VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

Wikipedia to charge Big Tech companies for leeching off its content:  Wikipedia   will begin charging the mega corporations for leeching off its user-generated content. The endeavor paves the way for Wikimedia Enterprises, which will tackle these business dealings.   The many instances of Big Tech tapping into Wikipedia's services include Google Search relying on excerpts from Wikipedia articles and linking to the same for user search queries. All AI-based assistants such as Google Assistant, Apple's Siri, and Amazon's Alexa heavily rely on the Wikipedia database for answering user queries for information. Wikimedia Enterprises will charge Big Tech for these services in the future.   At the outset,  Wikimedia Enterprises  will handle the sale/delivery of Wikipedia content to software giants such as Google, Apple, and Amazon. But people familiar with the matter have revealed that eventually smaller businesses might also come under its purview.   It is a...

Enact a law to make Facebook, Google, Apple to pay publishers for news: sushil Modi:  BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi   has urged the government to enact a law to make tech companies pay local news publishers for their content. He said traditional and print medias in the country are passing through their worst phase with deep financial crisis in recent history as ads have shifted to tech platforms of Facebook, Google and YouTube. The government should enact a law on the pattern of Australian Code," Modi further said.   Taking a cue from Australia, India should enact a law to make tech giants such as Facebook and Google pay local publishers of news content, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi demanded in  Rajya Sabha  on Wednesday. All the media fraternity has welcomed this statement of Sushil Modi.   Raising the issue through a Zero Hour mention, the  former deputy chief minister of Bihar  said, "The government must make Google, Facebook and YouTube pay ...

Public sector employees across India are protesting against privatisation:  Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman   had announced the proposal during her   Budget 2021   presentation. This also comes after bank unions observed a 2-day strike to protest the privatisation. Now LIC employees to go for strike on Mar 18 to protest against the government's proposal of disinvesting the insurer. of two public sector banks.   Banking services across India were affected over the past couple of days as public sector banks (PSBs) employees staged a two-day strike (March 15-16, 2021) to express displeasure over the government’s intent to privatise PSBs.   The impact was not only limited to customer services like cash withdrawals, cheque clearances, deposits, loan approvals and remittances but also government treasury operations.   But, that is not all. Employees of general insurance companies are undertaking a strike on March 17, and employees of  Life Insurance...

P K Sinha, the Principal Advisor PM Narendra Modi, has resigned:  P K Sinha, a retired IAS officer of 1977 batch , was appointed as Principal Advisor to the   Prime Minister   in September 2019, after a brief stint as an officer on special duty (OSD).   Sinha was made OSD to the prime minister in August 2019, after he had served four years as cabinet secretary. Sinha had also served as Secretary in the Ministry of Power.   Sinha has resigned just after a year and a half after of the appointment. Sources said, there is a possibility that Sinha could be considered by the  Narendra Modi government  for a constitutional post, such as lieutenant governor of Delhi or Puducherry, sources said, adding that he resigned citing “personal reasons”.... Read More

Ratan Tata buys stake in media company - Pritish Nandy Communications:  The Chairperson of Tata Trusts, Ratan Tata   has bought a stake in   Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC)   in his personal capacity. However, PNC did not disclose the amount of stake acquired by Ratan Tata.   The media company, PNC in an exchange filing said, "Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons and Chairman of Tata Trusts, has, in his personal capacity, acquired a stake in Pritish Nandy Communications Ltd through market purchases last week."   The company also said, "The filming of the popular series, declared last year as Amazon's most watched show out of India, got postponed because of restrictions induced by the pandemic and will now start under strict security protocols.... Read More

FIRE SALE IS A CYBER SECURITY PANDEMIC; UNSEEN, ALL PERVASIVE AND FATAL:  Fire Sale is an all-out cyberwarfare attack   that performs a three-stage systematic attack on a nation's computer infrastructure. Just because something has never happened does not mean that it would never happen. Commercial aircrafts being used as missiles hitting Twin Towers in a suicide attack is as weird as it can get. This was nearly twenty years back. The manner the digital technology has paced up in its negative avatar, can beat even the best of the sci-fi movies hollow. Whatever might be the enterprise we are in, we can afford to be oblivious of this fact, only at our own peril. 10 power assets, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu ports came under RedEcho cyberattack, should be taken as a timely warning for things which can go awry. The recent SolarWinds attack in the US on the government, its high profile agencies and several other private companies is a clear indication of the same trend.   A bit of a his...

Praveen Jonnalgadda designates as CIO at Commscope:  Praveen Jonnalgadda has recently been promoted as Chief Information Officer (CIO)   at Commscope.   Commscope  is a global company with operations in India as well and Praveen was key in opening its capability centre in Hyderabad in 2013, creating employment opportunities in Telangana. Praveen, who hails from Miryalaguda, holds a master’s degree and PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the department of Mathematics, Osmania University.   Praveen has over 20 years of experience in leading global teams in product engineering, software development, manufacturing, supply chain and information technology. At Commscope, he is responsible for implementing a digital strategy. He joined CommScope in 2008, having previously filled leadership roles at Ford Motor Company and Sun Microsystems. The CIO Executive Council named Praveen one of their 50 ‘Ones to Watch’ technology leaders in 2018.   “It’s a great responsibil...

