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Samsung Electronics , a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced on Monday, that it has developed an advanced LTE (long-term evolution) modem technology capable of achieving whopping 1.2 Gbps downlink speed. The LTE modem achieves this downlink speed by using 6CA (carrier aggregation) technology, which is dubbed as Cat.18. Carrier aggregation (CA) combines a given number of component carriers with various bandwidths, improving data transfer rates and network performance. Earlier this year, the Samsung Exynos 9 Series (8895) SoC presented its Cat.16 LTE modem with 1.0 gigabit (Gb) downlink speed and the industry’s first 5CA support. By increasing the aggregation capability from the previous model’s five bandwidths to six, the new LTE modem technology from Samsung will offer faster data transfers. The technology also supports 4×4 MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) and higher-order 256 QAM (Quadrature amplitude modulation) scheme to maximise the data tr...

Have you filed your tax returns? Hurry now! Before the day ends, all individuals have to file tax returns for 2016-17 fiscal or assessment year 2016-17. An official of the income tax department on Sunday said that the last date for filing ITRs will not be extended. "The last date for filing of ITRs remains July 31. There are no plans to extend this deadline. The department has already received over 2 crore returns filed electronically. The department requests taxpayers to file their return in time," the official said. Keeping in view the government's inclination towards technology, the filing of returns has become speedy and hassle-free exercise for the citizens. Here is how you can file your ITR online People with salary income who are eligible to use ITR 1 or ITR 4 form can file their tax return completely online via the income tax e-filing website without having to download any form/software. Follow these steps: 1. Create your e-filing account on the Inc...

After five months, countless man hours of deliberation and numerous board meetings, a proposed merger between e-commerce players Snapdeal and Flipkart – which would have been the biggest consolidation in the Indian e-commerce history has been called off, Snapdeal has confirmed. “ Snapdeal has been exploring strategic options over the past several months. The company has now decided to pursue an independent path and is terminating all strategic discussions as a result. Snapdeal’s vision has always been to create life-changing experiences for millions of buyers and sellers across India,” Snapdeal spokesperson said. Sources added that Softbank would in all probability invest in Flipkart on its own and not continue its association with Snapdeal. The Snapdeal founders – Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal – as well as early-stage investor Nexus Venture Partner and smaller shareholders like PremjiInvest had all along showed their reservations against the deal. A Softbank spokesperson said:...

The unnamed product that home-grown e-commerce major Flipkart has been promoting as a banner on its website, it appears, is a battery-centric smartphone from the stable of Samsung that will be coming soon to the India market. The banner does not reveal any detail about the product or its manufacturer except saying, along with the hashtag #GoBeyond, that it is a “new kid on the block coming soon to India”. A deeper look at the source code of the banner page, however, reveals it is a Samsung smartphone that Flipkart is promoting. Even the product landing page does not give much information about the make or model of the upcoming smartphone. But the features have been detailed along with the rear view of the smartphone – showing curved sides, camera, LED flash, volume rocker buttons and power key. According to the features on the Flipkart landing page, the upcoming smartphone will sport a better battery, supported with quick-charging technology, and enhanced screen for immersiv...

Digital art at Sotheby’s? The auction house is better known for selling canvases by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat for $100 million-plus than for showing what many collectors still regard as ephemera. Yet the Sotheby’s S2 gallery in New York, normally used for exhibitions of contemporary art, is currently the site of a show featuring mostly young artists who rely on digital technology and who are not exactly household names. Surprisingly, most of the works on view take physical form. More significant, they also betray a broad generational anxiety about the technological future and the role of humans in it. The catalyst for the show was a curious-looking sculpture tucked away in the Art + Technology Lab at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A sleek, black plinth with a black screen in front and a record player perched incongruously on top, it was designed as a prototype for a 21st-century memorial. When David Goodman, the Sotheby’s executive in charge of marketing an...

