Category: Science and Technology

Are you consuming Bad fats?

Fats are not always harmful to the human body. Like other essential nutrients for the human body, fats are also important but everything in a huge amount will affect our body negatively.

There are two types of fats good fats and bad fats

Good fats are unsaturated fats and omega 3s are healthy for our body they boost our energy level, fight fatigue, improve our mood, and even help in weight loss.

while bad fats such as saturated fats or trans fats are responsible for our weight gain, fatigue, raise cholesterol which ultimately causes many serious cardiovascular diseases, cancer, obesity, and diabetes.HDL cholesterol is the “good” kind of cholesterol found in your blood.LDL cholesterol is the “bad” kind. The key is to keep LDL levels low and HDL high, which may protect against heart disease and stroke.

 When we hear cholesterol it always has a bad impression in our mind. We think it is not good for our body but as like other nutrients cholesterols are also important in a sufficient amount for our body, until it doesn’t become bad for the health. 

Most of the foods that contain these types of fats are solid at room temperature, such as:

  • butter
  • margarine
  • shortening
  • beef or pork fat

 Most saturated fats are animal fats. They’re found in high-fat meats and dairy products.

Saturated fat sources include:

  • fatty cuts of beef, pork, and lamb
  • dark chicken meat and poultry skin
  • high-fat dairy foods (whole milk, butter, cheese, sour cream, ice cream)
  • tropical oils (coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter)
  • lard

Eating too much-saturated fat can increase blood cholesterol levels and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels.

Traditionally, doctors have linked higher saturated fat intakes with increased heart disease risks. This idea has been called into question more recently.

Short for “trans fatty acids,” trans fat is generated synthetically and appears in foods that contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. These are the worst fats for you. You might find trans fat in:

  • fried foods (French fries, doughnuts, deep-fried fast foods)
  • margarine (stick and tub)
  • vegetable shortening
  • baked goods (cookies, cakes, pastries)
  • processed snack foods (crackers, microwave popcorn)

Like saturated fat, trans fat can raise LDL cholesterol, also known as “bad” cholesterol. Trans fat can also suppress high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels or “good” cholesterol.

Essential fatty acids- These are the fatty acids can not be synthesized. There are two types of essential fatty acids-

  1. Linoleic acid (Omega 6)
  2. Alpha linoleic acid 

 Linoleic and Linoleic acids are the essential fatty acids that are derived from foods containing Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. 

Alpha Linoleic acid is a type of omega-3 fatty acid. The best source of Omega- 3 is oily fish. It can also be derived from other marine sources, such as algal oils. ALA, on the other hand, is mainly obtained from nuts and seeds.

Here are the amounts of omega-6s in 100 grams (3.5 oz) of the following foods:

  • Soybean oil: 50 grams
  • Corn oil: 49 grams
  • Mayonnaise: 39 grams
  • Walnuts: 37 grams
  • Sunflower seeds: 34 grams
  • Almonds: 12 grams
  • Cashew nuts: 8 grams

Here are the amounts and types of omega-3s in one serving of the following foods:

  • Salmon: 4.0 grams EPA and DHA
  • Mackerel: 3.0 grams EPA and DHA
  • Sardines: 2.2 grams EPA and DHA
  • Anchovies: 1.0 grams EPA and DHA
  • Chia seeds: 4.9 grams ALA
  • Walnuts: 2.5 grams ALA
  • Flaxseeds: 2.3 grams ALA

Anything that we consume in our diet should be healthy along with the taste.

Next time do check whether you are consuming something which is not good for your health…

References-

1. Siri-Tarino, P.W., et al., Saturated fatty acids and risk of coronary heart disease: modulation by replacement nutrients. Curr Atheroscler Rep, 2010. 12(6): p. 384-90.

2. Hu, F.B., Are refined carbohydrates worse than saturated fat? Am J Clin Nutr, 2010. 91(6): p. 1541-2.

The Man Who Knew too much: Alan Turing

I remembered my first day in college, our vice-chancellor arranged a seminar for all departments 1st-year student, he motivated us, told us about the future that is in our hand, and one thing that I always keep in my mind he told that every student should know to code, I knew the importance of code language, programming, Artificial Intelligence but I really not aware of their history how it was developed, so after the session, I am starting to know about code languages during this time I came came to know about a man “Alan Turing” his life, passion for mathematics and machine, code languages, computer science, just mesmerized me.

Alan Mathison Turing the Father of Modern computer science and Artificial Intelligence. Today Mr. Turing’s 108th birth anniversary. He was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalization of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general-purpose computer.

