Current Affairs IBPS, RRB, RBI, SSC, CLAT, State PSC Exams; Current Affairs for UPSC/IAS Prepa

BharatNet Project: Govt to provide free WiFi to all villages till March 2020 BharatNet Project was earlier known as OFC (Optical Fiber Communication Network) Project. BharatNet  in News:  Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad recently said that free WiFi will be provided to all the villages across the country through BharatNet by March 2020. Currently, 48,000 villages have been connected via the BharatNet project. Union Minister said that we have connected 1.3 lakh Gram Panchayats with BharatNet optical fiber. He also said that our goal is to connect 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats with BharatNet optical fiber. BharatNet Project • BharatNet Project was earlier known as OFC (Optical Fiber Communication Network) Project. • BharatNet project aims to connect more than 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats with high-speed broadband through the optical fiber at affordable prices. • It will provide broadband speed from 2 to 20 Mbps. • It is proposed to provide broadband connect

Samsung to unveil human-like AI assistant at CES 2020 The Korean tech giant, Samsung is entering the race of  Artificial Intelligence  (AI), powered assistant. The biggest players in the industry are coming up with their AI-bots. Samsung has hinted that it will launch its AI assistant called Neon at the  CES 2020 . The development of Neon is done by the Samsung Technology & Advanced Research Labs (STAR Labs). Very little information about Neon is available right now. Samsung claims that Neon is powered by human-level AI technology. The project brings secure cutting-edge AI technology and human-level AI which can speak, recognize, and think, to offer AI-driven experiences to the users. Neon is the second AI assistant by Samsung. The first AI assistant, Bixby was launched back in 2017. Bixby is supported across a range of products and has found use-cases beyond Samsung smartphones. The tech firm has teased the product and its features on its official social media account

Iran welcomes Japan opting out of US-led naval mission in Gulf After meeting Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani announces Tokyo will not take part in the US mission. Iranian President Hassan Ruhani  has welcomed Japan's decision not to join a US-led naval mission in the Gulf and said he had discussions on ways of "breaking" the US sanctions. "Japan has announced it will not take part in the Americans' plans for security in the [Gulf] region ... which is something we welcome," Rouhani said on state TV on Saturday after returning from a trip to Malaysia and Japan. "Japan is sending a surveillance vessel but not to the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz," he said. Tensions have escalated between Washington and Tehran since US President Donald Trump's decision last year to withdraw from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with  the  world   powers. Subsequent US sanctions, which block Iran  from selling crude oil abroad,

Japan to send warship, aircraft to the Middle East to protect vessels Japan, a US ally, is launching its own operation rather than join a US-led mission to protect shipping in the Gulf region Japan will send a warship and patrol planes to protect Japanese ships in the Middle East as the situation in the region, from which it sources nearly 90 percent of its crude oil imports, remains volatile, a document approved by the cabinet showed on Friday. Under the plan, a helicopter-equipped destroyer and two P-3C patrol planes will be dispatched for information-gathering aimed at ensuring safe passage for Japanese vessels through the region. If there are any emergencies, a special order would be issued by the Japanese defense minister to allow the forces to use weapons to protect ships in danger. Friction between Iran and the US has increased since last year, when US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposed sanctions

India and Japan held the 5th round of maritime affairs Dialogue in Tokyo

Apple's iPhone XR is the top-selling phone in 2019 Apple's  iPhone XR  is by far the most selling smartphone model in the world. The data released by Counterpoint Research confirms that  iPhone  XR holds 3% of the global smartphone market. The device launched in September 2018 has been the top-selling model in every quarter since Q4 of 2018. This one model alone contributed to 25% of Apple sales, making it the top-selling model for the company across the globe. Varun Mishra, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research said, "Apple also adjusted the price of the iPhone XR in China and several other markets like India, which helped keep demand strong during the quarter." The smartphone has outnumbered other popular smartphone models in terms of sales figures. During the Q3 of this year, the top 5 most selling smartphone models include iPhone XR , Samsung Galaxy A10 , Samsung Galaxy A50, Oppo A9, and the iPhone 11 . Apple has managed to place 2 of its smartphone

