In the last three years, only 17 per cent of those who lost their money due to banking frauds were able to get their funds back while 74 per cent could not get any resolution, according to data provided by community social media platform LocalCircles.
In an earlier survey, LocalCircles revealed that 29 per cent of citizens share their ATM or debit card pin details with close family members, while 4 per cent share it with their domestic and office staff.
The survey also revealed that 33 per cent of citizens store their bank account, debit or credit card and ATM passwords, Aadhaar and PAN numbers on email or computer, while 11 per cent of citizens have stored these details in their mobile phone contact list.
The new survey revealed that bank account fraud, fraud by fly-by-night ecommerce operators, credit and debit card frauds were the major causes of the problem.
Storing sensitive financial details on a phone's contact list, email, or computer poses a significant risk to cyber attacks, especially if the gadget is stolen or falls into wrong hands.
Using a smartphone's acontact list' to store banking passwords and details of ATM, bank account, email, etc., is a very unsafe way to store such sensitive information/credentials because online apps nowadays ask for permission to access one's contact and messages.
To safeguard against financial loss, experts have also been advocating use of alpha-numeric password lock for email, computer and mobile phones, in such a way that is difficult to crack. Importantly, at random intervals, one should change their account password used for making transactions.
The survey included nearly 32,000 responses from citizens across 301 districts of India.
• Drink Plenty of Water – Do you know that 60% of a human body is made up of water? Most of the people do not drink enough water for a body to function it properly. As the water we lose through bowel movement, urine, breathing, perspiration and more, it is pretty much important to replenish the water intake. Drinking at least 8 glasses of water daily is suggested and advisable. It even helps in losing weight.
• Get Proper Sleep – If you don’t sleep well or is tired, most of the times, it ends with eating more, especially junk food. Make sure to stay away from junk, get enough sleep, feel and look healthy and glowing.
• Exercise – Bringing activity, movement and action daily is life. As per the research conducted, it has been revealed that doing exercising daily could lead to a large number of positives in a person’s life involving weight loss, increase in lifespan, higher bone density, lesser chance and risk of diseases, etc. Exercising means, having fun and feeling healthy at the same time. Add exercises in your schedule that makes you happy and feel confident and fit.
• Eat Fruits – Fruits are blessed with loads of minerals and vitamins. Make sure to include at least 2 seasonal fruits in your palate every day.
• Eat Vegetables – Vegetables are in overall good for your health, skin and well being. Rich sources of vitamins and minerals, try to intake small portions of different vegetables daily that could help in improving your immunity system.
Also Read: Weight Loss Tips: Add ginger & pepper to your diet to reduce belly fat and obesity
• Lower Down on Processed Food – Processed food is not healthy for the body as the nutritional value is lost in the making and the preservatives that were added are bad for overall health. Do try to cut down on processed food and opt for less processed food choices like a fresh fruit instead of canned juices, a baked potato instead of chips and so.
• Love Yourself – How much do you love yourself? It is important to love the way you are, so that you can have a positive outlook towards your body and your life.
• Stay Away from Negativity – Do always be surrounded by people who make you feel positive and purge any negative people/surroundings from your life.
• Eat Small Portions – Prefer small portions of meals over huge ones. It helps in better digestion and staying away from unnecessary cravings.
In all, following these timeless tips could help you in leading a happy and healthy life. Listen to your body and then follow, do or intake anything. Stay tuned for more posts!
Delivering the keynote address at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2018, here, Gandhi lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party regime saying it dislikes thinkers like journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh who was shot dead last year and others who are sacked merely for criticising the Prime Minister.
"What we see today in India is defaming, a maligning of the Indian imagination. The Indian government has gone into war with its own people because it wants to impose one ideology on 1.3 billion of us.
"It wants to impose one singular suffocating memory on our 1.3 billion people," said Gandhi in his scathing criticism of the Modi rule.
