‘Many employees not ready yet for full-time office’

HR CONCLAVE

‘Many employees not ready yet for full-time office’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:19.12.2021

The past oneand-a-half years have changed the way companies function and many employees don’t want to get back to the 9-to-5 work schedule yet. These were some of the key takeaways of discussions involving senior human resources (HR) leaders in a conclave organized on Saturday.

Vaibhav Kulkarni, a director of Ernst & Young, said that the concept of the brick and mortar office is slowly yielding way to the ‘work from anywhere’ culture.

“Majority of the companies today are working in the hybrid mode. Technology has facilitated the process by which performance and attendance can be monitored virtually,” Kulkarni said. “Some companies are also demarcating only a day or two for work at office when physical presence is required.” Kulkarni added: “With Omicron scare still around, it’s unlikely that we will see full offices any time soon.” The HR Leadership Conclave was organized by Shalby Hospitals in association with E&Y and PeopleStrong Technologies. It drew the HR heads of several companies of the city.

Babu Thomas, the CHRO of Shalby Hospitals, said that companies and employees —especially in the healthcare sector — needed each other more than ever. “Many tweaked rules, many introduced new concepts and incentives as a sign of appreciation for those who gave their all during the pandemic,” Thomas said. He said that employee well-being came into sharp focus.

“Many companies started helplines for employees to cope with mental health issues,” said Jitendra Nirwani from PeopleStrong Technologies. “In terms of trends, we saw many companies utilizing their in-house talent for emerging roles.”

Bizman duped of ₹1L by man posing as customer care executive of courier firm

Bizman duped of ₹1L by man posing as customer care executive of courier firm

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bhopal:  10.12.2021

A 35-year-old storekeeper was allegedly duped by unidentified accused posing as the customer care operator of a courier company. The storekeeper was looking for the customer care number of the courier company to track a package dispatched from Surat. He got a fake number online, and the fraudster sent him a link to transfer Rs 3. When the victim clicked on t he link and entered his bank details, the accused hacked his smartphone using a remote access application and siphoned of Rs 1.02 lakh from his two bank accounts in five minutes.

The victim approached the cyber-crime branch and filed a complaint. The cybercrime branch registered a Zero FIR and transferred the case diary to Kolar police station where a case was registered against unidentified accused on Wednesday.

Complainant Mukesh Sen, 35, a resident of Damkheda A-Sector in Kolar, works as a storekeeper in a lift company for the past 12 years. He told police that on November 30, he was waiting for a parcel sent from Surat through a courier service. The delivery was delayed so he searched for the courier agency customer care number to track the parcel.

Now, book an Uber on WhatsApp

GLOBAL-FIRST INTEGRATION

Now, book an Uber on WhatsApp

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:03.12.2021

Uber has partnered with WhatsApp to allow people to book a ride via Uber’s WhatsApp chatbot. The service is first being launched in India, and Lucknow will be the first city to experience it.

Nandini Maheshwari, senior director of business development in Uber Asia Pacific, said, “We want to make it as easy as possible for all Indians to take an Uber trip, and to do that we need to meet them on platforms they are comfortable with. We are thrilled at this global-first integration for Uber, and look forward to rolling it out across India.”

Ther service is built on WhatsApp Business Platform. Abhijit Bose, head of WhatsApp India, said the WhatsApp Business Platform has been an important lever for businesses that want to build a direct connect with their consumers. “The Uber experience on WhatsApp is simple, familiar, and relatable for users and has the potential to accelerate adoption of Uber with a new category of riders in India,” he said. With this integration, riders will no longer need to download or use the Uber app. From user registration to booking a ride, and getting a trip receipt will be managed within the WhatsApp chat interface.

WhatsApp users can book an Uber ride through three simple ways: messaging to Uber’s business account number; scanning a QR code; or clicking a link directly to open an Uber WhatsApp chat. They will then be asked to provide pickup and drop off locations. Users will receive upfront fare information and the driver’s expected time of arrival.

The companies said that riders will get the same safety features and insurance protections as those who book trips via the Uber app directly. Drivers on Uber’s platform will see no change in their experience with rides booked via WhatsApp.

How AI has given a boost to the chip design ecosystem

How AI has given a boost to the chip design ecosystem

Many companies and startups are building chips for specific AI use cases

Sujit.John@timesgroup.com

01.12.2021

Speech recognition had an error rate of 16% around the time Apple’s Siri was launched early last decade. Which means it wouldn’t understand many of the words/sentences we spoke to her, and so it provided no answers, or wrong answers. But as we spoke to her more, she learnt from it. Today, speech recognition systems have significantly lower error rates, they can even understand accents. But it has taken years to get there.

If you need to build great AI systems quickly, you need to throw a lot of data and compute power into it. More and more use cases are emerging where the AI system needs to instantaneously understand what’s going on to be able to respond to it. Braking by autonomous cars is a classic one.

