Apple has booked a domain name called AppleCoronavirus.com, after the iPhone maker and Google last week announced a joint effort to enable the use of Bluetooth to help agencies reduce the spread of coronavirus.

The record’s domain information lists Apple Inc. as the registrant organisation.

The registrar is CSC Corporate Domains, a firm that protects domain names for large corporations, and is used by Apple for its domain name registrations, reports Mac Rumors.

“The new record indicates that Apple took possession of the domain name on Friday”. The domain does not currently point to an active website.

ALSO READ: Covid-19 crisis: Tracking the coronavirus footprint across the world

Apple and Google are launching a comprehensive solution that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist in enabling contact tracing.

The tech giants will release APIs in May that enable interoperability between Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities.

These official apps will be available for users to download via their respective app stores.

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In an effort to shape a consensus on the ongoing nationwide lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday told Parliament floor leaders that the situation in the country was akin to a “social emergency”, and indicated the curbs were likely to continue beyond April 14.

Interacting with them via videoconferencing, the PM said he would take a decision on extending the lockdown after a meeting with chief ministers on Saturday.

The number of coronavirus cases in the country crossed 5,000 on Wednesday, with 149 deaths, the data from the heath ministry said.

 According to a government statement, the PM said “several state governments, district administrations, and experts had asked for an extension of the lockdown”.

Over the last week, Modi has spoken of a “staggered exit” and a “graded” lifting of the lockdown. Several state governments have also put forward their suggestions on graded lifting, including running special trains, and allowing some industrial activity.

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The macroeconomic risks held forth by the Covid-19 outbreak would be severe for India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its monetary policy report, released on Thursday morning.

The impact of the pandemic came at a time when the economy was just at the turn of a recovery, “but Covid-19 now “hangs over the future, like a spectre,” it said. “While efforts are being mounted on a war footing to arrest its spread, Covid-19 would impact economic activity in India directly through domestic lockdown.”

The second-round effects would operate through a severe slowdown in global trade and growth. “More immediately, spillovers are being transmitted through finance and confidence channels to domestic financial markets.”

These would inevitably accentuate the growth slowdown, which started in the first quarter of the 2018-19 financial year and continued through the second half of 2019-20.

The outlook for 2020-21 growth was looking up before the Covid-19 scare. There was a bumper rabi harvest, and higher food prices during 2019-20 provided conducive conditions for the strengthening of rural demand. The transmission of policy rate cuts was also improving, with favourable implications for both consumption and investment demand. Reductions in the goods and services tax (GST) rates, corporation tax rate cuts in September 2019, and measures to boost rural and infrastructure spending were to have a positive impact at boosting domestic demand. But “the Covid-19 pandemic has drastically altered this outlook”, the monetary policy report said.

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Given the magnitude and scale of the current Covid-19 crisis and the need to reinforce simple hygiene habits among people, soap brands Dettol and Lifebuoy are finding common ground. Using different tools to put forth the point of cleanliness above all and the need to wash one’s hands well, the two are setting aside their age-old differences.

The two brands have been fighting a bitter battle over their ads in court for years, while one emphasises the efficacy of soap, the other pitches the potency of its handwash. In fact as recently as a month ago Hindustan Unilever (HUL) hauled RB Health (formerly Reckitt Benckiser) to the Bombay High Court over an ad spot.

 The ad for Dettol Handwash, made an oblique reference to Lifebuoy soap from HUL by showing a bar similar to the latter in terms of colour and proportion.

HUL’s contention in court was that not only had RB Health disparaged its brand, but was also sending a “wrong” message that suggested soap and water for hand hygiene was not as effective as handwash. RB clarified that it was emphasising on personal hygiene and restating the proven fact that liquid handwash should be preferred over bar soaps.

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Countries around the world have been announcing economic relief measures to help the corporate sector tide over the devastating impact the pandemic has had on business. However, an analysis of government initiatives across the globe shows that there is hardly any benefit for the tech sector, which some argue has been less hit relatively.

The strain is being felt alike in the United States’s Silicon Valley and India’s tech ecosystem, which is largely based in Bengaluru and the National Capital Region (NCR).

India’s Rs 1.7 trillion-rupee package leaves out any benefit for tech start-ups, save for a provision under which the government will contribute towards a company’s share of employee provident fund if it has a staff strength of less than 100, of which 90 per cent are earning less than Rs 15,000. Most don’t make the cut.

