Business

New Delhi, June 16 (IANS) The passenger count in domestic airlines from January-May 2023 reached an impressive milestone of 636.07 lakh, reflecting a significant annual growth rate of 36.10 per cent compared to the corresponding period in the previous year (Jan-May 2022) when it stood at 467.37 lakh, said an official on Friday.

According to traffic data shared by various airlines, in May 2022, the passenger count stood at 114.67 lakh, and in May 2023, it rose to 132.41 lakh, indicating a month-on-month growth of 15.24 per cent.

Furthermore, the overall passenger number in May 2023 increased by 3.26 lakh (2.52 per cent) compared to April 2023.

"This notable surge in passenger volume demonstrates the strength and resilience of India's aviation sector, highlighting continuous efforts to enhance connectivity and provide convenient travel options for citizens," said the official, adding that the higher load factor of 636.07 lakhs passengers during January-May 2023 indicates a growing demand for air transportation, underscoring the positive trajectory of the aviation industry.

Moreover, the number of passenger complaints decreased in May 2023 compared to May 2019.

In May 2019, scheduled domestic airlines received a total of 746 passenger-related complaints, whereas in May 2023, they received 556 such complaints.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia said that the continuous expansion of the domestic airline industry, along with the emergence of regional airlines, contributes to the strengthening of the economy, connecting people across the nation and ensuring last-mile connectivity through the UDAN Scheme.

"The Ministry remains committed to creating a favorable environment for the aviation industry to thrive, promoting sustainable growth while upholding the highest standards of safety, efficiency, and passenger satisfaction," he said.

--IANS
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New Delhi, June 16 (IANS) The GST Council in its meeting next month, is likely to discuss measures to ensure strict provisions for preventing fake generation of Input Tax Credit (ITC), aiming to prevent tax evasion, a senior official said on Friday.

The GST Council is scheduled to meet on July 11.

Chairman of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Vivek Johri said this while speaking to reporters at the sidelines of an event.

He further informed that the finance ministry may consider imposing countervailing duty on steel imports from China.

Johri added that a recommendation for the same has been received by the ministry and is under consideration.

Meanwhile the GST Council, headed by Nirmala Sitharaman, is also likely to consider the report of the Group of Ministers on online gaming, casinos and horse racing.

The report would be circulated to the states soon.

The ministerial panel had submitted its report to the GST Council in December last year, but the council is yet to take it up for consideration.

--IANS
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Seoul, June 16 (IANS) Rolls-Royce Motor Cars on Friday unveiled the brand's first all-electric model, named Spectre, in South Korea as it sees further room to grow in Asia's fourth-biggest economy.

South Korea is the first country for the British carmaker to introduce the battery-powered model among Asia-Pacific countries, Rolls-Royce said in a statement.

The fully electric Spectre is available at a starting price of 620 million won ($486,000) in Korea, with the price going up depending on options.

Rolls-Royce has received the highest number of preorders in the fast-growing and important Korean market in the region, the company said without giving the pre-order figure.

The ordered Spectres will start being delivered to Korean customers in the fourth quarter, the company said, reports Yonhap news agency.

Rolls-Royce's sales growth in Korea depends on several factors, such as the country's economic situation and the number of businessmen, which is growing rapidly, Irene Nikkein, regional director of Rolls-Royce's Asia-Pacific operations, told reporters on the sidelines of the unveiling event.

"I've seen the development in Korea and also the investment from the Korean government. There is a very big growth potential (here) in the long term," she said.

Rolls-Royce began to sell its vehicles in Korea in 2004. Its current lineup includes the Phantom, Ghost and Cullinan.

The Rolls-Royce brand belongs to BMW Group, which also sells BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce models in Korea.

It sold five vehicles in the country in 2004, but sales have continued to rise, reaching 171 units in 2020, 225 in 2021 and 234 in 2022.

The BMW-owned brand plans to fill its entire lineup with all-electric cars by 2030, joining other luxury brands in making the switch, including Volkswagen Group's Bentley and Jaguar Land Rover's Land Rover.

--IANS
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San Francisco, June 4 (IANS) Android 13 has now reached 15 per cent of active devices globally, while Android 11 is still the most common version of active devices, according to the latest data from Google.

The Android Studio reports let you see what percentage of devices are running a particular Android version or higher, according to 9to5Google.

This is useful for determining which apps are supported by your device based on the lowest version of Android it supports.

