CTC BLOG

FP StudioJan 31, 2020 18:41:56 IST

Amazon started in India about 6 years ago with about 100 sellers and today the company has more than 5.5 lakh sellers registered with them. These sellers include hundreds of thousands of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from across tier 1. 2 and 3 cities in India. The Company has rolled out a host of programs and initiatives in the last six years to spread awareness on the adoption of technology and e-commerce amongst MSMEs and also help them come online and be part of the Digital Economy.

The Company recently hosted a mega SMB event called Smbhav (read possible) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi where hundreds of MSMEs, senior leaders from Amazon and industry stalwarts from India Inc. came together to discuss new opportunities that technology and Amazon’s global footprint provide for entrepreneurs. Spread over two days, Smbhav featured a fireside chat with Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s Founder and CEO as well as perspectives from industry leaders and success stories of a host of MSMEs. On the previous day, Bezos had gone and paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat and even participated in Makar Sankranti festivities. “I flew kites yesterday with a bunch of kids!” he exclaimed.

Jeff Bezos: the 21^st century is the Indian century

In a fireside chat with Amit Agarwal, Senior Vice President and Country Head of Amazon India, Bezos claimed the 21^st century would belong to India. He said, “I predict that the 21st century is going to be the Indian century. The dynamism, the energy, everywhere I go here is amazing. I meet people who are interested in self-improvement and growth.”

Bezos spoke with remarkable candor about his earlier days as an entrepreneur, saying, “It’s hard to remember, but 25 years ago, Amazon was a tiny little company. And you know, not only was I driving the packages to the post office myself, but I was wrapping them and, and preparing them and, you know, doing all the things that small entrepreneurs do.” Answering Amit’s question on why Amazon is the best place to experiment and fail at, Bezos said, “See if you know in advance that something is going to work, then it is not an experiment. So, you want to be doing many experiments per unit time, as many experiments per day, per week, per month, per year as you can because that’s how you get innovation. Innovation is all about maximizing the rate of experimentation. And so you have to organize to be able to experiment and you have to have a culture that supports failure. Amit and I together, we’ve been working together for two decades and I have failed together so many times and that is that is, it’s another way of learning.”

Bezos then made a series of announcements. He said, “We’re committed to being a long-term partner of India. And actions speak louder than words. Over the next five years, Amazon will invest an incremental US$ 1 billion to digitize 10 million MSMEs across India, helping them reach more customers than ever before. This initiative will use Amazon’s global footprint to create US$10 billion in India exports by 2025 and will help create 1 million new jobs in the next five years. We will also establish 100 Digital Haats in cities and villages throughout India.”

Bezos also spoke at length about his passion for space travel and his work with Blue Origin. He explained, “We have to take care of this planet, and if we want to continue to grow as a civilization, we need a dynamic, entrepreneurial civilization with space entrepreneurs that will use the resources in our solar system. Blue origin wants to reduce the cost of access to space by a large magnitude. And we need reusable rockets to do that.”

India Inc and SMBs meet at Smbhav

Amazon SmBhav also had industry leaders like NR Narayana Murthy, Co-Founder – Infosys, Kishore Biyani, Founder and CEO of the Future Group, and others sharing their experiences and interesting anecdotes from their professional journeys.

In his fireside chat, Mr. Biyani said, “The most memorable days for us were when we started. It became a journey of learning after doing something.” Recounting the start of Big Bazar, he said “We created multiple brands, then we thought we should have a family store. So we thought of a concept called Big Bazar.”
Explaining his company’s rapid pan-Indian growth, Biyani said, “We decentralized on day one. We thought of the country in terms of four zones. We created multiple offices within each zone. That allowed us to grow.”

Mr, Narayana Murthy delivered a stirring keynote address on day one. Talking about the India’s vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy, he said, “The responsibility of achieving this vision lies with Indian SMBs.” He explained that 85% of the country’s business output came from the unorganized sector, 10% from SMBs, and 5% from large businesses, which made SMBs a vital part of India’s economy.

Mr Murthy shared five points that he believed would help SMBs achieve success: “a differentiated business value proposition; attracting the best quality of people;  a good balance of skills, expertise and experience; a durable value system that sustains growth; and ensuring that communities, and the country at large, become better.”

The keynote by Sonal Dabral, COO South Asia & Vice-Chairman (India) of Ogilvy explained how some of the largest Indian brands today started off as humble SMBs. These companies achieved billion-dollar net worth, he said, due to belief, commitment, identity, and effective communication.

Sudhir Sitapati, Executive Director of Foods & Refreshment with Hindustan Unilever and Vice President of Unilever, delivered the keynote on day two. He said, “It is easier to grow a category than to grow market share because it is easier to solve an unsolved problem than to solve a problem that someone has solved better.” He added, “Sales is not a revenue function. The main function of sales is to fulfil a demand for a product. And, in the long run, integrity pays.”

Ronaldo Mouchawar, Amazon’s VP for Consumer Retail Business in the Middle East, said, “Amazon has been good for sellers in the Middle East. We now sell products from all over the world. Many of the sellers here are now able to list their products there.”

Smbhav also had very interesting and informative panel discussions on subjects crucial to MSMEs, like Physical Retail and eCommerce: Growing in Harmony, Growing Your Business With Bharat – Potential & Challenges, Is Cashless economy for SMBs a distant dream?, Blurring Geographical Boundaries for SMBs etc.

The masterclass series at Smbhav, named eDucate, also proved quite popular. Industry experts shared their insights into how India’s SMBs can tackle problems that crop up in areas like eCommerce logistics, communication behind the scenes, accounting, GST compliance etc.

A new way forward for India’s SMBs

Amazon recognized and awarded the 10 most impressive and innovative SMBs in India. Vahdam Teas was named Global SMB of The Year while hygiene product startup Pee Safe was awarded Best SMB Brand of The Year. Tanvi Johri of Carmesi was recognized as the Women Entrepreneur of The Year and Loom Solar was named the Fastest Growing SMB of The Year.

Anuj Saxena of Knowledge Ridge, an SMB from Pune that collaborated on research for the event, said, “We want all SMBs in India to leverage this technology and take their business from small scale to large scale.”

Utheja Rao of Bedeck Woods Pvt Ltd, a seller on Amazon India, enjoyed his time at Smbhav. He said, “The two days have been very engaging. Riding on Amazon’s international presence and becoming a global business is a great strategy for companies like us.”

Smbhav was attended by over 3000 SMBs, and if the participation was anything to go by, it could pave the way for a more unified SMB ecosystem in India. And this commitment to Indian SMBs comes from the very top. Bezos reiterated this when he said, “Our hope is this investment will bring millions more into the future prosperity of India, and expose the world to products that represent India.”

Welcome to Tech2 Innovate, India’s most definitive youth festival celebrating innovation is being held at GMR Grounds, Aerocity Phase 2, on 14th and 15th February 2020. Come and experience an amalgamation of tech, gadgets, automobiles, music, technology, and pop culture along with the who’s who of the online world. Book your tickets now.

Something is rotten in the state of American political life. The U.S. (among other nations) is increasingly characterized by highly polarized, informationally insulated ideological communities occupying their own factual universes.

Within the conservative political blogosphere, global warming is either a hoax or so uncertain as to be unworthy of response. Within other geographic or online communities, vaccines, fluoridated water and genetically modified foods are known to be dangerous. Right-wing media outlets paint a detailed picture of how Donald Trump is the victim of a fabricated conspiracy.

None of that is correct, though. The reality of human-caused global warming is settled science. The alleged link between vaccines and autism has been debunked as conclusively as anything in the history of epidemiology. It’s easy to find authoritative refutations of Donald Trump’s self-exculpatory claims regarding Ukraine and many other issues.

