between Afghans, Americans
American and Afghan military personnel were fired on while conducting an operation in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, the US military said Saturday, as unverified claims by the Taliban indicate at least five dead US soldiers.
There were multiple American casualties, but the number and the extent of the injuries were not immediately known, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information that has not been officially released.
US military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett said in a statement that both Afghan and US personnel were 'engaged by direct firing.'
'We are assessing the situation,' Leggett said, without saying whether there were any casualties.
* The new coronavirus outbreak will be worse for the global economy than the 2003 SARS outbreak was, data analysis firm IHS Markit predicts. * Since the SARS outbreak, China has grown from the world's sixth-largest economy to the second biggest today. * The longterm economic impact of the new coronavirus outbreak will be determined largely by China's containment measures, the report says.
The new coronavirus outbreak will be worse for the global economy than the 2003 SARS epidemic was, data analysis firm IHS Markit predicts.
While both outbreaks originated in China, nearly two decades separate the SARS outbreak from the new coronavirus outbreak. In that time, China has grown from the world's sixth-largest economy to the second biggest today behind the U.S. The country has been a main growth driver worldwide, with the International Monetary Fund estimating that China alone accounted for 39% of global economic expansion in 2019.
Image: China's President Xi Jinping (C) attends the bilateral meeting with President of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, 31 August 2018. Roman Pilipey/Pool via Reuters
* It's not just lives, health and the economy that are threatened by the deadly disease. * China's authoritarian centralised system of rule is, too
Back on January 21 last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping told a gathering of senior officials that they must be on guard against "black swans" and "grey rhinos" which could threaten the rule of the Communist Party amid a slowing economy.
At that time, Xi's use of animal metaphors sparked discussions among observers who generally interpreted his warnings as being related to different kinds of economic risks. "Black swans" are events that cannot be predicted but have a profound impact on markets, while "grey rhinos" are known risks that have the potential to cause great harm but which people choose to ignore.
One year later, Xi's wildlife metaphors about the dangers facing the country have proved prophetic on a more literal level.
WNU Editor: The Chinese Communist Party and the centralization of rule from Beijing has always had a tenuous relationship with the Chinese people. This outbreak, if not under control in the coming months, is going to test that relationship. But as much as Xi is worried about the Chinese turning against the Communist Party, an even bigger concern for him is if the Communist Party turns against him.
A BRITISH man in Mallorca has confirmed positive for infection with the coronavirus but his wife and daughters fortunately tested negative, making it the second case of the fast-spreading new virus to be confirmed in Spain, the Spanish National Centre for Microbiology said on Sunday.
A NINE-YEAR-OLD British boy, his father and three adults have been struck down with the deadly coronavirus as a top UK health expert warned of a pandemic.
MICHELLE OBAMA has spoken out about the steps she took to keep her two daughters safe, including needing to know who the parents were of anyone who hosted a party they attended.
PEOPLE living in Britain's 14 overseas territories, from Gibraltar at the tip of Spain, to Bermuda in the Caribbean, to the tiny Pitcairn Islands in the South Pacific, plus the nation's three Crown Dependencies - Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man - are entitled to UK Parliamentary representation - and they should get it sooner rather than later, and whether they ask for it or not, campaigners have insisted.
AN EGYPT researcher has questioned everything history books have taught about the Great Pyramid of Giza after making a bombshell discovery in the Queen's Chamber.
IRELAND is taking to the polls today in what will be a closely fought battle for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. But what time do polls close? When can we expect a result?
WORLD WAR 3 fears have plagued the US's foreign policy in recent years. As tensions brew in regions across the world, experts have highlighted three disputes which could erupt into conflict in 2020.
Kannur University Exam Results 2020 Released: Dear Folks !!! Understudies of Kannur University look at the Results here. Yes, Kannur University has discharged the outcomes for different Courses on 30th January but to be discharged some different Results. Understudies who have shown up for the Examination can check the outcomes from the official site i.e, kannuruniversity.ac.in. Here we have connected the immediate connect to get the Kannur University Exam Results 2020 from the underneath table. We exhort the understudies that stay in contact with our recruitment.guru page to get the most recent updates about Kannur University Exam Results 2020.
Kannur University – Overview
Description
Details
Name of the University
Kannur University
Courses Offered
Medical, Science, Engineering, Technology and & others
Understudies who have been showed up for the Kannur University Exams 2019 can check Kannur University Results: Regular, Supplementary and Revaluation Results through Online. Understudies can check KU UG Results and PG Exam Results at recruitment.guru and Kannur University’s authentic site. Here we have given the means to download the Kannur University Exam Results 2020. Understudies can bookmark this page to get the most recent reports with respect to the Kannur University results. Aside from this, we used to refresh the extra data about Kannur University Exam Schedule, Admit Card, Syllabus, Previous Paper, and others. Stay in contact with this page and check KU Result 2020 from underneath gave the connection.
Latest Updated Kannur University Results 2020-21
Name of the Exam
Download Link
Release Date
UG University Department Results
I Semester B.Sc (Hons.) Mathematics Regular/Improvement/Supplementary Degree Examinations Nov. 2019
Kannur University was built up in 1996 to give an improvement of advanced education in Kasaragod, Kannur, and Wayanad locale of Kerala, India. The target of the Kannur University Act, 1996 was to set up in the territory of Kerala instructing, private and affiliating college to give advancement of advanced education in Kasargod, Kannur income Districts and Mananthavady Taluk of Wayanad District.
Kannur University Supply/Revaluation Results
Understudies who have scored great imprints will find a good pace next level. Candidates can get into Revaluation as another opportunity. When they applied for the Examination, the more significant level Examiner will check the paper once more. They can get the revaluation results inside the time. On account of low checks, you can go for the Supplementary Examination. For every single semester, Students can apply for the revaluation after the declaration of the fundamental assessment results. The Kannur University will take possibly more than seven days to process the test papers to declare the Kannur University Revaluation Exam Results. Do remain refreshed with the Kannur University Official Website to think about the KU Revaluation Exam Results.
Allahabad University Result 2020 for LLM, LLB and Other Courses Semester savvy test results is accessible here. Understudies of Allahabad University can get the semester test results from this website page. Here understudies can see their outcomes with no disarray. We have determined the most recent outcomes for UG, PG and Other Courses of the University with direct link. Hence, Students can check more subtleties like Academic guidelines, Courses, Admissions and different subtleties at Allahabad University Official site i.e, allduniv.ac.in.
Allahabad University Result 2020-21
The University of Allahabad has reported the outcomes for a few courses. Up-and-comers can get the refreshed semester test results when discharged on the official site. We give total and quick updates about the Allahabad University Exam Results 2019. As the official site will be occupied upon the arrival of the outcome. we help you to check your outcomes in a simple manner. Moreover, Just snap on the connection given, we diverted you to the Official Result of individual Course immediately.
Allahabad University has continually included a respected spot among the schools of India for over a century now. Based upon 23rd September 1887, it is the fourth most settled school of India after Calcutta, Bombay and Madras University. The credit for considering a colossal Central College at Allahabad, over the long haul, to shape into a University, is a direct result of Sir William Muir, by then Lt. Administrative pioneer of United Provinces. Allahabad University furthermore started as a degree-exhibiting foundation.
Its first situation test was held in March 1889. In 1904 the Indian Universities Act was passed which limited the territorial region of degree-displaying to the United Provinces of Agra and Awadh, the Central Provinces including Berar, Mewar, Ajmer and by far most of the states of Rajputana and Central Indian Agencies. Someplace in the scope of 1887 and 1927, on any occasion, thirty-eight exceptional organizations and schools of this area were partnered to Allahabad University.
Regular/ Supplementary Results of Allahabad University
Those understudies who have gone to the standard assessment under the Allahabad University and still fizzled. Here comes one greater chance to clear the assessment. To build your scoring alongside that understudies to bomb in the past assessment will get an opportunity to clear through Revaluation Exams Allahabad University Results. For every single semester, Students can apply for the revaluation after the declaration of the primary assessment results. The Allahabad University will take possibly more than seven days to process the test papers to declare the Allahabad University Revaluation Exam Results. To get the refreshed revaluation results to look at the Official Website @allduniv.ac.in. Understudies mentioned a keep in contact with our site as that we declare the refreshed Regular and Revaluation Results of the Allahabad University when discharged on the Website.
GU Results 2020 Declared: Students of Gauhati University, is extraordinary news for all of you. Competitors who showed up for the Gauhati University Graduate Degree assessments can check the outcomes for all courses BA, B.Sc, B.Com. The Examination results are declared. Download the Gauhati University Degree TDC Semester Results in 2019. Understudies can check the outcomes, stamps, and grades while checking the outcomes.
GU Exam Results 2020 @ gauhati.ac.in
Gauhati University has discharged the semester test GU Results. As an ongoing warning, the board has discharged the test results for UG/PG Courses. The individuals who have composed the assessment can look at their outcomes. We individuals from recruitment.guru will find a workable pace test of Gauhati University Results. Understudies are mentioned to keep in contact with our website page to get normal updates about the university. Scroll down the whole page and get the most recent Updated Gauhati University Result 2020 here.
Gauhati University is one of the biggest and most established colleges in North East India. GU is an educating cum-affiliating college arranged in Guwahati, Assam. It was set up in 1948 by the Gauhati University Act 1947 of Assam Government. It is financed by the State Government of Assam and University Grant Commission. It has 7 resources and around 56 divisions through which it offers around 145 UG, Postgraduate and separation instruction programs. It has 259 partnered universities and a constituent school. It has more than 5000 UG/PG understudies and 340 lasting educators serving. Alongside scholarly projects, the college offers 45 worth included projects for everywhere throughout the advancement of the selected understudies.
GU Revaluation Results 2020-21
Gauhati University conducts customary just as strengthening assessment for the individuals who are concentrating under the University. Those understudies who have flopped in the fundamental semester assessment has one progressively possibility of getting went in the test. The individuals who wish that their assessment paper ought to be assessed by and by to improve their scoring can go through the revaluation opportunity. For each and every single semester, Students can apply for the revaluation after the declaration of the principle assessment results. The Gauhati University will take up to seven days to process the test papers to report the Gauhati University Revaluation Exam Results. To get the refreshed GU Revaluation Results to look at the Official Website @gauhati.ac.in. Understudies mentioned a keep in contact with our site as that we report the refreshed Regular and Revaluation Results of the Gauhati University when discharged on the Website.
