India

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) Amid tough global market conditions, tech giant HCL Technologies has reportedly laid off 350 employees globally, including in India, Guatemala and the Philippines, who were working on a Microsoft news project, media reports said.

According to reports, the workers, who were employed by HCL's client Microsoft's news outlet MSN, reportedly learnt that they have been let go at a town hall meeting last week.

The last day of employment is reportedly September 30 for the laid-off employees, who will receive severance compensation.

Last month, a report said that at least half of the companies worldwide are planning to lay off people, with most reducing bonuses and rescinding job offers amid the economic downturn.

As per the latest PwC 'Pulse: Managing business risks in 2022' survey released last month, in the US, 50 per cent of respondents are reducing their overall headcount, even as business leaders remain concerned about hiring and retaining talent.

More than 32,000 tech workers have been laid off in the US till July, including at Big Tech companies like Microsoft and Meta (formerly Facebook), and the worst has not been over yet for the tech sector that has seen massive stock sell-off.

In India, more than 25,000 startup workers have lost jobs since the pandemic began -- and more than 12,000 have been fired this year.

--IANS
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Gurugram, Sep 13 (IANS) The Leela Ambience, a five-star hotel, in Gurugram on Tuesday received a bomb threat call, triggering panic in the premises, police said. However, it later turned out to be a hoax.

Police in a statement said, "A hoax call was made to a private hotel in Gurugram on Tuesday. Police reached the hotel, evacuated it and started an investigation. The caller was found to be a 24-year-old mentally ill person. He was found to be suffering from autism and he is undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Gurugram."

According to the report, more than a hundred guests were staying in the hotel.

However, after 90 minutes of search operation, it was found a hoax call.

An unidentified person had called the hotel's reception desk at around 11.55 a.m.

"It was a male voice that said a bomb will explode in the (Ambience) mall," the sources said.

The police were immediately alerted after which a dog squad and Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) rushed to the spot and evacuated people from the hotel.

The BDDS checked the entire hotel and its surroundings and a search operation is currently underway, the police said.

The hotel also increased the number of security staff after receiving the call.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) In the past few weeks, several shocking videos of young to middle aged people collapsing due to sudden heart attacks have gone viral.

Heart attacks, cardiac arrest and other cardiovascular diseases in large numbers of young Indians is becoming a major cause of concern.

According to cardiologists, there has been a spate of persons suffering heart attacks in their 20s and 30s over the last decade.

The findings say that Indians get heart disease 10 years earlier than their Western counterparts. As per the findings of Indian Heart Association, heart disease tends to strike Indians at an earlier age (almost 33 per cent earlier) compared to other demographics.

CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted a nationwide survey on behalf of IANS to understand people's views about the sudden rise in heart disease in young Indians.

The survey found that the biggest proportion of Indians, 31 per cent, believe that stress is the key reason for collapsing young hearts.

At the same, while 25 per cent of the respondents cited poor lifestyle as the main reason, 8 per cent of the respondents said that it is related to the side effects of Covid-19.

Similar sentiments were shared by both the urban and rural respondents.

During the survey, the biggest urban respondents, 35 per cent, and rural respondents, 29 per cent, blamed stress for the increase in cardiovascular diseases in young Indians.

After stress, the second largest proportion of urban respondents, 25 per cent, and rural respondents, 25 per cent, said that poor lifestyle is to be blamed.

During the survey, stress was cited as the main reason for increasing cases of heart attacks in young Indians by the respondents of different age categories.

Notably, maximum number of respondents in the age group of 35-44 years asserted that tension is killing young hearts.

Even the largest proportion of very young respondents, 25 per cent, in the age category of 18-24 years blamed stress.

After stress, the largest proportion of respondents from different age groups opined that poor lifestyle is the key reason for increase in heart disease in young Indians.

Many believe that it is related to side effects of lethal coronavirus.