Yet many well-educated people sincerely deny evidence-based conclusions on these matters.

In theory, resolving factual disputes should be relatively easy: Just present evidence of a strong expert consensus. This approach succeeds most of the time, when the issue is, say, the atomic weight of hydrogen.

But things don’t work that way when the scientific consensus presents a picture that threatens someone’s ideological worldview. In practice, it turns out that one’s political, religious or ethnic identity quite effectively predicts one’s willingness to accept expertise on any given politicized issue.

“Motivated reasoning” is what social scientists call the process of deciding what evidence to accept based on the conclusion one prefers. As I explain in my book, “The Truth About Denial,” this very human tendency applies to all kinds of facts about the physical world, economic history and current events.

Denial doesn’t stem from ignorance

The interdisciplinary study of this phenomenon has exploded over just the last six or seven years. One thing has become clear: The failure of various groups to acknowledge the truth about, say, climate change, is not explained by a lack of information about the scientific consensus on the subject.

Instead, what strongly predicts denial of expertise on many controversial topics is simply one’s political persuasion.

A 2015 metastudy showed that ideological polarization over the reality of climate change actually increases with respondents’ knowledge of politics, science and/or energy policy. The chances that a conservative is a climate change denier is significantly higher if he or she is college-educated. Conservatives scoring highest on tests for cognitive sophistication or quantitative reasoning skills are most susceptible to motivated reasoning about climate science.

This is not just a problem for conservatives. As researcher Dan Kahan has demonstrated, liberals are less likely to accept expert consensus on the possibility of safe storage of nuclear waste, or on the effects of concealed-carry gun laws.

Denial is natural

Our ancestors evolved in small groups, where cooperation and persuasion had at least as much to do with reproductive success as holding accurate factual beliefs about the world. Assimilation into one’s tribe required assimilation into the group’s ideological belief system. An instinctive bias in favor of one’s “in-group” and its worldview is deeply ingrained in human psychology.

A human being’s very sense of self is intimately tied up with his or her identity group’s status and beliefs. Unsurprisingly, then, people respond automatically and defensively to information that threatens their ideological worldview. We respond with rationalization and selective assessment of evidence – that is, we engage in “confirmation bias,” giving credit to expert testimony we like and find reasons to reject the rest.

Political scientists Charles Taber and Milton Lodge experimentally confirmed the existence of this automatic response. They found that partisan subjects, when presented with photos of politicians, produce an affective “like/dislike” response that precedes any sort of conscious, factual assessment as to who is pictured.

In ideologically charged situations, one’s prejudices end up affecting one’s factual beliefs. Insofar as you define yourself in terms of your cultural affiliations, information that threatens your belief system – say, information about the negative effects of industrial production on the environment – can threaten your sense of identity itself. If it’s part of your ideological community’s worldview that unnatural things are unhealthful, factual information about a scientific consensus on vaccine or GM food safety feels like a personal attack.

Unwelcome information can also threaten in other ways. “System justification” theorists like psychologist John Jost have shown how situations that represent a threat to established systems trigger inflexible thinking and a desire for closure. For example, as Jost and colleagues extensively review, populations experiencing economic distress or external threat have often turned to authoritarian, hierarchicalist leaders promising security and stability.

Denial is everywhere

This kind of affect-laden, motivated thinking explains a wide range of examples of an extreme, evidence-resistant rejection of historical fact and scientific consensus.

Have tax cuts been shown to pay for themselves in terms of economic growth? Do communities with high numbers of immigrants have higher rates of violent crime? Did Russia interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election? Predictably, expert opinion regarding such matters is treated by partisan media as though evidence is itself inherently partisan.

Denialist phenomena are many and varied, but the story behind them is, ultimately, quite simple. Human cognition is inseparable from the unconscious emotional responses that go with it. Under the right conditions, universal human traits like in-group favoritism, existential anxiety and a desire for stability and control combine into a toxic, system-justifying identity politics.

When group interests, creeds, or dogmas are threatened by unwelcome factual information, biased thinking becomes denial. And unfortunately these facts about human nature can be manipulated for political ends.

This picture is a bit grim, because it suggests that facts alone have limited power to resolve politicized issues like climate change or immigration policy. But properly understanding the phenomenon of denial is surely a crucial first step to addressing it.

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If the reports from various Apple analysts are true, this year will see the company release an iPhone with the old TouchID based authentication system. Apple is reportedly planning to launch a budget iPhone with a price tag of $475, according to Sankar, analyst working for Cohen & Company Inc.

It’s unclear as to what the device will be named. Some have suggested that the device will be named iPhone SE whereas some have said that it will be the long forgotten iPhone 9. Some reports also go onto suggest that Apple will also release a larger model of the same, namely a “Plus” version of the same.

One this is clear, the upcoming budget iPhone will use the body of the iPhone 8. We also know that Apple will use the internals of the iPhone 11 i.e A13 Bionic Chip, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage (for the base model). 

On the camera side, the device will very likely have just one camera on the back to keep costs low, the sensor could be the same one found on the iPhone 11 (the main sensor). It’s unclear as to whether Apple will also bring the 12 megapixel selfie camera from the iPhone 11 as the first gen iPhone SE did not use the best selfie camera available at the time.

Apple will definitely pack a slow 5W charger in the box as the company does not pack the 18W fast charger even with the $699 iPhone 11. Only the top notch iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max get the fast chargers in the box. However, packing a slow charger in the box in 2020 is a very illogical thing to do but a good thing from an economic point of view.

Will you buy the iPhone 9?

Blackmagic Design’ DaVinci Resolve available on Windows, Mac, and Linux offers an excellent suite of video editing features for all budding filmmakers, from the hobbyist amateur all the way up to Hollywood director. The latest update to the series, DaVinci Resolve 16 builds on the success that came before it and continues to offer something for everybody, both with a free version and a premium Studio offering that will cost you $299. Let’s take a look in greater detail then at what DaVinci Resolve can offer you.

An excellent video editing program

Editing video is a complex task. There are many elements to consider and, accordingly, video editing suites have many different features and tools that perform all these different tasks. Normally, when you get a free video editor there are core features missing, but that is not the case with the free version of DaVinci Resolve.

Things missing include the 4K and 8K editing features that ship with the Studio version, a few premium templates and effects, and some headline grabbing features like HDR grading and a Neural Engine. This leaves a lot for free though, with DaVinci Resolve giving you a stable and powerful set of tools to help you build your movies. Furthermore, you won’t need to include any annoying watermarks in your work neither. This means you can actually use your projects for promotional activities or simply to showcase your work in a professional manner.

At number 16 in the series, DaVinci Resolve has a lot of advanced features even for free users. One of the best, however, remains the intuitive interface that makes it easy to pick up. The app works with a basic timeline and offers sound libraries, audio mixer, and a media pool. Impressively, DaVinci Resolve doesn’t slap you with any limitations as it gives you the chance to work an unlimited amount of audio and video tracks. This makes everything possible in an easy to understand way.

Integrated special effects

DaVinci Resolve also puts impressive special effects at your fingertips. Features including compositing, particle effects, rotoscoping, text animations, and painting have all been brought directly into DaVinci Resolve since version 15 when the stand-alone app Fusion was integrated with the main program.

It isn’t just video effects. DaVinci Resolve also offers impressive audio features and effects including concert hall simulation, echo, and delay. You can also distort audio, reduce noise, add reverb, adjust pitch, and adjust vocal harmonies. This is an impressive list of features for a free piece of software.

Support and training

Another key factor to consider with both the free and premium versions of DaVinci Resolve is the extensive beginners manual and training guides you can access for free on the Blackmagic Design webpage. Although DaVinci Resolve has an easy to work with interface, video editing programs can still be daunting to new users. The extensive support on offer means even brand-new beginners will be able to bring themselves up to speed, if they’re prepared to put the time in.