Assam Post Office Recruitment 2020 Notification – Apply for 919 GDS (Gramin Dak Sevak) Vacancies. Assam Postal Circle extends immense job opportunities for competent candidates to fill up 919 Post Office Job Vacancies. However, Assam Postal Department has vacant positions for GDS, Branch Postmaster (BPM), Assistant Branch Postmaster (ABPM) & other posts. Interested aspirants can apply for Assam Post office jobs from 27th January 2020 through Online mode on this page. Candidates who fulfill the below-specified eligibility must submit your application forms on or before 09th February 2020.
New Assam Post Office Recruitment 2020 – 919 Vacancy in Post Office
Organization Name
Indian Postal Department Assam Postal Circle (Assam Postal Circle)
All candidates interested to apply for Job Vacancies in Assam Postal Circle, below are the list of eligibility details that are to be met. Aspirants must have passed Secondary School Examination or 10th Class/Matriculation and age must lie between 18 to 40 Years only. However, age relaxation will be applicable for all reserved candidates. Selected Candidates for Post Office Jobs in Assam will get a salary of Rs.10,000/- to Rs.14,500/- per month. Know more about www.assampost.gov.in recruitment in the below sections of this page
Assam Postal Circle Recruitment 2020 Vacancy Details [919 – GDS (Gramin Dak Sevak) Vacancies]
Name of the Post
Number of Vacancies
GDS (Gramin Dak Sevak)
919
Total
919
Assam Postal Vacancy 2020 Details – Category wise
Name of the Category
Number of Vacancies
EWS
75
OBC
231
PWD – A
10
PWD – B
10
PWD – C
09
PWD – DE
08
SC
50
ST
87
UR
439
Total
919
Eligibility Criteria for Assam Postal GDS Recruitment 2020
Educational Qualification:
Secondary School Examination pass certificate of 10th standard with passing marks in Mathematics and English conducted by any recognized Board of School Education by the Government of India/State Governments/ Union Territories in India shall be a mandatory educational qualification for all approved categories of Gramin Dak Sevaks.
The candidate should have studied the local language at least up to 10th standard as declared by the State Government or as per constitutional provisions relating to the 8th schedule of the Constitution of India.
Age Limit:
Minimum Age Limit – 18 Years
Maximum Age Limit – 40 Years
Age Relaxation:
Scheduled Caste/ Schedule Tribe Candidates – 05 Years
Other Backward Classes (OBC) Candidates – 03 Years
Economic Weaker Section (EWS) – No Age Relaxation
Persons with Disabilities (PwD) – 10 Years
For Persons with Disabilities (PwD) + OBC – 13 Years
Persons with Disabilities (PwD) + SC/ST – 15 Years
Post Office Jobs in Assam 2020 Details
Assam Post Office GDS, BPM, ABPM Salary:
Assam Postal GDS/ABPM Salary – Rs.10,000/- (for 4 hours ) and Rs. 12000(for 5 hours)
Assam Postal BPM Salary – Rs.12,000/- (for 4 hours ) and Rs. 14500(for 5 hours)
Kindly refer official notification provided below to post wise salary details.
Assam Postal Jobs Online Application Fee:
General//OBC/EWS Male Candidates: Rs. 100 /-
ST/ SC/ Women and PWD Candidates: Nil (No Application Fee)
Selection Process:
Academic Merit
Document Verification
Salary:
BPM:
Minimum TRCA for 4 Hours/Level 1 in TRCA Slab – Rs.12,000/
Minimum TRCA for 5 Hours/Level 2 in TRCA slab – Rs.14,500/-
ABPM/Dak Sevak :
Minimum TRCA for 4 Hours/Level 1 in TRCA Slab – Rs.10,000/-
Minimum TRCA for 5 Hours/Level 2 in TRCA slab – Rs.12,000/-
How to Apply Steps for 919 GDS, BPM, ABPM Jobs in Assam Post Office Recruitment 2020?
Details to be filled:
Name (In capital letter as per X class certificate Marks Memo including spaces)
Father Name
Mobile Number (Unique for one Registration number)
Date of Birth
Gender
Community
PH – Type of Disability – (HH/OH/VH)- Percentage of disability
State in which Xth class passed
Board in which Xth class passed
Year of Passing Xth class
Xth Class Certificate Number / Roll Number (optional)
Steps to Apply for Assam Postal Circle Recruitment 2020:
Download the Official Notification & read all the given instructions.
Make sure you satisfy the eligibility listed above.
Now, Click on Assam Postal Online Apply link
If you are a new user go for the New Registration tab
Fill the personal details to get your user name and password
Then login to the portal with the User ID and Password
Fill in the application form with the necessary details.
Upload scanned copies of your photograph.
Attach copies of necessary documents.
Pay the prescribed application fee.
Finally, hit on the submit button to complete Assam Postal Recruitment 2020 Process.
Helpline Details:
All queries of candidates may be mailed to and queries related to website may be given to dopgdsenquiry@gmail.com
For more than 150 years, the Post has been the backbone of the country’s communication and has played a crucial role in the country’s socio-economic development. It touches the lives of Indian citizens in many ways: delivery of mail, acceptance of deposits in small savings plans, life insurance coverage under postal insurance (PLI) and rural life insurance (RPLI) and retail services. as the receipt of the invoice, the sale of forms, etc.
The DoP also acts like an Indian government agent in providing other services to citizens, such as the payment of wages and the payment of wages paid by the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme Mahatma Gandhi (MGNREGS) and the payment of old-age pensions. With 1,555,015 post offices, the DDP has the most widely distributed postal network in the world
The vision of Assam Post Office:
India Post’s products and services will be the customer’s first choice.
The mission of Assam Postal Circle
To sustain its position as the largest postal network in the world touching the lives of every citizen in the country.
Provide mail parcel, money transfer, banking, insurance, and retail services with speed and reliability.
Provide services to the customers on a value-for-money basis.
To ensure that the employees are proud to be its main strength and serve its customers with a human touch.
Continue to deliver social security services and to enable last-mile connectivity as a Government of India platform.
Core Values:
We will maintain our iconic status as a unique and trusted national institution by:
Always providing the human touch in all our interactions with society
Being responsive and reliable
Demonstrating the highest order of integrity, honesty, transparency, and professionalism
Discharging our responsibilities towards the society in an environment of deep trust, mutual respect and a culture of service before self
Strategic Goals:
Achieve the long term goal of financial self-sufficiency by generating surpluses from services (existing & new) outside our universal service obligation
To develop, implement and operate a system of standards with accountability for performance
to develop a scalable and flexible technology infrastructure to support our operations
Be the preferred, trusted and reliable service partner for all customers
Ensure that India Post acquires all required people capabilities to deliver its chosen services portfolio
Be the interface between citizens and the government.
Davangere University Result 2020 Updated: Hello Students !!! It’s an ideal opportunity to check your outcomes. DVG University UG Results 2020 has been discharged and the Students can check their outcomes from the official site @ davangereuniversity.ac.in. We have exhorted the understudies to peruse the beneath article and get more insights concerning Davangere University Results 2020. Here, we have given an immediate connection to get the outcomes from the underneath table. It will assist the understudies in getting the outcomes effectively, with no perplexity. Additionally, Students get more insights regarding Academics, Courses, and others at Davangere University Official Website.
Practically all the Details about this Davangere University Result 2020 we will distribute right now page for all UG/PG Semester Examinations. All the understudies the individuals who have shown up in the Davangere University Examination must visit the official site of Davangere University and check the timetable of the separate courses. Results for the associated schools are likewise accessible on a similar entry. Aside from this, we used to refresh the most recent data about the Exam Results, Exam Schedule, Admit Card, Syllabus, and others. Also, we will give the Upcoming Result interface, it will work once it discharged authoritatively. Look down the whole page and get the Davangere University Results 2020 here.
Latest Updated Davangere University UG Results 2020:Click Here
Davangere University is an open state school arranged in Davangere, Karnataka, India. The school was developed in the year 2008 by the Government of Karnataka. It houses the post-graduate divisions of Commerce, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Economics, Food Technology, Accounting and Finance, M.Ed., and MSW. Davangere University was a post-graduate point of convergence of the University of Mysore from 1979 to 1987 and filled in as a post-graduate focal point of Kuvempu University from 1987 to 2009. It has two constituent schools, one independent school and 110 related colleges offering graduate and post-graduate course in controls considering the guidance needs of just about 400000 understudies.
Davangere University Supply/Revaluation Results
Understudies are holding on for the results in case they scored well they will incite one year from now. Regardless, if they won’t get more stamps, they can apply for the Revaluation Results. At the point when they associated with the Examination, the more significant level Examiner will check the paper again. They can get the revaluation results inside the time. In like manner, if still get bomb marks, they can apply for the value assessment. For each and every semester, Students can apply for the revaluation after the revelation of the essential assessment results. Davangere University will take as long as seven days to process the test papers to pronounce the Davangere University Revaluation Results. Do remain refreshed with the Davangere University Official Website to think about the most recent refreshed Revaluation Results.
CBI Recruitment 2020: Apply Offline | 30 Vacancies for Interns. Get CBI Recruitment 2020 for Freshers and Experienced Candidates. Central Bureau of Investigation is conducting a special recruitment drive for 30 Vacancies of Interns Posts. Applicants who are looking for the CBI Exam to step into the Central Bureau of Investigation can apply for these Vacancies through Offline Process. Candidates who are looking for the CBI Jobs can submit the applications from 24th January 2020 to 21st February 2020. Scroll down and get complete details about the Central Bureau of Investigation Jobs 2020.
CBI Recruitment 2020
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has decided to initiate an Internship Scheme of CBI from the year 2020. This Scheme seeks to engage Indian nationals, who are Graduate/Post Graduate or Research students enrolled in reputed University/Institutes within India. Candidates are required to send their applications in original with their detailed bio-data in the prescribed proforma along with a 300 words write-up on why he/she wants to join an internship in CBI in the chosen area of interest.
Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Lucknow and Chandigarh.
CBI Vacancy 2020 Details
Post Name
Number of Vacancies
Interns
30
Total
30
Eligibility Criteria for Central Bureau of Investigation Recruitment 2020
Candidates who wish to apply for the CBI Jobs for 30 Interns Posts should be under certain eligibility details. Go through the CBI Qualification details and age limit for the Trainee post.
