Alongside this, road accidents are a significant worry.

Addressing this issue, the food delivery app Zomato has declared in New Delhi that it will provide helmets with Bluetooth functionality to all its delivery partners.

During the recent ‘India’s Emergency Heroes’ event on the ‘X’ platform, Zomato, in the presence of Nitin Gadkari, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India, bestowed first responder training upon 2,500+ delivery partners.

These helmets feature an AI-powered hybrid system integrating advanced technologies.

This includes helmet wear detection, monitoring the status of the chin strap lock, and preset conditions to ensure compliance.

How to active this helmet;
To activate the helmet, delivery partners simply need to power it on, connect it to the application, and secure it properly.

In the previous year, as part of their commitment to the safety of Zomato delivery partners, the company provided 250,000 wearable assets and various other tech gadgets.

The station will monitor weather and air quality within a five-mile radius of SOA’s Centre for Environment and Climate (CEC) located in the campus of the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), faculty of engineering and technology of SOA.

The initiative has been funded by US Consulate at Hyderabad and the principal investigators are Prof. Neal Phillip, Chairperson of Bronx Community College’s department of Chemistry, Earth Sciences and Environmental Sciences and Prof. Paramita Sen of the same department.

The project also involves Indian Initiative for Research and Education Collaboration of CUNY CREST Institute which was officially launched on September 9, 2022.

The weather station, part of the green initiative and fully runs on solar power, was inaugurated by Prof. Manas Kumar Mallick, Director of ITER in the presence of Sarat Chandra Sahu, Director of CEC, Prof. Phillip, Prof. Sen and Advisor to the US Consul General at Hyderabad Salil Kader.

Sahu said that the weather and air quality monitoring station will put the issue of climate and air quality at the forefront of sustainability discussions in the university and local circles. The data which will be generated continuously would be used by the faculty for climate research, he said adding it would also be incorporated into the curriculum.

The Indian Meteorological Department would also be encouraged to use the weather and air quality data generated by the station for societal good, Sahu said.

“Climate change and air quality had become two most important factors affecting mankind and our effort is to work with Indian institutions of higher education to make a difference,” Prof. Phillip said.

For the first time in global space science, lunar soil around Moon’s south pole, its temperature variation till 10 cm beneath the surface have been profiled.

ISRO shared a graph on the variation of Moon’s soil temperature at various depths.

“ChaSTE (Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment) measures the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole, to understand the thermal behaviour of the moon’s surface. It has a temperature probe equipped with a controlled penetration mechanism capable of reaching a depth of 10 cm beneath the surface. The probe is fitted with 10 individual temperature sensors,” ISRO said.

“The presented graph illustrates the temperature variations of the lunar surface/near-surface at various depths, as recorded during the probe’s penetration. This is the first such profile for the lunar south pole. Detailed observations are underway,” ISRO added on social media platform X.

Chandrayaan 3 has seven payloads — four on Vikram lander, two on Pragyan rover and one propulsion module payload – which will carry out different scientific experiments.

According to Union Minister of State for Space Dr Jitendra Singh, the main focus of the payloads is to provide an integrated assessment of the lunar surface features, including the thermal properties and surface elements of the lunar topsoil (regolith) as well as the plasma environment near the surface. It will also assess the lunar seismic activities and the impact of meteors on the lunar surface.

“All these are essential for the fundamental understanding of the lunar near-surface environment and for making future lunar habitat developments for explorations,” Dr Singh was quoted as saying by Department of Space.

Vikram lander is carrying Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA), ChaSTE, Langmuir Probe (RAMBHA-LP) and a laser retroreflector array payloads, while Pragyan rover has Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) payloads.

“All these payloads are planned for continuous operations from 24th August 2023 till end of the mission,” informed Dr Singh, who is also Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, and Atomic Energy.

ILSA will make continuous observations of the lunar seismic activities as well as the meteors impacting lunar surface.

“These measurements will help us plan for future habitat developments by understanding the frequency of potential hazards from meteor impacts and seismic activities,” said Dr Singh.

ChaSTE is mounted with 10 high-precision Thermal Sensors, which will dig into the moon’s top soil to study temperature variations, explained the minister.

“The low density and high thermal insulation of the regolith enhances its potential as a basic building block for future habitats while the assessment of the wide range of temperature variations are crucial for survivability,” Dr Singh elaborated.

Study of Moon’s near-surface plasma and its time variations will be carried out by the Langmuir probe. RAMBHA-LP is the first-ever in-situ observation of the near-surface plasma and its diurnal variation in higher lunar latitude, where the Sun elevation angle is less, said Dr Singh.

“These will help assess the lunar surface charging for future manned missions,” he said.

Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), which are mounted on Pragyan rover, will make the measurements of lunar surface elements at the stop-points (once in about 4.5 hours) along Rover track.

“These measurements can make inference on the potential surface elemental compositions which will be helpful for future self-sustaining habitat developments,” the minister said.

Chandrayaan-3 is also carrying Spectropolarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) onboard the Propulsion orbit of the Moon.

“It will help identify earth-like exoplanets in future. The data will be made available to the students and general public after the initial analysis and consolidations,” stated Dr Singh.

