Heena Sharma Blog

Amazon and Flipkart have cornered about three-quarters of the online Indian retail market, but other big players are getting aggressive Companies News : India's long-neglected retail market is turning into one of the world's hottest thanks to Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and a frenzy of billion-dollar dealmaking. Walmart Inc just wrapped up a $16 billion agreement for control of the country's leading e-commerce player, Flipkart Online Services Pvt, while Bezos' Amazon.com Inc negotiates deals with a large supermarket chain and an investment in a prominent retail conglomerate, according to local media. This week, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc agreed to acquire a stake in the company behind digital payments leader Paytm. Why the sudden interest in India? The new optimism is fueled by rising standards of living, increases in smartphone usage and cheap data plans that are boosting internet penetration across the nation. Perhaps most important, India ...

Struggling to cut down your body fat? Eating breakfast late, but having an early dinner may help, suggests a pilot study. Lifestyle-Fashion News : Struggling to cut down your body fat? Eating breakfast late, but having an early dinner may help, suggests a pilot study. The findings showed that people who delayed their breakfast by 90 minutes and had their dinner 90 minutes earlier than usual lost more than twice as much body fat on average. Further, those who changed their meal times ate less food overall, than those who did not, the researchers said. "Although this study is small, it has provided us with invaluable insight into how slight alterations to our meal times can have benefits to our bodies," said Jonathan Johnston, from the UK's University of Surrey. "Reduction in body fat lessens our chances of developing obesity and related diseases, so is vital in improving our overall health," he added.

The series includes entry-level Redmi 6A, budget-centric Redmi 6 and a premium budget offering the Redmi 6 Pro that were launched earlier this year in China Technology News : Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi is gearing up to launch the Redmi 6-series smartphone in India on September 5. The series includes entry-level Redmi 6A, budget-centric Redmi 6 and a premium budget offering the Redmi 6 Pro. Launched earlier this year in China, the Redmi 6A and Redmi 6 sport 18:9 aspect ratio screen. However, the Redmi 6 Pro would be the company’s first budget smartphone with a notch-based screen. Xiaomi Redmi 6A (1440 x 720) screen stretched in 18:9 aspect ratio. The dualSIM smartphone is powered by MediaTek Helio A22 system-on-chip (SoC), paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, expandable via microSD slot that supports card of up to 256GB capacity. For imaging, the phone features a 13-megapixel primary camera of f/2.2 aperture size on the back and a 5MP lens on the...

The number of persons killed in road accidents during 2017 was less than that of 2016 by 1.9 per cent Current Affairs News : Nearly three persons died every ten minutes in road accidents across India last year, a yet to be published official report revealed, a grave reminder of abysmal road safety standards in the country. The report, which is being prepared by the Transport Research Wing of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, also discovered that a total of 4,64,910 road accidents were reported by states and union territories in the calendar year 2017, claiming 1,47,913 lives and causing injuries to 4,70,975 persons. The subject of road safety is an important one and the delay in the passage of Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill 2016, which proposes hefty penalties ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 100,000. State governments can even increase the fine up to 10 times. Victims of hit-and-run cases would now be compensated for up to Rs one million in case of road acc...

Privacy violations under the DNA Bill cannot be addressed under the draft data protection bill Current Affairs News : Following close on the heels of the release of the draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 (PDP Bill) release, is the proposed DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018 (DNA Bill), which was introduced in parliament this monsoon session. This DNA Bill is the latest in a series that originated as the “DNA Profiling Bill” in 2007. Since then, the proposed law has gone through multiple iterations – with each version raising privacy concerns, such as the lack of adequate standards for consent, notice, retention and security of data. Chief amongst these privacy concerns is the fact that each of these iterations seems to grant near-sweeping powers to the state for the collection of DNA samples, with very few safeguards to protect citizens. Unfortunately, the present DNA Bill does little to address these concerns. For instance, the Bill...

Successor of the JioPhone, the JioPhone 2 was announced at the Reliance Industries' 41st Annual General Meeting, which was held in Mumbai on July 4 Technology News : Reliance Jio , a Mukesh Ambani-owned telecommunication service provider, is hosting sale of its JioPhone 2 today i.e. August 30. Successor of the JioPhone, the JioPhone 2 was announced at the Reliance Industries’ 41st Annual General Meeting, which was held in Mumbai on July 4. Reliance JioPhone 2: Price and sale details Priced at Rs 2,999, the JioPhone 2 is a 4G LTE-enabled feature phone that runs on KaiOS, which now supports popular social media and instant messaging apps. The phone will go on flash sale today at 12 noon on Jio online portal (jio.com). Flash sale is an inventory-based sale model in which the company put up a limited stock for sale. Such sales usually ends within first few seconds after they go live, depending on the volume of stock available in inventory. The model works on first...

