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J Srinivasan  | Updated on July 16, 2020  Published on July 16, 2020 The Quad must first help Asian nations reduce their dependence on China. Also, roping in Asean will strengthen the body The Asia-Pacific, or rather the Indo-Pacific, is worried with the Middle Kingdom that, under ‘Ruler’ Xi Jinping, is increasingly turning expansionist. So much so that when the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, tried to resurrect his 2007 idea of a Quad or a “democratic Asian security diamond”, it found resonance. Reference https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/can-the-quad-rise-to-be-an-asian-nato/article32103609.ece

Updated: Jul 17, 2020, Asian News International India and US are likely to partner on 5G network, US India Business Council (USIBC) President Nisha Biswal said on Thursday, adding that technology sector is a “very important area” of collaboration between our two countries. In an interview to ANI, Biswal said expects that digital commerce and all areas of the technology collaboration are going to continue to grow. “I do think that the technology sector is a very important area of collaboration between our two countries. We have a very trusted relationship, and we have a very large digitally savvy population in both countries,” she said. “So I do expect that digital commerce and all areas of of the technology collaboration are going to continue to grow. I also think that the US and India will partner on 5G and creating kind of the digital infrastructure of the future. And this will continue to be an area of growing importance,” she added. Biswal said that US and Ind...

Rajeev Jayaswal Hindustan Times, New Delhi The plan will be finalised after a bilateral ministers’ meeting on Friday. India may stockpile crude oil in US-based strategic reserves to shield itself from any supply disruptions arising out of geopolitical reasons and natural disasters, three people aware of the development said. The US is increasingly becoming a key partners in India’s energy security. India has been importing oil and gas from the US since 2017, and discussions are underway to store crude oil in American strategic reserves, the people said on condition of anonymity. In just two years, the US has become one of the top 10 sources of crude oil imports for India, they said. India imports over 80% of the crude oil it processes; it imported crude oil worth $101.4 billion in 2019-20. “The proposal to store oil in the US is still at an initial stage. It may be discussed at the second ministerial meeting of the India and US Strategic Energy Partnership (SEP)...

HT Correspondent | Edited by Abhinav Sahay Updated: Jul 15, 2020 In a bid to add technical muscle to the police force, Punjab government announced its decision to recruit nearly 800 domain experts from the field of information and digital technology, legal forensics and finance in the state’s police force to ensure that investigations and prosecutions keep pace with the changing nature of crime in the state. Punjab top cop tweeted to claim that this would make Punjab Police the first in the country with domain experts on its muster rolls. “Thanks to support of CM Punjab, Punjab Police set to become the 1st Police force in the country to recruit domain experts. 240 Forensic technicians, 157 Law officers, 247 IT specialists, 153 Finance and Accounting analysts will assist complex & new age crime investigations,” a tweet by DGP Dinkar Gupta said. As part of the new strategy, a total of 798 experts will be recruited directly as plain clothes civilian support staff f...

Asian News International | Posted by Shivani Kumar Mumbai, Maharashtra Reliance Foundation is partnering with the government and local bodies for conducting mega-scale Covid-19 testing across the country and will volunteer for nationwide distribution of its vaccine when it is found, its Founder and Chairperson Nita Ambani said on Wednesday. “The war against coronavirus is far from over. Reliance Foundation is gearing up to partner with the government and local municipalities for rapid mega-scale Covid testing across India with the help of Jio’s digital infrastructure,” she said while addressing Reliance Industries’ 43rd annual general meeting (AGM) virtually. “I can assure you that as soon as a corona vaccine becomes available, we will volunteer by using the same digital distribution and supply chain to ensure that the vaccine reaches every nook and corner of our country,” Ambani added. Nita, who was addressing the company’s AGM for the first time, said Reliance and...

By: Bloomberg | Updated: July 16, 2020 A security incident involving some of the most prominent business and political leaders on Twitter duped people into sending at least $120,000 worth of Bitcoin to an anonymous online wallet, and more than half of that total has already been spirited to other accounts, according to a Bitcoin-tracing company. The person or people behind the scam gained access to the Twitter accounts of executives including Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos and Tesla Inc. Founder Elon Musk, asking users to direct Bitcoin to one of three different accounts, said Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, which has helped law-enforcement agencies track Bitcoin-related crime. About $65,000 of the $120,000 collected from duped users has moved to other Bitcoin addresses, one of which has been active in the past and is registered with a U.S. exchange, Robinson said. That money trail could prove useful to investigators in this case, since U.S. exch...

Written by Anuradha Mascarenhas , Kabir Firaque | New Delhi, Pune  The paper suggests that continued trends in female educational attainment and access to contraception will hasten declines in fertility and slow population growth. A new analysis published in The Lancet has projected that the world population will peak much earlier than previously estimated. It projects the peak at 9.73 billion in 2064, which is 36 years earlier than the 11 billion peak projected for 2100 by last year’s UN report World Population Prospects. For 2100, the new report projects a decline to 8.79 billion from the 2064 peak. For India, the report projects a peak population of 1.6 billion in 2048, up from 1.38 billion in 2017. By 2100, the population is projected to decline by 32% to 1.09 billion. The study, led by a team of researchers at University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), analysed population trends in 195 countries. It used data from the Global ...

