Tag: india

Only 36 Percent of Indian Engineers Can Write Compilable Code, Says Study

New submitter troublemaker_23 quotes a report from ITWire: Only 36% of software engineers in India can write compilable code based on measurements by an automated tool that is used across the world, the Indian skills assessment company Aspiring Minds says in a report. The report is based on a sample of 36, 800 from more than 500 colleges across India. Aspiring Minds said it used the automated tool Automata which is a 60-minute test taken in a compiler integrated environment and rates candidates on programming ability, programming practices, run-time complexity and test case coverage. It uses advanced artificial intelligence technology to automatically grade programming skills. “We find that out of the two problems given per candidate, only 14% engineers are able to write compilable codes for both and only 22% write compilable code for exactly one problem, ” the study said. It further found that of the test subjects only 14.67% were employable by an IT services company. When it came to writing fully functional code using the best practices for efficiency and writing, only 2.21% of the engineers studied made the grade. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Only 36 Percent of Indian Engineers Can Write Compilable Code, Says Study

India Aims To Make Every Car Electric By 2030 In Bid To Tackle Pollution

India’s energy minister has unveiled plans for every car sold in the country to be powered by electricity by the year 2030. “The move is intended to lower the cost of importing fuel and lower costs for running vehicles, ” reports The Independent. From the report: âoeWe are going to introduce electric vehicles in a very big way, ” coal and mines minister Piyush Goyal said at the Confederation of Indian Industry Annual Session 2017 in New Delhi. “We are going to make electric vehicles self-sufficient… The idea is that by 2030, not a single petrol or diesel car should be sold in the country.” Mr Goyal said the electric car industry would need between two and three years of government assistance, but added that he expected the production of the vehicles to be “driven by demand and not subsidy” after that. “The cost of electric vehicles will start to pay for itself for consumers, ” he said according to the International Business Times. “We would love to see the electric vehicle industry run on its own, ” he added. An investigation by Greenpeace this year found that as many as 2.3 million deaths occur every year due to air pollution in the country. The report, entitled “Airpocalypse, ” claimed air pollution had become a “public health and economic crisis” for Indians. It said the number of deaths caused by air pollution was only “a fraction less” than the number of deaths from tobacco use, adding that 3 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was lost to the levels of toxic smog. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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India Aims To Make Every Car Electric By 2030 In Bid To Tackle Pollution

London police allegedly used hackers to target activists

If it wasn’t already clear why it’s a problem when police surveillance goes wrong , it is now. An independent investigator is looking into claims that London’s Metropolitan Police used an illegal, roundabout way to access the emails of activists and journalists. An anonymous former worker alleges that a Met intelligence unit took advantage of India “counterparts” that used hackers to obtain email logins for innocent people ranging from Greenpeace protesters to Guardian reporters. The snooping had been going on for a “number of years, ” according to the insider, and there was reportedly widespread document shredding to cover up the monitoring. There’s evidence to support the claim. The tipster provided passwords for 10 email accounts, most of which have been proven authentic by the users themselves. The investigation is still early, but a police spokesman says that the claims are “deeply troubling” and that the force will provide its “fullest possible support.” If the allegations are as serious as they sound, though, they would represent a serious blow to the Met’s reputation. They would show that a key law enforcement division was regularly spying on people who weren’t even suspected of crimes, and was fully aware that it was doing something wrong. Via: Ars Technica Source: The Guardian , BBC

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London police allegedly used hackers to target activists

1.6 Billion-Year-Old Plant Fossil Found In India

Complex multicellular life began 400 million years earlier than we thought, according to a Phys.org article shared by Slashdot reader William Robinson: Scientists found two kinds of fossils resembling red algae in uniquely well-preserved sedimentary rocks at Chitrakoot in central India. One type is thread-like, the other one consists of fleshy colonies. The scientists were able to see distinct inner cell structures and so-called cell fountains, the bundles of packed and splaying filaments that form the body of the fleshy forms and are characteristic of red algae… The oldest known red algae before the present discovery are 1.2 billion years old. The Indian fossils, 400 million years older and by far the oldest plant-like fossils ever found, suggest that the early branches of the tree of life need to be recalibrated. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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1.6 Billion-Year-Old Plant Fossil Found In India

Uber’s latest option is a personal chauffeur

If you’re traveling, or flitting about from one business meeting to another, it can be annoying to arrange a ride for very stop on the journey. Uber is looking to remedy the issue by launching UberHire, a service that lets you rent a car (and driver) for a day. The service is launching in a handful of Indian cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune, amongst others. Uber users in India can access the service simply by swiping across to UberHire and selecting the first part of your trip. Mashable reports that the minimum fare will set you back around $10 for two hours and 30 kilometers worth of travel. Afterward, you’ll be charged a flat fee for every minute and kilometer afterward, apparently up to a top limit of 12 hours. The company has found life in India to be complicated, and has had to tweak its business several times to better suit the market. Car rentals, for instance, was offered by local rival Ola last year, and the service had to implement cash payments in the country. In addition, users can book rides from their browsers and had to suspend surge pricing after pressure from regulators. Via: Mashable Source: Uber

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Uber’s latest option is a personal chauffeur