Tamilrockers TamilRocker is a website that leaks HD movies for online downloads. So basically they were involved in piracy. Where they use to leak the link for online download of movies without taking its publication right from the producer. Tamilrocker.com used to be a torrent website which illegally provided the pirated latest Bollywood, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam Movies online for HD download TamilRockers is a public torrent website. TamilRockers website uploads the pirated versions of Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, English, Malayalam, Kannada and other language films on their site. TamilRockers keeps  changing its domain to the new links to keep running illegal piracy sites. Disclaimer: This content is for reference purposes only and The Times of India claims no ownership of this content.  Tamilrockers 2019 is one of the favorite Tamil India websites that provides access to online free movies including English, Tamil, and Malayalam With illegal Piracy. Tamilrockers is a New movie rele

5 Jobs that AI can replace in the next ten years 1.  Customer relationship advisor The emerging chatbots have redefined the experience of customer care. The probability of all telemarketing jobs getting replaced by AI is the highest. One of the major reasons behind this is efficiency. AI-enabled chatbots are considered more efficient than human resource-driven customer care services. 2.  Programming language trainer All the IT firms employ a training consultant for various functions. The job of a programming language trainer is already on its way out. Employees prefer e-learning services over the human trainer. AI-driven interactive training solutions are likely to replace the job of programming language trainers. 3.  Proofreaders There is nothing innovative about this job role. Almost all blogging sites use proofreading applications and software. There is a high probability that this job role will get completely removed in the coming future. Companies are developing self-che

Europe: the new (dream)land for Indian IT professionals The H-1B visa issues have created trouble for Indians aspiring to work in the US. Indian techies have started looking for alternative options to find suitable employment. Since the US entry has become difficult, many of them are looking at Europe as a dreamland for their tech career. Indian skilled workers are known for their IT talent across the world. As the Trump administration is setting clamp down on work visas, Indian techies are exploring opportunities in Europe. The head of EU parliamentary delegation, David McAllister said, "Europe is open for allowing more Indian professionals who are high on demand. Indian people are highly skilled. Our IT sector would not have been successful if we did not have skilled professionals from India." The IT opportunities in Europe are booming since Brexit. Companies are open to hiring Indian talent for relevant roles. Employers in the UK, on the other hand, are wary of hi

6 programming languages you should learn in 2020 As technology grows, there are new coding languages created every year to keep up with the rapid developments. Yes, there are specific roles and jobs that require you to learn a particular programming language, but most jobs and companies require a wide understanding and knowledge of programming languages. Further, these programming languages also helps you to understand how a computer can be fed with instructions to do some repetitive and intelligent work. Understanding and knowledge of programming languages give you an edge to do something which no one has done before thus helping in the direction of establishing a new startup. Knowledge of multiple languages lets you apply for your preferred jobs, ask for a better pay pack from your employer, and overall turns you into a versatile developer. Here are some programming languages that you should learn in 2020. J avaScript For developers working on se

Twitter to build a new decentralized social media service Twitter is supporting an open-source, decentralized social network standard called Bluesky. The initiative is an ambitious project which will transform how the company operates and create a new model for social media services. Bluesky would basically be an open protocol that anyone can use. It will take years to develop this protocol. The ultimate aim of the project is to rearchitect Twitter on top of Bluesky. Twitter is funding an independent team of five open-source architects, engineers, and designers to develop this decentralized standard for social media to operate upon. The initiative is inspired by the concept of email. The open protocol is used by anyone to build their own email service capable of communicating with others. Email is an open protocol, which is why Yahoo Mail and Gmail users can send emails to each other. In contrast to how the email system works, social media services are closed platforms. U

Facebook is secretly working on its own OS; will it replace Android? The social networking giant, Facebook is reportedly developing its own operating system (OS) from scratch. The OS will power Facebook's smart hardware products including augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets. By creating its own OS, Facebook will integrate more indigenous features that are currently missing from Facebook's smart devices. Facebook has a range of products including Oculus VR headsets and video calling devices like Portal video calling devices. These devices currently powered by Google's Android OS . The company has not indicated any plan to create an OS for smartphones. The OS project is led by Mark Lucovsky, a former Microsoft engineer who built the Windows NT operating system. While there is no official confirmation on which products Facebook will be using this OS for, Portal video-calling devices will get the OS before Oculus VR headsets. Andrew Bosworth, V