Chips with AI acceleration, and chips that are designed for AI are coming in to deal with this. Semiconductor companies, startups, and even those like Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook, for whom AI is central to what they do, are all developing such chips. A lot of this work is happening in India, one of the world’s foremost chip design hubs.

Srikanth Velamakanni, cofounder & CEO of analytics company Fractal Analytics, says such chips are essential to deal with the massive volumes of data that many systems now generate. “One flight of an aircraft generates more data than Google generates in a day. Because it’s got so many sensors and such high velocity data coming through,” he says. It’s similar in factories and industrial equipment. “You have to comb through all this data in real-time to see what may be failing. Human beings are not capable of that. It also needs hybrid computing, a combination of edge and server. We are looking at Intel’s new processors with AI acceleration to see how much of a performance boost we can create in these kinds of applications,” he says.

Fractal is also looking at these chips for a solution they call Customer Genomics, which mines massive customer data, like in banks, and recommends the next best action for the customer.

Ruchir Dixit, India country manager at semiconductor tools maker Siemens EDA, says such analytics is possible to do in software, but it won’t be fast enough. Many have used GPUs, because they are designed for heavy-duty graphics processing, but even those fall short for emerging requirements. “A machine learning algorithm implemented on hardware is always orders of magnitude faster. When I launch a software programme on my laptop, it has to find time from the CPU, even as the CPU deals with other computations it may be involved in, like an on-going video call. But if you put it in hardware, it doesn’t care what else you are doing, it will do it immediately because that’s what it is designed to do,” he says.

Different AI functions may require their own different chips. Understanding images in a car, with its limited power and limited ability to absorb heat, may require a different AI chip from that in a factory, which has AC power coming in and where how much heat the hardware dissipates may not be a concern.

Alok Jain, VP of R&D at semiconductor tools company Cadence Design Systems, says there are very specific chips for speech recognition, for face recognition. “It all depends on the level of complexity, the level of cores that are required on the size of data available to you. It depends on how dependent the variables it is dealing with are – if they are dependent, the communication between the cores becomes important,” he says.

Given the variety of chips needed, even startups, he says, have found a great opportunity to serve various niches. SambaNova, Groq, Cerebras in the US are among them. In India, there are those like AlphaICs and QpiAI.

IBM recently announced the Telum processor, its first processor to contain on-chip acceleration for AI inferencing and targeted at the financial services industry. Google is known to be building a large team in India for its chip design.

Prakash Mallya, MD of Intel India, says the choice of whether to use a chip designed for a specific AI application, or a general purpose chip with AI acceleration will depend partly on software capabilities within the organisation. The former, he says, requires more software capabilities to program and to build the IT stack.

5 Apps to Customise YOUR ANDROID PHONE

TECHTONIC

5 Apps to Customise YOUR ANDROID PHONE

29.11.2021

All Android handsets run a customised version of the stock user interface. That said, you always have the choice to install a third-party ‘launcher’ from the Play Store to customise the home screen, its appearance, the way apps are launched, or just switch to a minimalistic UI. Ashutosh Desai recommends five Android launchers you should check out.

NOVA LAUNCHER | This app lets you choose how many apps can be fitted on the homescreen by adjusting the grid size, icon style, size, font, and more. You also get a ‘scrollable dock’, so you can have app shortcuts within your thumb’s reach without adding more homescreen pages. A backup option in Nova Launcher lets you save your customisations to a memory card or a preferred location. With this config file, you will be able to port your settings to a new phone easily.

Nova Launcher also has a paid version that unlocks features like the ability to hide apps, create folders within the app drawer and assign swipe actions for certain apps.

APEX LAUNCHER | Apex offers a similar set of features like the ability to customise the homescreen grid and adjust animation speed. However, its user interface is more intuitive. On first launch, it launches a wizard to help you set up basic features where you can choose how you prefer to browse the app drawer (horizontal or vertical), select the number of apps that should appear on the screen, and change UI transitions.

Apex Launcher also lets you create styles for app folders to help you differentiate them by colour. Its free version also includes the option to lock apps with a PIN or pattern. You also get a backup/restore option, so you don’t lose your Apex Launcher preferences.

MICROSOFT LAUNCHER | Instead of the usual Google apps and services, this launcher brings the Microsoft suite of products up front. If you are an Android phone owner who relies on Microsoft’s range of productivity apps — Outlook, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, etc — then you should give this launcher a whirl. You can even opt for a daily wallpaper, courtesy Bing.

If you sign in with your Microsoft ID then this launcher will sync with your calendar, email and documents to your phone. Even if you do not want to sign in, you can use the launcher while enjoying the benefits of being connected to select Microsoft services.

