This Week I Learned - Week #11 2022

This Week I Learned - 

* Azure IoT Central is Microsoft's application platform as a service (aPaaS) offering designed to simplify and accelerate IoT solution assembly and operation by assembling platform as a service (PaaS) components into an extensible and fully managed app development platform hosted by Microsoft. 

* AWS recommends AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) which is based on CloudEndure Migration technology for lift and shift migrations. Following the successful launch of AWS Application Migration (MGN), AWS plans to start restricting the CloudEndure Migration service starting June 30, 2022. 

* CloudEndure Migration affect CloudEndure Disaster Recovery have separate roadmaps and plans. The CloudEndure Migration sunset plans will not affect the CloudEndure DR service.

* AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS) is the recommended service for disaster recovery to AWS. It provides similar capabilities as CloudEndure Disaster Recovery, and is operated from the AWS Management Console. 

* Migrating 300 or more servers is considered a large migration. The AWS large-migration strategy and best practices document discusses best practices for large migrations and provides use cases from customers across various industries. The Guide for AWS large migrations describes a high-level, phased approach for implementing the best practices outlined in the strategy document.

* Test data management is one of a set of capabilities that drive higher software delivery and organizational performance. 

* Kindle Previewer is a free desktop application that enables authors, publishers and eBook service providers to preview how their books will appear when delivered to Kindle customers, and makes it easy to audit books for different screen sizes, display orientations and font sizes.

* The Lyrics feature in Spotify available to all Free and Premium users globally across iOS and Android devices, desktop, gaming consoles, and TV brings interactive lyrics for popular songs. 

* As more people have recognized the practical value of plain language, researchers have sought to quantify the “plainness” of writing through readability formulas—mathematical models that assign numerical scores or “readability scores” to text, indicating how understandable they are. Though most readability formulas were designed to offer rough difficulty estimates for specific groups of readers, their usage varies greatly.

* The Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN) is a community of federal employees dedicated to the idea that citizens deserve clear communication from government

* Linguicism is an idea invented by human-rights activist and linguist Tove Skutnabb-Kangas to describe discrimination based on language or dialect. Many people now wag their finger at the word "ain't" or at people dropping the "g", rendering words like "running" as "runnin'", and "jumping" as "jumpin'". Now that "dropping g" is stereotyped as working class, however, it is stigmatised as wrong. Research shows that linguistic prejudices, however unintentional, against immigrant, non-standard and regional dialects have held back generations of children from achieving their best in school. 

* "Digital maturity not location is what sets you apart"

* After Microsoft, in 2000 Nathan Myhrvold co-founded Intellectual Ventures, a patent portfolio developer and broker in the areas of technology and energy, which has acquired over 30,000 patents. The company's business practices have caused controversy, however, with some deprecating the firm as a patent troll. Myhrvold has publicly defended his firm's practices, arguing that they foster innovation by serving as a marketplace for intellectual property. He has noted that many of the largest companies in Silicon Valley, including Google, Apple, and Facebook, have also bought large patent portfolios and used litigation to protect them, but he has criticized them as focusing too much on creating "tools or toys for rich people." According to The New York Times, Intellectual Ventures at one point controlled nearly 70,000 intellectual property assets (patents and patents pending) that it has used to generate approximately $3 billion in revenues, primarily in the form of license fees from large corporations. The company responds that it has returned more than $500 million to individual inventors and most of the remaining revenues to its investors.

* The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) provides standards and recommended practices for international aviation. It is responsible for setting standards for international aviation for its 192 member nations. And we have a very harmonised international aviation sector as a result, with requirements for flight crew licensing, aircraft manufacturing and environmental regulations that are all routinely met by the member states.

* Russia and Ukraine represent more than half of the world’s supply of sunflower oil, 36% of global iron or non-alloy steel exports and about 30 percent of the world’s wheat.

* Russia enriches more uranium for use in nuclear plants than any other country in the world.

* Till date, no democratically-elected prime minister in Pakistan has completed a full term in office.

* A hipster is someone whose fashion choices and music interests fall outside the mainstream. Instead of following popular trends, hipsters generally favor alternative lifestyles, progressive politics, and quirky clothing. It is an urban subculture made up mostly of young and educated bohemian types living in gentrified neighborhoods. Hipsters reject the established culture; advocate extreme liberalism in politics and lifestyle.

