India skipper Mithali Raj assumes too much importance to the strike rate. She wants her batters to focus on playing knocks and sewing partnerships to lead the team to victory.

With the 2022 Cricket World Cup coming in New Zealand, Mithali gave an example of Australia’s Beth Mooney’s unbeaten knock of 125. She started slow and then revved to win the match for her team as a template for the Indian batters to follow.

“I think there isn’t too much importance given to strike-rate by all? It is always spoken when it comes to batting or putting up big totals. I just wanted to know if you all follow the strike rate of Indian players or players from all around the world? If you might allow me to enlighten, in the Australia series itself, the decider game which Australia won, Beth Mooney scored her 50 in 80-odd balls,” said Mithali in the pre-departure virtual press conference.

“But she went on to play a match-winning innings for her team. As for me, I believe that cricket is a game played on the situations on the ground, and yes, it is important we keep in mind that we need to have a healthy strike rate. But at the end of the day, it is about how the batting unit revolves & the depth of the batting unit in our team,” added Mithali.

She further explained, “When we have to score 250-270, we need to have a healthy strike rate, but having said we will not entirely focus on strike rate, it is important to play an innings to win and build partnerships. That happens not because of strike rate but because you apply & play according to the situation on the ground.”

“Sometimes, you have to play fast, but sometimes you have to play to get your team out of a hole too. There will always be areas to address, any team. no team is perfect, and we will be looking to post a total of around 250-270 consistently, and that requires a top-order to score runs and be consistent.”

India will depart for New Zealand on January 24 to play a T20I and five ODIs against the hosts’ before attempting to win their first World Cup trophy after being runners-up in 2005 and 2017. Mithali pointed towards contributions from the lower-middle order being a positive for the team.

“Something which we were quite happy about is the contribution of our lower-order, like Jhulan and Pooja Vastrakar, not only perform with the ball but with the bat as well. Then there’s Sneh Rana, who’s performed with both ball and bat. So, it is excellent to see the lower-middle order contributing. So, that helps to have a depth in the team and smaller tail, I would say.”

Talking about young pacers Meghna Singh and Renuka Singh Thakur, Mithali felt the duo would perform well with support staff and veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami around. “They might lack the experience, but Meghna has done well in the Australia series. I guess Jhulan is an experienced bowler in the set-up. She worked very well with the youngsters in the series, and as far as Renuka is concerned when I saw her in the Australia series, she came across as somebody who is very competitive.”

“She had an excellent domestic season with wickets. It’s important to give players an opportunity when they are in rhythm and performing. I am sure they will do well with the support staff we have and having Jhulan; I am sure she will be sharing her experiences of bowling in these conditions with the youngsters who will respond very positively.”

Life has come full circle for Mithali, who first featured in the World Cup in 2000 in New Zealand and will lead India in her sixth appearance in the mega event. “I think it has been a wonderful journey, not an easy one. There have been struggles, too, but there have been good times as well. I think it has come a full circle, my first World Cup was in 2000 in New Zealand, and here I am flying to New Zealand for my sixth World Cup.”

“In the 2000 World Cup, India played the semi-finals and lost, but this time I hope that India plays the finals and wins because winning the World Cup is very special for any cricketer, and I am no different. That is something that has always driven me since I played my first World Cup, and it still drives me to win that for India.”

The 39-year-old signed off by being tight-lipped about playing future post the World Cup. “Well, let’s see how things go there. But right now, my focus is for these two months. That is something I am looking to put my full focus and energy into the series and World Cup.”

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Tax benefits to increase disposable income likely in Union Budget

Sputnik V shows strong protection against Omicron Variant: Joint Italian-Russian study

The government may consider incremental tax benefits to increase the net disposable income of the citizens to boost demand when it tables the Union Budget FY23 in the Parliament on February 1.

In a report, brokerage firm KR Choksey said that the government is expected to target infrastructure spending further to create a multiplier effect and increase job opportunities.

Moreover, it may introduce structural reforms and boost privatization to attract long-term capital from foreign institutional investors (FIIs). The government may also consider incremental tax benefits to increase the net disposable income of the citizens to boost demand.

As per the report, the government will focus on tax compliance by being more vigilant. Also, there might be some hike in GST rates of some selected products and services by the GST Council to boost GST revenue further.

