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Showing posts from March, 2021

Apple iPhone 12 Mini to Samsung Galaxy S20+: Best flagship smartphones under Rs 75,000 (April 2021)

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Once you cross the Rs 50,000 budget in India, the price of smartphones seems to grow exponentially. To complicate matters further, phones under Rs 50,000 these days pretty much offer everything one needs in a smartphone, right from the most powerful processors to sharp displays and excellent cameras. But need is one thing and want is another. So those who have some extra cash lying around and crave flagship phones from premium brands, here are your best options within a budget of Rs 75,000 in India that also offer good value for your money. Best phones to buy under Rs 75,000 in India Apple iPhone 12 Mini The smallest of the iPhone 12 series phones from Apple offers the best value for money of the lot. While the size of newer phones has been getting out of hand (figuratively and literally), the Apple iPhone 12 Mini is refreshingly compact. It is not just about a smaller-sized phone, but the availability of a proper flagship device in this form factor without missing out on any key f

Maundy Thursday 2021: Messages and quotes for the occasion

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Maundy Thursday is a part of the Holy Week and precedes Good Friday, the day when Christians remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is being observed on Thursday, 1 April this year. The term Maundy has Latin origins; it means mandatum which means commandment. The day commemorates the last supper of Jesus where he gave his disciples a new commandment which was to love one another. Here are some of the messages and quotes for WhatsApp status on Maundy Thursday 2021 which you can share with friends and family to observe the day: May we start this Maundy Thursday with Fasting and Prayers so that we can bring God’s mercy and forgiveness to all mankind. Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, this is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. Happy Holy Thursday. Today is Holy Thursday, we commemorate the Last Supper within hours Judas betrays Jesus. God bless you. When you face problems in life, don’t ask God to take them away. On this Ho

WTO says recovery of global trade in 2021 hinges on widespread COVID-19 vaccination

Global trade is set to grow by 8 percent in 2021, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said Wednesday, stressing that the route out of the COVID-19 crisis rested on the rapid rollout of vaccines. The predicted bounce-back in global merchandise trade by volume is slightly stronger than the WTO's previous 7.2 percent forecast issued in October. The organization said global trade shrank by 5.3 percent in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic shocked the world economy. "The strong rebound in global trade since the middle of last year has helped soften the blow of the pandemic for people, businesses and economies," said the WTO's new boss Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. The global trade body's assessment of COVID-19's impact on 2020 trade is nowhere near as bad as had been first predicted when the pandemic broke out. A year ago, the WTO had cautioned that global trade could plummet by a third in 2020 but gradually revised that estimate to an expected 9.2 percent drop. It said stron

Spotify Mixes: Spotify adds new artist, genre and decade mix to the mix, available for both free and premium users

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Popular music-streaming platform Spotify has launched a few new mix playlists. The new Spotify mixes will be an extension to Daily Mix, which is Spotify’s popular personalised playlist feature. It includes three new mix categories: artist mix, genre mix, and decade mix. The core idea of the mixes is to provide you with a playlist that includes elements of what you love and what Spotify thinks you will love. The new Spotify mixes are now available for both free and premium users globally. The new mixes can be found in the ‘Made for You’ section. The new Spotify Mixes will be based on your listening habits and include songs from your favourite artists. Based on this, it will add songs that might be liked by you. The playlists will be updated frequently, which will allow you to get acquainted with new songs based on your liking or stay connected to the ones you have started listening to recently. Gustav Söderström, Spotify’s Chief R&D Officer said in a blog post : “There isn’t jus

April Fool's Day: Google continues to pause pranks as the world still faces 'serious challenges' during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

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The year 2020 was a difficult year for almost the entire world, and a year later, we are still fighting the pandemic. Just like last year, out of respect for the ones fighting COVID-19, Google has decided not to make any April Fool's Day pranks this year as well. Google’s VP of global marketing, Marvin Chow revealed in an internal mail that the company will continue the “pause” of April Fool's Day pranks this year as “much of the world” is still facing “serious challenges” during the ongoing pandemic, according to a report by Business Insider . "As you will remember, last year we made the decision to pause our longstanding Google tradition of celebrating April Fools’ Day, out of respect for all those fighting COVID-19. With much of the world still grappling with serious challenges, we feel we should again pause the jokes for April Fools’ Day this year. Like we did last year, we should continue to find appropriate ways to bring moments of joy to our users throughout the y

Rodents, insects, cats are 'exotic' intruders, cost the economy $26.8 billion per year

