TECHNOBLOG

Special Deposit Scheme for Non-Government Provident, Superannuation, Gratuity Funds: The Union Ministry of Finance has notified the interest rate for Special Deposit Scheme for Non-Government Provident, Superannuation and Gratuity Funds for the July-September quarter. For Non-Government Provident, Superannuation, Gratuity Funds:  The Union Ministry of Finance has notified the interest rate for Special Deposit Scheme for Non-Government Provident, Superannuation and Gratuity Funds for the July-September quarter. The interest rate on deposits for this quarter will be 7.1 per cent, the Finance Ministry said. The new rate will be effective from July 1, 2020. “It is hereby notified that the deposits made under the Special Deposit Scheme for Non-Government Provident, Superannuation and Gratuity Funds, announced in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs) Notification No.F.16(1)-PD/75 dated 30th June, 1975, shall with effect from 1st July, 2020 to 30th September, 2020 bear ...

The average age of new retail investors in stock markets has dropped to 30 New retail investors are sticking to quality large caps and ignoring penny stocks, according to Zerodha NEW DELHI  : To take advantage of the stock market crash in March followed by a gradual recovery later on, thousands of retail investors have embraced equities for the first time during the Covid-19 pandemic in India. While some investors turned to equities due to falling interest rates, others found ample free time to explore new investment territories from the comfort of their home during lockdown. Most discount brokerages have reported a sharp surge in new the opening of new  demat accounts . At Zerodha, India's largest online discount broker, the number of demat accounts opened during January to May surpassed the overall client growth figures of last year. Nikhil Kamath, co-founder and chief investment officer of Zerodha, said the average age of these new retail investors has dropped to 30 and the...

Washington: More than a dozen top American technology companies, including Google, Facebook and Microsoft, on Monday joined a lawsuit filed by the Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) latest rule that bars international students from staying in the United States unless they attend at least one in-person course. Seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction, these companies, along with the US Chamber of Commerce and other IT advocacy groups, asserted that the July 6 ICE directive will disrupt their recruiting plans, making it impossible to bring on board international students that businesses, including amici, had planned to hire, and disturb the recruiting process on which the firms have relied on to identify and train their future employees. The July 6 directive will make it impossible for a large number of international students to participate in the CPT and OPT programmes. Th...

Through these hard times and bad news, there are bright spots related to tech trends and how they will shape the future and the future of work specifically. Technology and new innovations are accelerating—and these will have positive influences on all things work, workers and workplace. The popular saying, “May you live in interesting times,” isn’t actually the curse it is purported to be. But we definitely can’t argue with the fact that tranquil times don’t necessarily force advances, stretches or  big shifts . This is a time for those. For this article, I interviewed tech gurus Steve Koenig, VP of Research for the Consumer Technology Association (the association responsible for the annual CES show in Las Vegas) and Scott Likens, Emerging Technology Leader with PwC. Koenig says the pandemic—and the conditions it has created—"have triggered a massive wave of innovation and new business models.” He says innovation has been “turbo-charged.” Likens points out there has been an accele...

For today’s warfighters, it’s imperative to have access to the latest technology at the blink of an eye to ensure mission success and warfighter safety. To meet the challenge of equipping today’s warfighters with mission-critical information, milCloud ®  2.0 is stepping up to provide the technology that is vital to that effort. On Wednesday July 22, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), Intel, Oracle, and MeriTalk will be hosting a webinar, “ milCloud® 2.0: Leveraging the Latest Tech for the Mission ” to educate mission partners about the latest milCloud ®  2.0 capabilities and technologies, as well as how the platform helps support rapid innovation in mission-critical areas including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), cyber sensing, and other emerging technology solutions. The July 22 webinar – the second in a series of four – will help organizations maximize milCloud ®  2.0 capabilities, and will dive into: The underlying technologies availab...

rench video games group Ubisoft announced several staff departures on Saturday after conducting a review in response to allegations of misconduct at the company, which earlier reports said centered around sexual misconduct charges. The changes were initiated to improve "workplace culture", the company said. The group's chief creative officer, managing director of its Canadian studios and global head of human resources have resigned from their positions, effective immediately, the company said. "Departures come following the initiation of a rigorous review that the Company initiated in response to recent allegations and accusations of misconduct and inappropriate behaviour," the company said in a statement. Ubisoft  said last month it was  investigating allegations of misconduct  at the company with the support of specialised external consultants. According to media reports, Ubisoft earlier this week confirmed the departure of its vice president, Maxime Béland, f...

Twitter on Friday said it suspended more than 50 white nationalist accounts for violating policies against violent extremism. "The accounts in question were suspended for violating our policies in relation to violent extremism," a  Twitter  spokesman told AFP, confirming a report by NBC News. The move came days after release of a report by nonprofit Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) saying that propaganda pushed by white supremacist network Generation Identity is "rampant" on Twitter and  YouTube . "At this point, it is well accepted that white supremacy is as significant a threat for generating mass casualty terrorist acts internationally as other forms of extremism," the report concluded. "Yet, there is a double standard when it comes to how online platforms treat content produced by white supremacists compared to content by Islamic extremist groups like ISIS or Al-Qaeda." Research by the GPAHE found 67 Twitter accounts for Gene...

PCs, somewhat left behind in the mobile internet age, are making a comeback as people stuck at home due to the coronavirus rely on them for work, education and entertainment, industry watchers say. Gartner and International Data Corporation (IDC) reports released Thursday show shipments of desktop computers, laptops and workstations grew in the second quarter as pandemic-related disruptions to the supply chain were overcome. "The strong demand driven by work-from-home as well as e-learning needs has surpassed previous expectations and has once again put the PC at the centre of consumers' tech portfolio," said IDC Mobile Device Trackers research manager Jitesh Ubrani. "What remains to be seen is if this demand and high level of usage continues during a recession and into the post-COVID world since budgets are shrinking while schools and workplaces reopen." IDC  determined  that PC shipments worldwide jumped 11.2 percent to 72.3 million units on the same quarter a...

Delivery startup Dunzo suffers data breach, numbers, emails leaked No payment information, like credit or debit cards etc. has been compromised, says CTO Mukund Jha The company also sent emails to its users informing them about the data breach, stating that it has secured its databases, rotated access tokens and changed all passwords. Delivery startup Dunzo has suffered a data breach that leaked phone numbers and email addresses of its users, the company’s chief technology officer (CTO) Mukund Jha announced earlier today. Jha’s post says that the servers “of a third party" Dunzo works with were compromised, and it allowed the attackers to get “unauthorized access" and breach the company’s database. No payment information, like credit or debit cards etc. has been compromised, according to Jha. The company also sent emails to its users informing them about the data breach, stating that it has secured its databases, rotated access tokens and changed all passwords. The email does...

We knew a 5G variant of Samsung’s vertically folding Galaxy Z Flip clamshell was on the way, after  the first images leaked  earlier this month. Now, we have  an entire leaked video  and a set of rumors about the new “Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G” that seems to leave nothing to the imagination — and suggest it might be ready for Samsung’s upcoming August 5th  Galaxy Unpacked event . Basically, it looks like it’ll be practically the same folding phone but with a faster processor and 5G. Based on phone leaker Evan Blass’ video — which shows the phone from practically every angle — it looks practically identical to the original LTE version that  went on sale  on February 14th. The only differences other than 5G support and a new “mystic bronze” color, according to  XDA-Developers’  Max Weinbach, is that it’ll be oh-so-slightly taller and thicker, and be powered by  Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 865 Plus  chip — a small spec bump over the Snapd...