According to cybersecurity software company Trend Micro, both malware uses the same network infrastructure and certificates, indicating the same threat actors created them.

The malicious apps are distributed through a variety of channels, including social media, phishing websites, and shopping apps on Google Play.

CherryBlos malware was first seen spread in April 2023 in the form of an APK (Android package) file marketed on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube as AI tools or cryptocurrency miners.

The names used for the malicious APKs are GPTalk, Happy Miner, Robot999, and SynthNet, according to the report.

The downloaded malware CherryBlos (AndroidOS_CherryBlos.GCL), named because of the unique string used in its hijacking framework, can steal cryptocurrency wallet-related credentials, and replace victims’ addresses while they make withdrawals.

In addition, a more interesting feature can be enabled, which uses OCR to remove text from photos and images.

“Once granted, CherryBlos will perform the following two tasks — Read pictures from the external storage and use OCR to extract text from these pictures, and upload the OCR results to the C&C server at regular intervals,” the researchers wrote.

Moreover, another campaign that employed several fraudulent money-earning apps — first uploaded to Google Play in 2021 — involved the FakeTrade malware. 

Researchers discovered links to a Google Play campaign in which 31 scam apps known as “FakeTrade” used the same C2 network infrastructures and certifications as the CherryBlos apps, the report said.

These apps employ shopping themes or money-making entices to deceive users into watching commercials, committing to premium subscriptions, or topping up their in-app wallets while never allowing them to pay out the virtual prizes.

The applications have a similar interface and mostly target customers in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Uganda, and Mexico, with the majority of them appearing on Google Play between 2021 and 2022.

The microblogging platform’s on Monday showed the company’s new logo — a white ‘X’ in a black background.

Twitter owner Musk and its CEO Linda Yaccarino unveiled the logo for the social media network.

“X is here! Let’s do this,” tweeted Yaccarino, who also posted a picture of the logo projected on the company’s offices in San Francisco.

The new logo, part of a wider rebranding of the social media platform, is the latest change since Musk bought the social media platform for $44bn last October.

Musk had said in a series of tweets from his account on Sunday that he was looking to make the change worldwide as soon as possible.

“And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” read one of Musk’s posts.

Several users criticised the new logo as #GoodbyeTwitter trended on the platform.

Group calls already support up to 32 participants, but it was only possible to initiate a group call with up to 7 people, reports WABetaInfo.

However, with the new feature, beta users can now initiate group calls with up to 15 people.

Although it is possible to select up to 15 users for the initial call, group calls can still have up to 32 participants in total.

With this feature, the company aims to make it more convenient for users to pick more participants during the group call setup.

The ability to initiate group calls with up to 15 people is currently rolling out to some beta testers that install the latest update of WhatsApp beta for iOS from the TestFlight app, and is expected to roll out to more users over the coming days, the report said.

Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had announced the 32-person video calling feature for WhatsApp in November last year.

Earlier this month, it was reported that the messaging platform was rolling out a feature on iOS beta, which allows users to send high-quality videos.

While this feature preserves video dimensions, minor compression will still be applied to the video, thus sending videos in their original quality is not possible.

The default option will always be ‘Standard quality’ for all videos, therefore, users have to select the high-quality option every time they want to send a video with better quality.

A tag will be added to the message bubble when sending a video with the high-quality option to inform the recipient that the video is sent using this feature.

The company created an account ‘@TwitterHiring’ on the micro-blogging platform, but has not tweeted anything from it yet.

App researcher Nima Owji on Thursday posted a screenshot detailing the feature and said, “#Twitter will let verified organisations import all of their jobs to twitter by connecting a supported ATS or XML feed!”

“Connect a supported Applicant Tracking System or XML feed to add your jobs to twitter in minutes.”

According to the screenshot, the company describes the feature as “Twitter Hiring” which is a “free” feature for “verified organisations to post jobs on your company profile, and attract top talent to your open positions.”

Moreover, the verified organisations will be able to add up to five job positions to their profiles.

Twitter-owner Elon Musk hinted at this feature in May this year.

When a user had suggested a dating app ‘Tinder’, Musk replied, “Interesting idea, maybe jobs too.”

Media Company Workweek already got access to the new job postings feature, and its CEO Adam Ryan claims that the feature is included in the Rs 82,300 per month Verified for Organisations plan.

Although users are already able to post job positions on the micro-blogging platform via tweets, the new feature could help companies to easily reach potential candidates.

TechCrunch reported that Twitter’s first acquisition since Musk’s takeover was the job-matching tech startup Laskie in May. So, it’s possible that the acquisition assisted the micro-blogging platform to create and release the feature.

Mohammad “Mo” Gawdat, the former chief business officer of Google’s clandestine research-and-development arm X, stated that AI will usher in a “redesign of love and relationships” in which people will be unable to distinguish between real-life sexual encounters and those created artificially, reports New York Post.

In the “Impact Theory” podcast hosted by Tom Bilyeu on YouTube, Gawdat told humans will soon be able to simulate sex using virtual reality and augmented reality headsets like Apple’s Vision Pro or a Quest 3.

