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PLAYING SHABBY POLITICS FOR SMART CITIES

MODI SARKAR PICKS NAMES TO TRUMP RIVALS

By Arun Srivastava

The politics of vengeance has been the key factor in the Modi government denying the smart cities to the eastern Indian states. Except Bhubaneswar, Odisha’s capital, no city from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand or Bengal has made it to the smart list. Last year, when the names of the cities for including in the list of the smart cities were being finalized Bihar government was given the impression that at least three of its cities – Bhagalpur, Biharsharif and Muzaffarpur – are among the 97 shortlisted and would be upgraded. But none made it to the first list of 20 released by the Union minister Venkaiah Naidu.

Reacting to it Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar compared the Centre to the fabled “andher nagri (City of lawlessness)” for ignoring Bihar while picking the first list of 20 smart

NAVEEN PATNAIK GETS SMART CITY NOD

ALL EYES ON BHUBANESWAR OF FUTURE

By Ashok B Sharma

The mantra of maintaining equidistance from the Congress and the BJP has played well for the Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He gets a certification of appreciation from the NDA government at the Centre for urban development. Another feather is on his cap as Bhubaneswar becomes the number one choice for development of Smart City under an ambitious flagship programme mooted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.

The central government is slated to release appropriate funds for development of Bhubaneswar from the upcoming Budget which will be operationalized from April 1 – the day celebrated as Odisha Dibas in remembrance of the formation as a separate state in 1936.

Other major urban infrastructure developments on the anvil are the development of Paradeep as a port city and upgrada

Alphabet to give first peek at cost of "moonshot" bets

Letters spell the word ”Alpahbet” as they are seen on a computer screen with a Google search page in this photo illustration taken in Paris, France, August 11, 2015. Reuters/Pascal Rossignol How much is Google-parent Alphabet Inc spending on “moonshots” – self-driving cars, glucose-monitoring contact lenses, Internet balloons and other ambitious projects? Investors will get their long-awaited answer when Alphabet reports fourth-quarter results after markets close on […]

Reddit Launches Android App in Private Beta

Regular readers of the Reddit website might soon see their long wait for an official mobile app coming to an end. In an online post about things to expect from the site in 2016, co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman yesterday revealed that an Android app for Reddit is currently being tested in a private beta version and an iOS app “should follow it out soon.” Now in […]

BJP’S ALLIANCE PLAN TO GRAB POWER IN TAMIL NADU

CAN JAYA OUTSMART BOTH BJP-LED NDA AND DMK?

By S. Sethuraman

Political parties in Tamil Nadu, ahead of the May elections to the Assembly, want to usher in a “change” in the state’s governance, and BJP is trying hard to bring NDA rule through an alliance by reportedly offering bulk of the seats to contest for the influential state parties, DMDK and PMK, and thus break the hold of “corrupt” regimes of AIADMK and DMK over the last five decades.

Whether the BJP dream fructifies or not, it could cut into the assumed strength of both the ruling AIADMK, which still remains confident of a renewed mandate for ‘Amma’s’ welfare schemes, and of a resurgent DMK which, however, faces difficulty in forging a stronger alliance, with only a divided and demoralised Congress willing to go with it at present..

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HOW TO CURB FARMER SUICIDES?

MADHYA PRADESH EXPLORES AVENUES

From L.S. Herdenia

BHOPAL: Psychiatrists can play a major and decisive role in checking suicides by farmers. This claim was made at the conference of Psychiatrists held in Bhopal. It was suggested that governments should seek the help of Psychiatrists and use a holistic multipronged approach to prevent farmers from taking such an extreme step.

The four-day conference of Indian Psychiatric society discussed various issues relating to mental problems of the people, the lack of doctors, social stigma attached to mental disease, absence of research and effect of internet over use and mobile in triggering mental problems. Shortcomings in the Mental Care Bill pending in the Rajya Sabha was yet another item which was discussed at the conference.

The World Psychiatric Association’s first-ever Indian-origin president

Samsung Elec warns of difficult 2016 as smartphone troubles spread

A Samsung Electronics laptop computer is displayed at a shop in Samsung’s main office building in central Seoul in this July 23, 2013 file phboto. Reuters/Lee Jae-Won/Files SEOUL Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Thursday warned of possible weaker earnings this year due to softer sales of gadgets such as smartphones, a trend that is also hurting rival Apple Inc and major chipmakers. The South Korean […]

Facebook shares soar as mobile drives big jump in ad sales

A 3D plastic cut-out of the Facebook logo is seen in this illustration in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 13, 2015. Reuters/Dado Ruvic Facebook Inc (FB.O) smashed investors’ expectations with a 52-percent jump in quarterly revenue as it sold more ads targeted at a fast-growing number of mobile users, sending its shares sharply higher after hours. The world’s biggest online social network bucked the trend of underwhelming […]

Apple shares fall most in two years in wake of earnings report

An Apple logo is seen at the Apple store in Munich, Germany, January 27, 2016. Reuters/Michaela Rehle Apple Inc (AAPL.O) shares fell more than 6.5 percent on Wednesday, the biggest percentage drop in two years, after the company reported its slowest-ever rise in iPhone shipments and forecast that quarterly sales for the current period would post the first drop in 13 years. At least 16 analysts cut […]

Sales of iPhones Have Slowed, Apple Says

Has the mighty iPhone reached its selling peak? If good sales, as opposed to outrageously great sales, are any indication, that could be. Apple said on Tuesday that it sold 74.8 million iPhones during its fiscal first quarter, which ended December 26. That marks the slowest quarter of growth since the company began selling the smartphones in 2007. In the same period in 2014, Apple sold 74.5 […]