Amber’s sensors aim to save farmers’ grain from spoilage

CES is most known as a show for computers , cars and seriously strange stuff , but there’s no shortage of people here trying to solve big problems the rest of us have never heard of. Take Amber Agriculture for instance: run by students at the University of Illinois, the startup as developed a finger-sized sensor meant to be stuck inside silos to help farmers monitor the quality of their stored grain. What’s more, Amber’s approach falls in line with other big trends at the show. You’ve heard of the smart home — the Amber team is trying to help build the smart farm. The idea is simple enough — these sensors monitor temperature and humidity, along with the volatile compounds that signal how moist a farmer’s grain is. Since this is 2017, those farmers will be able to monitor that key data from their smartphones, and that sort of easy access should help them figure out the ideal time to sell and ship their crop. Here’s the thing, though: there’s more to this idea than just helping the world’s farmers demand the best possible prices. Amber co-founder Lucas Frye also believes that some serious long-term good could be possible if the company could work with farmers in countries where grain spoilage has been a pressing issue. Frye, a competent, low-key pitchman, said the startup’s vision is on some level about protecting our food supply. That said, smart moisture management won’t be able to fix every grain spoilage problem around the world. Consider India: spoilage and grain rot is a recurring problem there, but that’s thanks in large part to logistical issues like finding places to actually store those huge crop hauls. For now, though, global problems are taking a back seat while Amber makes sure everything works the way it’s supposed to. There’s no firm word on pricing yet, but that’s to be expected — after finalizing some design elements and striking some deals, the startup’s leaders are gearing up for its first set of field trials in early 2017. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

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Amber’s sensors aim to save farmers’ grain from spoilage

China To Plow $361 Billion Into Renewable Fuel By 2020

China will invest $361 billion in renewable power generation between 2016 and 2020, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said Thursday, as the world’s largest energy market pushes to shift away from coal power. From a report: The investment will create over 13 million jobs in the sector, the NEA said in a blueprint document that lays out its plan to develop the nation’s energy sector in a five-year period. The NEA repeated its goal to have 580 million tonnes of coal equivalent of renewable energy consumption by 2020, accounting for 15 percent of overall energy consumption. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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China To Plow $361 Billion Into Renewable Fuel By 2020

Bitcoin Circulation Hits Record High Of $14 Billion

Bitcoin, the digital currency that most people have never actually used, has hit a record value of $14 billion after jumping 5 percent on Thursday. From a report on The Guardian: The price of one bitcoin reached $875 on the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange, its strongest level since January 2014, putting the cryptocurrency on track for its best daily performance in six months. That compared with levels around $435 at the start of the year, with many experts linking bitcoin’s rise with the steady depreciation of the Chinese yuan, which has slid almost 7% in 2016. Data shows the majority of bitcoin trading is done in China, so any increase in demand from there tends to have a significant impact on the price. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Bitcoin Circulation Hits Record High Of $14 Billion

India Just Flew Past Us In the Race To E-Cash

New submitter mirandakatz writes: Since India’s prime minister banned 86 percent of the rupee notes in circulation last month, citizens have been waiting in hours-long lines for ATMs. But these circumstances have also created an unexpected progression: a burgeoning cashless economy. At Backchannel, Lauren Razavi explores how India is now beating many Western countries in adopting mobile payments, and how demonetization has triggered a radical shift toward reimagining India’s enormous informal economy as a data-driven digital marketplace. From the report: “Before last month, Paytm, a mobile app that allows users to pay for everything from pizza to utility bills, saw steady business — it was processing between 2.5 and 3 million transactions a day. Now, usage of the app has close to doubled. 6 million transactions a day is common; 5 million is considered a bad day. Rather than being forced to idle away time in excruciatingly long lines, ‘people are proactively exploring other ways to settle payments besides cash, ‘ says Deepak Abbot, senior vice president at Paytm. ‘Now people are realizing they don’t need to really line up, because merchants are starting to accept other forms of payment.’ All of this has created a newfound system that practically incentives mobile payment. With so many people queuing up at banks every day — and a lot of Indian bureaucracy to wade through in order to open a traditional bank account or line of credit — the appeal of more convenient digital alternatives is easy to understand. According to a report in the Hindu Business Line, as many as 233 million unbanked people in India are skipping plastic and moving straight to digital transactions. ‘Cash has lost its credibility and payments are no longer perceived in the same way, ‘ says Upasana Taku, the cofounder of Indian mobile wallet company MobiKwik, which reported a 40 percent increase in downloads and a 7, 000 percent increase in bank transfers since demonetization. ‘There’s chaos at the moment but also relief that India will now be an improved economy, ‘ she says.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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India Just Flew Past Us In the Race To E-Cash

Disney IT Workers, In Lawsuit, Claim Discrimination Against Americans

dcblogs quotes a report from Computerworld: After Disney IT workers were told in October 2014 of the plan to use offshore outsourcing firms, employees said the workplace changed. The number of South Asian workers in Disney technology buildings increased, and some workers had to train H-1B-visa-holding replacements. Approximately 250 IT workers were laid off in January 2015. Now 30 of these employees filed a lawsuit on Monday in U.S. District Court in Orlando, alleging discrimination on the basis of national origin and race. The Disney IT employees, said Sara Blackwell, a Florida labor attorney who is representing this group, “lost their jobs when their jobs were outsourced to contracting companies. And those companies brought in mostly, or virtually all, non-American national origin workers, ” she said. The lawsuit alleges that Disney terminated the employment of the plaintiffs “based solely on their national origin and race, replacing them with Indian nationals.” The people who were laid off were multiple races, but the people who came in were mostly one race, said Blackwell. The lawsuit alleges that Disney terminated the employment of the plaintiffs “based solely on their national origin and race, replacing them with Indian nationals.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Disney IT Workers, In Lawsuit, Claim Discrimination Against Americans