Onion prices saw a remarkable jump, hitting an eight-month high on account of a sharp increase in demand by stockists in both, domestic and overseas markets amid reports of low arrivals in the country’s major mandis. Data compiled by the National Horticultural Research & Development Foundation (NHRDF) showed that the model price of onion in Maharashtra’s Lasalgaon mandi almost doubled to Rs 8.70 per kg, from its earlier low of Rs 4.50 per kg. Prices of agricultural commodities usually increase around this time on account of supply disruptions due to rain and a sudden spurt in demand from stockists, ahead of a festive season including Diwali and Dussehra celebrations. Two years ago, onion prices had hit the record high of Rs 80 a kg in the wholesale market, while rates had gone up to Rs 100 a kg in retail markets. The spike in prices prompted the government to allocate Rs 500 crore for the creation a buffer stock. Consequently, government agencies like the Small Far...

Chinese smartphone maker Gionee on Tuesday launched the 'A1 Plus' smartphone at Rs 26,999 in India. The device has dual (13MP+5MP) camera system at the rear with LED flash and 20MP front camera. Powered by 4,550mAh battery, Gionee 'A1 Plus' features a Helio P25 Octa-core processor coupled with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. The memory can be further expanded up to 256GB. The smartphone will be available in retail stores, starting July 26. "The 'A' series is rooted to the growing demand of high-quality smartphone photography experience. We are confident that our attention to detail with impressive specs, powerful battery and advanced features will deliver the best user experience possible," said Alok Shrivastava, Director-Business Intelligence and Planning, Gionee India, in a statement. The 20MP front camera on the smartphone comes with a customised 'selfie' flash. The device offers a massive battery that features u...

A day after the Competition Commission of India gave its nod to the Vodafone India -Idea Cellular merger, both companies in a joint statement said other statutory approvals were expected to come soon and the transaction will be completed during 2018. "We welcome the decision of the Competition Commission of India approving the proposed merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, following its comprehensive review of the transaction. It is expected that other statutory approvals will be forthcoming and we anticipate completing the transaction during 2018," Vittorio Colao, CEO, Vodafone Group Plc. and Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group, said in a joint-statement. "The proposed combination of Vodafone India and Idea will create a new champion of Digital India. We remain fully committed to fulfilling the Digital India vision of the Prime Minister and the government and will connect villages, towns and cities across India with world class 4G/4G+ net...

It’s not just large private sector banks that are offering instant loans to their customers through ATMs or via online bank accounts. Financial technology start-ups are changing the way personal loans are disbursed to borrowers. Recently, India’s largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank, started offering personal loans to its pre-selected salaried customers through its ATMs. Only those on the bank’s pre-approved customers’ list based on their credit score would get the option to avail the facility. HDFC Bank has been offering instant loan through net banking. But if you don’t have a credit history or a longstanding banking relationship, you can approach start-ups such as EarlySalary.com, LoanTap, and so on. As these lenders target customers who don’t have any credit history, they use a variety of parameters to evaluate the customer’s profile. They access an applicant’s social media account and build a profile after getting information through the app such as friends’ list, loc...

NSE IFSC Ltd will launch single derivative contracts in 15 global stocks, including giants like Apple Inc, Facebook and Alibaba, as also trade in three additional currencies, including Swiss franc and the US dollar. In a circular, the exchange announced introduction of these new contracts with effect from July 24. The new currency pairs also include the Japanese yen-US dollar and the Australian dollar-US dollar. The 15 global stock derivatives will feature those of Alphabet Inc, Microsoft, China Mobile, Amazon.Com, ExxonMobil Corporation, Johnson and Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, General Electric Company, AT&T Inc, Bank of America and Procter and Gamble Company. IFSC is short for International Financial Services Centre. There will also be day spread contracts in F&O of all these underlyings -- instead of two transactions to be done to roll over a contract to the next month series, it can be done as one transaction. This will bring down cost and risk of on...

Given the performance of stocks over the past few months and the mounting cash pile in their books, most information technology companies - Infosys , TCS, Wipro and HCL Technologies - have announced a buyback to reward shareholders over the past few months. Also Read: India Inc's buyback party: A Rs 25,000-crore splurge in first half of 2017 The buyback in most cases was through the tender route, under which repurchases were executed using a fixed price tender offer. TCS board, for instance, approved and completed its proposal to buy back up to 56.14 million equity shares of the company for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 16,000 crore at Rs 2,850 per equity share. Besides TCS, HCL Technologies, too, has completed the buyback process. On a year-to-date basis, Infosys has lost over 3% at the bourses as compared with around 20% rally in the Nifty50 index, ACE Equity data show. Also Read: Buyback offers: What should traders do if a company offers one? Surprisingly, I...

