Digpu News

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], Oct 23: Despite depressed consumption sentiment, the top seven cities saw homes worth Rs 1.54 lakh crore sold in first three quarters of 2019, rising yearly by 16 per cent, Anarock Property Consultants said on Wednesday. The overall value of units sold in the corresponding period of 2018 was Rs 1.33 lakh crore. In volume terms, nearly 2.02 lakh units were sold across the top seven cities between January to September this year compared to 1.78 lakh units were sold in the year-ago period. “The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) topped the list with housing sales worth Rs 62,970 crore followed by Bengaluru with sales worth Rs 28,160 crore,” said  Anarock  Chairman Anuj Puri. While the MMR saw a yearly gain of 33 per cent in the overall housing sales value over Rs 47,240 crore in 2018, Bengaluru saw a dip of 7 per cent. Last year, the IT capital saw total housing sales worth Rs 30,310 crore during the same period, said Puri. Interestingly, Pune ...

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Oct 23: Two-and three-wheeler manufacturer  Bajaj Auto  on Wednesday reported 22 per cent year-on-year jump in its profit after tax to Rs 1,402 crore during the July to September (Q2) quarter of current financial year. In Q2 FY19, it had a profit of Rs 1,152 crore. The profitability in Q2 FY20 was aided by a tax expense reversal of Rs 182 crore due to the recent lowering of corporate tax rate. However, revenue from operations during Q2FY20 dropped by 4 per cent to Rs 7,707 crore from Rs 8,036 crore in the year-ago period due to ongoing slowdown in the automobile sector. The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 9 per cent to Rs 1,305 crore from Rs 1,441 crore while operating profit too dropped by 9 per cent to Rs 1,242 crore compared to Rs 1,369 crore in Q2 FY19. “Q2 was a difficult quarter for the domestic motorcycle industry,” the company said in a statement. In terms of volume, domestic motorcyc...

New Delhi [India], Oct 23: Consumer intelligence platform Affle India Ltd has filed 14 patents in Singapore and the United States. The four new patent applications in Singapore are in the areas of conversational marketing and vernacular and voice-based intelligence. Besides, the company has decided to expand the jurisdiction of its 10 patents earlier filed in India by filing in the patent office of the United States as well. The newly-filed four patents in Singapore power innovations in AI-driven intelligence and automation. The subject areas include monitoring and integration of intelligent conversational agents, switching between intelligent conversational agents, adoption of user learnings across vernacular contexts and integration of digital assistants with audio content. The earlier innovations initially filed for patents in India and now being pursued both in India and the United States largely covering various algorithms for ad fraud detection. These innovations inc...

Noida (Uttar Pradesh) [India], Oct 23: The Noida Authority has issued a recovery certificate against Supertech Ltd, saying real estate major defaulted on the payment of Rs 253 crore in principal amount for its Cape Town project in Sector 74 of Noida. The project, which started in 2010, is complete and residents have started moving in. The total dues to the authority are Rs 293 crore, including interest amount of Rs 40 crore. Officials said the authority sent several reminders to the real estate firm but the company showed no intent of paying up. Hence, the recovery certificate has been sent to the district administration. Supertech  representatives said the project was delayed due to a case before the National Green Tribunal and the company was assured by the Noida Authority that the interest amount will be reduced. However, no such relaxation came. Authorities can now recover the dues by seizing the property of Supertech. The group housing plot has 40 towers of 22 to 24 ...

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], Oct 23: A new market research study by Infosys Knowledge Institute has gathered empirical evidence to show how mass machine communication is expected to be the most transformed application with 5G and why data security emerges as the most critical barrier to its adoption. Infosys  surveyed 850 senior executives representing firms from 12 industries with annual revenues over one billion dollars across the United States, Europe, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. The research titled ‘State of 5G — The Road Ahead’ was aimed at gathering insights around the current state of 5G adoption and identifying current and future initiatives that can serve as a guide for business and technology leaders across enterprises in their 5G digital transformation journey. Key findings of the survey show that a staggering 90 per cent of the respondents are either actively investigating 5G business cases or defining various use cases and service portfolios with ecos...

