The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), a conglomeration of eight students’ bodies, has taken umbrage over the Centre’s decision to make Hindi a compulsory subject till Class 10 in the region, contending that the move will be detrimental for indigenous languages and create disharmony.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, NESO has called for immediate withdrawal of the unfavorable policy, suggesting that indigenous languages should be made compulsory in their native states till Class 10, while Hindi should remain an optional or elective subject.

Shah had said at a meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee in New Delhi on April 7 that all northeast states have agreed to make Hindi compulsory in schools till Class 10.

It is understood that the Hindi language accounts for approximately 40-43 per cent of native speakers in India, however it is worth noting that there is a plethora of other native languages in the country, which are rich, thriving and vibrant in their own perspectives, giving India an image of a diverse and multilingual nation, NESO said.

In the northeast, each state bears its own unique and diversified languages spoken by different ethnic groups ranging from Indo-Aryan to Tibeto-Burman to Austro-Asiatic families, the organisation, comprising the All Assam Students’ Union, Naga Students’ Federation, All Manipur Students’ Union and All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union among others, said.

The imposition of Hindi as a compulsory subject in the region will be detrimental not only for the propagation and dissemination of the indigenous languages, but also to students who will be compelled to add another compulsory subject to their already-vast syllabus.

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Letting Russia try to qualify for the World Cup risked doing irreparable and chaotic harm to the competition, FIFA successfully argued at sport’s highest court.

The legal debate between FIFA and Russia’s soccer federation was published Tuesday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, explaining why its judge denied an urgent Russian request to freeze a ban that excluded its teams from the men’s and women’s World Cups.

The interim ruling in Russia’s appeal on March 18 pending a full appeal hearing likely due at CAS in the weeks ahead — ensured the men’s team could not play Poland six days later in the World Cup qualifying playoff. Poland was given a bye and advanced to the tournament in Qatar by beating Sweden in the playoff final.

Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic which lost to Sweden had all stated they would refuse to play Russia in light of the country’s war on Ukraine.

That three-nation boycott of Russia weighed heavily on the urgent CAS ruling, which sided with FIFA’s stated need to guarantee the smooth running of its flagship competition.

Though FIFA competition rules typically punish federations whose teams refuse to play scheduled games, soccer’s world body agreed with Poland, Sweden and the Czechs.

Those decisions are both fully understandable and cannot be criticized from either a legal or moral point of view, FIFA lawyers said in a submission to the court.

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Intended for non-public use, private 5G network is the next big thing in digital transformation for enterprises, industries and governments around the world.  

It is essentially a local area network that uses 3GPP-based network spectrum, to create unified connectivity and a secure means of communication within a specific area.  

Private 5G network is on the cusp of taking off around the world. Last year, Germany issued 5G private licenses to over 33 companies — for companies like BASF, BMW, Bosch, Lufthansa, Siemens, Volkswagen etc — to run exclusive networks.

France, the UK, the US and Australia are also putting in place policies to roll out private 5G networks.

Back home, Indian IT majors are planning to deploy private 5G test beds spread over their several campuses across the country.

Tata Consultancy Services, engineering services provider L&T Technology Services and Tech Mahindra are reportedly planning to adopt private 5G networks.

A private 5G network enables enterprises to dedicate bandwidth for ultra-reliable low-latency use cases such as robotics and industrial IoT, with control over data, security and networks. It can also be tailored for specific industry and business requirements.

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Propelled by the movie RRR, directed by SS Rajamouli of Bahubali-fame, the Indian box office saw one of its best post-pandemic months. The period action drama was instrumental in bringing back audiences to the theatres and registered the best global opening day by any Indian film. In just over two weeks of release, RRR has grossed Rs 1,000 crore at the worldwide box office.

RRR had helped Bollywood cross Rs 500 crore in box office collections in March, along with movies such as The Kashmir Files, Bachchhan Paandey, Radhe Shyam and Jhund.

In the pre-pandemic year of 2019, the average monthly gross box office collection of Bollywood was about Rs 400 crore. 

If this was the action in March, industry analysts say April promises to be as much exciting – going by advance booking trends and a strong line-up of movies. 