"What is the nature of the war, farmers are committing suicide by the thousands. Economy is decimated, rupee is on its knees, petrol is at an all-time high, the stock market is imploded, 12 lakh crore in NPAs and the banking system is jammed shut. Unemployment is at a 20-year high.
"Unorganised sector has been decimated as a result of the demonetisation and extremely complex multilayered GST. Millions and millions of small and medium business have been wiped out. Public confidence is in tatters," he said castigating the government's policies.
He said peoples' aspiration was turning into anger -- Dalits and tribals agitating across the country and there are vicious attacks on the minorities.
"Our friends in the media are sacked because they criticised the Prime Minister, Gauri Lankesh is shot dead because of what she wrote.
"Fresh thinking is unwelcome, in fact, forget about fresh thinking they dislike thinkers -- (former Reserve Bank of India Governor) Raghu Ram Rajan, (Nobel laureate) Amartya Sen...the list goes on.
Gandhi said "institutions are attacked, Supreme Court judges are compelled to go public because they feel intimidated and in the same breath they speak of Judge B.H. Loya (a CBI judge who died under mysterious circumstances in 2014), they speak of their fear".
He said the sole qualification of choosing Vice Chancellors to lead the country's top universities was that they subscribe to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideology.
India today was "burning", Gandhi said, while the government was only talking about its slogans like -- Make in India and Clean India, which he said have translated into zilch.
"People in charge are convinced that they have a monopoly on knowledge, only they understand and no one else anything about India or the Indians' dreams," he said.
Reciting lines from Rabindranath Tagore's "Where the mind is Without Fear", Gandhi called upon people to reimagine the India where all Indians were free and not discriminated against.
The findings, published in journal The Lancet Global Health, demonstrated that nearly 50 per cent women and 25 per cent men in India were insufficiently active in 2016.
Worldwide, around one in three women and one in four men do not do enough physical activity to stay healthy.
Women were less active than men, with an over 8 per cent difference at the global level (32 per cent men vs 23 per cent women). High income countries are more inactive (37 per cent) compared with middle income (26 per cent) and low income countries (16 per cent).
The data showed that if current trends continue, the 2025 global activity target of a 10 per cent relative reduction in insufficient physical activity will not be met, the researchers said.
"Unlike other major global health risks, levels of insufficient physical activity are not falling worldwide, on average, and over a quarter of all adults are not reaching the recommended levels of physical activity for good health," said lead author Regina Guthold of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland.
"Addressing these inequalities in physical activity levels between men and women will be critical to achieving global activity targets and will require interventions to promote and improve women's access to opportunities that are safe, affordable and culturally acceptable," said co-author Fiona Bull from WHO.
The study which provides the most comprehensive global estimates of the prevalence and trends of physical activity to date, included 358 surveys from 168 countries totalling 1·9 million people.
"The data shows the need for all countries to increase the priority given to national and sub-national actions to provide the environments that support physical activity and increase the opportunities for people of all ages and abilities, to be active every day," the WHO said.
At present, the amount of online content in Indian languages is only one per cent of what is available in English.
To make online content relevant for more Indian users, Google announced a project called Navlekha, a word derived from Sanskrit meaning "a new way to write."
This project comprises a tool that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to render any PDF containing Indian language content into editable text, making it easy for print publishers to create mobile-friendly web content, the Mountain View, California-headquartered tech giant said at its annual Google for India event here.
"Google is working with more than 100,000 offline Indian language publishers on Project Navlekha, which allows them to easily start their website and publish on a branded domain with a few simple clicks," said Shashidhar Thakur, Vice President, Engineering, Google Search.
Participating in this project will help publishers receive training and support, and a branded page domain for the first three years, Google said, adding that Navlekha has already opened up for publishers in New Delhi and in the coming month it would be ready to welcome more from other regions.
The project also provides Indian language publishers with free web hosting with AdSense support, so they can immediately start monetising their content, Google said.
Thakur added that the Search feed would now display a users' favourite topics of interest as well as news, from both English and Hindi sources.
