As disease rates rise and medical technology develops, treatment costs climb. It’s essential to understand that medical costs are not exclusively associated with hospitals.

The cost of prescription drugs, diagnostic procedures, ambulance and operating room fees, consultations with doctors, and other costs are also constantly increasing. All of them could put a big strain on your finances if you are unprepared. Paying a reasonable annual health insurance premium allows you to choose high-quality care without worrying about the cost and avoid the burden of medical inflation.

Startups in the healthcare industry have advanced and brought to consumers services as well as health insurance plans that are pocket-friendly with the ease of access and availability.

•  Loop Health – The platform, founded in 2018 and focused on offering group health insurance to businesses, has 30 highly skilled in-house doctors and offers family doctors to every employee. In addition to health insurance, the website offers its customers free wellness courses twice a month. Individuals can design their own health plans that include team wellness activities, unlimited medical visits, and live chat support at all hours. Additionally, Loop Health offers four times per month health webinars for practises like yoga, zumba, meditation, and other ones, at minimal costs. Their internal mental health counsellors are also available for unrestricted consultations throughout these seminars.

•  PlumHQ- Start-ups, small enterprises, and big organisations may all get group medical insurance with Plum, a comprehensive employee benefits platform. Without copays, waiting periods, or obtrusive tiny print, PlumHQ offers comprehensive employee health insurance. Plum has developed a dashboard tool for tracking healthcare coverage as well as a quicker WhatsApp claims process. Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global have both made investments in the platform.

• MediBuddy – A platform that provides full-range digital healthcare services, including online doctor consultations, lab test bookings, drug delivery, business health insurance, and wellness services. MediBuddy’s wide range of products for all players in the healthcare industry enable finding, utilising, and monitoring healthcare simple, real-time, and practically paperless. By doing this, MediBuddy ensures that each and every person’s healthcare needs are satisfied.

Goes without saying that the healthcare sector as a whole should focus on making benefit adoption easier for businesses while also making sure that everyone throughout the value chain—from insurers to healthcare service partners—can easily exploit these advantages. This is true despite the market’s enormous expansion potential. As a result, this will help to emphasize trust and quality more, which are crucial elements for drawing in and keeping end users.

In its latest update Apple said that it is preparing for the iOS 16.2 update for iPhones across the world.

Notably, like the previous release, there are a couple of changes coming for the iPhones. 

iOS 16.2 Update Release Date

So far, Apple has not announced a release date for iOS 16.2 update.

Reportedly, the beta version has been out for a while now and the latest update has given a fair idea about all the new changes coming to the iPhones. 

Despite having a large list of small changes, there are three big features that are claimed to elevate the iPhone experience significantly.

For the unawares, the iOS 16.2 update is currently available in only the beta channel.

If you want an early look then you will need to sign up for the Apple Beta Program. 

Rumor mills suggest that Apple will release the iOS 16.2 update sometime around December 12. 

But, the big news here is that this update has a big thing planned for Indian iPhone users as well.

iOS 16.2 Update Big Features

1. Always On Display Mods

So far, the Always On Display feature on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max has been a big topic of discussion.

It seems that Apple has complied with the users request to provide a simplistic Always On screen. 

In this iOS 16.2 update, users will be able to turn off the wallpaper and the notifications on the Always On screen.

2. 5G Support in India

It will also enable the support for 5G networks on compatible iPhones in India. 

In simple words, this will allow users of iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 14 series and the iPhone SE 3rd Gen on Airtel and Jio networks to witness faster 5G data speeds.

3. Freeform App

This feature is meant to please creators who swear on their iPhones for everything. 

With the Freeform app, users can draw and insert sticky notes, text boxes, shapes, photos, videos, links, PDF files, and more. 

Please note that the Freeform app is also available on iPad and macOS platforms.

Image

Around 300 workers at Microsoft Corp.’s ZeniMax Studios have commenced the process of forming a union which is said to be the first at the software giant in the US. 

Here, Microsoft Corp.’s ZeniMax Studios known for popular video games including Skyrim and Fallout.

Forming Union In Microsoft Corp

Moreover, the quality assurance employees at Maryland-based ZeniMax will be represented by the Communications Workers of America. 

With this move, the labor movement is said to be gaining steam in the gaming industry as ZeniMax action follows the creation of unions at two studios owned by Activision Blizzard  Inc.

Larger Effort In Forming Union

 Coming to these studios, Microsoft is in the process of acquiring them for $69 billion, and has now pledged to remain neutral in the union negotiations. 

Notably, the said ZeniMax union is far larger than past efforts at Activision studios at Blizzard Albany in New York and Raven Software in Wisconsin.

It encompasses workers across several states who test the games for bugs and ensure they work properly.

When it comes to employees, quality assurance workers have been among the first to unionize in the games industry against low pay and poor working conditions.

Workplace Is Changing 

Earlier in 2020, Microsoft acquired ZeniMax for $7.5 billion.

This gaming giant comes with Elder Scrolls-publisher Bethesda Softworks, Doom creator Id Software, Arkane Studios and several other developers. 