--IANS
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Bareilly, Sep 13 (IANS) An eight-month-old infant in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district died after the battery of a mobile phone kept next to her on charging mode exploded, police said.

The phone, purchased nearly six months ago, already had a swollen battery plugged into a switch connected to a solar panel.

Kusum Kashyap, mother of the baby Neha, was not in the room at the time of the explosion.

She rushed in after hearing a loud noise and cries for help from her other daughter Nandini.

The baby had suffered serious burn injuries and died during treatment in the hospital.

Police said no complaint had been lodged so far but it was a case of negligence by the parents.

The father of the child, Suneel Kumar Kashyap, 30, is a labourer and lives in an under-construction house without a power connection. His family uses a solar plate and a battery for lighting and charging mobile phones.

--IANS
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Lucknow, Sep 13 (IANS) A strange trail of lights in the skies of Lucknow on Monday evening have left people stumped.

Local residents captured the blinking lights on their cameras and shared videos on social media platforms.

Some found it a celestial event while others termed it 'strange'.

The video was recorded by residents of Malihabad in the Lucknow district of Uttar Pradesh.

Sources, however, said that it was a Starlink-51 satellite train.

On September 4, Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had sent a space tug aloft along with another big batch of its Starlink internet satellites.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the east coast of Florida, carrying 51 Starlink internet satellites to orbit.

SpaceX has already sent more than 3,000 Starlink satellites into orbit, in an effort to create a huge constellation for broadband service targeted for remote areas.

The company founded by Musk has also launched more than 25 Starlink-centric missions in 2022 already. The September 4 launch was SpaceX's 40th of the year and continued to add to the Starlink mega constellation.

Some people on Twitter even said it could be an unidentified flying object (UFO).

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) In a major breakthrough in the fractious world of Sino-India military diplomacy, both sides took a step back on Monday.

Patrolling Point (PP)-15's stand-off saw the ice broken. Both sides on Monday moved back their frontline troops to the rear from the face-off site of PP-15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area in eastern Ladakh and dismantled temporary infrastructure there as part of a five-day disengagement process.

Sources close to developments averred that full details of the disengagement and the verification process were being awaited from the ground Commanders. Even as this major breakthrough happened there has been no visible progress on resolving the outstanding stand-off in Demchok and Depsang regions.

As recently as September 8, Indian and Chinese armies announced that they have kicked off the disengagement process from the PP-15.

When asked about the disengagement at PP-15 on the sidelines of an event, Army Chief General Manoj Pande said: "I will have to go and take stock. But, it (disengagement process) is going as per schedule, and what was decided."

--IANS
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Ahmedabad, Sep 12 (IANS) Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was in Gujarat on Monday to campaign for the upcoming Assembly elections, kept his promise made to an auto rickshaw driver of having dinner at his home in Ahmedabad.

During a meeting with auto drivers earlier in the day, Vikram Dantani had requested Kejriwal to have dinner at his place. Accordingly, Kejriwal, accompanied by Gujarat AAP leaders Isudan Ghadvi, Gopal Italia and Indranil Rajyaguru, went to Dantani's house to have dinner on Monday evening.

"In Ahmedabad, auto driver Vikrambhai Dantani lovingly took me home for dinner, introduced me to the whole family, and treated me with delicious food with great respect. Heartfelt thanks to Vikrambhai and all the auto driver brothers of Gujarat for this immense affection," Kejriwal tweeted.


--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to Jitendra Tyagi, formerly known as Wasim Rizvi, accused for making alleged inflammatory speeches against Muslims in Dharam Sansad case.

A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and B.V. Nagarathna directed Tyagi not to indulge into such alleged activities anymore and also furnish an undertaking before the trial court that he will not address electronic media or social media. At the end of August, the apex court had declined to extend Tyagi's interim bail, granted on medical grounds, and directed him to surrender.

On Monday, the top court said that Tyagi should be produced before the trial court within three days and he should be released on bail on terms and conditions to the satisfaction of the court.