They say, the industry is witnessing what can be termed ‘revenge consumption’ after months of Covid-19 restrictions.

This month’s biggest releases are the Kannada film KGF: Chapter 2 and Vijay’s Tamil film Beast. Both the movies, just like RRR, will hit the screens this week in five regional languages including Hindi.  

April will also see the theatrical release of Heropanti 2, Runway 34 and Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey, which is a remake of the 2019 movie of the same name. 

The dominance of South Indian cinema showcased during the first four months of 2022 is a continuation of last year. In 2021, South Indian films generated three times the box office revenues of Hindi films, with a total collection of Rs 2,400 cr on the back of more releases. 

Around 58% of the total box office revenues of Rs 3,9000 crore last year were contributed by regional language films. 

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Epic, the developer of popular game Fortnite, has announced a $2 billion round of funding from Sony and KIRKBI, the family-owned investment company which founded the Lego Group.

The funds will be used to boost Epic’s dream to build the metaverse. Sony and KIRKBI invested $1 billion, respectively, in Epic.

“This investment will accelerate our work to build the metaverse and create spaces where players can have fun with friends, brands can build creative and immersive experiences and creators can build a community and thrive,” said Tim Sweeney, CEO and Founder, Epic Games.

Epic’s post-money equity valuation is now $31.5 billion.

Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman, President and CEO, Sony Group Corporation, said that Epic’s expertise, including their powerful game engine, combined with Sony’s technologies, “will accelerate our various efforts such as the development of new digital fan experiences in sports and our virtual production initiatives.”

Epic Games is known for building playful and creative experiences and empowering creators large and small.

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Meta on Tuesday announced it is testing new features in Horizon Worlds, its social virtual reality (VR) app, that will help creators sell virtual items and make money.

In a conversation with Vidyuu Studios, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that creator monetisation and metaverse economy is really important.

“There are two new things that I wanted to talk about. One is in-world purchases — basically the ability to sell virtual items and access things inside Horizon Worlds which is part of the commerce equation,” Zuckerberg said in a video posted by Vidyuu Studios on YouTube.

The company is rolling this out with a handful of creators at the moment.

“I’m also really excited about the creator bonus programme that we’re rolling out for people who are building awesome worlds in Horizon to compensate and reward them,” Zuckerberg announced.

Horizon Worlds was rolled out to Oculus Quest VR headset users in the US and Canada in early December. It reached 300,000 monthly users within no time.

According to Zuckerberg, all users with access to Horizon Worlds will be able to make in-world purchases.

“Creator monetisation is really important, because you all need to be able to support yourself and make a good living building these awesome experiences,” Zuckerberg added.

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Tata Power’s plans to reduce debt by hiving off its renewables energy businesses into an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) has missed the March-end deadline.

The company was planning to bring down its gross debt to below Rs 25,000 crore from Rs 49,000 crore with the InvIT structure.

The earlier deadline mentioned by Tata group chairman N Chandrasekaran was March 2021 but due to the Covid-19 disruption, the plan could not take off.

InvITs own, operate and manage operational infrastructure assets.

The cash flows from the businesses owned by the InvITs are distributed among the unitholders.

In the financial year ending March this year, Tata Power had re-started talks with several potential investors, including Petronas and Brookfield, but could not close the transaction.

Tata Power Renewable Energy (TPREL), a subsidiary of Tata Power, is currently leading the power firm’s initiative to increase non-fossil generation to about 60 per cent of its total capacity by 2025.

The combined portfolio of TPREL and Walwhan Renewable Energy generate around 2.7 Gw, making it a significant proportion of Tata Power’s generation capacity of around 30 per cent.

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Vijayalakshmi Silks, the choice of silk connoisseurs across the country, has recently turned a page in its incredible 100-year-old journey with a brand-new identity and brand strategy – in partnership with Don’t Be Content ‘Rediscover Silk Heritage. Rediscover Vijayalakshmi Silks.’ With this powerful brand mission statement, Don’t Be Content, conceptualised and designed the brand identity that embraces the brand’s traditional moorings, and takes its legacy forward. The new logo is a stylised interpretation of the kamala (lotus), the flower that adorns Goddess Lakshmi, its 8 petals portraying the 8th Ashtalaskhmi – Vijayalakshmi. Purple the colour of royalty and grandeur; and gold, the essence of timelessness, come together to define the brand’s artistic nuances.