The race among smartphone makers to add specifications seems to have slowed down, especially with technology becoming readily available to all companies. The contest now is centred around premium features. It's features that differentiate a gfreat smartphone from ordinary ones with similar specifications. Among the features that are most sought by Gen Y in a smartphone are premium audio capabilities. Just like camera, which has become a mainstream smartphone feature, audio capabilities also, therefore, are driving manufacturers to gradually innovate. If you also crave a smartphone that has amazing audio features, here is a list of top 5 smartphones that we used to make your search easier: HTC U11 The HTC U11, a flagship smartphone by Taiwanese companymaker HTC, boasts top-of-the-line specifications and a long list of features.It is one of the devices that can be considered an all-rounder. As for its audio capabilities, the HTC U11 has stereo speakers, dubbed Boom...

With the season of festivals getting back to its fervor, it is time again to plan, save time and fly to your preferred destination, without particularly burning a giant hole in your pocket. Here are some apps to help you plan easy and accessible holidays: Ixigo- flight booking app It is the friend you need to keep in your smartphone for finding the cheapest air tickets or enjoy impressive cash-backs on flight fares. Its value-adds features Automated Web Check-ins, Smart fare alerts, holiday calendar, flight status and tracking, ensure you have an unperturbed and relaxed experience. What's more? With this one app you can also browse through destination travel guides, compare hotel tariffs and find the cheapest room rates across the web with the best deals, discounts and cashbacks. Couchsurfing- connect and stay with locals Expensive hotels or shady motels aren't the only two options you have when it comes to lodgings in a foreign city. Over 12 million travel ent...

The next device in Samsung's Galaxy Note series, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 , is due to be unveiled on August 23. The smartphone, with Samsung's proprietary 'S Pen' feature, is crucial for the company, especially as it is coming after last year's Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, which had significantly dented the company's image and revenue. The devices in the Galaxy Note series so far have been some of the most anticipated smartphones of their respective years. This year, since the Note 8 smartphone carries a lot on its shoulder for the company, the launch and success are seen as crucial for dousing the fire the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco has left Samsung grappling with. Recently, some photo renders of the Galaxy Note 8 smartphone were leaked on internet by BGR, an online technology portal. The renders confirm the design language of the upcoming smartphone and shows its elongated screen at the front, an improved version of the Galaxy S8 screen, and a dual-camera set-...

It is a well-accepted fact that everything Reliance Industries (RIL) does has ‘scale’, but what the recently conducted annual general meeting (AGM) of the company did, has established it as a corporate giant with ‘style’ along with substance. Right from the town-hall styled full-screen visuals in the backdrop to the peek into the privileged footage of Dhirubhai Ambani’s journey through various milestones, to the dramatic suspense-laden announcement of the pricing of the Jio Phone as a postscript to Mukesh Ambani’s speech — all of it made for a captivating and engaging piece for shareholders and investors across the spectrum. However, those 100 minutes of the AGM aforementioned have arguably but unequivocally begun the process of changing the economic landscape of our country in years to come. What RIL has launched in the form of an affordable Jio Phone handset is not just a great tweak to the business model that the company is likely to follow to make itself profitable, but ...

Though it was just not the day for Team India at the ICC Women's World Cup final , Amitabh Bachchan has very rightly said, "until you loose, you shall never know the joy of victory." He took to Twitter handle to share his words of appreciation for the ladies, "T 2494 - Until you loose, you shall never know the joy of victory ! Well played ladies .. Bhartiya Nari Zindabad !! WWC17" Akshay Kumar, who was present at Lord's to cheer team India, after speaking to them post match, tweeted, "Even Broken Hearts Can Laugh!!These Women have started a revolution & I couldn't be more proud #WWC17Final" Other Bollywood celebs who cheered the team are: Yami Gautam: "Close one but what a game! Well played Team India! #WomenInBlue #WWC17Final proud Indian! @BCCIWomen" Anushka Sharma: "Salute the determination & passion shown by the women in blue! Tough luck. But girls, you've won our hearts @BCCIWomen #WWC17" Sha...

