INDIA NEWS
Nov 1-15, 2020 - Vol 1, Issue 9
India shifting rapidly towards indigenously-made supercomputers N
ew Delhi, October 21 (IANS): India is fast expanding its supercomputer facilities and developing the capacity to manufacture its own supercomputers in the country, the Ministry of Science and Technology said on October 21. The National Super Computing Mission (NSM) is rapidly boosting high power computing in the country through its various phases to meet the increasing computational demands of academia, researchers, MSMEs, and startups in areas like oil exploration, flood prediction as also genomics, and drug discovery, it said. With the infrastructure planned in NSM Phase-I already installed and much of Phase-II in place, the network of supercomputers through the country will soon reach to around 16 petaflops (PF), the ministry said.
Phase-III, to be initiated in January 2021, will take the computing speed to around 45 petaflops. The NSM is jointly steered by the Ministry of Electronics and IT and Department of Science and Technology (DST) and implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune and the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Param Shivay, the first supercomputer assembled indigenously, was installed in IIT-BHU, followed by Param Shakti and Param Brahma at IIT-Kharagpur and IISER, Pune, respectively. Work on Phase-III will start in 2021 and will include three systems of 3 PF each and one system of 20 PF as a national facility.
The mission has also created the next generation of supercomputer experts by training more than 2,400 supercomputing manpower and faculties till date.
ew Delhi, October 21 (IANS): Days after Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman indicated that a further economic stimulus is not off the table, Secretary, Economic Affairs, Tarun Bajaj on October 21 said the Centre is open for further measures to boost the economy. Participating at a CII event, he said that the government has received suggestions from various ministries and sectors on the needed measures. Bajaj also said that while preparing the next Union Budget, the government would be looking at expenditure for this year and the requirements of various ministries. “We have been pushing
government departments to undertake capital expenditure to create a multiplier effect in the economy. We will allocate more money for capital expenditure wherever necessary in our revised estimates too,” he said. The senior official’s statement comes after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on October 19 said that the Centre has not closed the option for another stimulus package. On October 12, the Finance Minister announced a number of measures to induce government employees to spend in the upcoming festive season, including a ‘LTC Cash Voucher Scheme’ and a ‘Special Festival Advance Scheme’.
Such indigenously designed systems with most parts designed and manufactured in India will be installed at places like IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Chennai, and Inter-University Accelerator Centre (IUAC) at Delhi, C-DAC, Pune, which are covered under Phase-III and help move towards supercomputers developed and manufactured totally in India paving the way for self-reliance in the field.
In May, the government came up with the much talked-about Rs 20 lakh crore ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ economic package. Both the rounds of stimulus so far have received flak along with appreciation from the industry and experts, as many are of the opinion that they are inadequate, more so in terms of boosting demand. A recent Moody’s report said that that the second round of fiscal stimulus amounts to just 0.2 per cent of the country’s real GDP forecast for the financial year 2021 and in total, the two rounds of stimulus bring the government’s direct spending on coronavirusrelated fiscal support to just around 1.2 per cent of GDP.
Bezos vs Ambani: Massive battle for India’s retail crown An emergency hearing of the arbitration took place in Singapore on October 16. Harish Salve appeared for the Future Retail (being acquired by RIL) while Singapore-based lawyer Davinder Singh appeared on behalf of Future Coupons Pvt Ltd. (FCPL), the holding company of Kishore Biyani. Gopal Subramanium, former Solicitor General of India, appeared for Amazon.
Mukesh Ambani (left) and Jeff Bezos
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ew Delhi, October 20 (IANS): The arbitration proceedings between Amazon and Kishore Biyani have begun in Singapore. Former Attorney General of Singapore, V.K. Rajah concluded
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the arbitration hearing on October 16. Rajah, former Attorney General of Singapore, is the sole arbitrator in the Amazon vs. Future vs. Reliance arbitration matter.
Jewellery brand Tanishq latest victim of cyberbullying
Experts said that the pace at which things are moving forward, we may soon have the motherboards and sub-systems manufactured in India, making the supercomputers indigenously designed and manufactured.
Centre open to take forward economic stimulus: Indian Secy
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BUSINESS & TRADE
The hearing is said to have lasted for five hours. When contacted, an Amazon spokesperson said, ‘We cannot comment as the matter is subjudice’.
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A shot from the Tanishq _Ekatvam_ advertisement
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ew Delhi, October 15 (IANSlife): Celebrities and influencers are often the target of cyber bullying and trolling, but the latest victim to a long list of names is jewellery brand Tanishq. The retail brand from Titan Company Ltd (Tata Group) finds itself in what can only be described as caught between a rock and a hard place in its attempt to celebrate the “coming together of people from different walks of life.” Ahead of the festive season, traditionally a time when people across the country buy and invest in gold, Tanishq has ruffled feathers for releasing a 45-second advertisement for its latest collection ‘Ekatvam’, wherein it tried to showcase “unity in oneness” by depicting a moment between a Hindu daughter-in-law and her Muslim mother-in-law. The brand has received censure for promoting what some have called “Love Jihad” and these sections have shouted out to viewers to #BoycottTanishq. After the jewellery major pulled the advertisement down for hurting sentiments, it was then called out for giving into cyber bullying and not sticking to its stand by those who believe that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the video. Tanishq was quick to release a statement on its Twitter handle clarifying, “The idea behind the Ekatvam campaign is to celebrate the coming together That judgement will eventually decide the fate of Reliance’s deal with the Future Group. Amazon’s investment in FCPL is around Rs. 1500 crore, which is an insignificant amount for Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world and CEO of Amazon. According to experts, Amazon’s legal salvo at Future is indirectly aimed to thwart Reliance’s attempt to establish its leadership position in the Indian retail sector. Analysts see this as a war between the world’s richest man Jeff
of people from different walks of life, local communities and families during these challenging times and celebrate the beauty of oneness. This film has stimulated divergent and severe reactions, contrary to its very objective. We are deeply saddened by the inadvertent stirring of emotions and withdraw this film keeping in mind the hurt sentiments and wellbeing of our employees, partners and store staff.” A series of illustrations have now replaced the advertisement on the company’s social media accounts. On the one hand politician Shashi Tharoor has spoken out in favour of the advertisement, while on the other, actress Kangana Ranaut has criticised it. Advertisement bodies have come out in support of the brand and have demanded action against what they call “intimidating behaviour”. The Advertising Club released a statement on behalf of the Indian Media and Advertising Industry strongly “condemning the threatening and targeting of ‘Tanishq’ and its employees in regards to their latest advertisement”, emphasising it breaks no “ethical standards, is not derogatory to any person, organisation or religion and does not hurt any national sentiment.” Rejecting a complaint against the advertisement for “promoting communal intermingling”, The Advertising Standards Council of India said that there is no violation of any code. Bezos, having a net worth of $ 204.6 billion and India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani with a (net worth of $ 88.4 billion) for control over India’s retail sector.
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