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Experts see unhealthy angle in Aarogya Setu order

Tech lawyers say enforcement violates SC's 2017 privacy ruling and IT Act, which emphasises consent, proportionality & purpose limitation




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IMPS transactions fall by 43.51% in April as NPCI reports dismal counts for all platforms barring AePS

NPCI consecutively reported dismal figures for April 2020 for its UPI, IMPS, NETC and Bharat BillPay platforms – as AePS emerges as an outlier.




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Airtel in talks with automakers to drive connected car business in India

Bharti Airtel is doubling down on growing its Internet of Things (IoT) business in India and is now specifically targeting the country’s auto the sector to drive growth and partnerships.




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Vodafone Idea, Airtel to launch NB-IoT services

New standard can make communication between machines better and cheaper. “We'll be going with a pilot in a denser way rather than just a few trial sites…in a couple of months, we will be commercially rolling out,” Ajay Chitkara, CEO, Airtel Business, told ET. Vodafone Idea, on the other hand, has already conducted commercial pilots in eight cities.




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IoT may expose connected cars, smart healthcare systems to security risks: Analyst

Internet of Things (IoT) technology can expose connected cars and smart healthcare systems to a lot of security threats, research analyst Satyajit Sinha said on Tuesday while presenting a webinar for ETTelecom.




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Global IoT enterprise drone shipments to grow 50% in 2020: Report

Egham (UK)In 2020, worldwide shipments of Internet of Things (IoT) enterprise drones (defined as flying drones) will total 526,000 units, an increase of 50% from 2019, Gartner Inc. said on Thursday.




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How IoT helps Smartworks increase employee productivity

IoT is helping Smartworks create workplace of the future by increasing employee productivity and lowering down energy consumption by 15 percent.




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Designing for the edge – The ‘smart’ in smart video security systems

AI-based recognition systems, and smart security video networks have led to a paradigm shift in the architecture of security video systems.




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ABB India partners with NASSCOM for standardised qualification for IoT jobs

The company has created qualification packs to define the competency standards that will provide a framework for academic institutions to design their course curriculum to better conform to industry hiring standards. These have been approved by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), and National Skills Qualifications Committee (NSQC).




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Biswabrata Chakravorty, CIO, IndusInd Bank, pioneers innovative video, gesture banking

In conversation with ETCIO, Biswabrata Chakravorty, CIO, IndusInd bank shares how innovative and cutting-edge modes of banking such as video, gesture, and Whatsapp are all adding to customer experience.




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91% Indian firms rebalancing their Cloud Strategy: Report

Realising that Public Cloud is not the single solution towards their digital journey, 91 per cent of Indian enterprises are already in the process of rebalancing their Cloud strategy, a new report said on Thursday.




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Charting out your multi-cloud strategy

How India Inc is navigating the challenges of taking production applications to the cloud.




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Misconfiguration top cyber security risk on Cloud: Report

Misconfigurations are the primary cause of cyber security issues in the Cloud, according to a new report.




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Google may acquire enterprise cloud software firm D2iQ: Report

Google is reportedly in negotiation to acquire enterprise cloud software company D2iQ for over $250 million, the media reported.




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Vista Equity Partners to invest Rs 11,367 crore in Jio Platforms for 2.32% stake

With the latest deal, Jio Platforms is set to net a combined Rs 60,596 crore for the unit of Reliance Industries which comprises mainly its telecom business under Reliance Jio Infocomm




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Chinese hacking group targeting governments across Asia: Report

The group has been very active during the last five years, especially in 2019-20.




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Hackers disrupt virtual S.African parliament meeting with porn

Hackers on Thursday disrupted a virtual session of South Africa's parliament, posting pornographic images in the second such incident since the coronavirus outbreak.




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India witnesses 40% increase in peak Internet traffic: Report

There was significant spike in downloads and uploads per user, owing to the high volume of work and streaming content across India.




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Hacking attacks on educational portal tripled in Q1 amid online learning

DDoS attacks during the first three months of this year have seen a significant spike in attacks on educational websites.




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Modular data centres eliminate the need for specialised support skillsets: Opinion

Modular data centres are attractive options to power next-gen applications such as Internet of Things (IoT), industrial process control and smart cities. Radical edge computing possibilities are on offer.




