Author: IANS

We’re building next-gen AI to become a global powerhouse: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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As the world goes gaga over AI chatbots, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar has a clear vision: To make India a global powerhouse of AI which does not just stop on integrating foreign chatbots but building next-generation of AI-based innovations to empower billions of citizens. 

Chandrasekhar told IANS that artificial intelligence (AI) is a “kinetic enabler” of the digital economy and the government will infuse more of this disruptive technology into its ‘India Stack’.

“AI will certainly transform the digital economy and grow the business economy in the country. We are launching a very comprehensive programme called the INDIAai Programme and you will see more AI use cases via the India stack — Aadhaar, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), DigiLocker, CoWIN and more,” Chandrasekhar emphasised.

“AI, as I have said, is a ‘kinetic enabler’ of the digital economy and we want to be the global leader in AI,” the Minister told IANS.

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This week, Chandrasekhar met Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and had a “good, interesting conversation about India Stack and Artificial Intelligence (AI)”.

The government, in the Union Budget for FY24, announced to open three centres of excellence for artificial intelligence (AI) at the top educational institutions, for realising the vision of “Make AI in India” and “Make AI Work for India”.

According to Chandrasekhar, the government is expanding the INDIAai initiative in partnership with homegrown tech companies, startups and academic institutions under a comprehensive AI programme.

The Bhashini team at the IT Ministry aims to build a National Public Digital Platform for languages to develop services and products for citizens by leveraging the power of AI and other emerging technologies.

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It is creating a unifying architecture, underpinned by principles of open data and open source software, to enable contributions from the research initiatives and the ecosystem. 

Bhashini, the natural language AI platform, “will enable automated language translation”, according to Chandrasekhar who had a three decades’ long career in the technology domain before making his foray into politics.

According to him, India Stack will become more nuanced, intelligent and sophisticated in its next avatar, as more and more enterprises and countries across the world innovate and integrate, execute, and implement digital transformation.

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“Our mission as a nation is to offer India Stack or the part of the stack to those enterprises and countries across the world who want to innovate and further integrate, execute, and implement digital transformation,” said the Minister.

India currently ranks first in terms of AI skill penetration and AI talent concentration and fifth in AI scientific publications, a Nasscom report said last month.

India’s ‘AI Skills Penetration Factor’ has been reported to be 3.09 — the highest among all G20 and OECD countries.

More than 1,900 AI-focused startups are providing innovative solutions in the country, primarily in the areas of conversational AI, NLP, video analytics, disease detection, fraud prevention and deep fakes detection.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Reliance Jio to bring 5G to every Indian by December 2023: Akash Ambani

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Reliance Jio has launched True 5G service in 277 cities across the country and is on the path to achieving the declared goal to increase the Jio 5G footprint to cover every town, taluka and tehsil across the country by December this year, Akash Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, said on Tuesday. 

Addressing a post-budget webinar coordinated by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), he added that this will be the world’s fastest 5G rollout.

Jio has deployed “more than 40,000 sites and nearly 2,50,000 cells of 5G network in 700 Mhz as well as in the 3500Mhz band. We are on the path to achieving the declared goal to increase the Jio 5G footprint month after month to other cities, towns and talukas of various states/UTs,” Ambani said.

Jio is leading the 5G network rollout in the country with the world’s largest stand-alone network architecture that is uniquely suited to cater to the requirements of True 5G technology.

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“The impact that 5G will have on India’s growing economy is immense. There is no other technology that has given us various growth sectors like 5G as a rapidly growing and emerging economy. India’s uniquely positioned to take lead in the use of 5G technology for the betterment of society and livelihood of over 140 crore Indians,” Ambani added.

5G will make our cities smarter or society safer, utilities more stable and emergency services more responsive and industry more efficient, he said.

“Many novel-use cases are finding their way to the market across sectors such as healthcare, education, agriculture, smart cities and infrastructure, including entertainment and productivity,” he stressed.

The healthcare sector is poised to be among the most significant beneficiaries of 5G technology.

With 5G-enabled remote consultations, “patients can easily consult with doctors without physically visiting. This can save time, reduce the risk of exposure to infections, and dramatically lower healthcare costs,” Ambani added.

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With 5G-enabled medical devices, doctors can get real-time information about a patient’s vital signs, allowing them to make faster and more accurate diagnoses.

