In India's IT companies, the continuation of the removal of employees and reduction in salaries is continuing. Salary cuts have been done not only at the junior level but also at top level of companies. The big people who received low salary packages included Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, Wipro's Azim Premji and IDEA's Kumar Mangalam Birla.

Their salaries have been seen cut in the financial year 2017. For poor payroll payments, the IT sector has been blamed for the turmoil and poor performance of the company.

In the compilation of Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka and Chairman of Wipro Azeem Premji, FY17 has cut more than 60 percent. This is due to global recession, stringent immigration and changes in automation in IT sector.

According to a recent report, the salary of Sikka reduced by 67 percent. This is because of the low bonus available. According to the annual report of Infosys, cash component of Sikka's salary in the financial year 2016-17 was Rs 16.01 crores, which is less than Rs 48.73 crores in the previous financial year (2015-16).

Similarly, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji's salary has been cut by 63 percent. 63 percent of the last financial year has been deducted in their salary compulsions. According to information given by the company to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Premji received a $ 108,026 (about Rs 71.4 lakh) in the financial year 2016-17 as compared to $ 292,991 (Rs 1.93 crore) last year were met.

Similarly, the salaries of Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of IDEA Cellular, owned by Aditya Birla Group, has declined manifold. Telecom operator IDEA recently told that it had to lose for the first time after becoming a listed company in the market. IDEA chairman Birla's salary was Rs 13.15 crores in FY16, but in the next financial year it has fallen several times to Rs 3.30 lakh. Aditya Birla Group has not given any commission to its chairman and other executives.

Explain that the IT sector is currently undergoing a global recession. Seeing this, there are reports of layoffs too long. Companies say that they are doing this to reduce their costs. Infosys, India's second largest company, had also cut off its senior and mid-level employees.

Congress leader Veerappa Moily today said that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be a defeating 'Waterloo Moment' for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the prime minister is not confident only on his party or cabinet.

Moily accused the misuse of government money in the party's propaganda on the occasion of the completion of three years of BJP-led government in the centre.

He said that government departments and public sector undertakings have been asked not to implement the programs, but to invest in publicity.

The former Union Minister said that Modi Government had promised to provide 20 million jobs in a year but only 1.35 lakh jobs have been given in the tenure of the government till date.

He told reporters, "Our Prime Minister does not trust his own party and his own cabinet. But they have complete faith in themselves. This person is deciding the destiny of this country.

Moily said that in the coming elections, Congress will improve its performance and preparations are going on in this direction. He said that the process of blowing up new energy is going on in AICC.

He said, Congress is growing. Rahul Gandhi is taking decisions ... reorganizing the party and we are moving forward. The election of 2019 will defeat Modi.

Moily said that Congress was leading in Goa and Manipur assembly elections, but BJP encroached. The results of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections also show no defeat or unfavourable results for the Congress.

The Congress leader, who has a connection with Karnataka, expressed his confidence in the success of his party in the Assembly elections next year in his home state.

Growth rate of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has come down to 7.1 percent in 2016-17. This figure was 7.9% in 2015-16.

The concern is that despite the good performance of the agriculture sector, the growth rate has come down.

The Modi government had announced the closure of 500 and 1,000 notes on November 8. In this work of change, 87 percent of cash was out of use.

The growth rate in the January-March quarter after the ban was reduced to 6.1 percent. The ban was made on November 9, 2016.

Based on the new series based on the base year 2011-12, the GDP growth rate in 2015-16 is 8 percent.

According to the old series it was 7.9 percent.

According to the statistics of Central Statistics Office (CSO), the Gross Value Addition (GVA) came down to 6.6 percent in the financial year ending March 31, which was 7.9 percent in 2015-16.

In the third and fourth quarter of 2016-17, the GVA has been affected by the note ban. During these quarters, it came down to 6.7 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, from 7.3 and 8.7 percent in the same quarter of the previous financial year.

After Note ban declined in all sectors except agriculture.

The growth in the manufacturing sector declined to 5.3 percent in the fourth quarter, from 12.7 percent in the same quarter a year ago.

The growth rate of the construction sector was negative.

Agricultural sector has benefitted due to better monsoon.