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has served a notice to Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan and his wife Gauri to appear before it personally on August 23 in an ongoing FEMA case, official sources said on Thursday. The two are required to remain present in person before the Adjudicating Authority for the final hearing regarding the penalty to be imposed against Khan's IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders in the case dating back to 2008. Khan had appeared twice before the ED in 2011 and 2015 to record his statement in the case in which the ED had alleged a loss of around Rs 73 crore in foreign exchange. The latest notice concerned the alleged violations of the FEMA (Transfer of Issue of Security by a Person Resident Outside India) Regulations, 2000. After its investigations into the case, in March 2017 the ED issued notices to Khan, Gauri and their associate and former actress Juhi Chawla on charges of violating FEMA norms. At the August 23 hearing, the Khan couple ...

Polling data released by the returning officer indicate several instances of cross-voting in the presidential election. The Congress leadership suspects that Shankarsinh Vaghela and his supporters in Gujarat voted for Ram Nath Kovind , the NDA candidate. The party has advised its legislators and workers to keep away from the show of strength planned by Vaghela’s supporters to mark his birthday on Friday. There was also cross-voting in favour of Kovind in Goa, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Tripura. BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav, Kovind’s election manager, claimed that 116 lawmakers from Opposition parties, including the Congress, appeared to have voted for the NDA candidate. As many as 30 of them were members of Parliament, he said. The good news for the Congress was from Rajasthan, where Opposition candidate Meira Kumar received 34 votes though the party has only 24 legislators in the 200-member House. Assembly elections are due in Rajasthan at the end of 201...

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday gave Jaypee Infratech time till August 4 to respond to a petition of insolvency filed by IDBI Bank after the company said it did not receive a notice from the tribunal on beginning the proceedings. IDBI Bank filed a petition for insolvency against Jaypee Infratech in the NCLT, Allahabad, last month. The company owes IDBI Bank Rs 4,000 crore. Its total dues to all banks are Rs 9,365 crore. Jaypee Infratech is one of 12 cases the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recommended for referral to the NCLT for insolvency proceedings. If the NCLT admits a petition on insolvency, the board of the company concerned is suspended and an interim resolution professional is given 180 days to turn the company around. If that does not happen even after an extension of 90 days, the company's assets are to be liquidated. Jaypee Infratech was one of the accounts the RBI recommended for debt restructuring under the Sustainable Structuring of...

Financial News Today Largest private sector lender ICICI Bank will be selling personal loans of up to Rs 15 lakh through its ATMs that can be availed of by select salaried customers even if they haven't previously applied for one. Using data from credit information companies, the lender will pre-qualify select customers for personal loans. Such customers will get a message on the ATM screen after completing a transaction, informing about their eligibility for personal loans. If a customer chooses to go in for one, she can avail of a five-year personal loan of up to Rs 15 lakh and the amount will be credited instantly into her account, the bank said in a statement today. The service is already available. A customer is given multiple amounts to choose from and will be informed about other crucial details like the interest rate, processing fee and monthly instalments, before the transaction is completed by crediting the loan amount into her account. ICICI Bank execu...

Following Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan Wife post on social media, where he is seen with his wife, the all-rounder has received massive backlash especially from religious leaders, who claim what he did was against Islamic law. Calling it ‘un-Islamic’, Maulana Sajid Rashidi said that Irfan Pathan’s background is very religious as his father was a muezzin, and so posting his wife’s picture on social media is a shameful act. Latest Current Affairs : “A woman can show her face only to her husband and in cases involving law related things such as aadhaar or pan card, only then can she show her face,” he added. He also said that it is due to his religious background that people started “reminding” him about his religion, and that this was not a troll. Calling the act shameful, Sajid Rashidi said, “His wife isn’t an actor that she somehow comes in front of the camera, she is a home maker and hence uploading her pictures like that is a shameful act.” He further advised ...

