As another week bites the dust, we at Indianweb2 give you a quick recap of what all happened in the world of tech.

1) Facebook’s Security Flaw To Generate Millions of ‘Likes’ and Comments

Recently, researchers, from the University of Iowa in the US and Lahore University of Management Science in Pakistan have unearthed a security loophole on social networking site Facebook that is responsible for allowing about a million accounts, including both real and fake, to generate about a whopping 100 million “likes” and comments and contribute towards building a manipulating online social reputation of brands and people alike.

During their research, the researchers discovered sites that are currently functioning as ‘collusion networks,’ which are responsible for generating Facebook likes for free.

The Facebook like game works basically like this. Not only does a page with more likes holds more authenticity/credibility in the eyes of a general person, but a post with more likes is more likely to gets placed higher in order in other people’s Facebook feeds. The bottom line is, users/pages with fakes likes have an advantage of generating more influence and attention on one of the biggest social networking site that there is right now.

2) Indian Robotic Engineer Develops ‘World’s Cheapest’ Pocket Ventilator

Everyone has a right to live, whether rich or poor. Unfortunately, in medicine, sometimes the cost of a procedure, medicine or medical equipment ends up making a distinction between the same, which of course isn’t fair. One such important but expensive piece of medical equipment is a portable ventilator.

Seeing that the needy weren’t able to afford such an important machine for their survival, a robotic engineer from India set on a mission to develop the world’s smallest and cheapest ventilator. The the 25-year-old inventor Diwakar Vaish was joined by Dr Deepak Agarwal, professor of neuroscience at AIIMs in his mission.

Together, the two brainiacs ended up inventing a ventilator that is almost 450 times smaller than the conventional ventilators currently being using in medicine and can also be moved around much easily than their predecessors. They also managed to bring down the cost from INR 2 lakh-2.5 lakhs to INR 15,000-20,000.

3) Bitcoin is A Fraud That Will Eventually Blow Up, Warns JP Morgan Boss

Bitcoin, which currently is the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, isn’t much popular with JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon. According to the head of the leading global financial services firm and one of the largest banking institutions in the United States, Bitcoin is actually a fraud that will ultimately blow up.

Speaking at a conference in New York, he further added, that the digital currency is only meant to be used by drug dealers, murderers and people living in places such as North Korea.

Dimon also said that he doesn’t want to do anything with anyone that makes use of the digital currency. According to him, he would take just a second to fire anyone found using bitcoin at his investment bank “For two reasons: it’s against our rules, and they’re stupid. And both are dangerous.”

4) India Ahead of Many Countries In Implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) But Not Because of India

In a piece of news that would bring a big, wide smile and a feeling of pride on the faces of Indians, a recent study has revealed that the Indian subcontinent is way ahead of the curve when it comes to the game of artificial intelligence (AI) and its implementation.

How ahead, you ask? Well, according to a Capgemini report, titled Turning AI into concrete value: the successful implementers’ toolkit, over 58 per cent of the companies that are making use of AI in the country are doing it at a scale, meaning they have gone beyond the step of testing pilots and carrying out test projects and are now using the emerging tech at a larger scale in their firms.

Interestingly, India’s glowing AI report card isn’t a result of only Indian companies and Indians. The report unearthed that one of the primary reasons that the country is leading the artificial intelligence race is because the phenomenal work the local offices/innovation centres of US firms such as Accenture, Microsoft, and Adobe are doing in the country. In 2016, India became the second-largest global site for new centres, after the US. So, while, there’s no denying the fact that India is ahead of various countries in AI implementation, but the country alone cannot take the credit for the success.

5) Flipkart To Ship Products in Packaging with Patent Pending ‘Anti-Theft’ Technology

With the festive season just around the corner, India’s numero uno ecommerce company, Flipkart is adamant on ensuring that people get their gifts in perfect condition, right on time. The homegrown ecommerce firm aims to do this by an innovative ‘anti-theft packaging’ solution it has built to deliver the parcels securely to its customers across the country.

Speaking to The Hindu in a telephonic interview, Flipkart’s senior director Satyam Choudhary said, “We are starting with high value products (like mobile phones) but our goal is to expand it to all the items.”

