With instances of cyber threats increasing, the banks, which are increasingly going digital prodded by government and regulators following note-ban, are looking for cyber insurance — a fledgling industry vertical for general insurers but having large growth potential.

The country reportedly lost a whopping USD 4 billion in fiscal 2016 to cyber crimes, while globally, the economic loss due to cyber crimes stood at USD 455 billion in 2016.

According to insurance industry reports, cyber crimes are growing at 40-50 per cent annually globally. Similarly, global cyber risk insurance premium stood at USD 3.5 billion in 2016, which was only USD 2.5 billion in 2015, amply indicating growing incidents of cyber crimes across the world.

Country's largest lender State Bank, which fell victim to cyber frauds late last year, is now considering insurance to protect its over 30 crore customers.

"As we are now planning to take cyber covers for our customers, we have already asked one of the companies which are on the bank's panel of insurance advisers to prepare a report for us in this direction," SBI Managing Director Rajnish Kumar said.

Similarly, Bank of Baroda, which had seen about 1 lakh of its debit cards being compromised in the recent episode, is also keen to go for such insurance covers in future.

"We are here to ensure protection of our customers and hence we will definitely go for cyber insurance cover as and when it was required for the bank," BoB Managing Director P S Jayakumar said.

While private sector lender Axis Bank is reported to have taken cyber insurance cover from HDFC Ergo, as many as 20 state-owned lenders are seriously in talks with insurers to get cyber insurance cover. The city-based private lender did not respond to text messages seeking for confirmation.

General insurers also see a rise in demand for cyber risk insurance.

"We are in talks with quite a few banks to provide cyber insurance cover to them," New India Assurance Chairman G Srinivasan said without divulging any details.

"Cyber threat is on the rise in recent times for the banks and therefore they must go for cyber insurance cover," Srinivasan said.

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Chief Technical Officer for non-motor business, Sasikumar Adidamu, said cyber insurance has seen close to 20 per cent rise at Bajaj Allianz in the current fiscal. He also said that in-line with rising incidents of cyber threats, the industry has seen a 10-15 per cent uptake of cyber liability covers.

Appealing to the people of Jammu region to cooperate in maintaining security in wake of the upcoming Shivratri festival, police on Sunday issued advisories to ensure peaceful celebration of the festival.

While directing police personnel deployed for duty at various places in the city to remain extra vigilant, a senior police official asked police personnel to perform foot patrolling during the day and night.

The police also asked the people to cooperate at frisking points and not complain about harassment.

"The people have been asked to remain vigilant while travelling in passenger vehicles (or in) crowded areas (especially the places of worship)," a senior police officer said.

He said that the people have been asked not to touch any abandoned object and inform the police if they see any suspicious person or object in the area.

"If you have any information about any anti-national, anti-social elements (who can disturb the holy occasion of Shivratri) please inform the police immediately. Identity of informant shall be kept confidential," he said.

Appealing to the people of Jammu region to cooperate in maintaining security in wake of the upcoming Shivratri festival, police on Sunday issued advisories to ensure peaceful celebration of the festival.

While directing police personnel deployed for duty at various places in the city to remain extra vigilant, a senior police official asked police personnel to perform foot patrolling during the day and night.

The police also asked the people to cooperate at frisking points and not complain about harassment.

"The people have been asked to remain vigilant while travelling in passenger vehicles (or in) crowded areas (especially the places of worship)," a senior police officer said.

He said that the people have been asked not to touch any abandoned object and inform the police if they see any suspicious person or object in the area.

"If you have any information about any anti-national, anti-social elements (who can disturb the holy occasion of Shivratri) please inform the police immediately. Identity of informant shall be kept confidential," he said.

The recent spate of snags in the Delhi Metro has prompted its chief Mangu Singh to issue a series of directions to address a few recurring issues.

Singh has reviewed the operational issues of the over 200-km-long network and identified the trouble spots, mainly pertaining to signalling and power supply, a senior Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) official said on Sunday.

Automatic Train Control (ATC) cards, which is a speed control mechanism on board trains, and Train Interface Computer (TIC) cards, failures of which have been a major cause of service disruption, are being replaced.

"The module failing the (ATC) card has been identified and spare modules are being procured. The module will be replaced on all cards as a preventive measure. TIC cards will be replaced in the next six months," metro chief spokesperson Anuj Dayal said.

Singh has also focused on Track Circuits which are electrical devices used to detect the absence of a train on tracks and inform signallers, another trouble area, especially on the Dwarka-Vaisahli/Noida City Centre corridor or Blue Line.