Something for everybody

All in all, the latest version of DaVinci Resolve has something to offer every level of video editor. It builds on the success of older versions well without becoming too complicated.

tech2 News StaffJan 31, 2020 21:05:14 IST

Since a coronavirus outbreak is becoming more and more serious every day with an increase in the number of deaths and infected people, the World Health Organisation (WHO) today officially declared it as a global emergency. Google is also playing its role in the same in making people aware of the virus outbreak by providing them with credible information.

If you search “coronavirus” on Google, you will now see curated search results regarding safety tips, Q&A and news updates of coronavirus. The information provided is from World Health Organisation itself so it is all reliable.

WHO has declared a “Global emergency” today. Image: Getty

To help support relief efforts, @Googleorg issued a $250,000 direct grant to the Chinese Red Cross. Additionally we launched an internal campaign inviting Googlers to donate. So far, https://t.co/ldmgae16C7 and Googlers have raised over $800K USD (3.5M rmb).

— Google Communications (@Google_Comms) January 30, 2020

This feature on Google is now live worldwide. With these SOS alerts, Google hopes to “make resources about coronavirus easily accessible”. 

Google search results

To recall, the death toll in China’s novel coronavirus outbreak on Friday climbed to 213 with the number of confirmed cases totaling to 9,692.

The WHO said there had been 98 cases in 18 other countries, but no deaths. Most international cases are in people who had been to the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic.

With inputs from PTI

Welcome to Tech2 Innovate, India’s most definitive youth festival celebrating innovation is being held at GMR Grounds, Aerocity Phase 2, on 14th and 15th February 2020. Come and experience an amalgamation of tech, gadgets, automobiles, music, technology, and pop culture along with the who’s who of the online world. Book your tickets now.

Slamming a beak against the trunk of a tree would seem like an activity that would cause headaches, jaw aches and serious neck and brain injuries. Yet woodpeckers can do this 20 times per second and suffer no ill effects.

Woodpeckers are found in forested areas worldwide, except in Australia. These birds have the unusual ability to use their beaks to hammer into the trunks of trees to make holes to extract insects and sap. Even more impressive they do this without hurting themselves.

We are materials scientists who study biological substances like bones, skins, feathers and shells found in nature. We are interested in the skull and tongue bone structure of woodpeckers, because we think their unusual anatomy could yield insights that could help researchers develop better protective head gear for humans.

Concussions in people

Woodpeckers endure many high impact shocks to their heads as they peck. They have strong tail feathers and claws that help them keep their balance as their head moves toward the tree trunk at 7 meters – 23 feet – per second. Then, when their beak strikes, their heads slow down at about 1,200 times the force of gravity (g). All of this occurs without the woodpecker sustaining concussions or brain damage.

A concussion is a form of traumatic brain injury caused by repeated blows to the head. It is a common occurrence and happens frequently during contact sports like football or hockey. Repeated traumatic brain injury eventually causes a progressive brain disorder, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is irreversible and results in symptoms such as memory loss, depression, impulsivity, aggressiveness and suicidal behavior.

The National Football League says concussions in football players occur at 80 g. So how do woodpeckers survive repeated 1,200 g impacts without harming their brain?

We have looked for the key secrets of the woodpecker’s ability to tolerate the high impact during the hammering. We studied the micro-structures of bones and then did a biomechanical analysis on the head.

Unusual skull bone and tongue bone structures

By comparing the skulls of woodpeckers and chickens, we discovered that woodpeckers have impact-absorbing adaptations that other birds do not have. This includes specialized skull bones, neck muscles, beaks and tongue bones.

The skull bones have a different chemical composition and density. For example, one structural adaptation is achieved through increasing the accumulation of minerals in the bones to make them stiffer and stronger compared to other birds. Surprisingly, the skull bone is very thin and there is less fluid that separates the brain from the skull bone than in other birds and animals. That would suggest that the skull is adapted to be harder and tougher at the same time.

Typically in the real-world materials science, there is a general trade-off between hardness and toughness. However, having both hard and tough materials on the head lessens the amount of impact transferred to the brain. A second different is that woodpeckers have less internal fluid surrounding the brain than other big animals. This helps to limit the motion of the brain during the pecking. The reduced amount of fluid has an effect that is analogous to the yolk of a hard-boiled egg, which won’t get damaged by shaking, compared to the yolk of a raw, uncooked egg.

Woodpeckers also have a bone embedded in their tongue that helps to extract insects from the trees. The unusual tongue wraps around the back of the skull and anchors at the front between the eyes. This configuration lets the tongue and its bone act as a spring, dampening the physical force and related vibrations.

Different types of bone

The stiffness and strength of a typical skeletal bone is due to a dense sheath of compact bone that encapsulated a porous, spongy bone. But the woodpecker’s tongue bone has the opposite structure: a flexible sheath and a harder core bone. This inside-out configuration provides better flexibility and can absorb higher impacts and vibrations.

Our work suggests that the woodpecker’s unusual skull and tongue bones are an example of impact-resistant structures essential for protecting the woodpecker’s brain during pecking behavior.

Currently, biologists and neuroscientists are actively working on studying the woodpecker’s brain to see if there is any pathological evidence of brain injuries – like CTE in humans. We hope this research reveals whether there are other protective or healing mechanisms at play at the level of tissues or cells in woodpecker brains which will, we hope, reveal how to protect and heal human brain injuries.

Professor Joanna McKittrick, a pioneering engineer at the University of California San Diego and a renowned expert in materials science, passed away Nov. 15, 2019, shortly after completing this piece. She was 65. She was a passionate advocate for women and underrepresented students in STEM and a thoughtful mentor. A celebration of her life will be held on Friday, Jan. 31, 2020, beginning at 4 p.m. at the UC San Diego Faculty Club.

tech2 News StaffJan 31, 2020 20:28:48 IST

Mobile World Congress 2020 begins on 23 February and will be held in Barcelona, Spain. Many tech companies have started sending out invites for the event. The most recent is from the house of Nokia Mobiles.

HMD Global has now sent out invites that reads “February 23 at 4:30 pm local time”. The invite doesn’t give any hints related to what devices will be launched at the event. It is speculated that HMD Global might launch Nokia 9.2 PureView, Nokia 8.2, Nokia 5.2 and Nokia 1.3 at the event.

Last year, the company unveiled its penta camera smartphone Nokia 9.1 PureView that is why it is expected that the company might launch its successor this time.

Representational image.

As per a report by 91 Mobiles, Nokia 9.2 PureView might be powered by Snapdragon 865 chipset. In addition to that, the company is likely to focus on the camera department only just like its predecessor.

Apart from that Nokia 8.2 might also be unveiled at MWC 2020. This smartphone is expected to be the first Nokia smartphone with a notch-less display and a 32 MP pop-up selfie camera. In terms of processors, there is a possibility that it might be powered by Snapdragon 735 chipset. In terms of memory, it is expected to come in three variants — 4 GB, 6 GB, and 8 GB RAM options, and 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB internal storage options. On the back, the Nokia 8.2 is likely to feature a 64 MP quad rear camera setup with Zeiss optics.

Nokia invite

On the battery front, it is speculated that the Nokia 8.2 might pack a 4,000 mAh battery that supports Quick Charge. This Nokia smartphone might come with a Type-C port.

As per a report by GSMArena, Nokia 5.2 might be powered by Snapdragon 632 processor and feature a 6.2-inch notched LCD screen. In terms of storage, it is likely to offer 3/4 GB of RAM, 32/64 GB of storage options.

For Nokia 1.3, the report reveals that it might price around €79. It is likely to come with 6-inch LCD, a MediaTek chipset, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage.

