Miscellany

Steeped in Sangh moorings, BJP leaders across the country are mocking science and scientific finds, asserting with great delight that most of what is available contemporarily is replete in Hindu mythology, opening up a great debate and of course leaving a trail of humour in its wake on socmedia. In what has become a recurring theatre of the surreal, the BJP leadership top down is constantly claiming that - We Were First - with a catalogue of shocking comments   

If a new European law restricting what companies can do with people’s online data went into effect tomorrow, almost 1.9 billion Facebook Inc users around the world would be protected by it. The online social network is making changes that ensure the number will be much smaller. Facebook members outside the United States and Canada, whether they know it or not, are currently governed by terms of service agreed with the company’s international headquarters in Ireland.

Share of e-commerce purchases made through mobile phones has gone up to 70 per cent in 2017 with data charges becoming more affordable. The share of mobile purchases is expected to touch 80 per cent by 2020, finds a study. The higher usage of mobile phones for purchases is likely to see the launch of mobile-only formats of e-commerce companies.

The presence of a large number of river systems places India among the few countries that have the potential to develop large hydropower projects. Despite this advantage, India has realised only 45,000 MW so far, out of 1,45,000 MW of hydro potential. Delays in land acquisition and green clearances are one of the biggest bottlenecks apart from higher realisable tariff in the initial few years. All this is set to change with government planning a new hydro policy that is set to give fresh impetus to development of large projects.

Bucking the lean season trend of low demand for air travel, domestic air traffic continued to soar in March with airlines together carrying 11.58 million passengers during the period and recording a 28 per cent growth over the corresponding month last year. Most big carriers, including Air India and Jet Airways, registered over 80 per cent flight occupancy in March.

As per the latest government data, the domestic airlines carried 33.79 million passengers in January-March thus registering a 23.87 per cent growth over the same period last year.

Threats to the global financial system are rising, with the price of risky assets surging in a manner reminiscent of the years before the global financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund warned.

Researchers in the US and Britain have accidentally engineered an enzyme which eats plastic and may eventually help solve the growing problem of plastic pollution, a study said on Monday.

Researchers from Britain’s University of Portsmouth and the US department of energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory made the discovery while examining the structure of a natural enzyme thought to have evolved in a waste recycling centre in Japan.

Annual salaries across sectors and cities have come down this year by around 30 per cent, finds a survey by Randstad India. While the average annual cost to company offered by the highest paying sector is down from Rs 11.3 lakh to Rs 9.6 lakh, the highest paying city saw a drop from Rs 14.8 lakh to Rs 10.6 lakh.

Fresh snow coats the sidewalks outside Indigo Ag Inc.’s Boston offices, but inside the temperature is calibrated to mimic spring in the Midwest. Hundreds of almost identical soy seedlings sit beneath high-intensity arc lamps, basking in the artificially sunny 60F weather.