Postgresql global development group

Representative image The Indian fintech ecosystem is perhaps the most unique in the world, with hyperscale payment infrastructure, thriving lending innovations, digitally savvy banks, and market-driven open-banking frameworks. This has helped the country achieve a scale of unheard levels — 71 billion digital payment transactions, Rs 11.8 trillion lent to retail and SME customers, and 55 million active neobank (online bank) accounts. The Indian fintech ecosystem has broken the barriers of language, location, and illiteracy. Fintech firms have helped onboard new-to-credit as well as sub-prime customers. Jan Dhan and neobanking are helping ensure that every citizen has access to banking. A case in point is the high penetration of UPI. Earlier, Indian fintech would imitate developments abroad, but now the reverse has begun. With a focus on speed, cost, and scalability, homegrown innovations like UPI, the India stack, and lending frameworks have become global benchmarks. Indian … [Read more...] about The Indian fintech ecosystem is setting global benchmarks

Air pollution likely contributed to nearly six million premature births and almost three million underweight babies around the world in 2019, according to a study published on Wednesday. Researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and University of Washington in the US quantified the effects of indoor and outdoor pollution around the world using data from 204 countries. The finding, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, is the most in-depth look yet at how small particulate matter (PM2.5) affects several key indicators of pregnancy, including gestational age at birth, reduction in birth weight, low birth weight, and preterm birth. It is the first global burden of disease study of these indicators to include the effects of indoor air pollution, mostly from cook stoves, which accounted for two-thirds of the measured effects, the researchers said. "Our findings suggest that about 2.8 million low birth weight and 5.9 million preterm birth infants, … [Read more...] about Air pollution linked to nearly six million preterm births globally: Study

Researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, have developed a one-of-a-kind technology to turn ACs into affordable air purifiers during the winter season. With smog and pollution posing grave danger across several cities, especially during the winter, this invention is expected to be a boon for many, officials said. Ankush Sharma, Professor in-charge (Innovation and Incubation) at IIT-Kanpur, ”This technology comes as a simplistic handy tool, which can be easily mounted atop regular ACs and utilised by switching on the ’fan mode’. The air filters are equipped with ’Anti-Microbial Air Purification Technology’ developed by the researchers.” ”It has been tested at NABL Accredited Lab and has proven to be able to successfully deactivate SARS-CoV-2 (Delta variant) with an efficiency of 99.24 per cent.” Co-Professor-in-charge (Innovation and Incubation) Amitabha Bandyopadhyay said, ”This indigenous revolutionary … [Read more...] about IIT-Kanpur, IISc Bengaluru researchers develop technology to turn ACs into affordable air purifiers

After the demise of the FTX empire, the latest casualty is crypto lender Genesis Global Capital. (Representative image) The once-burgeoning realm of crypto and decentralised finance keeps imploding, presenting policy makers with a quandary: Should they just let it burn, or step in to address its now-obvious flaws? I’m with the second group. To maintain their credibility, and to derive the greatest benefit from blockchain technology, regulators should intervene and crack down on scams, protect investors and ensure market integrity. The dominoes keep falling after the demise of the FTX empire. The latest casualty, crypto lender Genesis Global Capital, probably won’t be the last. Each failure further undermines trust, reduces activity and revenue, and puts pressure on the rest of the industry. With no lender of last resort to provide emergency support — as the Federal Reserve does for traditional banks — there’s little to stop the rot. Some think that’s just fine. They argue … [Read more...] about Crypto is worth fixing. Regulators should get moving

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. India has seen its foreign exchange reserve grow by $8 billion over the past few days, despite the Adani group calling off its follow-up issue. This proves that the country’s image remains intact on the global front, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. The Union minister was addressing the media in a post-Budget meet in Mumbai on February 4. “FPOs (follow-on public offering) come and go. Foreign investors come and go. These fluctuations happen in every market. Our foreign exchange reserve has gone up by $8 billion in the last two days. This proves that our economy’s image and fundamentals have not been affected,” she said. The Reserve Bank of India’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $576.76 billion in the week ended January 27, latest data released by the central bank showed. Data for the past week has not been updated yet. After publication of the Hindenburg report on January 24, Adani group has lost around $117 billion in … [Read more...] about Forex kitty swells by $8 billion in 2 days: FM shrugs off Adani shock to financial system