* Breathe (2017) is an inspirational biopic based on the short life of Robin Cavendish who was the longest survivor of polio in the pre-vaccination era.

* Cyrus Poonawala (Serum) is world's richest healthcare billionaire at $26bn.

* Ashwin Dani (Asian Paints) is world's richest paints billionaire with $9.7bn wealth.

* Rakesh Gangwal ($4.3bn) and Rahul Bhatia ($4.2bn) of IndiGo are world's richest aviation billionaires.

* Mallu Swarajyam was an Indian politician from Communist Party of India (Marxist) and freedom fighter. Born into a semi-feudal family in the backward Nalgonda district in 1931, she transformed herself into a revolutionary, mobilising people against the Nizams Razakars. At the age of 10, she happened to read Maxim Gorky's Mother, and that proved to be a source of inspiration. Her autobiography "naa maate tupaakee tootaa" (My word is a bullet) was published by Hyderabad Book Trust in 2019.

* Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platforms  extend credit without explicit consent - Sometimes signing up for or even enquiring at multiple BNPL services cuts down your credit score. A BNPL platform, such as Ola Postpaid, ZestMoney, Simpl, Amazon Pay Later, Uni, Paytm Postpaid, etc,, offers zero interest credit at payment check out points of online shopping platforms. The credit is facilitated by the BNPL platform’s NBFC or banking partner. Some platforms, such as Simpl and LazyPay, don’t process loans through formal lending channels. The credit offered at the checkout is not approved instantly and instead is drawn from a pre-approved credit line that the consumer is assigned when she signs up with a BNPL platform. Industry experts say consumers often confuse BNPL offering as a convenient payment method and don’t realize that they are, by signing up for any pay later service, giving their consent to the partner bank or NBFC to release a credit limit for them— akin to what happens when you get a credit card. BNPL is essentially credit at the end of the day and must not be treated any differently than other types of loans. For consumers, the confusion could arise from the fact that they sign-up for a ‘credit line’ and not a ‘loan’ in a BNPL service. A credit line is essentially a limit which the consumers may or may not use, but is categorized in the books as a loan in their names. If the credit line is not utilized, the consumer doesn’t have to pay anything. An unutilized credit line may also lower down your credit score. Missing a payment in a BNPL loan is reported as a delinquency to the credit bureaus, just like any other loan. A credit line, if utilized, doesn’t lapse and you will have to deactivate your pay later account to close the ‘loan’ showing up on your credit report. Consumers cannot terminate pay later service if they have outstanding dues.

* Credit bureaus have algorithms that consider around 34 parameters to arrive at credit scores. No one parameter, unless it’s a loan default, can have a major impact on the score. 

* The RBI barred Paytm Payments Bank from taking on new customers because its servers were sharing information with China-based entities that indirectly own a stake in Paytm Payments Bank. Paytm Payments Bank has over 300 million wallets and 60 million bank accounts, according to its website. The fintech startup had launched India's largest IPO of Rs 18,300 crore in November but the stock has been dwindling since its listing.

* EPF accounts are mandatory for employees earning up to ₹ 15,000 per month in any firm with over 20 workers.

* GST rates on pizzas differ on the basis of how they are prepared and sold. A pizza sold and eaten within a restaurant attracts 5% GST, the pizza base bought separately attracts 12% while a pizza delivered at home attracts 18% GST.

* Keeping in mind the social injustices suffered by the lower castes the Mandal Commission, headed by Bindeshwari Prasad Mandal was formed in 1979 by the government of Morarji Desai selected to identify the “socially or educationally backward classes of India”. This commission proposed to give 27% reservation to OBC (Other Backward Classes), which resulted in 49% of jobs for them in public universities and public services. The creamy layer (income) criteria were defined as annual family income from all sources more than 100,000 rupees (₹ or INR defined by Santhanam committee in 1971, together abbreviated Rs 2.5 lakh) per annum in 1993, and revised to ₹ 4.5 lakh (2004), Rs 6 lakh (2013) and Rs 8 lakh (2017). OBC-NCL or Non-Creamy Layer Certificate was introduced by former Prime Minister V.P.Singh in 1993. With the implementation of this certificate, a lot of jobs were allocated in Central Government and Public Sectors for persons holding the certificate. Students holding Non-Creamy Layer Certificate also enjoy certain allocation in top educational institutions like IIT and IIM.