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Disease-carrying mosquitoes, crop-ravaging rodents, forest-eating insects and even the domestic cat are all "exotic" intruders whose cost to humanity and the environment is vast and growing, according to a sweeping study published Wednesday. Researchers in France estimate that invasive species have cost nearly $1.3 trillion dollars to the global economy since 1970, an average of $26.8 billion per year. And they warn that this is likely an underestimate. In a study published in the journal Nature , scientists totted up the dizzying array of harmful effects from species carried between habitats, whether plants, insects, reptiles, birds, fish, molluscs, micro-organisms or mammals. Beyond the "phenomenal magnitude" of these costs, there is also sign of a steady upward trend since 1970, said lead author Christophe Diagne, of the Ecology, Systematics and Evolution laboratory at the University of Paris-Saclay. Most of the price tag is associated with the damage to ecosy

COVID-19 Vaccine for Everyone Above 45 Years Starts Today: How to Register via Aarogya Setu, CoWIN

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Both Co-WIN portal and Aarogya Setu platforms let a user register at least four family members (including the user) for the COVID-19 vaccine. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3fE2aDM

Google Has a New Scanner App Called Stack and It Comes With Few AI Tricks Up Its Sleeve

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The app also uses Google's language recognition and optical character recognition to name a document and suggest its correct category automatically. These categories are appropriately called "stacks." from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3upEzez

Facebook Steps up Efforts to Curb Hate Speech Amid Assembly Elections in Bengal, Tamil Nadu and More

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Facebook has drawn flak in the past for its handling of hate speech on the platform in the country. India is among the biggest markets for Facebook and its group companies, WhatsApp and Instagram. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3wku8uy

Twitter Expands 3D-Ehanced Twemoji Stickers, GIFs for Fleets Globally: How to Use

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Notably, the micro-blogging company acquired Chroma Labs last year, the team behind Chroma Stories. The app basically allowed users to add a range of colourful frames and filters to their Stories content. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3ubgvf1

Google Is Making A Big Change Dictating How Android Apps Behave, And It Is For The Better

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Th new policy comes into effect on May 5. Unless an app needs it for core features to work, it will not be able to access the apps installed on an Android phone from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3m83QXH

Siri Getting Two New Voices, Will No Longer Default to Female Voice: iOS 14.5 Beta Reveals

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Apple will use source talent recordings for the two new voices that are then run through Apple's Neural text to speech engine, making the voices flow more organically through phrases that are actually being generated on the fly. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2QWfI3r

Do not use 'miracle cure' ivermectin on COVID-19 patients says WHO

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The World Health Organization said Wednesday that ivermectin — touted by some on social media as a Covid-19 "miracle cure" — should not be used to treat coronavirus patients. In response to the swirl of claims around the cheap anti-parasite drug, the WHO issued guidelines saying ivermectin should only be used on Covid-19 patients in clinical trial settings. The UN health agency said there was a "very low certainty of evidence" on ivermectin's effects on mortality, hospital admission and getting rid of the virus from the body. Facebook posts and articles endorsing ivermectin have proliferated in Brazil, France, South Africa and South Korea as governments around the world struggle with vaccination programmes. The pandemic has prompted a surge in demand for the drug, particularly in Latin America. But in an update to its guidelines on Covid-19 therapeutics, the WHO said: "We recommend not to use ivermectin in patients with Covid-19 except in the context of

Russia registers Carnivak-Cov — first COVID-19 vaccine for animals to stop virus mutations

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Russia announced Wednesday it had registered what it said was the world's first coronavirus vaccine for animals, describing the step as important for disrupting virus mutations. It said mass production of the vaccine could begin in April. The agriculture oversight agency Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement that the vaccine called Carnivak-Cov had been tested since October on dogs, cats, mink, foxes and other animals and was proven to be effective. "All test animals that were vaccinated developed antibodies to coronavirus in 100 percent of cases," said Konstantin Savenkov, deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor. "It is the world's first and only product for preventing Covid-19 in animals." Rosselkhoznadzor said the development of its shot would help prevent mutations in animals and cited Denmark's decision to cull 15 million mink last year after some were found to be carrying a mutated virus variant. "The use of the vaccine, according to Russian scien

Tropics lost 12.2 million hectares of tree cover in 2020, largely due to agriculture

