Business

New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) Google has launched a new bug bounty programme where it will award up to $31,337 (nearly Rs 25 lakh) to researchers who spot vulnerabilities in the company's Open Source projects.

Depending on the severity of the vulnerability and the project's importance, rewards will range from $100 to $31,337.

The larger amounts will also go to unusual or particularly interesting vulnerabilities, "so creativity is encouraged," said Google while launching its Open Source Software Vulnerability Rewards Programme (OSS VRP).

As the maintainer of major projects such as Golang, Angular, and Fuchsia, Google is among the largest contributors and users of open source in the world.

Last year, Google saw a 650 per cent year-over-year increase in attacks targeting the open source supply chain.

With the addition of Google's own vulnerability reward programme (VRP), researchers can now be rewarded for finding bugs that could potentially impact the entire open source ecosystem.

The original VRP programme was one of the first in the world and is now approaching its 12th anniversary.

"Over time, our VRP lineup has expanded to include programmes focused on Chrome, Android, and other areas. Collectively, these programs have rewarded more than 13,000 submissions, totalling over $38 million paid," Google said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Google said its OSS VRP is part of "our $10 billion commitment to improving cybersecurity, including securing the supply chain against these types of attacks for both Google's users and open source consumers worldwide".

--IANS
na/

New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) Twitter reportedly planned to monetise adult content on its platform this year, by allowing adult creators to sell subscriptions on the micro-blogging platform, and become profitable in a jiffy.

According to The Verge, Twitter was set to become a competitor to adult creator website OnlyFans by allowing adult creators to use its platform in the spring of 2022.

Some adult creators still reportedly rely on Twitter as a means to advertise their OnlyFans accounts, as posting porn doesn't violate its guidelines.

However, an 84-employee "Red Team" discovered that Twitter cannot detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM) at scale if it allows adult content to stream via its platform.

Twitter also lacked tools to verify that creators and consumers of adult content were above the age of 18.

The discovery by the Red Team actually derailed the project at Twitter.

"Twitter cannot accurately detect child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity at scale," the Red Team found.

As a result, in May, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced to buy Twitter for $44 billion, the company delayed the project indefinitely, the report mentioned late on Tuesday.

"Allowing creators to begin putting their content behind a paywall would mean that even more illegal material would make its way to Twitter -- and more of it would slip out of view. Twitter had few effective tools available to find it," the report noted.

Twitter's yearly revenue is nearly $5 billion, a tiny amount compared to a company like Google, which earned $257 billion in revenue last year.

Google and Meta have more sophisticated technology to identify CSAM, and still these systems are not full-proof.

"Twitter has zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation. We aggressively fight online child sexual abuse and have invested significantly in technology and tools to enforce our policy," according to Twitter which is fighting a legal battle with Musk after he terminated the $44 billion takeover deal over the presence of bots.

--IANS
na/ksk/

Noida, Aug 30 (IANS) Realty firm Supertech, whose illegally constructed twin towers in Sector 93-A, Noida, was brought down on Sunday, will now spend over Rs 43 lakh on disposing of the debris generated after the demolition of the high-rises which were even taller than the Qutub Minar, an official said on Tuesday.

As per the agreement between Supertech and Edifice Engineering -- the Mumbai-based firm that along with Jet Demolition razed the twin towers to the ground -- Edifice will deliver the debris to the disposal plant while Supertech will bear the cost of around Rs 43,68,000 for the disposal of 28,000 tonnes of debris at Rs 156 per tonne.

The debris will be disposed at the construction and demolition waste management plant here in Sector 80. The process of disposing the debris will begin in the next two days.

Two types of processing fees are charged by the plant.

If the debris is picked by the plant staff, the processing fee is Rs 500 per tonne while if Edifice delivers the debris, Supertech will have to pay Rs 156 per tonne as processing fee.

--IANS
ptk/pgh/arm

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) Nearly a decade later, Amazon India's report card is decidedly mixed, foreign brokerage Bernstein said in a report.

India is often the dream prized market of many global internet companies, yet also one of the most challenging to unlock -- just ask the Chinese apps.

"Who can forget Jeff Bezos' 2014 visit standing on top of a colorful lorry announcing a $2 billion investment? But nearly a decade later, Amazon India's report card is decidedly mixed," the report said.

The country is one of Amazon's biggest overseas markets and also one of its fastest growing with a best-in-class customer experience and large Prime customer base.

Yet this growth has come at a high cost of over $6.5 billion plus invested to-date while profitability remains elusive (-5-10 per cent EBITDA margins), the report said.

The company also faces immense competitive pressure in fast growing categories, a weaker value proposition in 'New' commerce, limited traction in tier 2/3 cities, and an unfavourable regulatory environment for outsiders, it added.

India is one of few large and under penetrated e-Commerce markets with retail penetration of only 5 per cent, well below the global average (14 per cent).

eCom spending is expected to 2x to $130 billion+ in GMV by 2025, with online shoppers projected to increase by 2x to 300 million. Growth is expected to be led by new online shoppers - primarily from tier 2/3 cities - and continued online migration of key categories, including fashion and grocery.