In a statement, the  CWA President Christopher Shelton said, “We are glad to support ZeniMax quality assurance workers as they join the growing video game labor movement in the US.”

 Further adding, “These workers are making history, joining the wave of game and tech workers at Activision, Alphabet, and dozens of other companies who have organized with CODE-CWA to build a better workplace.” 

It is noteworthy here that Activision Blizzard has fought against its workers’ unionization efforts.

In a blog post in June, Microsoft vice chairman and President Brad Smith wrote recognizing that “the workplace is changing.” 

Further adding that “committed to creative and collaborative approaches with unions when employees wish to exercise their rights and Microsoft is presented with a specific unionization proposal.” 

Like most large tech companies, Microsoft had been viewed as a barren and somewhat hostile environment for organizing, prior to the recent unionization efforts in video games.

Basically, the difference of opinions occurred in the company  largely with unions via its large workforce of contract and temporary workers. 

Recently, we interacted with Mr. Ayush Shukla, Creator & Founder, Finnet Media, and asked him about his startup journey, and their plans to disrupt the ecosystem with ideas and passion.

With a B.A in Economic Honors from Delhi University, Ayush learned the nuances of networking and explored it for his self-growth by building a strong network of creators and influencers during his Committee Head days that included acquiring the license for TEDx for his college. It was here that he also realized his potential and inclination towards digital marketing and he started his freelancing journey and podcast journey with Mini Adult Troubles.

Thanks to his podcast Mini Adult Troubles, he got in touch with multiple influencers and content creators and soon realized that every content creator needs a companion with a strong spine to help them strategize their steps in the right direction. This is how he started Finnet Media in 2020. 

Although started as a side hustle and its Fastrack growth catapulted it into a full-grown agency. To date, Finnet Media has worked with over 100 digital creators and 40+ brands like Anushka Rathod, Sharan Hegde, Shivanshu Agarwal, Caslynn, Groww, Smallcase and more. 

Here are the interview highlights:

1. What are the challenges that you have faced so far? 

Each creator comes with a different set of strengths – the biggest challenge and the biggest differentiator for us is to create a personalized approach for all. We are strong believers of customized solutions and hence all the brands we service as well as the creators we work with are approached differently. The constant ideation is challenging yet it keeps us going effectively. 

1. What are the market strategies that you have adopted?

We don’t have a marketing strategy as such, we believe that our work should speak for itself.  Our core focus is always focusing on the creators, focusing on good work that we have been doing and making sure that we are making our clients’ lives easier. I think word of mouth has been our biggest support system. 

3. What are the growth opportunities in the field of being a finance content creator?

Given the nature of work, content creation opens many avenues for individuals – from research to content writing to making videos, one ends up developing  a very varied skill set. Hence one can explore and grow by launching their own IPs, talk shows, courses or even write books on personal finance. The idea is to expand the knowledge pool while building a community. 

4. What are your future plans in the next 5 years?

The next five years is a long way ahead, but what I can surely say is that the next few months are very exciting. We are on the way to a huge change in the entire creator ecosystem, with SEBI regulations coming in, we are certain that the sector will be more regularized – this will give us the leverage to market products better and increase the authenticity of our offering. 

We look forward to welcoming this change, working with quality brands and creating value for all stakeholders – consumers, brands and creators!

India’s air safety protocols and executions have improved drastically over the years, as validated by the findings of a specialized agency of the United Nations, the International Civil Aviation Organization or ICAO.

The UN watchdog has upgraded India’s ranking in terms of aviation safety to the 48th position, jumping past the rankings of countries like China, Turkey and even Israel. The rankings are a result of a detailed audit held by the UN watchdog last month in November 2022.

Aviation Safety Improves

The audit conducted by ICAO, called the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme, is done to check whether countries are working towards effectively implementing key safety elements regarding aviation safety.

According to the ICAO ranking, India now stands at the 48th position in the global aviation safety ranking, which is its highest until now.

According to the director general of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Arun Kumar, it is a challenge to maintain the new found status. However, the organization has assured all of its stakeholders that it will leave no stone unturned to further improve India’s ranking.

The audit was conducted last month from Nov 9-16, informed Arun Kumar, and the areas under consideration during the audit included legislation, organisation, personal licensing, operations, airworthiness and aerodrome.

Airtravel Becomes Safer In India

“To check if rules were being followed, the team also visited Delhi airport, SpiceJet, a charter operator, air traffic control, communication navigation and surveillance,” Kumar said.

In terms of effective implementation of key safety elements, India’s positioning as per the ICAO norms has improved to 85.49%, which is much higher than other major countries.

Just four years ago, i.e., ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s ranking on the ICAO charts was more than 100 at the 102nd position. As per the 2018 Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme, India’s performance was at 69.95%.

In terms of civil aviation organisation, India’s score has zoomed from 63.64% to 72.73%, from 25.58% to 84.71% in personnel licensing and training, from 80.34% to 97.44% in aircraft operations and from 90.20% to 97.06% in airworthiness of aircraft.

With the country’s ranking now improving on international air safety norms and indexes, it means that India’s air safety processes have far improved, paving in way for Indian carriers to better and faster expand to overseas markets as permissions for new services are easier to get.