In the year 2016-17, the agricultural sector grew by 4.9 percent, from 0.7 percent in the previous fiscal year. The GVA of agriculture sector grew by 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter, while it grew by 1.5 percent in the same quarter of 2015-16.

According to the data, the per capita income in 2016-17 is expected to reach Rs 1,03,219. It was Rs 94,130 in 2015-16.

If this happens then the per capita income will increase by 9.7 percent. In 2015-16, there was an increase of 7.4% per capita income in the country. Per capita income is the indicator of prosperity in the country.

Industry analysts say that the key drivers for 5G rollout will be a massively anticipated increase in data consumption, fast increasing digitalized life and growth of smart cities.

The standards for the rollout of 5G network in the country are likely to be ready by 2018, an official said. “India is getting future ready and has started serious work on identifying and formalising the standards for the rollout of 5G. The standards are likely to be ready by 2018,” said D.P. De, Senior Deputy Director General of Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), at the 5G India 2017 Conference.

“5G will be an overarching umbrella of networks rather than a replacement technology and will usher in significant economic, political and environmental benefits,” observed Adrian Scrase, Chief Technical Officer, ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and Head of 3GPP MCC (Mobile Competence Core).

According to industry representatives and sectoral experts, the key drivers for 5G rollout and adoption will be a massively anticipated increase in data consumption, fast increasing digitalised life and services, growth of smart cities and the need to have an all-encompassing network architecture which can utilise all available spectrum band rather than replace the existing networks, said an official statement.

“Connected devices, digitised lifestyle where almost every aspect of human life will be consumed digitally calls for a new paradigm shift in telecommunication eco-system,” said Shyam P. Mardikar, Chief Technical Officer (Mobile Networks), Bharti Airtel. “We have moved from the voice phase to video consumption and the next phase will be virtuality which will demand humongous data availability and networks have to evolve to keep pace. This will be a real challenge.”

Rajan S. Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said: “Consumers side demand, resource deployment and commercial viability will be the main drivers for the operators for 5G rollout.”

“It may be easy to rollout 5G in a country like Japan or South Korea, but India is a fundamentally different market with diverse needs. There would be huge financial and structural challenges. We have to make India-specific case for 5G,” advised Mathews. The statement said experts across the board agreed that the telecommunication services will migrate to 5G architecture sooner or later, and time has come to start serious preparation for standardisation and network upgradations.

“Making 5G India 2017 a truly global platform to conduct business, global players such as Huawei, VMWare, Keysight Technologies, Juniper, RedHat, Rohde & Schwarz, RV Solutions and TrustinSoft showcased and presented their innovative and cutting edge technologies to 500 plus industry audience at the event,” the statement added.

TEC is the nodal agency of the Department of Telecommunications in the Ministry of Communications and is responsible for drawing up of standards, generic requirements, interface requirements, service requirements and specifications for telecom products, services and networks.

Executive search firm Head Hunters India on Sunday said the job cuts in IT sector will be between 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh annually for next three years due to under-preparedness in adapting to newer technologies.

“Contrary to media reports of 56,000 IT professionals to lose jobs this year, the actual job cuts will be between 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh per year in next three years, due to under-preparedness in adapting to newer technologies,” said Head Hunters India founder-chairman and MD K Lakshmikanth, analysing a report submitted by McKinsey & Company at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum on 17 February.

McKinsey & Company report had said nearly half of the workforce in the IT services firms will be 'irrelevant' over the next 3-4 years.

McKinsey India managing director Noshir Kaka had also said the bigger challenge ahead for the industry will be to retrain 50-60 percent of the workforce as there will be a significant shift in technologies. The industry employs 3.9 million people and the majority of them have to be retrained.

K Lakshmikanth, founder-chairman, Head Hunters India So, when we analyse these figures, it is clear that 30 to 40 percent of the workforce cannot be retrained or re-skilled. So, assume that half of this workforce can continue to work on old skills, then balance will become redundant. So, the number of people who will become redundant in the next three years will be about five to six lakhs. This will workout to, on an average, between 1.75 lakh to 2 lakh per year for the next three years.

However, he said job cuts will not take place in major cities like Mumbai or Bengaluru, but cities like Coimbatore or a few remote places.

Lakshmikanth further said the IT services industry is passing through an uncertain time as the growth in digital technologies like cloud-based services is happening at a much faster pace and the companies are combining learning of some of the new technologies and re-skilling.

