India’s vaccine think-tank the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) meeting to discuss vaccination protocol for 5-12 year old kids remained inconclusive on Wednesday, according to sources.
The NTAGI members reviewed data from vaccine makers for 5-12 year old kids, but no decision on whether to expand the program to this younger group was taken.
Last month the regulator had approved two vaccines–Serum Institute’s Covovax and Biological E-made Corbevax–for use in 5-12-year-old children.
However the NTAGI decides on whether these would be used in India’s Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Volkswagen AG expects the protracted shortage of semiconductors to ease during the second half of the year and contribute to a surge in output, offsetting months of curtailments.
VW confirmed a projection that deliveries will rise by as much as 10% this year, it said Wednesday, even after production slumped by 12% during the first three months. Strong prices and demand for high-end premium cars helped to offset lower production, it said.
“The overall situation of the world — with Covid in China, the war in the Ukraine, semiconductors still in short supply — this is quite a challenging environment,” Chief Executive Officer Herbert Diess said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “I’m happy we could show resilience in the first quarter.”
The company warned its upbeat forecast hinged on further developments from the war in Ukraine and China’s strict coronavirus policies weighing on the global economy. The company has managed to navigate the shortages of chips and wire harnesses from suppliers in Ukraine by reallocating resources between its main markets in Europe, China and North and South America, it said.
The shares were almost unchanged in Frankfurt trading and have declined 16% since the start of the year.
So far, carmakers like Mercedes-Benz AG and BMW AG have come through the supply-chain crisis by raising sticker prices for new and used vehicles to offset the drop in production. Still, while demand remains strong, record price swings in commodity markets and the ongoing war in Ukraine are clouding the outlook.
While Volkswagen has halted its operations in Russia, it also had to temporarily shut some sites in Europe after suppliers of wire harnesses in Ukraine were unable to deliver components. As Europe weighs reducing its dependence on Russia for oil and natural gas, Diess acknowledged that Volkswagen was concerned with threats to the energy supply at its factories.
LIC public offer, the country’s biggest-ever IPO, on Wednesday opened for subscription for retail and institutional investors.
The government aims to generate about Rs 21,000 crore by diluting its 3.5 per cent stake in the insurance behemoth.
The LIC initial public offering (IPO), now open for retail and institutional investors, is set to close on May 9.
LIC has fixed the price band at Rs 902-949 per equity share for the issue. The offer includes a reservation for eligible employees and policyholders. The retail investors and eligible employees will get a discount of Rs 45 per equity share, and policyholders will get a discount of Rs 60 per equity share.
The share sale is through an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 22.13 crore equity shares. The shares are likely to be listed on May 17.
LIC has cornered a little over Rs 5,627 crore from anchor investors led primarily by domestic institutions. Anchor Investors (AIs) portion (5,92,96,853 equity shares) was subscribed at Rs 949 per equity share.
LIC reduced its IPO size to 3.5 per cent from 5 per cent decided earlier due to the prevailing market condition. Even after the reduced size of about Rs 20,557 crore, LIC IPO is going to be the biggest initial public offering ever in the country.
So far, the amount mobilised from the IPO of Paytm in 2021 was the largest ever at Rs 18,300 crore, followed by Coal India (2010) at nearly Rs 15,500 crore and Reliance Power (2008) at Rs 11,700 crore.
5G voice users will reach 2.5 billion globally by 2026, increasing from only 290 million in 2022, a new report showed on Wednesday.
The growth of 780 per cent will be driven by acceleration of 5G roll-outs following a slowing down during the pandemic, reports Juniper Research.
The report identified interactive calling as a key opportunity for operators who have launched 5G to provide more valuable voice services and compete with OTT voice apps.
Interactive calling leverages 5G networks to offer advanced voice calling functionality, including interactive content and screen-sharing, directly in the native calling app on smartphones, thus negating the need for third-party applications.
The research urged telecom network operators to capitalise on growth of Voice-over-5G users to create a new portfolio of voice services.
It recommended operators prioritise interactive calling, intelligent call routing, and integration of AI-based IVR (Interactive Voice Services) as these provide the most immediate return on investment of Voice-over-5G.
Current 4G voice technology, VoLTE (Voice-over-LTE), is not sufficient to support interactive calling.
Twitter is testing a new feature called ‘Twitter Circle’ where users can handpick a smaller crowd of 150 people with whom they want to share their tweets.
The new Twitter feature seems to be on a similar line to Instagram’s Close Friends feature, which allows selecting the audience for their stories.
Announcing the feature on Tuesday, Twitter said, “Some Tweets are for everyone and others are just for people you’ve picked.”
“We’re now testing Twitter Circle, which lets you add up to 150 people who can see your Tweets when you want to share with a smaller crowd. Some of you can create your own Twitter Circle beginning today!,” Twitter Safety tweeted.
Since the microblogging social media platform says that for now the new feature will be appearing for “Some of you”, so if you have it, then here is how it works:
First, you will choose upto 150 people irrespective of whether you follow them or not. Then while twitting anything selects the option ‘Twitter Circle’ to limit your tweet to only those people you have selected.
“The users can edit the list of people that they have selected in ‘Twitter Circle’ anytime they want. Also, people will not be notified if you remove them,” said the company.
Twitteratis who were able to access the feature have started sharing their feedback.
“At first I didn’t understand this, but this is actually a pretty cool feature, and I’ve felt the need for something like this lately,” tweeted a user.
