Heena Sharma Blog

Monsoon lashes entire India 17 days ahead of its scheduled arrival: IMD Current Affairs News : The monsoon has covered the entire country, 17 days ahead of its normal onset date, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday. The monsoon reached Sriganganagar, its last outpost in the country located in west Rajasthan. Its normal date to reach Sriganganagar was July 15. "The monsoon today covered the entire country," Additional Director General Mritunjay Mohapatra said. The monsoon covers the entire country by July 1 but West Rajasthan gets rains later, he said. But this year, due to good easterly rains, it has taken the rains to the entire country early, Mohapatra added. The four-month monsoon season normally begins from June 1 and ends on September 30. This year, monsoon touched Kerala on May 29, three days ahead of its normal onset date of June 1. It battered the western coast in the first half of June. However, after a brief lull, i

Here we bring to you details of all matches in the Round of 16 and predict who might have an upper hand in the knockout stages. FIFA World Cup 2018 : World Cup 2018 has reached the knockout stages. After several closely-fought matches and quite a few shock results in Russia, it’s do-or-die time for the teams that have entered the Group of 16. The first match in this stage will be played on 30 June between France and Argentina, the two star-studded teams that have so far failed to impress. The last match in this phase will be played between Colombia and England on July 3. Just eight teams will advance to the next round (quarterfinals). The teams who have qualified: GROUP A: Uruguay & Russia GROUP B: Spain & Portugal GROUP C: France & Denmark GROUP D: Croatia & Argentina GROUP E: Brazil & Switzerland GROUP F: Sweden & Mexico GROUP G: Belgium & England GROUP H: Colombia & Japan MATCH SCHEDULE June 30 (Saturday)

Like this depiction or hate it, but you can't fault it for its pace or its ability to hold your attention Entertainment News : Sanju is writer, editor, director, Rajkumar Hirani’s fifth feature film and in four of these films, Abhijat Joshi has partnered him in writing the screenplay of the film. In one of their interviews, Hirani explained that they approached each scene with the LCD principle. A scene either ought to make you laugh, cry or should be dramatic enough for you to feel engaged with it. One could say that it is this principle and his editing skills which have made all his films special. They have been tightly scripted entertainers which have then found acceptance with the masses too. Sanju, his latest and promoted as a biopic based on the life of actor Sanjay Dutt (star of Hirani’s first two films as director) continues this tradition of adhering to the LCD principle and starts off on a dramatic note and then continues to weave laughter, tears and drama t

The third batch of 2,876 pilgrims left Jammu on Friday for the base camps in Kashmir Valley to pay obeisance at the shrine of Amarnath Current Affairs News : The Amarnath yatra to the cave shrine in south Kashmir was on Friday suspended from the Baltal route due to multiple landslides en route caused by heavy rainfall in the valley over the past two days. A police official said the Kali Mata Track has been damaged due to landslides at multiple places, which has forced suspension of the yatra from Baltal route. "Restoration work is going on but a slight drizzle is hampering restoration work," the official said. An official of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) said the yatra was going on through the Pahalgam route. Meanwhile, the third batch of 2,876 pilgrims left Jammu for the base camps in Kashmir Valley to pay obeisance at the shrine of Amarnath. The pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in a fleet of 90 vehicles under tight security at aro

Ghatkopar, where the crash occurred, is only a few kilometres from the domestic airport. The fear of crashes looms large in this area which has several high rises built in close proximity Current Affairs News : It had been just a few minutes that security guard Samsher Khan had stepped out to have tea at a local tea stall outside the Old Malik Estate construction site. What he saw from the distance, Khan says, he will never be able to come to terms with. “A huge plane came down crashing at the place I have been working for months. There was a deafening sound, almost like a blast – and in no time, the site caught fire,” Khan narrates. The King Air C90 12-seater aircraft had crashed into a construction sire in Jeev Daya lane near a telephone exchange in the busy suburban area in Ghatkopar, Mumbai. All four – Maria Kuber, the pilot in-charge, Pradip Rajput, her co-pilot, Manish Pandey, the aircraft technician and Surabhi, a mechanical engineer – on board were charred to deat