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Oct 23:  Larsen & Toubro  Hydrocarbon Engineering (LTHE) said on Wednesday it has been awarded a mega project by  Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited  (HPCL). L&T describes a mega project with a value of over Rs 7,000 crore. The engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning contract is for setting up a residue upgradation facility at HPCL’s Vizag refinery. The RUF facility is licensed by Chevron Lummus Global with a capacity of 3.55 million tonnes per annum. The plant will enable HPCL to convert the heaviest oils into high-quality euro 6 diesel while simultaneously eliminating fuel oil production as well as increasing feedstock and product flexibility. The unit is being implemented for the first time in India. “L&T has a proven track record of over 25 years in the refinery and petrochemical sector. Bagging this contract from HPCL reinforces our integrated capabilities in executing critical plants for th...

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Oct 23: Equity benchmark indices remained flat on the bourses during early hours of Wednesday amid weak global cues as investors awaited a slew of corporate earnings of the second fiscal quarter. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 110 points at 39,073 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 48 points to 11,637. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with thin margins except for Nifty IT and pharma. Among stocks, private lenders  Yes Bank,   IndusInd Bank  and  Kotak Mahindra  Bank were down between 1.3 and 1.7 per cent. Adani Ports lost by 4.8 per cent, Tata Motors by 2.4 per cent and JSW Steel by 1.1 per cent. Infosys which had shed 16.65 per cent on Tuesday after a whistleblower complaint against unethical practices by certain senior management members of the firm, was trading at Rs 644.35 per share, up by 0.16 per cent. However, those which showed gains were  Bajaj Finserv , Bajaj...

New Delhi [India], October 23: Video creating and sharing app, TikTok, has surpassed top social networking apps including Instagram, Snapchat, Helo, and Twitter, in terms of downloads on the Google Play Store. The Sensor Tower Report 2019 ranked TikTok as the most downloaded social media app worldwide for September 2019 with close to 60 million installs, with downloads from India constituting 44 per cent of its total downloads, the official blog notes. Facebook was the second most installed app, with the highest installs from India at 23 per cent. Instagram, Likee, Snapchat were among the top five apps in terms of overall downloads. Source: ANI

New Delhi [India], October 23: Software and robotics platform GreyOrange announced the deployment of 12,000 picks per hour Sorter that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. The automated sorting solution, deployed for QuadX, a Philippines-based cross-border digital logistics and e-commerce payment processing service, is capable of sorting up to 1,50,000 packages in 12 hours, the official press release notes. The 12,000 per hour Sorter, combines two 6,000 per hour sorters, each with 11 arms and capable of sorting up to 480 and 240 unique destinations with and without pre-sorting, respectively. It is the QuadX’s first-ever installation of an automated sorting facility system. Source: ANI

Washington D.C [USA], October 23: Microsoft has revealed its latest VR project which takes the immersive experience to a park, literally. The DreamWalker VR system allows users to experience immersive experiences in open locations while traveling along a familiar route such as a walk to work, or other real-time environments, Engadget reports. It can also adapt to changes to the route made by the walker, making it possible to transform a simple walk to a grocery store into a walk through Times Square. Microsoft also announced other VR technologies including an eye-tracking system called Mise-Unseen and a new haptic controller called CapstanCrunch. Source: ANI

Wellington [New Zealand], October 23 : Google Duplex, the search giant’s AI-powered digital assistant that makes reservations on a user’s behalf is making its international debut in New Zealand. Starting this week, Google will start a pilot to confirm holiday hours for a small number of local businesses in New Zealand using its Duplex technology, the official blog notes. As part of the pilot program, businesses will receive an automated call from Google asking to confirm their hours for the upcoming Labour Day public holiday on October 28. The company will allow businesses to opt-out of the service. Source: ANI

California [USA], October 23: Researchers have built a new type of smartphone cover that looks and feels like a chunk of human flesh. You can stroke it, tickle it, pinch it, and it will know. Skin-On Interfaces is a research project that is modeled after the layers of human skin. It is made out of a peachy patch of silicone, molded with intricate wrinkles, and under the epidermis, is a grid of electrode wires that sense touch, Fast Company reports. The electrodes are the same electrodes found inside a smartphone touchscreen. However, because they are embedded with silicone, they can also measure squeezes and twists to really simulate the human skin feel. Source: ANI

California [USA], October 23 : If you are a Spotify Premium user, you are eligible for a free Google Home Mini smart speaker, even if you signed up last year. The music streaming service announced that it is bringing back its offer and both new and existing Premium Individual and Premium Family master account users can get the smart speaker for free till stocks last, starting today, the official blog notes. However, the offer is only applicable for users in the US who can claim a Google Home Mini by signing up through the official Spotify website. Source: ANI

