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Seems like crypto speculators have gotten ahead of the virus with an   obscure cryptocurrency called Omicron (OMIC) now surging to an all-time high. The price of the obscure digital token, whose Twitter feed has little more than 1,000 followers, rose almost ten-fold from Friday to Monday morning when it hit $688, before tumbling as much as 75%, crypto tracker CoinGecko told Reuters. The token shares its name with  the new COVID-19 variant, first discovered in South Africa on Tuesday.  The World Health Organization has a policy of naming the variants after Greek alphabets. The fast-spreading B.1.1.529 strain is named after the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet, Omicron. The Omicron token hit an all-time high of $689 during the Monday morning Asian trading session. The move has added another 200% gains on the day for the token and a whopping 945% since Saturday when it was trading around $65.  The token came into existence earlier in November and seems to have risen wi...

The Mumbai unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) busted an Apple iphone smuggling racket and has seized over 3,600 handsets of the recently launched iphone 13 series. The items were imported as ‘memory chips’ to evade customs duty, the federal agency said. The total value of the seized goods is around Rs. 42.86 crore, while the declared value of the goods was only Rs. 80 lakhs. DRI is India's apex anti-smuggling intelligence, investigations and operations agency .. “After developing precise intelligence, officers of DRI inspected two consignments on Friday. These consignments had arrived from Hong Kong, at the Air Cargo Complex (ACC), Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. In the import documents, the goods were declared as “memory cards”. Physical examination, however, revealed that the consignments actually contained a total of 3,646 iPhone-13 mobile phones,” the agency said in its statement. Other than iPhones, 12 handsets of Google Pixel 6 pro 12 and...

Parag Agrawal became Twitter CEO on Monday after Jack Dorsey announced his resignation. The move was apparently months in the making. There were rumours that the Twitter board was looking to replace Jack Dorsey with someone else.  In a reply, Agarwal took to Twitter and wrote, “Deep gratitude for @jack and our entire team, and so much excitement for the future. Here’s the note I sent to the company. Thank you all for your trust and support.” So, who is Parag Agarwal? Like another big Indian-origin tech CEO — we are talking about Sundar Pichai at Google — Parag is also from IIT. Although he is from IIT Mumbai. Aged 37, Parag has been at Twitter for a while and, apparently, he is well-liked by Jack Dorsey, one likely factor that helped him clinch the top post at Twitter. In its press note, Twitter gives some details of Parag's career within the company. Twitter notes, "Parag Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 and has served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) since October 2017. As CT...

  o promote religious tourism in the country, a special train commenced from Delhi's Safdarjung station which will cover seven destinations related to Lord Ram in the next 17 days. The Shri Ramayan Yatra train has been launched under “Dekho Apna Desh” (see your country) initiative by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). The IRCTC has planned a series of Shri Ramayana Yatra Tours and other trains with different packages will also be launched soon. Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya is the first destination of Shri Ramayana Yatra train followed by Bihar’s Sitamarhi. Rameshwaram is the last destination. A total 132 passengers were on board in the two categories of train — 2AC and 1AC. Passengers have paid Rs 83,000 for 2AC package and Rs 1.02 lakh for 1AC package. The Ramayana circuit and the special train covering seven destinations considered important from Ramayana’s perspective is the brainchild of IRCTC’s senior official Achyut Singh, who is also the in-charge of...

  China has delivered to Pakistan the largest and most advanced warship, a frigate with stealth capabilities, it has ever manufactured as Beijing and Islamabad continue to strengthen their military capabilities against regional rival, India. China on Monday delivered to Pakistan the largest and most advanced warship, a frigate with stealth capabilities, it has ever manufactured as Beijing and Islamabad continue to strengthen their military capabilities against regional rival, India. Chinese state media reported the commissioning of the warship, quoting local and Pakistani officials, listing the vessel’s advanced capabilities, and noting that the delivery highlights Sino-Pakistan “all-weather strategic cooperative partnership”. The PNS Tughril is the first of the four Type 054 frigates being constructed for the Pakistan Navy, the state-run tabloid, Global Times reported, saying that the “…ship is a technologically advanced and highly capable platform with enormous surface-to-surface...

  It is the latest step in the United Arab Emirates -- where personal status laws on marriage and divorce had been based on Islamic sharia principles, as in other Gulf states -- to maintain its competitive edge as a regional commercial hub. Non-Muslims will be allowed to marry, divorce and get joint child custody under civil law in Abu Dhabi according to a new decree issued on Sunday by its ruler, state news agency WAM said. It is the latest step in the United Arab Emirates -- where personal status laws on marriage and divorce had been based on Islamic sharia principles, as in other Gulf states -- to maintain its competitive edge as a regional commercial hub. The decree from Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, who is also president of the UAE federation of seven emirates, said the law covers civil marriage, divorce, alimony, joint child custody and proof of paternity, and inheritance. It aims to "enhance the position and global competitiveness of the emirate as on...

