The department of post is planning to offer banking services by starting a full-fledged bank, to be named Post Bank of India.
The limited availability of flexible (flex)-fuel vehicles in the Indian market and the slow rollout of ethanol-blended petrol by oil-marketing companies (OMCs) remain major obstacles to achieving widespread use of biofuels in the transportation sector in India. Recently, two Union ministers have emphasised India's biofuel potential, arguing that it has the capacity and potential to lead a transition towards widespread biofuel adoption. Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari signalled that this transition is well underway and urged car manufacturers to quickly adapt and introduce new biofuel-run vehicles, lest the government resort to taxing diesel vehicles.
Representatives of Facebook India have been asked to appear on Friday before the Joint Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, chaired by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Meenakshi Lekhi, while Twitter officials are required to appear before the panel on October 28, as per the notice issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Telecom industry body COAI has approached the information technology ministry for removal of fake and misleading messages from social media platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter linking spread of COVID-19 to 5G technology. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, said the claims linking 5G with coronavirus are baseless as 5G networks have not yet been installed in the country and even 5G trials are yet to be started by the telecom operators. In a letter dated May 15 to MeitY additional secretary Rajendra Kumar, COAI director general S P Kochhar said: "To safeguard the national interest, we request your good office to kindly instruct all the social media platforms such as Facebook, Watsapp, Twitter, etc, to remove all such posts and misleading campaigns from their platforms on an urgent basis." People have been sharing audio and video messages on social media platforms in which 5G towers are being blamed for rise in casualties across the country even though none of the companies have installed 5G technology anywhere in India.
The government also wants to ensure that content meant for radicalising youths, from outfits like Islamic State, doesn't find circulation in India.
VSNL intends to set up the unit through its wholly owned subsidiary, VSNL Global Services.
The agency had received Rs 946.51 crore to manage its affairs in the Budget Estimates for 2023-24, which was later increased to Rs 968.86 crore in the Revised Estimates.
The mission objective is to ensure data continuity of ocean color and wind vector data to sustain the operational applications.
The Indian Navy, which was earlier looking towards the US for design expertise, technical know-how and operational practices, is now considering the advantages of working with the Royal Navy.
Fifteen Cabinet ministers and 28 Ministers of State were sworn-in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday evening.
India, the US and 12 other members of the IPEF grouping have signed a supply chain resilience agreement that would help mitigate risks of economic disruptions from supply chain shocks and improve crisis coordination. The agreement would help member countries like India to reduce their dependence on China and provide timely information to the IPEF member countries about potential supply disruptions. The COVID outbreak severely disrupted the global supply chain, as most countries were dependent on China for various products like pharma raw materials.
Micron plans an assembly testing, marking and packaging project of $1 billion, and talks are on to set up a memory chip plant for captive requirements.
In a communication to the ministry of electronics and information technology, the messaging service said it was committed to protecting the privacy of its over 400 million users in India.
The Centre will invest around Rs 200 crore over five years for the exploration and development of these mines.
Congress MP and member of the panel Karti Chidambaram had requested Tharoor to take up the matter and call the officials of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry before the committee to seek clarification and remedial measures.
The science and technology ministry has written to the prime minister suggesting that the BIS standards for packaged water 'be set up into more precisely defined and quantitative standards,' the Rajya Sabha was informed on Friday.
Indian cricket fraternity has also come out in support of the young pacer who had dropped a crucial catch in the 18th over of the match.
'The people of Tamil Nadu in particular Chennai know about the double standards of the BJP. Nothing will work for them here.'
"The Centre is planning to bring the Indian Institutes of Information Technology Bill, 2010 in the Parliament," director of IIIT-Allahabad M D Tiwari told PTI in Allahabad. He said a meeting to discuss the final draft of the bill was held in New Delhi last week in which top officials of the Union HRD ministry and directors of four IIITs took part.
All the three tax-free enclaves were given formal approval, which would have lapsed by end of this month. While the ministry granted extension of time 'on file', the decision has to be ratified by the inter-ministerial Board of Approval which is meeting here on June 17.
In a major relief to Indian information technology (IT) companies operating in Australia, Canberra has agreed to amend its domestic laws to stop taxing offshore income of such Indian companies, as part of the free trade deal inked. This may lead to savings up to $200 million each year for over 100 Indian IT companies operating in Australia. "The Government of Australia has agreed to amend the domestic taxation law to stop the taxation of offshore income of Indian firms providing technical services to Australia. "This will resolve the issue that the Indian government has raised about the double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) between the two governments for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income," said a commerce ministry official.
The ministry has also issued orders for blocking of two Twitter accounts, two Instagram accounts and one Facebook account involved in spreading 'coordinated anti-India disinformation'.
While the SBI-led lenders' consortium is still working on ways to revive the once-storied Jet Airways, the civil aviation ministry has already awarded the carrier's slots at various airports to other airlines on a temporary basis.
The NCMC facilitates convenient travel while integrating last-mile connectivity, a must in India's extensive landscape. It enables travellers to pay for a cross-section of needs, including toll tax, retail shopping, and withdrawing money.
The Customs clearance required for moving equipment like laptops, desktops, etc out of SEZ units was delaying things as the clearance had to be taken in person after a first level of approval online.
The government on Wednesday ordered Twitter to immediately take down handles and hashtags that suggested a farmer genocide was being planned, saying such misinformation and inflammatory content will incite passion, and impact public order.
'Terrorists who are active in Poonch and Rajouri are not relying on random locals for logistics, guidance etc.' 'They are being supported by a selected few who are being vetted, cleared and directed from across the LoC.'
Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani on Friday India is well-placed on the government and businesses fronts to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in unique ways to solve challenges and tap into opportunities. Nilekani noted that over the last few years, the government has focussed on how to make transactions more efficient and effective, which has driven digitisation across the board. He added that as a byproduct of this, huge data now across systems has been generated and that the time is right to apply AI across the board to India's most challenging issues across areas like healthcare and education.
Portfolios were on Tuesday allocated in the new Bihar cabinet headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who, predictably, retained the all-important home department which helps him keep direct control on the state police.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has shot off a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker against Shashi Tharoor for speaking in public about his intention to summon Facebook officials without discussing the matter first in the parliamentary committee the Congress leader heads.
He said that during the interaction, he has seen that secretaries have vision, commitment and energy to take the country forward.
The proposed policy is increasingly becoming an item of negotiation, as the US pushes hard to change India's stance.
Their favourite alternatives: Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Note, India is missing from that list. And this is despite an attractive financial incentive scheme for OSAT players. The reason, said a senior executive of a US chip company who had a meeting in Taiwan just a few weeks ago, is that "they want more predictability in government policy because they plan to put in big money."
The comments assume significance in the backdrop of recent disclosures by messaging giant WhatsApp that said Indian journalists and human rights activists were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities using an Israeli spyware Pegasus.
Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal claimed that India has been doing better than many other countries on the outcome ratio, which is the number of recoveries from coronavirus infection versus the number of deaths.
'The idea is to have a separate and independent consultation on non-personal data, and decide the contours of how it should be regulated, whether as guidelines, rules, or a separate policy,' said a senior official at MeitY.
'As the demand for transferable skills that can be remotely applied increases, the need for tech-based courses is on the rise/'
More than 1000 government websites belonging to various ministries and departments have been hacked in the last three years. Minister of State for Home RPN Singh on Tuesday said as per information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, a total of 303, 308, 371 and 48 government websites belonging to various ministries and departments were hacked up to March 2013.
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