Karnataka won't be divided during my or son's lifetime: Deve Gowda

Gowda's remarks came on a day the Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti, a committee fighting for a separate statehood to north Karnataka, called a day-long bandh in 13 districts.

Opposing any move to divide Karnataka, former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda on Thursday appealed to the people of north Karnataka not to get provoked by the BJP, and said the demand for a separate statehood for the region will not be met during his or his son and Chief Minister H D Kumarswamy's lifetime.

Gowda's remarks came on a day the Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti, a committee fighting for a separate statehood to north Karnataka, called a day-long bandh in 13 districts.

"No injustice has been meted out to north Karnataka in allotment of funds in the state budget," he said and hit out at BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa for trying to create unrest through "malicious propaganda".

"The provocation made by Yeddyurappa will not come true. We will take care of it... If some people demand a separate north Karnataka, I want to tell them it will not happen, not during my lifetime and not during my son's lifetime," he told PTI in an interview.

He alleged that the BJP state president is "provoking" people of north Karnataka, as his "anger has not cooled down" after failing to form the government despite winning substantial seats.

Gowda further alleged that the former chief minister has started "intimidating" people on the farm loan waiver, state budget and other issues, with the sole motive to create unrest.

The former prime minister said many leaders have made sacrifices for the unification of the state and appealed to people not fall prey to provocation and to "trust the current government".

Kumaraswamy has already ordered the shifting of some key government departments to the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, the secretariat building in Belagavi, Gowda added.

The Samiti gave the bandh call to press for statehood for the region, alleging that successive governments discriminated against it.

The Samiti leaders have also alleged discrimination in the allocation towards the region in the budget presented by Kumaraswamy on July 5 and also inadequate representation in the cabinet.

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Bihar Bandh against rape cases at shelter home; railway, road services hit

The state-wide shutdown is backed by opposition parties including RJD, Congress, Samajwadi Party.

Bihar Bandh : A shutdown called by the Left parties in Bihar on Thursday against the rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur district has hit rail and road traffic, police said.

The state-wide shutdown is backed by opposition parties including the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) (RJD), Congress, Hindustani Swam Morcha, Samajwadi Party and Lokrantrik Janata Dal.

Left party workers and supporters blocked railway tracks thereby affecting over a dozen trains since early Thursday morning.

According to reports reaching here, trains were stopped in Darbhanga, Madhubani, Jahanabad, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Patna and Bhojpur districts.

Protesters have also blocked several roads in Siwan, Bhojpur, Nawada, Patna, Arwal, Jagabad districts.

The case came to light earlier this year when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.

The CBI on Sunday took over case following a recommendation by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

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8 people died every day on Mumbai locals last year, toll 18,000 in 5 years

As many as 49,790 people died on railway tracks after being hit by trains nationwide between 2015 and 2017.

Eight people died every day on Mumbai’s railway tracks in 2017, down 20% from 10 deaths every day in 2013, data from Government Railway Police (GRP), Mumbai, show.

About 8 million passengers–more than the population of Hyderabad–travel on the Mumbai rail network every week day on 2,800 services with the highest passenger density in the world.

A woman was killed after being hit by a train at Mumbai’s Bandra station on July 19, 2018, while trying to cross the tracks with her two kids who were injured, Times of India reported on July 19, 2018.

In another incident, a 50-year old banker died after she slipped into the gap between the train and a platform at Borivali station, First Post reported on July 13, 2018.

Mumbai’s Elphinstone station was renamed Prabhadevi on July 19, 2018, which led to questions about renaming stations instead of focusing on the city’s crumbling rail infrastructure.

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BlackBerry Evolve, Evolve X India Launch Today: Know Specification, Features & Price in India

Unlike the recently launched touch and type design-based smartphone, the BlackBerry Key2, both the Evolve and Evolve X would feature a touchscreen design.

BlackBerry, a Canadian smartphone brand licensed to India-based Optiemus Infracom, is launching the BlackBerry Evolve and BlackBerry Evolve X in India on Thursday i.e. August 2. Unlike the recently launched touch and type design-based smartphone, the BlackBerry Key2, both the Evolve and Evolve X would feature a touchscreen design. The company has been touting the devices to be the most secure Android smartphones, hinting at a possible update for DTEK security suite that has been an integral security software on BlackBerry smartphones.

Before the launch, the company has shared a video teaser on its social media platforms that provides a glimpse of one of the upcoming devices. However, it is certain that both the smartphones would feature same form factor and design language, and the changed would be mostly in terms of specifications. In the teaser, the phone’s metallic chassis with chamfered edges is shown, along with an all touchscreen design on the front and a six-lens camera module on the back.

One of the upcoming phones is also expected to sport dual rear camera set-up. The camera module is shown along with infrared blaster, which is used for phase detection autofocus.

The teaser also shows that the backside of the phones would feature soft texture design, similar to Key2 smartphone. However, the camera module is placed in the centre, along with fingerprint sensor and BlackBerry logo. Considering the fact that BlackBerry devices are more software-centric than hardware, the phones are expected to get midrange specifications.

