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OYO cuts 25% of fixed pay of Employees; sends some staff on Leave

22Apr By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

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OYO cuts 25% of fixed pay of Employees; sends some staff on Leave

Softbank backed online hotel room booking platform OYO informed employees that 25 percent of their fixed salaries will be cut and asked some staff to go on a four-month leave with limited benefits from May 4 as the hotel rooms aggregator grapples with "economic pressures" due to COVID-19. The company, which has around 10,000 employees in the country, is a leading player in the hospitality industry that has been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. The nationwide lockdown, which has been extended till May 3, to curb spreading of infections has also significantly disrupted economic activities. "We had to take the hard decision of placing some OYOpreneurs on a leave with limited benefits (LwLB) from May 4, 2020, for four months until August 2020," OYO India and South Asia CEO Rohit ...

Zoom rolls out New Measures as Security fears Mount

17Apr By NitishNo Comments

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Zoom rolls out New Measures as Security fears Mount

Videoconferencing platform Zoom is rolling out a number of measures meant to stem criticism over how it has handled security as users flock to the application during the coronavirus pandemic. Zoom chief executive Eric Yuan laid out steps Wednesday that the company is taking against problems such as data hacking and harassment by individuals who crash sessions in what is referred to as "Zoombombing." By week's end, paid account holders will be able to select which regions their data is routed through during their sessions in a move apparently aimed at concerns over the information passing through China where it might be subject to snooping. "As a reminder, meeting servers in China have always been geofenced with the goal of ensuring that meeting data of users outside of China sta...

SoftBank Group Forecasts USD 7bn Net Loss in 2019 Financial Year

14Apr By NitishNo Comments

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SoftBank Group Forecasts USD 7bn Net Loss in 2019 Financial Year

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group forecast a USD 7-billion net loss for the year ended March due to the negative impact of coronavirus and losses related to WeWork. The group led by Masayoshi Son said in a press release, "It also expected to suffer an operating loss of 1.35 trillion yen or USD 12.5 billion." The firm cited a 1.8 trillion yen loss at its SoftBank Vision Fund, blaming "the deteriorating market environment" in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic. As well as killing more than 100,000 people globally, the virus has tipped the world into what many predict will be a Great Depression, and markets have been in free-fall, battering the group's investments. Under Son's leadership SoftBank Group has morphed into an investment and technology firm, and its $100-b...

SoftBank CEO Son says will supply 300 million masks per month to Japan

13Apr By NitishNo Comments

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SoftBank CEO Son says will supply 300 million masks per month to Japan

TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son said he has secured a monthly supply of 300 million face masks for Japan after reaching a deal with Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD Co Ltd, which has also started producing masks. From next month, SoftBank will supply two different kinds of mask, initially for medical staff, in cooperation with the Japanese government’s “mask team”, set up to tackle shortages due to the coronavirus outbreak, Son said on Twitter. SoftBank, which last month said it was donating 1.4 million masks to New York state, will supply the masks without taking a profit. Addressing the supply crunch is a priority for the Japanese government, which will begin delivering two washable masks to households next week a move that has been widely criticized o...

Google Stop Employees from using Zoom Video Conferencing App

13Apr By NitishNo Comments

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Google Stop Employees from using Zoom Video Conferencing App

Search engine based company Google ban employees from using popular video-conferencing app Zoom after end to end security flaws. Video-conferencing app Zoom which gained over 200 million users worldwide in March amid shutdown due to coronavirus pandemic has recently been under the scanner after few countries reported security issues. Apart from Google, the Singapore education dept, Taiwan Government, Elon Musk's SpaceX, etc has banned video conferencing app over security concerns. The app has also been banned by New York City officials for schools who were earlier using the app to facilitate remote classes and sessions. As Pixr8 News mentioned in its earlier report that Zoom videos had been exposed on the open web due to end to end security flaws. Also, a data-mining feature o...

Singapore stops Zoom for Online Education as Hackers Strike

11Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

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Singapore stops Zoom for Online Education as Hackers Strike

Singapore has suspended the use of Zoom for online education after hackers hijacked a lesson and showed obscene images to students. In what is known as “Zoombombing,” two hackers interrupted a geography lesson a day after Singapore closed schools on Wednesday as part of partial lockdown measures to curb local transmissions of COVID-19. Lessons have moved online, with some teachers using video conferencing tools like Zoom. Singapore’s Ministry of Education said it was investigating the “serious incidents” and may file police reports. "We are already working with Zoom to enhance its security settings and make these security measures clear and easy to follow,” said Aaron Loh, director of the ministry’s Educational Technology Division. "As a precautionary measure, our teachers ...

