Technical Information

Some applicants including Vedanta Foxconn JV are expected to re-apply for government incentives under the modified semiconductor scheme opening from June 1, according to sources. Under the Modified Semicon India Programme , the government has increased the financial incentive of 50 percent of the project cost for companies, consortia, joint ventures for setting up semiconductor fabs in India of any node (wafer size). In the old scheme, the incentives varied on the basis of wafer node size. Similarly, a fiscal incentive of 50 percent of the project cost is available for setting up of display fabs of specified technologies in India, a statement said on Wednesday. "Government has decided to invite new applications for setting up of Semiconductor Fabs and Display Fabs in India from June 01, 2023, under the Modified Semicon India Programme. The applications will be received by India Semiconductor Mission ," the statement said. Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev...

Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) was launched in the US on Tuesday. Motorola released the 4G version of the same phone earlier this month, named  Moto G Stylus (2023) . The 4G model is powered by a MediaTek Helio G85 SoC paired with 4GB of RAM, whereas the 5G version comes with a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset. The handset comes with an inbuilt stylus, which is claimed to help users with content creation, animated illustrations on messaging apps, drawing or editing photos, and playing games. Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) price, availability The newly-launched Motorola smartphone is available in the US in a single variant of 6GB + 256GB, that is priced at $399.99 (roughly Rs. 33,100). On June 2, the phone will be open for sale at Cricket and starting June 16, the phone will be available for purchase on Amazon.com, Best Buy, and Motorola.com websites. The Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) is offered in Cosmic Black and Rose Champagne colour options. Moto G Stylus 5G (2023) specificati...

India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has transformed, gaining a position in the world order and becoming a key driver for Asia and global growth, said Morgan Stanley. In a report, Morgan Stanley said significant scepticism about India, particularly with overseas investors, ignores the significant changes that have taken place in India, especially since 2014. India of today, the report said, is different from what it was in 2013. "This India is different from what it was in 2013. In a short span of 10 years, India has gained positions in the world order with significant positive consequences for the macro and market outlook," it said. "India has transformed in less than a decade." Listing the 10 big changes that have happened since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014, the brokerage said bringing corporate tax at par with peers and infrastructure investment picking pace are one of the biggest supply-side policy reforms. Also, the rising collect...

The crypto market has remained consistently volatile for some days now, pushing most cryptocurrencies under the sector current. Bitcoin on Wednesday, May 31, saw a loss of 0.62 percent to trade at $27,623 (roughly Rs. 22.8 lakh). This range-bound movement from Bitcoin has remained slow for the last two weeks at least, on both national as well as international exchanges. The value of Bitcoin dropped by $92 (roughly Rs. 7,607) over the last 24 hours. “BTC has displayed resilience by bouncing back from this important support level, indicating a restoration of its positive momentum. As long as Bitcoin maintains its position above $27,480 (roughly Rs. 22.7 lakh) level, there is a potential for further upward movement, with the next resistance level expected to be around $28,000 (roughly Rs. 23 lakh),” the CoinDCX team told Gadgets 360, commenting on Bitcoin's market movement. Ether dropped by 0.98 percent to trade at $1,878 (roughly Rs. 1.55 lakh), showed the crypto price tracker by...

 The payment system is expected to be "bunker-like" lightweight and portable, using minimal hardware and software. It will only be activated when needed, such as during a natural disaster or other catastrophic event. The system would process transactions that are critical to the stability of the economy, such as government and market-related transactions. This would help to ensure that the economy is able to function smoothly and that there is no disruption to the flow of money. "Having such a resilient system is also likely to act as a bunker equivalent in payment systems and thereby enhance public confidence in digital payments and financial market infrastructure even during extreme conditions," the RBI Annual Report for 2022-23 read. The payment systems in India, such as UPI, RTGS, and NEFT, are designed to handle large volumes of transactions and ensure continuous availability. However, they rely on complex wired networks and advanced IT infrastructure. The ...

Delhi Metro commuters will now be able to travel on the Airport Line using a WhatsApp- based ticketing service launched on Tuesday. The system allows commuters to receive a QR code-based ticket directly on WhatsApp, officials said. "Further enhancing the travel experience for its commuters in an easy-to-navigate digital mode, Delhi Metro today introduced a WhatsApp-based ticketing service for travel on its Airport Express Line," the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said. The service was launched by DMRC Managing Director Vikas Kumar at the Metro Bhawan here in the presence of other senior officials. With the introduction of this facility, commuters on the Airport Line will now be able to use WhatsApp chatbot-generated QR code-based tickets from their smartphones. This facility will make commuting more efficient and seamless for commuters, especially national and international travellers heading to or coming from the airport, using the Airport Line, as they can now pu...

