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The Indian Express Dec 08, 2017 A day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) “rationalised” the merchant discount rates (MDR) for debit card transactions, retailers have come out against the new charges, saying they are “unrealistic” and increase the cost to the merchants. “While the RBI has mentioned in its circular that the rates have been ‘rationalised’ to increase the acceptance of debit cards by a wider set of merchants, the increase in the rates and the high cap set defeats the purpose as this increases cost to merchants by almost double,” Retailers Association of India (RAI) has said. “In a retail business, especially a supermarket or hypermarket where the margins are just 2-3 per cent, such an increase in MDR will have a huge impact on costs, making it imperative for retailers to pass it on to the consumer. In the modern day digital economy, there is no validation for the charges that are being levied for debit card transactions to this extent, especially when we

The Economic Times Dec 07, 2017 Drug firms LupinBSE 0.37 % and Cadila HealthcareBSE 0.43 % are recalling nearly 1.11 lakh units of Duloxetine delayed-release capsules and 19,812 bottles of Paroxetine tablets, respectively, from the US market, the US health regulator has said. Lupin Pharmaceuticals is recalling 1,11,648 units of Duloxetine delayed-release capsules USP, in the strength of 30 mg, on account of failed dissolution specification, the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) said in its latest Enforcement Report. The drug was manufactured by Lupin Goa, the report added. The ongoing voluntary nationwide recall is a class III recall, it said. Zydus Pharmaceuticals USA Inc, arm of Cadila Healthcare, is also recalling 19,812 bottles of Paroxetine tablets in the strength of 30 mg from the US market. The reason for the ongoing voluntary nationwide recall is "presence of foreign tablets/capsules: Risperidone tablets were found in bottle of Pa

The Economic Times  Dec 07, 2017 Cyber-criminals will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to explore victims' networks in 2018, global cyber security leader Symantec said on Thursday.  Furthermore, the Internet of Things (IoT) devices will be hijacked and used in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, warned Tarun Kaura, Director, Product Management, APJ, Symantec.  "2018 is the first year where we will see AI versus AI in a cybersecurity context. Cyber criminals will use AI to attack and explore victims' networks, which is typically the most labour-intensive part of compromise after an incursion," Kaura said in a statement.  In 2017, we saw massive DDoS attacks using hundreds of thousands of compromised IoT devices in people's homes and workplaces to generate traffic.  "This is not expected to change with cyber-criminals looking to exploit the poor security settings and management of home IoT devices,&quo

The Economic Times Dec 07, 2017 Political developments within Pakistan and the deepening China-Pakistan nexus are blighting the prospects of stability that our region sorely needs. China’s own highly authoritarian political system that its leadership believes is superior to western democracy, its suppression of dissent and repression of minorities countenance the worst political trends visible in Pakistan’s polity. If the US’ preferential policies towards the military over decades resulted in the stunting of the democratic  institutions in Pakistan, China’s relationship with Pakistan, anchored deeply in the country’s military establishment, is having the same consequence today. The all-weather China-Pakistan relationship can never be good for Pakistan’s democracy because China has no stakes in it, ideological or otherwise.  China is planning to invest billions of dollars in Pakistan, and as we have seen in the case of Zimbabwe where, to protect its heavy investment, it inte

The Times of India Dec 07, 2017  Pakistan Air Force (PAF) chief Sohail Aman said here on Thursday that he has ordered his force to shoot down any drones, including those of the US, if they violate the country's airspace. The announcement was made public about two weeks after a US drone strike targeted a militant compound in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border, killing three militants. Pakistan had always condemned drone strikes on its soil but had never said they would shoot down the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). "We will not allow anyone to violate our airspace. I have ordered PAF to shoot down drones, including those of the US, if they enter our airspace, violating the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman told an audience in Islamabad. If he meant that US missile strikes on militant positions were a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty, then these violations have been occurring sinc