There might be some changes in InvIT and REIT tax structures to bring long-term capital gains treatment at par with other asset classes.

“With robust direct tax collection, we do not envisage any tinkering with the existing income tax slabs, though some incremental tax benefits by the government cannot be ruled out,” the report said.

“Given the limited headroom for monetary policy action, fiscal measures have become imperative, and we expect the government to address ‘demand-side factors in the upcoming Budget,” it added.

This Budget is widely expected to continue with the measures announced in the previous budgets like Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Make in India and PLI schemes, etc. It said that one could expect more standards focusing on boosting consumption and helping revive private sector investments.

The brokerage expects aggressive asset divestitures for FY23 with a disinvestment target of Rs 2-2.1 trillion, public sector reforms in the form of privatization, recapitalization & improving corporate governance, reduction in the burden on tax compliance requirements for startups, and stress asset funds to address banking sector asset quality aspects.

Among the sector-specific expectations, for auto — Reduction of GST rate on two-wheelers; re-introduction of the depreciation scheme, financials, setting up of refinancing window for NBFCs; focus on digital initiatives.

For pharma — Reinstatement of weighted tax deduction at 200 percent of inhouse R&D spending
For consumers — GST/import duty relief to curb high inflation; implementation of National Retail Policy
For insurance — Increase in deduction limit under 80C & 80D; GST rate reduction
For IT/technology — Digital initiatives; incentives for 5G rollout
For agriculture/chemicals — Introduction of PLI scheme; levy of import/anti-dumping duty
For infra/capital goods/cement — Higher allocation to PMAY; boost infrastructure financing avenues

The government’s focus will support the Agri economy to improve farmers’ income. Credit is a critical input in achieving higher farm output. Institutional credit will also help delink farmers from non-institutional sources where they are compelled to borrow at usurious interest rates, the report said.

Usually, farm loans attract an interest rate of 9 percent. However, the government has been providing interest subvention to make short-term crop loans available at an affordable rate, thereby helping to boost farm output.

The government fixes annual agriculture credit, including crop loan targets for the banking sector. The agricultural credit flow has increased consistently over the years, exceeding the target set for each fiscal. Therefore, the report said that the brokerage expects a similar trend to continue going ahead in the upcoming Budget.

In the Budget, the government is expected to announce more steps to achieve its infrastructure investment target of Rs 111 trillion as per the NIP (National Infrastructure Pipeline).

More clarity is awaited on the current status of the NIP, its financing avenues, and its CAPEX phasing over the next few years. The government is likely to increase its gross budgetary support towards the infrastructure sector, focusing on roads, railways, and urban infrastructure segments.

To expedite projects like high-speed rail (including Bullet trains), Sagar Mala, intelligent cities, inland waterways developments, etc., the government should provide some dedicated allocations towards these projects in the Budget. The report said that an increased percentage for NHAI will help achieve Bharat Mala project targets.

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Mohammad Azharuddin has said that Rohit should hand over the Test captaincy

Sputnik V shows strong protection against Omicron Variant: Joint Italian-Russian study.

Playback singer Jubin Nautiyal’s latest track, ‘ O Aasman Wale’, has hit the airwaves.

The casual number also stars Neha Khan in her first association with the singer. The song, organized by ‘Paani Da Rang’ hitmaker Rochak Kohli, has been penned by Manoj Muntashir and is produced by Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series.

The director Navjit Buttar has shot ‘O Aasmanwale’ in the picturesque locales of Shimla.

Talking about the song, Jubin said: “‘O Aasmanwale’ is a very soulful yet very intense track. As an artist, it’s always challenging to take songs in this genre because you want a listener to feel the emotions behind lyrics. I hope they enjoy this one.”

Neha Khan complimenting her collaborator said: “I love Jubin’s music, and I think he is one of the finest singers we have in the country today, so it was a huge honor to be part of a song he has sung. Bhushan sir is the ultimate name in music, so ‘O Aasmanwale’ is an amazing song to me for many reasons.”

Bhushan Kumar said: “Jubin Nautiyal has time and again proved to be a singer who can uplift any song. He and Neha did a brilliant job in ‘O Aasmanwale’ that makes you truly empathize with their characters.”
‘O Aasmanwale’ is available to stream on T-Series’ YouTube channel.

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Sputnik V shows strong protection against Omicron Variant: Joint Italian-Russian study.