Educational Qualification
A Graduate/Post Graduate or Research Student enrolled in a reputed University/ Institution within India and preferably specializing in Law, Cyber, Data Analysis, Forensic Science, Criminology, Management, Economics and Commerce and has completed at least 3 years of college of the integrated course.
Age Limit
As per the CBI Recruitment Norms
CBI Careers Salary Details:
Interns Pay Scale – The Selected candidates will get the salary as per organization norms.
Application Fee:
Candidates can check the official notification to know about the Application Fee details.
Selection Process – CBI Recruitment process:
Candidates will be selected for the CBI Jobs based on the performance in
Written Examination
Interview
How to apply for CBI Recruitment 2020?
Firstly, Candidates need to click on the Official Notification Pdf provided below.
Read all the Eligibility criteria for CBI Recruitment 2020 jobs.
Ensure that you satisfy all the above-listed eligibility conditions.
Download the application form link provided below
Fill all the required details on the application form
Pay the application fee if required
Double-check the details which you have entered on the application form
Attach all the necessary documents
Finally, send the duly filled application form with required documents to the following postal address on or before the last date 21st February 2020 through Speed Post
Frequently Asked Questions About CBI Recruitment 2020:
1. What is the Salary of CBI Officers?
Selected candidates will get the salary as per organization norms.
2. What is the qualification for CBI?
The eligibility criteria mentioned in the notification for Interns are Graduate/Post Graduate or Research Student enrolled in a reputed University/ Institution within India.
3. How can I join CBI?
Candidates who wish to join CBI Jobs can apply for CBI Recruitment 2020 through the Offline process.
About Central Bureau of Investigation
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. Operating under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, the CBI is headed by the Director. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governmental corruption, in 1965 it received expanded jurisdiction to investigate breaches of central laws enforceable by the Government of India, multi-state organized crime, multi-agency or international cases.
The agency has been known to investigate several economic crimes, special crimes, cases of corruption and other high-profile cases. CBI is exempted from the provisions of the Right to Information Act. The CBI is India’s officially designated single point of contact for liaison with Interpol.
RRCAT Recruitment2020 | 70 Job Openings – Trade Apprentice Vacancies for ITI Candidates. The Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology has announced a job notification to engage eligibles for Trade Apprentice Posts. Candidates who are interested in the Apprenticeship Program in Madhya Pradesh can apply through Online Mode. Applicants should register on the NAPS portal and then apply for the Trade Apprentice Posts on or before 28th February 2020.
RRCAT Recruitment 2020
Candidates who have completed ITI in the respective trade are only eligible to apply for the RRCAT Jobs. Aspirants willing to apply for the Trade Apprentice post check your eligibility level before applying for the RRCAT Jobs in Indore. It is important that the applicant should fulfill the eligibility conditions as per the RRCAT Indore Recruitment 2020.
Overview of RRCAT Jobs 2020
Organization Name
Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT)
Frequently Asked Questions About RRCAT Recruitment 2020:
1. What is the mode of application form RRCAT Apprentice Jobs 2020? A. Applications for RRACT Recruitment will be accepted only in the Online mode.
2. What is the Job Location for RRCAT Jobs 2020? A. The selected candidates can be placed in Indore, Madhya Pradesh which has an office of Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology.
3. What are the important dates I must know for RRCAT Jobs 2020?
Starting Date of Application – Started
Last Date To Apply Online – 28th February 2020
4. What are the eligibility criteria for RRCAT Trade Apprentice Jobs? A. Candidate should possess an ITI certificate in the respective trade.
About Raja Ramanna Center for Advanced Technology (RRCAT)
Raja Ramanna Center for Advanced Technology: The RRACT is a unit of the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India. It was set up on nineteenth February 1984. RRCAT consists of R&D in non-atomic cutting edge inquire. RRCAT created two synchrotron radiation sources namely “Indus I and Indus II”. The RRCAT gives a solid premise of bleeding-edge explores for outside Ph. D. researcher in the related fields.
CITCO Jobs 2020 | Apply Offline for 44 Commis-II, III, Waiter & Steward Vacancies. The Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited authorities have released a Job Notification to recruit Commis-II, III, Waiter & Steward Posts. Applicants who are looking for the CITCO Jobs in Chandigarh can apply for these vacancies from 03rd February 2020. Candidates may send the duly filled application form to the concerned address on or before the last date 15th February 2020.
Candidates who wish to start your career in the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited can check your eligibility details for the vacancies. Here we have provided all the details like Age limit, Educational qualification, Selection process, Application fee, and others. All the eligible candidates can apply for the CITCO Jobs 2020 before the last date.
Overview of CITCO Jobs 2020
Name of the Board
Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited (CITCO)
CITCO Recruitment 2019 – Apply Offline for 38 Vacancies. Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited authorities ha released a Notification for the JE, Clerk, Waiter and Other Jobs. Candidates who are in search of Chandigarh Government Jobs can try for this job vacancy released under CITCO Recruitment 2019. Aspirants willing to apply for the vacancies in CG Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation should submit the application form in a prescribed format. Applications for the CITCO Recruitment is received from 14th August 2019.
The Last date for the receipt of the CITCO Application form through postal mode is 20th August 2019. Individuals between 18 to 37 years are eligible to apply for the vacancies. Read the below article for complete educational details and age limit details, pay scale details, selection process, and application fee for the respected posts. For detailed information, candidates can check for the Official Notifications of CITCO Recruitment 2019.
Chandigarh CITCO Tourism Recruitment 2019
Name of the Board
Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited (CITCO)
Eligibility Criteria for Chandigarh CITCO Recruitment 2019 Notification
Educational Qualification:
Junior Engineer:
Diploma in Electrical Engineering/ equivalent from a recognized institution.
Experience – 3 Years in execution /maintenance of relevant engineering Works/field.
Desirable – Degree in Electrical Engineering/ equivalent from a recognized institution.
Accounts Clerk:
Completed Bachelor degree in Commerce or equivalent and also 3 months(minimum) computer course covering areas of financial accounting and MS Office like tally from a recognized institution/Organization
Clerk:
Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field.
Posses a typing speed of 30 w.p.m.
Proficiency in Computer Operation.
Junior Programmer:
Bachelor’s Degree/ Master’s Degree in relevant field/equivalent from a recognized institution.
One year Postgraduate Diploma in Computer science or equivalent from a recognized University/Institution (Jr. Programmer)
Experience – 2 years in system development and programming
Restaurant Executive, Floor Supervisor, Bill Clerk, Commis-I, Commis-II, Commis- III, Steward, Assistant Barman, and Waiter:
Senior Secondary Part-II/ Diploma/ Degree in a respective field with concerned experience in a relevant field
Age Limit:
Minimum Age Limit – 18 Years
Maximum Age Limit – 37 Years
Application Fee:
Refer to the CITCO Recruitment 2019 Notification for the Application Fee details.
CITCO Salary Structure:
Name of the Post
Salary
Junior Engineer
Rs.40,000/-
Restaurant Executive
Rs.26,670/-
Floor Supervisor
Rs.13,200/-
Accounts Clerk
Rs.20720/-
Bill Clerk
Clerk
Junior Programmer
Commis-I
Rs.22,300/-
Commis-II
Rs.16,886/
Commis-III
Rs.13,200/-
Steward
Assistant Barman
Waiter
Rs.10,800/-
Selection Process:
Interview.
How to Apply Offline for CITCO Recruitment 2019?
Candidates willing to apply for the CITCO Recruitment should satisfy the eligibility conditions listed in the Official Notifications. Individuals who are not fulfilling the eligibility criteria of CITCO Recruitment are not eligible for the vacancies and their application will be rejected during the shortlisting process. Aspirants can follow the below-listed steps to apply for the CITCO Recruitment 2019.
Download the Official Notification given below.
Read the given details completely and ensure your eligibility.
Prepare an Application form in the prescribed format.
Attach essential documents needed for the post.
Send the Application form to the concerned address.
NOTE – Subscribe the envelope cover of the application form in bold letters as “APPLICATION FOR THE POST APPLIED FOR”
About Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited (CITCO
The Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited (CITCO) was combined as a Company in the Companies Act 1956 on 28.03.1974, known as Chandigarh Small Industries Development Corporation (CDC) and started working everything considered from 20.09.1974. The Corporation was given additional components of the progression of Tourism and other related activists in the year 1982. As a result of which, its name was changed to Chandigarh Industries and General Development Corporation Limited. (CIGDC).In 1982, the Management of Hotel Mountview, Sector 10, Chandigarh and Hotel Parkview (by then Chandigarh Yatri Niwas) was moved to the Corporation. Also, the Corporation was given the obligation in regards to managing the Community Centers and Clubs,(this activity was later moved to Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh).
CITCO tied up with BPCL and the Petrol Pump is running as one of the most supported outlets in the City. In 1993, CITCO was assigned as C&F Agent for IPCL (taken over by Reliance Industries Limited). The outlet ‘Drop-In made there at is standard with office goers.
DGR Punjab Recruitment 2020 Notification: Online Applications are invited to apply for the Technical Assistant, System manager, Assitant Manager & Senior System Manager Posts. The Directorate of Governance Reforms (DGR) Punjab has recruit 324 Candidates for the above vacancies. Applicants who are interested in the Punjab Government Jobs can apply for the Posts through Online. Here we have provided a direct apply online link, and the link will be active until 21st February 2020.
DGR Punjab Recruitment 2020
Applications are invited from eligible candidates for various Posts under categories. Applicants who belong to the Punjab state can utilize this opportunity. All the interested candidates can refer to the DGR Punjab Notification to ensure the eligibility conditions. Here on this page applicants can check the selection process, eligibility criteria, age limit, and others.
Eligibility Criteria for DGR Punjab Recruitment 2020
Educational Qualification for ਡੀਜੀਆਰ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਜੌਬਜ਼ 2020:
Should possess a degree in B.E/B.Tech in Information Technology/Electronics and Communication/Computer Science and MBA from a recognized university or institution with a minimum of 50% marks in aggregate in each case and should have an experience of nine years in the field of Information and Communication Technology.
Frequently Asked Questions About DGR Punjab Notification:
1. What are the Posts and count to be offered with DGR Punjab Assistant Manager Recruitment 2020? A. DGR Punjab Jobs Notification 2020 refers that, a total of 324 candidates to recruit for Technical Assistant, System manager, Assitant Manager & Senior System Manager Posts.