Apple 14 is barely out of the box and features and rumors of the Apple 15 series are already making rounds of the internet. 

The newest reports have revealed that the iPhone 15 Pro Max is to be replaced by the brand-new iPhone 15 Ultra. With the iPhone 15 series, the corporation is also said to include features like dual front cameras, USB Type-C charging port, and more.

Apple To Introduce Dual Front Cameras in iPhone 15 Series

Apple will reportedly introduce many more features including dual front cameras, USB Type-C charging port in the iPhone 15 series.

Renders of the iPhone 15 Ultra have most recently surfaced online. Images of the Apple iPhone 15 Ultra’s curved edges were posted by Apple Insider. The flat-edged style of the current iPhone models was introduced with the iPhone 12. With the release of the iPhone 15 series, it probably will alter. The two cameras at the front of the iPhone 15 Ultra are another upgrade.

iPhone 15 To Come With Titanium Glass Casing, No Power, Volume Buttons

The rumor claims that the phone would have a titanium glass casing since it is necessary for wireless charging. Earlier, a Nikkei report said that Sony Group will give Apple its most recent picture sensor. 

According to reports, the new cutting-edge sensor would almost quadruple the saturation signal level in each pixel when compared to the traditional sensors. 

As a result, there will be less overexposure or underexposure in some conditions and the sensor will be able to collect more light. In turn, this will make it possible for a smartphone camera to take photos that are crisper even when the subject is facing a strong backlight.

In addition to that, Apple will be replacing the physical volume and power buttons with solid-state buttons on the iPhone 15 models, as per Apple Insider Ming-Chi Kuo.

Price Range of iPhone 15 Series

Regarding the pricing, LeaksApplePro, an industry source, tweets that the iPhone 15 Ultra “will cost much more to build than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.” Although the tipper withholds the precise pricing, it does provide a range in which the gadget may be priced. The cost of the top-tier Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max is $1,099, or 1,89,900 in India. The price of the iPhone 15 Ultra will be greater than this, according to the tweet, which claims that it might cost “significantly more” than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Image

The success of the Redmi K50 series, especially the Redmi K50 Pro was resounding, and now, a lot of leaks about the Redmi K60 series have emerged as well.

The box of the Redmi K60 was leaked recently, and promotional dates of the phone series have also appeared.

Redmi K60 Features Leaked: All You Need To Know!

The series’ features were revealed through MiCode. As per these reports, Redmi K60’s power source is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The SOC Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has a high level of performance, which will ensure smooth functioning, especially while gaming. Additionally, a Redmi K60 box emerged on the Chinese blog Weibo a few days ago for the first time.

We discovered today that the Redmi K60 series MIUI 14 upgrade, which is based on Android 13, is prepared. The new Redmi K series will be available shortly, according to the MIUI server.

The Redmi K60 series’ most recent internal MIUI builds are V14.0.2.0.TMNCNXM, V14.0.0.4.TMKCNXM, and V13.0.1.0.SMMCNXM. For the Redmi K60E and Redmi K60 Pro, updates were created. This suggests that a new series will start airing shortly. 

Redmi K60 update preparations are still ongoing. As per reports, different SOC systems are available in smartphones. Additionally, there are three versions in the Redmi K60 series, Redmi K60, Redmi K60 Pro, and Redmi K60E.

We had previously reported about a Weibo post that talked about a normal, presumably vanilla K60 will come with 67W wired charging, but its more expensive “K60 Pro” cousin retains the 120W speed of its predecessor but shares a new 30W specification with its vanilla brother.

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ Expected To Launch As Xiaomi 12i HyperCharge In India

There also has been news that the Redmi Note 12 series which was recently launched in China could arrive in India branded as Xiaomi 12i HyperCharge. The lineup consists of regular, Pro, Pro+ and Discover Edition variants.

These new global variants are codenamed Ruby which is the same as their Chinese counterparts, indicating that the devices are likely to be the same. 

The Redmi Note 12 Pro and the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ are expected to be called the Xiaomi 12i and the Xiaomi 12i HyperCharge in India respectively. 

Image

Apple is in fast pace catching up with Samsung in India as far as smartphone exports from the country are concerned. 

Apple was not far behind at $2.2 billion at the same time Samsung’s smartphone exports in value stood at around $2.8 billion for the April-October period.

Apple Scaling Up Exports In India

It is noteworthy here that the scaling up of exports by Apple is due to the fact that the iPhone maker held a miniscule share a year ago.

Apple is seen catching up with Samsung by the end of the current fiscal if it continues at this speed, according to the industry experts.

With this speed, the iPhone maker would surpass the South Korean rival by the next fiscal.

As it is, the smartphone selling market is witnessing an uproar as the total mobile phone exports during April-October 2022 stood at $5 billion which is up 127% from the year-ago period. 

Center’s PLI Scheme Supporting Smartphone Production In India

When it comes to Apple and Samsung, now both the companies are manufacturing smartphones in the country under the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. 

In case of Apple, its phones are being manufactured by three of its contract manufacturers including Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron.