Meanwhile, some have picked up on the announcement while sharing funny takes on it.
Asserting that India’s role in damaging the climate is negligible, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said Indians have had no role in harming the planet and the need of the hour is to promote ‘lifestyle for environment’.
Addressing the Indian community settled in Denmark during his visit to the Nordic nation, Modi also asked each one of them to convince at least their five non-Indian friends to visit India.
“The mindset of use and throw is negative for the planet. It is necessary to get out of consumption oriented approach and the need of the hour is to promote ‘LIFE —Lifestyle for Environment’.
India’s role in damaging the climate is negligible; Indians have had no role in damaging the planet,” Modi said.
The prime minister further said global climate action does not appear to be succeeding as yet.
The world appears to have stopped in its tracks but India has been delivering on its goals ahead of time because of efforts of every single Indian, Modi said.
Denmark has been with India in White revolution, now it is becoming a strong partner in the country’s green future, he added.
Modi invokes ‘FOMO’ to woo Danish firms
Invoking popular social media expression FOMO (fear of missing out) during his Denmark visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said those not investing in India will certainly miss out.
As Elon Musk prepares to hire a new CEO for Twitter once he takes over, current CEO Parag Agrawal is worried about the future of the micro-blogging platform, not his job.
Amid multiple reports that Musk has lined up a new CEO to replace him, Agrawal has already said that he took the job to change Twitter for the better, course correct where we need to, and strengthen the service.
“I feel for the current CEO of Twitter (@paraga) – he had all these plans and now lives with the same uncertainty of his whole team,” posted a Twitter user.
Agrawal replied: “Thank you but don’t feel for me. What matters most is the service and the people improving it”.
Earlier, responding to another user about him being fired, Agrawal posted: “Nope! we’re still here.”
Agrawal has said that “despite the noise” coming from Musk after his successful $44 billion takeover of the company, he and the entire team will continue to do the job to change Twitter for the better.
No-one exactly knows who is on Musk’s mind to take over as the new Twitter CEO, as there were reports circulating of Jack Dorsey returning at the helm.
“I saw you trending as Twitter CEO,” Musk posted on Tuesday to a user who said that Twitter is back to shadow-banning and removing followers of conservative accounts.
Twitter has re-suspended the accounts of two prominent conservative figures — MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and Dr Vladimir “Zev” Zelenko.
According to reports, one area where Musk may make job cuts is the company’s policy department.
Musk last week criticised Twitter’s policy head Vijaya Gadde over censoring exclusive stories related to US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s laptop in the wake of the Capitol Hill violence.
After an initial hiccup — marked by intense media glare– the world’s richest man known for his penchant for controversy, has finally locked the deal to purchase Twitter for about $44 billion.
The social media users — and the Twitter as a company too– are waiting with bated breath for the change of guard, and also the changes which Elon Musk will bring with him.
Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal may be a worried man now. And so are those floating spam bots. While he was executing the takeover, the Tesla and SpaceX chief had tweeted that he would defeat the spam bots on Twitter or ‘die trying’.
Musk has called spam bots the “single most annoying problem” on the social media platform.But, why have these bots earned Musk’s ire?
Have you seen Twitter accounts claiming that they have found a cure for Covid-19? Or, perhaps touting a get-rich-quick scheme powered by cryptocurrencies? Then you’ve possibly come across Twitter bots. These bots are used for trolling and spreading misinformation. The purpose behind their use can range from influencing national elections to spreading malware.
Twitter bots have earned favour with scammers as a tool that can infiltrate social media accounts and potentially even a user’s personal information.
The Netherlands consumer watchdog has rejected Apple’s proposed App Store changes to allow dating app developers to use third-party payment systems.
According to the Coalition for App Fairness, Apple’s latest proposal for dating-app providers deemed insufficient by the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) order.
“Apple’s latest proposal to comply with the Dutch ACM order, which requires the company to allow dating app developers to select the in-app or out-of-the-app payment solution of their choice for the apps they offer in the Dutch Store Front of the App Store, has once again been rejected,” the coalition said in a statement late on Monday.
The Dutch regulator has already charged Apple millions in fines and the tech giant could face further penalties.
Apple’s proposal, which came 10 weeks after it was required to pay 50 million euros in penalty fines, was rejected because it imposed unnecessary requirements creating friction with the aim to discourage dating app developers from taking advantage of the ACM order.
Meta (formerly Facebook) is working on four new virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) headsets that the company will release by 2024.
According to The Information, the aggressive timeline reflects Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s desire to advance his metaverse dream by getting more people to use VR devices.
“Meta is planning to release Project Cambria, a high-end VR and mixed-reality headset it is billing as a device for the future of work, around September, according to a person familiar with the matter,” the report said late on Monday.
A second version of Cambria, code-named Funston, is likely to be launched in 2024.
Project Cambria may cost around $799 — more that the $299/$399 price for Quest VR headsets.
The Cambria VR headset may have high-resolution image quality so that you can write and type emails within the VR environment.
Betting big on metaverse, Zuckerberg last week took a deep dive into his next investment priorities that will drive the growth for the company.
Zuckerberg said that the center-piece of the strategy is the social platform that they are starting to build with Horizon.
“We plan to launch a web version of Horizon later this year that will make it easy for people to step into metaverse experiences from a lot more platforms, even without needing a headset,” he emphasised during the company’s earnings call.
The Horizon Worlds social metaverse platform is currently available only on the company’s Quest VR headsets.
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