Moreover, Google has also enabled its Assistant to answer your queries in Marathi.
It will soon learn seven more Indian languages, Google said.
The tech giant also announced a new feature in its lightweight "Go" search app that lets users listen to webpages.
The Google Go app supports 28 languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi and Tamil -- even on 2G connections.
Google also announced the expansion of Google Station, which aims to bring fast, reliable and easy to use Wi-Fi to more places around the world, to Andhra Pradesh.
Google Station is partnering with Andhra Pradesh State FiberNet Limited to bring the the service to over 12,000 villages, towns and cities of the state -- a move that could potentially benefit around 10 million people, the tech giant said.
"Calling the opposition parties animals exposes Shah's mentality and reflects the vision of the BJP and its parent organisation RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh). It's disrespectful to all Indians," Gandhi told reporters at the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), about 100km from here.
Addressing a rally to mark the BJP's 38th Foundation Day in Mumbai on Friday, Shah likened the opposition parties to "dogs, cats, snakes and mongoose", as they were trying to unite against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the 2019 general elections.
"By equating us with animals, Shah has revealed that there were only two humans - Modi and he himself in the country," mocked Gandhi during his visit to Kolar district to campaign for the ruling Congress ahead of the May 12 Karnataka Assembly polls.
"It's unfortunate he (Shah) looks at the world that way and thinks everyone else are animals. But we don't take seriously whatever Shah says," asserted Gandhi.
Shah, however, later clarified that he did not intend to hurt anyone by calling them animals as the context in which he used dogs, cats and snakes was different and meant those whose ideologies were contradictory.
Blaming BJP's senior leaders like L.K. Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi for not showing guts to speak out, Gandhi said for Shah and Modi, even Dalits, tribals, minorities and everybody else were worthless.
"Shah and Modi are convinced that they are the only two human beings in this country and all others are not. That's the reality," lamented Gandhi.
Later, addressing a huge rally at the party's "Jan Ashirvada Yatra" to seek the people's blessings for the Congress victory in the ensuing assembly election, Gandhi said Modi failed to fulfil a single promise he made to the youth of the country.
"Instead of creating two crore jobs for the youth of the country, Modi snatched away thousands of jobs by signing a deal with a French company (Dassault Aviation) to buy Rafale fighters for the IAF and denied HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd) making them in India," reiterated Gandhi.
Claiming that the Congress would defeat the BJP-RSS combine in the upcoming assembly election, the party chief said the saffron brigade would also be defeated in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where assembly elections are due later this year.
"Finally, we will defeat the BJP-RSS ideology in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019," said Gandhi.
"Modi's mood has changed. He is scared and confused knowing that time is running out. He has also realised that the Congress is coming to power," claimed Gandhi.
According to a tweet by External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, those missing are Captain Nair Rajesh Ramachandran, Second Officer Rahul Kumar, Third Officer Subramaniam Giridhar Kumar, Chief Engineer Rajput Shyam Singh, Fourth Engineer Subbiah Suresh Kumar, Junior Engineer Chauhan Ashok Kumar, Perumalsamy Gurumurthy, Malavaranan Silambarasan, Murugan Gowtham and Bevin Thomas.
The Hong Kong-registered cargo ship Emerald Star sank some 600 km south of Ishigaki island of Okinawa prefecture early Friday.
Japan's 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters based in Naha, Okinawa, said earlier that it received an emergency call from the 33,205-tonne the ship around 2 a.m. local time (5 p.m. GMT Thursday) on Friday.
The Japan Coast Guard said it had dispatched patrol boats and aircraft to rescue the missing crew, but the operations were hampered by a raging typhoon.
According to Kumar's statement, 11 crew members were rescued by the ship Densa Cobra, registered in Xiamen, China, and five more by Samarinda, registered in the Philippines.
India received the most overseas remittances last year, a report by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) issued here on Tuesday said.
