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WhatsApp users in India will now be able to send money through the popular messaging app as the service received approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to go live on Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in the multi-bank model. The approval comes after two years of testing.  “We’ve been working on this with the National Payments Corporation of India, who oversee everything to make sure it’s secure and reliable. Andwe’ve built it using India’s Unified Payments Interface, which makes it easy for anyone to instantly accept payments across different apps -- and for companies to provide people with great services,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. However, the payment service will only be rolled out to 20 million WhatsApp users and the messaging app has over 400 million users in India. That’s because NPCI has said that a 30 percent cap will be implemented on total payment volumes via every third party payments app from January 1, 2021. Wh...

Will the name of Guwahati's airport - Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (LGBI) - be relegated to the background and preceded by the name of the corporate behemoth, Adani Group, to which it has been leased out? Days after taking charge of the three airports at Lucknow, Ahemadabad and Mangalore, on a lease of 50 years, Adani Airports' name has been prominently displayed in all of them and it precedes their actual names at nearly all the locations.   The move has raised eyebrows of airport unions which they allege doesn’t seem to conform to the terms of agreement of the lease. According to the lease agreement signed between the Airport Authority of India and Adani Group, “The airport or any part thereof shall not be branded in any manner to advertise, display and reflect the name of the identity of the Concessionaire or its shareholders. The concessionaire undertakes that it shall not in any manner use the name or identity of the airport to advertise o...

Rare Blue Moon To Appear On October 31: A Treat For Sky-Watchers On Halloween 2020   Rare Blue Moon to Appear on October 31: A Treat For Sky-Watchers On Halloween 2020 Representational Image (Photo Source: Indian Express) On 31 October 2020, a rare Blue Moon will appear in the sky, which will be visible in the night sky from around 8:19 pm. A Blue Moon is a second full moon in a calendar month. October has two full Moons this year out of which the second moon is usually anointed as the Blue Moon. This time the Blue Moon is coinciding with Halloween. The last time such a phenomenon was seen on Halloween was back in 1944. There was a blue moon on Halloween in 2001, but it was only visible in the Central and Pacific time zones and as per NASA the next Halloween Blue Moon will occur in the year 2039.   The first Full Moon of the month – known as a Harvest Moon – occurred on October 1. October 1 saw a full moon and the next full moon falls on October 31, said Arvin...

TheGuwahatibuzz | OCTOBER 30, 2020  6:40 hrs GUWAHATI: Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) in its bid to keep the city clean more effectively and efficiently has launched a software on “Public Feedback regarding Garbage Collection of NGOs”. The software was launched by Guwahati Development Department (GDD) Minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya. The public can visit the link https://gmcassam.in/feedback/ to place their feedback on NGO’s regular garbage collection for smooth monitoring of Garbage Collection. Based on public feedback, an inquiry will be done. In the meantime, six (6) nos of contracts of NGO’s have already been terminated by the GMC on the basis of public feedback on their performances.

traffic To facilitate traders to carry small quantities of goods in a faster and more secured way through parcel trains, Indian Railways has decided to rationalize its parcel rates. • For piece-meal Parcel Vans and indented Parcel trains: For piece-meal Parcel Vans and indented Parcel trains, a discount of up to a maximum of 30% (thirty percent), on the applicable scale of charging as per rules, may be granted; provided the utilization of Parcel Vans returning to other Railways after unloading on the Zonal Railway, has been below 40% during the previous three (03) months. •For space in SLRs/Brake-vans of passenger-carrying trains: For SLRs/Brake-vans of passenger-carrying trains, a train specific discount of up to a maximum of 30% (thirty percent), on the applicable scale of charging as per rules, may be granted subject to the following conditions: a)The utilization of SLRs/Brake-vans of such trains has been below 40% during the previous three (03) months, and b)No demand...

GUWAHATI: The Education Department of Assam was asked to provide smartphones to the students of economically weaker families by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal while attending a meeting with officials of the department, alongside health officials on 27th October.  Smartphones are to be provided so that students of poor families are not left out of the classes being conducted online.  The meeting was held to discuss the reopening of schools after months of lockdown. The Chief Minister also advised for the distribution of iron and folic acid tablets, and yoga classes for boosting immunity to the students.  While the COVID care centers that were being set up at the schools were asked to be shifted immediately, Sonowal also advised that each school be linked with one health centre for a regular check-up of students.  Schools in Assam are to reopen on 2nd November maintaining strict COVID protocols.