LIRC@SFIT

From signs of depression and anxiety to not being able to visit their parents, some Indian H-1B visa holders took to social media to discuss how their lives have been hit by uncertainties. They might have to deal with the impact of H-1B visa curbs after US President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20. Stability, a sense of security and hopes for the future, all go for a toss for H-1B visa holders in the US and those in the long queues for Green Cards. The H-1B visas, temporary visas for highly skilled foreign nationals in the US, also come with worries about paying the next bill, finding employment in 60 days if one loses their job and trying one's best to stay in the US and realise the American dream. Though Indians dominate the H-1B visa programme, with 72% of H-1B visas held by Indians, it comes at a cost. Source:  https://www.indiatoday.in/world/us-news/story/held-hostage-h-1b-visa-indian-show-depression-anxiety-long-lines-mental-health-what-comes-next-january-...

A massive digitisation project undertaken by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, in association with the Sree Narayana Mandira Samity (SNMS), Mumbai, will give a peep into the life of Sree Narayana Guru, who paved the way for a modern Kerala during the end of the 19th and the early part of the 20th century. The archive project, titled Narayana Guru Digital Research Resource Platform (NGDRRP), which began in 2023, will be fully available online this May. Siby K. George, Professor of Philosophy, IITBombay, and principal investigator of the project, said, ‘‘Detailed academic studies, especially in English, on Sree Narayana Guru are hardly available.  The digital archive project is expected to solve this issue as over 2.7lakh pages have now been scanned and hosted on the platform.” According to Girija K.P., consultant and project coordinator who coordinated the digitisation and groundlevel work, the objective of the project is to compile, sort, classify, vet, and digitise...

How will blockchain technology effectively counter spam? What are some of the steps being taken by the government against unsolicited commercial communications? Have some of the measures already taken been effective against unwanted calls and messages? What is a do-not-disturb registry? The story so far: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will be using distributed ledger technology (DLT) to register spam preferences from customers, TRAI chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said . Spam rules will be tightened to make commercial messages traceable, the TRAI has indicated. What is TRAI’s role in fighting spam? The TRAI regulates the telecom industry, and its main role is in regulating Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC), the official name for spam. Starting in 2007, the regulator implemented a do-not-disturb (DND) registry, which would force telemarketers to abide by customer preferences when it came to commercial calls. If a telecom customer signs up to the DND registry, the...