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An area of pristine rainforest the size of the Netherlands was burned or hacked down last year, as the destruction of the planet's tropical forests accelerated despite a global economic slowdown, according to research Wednesday. The worst losses were in Brazil, three times higher than the next highest country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a report from Global Forest Watch based on satellite data. Across the tropics, the study registered the destruction in 2020 of 4.2 million hectares (10.4 million acres) of primary forest — 12 percent higher than the year before. Ecosystems straddling the equator shelter abundant biodiversity and store vast amounts of carbon. In total, the tropics lost 12.2 million hectares of tree cover — including forests and plantations — last year, driven largely by agriculture. But researchers said extreme heat and drought also stoked huge fires that consumed swathes of forest across Australia, Siberia and deep into the Amazon. These los

YouTube is testing 'few new designs' that don't show the public dislike count on videos

Responding to creator feedback on "well-being and targeted dislike campaigns", YouTube says it is testing few new designs for the platform where the public dislike count would not show. The 'new designs' are still an experiment and will be visible to some creators and viewers over the coming weeks. Creators will still be able to see the total likes and dislike on a video in YouTube Studio. For viewers, the ones who are part of the experiment, there will be a dislike button, but it won't show the dislike counter. YouTube announced experimenting with the design on its official Twitter account. Creators, you'll still be able to see the exact number of likes and dislikes in YouTube Studio. For viewers, if you're in the experiment, you can still like or dislike a video to share feedback with creators and help tune the recommendations you see on YouTube. — YouTube (@YouTube) March 30, 2021 Last week, YouTube also announced  expanding the ‘Products in th

Explainer: Why is There a Global Chip Shortage and Why Should You Care?

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US President Joe Biden has sought $37 billion in funding for legislation to supercharge chip manufacturing in the country. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/39z4f03

Apple Is Bringing a Battery Recalibration Tool With iOS 14.5; Support Page Live

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When the recalibration is finished, maximum capacity percentage and peak performance capability data will be updated in the Settings app. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3whaDTv

Xiaomi unveils new 'Alive' logo and brand identity: All you need to know

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Xiaomi, on Tuesday, 30 March, unveiled a brand new dynamic logo with a corporate visual identity. With the logo, the Chinese tech giant aims at improving the brand’s awareness. The new corporate identity, with the design concept of “Alive”, will help in strengthening the company's foothold in the market, stated the press release. Alive interprets the brand's philosophy giving it a visual image full of life: people are alive. Since people have created technology, thus, technology is also alive. New year. New look. New us. Together with @haraken_tokyo , we've changed our logo! How do you like our new logo? #XiaomiMegaLaunch pic.twitter.com/bqi33ZC3vE — Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) March 30, 2021 "The concept of Alive is Xiaomi’s thinking and response to the turning point in the era of intelligent interconnectivity. As a technology company, Xiaomi is committed to bringing more innovations around the world and it is essential for the brand to grow along with its users,"

Redmi Note 10 Pro Max to go on sale today at 12 pm on Amazon and Mi.com

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Redmi Note 10 series debuted in India last week. The series includes three models Redmi Note 10 (Review) , Redmi Note 10 Pro and Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. The three models come with a Super AMOLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset and a quad rear camera setup. Redmi Note 10 Pro Max will go on sale today at 12 pm on Amazon and Mi.com. The smartphone comes with a 108 MP quad rear camera setup and a 5,020 mAh battery that comes with support for 33 W fast charging. (Also Read:  Redmi Note 10 Pro Max Vs Redmi Note 10 Pro Vs Redmi Note 10: What's the difference ) Redmi Note 10 Pro Max pricing, availability, sale offers Redmi Note 10 Pro Max will be available in three storage variants. The 6 GB RAM + 64 GB storage variant is priced at Rs 18,999, the 6 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant is priced at Rs 19,999 and 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant will cost you Rs 21,999. Be a part of the #108MP REVOLUTION! Grab your #RedmiNote10ProMax from https://t.co/cwYEXdVQIo , Mi Home and @Amazo

Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces are the Goldilocks zone of conversation – they’re just right

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One of biggest tech trends of 2021 was the skyrocketing popularity of the audio-only app Clubhouse . From 2,000 downloads in September 2020, the app’s monthly downloads jumped to 2.4 million in January 2021. In February 2021, Clubhouse crossed 10 million downloads globally on the Apple App Store . Unless you took social distancing a little too far and were living in a cave, you would know that Clubhouse is a social platform built around the “drop-in audio chat” model. It features ephemeral real-time voice conversations that any user can listen to and nobody can record. From Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah to Lindsay Lohan, Clubhouse has gathered a legion of high-profile users. What’s so attractive about audio-only conversation? For starters, the pandemic, the quarantine, the one-year of WFH, the hordes of people desperate for social connection, all of that together may have created the ideal conditions for the audio-only model to thrive. Stanford professor Jeremy Bailenson, fo

