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Fake news spreads unabated on social media after LS polls

Agencies
May 26, 2019

New Delhi, Mar 26: Posts containing fake news continued to flourish on social media platforms after the end of the Lok Sabha elections that saw the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returning to power.

Celebrations followed the results that pave the way for Modi to become the Prime Minister of the country for the second consecutive term. Some distributed ladoos to celebrate the victory. A few others spread fake news.

A post claiming that "Welcome Modi Ji" has been written on all the city buses of London soon started doing the rounds on social media platforms.

The claims were found to be fake by fact-checking platform BOOM. The images used for the posts originated in 2015, when a bus named "Modi Express" was launched by the Indians living in the UK, the fact checkers found.

Some even circulated a video on Facebook that claimed that a Gujrati man got so elated with Modi's re-election that he showered cash on people in Milton, Canada. The caption that accompanied the video claimed that the man made a lot of profit after the share market responded positively to Modi's re-election.

BOOM traced the viral video to the Instagram account of a Detroit, US based man. It found that the video, originally shot in New York, was uploaded much before the election results in India were declared and it had nothing to do with the celebration of BJP's victory.

On May 23, the day the results of the Lok Sabha polls were declared, a video that showed Modi with his mother went viral on Facebook. While social media users claimed that the video was shot after BJP's landslide victory in the elections, fact checking website Alt News traced the video to 2014.

BOOM also found that following the victory of the BJP, a quote that was falsely attributed to Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the past resurfaced on WhatsApp.

"I would leave India if Modi becomes the PM of this country," the actor was falsely quoted as saying in the post that demanded that the actor should now "apologise or leave the country as PM Modi is back".

BOOM traced the quote to a fake tweet and fake news report that celebrated the 2018 April Fool's Day with the false information.

These posts, however, are only the tip of the iceberg. Many more fake posts are doing the rounds on social media with some even falsely claiming that six lakh votes polled in favour of Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Kerala's Wayanad mysteriously disappeared from the records.

According to BOOM Founder Govindraj Ethiraj, the spread of fake news reached an "all-time high" in the run up to the 2019 general election.

The flow of fake news after the election results suggests that the tide of misinformation on social media is unlikely to stop any time soon.

"The biggest challenge to fighting fake new is that over 300 million of the 550 million smartphone and broadband users in the country are low on literacy and digital literacy and are especially gullible," leading tech policy and media consultant Prasanto K. Roy earlier told media.

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News Networkwork
May 14,2020

Bengaluru, May 14: ABB India has posted a profit after tax of Rs 66 crore during the first quarter (January to March) due to lower volumes including service revenue and unfavourable mix.

In Q1 CY19, it had reported a profit after tax of Rs 89 crore. ABB India follows calendar year as its fiscal year.

The company reported a profit including exceptional items and before tax of Rs 87 crore. The resultant under-absorption and mark-to-market impact due to forex volatility were partly offset by refund incomes and a one-time gain on sale of solar business during the quarter.

Revenues for the first quarter stood at Rs 1,522 crore, impacted by lower sales, non-receipt of delivery clearance, lower service revenue in the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This impact primarily occurred in March, the company said in a statement.

ABB India said it continues to maintain a stable cash position of Rs 1,464 crore as on March 31 in a market where cash collection continues to be a challenge.

Besides, despite many activities coming to a standstill in March, the quarter was marked by commissioning for a mining major at Raigarh in Chhattisgarh, electrical and automation systems for a cement major and port and electrics, drives and automation for a leading mill in Bangladesh.

Terminal installation and commissioning for LPG, power management electrical control system for a leading refinery and commissioning of two units of a power plant in Kerala are some of the other projects where ABB's involvement ensured continuity and safe operations, it said.

On a global scale, the impact of COVID-19, as well as the fall in oil prices, has significantly impacted the short-term outlook. The global economy is expected to contract in 2020 after a rapid deterioration in outlook driven by the pandemic.

Despite unprecedented stimuli by governments and central banks around the world and initial signs of recovering economic activity in China, macro-indicators point to a global recession of uncertain duration as many countries continue to face restrictions with anticipated long-term economic consequences, said ABB India.

While the company is taking prompt action to adapt its operations and cost base to safeguard profitability, it expects the results in the coming quarter to be impacted due to the loss of volumes.

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Agencies
August 6,2020

The Indian Defence Ministry, which had in its document that China intruded into the Indian territory in eastern Ladakh in early May, on August 6 took down the page which it had uploaded on its website.

According to a report by news channel NDTV, the ministry, in its document, had said the Chinese aggression has been "increasing along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and more particularly in Galwan valley since May 5."

"The Chinese side has transgressed in the areas of Kungrang Nala, Gogra and north bank of Pangong Tso Lake on May 17-18," the document, titled 'Chinese Aggression on LAC' stated.

The document revealed that "... a violent face-off incident took place between the two sides on June 15, resulting in casualties on both sides."

After the clash, a second corps commander level meeting took place on June 22 to discuss the modalities of de-escalation. "While engagement and dialogue at military and diplomatic level is continuing to arrive at mutually acceptable consensus, the present standoff is likely to be prolonged," it said.

A defence ministry spokesperson told the news channel that the document "did not go through him".

The opposition Congress, meanwhile, asked the government why the report was taken down with party leader Rahul Gandhi alleging that removal of the document from websites would not change facts.

"Forget standing up to China, India's PM lacks the courage even to name them. Denying China is in our territory and removing documents from websites won't change the facts," Gandhi tweeted.

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News Network
June 13,2020

Visakhapatnam, Jun 13: A four-month-old baby who was on ventilator treatment for 18 days for COVID-19 was on Friday evening discharged from hospital after testing negative.

"A tribal woman of East Godavari named Laxmi was infected with COVID-19 in May, later the doctors confirmed that her four-month-old baby was also infected," said District Collector, Vinay Chand.

"The baby was shifted to Visakhapatnam VIMS hospital on May 25. She was treated for 18 days on a ventilator. Doctors again conducted baby's COVID-19 test recently, following which the reports came negative. After a health check-up, VIMS doctors discharged the baby on Friday evening," he added.

Meanwhile, 14 new COVID-19 positive cases have been reported in Visakhapatnam district on Friday, taking the total number of cases to 252 including one fatality due to the virus.

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