The headsets integrated with AI-powered bots will deceive people into thinking that the sex robot is real.

“Just think about all of the illusions that we’re now unable to decipher. But if we can convince you that this sex robot is alive, or that sex experience in a virtual reality headset or an augmented reality headset is alive, it’s real, then there you go,” Gawdat told Bilyeu.

He further said that technological advances would enable computer-backed systems to interface with the human brain and give it the impression of interacting with a peer.

“If we think a few years further and think of Neuralink and other ways of connecting directly to your nervous system, and why would you need another being in the first place?” the former Google exec said.

Referencing real-life human relationships, he said: “You know, that’s actually quite messy”.

Moreover, he stated that even the mental and emotional stimuli associated with intimacy can be artificially recreated, the report mentioned. “It’s all signals in your brain that you enjoy companionship, and sexuality, and — if you really want to take the magic out of it — it can be simulated,” Gawdat said.

In response to the raging debate over AI-powered bots being considered “sentient,” he said the issue does not matter if a human brain believes them to be real.

Apart from its messaging capabilities, one of the key factors contributing to its widespread adoption is the emphasis on privacy.

Many users find this aspect appealing, and it plays a vital role in their enjoyment of the WhatsApp experience.

What ‘Sapp provides a plethora of privacy protection options to ensure the confidentiality of user communications.

One of the most noteworthy features is its End-to-end Encryption, which safeguards personal calls and messages with multiple layers of protection.

Additionally, users can benefit from Chat Lock, Last Seen, and Online Presence settings, among others, to further enhance their privacy.

To activate Chat Lock, users can open any individual chat, access the chat’s profile section, and enable the feature.

Once activated, any unauthorized person attempting to access the locked chat will require a passcode, ensuring that only the intended recipient can read its contents.

Moreover, notifications for locked chats are displayed discreetly in the notification bar, reinforcing the overall privacy protection.

Furthermore, What Sapp users have the flexibility to manage their online presence, deciding whether to display their activity status, last seen, profile picture, and status updates.

This empowers users to customize their privacy settings according to their preferences.

As a part of its commitment to user data protection, What Sapp continuously introduces new privacy layers to fortify its platform.

These ongoing efforts ensure that What Sapp remains a reliable and secure messaging application for its vast user base.

As per the conditions, the interested private players or the leader of the consortium should have a minimum turnover of Rs 400 crore and be profitable. The respondents should be in operation for a period not less than seven years and have at least five years manufacturing experience, thus excluding new age rocket startups if interested to bid alone.

The Intellectual Property Rights of the SSLV configuration considered for transfer of technology shall continue to be owned by ISRO. However non-exclusive and non-transferable license of the rocket technology will be given to the selected party. The SSLV designed and developed by ISRO has a payload capacity of 500 kg and is powered by solid fuel.

As per IN-SPACe, the technology to make SSLV will be transferred only to Indian private industries. To the question how IN-SPACe is getting involved in the transfer of technology as the technology is owned by ISRO which already has a commercial arm by name NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL) a senior official of ISRO told IANS: “The contract will be with NSIL. INSPACe is facilitating the deal as per their mandate.”

The Indian space agency has flown the rocket twice with satellites. While the first mission was a failure, the second one was a success.

According to the IN-SPACe, globally, with the emergence of the commercial space sector, it is expected that more than 20,000 satellites will be launched in the coming decade, as pointed out by Euroconsult.

For India to have a significant share of the commercial launch services market, it is necessary that the aggregate lift off capacity of the nation be increased multifold, quickly.

To this end, there is a need to complement the launch capacity of ISRO by allowing Indian private players also to own and operate launch vehicles developed by ISRO.

According to IN-SPACe, the SSLV technology may be transferred to more than one player in the nation’s interest.

The demand for launch of small satellites to a low earth orbit (LEO) has been phenomenally increased over years and set to further grow and anticipate around 8-10 launches every year.

As per note calling for EoI, the technology to make SSLV will be transferred to Indian private industries who are keen on assimilating the technology, set up manufacturing and business operations and compete in the global satellite launch market in the small satellite segment.

The interested respondents will be shortlisted based on their experience in handling multi-disciplinary turn-key projects and are capable of absorbing SSLV including aerodynamics, structural design, auxiliary systems, propulsion technologies, avionics and others from ISRO.

The shortlisted respondents will then be interacting with ISRO and IN-SPACe for getting further insight of the technology transfer processes.

Subsequently a Request for Proposal (RFP) would be prepared and tendered to these shortlisted bidders seeking techno-commercial bids.

A pre-EoI conference will be held on August 2, 2023. The last date for submission of EoI is August 2023 and the screening and identifying of prospective bidders will be on September 23, 2023.

The minimum baseline cost for technology transfer shall include technology transfer cost and the handholding charges — for 24 months or realisation of two SSLV rockets whichever is earlier- which will be indicated in the RFP.

To this extent, the commercial bids in response to the RFP shall be above the minimum baseline cost and the selection criteria would be on the highest bidder basis.

The Transfer of Technology process shall be accomplished within a period of 24 months or realisation of two SSLV rockets whichever is earlier, the note calling for EoI said.