The Indian side is being represented by a delegation of the Indian Water Commission led by Commissioner P K Saxena Current Affairs News : India and Pakistan on Wednesday commenced crucial talks on various aspects of the Indus Waters Treaty in Lahore, the first bilateral engagement since Prime Minister Imran Khan took office. The first round of the two-day meeting is being held at the National Engineering Services Pakistan. The water commissioners of Pakistan and India are required to meet twice a year and arrange technical visits to projects' sites and critical river head works, but Pakistan had been facing a lot of problems in timely meetings and visits. The Indian side is being represented by a delegation of the Indian Water Commission led by Commissioner P K Saxena whereas Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Meher Ali Shah and his delegation are representing Pakistan, it said. Both the countries are expected to present their reports during th...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday greeted all the sports enthusiasts on the occasion of National Sports Day. Sports News : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday greeted all the sports enthusiasts on the occasion of National Sports Day . The day is celebrated in India every year to mark the birth anniversary of Hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand who helped the nation win four Olympics gold medals in the years 1928, 1934 and 1936. Taking to twitter, the PM paid tribute to the exceptional hockey player on his 113th birth anniversary and urged people to give priority to sports-related activities. "Greetings to all sports enthusiasts on National Sports Day. Tributes to the phenomenal hockey player, Major Dhyan Chand Ji on his birth anniversary. Modi further praised all the athletes participating in the ongoing 18th edition of the Asian Games and those who brought laurels to the nation in the Commonwealth Games. "I salute all those who have rep...

The company is also going to offer consumers instant loans on its platforms and has partnered four banks Companies News : It’s official. Google will make its debut in India’s e-commerce and retail ecosystem this Diwali via its payments platform, Tez, rechristened Google Pay . From tying up with more than 2,000 e-commerce companies, including big names such as cab aggregator Uber and movie ticketing platform BookMyShow, to adding about 1.2 million offline merchants, including the likes of Big Bazaar, Google is on a hyperdrive to create an ecosystem where everything will hinge on the payments app. The company is also going to offer consumers instant loans on its platforms and has partnered four banks — HDFC, ICICI, Kotak Mahindra and Federal Bank. According to Google, a pre-approved loan limit for individuals, based on their bank account and Tez transaction history, will be set. The app’s users will get the money deposited directly into their bank accounts.

Congress also alleges PMO connived in Choksi's escape National News : The Congress party on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of behaving like a 'medieval monarch' in getting a failed Indian industrialist the contract to manufacture Rafale fighter jets. The Congress also alleged that Modi-led Prime Minister's Office (PMO) connived to help jeweller Mehul Choksi escape from India. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was yet to react to these allegations at the time of filing of this report. Congress spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy, who heads the subgroup of the party to study the Rafale fighter jet deal, alleged that the ' Rafale scam ' was a 'direct deal between PM Modi and the industrialist', whose only distinction is that he has 'spectacularly failed as an industrialist'. Over the past few days, Congress party leaders have fanned out across the country to hold press conferences on the 'Rafale scam'. Reddy allege...

A novel brain network that links pain in Parkinson's disease (PD) to a specific region of the brain has been revealed by scientists. Health News : A novel brain network that links pain in Parkinson's disease (PD) to a specific region of the brain has been revealed by scientists. The research has revealed why a subset of neurons in part of the brain called the subthalamic nucleus is a potential target for pain relief in PD, as well as other diseases such as dementia, motor neuron disease and Huntington's, and certain forms of a migraine. People with PD often report unexplained pain such as burning, stabbing, aching, itching or tingling sensations that are not directly related to their other PD symptoms. Treatment with deep brain stimulation in the subthalamic nucleus can help with the movement-related symptoms of PD, but recent studies have shown it also reduces pain. The way it does this, however, is currently unclear. Lead author Arnaud Pautrat sai...

The step comes after the Delhi High Court slammed the Health Ministry for not taking regulatory measures on the manufacture, import, sale and trading of e-cigarettes in the country Current Affairs News : In order to crack down on the artificial nicotine products, the government on Tuesday issued an advisory against the sale of vapes , e-cigarettes , e-nicotine flavoured hookah , heat-not-burn devices , e-sheesha and other similar devices in the country. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare advisory issued to all the states and Union Territories, manufacturing, distributing, trading, importing and advertising of any artificially produced nicotine products -- Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) -- will be brought to an end soon. The step comes after the Delhi High Court slammed the Health Ministry for not taking regulatory measures on the manufacture, import, sale and trading of e-cigarettes in the country. The Ministry stated that in ...

The raids were carried out as part of the probe into the violence at Maharashtra's Koregaon Bhima village following an event held in Pune last year, a senior police officer says Current Affairs News : Pune Police on Tuesday conducted searches at the residences of prominent activists across the country for their suspected Maoist links, a senior police officer said. The raids were carried out as part of the probe into the violence at Maharashtra's Koregaon Bhima village following an event held in Pune last year, he said. Searches are being carried out at the homes of Left wing activist and poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj in Chhattisgarh and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha, who lives in Delhi, he said. Rao's name had cropped up in a letter seized by the police during searches at the premises of one of the five people arrested in June in connection with ...

