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Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) clinched their third win of IPL 2018, beating Rajasthan Royals by 7 wickets at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur to reach the top of Vivo IPL points table. KKR captain Dinesh Karthik led from the front and scored a 23-ball 43. Robin Uthappa was good with the bat too as he scored 48 runs off 36 balls after Chris Lynn wicket in the first over. At no point, Rajasthan Royals' bowlers seemed to create any pressure on KKR batting line-up. With this, Rajasthan Royals' nine-match winning streak at Sawai Mansingh Stadium comes to an end. After a bad start, Sunil Narine and Uthappa stabilised the Kolkata Knight Riders' innings. They both hit the ball well and rotated the strike regularly. Rajasthan Royals' bowlers failed to take wickets at regular intervals and create pressure on the KKR batsmen. Poor fielding added to the woes of Rajasthan Royals. While batting first, Rajasthan Royals made 160-8 in 20 overs. The innings turned out to be a ...

The anniversary-edition Apple iPhone X is one of the expensive consumer-centric smartphones launched late last year. However, the iPhone X successor, with a 6.1-inch notch-based LCD screen and dual-SIM functionality, would cost half the price of the current generation flagship, according to a report in 9to5 citing KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In an earlier Bloomberg report, Kuo said Apple was considering creating another price segment for dual-SIM-based iPhones. He also said that the single SIM model could sell at between $550 and $650, while the dual-SIM model would go for at least $650. ALSO READ: Apple's 2018 iPhone with 5.85-inch OLED to cost much lower than iPhone X Kuo’s information stands in line with the Digitimes research analyst Luke Lin, who said in his report that Apple would launch a new 5.85-inch iPhone this year with OLED screen at a price much lower than that of the iPhone X. ALSO READ: Apple warns employees to stop leaking info on firm...

A year ago, Nokia made a comeback in the phone market by launching a wide range of smartphones and feature phones across multiple price points, primarily focusing on value-for-money devices. This year, HMD Global, the Finnish company behind the Nokia brand, has added three new phones to the list -- Nokia 6 (2018), Nokia 7 Plus and the Nokia 8 Sirocco. The Nokia 6 (2018), being an incremental update of the original Nokia 6, is touted as a budget smartphone. However, the Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 8 Sirocco get serious upgrades over their original iterations and, therefore, have been touted as mid-range and premium flagships, respectively. Nokia 7 Plus Talking about the Nokia 7 Plus, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 system-on-chip (SoC) powered smartphon does not try to surpass its mid-range standing and get in the Nokia 8 Sirocco’s way. Yet, in many ways, the Nokia 7 Plus has a feel of a premium flagship smartphone. The phone sports an aluminium-glass design with copper-tainted fra...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on a bunch of petitions challenging the Medical Council of India’s (MCI’s) regulations dealing with the reservation for in-service candidates in admission to post-graduate medical courses in respect of 50 per cent seats allocated to states, according to a PTI report. Regulation 9(IV) of the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations states that reservation of seats in medical colleges for respective categories in PG courses shall be according to the applicable laws of states and UTs and an all-India and state-wise merit list of the eligible candidates shall be prepared on the basis of marks obtained by them in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). It further provides that doctors in government service might be given weightage as an incentive of up to 10 per cent of the marks obtained for each year of service in "remote and/or difficult areas or rural areas, up to a maximum of 30 per cent" of the marks ob...

The Income Tax Department on Wednesday cautioned salaried class taxpayers against using illegal means like under-reporting of income or "inflating" deductions while filing their returns, stating violators will be prosecuted and their employers will be intimated to take action against them. The Central Processing Centre (CPC) of the department in Bengaluru, that receives and processes the Income Tax Returns (ITRs), has issued an advisory specifying such taxpayers should not "fall prey" to unscrupulous tax advisors or planners who help them in preparing wrong claims to get tax benefits. Calling it a "cautionary advisory" on reports of tax evasion by under-reporting of income or inflating deductions or exemptions by salaried taxpayers, the department said such attempts "aided and abetted by unscrupulous intermediaries have been noted with concern". "Such offences are punishable under various penal and prosecution provisions of ...