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Software fragments. Not because it degrades over time and somehow crumbles away in terms of its effectiveness, or loses its ability to execute its required level of functionality and provide robust performance in a secure manner. Okay, well that too then, software does have an isotope-like radioactive half-life in that sense as well. It does break down over time unless it is augmented, enhanced and maintained - so in that sense it fragmets and crumbles. But software also fragments at the project level... and this is how we most commonly use the term, especially perhaps in open source circles. This is probably down to the fact that the open model of community-centric software application development is inherently founded in freedom and the ability to ‘skew & fork’ projects in new directions, all in the interest of innovation and user choice. If any group or body is in a position of validated oversight in order to be … [Read more...] about Why Open Source Software ‘Fragments’ – And How To Fix It

Hydrogen is the new aspiration in India’s energy landscape that has the potential to wipe out the country’s annual fossil-fuel import bill of a staggering $160 billion, and place Indian entrepreneurship at the forefront of the green industrial revolution that is sweeping the planet. Hydrogen is increasingly being seen as the ideal green fuel that can replace polluting fossil fuels in the world where a strong consensus against fossil fuels has emerged as climate change has caused severe droughts, floods and extreme temperatures. However, hydrogen as a source of genuinely clean energy is still work in progress. The problem is that globally, almost the entire production of hydrogen is based on the use of fossil fuels, which dents its green credentials, even though its use to power fuel-cell based motors is totally emission free. The solution is to use clean electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, but the cost of doing this is currently prohibitive. Hydrogen produced … [Read more...] about Clean Energy | Betting on hydrogen is the right way to go ahead

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin What Happened In 2022 Even before a months-long winter engulfed the digital-assets market, 2022 was shaping up as the year that Washington began to get serious about regulating the cryptocurrency business. That resolve was bolstered throughout the year by a series of calamities that included a massive stablecoin failure of terraUSD and the associated luna, with contagion effects that impacted BlockFi, Celsius Network and Voyager Digital exchange that called into question the ability of crypto exchanges to be digital asset custodians that would protect investors’ assets. Essentially, the crypto industry managed to recreate the same risks of the traditional banking system, in which the institutions that were responsible for holding customer’s assets were simultaneously lending funds, leading to leverage, liquidity and capital conflicts. Before the year could end, the third-largest exchange, FTX – previously seen as a … [Read more...] about 2022 Year In Review: Crypto Policy Experiences Massive Turbulence In Congress Amid TerraUSD And FTX Failures

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 3 said she will be looking at arriving at a global SOP (standard operating procedure) for regulating crypto assets in her upcoming G20 meeting with finance ministers and central bank governors in a much-needed clarity on the way forward for the crypto sector. In a post-budget interview with Network18 Group’s MD Rahul Joshi , Sitharaman said the central bank will be recognised as the authority to issue cryptocurrencies. Sitharaman said, “We will be looking at global SOP to be available and agreed upon for regulating crypto assets while recognising the central bank as the authority for issuing cryptocurrencies.” “The rest of the assets created outside that, are using very useful financial technologies, even those have to be discussed because regulations cannot be done by one country singularly, it has to be a collective action because technology doesn’t brook any borders,” she added talking … [Read more...] about FM Sitharaman: Regulating crypto assets on agenda for upcoming G20 meet

Larry Page (Image: Reuters) Last month, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s founders, held several meetings with company executives. The topic: a rival’s new chatbot, a clever A.I. product that looked as if it could be the first notable threat in decades to Google’s $149 billion search business. Mr. Page and Mr. Brin, who had not spent much time at Google since they left their daily roles with the company in 2019, reviewed Google’s artificial intelligence product strategy, according to two people with knowledge of the meetings who were not allowed to discuss them. They approved plans and pitched ideas to put more chatbot features into Google’s search engine. And they offered advice to company leaders, who have put A.I. front and center in their plans. The re-engagement of Google’s founders, at the invitation of the company’s current chief executive, Sundar Pichai, emphasized the urgency felt among many Google executives about artificial intelligence and that chatbot, … [Read more...] about Google calls in help from Larry Page and Sergey Brin for A.I. fight