Alert: Personal Data of 267 million Facebook users leaked online facebook has a history of data scandal and privacy issues. The latest report suggests that data of 267 million users is available on the internet. The leaked data contains user IDs, names, and phone numbers of Facebook users. The hack was first discovered by the Comparitech security researcher Bob Diachenko. He spotted the Facebook repository that has been exposed for over two weeks. While the company has taken care of the security, the data has appeared on various hacker forums so far. The data was available in Elasticsearch, a distributed full-text each engine, since the first week of December. Over 267 million records didn't include passwords or highly sensitive information. But the data includes full name, time-stamp, phone numbers, and Facebook IDs which is good enough for cyber-criminals to find out your Facebook profile and gather intelligence for phishing attacks. The database is ideal to conduct SMS-ba

India-US 2+2 Dialogue held at Washington December 18, 2019 On December 18, 2019, India and the United States held security dialogue in Washington. This was their second 2+2 dialogue. Highlights The countries signed an industrial security agreement allowing defense technology transfer. The US secretary Mike Pompeo and defense secretary Mark Esper hosted the meeting for Indian external affairs minister Shri Jai Shankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The countries signed agreements on space exploration and defense cooperation. Three agreements under the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) were signed that will help in co-developing critical technologies. They also discussed the efforts put in by the countries together for a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific with ASEAN at the center. The leaders also reached MoU on water resources. The agreement will be signed between India’s Ministry of Jal Shakti and the US Geological Survey on quality assessment and m

WHO launches first biosimilar medicine to Treat Breast Cancer December 18, 2019 , On December 18, 2019, the World Health Organization launched its first biosimilar medicine to treat breast cancer. The WHO intends to make the expensive, life-saving treatment affordable for women all over the world. Highlights WHO launched a biosimilar medicine “Trastuzumab” in order to treat breast cancers. It is an antibody that shows high efficacy in curing the early stages of breast cancers. It was included in the WHO Essential Medicines List in 2015. Significance In women, breast cancers are the most common form of cancers. Around 2.1 million women are affected by breast cancers (2018 UN data). Treatment of breast cancer using “Trastuzumab” is an essential treatment for about 20% of breast cancers. WHO also estimates that by 2040 the number of diagnosed breast cancers will reach 3.1 million. Essential Medicines of WHO The Essential Medicines according to the WHO, are the medicines

NPL scientists develop ink to stop fake passports and currency notes The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and National Physical Laboratory (NPL) developed an ink to combat the problem of fake printing of passports and counterfeiting of currency notes. The ink has a new security feature o protecting itself against duplicity Key facts of the discovery The ink was produced based on single excitable dual emissive luminescent pigment. It was developed based on the concept of fluorescence and phosphorescence phenomena. Currently, the currency notes display only one color with the emission of wavelength. However, in the ink developed by the scientists features changes in pigment color after the notes are printed. In ambient light, the ink shows white color. When the ink is exposed to UV light, it turns red and when the UV source is switched OFF it turns green. Why the new ink? According to the annual report of RBI (2018-19), the risk of duplication of Rs 500

Rohtang pass tunnel named after former PM Vajpayee On 24 December 2019, the Union Cabinet chaired by PM Modi decided that the strategic tunnel that was constructed under Rohtang Pass will be named after him. This is because the tunnel construction was started in June 2000, during his tenure. About the tunnel The tunnel is the world’s longest tunnel (8.8 km) at an altitude of 3,000 meters. The tunnel reduces the distance between Leh and Manali by 46 kilometers. This helps in saving crores of rupees on fuel usage. It is built under the Pir Pinjal range. It is a single tube tunnel and is 10.5-meters-wide with fireproof emergency provisions. The geological and weather challenges were overcome by the Border Road Organization. It includes the Seri Nalah fault zone. Rohtang Pass The pass connects Kulu valley and Lahaul and Spiti valleys of Himachal Pradesh. The three rivers in the region of the pass are Chenab, Beas and Chandra rivers. The Beas river emerges from underground an

India to get its First Chief of Defence Staff The   Cabinet Committee On Security   (CCS )  chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the creation of a  Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)  post that will function as a single point of contact for different branches of armed forces. CCS also approved the report of a high-level committee headed by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, which finalised responsibilities and framework for the operation of CDS. In the present structure, the Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee (CSC) is Chief of Army Staff (CoAS), Bipin Rawat. However, he does not function incapacity of a CDS. About Chief of Defence Staff (CDS ) A CDS would be a four-star general- from either of the Indian Armed Forces- the Army, the Air Force or the Navy and will be payable to a salary equal to a service chief. The CDS post will have a fixed term, that is yet to be determined. [All five permanent members (P-5 nations) of United Nations Security Council (UN