Author: Indmedia

New Delhi: The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is likely to constitute a high-powered committee to study its investment objectives, policy and guidelines as it eyes higher returns on its nearly Rs 31 lakh crore corpus based on contribution from over 30 crore members. The issue was discussed at last week’s investment committee meeting, which was weighing the feasibility of investing in the equity markets beyond exchange traded funds (ETFs), tracking the benchmark NSE Nifty and BSE sensex indices. The panel, proposal for which came from a govt representative, will see experts from multiple fields and govt departments, a person…

Kolkata: Acting on an Election Commission ultimatum, the West Bengal government on Tuesday registered FIRs against five state government employees, including two EROs and two AEROs, for alleged “grave lapses” and violations of data security policies over electoral roll revisions during the ongoing SIR exercise in the state.The action was taken six months after the commission had directed the state to initiate criminal cases against the accused.Police complaints were filed merely hours before the EC-set deadline of 5 pm.The development took place amid Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s statement that the state government would stand firmly beside all its employees and…

Mumbai: A special trial court on Wednesday stayed, until Feb 23, an open-dated warrant issued against Kumar Pillai, who was arrested from Singapore, as police sought clarification on whether to repatriate him to Singapore or Hong Kong.The designated Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court Judge Satyanarayan R Navander earlier this week directed the Mumbai police to take steps to repatriate Pillai to his home country, Hong Kong, following his acquittal in all cases for which he was originally extradited.Pillai, originally an Indian citizen, migrated to Hong Kong, acquiring its citizenship, but police arrested him in 2016 in Singapore…

NEW DELHI: With strict access restrictions announced for Thursday due to the movement of global leaders, the organisers have decided to keep the AI Impact Expo shut for the over three lakh registered participants and instead open it on Saturday.The expo was originally scheduled to conclude on Friday, alongside the formal close of the summit. The extension, electronics and IT secretary S Krishnan said will allow more students, professionals and general visitors to experience the exhibits once security restrictions are lifted.Access to the Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre, where leaders and tech czars meet on Thursday, will be strictly by invitation,…

Bengaluru: A long queue of garbage trucks and auto-tippers lined the road to the Bellahalli landfill after being stopped from dumping waste, turning the stretch into a flashpoint of civic disruption. The impasse quickly snowballed into a political sparring match Wednesday, with the opposition BJP accusing the govt of mismanaging waste disposal and the Congress hitting back with counter-allegations.Opposition leader R Ashoka alleged that the city is on the brink of a sanitation crisis, with heaps of garbage lying uncleared across several localities.Bengaluru: Fatal Crashes & Killings, Daring Theft, Political Buzz & MoreDeputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, who holds the…

Hyderabad: An in-depth investigation into biryani restaurant chains in Hyderabad has blown the lid of a larger tax evasion scam in the food and beverages industry that runs into thousands of crores.By analysing 60 terabytes of transactional data of a pan-India billing software used by more than one lakh restaurants, the Income Tax department’s Hyderabad investigation unit has revealed that these eateries suppressed sales turnover worth at least Rs 70,000 crore since the 2019-20 financial year.Officials are yet to calculate the tax with penalty on the suppressed income. They added the software they tracked controls about 10% of the total…

Chennai: Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin called for constitutional amendments and structural reforms to decentralise powers and provide greater autonomy for states. Speaking on the report of the High Level committee on Union – State relations, tabled in the assembly on Wednesday, Stalin said the day marked the beginning of Tamil Nadu’s legal efforts to bring constitutional amendments for transforming state govt’s into powerful entities. “States are forced to expect the Union govt for everything. How long should we remain at the receiver and the Union as the provider. This situation should end,” he said. Stalin said state…

Ahmedabad: The right settings in your phone can act as a barrier cybercriminals may find difficult scaling and target sensitive data. One such setting is to disable the auto-download setting, police say, especially in the light of growing threat from APK files, which criminals send to WhatsApp groups to target a large number of users at once. Leaving this setting ‘on’ means inviting an APK file to download into the phone automatically without the user’s knowledge. Once installed, it can gain access to sensitive data, including banking credentials, SMS alerts and OTPs, and result in financial losses. Recently, a complaint…

Rourkela: Two men were arrested in Sundargarh district on Tuesday night for allegedly operating mule accounts in a private bank and carrying out suspicious transactions of over Rs 4 crore. The accused were identified as Abdul Qadir, 25, and Md Faiyaz Raza, 26.During verification at the bank’s Rajgangpur branch, three accounts in the name of the two accused were found to have handled suspicious transactions. Funds were credited from unknown sources and were withdrawn through self cheques. The total amount transacted through these accounts was found to be over Rs 4.19 crore. The accused allegedly operated the accounts on the…

Chennai: IIT Madras Global Research Foundation will establish its first applied artificial intelligence innovation centre at Dubai CommerCity to accelerate applied AI innovation and support technology-led economic growth. A release said that in its first phase, the Centre will host six applied AI startups with a combined valuation of about $118 million and projected revenues of $281 million over the next five years.”The launch of the Applied AI Innovation Centre in Dubai marks a pivotal step in globalizing IIT-M’s research. Coinciding with the India AI Impact Summit, this initiative bridges academic breakthroughs with industrial scale to drive ‘human-centric AI,” said…