2. What will be the final date for an applicant to send DGR Punjab Application Form?
Starting Date of Application – Started
Last Date To Apply Online – 21st February 2020
3. Is experience Required required for an applicant to apply for DGR Punjab Technical Assistant Vacancy 2020? A. No, Both Freshers and Experienced are eligible to register for the 324 DGR Punjab Assistant Manager Jobs.
About Directorate of Governance Reforms (DGR) Punjab
The Punjab Governance Reforms Commission has established on 08th January 2009. The PGRC has again reconstituted in 2012 by Punjab Government. Actually the PGRC’s main objective is to improve the Internal Governance of Punjab and to suggest changes in the processes, procedures, rules, regulations, and design of the public services. The Commission focuses on to reduce the mistrust between the citizens and the government and protect the dignity of citizens by identifying spaces, policies, processes, and practices that perpetuate undignified exchange between the citizens and the state.
Learn more about Oracle Applications, an enterprise software system that enables businesses to streamline information systems – including accrual accounting.
Commodities are extremely important as they are essential factors in the production of other goods. A wide of array of commodities exist, including coffee, wheat, barley, gold and oil. Even orange juice is traded as a commodity. These commodities are traded constantly on commodity exchanges around the world such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Winnipeg Commodities Exchange (WCE) and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).Since commodities are traded on exchanges, their prices are not set by a single individual or entity.
Argentina is affordable, cosmopolitan, and the country has a extensive healthcare. But beware of its high rate of inflation, which will eat into a fixed income.
The Research Activities Credit is a nonrefundable federal tax credit implemented as an incentive for businesses to increase their research and development.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Learn about some of the most popular retirement destinations in Puerto Rico and decide whether this U.S. territory, which is still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017, is the right place for you to settle down.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States and provides the nation with a safe, flexible, and stable monetary and financial system.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Financial literacy is the education and understanding of various financial areas including topics related to managing personal finance, money and investing
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Services that prepare taxes free of charge do exist as long as you have a simple return. TurboTax, TaxSlayer, and even the IRS are among the top providers.
Find out what the efficient markets hypothesis has to say about fundamental analysis and how recent finance research has weakened this longstanding theory.
Learn about the Latin phrases "ceteris paribus" and "mutatis mutandis," often used as economic shorthand. Understand the differences between them with examples.
Calculate R-squared in Microsoft Excel by creating two data ranges to correlate. Use the correlation formula to correlate both sets of data, or x and y.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
The 130-30 strategy is a strategy that uses financial leverage by shorting poor performing stocks and purchasing alternate shares that are expected to have high returns.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
A grantee is the recipient of a grant, scholarship, or some type of property. In real estate, the grantee is the one taking title to a purchased property.
Patagonia's marketing strategy urging sustainability, and the promotion of used Patagonia goods, is working and the company's overall sales have increased.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Discover the importance of emerging multinational corporations. As China's urban population grows, it will continue to be an attractive option for investors.
An asset is a resource with economic value that an individual or corporation owns or controls with the expectation that it will provide future benefit.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
By Rama BijapurkarThe response that we have seen so far to the new law mandating reservation of board seats for women has been disappointing and shows how far we are from real inclusion. Ironically, this applies to both those supporting and opposing the move. There has been jugaad in the best Indian tradition to comply with the new but to continue with the old way — a telling comment on the governance standards of boards which managed to do that well. The plethora of well-meaning men and organisations that have sprung up to "mentor" and "train" potential women directors are more patriarchal than progressive in their prescriptions, reflecting a poor understanding of what inclusion is really about (more on that later). They have tried to justify what doesn't need to be justified — does equal rights for equal qualifications need to be justified? Some have put forward data in support, correlating women on boards with higher market cap (giving the sex in Sensex a whole new meaning), and some have asserted that the mere presence of feminine energy on boards will make boards work better.To be absolutely clear, the purpose of introducing reservation for women on boards was simple and singular — to correct the exclusion of capable and qualified women from corporate boards. It was not meant to provide yin to the existing board's yang or to bestow boards with wonderful feminine qualities of mothers and maids. Reservations came into being because existing boards were making little effort to include qualified women. "We would love to, but we can't find any" was the refrain. The answer, of course, lies in the poor governance of how nomination committees function.The search for new board members typically begins with the question "who do we know who fits the bill" (whatever the bill may be that needs to be fitted). And, predictably, given the gender ratios in the world of work at senior levels, the obvious answer was almost always a man.What is the real story on how India Inc has complied with the reservation law? Professor Neharika Vora of IIM-Ahmedabad has done a study on this for FICCI, due to be released next month. Here is a tiny preview of her findings: women now comprise 14% of board directors, a big jump from five years ago. Women directors from the family are a popular choice for promoter businesses. While this is a good and fairer outcome for gen-next daughters — nowadays as well educated as sons — it doesn't improve board governance for obvious reasons.The other finding is that there is the phenomenon of companies complying by appointing women below 30 years of age who are not related to the promoters, have fairly ordinary education and virtually no business experience. Clearly, boards that have done this have scant respect for the quality of their own boards and its ability to govern, leave aside the spirit of inclusion. Interestingly, the study shows that male directors below 30 are far better educated and, typically, members of the promoter family.Board membership entrusts onerous fiduciary responsibility on a person to supervise management that is smart and in control of the business. Hence, a well-established selection criterion for potential board members is that they should have had substantive senior-level experience in their chosen work arenas and should have demonstrated success in their "regular careers". In the case of women, that basic criterion seems to be considered less important. Training outfits and well-meaning mentors are pushing women candidates who have not had the kind of "regular career" experience that equips them for the judgment calls that boards need to make, or the confidence to call out the management where needed. In fact, women are being told that being a board director can be their "regular career". If we persist down this track, the universe of male directors will always be better qualified for the job than the universe of female directors, loading the deck against women directors in terms of contribution to the board.A lot of the training and mentoring advice being given to women is producing "board clerks", not real directors — the accent is on board procedures rather than on processes, on the rituals rather than the religion, on rules rather than on roles. It also tends to be about equipping women to follow the existing rules of the boardroom — fitting in rather than being themselves. It is the dishonest ticking of the diversity box, having people who look different but think and act the same way as everyone else.Real inclusion also needs chairmen who know how to run inclusive boards having members with diverse styles (men and women do have diverse styles. This is well-documented by research around the world). Whenever I have suggested to any women director training shops that they will do better to train the board and the nomination committee chairs on this, I have found that the same enthusiastic trainers of women are nowhere as eager to mess with men in power!The good news is that we are seeing wonderful green shoots of genuine inclusion as a wider pool of very talented women directors is making its way into the more professionally run, board-managed companies. They are women who have already proved their mettle during the course of a substantive career, and have already had experience at holding their own even while in a minority. They place performance ahead of "fitting in" and don't hesitate to challenge group-think or the status quo when needed. My hope and ask is that they will frame the debate better and take charge in laying down the rules of what genuine inclusion and diversity mean. The writer is one of India's most experienced independent directors and an independent management consultant.
The 2020-21 Union budget and the 15th Finance Commission report have reignited the debate over the relationship between the Centre and states on sharing finances.Revenue Source & OutflowStates contribute funds to the Centre by levying central taxes such as GST within their borders and receive funds from the Centre in a variety of ways. 74031598 States' Revised SharesThe 15th Finance Commission (FC) has slightly modified the formula for distributing states' share of central taxes — the largest component of transfers to states. 74031603 Top Tax CollectorsWhen it comes to generating tax revenue, the most populous states are not on top, meaning smaller southern states have to subsidise the larger but less productive northern states 74031612 Population & DevolutionFC's new tax revenue devolution formula relies a lot on states' population. 74031619 Cash CrunchA big issue affecting the finances of states is revenue crunch. With GST, loan waivers and income support schemes, most states are cashstrapped, forcing them to borrow more. 74031625
District Jail, Bidar. When Najbunnisa's daughter came to visit her, the 11-year-old was worried about how her mother was managing in the prison. "She told me not to be tense, to look after my health, to eat well — things I should be telling her," says Najbunnisa. But when it was time to leave, the girl could not bear to be parted from her mother. "She was sobbing. She didn't want to leave. But what could we do? I can't keep her here with me," says the anxious single mother.Najbunnisa has been incarcerated along with Fareeda Begum, the headmistress of Shaheen Urdu Primary School, where the former's daughter studies, in the north Karnataka district bordering Telangana. It is hard for the two middle-aged women — one a struggling widow, the other a mother of two girls and a teacher for close to three decades — to wrap their heads around the fact that they have been accused of sedition, that, too, over a play performed by young students like Najbunnisa's daughter. The charge of the colonial era Section 124 A carries a maximum term of life imprisonment."When the police took us from school, they did not tell us we were being arrested. They said it was for more questioning," says Fareeda Begum. That was on January 30. They have been in jail ever since.The play — performed at the school on January 21 — was about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). "Part of the National Curriculum Framework is to create awareness about current social subjects. This was just another assignment given to students," says Thouseef Madikeri, CEO of Shaheen Education Foundation. The school in Bidar is one of the 43 it has across nine states and is well-known in the district and outside, particularly for the success of its students in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). The corridors of the school, much of which appears as if it's under construction, have pictures of successful students and display cases with newspaper clippings on its initiatives. "This is a minority institution but 50% of the students are from other communities. Many come from impoverished back backgrounds and we give scholarships of up to 100%" says Madikeri. 