Copper cables of the system have been replaced with that of steel to prevent theft in certain areas of the network while Relay Boards, that open or close an electrical circuit, are being replaced in many stations.

"Axle Counters, which can detect the entry and exit of trains from a certain location and can certify whether the section is clear for a second train or not, are likely to be installed at all originating points on Blue Line to minimise disturbances," he said.

A senior DMRC functionary had recently said much of the Blue Line's woes can be attributed to its old signalling system which, when installed, was not supposed to take the load it currently does.

Due to the 'fail safe' nature of the network, the metro system slows down or stops only to ensure the safety of the passengers on board thereby resulting in delay of services, Dayal said.

The Niti Aayog has reviewed progress of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project for which the ground breaking ceremony will take place during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later this year.

The meeting chaired by Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya, was also attended by 20-member Japanese delegation last week, decided to expedite preliminary work and obtain environmental clearances. This was 4th meeting on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project.

"The review of the project was taken. Idea is that to put pressure on ground to implement it as soon as possible. We are making satisfactory progress," said a Niti Aayog official who attended the meeting.

The ground breaking ceremony, he said, would be held at the time of visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe some time later this year.

"A general consultant from Japan has started working on the project since December 2016… Next step would be to do Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)," the official said.

He further said on ground construction for the project will commence by the end of 2018 and the train service is likely to be operational from 2023.

The high speed railway line between the two prominent cities in Western India is expected to cover 508 km in about two hours, running at a maximum speed of 350 kmph and operating speed of 320 kmph.

Estimated to cost about Rs 97,636 crore, 81 per cent of the funding for the project will come by way of a loan from Japan.

While most part of the corridor is proposed to be on the elevated track, there will be a stretch after Thane creek towards Virar which will go under the sea as per the detailed project report by JICA.

Military stores can now export non-armoured vehicles without obtaining a no objection certificate from the Department of Defence Production, a move expected to reduce procedural delay.

The government has amended the export licensing norms with immediate effect, excluding 'soft skinned vehicles' from the purview of the list of military stores requiring a NOC from the Department of Defence Production for export purposes.

The soft-skinned vehicles have been defined as vehicles which are neither armoured nor intended to be modified as an armoured vehicle in the future.

However, a no objection certificate will be required for export of military ground vehicles and components designed or modified for military use including tanks, armoured vehicles, amphibious and deep water fording machines, recovery vehicles and vehicles vehicles for towing or transporting ammunition and mine-protected vehicles.

A team of scientists has developed small, soft biological robots — bio-bots — that can walk and swim on their own or when triggered by electrical or light signals.

These tiny muscle-powered robots were first 3-D printed and then seeded with muscle cells. The cells self-organised to form functional tissues that made the bio-bots move.

"These machines are now viewed as partially living, with the ability to form, the ability to age and the ability to heal if there's an injury," Taher Saif, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in a statement.

"Now that we have got them working, we are beginning to look back and try to understand how the cells organise themselves and what language they use to communicate. This is the developmental biology of living machines," Saif added.

The group developed multiple designs to make bio-bots walk in certain directions and to control their motion with light or electrical currents.

"As engineers, we usually build with materials like wood, steel or silicon. Our focus here is to forward-engineer biological or cell-based systems," added Rashid Bashir, head of the bioengineering department at the University of Illinois. 

"The design is inspired by the muscle-tendon-bone complex found in nature. There's a skeleton or backbone, but made out of soft polymers similar to the ones used in contact lenses, so it can bend instead of needing joints like the body does," Bashir noted.

Saif said that the objective was not to make a walker and a swimmer, but to lay the scientific foundation so they have principles for building biological machines in the future.
 

Singer-actor Justin Timberlake says he has the responsibility to show his son the 1967 film The Graduate.

Timberlake was part of a Q&A session on Thursday alongside songwriter-producer Max Martin and producer Karl Johan Schuster (aka Shellback). The musician and actor talked about working on both the soundtrack and as a voice actor on the film "Trolls", reports variety.com. 

He joked that he will eventually have to have a conversation with his two-year-old son about the movie's use of the Simon & Garfunkel track "The sound of silence".

"At some point, I have a very specific responsibility to show him The Graduate," Timberlake said. 

"Because he's going to hear ‘The sound of silence' and he's going to be like ‘That's from my daddy's movie'."

As for the Oscar-nominated track "Can't stop the feeling", Martin talked about the process of knowing when a song is ready to release.

