SC dismisses plea against Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh

Bengaluru, Jul 1: A day after the Government banned several Chinese apps, popular short-form video app Mitron reported that its daily traffic jumped up by more than 11 times.

Just 5 days after crossing the 10 million (1 crore) downloads milestone, Mitron has now announced that the app has been downloaded by 17 million (1.7 crore) users in India. Mitron app has been one of the most downloaded apps in India during the last two months.

"It is incredibly exciting to see the rapid adoption of Mitron by Indian users. 11-fold jump in traffic, immediately after the ban of Chinese apps, was beyond our expectations," said Shivank Agarwal, Founder, and CEO, Mitron.

Anish Khandelwal, Founder and CTO said, " We have built a solid backend infrastructure and our platform is now completely scalable and autonomous and that is helping us to cater to the sharp rise in traffic on Mitron App."

Mitron has been rapidly enhancing the product with several improvements for the users including an updated video upload process that is much easier, enhanced audio library with a wide choice of Indian content, and a feature that enables users to flag any inappropriate content easily.

Users uploaded millions of videos in 10 different languages and the number of videos viewed on the platform increased sharply to cross 30 million video views per hour.

Shivank added "We are a young company and we are hiring some of the best product & engineering talent to scale up Mitron rapidly. We are confident that we can build Mitron into one of the best apps in the short-form video space. Our focus is on building features and content that uniquely resonates with Indian users, while being sensitive to community standards and local laws in India and we believe that will help us build Mitron into a very large business."

Founded by two Computer Science engineers, Shivank Agarwal (alumnus of IIT Roorkee) and Anish Khandelwal (alumnus of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology), Mitron app is a short-form video app that allows users to create, upload and view entertaining short videos.

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 21: Hindu temples, dedicated to Lord Shiva, witnessed heavy rush on Friday as devotees celebrated Maha Shivratri festival with traditional zeal and religious fervour across Kerala.

Cutting across age barriers, devotees, including women and children, thronged small and big shrines since early morning to offer prayers and take part in special poojas and rituals on the occasion.

Devotees used to mark the auspicious occasion by observing 'orikkal' (fasting), dedicating the leaves of Koovalam plant, which is considered holy according to Hindu tradition, to the Lord and by abandoning their sleep chanting 'Om Nama Shivaya' mantras.

Ardent devotees even remain awake throughout the night and spend their whole day in temples.

The Sreekandeswaram Mahadeva Temple here, Vadakkunnathan temple in Thrissur and Maha Deva temple in Vaikom were among the major shrines which witnessed heavy rush since early morning.

Temple authorities, especially Devaswom Boards which manage many major shrines in the state, have made elaborate arrangements in Shiva temples to ensure smooth darshan for devotees.

All arrangements have been put in place on the banks of River Periyar in Aluva in Ernakulam for 'Balitharppanam', a ritual in which people pay obeisance to their ancestors.

Performing the ritual on the midnight of Shivratri is considered auspicious by devotees.

Hundreds of 'bali taras' (specially erected platforms) have been set up on the banks of the river to perform the ritual and a large number of priests have been deployed to assist devotees.

Thousands of police personnel were deployed in view of the large turnout of devotees.

New Delhi, Jul 25: The Indian Air Force (IAF) has made key appointments in its different commands all across the country including formations that look after operations along the borders with China and Pakistan.

Air Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari has been appointed as the head of the Delhi-based Western Air Command (WAC) which looks after both the crucial borders, with China in Ladakh and all along Pakistan from Ladakh up to Bikaner in Rajasthan.

Chaudhari would be assuming charge of the new office on August 1, replacing Air Marshal B Suresh who is superannuating after a brief tenure of nine months there.

In the Shillong-based Eastern Command, incumbent Air Marshal RD Mathur would be moving to the Bangalore-based Training Command on October 1, he will be replaced by Air Marshal Amit Dev. The Eastern Command looks after the entire Northeastern region including the border with China from Sikkim to Arunachal Pradesh.

As per the new appointments issued on July 24, Kargil war gallantry awardee Air Marshal Dilip Kumar Patnaik would be taking over as the Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) at the Prayagraj-based Central Air Command.

On October 1, the Air Force would also get a new in-charge of personnel in Air Marshal RJ Duckworth who is presently the SASO in the WAC.

Air Marshal Vikram Singh would be the next SASO of the WAC. Air Marshal J Chalapati-- the officer who had briefed the Supreme Court on the Rafale issue last year, would be the SASO of the Trivandrum-based Southern Air Command.