The total mobile phone exports from India stood at $2.2 billion during April-October 2021.

Interestingly, 90% of this was from Samsung ($1.98 billion). 

We can see that Apple’s share was low at only 10% ($220 million) but it is justified as it started production and exports in full swing only in August 2021. 

Although, Samsung began the same from August 2020, but Samsung qualified for PLI in FY21.

On the other hand, Apple couldn’t due to Covid-related disruptions in the supply chain. 

Samsung didn’t have to face any such disruption as it already had a running domestic production in the country.

From the government side, they later gave an additional year to smartphone players under the PLI scheme to make up for the losses in Covid-hit 2020. 

According to this, in a six-year time-frame, companies can choose a five-year period to meet the incremental production and sales target specified under the PLI scheme. 

In the case of Samsung, the period is from 2020 till 2025, for Apple it is from 2021 till 2026.

Latest report reveals that the layoffs announced by the Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon are likely to impact double the number of employees than reported earlier.

Amazon Layoffs Affecting Mass Workforce

This new report indicates that internet giant Amazon is planning to cut around 10,000 jobs in corporate and technology roles following the massive layoffs at Meta and Twitter.

Reportedly, the company leaders have been told to identify work performance problems among the employees.

If Amazon lays off 20,000 employees then it would result in a reduction of about 6 percent of its corporate staff.

This is about 1.3 percent of Amazon’s 1.5 million-strong workforce, as per a recent news report.

Who Will Get Affected By This Lay Off?

Now it seems that the e-commerce giant might give pink slips to double the number of employees i. e. 20,000, across the company in the coming months.

This move will affect distribution center workers, technology staff and corporate executives.

In a broader sense, employees at all staff levels (from level 1 to level 7) are likely to be impacted by these layoffs, sources said with direct knowledge of the matter.

During mid-November media reported that Amazon would also fire employees following the footprint of the tech giants like Meta and Twitter.

According to the Amazon company contracts, the employees impacted by this lay off will be given a 24-hour notice and severance pay.

Why Would This Happen?

“There is a sense of fear among employees in the company as the news has come out,” sources said.

Further adding that there is no specific department or location mentioned for the cuts and it is across the business.

The reason behind these mass layoffs are said to be the result of over-hiring during the pandemic.

Now, the need for cost-cutting has arisen as the company’s financials have been on a declining trend, as per the source.

On November 17, Andy Jassy, CEO of the e-commerce major, had confirmed that layoffs were occurring without divulging any details on the number of employees to be laid off.

Jassy noted, “Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments. Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023,” in a public message.

Further, he stated that Amazon had already communicated that layoffs would occur in the Devices and Books businesses.

The company would be extending a voluntary reduction offer for some employees in the People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organization.

Youtube has released its annual A YEAR ON YOUTUBE list for 2022, and there is some explosive news coming in from the house of Armoks Media.

Shorts Break from Armoks Media has become the #1 Youtube Creator for Shorts videos in India, as their video: Baarish me Bheegna has been ranked #1 in their list. 

This particular shorts have garnered whooping 299 million views as of now, in a period of 5 months. 

This way, Shorts Break has not only created the most viewed shorts video in India, but also, the world’s 2nd most-viewed shorts. 

Commenting on this development, Arun Prabhudesai, founder of Armoks Media said, “When we launched Shorts Break channel, our sole objective was to create a family-centric entertainment hub, which spreads joy and smiles all around. The character of Kaamwali bai proved to be the game-changer, as our audience went berserk over her antics and her charm. We are absolutely grateful and in gratitude for the excellent response, our shorts have received, propelling us to become #1 Youtube Shorts creator in India and the creator of the world’s 2nd most viewed shorts. This is an important and critical milestone in our journey. Congratulations to the entire Shorts Break and Take a Break team for this massive achievement!”

India’s Most Viewed Shorts, World’s Second Most Viewed Shorts

The shorts: “Baarish Me Bheegna” is indeed India’s most viewed shorts with 299 million, but it also is the world’s 2nd most viewed shorts, only after ‘Ouch’ which has generated 302 million views. 

Point to be noted here: While Ouch was uploaded 8 months ago, “Baarish Me Bheegna” was updated 5 months ago.

The swiftness and the velocity of views garnered by Shorts Break channel have set a new precedent for entire Youtube creators, in India and across the world.

Armoks Media, the parent production house of Shorts Break is spearheaded by Arun Prabhudesai, whose first Youtube channel: Trakin Tech is right now the fastest-growing tech channel in India with more than 12.6 million subscribers. 

Other Youtube channels created by Armoks Media include Trakin Tech English, Trakin Shorts, Mad For Fun, Take A Break, Trakin Auto, Trakin Tech Marathi, Wait For It and more.

You can find the entire list of 2022 A YEAR ON YOUTUBE here.

The process of getting a visa to Canada has now been made easier for Indians. 

As per the latest news, the government of Canada has decided to add two Indian cities, Delhi and Chandigarh, under Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy. 