The money sent by Indians overseas amounted to 3.3 per cent of India's gross domestic product, the report said.
Gulf countries were the primary destination for Indian workers going abroad, with the US as a "popular destination".
The US led the world as the country from which the most remittances - $3.6 billion - were made, the IFAD said.
Releasing the report, "Sending Money Home: Contributing to the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), One Family at a Time", IFAD President Gilbert F. Houngbo spoke of the impact the remittances had on improving the living standards of families in the home countries.
"The small amounts of $200 or $300 that each migrant sends home make up about 60 per cent of the family's household income, and this makes an enormous difference in their lives and the communities in which they live," he said.
More than 800 million family members are benefiting from the remittances by over 200 million migrant workers, IFAD said. It estimated that this year one-in-seven persons in the world will either send or receive a share of the $450 billion transferred globally.
"Remittances are expected to remain a stable source of finance to meet the immediate needs and aspirations of millions of families around the world," the report said.
Even though the average cost of sending money home has decreased from about 10 per cent in 2008 to 7.45 per cent, it still takes chunk out of the remittances and IFAD said the UN development goals want it to be brought down further to 3 per cent by 2030.
"If legal and regulatory frameworks facilitate the use of technology and innovation, mobile phones, digital money, Internet-based mobile and Web applications will continue to drive costs down, strengthen financial access, and improve the possibility to deliver additional services," the report added.
Kabul: Unidentified armed men abducted six Indians and one Afghan employee of an Indian infrastructure company in Afghanistan's Baghlan province on Sunday, a media report said
The incident happened in Bagh-e-Shamal village of the provincial capital Pul-e-Khomre, TOLOnews reported, citing local officials
They were abducted while travelling to the area, where the company, KEC, owns an electricity sub-station contract.
Baghlan provincial council has linked the incident to the Taliban. No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction so far.
Image source: Reuters
As part of the partnership, WhatsApp and NASSCOM Foundation will train nearly 1,00,000 Indians to spot false information and provide tips and tricks to stay safe on WhatsApp.
The co-created curriculum, which includes real-world anecdote tools that can be used to verify a forwarded message and actions that users can take like reporting problematic content to fact checkers and other law enforcement agencies, will be disseminated in multiple regional languages.
"We are excited to expand our partnerships with civil society to advance crucial digital literacy skills that can help combat misinformation share on WhatsApp," Abhijit Bose, Head of India, WhatsApp, said in a statement.
"This training educates people throughout India to be mindful of the messages they receive and to verify the facts before forwarding," he added.
The training will be imparted by volunteers from NASSCOM Foundation who will launch the "each one teach three" campaign that mandates every volunteer to share their learnings with three more persons leading to a network effect.
These volunteers will post their takeaways from the workshops on their social media handles to increase the reach of these safety messages.
The first training will be on March 27 in Delhi and will be followed by more planned interventions like hosting training workshops for representatives from rural and urban areas along with roadshows across numerous colleges.
"The use of technology platforms like WhatsApp are inherently meant to foster social good, harmony, and collaboration, but are sadly being used by a small number of miscreants to entice anger and hatred by spreading false and doctored information," Ashok Pamidi, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation, said.
"I would like to urge all the connected citizens who want to join this fight against the spread of fake information, to come and help volunteer towards the cause," Pamidi added.
Aspiring volunteers can register at www.mykartavya.nasscomfoundation.org
NASSCOM Foundation is the social arm of the industry body, National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM).
Idli is often eaten for breakfast along with piping hot sambhar and a variety of chutneys.
"Idli has been a top breakfast item that consumers love... It appeals to people of varied food preferences and is a popular comfort food for many," Deepak Reddy, Head of Central Operations, Uber Eats India, said in a statement on Thursday.
Data from restaurants across 38 cities that specialise in idli and are known for unique variations of the dish show that Bengaluru consumes idli the most, followed by Mumbai, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad.
Globally, San Francisco, London and New Jersey have been found to be the top idli ordering cities.
