Crumbd

Destination Alang, INS Viraat sets sail for the last time

Ending a nearly six-decade service across two Navies, INS Viraat, the world’s oldest aircraft carrier, set sail for the final time on Saturday. After efforts by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra governments to convert the Viraat into a maritime museum failed, the vessel was bound for the ship-breaking yard in Alang, Gujarat, where it will cease to exist within a year. The Defence PRO Mumbai tweeted, “#Viraat Callsign “Romeo Two Two” – End of an era, a glorious chapter in the history of @indiannavy. She departs #Mumbai today for her final journe........

As the great statistician CR Rao turns 100, a look at his extraordinary career

In the mathematical community, a CR Rao anecdote is a staple, but the one that crops up most often is from the celebrated statistician’s visit to Iran for a conference. On that trip to Tehran, Rao’s suitcase got misplaced on the flight. The airlines assured him that they would trace it and deliver it to his hotel at the earliest. True to their word, the next day, Rao received a call: “Mr Cramér Rao, we found your bag.” Despite Rao’s attempts to explain to the woman on the line that he ........

Less is more: You know, the pre-smartphone generation was smarter

My grandmother Padmini turned 99 last week. One year closer to the record of spending a century on the planet – the same planet where many people half or even quarter her age are already finding it a drudgery to be. On the day of her birthday, all of us cousins, aunts, grand-uncles and nieces broke our self-imposed Covid-19 house arrest and landed at our uncle’s; masks on our mouths, wishes on our mind. We stood surrounding her bed, to which she is mostly confined for the past two ........

Coronavirus in India: 92,605 new cases, 1,133 deaths reported in last 24 hours

India's Covid-19 case tally crossed 54-lakh mark with a spike of 92,605 new cases and 1,133 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday. The total case tally stands at 54,00,620 including 10,10,824 active cases, 43,03,044 cured/discharged/migrated and 86,752 deaths, the Ministry said. As far as active cases of coronavirus are concerned, Maharashtra has 3,01,273 active cases, Karnataka 1,01,148, Andhra Pradesh 84,423, Uttar Pradesh 67,825 and Tamil Nadu 46,506. In Delhi, 38 people suc........

IPL 2020: Empty stadium, canned cheers, and did you hear the thwack of bat on ball?

IPL is back but the atmosphere isn't. The 20,000-seater Sheikh Zayed Stadium was nearly empty for the inaugural match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, bar those 22 men in the middle and the umpires. Butit was not too quiet. There werepre-recorded cheers arranged by the franchises. But it made the atmosphere even more weird. IPL in the corona age is different in many ways. Inaudible under normal circumstances because of the cheers and chants from passionate fans,........

Govt may allow companies with over 300 workers to fire staff without its nod

Companies having not less than 300 workers will soon be allowed to hire and fire workers without seeking prior government permission, with the labour ministry proposing changes to rules in a bill introduced in Lok Sabha on Saturday. The proposal, which was the bone of contention between the ministry and trade unions, is part of the Industrial Relation Code Bill 2020. Currently, only those industrial establishments with less than 100 employees are permitted to hire and fire their staff without permission of the go........

BCCI Considering Hosting England and IPL 2021 in UAE - Report

A Virat Kohli-led India could play host to England in UAE later in the winter. The BCCI, who signed on with the Emirates Cricket Board to boost cricketing ties between the two countries are reportedly also considering playing the IPL in 2021 in UAE as well, according to a report on Cricinfo. On Saturday hours before the start of IPL 2020, BCCI secretary Jay Shah had tweeted announcing the Indian board had signed a "hosting agreement" with the ECB "to boost cricketing ties between our countries". Shah signed the agreement at a meeting with ECB vice-chairman Kh........

India's First Paper-strip Covid-19 Test Named After Satyajit Ray's 'Feluda', All You Need to Know

In April 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was still in the initial phases, a team led by two Bengali-origin scientists, Dr Souvik Maiti and Dr Debojyoti Chakraborty, at the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research’s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) in New Delhi, came up with a simple 'strip-test' to tell you if you have COVID-19, in minutes. They On Saturday, the Drugs Controller General of India approved the commercial launch of " ". This test uses an indigenously developed, cutting-edge CRISPR technology for detect........

The movements that betray who you are

While leafing through some old research papers, Hillary Elfenbein noticed something strange about the photographs in one famous study. The research from the late 1980s had asked volunteers if they were able to in the faces of Japanese and Caucasian people. Some of the “Japanese” faces were posed by Japanese-Americans, the rest by Japanese nationals. When Elfenbein herself looked at photograp........

The Indian queens who modelled for the world's first vaccine

When Devajammani arrived at the royal court of Mysore in 1805, it was to marry Krishnaraja Wadiyar III. They were both 12 years of age and he was the newly minted ruler of the southern Indian kingdom. But Devajammani soon found herself recruited for a more momentous cause - to publicise and promote the smallpox vaccine. And her unwitting role was captured in a painting commissioned by the East India Company to "encourage participation in the vaccination programme", according to Dr Nigel Chancellor, a historian at Cambridge Unive........

Who Will Get The Covid-19 Vaccination First? Here's What India Is Planning

Once the COVID vaccine is developed, countries like India need to plan on who will get access to it first. The frontline health workers, those with co-morbidities, the economically backward section, or a completely different set? t the time of writing this story, there are approximately 7 million active COVID-19 cases in the world, with 4.2 million in India alone, and the one thing that the human race collectively is hoping comes through sooner........

Everything You Need To Know About The 2021 Hyundai Tucson

Hyundai revealed the fourth-gen Tucson a couple of weeks ago, and the updated car made its global debut on September 15, 2020. The Tucson SUV has received its most drastic updates yet, both in terms of both design and technology, with this new-gen model. While Hyundai currently retails the facelifted version of the previous-gen Tucson in India, this new model will also be brought to the country sometime later. Here is a quick summary of everything you ne........

How Google Maps is positioned to become the next big content platform

For long, Google Maps has been the go-to app to find one’s location, look for directions or even read reviews before visiting a place. It is an essential tool today for its more than one billion monthly active users. But have you ever wondered about its potential to become the next big content platform? Yes, it’s possible. While data about its number of active users is quite easily accessible, very few know about the over 120 million contributors whom we depend on before........

Rules & regulations: Trai suggestions no free pass for OTTs, data privacy still concern

The recent recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India stating that over-the-top (OTT) players like Facebook, Viber, Telegram, etc, do not need to be brought under any form of regulatory framework, will in no way stop the government from drafting intermediary guidelines and data protection laws aimed at governing them. This is significant because the intermediary guidelines would make it mandatory for apps like WhatsApp to trace the origin of messages if they create law ........

Superfoods to the rescue: Here are some Indian recipes that are high on nutrition

Late last month, PM Narendra Modi announced that September will be observed as Nutrition Month every year from now. The ministry of women and child development has already started calling for traditional Indian recipes to be included in a nutrition chart. Here are some Indian recipes and superfoods that are high on nutrition.........

Police arrested a local journalist alleging spying for China

Police in India’s capital city on Saturday said they had arrested a local freelance journalist on allegations he was passing “sensitive information” to Chinese intelligence officers. In a statement, the Delhi Police said 61-year-old Rajeev Sharma was arrested earlier this week and officers had seized some confidential documents related to the Indian defence department from the journalist’s residence. One Chinese woman and her Nepalese partner were also arrested for allegedly supplying Sharma with “huge amounts of money” for “conveyi........