"That's one of the hardest calls," he said, revealing that he had hesitations days before the disco-inspired tune was released. 

But then, he says he was comforted: "What do you mean? It's a feel-good song with Justin Timberlake? What can go wrong?"

Private equity investment activity has begun the new year on a sluggish note with January witnessing a decline in PE investments both in volumes as well as value terms, says a report.

According to assurance, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton, there were 79 private equity investments worth $652 million in January this year, where as in the corresponding period last year there were transactions worth $1,120 million by way of 97 deals.

"PE activity continues to slip away both from a volume and value perspective," Prashant Mehra Partner at Grant Thornton India LLP said, adding that it was the startup sector which continues to lead the activity by contributing $180,000, followed by media and entertainment which contributed $120,000.

A sector-wise analysis shows that despite decelerating PE/VC investments, startup sector displayed significant traction and contributed 62 per cent of total deal volumes and 28 per cent of deal values.

"The month witnessed fewer big ticket investments with only one investment valued over $100 million compared to three such estimated deals in 2016," the report said.

Warburg Pincus picked up 14 per cent in PVR for $120 million, and the transaction was termed as the deal of the month.

Other sectors such as media and entertainment, real estate and e-commerce also attracted large investments over $50 million during the month.

Mehra further said that the deal outlook looks bullish going forward.

"With the visibility on GST and demonetisation effect behind us, combined with the pragmatic Budget, domestic consumption and growth should see further acceleration," he said.

India has the potential to become a medical tourism hub and the Modi Government has taken several measures including making the health services affordable and accessible to all, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Sunday.

The measures taken by the Narendra Modi government have ensured that the quality medical services are available at affordable price to the poor, he said, inaugurating a medical camp in suburban Bandra.

The Minister of Minority Affairs said the BJP-led dispensation has been working on priority basis to strengthen medical services and has allocated in the Budget thousands of crores of rupees to the public health sector.

He said in a revolutionary step to provide affordable, quality heart-related healthcare for all, the Centre on February 13 issued a notification fixing the ceiling the prices of coronary stents.

The step would bring down the cost of coronary stents by about 380 per cent, said Naqvi, who is also Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs.

He said the new ceiling prices will promote `Make in India' initiative in a big way. Seeing the large number of patients and future requirement, foreign companies will also try to make stents in India to cut costs and remain competitive.

At present, the market size of India made stents is roughly 30 per cent, the Minister said.

Naqvi said the Modi Government has been working on war footing to provide better health services in the rural areas as well.

Given the Government's focus on the health sector and availability of a vast pool of professionals, India has the potential to become a "medical tourism hub", he said.

He asked the medical professionals to take their job as a mission. Commercial interest alone should not dominate this mission to provide affordable and accessible health facilities for all, Naqvi said.

Terming the large resource of talented doctors and medical professionals as a matter of pride for India, he said "We need support of these dedicated medical professionals to make our health services affordable and accessible."

Hundreds of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution in Myanmar have returned home, community leaders said on Sunday, adding that most had gone back temporarily to fetch relatives.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled across the border from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine since October to escape a bloody crackdown by troops and police.

Dudu Mia, a refugee camp leader in the coastal town of Teknaf, said nearly 1,000 Rohingya — mostly young men — had returned to their home villages to collect elderly family members left behind earlier.

"Most of those men are hoping to bring their relatives back to Bangladesh. It's been four months and they have barely even talked to their parents back home," Mia told AFP.

Myanmar's army has halted its operations in the north of Rakhine, a senior official said last week, ending the four-month crackdown which the UN has warned may amount to crimes against humanity.

Hundreds from the Rohingya Muslim minority are thought to have died and almost 70,000 have fled to Bangladesh since the military launched a campaign to find militants who attacked police border posts.

Bangladeshi authorities estimate 400,000 Rohingya refugees are now living in Bangladesh, including the 70,000 most recent arrivals.

Escapees have given harrowing accounts of how security forces raped, killed and tortured Rohingya and burnt their houses to the ground.

Another Rohingya leader said some of the refugees had left Bangladesh permanently because their home villages had not been damaged by the Myanmar army and they had properties to protect.

"They left (their homes) because they were panicked. They didn't want to stay here as beggars, rather they would live in their own houses and work at land back home," he said on condition of anonymity.

The Border Guard Bangladesh confirmed that some Rohingya refugees had gone back to Myanmar.

"Scores of Rohingya people have reportedly returned home in last few days," said local commander Abujar al-Jahid.

