Tech giant Microsoft Thursday said Indian Railways will use its ‘Kaizala’ solution to connect employees across the country with quality healthcare facilities.

Microsoft had launched Kaizala – a productivity app – designed for the Indian market to enable large group communications and work management.

“Microsoft Kaizala app will enable serving and retired railway employees to avail healthcare services of 125 railway and 133 private recognised hospitals. The Kaizala group, managed by doctors from South Central Railways will be complemented with focused groups of doctors, paramedical staff and nurses,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Rajiv Kumar, Corporate Vice President (Experiences & Devices Group) at Microsoft, said Kaizala is a perfect fit for Indian Railways.

“We are optimistic that our experience of working with large scale customers across private and government sectors will help us serve millions of railway employees effectively,” he added.

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Cupertino-based tech giant Apple is reportedly launching a new 13-inch MacBook Pro next month with the codename J223.

According to a noted Apple leaker Jon Prosser, Apple will bring out a refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro “next month”.

The current 13-inch MacBook Pro still uses butterfly keyboards that can suffer from issues such as sticky or unresponsive keys after prolonged use, which prompted Apple to initiate a free repair program worldwide in 2018.

ALSO READ: Apple unveils 2020-edition of iPad Pro and MacBook Air: Price, specs, more

Apart from the keyboard, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is expected to get an upgraded processor in the form of one of Intel’s 10th-generation Ice Lake chips, built using a 10-nanometer architecture.

Last month, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo proposed there would be a replacement of the 13-inch MacBook Pro by one sporting a 14.1-inch Mini LED display.

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Facebook on Monday said it is providing anonymous data about users’ movements and relationships to help researchers better anticipate where the coronavirus might spread.

The leading online social network is augmenting maps on “population movement” with tools to glean insights in ways that still protect people’s privacy, according to a post by the Facebook head of health KX Jin and Laura McGorman of its Data for Good arm.

“Hospitals are working to get the right resources, and public health systems are looking to put the right guidelines in place,” Jin and McGorman said.

“To do that, they need better information on whether preventive measures are working and how the virus may spread.”

ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: India cases at 4,778, death toll 136, says Worldometer

Google last week announced a similar move, saying it would provide a snapshot of users’ location data around the world to help governments gauge the effectiveness of social distancing measures, implemented to stem the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tools that Facebook is providing for researchers include “co-location maps” to show probabilities of people in one specific place coming into contact with those in another, perhaps signaling where new Covid-19 cases might appear.

Data about “movement range” trends will show whether people are staying close to home as advised or venturing to other parts of town, potentially exacerbating coronavirus spread.

Facebook is also providing an index of friendships crossing state or national borders to allow epidemiologists to forecast how the virus might spread given where people might seek support or sanctuary.

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Coronavirus India update: The number of cases in India saw a dramatic increase of over 700 to 4,314 and death toll rose to 118, showed Worldometer data. Meanwhile, amid criticism for not reaching out to the Opposition even as the country faced a grave health crisis and a 21-day lockdown,

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called up several Opposition leaders, including Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, besides former prime ministers and presidents of the country.
 

Coronavirus world update: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to a hospital because of “persistent” symptoms of the coronavirus, a spokesman confirmed on Sunday. Globally, the death toll surpassed 69,503 and the number of infections rose to 1,275,146. The US death toll is nearing the 10,000-mark, even as the total number of cases in that country now stands at 336,670.

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Apple has said it will soon be producing one million face shields a week for medical workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.

The tech giant had already sourced 20 million surgical masks from around the world to help address a global shortage, chief executive Tim Cook said in a video posted to Twitter on Sunday. But the company had also designed its own transparent protective face shield and begun mass production at its factories in the US and China, he added.

  “We plan to ship over one million by the end of this week,” said Cook.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: India tally at 4,314; long war with Covid-19, says Modi

Initial distribution would be focused on the US but the company hoped to “quickly expand distribution” to other countries, he said.