The US has come to a decision regarding the imposition of excise taxes on Bitcoin miners operating from within the country. The US will not be adding any new tax layer upon the US' Bitcoin mining sector as the proposal extended earlier this month has officially been scrapped. The development was confirmed to the media by a regulator in the US. It is noteworthy, that this decision comes immediately after US President Joe Biden clearly refused to slash the existing taxes on crypto gains. It seems, not levying an excise tax on Bitcoin miners is the US' way to keep earning from crypto taxes while also not pressurising the industry from all sides. Earlier this month, the US' Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) floated a proposal to have Bitcoin miners pay a tax equal to 30 percent of the total energy cost that they consumed in the crypto mining process. The decision to pull the plug on this proposal could be part of a bunch of tax-related rebates introduced by the US administra...

Reserve Bank of India is working on a light weight and portable payment system, a "bunker equivalent in payment systems", that can be used for critical transactions during catastrophic events like natural calamities and war. The proposed Light weight and Portable Payment System (LPSS) will be independent of conventional technologies and can be operated from anywhere by a bare minimum staff, according to the central bank. Existing conventional payment systems like RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement), NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) and UPI (Unified Payments Interface) are designed to handle large volumes while ensuring sustained availability. These systems are dependent on complex wired networks backed by advanced IT infrastructure. However, catastrophic events like natural calamities and war have the potential to render these payment systems temporarily unavailable by disrupting the underlying information and communication infrastructure, RBI said in its latest ann...

Global leaders should be working to reduce "the risk of extinction" from artificial intelligence technology, a group of industry chiefs and experts warned on Tuesday. A one-line statement signed by dozens of specialists, including Sam Altman whose firm OpenAI created the ChatGPT bot, said tackling the risks from AI should be "a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war". ChatGPT burst into the spotlight late last year, demonstrating an ability to generate essays, poems and conversations from the briefest of prompts. The program's wild success sparked a gold rush with billions of dollars of investment into the field, but critics and insiders have raised the alarm. Common worries include the possibility that chatbots could flood the web with disinformation, that biased algorithms will churn out racist material, or that AI-powered automation could lay waste to entire industries. Superintelligent machines The lat...

The unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above in urban areas declined to 6.8 per cent during January-March 2023 from 8.2 per cent a year ago, the National Sample Survey Survey (NSSO) showed. Joblessness or unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons in the labour force. Joblessness was high in January-March 2022, mainly due to the staggering impact of Covid-related restrictions in the country. The unemployment rate in July-September 2022 and October-December 2022 was 7.2 per cent only. It was 7.6 per cent in April-June 2022. The unemployment rate (UR) for persons aged 15 years and above in April-June 2022 was 7.6 per cent in urban areas, the 18th Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) showed. In January-March 2022, the unemployment rate was 8.2 per cent. It also showed that the unemployment rate among females (aged 15 years and above) in urban areas declined to 9.2 per cent in January-March 2023 from 10.1 per cent in the same quarter a year ago. ...

Scientists have developed a simple, low-cost clip that uses a smartphone's camera and flash to monitor blood pressure at the user's fingertip. The clip developed by researchers at the University of California (UC) San Diego, US, works with a custom smartphone app and currently costs about 80 cents (Rs. 5.6) to make. The researchers estimate that the cost could be as low as 10 cents (Rs. 0.7) apiece when manufactured at scale. The technology, described in the journal Scientific Reports, could help make regular blood pressure monitoring easy, affordable and accessible to people in resource-poor communities, they said. It could benefit older adults and pregnant women, for example, in managing conditions such as hypertension, according to the researchers. "We have created an inexpensive solution to lower the barrier to blood pressure monitoring,” said study first author Yinan Xuan, a Ph.D. student at UC San Diego. "Because of their low cost, these clips could be han...

The rupee depreciated by 4 paise to 82.67 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday, tracking a strong American currency against major rivals overseas. Forex traders said downward movement in crude price and inflows of foreign funds, however, capped the fall in the Indian currency. Meanwhile, the dollar strengthened as investors were upbeat on the tentative agreement between US President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the debt ceiling, which is likely to face voting on Wednesday before getting sealed. Traders were also keeping an eye on the US non-farm payroll (NFP) data to be released on Friday. "Rupee traded in a narrow range and volatility remained low as most market participants remained on the sidelines following US market holiday. On the other hand, the dollar was weighed down after preliminary talks between the Republicans and Democrats sailed through. "Today, focus will be on the consumer confidence number from the US and that is l...