Astronauts can expect shrinking hearts, other changes from long stints in low gravity

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In space, your heart gets smaller. In a study published on Monday in the journal Circulation , scientists reported that the largest chamber of the heart of Scott Kelly, who spent nearly a year on the International Space Station in 2015 and 2016, shrank in mass by more than one-quarter by the time he returned to Earth. That just adds to the litany of transformations that the human body undergoes without the steady downward pull of gravity. Astronauts also tend to have swelled heads, squashed eyeballs, shriveled legs and bones that become more brittle. But a smaller heart did not appear to have any ill effects on Kelly. “He did remarkably well over one year,” said Dr. Benjamin D. Levine, the senior author of the Circulation paper and a professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas. “His heart adapted to the reduced gravity,” Levine said. “It didn’t become dysfunctional, the excess capacity didn’t get reduced

Killer T cells that 'remember' past infection boost immune response to COVID-19 variants: Study

The emergence of coronavirus variants has provoked concern about their impact on the effectiveness of vaccines, and whether people who were previously infected might be more susceptible to reinfection. But in welcome news, a new study on Tuesday showed that a key player in the immune response, called the "killer T cell," remained mostly unaffected. The finding is encouraging because although these white blood cells are not a first line defense against infection, they can help prevent severe disease. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University analyzed blood samples from 30 people who had contracted and recovered from COVID-19 prior to the emergence of variants. They published their findings in Open Forum Infectious Diseases , an Oxford University Press journal. The team wanted to know whether these cells, known by their technical name "CD8+ T cells," could still recognize three variants of SARS-CoV-2: B.1.1.7, first found in Britain

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G with Snapdragon 865 SoC launched in India at Rs 55,999

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Samsung has launched the Galaxy S20 FE 5G in India today at Rs 55,999. Last year in October, the company had launched Galaxy S20 FE (Review) at Rs 49,999. The new smartphone comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset, 120 Hz AMOLED display and offers 8 GB RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. Galaxy S20 FE 5G is now available for purchase in India on Samsung.com, Amazon.in, Samsung exclusive stores and leading retail outlets. Galaxy S20 FE 5G pricing, availability, sale offers Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G is priced at Rs 55,999. As a part of an introductory offer, the smartphone will be available at Rs 47,999. Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G specifications The smartphone features a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED Infinity O display that comes with a 120 Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1,080 x 2,400 pixels. The Galaxy S20 FE is powered by Snapdragon 865 chipset and offers 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage (expandable to 1 TB). It is likely to run on Android 11. For photography, Galaxy S20 FE 5G sports a

Google Collects 20 Times More Data From Android Than Apple Collects From iOS, Study Shows

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According to iOS and Android researcher, Douglas Leith from Trinity College in Ireland, smartphones running on either of the operating systems collect crucial metadata such as location, phone number, and local network details even when devices are on standby or just out-of-the-box. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3ry5HGl

Believe It Or Not, Xiaomi Has a New Logo and It Has Been Under Development Since 2017!

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Xiaomi considered several shapes for its logo. The company's CEO explained that the new logo is a part of a bigger overhaul of Xiaomi's "brand identity" overseen by Hara (the designer). from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3rCsXTq

Google Maps Gets Indoor AR Navigation, Weather and AQI Layers, & More Features: What's New

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Out of all the new features, the indoor Live View feature is available now on iOS and Android. The other features, including weather and air quality layers, will come to iOS and Android in the coming months. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/39pnwRF

LinkedIn Is the Latest Platform to Be Working on Clubhouse-Inspired Audio Chatroom

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LinkedIn's dedicated audio-based chatroom includes tools to join and leave the room, react to comments, and request to speak - similar to Clubhouse app. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3cACgis

Plastic pollution: How can chemical recycling technology help fix this global issue?