His revolutionary idea was to create a machine that would turn thought processes into numbers. The machine would read a series of ones and zeros from a tape which described the steps needed to solve a problem or task.During the Second World War, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, Britain’s codebreaking centre that produced Ultra intelligence. For a time he led Hut 8, the section that was responsible for German naval cryptanalysis. Here, he devised a number of techniques for speeding the breaking of German ciphers, including improvements to the pre-war Polish BOMBE method, an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine.

  • German Enigma Machine
  • BOMBE
Reconstructed form of Bombe now in the national museum of computing, England

Turing played a crucial role in cracking intercepted coded messages that enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many crucial engagements, including the Battle of the Atlantic, and in so doing helped win the war.he and fellow scientist saved lots of life by code breaking.

The man who is a pioneer of modern mathematics and computer science, his invention, theories changed today’s technology. Tribute to the world’s great Inventor Mr. Alan Mathison Turing🙏.

Worst Technical failures ever

All of us are much aware of the technology that succeed but some technologies are their that doesn’t able to make history and miserably fails .Let’s look over them.

Apple Newton

Apple Newton was a Apple’s handheld Personal digital assistant.Main idea behind this was to create a portable and easy to use computer that “it had to fit the Apple’s CEO john Sculley’s pocket”,eventually Newton’s team jokingly said that they have to break into the house and sew larger pockets in all of his pants.The PDA could take notes, store contacts, and manage calendars and could use it to send a fax.It also include the feature that could translate handwriting into text but ultimately this feature led to the sudden death of the PDA. Due to poor architecture they barely make it working.However,it’s development accidentally lead to ipad,thus proving that one can learn from their failures and get along a way to success.

Google+

Google+ was a social network owned by Google and launched on 28 June,2018.But Google+ was a massive failure .Google+ was launched without having a proper plan ,just to compete with Google+.In its last time it was having a huge bug which led to exporture of data of millions of users ,ultimately led to death of Google+.Google+ is not only a social network that has shut down ,GoogleBuzz was lauched in 2010 and retired the next year and there are many more.

Tata Nano

Tata Nano was car manufactured and marketed by Indian automaker Tata Motors ,primarily in India at the price of 1 lakh .Due to cost cutting car was lacking qualities .To lower the price airbags were removed without even thinking about the safety measure and instead they use only one wiper and there were many techniques to keep the price low as possible.Due to its poor build quality it failed miserably and eventually the sales keep on declining.In 2016-2017 Sales reached 7,591 for model .Due to low sales , Tata motors eventually announced the end of production in May, 2018.

iSmell

iSmell Technology was among the all crazy gadgets developed by DigiScents Inc.It was designed to emit smell that corresponded to a user visiting a site or opening an E-mail.There was no flaw in the design but in the idea .There was no need of this type of product , and ultimately it didn’t get attention and fails miserably .It’s deadly defect was that it was consider ridiculous by many and ultimately company get bankrupt.

Windows Phone

Windows Phone was too late to enter in the market.In the business to lead one have to come first with idea ,or come with best quality or ,the cheapest and Windows failed in both quality and the price.The one thing which are people more decline to is number of apps.Though apps were available on the both the platform but Android were more polished.Phone has a poorly designed mobile Operating system which is one of the reason of it’s failure .They failed to support the mobile OS as needed .Neither they have a good interface to build high market.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comment below and have a wonderful day.

The creation of the swiftest fifth-matter

We know the usual three-phase or the state of matter exist around us, namely solid, liquid, and gas. What exactly is it? We can define it as something which exists in this universe, which has some weight of its own and consists of several atoms. When we move to the molecular level, we can see that they bind to each other; hence they’re the building blocks for every material. Let’s discuss them in detail.

Solids in which the particles are close to each other with almost no movement. This structure is visible through a powerful microscope. You know that a solid with its shape doesn’t change unless we apply some external force. Due to its high density, it attains stability. The liquid, which we commonly drink like water have slightly less force of attraction, so it can change its shape when we alter it. Gas is all around us. The atmosphere itself consists of 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, and other major constituents.

Ripples in the water

Let me introduce to the two unfamiliar matters we rarely know. Plasma found in televisions, and I guess you may already make this guess earlier. This matter is also present in neon signboards, computer chips, and even the inner lining of your favorite chips packet, the shiny metallic layer. Most importantly, it is the most natural state ever found in the entire universe; after all, the stars are also plasma at very high temperatures.

