G20 podium
WhatsApp goes down for almost two hours NEW DELHI: For nearly two hours on October 25, WhatsApp services were down for millions of users in India and worldwide. During the outage, users could not send messages and use services like WhatsApp audio and video calls. Soon after users started reporting problems online, Meta issued a statement and said the service would be restored soon. Notably, WhatsApp sibling Instagram, Facebook, and the Messenger app under the Meta umbrella worked fine.
CAG works to red-flag freebies, state largesse
NEW DELHI: Amid the debate over freebies touched off by the Prime Minister’s “revadi culture” jibe with the Supreme Court and the Election Commission stepping into it, now the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is weighing in as well. The CAG is exploring how to devise parameters that will “red-flag” the burden of subsidies, off-Budget borrowings, discounts and write-offs which may pose challenges to the economy of states, a media report said.
Five new varieties to expand Basmati platter
NEW DELHI: Five new varieties of seeds of Basmati rice, developed by a group of scientists led by IARI Director Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh in 2020 and 2021, are all set to bring revolutionary changes in the way Basmati rice is cultivated in the country. Three of the five varieties can resist two common diseases of paddy. The other two varieties can save 35 pc of water as the method of Direct Sowing of Rice (DSR) can be used to raise them.
Man held for beating an NSG commando
NEW DELHI: A man was arrested for allegedly assaulting a National Security Guard (NSG) commando after an alleged argument over giving way outside a fast food chain, at Sector 80 in Gurugram on October 24. The Police said the accused was allegedly inebriated at the time of the incident. The victim, a native of Uttar Pradesh, is currently posted on the NSG’s Manesar campus, said the police.