Listening to soothing, meditative yoga music before sleep may be good for the heart, according to a study by Indian researchers. National News : Listening to soothing, meditative yoga music before sleep may be good for the heart, according to a study by Indian researchers. "We use music therapy in our hospital and in this study we showed that yoga music has a beneficial impact on heart rate variability before sleeping," said study author Naresh Sen, a Consultant Cardiologist at HG SMS Hospital in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The study, presented at the ongoing European Society of Cardiology Congress 2018 in Germany, investigated the impact of listening to yoga music, which is a type of soothing or meditative music, before bedtime on heart rate variability. It included 149 healthy people who participated in three sessions on separate nights: yoga music before sleep at night; pop music with steady beats before sleep at night; and no music or silence before sleep...

Already, 750 million transactions have been made with $30 billion in the annual run rate of transaction value Companies News : Global tech giant Google on Tuesday said that by Diwali it plans to expand the operations of its payments platform, and would add major retail chains restaurants and cab aggregators to the platform. The tech giant has also re-branded ' Tez ' as 'Google Pay ' as part of its efforts to take the digital payments app to more online and retail merchants across the country. “Building for India has helped Google build for everyone all around the world... Our partnership with RailTel is an example where millions of people are accessing the Internet from hundreds of railway station in India. We have also taken Google Station to other countries like Indonesia, Nigeria, Thailand and Mexico," Google General Manager (Next Billion Users initiative and Payments) Caesar Sengupta said. Previously, Google had partnered with RailTel...

Happiness can prolong life in older adults, say scientists including one of Indian origin.The study, published in the journal Age and Ageing, used data for 4,478 participants of a survey to look at the association between happiness, assessed in the National News : Happiness can prolong life in older adults, say scientists including one of Indian origin. The study, published in the journal Age and Ageing, used data for 4,478 participants of a survey to look at the association between happiness, assessed in the year 2009, and subsequent likelihood of dying due to any cause, until December 31, 2015. "The findings indicate that even small increments in happiness may be beneficial to older people's longevity," said Rahul Malhotra, assistant professor at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. "Therefore individual-level activities as well as government policies and programmes that maintain or improve happiness or psychological well-being may contrib...

Realme 2 would sport a gradient design, similar to the first-generation device. However, compared to predecessor, it would feature a new format screen, better internals and an improved camera module Technology News : Realme , a sub-brand of Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo is launching the second iteration of its value-for-money smartphone in India today ( August 28). Named the Realme 2 , the smartphone would have a gradient design, similar to the first-generation device. However, compared to the predecessor, the upcoming smartphone will feature a new format screen, better internals and an improved camera module, according to a device listing page on the e-commerce platform Flipkart. The Realme 2 would sport a 6.2-inch HD+ resolution screen with a notch, accommodating a front camera, earpiece and sensors. On the back, the phone would get a dual camera module placed horizontally on top left centre, along with an LED flash. The back would also feature a fingerprint sens...

Here's the bad news: The roof adds 200 pounds to the superlight Pista, which you'll notice around corners Automobile News : Today on the Pebble Beach Golf Course in California, Ferrari unveiled the 50th convertible model it has ever made, the Ferrari 488 Pista Spider . This 488 Pista Spider is the continuation of Ferrari’s top-selling 488 line. It has the most powerful Ferrari V8 engine ever—720 horsepower on twin-turbos—and a unique barking rev sound thanks to the fact that it now packs a retractable rooftop. The Pista Spider can go to 62mph in 2.8 seconds; top speed is 211mph. (Pista is Italian for “track,” after all, which signifies just where this car is best suited to live.) But there’s not much to see here that is new from the 488 Pista, except for that folding roof. Besides the bold blue racing stripe down the front of the car, the most notable changes to this 488 Pista Spider are its new diamond-finish 20-inch alloy wheels with a novel 10-spoke st...

The Railway Recruitment Board has released the admit card for Assistant Loco Pilot (ALP) and Technician exam in its official website indianrailways.gov.in Jobs News : The Railway Recruitment Board has released the admit card for Assistant Loco Pilot (ALP) and Technician exam on its official website indianrailways.gov.in The Railway Recruitment Board has released the admit card for Assistant Loco Pilot (ALP) and Technician exam which is scheduled to be held on August 31, 2018. Candidates can download their admit cards starting today onwards until September 3, 2018. The admit card can be downloaded from the Indian Railways' official website-- indianrailways.gov.in or click here Steps to download the admit card for ALP and Technician examination are as follows: Step 1: Go to Indian Railways official website Step 2: Click on the Download RRB ALP admit card 2018 link Step 3: In the given box, enter your registration number and other required de...