"But we're remaining on high alert about any illegal infiltration." 

A satellite image published last year by Human Rights Watch showed how Myanmar troops burned down Rohingya villages, displacing thousands.

Most of the Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh are now living in squalid conditions in refugee camps in the Cox's Bazar district, which borders Rakhine and is also home to the country's biggest tourist resort.

Bangladesh has already approved a controversial plan for their relocation to an island and instructed officials to identify undocumented Myanmar nationals as part of the campaign.

Arsene Wenger has revealed he wants to stay in football management long-term and has indicated for the first time he would like to extend his spell as Arsenal's manager.

The Frenchman's future is up in the air, with his contract expiring at the end of the season and events on the pitch exposing him to criticism from supporters.

Wenger said earlier this week he intends to continue working as a manager even if his 21-year reign at the Emirates Stadium comes to an end, but he says his preference would be to remain at Arsenal.

When asked about his future in the game, the 67-year-old told reporters: "If you have a team, maybe you can employ me.

"That's not a threat. My preference is always to manage Arsenal. I think I have shown that. But I am adult enough to analyse the situation."

Wenger's latest low came last Wednesday when Arsenal were crushed 5-1 at Bayern Munich in the Champions League, leaving them on the brink of a seventh successive last-16 exit.

They are also 10 points below leaders Chelsea in the Premier League.

But Wenger believes he still has at least four years left in his managerial career and wants to work for longer than Manchester United's Alex Ferguson, who was 71 when he retired in 2013.

"Ferguson has some other interests in life," he said.

"He was older than I am today. He was four years older and retired at 71. I'm 67. Maybe (I'll manage for) more, or maybe less. I don't know. Everyone is different.

"I do not want to take anything away from Ferguson. He was an unbelievable manager, but had enough. I'm not at that stage."

– 'Blame culture' –

===================

Wenger also said this week he will make his decision on his future next month or in April, a change from his previous suggestion it would be at the end of the season.

Arsenal visit minnows Sutton United in the FA Cup on Monday and Wenger fears his side's performance against Bayern was so abject it will take a long time for his squad to recover from it.

"It will never be quick," he said. "We will keep that with us for our whole lives. But overall I still believe in life if you dwell too much on the past, you forget to prepare the future.

"You have to show that is part of a successful life. You have to deal with disappointments and focus 100 percent on what is in front of you and deal with that."

Wenger refused to single out playmaker Mesut Ozil for any blame following the loss in his native Germany.

"When you have a heavy defeat like that, it's difficult to come out on one individual because you look at the way we conceded goals and you can as well criticise some other players," he said.

"But overall for every single player it is always to try to get up to the next level and he is like everybody else.

"I absolutely accept the situation and analyse it well.

No matter how much we cry together, we will not change the result. The only thing we can do is win the next game.

"I would say it is more about character and being united."

"It is important you do not get in a blame culture and be united to respond well."

A centre for advanced research and excellence for childhood neurodevelopmental disorders will soon come up at the AIIMS with a focus on use of technology aided rehabilitation strategies.

The neurodevelopmental disorders to be covered by the centre will include neuromotor impairments, motor delay, language delay, cognitive delay, and epilepsy. Along with these, vision and hearing impairments will be covered as co-morbidities.

Deputy Director Administration AIIMS V Srinivas said that the institute has received the Health Ministry's approval for establishing the Rs.14.3 crore centre.

The proposal for establishing the centre for excellence was conceptualised by a team of Senior Faculty led by Prof VK Paul and Prof Sheffali Gulati.

Acting Director AIIMS Prof Balram Airan chaired a meeting with senior officials of AIIMS on February 15 to firm up the modalities and project timelines for establishing the centre.

"The state-of-the-art centre will provide high quality affordable care for all sections of the society, perform high end diagnostic and therapeutic research and act as an education and training hub," Srinivas said.

"The five key elements of the centre of excellence are creation of a National Registry, the National Knowledge and Training Centre, Advanced Diagnostics, Advanced Therapeutics & Rehabilitation and a Helpline for Teleconsultation.

"The National Registry will be the first of its kind in the country paving the way for meaningful research, policy making and advocacy for childhood neurodevelopment disorders in India," he said.

A standardised list of investigations for diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders would be developed including advanced genetic investigations in collaboration with Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology.

The genetic tests would help in antenatal counselling preventing further birth of affected children in families and unveiling of newer pathogenic and therapeutic pathways.