New Delhi [India], Oct 23 : International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) on Oct 22, Tuesday announced new innovations to further advance its Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven intelligent cognitive approach — ‘Watson Anywhere’ — that will help several Indian enterprises scale their AI across any Cloud and wherever the data reside. Rob Thomas, General Manager, IBM Data and AI, said: “We collaborate with clients every day and around the world on their data and AI challenges, and this year we tackled one of the big drawbacks to scaling AI throughout the enterprise – vendor lock-in.” “When we introduced the ability to run Watson on any cloud, we opened up AI for clients in ways never imagined. Today, we pushed that even further adding even more capabilities to our Watson products running on Cloud Pak for Data,” added Rob. The American multinational information technology company also unveiled updates to key Watson tools and applications that are designed to give cli...

California [USA], Oct 18, 2019 Apple is long-rumoured to be working on a new-generation wireless AirPods and if the latest reports are anything to go by, the AirPods Pro may launch at the end of this month. China Economic Daily reports that the new-generation device, dubbed Apple AirPods Pro, will boast a design upgrade with a new in-ear form factor. It will also come with a noise reduction feature. Price of the high-end AirPods Pro is likely to exceed USD 260. Source: ANI

Vatican City, Oct 19, 2019 Vatican’s latest attempt at directing the millennials to the almighty, the eRosary wearable device, has been marred with a very Earthly problem- cybersecurity issues. As Cnet reports, security researcher Baptiste Robert found that the ‘Click to Pray’ eRosary app contains a bug that would have allowed a hacker to take over user’s account just by knowing the registered email address. Robert reached out to the Vatican and the issue has since been fixed. Source: ANI

California [USA], Oct 19, 2019 Motorola’s upcoming budget smartphone, Moto E6 Play, has shown up in latest leaks with an updated design. The renders showcase the Moto E6 Play featuring a slick new design with glossy backs, 18:9 display, micro USB charging port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, The Verge notes. In terms of camera, the Moto E6 Play could come with the same dual-camera setup as the E6 Plus variant launched last month.

California [USA], Oct 19, 2019 Kik Interactive may be shifting its focus to the cryptocurrency project but its messaging service will continue to operate under a new owner. Kik Messenger’s new owner, MediaLab, revealed that it will continue developing the app and focus on making it faster, less buggy, and devoid of spambots, Engadget reports. Kit Interactive announced its plans to ditch its messaging service last month in order to downsize and afford its court battle for its 2017 digital token sale. Source: ANI

California [USA], Oct 19, 2019 Apple is reportedly working on a wearable device that would fit on a finger and work as a smartwatch or health monitor. Based on the patent application filed by the iPhone maker with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the electronic ring computing device will feature a touchscreen, wireless transceiver, processor, sensors, and a rechargeable power source. The purported smart ring will be controlled by touch and gestures such as flicking between apps or menu. The patent was originally filed in 2015 and it is unclear if this will become a commercial Apple product. Source: ANI

California [USA], Oct 21, 2019 Last week, a severe security loophole was uncovered on the latest Google Pixel 4 flagship smartphone that allowed users to unlock the device even with eyes closed. Now, the company has said that it is working on an option for users to require their eyes to be open to unlock the phone. According to Engadget, Google will roll out the software update in the coming months. Until the fix is issued, concerned users can choose to activate PIN, pattern, or password-based unlocking system for their Pixel 4. Source: ANI

California [USA], October 21, 2019 Apps approved by Amazon and Google for their voice-controlled smart devices could allow spying on users, according to a security report. The smart speaker voice apps called Skills for Alexa and Actions on Google Home contain vulnerabilities that can be abused to listen in on users or voice-phish their passwords, Security Research Labs (SRLabs) notes in its official blog. The researchers found two possible hacking scenarios that allow a hacker to phish for sensitive information and eavesdrop on users, turning the assistants into ‘Smart Spies’. The security loopholes have been disclosed to Amazon and Google. Source: ANI

Seoul [South Korea], October 21, 2019 Samsung has announced that with Android 10 update, its smartphones will not support Linux on DeX beta program. DeX which turns Samsung phone into a PC, will not be supported using the open-source OS as a desktop environment for Linux, Engadget reports. It isn’t clear why Samsung is shutting down Linux support as it was the only way for fans to run the full-fledged Ubuntu Linux desktop OS on their phone. Meanwhile, Samsung recently enabled desktop-style Macs and Windows PCs spaces for DeX. Source: ANI