SQUARE HOME | Microsoft’s Windows Phone was discontinued but its user interface lives on. Square Home mimics the simple tiled Metro UI: You get one homescreen with shortcuts to frequently-used apps. They appear as large resizeable blocks that are easy to access and read. This makes it suitable for folk who find the Android UI cluttered or confusing.

Each tile can be configured to respond differently to a single tap or long-press, and display notifications like a ‘live tile’. Other options include colour themes, assign actions to the stock home keys, and more.

LAWNCHAIR 2 | Lawnchair 2 sports a clean, near-stock Android appearance but also packs in a number of features. You can use third-party icon packs from the Play Store, pick default colour accents, customise the app drawer — adjust opacity, icon size, column count, etc — and hide apps from plain view.

You can configure the dock to start web searches and access basic info like weather, time, battery status with a quick glance. It also includes gesture support, with the option to install plug-ins to create new shortcuts.

Note: You can always revert to the original launcher. Open Settings > App Management (or Apps) > Default Apps. Select “Home app” and choose the launcher you want to use. Removing a third-party launcher is as easy as uninstalling an app from the Play Store.

Jio joins Voda Idea & Airtel in raising tariffs

Jio joins Voda Idea & Airtel in raising tariffs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:29.11.2021

Consumer tariffs for over 90% of mobile customers in India will go up with Reliance Jio, the country’s largest operator, joining rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea in increasing rates.

The upward revision in consumer tariffs is happening after a period of nearly two years and comes as companies now prepare for the launch of 5G services, which will see massive investments into network, spectrum and new technologies.

Jio announced a hike of up to 21% in tariffs, a little lower to the changes made by its rivals and maintaining price competitiveness of its plans. Its entry plan will now cost Rs 91 against Rs 75 previously, but will still be Rs 8 cheaper than the price of Airtel and Vodafone.

“These plans will provide the best value in the industry (and) uphold the Jio promise of providing the best-quality service at the lowest price globally,” the company said while announcing that price revisions effective December 1.

The price hikes by telecom companies come nearly two months after the government had handed out a bailout-cum-revival package to the industry, aimed at improving financials and business fundamentals.

Airtel was the first to announce the change when on November 22 it spoke about raising tariffs across almost all the pre-paid price packs. Airtel had said the measure will help it improve profitability per customer, which is known as average revenue per user (ARPU) in telecom industry parlance.

“Airtel has always maintained that the mobile ARPU needs to be at Rs 200 and ultimately at Rs 300, so as to provide a reasonable return on capital that allows for a financially-healthy business model. We also believe that this level of ARPU will enable the substantial investments required in networks and spectrum,” the company had said.

Airtel’s ARPU was at Rs 153 in the second quarter, while Jio had an ARPU of Rs 144 in the same period, and Vodafone Idea Rs 109.

Offered easy money through an app? It could well be a trap

Offered easy money through an app? It could well be a trap

Multi-level marketing scams have donned an online avatar. Instead of pamphlets and posters, scammers use messages, audio and videos to trap people.

Published: 25th November 2021 06:58 AM 

EXPRESS ILLUSTRATION

By Gautham Selvarajan

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Multi-level marketing scams have donned an online avatar. Instead of pamphlets and posters, scammers use messages, audio and videos to trap people. For example, there are apps that promise high returns on investments. On registering, you get a referral code to share with your friends. And once they register, you get paid. Then they, in turn, invest and get referral codes to share.

These apps claim your investment goes towards a particular project, and the returns will be given to you. But that doesn’t always happen, explains Srikanth Lakshmanan, a researcher tracking digital payments and fraud. The scammers go to great lengths to make their companies appear legitimate. They pay the first level of people who join or sign up, and through them, attract others. But once more people join and invest, the returns stop, says Lakshmanan.

One such company used the name ‘World Bank’ to cheat people in the guise of angel funding. It created several groups on online messaging platforms, and uploaded pictures of people and pamphlets to convince victims. Once it was found to be a scam, the World Bank had to put out a warning to caution people, he points out.

Recently, a software engineer from Chennai invested in a similar app, received a referral code, and shared it with his friends, who then followed his footsteps. He received returns in his account on the app for each person who used his code. But when he sought to withdraw the money, the app and company stopped responding. Ultimately, he had to pay back the people he led to invest in the app.

Many such apps are available on online app stores, but most of the ones used by scammers can only be downloaded from the links they send, says a senior cyber crime officer, adding that the only way to be immune to such frauds is to stay aware. This means being cautious about apps and links that scammers may ask you to use.

And if you happen to fall prey to such frauds, report it immediately, says the officer. “The quicker you report it to the police, the easier it is to freeze the culprit’s account.” Once an issue is reported, network providers, banks, and cybercrime officials work together to crack the case. “Even if the culprit is not apprehended, at least there’s a chance of tracing the funds,” the officer adds.

