Latest News

People who check their  Facebook profile  more often are likely to be sad and unhealthy as compared to those who use the popular social networking site sporadically, a new study warns. Researchers, including those from University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in the US, used data from 5,208 people about their Facebook use between 2013 and 2015. The team investigated the associations of Facebook activity and real-world social network activity with self- reported physical health, mental health, life satisfaction, and body mass index (BMI). After analysing the data the researchers found that increased use of Facebook was "tightly linked to compromised social, physical, and psychological health." "People who access the social network more often are not as happy and healthy as the rest of us who choose to use it sporadically," said Holly Shakya, assistant professor at UCSD. Researchers, including Nicholas Christakis from Yale University in the US, found t...

Game of Thrones actors  will not just be getting more screen time in season seven, but the show will return with its longest season premiere ever. According to HBO, the first episode of season seven will run for 59 minutes, the longest season premiere since the show's pilot episode in 2011 that clocked in at 62 minutes, reports telegraph.co.uk. The new season will debut on July 16 in the US and will premiere in India on Star World and Star World HD on July 18. The news has increased speculation that the season's episodes will run for longer than previous seasons, following stars of the show also hinting that they had worked harder on this upcoming season than ever before. Actors Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage and Kit Harington have said that that they will get more screen time in the forthcoming seventh season. They will get more screen time as the show has killed off a lot of characters. Read More

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted searches at the premises of  Congress leader Baba Siddique  and few others in connection with a money laundering probe case. Officials said the raids are being conducted on at least half a dozen locations in the Maharashtra capital, including that of a builder. The Enforcement Directorate, they said, has registered a criminal case against Siddique and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on a local police FIR in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the re-development of a slum area in suburban Bandra. The agency also suspects usage of shell companies in committing the alleged irregularities and hence the raids are being conducted to gather more evidence, they said. Siddique has been a Congress MLA in the Maharashtra Assembly and also served as a Municipal Corporator.  Read More

Superstar Rajinikanth 's jeep from his upcoming Tamil film "Kaala", being directed by Pa. Ranjith, will be given to businessman Anand Mahindra for a planned auto museum upon completion of the entire shoot, its producer Dhanush said. Anand Mahindra, Executive Chairman of Mahindra group, expressed his desire to store the jeep as a collector's item in his auto museum. "When the legend Rajinikanth uses a car as a throne, it becomes a legend. Whoever knows the whereabouts of the used car for this shoot, please let us know. I'd like to acquire it for our company auto museum," Mahindra wrote on his Twitter page. He also shared one of the posters of the film in which Rajinikanth is seen seated on the jeep, against the backdrop of Dharavi slum. In response to his tweet, Dhanush wrote: "Thank you so much sir! The vehicle is being used by superstar for shoot currently. Once completed will ensure it reaches you." Then Mahindra responded: ...

E-commerce firm  Snapdeal  founders Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal and existing investor Nexus Venture Partners have together infused Rs 113 crore into the company ahead of its potential sale to larger rival Flipkart. Both Bansal and Bahl have invested Rs 8.45 crore each, while Nexus Venture Partners has invested Rs 96.2 crore into Snapdeal, company said in its filings with the Registrar of Companies on Monday. It isn't clear why the investment was made or what it could mean, but was approved at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the company held on March 10. The founders, along with Nexus, were offered 17,410 Series J1 preference shares for their investments, said the disclosure which comes at a time when Flipkart has begun doing due diligence to acquire the firm. Softbank, the largest investor in Snapdeal, has pushed for the company's sale to Flipkart for which the latter signed a term sheet last week. The Japanese investor had written off a $1 billion in losses from Sn...

Apple  has submitted at least five applications with the Indian Patent office over the past one year for innovations related to digital payments as it looks at services as a way to boost sales of its iPhones in India. Last week, social networking giant Facebook made a patent application for a digital wallet baked into an instant messaging services -- Messenger and WhatsApp presumably. The influx of patent applications comes at a time when India is pushing for electronic payments as a tool to bring in more people into formal economy and increase its tax base. Apple's patent applications range from innovations around using biometrics to authenticate payments to securely transferring payment to a device such as a point of sale device. The move points at the company preparing to bring its Apple Pay service to India, following rivals Samsung and Google which have also begun working on the same. Apple Pay is the company's proprietary system for making payments using Apple d...

" Baahubali: The Lost Legends ", an animated spin-off of filmmaker S S Rajamoulis "Baahubali" film franchise, will soon make its debut on the small screen to enthral viewers with the story of Baahubali, the king of fictional kingdom Mahishmati. After releasing the series on Amazon Prime Video, Rajamouli, Graphic India and Arka Mediaworks have joined hands with Colors channel to expand the world of "Baahubali". "'Baahubali' has proved to be a landmark film in the history of Indian cinema. Its success is nothing short of a case study for the Indian filmmakers. We at Colors pride ourselves for knowing the pulse of our viewers," Raj Nayak, chief operating officer (COO), Viacom18, said in a statement. "Going by the ripples that this masterpiece has generated nationwide, we thought this was the right time to bring to our television audiences the folklores of 'Baahubali' which have been captured stunningly in this animated...