Shenzhen [China], October 21, 2019 Huawei may have introduced its own HarmonyOS, but the loss of Google’s apps is hurting the Chinese tech giant, a company executive told Financial Times. Joy Tan, Huawei US vice president of public affairs, told the publication that operating without core Google services such as Play Store or apps like Chrome and Maps, is the ‘most challenging part’, Cnet reported. Following the trade ban imposed by the US government, Huawei has been forced to use an open-source version of Google’s Android OS on its latest phones. Tan also said that it will be years before HarmonyOS will be able to match Google’s suite of Android services. Source: ANI

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Oct 23: GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday reported revenue for the quarter ended September 30 at Rs 873 crore with a year-on-year growth of 8 per cent. Profit after tax (PAT) including exceptional items came at Rs 503 crore, clocking a growth of 399 per cent. Exceptional items recognised in the quarter include divestment of the company’s land at Thane for a net consideration of Rs 552 crore. Managing Director A Vaidheesh said the company’s global innovation, performance and trust strategy guided investment of resources in focus therapies which is showing encouraging results with promoted brands recording over 20 per cent growth this quarter. “We continue to see the annualising effect of discontinued tail-end brands. Adjusting for this our underlying sales growth is 16 per cent supported by strong volume growth of 11 per cent,” he said in a statement. GSK Pharmaceuticals continues to drive improved operational efficiencies reflect...

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Oct 23 : Private lender Axis Bank on Tuesday reported a net loss of Rs 112 crore on a for the second quarter of current fiscal due to a one-time tax impact compared to a net profit of Rs 790 crore in the corresponding July to September quarter of previous fiscal. “The net loss was driven by a one-time tax impact of Rs 2,138 crore due to changes in the corporate tax rate. Ex of this extraordinary item, profit after tax would have been Rs 2,026 crore, up 157 per cent year-on-year,” it said in a statement. Profit before tax for Q2 FY20 stood at Rs 2,433 crore, up 109 per cent year-on-year. The bank’s total income rose to Rs 19,334 crore in Q2 of FY20 from Rs 15,959 crore in Q2 FY19. Net interest income grew by 17 per cent to Rs 6,102 crore from Rs 5,232 crore in Q2 FY19 while net interest margin for Q2 FY20 stood at 3.5 per cent. The bank showed improvement in asset quality with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) falling to 5.03 per cent of gross ad...

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Oct 22 : Oberoi Realty Ltd has recorded a consolidated revenue of Rs 505 crore during the second quarter of current fiscal as against Rs 618 crore in Q1 FY20. The consolidated profit before tax was Rs 192 crore as against Rs 216 crore for Q1 FY20. The consolidated profit after tax also fell to Rs 138 crore as against Rs 152 crore in the preceding quarter. The current sentiment in real estate sector across the country has plummeted in recent years despite a slew of measures by the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to boost liquidity and revive demand. “In the last quarter, the Modi 2.0 government has taken a series of significant measures to boost the economy such as incentives for affordable housing, interest rate reduction and a corporate tax cut,” said Chairman and Managing Director Vikas Oberoi. “We are confident that the government will continue to take similar requisite steps for the real estate sector to accelerate growth and...

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], Oct 23 : IT major Wipro Ltd said on Tuesday that it has been selected as a member of the global Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI) 2019 for the tenth year in succession. More than 2,000 companies were assessed from around the world and only 319 made it to the final DJSI World index for 2019-2020. Globally, Wipro ranks second in the IT services sector while it continues to be the leader in India. Launched in 2009, the S&P DJSI World is the gold standard for corporate sustainability. Inclusion in the index is based on rigorous analysis of a company’s performance on more than 20 primary indicators and 120 secondary indicators across a spectrum of economic, environmental, social and governance parameters. “We appreciate the comprehensive nature of assessment as it helps us constantly improve our standards in our sustainability journey,” said Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Abidali Neemuchwala. “The recognition is a reaffir...