5G ambulances would be able to transmit data and video to hospitals in real-time.

“Because of 5G’s high bandwidth nature, video can be streamed live from ambulances. A GPS device would also be able to track ambulances, and other connected sensors would allow medical experts to recognise vital signs early, remotely access real-time medical reports, and respond more quickly right from the ambulance itself,” he added during the address.

In agriculture, 5G can enable precision farming by providing farmers with real-time data on weather patterns, soil moisture levels and crop growth.

This data can help farmers make informed decisions about when to plant, water and harvest crops, leading to more efficient use of resources and higher yields, he said.

“5G technology can also be used to monitor livestock in real-time, helping farmers detect health problems and prevent the spread of diseases,” Ambani added.

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Autonomous farming, where drones or robots perform tasks such as planting, spraying and harvesting crops can also be enabled by 5G technology. This can increase efficiency and dramatically reduce labour costs.

Ambani said that with 5G, students can access educational materials and resources from anywhere at any time.

“5G networks can enable students and teachers to collaborate in real-time and in a variety of ways, such as through virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) experiences. This could allow for more interactive and immersive learning experiences that are more engaging and memorable,” he emphasised.

5G technology can enable ultra-low latency services and manage disaster response scenarios too.

“5G technology has the potential to improve work productivity by enabling faster data transfer, reduced latency, improved video conferencing and increased flexibility,” Ambani added.

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Elon Musk’s Twitter removes captions from “Spaces” on iOS

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Elon Musk-run Twitter has removed captions from the company’s social audio rooms, “Spaces” on iOS, the media reported. 

The company still advertises that users can enable captions in a Space by clicking the three-dot menu, but that option is currently unavailable on iOS, reports The Verge.

Moreover, captions do not appear when listening to a Spaces on the web, and while the “CC” closed captions button is present, clicking it on or off has no effect.

On Android, the option to enable captions is present, but it does not work, according to the report.

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The loss of captions in Spaces is said to be a significant blow to the platform’s accessibility, as captions can be useful for those who are hard of hearing or who want to follow a conversation but are unable to listen to the audio.

However, the reason behind the removal of captions from spaces is not yet clear.

Earlier this week, Elon Musk said that the micro-blogging platform will make its algorithm “open source” next week, and improve it “rapidly”.

When Musk tweeted, “say what you want about me, but I acquired the world’s largest non-profit for $44B lol”, one user commented: “Right. Now open source it, then we’ll be truly impressed.”

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

95% WhatsApp users in India bombarded with pesky messages every day

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A massive 95 percent of WhatsApp users surveyed in India indicate that they get one or more pesky messages each day and 41 percent of those even get four or more such messages on a daily basis, a report showed on Thursday.

About 76 percent said they see such unsolicited messages on WhatsApp based on their conversations with WhatsApp business accounts and Facebook and Instagram activities.

WhatsApp users in India indicate most pesky messages come from someone selling financial services, real estate, offering jobs and earning opportunities, healthcare and pathology services, according to the report by the online community platform LocalCircles.

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In 2021, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) launched a probe into whether WhatsApp was in a position to compromise quality in terms of the protection of individualised data.

WhatsApp users in India have been raising issues about unsolicited commercial communication on the platform for years.

The latest data shows that only five percent of those surveyed are spared this harassment, but 54 percent get up to three spam or promotional messages every day.

Experts assume that many WhatsApp users in India do not avail the options of blocking, muting or archiving users and chats or lack awareness.

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“In some cases, spammers create groups of users and send pesky messages to them as it enables them to send such messages to a larger number of WhatsApp users at one go,” said the report.

With the new WhatsApp privacy policy, the users expected to see relevant advertising based on business chats on Facebook/Instagram but not exactly on WhatsApp and that too in the form of pesky messages.

“This is something that WhatsApp must investigate and if this is a result of organised advertising or partnership with brands, the users must be informed,” said the report.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

MakeMyTrip experimenting with ChatGPT to boost customer experiences

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Global travel service provider MakeMyTrip is experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT to see if its integration can make customer experiences and their vacation planning better on the platform, the company has said. 

Sanjay Mohan, Group CTO at MakeMyTrip (MMT), told IANS that the ChatGPT integration is at a very early stage and the company will decide to use it only if satisfied with the results.