The government has launched a probe into suspected hoarding of Rs 2,000 notes and a spike in cash withdrawals over the last fortnight. “ The Department of Revenue will establish the reason for possible hoarding of Rs 2,000 notes. There has also been a sudden increase in cash withdrawals, especially in the last 15 days, which will also be looked into,” a senior finance ministry official said on Wednesday, on condition of anonymity. Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg had said on Tuesday the government had observed a trend that Rs 2,000 notes were not returning to the banking system. “You can assume this is one note that is most suitable to hoard,” he told reporters. Also, the finance ministry had told the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Tuesday around 40 per cent of the 221,700 ATMs across the country were non-functional as of April 16. The ministry held meetings with top officials of all banks through video conferencing on Tuesday and Wednesday and directed t...

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi is closely working on a new Redmi device, which is expected to make its way to India – according to a report by online technology-based forum XDA-developers. Touted as the Redmi S2, the budget-centric smartphone is reported to sport dual rear cameras and feature the face-unlock mechanism. Based on the report, the Xiaomi Redmi S2 would sport an 18:9 aspect ratio screen of HD+ (1440×720) resolution. The phone would be powered by Qualcomm MSM 8953 system-on-chip (SoC), which is a Snapdragon 625 processor. In terms of storage, the phone would have a 16GB variant, though other storage models are also likely, and there would be a microSD card slot for storage extension. As for memory, the phone would likely come in 2GB and 3GB RAM variants. Talking of imaging, the phone would have a dual-camera set-up on the back, which will either have the 12-megapixel primary sensor of Sony IMX486 or OmniVision OV12A10, and the 5MP Samsung S5K5E8 as the sec...

Mumbai Indians managed to secure their first win of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2018) as they moved up to the 6th spot in Vivo IPL Points table. They defeated Royal Challengers Banglore (RCB) by 46 runs. Chasing a mammoth target of 214, Virat Kohli's heroics could not save the day for RCB as no other batsman came to his aide. Krunal Pandya scalped three wickets for Mumbai Indians. Earlier Rohit Sharma scored 94 runs to help MI post a total of 213. This is the maiden win for MI in IPL 2018 after three losses. Earlier, after being reduced to 0-2 in the first over, Mumbai Indians had a remarkable recovery. Lewis and Rohit Sharma first built the innings and then lead the onslaught to take the team's score to 213-6 in 20 overs. Royal Challengers Banglore bowlers failed to capitalise on the launch pad provided by Umesh Yadav. MI captain Rohit Sharma made 94 and missed a well deserved century. Evin Lewis made 65 runs. ALSO READ: IPL 2018: How RCB is working hard to...

A cash crunch at ATMs has hit a dozen states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, poll-bound Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Punjab. With automated teller machines (ATMs) drying up, the central government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stepped in to address the currency shortage, even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley attributed the cash shortage to an unusual spurt in demand during the past three months and described it as "temporary", adding that the ATM cash crunch was being "tackled quickly" and that there was "more than adequate" currency in circulation. To fix the ATM cash crunch , the government said that the printing of Rs 500 denomination notes, about 5 billion of which are printed per day, would be increased by five times. Notes worth Rs 700-750 billion (Rs 70,000-75,000 crore) would be printed in a month. However, what caused the cash crunch and ATMs running dry in the first...

US-based technology giant Apple remained the most profitable brand in the fourth quarter of 2017-17, capturing 86 per cent of total handset market profits, according to a report by Counterpoint Research. According to the report, Apple’s anniversary-edition smartphone iPhone X alone generated 35 per cent of the total handset industry profits. This is a significant landmark, as the model was available in the market for only two months during Q4 2017. The premium flagship smartphone with notch-based screen generated five times more profits than the combined profits of 600-plus Android original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) during Q4 2017. Apple iPhones, including the current flagships like the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, along with yesteryear’s flagships iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, led the list of top 10 smartphones that captured 90 per cent of the total handset profits. Other than iPhones, only Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S8 Plus managed to feature in the top 10, at ...