74033373 The children, teachers say, were given two days to prepare and they presented a 10-minute sketch for which they themselves wrote the dialogue. In the play, the 11-year-old, who plays an old woman, says she does not have any identification papers and would hit with slippers the person asking for it. (An English translation from Dakhini, a form of Urdu spoken here, says, "The person who was selling tea is now asking for our papers. Where are his papers?") What was meant to be a routine school activity turned into a Kafkaesque nightmare after the play was live-streamed on Facebook by one of the parents, based on which a police complaint of sedition and insulting the prime minister was filed the next day.The complainant, Nilesh Rakshal, told ET Magazine over the phone: "Young schoolchildren were using words against the PM, which I found objectionable. I felt it was against the Constitution that respects the post of PM." The 35-year-old says he filed the complaint as a "citizen and social worker". When asked if he had been a member of the Bajrang Dal (a 2015 court verdict describes him as a district convener of the Dal), he insists that whatever he was in the past, he is not a member of any party now. He adds that he did not mention sedition in his complaint.The police swung into action after Rakshal's complaint, with groups of them reportedly arriving to question the young students and staff repeatedly for five days thereafter. "They kept asking us the same questions 20-25 times, telling us we were teaching the wrong things and made the children re-enact the dialogue. They even asked us, had the prime minister been a Muslim, wouldn't you have prevented this," says one of the teachers, who was interrogated. The first day, in contravention of the Juvenile Justice Act, the policemen reportedly came in uniform, unaccompanied by members of the Child Welfare Committee. Following a furore, the policemen started coming in plain clothes but the administration says they took children to parts of the school that were not in the range of CCTV cameras."They asked me the same questions many times," says the 11-year-old who had allegedly said the controversial line. She refuses a biscuit, saying she has an upset stomach, but otherwise speaks bravely, and says she has been to see her mother twice. Firdaus, the neighbour who had been looking after her, says the little girl has not been eating much. "She hasn't been well, she keeps asking about her mother at home. We looked after her because there was no one else," she says. Najbunnisa had moved to Bidar from the village of Hallikhed just three months ago, for the sake of her daughter's education and the two were getting by with what little money she got from renting out some farmland. 74033377 According to the FIR, the police say the headmistress was present when the play was staged and that they "felt" it was on her instruction. "There is no evidence. They just say they 'felt' this was so," says Keshavarao H Srimale, one of the lawyers who moved the bail application for the two women and filed anticipatory bail for the trustees of Shaheen, who are also mentioned in the FIR. The mother was held because she allegedly told her daughter what to say, a charge Najbunnisa denies. Nagesh DL, SP of Bidar who took charge on February 1 after his predecessor was transferred, earlier told ET that the police had booked the case based on information received and that they had been following the Supreme Court order on filing FIRs.Divided cityIn a sign of the polarisation the case has created in Bidar city, Srimale says about 30 lawyers tried to pass a resolution at the Bar Council, saying no lawyer should represent the two women and the management of Shaheen group because they had insulted the prime minister. The motion was defeated but they then moved a third-party application in support of the complainant, saying they wanted to assist the public prosecutor. "We take such measures only in the rarest cases that go against society. They were talking against the PM and NRC. The teachers should not have taught the students such things," says Anil Kumar Karanji, a lawyer who supported the motion. However, he adds that Shaheen institutions have a good reputation.Activists in the city, which was the capital of the powerful Bahmani sultanate of the Deccan in the 15th century, says sedition was slapped as a reaction to the anti-NRC protests in Bidar. "There was a huge rally of 50,000 people in Bidar on December 23. Sedition charges have been slapped to create panic among protesters and to suppress free speech," says Mubashir Sindhe, cofounder of the Secular Citizens Forum, an umbrella platform of 26 organisations protesting against the CAA.The case has sparked outrage in the city also because of the popularity of the school. "Earlier, if our children wanted to study science or get training for entrance exams, they would have to go to Kalaburagi or Bengaluru. But now, we have Shaheen where students get first-class education," says Swamidan Mudhale, a Dalit rights activist. "This case is just to tarnish their reputation."Activists, family members and the Shaheen school management are now waiting for the bail hearing on February 11. The 11-year-old girl hopes she can finally be reunited with her mother.
NEW DELHI: Arvind Kejriwal is set to return as Delhi chief minister and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will virtually sweep the assembly elections, exit polls predicted Saturday.As polling came to a close at 6 pm, with the Election Commission of India (ECI) projecting a voter turnout at 60.24% (as of 9:50 pm), a poll of polls covering 10 exit polls gave 52 seats to AAP, 17 to the Bharatiya Janata Party and one to the Indian National Congress.The polls, which are sample surveys conducted among voters exiting polling booths, signalled that the Delhi voter responded to AAP's campaign that focused on "kaam", or getting work done.Kejriwal, a former civil servant and activist who stormed into electoral politics with an anti-corruption campaign in 2013, led a campaign focusing on the development work his government did in Delhi, especially in education and healthcare, as well as sops such as lower electricity bills and free bus rides for women.The exit polls gave AAP between 47 and 68 seats in the 70-member Assembly.They predicted an absolute rout for Congress, which ruled Delhi for three terms between 1998 and 2013. The maximum seats to AAP were given by India Today TV-Axis exit poll, which predicted 59-68 seats for the party, while giving 2-11 for the BJP and none to the Congress.If these figures hold, the results will come as a disappointment for the BJP, which had hoped its sweep in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 would reflect in the assembly polls.Delhi's voter turnout saw a sharp fall over the 2015 elections. According to the Election Commission of India, voter turnout till 9 pm was projected at 60.24% — lower than 67.12% in 2015. 74033662 Traditionally, a lower voter turnout is read as a vote for the incumbent.The voter turnout in Delhi has been similar during the Congress regime under Sheila Dikshit, when she won consecutive terms. In 2003, when Delhi voted a second time for the Dikshit government, the voter turnout was 53.42%, and a comparable 57.58% was the turnout in 2008.Later, in two consecutive elections — 2013 and 2015 — voters turned out in big numbers to vote Dikshit out of power. In 2013, 65.63% of Delhi turned out and the percentage increased further to 67.12% in 2015.Across constituencies, Matia Mahal in Central Delhi registered the highest voter turnout of 68.36%, whereas Bawana assembly constituency in North district saw the lowest turnout at 41.95%. Among districts, North East district registered the highest (62.75%) voter turnout, while the lowest turnout was recorded in South East district (54.15%), according to the ECI app.
NEW DELHI: The Central government has appointed Mahmood Ahmed, Deputy Director General of the Licensing Finance Assessment (LFA), Department of Telecom as its nominee director on the board of MTNL, a PSU under the ministry.He has been appointed for a three-year period or till the period of superannuation, an official order said.As part of the revival package announced by the Union Cabinet in October last year, MTNL will be merged with the BSNL. Pending this, MTNL will act as a subsidiary of BSNL. MTNL is listed but has its net worth already eroded. BSNL is unlisted.In November last year, MTNL received DoT approval to be a subsidiary of BSNL by transferring the government's shareholding to it following the Union Cabinet's in-principle approval to their merger earlier. In the next fiscal the merger of BSNL and MTNL will take effect with formal notification after structural changes takes place in MTNL to merge with BSNL. The government holds 56.25 per cent in MTNL. Its share price was up after a long time, 4.55 per cent at Rs 8.05.MTNL currently has a lean structure after the VRS where 14,000 employees took voluntary retirement. It has reported losses in nine of the past 10 years and BSNL too has been ringing in loss since 2010. The total debt on both the companies is Rs 40,000 crore, of which half of the liability is on MTNL alone.The next fiscal Budget provides MTNL financial support of Rs 372 crore on account of minimum alternate tax, refund of CDMA spectrum, payment of interest on MTNL Bonds and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service. The Central government will infuse Rs 6,295 crore in MTNL for 4G spectrum. Besides, Rs 1,133 crore will be provided to MTNL as grant-in-aid for payment of GST.
NEW DELHI: Eight years back, Samsung became the leader in the mobile phone industry in India with the roll out of "Galaxy S3" from its Noida facility.Today, as the Indian smartphone market witnessed a modest 8 per cent (Year-on-Year) growth in 2019, the South Korean giant registered declining shipments among the top five brands.The last eight years or so have seen Chinese invasion like never before (Chinese smartphone brands captured 72 per cent of the Indian market in 2019 compared to 60 per cent in 2018), launching devices with top-notch features while taking the average selling point (ASP) further down.A premium player from the very beginning, Samsung faced the heat as smartphones became more affordable with each passing year, and players like Xiaomi and Vivo captured the affordable to mid-premium segments, forcing the company to launch online exclusive M-series in the budget segment and revamping the 'A' series in the mid-segment, which have so far been successful attempts.The company understands that it is best known for the Rs 30,000 and above segment and has begun 2020 by launching 'Lite' devices of its successful premium brands -- along with taking positive strides in the 5G and foldable space."The mobile business aims to improve profits by expanding sales of premium models, such as the enhanced 5G lineup and new foldable devices," the company said while declaring its financial year 2019 and Q4 results on January 30.Samsung expects smartphone revenues to rise on improved product mix with the launch of new flagship models and foldable devices.In India, the company now seems to be back on its premium strategy, with launching 'Lite' version of S10 and Note10 Lite in the range where OnePlus currently rules.According to Navkendar Singh, Research Director, IDC India, considering the size and potential of the Indian market, it is certainly not saturation for the market or any brand like Samsung.The other brands in the market are relatively new entrants while Samsung has been in India for more than two decades now as a lifestyle brand."These brands are able or willing to infuse freshness in their brand in terms of marketing and investments in retail etc," Singh told IANS.Samsung has, in fact, actually started doing well in the online space for the past couple of quarters.Its Galaxy M series, in particular the Galaxy M30s device, performed well in the online segment, helping revive its online share in the fourth quarter of 2019 at an all-time high of 16.6 per cent.However, this happened at the cost of ceding space to brands like Vivo in the offline space."This is interesting since offline has always been Samsung's forte for a ling time," said the IDC executive.For 2020, market competition is forecast to intensify as manufacturers increasingly adopt high-performance components, including application processors (APs), memory and cameras.In response, Samsung plans to differentiate its premium smartphones by expanding 5G adoption and introducing new designs for foldable products."The company is trying hard to get back to growth path. To revive in 2020, it needs to build portfolio across price tiers. Launching the 'Lite' version of its flagship phones S10 and Note 10 is a good step in that direction," said Shilpi Jain, research analyst with Counterpoint Research."Also, it needs to be more aggressive in its marketing strategies across all platforms to fight the competition," she added.Samsung aims to improve earnings by expanding sales of premium smartphones and enhancing the competitiveness of its mid to low-end lineup.Tweaking its portfolio would be a godsend for Samsung to revive its growth path.In India, Samsung needs to go aggressive in the $200 to $500 segment."This segment is expected to see growth from the upgraders this year. Almost all brands are expected to bring in models in this price range and the competition will be very stiff," said Singh.