(To report any kind of cyber crime, dial 155260)

After Airtel, Voda Idea raises call, data rates

After Airtel, Voda Idea raises call, data rates

24.11.2021

Beleaguered telecom operator Vodafone Idea on Tuesday announced an increase in mobile call and data tariffs across plans by 18-25% for prepaid customers with effect from November 25, the move coming a day after a similar move by Bharti Airtel. Vodafone Idea increased the minimum value of recharge by 25% for 28 days to Rs 99 from the existing Rs 79. Market leader Reliance Jio is yet to announce a revision in mobile rates, though analysts and the broader industry expects it to happen soon. TNN

Tamil Nadu lost 14 lakh mobile phone subscriptions in September

Tamil Nadu lost 14 lakh mobile phone subscriptions in September

People Find It Hard To Keep Multiple SIMs

Yogesh.Kabirdoss@timesgroup.com

Chennai:24.11.2021

Mobile phone subscriptions in Tamil Nadu fell by about 14 lakh in Tamil Nadu in September. Nationally, all states recorded a significant drop in two crore wireless subscriptions in just a month. The difficulty in sustaining multiple numbers due to mandatory recharge tariff and return to offices after the second wave of Covid-19 are attributed as key reasons by telecom experts. With telecom operators announcing a fresh hike in tariffs, the numbers are likely to crash further.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) latest report on telecom subscriptions shows a net reduction of 14 lakh wireless subscriptions in Tamil Nadu, from 8.29 crore in August to 8.15 crore in September. Tamil Nadu including the Chennai telecom circle lost the third highest number of wireless subscriptions after Mumbai and Kolkata telecom circles. Except for Bharti Airtel, all other telecom operators reported a decrease in customer base in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the highest declines in a single month in recent years.

This has also cut the teledensity by around 1%. Currently, Tamil Nadu has a teledensity of 107.2%; it was more than 108% in June. Teledensity is based on the number of telephone connections (fixed lines and mobile phone subscribers) per 100 inhabitants within a geographical area. Official telecom sector sources say a SIM card is deactivated if not recharged for three months continuously.

On the other hand, wireline subscriptions including fibrenet services in TN rose by 10,485 from August to September.

T Sadagopan, president of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Consumer Center, said retaining multiple numbers has become expensive because subscribers must spend a fixed amount every month. “So, people prefer one convenient number to avoid unnecessary spending on two SIM cards,” he added.

V K Sanjeevi, chief general manager of BSNL Chennai Telephones, said the decrease in wireless subscriptions was a regular phenomenon that would be compensated by the entry of new subscribers. “But, this time, a considerable number of subscriptions have fallen within a month across the networks and it needs to be studied.”

Mobile bills may rise as Airtel hikes tariffs, others set to follow

Mobile bills may rise as Airtel hikes tariffs, others set to follow

Pankaj.Doval@timesgroup.com

23.11.2021

Your mobile bills are set to go up. Almost two years after telecom companies hiked tariffs across the board, a fresh set of revisions are around the corner. Airtel, one of India’s oldest mobile companies and its second-largest operator, was the first to announce a hike running up to as much as 25%. The revision covers almost all the pre-paid price packs offered by it.

While Airtel’s hike, which will take the minimum entry tariff to ₹99 from the present ₹79, will be effective November 26, it is expected that the other two top operators — Vodafone Idea and the biggest player, Reliance Jio — will make a similar move. The profitability of telcos is under strech and fresh investments are required for upcoming 5G space and spectrum auctions.

The revisions come within months of the government handing out a mega bailout-cum-relief package to the industry to provide financial strength and profitability to the players. They also come as the country prepares its transition to the next-gen 5G technology and new wave of technologies built around internet of things (IoT), augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) and immersive visualisations and solutions.

No SMS or OTP, yet over ₹1L vanishes from bank account

No SMS or OTP, yet over ₹1L vanishes from bank account

Vadodara:  21.11.2021

A principal of a fire academy living in Godhra lost Rs 1.2 lakh from his bank account last month to cyber fraudsters.

The victim, Rohit Patel, who has an account in a private bank’s branch in Udalpur village of Desar taluka, lodged a complaint of cheating under the Information Technology Act on Friday at Desar police station.

Patel said that when he opened the mini-statement of his bank account on October 11, he found that Rs 1.2 lakh had been withdrawn from his account. Patel checked his bank balance as he had to transfer money to someone. Between October 6 and 11, money was transferred from his bank account to different accounts in four different banks. TNN

Now, break the chain of fake news, try Times Verified

TIMES VERIFIED

Now, break the chain of fake news, try Times Verified

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

21.11.2021

“Are newborn calves being slaughtered in order to produce Covaxin vaccine?”

“Please get your car refuelled. From tomorrow, the pumps have been instructed by police to give fuel only to those cars who have the red, green or yellow stickers.”

“4,000 MBBS students and 3,000 resident doctors have announced a strike against Maharashtra government for various issues.”