As Ravindra Jadeja slammed the ball for a six, little did everyone know that it would be the last time Chennai Super Kings would get to celebrate a victory at the Chepauk stadium in the latest iteration of the Indian Premier League . Days later, it was confirmed that CSK will play its remaining home games in Pune. The protests over the Union government’s inaction over sharing of Cauvery river waters had already seen calls for boycott of the match against Kolkata Knight Riders. As the threat perception grew more serious in the police’s eyes, CSK was asked to find a new home. Ironically, the build-up to this campaign for the ‘Yellow Army’ was dominated by the narrative of return. After spending the last two years in suspension due to team official Gurunath Meiyappan’s involvement in betting, CSK’s comeback was eagerly awaited. Particularly by its loyal fan base which gave short shrift to the accusations of spot-fixing and conflict of interest. Rather, the supporters felt unfairly...

A 12-year-old mentally challenged girl was allegedly raped by her neighbour in outer Delhi's Rohini, police said today. The accused also made a video of the act and circulated it, they said. The man who raped her was arrested and two others who shot the video have been detained. The accused took the girl along with him to his house where he called the two others for shooting the video, they added. They threatened the girl with dire consequences if she reported the matter. On Saturday, her mother received the video of the alleged act and informed the police. The video was also circulated to others, they added.

Social networking giant Facebook is introducing a third-party fact-checking programme in India to combat the spread of "false news" on its platform, starting with a pilot in Karnataka, which goes to polls next month. Facebook said it has partnered with BOOM, an independent digital journalism initiative certified through the International Fact-Checking Network, for a pilot in Karnataka. Assembly elections in Karnataka will be held on May 12. In a blogpost today, the US social networking giant said the programme in India aims "to fight the spread of false news on our platform". BOOM will review English language news stories flagged on Facebook, check facts, and rate their accuracy, it said. Facebook is running similar initiatives in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines and the US. Over the last few weeks, Facebook has drawn intense criticism from users and governments globally over a number of issues, ran...

Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus is gearing up to unveil the fifth iteration of its flagship smartphone. Touted as the OnePlus 6, the smartphone would bear an ingress protection (IP) rating, which would make it the first OnePlus device to sport water resistance capabilities. While the water resistance or exact IP rating has not been officially confirmed, the company has uploaded a promo teaser on Twitter, which reads “Don’t you just hate it when you have to stop using your phone when it rains? So do we”, confirming that the upcoming flagship would feature some sort of water resistance. In another event, the company’s CEO Pete Lau shared half a dozen of pictures captured using the OnePlus 6 on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The images were taken in broad daylight conditions and, therefore, show lots of details. One of the images also shows the portrait mode capabilities, but fails to reveal the true prowess of the dual camera set-up. ALSO READ: OnePlus 6 ro...

There's something about a tournament like Indian Premier League (IPL): All competing teams fight their hearts out to stay on the top. And then there are some like Delhi Daredevils that do the exact opposite. They appear to be striving hard to remain at the bottom. At Kolkata’s Eden Gandens on Monday, it was a homecoming match for DD captain Gautam Gambhir, who used to lead Kolkata Knight Riders until last year. Ideally, the Delhi team and Gambhir should have done everything to win this game, but all they won was the toss. After they invited KKR to bat first, things briefly did seem to be going in their favour as Trent Boult bowled a maiden first over of the match and Sunil Narine was dismissed cheaply. But that was not enough good news. No DD bowler was able to contain the run flow as Robin Uthappa had his way with the bat in a quickfire innings of 35. DD’s bowling has seen a lot of stress since the beginning of the tournament. Chris Morris, Shahbaz Nadeem, and Mohd Sham...