Flipkart is confident that the shipments packed in its new ‘anti-theft packaging’ would take take substantial amount of resources, information, time and techniques to re-open and re-seal to ensure the original form of shipment. This will make the tasks of evil-doers a lot more difficult. In addition to this, the tamper-evident feature ensures that in case a package is tampered with, the next supply chain person or customer can easily detect the inconsistency and not accept the package.

6) Concerned Over New Technologies, Govt. Forms A Policy Group To Study Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The noice around the perils of artificial intelligence is growing by the day. Considering India is ahead of many countries in embracing and implementing the emerging technology, the central government has decided to form a “policy group” that will be studying the new technologies and then recommend a framework for its adoption.

Speaking to PTI, Nasscom’s vice president K S Viswanathan recently revealed that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has formed a policy group with representation from the academia, which has done a lot of research on the subject, and Nasscom has been chosen to offer industry’s perspective.

When asked about the growing concerns over AI globally, Viswanathan said, “We all are currently working out on a policy framework on AI.”

The policy group will be focusing its attention on aspects such as skilling the workforce, security, privacy and fixing responsibility if anything goes the wrong way.

7) Bitcoin Price in India Dives 33% in Just 13 Days

If you’re a Bitcoin user in India, then this particular news affects you the most. The digital currency has gone for a toss in the South Asian country, figuratively of course. According to a report in the Economic Times (ET), Bitcoin is falling much faster in India than elsewhere around the world. The value of the currency in the Indian subcontinent has declined from Rs 2,29,417 per unit on September 2 to hit a low of Rs 3,40,116 on September 15, indicating a dive of 33 per cent in less than two weeks, as per Zebpay data.

The shakedown is a result of China’s aggressive crackdown on cryptocurrencies and a public remark by an Reserve Bank of India (RBI) official shunning the digital currency.

Bitcoin came under severe criticism recently when BTCChina, one of the biggest Bitcoin exchanges in the world, announced that it would shut down all trading activities on its platform from this month’s end, after the regulators clamped down on cryptocurrencies.

This was followed by RBI’s Executive Director Sudharshan Sen trashing the digital currency at a Mumbai event saying, “Fiat will be when the Reserve Bank, for example, starts issuing digital currency which you can carry in cyberspace, you don’t have physical currency in your pocket.” He further added, “As regards non-fiat crypto-currencies, I think we are not comfortable.”

8) Haryana To Have Wi-Fi Zone for All Its 6,078 Gram Panchayats Within 2 Years

In a progressive step towards making the dream of Digital India come alive, the state of Haryana has decided to create one Wi-Fi zone in all 6,078 gram panchayats within two years and provide 4G services in every village in the next three years. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting held today, which was presided over by Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Under the Haryana Information Technology (IT) and Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) Policy-2017 that the cabinet gave a green signal to today, the state government plans on providing broadband connectivity to every household and Wi-Fi zone at all important public places in all towns and cities.

9) Affordable Internet To India’s Entire Population – National Telecom Policy 2018

In a recent statement to Economic Times, Union Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha revealed that the National Telecom Policy, which is due to be refreshed in March 2018, is expected to provide affordable internet access to 1.3 billion Indians, which is precisely India’s total population.

In addition to this stellar announcement, Sinha also revealed that policy will officially flag India’s telecom industry’s advancement towards higher technology like 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and offering wider services at cheaper rates that are affordable to majority of the population.

10) Amazon To Set Up its First Lab126 Outside of the US, in Mumbai

Amazon seems to have taken a great liking for the Indian market. After deciding to double its office space in India by next year and setting up its largest standalone Fashion Imaging Studio called BLINK in India’s Gurgaon recently, the global ecommerce giant is now planning on setting up Lab126, its secretive consumer devices development arm in the country’s financial capital, Mumbai, according to a report in Factor Daily.

Reportedly, the American biggie was considering Hyderabad and Mumbai for setting up its Indian location for Lab126, but the officials seems to have finally narrowed their choice down to Mumbai. Considering Amazon has its Indian data centres also in Mumbai, this seems like a smart choice.

If Lab126’s India’s location does become a reality, this will be the first time that Amazon is setting up this lab outside its home country, United States. Lab126 has a reputation of being extremely secretive about the projects its engineers are working on.


According to a FactorDaily source, Amazon has already kickstarted the process of recruiting engineers for the Mumbai centre. The engineers will be required to work on Amazon’s product lineup in India, which currently includes Fire TV, Kindle and its soon-to-launched Echo.
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