Social media, which connects and catalyses change, can also be a minefield of fake news and falsehoods. The messages listed above are but an example of the steady, constant stream of misinformation spreading through platforms and networks that link families, friends and associates. The undercurrent of anxiety and panic is palpable.

As changing dynamics pit media against emerging forms of communication, TOI has tried to meet the challenge by putting even greater emphasis on news verification. We don’t claim to have all the answers, but we do have rigorous systems in place to check information before we publish it. In case an error still slips through, we acknowledge it and are quick to set the record straight.

In keeping with the same spirit, Times Verified seeks to provide clarity and accuracy on vital issues through a collaborative effort with readers. We see this as a service that we wish to provide to our readers with a sense of utmost humility and responsibility. We will not declare that something is true or fake unless we are fully satisfied with our due diligence. And if we are not in a position to reach a definitive conclusiion, we will not shy away from saying so.

Since its launch in Mumbai and Pune, we have scrutinised close to 17,000 messages, sent by our readers on a dedicated line. They ranged from forwards about the demise of a decorated war veteran, to a cell phone number for sourcing drugs for Covid patients, and a purported announcement on another impending lockdown.

Our panel, comprising editors and reporters who cover various agencies and sectors, submitted the data, reports, statements and other details that came in for corroboration to experts and relevant authorities. Their inputs helped us get back to the reader with as clear a picture as possible.

Some of the messages analysed were downright absurd – “all citizens are entitled to ₹7,000 per week to stay at home to combat the virus” – but there were several that seemed to carry a ring of authenticity, providing information on apps offering vaccination slots or quoting statements attributed to people in important positions (“Mike Yeadon, former chief scientist at Pfizer, declares vaccine as a threat to human life”).

This is clearly the more insidious side of social media; half-truths dressed up to appear real. The challenge is to analyse such viral fakes and separate fact from fabrication. This is important because fake news can quite literally be lethal.

“The rapid spread of false information during a pandemic can cost people their lives,” says US-based physician Dr Seema Yasmin, whose recent book speaks about how misinformation spreads faster than microbes in times of crisis.

“In the last year we’ve seen people write Facebook posts from their hospital beds saying they didn’t believe the pandemic was real because of what they’d read on social media and now they were infected,” says Yasmin, stressing on the need to identify red flags in information packaged to be “very certain”.

With truth being the best, most effective vaccination to counter the epidemic of fake news, we urge you to forward all dubious, anxiety-causing messages to our expert panel. Let the green tick in the Times Verified logo counter the tyranny of the grey curved arrow of forwards.

In a first, IITs to hire quota-based faculty

In a first, IITs to hire quota-based faculty

Hemali.Chhapia@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:20.11.2021

For the first time since they were set up, IITs have placed advertisements for quota-based hiring of faculty members. The recruitment process, for which IITs had autonomy, has been changed at the behest of the Centre and new deadlines set.

Since 2019, the education ministry (then called HRD ministry) has been pushing centrally funded higher education institutions to apply the reservation policy in hiring. This time around, the IITs have deferred to the ministry. Advertisements are out for hiring SC/ST/OBC/ EWS faculty members at all institutes, including the IITs.

A letter issued by the education ministry in Augustend insists that reservation rules be adhered to and vacancies “especially in the scheduled caste, scheduled tribes and other backward classes” be filled by September 4, 2022.

Deadline being sent to IITs for first time

I ITs follow a year-long rolling recruitment process and never before has a deadline been sent by the ministry. The time limit poses difficulties due to the paucity of engineering doctoral candidates, more so from the SC/ST/OBC categories—a PhD is the minimum eligibility criterion. Usually in a year, the IITs in the metros manage to hire about 35 faculty members, 40 in a good year. “Filling up hundreds of vacancies will be impossible,” said a director.

While some institutes have advertised vacancies for a number of specific positions, others have enlisted all the departments where there is at least one unfilled post.

“Each IIT has followed its own process. We are all recruiting under the mission mode. But while IIT Bombay has advertised for 50 positions, IIT Madras has for 49. Others like IIT Delhi, Roorkee, Hyderabad, Kharagpur have enlisted departments where there are vacancies,” said a dean (faculty). All the advertisements encourage women from the disadvantaged background to also apply.

In June 2020, a committee set up to suggest implementation of reservation in central education institutes had said that the IITs are institutes of national importance and ought to be exempted from reservation. It said the matter of reservation be left to each IIT’s board and if quota in hiring was to be implemented, the posts of professor and assistant professor be exempted. The committee also suggested a programme at all IITs to attract quality candidates from the disadvantaged sections to boost PhD numbers.

Usually in a year, the IITs in the metros manage to hire about 35 faculty members

Cellphone fight with mom ends in suicide

Cellphone fight with mom ends in suicide

Monotosh Chakraborty & Tamaghna Banerjee

Kolkata:19.11.2021

A Class-X student of a Budge Budge school was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her room at Balurghata on Thursday after her mother had reportedly stopped her from taking her cellphone to school.