Chasing 201, Delhi Daredevils led by Gautam Gambhir failed miserably and were all out for mere 129 in 14.2 overs in match 13 of IPL 2018. Kolkata Knight Riders won by 71 runs. No Delhi Daredevils batsman could take the pressure of the huge total and face the menacing bowling of Kolkata Knight Riders let by spin trio of Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, and Piyush Chawla. Rishab Pant and Glenn Maxwell tried hard to challenge the KKR bowling but their efforts could not do much as both got out of the short ball while trying to hit Yadav out of the park. This is the second win for Kolkata Knight Riders in four matches. Dinesh Karthik-led KKR had lost the previous two matches against Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Delhi Daredevils' wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals and DD never looked to chase the mammoth target. Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav took three wickets each for KKR. This win over Delhi Daredevils moved Kolkata Knight Riders to the second spot in Vivo IPL ...

The Kathua rape and murder case trial, which began in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, will see its next hearing on April 28. The eight people accused of raping and killing an eight-year-old girl on Monday pleaded not guilty and offered to undergo narco tests. As the trial in the case began, the district and sessions judge asked the state crime branch to give copies of the chargesheet to all the accused and fixed April 28 as the next date of hearing. Of the eight people accused of the crime, one is a juvenile who is also under arrest. He has moved a bail application before a judicial magistrate which is yet to be heard. The case relates to eight people allegedly holding an eight-year-old girl captive in a small village temple in the state's Kathua district for a week in January this year, sexually assaulting her, and then murdering her. The Kathua rape case trials began a day after protests were staged in various parts of the country by citizens outraged by the heinous cr...

WhatsApp , the popular instant messaging app owned by social media giant Facebook, has rolled out the beta update v2.18.113 for Android devices. This update allows the app user to request money from other users based on Unified Payment Interface (UPI), along with the ability to download deleted media files. WhatsApp’s UPI-based payments feature has been under testing for some time now. First enabled in February, the payments feature reached only a handful of users, and the home-grown wallet service provider Paytm accused WhatsApp of not following UPI payment security guidelines. Soon, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) – a government body behind UPI -- said that WhatsApp would have to make its payments feature fully interoperable in order to continue being part of the UPI ecosystem. The new payments’ request feature is avai lable only in the beta app for Android and only for select users. The feature requires virtual payment address (VPA) to request payment u...

The Kathua rape and murder case trial, which began in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, will see its next hearing on April 28. The case is related to eight people allegedly holding an eight-year-old girl captive in a small village temple in the state's Kathua district for a week in January this year, sexually assaulting her, and then murdering her. The accused were ready to undergo narco tests, said their counsel. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will at 2 pm today hear the plea of the father of the Kathua rape victim to transfer the trial to Chandigarh. The Kathua rape case trials began a day after protests were staged in various parts of the country by citizens outraged by the heinous crime. The accused in the Kathua case include a juvenile, against whom a separate charge sheet was filed. The juveline and the other accused will be facing separate trials. While seven of the accused perpetrators will be tried in the sessions court, the chief judicial magistrate of Kathua will hold ...

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will look to get their act together after an opening game defeat, as they take on Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL) tie at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Friday. RCB, led by star India captain Virat Kohli, lost to Kolkata Knight Riders after Sunil Narine snatched victory with a 17-ball fifty and Nitish Rana removed AB de Villiers and Kohli in the same over and then scored a vital 35. RCB will now want their star batsmen Brendon McCullum and AB de Villiers, who blasted a 27-ball 43 and a 23-ball 44, respectively, in the first game. McCullum reached a milestone in completing 9,000 T20 runs in the last match and that should boost his confidence. Kohli did not look his imperious best in the previous game and he would want to come out all guns blazing against Punjab. The likes Quinton de Koc k, Sarfaraz Khan and Chris Woakes did not fire against KKR and would want to improve if RCB want their batting to fire. Ko...