Data shows Nifty and gold have given exactly the same return in last 10 years. And Nifty gives you all the stress when you invest in it. With gold, it is a lock-and-key stress-free return. My question is, why then foreign investors are so obsessed with Indian stocks? Data shows we have got positive flows in last nine out of 10 years, barring one or two.I do not attach any value to foreigners buying India. They are buying many things. Okay, we Indians are wo kuen mein medhak wala humara hota hai. ke humare ka dollar aya hai to hume lagta hai ke duniya mein kahin aur dollar ja hi nahi raha hai (we have a frog-in-the-well approach to it. If there are FII flows to Indian markets, we feel, dollar is not flowing to anywhere else).There is no such thing. They give money to many countries, rightly or wrongly, deserving or undeserving. In India, we have has hardly had any ETF business, which has changed in last 10-15 years. A lot of it is basically ETF money, but you talk to individual FIIs or non-ETF players, but I do not see a single happy face. All of it has come down to buying eight stocks. If you try to make a diversified portfolio with a little bit of risk mitigation, you suddenly go into a very poor return characteristic. So the market is forcing you to just buy ETFs.What should those people do who are invested in those eight or 10 stocks? Should they stay invested?This polarisation of the market is a pretty new phenomenon. It started in 2018, when smallcaps crashed. So a lot of the money basically moved to largecaps and the economic distress of 2017, 2018, 2019 has been terrible. So polarisation of the money moving from smallcaps to largecaps has kept on increasing. Those are still okay, but not great. I am not a votary of buying an Asian Paints at 70-80 PE, or whatever it is. It is a great company, but the strange thing is, India has many unique things. One is, if you look at valuation and you buy based on valuation, you have to turn it upside down. This means you short low PE stocks and you buy the high PE ones. I mean this trade has worked for 25 years. So if you short ONGC and you buy an Asian Paints, by and large you would probably never go wrong. Foreigners come here and buy their ONGCs, but they never buy Asian Paints. Then they keep crying. But India is unique in the sense that the premium for quality and governance in a country which has no governance -- from the government downward to corporate India -- a handful of companies which have survived and which do not have great governance – the market just says 'hey, I do not care about what PE you are trading at. As long as you are not likely to go bust suddenly, you will have an accounting hole. Something like what happened in Delhi in some power companies, the erstwhile Thapar Group. Then suddenly you have more debt than what was declared. These kind of things I am not going to get when I buy a certain kind of companies. Hence leave the PE aside, forget about it. It is an outdated outmode, at least in India. It does not work anymore. I am not saying that is right, but I am not the one to say that is wrong either. A market men say let us revisit cyclicals, revisit industrials when the economy comes back. Steel, cement, infrastructure…will these stocks come back?I find the whole debate around structural versus cyclical – from what you pick up on Twitter and elsewhere -- a total nonsense. Cyclicals do not last five years.We are in a cyclical slowdownI think the economy started slowing down even prior to demonetisation, which happened in late 2016. It was already on a downtrend. So are you telling me we are in a slowdown since 2015, and now you are in 2020. Five years? What kind of nonsense is this? This is a structural problem. This large-scale decimation of job earners, of corporate India, of MSMEs is not coming back. So we will play, at least I will play, it realistically. I am not going to live in a fool's paradise and say that suddenly all those dead companies are going to come back. By the way, even at the peak of the infrastructure boom -- and we were the only firm to call that this nonsense cannot go on any more -- people used to say in 2007, 2008, 2009 if India has to grow, infrastructure has to grow. You remember that one of those things?We have argued that with..I am sorry, India has to grow, but whosoever told you that infrastructure has to grow, now we have grown 5-6% compounded, has infra grown? It has not grown. These kind of theory suddenly comes out in the market. So I do not subscribe to that view that industrials are coming back anytime soon.Government support, liquidity… You bust as a consumer, you bust as a company, you bust as a government. How do you come out? Paisa chahiye na, paisa hi chahiye na, baat se toh nahi ho sakta na, boss. My good intentions cannot revive my company, unless I find some way to make money. We all know, every housewife knows that. So why are we suddenly hoping that the industrial economy will suddenly zoom up with not even a rupee of stimulus being given directly in the Budget. The corporate tax cut is not a stimulus for capex. It is a stimulus for a handful of banks and a handful of FMCG companies, none of which are interested in capex anyway. So this is a hope trade I'd not understand if you apply your mind to it from where will industrial revival happen unless you inject large amounts of money.So what is the future for steel, cement, infra names? They have underperformed. Do you think they will continue to underperform? Okay metals are a global commodity, but India-centric businesses, cement, EPC, road companies, infrastructure companies have destroyed wealth. Do you think this trend will continue? They will continue to act as what is called value traps?They are value traps, and again there will be an odd one here or there. But I do not think one should start thinking about these stocks just yet. For me, the Budget was important only from one perspective: that it told me what the government's thinking is. The government's thinking is, figure it out that I am not there to write out big cheques for you guys. Apna raasta nikalo boss, jo bhi nikalna hai. Why should I go and spend time buying deadbeat companies when there is enough money to be made buying safety.
NEW DELHI: Eight years back, Samsung became the leader in the mobile phone industry in India with the roll out of "Galaxy S3" from its Noida facility.Today, as the Indian smartphone market witnessed a modest 8 per cent (Year-on-Year) growth in 2019, the South Korean giant registered declining shipments among the top five brands.The last eight years or so have seen Chinese invasion like never before (Chinese smartphone brands captured 72 per cent of the Indian market in 2019 compared to 60 per cent in 2018), launching devices with top-notch features while taking the average selling point (ASP) further down.A premium player from the very beginning, Samsung faced the heat as smartphones became more affordable with each passing year, and players like Xiaomi and Vivo captured the affordable to mid-premium segments, forcing the company to launch online exclusive M-series in the budget segment and revamping the 'A' series in the mid-segment, which have so far been successful attempts.The company understands that it is best known for the Rs 30,000 and above segment and has begun 2020 by launching 'Lite' devices of its successful premium brands -- along with taking positive strides in the 5G and foldable space."The mobile business aims to improve profits by expanding sales of premium models, such as the enhanced 5G lineup and new foldable devices," the company said while declaring its financial year 2019 and Q4 results on January 30.Samsung expects smartphone revenues to rise on improved product mix with the launch of new flagship models and foldable devices.In India, the company now seems to be back on its premium strategy, with launching 'Lite' version of S10 and Note10 Lite in the range where OnePlus currently rules.According to Navkendar Singh, Research Director, IDC India, considering the size and potential of the Indian market, it is certainly not saturation for the market or any brand like Samsung.The other brands in the market are relatively new entrants while Samsung has been in India for more than two decades now as a lifestyle brand."These brands are able or willing to infuse freshness in their brand in terms of marketing and investments in retail etc," Singh told IANS.Samsung has, in fact, actually started doing well in the online space for the past couple of quarters.Its Galaxy M series, in particular the Galaxy M30s device, performed well in the online segment, helping revive its online share in the fourth quarter of 2019 at an all-time high of 16.6 per cent.However, this happened at the cost of ceding space to brands like Vivo in the offline space."This is interesting since offline has always been Samsung's forte for a ling time," said the IDC executive.For 2020, market competition is forecast to intensify as manufacturers increasingly adopt high-performance components, including application processors (APs), memory and cameras.In response, Samsung plans to differentiate its premium smartphones by expanding 5G adoption and introducing new designs for foldable products."The company is trying hard to get back to growth path. To revive in 2020, it needs to build portfolio across price tiers. Launching the 'Lite' version of its flagship phones S10 and Note 10 is a good step in that direction," said Shilpi Jain, research analyst with Counterpoint Research."Also, it needs to be more aggressive in its marketing strategies across all platforms to fight the competition," she added.Samsung aims to improve earnings by expanding sales of premium smartphones and enhancing the competitiveness of its mid to low-end lineup.Tweaking its portfolio would be a godsend for Samsung to revive its growth path.In India, Samsung needs to go aggressive in the $200 to $500 segment."This segment is expected to see growth from the upgraders this year. Almost all brands are expected to bring in models in this price range and the competition will be very stiff," said Singh.
NEW DELHI: In the first cluster of the final placement process at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, Blackstone Group and Strategy & (Middle East) were among the new recruiters thronging the campus while McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group were the top recruiters with the highest number of offers. These offers were made to the PGP class of 2020 where four cohorts –investment banking & markets, management consulting, advisory consulting and private equity, venture capital & asset management were part of the Cluster 1 list.Other recruiters included Accenture Strategy, Kearney, Avendus, Bain & Co., Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, KPMG, Monitor Deloitte, Matrix Partners, Multiples, Nomura,Oliver Wyman, among others, according to the information shared by the institute.Consulting firms, offering management consulting roles across geographies (including Malaysia and Middle East) have recruited in large numbers. Finance firms offered (including pre-placement offers or PPOs) roles in investment banking, private equity, venture capital and capital markets across functions and geographies (including Singapore). Among finance firms, Avendus made the highest number of offers (10 including PPOs), closely followed by JP Morgan Chase & Co.(8) in Cluster 1.
[Editor’s note: Want to get this weekly review of news that startups can use? Just subscribe here.]
Asana may get more attention than the average SaaS company due to the Facebook pedigrees and outspoken views of its founders, but in practice it’s a low-profile, cash-efficient machine. Today, the productivity toolmaker does not need to raise cash via a traditional IPO, as we explored this week following its filing for a direct listing, even though it hasn’t raised that much money compared to other unicorns.
Let's presume that Asana crossed the $100 million ARR mark as 2018 came to a close. And, for the sake of discussion, that its eight quarters of revenue growth acceleration left the company with a 60% expansion rate. Then, Asana would have closed up 2019 with $160 million in ARR. (You can easily change up the numbers by tweaking when the company reached the nine-figure ARR mark and its ensuing growth rate.). …
Asana is likely worth more than its final private valuation of $1.5 billion. Presuming it can get a bog-standard 12x multiple on its ARR, the company would be worth $1.8 billion. If it can do better, or is larger than that, the value of the firm quickly rises.
Unlike Casper’s struggles, and One Medical’s somewhat surprising consumery pop, Asana is a straightforward bet for a good public performance based on traditional SaaS metrics. Stay tuned for more next week.
VCs are still pouring money into open source
In this week’s investor survey, Arman Tabatabai talked to 18 of the most active and successful investors in open-source and devops software about the latest trends. The money going into the sector has grown by 10% CAGR over the last five years, and nobody he talked to plans to slow down — in fact, many said the market was under-heated, or just halfway there. Why? Every company is trying to become more of a software company, developers now get to make more adoption and purchasing decisions, and there are countless software problems yet to solve.
