Miscellanea was started by Narayan Varma
and Ajay Thakkar in 1984. A number of people compiled it for few years
including Rashmin Sanghvi, Uday Chitale, Ashutosh Pednekar, etc. Rajesh Muni
and Raman Jokhakar manned it between 1999-2000 to 2004-05. Tarun Singhal joined
in 2005 and continued with Raman till 2017. Present contributors Jhankhana
Thakkar joined in
2016-17 and Chirag Chauhan in January, 2018.
The
aim of this column was to bring out relevant and useful news and views ‘in
short’.
1. Technology
11. Apple’s
AirPower wireless charger may already be in production – and shipping soon
In September 2017, Apple
announced it would ship its AirPower product by the end of 2018. Expectations
grew with each passing quarter last year that the charging pad would finally
arrive. But Apple missed its own deadline and pundits surmised the company was
struggling with technical issues, such as how to regulate different charging
requirements on a single pad using the Qi wireless charging specification.
After failing to meet its
own shipping timeline in 2018, Apple is now thought to have two manufacturers
ramping up production of its AirPower wireless charging pad, according to a
Hong Kong-based website that specialises in device charging news. While there
may be more than a dozen multi-device wireless chargers technically available
now, but none have introduced a product that can handle all three of Apple’s
products: smartphone, watch and earbuds.
(Source:
www.itworld.com)
12. Facebook
testing stories feature that will encourage your friends to join you at parties
Facebook
wants to make invitation a simpler process. The social media company is
bringing a new Stories feature that will encourage your friends to join you at
events. The company announced that it will test a new feature that lets users
share events that they are interested in attending in to their Story and then
plan meet ups with friends who are also interested in attending the same.
So how
will the feature work? You will see a new option “Share to your
story” when you visit any event’s page on Facebook. Tech Crunch explains
that your friends will see a tappable sticker when you share the event to your
story. The sticker would include details of the event and your friends can
directly reply from the Story if they are “interested” in going.
Facebook
announces the new feature at the time when the company is losing its young
users at a faster pace. The eMarketer’s report from 2018 shows reveals that
last year less than half internet users in the US aged between 12- 7 used
Facebook at least once a month. The feature aims to attract younger users as
many of them have now moved to Instagram and prefer the app over Facebook for
posting photos and Stories.
(Source:
www.indiatoday.in)
13. Google
removes thousands of malicious Android apps and millions of fake reviews on
Play store
It’s high time, Google
scales up the security to ensure shady apps don’t enter Play store.
In the past few years,
Google, despite taking stringent measure to screen malicious apps creeping into
the Play, has been unable to control them. Now, the company in a massive
cleanup drive has removed millions of fake reviews and thousands of bad apps.
Recently, Google received
complaints from concerned app developers that the Play store rating systems are
being rigged with fake reviews affecting their rankings, which apparently
driving the consumers away. Taking the cognisance of the issue, Google studied
the pattern and found several targeted false reviews, the presence of profane
language to downgrade an app and also incentivised (paid) top ratings to
boosting rankings of the app.
During the screen, the
company unearthed thousands of shady apps with malicious features and has
removed them in addition to weeding out millions of fake reviews from the Play
store in just one week.
The
company has also urged Android app developers not to indulge in shady review
tactics by offering incentives such as free in-app purchases or gifts to lure
their users to write fake ratings or else risk getting banned from Play store.
Over the last one month,
Google has weeded out close to 35 apps from the Play store over fake ads.
Detailed investigations revealed that the apps were riddled with malicious
codes to create fake click impressions via users to generate ad revenue. Also,
some were found to steal financial information from the Android phone.
There were just two of the
techniques, app developers had several other methods and did them without
obtaining the user consent
(Source:
International Business Times)
2. Environment
14. Antarctica ice melting increased by 280% in
last 16 years, study says
Yearly loss of ice from
Antarctica has increased by an alarming rate of 280 per cent between 2001 and
2017, according to a study which showed that accelerated melting caused global
sea levels to rise more than half an inch in the last four decades.