Welcome to Tech2 Innovate, India’s most definitive youth festival celebrating innovation is being held at GMR Grounds, Aerocity Phase 2, on 14th and 15th February 2020. Come and experience an amalgamation of tech, gadgets, automobiles, music, technology, and pop culture along with the who’s who of the online world. Book your tickets now.

Power banks are just as essential as the devices we use every day. Without them, you’d be worried about running out of juice and nothing to do.

mophie Powerstation External Battery for Universal Smartphones and Tablets

Today, you can get a whopping 70% discount on the Mophie Powerstation 6,000mAh Portable Power Bank. It’s priced at just $14.99, down $35 from its original price of $49.95 on Amazon.

Mophie’s powerbanks are high-quality and allow you to get more out of your iPhone, iPad and more. The 6,000 mAh battery has a 2.1 amp output for charging- with the right cable you can use it to bring your device back to 100%. Mophie has triple-tested these products for maximum safety and performance. Moreover, it’s available in Space Gray or Rose Gold depending on your preference.

Grab the discounted Mophie Powerstation quick before stock runs out. The last time Mophie had a sale, the Powerstation ran out in record time At $14.99, it’s practically a steal. Buy it today!

Apple shocked the world by releasing the iPhone 11 at $699 which makes it $50 less than the release price of the iPhone XR. The iPhone 11 offers an additional ultra-wide camera over the iPhone XR, improved camera, some minor performance improvements and some design changes on the backside.

Let’s start with cameras because the iPhone 11 takes extremely pleasing shots. The main shooter on the iPhone 11 is better than the one found on the iPhone XR and the iPhone XS. It’s unclear whether Apple changed the sensor or if its software magic (improved algorithms). Also, the fact that the phone has a ultra-wide shooter is a big plus as its a feature loved by the masses.

The main aspect of the iPhone XR that differentiated it from the iPhone 11 was its battery backup. The cheaper iPhone XR offered 30 to 40% better battery life and as a result more people bought the iPhone XR for this single reasons (the price was also a differentiator in some cases). 

Apple is banking on the love it received from its customers towards the iPhone XR to continue the “all day battery” trend alive with the iPhone 11. The company also made some subtle changes to the design of the iPhone 11 by removing the “iPhone” branding from the back of the phone and also repositioned the Apple logo to be in the middle of the phone.

The iPhone 11 retails for $699 which makes it $300 cheaper compared to the iPhone 11 Pro and $400 cheaper compared to the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Also, the iPhone 11 has a 6.1” screen whereas the iPhone 11 Pro has a 5.8” screen but the screen on the iPhone 11 Pro is sharper and pixel dense. If large screen is the main requirement, the iPhone 11 is a better option (or the pricey iPhone 11 Pro Max). 

tech2 News StaffJan 30, 2020 21:25:49 IST

Even though Huawei got banned in the US on the alleged spying charges, the company has still managed to become second largest smartphone manufacturer with  16 percent market share globally, Counterpoint has revealed it in its report.

The report suggests that Samsung stands tall in the first position with a 20 percent share whereas Apple is in the third position with a 13 percent share. The report further revealed that there is a decline of one percent (year-on-year) with 1.48 billion handsets being shipped in 2019.  The report reveals that the decline has been noticed in the past two consecutive years but this year the decline is slower.

Representational image.

In addition to this, the report further reveals that in 2019 Q4, the smartphone market grew 3 percent (year-on-year) hinting that there is a chance that we might see more growth this year.

Copunterpoint research also revealed that Apple was the top smartphone brand in Q4 with 18 percent market share. It was followed by Samsung at 17 percent and Huawei at 14 percent. Apple iPhone 11 (Review) turned out to be a major player in Q4. Apple iPhone shipment reportedly increased by 11 percent in this quarter. Its service revenue also reportedly rose by 17 percent (year-on-year). It was majorly driven by Apple Music, iCloud and Apple Care.

The report also revealed that Realme was the fastes growing smartphone brand in this quarter.

Welcome to Tech2 Innovate, India’s most definitive youth festival celebrating innovation is being held at GMR Grounds, Aerocity Phase 2, on 14th and 15th February 2020. Come and experience an amalgamation of tech, gadgets, automobiles, music, technology, and pop culture along with the who’s who of the online world. Book your tickets now.

Apple released the iPhone X in 2017, its first bezel less phone with a heavily increased price tag. The flagship iPhones were sold at a starting price of $649 for the base model till 2017. However, the iPhone X changed the scenario completely by shooting the starting price of the flagship iPhone to $999.

The iPhone X offers a 5.8” Super HD Retina display which is gorgeous to look at and is one of the best panels in the industry (second to Samsung Galaxy phones). Also, the iPhone X was the first phone to have a gesture based navigation system as Apple ditched the home button to introduce an “all screen” phone.

However, there is nothing exciting about the iPhone X in 2020 if you are considering buying a pre-owned device. Apple learned that by using 3D Touch it was unable to offer decent battery life and it ditched the feature with its latest phones – the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

The iPhone X packs 3D Touch and the battery backup of the phone is sub standard. Also, the fact that the device uses an old processor which is not as efficient as the one found on the iPhone XR or the iPhone 11 phones. This alone makes the iPhone X a very bad choice to consider in 2020.

The cameras on the iPhone X are just not good. While at the time it took good shots, it could never compete with the shots taken on the Pixel phones. Apple has finally begun to improve its phone’s camera quality to match that of Google’s Pixel phones with its latest iPhone 11 range.

The iPhone X would cost upward of $400 on online pre-owned stores. The iPhone XR is a better choice comparatively as it offers battery backup and camera performance. Also, if you can stretch your budget a little, the iPhone 11 is a much better phone because of its excellent camera performance. Try looking for a refurbished iPhone 11.

As the emerging Wuhan coronavirus outbreak dominates the daily news, you might be wondering just how the pathogen is working its way around the world. This virus travels from place to place by infecting one person at a time. Some sick people might not spread the virus much further, but it looks like some people infected with the novel coronavirus are what epidemiologists call “super spreaders.”

Elizabeth McGraw, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University, explains just what that means and why super spreaders can be crucial to a disease’s transmission.

What is a super spreader?

Researchers currently estimate that a person carrying the Wuhan coronavirus
will, on average, infect approximately 2.6 people.

Recent reports out of Wuhan also cite a case of a single patient who infected 14 health care workers. That qualifies him as a super spreader: someone who is responsible for infecting an especially large number of other people.

During an emerging outbreak, epidemiologists want to determine whether super spreaders are part of the picture. Their existence can accelerate the rate of new infections or substantially expand the geographic distribution of the disease.

In response to super spreaders, officials can recommend various ways to limit their impact and slow the spread of disease, depending on how the pathogen is transmitted. Pathogens transmitted via air droplets, contaminated surfaces, sexual contact, needles, food or drinking water will require different interventions. For example, the recommendation for face masks would be specific to airborne transmission, while hand-washing and surface sterilization are needed for germs that can live for a while on surfaces.

What are the characteristics of a super spreader?

Whether someone is a super spreader or not will depend on some combination of the pathogen and the patient’s biology and their environment or behavior at the given time. And in a society with so much global connectivity, the ability to move pathogens rapidly across great distances, often before people are even aware they are sick, helps create environments ripe for super spreading.

Some infected individuals might shed more virus into the environment than others because of how their immune system works. Highly tolerant people do not feel sick and so may continue about their daily routines, inadvertently infecting more people. Alternatively, people with weaker immune systems that allow very high amounts of virus replication may be very good at transmitting even if they reduce their contacts with others. Individuals who have more symptoms – for example, coughing or sneezing more – can also be better at spreading the virus to new human hosts.