 However, the phones are expected to feature a 4,000 mAh battery and boot Google Android 8.1 operating system, customised by BlackBerry. The phones would get the company’s DTEK security suite, which provided granular control over every app and the background services they use. The phones would also get BlackBerry touch keyboard, instead of Google keyboard, that provides company’s physical keyboard utilities such as keyword suggestions, swipe to type, short handwriting, etc.

While there is no official confirmation on the phone's pricing, the BlackBerry Evolve is expected to price in sub-Rs 45,000 and the Evolve X is expected to get sub-Rs 40,000 price tag.

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UP rains: 14 more killed in last 24 hours; death toll rises to 106

Over 80 cattle lost their lives and over 600 houses were damaged in rain-related incidents.

Fourteen people were killed and seven others injured in rain-related incidents in different parts of Uttar Pradesh in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 106 since the last week, official sources said today.

According to reports, two people were killed each in Farukhabad and Bahraich while one each in Kheri, Raebareli, Lucknow, Kanpur Dehat, Barabanki, Sitpaur and Sultanpur.

"The toll since the last week in such incidents has reached 106 while the total number of those injured is over 100," they said.

Over 80 cattle lost their lives and over 600 houses were damaged in rain-related incidents.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed senior officials of all the districts to alert people and asked them to undertake extensive tours of the affected areas and identify dilapidated buildings and get them vacated, a government spokesperson said here.

He also directed officials to provide immediate financial and medical assistance to people severely affected by rains.

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Samsung Galaxy On8 with 6-inch screen, dual cameras launched: Know specs

Priced at Rs 16,990, the Flipkart-exclusive Galaxy On8 smartphone will go on sale from August 6 along with several introductory offers such as no cost EMI and data offers.

Samsung, a South Korean electronics manufacturer, on August 1 launched the Galaxy On8 smartphone. Priced at Rs 16,990, the Flipkart-exclusive smartphone will go on sale from August 6 along with several introductory offers such as no cost equal monthly instalments, which removes the interest components from fixed monthly instalments, and data offers in partnership with select telecom operators.

Like the Galaxy On6, which is a rebranded version made on the blueprints of the Galaxy J6, the Galaxy On8 is a rebranded version of the Galaxy J8 that was launched recently. The phone packs a 6-inch super AMOLED screen in 18.5:9 aspect ratio, and sports a dual camera set-up on the rear. The rear camera boasts artificial intelligence capabilities that allow users to experiment with the foreground and background of an image. It also features a Samsung flagship phone-inspired ‘Live Focus’ feature, which is another name for bokeh shots in which users can focus on an object while making the background look completely blurred.

The phone’s rear camera also boasts background blur shape, portrait dolly, and portrait backdrop features. The background blur shape feature adds soft light effects in different contextual shapes such as stars or hearts. The portrait dolly feature delivers a moving GIF image with zoom movements in the background for a cinematic experience. The portrait backdrop mode adds different backgrounds effects.

In terms of specifications, the Galaxy On8 features a polycarbonate unibody on the back and a 6-inch HD+ super AMOLED screen on the front. The phone sports dual rear cameras on the back -- 16-megapixel lens of f/1.7 aperture paired with 5MP lens of f/1.9 aperture. There is a 16MP selfie camera on the front of f/1.9 aperture size. The phone boots Android Oreo 8.0 operating system out of the box that used Samsung Experience user interface for added functionalities. Powering the smartphone is Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor, mated with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The dual-SIM phone supports storage expansion to up to 256GB via microSD card slot. The phone is powered by a 3,500 mAh battery.

The Galaxy On8 also comes pre-loaded with Samsung Mall, which works like Google Lens to make a visual online search for products using AI algorithms. However, the function of Samsung Mall is limited to only shopping via e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart.

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Maharashtra govt approves Rs 79 bn for water projects in drought-hit areas

The jumbo proposal is aimed at the completion of works in Konkan, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati, Nagpur and Pune divisions.

Maharashtra drought : The Maharashtra government has approved over Rs 70 billion to complete the drinking water projects in scarcity-hit areas, state minister Babanrao Lonikar said.

The government is committed to provide water to all villages that are perennially dry, the water supply and sanitation minister said in a release issued last night.

Under the National Rural Drinking Water Scheme, the government has approved a proposal of Rs 79.52 billion for completing 6,624 water projects in 10,583 villages, he said.

The jumbo proposal is aimed at the completion of works in Konkan, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati, Nagpur and Pune divisions.

Nearly 6,500 projects have already been completed in the last four years by spending Rs 55 billion, Lonikar said.

During the last four years, the main emphasis was to complete the pending projects, he said.

The water supply department ensured that funds were properly utilised and action was taken against district bodies misusing the money, he added.

Notably, the Marathwada region of Maharashtra is a perennially drought-hit area.

The region received only 86 per cent of its average rainfall last year, a senior revenue official had earlier said.

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