The researchers,
including those from Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Utrecht
University in the Netherlands, were able to discern that between 1979 and 1990,
Antarctica shed an average of 40 gigatonnes of ice mass annually From 2009 to
2017, about 252 gigatonnes per year were lost. The pace of melting rose
dramatically over the four-decade period. From 1979 to 2001, it was an average
of 48 gigatonnes annually per decade. The rate jumped 280 per cent to 134
gigatonnes for 2001 to 2017.
For
the study published in journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
researchers conducted the longest-ever assessment of remaining Antarctic ice
mass. Spanning four decades, the project was also geographically comprehensive;
the research team examined 18 regions encompassing 176 basins, as well as
surrounding islands. As climate warming and ozone depletion send more ocean
heat toward those sectors, they will continue to contribute to sea level rise
from Antarctica in decades to come
(Source: www.economictimes.com)
3. World News
15. China
to cut taxes, keep policy flexible to counter slowdown
China plans to slash taxes,
step up spending and provide ample financing to private and small enterprises
to help counter the country’s worst slowdown since the global financial crisis
and the impact of a bruising trade war with the U.S. The People’s Bank of China
is confident it can keep the value of China’s currency, the yuan, steady while
maintaining a stable but flexible monetary policy
The plans for 2019 outlined
included specific measures such as raising the maximum income levels for tax
exempt companies and individuals and reducing the tax rate. The government
plans to begin construction of major projects and promote settlement of rural
migrants in cities, slash bureaucratic and anti-competitive red tape, cut
energy consumption and open more business areas to foreign investment, said
Lian Weiliang, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission,
China’s planning agency.
(Source: economictimes.com)
16. Big
Four face major overhaul in U.K.
The Big
Four accounting firms may have to split their operations into separate U.K.
business units as part of a sweeping overhaul of the industry proposed by
regulators that stopped short of the measures sought by some critics. The
Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said audit work should be split from
the much larger consulting business at an operational level, but held off on
recommending a full structural breakup or a cap on auditor’s market share. A
further report said the U.K. needed a tough new watchdog to prevent the
failings of the past.
Stung by a
string of scandals at prominent British firms including Carillion Plc, the
government demanded regulators set out reforms to roll back the dominance of
the largest accounting firms. The industry has had a turbulent year, with
record fines and reprimands in the U.K.
Separately
the U.K. government said it agreed with a new report that the country’s heavily
criticised Financial Reporting Council should be abolished and replaced with a
new accounting regulator. The new watchdog, the Audit, Reporting and Governance
Authority, would have powers to investigate companies, their accounts and
governance.
The FRC
was accused of being to be too close to the firms it oversaw, especially
Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PricewaterhouseCoopers. “I have sympathy with the
view that the FRC has tended overall to take too consensual an approach to its
work,” said John Kingman, who led a review of the regulator.
To
encourage more competition, the CMA said it currently preferred to have the
largest companies require joint reviews with two audit firms signing off on the
accounts rather than a market share cap on the auditors.
(Source:
www.accountingtoday.com)
4. Startups
17. Kochi
gets the biggest startup incubator in India
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday inaugurated India’s
biggest startup incubator at Kochi. The startup incubator- the Integrated
Startup Complex– which is housed inside a 1.8-lakh square-feet facility at the
Technology Innovation Zone (TIZ) in Kochi, is the home to host of segments that
cater to the modern technology.
The startup incubator, which has been setup under the watchful guidance
of the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), houses a number of modern facilities such
as the Maker Village that promotes hardware startups, the Bionest that promotes
medical technologies, BRINC which is India’s first international accelerator
for hardware startups, BRIC which aids developing solutions for cancer
diagnosis and care, and a Centre of Excellence, that has been backed by some of
the prominent tech companies that operate in India. Apart from boosting the
startup ecosystem, the state government is also planning to give 2.5 lakh
direct jobs in IT with an aim of fostering social development in Kerala.
