For the past few weeks, Father Muller Medical College in Mangaluru, Karnataka, is conducting virtual surgery classes for its students. In New Delhi, a pre-school is teaching kids rhymes and conducting online classes daily for each toddler. Education group PES has replicated online the entire physical campus experience for its schools, engineering and medical colleges across Karnataka, with over 1,000 classes being held daily.

At a time when India is under a nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic, much of the country’s $180 billion education sector is going online to adapt to the new reality. Many educational institutions are creating virtual learning infrastructure and radically transforming the way education has been offered for millennia. And to help them realise that goal, they are reaching out to technology companies such as Impartus Innovations, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Coursera and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

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Krishan, 28, has a new favourite sports star. It’s Franklin Session, a professional basketball player with Taiwan’s Super Basketball League (SBL). With most of the popular sporting events cancelled in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus, fantasy sports fans like Krishan, who is from Karnal in Haryana, have started putting their money on the few sports leagues that are still active, including the SBL, Belarus Premier League (BPL) and Nicaragua’s top division football league, Liga Primera.

Fantasy sports, where fans create their own virtual teams made up of real sportspersons, have been growing in popularity in India. Apart from cricket and kabaddi, fantasy sports titles are designed for many other sports such as football and basketball.

 “With most of the popular leagues and sporting events having either been postponed or cancelled, some of the smaller leagues are gaining popularity amongst fans of fantasy sports,” says Sudhanshu Gupta, chief operating officer, at gaming platform Paytm First Games. “However, the total number of users showing interest in these leagues is fractional compared to the more popular leagues.”

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Technology giant Apple on Tuesday released mobility data trends tool to help authorities mitigate the impact on Covid-19 globally. The mobility data tool is based on Apple Maps platform. Its reports are published daily and reflect requests for directions in Apple Maps.

The Apple ‘Mobility Data Trends’ website is more like the Google’s initiative that is now offering user location data via its Maps to help public health officials spot increase or decrease of movement across high-level categories of places, to help them flatten the curve of coronavirus pandemic.

“Maps does not associate mobility data with a user’s Apple ID, and Apple does not keep a history of where a user has been,” the company said in a statement late Tuesday.

Using aggregated data collected from Apple Maps, the new website indicates mobility trends for major cities and 63 countries or regions.

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Facebook’s experimental app group team has launched a messaging app called Kit for Apple Watch to help users connect with close friends.

Kit, which stands for keep in touch, works with Facebook Messenger and lets you send messages with one tap, including audio recordings, emoji, location sharing, scribbles or dictation input, reports Tech Crunch.

The app, currently available for iOS users, also allows the user to receive and respond to notifications as well.

While the main Facebook Messenger app already supports Apple Watch, Kit is focused on keeping in touch with close contacts, such as a significant other, a best friend or a family member.

“Kit makes keeping in contact from your watch easy. No more struggling to navigate a tiny screen to find the right option,” reads the app’s description.

To start using the Kit app, users need to scan a QR code on their Apple watch or by keying in an access code at fb.com/devices.

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Former Pakistan first-class cricketer Zafar Sarfraz has died of Covid-19 at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar late Monday.

According to a report in geo.tv, the 50-year old is the first professional cricket player from Pakistan to succumb to the coronavirus, after testing positive last Tuesday. He had been on a ventilator for the past three days, hospital officials added.

Zafar, a left-handed batter and slow left-arm orthodox bowler, played first-class cricket from 1988 to 1994 and List A cricket from 1990 to 1992. He made 616 runs from 15 first-class games for Peshawar and also had 96 runs from six one-day games before retiring in 1994 and moving on to coach both the senior and the Under-19 Peshawar teams in the mid-2000s.

ALSO READ: IPL 2020: AB de Villiers has been my idol growing up, says Jos Buttler

Zafar was the brother of late Pakistan international cricketer Akhtar Sarfraz, who went on to play four ODIs between December 1997 and October 1998, scoring 66 runs in four innings.