K Lakshmikanth Because of the changing technology, the most affected will be the professionals aged 35 and above, for it would be very difficult for them to get jobs.

Asked if it is fair to blame US President Donald Trump's policy for job cuts, Lakshmikanth said it is not fair because he has fulfilled the promise after winning the elections.

''How can we blame Trump, for he has fulfilled the election promise of giving jobs to local people including IT professionals by tightening H1-B visa norms, which were being misused by companies by paying less to foreign professionals working in US. It is for companies to tackle the situation, and such situation they have undergone in previous years. It is not new for them. They know to tide over it,” he said.

Lakshmikanth also said it is not fair even to target the Indian government as the IT industry grew on its own in India, but at later stages respective state governments and central governments provided them facilities like land or creating special economic zones, among others.

The World Press Independence Day is celebrated on May 3. On this occasion, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi also told the significance of the press freedom by tweeting.

PM Narendra Modi tweeted, "On World Press Freedom Day, we firmly support free and versatile journalism. It is very important for democracy. "

However, in the world of journalism, there are many problems in India. 'Reporters Without Borders' has released a list of 180 countries, in which according to Press freedom India's position is 136.

India is far behind countries like Zimbabwe and Myanmar.

Norway, Sweden and Finland are the world's leading journalists in bold journalism.

In this case, China is ranked 176th and Pakistan is number 139.

Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India in May 2014. Then India was on 140th number. In 2015, India came at number 136. In 2016, the number was 133 and came to number 136 in 2017.

In 2010, India was 122nd in this list and then the UPA Government was in power. After this India was on 140th till 2014.

'Reporters Without Borders' said in its report, "The freedom of the press in India is threatened by Modi's nationalism and the media is not printing news due to fear."

According to the report, "Self censorship is increasing in the Indian media and journalists are targets for the online campaign to defame the hardline nationalists. Journalists who are critical of the government are being prosecuted to stop them. "

While Modi has said in his tweet, "In today's era social media has emerged as an active medium to connect with the people and it has given greater powers to the independent press."

Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai writes on this, "Today the World Press is the Independence Day. India is 136 and Pakistan is ranked 139th. A lot has been said. Greet those selected people who are still raising the voices."

In his next tweet, Rajdeep wrote, "The truth is that the press has a great tradition of freedom in India. This freedom has been misused due to business models and personal interests.''

At the same time, former Justice Markandey Katju wrote on Facebook, "World Press Independence Day is the world's biggest manipulation. Press freedom is a myth and a cruel joke with the public.

He wrote, "The world is in the hands of the corporate, whose sole purpose is to make maximum profit. Actually there is no press freedom. "

Katju wrote, "Big journalists take a rough salary and for this reason they have become accustomed to fancy lifestyles. They will not want to lose it and therefore only follow orders and lick the lamps.''

According to a research, people with Non-O blood type groups are more likely to have a heart attack.

Researchers have said that this is probably because blood group A, B and AB have high levels of blood-staining proteins.

They say that these results will help in understanding who has a higher risk of heart attack.

This report, presented in the European Society of Cardiology Congress, has been studied for about 1.3 million people.

Earlier research had shown that people with rare blood group AB have the highest risk of heart attack.

In fact, the O blood group in the UK is the most common. The number of such people is 48 percent.

Tesa Colle, researcher at the University Medical Center Groningen of the Netherlands, told that the risks associated with every blood group should be studied.

She said, "In the coming time, the information of the blood group should also be included in the investigation to avoid heart attacks."

Google is one of the biggest companies in the world, but that doesn't make it invincible.

The British government, and several big businesses including Audi and McDonalds, have pulled their advertising from Google sites like YouTube.

They've confronted the company for playing their ads next to videos they consider extreme - ones that promote violence or hate speech.

And this is a situation that has global implications.

Google has already apologised and promised to take what it calls a tougher stance on hateful, offensive and derogatory content.

So, who's to decide which content should be removed?

Presenter: Martine Dennis

Guests:

Matthew Stender - Project Strategist for OnlineCensorship.org,

Nishanth Sastry - Senior Lecturer in Infomatics at King's College London.

Stephanie Hankey - Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Tactical Technology Collective.