China's Xiaomi Internet services revenue up 150 pct, but misses $1 bln target

Lei Jun, founder and chief executive officer of Xiaomi, attends a session of the second annual World Internet Conference in Wuzhen town of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China, December 16, 2015. Reuters/Aly Song HONG KONG/ BEIJING Xiaomi Inc, China’s second-biggest smartphone vendor, more than doubled Internet services revenue in 2015 to about $564 million, an internal document reviewed by Reuters showed, but still fell well short of an […]

With China weakening, Apple turns to India

SAN FRANCISCO/MUMBAI As China sales show signs of cooling, Apple Inc(AAPL.O) is touting India’s appetite for iPhones, betting that rising wages and an expanding middle class will pull consumers away from the cheap alternatives that currently dominate the market. In an earnings call in which the company reported meagre iPhone growth and forecast its first revenue drop in 13 years, the Indian market stood out as a […]

Why Sacramento Wants To Ban Smartphone Encryption

Did you know that over 20 million people a year are victims of human trafficking? That’s according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. What if banning smartphone encryption could stem the rising tide of human trafficking, a form of modern-day slavery from which perpetrators force victims to engage in commercial labor services or sex acts against their will? Sacramento County Assembly member Jim Cooper just introduced […]

Details Leaked about New Samsung Galaxy S7 Smartphone

Details about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone emerged this week in advance of its anticipated release. A Hungarian Android blog reported benchmark scores for the single-core and multi-core versions of the phone, which are significantly higher than those of last year’s Samsung Galaxy S6. The scores come from Geekbench, a cross-platform processor benchmark whose scoring system separates single-core and multi-core performance. The single-core version of the […]

‘Made in China’ global equities crash

|By Matein Khalid| This was the ghastliest week for global risk assets since September 2011. Not even 290,000 new US jobs in December could negate the raw fear on Wall Street generated by the 10% fall in Shanghai, a yuan depreciation, market meltdowns of 6 – 7% in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Mumbai and New York. Four months ago, I had published a KT article titled “History’s […]

Wi-Fi HaLow To Power Internet of Things

Lower power. Longer range. That’s the story behind Wi-Fi HaLow, a new technology the Wi-Fi Alliance has just introduced to help tap into the momentum around low power Wi-Fi solutions that cater specifically to the Internet of Things (IoT). The Wi-Fi HaLow designation, which aims at products leveraging IEEE 802.11ah technology, works at and below the one gigahertz frequency band without sacrificing range. In fact, HaLow promises […]

Samsung Electronics warns of tough 2016 amid Q4 outlook concerns

A Samsung logo is seen at Samsung Electronics’ headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, December 18, 2015. Picture taken on December 18, 2015. Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji SEOUL South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it expects a difficult business environment in 2016 due to weak global economic conditions and heightened competition in key businesses including memory chips and smartphones. In a statement on Monday, Samsung said Chief […]

AT&T Says Goodbye to 2-Year Phone Contracts

As of next week, AT&T customers who want new cellphones will have to update their devices by paying the full retail prices upfront or through monthly installment plans. That’s because the carrier is doing away with its previous program that offered new phones to customers who signed two-year contracts for AT&T service. First reported by Engadget yesterday, the change was confirmed today by an AT&T spokesperson who […]

AT&T To End 2-Year Phone Contracts

As of next week, AT&T customers who want new cellphones will have to update their devices by paying the full retail prices upfront or through monthly installment plans. That’s because the carrier is doing away with its previous program that offered new phones to customers who signed two-year contracts for AT&T service. First reported by Engadget yesterday, the change was confirmed today by an AT&T spokesperson who […]

Tech giants spot opportunity in forecasting China's smog

Construction sites and buildings are pictured amid heavy smog, on the third day after China’s capital Beijing issued its second ever ”red alert” for air pollution, in Beijing, China, in this December 21, 2015 photo. Reuters/Jason Lee BEIJING Air pollution in China could be big business. Two of the world’s largest technology firms, IBM and Microsoft, are vying to tap the nascent, fast-growing market for forecasting air […]

Snapdeal to invest in logistics to speed up delivery

MUMBAI Online marketplace Snapdeal, backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp and others, will spend more on logistics and technology to better compete with Flipkart and Amazon’s (AMZN.O) Indian unit, its co-founder said on Monday. Shopping online is becoming more popular in India due to the rising use of cheaper smartphones and e-commerce firms are struggling to cope with the growing demand and make faster deliveries in different […]

Samsung Elec plans initial production of 5 mln Galaxy S7 phones – report

The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at the company’s headquarters in Seoul July 6, 2012. Reuters/Lee Jae-Won/Files SEOUL Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the world’s top smartphone maker, plans an initial production run of about 5 million of its upcoming Galaxy S7 smartphones, South Korea’s Electronic Times reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources. The paper said Samsung is planning to launch two different versions of its new […]

Samsung Electronics to start making new chips for AMD in 2016 – Electronic Times

A Samsung logo is seen at Samsung Electronics’ headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, December 18, 2015. Picture taken on December 18, 2015. Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji SEOUL Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will start making new chips for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc next year, South Korea’s Electronic Times reported on Tuesday citing unnamed sources. The paper said Samsung’s foundry business and Globalfoundries will jointly start producing a […]

Pew Survey Says Home Broadband Use Declining

The use of broadband Internet in U.S. homes is starting to drop, according to a report released Monday by the Pew Research Center. In fact, just 67 percent of U.S. homes have broadband connectivity, down from 70 percent in 2013 — the first significant decline in the number of homes with broadband connections, according to Pew’s new Home Broadband report. The reasons? Mobile technology, to name one. […]