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The finance ministry on recommendation from the department of posts has relaxed the provisions for account holders of public provident fund (PPF), Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA) and recurring deposits (RDs). Other measures have also been taken to make life of the small depositor simpler. Penalty/revival fees have been waived until June 30 for not investing the minimum amount due for the financial year 2019-20 and April 2020 (as the case may be) in various small savings schemes. So, in case you were not able to make any deposits in FY 20, there won’t be any default fee for the time being.

In case you had to make a payment, say, for an RD on April 20 and because of the lockdown, you haven’t been able to make it, you can do so till June 30 without a penalty. Also, for PPF and SSA, you can make a single payment for FY19-20 until June 30. Balwant Jain, a tax consultant, says: “Assuming you are making two PPF deposits of Rs 1.5 lakh each, one for FY19-20 and FY20-21. For FY19-20, you will have to give an undertaking for the respective years. Also, you can’t club the deposits and make a single payment of Rs 3 lakh.”

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Chinese electronics maker OnePlus is set to launch the OnePlus 8-series smartphone on April 14 in a global online event, which would start at 8:30 PM in India. The event would livestream on company’s official web portal, social media channels and YouTube.

Like its previous year launches, OnePlus is expected to launch at least two smartphones under the OnePlus-8 series. The OnePlus 8-series is expected to bring several upgrades, especially with regard to design, display, imaging and connectivity. In terms of design, the phones are expected to have a premium glass-metal built with punch hole display on the front. Speaking of display, the upcoming smartphones would sport screens of 120Hz refresh rate.

 Besides, the display on OnePlus 8-series would support MEMC interpolation technology for smooth video rendering experience.

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The coronavirus cases have globally surpassed 1,780,315 with over 108,828 deaths. The United States has been the worst hit country with 532,879 cases, followed by Spain, Italy, France and Germany.

Accordind to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Covid-19 pandemic has hit over 22,000 healthcare workers across 52 countries and regions.

According to its daily situation report on Saturday, 22,073 Covid-19 cases among healthcare workers have been reported to the WHO as of Wednesday, April 8, Xinhua news agency reported.

The report said the number is probably under-represented as there is so far no systematic reporting of infections among healthcare workers to the WHO.

Preliminary results suggest healthcare workers are being infected both in the workplace and in the community, most often through infected family members.

To protect frontline healthcare workers, the WHO stressed the correct use of personal protective equipment like masks, goggles, gloves, and gowns.

Noting the risk of burnout among healthcare providers, the WHO called for respecting their right to decent working conditions.

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According to Apple analyst Jeff Pu, the new iPhone SE may be launched next week and sales would begin immediately. Quoting Pu, MacRumors has reported that iPhone 12 models will likely be pushed out slightly due to current travel restrictions and cargo flight delays, which could result in delayed availability of the highest-end 6.7-inch model.

.In a research note with Chinese research firm GF Securities, Pu claimed that the current “EVT” or “Engineering Verification Test” stage of iPhone 12 development may have been extended by two weeks to late April for the 5.4-inch model and 6.1-inch models, and to mid-May for the 6.7-inch model

This may result in the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro seeing releases in September, while the iPhone 12 Pro Max may get pushed back until October.

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Apple has announced it will soon display coronavirus testing sites directly on its Maps.

For this, Apple has launched a portal for hospitals and healthcare providers to register as coronavirus screening locations. The concern team will then review the application and upon approval, the location will appear on Apple Maps.

Apple Maps will be able to show information like the place name, the associated healthcare provider, contact phone number and website, 9To5Mac reported on Sunday.

It will also surface information about the type of testing location (laboratory, hospital, etcetera) and the nature of the site (like drive-through, parking lot, or building).

Apple is also asking applicants to state whether the testing location will require a doctor’s referral or a scheduled appointment.

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