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Non-profit organizations work tirelessly around the clock, around the country and around the world to furnish multi-faceted support to multitudes. They scrape, scrim and save every dive at their disposal to keep their operations afloat. But they don’t budget for something like a global pandemic, and when they’re faced with something of this scale and nature, their business models get turned on their heads.

Organizations like New Delhi-based Goonj, with over two decades of exemplary work under its belt – turning urban surplus into functional and helpful resources, and furnishing millions in rural areas with those resources, equipping them with the tools they need to overcome the obstacles they face with self-assurance and dignity – are starring down the barrel of a situation where they might be forced to change the way they operate. These organizations count on public support for their fundraising efforts to not only stay in business but also to continue to serve the communities during difficult times. Given the current trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic, non-profit organizations in India could find themselves in a situation similar to their beleaguered foreign counterparts – which are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with financial distress in the light of increased need and demand for their work and curtailed corporate and private charitable expenditure owing to sizable corporate losses. As Dan Corry, Chief Executive at New Philanthropy Capital, put it “Charities are mobilising to help thousands of people across the country but they are also crying out for more help and support”, “Their income is collapsing just as people’s need to use them starts to grow.”

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Electronics and mobile handset companies including Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo and others have extended warranties on their products to cushion customers, amid the nationwide lockdown imposed to combat the spread of coronavirus.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung has extended the standard warranty across its product portfolio till May 31, 2020 for all products whose warranty would have expired between March 20 and April 30, 2020.

OnePlus phone users, whose warranty on devices ends between March 1 to May 30, can avail extended warranty for their devices until May 31 as well.

Oppo is also following a similar extended timeline, and has initiated an online repair service that help customers with basic troubleshooting and software related issues.

Xiaomi, in response to an emailed query, said the company has received a few queries regarding the warranty period during the lockdown. “…we will ensure that we serve their requirements as soon as the situation enables us to,” a Xiaomi spokesperson said.

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Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Bharat Biotech said today that it was a part of an international collaboration of virologists and vaccine companies that has begun working on the development and testing CoroFlu, of a unique intranasal vaccine against Covid-19.

CoroFlu will build on the backbone of vaccine company FluGen’s flu vaccine candidate known as M2SR, which is a self-limiting version of the influenza virus that induces an immune response against the flu. FluGen’s lab will insert gene sequences from SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-10, into M2SR sot that the new vaccine will also induce immunity against the pathogen.

Sharing the details of the collaboration, Raches Ella, head, business development at Bharat Biotech said, “Bharat Biotech will manufacture the vaccine, conduct clinical trials, and prepare to produce almost 300 million does of vaccine for global distribution. Under the collaboration agreement, FluGen will transfer its existing manufacturing processes to Bharat Biotech to enable the vaccine for clinical trials.

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To ensure speedy detection of coronavirus cases, those residing in Covid-19 hotspots or areas which have reported large numbers of cases may have to undergo a rapid antibody blood test for the viral infection.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in its interim advisory has recommended the use of the rapid antibody test in the country’s coronavirus hotspots. The decision for the recommendation was taken at an emergency meeting of the National Task Force, formed to deal with the health crisis, held on Thursday.

“Population in hotspot areas may be tested using rapid antibody test. Antibody positives to be confirmed by RT-PCR (reverse transcription-PCR) using throat/nasal swab, and antibody negatives to be quarantined at home,” the ICMR said in its interim advisory.

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Global exams like TOEFL and GRE will be taken at home except in mainland China and Iran in view of the COVID-19 situation across the globe, according to the Educational Testing Service (ETS).

The tests had been suspended across the globe following coronavirus outbreak.

“At-home solutions will now be worldwide for test takers who have been affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Both TOEFL and GRE will be taken at home till the situation is conducive for tests to be conducted at centres,” Srikant Gopal, Executive Director of the TOEFL Program, told PTI.

“Precautions are being taken to ensure that the tests studentswilltake from home meet the highest standards for validity, reliability and security.These tests employ multiple best-in-classsecuritymeasures thatuse both real-time human monitoringandartificial intelligencetechnology,” he added.

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