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day today after opposition repeatedly disrupted the proceedings by raising slogans on the plight of farmers and related issues. The adjournment for the day was announced by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan soon after the House resumed business at noon for the Zero Hour after two consecutive adjournments forced by the opposition members who stormed the Well and raised slogans. When House assembled for the day and took up the Question Hour, opposition members, mostly from the Congress, trooped into the Well raising slogans saying the Prime Minister should respond to the concerns over farmers' plight and the agrarian crisis. Parliamentary Affairs minister Ananth Kumar said the Lok Sabha had concluded a discussion on the issue by sitting late last night. But as the slogan-shouting continued, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was forced to adjourn the house till 1130 AM, just about ten minutes after it had assembled at 11 AM. When the House resumed busine...

A nine-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court , headed by Chief Justice (CJI) J S Khehar, on Monday began hearing arguments to determine whether the right to privacy was a fundamental right under the Constitution. During the hearing, some of the judges observed that the right to privacy was not absolute and it was subject to reasonable restrictions mentioned in the Fundamental Rights provisions of the Constitution. In this context, they mentioned the Right to Freedom of Press, mentioned in the chapter on Fundamental Rights, but subjected to reasonable restrictions. Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium initiated the hearing by saying that the rights to life and liberty were pre-existing natural rights. The nine-judge Bench also comprises judges J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer. The Bench is dealing with the limited issue of the right to privacy and matters challenging...

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) slipped dipped 5% to Rs 364 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in early morning trade on profit booking after the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the sale of its 51% equity in the company to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), which gained 3% in intra-day trade. Since July 12, HPCL has outperformed the market by gaining 12% on reports that the merger with ONGC will be completed by the end of this fiscal year. ONGC had gained 1.7% as compared to 0.66% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex during the period. At 09:46 am; ONGC was up 2.4% at Rs 167, while HPCL trading 3.3% lower at Rs 371 on BSE. Also Read: We understand an open offer will not apply, says D K Sarraf Shares of MRPL – a subsidiary of ONGC – slipped 2.5% to Rs 128 levels, after hitting high of Rs 133 in intra-day trade. On Wednesday, the stock had rallied 6.5% on the BSE. The development, analysts say the only good news from the perspective of HPCL sharehol...

On July 17, of the total 4,880 valid voters — 4,109 members of legislative Assemblies (MLAs) and 771 elected members of Parliament (MPs) — 99.49 per cent cast their vote to elect the next President of India. In the fray were the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA's) candidate Ram Nath Kovind, and the Opposition candidate Meira Kumar . The counting of votes is scheduled to begin at 11 am on Thursday, July 20, but it is believed that Kovind has an edge over Kumar. However, should he win, the margin of his victory will be interesting to note, given that there were reports of many instances where voters from Opposition parties also voting for Kovind in the election. “ The voting was close to 99 per cent. I think this would perhaps be the highest-ever percentage,” Anoop Mishra, Lok Sabha, secretary general and returning officer for the election, had said on Monday. Mishra had said while the sanctioned strength of the Lok Sabha (LS) and the Rajya Sabha (RS) is ...

LinkedIn , the social network for professionals, has launched a ‘Lite’ version of its Android app in India. This will work on slow data networks and low-end smartphones, as it looks to tap job seekers outside the large cities. The solution is much like those of Facebook and Google’s to get around India’s patchy networks. “ We’re seeing a massive amount of traction, especially outside of metro cities. If you look at some tier-II, tier-III cities, the Lite website really lit up a lot of them for us. We’re seeing almost two times the number of people from those towns on the website in the past six months,” said Akshay Kothari, head of LinkedIn in India. Developed at the company’s research centre in this city, Lite will take under 1 MB of storage space on a device and reduce the consumption of data by 80 per cent when compared to the regular app. Kothari says LinkedIn has 42 million users in India and wants to expand to 80 mn, equivalent to the number of professional jobs the count...