For the last three years, March 30 has been celebrated as World Idli Day. It is said to be the brainchild of Eniyavan, a popular idli-only caterer from Chennai.
Uber Eats will run special idli offers and combos across idli loving cities on World Idli Day, Reddy said.
Warning that India may turn into the world capital of coronary artery diseases, H.K. Bali said incidence of heart disease has increased among the younger generation.
"Poor lifestyle choices have resulted in an increase in the number of young Indians suffering from coronary artery disease. If this continued the future was at severe risk, he said on Monday.
Till a decade ago, doctors hardly came across young patients with heart problems. "Now, we get many cases where people in the 25-35 years age group are diagnosed with heart disease," said Bali, chairman of Paras Superspecialty Hospital in Panchkula near here.
In India, heart diseases related deaths have risen by 34 per cent in last 26 years, while the death due to cardiovascular diseases in the US has declined 41 per cent during the same period.
According to him, the warning signs of congenital heart disease in infants may include a heart murmur or abnormal heart sound, cyanosis, fast breathing and poor weight gain, an inability to do activities and excessive sweating.
"Indians don't talk about sex. That's the long and short of it. We don't talk to our kids about it and we certainly don't discuss it with the elderly. Sometimes we don't even discuss it with our partners," said Dasgupta.
"The truth is discussing sexual issues openly often can help solve them. This is the point this film wants to make," she added.
Actress Sonakshi Sinha will be seen playing Baby Bedi in the film, which also stars Badshah, Varun Sharma, Annu Kapoor, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Nadira Babbar and Priyansh Jora.
"I am glad that the makers chose a female protagonist to tell this story. I would like to tell the viewers, 'baat toh karo'," Sonakshi said.
"Khandaani Shafakhana" is produced by Bhushan Kumar, Mahaveer Jain, Mrighdeep Singh Lamba and Divya Khosla Kumar and is slated for release on August 2.
Here's the trailer of the movie:
The app developed by Nandujit Prathap and Visakh G.S is called Ioptyc. It uses distance sensors and visual recognition technology to assist people with visual impairments, the Khaleej Times reported on Wednesday.
The project which has two parts, the smartphone app and a special glove, was one of the winning projects in the Ma'an Social Incubator programme of Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, that aims to support people of determination.
"Ioptyc utilises the power of Google Tensorflow Lite for visual recognition of objects in front of the user, who may be visually impaired," Prathap told Khaleej Times.
"Once the object in front of the person is detected, the app sends an alert and announces the name of the object over the user's headphone, with the help of Google natural languages package," he explained.
The glove, on the other hand, notifies the user through vibrations from the buzzer.
"The glove's sensors are capable of detecting objects as far as two metres away, and the intensity of vibrations varies depending on how far the object is from the user."
For Prathap and Visakh, what started as a concept will soon be an actual product that can help those who need it most.
As one of the social incubator winners, they will receive 200,000 dirhams in funds, along with training, mentorship and business development.
The survey, conducted to coincide with the World Mental Health Day, found 64 per cent Indians believe that is equally important to have both, physical and mental health.
Indians want a clear shift in the handling and perception of mental illness. As many as 64 per cent Indians want the stigma attached with mental health issues to go and they would prefer if it was treated like any other illness. Further, 74 per cent Indians exhort adoption of a more tolerant attitude towards those with mental illness in the society.
The survey also shows a more positive and empathetic change coming about towards those with signs of mental health conditions with 64 per cent urban Indians believe seeing a mental health specialist or therapist, as a sign of strength.
"Indians are recognising that being healthy and well is a combination of both, physical and mental wellbeing and both work in tandem. Also mental health issues are like any other illness and it is alright to see a doctor for alleviating symptoms," says Monica Gangwani, Executive Director & Country Service Line Leader, Healthcare, Ipsos India.