“Our teams are currently testing ChatGPT for helping customers solve their travel queries and suggest add-on services as they plan holidays. We are working on seeing if the new tool can aid our existing AI-powered chatbots,” Mohan said.

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With the use of its in-house AI-powered chatbots, customers on MMT already get suggestions and alerts of rail/flight bookings, baggage details, and car/bus/hotel bookings.

According to Mohan, ChatGPT can revolutionise the hospitality sector that has finally come out from the shadow of the three-year-long pandemic.

“Our goal is to make the MMT platform more seamless while keeping it simple and user-friendly with smooth navigation. ChatGPT can surely help,” he added.

“We want to make MakeMyTrip a one-stop-shop for all the services that a traveller may need,” Mohan told IANS.

The online travel aggregator recently reported a growth of 64.4 per cent on gross bookings (year-on-year) that reached $1.75 billion — its highest-ever — for the company’s fiscal third quarter that ended on December 31.

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The company earned an adjusted operating profit of $19.7 million in Q3 FY23, as compared to $13.2 million in Q3 FY22, over the revenue of $170.5 million (versus $115 million in 3Q22).

Profit for the period was $0.2 million as compared to a loss of $9 million during the same quarter last year.

Demand for leisure travel and tourism improved on the back of peak seasonality, according to the company.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

IIT Kanpur to launch haptic smartwatch for blind, visually impaired

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur on Friday announced to launch “haptic smartwatch for the blind and visually impaired” in association with Ambrane India Private Limited for mass manufacturing and sales of the smartwatch. 

The haptic smartwatch comes in two variants and has 12 touch-sensitive hour markers arranged over the dial face, and the users will be required to scan the markers with their fingers.

“We believe that this watch will make a great social impact by enabling the visually impaired and blind to make seamless use of this technology for everyday usage,” Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Director IIT Kanpur, said in a statement.

“The watch will soon be commercialised by Ambrane India and will be available in the market at an affordable price. This development is a testament to IIT Kanpur’s commitment to promote inclusivity through novel technology development,” he added.

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Moreover, this watch is a fusion of tactile and vibration watches.

This watch eliminates the fragility of the tactile watch and the complexity of vibration watches that generate more than 20 pulses, creating a watch that is easy to operate, private, affordable, and robust.

Further, the use of innovative haptic icons makes navigating the menu simple, and a simple gesture like a double tap can open a specific health monitoring app.

These numbers are communicated in a similar way as the time.

The smartwatch comes equipped with features such as a heart rate monitor, step counter, hydration reminder and a timer that users can set using a simple gesture.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Anoushka Shankar to perform at 65th Grammy Awards premiere ceremony

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Kicking off the proceedings for the 65th annual Grammy Awards, the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony will return to the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on 5th February 2023. In an exciting development, the ceremony will be marked by a stirring performance by current Grammy nominee Anoushka Shankar, making it her third Grammy performance.

The masterful sitar player, producer, film composer, activist, and nine-time Grammy Award Nominee will perform alongside vocalist Arooj Aftab on their Grammy -nominated track Udhero Na from Arooj’s new album, Vulture Prince.

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While Udhero Na is up for Best Global Music Performance, Anoushka’s latest album, Between Us (Live) with Metropole Orkest & Jules Buckley featuring Manu Delago has also been nominated for Best Global Music Album this year. This earns Anoushka the massive coup of being the first Indian female musician to receive two Grammy nominations in one year.

Anoushka Shankar said, “I’m genuinely over the moon to be performing at the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony for the third time. This time I’m excited to share the stage with the wonderful Arooj Aftab, playing her beautiful song Udhero Na. I’m grateful my music on this song and on my album Between Us has been recognized with a nomination again and am proud to represent India and my instrument, the sitar, on this world stage.”

She is the daughter of the late Ravi Shankar, a legendary sitar virtuoso and composer. Anoushka began her musical training with her father at a young age and has since established herself as a talented performer and composer in her own right. She has collaborated with a variety of musicians from different genres, including classical, jazz, and world music, and has released several critically acclaimed albums.

This announcement coincides with Anoushka’s fresh inaugural empanelment as a Visiting Professor in Music at Oxford University. This new role by the Oxford Faculty of Music, in conjunction with the Said Business School and Jesus College is designed to recognize the achievements and contributions of diverse figures across the music industry, and to forge connections and expand the dialogue between students and academics in the University and the wider industry.