A person’s behaviors, travel patterns and degree of contact with others can also contribute to super spreading. An infected shopkeeper might come in contact with a large number of people and goods each day. An international business traveler may crisscross the globe in a short period of time. A sick health care worker might come in contact with large numbers of people who are especially susceptible, given the presence of other underlying illnesses.

When have super spreaders played a key role in an outbreak?

There are a number of historical examples of super spreaders. The most famous is Typhoid Mary, who in the early 20th century purportedly infected 51 people with typhus through the food she prepared as a cook. Since Mary was an asymptomatic carrier of the bacteria, she didn’t feel sick, and so was not motivated to use good hand-washing practices.

During the last two decades, super spreaders have started a number of measles outbreaks in the United States. Sick, unvaccinated individuals visited densely crowded places like schools, hospitals, airplanes and theme parks where they infected many others.

Super spreaders have also played a key role in the outbreaks of other coronaviruses, including SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome). A traveler sick with SARS and staying in a Hong Kong hotel infected a number of overseas guests who then returned home and introduced the virus into four other countries.

For both SARS and MERS, super spreading commonly occurred in hospitals, with scores of people being infected at a time. In South Korea in 2015, one MERS patient infected over 80 other patients, medical personnel and visitors in a crowded emergency department over a three-day period. In this case, proximity to the original patient was the biggest risk factor for getting sick.

Can super spreading occur in all infectious diseases?

Yes. Some scientists estimate that in any given outbreak, 20% of the population is usually responsible for causing over 80% of all cases of the disease. Researchers have identified super spreaders in outbreaks of diseases from those caused by bacteria, such as tuberculosis, as well as those caused by viruses, including measles, MERS and Ebola.

The good news is that with the right control practices specific to how pathogens are transmitted – hand-washing, masks, quarantine, vaccination and so on – the transmission rate can be slowed and epidemics halted.

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Apple released the iPhone 7 in 2016 – basically a refreshed iPhone 6S with subtle design changes without the headphone jack, and added waterproofing. Its a phone that I have recommended a lot of times on iLounge to people looking for a sub $400 budget phone.

The iPhone 7 got so many things right. Especially the “new” (at the time) home button which uses the taptic engine to emulate the pressing of the home button by providing haptic feedback. The button itself makes using the iPhone 7 a better experience than the iPhone 6S or other home button based iPhones. The feedback from the iPhone 7 button is very pleasing. 

The design of the iPhone 7 is also better than the iPhone 6S as it has a much more subtle camera bump on the back compared to the iPhone 6S. Apple also made changes to the body of the iPhone 7 from the iPhone 6S to make it somewhat “waterproof” – more technically, the iPhone 7 is water resistant.

The biggest difference between the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 7 is the battery life. The iPhone 6S offered one of the worst batteries in any iPhone, in part due to the addition of 3D Touch which decreased the size for the battery. Apple quickly changed the scenario by improving the battery life on the iPhone 7. 

While the iPhone 7 does not offer all day battery life, it does run longer than the iPhone 6S. The even older iPhone offered decent battery backup but it suffered very badly in terms of performance.

If you are looking forward to buying an iPhone for less than $250 – be it old or refurbished. The iPhone 7 is still a great choice as it does not suffer from any major problems and will very likely receive the next two major iOS updates.

OverdriveJan 30, 2020 15:35:30 IST

Lamborghini has launched the Huracan Evo RWD with a starting price of Rs 3.22 crore, ex-showroom. The Italian manufacturer launched the Huracan Evo RWD in India after showcasing it globally in the first week of January.

This will be the rear-wheel drive version of the Huracan which will sport a 5.2-litre naturally aspirated V10 engine good for 610PS of power and 560Nm of torque. It is paired to a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission which sends all the power to the asphalt via 305mm wide-section tyres in the rear. This power is said to propel the car from 0-100kmph in 3.3 seconds. By the exclusion of the all-wheel drive system, the RWD Huracan sheds around 33 kg of weight, further improving the power to weight ratio of the car. The chassis of the Huracan Evo is a combination of aluminium and carbon fibre.

Lamborghini Huracan Evo RWD

The Huracan Evo RWD comes in three drive modes, Strada, Corsa, and Sport. The Strada mode emphasises on traction while the Corsa mode allows little slip to provide agility. The Sport mode allows the driver to unleash the power completely which allows the car to drift. The new PTC (Performance Traction Control) system will add 30 per cent oversteer enhancement.

The suspension set-up includes double-wishbone independent suspension all-round. The tyre sizes are 245 mm in the front and 305 mm at the back shod with Pirelli P-Zero tyres. 19-inch Kari wheels are standard but you upsize with the optional 20-inch wheels and carbon-ceramic brakes.

The car comes equipped with an 8.4-inch infotainment screen with multi-gesture control and advanced connectivity. The car will be offered in 300 different colours. The Lamborghini’s only rear-drive rivals in India are the Jaguar F-Type, Porsche 911, and the Ferrari 812 Superfast. Of these, only the Porsche has a mid-rear layout.

Welcome to Tech2 Innovate, India’s most definitive youth festival celebrating innovation is being held at GMR Grounds, Aerocity Phase 2, on 14th and 15th February 2020. Come and experience an amalgamation of tech, gadgets, automobiles, music, technology, and pop culture along with the who’s who of the online world. Book your tickets now.

Apple released the iPhone SE in 2016 – months before releasing its flagship phones for the year. The iPhone SE was basically a smaller and cheaper phone offering the same system and camera performance as that of the flagship iPhone 6S. 

The iPhone 6S retailed for $649 in 2016 whereas the iPhone SE retailed for just $399. While the iPhone SE was not exactly “cheap”, it was definitely being sold for a far lower price compared to the iPhone 6S. The iPhone SE was/is just as fast as the iPhone 6S as it uses the same A9 processor. Also, the iPhone SE uses 2GB of RAM to keep most tasks free of lag.  

In terms of the camera performance, the back camera on the iPhone SE is same as that of the iPhone 6S. A 2016 camera sensor will definitely not match the image quality of the more recent smartphone cameras, I’m equally surprised to say that the quality is better than some sub $200 Android phones.

However, the front camera on the iPhone SE is bad as Apple did not use the same sensor as that found on the iPhone 6S. The company rather decided to use the sensor found on the iPhone 5S to keep the costs low. You may very well be able to use the front camera for casual Snapchatting in good lighting conditions but if you are looking forward to clicking Instagrammable selfies, look elsewhere (the iPhone 7 maybe).

The iPhone SE can be found on the pre-owned markets for dirt cheap – under $100. If you need a compact phone which runs iOS and does not compromise in many areas, the iPhone SE is a solid choice. Also, the battery life of the iPhone SE is pretty decent, however the battery backup may differ on pre-owned iPhones.

tech2 News StaffJan 29, 2020 20:04:35 IST

Samsung today gave a price cut of Rs 2,000 to its Galaxy M30s that was launched in India last year a starting price of Rs 13,999. After the price cut, which is now reflected at the Amazon India website and the company website, the smartphone is selling at a starting price of Rs 12,999.

Samsung Galaxy M30s revised pricing

The 4 GB RAM + 64 GB storage variant is now selling at Rs 12,999, down by Rs 1,000 from the launch price. The higher variant of 6 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant is priced at Rs 14,999, down from Rs 16,999.

The phone is available in blue, black and white colour variants.

Samsung Galaxy M30s. Image: Amazon India

Samsung Galaxy M30s specifications

Samsung Galaxy M30s features a 6.4-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-U display. The device also support Widevine L1 certification, which means, you will be able to stream HD content on your phone on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by a 2.3 GHz octa-core Exynos 9611 SoC. It comes with an option of 6 GB RAM and 128 GB of internal storage and 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage.