Vaping increases the frequency of Covid 19 symptoms: Study

According to a study conducted by the Spallanzani Institute in Italy, the Sputnik V vaccine has demonstrated strong protection against the Omicron variant, with over two times higher virus-neutralizing activity than the Pfizer vaccine Russian Direct Investment Fund.

The Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology (Gamaleya Center) and the Russian Direct Investment Fund on Thursday said that two doses of Sputnik V provide more than two times higher geometric mean titers (GMT) of virus-neutralizing antibodies to the Omicron variant of Covid than two doses of Pfizer vaccine (2.1 times higher in total and 2.6 times higher three months after vaccination).

The study was conducted at the leading Italian research institute for infectious diseases by a joint Italian-Russian team of researchers representing the Institute and the Gamaleya Center in the identical laboratory conditions on comparable sera samples from individuals vaccinated with Sputnik V and Pfizer with a similar level of IgG antibodies and virus-neutralizing activity (VNA) against Wuhan variant, said a report.

Among the top quartile of individuals with high RBD-specific IgG antibodies, 100 percent of those vaccinated with Sputnik V could neutralize the Omicron variant compared to 83.3 percent of individuals vaccinated with Pfizer. Among all samples, 74.2 percent of Sputnik V-vaccinated sera were able to balance Omicron vs. 56.9 percent for Pfizer-vaccinated, it said.

Alexander Ginsburg, Director of the National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, said: “The joint study by the Gamaleya Center and Spallanzani Institute confirmed the results obtained in our separate study published in December 2021. The hard scientific data proves Sputnik V has higher virus-neutralizing activity against Omicron as compared to other vaccines and will play a major role in the global fight against this new contagious variant.”

“Results of the study in Italy confirm Sputnik V offers the strongest protection against Omicron. The adenoviral platform has shown high efficacy in fighting mutations of Covid previously. The partnership of different platforms is the key and heterologous (‘mix & match’) boosting with Sputnik Light will help strengthen the efficacy of other vaccines in light of combined Delta and Omicron challenge,” said Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of RDIF.

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Subhash Ghai reveals his inspiration behind composing for ’36 Farmhouse’

Smriti Mandhana named ICC Women’s T20 Team of the Year

Filmmaker Subhash Ghai has talked about his inspiration behind composing and writing songs for the web film ’36 Farmhouse’.

He said: “Since I became writer-director, whenever I start writing a script, I have had a habit of thinking of music also along with storylines and its characters and I used to suggest my poetic catch lines from my writing to my lyrics writers and mood of the music to my composers.

“So, my songs became an integral part of the film itself. This process clicked in a big way. So, while writing the storyline of ’36 Farmhouse’, I wrote a few lyrics and started composing too as per the story and characters.”

Ghai said it allowed him to test himself independently to write and compose three songs in a flow.’

“Today technology helps you a lot in composing song and music. I hired a musician from Whistling Woods Music School, Abhishek Bonthu, who translated my vision and compositions into a song on the computer,” he said.
He added: “Then I requested two legendary singers Sonu Nigam and Hariharan to lend their voices to my songs, and they did oblige me happily and made a lot of difference to my creation as a composer.”

The filmmaker said it was also four decades of learning from association with veterans like Laxmikant Pyarelal and A.R. Rahman and Anand Bakshi as great lyricists.

“Thirdly, I had also developed a knack of writing poems and songs during these two years of pandemic time.”

The film ’36 Farmhouse’ is directed by Ram Ramesh Sharma, and it features Amol Parashar, Barkha Singh, Sanjay Mishra, Vijay Raaz, Flora Saini, and Ashwini Kalsekar, among others.

The movie releases on ZEE5 on January 21.

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Smriti Mandhana named ICC Women’s T20 Team of the Year

Vaping increases the frequency of Covid 19 symptoms: Study

India opener Smriti Mandhana on Wednesday has been named in ICC Women’s T20I team of the year for 2021. The team of the year statements by the International Cricket Council acknowledge the best players in women’s cricket who contemplated one and all with their performances in a calendar year.

With 255 runs at an average of 31.87, Smriti was India’s most elevated scorer in the format in 2021. She scored two fifties in the nine matches she played this year and got her team off to rapid openings regularly, as evident by her strike rate of 131.44.