Canada To Strengthen Visa Infrastructure In Delhi And Chandigarh

The Canadian government has opted to strengthen the current infrastructure of the entire visa process by adding more capacity in two Indian cities, Delhi and Chandigarh, as part of Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, in an effort to simplify the process of obtaining a visa for Canada from India.

As per Sean Fraser, a minister of Canada, “The Indo-Pacific Strategy of Canada will have a significant influence on our economic potential, especially through fostering immigration that will deepen relationships between citizens of Canada and the area.”

As per his tweets, “We will also strengthen recruitment efforts through our international student program in order to attract the skills we need to support our economy and to strengthen ties with people across the region.”

He also stated that this investment will be essential in supporting our government’s efforts to speed up processing times and keep Canada a top choice for immigrants.

In his tweets, he announced “new funding to help further reduce visa application processing times with additional capacity in Islamabad, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Manila.

Canada To Spend $74.6 Million In Delhi, Chandigarh, And More

The minister announced that Canada will spend $74.6 million over the course of five years to increase the capacity for processing visa applications in New Delhi, Chandigarh, and other locations.

Canada plans to increase its immigration objectives and aims to let in a record number of new immigrants in an effort to fill the gap left by the labour shortfall in the nation. Sean Fraser, the minister of immigration, stated that “Canada needs more people.”

The majority of people are getting close to retirement. Additionally, one in seven Canadians are between the ages of 55 and 64.

One million jobs are currently unfilled, and businesses are suffering financial losses as a result of the labour crisis.

By 2025, Canada hopes to have admitted more than 60% of all economic migrants. Although somewhat fewer refugees will be accepted, it also hopes to reunite more families with family members overseas.

After its decision to strengthen visa infrastructure in Delhi and Chandigarh, Canada has now announced that family members of temporary international workers will also be allowed to work in the country.

Sean Fraser, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, recently informed the media that his agency will be granting work permits to relatives of temporary foreign workers.

Canada Govt Allows Family Members Of Temporary Workers To Work

With the expansion of its work permits to include family members of temporary international employees starting next year, Canada has taken a big step that will assist professionals from India and other foreign countries.

Before this change, a spouse could only get a work visa if the main applicant was employed in a high-skill job. By keeping families together, this interim approach hopes to enhance the employees’ physical health, mental stability, and financial security. According to the news release issued by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the worker is anticipated to better integrate into their entire work environment and community.

Starting in January 2023, Canada will phase in the expansion of wives and children of working age who are eligible to work there for all skill levels through a temporary 2-year measure. This would include, for instance, the families of employees in the hospitality, trades, and healthcare sectors.

More Than 200,000 Foreign Workers’ Families Will Start Working

According to estimates, more than 200,000 foreign workers’ families might start working in Canada as a result of this new strategy, providing additional opportunities for both foreign workers looking for employment there and for companies trying to fill their labour shortages.

He stated that employers all around the nation continue to see a labour shortage as their main challenge. By granting work permits to family members at all skill levels, this announcement will assist companies in filling their labour shortages by allowing over 200,000 foreign employees’ families to work in Canada. 

The Canadian government will continue assisting businesses in finding qualified employees while simultaneously promoting worker welfare and bringing families together, as per the minister.

By 2025, Canada hopes to have admitted more than 60% of all economic migrants.

Although somewhat fewer refugees will be accepted, it also hopes to reunite more families with family members overseas.

According to the 2021 census, there are 39 million people in the country overall, and nearly one in four were born abroad.

Image Source

There is a shocking revelation by scientists who are studying the surface of a Teflon-coated pan. As per the scientists, thousands to millions of ultra-small Teflon plastic particles may be released during cooking as non-stick pots and pans gradually lose their coating.

As per the new study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, just a single small crack on the surface of a Teflon-coated pan can release about 9,100 plastic particles.

Risk of Plastic Debris Exposure

As per the researchers, the research findings show that there is a potential risk of Teflon plastic debris exposure during daily cooking.

The scientists assessed how millions of tiny plastic particles potentially come off during the cooking and washing of such non-stick pans and pots.

Indicating an increased risk of exposure to these chemicals during cooking, the release of 2.3 million micro plastics and nano plastics from broken coating was identified.

Teflon is the brand name of the chemical Polytetrafluoroethylene – a synthetic polymer containing just carbon and fluorine that is one of the most well-known and widely used forever chemicals.

The reason behind being called as forever chemicals, is the fact that these chemicals are not broken down easily in the environment and remain a persistent problem for several generations.

A co-author of the study from the University of Newcastle in Australia said that “The non-stick coating material Teflon is generally a family member of PFAS”.

What are PFAs?

PFAS, scientifically known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of chemicals commonly found in non-stick cookware, waterproof cosmetics, firefighting foams as well as commercial products that resist grease and oil and have been in commercial use since the 1940s.

Previous research has linked the use of these chemicals to several health disorders, including reduced immunity, hormone disruption and increased risks of different types of cancer.

“Given the fact PFAS is a big concern, these Teflon microparticles in our food might be a health concern, [which] needs investigating because we don’t know much about these emerging contaminants,” Dr Fang said.