Written by Pranav Mukul | New Delhi | Updated: July 16, 2020 With the exception of Microsoft, all other firms have a stake in Jio Platforms. In effect, 27.61% of Jio is now owned by US firms. Google’s investment of Rs 33,737 crore, or $4.5 billion, in Jio Platforms takes the total money pumped into India’s largest telecom company by US-based investors to more than $16.7 billion — almost half of what India received from the US as foreign direct investment (FDI) over the last two decades. Jio’s fundraising spree this year has also left behind the cumulative investments made in India’s technology sector in the whole of 2019, which stood at $9.36 billion. Between April 2000 and April 2020, cumulative FDI inflows from the US stood at $29.78 billion, according to Department of Commerce data (not including investments by US-based companies routed through other jurisdictions such as Mauritius, British Virgin Islands etc.). With Google on board, Jio now has business arrang...

Manoj Kumar and Aftab Ahmed, July 15, 2020 NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India posted a trade surplus of $790 million in June, its first in over 18 years, with imports plunging as the coronavirus pandemic depressed domestic demand for crude oil, gold and other industrial products, reflecting a slowing economy. Indian exports and imports have been falling since March and worsening India-China relations, shrinking global demand and disruptions in supply chains are likely to pressure the trade outlook over the next few quarters, analysts said. Asia's third largest economy is projected to contract by up to 5% this financial year, beginning April, from an earlier government estimate of nearly 6% growth as an over two-month-long COVID-19 lockdown has hit economic activities and consumer demand. Merchandise imports INIMP=ECI contracted 47.59% in June to $21.11 billion from a year ago, while exports fell 12.41% to $21.91 billion, leading to a marginal trade surplus, data released...

SUSHANT SAREEN, JUL 15 2020 The Cold War 2.0 between the US and China that is unfolding quite rapidly both on India’s west and on her east offers a stark choice to her. India can either choose to be the fulcrum in this war, and leverage that position to secure herself strategically and economically; or India can keep latching on to the hoary hoax of cultural, historical and civilisational links, and continue the strategic self-deception of unlikely ‘friendly and good neighbourly relations’ and uncertain economic benefits, to adopt a position of neutrality (or if you will, Non-Alignment 2.0) and end up risking not just her security and economy, but also her very future. At a time when the world is again on the cusp of entering new alignments, India must choose her side. Because if she doesn’t, India will end up being squeezed, both from her east and west. Unlike Cold War 1.0 which was fought primarily in a distant theatre and only its denouement – Afghanistan – occurred in India’s...

03 Jul 2020 Jeyaraj Vadiveloo Safety measures such as wearing masks and observing social distancing are within our control and have significant impact. These two charts show the difference in infection between groups who protect themselves and those who do not. If an area opens up too soon and its residents ignore safety protocols, there could be a spike in COVID-19 deaths within months. With the advent of an infectious disease outbreak, epidemiologists and public health officials quickly try to forecast deaths and infections using complex computer models. But with a brand new virus like the one that causes COVID-19, these estimates are complicated by a dearth of credible information on symptoms, contagion and those who are most at risk. My team at the Goldenson Center for Actuarial Research has developed a free, user-friendly computer model that has a different goal. It demonstrates how infections and deaths progress on a daily basis over a three-month period dependi...

By: Tech Desk | New Delhi  Reliance Jio has designed and developed a complete 5G solution from scratch. It will be ready for trials as soon as the 5G spectrum is available and can be ready for field deployment next year. Reliance Jio has designed and developed a complete 5G solution from scratch. It will be ready for trials as soon as the 5G spectrum is available and can be ready for field deployment next year. The announcement was made by Mukesh Ambani at the company’s 43rd annual general meeting (AGM). “Jio has created a complete 5G solution from scratch, that will enable us to launch a world-class 5G service in India, using 100 per cent homegrown technologies and solutions,” Ambani said during the company’s 43rd annual general meeting (AGM). For those who are not aware, 5G is the next generation of mobile broadband that will replace the 4G LTE connection. With 5G, you can expect faster download and upload speeds. 5G also promises lower latency. The 5G spect...

July 13, 2020 Microsoft has launched 'Together Mode' which uses artificial intelligence to take a cutout of your live video image SAN FRANCISCO: Now that the novelty has worn off, video-conferencing has become mundane and taxing. Microsoft has launched “Together Mode” for its Teams business software, as part of a new suite of updates in efforts to tackle this exhaustion. Zoom says added over 100 features as part of 90-day security plan The new mode uses artificial intelligence to take a cutout of your live video image and place it into a fixed position within a setting, reports MIT Technology Review. The idea behind this new update is that when you can see people in a fixed position, nonverbal cues like looking at or pointing at a speaker become clearer and more like what would happen in a natural in-person meeting. “When you have faces staring at you like this, the arousal response kicks in that fight-or-flight mode. If you’re in fight-or-flight...

Peter Hartcher July 14, 2020 You know about the CIA. And the FBI. The whole world knows that James Bond worked for MI6. Everyone knows the name of the Soviet Union's notorious foreign espionage service, the KGB, the training ground for today's Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Most people have heard of the ruthlessly efficient Israeli Mossad. Most Australians have heard of the domestic spy agency ASIO. And a few will know of Australia's overseas spy agency, ASIS. But can you name one of China's intelligence services? Just one? We've heard in recent years that Chinese spying and hacking in Australia is so rife that it's overwhelming our own intelligence agencies. The federal government in 2018 even introduced new laws to try to limit Chinese spying and interference. But we can't name the agencies doing it. Is it because they are so small and insignificant? Today, China has more people engaged in its spying effort than any other country, accor...