The Ipsos survey found that views around mental health somewhat disjointed and devoid of clear consensus. Aout half of Indians polled (52 per cent), disagree that increased spending on mental health services is a waste of money. However, 27 per cent think it is a wasteful expenditure, while 17 per cent were neutral, 3 per cent were undecided and 1 per cent refused to tender opinion.
As many as 39 per cent Indians reject exclusion of someone from public office, on the grounds of mental health history, while 32 per cent agree on exclusion, 25 per cent were neutral, 3 per cent undecided and 1 per cent refused an opinion.
The study analysed the association between air pollution and bone health in over 3,700 people from 28 villages outside the city of Hyderabad.
The results, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, showed that exposure to ambient air pollution, particularly to fine particles, was associated with lower levels of bone mass.
"This study contributes to the limited and inconclusive literature on air pollution and bone health," said first author of the study Otavio Ranzani, researcher at Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in Spain.
Regarding the possible mechanisms underlying this association, he said "inhalation of polluting particles could lead to bone mass loss through the oxidative stress and inflammation caused by air pollution".
For the study, the authors used a locally-developed model to estimate outdoor exposure at residence to air pollution by fine particulate matter (suspended particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less) and black carbon.
The participants also filled a questionnaire on the type of fuel used for cooking. The authors linked this information with bone health assessed using a special type of radiography that measures bone density, called dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry and measured bone mass at the lumbar spine and the left hip.
Annual average exposure to ambient PM2.5 was 32.8 micrograms per cubic metre air -- far above the maximum levels recommended by the World Health Organisation (10 micrograms per cubic metre air).
The researchers found an association between exposure to air pollution and poor bone health. No correlation was found with the use of biomass fuel for cooking.
Osteoporosis is a disease in which the density and quality of the bone are reduced. Globally, it is responsible for a substantial burden of disease and its prevalence is expected to increase due to ageing of the population.
(IANS)
The Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft landed with the Indians at Hindon air base in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on early Tuesday.
The evacuated Indians were being assisted by an IAF medical team and support staff onboard the aircraft which left from Tehran with them for the humanitarian assistance mission.
The Indians will be sent to selected quarantine camps soon after their medical observation and they will be kept there under observation for next 15 days, a government official told IANS.
India on Monday night sent C-17 Globemaster to evacuate the Indians. The aircraft took off at around 8 p.m. from Hindon air base on Monday. Indian government has began the evacuation operations from several countries in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak which spread from Wuhan city in Hubei province of China -- the epicenter of the COVID-19.
India engaged with China to safely evacuate its citizens and citizens of other friendly nations on a priority basis. Air India earlier operated two special flights for the evacuation of 654 passengers that included 647 Indian citizens.
(IANS)
On Wednesday night, the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi announced the details of data collection through the website of the Indian Consulate in Dubai.
Within minutes, the site faced technical issues, prompting the missions to delete the tweet about it and repost it hours later.
In a tweet posted in the wee hours of Thursday, the Indian Consulate asked applicants to bear with it if it takes time for the page to load due to high traffic.
As of 5pm on Thursday, we received more than 32,000 registrations, Consul General of India in Dubai Vipul told the Gulf News.
Vipul said the technical issues took place because of the huge rush of people trying to access the webpage on the Consulate's site for registration.
Though the mission is yet to analyse the data to know the compelling reasons for the applicants to travel home, Vipul said the applications comprise various emergency cases including that of pregnant women.
We understand that people want to go home for various reasons. People should be ready for travel by keeping in mind the overall restrictions on travel given the pandemic situation. Those who wish to go urgently should keep trying to register on the website in the next few days, he said.
He said the registration would be open for some days and the data collected by the Indian missions in various countries would be provided to Indian states for making preparations for their travel.
The Consul General reiterated that the registration in the databank does not guarantee a seat on the initial flights that would be arranged to repatriate the most deserving categories of people.
Workers in acute distress, medical cases, pregnant women, the elderly and the group of Indians stranded in Dubai Airport, are likely to get first priority when the government resumes services for repatriation, he said.