For optics, the Galaxy M30s sports a 16 MP selfie camera. At the rear, it comes with a triple-camera setup, which includes a 48 MP camera, along with 5 MP depth sensor with an f/2.2 lens, and an 8 MP ultra-wide-angle camera. The phone also comes with a dedicated night mode for low-light shots.

The Galaxy M30s offers 4K video recording, super Slo-mo, Super Steady and a Hyperlapse mode.

Additionally, the phone comes with a dedicated Game Booster mode, with uses AI to improve device performance while gaming.

For connectivity, the Galaxy M30s features a type-C port and it runs Android 9.0 Pie-based One UI. The phone packs a 6,000 mAh battery and it comes with 15W charging support.

Welcome to Tech2 Innovate, India’s most definitive youth festival celebrating innovation is being held at GMR Grounds, Aerocity Phase 2, on 14th and 15th February 2020. Come and experience an amalgamation of tech, gadgets, automobiles, music, technology, and pop culture along with the who’s who of the online world. Book your tickets now.

What was going on with our brain organoids?

As neuroscientists, we use these three-dimensional clusters of cells grown in petri dishes to learn more about how the human brain works. Researchers culture various kinds of organoids from stem cells – cells that have the potential to become one of many different cell types found throughout the body. We use chemical signals to direct stem cells to produce brain-like cells that together resemble certain structural aspects of a real brain.

While they are not “brains in a dish” – organoids cannot function or think independently – the idea is that organoid models let scientists see developmental processes that may yield insights into how the human brain works. If researchers better understand normal development, we may be able to understand when and how things go wrong in diseases.

When we recently compared our lab’s organoid cells to normal brain cells, we were surprised to find that they didn’t look as similar as we’d expected. Our brain organoids, each the size of a few millimeters, were stressed out.

Our investigation into why has important implications for this popular new method since many labs are using it to study brain function and neurological disease. Without accurate models of the brain, scientists will not be able to work toward disease treatments.

Tiny organoids model big, unique human brains

Our lab is particularly interested in the human cerebral cortex – the brain’s bumpy exterior – because it is so different in human beings than it is in any other species. The human cortex is proportionally bigger than in our closest living relatives, the great apes, containing more and different types of cells. It’s the source of many unique human abilities, including our cognitive capacity.

Why is this important? Because the cortex tells the rest of the brain what to do, and because these cortical cells and structures are disrupted in numerous diseases, ranging from developmental disorders like autism to degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

A better understanding of how the cerebral cortex forms will give researchers insights into how such diseases develop. Brain organoids may reproduce certain features of brain development and could provide a platform to develop treatments for these disorders.

Like the rest of the neuroscience community, we’re excited by the promise of organoids to let us study features of brain development that are unique to human beings, but essentially impossible to learn from living people. We wondered: What kind of cells do organoids make? What signals do they send? Do they connect together? Many scientific groups have characterized these models and determined that they make cells similar to those of the developing human brain.

But how do scientists know that organoid models mimic the real thing if we do not know enough about the normal brain? Our lab had a unique opportunity to compare human brain samples with our organoids. Additionally, recent technological advances now enable scientists to look at the genes expressed by individual cells, so that we can identify the programs that determine their cellular identity.

When we compared our organoid cells to normal brain cells, they looked more different than we’d expected, both in specificity of cell type and ability to mature normally.

Stressed-out organoid cells

Normal human brain cells turn on at precise times the sets of genes that give them their particular characteristics. These genetic plans determine how excitable the cells are, the chemical signals they send and receive, their position within the brain, their shapes and the cells they connect with.

What do the gene profiles of organoid cells look like?

They have the broad molecular characteristics of normal human brain cells, but without some important details. They have a confused identity; a single organoid cell expresses multiple gene programs that are normally found in very different cell types. The human brain has a plethora of distinct cell types, but organoid cells express markers of multiple different neural types at once. Organoid cells also don’t mature like normal brain cells do. In addition, many of the features that are hallmarks of the developing human brain – like the structural expansion and increasing architectural complexity – are not reflected in the organoids.

So, if organoid cells do not have the same activated gene programs as in the normal human brain, what programs are activated? Stress. Organoid cells have inappropriate activation of several cellular stress programs. These stress markers indicate that organoid cells are not receiving vital environmental nutrients that are typically found in the body. The activation of stress pathways results in cells behaving incorrectly and producing abnormal proteins.

To ensure that it wasn’t just the organoids in our hands, we analyzed the sequencing data of organoids published by other labs. Sure enough, there were significant levels of stress across all organoids, regardless of who made them or how.

When cells activate stress genes, they do not develop or behave correctly. We wanted to know if the environment was causing the stress in our organoids, so we put unstressed normal cells into the organoid environment. These once-normal cells became stressed too, and they developed identity issues similar to the organoid cells. This experiment suggests that stress activation contributes to the cellular confusion in organoid cells.

In a different experiment, we took organoid cells out of the culture environment and grafted them into a mouse – and the stress was relieved. Something about the way we currently culture organoids is stressing them out and is, at least in part, impairing other aspects of their development.

If organoids do not make specific cells that act like they do in the normal brain, how can we trust that the experiments we use them for reflect biology?

Are organoids useful, then?

So what does this mean for the future of organoids?

Organoids are still the best way neuroscientists have to access certain features of human brain development and disease. But to make sure that these studies are the most accurate they can be, neuroscientists need to resolve the stress-related issues.

Neurological diseases, like autism and Alzheimer’s, affect specific cell types – if researchers don’t make those cell types in our organoids, it may have major implications for future studies working toward treatments of these diseases. In addition, many diseases induce cellular stress, and the manifestations of these diseases may be blunted or obscured in organoids if the organoid cells are already stressed.

The good news is the stress can be reversed – if researchers can figure out exactly what is causing it.

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Apple released the iPhone 6S and the iPhone SE nearly four years ago, which would make them susceptible to the stage of “lack of upgrades”. However, it does not appear to be the case as a new report by iPhonesoft suggests that the company will push the next major iteration of iOS to the iPhone 6S and the iPhone SE.

The Cupertino based company (Apple) usually holds its annual developers conference in the month of June. It is at the event that the company unveils its next major operating system updates to iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. We expect Apple to stick to the same plan and unveil iOS 14 at worldwide developer’s conference (WWDC) 2020.

It was 9To5Mac that spotted the report from iPhonesoft which suggests that Apple will bring iOS 14 to the iPhone 6S and the iPhone SE. The iPhone 6S was released in September of 2015 and the iPhone SE was released in March of 2016. Both the phones are powered by Apple’s A9 chip coupled with 2GB of RAM – decent in terms of performance even by today’s standards.

If the report does turn out to be true, it could also mean that the 5th Gen iPad will be updated to iPadOS 14. The 5th Gen iPad is also powered by Apple’s A9 chip which would make it the oldest iPad to be updated to iPadOS 14.

In the past few years, Apple had come under the spotlight as the company that slows down its older generation devices. The company quickly took action by improving the general system performance of its older devices like the iPhone SE and the iPhone 6S.

If you have an iPhone SE, iPhone 6S or a 5th Gen iPad, please do not dump it already. The next major iOS/iPadOS update will very likely find its way to your device.

Every day, you make important choices – about whether to feast on fries or take a brisk walk, whether to spend or save your paycheck, whether to buy the sustainable option or the disposable plastic one.

Life is made up of countless decisions. The idea of nudging people in the right direction, instead of relying on their internal motivation, has gained traction over the last decade.

In general, nudging involves gently coaxing someone into a decision or behavior. The perfect nudge is one that results in the desired decision or behavior without the person recognizing any external influence.