It seems like everyone wants to invest in tech startups these days, including any large company or government body — and even tech startups. In the latest news on this long-running trend, cap table management unicorn Carta is starting its own fund to invest in companies. Given its in-house data and broad relationships in the industry, this seems like great positioning for some hot deals (as long as the clients on the platform don’t mind, of course).
Meanwhile, a couple of successful, currently active founders will also be ramping up their seed investments. Superhuman founder and CEO Rahul Vohra and Eventjoy founder Todd Goldberg are teaming up to create “The Todd & Rahul Angel Fund” which will put $7 million from an LP base of other founders and operators to work. The dollars involved may be small, but the signaling is likely to be very high.
Organized (tech) labor
Silicon Valley investors and founders have avoided unions for decades by giving employees a cut of the ownership directly. But is this arrangement changing? The rise of gig work, the questions about high valuations and future stock prices, the grind of life at many unicorn startups, and general concern about tech culture and ethics have combined to make some workers look harder at unions, as Megan Rose Dickey covered this week in an ongoing series.
In this week’s episode, Alex and Danny sat down with Rick Yang of NEA, examined Casper and One Medical in more detail, and covered a few new funds and fundraises — including more thoughts on the Asana numbers. Check it out!
As founding executive director of Tech:NYC, Julie Samuels is one of the state’s most prominent advocates for the tech sector, both in Albany and at City Hall.
Samuels, a lawyer by training, came to New York after serving as executive director of Engine, a San Francisco organization on which Tech:NYC is modeled. In an interview with TechCrunch, Samuels spoke about several issues, including her rationale for why, despite the controversy over Amazon's decision not to build its second headquarters in Queens, the area is well-positioned for the next wave of tech innovation.
TechCrunch: What is the need for organizations like Tech:NYC and Engine?
Julie Samuels: As the tech industry matures, it is incredibly important that there are organizations [that] represent these companies politically, civically, making sure they have a seat at the table with so many public policy debates. There is no shortage of public policy debates surrounding technology.
It is also incredibly important that there are organizations who are talking from the viewpoint of smaller companies and startups. There are a lot of organizations that represent the biggest and most well-known companies, including Tech:NYC. But [we] also have hundreds of members who are small and growing startups. We think that diversity of the ecosystem is what really sets the technology sector apart and it is something we want to foster and celebrate.
TVs this year will ship with a new feature called “filmmaker mode,” but unlike the last dozen things the display industry has tried to foist on consumers, this one actually matters. It doesn’t magically turn your living room into a movie theater, but it’s an important step in that direction.
This new setting arose out of concerns among filmmakers (hence the name) that users were getting a sub-par viewing experience of the media that creators had so painstakingly composed.
The average TV these days is actually quite a quality piece of kit compared to a few years back. But few ever leave their default settings. This was beginning to be a problem, explained LG’s director of special projects, Neil Robinson, who helped define the filmmaker mode specification and execute it on the company’s displays.
“When people take TVs out of the box, they play with the settings for maybe five minutes, if you’re lucky,” he said. “So filmmakers wanted a way to drive awareness that you should have the settings configured in this particular way.”
In the past they’ve taken to social media and other platforms to mention this sort of thing, but it’s hard to say how effective a call to action is, even when it’s Tom Cruise and Chris McQuarrie begging you:
I'm taking a quick break from filming to tell you the best way to watch Mission: Impossible Fallout (or any movie you love) at home. pic.twitter.com/oW2eTm1IUA
While very few people really need to tweak the gamma or adjust individual color levels, there are a couple settings that are absolutely crucial for a film or show to look the way it’s intended. The most important are ones that fit under the general term “motion processing.”
These settings have a variety of fancy-sounding names, like “game mode,” “motion smoothing,” “truemotion,” and such like, and they are on by default on many TVs. What they do differs from model to model, but it amounts to taking content at, say, 24 frames per second, and converting it to content at, say, 120 frames per second.
Generally this means inventing the images that come between the 24 actual frames — so if a person’s hand is at point A in one frame of a movie and point C in the next, motion processing will create a point B to go in between — or B, X, Y, Z, and dozens more if necessary.
This is bad for several reasons:
First, it produces a smoothness of motion that lies somewhere between real life and film, giving an uncanny look to motion-processed imagery that people often say reminds them of bad daytime TV shot on video — which is why people call it the “soap opera effect.”
Second, some of these algorithms are better than others, and some media is more compatible than the rest (sports broadcasts, for instance). While at best they produce the soap opera effect, at worst they can produce weird visual artifacts that can distract even the least sensitive viewer.
And third, it’s an aesthetic affront to the creators of the content, who usually crafted it very deliberately, choosing this shot, this frame rate, this shutter speed, this take, this movement, and so on with purpose and a careful eye. It’s one thing if your TV has the colors a little too warm or the shadows overbright — quite another to create new frames entirely with dubious effect.
So filmmakers, and in particular cinematographers, whose work crafting the look of the movie is most affected by these settings, began petitioning TV companies to either turn motion processing off by default or create some kind of easily accessible method for users to disable it themselves.
Ironically, the option already existed on some displays. “Many manufacturers already had something like this,” said Robinson. But with different names, different locations within the settings, and different exact effects, no user could really be sure what these various modes actually did. LG’s was “Technicolor Expert Mode.” Does that sound like something the average consumer would be inclined to turn on? I like messing with settings, and I’d probably keep away from it.
So the movement was more about standardization than reinvention. With a single name, icon, and prominent placement instead of being buried in a sub-menu somewhere, this is something people may actually see and use.
Not that there was no back-and-forth on the specification itself. For one thing, filmmaker mode also lowers the peak brightness of the TV to a relatively dark 100 nits — at a time when high brightness, daylight visibility, and contrast ratio are specs manufacturers want to show off.
The reason for this is, very simply, to make people turn off the lights.
There’s very little anyone in the production of a movie can do to control your living room setup or how you actually watch the film. But restricting your TV to certain levels of brightness does have the effect of making people want to dim the lights and sit right in front. Do you want to watch movies in broad daylight, with the shadows pumped up so bright they look grey? Feel free, but don’t imagine that’s what the creators consider ideal conditions.
Photo: Chris Ryan / Getty Images
“As long as you view in a room that’s not overly bright, I’d say you’re getting very close to what the filmmakers saw in grading,” said Robinson. Filmmaker mode’s color controls are a rather loose, he noted, but you’ll get the correct aspect ratio, white balance, no motion processing, and generally no weird surprises from not delving deep enough in the settings.
The full list of changes can be summarized as follows:
Maintain source frame rate and aspect ratio (no stretched or sped up imagery)
Motion processing off (no smoothing)
Peak brightness reduced (keeps shadows dark — this may change with HDR content)
Sharpening and noise reduction off (standard items with dubious benefit)
Other “image enhancements” off (non-standard items with dubious benefit)
White point at D65/6500K (prevents colors from looking too warm or cool)
All this, however, relies on people being aware of the mode and choosing to switch to it. Exactly how that will work depends on several factors. The ideal option is probably a filmmaker mode button right on the clicker, which is at least theoretically the plan.
The alternative is a content specification — as opposed to a display one — that allows TVs to automatically enter filmmaker mode when a piece of media requests it to. But this requires content providers to take advantage of the APIs that make the automatic switching possible, so don’t count on it.
And of course this has its own difficulties, including privacy concerns — do you really want your shows to tell your devices what to do and when? So a middle road where the TV prompts the user to “Show this content in filmmaker mode? Yes/No” and automatic fallback to the previous settings afterwards might be the best option.
There are other improvements that can be pursued to make home viewing more like the theater, but as Robinson pointed out, there are simply fundamental differences between LCD and OLED displays and the projectors used in theaters — and even then there are major differences between projectors. But that’s a whole other story.
At the very least, the mode as planned represents a wedge that content purists (it has a whiff of derogation but they may embrace the term) can widen over time. Getting the average user to turn off motion processing is the first and perhaps most important step — everything after that is incremental improvement.
So which TVs will have filmmaker mode? It’s unclear. LG, Vizio, and Panasonic have all committed to bringing models out with the feature, and it’s even possible it could be added to older models with a software update (but don’t count on it). Sony is a holdout for now. No one is sure exactly which models will have filmmaker mode available, so just cast an eye over the spec list of you’re thinking of getting and, if you’ll take my advice, don’t buy a TV without it.
California’s new privacy law was years in the making.
The law, California’s Consumer Privacy Act — or CCPA — became law on January 1, allowing state residents to reclaim their right to access and control their personal data. Inspired by Europe’s GDPR, the CCPA is the largest statewide privacy law change in a generation. The new law lets users request a copy of the data that tech companies have on them, delete the data when they no longer want a company to have it, and demand that their data isn’t sold to third parties. All of this is much to the chagrin of the tech giants, some of which had spent millions to comply with the law and have many more millions set aside to deal with the anticipated influx of consumer data access requests.
But to say things are going well is a stretch.
Many of the tech giants that kicked and screamed in resistance to the new law have acquiesced and accepted their fate — at least until something different comes along. The California tech scene had more than a year to prepare, but some have made it downright difficult and — ironically — more invasive in some cases for users to exercise their rights, largely because every company has a different interpretation of what compliance should look like.
Alex Davis is just one California resident who tried to use his new rights under the law to make a request to delete his data. He vented his annoyance on Twitter, saying companies have responded to CCPA by making requests “as confusing and difficult as possible in new and worse ways.”
“I’ve never seen such deliberate attempts to confuse with design,” he told TechCrunch. He referred to what he described as “dark patterns,” a type of user interface design that tries to trick users into making certain choices, often against their best interests.
“I tried to make a deletion request but it bogged me down with menus that kept redirecting… things to be turned on and off,” he said.
Despite his frustration, Davis got further than others. Just as some companies have made it easy for users to opt-out of having their data sold by adding the legally required “Do not sell my info” links on their websites, many have not. Some have made it near-impossible to find these “data portals,” which companies set up so users can request a copy of their data or delete it altogether. For now, California companies are still in a grace period — but have until July when the CCPA’s enforcement provisions kick in. Until then, users are finding ways around it — by collating and sharing links to data portals to help others access their data.
