Education on technology

Instagram may have some new features up its sleeves for its users within the coming days. The social media platform is testing a feature that will let users tag a group of people on Instagram Stories via just a single mention. With the creator economy booming on Instagram at an international level, the platform keeps updating its feature palette to cater to a diverse range of user requirements. As of August, this year, the platform is estimated to have over 2.3 billion active users from around the world. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram , disclosed some information about this upcoming feature on his broadcast channel titled ‘IG Updates'. Describing the feature, Mosseri said users would soon be able to add multiple followers to create one group, and instead of having to tag people individually on Stories, they would be able to just tag the group. Mention notifications, as part of the group tag, will be sent to all the members of the group and they will be able to re-share the p...

Parliament on Friday approved amendments to the Central and Integrated GST laws to levy 28 percent tax on the full face value of bets in online gaming , casinos, and horse race clubs. The Central GST (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Integrated GST (Amendment) Bill, 2023, piloted by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, also make registration mandatory for offshore e-gaming companies operating in India. It also provides for blocking of access in case offshore platforms fail to comply with GST registration and tax payment norms. The CGST amendment bill defines 'online gaming' as a game on the internet or an electronic network. 'Online money gaming' means online gaming in which players pay or deposit money, including virtual digital assets (VDAs), in the expectation of winning money or VDAs, in any event including game, scheme, competition, or any other activity, whether or not its outcome or performance is based on skill, chance or both. With the amendment to GST law, h...

Russia on Friday launched Luna 25, the country's first lunar mission in 47 years. Luna-25 took off from the Vostochny launch facility in Russia's Far East, the Russia-based TASS news agency reported. Launched aboard a Soyuz-2 Fregat rocket, Luna 25 took flight at 8:10 am (local time) on Friday, CNN reported. The Fregat booster separated from the rocket's third stage approximately 564 seconds after the launch, according to TASS reported. The Luna-25 spacecraft will separate from the booster about an hour after the launch. The flight to the moon will take up to 5.5 days. The spacecraft will spend between three and seven days about 100 kilometers above the lunar surface before reaching the Boguslawsky crater area. Meanwhile, Manzinus and Pentland-A craters have been named as alternative landing sites. The primary goal of the mission will be to polish the soft landing technology. The mission might become the first spacecraft ever to reach the South Pole of the Earth's n...

The US Securities and Exchange Commission plans to appeal a recent court decision involving Ripple Labs that was a setback for the agency's efforts to oversee cryptocurrency markets. In a letter on Wednesday, the SEC asked US District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan to let a federal appeals court review her July 13 decision, in which she said the sale of Ripple's XRP digital token on public exchanges complied with federal securities laws. The SEC said an appeal could address legal issues on which there was "substantial ground for differences of opinion." It also said the outcome of an appeal had "particular consequence" for its ability to enforce securities laws, and for a "large number" of other lawsuits. The SEC has for years claimed that digital assets such as cryptocurrency are securities, as are stocks and bonds, and that it has the power to regulate them. It sued Ripple, Chief Executive Brad Garlinghouse, and co-founder and Chairman...

Amazon.com  plans to launch its first pair of prototype internet satellites late next month on a different rocket than previously planned, a spokesman said on Monday, again switching rides for the spacecraft to avoid mounting rocket delays. The company will launch the first two satellites for Amazon's Kuiper program, which aims to offer internet globally from space, aboard a dedicated Atlas V rocket from the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA), spokesman James Watkins said. The targeted launch date is September 26, he said. Amazon last year announced plans to launch the satellite pair aboard the first flight of ULA's new Vulcan rocket, moving them off previously planned rockets from launch startup ABL Space to avoid delays in ABL's rocket development. But delays with Vulcan have prompted Amazon to again switch rides as the e-commerce giant faces a 2026 regulatory deadline to deploy half of the 3,200 satellites planned for its Kuiper internet netwo...

India is gradually but consistently marching ahead in its blockchain and Web3 exploration. While the country is still working on formulating crypto rules and conducting trials over its eRupee CBDC, India's IT ministry has a new plan for launching a homegrown Web browser. This Indian Web browser will be packed with Web3 capabilities. The idea is to incorporate elements of blockchain into this browser to make the platform ready to handle the next iteration of Internet as well as its use cases. India's IT ministry has launched a contest called the Indian Web Browser Development Challenge this week. The contest will have a total of three rounds, and at the end of the third round the winning participant(s) will be awarded a prize of $410,685 (roughly Rs. 3.4 crore). Officials from India's IT ministry, including ministry secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma, flagged off this contest on August 9. The aim of the competition is to get India's developer talent to create a homegrown...