Think of employees being automatically enrolled in retirement savings programs. Workers who must opt out, instead of needing to opt in, participate more in retirement savings. Or picture those little cards in hotel bathrooms encouraging people to reuse their towels by stating that most hotel guests do, instead of appealing to the guests’ social responsibility.

In these and countless similar situations, people feel in control, but were nudged to prefer one option over the other.

So how does all this nudging work within the mind? As someone who studies consumer decision-making, I can tell you: It’s complicated.

You’re of two (or more) minds

Neuroscientists, starting with pioneers like Antonio Damasio, have shown that the brain is not like a computer where complex programs deliver optimal solutions. In fact, the mind seems to involve many relatively simple systems, some inside the head and some distributed throughout the body.

These systems are not always in agreement. Some systems are selfish and shortsighted, some care about relationships with others and some prioritize transcendent things such as God and the future of humanity. In addition, people aren’t equally conscious of each mechanism, so that sometimes you make decisions carefully and thoughtfully and other times you make them fast and intuitively.

When your systems are in contention, which one informs your next decision depends on what else is happening in that moment. A diabetic, for example, may thoughtfully consider his long-term health and family responsibilities – and even God’s will – when deciding to eat the salad and not the breadsticks at Olive Garden one day. But on his next visit, he might respond to the smell of fresh-baked bread by devouring every breadstick in the basket. Different situations, different mechanisms, different decisions.

Appeals to your internal norms

Nudging can work via many mechanisms, some conscious and some not. Typically you don’t recognize you’re being nudged.

One nudge method relies on highlighting the decisions of others you may consider influential. After reading that “Most other guests staying at this hotel reuse towels,” many people envision others like them or maybe of higher status reusing towels. They feel compelled to align their behavior with that of the majority in order to fit in. The decision is theirs, but they’ve been nudged.

Another nudge technique focuses on how one should act in a particular situation. These are sometimes called “injunctive norms,” and they can vary by culture. Imagine the towel appeal had instead read, “By reusing towels, you join millions who care about the environment.” In this case the guest’s subconscious concern about earning the disapproval of those “millions” of others triggers him to hang up his towels.

And if the towel message is instead phrased that “reusing towels meets a high standard for environmental responsibility,” it highlights self-imposed standards or norms, if they exist in the decision maker. Such personal norms are termed injunctive because they involve beliefs about right and wrong that consider transcendent and abstract concepts, such as devotion and obedience to God.

Interestingly, such prompting – whether by subjective social or personal norms – does not work on everyone. Some may work better in some cultures (for instance, in Asian societies) and with some age groups (such as in younger people) than others.

Setting the scene for a desired choice

Another way to nudge people is to change the decision environment. This technique is sometimes called “choice architecture.”

Let’s assume that a grocery store is trying to encourage consumers to purchase ecologically responsible products, such as recycled paper notebooks. If all eco-friendly products are displayed together in an end-of-aisle display, people notice and their internalized norms are activated. But it may not translate into multiple purchases, because buying just one product suffices to meet the norm. If the products are displayed throughout the store, though, so multiple in-store displays can re-trigger the internalized norm, it’s likely that more ecologically responsible purchases will be made in the same shopping trip.

Nudging people is not deception. In most cases, nudging works by raising a particular decision or behavior’s prominence. If you’re already predisposed toward something – like eating healthy – a nudge helps tip your mental mechanisms in that direction. Nudges are reinforcement, especially in cases when your decision-making mechanisms are in contention with each other – like when the aroma of fresh bread is wafting through the air.

At the same time, that wafting aroma is in itself a nudge. It may be deliberately enhanced to promote pleasurable consumption that improves mood and may lead to more spending or more generous tipping. Nudging can work to enhance or suppress virtuous behaviors, and it is the responsibility of companies and organizations to use nudging judiciously and responsibly.

Nudging cannot make people do something they don’t want to do, although sometimes the desire is nonconscious and lurking in the background. It only encourages them to follow through on a decision or behavior that may be currently overshadowed by other factors. It’s when individuals believe consciously that the decision or behavior – be it healthy eating, buying environmentally responsible products, or saving for retirement – is beneficial that nudging works best.

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A coronavirus respiratory infection that appears to have broken out in December last year in Wuhan, China is rapidly making its way around China and spreading to countries around the world. As of 29 January, the coronavirus infection has claimed the lives of 132 people in China and infected around 6,000 people, the vast majority (4,409) in Mainland China. Tourists travelling out of Wuhan, China have also carried the virus to other countries unbeknownst to them, leading to 65 cases of the infection and no fatalities in other countries.

Many Asian countries – Hong Kong, Thailand, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia – are now hosts to 2019-nCoV-infected people. So are France, Australia, US, Canada, Germany, Ivory Coast, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

A man wearing a face mask rides a nearly empty subway train in Beijing. Image credit: AP

Many countries, including India, are yet to ascertain if the handful of suspected cases are, in fact, the same deadly Wuhan coronavirus strain. Various countries have also undertaken their own efforts to curb any further spread of the infection.

Mainland China

Two analyses of the coronavirus outbreak have concluded that each person infected with the virus (dubbed 2019-nCoV) is passing on the disease to at least two to three other people. The source of the infection, however, has still not been pinned down.

Chinese authorities claim that snakes are the carriers of the virus. Chinese health authorities have also said that the virus is mutating and can be transmitted from person to person through close contact.

To contain the spread, China has clamped down hard on travel within and outside Wuhan city. Tours have also been halted as of 27 January in the Hubei province. Transportation facilities in Wuhan have been shut, and all outgoing flights suspended. The Hubei province has gone in lockdown that has been steadily expanded to 16 surrounding cities with a combined population of more than 50 million people.

With the country in lockdown, tourists and students stuck in the country want to come home. There are reports of people refusing to come out of their houses in fear that they will contract the virus. The Chinese New Year, which is one of the biggest celebrations in the country saw a very lukewarm reception. While the World Health Organisation has said that the risk of contamination is low, there is still an evident fear among the people. Countries are trying to find a way to get their citizens out of China and embassies are working overtime to help expedite this process.

Passengers wear protective masks to protect against the spread of the Coronavirus as they arrive at the Los Angeles International Airport, California. Image credit: Getty Images

USA

The United States was one of the first non-Asian countries to report a confirmed case of the Wuhan coronavirus. As of 28 January, there have been confirmed cases – two people in southern California, and one case each in Washington State, Chicago and Arizona. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that it expects more Americans to be diagnosed with the newly discovered virus in the days to come, according to the Daily Journal, as the number of confirmed cases has slowly risen to 4,000+.

The country began the process to get their people back, in spite of the travel ban placed by China. According to The Associated Press and Reuters, the US embassy said that they will evacuate employees and any other Americans via a chartered flight. There will be a limited capacity to transport their citizens on a Tuesday flight from Wuhan that will land directly in San Francisco. In the event there were are not enough seats, priority will be given to individuals that were “at greater risk from coronavirus.”

According to BBC, on Wednesday, 240 Americans left China and will be kept in isolation, in a hangar for the next two weeks to ensure that they are not infected.

The CDC is also screening passengers on direct and connecting flights from Wuhan at five major airports in the US – Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

India

So far, there’s haven’t been any confirmed case of the Wuhan coronavirus in India. People suspected to be infected or showing any signs of the symptoms are being kept under observation.

While most of the students studying in China came back during the Chinese New Year break, there are still around 250-300 Indian students stranded in China. The Indian embassy has requested Chinese authorities to let the students leave Wuhan and surrounding cities to return home.

The Indian embassy in Beijing has set up a third hotline number in addition to the existing two already in use, in order to better deal with the increasing amounts of calls they have been receiving from the students trapped in the lockdown. There is no confirmation on whether the students will be allowed to leave as yet.