Since there is no guidance from the Indian government on the conditions for travelling, he said, it is not yet clear how the COVID-19 status of an applicant would impact the journey.
When asked about media reports that said 500 Air India flights and three warships of the Indian Navy are on standby for evacuating stranded Indians abroad, Vipul said he had no knowledge about warships being readied for the process.
I am sure Air India will be involved. I have no information about the warships, he said.
Meanwhile, the government of Kerala on Thursday said the total number of registrations it received from Malayalis living in 201 countries has reached 3,53,468.
The Consul General urged Keralites in the UAE, who have already registered with Norka (The Non Resident Keralites Affairs), to also register with the missions since it would help the central government to make arrangements for flight operations.
(PTI)
Official sources told IANS that the Ministry of External Affairs has developed a dynamic online platform on which requests received by Indian Missions from Indian nationals wishing to return are regularly being uploaded.
So far, sources said, 67,833 requests for repatriation have been registered. These include requests from 34 per cent of all 22,470 students, 30 per cent of all 15,815 migrant workers, 9,250 short-term visa holders faced with the expiry of visas, 5,531 with a medical emergency or seeking treatment for terminal illness, 4,147 tourists stranded abroad, 3,041 pregnant women and the elderly and 1,112 of those required to return due to death of a family member.
The largest number of requests came from Indian nationals of Kerala with 25,246 applications, followed by Tamil Nadu (6,617), Maharashtra (4,341), Uttar Pradesh (3,715), Rajasthan (3,320), Telangana (2,796), Karnataka (2,786), Andhra Pradesh (2,445), Gujarat (2,330) and Delhi (2,232).
Sources said 64 Air India flights carrying Indian nationals will land at 14 airports across India during from May 7-15. On Thursday, 181 passengers from Abu Dhabi and 182 passengers from Dubai have already returned in four Air India flights to Kochi and Kozhikode respectively. On Friday, 234 Indian nationals returned from Singapore to Delhi and 168 from Dhaka to Srinagar. All passengers from UAE underwent rapid anti-body tests before departure.
Official sources said, 27 flights will take off from the Gulf region next week with 11 from UAE (including the two that have already landed), five from Saudi Arabia, five from Kuwait, two from Bahrain, two from Qatar and two from Oman. From the neighbourhood, seven flights will take off from Bangladesh (including the one that has already landed) carrying passengers bound for Srinagar, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
Similarly, sources said, 14 flights are scheduled to bring Indians from South-East Asia, with five flights each from Singapore (including the one that has already landed) and the Philippines and four from Malaysia.
Seven flights have been allotted for the evacuation of Indians from four airports in the US --New York, Washington DC, Chicago and San Francisco. Another seven flights have been assigned for passengers in London in the UK.
Sources said Indian nationals are expected to land at 14 airports across India in ten flights arriving in Delhi, nine in Hyderabad, nine in Kochi, four in Kozhikode, one in Trivandrum, one in Kannur, nine in Chennai, one in Trichy, five in Ahmedabad, four in Mumbai, three in Srinagar, four in Bengaluru, one in Lucknow and one in Amritsar.
INS Jalashwa has set sail on Friday, May 8, from Male to Kochi with approximately 700 returnees on board, sources said. INS Magar is expected to set sail from Male with 200 returnees on May 10 to reach Kochi on May 12. Depending upon requirements, both ships will make another journey from Male to Tuticorin subsequently, sources said.
(IANS)
Out of the over 200,000 people who became Australian citizens in 2019-2020, 38,209 were Indians, the highest number on record, followed by 25,011 Britishers, 14,764 Chinese and 8821 Pakistanis.
Australia's Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs Alan Tudge said citizenship was an important part of Australia's success as a socially cohesive, multicultural nation.
"Becoming an Australian citizen means more than just living and working here - it's a pledge of allegiance to our nation, our people and our values. When someone becomes a citizen, they make a pledge to uphold Australia's rights, liberties, laws and democratic values. It represents a willingness to integrate into our successful multicultural nation," Tudge said.