The Last of Us multiplayer game has reportedly hit a snag, with developer Naughty Dog scaling back the team working on the project. As per Bloomberg, publisher Sony has slowed down work on the long-gestating multiplayer experience, as a means to ‘reassess its quality and long-term viability.' The news comes briefly after the studio put out a tweet claiming that the game needs more time to cook, in addition to announcing an undisclosed brand-new single-player title. Fans were expecting updates about The Last of Us multiplayer game during the PlayStation Showcase event, held last week, but Naughty Dog was a no-show. In a blog post from January , Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann claimed that the studio was preparing to reveal more information on The Last of Us multiplayer game, sometime ‘later this year' — meaning, it probably wasn't eyeing a launch in 2023. The Bloomberg report notes that while the title has not been cancelled, several of its developers have been...

Global forecasting firm Oxford Economics on Monday said the RBI may cut key benchmark policy rate in the fourth quarter of the current calendar year as a mix of factors will allow the central bank to shift focus and adopt a more accommodative policy stance sooner. It further said inflation has already begun easing, and consumer inflation expectations are falling, so attention has shifted from estimating the peak level of the current hiking cycle to the timing of rate cuts. "We are updating our baseline view for India to include a first rate cut by the RBI in Q4 2023. We think a mix of factors will allow the RBI to shift focus and adopt a more accommodative policy stance sooner," Oxford Economics said. It noted that despite easing price pressures recently, risks to inflation over the remainder of the year are to the upside. "The MPC will want to see clear signs that inflation is stabilising in the middle of its target range before considering a dovish move - in our vi...

BGMI was relaunched in India on Monday, and the popular battle royale game can now be played on iOS and Android smartphones, nearly a year after it was banned in the country. Developer Krafton says it has imposed restrictions on playing Battlegrounds Mobile India , with daily time limits. The latest update to the game — the first to arrive since June last year — brings a new map based on a small resort island located in a tropical zone, along with new in-game events, and updates to classic maps in the game. On Monday, Krafton announced the relaunch of BGMI in India, two days after it allowed Android users to preload the game in advance. Both iOS and Android users can now download BGMI via the App Store and Play Store respectively, but Krafton says that playability will be staggered and users will be able to login in phases within 48 hours.  According to Krafton, BGMI will restrict playtime for users in India based on their age. Minors playing the game will be limited t...

Tecno Camon 20, Camon 20 Pro 5G, and Camon 20 Premier 5G were launched by the company on Saturday. The new series of smartphones is equipped with chipsets from MediaTek and sport AMOLED displays. The Tecno Camon 20 and Tecno Camon 20 Pro feature similar specifications including a 64-megapixel primary camera, while the Tecno Camon 20 Premier 5G packs a 50-megapixel camera. All three handsets are equipped with 5,000mAh batteries. The company is yet to announce pricing and availability details of the more expensive Camon 20 Premier 5G. Tecno Camon 20, Camon 20 Pro 5G, and Camon 20 Premier 5G price in India and availability Tecno Camon 20 price in India is set at Rs. 14,999 and the handset goes on sale today in a single 8GB + 256GB RAM and storage option in Glacier Glow, Predawn Black, and Serenity Blue colour options. The Tecno Camon 20 Pro 5G , on the other hand, is priced at Rs. 19,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model, while the 8GB + 256GB variant is priced at Rs. 21,999. Bot...

China will send its first civilian astronaut into space as part of a crewed mission to the Tiangong space station on Tuesday, its Manned Space Agency announced, as Beijing pushes ahead with its extra-terrestrial ambitions. The world's second-largest economy has invested billions of dollars into its military-run space programme, trying to catch up with the United States and Russia after years of belatedly matching their milestones. Until now, all Chinese astronauts sent into space have been part of the People's Liberation Army. "Payload expert Gui Haichao is a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics," China Manned Space Agency Spokesperson Lin Xiqiang told reporters Monday. Gui will be "mainly responsible for the on-orbit operation of space science experimental payloads", Lin said. The commander is Jing Haipeng -- on his fourth mission into space, according to state media -- and the third crew member is engineer Zhu Yangzhu. The...