" Sachin: A Billion Dreams ", a documentary drama on ace Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, registered an opening day collection of Rs 8.40 crore, according to the makers. The film released on Friday in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and English. "Sachin: A Billion Dreams creates history as docu-drama. Biggest opening in the genre with Rs 8.40 crore in India in all languages," read a statement issued on behalf of the film's makers. According to trade analyst Taran Adarsh, it is an "impressive" opening for a film in this genre. The movie takes viewers through Tendulkar's journey in his personal and professional life. It features the master blaster himself as he lets his fans into parts of his life they may not have known yet. Members of the film and sports fraternity have already given the tale a thumbs up.  Read More

Since the last four weeks, the most read stories on this newspaper’s website have been the myriad ones on the kind of money  Baahubali 2  has been minting at the box office. At a time when the country is in the grip of mob lynchings and a new tax system where renewables (18 per cent) are taxed more than coal (5 per cent) and sanitary napkins are taxed at 12 per cent while sindoor is tax free, it’s fascinating that people are obsessed with following the box office conquests of a frankly unspectacular movie. As someone who hails from coastal Andhra, my heart swells that finally Telugu cinema is being recognised in the Hindi-speaking parts of the country without being subsumed under that hideous rubric called “Madrasi cinema”. But I wish the industry was recognised for something more compelling than a lethargic movie that rightly is — to quote a website’s headline —”three hours of Prabhas porn”. But Baahubali is not exactly Telugu cinema. The characters could have come from...

As I walked out of the cinema hall after watching  Sachin: A Billion Dreams , I wondered: Would I have thought differently of this biopic had I not known anything about the person it is based on? James Erskine’s documentary on one of the most celebrated cricketers in the world – one who has achieved a near-deific status in India – went along expected lines. But was that because I, like many Indians and cricket followers around the world, already knew so much about Sachin Tendulkar? How would someone living under a rock for the last quarter of a century, and did not know who Tendulkar was, have liked it? Sachin: A Billion Dreams starts off rather nicely, showing us a naughty curly-haired boy of seven or eight years living in Mumbai’s Bandra suburb, getting up to the usual seven-or-eight-year-old boy things like annoying his neighbours with pranks. The boy then receives a cricket bat as a gift from his elder sister, and this is where the story that most Indians and cricket fo...

Domestic information technology (IT) start-up  Smartron , which counts Indian cricket legend Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and former Motorola Mobility Chief Executive Sanjay Jha among its investors, recently launched the srt.phone smartphone, “inspired by the dependable traits of Tendulkar”. At the launch of srt.phone, the company claimed that the smartphone used the best antennas and other security features that made it an all-rounder. Indeed, Smartron has pleased investors with its manoeuvres to deliver solutions ranging from internet of things (IoT) to smartphones built specifically for Indian consumers. But how does the srt.phone fare against the claims of dependability and the inspiration it apparently draws from one of the tallest role models for India in recent times?  Read More

Since the last four weeks, the most read stories on this newspaper’s website have been the myriad ones on the kind of money  Baahubali 2  has been minting at the box office. At a time when the country is in the grip of mob lynchings and a new tax system where renewables (18 per cent) are taxed more than coal (5 per cent) and sanitary napkins are taxed at 12 per cent while sindoor is tax free, it’s fascinating that people are obsessed with following the box office conquests of a frankly unspectacular movie. As someone who hails from coastal Andhra, my heart swells that finally Telugu cinema is being recognised in the Hindi-speaking parts of the country without being subsumed under that hideous rubric called “Madrasi cinema”. But I wish the industry was recognised for something more compelling than a lethargic movie that rightly is — to quote a website’s headline —”three hours of Prabhas porn”. But Baahubali is not exactly Telugu cinema. The characters could have come from...

There is something about  Sachin Tendulkar , something so correct and so innocent you want him to win in life even when you know he is no more the 'God' of the cricket field. The rousing farewell speech that Sachin gives at the end of this astutely emotional journey into the heart and mind of India's most celebrated Bat Man, left me dewy-eyed. This, when I know zilch about cricket and practically nothing about Sachin's exploits on the field. What I do know "and what this film is able to tell us in comprehensive strokes of revelation" is that greatness is not thrust on the great by chance. One has to break bones and crack ribs to get there. "Sachin: A Billion Dreams" is the story of a national hero who sails through every crisis with his simple philosophy of good existence and hard work. Sachin's life is blameless. He has never been in any controversy and he doesn't incite scandalous thoughts. This film could've easily been the o...

SS Rajamouli's " Baahubali: The Conclusion " may be setting the box office on fire but superstar Salman Khan said he doesn't get worried about the business of a film as he thinks every movie has its own destiny. "Baahubali: The Beginning" released on July 10, 2015, a week before Salman's "Bajrangi Bhaijaan". "Baahubali: The Conclusion", which hit theatres on April 28, has so far collected over Rs 1,500 crore across the world. "After 'Baahubali: The Beginning', we came up with "Bajrangi Bhaijaan". Now after 'Baahubali: The Conclusion', we are coming up with 'Tubelight'. There is a lot of pressure on the CEO of Salman Khan Films. I don't get worried so much. It is a phenomenal success and it is amazing. "I have not seen the film but I will watch it. But it doesn't matter (box office records) as I think every film has its own destiny. Lets see what the destiny of 'Tubeli...

A scrap dealer was killed and his mother, wife, sister and sister-in-law raped by a group of armed men who waylaid their car and also looted the family, near Jewar on the  Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh  early on Thursday, police said. The incident occurred some 60 km from here on Jewar at around 1.30 a.m. Eight members, including four women, of a Greater Noida-based family were headed to Bulandshahr to visit an ailing relative in a hospital there. According to the victims, six armed men forced the car, an Eeco van, to stop by shooting at its tyres near Sabota village in Jewar. The armed men took turns to rape the women at the gun point in a nearby field. When scrap dealer Shakeel Qureshi, 40, put up a resistance, the men shot him dead. The victims were also looted of their valuables, mobile phones and Rs 47,000 cash, police said. The Uttar Pradesh government has handed over the probe in the matter to the Special Task Force (STF) of UP Police. "They raped t...