Android Studio data for April 2023 and June 2023 indicates that Android 13 has experienced another period of growth, growing from 12.1 per cent in April to 14.7 per cent in June, meaning Android 13 is now installed on around 15 per cent of active devices worldwide, but Android 11 is still the most commonly used version, with 23.1 per cent of active devices installing it worldwide.

However, Android 12, 11, and 10 have each seen slight declines, the report said.

The only other version of Android to grow between April and June is Android Oreo, which moved from 6.7 per cent to 8.3 per cent (though still down from 9.5 per cent in January).

Meanwhile, Google has released the first public Beta of Android 14 with new features focused on system navigation, privacy, performance, and user customisation to both developers and early adopters.

Among the features, a new back arrow has been updated under the gesture navigation to help improve back gesture understanding and usefulness while interacting with your app.

--IANS
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By Arun Kejriwal
Markets last week opened with a bang and gained sharply on the first two days. The rally seemed to have then fizzled out but a sharp rebound on Friday seems to have provided ammunition for the bulls. The ensuing jobs data on Friday night followed by the strong rally in the US, rings hope for a probable new high next week in India.


Markets gained on the first two days followed by Friday, while they lost on Wednesday and Thursday. BSESENSEX was sort of flattish for the week gaining 45.42 points or 0.07 per cent to close at 62,547.11 points while NIFTY gained 34.75 points or 0.19 per cent to close at 18,534.10 points. The broader markets saw BSE100, BSE200 and BSE500 gain 0.32 per cent, 0.46 per cent and 0.64 per cent respectively. BSEMIDCAP was up 1.83 per cent while BSESMALLCAP was up 2.40 per cent.

The Indian Rupee gained 28 paisa or 0.34 per cent to close at Rs 82.30 to the US Dollar. Dow Jones had a volatile week and gained on three of the five trading sessions. The gains over the last couple of days, changed the mood in the US. Job data on Friday evening was very positive and markets there gained over 2 per cent. At the end of the week, Dow gained 669.42 points or 2.02 per cent to close at 33,762.76 points. The next FED meeting due in the following week between June 13-14 is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged.

RBI meets between June 6-8 for its bi-monthly MPC meeting to review interest rates. Looking at economic data on GDP and inflation, it is widely believed that interest rates would remain at status quo. Confirmation of the same would result in markets saluting the event and outcome and could see the bulls stepping on the accelerator.

After a fairly long lull in the primary markets, we have an issue opening next week. Ikio Lighting Limited is tapping the capital markets with its fresh issue for Rs 350 crore and an offer for sale of 90 lakh equity shares in a price band of Rs 270-285. The issue opens on Tuesday (June 6) and closes on Thursday (June 8). The company had prior to the IPO reorganised its business and acquired group companies and merged all of them under one roof through subsidiaries.

The company's primary business is manufacturing LED lighting solutions and it focuses on providing low energy LED products to help India meet its sustainability goals. The company is an ODM player and supplies to large players who then distribute the products under their brand name. The largest customer for Ikio is Signify Innovations India Limited, erstwhile Philips Electronics India Limited.

The company has its manufacturing plants in Haridwar and Noida and is further expanding in these regions. On a restated proforma consolidated basis the company reported revenues of Rs 333.99 crore for the year ended March 22. Its profit after tax was Rs 50.51 crore and the EPS was Rs 7.77. For the nine months ended December 22, revenues increased to Rs 332.79 crore and profit after tax was Rs 51.43 crore. The EPS was Rs 7.90 on a non-annualised basis.

The objects of the issue are debt repayment of Rs 50 crore and investment in the company's subsidiary of Rs 262.87 crore. Based on the restated pro forma consolidated basis, the PE price band is 34.75-36.68 based on the year ended March 22.

Looking at the nature of the business, it is highly competitive and has a pricing overhang as it supplies to a dominant OEM player. Going forward, the margins could be under pressure as the company looks to scale up with substantial investment in new capacities. One needs to take a measured call for investment in the above company.

The week ahead has the RBI meeting for its policy review meeting. While the outcome here is more or less assured, markets would be focussed on achieving new highs which came within a whisker last week. The all-time highs were made on December 1, 2022 on a closing basis and an intra-day basis. These levels were 63,583.07 and 63,284.19 points on BSESENSEX and 18,887.60 points and 18,812.50 points on NIFTY. Last week we made intraweek highs of 63,036.12 points on BSESENSEX and 18,662.45 points on NIFTY. With FPIs being big buyers during May 23 and having invested Rs 43,838 crore, it appears the tide is turned and a new high would happen sooner than later.

