‘Where will I get my burger’: Delhi wonders as 43 McDonald’s outlets shut

Agencies
June 30, 2017

New Delhi, Jun 30: If you are a glutton for McDonald’s burgers, get ready for some serious heartburn.

mc

As many as 43 of the 55 outlets belonging to the American fast food chain in Delhi temporarily suspended operations from Thursday, after its North and East India licensee failed to renew eating-house permits.

As soon as news of the development spread, Delhiites rushed to their nearest McDonald’s outlets in the hope of landing one last burger before they downed shutters. Only a few emerged successful.

“I have been eating at McDonald’s for several years now. Their sudden decision to suspend operations is shocking. Where will I get them now?” asked Rohit Sharma, a 29-year-old IT professional working in Connaught Place.

McDonald’s burgers have been the most sought-after meal for many, from college-goers to corporate employees. “I logged on to the McDonald’s website to get a burger delivered at my home. I had barely typed in my address and order details when a message that read – ‘Sorry, the assigned store(s) is not able to make deliveries now’ – flashed before my eyes,” bemoaned 20-year-old Pooja Dubey, a first-year BTech student. “This is the final nail in the coffin. Where can I get my favourite burger now?”

Experts believe the temporary closure of these outlets will further hit the reputation of the American food chain, which had already lost its tag of being the largest fast-food restaurant chain to Dominos Pizza about four years ago.

The licensee – Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt Ltd (CPRL) – is a joint venture between entrepreneur Vikram Bakshi and McDonald’s India Pvt Ltd (MIPL).

“The eating-house licenses of a number of McDonald’s restaurants in Delhi have expired. The CPRL board is working towards obtaining the required permits. Pending this, the CPRL is temporarily suspending operations at the affected restaurants,” a statement issued by the MIPL read. However, it did not specify the reason or the likely duration of the suspension.

“Though unfortunate, it is correct that around 40 McDonald’s restaurants have temporarily suspended operations in Delhi from today morning,” Bakshi, who is on the CPRL board, said.

Bakshi and McDonald’s have been at loggerheads over control of the CPRL, and the matter is being pursued at the London Court of International Arbitration. The legal scuffle began after Bakshi was removed from the post of CPRL managing director in August 2013.

A highly placed source told PTI that more outlets in the Capital could be shut due to the CRPL’s failure to renew licences.

McDonald’s India spokesperson Barry Sum downplayed reports of possible job losses due to the closure. “We understand that the CPRL is retaining employees of the affected restaurants and will pay them their salary during the period of suspension,” he said.

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Agencies
June 5,2020

With the scrapping of Mitron and Remove China Apps from its Play Store gaining a lot of attention in India, Google on Thursday said that it removed a video app "for a number of technical policy violations", while adding that it also does not allow an app that "encourages or incentivizes users into removing or disabling third-party apps".

Both the apps became immensely popular in India within a short span of time due to the prevailing anti-China sentiment amid border tensions between India and China in Ladakh and calls by Indian activists to boycott Chinese products.

Reports suggested that the Mitron app is a repackaged version of TicTic, which is a TikTok clone.

The Remove China Apps was designed to help users identify applications of Chinese origin.

Without naming the apps, Google hinted that the Mitron app may make a comeback on the Play Store once it fixes some technical issues, but the chances of the Remove China Apps are thin.

"We have an established process of working with developers to help them fix issues and resubmit their apps. We've given this developer (of the video app) some guidance and once they've addressed the issue the app can go back up on Play," Sameer Samat, Vice President, Android and Google Play, said in a statement.

Google said that its Android app store was designed to provide a safe and secure experience for the consumers while also giving developers the platform and tools they need to build sustainable businesses.

Samat said that Google Play recently suspended a number of apps for violating the policy that it does not allow an app that "encourages or incentivizes users into removing or disabling third-party apps or modifying device settings or features unless it is part of a verifiable security service".

"This is a longstanding rule designed to ensure a healthy, competitive environment where developers can succeed based upon design and innovation. When apps are allowed to specifically target other apps, it can lead to behaviour that we believe is not in the best interest of our community of developers and consumers," Samat said.

"We've enforced this policy against other apps in many countries consistently in the past - just as we did here," he added.

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News Network
January 27,2020

Mumbai, Jan 27: The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Monday said it has increased prices of select models by up to Rs 10,000 with immediate effect to offset the impact of rising input costs.

The price change varies across models and ranges up to 4.7 per cent (ex-showroom Delhi) and are effective from January, 27 2020, MSI said in a statement.

The price of entry level model Alto range has gone up in the range of Rs 9,000-6,000, S-Presso between Rs 1,500 to 8,000, WagonR between Rs 1,500 and Rs 4,000.

The company has also increased the price of its multi purpose vehicle Ertiga between Rs 4,000-10,000, Baleno by Rs 3,000 to 8,000 and XL6 by up to Rs 5,000 (all prices ex-showroom Delhi).

Currently, the company sells a range of vehicles starting from entry-level small car Alto to premium multi purpose vehicle XL6 with price ranging from Rs 2.89 lakh to Rs 11.47 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

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Agencies
May 19,2020

Cybersecurity researchers on Monday warned of a Trojan malware campaign which is targeting India's co-operative banks using COVID-19 as a bait.

Seqrite, the enterprise arm of IT security firm Quick Heal Technologies, detected the new wave of Adwind Java Remote Access Trojan (RAT) campaign.

Researchers at Seqrite warned that if attackers are successful, they can take over the victim's device to steal sensitive data like SWIFT logins and customer details and move laterally to launch large scale cyberattacks and financial frauds.

According to the researchers, the Java RAT campaign starts with a spear-phishing email which claims to have originated from either the Reserve Bank of India or a nationalised bank.

The content of the email refers to COVID-19 guidelines or a financial transaction, with detailed information in an attachment, which is a zip file containing a JAR based malware.

Upon further investigation, researchers at Seqrite found that the JAR based malware is a Remote Access Trojan that can run on any machine which has Java runtime enabled and hence it can impact a variety of endpoints, irrespective of their base operating system.

Once the RAT is installed, the attacker can take over the victim's device, send commands from a remote machine, and spread laterally in the network.

In addition, this malware can also log keystrokes, capture screenshots, download additional payloads, and extract sensitive user information, Seqrite said, adding that such attack campaigns can effectively jeopardise the privacy and security of sensitive data at the co-operative banks and result in large scale attacks and financial frauds.

To prevent such attacks, users need to exercise ample caution and avoid opening attachments and clicking on web links in unsolicited emails.

Banks should also keep their operating systems updated and have a full-fledged security solution installed on all the devices, Seqrite advised.

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