The eldest among three siblings, the girl used to attend her online classes on her mother’s cellphone as the parents would leave the phone with her when they went out to work. However, since the physical classes began from Tuesday, the mother insisted on taking her cellphone to work and didn’t allow the girl to keep it with her any more. This apparently led to a bitter fight with her mother on Wednesday.

The mother took away the cell phone from her on Wednesday and on Thursday she took the cellphone to her workplace. The 14-year-old girl was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her room by her younger brother after both the parents had left their home.

“My daughter had become addicted to the cellphone. As Madhyamik exam was due shortly and since the physical classes had begun, my wife had rebuked her on Wednesday for being hooked on to the cellphone and took it away from her. On Thursday, both of us had left for work by 6.15am. My son found her hanging around 7am,” said the father, who works at a local jute mill.

The incident has brought to focus the dangers associated with over-dependence on electronic gadgets, which children had been forced into since the start of the pandemic. “It was pretty much expected that once the pandemic and the lockdown restrictions ease down, the dangers of over-reliance on digital media will turn out to be a serious concern and tackling the withdrawal symptoms will become a major challenge. The entire problem has been triggered by unrestrained screen addiction,” said child psychologist Devika De.

Psychiatrist Siladitya Ray pointed out that the incident proves two things — how increased screen time along with phone addiction can create mental instability leading to impulsive behaviour and how modern technologies of distraction can tear apart the cohesive fabric of human society.

“The most reliable way to tackle this crisis is to teach children and help them to develop an insight into the core issue that excessive screen time leads to addictive behaviour which eventually might go out of hand and generate frustration and disgruntlement. However, parents need to be patient, said Ray.

TCS employees to be back in office from year-end

REDUCING WFH

TCS employees to be back in office from year-end

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru: 16.11.2021

TCS has asked employees to return to its offices across the country by the end of this year, officially ending the near-two-year work-from-home policy that companies were forced to adopt due to the pandemic.

Those who are working from their hometowns have already been asked to get back to their base locations. The pandemic resulted in lakhs of employees across IT and technology companies – especially in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Gurugram – to relocate to their home towns due to the flexible work options.

“At present, we have about 5% of our associates working from offices. Towards the end of CY’21, we will encourage our associates to return to offices, at least initially, before we switch to the 25/25 model. This will be done in a phased and flexible manner and will depend on respective team leaders & the requirements of each team/ project. The return to office will be a calibrated move taking employee safety into consideration,” the company said in a statement.

The 25/25 model is one where the company will seek to have no more than 25% of its employees work from office at any point by 2025. “We are committed to the 25/25 model but before transition to the model we need to start by getting people back to office and gradually evolve to 25/25,” the company said.

TCS also said that 70% of its workforce in India are fully vaccinated and more than 95% have received at least one dose. The company has over 5 lakh employees. Wipro's senior leadership has been back in office, twice a week, from September. These include delivery heads, function heads, GMs, VPs and above. Infosys has also asked its people to return to their base locations.

5 Gmail Add-ons to Boost Productivity

TECHTONIC

5 Gmail Add-ons to Boost Productivity

15.11.2021

Emails are an intrinsic part of our internet-dependent lives — for personal and official use — with Gmail being one of the most popular services around. Besides built-in spam filters and security features, you can install third-party ‘add-ons’ to extend the functionality of a Gmail inbox. They can be found at workspace.google.com/marketplace, only need to be installed once and appear in a sidebar whenever you sign in from a web browser. Ashutosh Desai recommends five such add-ons to improve productivity.

SCHEDULE MEETINGS You can set up meetings with friends, colleagues or clients from Gmail with a smart scheduling service like CalendarHero (calendarhero.com). It also integrates with Google Calendar, so you don’t end up double booking your day.

It uses AI to ‘learn’ your scheduling patterns. Here, you can create fixed time frames for video calls, voice calls, coffee meetups, etc, for a more organised day. Each meeting type has a web link so anybody can ‘self book’ appointments with you. CalendarHero lets you set a daily limit to meetings; it can also integrate with Zoom and Cisco Webex; meetings can be scheduled via Slack, MS Teams, FB Messenger, and more. You can even chat with a virtual assistant to know your schedule.

MAIL MERGE GMass (www.gmass.co),lets you send several personalised emails with just one template. When you compose a new email, click the ‘GMass’ button next to ‘Send’. Choose a template to view the syntax it uses for the recipient’s first and last name. Now use the same format when composing the email. GMass will replace it with the recipient’s first or last name, depending on what you selected in the configurations box.

This add-on also includes a scheduling feature that sends reminders after a specified interval. A free GMass account lets you send up to 50 messages per day.