In the week ahead, the first resistance would be this top made last week at levels of 63,036.12 points and at 18,662.45 points. This would be followed by the all-time highs at 63,583.07 and 18,887.60 points. On the support side, markets have strong support at 18,300-18350 levels on NIFTY and at 62,025-62,175 levels on BSESENSEX. If these are violated, the next levels would be at 18,000-18,050 or 61,150-61,300 levels.

It appears looking at Indian markets and the mood here and also global cues, we are well set to witness new highs in the coming week. Brace yourselves for action.

(Arun Kejriwal is the founder of Kejriwal Research and Investment Services. The views expressed are personal)

--IANS
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San Francisco, June 2 (IANS) The Twitter account of OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer appears to have been hacked on Thursday evening in order to promote a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme.

Mira Murati, who has worked at OpenAI for over five years, lost control of her Twitter account around 6.03 p.m. Pacific Time (as per timestamps on the tweets), reports VentureBeat.

Later, her account started promoting a new cryptocurrency called "$OPENAI" that was allegedly "driven by artificial intelligence-based language models".

In the unauthorised tweets, Murati's followers were encouraged to send money to an Ethereum digital wallet address in order to receive free "airdropped" coins.

The tweets were quickly deleted before reappearing minutes later with slightly altered wording, according to the report.

Murati's account had the tweets up for more than 45 minutes. Her account was restored to its original state, and the tweets were removed.

The apparent hack of Murati's account comes four months after Twitter modified its two-factor authentication policies, removing SMS text messaging as a way to secure accounts unless users subscribe to Twitter Blue.

The report said that security experts have expressed concern that the changes may make high-profile accounts more vulnerable to takeovers.

She does have a blue checkmark on her Twitter profile, indicating that she subscribes to Twitter Blue and can use SMS two-factor authentication.

--IANS
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New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday issued a draft master direction on cyber resilience and digital payment security controls for payment system operators.

The central bank has sought comments on the draft guidelines till June 30. These can be sent through email or post to the Chief General Manager, Department of Payment and Settlement Systems, Central Office, RBI in Mumbai.

The draft guidelines cover governance mechanisms for the identification, assessment, monitoring, and management of cybersecurity risks including information security risks and vulnerabilities, and specify baseline security measures for ensuring safe and secure digital payment transactions.

On April 8, the RBI had announced that it will issue directions on cyber resilience and payment security controls of payment system operators (PSOs).

"To effectively identify, monitor, control and manage cyber and technology related risks arising out of linkages of PSOs with unregulated entities who are part of their digital payments ecosystem (like payment gateways, third-party service providers, vendors, merchants, etc.), PSOs shall ensure adherence to these Directions by such unregulated entities as well, subject to mutual agreement. An organisational policy in this respect, approved by the Board, shall be put in place," the guidelines say.

It is the board of directors of PSOs who will be responsible for ensuring adequate oversight over information security risks, including cyber risk and cyber resilience. However, primary oversight may be delegated to a sub-committee of the board which shall meet at least once every quarter.

Also, the PSO shall formulate a Board approved Information Security (IS) policy to manage potential information security risks covering all applications and products concerning payment systems as well as management of risks that have materialised, they said further.

The policy is to be reviewed annually.

It shall cover the roles and responsibilities of board or sub-committees of the board, senior management, and other key personnel; measures to identify, assess, manage, and monitor cyber security risks which shall also include various types of security controls for ensuring cyber resiliency along with processes for training and awareness of employees or stakeholders.

Also, the RBI has asked PSOs to prepare a distinct Board-approved cyber crisis management plan (CCMP) to detect, contain, respond, and recover from cyber threats and cyber-attacks.

Relevant guidelines from CERT-In or National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) or IDRBT and other agencies may be referred for guidance, it said.

In addition to this, the PSO shall undertake a cyber risk assessment exercise relating to the launch of new products or services or technologies or undertaking major changes to the infrastructure or processes of existing product or services.

--IANS
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By IANSlife
New Delhi, June 2 (IANSlife) People exploring the world of love and romance have come up with new and more effective ways to connect with their dates. From sending memes to sharing their favourite playlist, connecting with matches has been taken to a whole new level. Dating app, QuackQuack, recently conducted a survey studying the approaches in which GenZ and Millennial daters are communicating their feelings.


QuackQuack Founder and CEO Ravi Mittal commented, "More than 35+ million chats are exchanged per month on our app, and among them, the new matches often send each other cute videos that might express the same emotions as they have for each other, memes, and we even see them discussing movies and current trends on the social media."