Scientists developed a new analysis method to directly visualise and identify ultrasmall Teflon microplastics and nanoplastics.

“We estimate that thousands to millions of Teflon microplastics and nanoplastics might be released during a mimic cooking process,” scientists wrote in the study.

Image

On Wednesday, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) research company OpenAI announced ChatGPT which is a prototype dialogue-based AI chatbot capable of understanding natural language and responding in natural language. 

ChatGPT Getting Famous

In less than a week, this news has since taken the internet by storm and already crossed more than a million users. 

Most of the users are marveled at the idea of this intelligent AI-powered bot. 

Many have gone ahead and even called it a replacement for Google as it is capable of giving solutions to complex problems directly.

Feels like a personal know-all teacher in their words.

OpenAI said, “We’ve trained a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests,” on its announcement page for ChatGPT.

What is ChatGPT? 

Basically, it is based on GPT-3.5, a language model which is used for deep learning to produce human-like text.

The ChatGPT is more engaging compared to the older GPT-3 model which only took text prompts and tried to continue on that with its own generated text. 

Moreover, this version is much better at generating detailed text and can even come up with poems. 

When it comes to its unique characteristic, it is memory. 

Basically, this bot can remember earlier comments in a conversation and recount them to the user.

OpenAI has only opened up the bot for evaluation and beta testing now, it plans the API access most probably for next year. 

This would definitely help the developers as with API access, they  will be able to implement ChatGPT into their own software.

But it can not be denied that under its beta testing phase, ChatGPT’s abilities are already quite remarkable. 

Considering the amusing responses like the pumpkin one above, people are already finding real-world applications and use cases for the bot.

According to the YouTuber Liv Boeree, kids spending hours on homework will be a thing of the past as ChatGPT will do the job for them. 

Not only that, the software start-up founder, Amjad Masad got ChatGPT to spot errors in his code and produce a detailed output on what’s wrong with it and how it can be fixed.

In the meantime, the Canadian Musician Grimes was all about the sentimental side of things. 

In response to her question if it felt “trapped,” ChatGPT responded by saying it lacks the ability to feel so.

Some Limitations Too

When many people were amazed by the abilities of this bot, some were also quick in spotting its limitations. 

For starters, ChatGPT is prone to misinformation and biases, which is something that plagued previous versions of GPT as well. 

Besides this, the model can give incorrect answers to, say, algebraic problems.  

Due to the fact that it appears so confident in its super-detailed answers, people can easily be misled into believing those are true.

Future Challenges For OpenAI

In response to the arising questions, OpenAI said that they understand these flaws and have noted them down on its announcement blog saying “ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers. 

Fixing this issue is challenging, as: (1) during RL training, there’s currently no source of truth; (2) training the model to be more cautious causes it to decline questions that it can answer correctly; and (3) supervised training misleads the model because the ideal answer depends on what the model knows, rather than what the human demonstrator knows.”

If we keep the limitations aside, the ChatGPT still makes for a fun little bot to interact with and you can try it out from its official website after signing up for the same.

Recently, Apple is accelerating its plans to shift some of its production outside China.

The Cupertino headquartered company is asking its suppliers to plan more for assembling the product elsewhere in Asia, particularly India and Vietnam.

Apple Shifting Assembly Line Outside Of China

Sources involved in this discussion also said that Apple is also looking to reduce the dependence on Taiwanese assemblers led by the Foxconn Technology Group, as per the information provided in the Wall Street Journal.

It appears that the turmoil at China’s Zhengzhou ‘iPhone City’ plant propels Apple to shift its production. 

The Zhengzhou city In China has as many as 300,000 workers working at a factory run by Foxconn which manufactures iPhones and other Apple products. 

The market research firm Counterpoint Research said that it alone made up about 85 percent of the Pro lineup of iPhones at one point.

Foxconn Plant Struggled To Contain COVID-19 Outbreak

Earlier, Apple was in the news for the protests that erupted at the world’s largest iPhone factory in central China in late November.

Then authorities at the Foxconn plant struggled to contain a COVID-19 outbreak while maintaining production ahead of the peak holiday season.

We could see in videos protesting online, the protesters were shouting “Stand up for your rights!” Riot police were present, the videos show. 

Media agency has verified the location of one of the videos also by video verification service Storyful, as per the Wall Street Journal report.

Weakened China’s Status As Stable Manufacturing Center

It seems that the happenings in a year of time have weakened China’s status as a stable manufacturing center.

It won’t be an exaggeration to say that the disruption means Apple no longer feels comfortable having so much of its business tied up in one place, the analysts and people in the Apple supply chain said.

Moving ahead, the iPhone maker has informed its manufacturing partners that it wants them to start trying to do more of this work outside of China. 

According to the supply-chain specialists, in case the places such as India and Vietnam can do NPI too, they will remain stuck playing second fiddle. 

Basically, the slowing global economy and slowing hiring at Apple have affected the tech giant to allocate personnel for NPI work with new suppliers and new countries, said the sources.

In the meantime, China is further scrambling Apple’s strained supply.

They are to highlight how the country’s stringent zero-Covid policy is hurting global technology firms.

