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Trai) will launch an updated and more user-friendly 'do not disturb' (DND) app soon to provide mobile phone users some respite from spam. The app is planned to be launched in two months after deliberations with stakeholders on the technical feasibility of the new features, Trai chairman AK Lahoti told ET. «The intention is to make it user-friendly… the experience should be good, and it should become the preferred app for DND registration,» Lahoti said, adding that additional functionalities that can be built in, such as reporting and blocking spam calls, need to be examined.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The country’s principal manager of retirement savings for private-sector employees, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), is working on a facility to let subscribers withdraw funds from their corpus through ATM cards, subject to a limit. While this would be welcome, the EPFO also finds itself being held responsible for a pension crisis that has put about 1.75 million retirees in dire straits, pushing many to despair.

Indian startup ecosystem has undergone a dynamic evolution over the past decade, with major changes reshaping how private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) firms strategise their exits from startups. Traditionally, Indian stock markets were perceived as places for large, established companies to list and raise capital. However, they are now offering diverse opportunities for new-age startups to tap into public funding and provide impressive exits for early backers and investors, such as angel investors and venture capital firms. The surge in exit activity via the public markets is a testament to this transformation, shaping exits in ways that have profound implications for Indian PE-VC strategies.

AI crawlers are computer programs that gather data from websites to train large language models. With increased use of AI search and need for collecting training data, the internet is seeing many new web scrapers such as Bytespider, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot and GPTBot. Until 2022, the internet had conventional search engine crawlers such as GoogleBot, AppleBot and BingBot which obeyed the principles of ethical content scraping and scheduling for decades.

Meta Platforms is urging California's attorney general to block OpenAI's planned conversion to a for-profit company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. In a letter to Attorney General Rob Bonta dated Thursday, Meta said that allowing OpenAI to become a for-profit company would set a dangerous precedent of allowing startups to enjoy the advantages of nonprofit status until they are poised to become profitable, WSJ reported. «OpenAI's conduct could have seismic implications for Silicon Valley. If OpenAI's new business model is valid, non-profit investors would get the same for-profit upside as those who invest the conventional way in for-profit companies while also benefiting from tax write-offs bestowed by the government,» the WSJ report quotes Meta as saying in the letter.

Three taxi drivers have been arrested in Puerto Morelos in Mexico, just south of Cancun, for threatening a tourist for using a ride-share app

TikTok has challenged a Canadian government order to shut down the Chinese video-sharing app’s business operations in the country that was imposed over national security concerns

Kroger and Albertsons’ plan for the largest U.S. supermarket merger in history has crumbled

Peak XV Partners and ChrysCapital sold shares worth Rs 606 crore in coworking space company Awfis on Wednesday through block deals. Together, the investors sold 8.5 million shares at Rs 709.90 apiece. This was a nearly 9% discount from Awfis’ closing share price of Rs 778.65 on Wednesday. While Peak XV Partners, which is tagged as a promoter of the New Delhi-based company, sold a 7.6% stake in the company, private equity firm ChrysCapital divested 4.5% stake.

coal scam case related to allocation of two coal blocs in Odisha. Besides Gupta, special judge Sanjay Bansal acquitted Navabharat Power Pvt. Ltd., its then chairman P Trivikrama Prasad and then managing director Y Harish Chandra Prasad, and former joint secretary in coal ministry K S Kropha, and K C Samaria, former director in coal allocation section of the ministry. The judge held the CBI had failed to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that any «misrepresentation» was made by the accused. The judge further said no case of cheating was made out as no one was induced.

Telecom operators have deployed technology to block all pesky messages with immediate effect, industry body COAI said on Wednesday. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had set deadline of December 11 for telecom service provider to trace and block all messages that do no comply with its rule to stop pesky messages. «In line with the directive issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on August 20, 2024, all commercial messages sent by Principle Entities (PEs) must now be fully traceable. »Effective December 11, 2024, messages that do not have a defined or matching telemarketer (TM) chain will be blocked, reinforcing a significant step towards safer and more transparent communication channels," COAI, Director General, SP Kochhar said in a statement.