Sunrisers Hyderabad won their second match of IPL 2018 against Mumbai Indians by 1 wicket in a nail-biting encounter. Chasing a modest target of 148 in 20 overs, Shikhar Dhawan and Wridimann Saha gave Sunrisers Hyderabad a flying start as they crossed 50 run mark in the 6 overs of Powerplay. But Mumbai Indians Pulled it back by taking wickets at regular intervals. In the last two overs, Sunrisers Hyderabad needed 12 runs off 12 balls and Mustafizur Rahman gave only 1 run and took 2 wickets. Ben Cutting came to bowl the last over for Mumbai Indians, SRH's Deepak Hooda dispatched the first ball of the last ball for six as they needed 11 runs in last over. That brings the deficit down to 5 runs of 5 balls. Both Stanlake and Deepak Hooda held their nerve and brought the deficit down to 1 run of 1 ball. Stanlake hit a boundary over midwicket to seal the game for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Here are over by over and Sunrisers Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians innings analysis, highlights Sun...

Well, yes. Royal Challengers Banglore lost the opening match to Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata. A star-studded team, best batsmen at their disposal, a super-aggressive captain, and yet the result -- not able to defend a not-so-bad total! That is the story of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Winning the toss, Dinesh Karthik, the newly appointed captain of KKR, invited Virat Kohli & company to bat first. With the firepower of Brendon McCullum and Quinton de Kock in the arsenal, a blazing start was expected. McCullum did smash a few shots across the park in the first over of the innings, but de Kock survived only two balls and fell cheaply. If a team is losing an opener for a paltry score and that too in the powerplay, a big score for the team becomes highly unlikely. McCullum did what he is known for: He took apart the KKR bowling and kept the scoring rate high. However, he could not comprehend the spin magic of Sunil Narine and was clean bowled. When AB de Villi...

Sam Billings played a little gem as Chennai Super Kings once again pulled off a thrilling chase beating Kolkata Knight Riders by five wickets in an IPL encounter at Chepauk Stadium in Chennai. Chasing a stiff target of 203, CSK won the match with a ball to spare as Ravindra Jadeja deposited military medium stuff from R Vinay Kumar into stands. End of innings for Chennai Super Kings Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni disappointed big time as he could not score much and consumed too many deliveries. He made 25 from 28 balls. Sam Billing played out of his skin and scored a quick fifty before falling for 56 off 23 balls. Dwayne Bravo joined Ravindra Jadeja in the 19th over. CSK needed 17 runs off last 6 balls. Bravo hit Vinay Kumar for a huge six over fine leg off the first ball of last over. Vinay bowled a wide ball, reducing it to 6 from 4. Couple of singles and the equation was 4 from 2. Jadeja wacked Vinjay Kumar's penultimate ball for a huge six sealing the match for CSK. CS...

In the fifth match of the 11th season of Indian Premier League (IPL 2018), when M S Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK) play at their home ground of Chepauk in Chennai to take on Dinesh Karthik’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), they will do so with some amount of confidence – especially after having beaten defending champions Mumbai Indians on their own turf by 1 wicket in a thrilling contest on Saturday. However, they will also try to look at and correct their flaws in the opening game of the tournament which necessitated some last-minute heroics by Dwayne Bravo to seal the match for them in a nail-biter finish. Besides, there is one setback that CSK have suffered due to the injury sustained by Kedar Jadhav – the all-rounder has been ruled out of the rest of IPL 2018 due to a hamstring injury. For their part, KKR also won their opening match on Sunday against Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bengal at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, by 4 wickets on Sunday. Today’s CSK vs KKR match ...

Watching Ravichandran Ashwin bowl is one of the more pleasing sights in cricket . Forever thinking and forever trying, Ashwin is a riveting embodiment of how you can ably fuse skill with effort. And, for the longest time, he was a nonpareil spinner who ruled the world with a unique incisiveness and patience otherwise rare to find. Along the way, he was, obviously, helped by a frightening repertoire of variations he had so remarkably built to compensate for the somewhat vapid trajectories of off-spin. Don’t let the slightly alarmist tone of it all sway you; Ashwin, at least for now, remains India’s premier spinner in the longest format. Just that in T20 cricket, he is playing catch up to a species that has become hugely popular – the wrist spinner. So much so that he has decided to become one himself. On Sunday, in Kings XI Punjab’s opening game against Delhi Daredevils, Ashwin bowled a fair bit of — among other stuff — leg-spin. He first introduced us to his latest bit of exper...