It made it clear that if he breaches any of the bail conditions, the prosecution may move an application seeking cancellation of his bail.

On May 17, the Supreme Court had granted interim bail for three months to Tyagi arrested in connection with hate speeches at the Haridwar Dharam Sansad held in December last year. The top court imposed a condition that Tyagi would not indulge in hate speech and give a statement to any media.

The top court had told counsel representing Tyagi to ask his client not to indulge in hate speech, as harmony has to be maintained in society. Uttarakhand government counsel submitted before the top court that Tyagi could only be released on bail if he mended his ways and also assured that he would not indulge into making hate speeches.

The state government added that if one wants to talk about her/his religion is not a problem, but the person should not indulge in hate speech against other religions. In January this year, the Uttarakhand Police arrested him for inflammatory speech at the event in Haridwar.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) The Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit, has approved the appointment of 20 judges to high courts of Punjab and Haryana, Bombay, and Karnataka.

According to a statement uploaded on the apex court website, the Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting held on September 12, 2022 has approved the proposal for elevation of the following judicial officers as judges in the Punjab & Haryana High Court: Gurbir Singh, Deepak Gupta, Amarjot Bhatti, Ritu Tagore, Manisha Batra, Harpreet Kaur Jeewan, Sukhvinder Kaur, Sanjiv Berry, and Vikram Aggarwal.

Another statement uploaded on the apex court website said: "The Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting held on 12th September, 2022 has approved the proposal for elevation of the following Advocates as Judges in the Bombay High Court: Santosh Govindrao Chapalgaonkar, and Milind Manohar Sathaye."

The top court in a statement said: "The Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting held on 7th September, 2022 has approved the proposal for appointment of the following Additional Judges as Permanent Judges in the Karnataka High Court: Justice Mohammed Ghouse Shukure Kamal, Justice Rajendra Badamikar, and Justice Khazi Jayabunnisa Mohiuddin."

According to another statement, the Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting held on September 7, 2022 has approved the proposal for elevation of the following judicial officers as judges in the Bombay High Court: Sanjay Anandrao Deshmukh, Yanshivraj Gopichand Khobragade, Mahendra Wadhumal Chandwani, Abhay Sopanrao Waghwase, Ravindra Madhusudan Joshi, and Vrushali @ Shubhangi Vijay Joshi.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) Petitioners in the hijab ban case on Monday told the Supreme Court that Karnataka High Court faulted by holding wearing of the headscarf is not an essential practice of Islam, contending that since the court had no expertise in the field, it should not have gone into the issue of whether hijab was an essential religious practice by interpreting the Quran.

Senior advocate Yusuf Mucchala submitted before a bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia that human dignity is a constitutionally protected facet and scriptures say people have to observe modesty and wearing of the headscarf may be a personal marker in this context.

He said interpreters and scholars may disagree, but if a woman thinks wearing hijab is right, then she should follow it. "It is not the job of the courts to say follow one and don't follow the other," he said.

He added further that the Karnataka High Court used one interpretation of the Quran against another to give a finding on the essentiality of the hijab, which is objectionable.

The bench replied that it had no option, as the petitioners claimed it to be essential religious practice. "What option does the high court have but to point it out? Now you say the high court cannot do this."

Muchhala said it is only judicial wisdom to not touch a field in which the court has no expertise and the court should have stayed away from it. "When HC encountered the question, it should have said hands off, we cannot look into that," he said.

He said whether hijab is a fundamental right or not is applicable here and the question here is not about religious denomination but an individual's fundamental rights.

The apex court was hearing submissions on the fourth day against the Karnataka High Court's judgement of March 15 upholding ban on hijab in pre-university colleges.

The high court found no infirmity in the state government's order that virtually banned the wearing of hijab by Muslim girls studying in pre-university colleges.

The top court scheduled the matter for further hearing on September 14.

--IANS
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