So, now moving on to the fifth matter, the BEC. Originated back in 1924, one of the great scientists, Albert Einstein, along with the Indian physicists, Satyendra Nath Bose in his papers, described the condensate and named after them. This matter was created in 1995 at the University of Colorado using lasers and magnets. They cooled a sample of a metal known as Rubidium, atomic number 35 to almost zero degrees at an instant. Due to the sudden change of temperature, the atoms internally couldn’t move much. Later the kinetic energy lost, and a giant molecule got created.

A shiny beam of light.

In the year 2020, the researchers were able to recreate it with less than a blink of an eye, which is still very slow and maybe much less than you could ever imagine. It just got created in 100 femtoseconds, i.e., only in 10-13 seconds. Even the advanced cameras couldn’t work so fast. The researchers of Finland described the process where they pumped in energy in 50 femtoseconds was visible, but with 300 femtoseconds, it wasn’t noticeable. The condensate generates a very sharp striking band of light, very bright, which may have more uses in the future. Now with further advancement, the matter was even created in the space on the largest space station, ISS, where there is zero-gravity. The research in areas got carried out using Cold Atom Lab, a 70-million-dollar lab with only 0.4 cubic meter space with all necessary items to create the BEC. The lab process of creation was also patented, and they are eager to work more in the field.

“Proxima B – Planet supporting life?”

Humans have been developing technologies and doing research in the field of space since the last 5-6 decades. We have been successful in launching various space missions which include launching satellites, landing on moon in late 60’s, satellite and rover to Mars and many others. With  the help of these missions and discoveries made by them, we are able to understand space and various other phenomena in it with a close view. The Hubble telescope, launched in 1990 has helped us to view space very closely and helped us to know about the existence of other planets at distance as well as centauries. Since these observations do facinate humans and the desire to explore it more, we are developing new technologies which would help us to reach out to these planets. The closest planet which we are in the run to land on is Mars. As per the plans of Spacex, they are planning a manual spaceflight to Mars by 2024. 

But there have been other observations also, and we have achieved results which do show the presence of planets like earth. We are still finding the question of existence of life on other planet and thus brings up the curiosity of humans to find them and reach them out. We have been able to find out many planets which have possibilities of life on them, but we do not have the desired technology to reach these due to the distance barrier as they are situated at various light years. But still there does exist a chance to reach one of them named “Proxima-B”.

  1.  This planet is supposed to be the same size as Earth and lie at a distance of 4.24 light years . It was found in the nearest Alpha centauri. 
  2. Proxima B revolves around a star named Proxima Centauri and is supposed to be at a distance suitable for supporting life on it. It lies at a distance of 75 lakhs kilometre and has an expected time to complete its orbit around it’s stars is 11.2 Earth days. But Due to the smaller size of its star, Proxima B lies in the habitable zone as per the experts.
  3.  It is supposed to have water reserves if it has an atmosphere around it. As per the computer model and analysis, it does give the possibility of atmosphere and water. 
  4. Some scientists also believe that as this lies close to its star, it could be tidally locked, like the moon. This means that one side if this planet remain s towards the star and the other remains in dark . This suggests the possibility of keeping the area hot which faces the star, while others remain cold. This suggests the life to be supported at the border area. But it’s just a belief and scientists do have a conflicting thought on this. 

But the main question which comes to mind is “Can we reach there with the same technology we use for other planets and how long will it take”. It’s believed that with the current technology it would take thousands of years to reach Proxima -B thus making it a difficult task with the current technology. But scientists are working on unmanned vehicles which can be light weight and thus able to reach it. Breakthrough starshot technique is being tested for the same and it’s believed we can reach Proxima -B through this. It is believed it would just take 15-20 year to reach this planet as they would be travelling at very high speed. These would be working on lightsail instead of rockets to work and go beyond the distance. Once they are made, they would be left in the earth orbit and laser light would be travelling to them which would power them and would thus move towards the destination. At an expected speed of 1/20th speed of light. 

It seems that some of these technologies and work experiment could help us reach out to the nearest of planets which could support life but there are some of problems with these, which are:

  1. These would be really expensive experiments. 
  2. We still do not know how to stop these vehicles once they reach out there. Which surely means we would have less time analyze the planet and soon it will pass it 
  3. Surety of life isn’t confirmed. 

“So these experiments bring out the hope of life and our possibilities to reach them out. Scientists and their teams are working on research work and ideas which could make this dream a reality and could help us to reach out other life forms of dynasties if possible and thus opening new life possibilities , adventures, risk but with learning being the better probability”. 

The revival of Neanderthal: The Return of our ancestor

We, the homo sapiens, now are the most advanced creature compared to our ancestors after a long evolution history dated back around 15 million years ago. Humans belong to the order primates and class Mammalia with our other members like the well-known apes, gorillas, chimpanzees, macaques, orangutans, etc. which originated from 85 million years ago. You might have seen several illustrations of human evolution, as shown below.

The evolution of a man . Courtesy: Britannica Encyclopedia

If you are familiar with the biology subject, you may know the reason. Charles Darwin, the father of evolution in his book, The Origin of Species, mentions about the series of natural selection, the struggle to exist in the world, survive by making proper tools, variation, and changes in the body like shape, color, etc. As a result of mutation and many more factors like genetic recombination, We know the stages of human evolution right from Dryopithecus, Ramapithecus, Australopithecus, Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens Neanderthals and finally Homo Sapiens Sapiens. The closest ancestors were Neanderthals. There were others in the timeline like Homo Habilus and many more, but now researches have found a way to revive the brain of a Neanderthal. By this we can know more about, let’s see how.

The Father of Evolution: Charles Darwin

Neanderthals with a big brain and vast muscular body in size compared to Homo Sapiens. Additionally, a large head was its specialty along with powerful jaws, hunters with the tools used by them were advanced when compared to their ancestors. The researchers at Basel, Switzerland, the neuroscientists specifically grew up small replicas or copies of the brain from stem cells along with the DNA of Neanderthals. We, being a modern man, still may share about 1 to 4 percent similarity in the genes compared to them. This theory holds as the genomes of a European family matched with the reference of a 2010 model of Neanderthal genome by Svante Pääbo, a geneticist.

The following finding helped to generate three-dimensional objects of brain tissues in a petridish used in laboratories. Organoids of these miniature-sized brains are commonly used to test the effects of drugs. This information may help us more to know about the previous lifestyle, the diet of a Neanderthal. Our ancestors had a problem of communication, maybe due to the absence of language as we use today effectively. These brains were grown from pluripotent stem cells using five cell lines to produce brain organoids, leading to single-cell RNA sequencing data to learn more about their cell composition in the past.

The miniature brain cells grown from the stem cells.

We still share some common characteristics with our ancestors, like hair and skin color. Neanderthals and Denisovans genomes were found in caves, depicting they lived around 80 to 120 thousand years ago. This researches in the future may help to find the proper treatment for cancer. Just imagine, for a while, the stem cells are a gift from nature. It’s unique, usually seen during the development of a baby child, and it can generate all different cells right from a muscle cell to the most crucial brain cells. They help to recover the damages formed in the tissues also. The science of cell being so small may amaze you, and it does.

For more details, refer to the PDF: https://www.cell.com/stem-cell-reports/pdf/S2213-6711(20)30190-9.pdf

Natural Calamities – Uncertainty and different Possibilities.

Nature is a divine power and we humans still face challenges to fight back its cruelty and become tougher to survive during its duration and the time after it’s gone. These calamities are all natural, and these include earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, cyclones and various others which do question the survival of human and other living breeds on this planet. These have been a part of earth atmosphere and earth is confined to happening of these every year in various parts of the world. There have been times when these calamities have peaked up and had shown their devastating phase harming both men and material. We have seen earthquakes of magnitude 9.5 in early 60’s in Chile, , we have seen floods, typhoons, tsunamis and many more which have been proven to be deadliest. 

We hear about these hurricanes and cyclones or typhoons each meaning the same. These differ in their names on the basis of their presence, like we often name tropical storms of high speed as hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean, while similar strong winds are named as cyclones in South pacific and Indian oceans. These are usually storms which are rotating at high speeds. We know that pressure is low near these tropical areas because the air is warm . These form when the warm and moist air over the ocean rises  this attracts the nearby colder air to accumulate nearby by forming the swirls of air. The moist air continues to rise and thus cools, forming clouds. These clouds usually continue to swirl and thus go on expanding. These hurricanes can be really strong and effective and thus cause a lot of destruction to the area which is hit with it. 

So we do acknowledge how these hurricanes can be really harmful for us and thus cause a lot of destruction but “What if 2 or more hurricanes coming from distant areas collide, what would be the result and how would it affect the humans”. This Phenomenon of two hurricanes coming close don’t happen often but scientists believe that it do happen. But The Fact to concentrate is that scientists also believe that these could become a common calamity as the temperature of earth’s rising, it would really be a bad experience if one came across such scenario of two hurricanes colliding. So it’s believed that if the two hurricanes are of equal size and strength, they would orbit around a common centre. This could result in sending or pushing them back in different directions or maybe it could end this due to collision. But if one is bigger in size or strength, then the smaller one would get absorbed in the  bigger one, which can increase the power and strength and life span of the hurricane. This could really impact humanity by it’s destruction. 

“Climatologists  believe that in future times these could become common and the speed of these winds could increase significantly since the earth temperature is rising. These would lead to rise of more storms in the tropical areas. We believe that it’s all natural and humans can’t do anything about these. But since we understand the importance of “Global Warming” and “Climate Change”, which is affecting earth’s temperature to rise. We could strongly work on our carbon emissions and factors leading to these phenomena. We can shift to a better source and mode of technology and infrastructure which would not only help us fight with increasing global warming but also protect us during occurrence of these natural calamities. We humans do have a bigger part in these natural calamities which we hide to blame and thus question our nature everytime”. 

The youngest baby star in the universe

We all like to gaze up at the sky during the night. Some even try to count them. You may calculate them in your test paper or rate a hotel based on stars, but there are many, and it won’t be possible to count them. According to an estimation, there are more than 9000 visible stars in the sky and around 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way Galaxy and more in the entire universe.

A neutron star was found and made it on the list when it was nearly 240 years old. Yes, that’s the youngest star, a neutron star to be precise. But what does it mean? Neutron, by the name, consists of 95 percent neutron, which is indeed made from protons, releasing the particles called neutrinos. There’s a lot more to know about in the world of astronomy. These neutron stars have a mass nearly 1.4 times compared to the sun.

A supernova in the galaxy.

These originate after the death of another giant star and form newer stars. There are many types of neutron stars, and the recently found one is a magnetar. Magnetar usually has a powerful magnetic field. The field can be so strong, about a hundred million times stronger than the most potent magnets on Earth made by the humans, and it can manipulate the shape of an atom. These magnetars can remain active for around ten thousand years, considered as a short time in cosmic history.

You may have heard about supernova. The neutron star is created due to the same supernova, as mentioned above earlier. There are more than 3000 neutron stars, and researchers know only 31 magnetars. The magnetar discovered is named Swift J1818.0-1607 on 12th March this year 2020, along with a substantial amount of X-rays, gamma rays, and stable beams of radio waves. This star was noticed at NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.

The actual image of Swift J1818.0−1607. Courtesy : NASA

The star is a part of the Sagittarius constellation and 16000 light-years away, making it somewhat close to Earth when compared to other stars. Do you know the nearest star to the planet Earth is Alpha Centauri, which is about 4.3 light-years away? The neutron stars can be merely 15 km to 30 km wide, and it can turn around once every 1.36 seconds, one of the fastest-spinning matters. This star also falls in a category known as radio pulsars, and the magnetar is one of the five radio pulsars ever discovered.

An illustration of a magnetar. Courtesy: EAS

There is very little information about these categories, and this single discovery can help in learning about its formation, aging, and its existence. This discovery was made when there was an outburst at that moment. So some findings may occur unknowingly; the researchers wished if they could see from its existence. This star was observed when the X-ray emissions were at the peak, making it ten times shinier than usual as the magnetar was out-bursting. Some inventions may happen accidentally but may make a significant change to humankind. Let me describe with an example: the discovery of penicillin was made by Alexander Fleming in 1928 when he had returned from a vacation.

“Time Crystals – New Form Of Matter”

Space theories and phenomena have challenged human’s understanding about it every time with new observations and experiments. We have been trying to understand different kinds of constituents present around us irrespective of their presence on our surface or outside our planet. New findings with the increasing research and ideas have led to solving a number of theories which earlier were just meant to be theoretical until practically proved. Just long as our knowledge about space is increasing through our frequent visits to space, it is increasing our complexities with new discoveries . One of these experiments which was earlier believed to be just a theory with little physical significance was the discovery of “Time Crystals”. The idea of the time crystal came a few years ago in 2012 came by the scientists, discovering a new state of matter which truly exists. The interesting fact about these particles is their properties which differentiated in their atomic structure repeats themselves in space and time. 

But the initial question is “What are these time crystals?” To understand this we would start by understanding actually these crystals are. Crystals are solid particles having constituents like atoms, molecules and other charged molecules are present in well defined order, which thus forms chain and forms the base for the next later. The layering up of these small molecules continues and thus follow up a specified pattern which reflects back the light and we do see it. These patterns of molecules follow a specified pattern in space and do not get affected by time. This means that if we see a normal crystal particle, it would remain the same as it is for years, until we or any other forces destroy it. Time crystals have some different properties. This means that the particles do follow the same pattern in space but also follow up with time and that these particles do not have fixed shape and size. These are most commonly known as now equilibrium matter because of their inability to come to rest once they come in motion. 