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Oct 22 : Aditya Birla-led UltraTech Cement on Monday reported a consolidated profit after tax of Rs 579 crore during the July to September quarter of current financial year, up from Rs 356 crore in the same period of previous fiscal. While net sales totalled Rs 9,491 crore compared to Rs 9,088 crore in Q2 FY19, the profit before interest, depreciation and tax was Rs 2,072 crore vis-a-vis Rs 1,564 crore. During the quarter, UltraTech completed the acquisition of Century Cement by allotting 13.96 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each to shareholders on October 14. This makes UltraTech the third largest cement company in the world outside of China. It is also the only company to have a capacity of over 100 million tonnes in a single company. Its manufacturing capacity stands at 117.4 million tonnes per annum. In June 2017, the company had acquired 21.2 million tonnes capacity from Jaiprakash Associates. “On the basis of positive demand seen in north I...

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Oct 22 : Piramal Enterprises Ltd on Monday reported an 18 per cent jump in its net profit to Rs 569 crore for Q2 FY20 year-on-year and by 19 per cent to Rs 1,029 crore for H1 FY20. Consolidated revenues increased by 15 per cent to Rs 3,604 crore in the second quarter and by 18 per cent to Rs 7,110 crore for the first half. The company said that 38 per cent of its revenues were earned in foreign currency for H1. Profit before tax and exceptional items increased by 29 per cent year-on-year to Rs 733 crore for Q2 and by 25 per cent to Rs 1,338 crore for H1. “Our diversified business model has enabled us to deliver resilient performance during this quarter, despite continued liquidity tightening in the non-banking finance sector,” said Chairman Ajay Piramal. Financial services business received inflows of Rs 45,000 crore over the past year and brought down commercial paper borrowings by 92 per cent to Rs 1,480 crore, reflecting the quality of the ...

New Delhi [India], Oct 22 : The government on Monday fixed the issue price for sixth tranche of sovereign gold bonds at Rs 3,835 per gramme with settlement date as October 30. Investors applying online and making payment for the purchase through digital mode will get a discount of Rs 50 per gramme, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance. “For such investors, the issue price of gold bond will be Rs 3,785 per gramme of gold,” it said. The Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) Scheme 2019-20 Series VI will close for subscription on the day of Dhanteras October 25. The sovereign gold bond scheme was launched in November 2015 with an objective of reducing demand for physical gold and shifting a part of domestic savings, used for purchase of the yellow metal, into financial savings. Source: ANI

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Oct 22: Less than two weeks after introducing interconnect user charges (IUCs) for its subscribers, Reliance Jio on Monday unveiled four all-in-one plans with different validity benefits. On October 9, the world’s largest mobile data network said that calls made to other mobile operators will be charged at the prevailing IUC of 6 paise per minute through top-up vouchers till the time Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) abolishes IUC in line with its present regulation. This had made Jio’s subscription plans confusing for many users. The new plans offer ample data and call benefits with various validity periods. Under the Rs 222 plan, consumers will now get 2GB data per day along with free Jio-to-Jio calls and 100 SMSes per day. The validity stands at 28 days and Jio is bundling 1,000 minutes of IUC minutes for calls to other networks. Subscribers will also get a complimentary subscription to Jio apps. The Rs 333 plan is similar to the ...

Leading micro finance institution CreditAccess Grameen Ltd. said on Monday that it expanded its footprint in five new states during June to September. Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], Oct 22: Leading microfinance institution CreditAccess Grameen Ltd said on Monday that it expanded its footprint in five new states during June to September. After setting up operations in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, the company’s business activities have expanded to 887 branches with 9,817 employees spread across 210 districts in 13 states and union territory. “Our foray in five new states is in line with the company’s contiguous district-based expansion strategy with a strong rural focus,” said Managing Director and CEO Udaya Kumar Hebbar. “There is still significant scope for penetration of microfinance, specifically in deep rural and unbanked areas where low-income households lack access to easy and affordable credit,” he said in a statement. CreditAccess Grameen...

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], Oct 22 : Software major Infosys said on Tuesday it has engaged law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Company to conduct an independent investigation on two complaints by some employees about unethical measures to boost profits. An anonymous group calling itself ‘ethical employees’ alleged in a letter to the board of Infosys and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Salil Parekh and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Nilanjan Roy took disturbing unethical measures to boost profits and short-term revenue. The complainants said they have emails and voice recordings to substantiate the claims. “These complaints are being dealt with in an objective manner,” said Chairman of Infosys Ltd Nandan Nilekani. “The undated whistleblower complaint largely deals with allegations relating to the CEO’s international travel to the United States and Mumbai,” he said in a statement. Nilekani said the company’s ...