And in the US, the $377 billion loans (part of a $2-trillion relief plan) allocated to small businesses that employ less than 500 people, will not reach start-ups due to an “affiliate rules” clause. The clause says that all companies with minority investors have to count employees of fellow portfolio companies. This puts many venture-backed start-ups above the 500-person cut-off.

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Coronavirus India updates: India has entered Day-16 of its 21-Day nationwide lockdown period. According to news reports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief ministers will take a call on a lockdown extension on April 11. Covid-19 cases in India have risen to 5,360, and 164 people have died so far, according to Worldometer.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), one sick person could infect up to 406 others in 30 days if there is no lockdown. The ICMR study comes at a time when various state governments have apparently requested the Centre to extend the 21-day lockdown beyond April 14.

Globally, the coronavirus-related death toll has surpassed 82,143 and the number of infections has risen to 1,434,235.

Coronavirus world update: The total number of cases in the US has crossed 400,300, and death toll stands at 12,837. Italy has so far registered 135,586 confirmed cases of coronavirus, and it has had 17,127 fatalities, Spain’s total number of cases has shot up to 141,942, and France’s to 109,069.

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The entire world is currently worried about containing Covid-19. But at the same time, there is an entire ecosystem that is riding piggyback on this pandemic to carry out financial frauds. And these start right from creating a fake PM CARES link for donations, equated monthly instalment (EMI) moratorium frauds, and malware in real-time apps that provide details of Covid-19 patients near you. Tragically, people are falling for these because of the overall fear. For example, a 46-year-old lost more than Rs 1 lakh after downloading a real-time neighbour-hood patient detection app.

Murali Urs, country manager, India of Barracuda Networks, says: “As much of the world grapples with Covid-19, attackers are taking advan-tage of the widespread discussion in emails and across the web.”

Mobile apps: Currently, there are many virus-related apps, which are actually malware asking for various permissions and inadvertently gain access. Raman Singh, co-founder and CRO, CloudConnect Communications, says: “The department of telecommunications recently announced a list of websites around Covid-19 with high malicious content, including fake maps showing infected users. These require the users to download software for generating counterfeit maps, making it a security concern.” In short, beware of what you download, and more importantly, the permission you give.

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Microsoft Corporation has agreed to buy the domain corp.com from a private owner for an undisclosed sum, in an effort to prevent cybercriminals from abusing it owing to a problem known as “namespace collision”.

According to KrebsOnSecurity, a blog run by journalist Brian Krebs, Microsoft has bought the domain from its Wisconsin-based owner Mike O’Connor “in a bid to keep it out of the hands of those who might abuse its awesome power”.

 “We released a security advisory in June of 2009 and a security update that helps keep customers safe. In our ongoing commitment to customer security, we also acquired the Corp.com domain,” the company said in a statement.

Mike bought corp.com 26 years ago and hoped Microsoft would buy it someday because “hundreds of thousands of confused Windows PCs are constantly trying to share sensitive data with corp.com”.

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Chinese electronics maker OnePlus is gearing up to launch the OnePlus 8-series smartphones on April 14. Apart from the smartphones, the company will also introduce a fast-wireless charging cradle, confirming that the upcoming phones will be the first in OnePlus history to support wireless charging.

The company’s founder and CEO Pete Lau on Tuesday posted a tweet with a link to the blog post that covers in detail the wireless charging cradle. Named the Warp Charge 30 Wireless, it is a standee-based wireless charger that is touted to support 30W fast charging, which is equivalent to existing wire-based charging solution that comes with OnePlus smartphone.

 The Warp Charge 30 Wireless has a peak output of up to 30W, which ensures that your device battery charge goes from one per cent to 50 per cent in half an hour, said the company in a blog post. The statement also detailed how the company designed the fast-wireless charger.

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Behealthy: The UK government is facing calls to launch a healthy eating campaign to educate the nation on how food can boost the immune system during lockdown.

On Thursday, a group of leading food policy experts including Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University of London, wrote a letter to the environment secretary and Public Health England’s chief executive, citing evidence that a healthy diet could help fight off infections.

However, the letter states that this “vital” information is not being shared with the public.

“In addition to current government measures, clear and well-informed public guidance is required from the government on what is nutritionally necessary and sufficient to maintain UK food security and nutritional appropriateness,” the letter reads.

 Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is also urging people to maintain a healthy lifestyle while on lockdown, saying it could boost their chances of a fast recovery should they contract Covid-19.

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