"Within grocery, we're already seeing a shift from slow eCom to quick/instant delivery. In fashion 'social' commerce and D2C brands are gaining share," the report said.

While India is a three-player market - Amazon, Walmart/Flipkart and Reliance's JioMart - the market remains quite fragmented with meaningful market differences by market tier, product category, and distribution models. Amazon leads on core categories (consumer electronics, media) and has done quite well in tier 1 cities with 5 million prime subs, the report said.

Reliance leads in eGrocery/O2O categories with 15,000 store retail footprint and a stronger 1P model. Flipkart has maintained leadership in the apparel category with 2x size of the nearest competition. But newer players like the Softbank-funded Meesho ($5 billion GMV) are winning the faster growing tier 2/3 cities where Amazon has struggled to gain traction given low pricing and 'zero commissions'.

Regulations don't allow for an inventory led / 1P model for a foreign entity like Amazon. The company has made investments into Shoppers Stop (fashion), More (grocery), and rumored stake in Ecom Express (logistics), but integration has been limited as the regulations don't allow for full control, the report said.

Key competitor Reliance has scaled up its e-Commerce operations (~19 per cent of core retail sales) utilising its strong footprint of stores (15,000) and an inventory led model.

--IANS
san/arm

Mumbai, Aug 30 (IANS) With festival season nearing, investors in India will closely monitor the impact of inflation and front-loading of rate hikes by the RBI on domestic demand, according to the report by Bank of Baroda.

In the coming days, global markets will react to incoming data from the US, Europe and China to assess the impact of consistent rate hikes by major central banks. Energy crisis in Europe and increasing bills of utilities, food, beverages in the UK will affect consumption demand in the area, thus increasing the risk of recession. China's looming property crisis will add to global woes.

The Indian equity markets have performed better so far this year compared to other major global equity markets because of sustained improvement in economic growth, the report said.

The other factor for the performance was inflows of foreign portfolio investors (FPI) in Indian equity market. In India, FPIs (equity) have also seen a turnaround in the last two months (Jul-Aug) with inflows at $6.8 billion, compared to outflow of $28.6 billion between January and June.

As per the report, Sensex (Nifty also mirrors the trend) and FTSE have largely outperformed in CY22 so far. Compared to December 2021, Sensex and Nifty were up by 2.3 per cent in August, and FTSE was up by 2.8 per cent. On the other hand, Dow Jones (-7 per cent), S&P500 (-10.7 per cent), Nikkei (-0.5 per cent) and Hang Seng (-15.3 per cent) are all considerably down compared to last year.

This is because the US remains concerned regarding growth slowdown and Fed's aggressive monetary policy stance.

--IANS
mns/arm

Chennai, Aug 30 (IANS) Director Hari's out-and-out entertainer 'Yaanai', featuring Arun Vijay and Priya Bhavani Shankar in the lead, has garnered an impressive 100 million streaming minutes on OTT.

The film had a successful theatrical run before being released on the OTT platform ZEE5 on August 19.

The film's success has delighted the OTT platform, which has said that it is enthused by the response the film has received so far and that it encourages them to continue delivering real and relatable entertainment to their audiences.

The movie, which earned positive reviews from both critics and general audiences during its theatrical run, has been receiving an excellent response on OTT.

With the film repeating its successful run on OTT, it appears that director Hari's strategy of creating a perfect entertainer, encapsulating emotions, action, sentiment, romance, and ingredients that cater to the tastes of family audiences, has worked yet again.

Produced by Drumstick Productions, the film was primarily targeted at audiences in 'B' and 'C' towns. What worked in the film's favour was the fact that the film had huge expectations riding on it as this is the first rural script that Arun Vijay was doing after a gap of almost 12 years.

--IANS
mani/arm

Chennai, Aug 30 (IANS) The shares of New Delhi Television (NDTV) Lts have been galloping ever since Adani group made an open offer to acquire 26 per cent stake in the satellite channel company.

On Tuesday, at the BSE, the NDTV scrip, with a face value of Rs 4, opened at Rs 467.25 and hit the upper circuit. The scrip had closed at Rs 445 on Monday.

Incidentally, the 52 week low price for the scrip was Rs 72.

The scrip has been on the upswing since August 23, the day on which the Adani group's AMG Media Networks announced its subsidiary Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Ltd's (VCPL) decision to exercise its rights to acquire 99.5 per cent of equity shares of RRPR Holding Private Ltd, the investment company of NDTV promoters - Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy.

The VCPL holds 1,990,000 warrants of RRPR Holding entitling it to convert them into 99.99 per cent stake in the latter.

The VCPL has exercised its option in part, resulting in acquisition control of RRPR Holding - 1,990,000 equity shares or 99.50 per cent.

RRPR Holding holds 29.18 per cent stake in NDTV that has three national television channels.

This triggered the issue of open offer to acquire shares of NDTV from the public as per SEBI's (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011.

The VCPL, at its sole discretion, may exercise the balance warrants to acquire up to 99.99 per cent of the equity share capital of RRPR Holding at any time and in such manner as it may deem fit.

