God can't survive science, says 'Da Vinci Code' author

Agencies

October 13, 2017

Frankfurt am Main, Oct 13: God cannot survive science, "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown said today, putting his faith in technological advances to connect people in new ways that would eventually scrap the need for religion.

"Historically, no god has survived science. Gods evolved," the best-selling American novelist said at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where he unveiled his newest book, "Origin".

The fifth instalment in the wildly popular series that started with "The Da Vinci Code" tracks Harvard professor Robert Langdon's latest code-cracking adventure to uncover the mysteries of the universe, this time exploring the battle between religion and science.

"I happen to believe in looking at advances through technology," Brown told reporters.

"Over the next decade our species will become enormously interconnected at a level we are not used to, and we will start to find our spiritual experiences through our interconnections with each other.

"Our need for the exterior God that sits up there and judges us... will diminish and eventually disappear."

Brown, whose books have sold over 200 million copies, famously drew the ire of the Vatican when "The Da Vinci Code" was published in 2003.

One of the top-selling books of all time, it tells the story of a conspiracy by the Catholic Church to hide the fact that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene.

But Brown, 53, insisted that he was not against religion, and that said he just wanted to "start a dialogue".

"I think religion does a lot of good in the world. I also think that the world has changed such that it is no longer a requirement," he said.

He praised Pope Francis for trying to bring the Church into the modern era.

"I think the Church needs to evolve or it will go extinct, and I think that Pope Francis feels that also and is trying very, very hard to make Catholicism relevant in the modern world," he said.

He said his latest novel, released last week and already topping book charts around the world, also delves into current concerns about fake news.

"Now more than ever we need to look at why we believe what we believe, look at our information sources and be very discerning," he said.

In a wide-ranging press conference, Brown also revealed that the intrepid Langdon -- portrayed by Tom Hanks in the Hollywood adaptations of the book series -- was "the man I wish I could be".

Asked whether the professor would have been a Donald Trump voter, Brown replied: "I doubt it. I don't think so."

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Cybercriminals exploiting public fear of rising coronavirus cases

Agencies

March 15,2020

Cybercriminals continue to exploit public fear of rising coronavirus cases through malware and phishing emails in the guise of content coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US and World Health Organisation (WHO), says cybersecurity firm Kaspersky.

In the APAC region, Kaspersky has detected 93 coronavirus-related malware in Bangladesh, 53 in the Philippines, 40 in China, 23 in Vietnam, 22 in India and 20 in Malaysia.

Single-digit detections were monitored in Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Myanmar, and Thailand.

Along with the consistent increase of 2019 coronavirus cases comes the incessant techniques cybercriminals are using to prey on public panic amidst the global epidemic, the company said in a statement.

Kaspersky also detected emails offering products such as masks, and then the topic became more commonly used in Nigerian spam emails. Researchers also found scam emails with phishing links and malicious attachments.

One of the latest spam campaigns mimics the World Health Organisation (WHO), showing how cybercriminals recognise and are capitalising on the important role WHO has in providing trustworthy information about the coronavirus.

"We would encourage companies to be particularly vigilant at this time, and ensure employees who are working at home exercise caution.

"Businesses should communicate clearly with workers to ensure they are aware of the risks, and do everything they can to secure remote access for those self-isolating or working from home," commented David Emm, principal security researcher.

Some malicious files are spread via email.

For example, an Excel file distributed via email under the guise of a list of coronavirus victims allegedly sent from the World Health Organisation (WHO) was, in fact, a Trojan-Downloader, which secretly downloads and installs another malicious file.

This second file was a Trojan-Spy designed to gather various data, including passwords, from the infected device and send it to the attacker.

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Council may find it difficult to raise GST rates

Agencies

May 30,2020

The GST Council is unlikely to make major changes in the indirect tax structure at its next meeting slated mid June.

A top government source said that the Centre is not in favour of increasing tax rates on any goods or service as it could further impact consumption and demand that is already suppressed due the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown.

It was widely expected that the GST Council could consider raising tax rates and cess on certain non-essential items to boost revenue for states and the Centre. Several states have reportedly taken an over 80-90 per cent hit in GST collections in April, the official data for which has not yet been released by the Centre.

"The need of the hour is to boost consumption and improve demand. By categorising items into essential and non-essential and then raising taxes on non-essential is not what Centre favours. But, the issue on rates and relief will be decided by the GST Council that is meeting next month," the finance ministry official source quoted above said.

The GST Council is chaired by the Union finance minister and thus the views of the Centre play out strongly in the council meetings.

However, the Council will also have to balance the expectations of the states whose revenues have nosedived after the coronavirus outbreak and wide scale disruption to businesses while they have still not been paid GST compensation since the December-January period.

To the question of wider scale job losses in the period of lockdown as businesses get widely impacted, the official said that the Finance Ministry has asked the labour ministry to collect data on job losses during Covid-19 and is constantly engaging with the ministry to oversee job losses and salary cuts.

On restrictions put on Chinese investment in India, the official clarified that no decision had yet been taken to restrict China through the Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) route.

Asked about monetising government debt, the official said that the issue would be looked at when we reach a stage. It has not come to that stage yet.

In the government's over Rs 20 lakh crore economic package, the official defended its structure while suggesting that comparisons with the economic packages of other countries should not be drawn as India's needs were different from others.

"We have gone in more reforms that is needed to give strength to the economy. This is required more in our country," the official source said.

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