SEND INVOICES If you are the proprietor of a small business or a freelancer then a free invoice generator like Bookipi (www.bookipi.com) will be a useful addition to your workflow. To use this add-on, you first need to register with Bookipi and design your invoice to include a logo, payment instructions, etc before sending them from Gmail.

When you reply to a client’s email or compose a message, you will be able generate an invoice without leaving the tab.

These invoices can be saved into categories like estimates, incidentals, arrears, etc; can include tax, discount, shipping, and a placeholder for signatures as well. Alternatively, you can also consider the Zoho Invoice add-on to email bills to customers.

ORGANISE EMAIL You can turn your inbox into Kanban-style boards to help you get more work done with Sortd (www.sortd.com), a task-oriented service that lets you assign emails to ‘buckets’ like To-Do, Planning, In Progress, Done, etc. It is ideal for project managers and event planners who need to separate important emails from all the noise.

The add-on lets you assign the email to specific boards while its Chrome extension — which also needs to be installed — toggles between the regular Gmail view and Kanban boards. When you switch to the latter, you will only see the emails you assigned to the various boards. You will see the inbox as a panel, but you can hide this as well so that you can focus on the work at hand and not get distracted by new email notifications.

TRACK EMAILS If your work has you sending several emails through the day to your customers, clients and vendors then it is necessary to know if your messages are actually being read or ignored. With the Mailtrack (mailtrack.io) add-on and its browser extension, you will receive alerts — as popups and as emails, depending on what you choose — whenever your emails are read.

You can also set your account to receive daily reports with analytics related to your read/unread emails, alerts for old emails and messages that have been opened several times over a short period of time.

Mailtrack will also notify you when an email you have received uses tracking features. Moreover, you can install this add-on on an Android handset and send tracked emails while being on the move.

Sim cards, digital wallets, bank accounts on sale for fraudsters’ use

Sim cards, digital wallets, bank accounts on sale for fraudsters’ use

Racket Thriving In Remote Areas Of North Gujarat

Ashish.Chauhan@timesgroup.com

Ahmedabad:15.11.2021

If you are not using your sim card or your bank account has been dormant, be warned as cyber crooks may have started using your phone number of bank account for illegal activities such as cheating or digital fraud.

City crime branch recently nabbed a 22-year-old man named Vijaysinh Jhala of Aniyol village of Talod taluka of Sabarkantha for allegedly selling simcards illegally.

During his questioning, it was revealed that bank accounts, digital wallets, OTT app access credentials were also being sold illegally.

These activities are flourishing in rural areas of north Gujarat— mainly Sabarkantha, Aravalli and Banaskantha districts — where gangs steal data from telecom companies or banks using the dark web and use it for illegal activities, said a police officer.

Jhala was nabbed on October 9 after police learned that he was about to deliver a couple of sim cards to certain person. When the cops caught him and investigated further, they found that the gang for which Jhala worked as a delivery man had around 20,000 simcards.

“Such gangs work in layers so they can evade the cops. The kingpin will operate various Telegrams groups using which he offers to sell sim cards, bank accounts or digital wallets. If a person shows interest, another set of people will check his credentials and if the person passes their background checks, they will send someone to deliver the simcards,” said a police officer.

In the case of digital wallets and bank account, the end user or the customer who buys them illegally will be given the user ID or passwords by gang members in such a way that the end user will not even know their name or identity.

Not just the end user or customer, the people working in the second or third layer will also not know who the kingpin is, said a police officer.

How to talk to the world through free translation apps

How to talk to the world through free translation apps

With Google and Apple revving their machine-learning engines in their translate apps, there’s a whole new world of communication possibilities available at the touch of your fingertips

11.11.2021

Third-party apps may be more indepth — but these freebies can provide a general sense of things and become learning aids. Here’s a quick tour:

Pick your translator

Google Translate is available on the web as a Chrome browser extension and as an Android and an iOS app. Apple released its Translate app last year for the iPhone and added it to the latest iOS 15 update for the iPad.

Google Translate supports more than 100 languages, while the version from Apple handles 11. Depending on the app and language, you may need an internet connection, unless the content is available to download. Audio pronunciation or other features may not be available for some languages. Read the app’s privacy policy if you have datasharing concerns.

Google Translate and Apple’s Translate are fairly easy to use. Just tap open the app and choose the languages you want to translate between. Enter text or say it aloud to get the translation through screen and speaker.

Both apps support a Conversation mode, where you can carry out a bilingual chat (in a supported language) with someone as the app automatically translates. And you can save favourite phrases for later reference in both apps.

See it and read it

Google Translate and the Google Lens visual search tool can use your phone’s camera to scan and translate the text on signs, in books, within photographs and in other printed matter. Just open the camera app, point it at the text you want to convert and tap the ‘Translate’ button.