It is also the third time Smriti has cut for the T20I team after 2018 (opener) and 2019 (number three). Interestingly, Smriti is the only Indian player in the eleven in which England’s Nat Sciver has been made the captain with no players from Australia — the reigning T20 World Cup champions — cutting the playing eleven.

Nat, the experienced England all-rounder, produced many impactful performances throughout the year. Batting in the middle-order, she scored a total of 153 runs, including one fifty, and backed it up by picking ten wickets at an excellent average of 20.20.

Various other England players consist of wicketkeeper-batter Amy Jones, left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone, openers Tammy Beaumont, and Danni Wyatt. The eleven announced by the ICC likewise has three South Africa players in batter Laura Wolvaardt and pacers Shabnim Ismail and Marizanne Kapp, aside from off-spin all-rounder Gabby Lewis of Ireland as well as off-spin bowler Loryn Phiri of Zimbabwe.

ICC Women’s T20I Group of the Year: Smriti Mandhana, Tammy Beaumont, Danni Wyatt, Gaby Lewis, Nat Sciver (captain), Amy Jones (wicketkeeper), Laura Wolvaardt, Marizanne Kapp, Sophie Ecclestone, Loryn Phiri, and Shabnim Ismail.

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Mohammad Azharuddin has said that Rohit should hand over the Test captaincy

Vaping increases the frequency of Covid 19 symptoms: Study

Former India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin feels that Rohit Sharma should be handed the Test captaincy as he is the best in all formats.

“If he is your no.1 player in all formats, then what is the problem? I feel seeing 5-6 years ahead is a long time. It would be best if you looked forward but need to see immediately as well. To look forward, you cannot give to an inexperienced player, which might cause a problem.

“I feel Rohit Sharma is a good player and can be an outstanding captain. I feel Rohit should give captaincy, whatever experience I have and whatever cricket I have played. He might play cricket for another two or three years, he might play more as well, but his fitness will be crucial because his hamstring becomes weak repeatedly,” Azharuddin was quoted as saying by India News.

Azharuddin reckoned that Rohit’s presence in the Test series could have made a massive difference in South Africa.

“His absence in this Test series also became an advantage for South Africa because he is an attacking player, plays in an attacking fashion as an opener as well,” he said.

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Vaping increases the frequency of Covid 19 symptoms: Study

84% of India Enterprises Favor Hybrid Multicloud Amidst Remote Job

According to a new analysis from Mayo Clinic, people who use smokeless cigarettes and examine favourably for Covid-19 have a higher frequency of getting involved with Covid signs than people who don’t vape.

The study, released in the Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, located that signs and symptoms include muscle aches, headaches, body discomfort, upper body pain, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, and loss of taste and feeling of odour.

People who vaped and smoked tobacco, and checked favourable for Covid, experienced laboured breathing and had more frequent emergency department visits than those who did not vape.

“The study was designed to compare the frequency of common Covid-19 symptoms, such as loss of taste or smell, headache, muscle aches and chest tightness in Covid patients who vaped, compared with those who were not vapers,” said David McFadden, from Mayo Clinic.

The team interviewed more than 280 Covid-positive vapers and compared them with 1,445 Covid-positive people of the same age and gender and who don’t vape.

The investigators reported that these are common Covid symptoms more frequently among people who vape.

The use of e-cigarettes has grown significantly over the past decade, especially among high school students and young adults. However, the short- and long-term health effects of e-cigarettes are unknown.

“There are a lot of studies that have shown that e-cigarette use may be associated with inflammation in the lungs and also may cause severe lung injury in certain users, causing a condition called e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury,” said Robert Vassallo, a Mayo Clinic pulmonologist & critical care specialist.

“Our research was not designed to test whether e-cigarette use increases the risk of acquiring Covid infection, but it indicates that symptom burden in patients with Covid-19 who vape is greater than in those who do not vape,” he added.

The research study kept in mind that the raised inflammation of lung tissue affected by Covid-19 infection and the swelling induced by vaping could get worse the chance of systemic swelling, with an involved rise in symptoms such as fever, myalgias, exhaustion, and headache.

“During a pandemic with a highly transmissible respiratory pathogen like SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19), it is highly advisable to reduce or stop vaping and e-cigarette use and minimise the potential for increased symptoms and lung injury,” Vassallo said.