With an open offer to acquire 26 per cent, the Adani group is looking up to hold 55.18 per cent stake in NDTV.

Curiously, the open offer price is at Rs 294 per share which is far less than the current market value and also the market value of the share - Rs.384.50 - on the date of the open offer.

Since the day the open offer was made, the NDTV scrip has been of up. On August 24, the scrip closed at Rs 384.50, on August 25 at Rs 403.70, on August 26 at Rs 423.85, on August 29 at Rs 445 and on August 30, at Rs 467.25.

--IANS
vj/vd

Mumbai, Aug 30 (IANS) The Indian rupee ended 51 paise up at 79.45 against the US dollar as heavy short covering was witnessed in capital markets from FIIs, dealers said.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, rupee ended at 79.45 as against 79.96 against US dollar previously.

Indian markets will be closed on Wednesday on account of Ganesh Chaturthi.

"Rupee gained strongly by 0.40 points as heavy short covering was witnessed in capital markets from FIIs. As benchmark rose 2.50 per cent in Indian capital markets, hence rupee time gained more than 0.50 per cent for the first time in the month of August," said Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst at LKP Securities.

Dollar index, which gauges the the strength of greenback against the basket of six major currencies, was at 108.460.

Brent crude oil prices were at $101.49 a barrel by the closing of Indian market hours.

Sensex ended 1,564.45 points, or 2.70 per cent, up at 59,537.07, and Nifty closed 445.40 points, or 2.58 per cent up at 17,759.30. Nifty bank was up sharply 3.29 per cent.

All the 30 stocks on the Sensex ended in green.

"Going ahead, 80.00 will keep acting as strong support for rupee whereas 79.00 will be tested in the coming session," Trivedi added.

--IANS
msn/vd

Mumbai, Aug 30 (IANS) Benchmark indices ended sharply up on Tuesday after falling sharply on Monday due to delivery-based buying by the FIIs and short covering in the F&O market, dealers said.

At close, Sensex ended 1,564.45 points, or 2.70 per cent, up at 59,537.07, and Nifty closed 445.40 points or 2.58 per cent up at 17,759.30. Nifty bank was up sharply at 3.29 per cent.

All the 30 stocks on the Sensex ended in green.

BSE LargeCap was up 2.59 per cent, BSE MidCap, and BSE SmallCap up 1.97 per cent, and 1.40 per cent, respectively. Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra, and ICICI Bank were major gainers on the BSE.

"Today's rebound indicates the domestic economy's resilience in comparison to its global peers. Although the markets are currently at premium valuations, continued support from foreign investors aided domestic stocks to inch higher. Sectors in swing with the progress of the domestic economy should be able to do well compared to the rest," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Volumes on the NSE were the highest in more than a week. Among sectors, realty, power, banks, oil and gas, and auto indices rose the most. Broader market underperformed; however the advance decline ratio was sharply positive at 2.96:1.

Global stocks rose on Tuesday as investors sought bargains following two days of declines as Chinese authorities pledged to stimulate the world's second-largest economy. China will step up measures to boost demand and stabilise employment and prices in the second half of the year to optimise economic outcomes, the country's Finance Ministry said on Tuesday, as policymakers strive to prop up faltering growth.

"Nifty has nullified the bearish signals from the downgap created on the previous day and has filled that downgap. It has closed at the highest ever on monthly charts. It will now face resistance at 17965-17992 band while 17522-17623 band could offer support," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

--IANS
msn/vd

Islamabad, Aug 30 (IANS) In view of the skyrocketing prices of vegetables amid the ongoing floods and relentless monsoon rain across Pakistan, the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday demanded the government to give permission for vegetable import from neighbouring India through the Wagah border.

LCCI President Nauman Kabir urged the government to grant permission to import vegetables from India to control its prices, Geo News reported.

"The recent floods have destroyed crops of tomato, onion, potato and other vegetables across the country," he said, adding that the crisis is expected to prevail for the next three months.

The vegetable crisis could further worsen in September, October and November, he added.

It will take a few days to transport vegetables from India to Pakistan via the Wagah border, Geo News reported.

The prices of vegetables skyrocketed as the grocery vendors are charging exorbitant prices from consumers amid the countrywide floods triggered by torrential rains.

The traders are making hefty profits at a time when the death toll from the relentless monsoon rains has exceeded the 1,100 mark and inflicting $10 billion loss on the country's economy.

According to the details, tomato is being sold at 250 PKR per kg in the market while its official price is 190 PKR per kg.

Similarly, the vendors are selling onion at 300 PKR to 320 PKR per kg while the commodity's rate was fixed at 290 PKR by the authorities, Geo News reported.

Potatoes are being sold at 120 PKR to 140 PKR per kg instead of its official rate of 100 PKR per kg.

Ginger's official rate is 360 PKR per kg but it is available for 380 PKR per kg in the market.

Garlic is being sold at 250 PKR per kg while its official rate is 200 PKR per kg.

--IANS
san/ksk/