In 2016, in a similar vein, Anoushka made an impactful presence within the UK education system, when she became one of the first five female composers to be added to the UK A-level music syllabus, a move that heralded a more diverse, inclusive, and representative syllabus and guaranteed better female representation in the Western classical tradition.

Anoushka Shankar further adds, “What a true honor to be invited as the Inaugural Visiting Professor in Music Business at Oxford University! I’m deeply grateful to embark upon this new journey.”

The award ceremony will stream live on Sun, Feb. 5, 2023, at 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT on the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel and on live.grammy.com.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Twitter to stop offering free access to its API from February 9

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Twitter on Thursday said that it will stop offering free access to its API (Application Programming Interface) starting February 9 and instead launch a paid version. 

The Twitter Developer account announced in a series of tweets that the company will be discontinuing support for both the legacy v1.1 and the new v2 of its Twitter APIs.

“Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API, both v2 and v1.1. A paid basic tier will be available instead,” Twitter Developer account tweeted.

“Over the years, hundreds of millions of people have sent over a trillion Tweets, with billions more every week,” it added.

Moreover, the microblogging platform concluded by saying, “Twitter data are among the world’s most powerful data sets. We’re committed to enabling fast & comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us. We’ll be back with more details on what you can expect next week.”

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Reacting to the information shared by Twitter, a user commented, “charging developers for creating features for your own product? lol you should be paying them.”

Another user said, “Your API didn’t update for like three months since the takeover, you suspended legit 3rd party app and NOW we won’t be able to use it for free?? Even Facebook and YouTube API are free and they are updated.”

Meanwhile, Twitter under Elon Musk is now working on a payments system that will support accepted currencies with crypto functionality embedded into it.

According to a report in The Financial Times, the payments feature will support fiat currencies to start with.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Netflix introduces Spatial Audio and more features to Premium plan members

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Netflix has announced new features that will be available at no additional cost to members, who are already on the Premium plan, choose to upgrade, or are signing up for the first time.

The company introduced two features — Spatial Audio and more download devices.

With Spatial Audio, Netflix members with Premium will be able to enjoy the highest quality sound experience available, whether they are watching at home on TV or a computer, or on the go with a phone or tablet.

The streaming giant said that, “spatial audio brings an immersive, cinematic sound experience on any device with no additional equipment required — and now it’s available on more than 700 of our top watched titles, including ‘Stranger Things’, ‘The Watcher’, ‘Wednesday’, and ‘Knives Out: Glass Onion'”.

Moreover, the company mentioned that Netflix members like the option to download series and films to watch offline on more devices, particularly as they travel and switch between devices.

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To make this possible, Netflix introduced the “more download devices” option, which will increase the number of download devices from four to six for premium members, so members can watch Netflix on their devices anytime, anywhere.

Meanwhile, the streaming giant shared its rules and exemptions to explain how it plans to maintain account sharing within a household.

The company has updated its FAQ pages for countries where it is already testing extra membership fees for account sharing — Chile, Costa Rica and Peru.

By charging extra fees for extended usage of the streaming service outside the household, the company hopes to reduce account sharing this year.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

‘It feels like slap in the face’: Sacked Google worker whose mother died of cancer

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Among the 12,000 employees that Google has laid off, a software engineer has said he was fired by his employer just days after returning to work from a bereavement leave following the death of his mother.

Tommy York, who is based in San Francisco in the US, wrote in a LinkedIn post that his mother died in December 2022 after battling stage-four cancer.

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“I was laid off from Google last week. I found out on my fourth day back from bereavement leave for my mom, who died from cancer in December,” York wrote.

“It’s unclear how the lay-offs were determined, and perhaps the year I had may have nudged me more towards being laid off. I started at Google in December, 2021, and my Mom was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer the following February, around when the formal orientation ended and I was put on projects,” he added.

He further said that his termination felt like a “slap in the face, like being hit when you’re down”.

Moreover, he remembered the time that he spent with his mother, saying: “I’m grateful that I spent the time and energy I did with my mom, and not overworking for a company who might decide on one cold Friday morning that my badge doesn’t work anymore”.

The professional concluded by thanking the company for the “generous” severance package he received and said he would take a two-month break to re-centre.

“I’ll be taking February and March off, but am open to starting to search for new work around the end of March. If you hear of any opportunities, you think might be particularly suited to me, get in touch,” he wrote.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow