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It way back in 2015, that Aakshey Talwar (founder of GaiaQ aka Weaving Thoughts) founded a WhatsApp group called audiophilia as a part-time hobby. A hobby he thought he might need to list on his resume, should his business fail and he was forced to go abroad for an MBA. With the grace of God, both GaiaQ and Weaving Thoughts founded by Aakshey are doing splendidly well. So that card was never played. However, audiophilia was to become a forum for who’s who of audiophiles in India, and that’s exactly what happened.  Who’s an audiophile? Audiophiles are lovers of Hi-Fi (aka High Fidelity) audio equipment in the form of speakers, headphones and associated accessories. So equipment that can reveal detail that regular consumer-grade stuff can’t. Equipment that’s closer to the source or original recording. Most audiophiles would shrug away anything with the label of Bose or Beats. Aakshey is no exception, just like others at audiophilia.  What’s Audiophilia?  Audiophilia is a private WhatsApp group that welcomes members from all across the world (but most members are Indian) to discuss audiophile-grade hardware primarily. Their focus is mostly on headphones from brands like Sennheiser, Hifiman, Focal, etc. and similarly amplifiers and DACs…

New Delhi: WhatsApp has appointed former Amazon executive Manesh Mahatme as a director to lead the growth of its payments business in India. As Director, WhatsApp Payments-India, Mahatme will focus on enhancing the payments experience for users, scaling the service and work towards contributing to the messaging app’s vision of digital and financial inclusion in India, according to a statement. He has 17 years of experience in digital financial services and payments across Citibank, Airtel Money and Amazon. He joins WhatsApp from Amazon where he spent close to seven years as director and board member of Amazon Pay India and led product, engineering, and growth teams. "We are excited to have Manesh join our WhatsApp India team. Manesh has been one of key innovators driving the growth of digital payments in India over the last decade, and his experience will help us maximise the impact and scale of payments on WhatsApp," said Abhijit Bose, Head of WhatsApp in India. WhatsApp has immense potential to digitally empower people across segments and help accelerate the Government of India's efforts to drive financial inclusion through UPI and digital payments, he added. In 2018, the Facebook-owned company had started testing its UPI-based payments service…

Bhopal/Betul, Jun 27 (PTI) Encouraged after a chat with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who urged people to shed hesitancy against COVID-19 vaccine, a villager from Madhya Pradesh got inoculated along with his family members. Seeking to make people shed their reservations about vaccines against coronavirus, Modi spoke to residents of Dulariya village in MP''s Betul district. The chat was aired on the PM''s monthly ''Mann Ki Baat'' broadcast on Sunday. Modi counselled them to take the vaccine amidst their doubts about the inoculation exercise. Rajesh Hirave (43) was one of those who had a chat with the PM. "After talking to the prime minister on Friday, I along with my family members got the vaccine shot for prevention from the coronavirus infection on Saturday," Hirave told PTI over phone. " I encouraged others also, following which 127 people from the village got vaccinated,” he said. The villager further said he is now inspiring other locals to get the jab. "I am very happy to talk to the prime minister. I have no words to express my happiness,” Hirave said. The prime minister also spoke to another 60-year-old village resident Kishorilal Dhurve, who also later got vaccinated. "My father has got…

The individual, a resident near Charminar, received a friend request from an unknown woman over Facebook. By Telangana Today  |  Published: 27th Jun 2021  1:50 pmUpdated: 27th Jun 2021  2:18 pm Representation ImageHyderabad: Cyber fraudsters duped a man from the city of Rs.1 lakh after blackmailing and threatening him. The individual, a resident near Charminar, received a friend request from an unknown woman over Facebook. He accepted the request and they had a conversation on the social media messenger for a few days before switching over to Whatsapp. “During their chat on Whatsapp, the women made video calls and convinced the victim into removing his clothes on the pretext of a nude chat. The woman then recorded the video and sent it to him demanding money. Afraid of the video being uploaded on social media platforms, the man paid around Rs.1 lakh,” Hyderabad cybercrime police said. As the extortion demand continued, the victim approached the police who registered a case. The police are investigating. Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today on Telegram everyday. Click the link to subscribe. Click to follow Telangana Today Facebook page and Twitter .

Last updated on Jun 26, 2021, 03:51 pm WhatsApp Pay isn’t popular, but here’s how you can use it Facebook-owned WhatsApp first introduced an in-app money transfer service in 2018 as part of a trial. Named WhatsApp Pay, it officially launched last year and is now available to 20 million users in India. However, it doesn't seem to have caught on like rival UPI solutions—PhonePe and Google Pay—despite the Centre's Digital India initiative. WhatsApp Pay isn't popular yet, but here's how to use it. WhatsApp has more users from India than any other country According to Statista, India had over 340 million WhatsApp users as of January 2021. That is the largest number of WhatsApp users from a single country. Brazil ranks a distant second with 99 million users. However, when it was launched over two years ago as a test in partnership with ICICI Bank, WhatsApp Pay was available to just one million users in India. Today, around 20 million people have access to WhatsApp Pay Business Standard reported that on February 7, 2020, WhatsApp Pay received approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for a widespread rollout in a phased manner. The first phase made the…

By: Tech Desk | Lucknow | Updated: June 26, 2021 3:14:04 pm WhatsApp adds fast playback for voice messages. This file photo shows the WhatsApp app on a smartphone. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison, File) The latest WhatsApp beta update has added new features for Android users, but those are minors changes. The Facebook-owned company has added voice note waveforms. As per the screenshot shared by WaBetaInfo, users will now see a waveform instead of a straight line in a voice message. The feature is visible for all the beta testers in the 2.21.13.17 WhatsApp Android version. As per the cited source, some of the users are not able to play and pause from a certain point because the voice waveform isn’t very visible in dark mode and it is a bit difficult to “navigate through the voice message.” The feature is currently only available for Android users, and it could be rolled out for iOS once the issues are fixed. The latest WhatsApp beta update has also added the ability to forward in-app sticker packs. to friends or family members It is worthing noting that this feature is already available for iPhone users. Those who want to check if they have…

KABUL, Afghanistan — Zainullah Stanekzai hasn’t seen his family since he was forced to leave his home in southern Afghanistan last year in November, after his name appeared on a “kill list” of alleged Taliban targets that was being widely circulated on WhatsApp and Telegram groups.Stanekzai, who has been a journalist for 14 years covering the fall and resurgence of the Taliban is one of hundreds of Afghan journalists, artists, activists and politicians whose names have been featured in widely circulated “kill lists.”  The lists, commonly found on social media platforms and forwarded on WhatsApp groups, have been all too frequent in the last year in Afghanistan which has witnessed a spike in violence since the US signed a peace deal with the Taliban.The Afghan security official VICE World News reached out to confirmed the list, and said he was aware of them but did not comment on their origins or veracity. “Based on our intelligence, the Taliban, working with the Haqqani Network, has been conducting targeted  killings on Afghan civil society, journalists and government officials. Even those killings claimed by Daesh are conducted by Taliban,” he shared on condition of anonymity, referring to ISIS by its Arabic name. The Taliban have…

Actress and ex-Bigg Boss contestant Payal Rohatgi has been arrested by Ahmedabad police for using abusive slurs and derogatory statements on social media and a WhatsApp group.The complaint has been filed by a doctor named Parag Shah who stated that Payal hurled abuses at the society’s chairperson and also texted derogatory messages on their WhatsApp group.Shah further alleged that Rohatgi threated to physically harm anyone who argues with her over a common play area.Upon her arrest she was also tested for COVID-19 as per police norm.Payal isn't new when it comes to courting controversies.In 2019, Payal was arrested in a case relating to alleged objectionable content against the Nehru-Gandhi family on social media.The Rajasthan Police had detained her from her Ahmedabad residence for interrogation in a case. She was sent to judicial custody by ACJM court.Upon her release she had said, "They first put me in a filthy cell in the police station, then took me to jail where I was locked up with five hardcore criminals. It was a nightmare. We had to sleep on the cold floor. That’s where one sleeps in jail. I wouldn’t have been able to survive one more night in that jail.”

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and WhatsApp have partnered to launch the ‘Digital Skill Champions Program’ that aims to train India’s youth on digital skills to make them employment ready.Through this programme, school and university students would be coached to imbibe digital and online skills that would culminate with WhatsApp and NSDC awarding ‘Digital Skill Champions’ certification.The course is based on a module format, is comprehensive and intensive in imparting knowledge about essential aspects of the online ecosystem, equipping students with technology-based learning on campuses across tier-III and IV towns and cities throughout the country, NSDC said in a statement.Digital academiesAs part of the Digital Skill Academies, young adults from tier-III and IV cities will be trained on critical aspects of digital safety and online privacy. These digital academies will deliver safe technology-based learning among the youth and train them on taking charge of their safety online as they embark on their professional journeys.The initiative will kick off with a pilot across 50 campuses in five states, including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The programme will be imparted through WhatsApp’s project implementation partner - InfiSpark.“In a rapidly evolving digital world, NSDC aims to extend the…

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and WhatsApp announced on Thursday that they are partnering to launch the 'Digital Skill Champions Program' that aims to train India’s youth on digital skills, in order to make them employment ready. NSDC and WhatsApp said through this programme, school and university students would be coached to imbibe digital and online skills that would culminate with WhatsApp and NSDC awarding a ‘Digital Skill Champions’ certification to these students. The course will be based on a module-format and will target campuses across tier 3 and 4 towns and cities throughout the country. WhatsApp said as part of the WhatsApp Digital Skills Academy, young adults from tier 3 and 4 cities will be trained on critical aspects of digital safety and online privacy. The initiative will kick off with a pilot across 50 campuses in five states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The programme will be imparted through WhatsApp’s project implementation partner InfiSpark. WhatsApp will conduct training sessions to familiarise Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra trainers with the WhatsApp Business app. The training will cover modules on leveraging the WhatsApp Business app and to make small business entrepreneurship 'aspirational'. Shivanth Thukral,…