Apple’s Live Text feature, new with iOS 15, offers similar abilities. Point the camera at text, and when a yellow frame appears around the words, tap the text icon in the bottomright corner of the screen. Select the words to convert and tap ‘Translate’ from the pop-up menu on the screen. You can translate text in photos the same way.

Translating in other apps

You’ll find that the baked-in powers of translation extend to other compatible apps, too. For example, in Google Translate, you can tap the Menu icon in the top-left corner, choose Settings and enable the ‘Tap to Translate’ function. When you find text that you want to convert, highlight the words and tap the ‘Translate’ option in the pop-up menu.

Apple’s Translate converts text in compatible apps on iOS devices (like the Safari browser) and can replace text you’ve typed with a translated version. Select the text you want to convert, and tap ‘Translate’ in the menu above. You may need to tap the arrow at the end of the menu to get to that option. When the full Translate menu appears, you can see and hear the translation and then choose one of several options, including ‘Replace with Translation’.

Use the Digital Assistant

Don’t forget that your virtual assistant can also be of service. The Google Assistant for Android and iOS has an interpreter mode to translate conversations in dozens of languages on demand. Just say something like, “Hey, Google, be my Mandarin interpreter,” and follow along. Apple’s Siri works with the Translate app to provide quick language tips as well; just say something like, “Hey, Siri, how do I say, ‘Where’s the nearest train station?’ in French?”

Typing in translation

To add an alternate-language keyboard in Google’s Gboard for Android or iOS, open an app that accepts text input (like your mail app), tap the Settings icon, then Languages and ‘Add Keyboard’ to select a language. You can tap the three-dot More icon on the Gboard menu to get to a Google Translate option for your typed text.

On an iPhone or iPad running iOS 15, open the Settings icon and choose General and then Keyboard. Select ‘Add New Keyboard’ and choose a language from the menu. Once you have added the new keyboard(s), you can switch between them by pressing the globe icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

Keep in mind that computer interpretation is not perfect. If a native speaker tells you the app’s translation is way off, visit the ‘Help & Feedback’ menu in the Google Translate settings or report it to Apple’s Translate Feedback page.

— THE NEW YORK TIMES

Gang hacks govt portals to issue fake birth, death certs

Gang hacks govt portals to issue fake birth, death certs

Chandigarh:04.11.2021

Haryana Police on Wednesday said it has arrested two people from Bihar who allegedly issued around 800 fake birth and death certificates by hacking into government websites of several states. The arrested have been identified as Santosh and Mantosh, residents of a village in Bihar's Samastipur. A team from the Cyber Crime police station, Karnal Range, arrested them from their village, Haryana Police said in a statement. Two laptops, two mobile phones and a CPU among other articles were recovered from their possession, police said.

“During interrogation, it was revealed that around 800 fake birth and death certificates have been issued by the accused by hacking into government websites in Haryana, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and many other states,” the statement read. The scam came to light after the principal medical officer at the Karnal Civil Hospital filed a complaint with the Haryana Police that login credentials of the hospital’s birth and death certificate registration unit had been compromised.

“Investigation also revealed that for the purpose of issuing fake certificates, the accused, along with their associates, had formed a WhatsApp group. As soon as a person came in contact with them for birth and death certificates, they would send an alert in the WhatsApp group and their accomplice in MP would hack the relevant website and post its link in the group,” the statement read.

The two arrested accused would then login to the website and issue a fake certificate in the client's name and forward the same to the client via WhatsApp, albeit with a fake signature. They charged a hefty sum, which clients would transfer into their bank accounts digitally. PTI

Mixed reality Apple device soon

Mixed reality Apple device soon

San Francisco: Tech giant Apple is reportedly planning to launch its long-rumored mixed-reality device as early as next year. In the latest edition of Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman claims Apple is planning to unleash its own pricey device with advanced chips, displays, sensor, and avatar-based features as early as next year, reports Apple Insider. The headset will include “both AR and VR capabilities, which could offer a “mixed reality experience that can handle games in high-quality virtual reality”. The upcoming headset would likely not be aimed at consumers, but instead be geared towards developers and business customers. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple’s headset will lead the “next wave of user interface revolution” and change market consensus that AR/VR devices are mainly for gaming.

incredible viewing

Maxima launches smartwatch

New Delhi: Popular watch manufacturer Maxima on Monday launched a new smartwatch Max Pro X6 in the Indian market. Maxima Max Pro X6 comes in multiple colours variants including black, silver, gold with peach strap, gold with black strap for Rs.3,999. The smartwatch features a Realtek RTL8762D chipset. It connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth v5.0 and is compatible with devices featuring iOS 9.0 or Android 5.0 and above. The watch features a 1.7-inch super bright HD screen for an incredible viewing experience, ensuring zero viewing problems, even on the sunniest of days, the company claims. It also has a Bluetooth calling feature and comes with an inbuilt mic and high-definition speaker.