Half of Narendra Modi's Twitter followers are fake, claims social media firm

Rajouri, Aug 3: Ashfaq Mehmood Choudhary, a 17-year-old boy from Chattyear of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, has developed a file-sharing app 'Dodo Drop' which would enable users to share audios, videos, images, and texts between two devices without Internet access.

While speaking to media persons, Ashfaq Mehmood said that the 'Dodo Drop' application is an alternative to the Chinese 'SHAREit' app. "The Indian government has banned several Chinese apps due to data breaching, and among those apps was SHAREit which was used for sharing files.

Users faced a lot of problems due to the ban, and so I decided to make this file-sharing app. With 'Dodo Drop', users can share audios, videos, images, and even texts," he said.

Ashfaq said that it took him four weeks to develop the application, and it was launched on August 1 this year. The 'Dodo Drop' application has a transfer rate of up to 480 mbps, which is faster than the SHAREit app and is "quite easy" to use.

"Users can transfer data comprising photos, videos, audios, apps, texts, etc. between two devices with no Internet access. The transfers are fully encrypted and secure," he added.

"Our Prime Minister has always asserted the need for decreasing the dependency on foreign products and apps and to focus on the development of India-based apps. I tried to be part of the initiative of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' by developing an India-based file-sharing app. I want to develop global-standard apps for India," he added.

"We support and cooperate with him. He generates his own income by working on some projects and utilises it. We will continue to support him," said Parvez Ahmed Choudhary, Ashfaq's father.

In July, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) banned 47 apps, which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 apps banned earlier in June. These banned clones included SHAREit Lite, Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite, and VFY Lite.

The 59 apps had been banned by the Centre in June in view of the information available that they were engaged in activities which were "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity and defence" of the country.

Almost all the apps banned had some preferential Chinese interest and the majority had parent Chinese companies.

The ban came amid border tensions with China in the Eastern Ladakh region.

New Delhi, Jul 30: Even as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in various parts of India, more than 1 million people have recovered and discharged till now, informed Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Ministry of Health, here on Thursday.

"More than 1 million people have recovered from COVID-19 in the country. This landmark recovery has been achieved because of the selfless work and dedication of our doctors, nurses and frontline workers," Bhushan said at a press conference.

Giving the number of cured persons, Bhushan said, "More than 1,020,000 patients have recovered. They have been discharged. It is a great achievement."

He said, "The recovery rate has shown positive trends. It was 7.85 per cent in April and today it is 64.4 per cent, which is another heartening news which tells us that whatever battle is put by the Union government in collaboration with state governments is showing results."

"Sixteen states of the country have a recovery rate that is more than the national average. Of these, Delhi has a recovery rate of 88 per cent, Ladakh 80 per cent, Haryana 78 per cent, Assam 76 per cent, Telangana 74 per cent, Tamil Nadu & Gujarat 73 per cent, Rajasthan 70 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 69 per cent and Goa 68 per cent," Bhushan said.

He said effective clinical management lead to a decrease in case fatality rate. In June it was 3.33 per cent and now 2.21 per cent.

Bhushan said the case fatality rate in India today is 2.21 per cent and it's among the lowest in the world. Twenty-four states and Union Territories have lesser fatality rate than that of the country.

Herd immunity in a country of the size and population of India can not be a strategic option. It can only be achieved through immunisation.

"Over 18,190,000 tests have been conducted in the country including RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests. There has been a week-on-week increase in average tests per day. India is conducting 324 test per 10 lakhs population per day," Bhushan said.

He added, three vaccine candidates, are in phase 3 clinical trial. These three are in the US, UK and China. In India, two indigenously developed vaccine candidates are in phase I and II of clinical trials. 

Trial of the first vaccine involves 1,150 subjects at eight sites, second on 1,000 subjects at five sites.

Mumbai, Aug 6: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said on Thursday that overly focusing on what sovereign rating agencies think can take one's eyes off what needs to be done for the economy.

"It is also important to convince both domestic and international investors that after the crisis associated with the pandemic is over, we will return to fiscal responsibility over the medium term, and the government should do more to convince them of that," Rajan told the Global Markets Forum.

India was placed under one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in late March for more than two months to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but cases have continued to rise steadily since the government eased restrictions in June, stymieing hopes of an economic recovery.

The government has announced several initiatives to help the poor and small- and medium-size businesses, but actual cash outgo from the government's measures has been estimated at just about 1% of GDP.

Several attribute the fiscal prudence to fear of a downgrade after Moody's cut India's rating and outlook in early June followed closely by a change in outlook from Fitch.

The central bank on its part too has reduced the key lending rate by 115 basis points on top of the 135 bps last year and is widely expected to cut rates by another 25 bps later on Thursday.

"The RBI and government have certainly been cooperating, but it seems like it is elsewhere, the ball is in the government's court to do more," Rajan said.

He said the RBI needs to focus on whether credit is reaching the stressed areas of the economy and also if the viable firms were able to access credit and not the unviable ones.

"And I think that's where it has to focus its attentions, because resources, as you well know, are limited in India today."

Recently analysts, however, have cited the growing possibility the RBI may prefer to pause and cut rates only at its October meeting.

Government officials too have suggested the possibility of any more fiscal stimulus being announced, would only come in the second half of the fiscal year, once a recovery has taken root and coronavirus cases have peaked.

"What India should focus on at this point is protecting its economic capabilities, so that when it has dealt with the virus it can go resume activity in a reasonable way. That should be the focus," Rajan said.

"And if it does that, there is no reason why the rating agencies will not see that as an appropriate policy".