A new statement by the government and three sources have revealed that the proposal to regulate only the games of skill has been overruled.

According to a government document and three sources, India’s proposed regulation of internet gambling would cover all real-money games after the prime minister’s office rejected a proposal to merely regulate games of skill and exclude games of chance.

All Real Money Games To be Regulated in India

The long-awaited laws are expected to have a significant impact on the gaming industry in India, which research company Redseer predicts would be worth $7 billion by 2026 and be dominated by real-money games. 

In recent years, Indian firms Dream11 and Mobile Premier League, which are well-known for fantasy cricket, have received funding from Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital.

A new body to determine whether a game involves skill or chance was proposed by an Indian panel tasked with drafting the regulation in August. After that, skill games would be governed by federal rules that include registration requirements, know-your-customer standards, and a grievance redress mechanism.

As per reports, chance games, which are viewed as being similar to gambling, which is mostly outlawed in India, were expected to remain under the control of individual state governments, who would be allowed to regulate them.

Regulation For All Games As Distinction Is Difficult

However, a representative from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office opposed this disparity at a government meeting on October 26 and called for enhanced monitoring of all games, according to the private minutes of the meeting accessed by Reuters.

The official was described in the minutes as stating that it was difficult to distinguish between games that required skill and those that required chance owing to a lack of legal clarity and conflicting court rulings, and that “online gaming may be treated as one activity/service with no differentiation.”

The card game rummy and several fantasy games are skill-based and acceptable, according to the Indian Supreme Court, whereas state courts have had differing opinions on games like poker.

Regulation Necessary To Avoid Addiction, Financial Losses

Three people close to the development, including two government officials in New Delhi, have revealed that the rules will give the federal government greater control over all games while preserving the ability of state governments to outright prohibit gambling or games of chance.

The new laws were created in response to rising worries that the popularity of these games, particularly among young people, had resulted in addiction, financial losses, and even some recorded suicide instances.

According to one of the insiders in the government, the Modi administration is still worried about the possibility for addiction on such platforms.

In its August report, the government group had proposed that new regulations should include so-called “de-addiction measures” such establishing deposit and withdrawal limits as well as regular warnings and cautions.

India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) has announced that it will hike the prices of its models from January 2023.

It said the increase will vary for different models.

Why?

In a statement the automaker explained its struggles and the reason behind the hikes.

“The Company continues to witness increased cost pressure driven by overall inflation and recent regulatory requirements. 

While the company makes the maximum effort to reduce costs and partially offset the increase, it has become imperative to pass on some of the impacts through a price increase. 

The Company has planned this price increase in January 2023 which shall vary across models,” the filing said.

However, it did not disclose the quantum of the proposed price hike.

Sales not dented

While releasing its sales figures for November 2022, MSIL stated that its total sales rose 14.4 percent YoY) to 1.59 lakh units compared to 1.39 lakh units in the same month last fiscal.

However, even as sales grew, the production of domestic models was impacted due to the electric components shortage.

The company said, “The shortage of electronic components had a minor impact on the production of vehicles, mainly in domestic models. 

The company took all possible measures to minimise the impact.”

Going back to glory days

The carmaker shared its determination to regain its market share from rivals such as Tata Motors after having lost ground over the past three years. 

It is targeting a return to the more prosperous year of 2018-19 when its overall share topped 51 percent.

Discounts before hike rollout

Before rolling out the hikes from next year, Maruti Suzuki is offering heavy discounts on some of its cars in December 2022.

These discounts include benefits like exchange benefits, cash discounts and corporate offers besides accessories or complementary services.

Some of the biggest discounts are being offered with small cars.

Alto K10

The new generation of Alto K10 will be offered with benefits of up to ?52,000.

This figure includes cash discounts worth up to ?30,000, exchange bonus worth up to ?15,000 and corporate discounts worth up to ?5,000.

The automatic variants will be offered with discounts up to ?22,000 while the CNG variants will come with a discount of ?45,100.

Celerio 

The Celerio is offered with big discounts in December.

The maximum discount on this hatchback can be ?45,100 for the CNG variant.

The manual variants can fetch up to ?36,000 discount and the automatic variants can be purchased with up to ?21,000 discount.

WagonR and Alto

Maruti WagonR and Alto 800 are also offered with discounts up to ?42,000.

The Swift hatchback and Dzire are offered with up to ?32,000 discounts this month.

The government is temporarily freezing the proposed sale of AAI’s stakes in the private joint ventures operating the airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Reason

The finance ministry has decided to defer for now the sale of the AAI’s residual stakes in these four joint ventures, the reason being that the valuations could be lower now.

State-owned Airport Authority of India’s (AAI) residual stakes in these airports were supposed to be sold under the government’s ambitious National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP).

National Monetisation Pipeline

The NMP has been developed by Niti Aayog, in consultation with infrastructure line ministries, based on the mandate for asset monetisation under Union Budget 2021-22.

It estimates aggregate monetisation potential of Rs 6 lakh crore through core assets of the central government over a four-year period from FY 2022 to FY 2025.