The new love languages

21 per cent of GenZ daters mentioned during the survey that sending memes and funny videos builds great rapport between new matches. It is no longer "Hey, how are you?" If your person of interest continues to send you memes, it only means that they are interested, and the content they send has more meaning to it than just for laughs. It can be a direct indication that they are interested. They also mentioned that this is strictly about two people who have previously shown romantic interest in each other and not just any random person.

Get to know each other better

During the survey, 37 per cent of daters above 30 disclosed that the getting-to-know-each-other phase is much different now than it was some five years back. For instance, no one asks about your favourite colour anymore. It is more about how well you have healed from your previous heartbreaks, how you carry yourself in the face of troubles, and more profound questions that are much more useful to know than someone's favourite colour.

Pulling the heartstrings with music

If two people have similar tastes in music, it's reason enough to connect, says 19 per cent of daters from tier 1 and 2 cities. There's a lot to talk about when you have similar likings, making it easier for the conversations to flow between matches. 11 per cent of these daters disclosed that sharing passwords for OTT platforms is also a way to connect. They said that if you want to impress someone you have been speaking to for a while, offer them your password to an OTT platform you have a subscription to and see how fast you become friends.

Movie, series, and more

Speaking about OTT platforms, loving the same series as someone, or even better, hating the same series, can be a reason for connecting; at least 16 per cent of male daters between the age of 22 to 28 say so. Sharing critical notes about a series, how well-made it is, or how it did not live up to the hype are great topics for conversation. 14 percent of female daters in the same age group mentioned, "Did you watch so and so series?" is the most used ice-breaker at the moment.

Comedy over drama

Forget movies; comedy shows are the place new couples prefer more these days, said more than 24 per cent of daters between 25-30 from tier 1 cities. Laughter is good for your health; why shouldn't that apply to your relationship; asked these seasoned daters. They explained that it allows you a good laugh, and you can also gauge your match's sense of humour and even see if your vibes match all at the same time.

(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)

--IANS
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By Arul Louis
Dallas, June 2 (IANS) Keeping up the dominance of the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee in the US by Indian-origin children, 14-year-old Dev Shah from Florida has won the competition by correctly spelling the word "psammophile".


He carried home the trophy and the $50,000 prize at the finals held on Thursday night in National Harbor, Maryland, after he spelt the word for an animal or plant that thrives in sandy soil.

From the 231 national contestants, the 11 finalists left standing in three days of gruelling competition, 10 were of Indian origin.

After nine were eliminated, Shah went into the final round against 14-year-old Charlotte Walsh from Arlington, Virginia, beating her with bathypitotmeter (a device for measuring water temperature and current) before clinching the award by spelling the final word correctly.

Shradha Rachamreddy and Surya Kapu tied for the third place with a $15,000 prize.

Shah is a class 8 student from Largo.

Schistorrhachis, aegagrus and were among the words he spelt correctly through 15 rounds reaching the top.

Children of Indian origin have dominated the contest, which tests not only the rote memorisation of spellings but also the knowledge of the origin of words and their structure and usage.

Thousands of students from around the US and some foreign countries compete in local and regional competitions before the field is narrowed to 231.

Since Balu Natarajan won it in 1985, 21 Indian-origin children have followed him, monopolising it from 2008 to 2018.

Harini Logan was the winner last year resuming the Indian lead, after a 2021 win by a non-Indian.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)

--IANS
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San Francisco, May 27 (IANS) Twitter Spaces team, which once had as many as 100 employees, is down to "roughly three" people, a report has revealed, as the technical "fiasco" during Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' 2024 US presidential election bid on the platform this week rocked the world.

For months now, the Spaces team has been operating without most of the "institutional knowledge it accumulated since Twitter added live audio conversations in 2021 to compete with then-hot Clubhouse," reports Platformer.

"Practically no one remaining knows the current architecture in depth," one person wrote on a pseudonymous employee forum called Blind.

After almost 20 minutes into the glitch, DeSantis could finally make the announcement.

"I am running for President of the US to lead our great American comeback," DeSantis said.

Musk and David Sacks, a tech entrepreneur, admitted that the limited capacity of Twitter's servers played into the issues it faced getting the event underway.

"This was by far the biggest room ever held on social media. Twitter performed great after some initial scaling challenges. Thanks Twitter Team for adapting so quickly to make history," Sacks said in a tweet.

Outgoing Twitter CEO, however, said that the technical "fiasco" was actually the "top story on earth" and he welcomes all US Presidential candidates to do so on his platform.

--IANS
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