"The centre of excellence will focus on use of technology aided rehabilitation strategies for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. This will be done in collaboration with IIT Delhi utilising textile technology and biomedical engineering," Srinivas said.

The Centre will come up at the Mother and Child Block of AIIMS.

The Centre of Excellence will provide reliable, round-the-clock, toll free telephonic guidance. It is expected that the quality of life of both health care providers and patients and their families would improve significantly with these measures.

The India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited will be collaborating with AIIMS as part of its CSR activities for establishing the Centre of Excellence.

The IIFCL is also considering funding an AIIMS Endowment Chair for Childhood Neurodevelopmental Disorders amounting to Rs.8 lakhs per annum for organizing conclaves, capacity building in research and formulation of treatment guidelines and advocacy policies, he said.

With protesting Jats observing "Balidan Divas" (day of sacrifice) on Sunday and threatening to intensify their agitation for reservation, Haryana is on high alert with maximum deployment of forces to prevent any untoward incident.

The agitation seeking reservation in education and government jobs for the Jat community among other demands entered its 22nd day on Sunday.

The protesters have said they will bring thousands of supporters to all 20 dharna sites in the 19 districts.

As a precautionary measure, the Haryana Roadways suspended its bus service for today on some routes falling in the sensitive districts including Hisar, Rohtak, Kaithal and Sonipat, a state roadways official said.

The All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti (AIJASS), the body spearheading the fresh stir, had announced that they would decide the future course of action on Sunday.

AIJASS president Yashpal Malik had said, "February 19 would be observed as 'Balidan Divas' at different places in the state and some parts of the country in memory of those who lost their lives during last year's agitation in Haryana."

Anticipating huge gathering later in the day at the sit-in site in Jassia village of Rohtak district, the district administration has diverted Rohtak-bound traffic coming from outside to routes via Kharkhodda, Lakhan Majra and Gohana.

Except vehicles participating in Jat stir sit-in, no other traffic would ply on Rohtak-Panipat highway from Rohtak Gol Chowk till Gohana.

In Hisar district's Ramayan village, the protesters were camping close to the railway tracks and the national highway.

Drone cameras would be used to monitor the agitation.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday said here that so far there was no report of any untoward incident.

He said the protesting Jats had been invited for second round of talks on Monday.

Hisar Range IG, O P Singh said they were in regular touch with the organisers and were keeping an eye on the situation.

Haryana's ADGP, Mohd Akil said there will be "maximum deployment of forces from Haryana and of the forces from outside the state" on Sunday.

In view of the fresh round of stir, he said 37 companies of the paramilitary forces have been deployed.

The Jat leaders spearheading the stir had held a first round of talks with a Haryana government-appointed committee of senior bureaucrats last week and the next round was scheduled to take place on Monday.

Akil said the Haryana Police, Central forces and other agencies were coordinating with each other to ensure peace and law and order was maintained.

The human brain may be hardwired to appreciate poetry even if it struggles to comprehend its meaning, a new study suggests.

Researchers at Bangor University in the UK have demonstrated that we do indeed appear to have an unconscious appreciation of poetic construction.

"Poetry is a particular type of literary expression that conveys feelings, thoughts and ideas by accentuating metric constraints, rhyme and alliteration," said Professor Guillaume Thierry at Bangor University.

Researchers analysed whether we can appreciate the musical sound of poetry independent of its literary meaning.

To address this question they created sentence sample sets that either conformed or violated poetic construction rules of Cynghanedd – a traditional form of Welsh poetry.

These sentences were randomly presented to study participants; all of whom were native welsh speakers but had no prior knowledge of Cynghanedd poetic form.

Initially participants were asked to rate sentences as either "good" or "not good" depending on whether or not they found them aesthetically pleasing to the ear.

The study showed that the participants' brains implicitly categorised Cyngahanedd-orthodox sentences as sounding "good" compared to sentences violating its construction rules.

The researchers also mapped Event-Related Brain Potential (ERP) in participants a fraction of a second after they heard the final word in a poetic construction.

These elegant results reveal an electrophysiological response in the brain when participants were exposed to consonantal repetition and stress patterns that are characteristic of Cynghanedd, but not when such patterns were violated.

Interestingly the positive responses from the brain to Cynghanedd were present even though participants could not explicitly tell which of the sentences were correct and which featured errors of rhythm or sound repetitions.

"It is the first time that we show unconscious processing of poetic constructs by the brain, and of course, it is extremely exciting to think that one can inspire the human mind without being noticed!" Thierry said.

The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.