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Nokia bags deal from Airtel to automate data center networks in 15 circles

India has been recording unprecedented growth in data and this requires that service providers, like Airtel, increase the number of data centers, the telecom gear maker said.




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Nutanix sets up second customer support centre in India

The new center takes the total number of Customer Support Centres of Excellence to ten, five of which are based in Asia.




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Data centres may prove to be the next big opportunity in India

From big businesses to real estate companies to global technology firms, everybody is talking of setting up data centres or of making aggressive expansions. Priyanka Sangani delineates the new trend.




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Work & entertainment at home lift demand for data centres

Demand has increased by nearly eight times. Requests for virtualisation and cloud infra have also resulted in a surge




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How IFFCO plays Flipkart, Amazon to farmers

“We are serving 97% of the pin code across the country, without any delivery charge. We are helping farmers at their doorsteps, just the way urban people benefit from e-commerce shopping”, asserts AK Gupta, Head-IT at IFFCO.




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The importance of social and political context for classifying ecosystem services

It is important to have a single definition of 'ecosystem services', but a single classification scheme for services is not appropriate, according to researchers. There are many contexts in which ecosystem services can be used and the context should help to determine which classification scheme is the most appropriate for decision making.




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More long-term ecosystem research needed in parts of Europe

Europe needs long-term ecosystem research (LTER) to support environmental management and fulfil its commitments to international policy. A new study has assessed the distribution of European LTER activities and indicated that urban and disturbed areas are consistently under-represented, as are Mediterranean zones.




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Green space management benefits from public participation

The success of policy to maintain urban green areas depends on an adequate level of public participation, according to new research. The study compared two twinned European cities with different styles of green space management and found that public involvement may help maintain urban biodiversity.




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Biodiversity in decline, but conservation efforts making a difference

One-fifth of the world's mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish are threatened with extinction, according to a recent report. The study notes that there have been many conservation success stories, but far greater long-term resources are needed to improve the outlook for the world's threatened vertebrate species.




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Partnering biodiversity and income on French farmlands




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How will biodiversity loss compromise Earth's life support systems?

Scientists have evaluated two decades of research into declining biodiversity and concluded unequivocally that loss of species richness leads to a reduction in how well ecosystems function. The researchers evaluated the evidence for key biodiversity theories and predicted that scientific progress in the next five to ten years will provide the information we need to efficiently conserve certain ecological processes.




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The importance of conserving biodiversity for biomedical research

Preserving species and the ecosystems in which they live is highly important to the progress of biomedical research. This is the conclusion made by researchers in an analysis of biodiversity's significance, which highlights the role of animals and microbes in improving our understanding of genetics, the regeneration of tissues and organs, and immunity.




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Reindeer are important in shaping Arctic plant communities

Reindeer grazing and climate change both affect Arctic plant communities, according to new research. The study suggests that reindeer grazing management strategies could significantly influence the future Arctic landscape.




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Weeds important for restoring biodiversity in farmland environments

The way in which agricultural land is managed can cause environmental changes that affect biodiversity and the services provided by ecosystems. A new study suggests agri-environmental schemes that focus on restoring common weeds, such as thistles, buttercups and clover, could have wide-ranging benefits as these plants appear to help stabilise the supportive links between different species found in farmlands.




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Important polar ecosystem could be altered by climate change

Climate change could alter the species diversity of an important type of polar bacterial community, according to laboratory tests. At temperatures similar to those forecasted using current climate warming rates, researchers observed an increase in toxin-producing bacteria that could alter freshwater polar ecosystems.




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Invasive alien slug could spread further with climate change

A recent study sheds light on why some alien species are more likely to become invasive than others. The research in Switzerland found that the alien Spanish slug is better able to survive under changing environmental conditions than the native Black slug, thanks to its robust 'Jack-of-all-trades' nature.




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Old rural parks can provide important refuges for forest biodiversity

Woodlands in the grounds of old manor houses or castles can provide high quality habitat for numerous forest species, a recent study from Estonia concludes. The researchers found that, compared to nearby forests, old rural park woodlands appeared to be better at supporting biodiversity.




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Conservation efforts may be paying off for wild plants and insect pollinators

Since the 1990s, rates of biodiversity loss of wild plants and their insect pollinators have slowed down in north-west Europe, according to a recent study. It is likely that conservation activities, such as agri-environmental schemes, have contributed to this improving situation.