CARVING A BRAND-NEW IDENTITY

With the new identity in place, Don’t Be Content (DBC) worked closely with the brand to give it a new expression. Always respected for sterling quality, and begun way back in 1920, Vijayalakshmi Silks now has a new look and feel that appeals not just to its multi-generational loyal customer base, but the contemporary Indian woman and her Gen Z sensibilities. The carefully thought-through strategy saw the brand finding place in new media with campaigns that reflect a wondrous blend of modern ethos and design with core traditional elements playing peek-a-boo and bringing alive an effervescent vibe.

With social media and strategically driven influencer marketing Don’t Be Content engaged promising Kannada actors to be part of the brand campaign. The influencers took Vijayalakshmi’s famed silken drapes and redefined the silks to create enchanting canvases where modernity meshed beautifully with timeless elegance. These wondrous style statements were harnessed on social media for the launch of their new store at Malleshwaram and helped shape the brand’s new persona, while paying homage to all it stood for down the ages.

NEVER CONTENT, HUNGRY FOR MORE

Other than Vijayalakshmi Silks, Don’t Be Content today has partnerships with over 20 brands across myriad categories, including fashion & lifestyle, food & beverage, child and parenting, health & wellness, architecture & design, and money & banking. Clients down the years include Amul, Cadbury, Cleartrip, Freshmenu, Forever 21, Lifestyle, Max, Organic India, Roposo, Saffola, Tanishq, Titan, TVS, Van Heusen, Vijayalakshmi Silks and a few emerging D2C brands. In recent years, DBC has built partnerships outside India, and today counts Accelerated Growth, a leading financial services organization based in Chicago as one of its key clients.

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Tech titan Apple has begun production of iPhone 13 in India, bolstering India’s vision of emerging as a manufacturing powerhouse.

The flagship product is being made at Apple’s contract manufacturing partner Foxconn’s facility, near Chennai, sources said.

“We are excited to begin making iPhone 13 with its beautiful design, advanced camera systems for stunning photos and videos, and the incredible performance of the A15 Bionic chip right here in India for our local customers,” a statement by Apple said.

It is pertinent to mention that Apple started manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017 with iPhone SE. It currently manufactures some of its most advanced iPhones in the country including iPhone 11, iPhone 12 and now, iPhone 13.

The flagship iPhone 13 packs an advanced 5G experience, offers super-fast performance and power efficiency with A15 Bionic chip, longer battery life, and a flat-edge design with high durability.

The iPhone 13 was available to customers in India simultaneously with the US, among other markets – a first for the country.

Apple has a long-standing history in India, which began more than 20 years ago. Apple launched its online store in September 2020, and is set to further its commitment to the country with the upcoming launch of Apple Store.

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TikTok’s meteoric rise has baffled Meta (formerly Facebook) as the Chinese short-video app is set to overtake the global advertising share of micro-blogging platform Twitter and photo-sharing platform Snapchat this year.

Moreover, TikTok is predicted to catch up with Google-owned YouTube by clocking $23.6 billion in ad revenue by 2024, reports The Guardian.

“Last year, it overtook the global ad take of Snapchat,” the report said on Saturday.

TikTok, which was banned in India in June 2020 along with several Chinese apps in the first lot, is likely to triple its global worldwide ad revenues $11.6 billion this year — more than $10.44 billion for Snapchat and Twitter combined.

A TikTok user spent 19.6 hours on average per month on the app last year, according to data.ai, which is equal to Facebook which is seeing its user growth stalled, and dwindling among the Gen Z and millennials.

While Facebook still has 2.9 billion monthly active users and Instagram nearly 2 billion and Meta registered $118 billion in revenue last year, the Mark Zuckerberg-run company is worried at TikTok’s rise.

Facebook has been losing users for quite some time while TikTok’s usage is rising in the US.

Meta’s recent earnings report said that Facebook’s active users dropped by almost 5 lakh at the end of last year.

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