Tech Mahindra acquires majority stake in Perigord Asset Holdings:  Tech Mahindra   has announced of acquiring 70% stake in   Perigord Asset Holdings (“Perigord”), a digital workflow and artwork, labelling and BPO services firm . This acquisition will help Tech Mahindra to augment expertise in the global pharmaceutical, healthcare and life science (HLS) sectors.   The strategic partnership will strengthen Tech Mahindra’s position as a leading digital transformation enabler in the artwork and packaging services space with an integrated platform and services portfolio. Additionally, Tech Mahindra will leverage Perigord’s expertise and offerings to extend capabilities towards delivering efficiency and automation levers, across sectors including consumer-packaged goods (CPG), medical devices and over the counter (OTC) products to enable growth and scalability in the future. The acquisition is a part of Tech Mahindra’s long-term growth plan to build presence across key mar...

WhatsApp CEO anxious about India's rush for homegrown apps like Koo:  WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart   expressed his worry about the Indian government's push for homegrown apps like   Koo   because it could force a ‘splinternet', a characterization where instead of having a global internet, countries have their own regulations. "We already have a splinternet with Mainland China and the rest of the world," Cathcart said on the Big Technology Podcast last week adding that "people benefit a lot from products that work globally."   Koo is claimed to be India's answer to Twitter for non-English users. It has picked a lot of steam in the country in the wake of the  Narendra Modi  government's ongoing war with the US-based micro-blogging platform. Many big-ticket politicians and celebrities have joined Koo in the wake of the 'standoff' giving it a major shot in the arm, something that saw it cross over 40 lakh users within no time. Koo aims to draw ...

Salesforce appoints Sanket Atal as Managing Director for India:  Salesforce, the global leader in CRM , today announced that   Sanket Atal will join the company as Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Sites (India) based in Bengaluru . Atal will be instrumental in driving the next phase of growth for Salesforce in India combining the best of design thinking and digital strategies to build breakthrough customer experiences and ways of working with specific focus on operational execution.   Salesforce has invested significantly in India over many years, adding more jobs, expanding its office space and partner ecosystem to support its growing customer base. India is home to the second highest Salesforce workforce outside of the US with over 4000 employees across Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Launched in 2016, the Salesforce Centre of Excellence (CoE) located in Hyderabad has been instrumental in fueling in...

Soon WhatsApp can stop working for iPhone's older iOS versions:  According to a report,   WhatsApp   will soon   stop working on iPhones   which are running on iOS 9. The Facebook-owned WhatApp has reportedly decided to drop support of Apple iPhones running on iOS 9. (iOS 14 is the latest version currently available for iPhones)   A report by WABetaInfo, a website that tracks changes and features on WhatsApp, said that the WhatsApp version 2.21.50 beta no longer supports  iPhones running iOS 9 . Thus only those iPhone users who are using iOS 10 or above will be able to use WhatsApp.   Though the messaging app has not updated the same information and even its FAQ page does not mention if there is a change in its supported operating systems. The WhatsApp tracking website also says that the page is yet to be updated.... Read More

European Banking Authority under the trap of cyber-attack:  A sophisticated attack on   Microsoft’s Exchange Server   are now being used in widespread attacks against thousands of organisations with potentially tens of thousands of organisations affected.   The report even coming from the  European Banking Authority (EBA)  has taken all email systems offline after being hit by a cyber-attack targeting their Microsoft Exchange Servers. The attack, which Microsoft has said started with a Chinese government-backed hacking group, has so far claimed at least 60,000 known victims globally, according a former senior U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation.   The widely used business email software is facing a global cybersecurity crisis, as hackers race to infect as many victims as possible before companies can secure their computer systems.   There are multiple hacking groups across the world exploiting vulnerabilities to backdoor unpatched se...

Facebook eradicates 915 malicious accounts and 606 fake accounts from Instagram:  February, the social media giant –   Facebook   removed 915 malicious accounts from its main app and 606 fake accounts from   Instagram . The accounts were involved in misleading users.   The  social media platform  has also removed 86 Pages and 21 Groups last month that are involved in coordinated inauthentic behaviour on behalf of a foreign or government actor and domestic bad actors.   The company said that it has removed 446 Facebook accounts, 4 Pages, 3 Groups and 2 Instagram accounts that originated in Iran and targeted primarily Iraq, and to a lesser extent Israel, the UK, and Afghanistan.   "Our investigation found links to individuals in Tehran. We found this network after reviewing public reporting about a handful of its accounts focused on Israel. Our internal investigation uncovered the broader network," the company said in a statement.   530 In...

Biden admin to set up task force for Microsoft hack linked to China:  According to sources,   President Joe Biden`s administration   is expected to put together a task force to deal with major cyber intrusions that   Microsoft   said this week were linked to China as relations between the two -- Washington and Beijing -- continues to spiral downwards. It has been reported that there are an estimated 30,000 affected customers in the US and 250,000 globally, though those numbers are expected to increase.   A White House official said, "We are undertaking a whole of government response to assess and address the impact. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an emergency directive to agencies and we`re now working with our partners and looking closely at the next steps we need to take. This is an active threat still developing and we urge network operators to take it very seriously. Unified Coordination Group" (UCG), is a multi-agenc...

Facebook celebrates the possibilities of connections in the new 'More Together' campaign:  Facebook  today launched a new phase of its consumer marketing campaign in India - ‘ More Together ’. This phase marks the first anniversary of Facebook’s consumer marketing journey in the country, a key strategic focus area for the company, and continues to celebrate the power of connections and communities, and how people can do more together than alone.   Speaking about the campaign,  Avinash Pant, Director - Marketing, Facebook India,   said, “Facebook is deeply entrenched in the cultural fabric of India. Everyday we see different ways in which people across the country come together on our platform to create meaningful connections, fuel discovery, and help and support one another. This ability to connect and share with the world can lead to endless possibilities, and we feel humbled with the stories where our family of apps have provided this value to the people. Our ...