The proposed $24.6 billion merger between supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons floundered on Tuesday after judges overseeing two separate cases both halted the deal

President-elect Donald Trump has made another flurry of job announcements

Truck drivers have blocked some major highways in central Mexico to protest the fact the government hasn't paid them for work they did on a tourist train line

U.S. consumers who were tricked into purchases they didn’t want from Fortnite maker Epic Games are now starting to receive refund checks, the Federal Trade Commission said this week

BJP West Bengal unit staged a protest at Basirhat border in Ghojadanga creating blockade and protesting against torture on minorities in Bangladesh. Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari announced a mega rally in Kolkata on December 16, which is celebrated as Vijay Diwas by the Indian army. Meanwhile, ISKCON Kolkata urges UN Human Rights to ‘Wake up’ after another ISKCON monk was attacked at Dhaka’s Uttara area. After blocking goods vehicles from crossing the border at the Petrapole land port last week, BJP leader Adhikari reached the Ghojadanga land port in North 24 Parganas where various organisations conducted a similar blockade on Tuesday to protest the arrest of Hindu monk Chinmay Krishna Das Brahmachari in Bangladesh. Adhikari said, “Today is the World Human Rights’ Day. I urge the countries which believe in humanitarian ways like United States and United Kingdom to take action. The world community should come together and protect the Hindus in Bangladesh.”

third Conservative non-confidence vote on Monday, but the government is likely to survive with the support of the NDP.Members of Parliament are supposed to vote on a motion that quotes NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s criticism of the Liberals and asks the House to agree with Singh and vote to bring down the government.Singh said last week he is not going to support the Conservatives, so the motion will likely fail.The House is also supposed to vote on an NDP motion calling on the government to expand the GST break and the $250 “working Canadians rebate” to fully retired seniors and people who rely on disability benefits.Those votes will come after MPs deal with a debate on a point of privilege raised by Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman on Friday.As opposition parties continue to use procedural tactics to stall one another’s motions, the House is facing a deadline on Tuesday to vote to approve billions of dollars in government spending.Treasury Board President Anita Anand has asked Parliament for approval of $21.6 billion to fund programs including housing, dental care and the national school food program.If that doesn’t pass, some programs could face a cash shortfall, including veteran benefits and natural disaster assistance. The spending request is set to go to a debate and vote late Tuesday.The final two opposition motions of the year also need to be introduced before Tuesday.

Manoj Kumar Jayaswal and its former director Ramesh Kumar Jayaswal in a coal scam case related to the allocation of Brinda, Sisai, and Meral coal blocks in Jharkhand. In its case registered in 2016, the CBI had alleged that the company obtained the coal blocks by misrepresenting its financial position, acquisition of land for its proposed end-use plant, and other related claims, a statement from the agency said. Forged documents were used to secure the recommendation of the Ministry of Steel, Government of India, for the allocation of the coal blocks, the CBI said. Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj convicted Nagpur-based Abhijeet Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (AIPL), its Managing Director Manoj Kumar Jayaswal and former director Ramesh Kumar Jayaswal of cheating, criminal conspiracy and using forged documents as genuine. Their sentence will be pronounced later.

Farmers under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 after their march to Delhi was stopped by security forces. The plea, filed in the apex court by a social activist hailing from Punjab, also sought directions to the Centre and others to remove restrictions on farmers' protests and to ensure that national highways and railway tracks are not blocked by the agitating farmers.

Mamata Banerjee's reported statement «willing to lead INDIA bloc», BJP leader Locket Chatterjee said on Saturday that the Congress' existence is diminishing politically so CM Mamata wants to become the face of the opposition. Speaking to ANI, Chatterjee said that nothing that Mamata Banerjee says can be trusted. «Everyone in India Block was united to defeat BJP but Congress is not there in the results of Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand… Congress's existence is diminishing politically, so Mamata Banerjee wants to become the face of the Leader of the Opposition… However, nothing she (Mamata Banerjee) says can be trusted,» the BJP leader said.