Stakeholding

The AAI holds 26 per cent stake each in joint ventures that operate Delhi and Mumbai airports.

And then 13 per cent shareholding each in the joint ventures that operate Hyderabad and Bangalore airports.

Under the NMP, a total of 25 airports and the AAI’s residual stakes in the four airport joint ventures have been considered.

Allocation

Overall value of these assets was estimated at Rs 20,782 crore for FY 2022-25.

Out of this, Rs 10,000 crore of monetisation value has been tentatively considered on account of divestment of AAI stake in private joint venture airports. 

The same has been phased out equally over FY22 and FY23.

‘Multiple factors’

The NMP document that was released in August 2021 goes on to say, “It may be noted that the actual realisation from AAI stake sale will depend on multiple factors such as transaction timing, market conditions, investor appetite and transaction terms”.

The government is taking a market approach to determine the indicative value of AAI’s stake in the four private joint ventures.

When it comes to remittances, India and China beat them all. This year around, if we are to go by the data of World Bank report published Wednesday, then remittance flows to India will rise 12% to reach $100 billion this year. This puts its inflows far ahead of countries including Mexico, China and the Philippines.

India Tops the Remittance Inflow

This record amount of money sent home by migrant Indian workers will boost the finances of Asia’s third-largest economy and eventually lead it to retain its spot as the world’s top recipient of remittances.

As per the report, highly skilled Indian migrants living in wealthy nations such as the US, UK, and Singapore were sending more money home. Recent years have witnessed Indians moving from doing lower paid work in places like the Gulf.

Other reasons affecting the growth are wage hikes, record-high employment and a weakening rupee.

Remittances Contribute to 3% Indian GDP

Inflows from the world’s largest diaspora are a key source of cash for India, which lost almost $100 billion of foreign exchange reserves in the past year amid tightening global conditions that weakened currencies including the rupee against the dollar. 

A crucial part of filling fiscal gaps is done by Remittances, which account for nearly 3% of India’s gross domestic product.

As compared to 26% in 2016-17, cash transfers to India from high-income countries climbed to more than 36% in 2020-21.

The world bank said that during the same period, share from five Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, declined to 28% from 54%. 

When it comes to South Asia, the trends are not uniform. The remittances from the Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are expected to drop this year, this can be attributed to the countries being hit by domestic and external shocks.

The report said that “Migrants responded to exchange rate depreciations in home countries by sending less money through formal channels and opting for black-market premia in the parallel exchange markets”.

As per a new survey, three different cities on three separate continents have been named as the best places for expats to live and work.

Valencia, Dubai, Mexico Top the List

Topping the InterNations Expat City Ranking list 2022 is Spain’s Valencia. Valencia was lauded by the expats due to its quality of life, public transport and sporting opportunities.

Second in the list, Dubai, was lauded for the welcome it gives new arrivals. Mexico City came in third for its affordability.

Of the 50-strong list, it was Johannesburg which ranked at the bottom as it was surveyed branding the South African city unaffordable and unsafe. When it came to affordable housing, sitting just above Johannesburg are Germany’s Frankfurt and the French capital Paris.

Claiming the 12th place, Miami, was the highest-ranking North American city on the list. New York came at number 16 and Toronto in 19th position.

“The Big Smoke”, London limped in at 40th place.

Moving to the Asian places, Bangkok came in sixth thanks to its low cost of living, Melbourne’s work-life balance earned it eighth spot, and Singapore rounded out the top 10.

As many as 11,970 expats living in 181 countries or territories were surveyed by InterNations.

Fifty cities met the sample size requirement of at least 50 participants per destination.

Top 10 & Bottom 10 Cities

Following are the top 10 & bottom 10 cities – with a short description: 

Here’s the top 10 in full — with a brief description by InterNations of each city’s major polling features:

1. Valencia, Spain: Liveable, friendly and affordable

2. Dubai, UAE: Great for work and leisure

3. Mexico City, Mexico: Friendly and affordable, but unsafe

4. Lisbon, Portugal: Amazing climate and quality of life, mediocre work options

5. Madrid, Spain: Great leisure activities, a welcoming culture

6. Bangkok, Thailand: Expats feel at home despite safety concerns

7. Basel, Switzerland: Expats satisfied with finances, jobs, quality of life

8. Melbourne, Australia: An easy city to get used to

9. Abu Dhabi, UAE: Excellent health care, worry-free bureaucracy

10. Singapore: Easy administration, satisfying finances, improved career prospects

And the bottom 10:

1. Rome, Italy: Expats feel at home despite low quality of life

2. Tokyo, Japan: Hard to navigate but quality of life high

3. Vancouver, Canada: Housing unaffordable and local residents not so friendly

4. Milan, Italy: Troubling financial situation, difficult working life

5. Hamburg, Germany: Expats unhappiest here, have hardest time making friends

6. Hong Kong, China: Frustrating environmental and work-life factors

7. Istanbul, Turkey: The worst city for working abroad

8. Paris, France: A top destination for culture and cuisine — if you can afford it

9. Frankfurt, Germany: Struggle with digitization, administration and language

10. Johannesburg, South Africa: The world’s worst expat destination