(Source:
www.indiatoday.in)
18. Books
to help a busy entrepreneur like you avoid burnout this year
Books are
wisdom in refined, concentrated form. In that spirit, I’d can recommend several
books to buoy busy, frenetic or otherwise on-the-verge-of-burning-out
entrepreneurs. Some are new. Some are old. Some tackle the problem of burnout
head on, while others do so indirectly. Either way, I’m confident that each of
the below can increase your inspiration this year, and well beyond.
1. Log
Off: How to Stay Connected After Disconnecting– Blake Snow.
Snow, a
seasoned journalist, gives us this quick-read, which explains how to live large
on low-caloric technology, to increase face time with actual people, outperform
workaholics in half the time and increase our productivity with fewer online
distractions. Snow also does more than just throwing a lot of alarming
statistics and life-changing recommendations at the reader. Rather, he weaves
both into his own decade-long story, making his advice easier to follow and
remember. The concepts he gives names to, like the King Complex, the Rule of
Thirds, Reformed Luddism and the Four Burners Theory, are sure to spike your
productivity. Bonus points for being the shortest book on my list.
2. The
Last Place on Earth — Roland Huntford
Roland
Huntford’s account of this legendary tale of the 1911 South Pole race between
Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott is well researched and full of proven business
insights. While both men were incredibly brave, their individual approaches to
preparedness, forecasting and strategy for reaching the South Pole first were
strikingly different.
This was
so much so that after reading this book, you’ll probably take greater care in
leaving nothing to chance. You’ll also finish this book with a greater
appreciation for early explorers and how you might adopt similar success
strategies in your admittedly less dangerous existence. It’s crazy to think
this story still hasn’t caught Hollywood’s attention.
3. Console
Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation — Blake Harris
Looking
for a fun read? Need a fresh perspective before planning your next marketing
campaign? Look no further than Harris’s riveting account of one of the ‘90s
greatest rivalries. “There was no such thing as a magic touch,” writes Harris.
“The only thing it takes to sell toys, vitamins, magazines (or anything) is the
power of story. That was the secret. That was the whole trick: to recognize
that the world is nothing but chaos, and the only thing holding it (and us)
together are stories.” Console Wars is as good as (if not better than) David
Sheff’s seminal Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered The World.
4. A Short
History of Nearly Everything — Bill Bryson
Bryson is
one of the most beloved non-fiction writers today. And, here, he impressively,
humorously and succinctly summarises how we “big banged” from nothing to get
where we are today as a species. To accomplish this, Bryson spent three years
researching the world’s greatest scientific discoveries and interviewing the
people who know them best.
Simply
put, the result is awe-inspiring. “It has been suggested that there isn’t a
single bit of any of us — not so much as a stray molecule — that was part of
us nine years ago,” Bryson writes. “It may not feel like it, but at the
cellular level we are all youngsters.”
5. Peak
Performance: Elevate Your Game and Avoid Burnout with the New Science of
Success –Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness
What would happen if a successful management consultant and Olympic
coach teamed up to study and distill the secret of top performers? Thankfully,
they have. This new book is the result and covers how anyone can achieve his or
her best. “Whether someone is trying to qualify for the Olympics, break ground
in mathematical theory, or craft an artistic masterpiece, many of the practices
that lead to great success are the same,” the authors assert.
For
example, “stress plus rest equals growth” means you get better
results when you design and live a routine-filled day; and having a greater
purpose keeps you focused and motivated.
6.
Thinking Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman
The better you understand the human mind, the wiser you’ll know how to
use, master, and leverage it. That’s why everyone — entrepreneurs very much
included — should read this breakthrough book by Nobel Prize-winning
behavioral scientist Kahneman. After decades of research, Kahneman was the
first to discover that the brain makes decisions in two ways. The first is
“fast thinking,” which makes everyday, mostly involuntary and largely gut-based
decision-making possible. This means decisions like eat this, pick up that,
move out of the way and stay alive.
“Slow
thinking,” on the other hand, means slow to engage and deliberate, even lazy,
because this kind of thinking requires significantly more energy. The trick to
being a better thinker, therefore, lies in knowing and understanding how to
trigger your “slow thinking” more often. This book shows you how.
(Source:
www.entrepreneur.com)