“We really see a mixed story on the level of CCPA response right now,” said Jay Cline, who heads up consulting giant PwC’s data privacy practice, describing it as a patchwork of compliance.
PwC’s own data found that only 40% of the largest 600 U.S. companies had a data portal. Only a fraction, Cline said, extended their portals to users outside of California, even though other states are gearing up to push similar laws to the CCPA.
But not all data portals are created equally. Given how much data companies store on us — personal or otherwise — the risks of getting things wrong are greater than ever. Tech companies are still struggling to figure out the best way to verify each data request to access or delete a user’s data without inadvertently giving it away to the wrong person.
Last year, security researcher James Pavur impersonated his fiancee and tricked tech companies into turning over vast amounts of data about her, including credit card information, account logins and passwords and, in one case, a criminal background check. Only a few of the companies asked for verification. Two years ago, Akita founder Jean Yang described someone hacking into her Spotify account and requesting her account data as an “unfortunate consequence” of GDPR, which mandated companies operating on the continent allow users access to their data.
The CCPA says companies should verify a person’s identity to a “reasonable degree of certainty.” For some that’s just an email address to send the data.
Others require sending in even more sensitive information just to prove it’s them.
Indeed, i360, a little-known advertising and data company, until recently asked California residents for a person’s full Social Security number. This recently changed to just the last four-digits. Verizon (which owns TechCrunch) wants its customers and users to upload their driver’s license or state ID to verify their identity. Comcast asks for the same, but goes the extra step by asking for a selfie before it will turn over any of a customer’s data.
Comcast asks for the same amount of information to verify a data request as the controversial facial recognition startup, Clearview AI, which recently made headlines for creating a surveillance system made up of billions of images scraped from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to help law enforcement trace a person’s movements.
As much as CCPA has caused difficulties, it has helped forge an entirely new class of compliance startups ready to help large and small companies alike handle the regulatory burdens to which they are subject. Several startups in the space are taking advantage of the $55 billion expected to be spent on CCPA compliance in the next year — like Segment, which gives customers a consolidated view of the data they store; Osano which helps companies comply with CCPA; and Securiti, which just raised $50 million to help expand its CCPA offering. With CCPA and GDPR under their belts, their services are designed to scale to accommodate new state or federal laws as they come in.
Another startup, Mine, which lets users “take ownership” of their data by acting as a broker to allow users to easily make requests under CCPA and GDPR, had a somewhat bumpy debut.
The service asks users to grant them access to a user’s inbox, scanning for email subject lines that contain company names and using that data to determine which companies a user can request their data from or have their data deleted. (The service requests access to a user’s Gmail but the company claims it will “never read” users’ emails.) Last month during a publicity push, Mine inadvertently copied a couple of emailed data requests to TechCrunch, allowing us to see the names and email addresses of two requesters who wanted Crunch, a popular gym chain with a similar name, to delete their data.
(Screenshot: Zack Whittaker/TechCrunch)
TechCrunch alerted Mine — and the two requesters — to the security lapse.
“This was a mix-up on our part where the engine that finds companies’ data protection offices’ addresses identified the wrong email address,” said Gal Ringel, co-founder and chief executive at Mine. “This issue was not reported during our testing phase and we’ve immediately fixed it.”
For now, many startups have caught a break.
The smaller, early-stage startups that don’t yet make $25 million in annual revenue or store the personal data on more than 50,000 users or devices will largely escape having to immediately comply with CCPA. But it doesn’t mean startups can be complacent. As early-stage companies grow, so will their legal responsibilities.
“For those who did launch these portals and offer rights to all Americans, they are in the best position to be ready for these additional states,” said Cline. “Smaller companies in some ways have an advantage for compliance if their products or services are commodities, because they can build in these controls right from the beginning,” he said.
CCPA may have gotten off to a bumpy start, but time will tell if things get easier. Just this week, California’s attorney general Xavier Becerra released newly updated guidance aimed at trying to “fine tune” the rules, per his spokesperson. It goes to show that even California’s lawmakers are still trying to get the balance right.
But with the looming threat of hefty fines just months away, time is running out for the non-compliant.
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all.
The app industry is as hot as ever with a record 204 billion downloads in 2019 and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019, according to App Annie's recently released "State of Mobile" annual report. People are now spending 3 hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren't just a way to pass idle hours — they're a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus.
In this Extra Crunch series, we help you keep up with the latest news from the world of apps, delivered on a weekly basis.
This week, we look at the app making headlines for causing a disaster in Iowa, TikTok’s power to move apps up the charts, all the news from Apple’s new betas, the plan from Chinese mobile giants to take on Google Play, subscription scams, plus app trends and other news.
Headlines
Iowa’s caucus app was a disaster
A smartphone app really screwed things up in Iowa. The app, built by Shadow Inc., was designed to help the Iowa Democratic Party tabulate votes from the caucuses. But instead of helping, the app failed, causing a massive delay of almost an entire day. According to The New York Times, the app was quickly put together in just the past two months — and wasn’t properly tested.
Scape Technologies, the London-based computer vision startup working on location accuracy beyond the capabilities of GPS, has been acquired by Facebook, according to a regulatory filing.
Full terms of the deal remain as yet unknown, although a Companies House update reveals that Facebook Inc. now has majority control of the company (more than 75%). However by looking at other filings, including a recent share issue, I understand the price could be about $40 million.
Further filings show that Scape’s previous venture capital representatives have resigned from the Scape board and are replaced by two Facebook executives.
Scape’s backers included Entrepreneur First (EF) — the startup is an alumni of the company builder program — along with LocalGlobe, Mosaic Ventures, and Fly Ventures.
Noteworthy is that EF and Fly Ventures have both already had a joint exit to Facebook of sorts, when Bloomsbury AI was acqui-hired by the social networking behemoth (a story that I also broke).
Founded in 2017, Scape Technologies was developing a "Visual Positioning Service" based on computer vision which lets developers build apps that require location accuracy far beyond the capabilities of GPS alone.
The technology initially targeted augmented reality apps, but also had the potential to be used to power applications in mobility, logistics and robotics. More broadly, Scape wanted to enable any machine equipped with a camera to understand its surroundings.
Scape CEO and co-founder Edward Miller previously described Scape's "Vision Engine" as a large-scale mapping pipeline that creates 3D maps from ordinary images and video. Camera devices can then query the Vision Engine using the startup's “Visual Positioning Service” API to determine their exact location with far greater precision than GPS can ever provide. The Visual Positioning Service was made available to select developers via Scape's SDK.
Meanwhile the acquisition by Facebook, no matter what form it takes, looks like a good fit given the U.S. company’s investment in next generation platforms, including VR and AR. It is also another — perhaps, worrying — example of U.S. tech companies hoovering up U.K. machine learning and AI talent early.
Update: A Facebook spokesperson provided the following statement: "We acquire smaller tech companies from time to time. We don't always discuss our plans."
Uber facilitated 14 million rides a week in India last year, the American ride-hailing firm said as it claimed the tentpole position in the key overseas market.
In a report (PDF) published on the sidelines of its quarterly earnings Thursday afternoon, Uber said that it commanded over 50% of the ride-hailing market in India — among some other regions — and was the category leader.
The publicly listed company cited its internal estimations for the claim, it said. In comparison, Uber handled 11 million rides a week in India in 2018, a spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Slide from Uber’s report
The revelation is especially interesting, since both Uber and its chief local rival Ola have tended to avoid talks about the number of rides they serve in India.
In a 2018 blog post, Ola revealed that its platform "moves over two million people every day." A spokesperson for the Indian startup, which like Uber counts SoftBank as an investor, declined to reveal the new figures, but issued a statement in which it identified itself as India's "largest mobility platform."
"As India’s largest mobility platform, Ola serves over 200 million customers through a network of 2.5 million driver-partners across a wide range of offerings including two, three and four-wheelers," the spokesperson said, adding that the ride-hailing firm operates in 250 cities and towns in India.
An Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company plans to expand from about 50 Indian cities where it currently operates to 200 in the country by the end of the year. It will focus on onboarding two-wheelers and three-wheelers in many of these cities, the firm said.
Uber’s expansion in India comes as Ola is entering one of the American firm’s key territories. Last week, Ola said it will begin operation in London on February 10.
There’s this brilliant feeling on Fridays if you’re a reporter when you think that all the things you have to write about are complete. You kickstart some work for Monday. Maybe you tighten up a to-do list. Hell, you might even read some email.
But then on Fridays like today, something eye-catching happens and the Great Content Gods demand written sacrifice and here we are.
TechCrunch has reached out to Facebook for comment on the compromise. We’re not expecting to hear back anything of substance but, if we do, we’ll update this post. Twitter provided public comment regarding the hack, saying that it “locked the compromised accounts and are working closely with our partners at Facebook to restore them” when it noticed the matter.
As you can see from the screenshot, the tweet appears to have been posted via Khoros. Khoros, in case you also didn’t know, sells software to help companies use social media to interact with customers and users. So, perhaps the Folks With Time On Their Hands got in that way. Either way it was taken down quickly. (Khoros is based in Austin and has raised no known venture capital, per Crunchbase.)
And with that, Friday really is a go.
You are subscribed to email updates from TechCrunch. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.
Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States
Delhi Elections 2020: Exit Polls show AAP set for sweeping win, BJP to improve 2015 seat tally The past month had seen two very different campaigns run by the AAP and BJP — with the former asking people to vote on the basis of its work, and the latter focusing its campaign around Shaheen Bagh, where protests against the new citizenship law have been on for almost two months now.
'Macroeconomy strong, Budget 2020 will act as catalyst': FM Nirmala Sitharaman says govt working to achieve 8% growth 'Macroeconomy strong, Budget 2020 will act as catalyst': FM Nirmala Sitharaman says govt working to achieve 8% growth
Coronavirus effect: Handset makers rattled, scheduled smartphone launches likely to be delayed; Check details It is learnt that some Chinese companies are in process of re-scheduling smartphone launch dates for this month.
T.N. farmers seek loan for flame lily cultivation Farmers cultivating the State flower flame lily (Gloriosa superba) petitioned Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami demanding loan and crop insurance
Senior IPS officer A.B. Venkateshwara Rao suspended in A.P. Senior IPS officer, A.B. Venkateshwara Rao, who is in the rank of Director-General, has been suspended on charges of violating the All India Services