Taking lead from Asian markets scaling near-decade peak, the benchmark indices opened higher on Thursday with investors keeping a close eye on the June quarter results of index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Wipro, while the market reaction to cabinet's approval to ONGC-HPCL was also hogging the limelight. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan maintained status quo in its monetary policy decision announced today. Investors now await the European Central Bank meeting later today for clues on its policy outlook. Read More

HMD Global, the Finnish company manufacturing Nokia-branded smartphones, might launch the flagship Nokia 8 on July 31. The information was leaked on social media channel Twitter by Evan Blass, a credible source in the technology community. The current lineup of Nokia-branded smartphones running on Google’s Android platform is limited to entry-level specification and features. The flagship Nokia 8 smartphone will not only add a flagship device to the portfolio, it will also revive the old legacy of Nokia where the company used premium Carl Zeiss optics in its cameras. Based on speculations, the smartphone is touted to feature dual 13-megapixel cameras at the rear with Carl Zeiss lens. In terms of specifications, the smartphone will feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset coupled with a choice of 6GB or 4GB of RAM. The smartphone will sport a 5.3-inch QHD screen protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5. Just like other Nokia smartphones with Android operating system (OS), the Nok...

The Haryana Police on Tuesday arrested the husband of Assamese actress and singer Bidisha Bezbaruah , a day after she allegedly committed suicide in her sector 43 Gurugram apaBidisha Bezbaruahrtment. Bezbaruah recently shot into the spotlight after her role in the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Jagga Jasoos. "On 17 July, we got the information at around 8: 30 that a girl has committed suicide. As soon as we received the information, our police team along with the SHO reached the spot. We took videos and photographs of the spot, after which we brought the body down. Her father has also lodged a complaint against her husband following which he has been arrested," Harender Kumar, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) (DLF) told ANI. Meanwhile, the sudden demise of popular actress and singer has created a sensation in the state. Bidisha, daughter of Aswini and Ranjeeta Bezbaruah of Uzan Bazar, Guwahati got married to a man from Gujarat, almost a year ago. According to repor...

From voice calls to text communication and gaming, and from ordering food to banking and bill payments, your smartphone these days have become your one-stop shop for many important things in life. Now, imagine you need to do an urgent transaction or make a crucial call and the battery of your phone runs out. Ouch! That hurts – what’s a smartphone without battery? And what’s the point of having a one-stop shop if it downs the shutters just when you need it the most? Most of us have faced such situations. If you have also been left hankering for a charger to complete an important work on your smartphone, you might like to dump your present handset in favour of one with a really long battery life. But what are the best options? Business Standard tested a number of handsets to bring you a ready list of budget smartphones with exceptional battery life. Here are the top five: #1. Motorola Moto E4 Plus Lenovo-backed Motorola recently launched the fourth iteration of its ultra-a...

The Ahmedabad Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday admitted the State Bank of India’s (SBI’s) application for initiating insolvency proceedings against textile player Alok Industries. The Ahmedabad Bench, chaired by Justice Bikki Raveendra Babu, also ordered the appointment of Ajay Joshi as interim resolution professional (IRP) for coming up with a workable solution for Alok Industries. The NCLT also dismissed the Industrial and Commerce Bank of China’s (ICBC’s) plea seeking the dismissal or deferment of insolvency proceedings against Alok Industries on grounds of ongoing litigation in the Bombay High Court. ICBC had filed a litigation in the Bombay HC for initiating the winding up process of Alok Industries through its credit facility agency HSBC. The Bombay HC is set to hear the ongoing liquidation case against Alok Industries on July 19. Read More

As many as 600 people have died of swine flu so far this year, a more than two-fold rise in such deaths as against last year, the government informed the Rajya Sabha today. Maharashtra alone accounted for almost 50 per cent of all deaths, as it recorded 284 deaths out of the 2,324 cases reported till July 9, Union Health Minister J P Nadda said in a written reply. Gujarat recorded 75 deaths out of 289 infections, while in Kerala 63 out of 1,127 people succumbed to H1N1 complications. In Rajasthan, 59 persons died out of 407 reported cases. Karanataka had 15 deaths out of 2,377 cases, while Telangana and Tamil Nadu registered 17 and 15 deaths out of 1,443 and 2,896 cases, respectively. The country has registered 12,460 swine-flu cases so far this year as compared to 1,786 cases reported last year. Nadda further said the central government has been closely monitoring the seasonal influenza outbreak situation and was in regular touch on the issue. To ensure wider availa...