"Being an Australian citizen is an immense privilege, which brings both rights and responsibilities. I congratulate all those who have taken this important step,'' he said in a statement.
In the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, the Australian government started online ceremonies which saw over 60,000 people being conferred the citizenship.
The Department of Home Affairs is resuming citizenship interviews and testing in line with COVID-19 health advice while a small number of appointments for tests and interviews have begun in Perth and Sydney.
As per the Australian Bureau of Statistics' 2016 census, 619,164 people in Australia declared that they were of ethnic Indian ancestry. This comprises 2.8 per cent of the Australian population. Among those, 592,000 were born in India.
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Siddhartha Kumar Baraily, Consul, Passport and Attestation, at the Indian Consulate in Dubai said the Indian government had decided to allow its overseas citizens to add their local address in their country of residence mainly to aid those who do not have permanent or valid addresses in India.
"We understand that many people who have been staying in the UAE for a long time don't have a valid address in India. They may add their local UAE address in their passports," he said.
Change in address cannot be made in existing passports, the official clarified. Indian passport holders have to apply for a new passport in which the change in address can be made, Gulf news reported.
The facility can be availed by Indian expats living in both rented or self-owned accommodations. Those wishing to give their UAE address should provide certain documents as proof of residence at the time of applying for a new passport for changing the address from India to overseas.
Baraily said either the electricity and water bill (from Dewa/Sewa/Fewa) or rent agreement/title deed/tenancy contract will be accepted as proof of residence in the UAE. Changing their address may help applicants to get quick police verification from India at the time of passport renewal.
As first reported by Gulf News on Tuesday morning, police verification is now mandatory for the passport renewal of all Indian expats as per a change in the policy of India's Ministry of External Affairs implemented since September.
However, the diplomat clarified that police verification of Indians abroad does not require verification of the address of the applicant.
"This (police verification) is just to verify the identity of the applicants as Indian citizens and that there are no criminal cases registered against them since the time of the last police verification done on them," he explained.
The mission is, however, encouraging Indians without a valid address to change their address, whether in India or locally.
(IANS)
Notably, three out of four people in India (74 per cent) said they are concerned about today's cyber risks, yet one in five (20 per cent) respondents admitted they are not confident in their ability to prevent a cyberattack," according to '2021 Consumer Security Mindset Report by cybersecurity firm McAfee.
The report found that over three quarters (78 per cent) of Indian respondents admitted to being most concerned about their financial data, such as credit card or banking details, being stolen, while 74 per cent were concerned that their personal information, such as birthday or address, could get hacked.
"It's better to prevent a problem than be in a position of having to fix it. We can always work on our own safe online habits - from the apps we install, to the websites we click on, to the emails we open," said Terry Hicks, EVP of McAfee's Consumer Business.
"Making this shift in our mindset and behaviours is a necessity in protecting what we value most -- our privacy and identity -- giving us all much needed peace of mind," he added.
Indian respondents have been found to favour convenience over security.
Nearly 95 per cent of those surveyed started using features designed for convenience in 2020, such as text and email notifications (67 per cent), opting to stay logged in/remember user credentials (39 per cent), and store and auto populate credit card details for faster checkouts (36 per cent).
"In almost half (51 per cent) of the households surveyed, children under the age of 18 were conducting online activities, while in 28 per cent households, children were under the age of 12, thus making the need to ensure a secure online experience even more pertinent," the report emphasised.
More than 9 in 10 (94 per cent) Indians said they would be proactive about protecting their data if it could be traded like currency.
Buying habits of consumers indicated how they are going about their new digital-first lives, with 83 per cdnt of respondents saying they've purchased at least one connected device in 2020.
One in three even bought three connected devices.
"Consumers are also becoming more comfortable with sharing information online which is a big risk -- especially as services often ask for multiple contact points," the report said.
(IANS)