Tech giant Google today announced an update to its Google Translate app that expands its instant visual translation capabilities by 20 more languages, for a total of 27. The camera mode of the app now supports 37 languages. The Google Translate app was already known as a handy little device that allows users to instantly translate already printed text in seven languages by clicking on an in-app […]
INTERNATIONAL. The undisputed king of oil and gas is making some moves that could change the face of the global refining sector. In June 2015, Saudi Arabia pumped a record 10.564 million barrels a day, a record level. As if being the world’s biggest exporter of oil was not enough, the desert kingdom is now looking to conquer the refining sector as it has quickly become the […]
ABU DHABI // It has gone so fast – and so far, so good. It’s already the third anniversary of work starting on the UAE’s first nuclear power plant at Barakah, near the border with Saudi Arabia. And it is still on budget and set to go live in late 2017, ultimately providing a quarter of the Emirates’ energy needs. But becoming the first new member to […]
Mobile application developers will be able to test the quality of their apps through a new service — AWS Device Farm — unveiled by Amazon Web Services. The announcement was one of several made during the AWS Cloud Summit taking place Thursday at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. Other new developments announced during the event included Amazon API Gateway, a managed service designed to […]
Wigley … increased focus on HR technology in the GCC. HR technology spend sees spike across ME, Europe DUBAI, 1 days ago Nine out of 10 firms in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region plan to spend the same or more on HR technology this year than they did last year, a report said, adding that 12 per cent of them will hike investment by […]
WASHINGTONSurging investment by Chinese companies in U.S. research labs is yielding a fast-growing trove of patents, part of a push to mine America for ideas to help China shift from being the world’s factory floor to a driver of innovation. Largely absent from American research hubs a decade ago, Chinese firms including Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp are now using U.S. researchers to create patents ranging from […]
Businesses that need to handle workloads with a range of different demands have a selection of new cloud-based, general-purpose instances to choose from through Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS on Thursday announced the availability of M4 instances, a next-generation Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) offering. Powered by custom 2.4-GHz Intel Xeon E5-2676 v3 Haswell processors, M4 instances are designed to support a variety of applications, including relational and […]
Researchers work at a laboratory at a genomics organization in Tianjin, China, April 2, 2014. Reuters/Stringer SHANGHAI/LONDON Years of pouring money into its laboratories, wooing scientists home from overseas and urging researchers to publish and patent is starting to give China a competitive edge in biotechnology, a strategic field it sees as ripe for “indigenous innovation.” The vast resources China can throw at research and development – […]
The logo of Alibaba Group is seen inside the company’s headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province early November 11, 2014. Reuters/Aly Song/Files BEIJING/SHANGHAI Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd will invest in financial media outlet China Business Network in a deal set to be announced on Thursday, Chinese media reported on Wednesday. The investment in China Business Network, part of Shanghai Media Group (SMG), will be worth […]
Intel Corp (INTC.O) agreed to buy Altera Corp (ALTR.O) for $16.7 billion as the world’s biggest chipmaker seeks to make up for slowing demand from the PC industry by expanding its line-up of higher-margin chips used in data centres. By combining with Altera, Intel will be able to bundle its processing chips with the smaller company’s programmable chips, which are used, among other things, to speed up […]
|By TAP Staff| Network International, the credit card processing company owned by Emirates NBD and Abraaj Group is set to launch an IPO. According to sources, the offering would happen in the fourth quarter or in early 2016. The business is expected to be valued at more than $1 billion. Abraaj bought 49 percent of Network International from Emirates NBD for about 2 billion dirhams ($545 million) in late 2010. The […]
Deutsche Bank must pay the largest ever fine levied by the regulator of Dubai’s financial free zone for what the watchdog described as “serious contraventions” by the German lender’s wealth management business in the emirate. The $8.4 million levy from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) is the latest regulatory blow for the Frankfurt-based lender, which faces billions of euros in potential claims or settlements over alleged […]
The next big threat to oil prices isn’t from OPEC or Bakken shale. It’s Russian samovars, or teapots. Simple refineries that process crude into fuel oil are scaling back, because when oil prices slump, the government reduces the discount that these refiners — known as teapots to those in the industry — get for exporting fuel. They use less crude, freeing it up for sale abroad, which […]
Just days after Stephen Hawking, a preeminent British physicist, warned artificial intelligence (AI) could end mankind, MetaMind announced its new AI platform and an initial $8 million in funding from Khosla Ventures and Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff. MetaMind has developed what it calls “deep learning” software that combines natural language processing and computer vision to solve complex data problems. The technology’s goal is to pave […]
NEW DELHI: A few weeks before the Reserve Bank of India announces the monetary policy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has made his preferences clear in the raging debate over whether governor Raghuram Rajan should cut interest rates on December 2. “Reduction in the cost of capital will give a good fillip to the Indian economy,” Jaitley said at the Citi Investor Forum, but added that the […]
By Ashok B Sharma In a situation where economies are seeking integration with neighbours in the form of institutional grouping, India has made attempts for engagement with the ASEAN bloc primarily for trade and integration of the economy, more particularly to derive benefit for its remote north-eastern region. But this has not been realised in full potential due to poor land route connectivity despite inking of free […]
NEW DELHI: The Centre has prepared a detailed roadmap in consultation with states to make India “diesel generator and inverter free” in the next five years, and fulfill the Narendra Modi government’s promise to provide 24×7 power to every home, factory and farm and put the country back on the high-growth trajectory. Power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal recently held meetings with ministers of […]
Mumbai: It’s exactly 125 years since the first oil deposits were discovered in India. The big push to India’s oil and gas sector came after the early 1990s, when it was opened up to private players. Yet, the sector is still dominated by public sector undertakings (PSUs) such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) in oil and gas exploration and production; […]
By Surojit Mahalanobis NEW DELHI: Removal of the multi-level taxing systems and inter-state checkpoints for movement of vehicles laden with goods for states, is essential today. These would effectively halve the transit time and losses due to the logistics at transits. The World Bank’s India Development Update’s observation, released last week, coming just ahead of the government’s tabling the 115th amendment of the statute, aims to […]
Mumbai: The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (Irda) has come out with a new product planner rule, by which an insurance company can file only five products for approval in a year. However, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country’s largest insurer, might be given a special dispensation by the regulator. In order to reduce the time taken for product approvals, Irda has asked life insurers for […]
NEW DELHI: In line with the government’s plans to boost domestic output of coal, India’s largest thermal power producer, NTPC Ltd, could soon become one of the major coal-producers of the country as well. NTPC plans to produce up to 300 million tonnes of coal within the next four to five years, chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury told Hindustan Times. “As we expect […]
New Delhi: In a bid to take advantage of the bullish stock market sentiment, the finance ministry has kicked off the exercise to cut government stake in public sector banks to 51% and enable them to raise fresh capital to meet their growth requirements. Sources told TOI that the ministry has moved a cabinet note as the government is keen that banks are well capitalized to meet […]
New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Monday scrapped the selection of six chiefs of public sector banks, recommended under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, following a high-level panel finding irregularities in the process followed. The probe into selections for banks such as Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank followed the arrest of tainted Syndicate Bank Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) S K Jain […]
FRANKFURT: Twenty-five banks including Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA failed a stress test led by the European Central Bank, which said almost half of them must act to raise more capital. The central bank in Frankfurt identified a 25 billion-euro shortfall ($32 billion) for the region’s lenders, and said 12 of them have now raised enough funds. Eleven banks need more capital, including Monte […]
