‘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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News Network
March 18,2020

San Francisco, Mar 18: Facebook said a bug in its anti-spam system temporarily blocked the publication of links to news stories about the coronavirus. Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of integrity, said on Twitter Tuesday that the company was working on a fix for the problem.

Users complained that links to news stories about school closings and other information related to the virus outbreak were blocked by the company's automated system.

Later on Tuesday, Rosen tweeted that Facebook had restored all the incorrectly deleted posts, which also covered topics beyond the coronavirus.

Rosen said the problems were unrelated to any changes in Facebook's content-moderator workforce. The company reportedly sent its human moderators home this week because of the coronavirus outbreak.

A representative for Facebook did not immediately respond to questions on the status of Facebook's content moderators, many of whom do not work directly for the company and are not always able to work from home.

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Agencies
January 4,2020

Washington D.C: One of the greatest spectacles of modern art is still thriving in the Australian outback as confirmed by satellite imagery of NASA. The Marree Man is a massive geoglyph depicting an aboriginal hunter, that spans over 2.6 miles in the Southern Australian region.

Discovered by a pilot in 1998, its origin still remains a mystery even to this date.

The Marree Man was given a new lease of life in 2016 when a group of people from the neighboring town of Marree plowed its lines to avert its fading due to erosion.

After NASA shared the image of the art-work that was taken in June, the efforts of the good samaritans turned out to be a total success, reported CNN Travel.

The restoration team believes that the refurbished Marree Man would last longer than its original version.

According to NASA, "They [the team] created wind grooves, designed to trap water and encourage the growth of vegetation. They hope that eventually, the man will turn green."

In a previous article, CNN reported that an entrepreneur by the name of Dick Smith took upon himself to unravel the geoglyph's mystery in 2016. His team combed through all the available evidence but couldn't find anything conclusive.

In 2018 he even offered a 5,000 Australian dollar reward for anyone who knows the identity of its creator.

Nobody turned up with an answer but it was speculated that unknown artist lives in Alice Springs or even might be an American.

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Agencies
July 2,2020

Paris, Jul 2: Several interacting exoplanets have already been spotted by satellites. But a new breakthrough has been achieved with, for the first time, the detection directly from the ground of an extrasolar system of this type.

An international collaboration including CNRS researchers has discovered an unusual planetary system, dubbed WASP-148, using the French instrument SOPHIE at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Universite).

The scientists analysed the star's motion and concluded that it hosted two planets, WASP-148b and WASP-148c. The observations showed that the two planets were strongly interacting, which was confirmed from other data.

Whereas the first planet, WASP-148b, orbits its star in nearly nine days, the second one, WASP-148c, takes four times longer. This ratio between the orbital periods implies that the WASP-148 system is close to resonance, meaning that there is enhanced gravitational interaction between the two planets. And it turns out that the astronomers did indeed detect variations in the orbital periods of the planets.

While a single planet, uninfluenced by a second one, would move with a constant period, WASP-148b and WASP-148c undergo acceleration and deceleration that provides evidence of their interaction.

The study will shortly be published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

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