Equity benchmark indices jumped in early trade on Monday, with the Sensex reclaiming the crucial 63,000-mark, amid positive trends in the US markets and continuous foreign fund inflows. Rallying for the third day running, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 507.22 points to 63,008.91 in early trade. The NSE Nifty climbed 141.85 points to 18,641.20. From the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel, Titan, UltraTech Cement and Bajaj Finance were the major gainers. Power Grid and HCL Technologies were the laggards. In Asian markets, Tokyo and Shanghai were trading in the green, while Hong Kong quoted lower. The US market ended with significant gains on Friday. With days to spare before a potential first-ever government default, US President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached final agreement Sunday on a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling and worked to ensure enough Republican and Democ...

Twitter has decided to leave the EU's disinformation code, a voluntary pact that groups together the major social platforms, but "its obligations remain," EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted Saturday. Launched in 2018, the EU's code of practice on disinformation counts nearly three dozen signatories including the giants in the sector such as Meta , Google , Twitter, Microsoft and TikTok . Twitter leaves EU voluntary Code of Practice against disinformation. But obligations remain. You can run but you can't hide. Beyond voluntary commitments, fighting disinformation will be legal obligation under #DSA as of August 25. Our teams will be ready for enforcement. — Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) May 26, 2023 It also covers smaller platforms, as well as advertisers and fact-checkers and non-governmental organisations. The code was written by the industry players themselves and contains over three dozen pledges such as better cooperation with ...

Redmi K50 Ultra with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC was launched in China in August last year. The smartphone is yet to make its debut in other global markets including India, but rumours of a possible successor — Redmi K60 Ultra—have already started doing rounds on the Web. Most recently, the schematics of the Redmi K60 Ultra have leaked online, suggesting its design and specifications. The images hint at thin bezels, a rectangular-shaped camera module at the rear, and a hole punch cutout on the display. The Redmi K60 Ultra is expected to pack triple rear cameras. It could be powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 9200 SoC. Tipster Digital Chat Station (translated from Chinese) posted schematics of the Redmi K60 Ultra on Weibo. It is shown to sport a centre-aligned hole punch cutout to house the selfie camera and feature thin bezels with a flat design. A rectangular-shaped camera module housing three sensors and an LED flash unit are shown to be located on the rear panel. The primar...

An Android malware called 'Daam' that infects mobile phones and hacks into sensitive data like call records, contacts, history and camera has been found to be spreading, the national cyber security agency has said in its latest advisory. The virus is also capable of "bypassing anti-virus programs and deploying ransomware on the targeted devices", the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team or CERT-In said. The agency is the federal technology arm to combat cyber attacks and guard the cyber space against phishing and hacking assaults and similar online attacks. The Android botnet gets distributed through third-party websites or applications downloaded from untrusted/unknown sources, the agency said. "Once it is placed in the device, the malware tries to bypass the security check of the device and after a successful attempt, it attempts to steal sensitive data, and permissions such as reading history and bookmarks, killing background processing, and reading c...

Google has withdrawn a gaming app that allowed players to buy, sell and torture Black virtual "slaves" after a racism outcry in Brazil. Dubbed "Slavery Simulator," the Portuguese-language game saw players trade in slaves and strategise to prevent the abolition of slavery in order to amass virtual riches. The prosecutor's office said it had opened an investigation for "hate speech" related to the game downloaded by hundreds of people. The app itself had come with a disclaimer condemning "all types of slavery" and insisting the game was "solely for entertainment purposes." After withdrawing the app from its Play Store , Google said in a statement that "applications that promote violence or hated against groups of people or individuals because of their skin colour or ethnic origin" would not be allowed on its platform. The company invited users to report offensive content. Brazil's ministry of racial equality said ...

The government will ensure that consumers always have their platforms accountable to them in the digital space, and the rights of Indian consumers to have safe Internet will not be allowed to be compromised or diluted, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday. The Minister of State for Electronics and IT — who is spearheading an extensive and in-depth nationwide consultation on the new Digital India Bill that will replace two decades old the Information Technology Act — noted that for years, the big tech platforms masqueraded as innovation and misused market dominance necessitating overhaul of regulatory and legal frameworks. "...it is a commitment that we have to the people of India...1.2 billion Indians who are going to use the Indian Internet, that we will keep the Internet open for them. We will deliver safety and trust on the Internet for them. And we will make sure that regardless of whether you're a big tech or small tech, Indian or foreign that consumers w...