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84% of India Enterprises Favor Hybrid Multicloud Amidst Remote Job

Top 5 digital watch brands

More than 8 in 10 Indian businesses are transferring to multi-cloud environments for safety, efficiency, expense, and business continuity, especially with the surge of remote jobs, a brand-new report revealed on Wednesday.

Almost 58 per cent of the Indian firms are expecting to carry out such settings within three years, according to US-based Cloud calculating firm Nutanix.

“India’s digital transformation has been primarily fueled by Hybrid multi-cloud adoption as it offers simplicity, agility, manageability and scalability that most organisations seek to compete in today’s digital world,” said Faiz Shakir, Managing Director Sales, India and SAARC, Nutanix.

India’s enterprises prioritise security more than their global counterparts, and 55 per cent of those cited security and compliance as the prevailing reason for shifting applications to a different infrastructure in the past year — 14 percentage points higher than the global average (41 per cent).

At the same time, enterprises are still maturing in their understanding of multi-cloud security management or security management across dissimilar clouds.

According to the report, these enterprises are learning to reach for hybrid multi-cloud tools that enable centralised management to alleviate such issues.

With extended remote work following the rise of Omicron, hybrid multi-cloud continues to be the most agile IT environment for supporting continued flexibility, resiliency and access to applications and data.

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How Facebook Ads promotions exploit explicit client by means of ‘nanotargeting’

Smart Cities must turn smarter by doing things right

Facebook Ads promotions: As government intends to break the Big Tech and fix authority over web-based media stages with respect to information protection of billions of clients, huge exploration has uncovered that Facebook publicizing stage can be efficiently taken advantage of to convey advertisements only to a particular, single client.

Portrayed as “nano targeting”, the possibly hurtful practice may be an extremely incredible asset for aggressors willing to control a particular individual and coerce the person in question on Facebook, as indicated by the paper composed by a group of scholastics and PC researchers from Spain furthermore, Austria.

The paper, named “Interesting on Facebook: Formulation and Evidence of (Nano) focusing on Individual Users with non-PII Data” – portrays an “information-driven model” achieved through 21 Facebook advertisement crusades.

The analysts showed they had the option to utilize Facebook’s Ads Manager to target advertisements so that every promotion just arrived at a solitary, explicit Facebook client.

The protection of an individual is limited by the capacity of an outsider to uncover their character. Certain information things like an identification ID, email or a
the cell phone number might be utilized to extraordinarily distinguish an individual, alluded to as Personal Identifiable Information (PII) things.

The non-PII things are the interests that FB allocates to clients dependent on their on the web and disconnected action. Thusly, since a client can be extraordinarily
distinguished by a bunch of interests on Facebook, it could be feasible to design a Facebook promotion crusade that arrives at solely a solitary client.

The outcomes uncovered that the 4 most uncommon interests or 22 irregular interests from the interests set Facebook relegates to a client make them remarkable on Facebook with a 90 percent likelihood.

Clients’ inclinations address a vital resource for Facebook since its income model depends on conveying important advertisements to clients. Numerous
publicists utilize the Facebook promoting stage to make advertisement missions to arrive at clients dependent on their inclinations.

“Supposedly, this addresses the primary investigation of people’s uniqueness at the total populace scale. Moreover, clients’ inclinations are noteworthy non-PII things that can be utilized to characterize advertisement crusades and convey customized promotions to Facebook clients,” composed the scientists from Madrid’s University Carlos III, the Graz University of Technology in Austria and the Spanish IT organization, GTD System and Software Engineering.

It is significant that “our work has just uncovered a hint of something larger in regards to how non-PII information can be utilized for nano targeting purposes”.

“A sponsor can utilize other accessible socio-segment boundaries to design crowds in the FB Ads Manager like the home area (country, city, postal division, and so on), working environment, school, number of youngsters, cell phone utilized (iOS, Android), and so forth, to quickly limit the crowd size to nano target a client,” the analysts cautioned.

The examination brings up new issues about conceivably unsafe employments of Facebook’s promotion focusing on devices, particularly when the social media stage is confronting extraordinary examination across the world with respect to client information security and protection.

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Prakash Jha ‘Highway Nights’ successes, best case scenario, of India Short Film Festival

IPL 2021: Chennai Super Kings won the fourth IPL title