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It’s impossible to imagine everyday life without plastics. Lightweight, durable and cheap, these materials outperform many others in a diverse range of applications Plastics have brought about positive change in ways we often overlook. For example, the development of plastic components in electronic devices, such as the one you’re using to read this article, means we’ve never been more connected to the world around us. But our love of plastics has come at an environmental cost. It’s been estimated that of the 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic made between 1950 to 2015, over 75 percent is now waste, with 79 percent accumulating in either landfill or the natural environment. For scale, that’s more than all living things on Earth, and our oceans are drowning in plastic . Because of this, recent research efforts have focused on addressing these mounting environmental concerns. One of these is chemical recycling. The value of plastic To overcome the huge environmental concerns created

Virgin Galactic unveils second piloted spacecraft VSS Imagine, test flight slated for May 2021

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Virgin Galactic rolled out its newest spaceship Tuesday as the company looks to resume test flights in the coming months at its headquarters in the New Mexico desert. Company officials said it will likely be summer before the ship — designed and manufactured in California — undergoes glide flight testing at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. That will coincide with the final round of testing for the current generation of spacecraft, which will be the one that takes British billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson to the fringes of space later this year. CEO Michael Colglazier said the addition of the new ship marks the beginning of Virgin Galactic having a fleet that will one day be capable of ferrying paying customers and scientific payloads from spaceports around the globe. The company is still aiming for commercial operations to begin next year following testing and a few months of downtime for maintenance and other upgrades. Virgin Galactic has reached

Benefits of 'drastic' measures to address emissions, warming outweigh costs: economists

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The cost of global warming will far outweigh the cost of rapidly cutting greenhouse gas emissions, more than 700 economists from around the world said on Tuesday in an unprecedented call to climate action. A major international survey found that nearly three-quarters of the economists responding believed that “immediate and drastic” action was needed to limit the climate change fallout, warning that the costs of failing to slash carbon pollution would rapidly balloon to reach trillions of dollars every year. Nearly nine out of 10 economists said they believed climate change would worsen global inequality, and they were nearly unanimous in believing that the benefits of net-zero emissions by mid-century would vastly outweigh the costs. “People who spend their careers studying our economy are in widespread agreement that climate change will be expensive, potentially devastatingly so,” said Peter Howard, economics director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU School of Law, whic

Apple WWDC 2021 to kick off on 7 June: Expected to announce iOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and more

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Apple has announced that it will host an online-only  Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2021 from 7-11 June. According to the company, just like last year, the event will be free for all the developers. At WWDC 2021, Apple will "will offer unique insight into the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS". Apple has announced a Swiss Student Challenge for young developers. To participate in the challenge, students need to create an "interactive scene in Swift Playgrounds that can be experienced within three minutes". For the unversed, Swift Playgrounds is an app for iPad and Mac. This assignment needs to be submitted before 19 April. Apple WWDC 2021: What to expect At the event, Apple is likely to announce iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, macOS 12, and tvOS 15. This year, the company is also planning to announce hardware targeted for developers. As per a statement by Susan Prescott , Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations and Enterpri

Bharat Biotech, Biovet and Sapigen Biologix collaborate with CSIR-IICT on healthcare for humans, animals

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Vaccine maker Bharat Biotech, Biovet and Sapigen Biologix on Monday signed a collaborative research agreement with CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) here to collaborate on the development of novel platform technologies for biotherapeutics and vaccines to support affordable healthcare solutions for humans and animals. The Master Collaborative Agreement (MCA) was signed here by Bharat Biotech International, Biovet, Sapigen Biologix with the IICT in the presence of Bharat Biotech CMD Krishna Ella, CSIR DG Shekhar C Mande, IICT Director S Chandrasekhar and others. The collaborators would identify mutually interesting projects to pursue under the agreement, a CSIR-IICT release said. As a part of the MCA, the Industry collaborators shall provide necessary financial support to CSIR-IICT for developing key raw materials required by the collaborators, and also perform "in-vitro and in vivo studies" for further development of potential vaccine candidates and bio-the

Epic Games files complaint against Apple to UK watchdog for alleged 'monopolistic practices'

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Epic Games submitted a complaint Tuesday about Apple’s alleged “monopolistic practices” to the UK competition watchdog, which is investigating the iPhone maker over concerns it has a dominant position in app distribution. The move by the maker of the popular video game Fortnite is the latest salvo in its bitter battle over Apple’s App Store. Epic Games has also filed legal challenges in the United States and Australia, and an antitrust complaint in the European Union against Apple. The game-maker’s complaint accuses Apple of anti-competitive behaviour and setting strict rules on app distribution and payments in alleged violation of UK rules. Apple said it wasn’t surprised by Epic’s UK complaint “as we have seen them use the same playbook around the world.” The Competition and Markets Authority confirmed it received the complaint and said it would be considered as part of its investigation opened last month into whether Apple’s practices result in higher prices or less choice for co