“As of now, we understand that no Indian citizens have been affected by the outbreak & that food & water supplies are available to them,” tweeted out Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson Ministry of External Affairs.

We are also closely coordinating with Chinese authorities. As of now, we understand that no Indian citizens have been affected by the outbreak & that food & water supplies are available to them. (3/5)

— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) January 26, 2020

“It was decided that steps may be taken to prepare for possible evacuation of Indian nationals in Wuhan. Accordingly, the Ministry of External Affairs will make a request to the Chinese authorities,” a government statement said.

An Air India Boeing 747 is on standby to evacuate Indians from Wuhan due to the coronavirus outbreak, an Air Indian official told ANI on Monday. They are awaiting the government’s nod to liftoff.

Thermal screening is being done at seven designated airports—New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi. Till Monday, a total 33,552 passengers arriving in India from China in 155 flights have been screened, PTI reported.

The Indian government is working to get Indian stranded in China, back home.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong has around five confirmed cases of coronavirus and around 108 suspected cases of Wuhan coronavirus infection. The Hong Kong government claimed it will ban people who have visited Wuhan in the past 14 days from entering the city. The ban, however, applies only to Chinese citizens.

According to South China Morning Post, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-Ngor, Hong Kong leader, during a press conference, said that all flights and high-speed trains from Wuhan to Hong Kong would be suspended indefinitely to control the spread of the virus. She has canceled a marathon and extended school holidays in the country till 17 February. Yuet-Ngor has also made health declarations mandatory to everyone entering the island and said that a false declaration will be punishable with six month jail time or a fine of HK$5,000.

European Union

France was the first European country to report a confirmed coronavirus case. Hospitals are currently treating three patients in France – all Chinese citizens – infected with the deadly virus.

France has around 800 people stuck in Wuhan and the Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said that they will be evacuating its citizens from Wuhan province.

“French citizens will be repatriated by airplane directly to France, with the agreement of the Chinese authorities. This will take place midweek,” she said. A medical team will accompany the flight and once they reach France, the people will be held in quarantine for 14 days, according to a report in The Independent.

The French government might also allow citizens from other EU countries to board the return flight from Wuhan, according to the French public health agency director Jerome Salomon, and France is in talks with the other countries for the same. The exact numbers of non–French Europeans that will be allowed a seat on the flight is yet to be decided.

Portugal along with other EU countries are in talks to conduct a joint operation to relieve their citizens stuck in Wuhan. Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said 14 Portuguese have asked to be moved out of the city. Many EU countries have approached Chinese health authorities to try and gain clearance for this operation.

It has been decided that two flights will fly EU citizens home and the first flight will leave with 250 French nationals.

Britain too is working on getting its citizens back from China. There are Virgin Atlantic flights that are still plying between Shanghai and Heathrow and people can re-book flights. The Public Health England and the Department of Health and Social Care have advised those who have returned from Wuhan, China in the past 14 days to stay indoors and avoid contact with other people. The department has also told travellers to call NHS 111 (a toll-free medial help) and to inform them of their travel to the city, reported The Guardian.

Those individuals that will be evacuated, will be placed in quarantine for 14 days.

The coast of Christmas island where the Australian evacuees will be kept in quarantine. Image credit: Flickr/David Stanley

Australia

There are just over 600 Australians stranded in China and the country is working to get them evacuated. Out of the 600, around 100 of them are school children.

Australia and New Zealand are working together to get their people back. New Zealand has 50 people in the lockdown.

Australian Health Minister, Greg Hunt said in an interview with ABC radio, “We are working to make sure that there is support for those Australians and we are also working on, as are other countries, trying to secure their ability to return to Australia. At this point in time, the foreign minister is working around the clock on that.”

While there is no date for when the evacuation will take place, reports from The Guardian state that they will charter a Qantas flight. The evacuees will be kept, in isolation, on Christmas Island. This island is  2,000 km away from the mainland and is used to house asylum seekers. Currently, Christmas Island is home to one Sri Lankan family of four.

A government statement said that those being evacuated will have to bear a part or a whole of the cost of their transportation and quarantine. will be asked to pay some or all of the costs of their transport and quarantine.

Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison stressed that is a limited window get the people back and they will use the last-in-first-out method to get the Australians out. This means those who were short-term visitors to Hubei province, and who did not have family or other support will get priority over those who lived in the province or who have been there for longer periods.

“We’re particularly focused on the more vulnerable components of that population. That’s young people, particularly infants, and those who are elderly and that would be our priority in any operation we’re able to put in place,” Morrison told The Guardian.

Russia

Russia has around 7,000 tourists currently trapped in China’s nationwide lockdown – 6,000 of them are on the Hainan Island, Vice President of the Association of Russian Tour Operators Dmitry Gorin told Reuters. The Russian Embassy claim they have 140 Russian students studying in Wuhan who are in constant contact with their embassy, Moscow Times reported. The embassy added that they are consulting with the Chinese government to find a way to get their citizens back from Wuhan and the rest of the Hubei province.

Russian tour operators Rus’-Tur is also helping evacuate its tourists from the island of Hainan, where thousands of Russians are still stranded. Citing safety reasons, Russia cancelled all tours to China starting 25 January.

So far, Russia has no confirmed cases of the virus. However, there over 100 people that are suspected to be infected, according to a report in News.am. Russian Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare head Anna Popova also told Urdu Point that two universities in Russia are working on developing a vaccine for the new coronavirus strain.

South Korea

Deputy Prime Minister and Economic Minister Hong Nam-ki said the government is making full preparations to send a chartered plane to bring South Koreans in Wuhan home as soon as a formal government decision to dispatch that aircraft is made, reported The Associated Press.

Hong also said the government has raised its infectious disease alert level and is taking preventive measures such as inspecting all people coming from Wuhan and strengthening quarantine.

Germany

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that his country is considering evacuating its citizens from Wuhan, with a government crisis response committee due to meet medical experts at the earliest to evaluate the situation, according to The Associated Press. The number of German citizens in Wuhan is in the double digits, Maas said.

The foreign ministry is currently advising Germans to refrain from or postpone “non-essential travel” to China.

Sri Lanka  

The Sri Lankan embassy in Beijing has applied for a Sri Lankan Airlines plane to be allowed to land at the Wuhan airport to airlift 32 Sri Lankan students and their family members and get them back to the country.

The foreign ministry also said it was working to bring back all other Sri Lankan students throughout China. About 860 Sri Lankan students are currently in China.

A women gets her temperature checked at the airport because of the spread of coronavirus. Image credit: AP

Thailand

Thailand has 64 citizens stranded in Wuhan and 18 people in other parts of China’s Hubei province that need evacuation. The government is working on getting them out, and have an aircraft on standby ready to fly their people home – pending permission from the Chinese government, which hasn’t yet been given.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, in an interview with Bangkok Post, said, “China confirmed that it can still control the virus… Flights must be approved by the destination country first… As long as the situation is under control, they are unnecessary. Otherwise, there would be a confusion of flights from other countries.”

Thai Air Force commander Manat Wongwat said that they have up to four C-134 planes loaded with medical staff and equipment that are on stand-by, ready to evacuate the people from hotspots in China, once they get the permission.

The embassy is in contact with its citizens and has a list of those who want to return home.

Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the government asked all Japanese residents in China whether they wish to return and made an effort to do so on chartered flights that took off on Wednesday.

The Japanese Embassy in Beijing said the initial evacuation is limited to those in Wuhan, where 710 Japanese people are stranded, according to Japan Times. Evacuees are expected to include employees of Honda Motor Co., Tokyo Electron, Aeon Co and other Japanese companies operating in Wuhan.

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Published Date: Jan 29, 2020 17:02 PM | Updated Date: Jan 29, 2020 17:26 PM

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Updated Date: Jan 29, 2020 17:26:37 IST