belagavi l tuesday l november 19, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Competition Commission slaps `213 crore penalty on Meta The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Monday imposed `213.14 crore penalty on the company for abusing its dominant position Action over 2021 whatsapp privacy update Asks meta to bar whatsapp data sharing The penalty is over Meta-owned WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy update on a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ basis. The commission said the update forces users to comply, undermining their autonomy, and constitutes an abuse of Meta’s dominant position. The CCI said it constituted “an imposition of unfair condition” under the Competition Act, 2002 ■ ■ The regulator asked the US social media giant to bar WhatsApp from sharing data it collected with other Meta companies The CCI said sharing of user data collected on WhatsApp with other Meta companies for purposes other than for providing WhatsApp services shall not be made a condition for users to access in India Sec 4(2) Of Competition Act, 2002 breached by the 2021 privacy policy update CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI 1 protester dead; more troops sent to Manipur Helpless local BJP office bearers resign; Shah holds 2nd review meet MUK E SH RA N JA N a n d P r a s a n ta M a z u m d a r @ New Delhi/ Guwahati Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to review the security situation in Manipur with senior officials, his second in as many days. One person was killed and another injured in alleged police firing during mob violence in Jiribam town on Sunday night even as several local office bearers of the ruling BJP submitted their resignations expressing deep concern over the prevailing “unwelcome/ helpless situation”. A mob had gone on the rampage in Jiribam and attacked the offices of the BJP and the Congress, prompting the police to allegedly open fire. The state government has ordered a probe. Given the volatile situation, the Union home ministry decided to send 50 more companies (5,000 troops) of the Central Armed Police Forces — 35 CRPF, 15 BSF — to the troubletorn state. This is over and above 20 companies (15 CRPF and 5 BSF) sent last week. At the meeting, Shah directed the CAPFs and the state po- K’taka may sue Maha govt over ads on guarantees E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru The Congress government in Karnataka is considering filing a legal suit against the Maharashtra government for allegedly publishing misleading adver tisements about its ( K a r n at a k a ’s ) g u a r a n t e e schemes, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Monday . The advertisements have come up ahead of the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, which is ruled by the Eknath Shindeled alliance government, of which BJP is a part of. Minister Govindas Konthoujam’s residence, that was set on fire in Bishnupur | PTI There is no question of withdrawing support. The govt is doing its best but unfortunately, it could not save lives. We appeal to people to exercise restraint — BJP ally Naga People’s Front minister Awangbou Newmai lice to intensify their operations to quickly restore normalcy. In Imphal, Chief Minister N Biren Singh chaired a meeting with the NDA legislators. The state’s security advisor Kuldiep Singh chaired another security review meeting. Top police and paramilitary officials were present. The meetings come after arson attacks and vandalism by mobs targeting the houses and the properties of over a dozen legislators, including ministers. Leishangthem Susindro, a minister, has built a bunker at his house, which was targeted by a mob two days ago. The Manipur government extended the ban on internet and mobile data services in seven affected districts till November 20, and ordered the closure of all educational institutes in Imphal East, Imphal West and Bishnupur districts. Influential Meitei organisation, ‘Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity’, locked the GST Bhavan and election department office on Monday. It had on Saturday issued a 24hour ultimatum to the Centre and the state gover nment, demanding a military crackdown on “armed Chin-Kuki groups”. express read CM’s brother-in-law appears before ED in MUDA case Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy appeared before Enforcement Directorate officials in connection with the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) case. He is accused no. 3 in the money laundering case registered by the ED in connection with the land allotment case | P4 Varsity’s SC/ST students yet to get scholarships Docs revive man 2 hours after heart stops beating Hosapete: Hampi Kannada University is now unable to pay scholarships for students from the SC/ST communities for the academic year 2023-24. In all, 130 SC/ST postgraduate and Ph.D scholars have not received their scholarships despite repeated requests to officials | P5 Bhubaneswar: Doctors at AIIMSBhubaneswar virtually brought a ‘dead’ man back to life after his heart stopped beating for nearly two hours after cardiac arrest. The patient, an army jawan, was revived with the help of advanced extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (eCPR) | P5 Scamsters are duping you with ‘invite scam’ now B o s k y K h a nn a @ Bengaluru A new cyber crime has caught citizens off guard and has left experts and officials perplexed. It’s the wedding invite scam. Cases related to this crime are on the rise. It is not limited to wedding invitations alone. Invitations to other events, functions No custodian for locked room in Nirman Bhawan Pa r v e z S u lta n @ New Delhi The custody of a nondescript locked room No 4 on the ground floor in ‘A’ wing of Nirman Bhawan has become a mystery of sorts as no one seems to know which ministry or department it has been allotted it. Nirman Bhawan houses offices of a couple of ministries and departments, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and its affiliated divisions such as the Central Public Work Department (CPWD), Land and Department Office and the ministry of tribal affairs. However, no ministry or department operating from the complex has come forward to claim its custody despite sending multiple reminders. In a fresh circular recently , the CPWD stated that it would break open the lock under supervision by the panel as no office had responded. Following the notices, only the Directorate of Estates, under the MoHUA, sent its response. “It is still known which department or ministry holds the possession of the room in question. November 25 is fixed to open the room,” said an official. The room’s lock will be broken next Monday at 11 am in the presence of a panel constituted to oversee it. “Representative of the ministries or departments (if any) may be deputed to present at the scheduled time and venue. Further, this room will be taken into this directorate’s (CPWD) custody read the latest circular. ,” Siddaramaiah told reporters here after Kanaka Jayanthi celebrations that the Maharashtra government had issued advertisements alleging that the guarantee schemes — which are credited for bringing the Congress back to power in Karnataka last year — were not implemented, while the Karnataka government is on record stating that it is spending Rs 56,000 crore every year on the five guarantee schemes. One of the advertisements released in Maharashtra criticising Cong ress’ guarantee schemes in Karnataka, which and charity shows are also sent. Once the links or invites are opened, the malware affects the device, after which it is remote accessed. People then start complaining of devices slowing down, being affected by viruses or even complaining of deletion of data. Cyber crime officials have cautioned people against the new scam. The officials have asked the affected people to report to them before approaching repair centres. “The malware starts to steal information after getting access to the apps,” Chetan Anand, national cyber security scholar and cybercrime intervention officer, said.  P5 This form of crime is more dangerous as the phone or device is opened up Major Vineet Kumar, founder, CyberPeace Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at a programme to mark Kanaka Jayanthi in Bengaluru on Monday| Nagaraja Gadekal Siddaramaiah has objected to, states, “Vaada kiya, Dhoka diya” (Made promises, but betrayed). The CM said these advertisements issued by the Maharashtra government were misleading and full of lies, and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, had lied about them. “All this, they are doing for votes,’’ he said, adding that the Karnataka government was now considering filing a lawsuit against the Maharashtra government. “We are checking the possibilities of moving the court, for which we are legally reviewing it,” he said. P4 Current interest rates stressful, cut them: FM E x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ Mumbai Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the current cost of borrowing is very stressful and asked banks to cut the interest rates to make bor rowing more affordable. “What is important is that when you look at our growth requirements, and you have so many different voices coming out and saying the cost of borrowing is really very stressful, and a time when we want industries to ramp up and move (to) building capacities, interest rates will have to be far more affordable,” Sitharaman said at a SBI event here. Her remarks come amid the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision not to lower the interest rates since February 2023. The rates were left unchanged for the tenth time in the October policy. Retail inflation, too, remains above the tolerance level. With the retail inflation rising to a 14-month high of 6.21% in October, analysts are expecting the central bank to keep the rates unchanged in the next policy review in December as well.