The basic difference between a normal crystal or any other matter particle and time crystal can be understood with an example. Consider crystal particles to be big enough to see, so if we apply force on one particle of the crystals, it would get transferred to the next particle and so on in the pattern they are arranged, until it get finally absorbed, since energy is lost in this process in transferring from one molecule or particle to other. But time crystal or non equilibrium matter are attached in repeated pattern. These present quantum entangled patterns, and as soon as energy reaches the entangled atom,, the next pair gets information before it’s gonna be transferred to , which means it starts moving before the energy reaches it, thus leading to cause motion in all the atoms or particles. This could be considered as an infinite motion or movement since no energy is getting lost.l and are not able to achieve equilibrium. It could be related to a perpetual motion machine which could work without an energy source forever, but which is impossible. So there were various doubts in this theory and thus it was just considered to be theoretically only. 

“But it has been found that time crystals do exist through different experiments done by scientists. And could be beneficial for future use.Right and better use of time crystals haven’t been found yet, but it’s sure that these particles are surely changing our research and opening new phases to space research and understanding about universe”. 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON UBER REMOVED

A Colombian court reversed an order that required ride-hailing company Uber to temporarily halt it’s activities in the country last year and to change the company’s service delivery model.

The Industry and Commerce Superintendency (SIC), which regulates fair competition and protects consumers, said Uber had violated the rules of competition in a taxi company lawsuit in December. In February Uber resumed transporting passengers with a new model of service that allows users to rent cars with drivers.

But in a decision dated Thursday, the Superior Tribunal of Bogota said the time limit for the taxi company to present its complaint had expired.

The SIC has repeatedly fined technology companies like Uber and Rappi this can mainly be attributed to the lack of regulatory framework for delivery and ride-hailing apps. DiDi and Cabify also operate in the country.

“It must be remembered that the situation of digital platforms in regards to the provision of these types of services is a regulatory issue that must be resolved via laws,” the head of the SIC Andres Barreto .

After recently announcing salary cuts and layoffs for its workers, Uber has furloughed hundreds of its employees in India, as coronavirus is chewing up sales. The company has announced that it will no longer operate with 600 workers in its Indian business, as the company is looking to slash expenses in the wake of a pandemic. The figure is 25 per cent of Uber ‘s total nation workers, Uber said Tuesday in a tweet. The announcements made by Uber follow an earlier statement made by its local competitor Ola, which had laid off 1,400 employees or around one in every third employee.

 “Around 600 full time positions across driver and rider support, as well as other functions, are being impacted. These reductions are part of previously announced global job cuts this month,” Pradeep Parameswaran, President for Uber’s India and South Asia businesses, said.

Job cuts were implemented through out various departments from client and driver service, corporate growth, compliance, regulation, communications, and finance. As part of the company ‘s corporate turnaround program, Uber has retrenched about 6,700 employees this month. The American multinational ride hailing company said it gave the laid off workers 10 to 12 weeks of pay. Uber has provided them with medical benefits over the next six months.

“The impact of Covid-19 and the unpredictable nature of the recovery has left Uber India with no choice but to reduce the size of its workforce. Today is an incredibly sad day for colleagues leaving the Uber family and all of us,” the statement said.

But with easing lockdowns the company said on Wednesday trip requests were gradually picking up, but still remained significantly below prior year levels, as several countries start to lift coronavirus-led restrictions.

Trip requests are now down about 70% from a year earlier, slightly lesser than April’s 80% drop, Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said in a conference with Bank of America analysts. He said the company’s rides business is improving on a week-over-week basis, adding that the surge in food-delivery orders at Uber Eats recorded in the first quarter, showed no signs of slowing in May, easing concerns of investors who thought it could be a one-off trend during the pandemic.

Source: 1.https://in.reuters.com/article/uber-colombia/colombia-court-overturns-restriction-on-uber-idINKBN23R0DQ?il=0

2.https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/sme/uber-lay-offs-coronavirus-lockdown-startups-uber-india-staff-fired-industry-salary-cuts-job-loss-uber/1970594/

3.https://www.deccanherald.com/business/uber-signals-recovery-in-rides-as-coronavirus-lockdown-restrictions-ease-845468.html