9Apr By AnkitaNo Comments

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Disney+ Hits 50 Million Paid Users

The Walt Disney Company said its television streaming service has already won 50 million paid subscribers just five months after its launch in the US. Disney+ rolled out in India and eight Western European countries in recent weeks. About eight million of its paid subscriptions are in India, where Disney+ is offered in conjunction with existing Hotstar service. "We’re truly humbled that Disney+ is resonating with millions around the globe, and believe this bodes well for our continued expansion throughout Western Europe and into Japan and all of Latin America later this year," direct-to-consumer and international chairman Kevin Mayer said in a release. The Walt Disney Company last month rolled out Disney+ streaming service in seven European countries, but had reduced bandwidth...

6Apr By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Zoom CEO Apologizes for Security Issues

Eric S. Yuan, Founder & CEO of video meeting app Zoom apologized to its users after the recent security lapses incidents. In a blog post, Yuan wrote, "Usage of Zoom has ballooned overnight. As of the end of December last year, the maximum number of daily meeting participants, both free and paid, conducted on Zoom was approximately 10 million. In March this year, we reached more than 200 million daily meeting participants, both free and paid. We have been working around the clock to ensure that all of our users new and old, large and small can stay in touch and operational." For the past several weeks, supporting this influx of users has been a tremendous undertaking and our sole focus. We have strived to provide you with uninterrupted service and the same user-friendly exp...

BYJU’S sees 150% Growth After Allowing Free Access

6Apr By AdityaNo Comments

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BYJU’S sees 150% Growth After Allowing Free Access

Edutech company BYJU'S said it has witnessed a 150 per cent increase in the number of new students learning on its app after announcing free access in March 2020. The initiative, taken to support students to learn from home during the disruption caused due to COVID-19, has received an overwhelming response with students from metros and non-metros accessing lessons on the app, BYJU'S said in a release here. Over six million new students have started learning on the app in March 2020 alone. To support students in their learning journeys further, the company has introduced free 'Live Classes' on its platform. Students will now be able to learn real-time from teachers by reserving their preferred topic and slot from the schedule on BYJU'S The Learning App, the release said. "Af...

Video calling app Zoom Has Security Flaws

3Apr By NitishNo Comments

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Video calling app Zoom Has Security Flaws

Zoom, a video conferencing app that received huge traction amid the virus crisis grapples with end to end security flaws. As per the latest news, hackers enter into official web meetings of organizations and disrupting them with pornography and messages. Cybersecurity expert fears that these hacks could be more harmful in the future and access your secure files or organization corporate software. Zoom claims on its official website that they offer end-to-end encryption on its website. “Zoom's solution and security architecture provide end-to-end encryption and meeting access controls so data in transit cannot be intercepted”, according to the company’s website. However, a recent report by The Intercept reveals that video calls on Zoom are not end-to-end encrypted. Instead,...

Dubai based Indian Businessman donates Property to Quarantine Coronavirus affected Patients

30Mar By PriyankaNo Comments

MIDDLE EAST, News

Dubai based Indian Businessman donates Property to Quarantine Coronavirus affected Patients

A Dubai-based Indian businessman has donated a fully-equipped building owned by him to the country's health authorities for the purpose of quarantining coronavirus affected patients, according to media reports. Ajay Sobhraj, Founder and Chairman of Dubai-based Finja Jewellery, has donated the building in Jumeirah Lake Towers in Dubai, that can accommodate up to 400 people, to be used as a quarantine centre, the Gulf News reported on Sunday. In a letter addressed to the Dubai Health Authority titled 'To Support and Give Back to the City That Cares', the Indian businessman who has called Dubai his home for 25 years, has donated a fully-equipped building in Jumeirah Lake Towers to be used in the country's fully integrated strategy against the COVID-19 crisis, the report said. "I bel...

Zuckerberg Philanthropic Arm Pledges USD 25M to Fund Researching COVID-19 Treatments

29Mar By AnkitaNo Comments

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Zuckerberg Philanthropic Arm Pledges USD 25M to Fund Researching COVID-19 Treatments

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic arm of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, has announced plans to team up with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to donate USD 25 million to a research fund exploring possible COVID-19 treatments. "I'm really proud to share that (The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is) going to be joining Gates and others to put together something they're calling the therapeutics accelerator to fight coronavirus," Chan told "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King. Chan told King that their goal is "to fund a group to screen all the drugs that we know have potential effects against coronavirus."Zuckerberg said one drug can often be used to treat multiple diseases. "You can basically take all those drugs that have already been...