  After a serious skirmish between Chinese and Indian troops along the border, the Indian public has been clamoring for nationalism. "Boycott Chinese products" is the most prominent slogan. Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh tweeted on Tuesday, calling people to "ban all Chinese products." Retired Indian army major Ranjit Singh told people to throw Chinese goods out, saying "we can break China's backbone economically." India is reportedly planning to impose higher trade barriers and increase import duties on about 300 products from China and elsewhere, and to use Indian products to replace Chinese equipment in the country's 4G network upgrade. These may be India's long-term plans, but some media have used these plans to hype Indian society's anti-China sentiment. India was unjustified in the border dispute. Indian troops violated the China-India consensus of stabilizing the Galwan Valley region reached during the two militaries' commande...

  Lt. Governor Ladakh R.K. Mathur today met Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh and thanked the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) under the aegis of Union Ministry of Science & Technology for promoting "Leh Berry" which is an exclusive food product of the cold desert and also a means of wide-ranging entrepreneurship as well as self-livelihood. Dr Jitendra Singh referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ladakh in May 2018, wherein the PM had strongly advised for widespread cultivation of sea buckthorn, which is also the source of "Leh Berry". He said, the value addition of this agriculture product has potential to revolutionize the economic scenario of the newly created Union Territory. He said that reference to its medicinal properties is also being found...

  Sri Lanka has received the first consignment of 3.1 million litres high quality non-harmful Nano Nitrogen liquid fertiliser from India to help the island nation's Eastern province in the cultivation of maize and paddy, country's Agriculture Secretary Prof Udith Jayasinghe said on Wednesday. The import of Nano Nitrogen liquid fertiliser came months after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s decision in May to stop chemical fertiliser imports sparked anger and widespread protests in the farmland districts of the country. "This is the first lot of the full lot of 3.1 million liters and the use of these are not harmful," Prof Jayasinghe said while speaking to reporters in Colombo. “This is a high quality Indian product which has come for praise from the Indian Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi,” Mr. Jayasinghe said. He said they will further dispatch as a priority to cultivation areas in the Eastern province for maize and paddy cultivators’ use. Even some members within the rul...

  Marking an important step towards green transportation, the first passenger train to run entirely on electric traction arrived at Kamakhya station today. The train No. 05956 Delhi – Kamakhya (Brahmaputra) Mail Special leaving from national capital city reached Kamakhya station of Guwahati today at 13-30 hours covering more than 2000 Kms on electric traction. Similarly, in return direction, the train No. 05955 Kamakhya – Delhi (Brahmaputra) Mail Special left for Delhi from Kamakhya station at 14-30 hours today through electric traction. The train became the first Mail/Express train to run on electric traction up to Kamakhya station of Guwahati after successful operation of a parcel train on electric traction just a day before. Thus, the N. F. Railway begins a new era.  Earlier on 21st October, 2021, the Northeast Frontier Railway ran its first parcel train on electric traction up to Kamakhya station and achieved a historical moment for N. F. Railway and North...

  China has built a large village in a disputed area in Arunachal Pradesh and has been taking incremental action to press its claims on the Line of Actual Control, a report by the Pentagon to the US Congress has said. Pentagon's annual report on the Chinese military said that dialogue between India and China to resolve the border crisis has made limited progress, and firmly blamed the PLA for the series of confrontations that started in May 2020, resulting in the bloody clash at Galwan  where 21 Indian soldiers, and an undisclosed number from China, died. "Beginning in May 2020, PLA launched incursions into customarily Indian-controlled territory across the border and has concentrated troops at several standoff locations along LAC. In addition, a substantial reserve force from Tibet and Xinjiang military districts were deployed to the interior of western China to provide a rapid response," the report said. Noting that there have been ongoing diplomatic and military dialog...

  The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday issued an order to remove its controversial Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede as the lead investigator in the cruise drugs seizure case, in which Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan is an accused. Wankhede has been in the thick of controversy amid allegations of forging documents for job, bribery, extortion and an ‘expensive’ lifestyle since the cruise drug seizure case came to light. Officials in the NCB said an order taking Wankhede off the cruise drug seizure probe has already been issued and along with this four other high-profile cases are also going to be transferred from the anti-drug agency’s Mumbai zonal unit to its Central team. They said, the action has been taken on “administrative grounds”, and as these five cases have “wider and inter-state ramifications”, they have been transferred to the operations unit in Delhi and the order regarding transfer of these cases has been issued by NCB Director-General (DG) S N Pr...