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Ecosystem-based adaptation can support food security

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) to climate change could help avoid future food crises in Africa, a new review suggests. By examining United Nations EbA projects implemented across Africa, the authors demonstrate that such approaches help improve the climate change resilience of production systems and the communities dependent upon them.




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Offshore wind farm foundations could alter seafloor ecosystems of the North Sea

The planned expansion of offshore wind farms in the German Bight of the North Sea will provide hard surfaces in what is currently a soft-bottom habitat. This could see an increase in the numbers of some species, such as mussels, which attach themselves to these hard structures, in turn leading to increased numbers of fish and crabs specialised to this habitat, new research suggests.




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Large-scale conservation partnerships: challenges and successes identified

Conservation partnerships that span geographic, biological and administrative boundaries are needed to deal with many global environmental problems. However, there are challenges to managing these complex, large-scale programmes that involve many partners and stakeholders. A new study examines the nature of these challenges and identifies the factors that lead to partnership success.




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Sea turtle by catch: Atlantic at-risk areas located

Nine areas in the Atlantic where leatherback turtles are at higher risk of bycatch have been identified in a recent study. To help protect this important species less damaging fishing practices could be used in these areas, the study concludes, and some could be candidates for marine protected status.




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Oyster imports bring alien ‘hitchhikers’ and disease

The future of oyster farming in Europe is threatened by disease. However, a recent study highlights the risk of importing oysters to improve or replace lost stock, as this could accidentally bring further disease and invasive species.




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Wild food is an important ecosystem service, study argues

Wild plants and animals consumed as food provide an important ecosystem service that deserves more policy attention, claims a recent study. To support their argument, the researchers gathered data which show the significance of wild food to European traditions, cultural identity and recreation.




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Bees in the city: urban environments could help support pollinators

Urban areas may support higher levels of bee diversity than expected, new research has shown. The UK-wide study compared three different habitat types - nature reserves, farmland, and urban areas - and found a higher number of different bee species in urban areas than farmland. However, the overall pollinator diversity, which included species of bees, flies, hoverflies and butterflies, did not differ significantly between all three landscape types. The researchers call for more attention to be paid to the role of green spaces in cities which can be important habitats for pollinators.




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Volunteers can help on-going monitoring efforts of coral reefs by detecting long- term changes

Citizen scientists are increasingly playing an important role in monitoring environmental conditions around the world. There have been concerns, however, that the quality of volunteer data might not match the reliability of data collected by professional scientists. A new study has found that both citizen scientists and professional scientists were able to identify widespread decreases in the cover of live corals and increases in rubble and sand, during two long-term monitoring programmes of coral reefs. These results show that volunteers can indeed play a meaningful role in the conservation of these reefs, say the authors of this study.




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Beyond bees, butterflies and hoverflies: the importance of non-hover flies to pollination

Pollination studies have, to date, focused almost entirely on bees, butterflies and hoverflies; however, other kinds of flies also have an important role to play in this vital ecosystem service, a new study suggests. Using data from 33 farms, the researchers found that non-hover flies were in fact responsible for carrying 84% of the pollen transferred by flies between flowers in farmland.




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Silage harvesting partly responsible for decline in skylarks

Farmland birds like skylarks are attracted to nest in agricultural grassland, but repeated harvesting for silage causes most nests to fail. This study showed that skylark breeding success in silage was too low to sustain local populations. The researchers say that grass silage is a hostile environment for breeding skylarks and conservation efforts should focus on making other parts of the landscape more attractive and productive for nesting birds.




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Private land conservation in Poland lacks landowner support

Conservation on private land in Poland is supported by less than half of landowners, a new study suggests. The authors conclude that both conservation agencies and landowners could benefit from voluntary conservation schemes, financial incentives and more participatory decision-making processes, while civic organisations could play a vital coordinating role.




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Wetland biodiversity is supported by temporary flooding and sustainable grazing

The preferred habitats of wetland bird species - including 12 that are endangered - have been identified by a new study. From conducting counts at 137 sites across Sweden, it was found that total species richness was highest in sites that had a tendency to flood; wet grassland areas that were grazed as opposed to mowed; and sites that were far from areas of woodland. The authors suggest this research could help determine the most suitable locations for future wetland conservation projects.