On September 29, 2016, the Indian Army announced that it attacked terrorists' camps along the Line of Control using ground forces Current Affairs News : Purported visuals of the Indian Army's cross-border operations against terrorists about two years ago were broadcast by television channels on Wednesday night. News channels said the grainy footage on air showed gunfire and explosions targeting enemy camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, an operation that came in retaliation to a terrorist strike on an Indian Army camp and is widely known as surgical strikes. The reports also said these videos, provided to TV channels by sources, were shot by drones using thermal imaging cameras. Business Standard could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos but an official who was directly in charge of the operation confirmed that they were real. “When the surgical strikes happened, my view was that the videos should have been released as proof. It is

The all-wheel drive petrol variant has five driving modes and is equipped with safety features such as eight airbags Companies News : German luxury car maker Audi on Thursday launched petrol variant of its popular SUV, Q5 with price starting at Rs 5.527 million (ex-showroom). The new variant is powered by a 2-litre petrol engine with a total output of 252 horse power and is mated with 7-speed transmission. It has a top speed of 237 km/hr and is capable of accelerating from 0-100 km/hr in 6.3 seconds, Audi India said in a statement. Audi India head Rahil Ansari said, "In line with our petrol strategy, we clearly want to increase the contribution of petrol variants in our total sales and with the launch of the Audi Q5 45 TFSI, our entire Q range is now available with petrol options." He further said the Audi Q5 is one of the bestselling models in its class in India and with the launch of the petrol variant, the model will further strengthen its foothold i

First unveiled at the Auto Expo 2018, the XPulse 200 adventurer tourer is a successor of Hero Impulse, a 150cc adventurer sports tourer that was launched in 2013, and later discontinued in 2017 Companies News : Hero Motocorp, a home-grown motorbike manufacturer, is gearing up to launch the XPulse 200 in India. Before the launch, however, the company has shared official images of the bike showcasing it features from different angles. First unveiled at the Auto Expo 2018, the adventurer tourer is a successor of Hero Impulse, a 150cc adventurer sports tourer that was launched in 2013, and later discontinued in 2017. In terms of design, the bike remains largely similar to its predecessor. However, it would come with some cosmetic upgrades to improve its utility as a touring off-road vehicle. While the design shows no major improvement, the technical specifications of the bike would receive a major boost in terms of engine and technology. The XPulse 200 would be powered by

The new video chat feature enables app users to chat and make video calls, even group video calls, from the Direct. Here is how the new features work                                  Technology News : Instagram, a photo-sharing social media platform owned by Facebook, on June 26 announced a new update that introduces the video chat feature and new camera effects for stories to the app. The new video chat feature enables app users to chat and make video calls, even group video calls, from the Direct. Here is how the new features work: Video chat Now, you can video chat in Instagram Direct, either with just one person or a group. To start a video chat, go to Direct inbox and open any message thread. Tap on the new camera icon, in the right corner, and your friends’ phones will ring. While on the video chat, you can minimise the video and multitask on Instagram to send messages and photos in Direct, browse feed and post a story. Instagram video chat The group video c

There are no reports of any casualty so far, police said Current Affairs News : A small chartered plane crashed in the thickly populated suburb of Ghatkopar in north-east Mumbai on Thursday, officials said. Eyewitnesses said the plane was seen hurtling down and crashed with a deafening roar before bursting into flames around 1.15 p.m. There were no reports of casualties as the crash - the cause of which is not known - occurred in the premises of a building under construction. Police, fire brigade and disaster management teams rushed to the spot, Akhilesh Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-7) told PTI. Four fire engines have reached the spot, a BMC official said. The chartered plane does not belong to the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Government, as earlier speculated. UP Principal Secretary of Information Avnish Awasthi told news agency ANI that the plane was sold to Mumbai's UY Aviation after it met with an accident in Allahabad. Read More     

Based on the APEX concept that the company showcased at the Mobile World Congress 2018, both Nex S and Nex A boast an all-screen front, dual rear cameras and a motorised pop-up selfie camera Technology News : Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo is gearing up to launch Vivo Nex S and Nex A in India on July 19. Based on the APEX concept that the company showcased at the Mobile World Congress 2018, both Nex S and Nex A boast an all-screen front, similar to the Xiaomi Mi Mix-series smartphones, dual rear cameras and a motorised pop-up selfie camera. The phones were recently launched in China at CNY 4,498 (around Rs 48,000) and CNY 3,898 (around Rs 40,000), respectively. While both Vivo Nex S and Nex A are identical in terms of design, they are powered by a different breed of processors and have different RAM and storage configurations. The Vivo Nex S is a flagship phone powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip (SoC), paired with 8GB of RAM. It comes in two storage

Higher proportion of Indian women who were pregnant were anaemic in 2016 (50%) when compared to China (32%), Bangladesh (46%), and Nepal (40%), according to data from the World Bank      Health News : Improved sanitation facilities and delayed pregnancy in India could reduce the rates of anaemia in pregnant women faster. The prevalence of anaemia in pregnant women in India (50%) is higher than all South Asian nations except Pakistan. A one-year increase in age at pregnancy between 2002-04 and 2012-13, and a 10% reduction in open defecation could each result in a 3.5- to 3.8-percentage point reduction in anaemia in pregnant women, found a March 2018 study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition. Anaemia–low blood haemoglobin levels–which impacts half of Indian women of reproductive age, increases the risk of maternal mortality, infection, preterm delivery, poor foetal and infant health, and puts children at lifelong risk of issues involving cognitive developme

Interestingly, nine out of every ten new internet users are exploring the online content only in their native language Current Affairs News : India is now adding close to 10 million daily active internet users every month, the highest rate of addition to the internet community anywhere in the world. Interestingly, nine out of every ten new internet users are exploring the online content only in their native language, heralding the dominance of a non-English internet user base in the country. "The volume of new internet users is growing in straight vertical line for the past 18-20 months after the data charges had come down to just about Rs 15-20 per gigabit following the entry of Reliance Jio from a level of as high as Rs 250 per 1 GB data in the past," Rajan Anand, internet technology company Google's vice president (south east Asia and India) said while disclosing these latest data points on Tuesday. Those who are accessing internet content in loca

Blockchain technology is based on distributed storage of data                 Technology News : With digitisation transforming the financial services sector in terms of speeding up transactions and fraud detection, the Blockchain technology holds an enormous promise of further strengthening the sector, a top official with The National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) has emphasised. "The NSE is experimenting with Blockchain technology, a NSE CTO Sankarson Banerjee told IANS on the sidelines of the fifth Cisco India Summit. The Blockchain technology is based on distributed storage of data. A Blockchain is a continuously growing list of records -- called blocks -- which are linked and secured using cryptography. "Blockchain, we know, is the best way to create an immutable record of things. That opens up a lot of use cases for asset verification - who owns the asset, where it comes from, things like that - or tracing the transaction of an asset," B

Zomato launched its online ordering and food delivery services in May 2015                    Companies News : Food ordering app Zomato on Wednesday said it has launched its restaurant reviews and ratings platform across 25 new cities in India, taking the number to 63 cities. Newly launched cities are Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayawada, Raipur, Madurai, Jodhpur, Thrissur, Ajmer, Manali, Alappuzha, Gorakhpur, Ooty, Kota, Manipal, Dharamshala, Jammu, Haridwar, Jalandhar, Rishikesh, Mussoorie, Udupi, Cuttack, Shimla, Palghat, Pushkar and Srinagar. "India continues to be our highest priority market and we will continue to expand and build further depth within the country. We are doing everything to take Zomato to more cities - to enable the growth of the restaurant industry and help our audience make better food choices," said Oytun Calapover, Global Head - Listings Business, Zomato. Zomato launched its online ordering and food delivery services in May 2015. G

The Indian cricket team have a full-strength squad to pick from with captain Virat Kohli back in the team after nursing a neck injury                                    Sports News : India will begin their preparation for England tour by playing two T20Is against Ireland. The first of the two T20Is matches will be played at Malahide Cricket Club Ground or The Village in Dublin on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. The Indian cricket team have a full-strength squad to pick from, with captain Virat Kohli back in the team after nursing a neck injury. The men in blue will use the two T20Is against Ireland to get acclimatised to the English conditions as they have struggled to counter the swing and overcast conditions in England in the past and there is no better way to prepare than get a few games under the belt, and there is no place more suitable than Ireland. However, the Ireland Cricket team are no pushovers and have T20 specialists like Paul Stirling and Kevin O’Brien in the team