16 - 31 July 2020 The Asian Independent

20 16-07-2020 to 31-07-2020 TECHNOLOGY
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
London : In a major U-turn, the
UK government on Tuesday
announced a ban on the purchase of
new Huawei kits for 5G from next
year and said that the Chinese telecom
giant’s equipment will be completely
removed from 5G networks by the
end of 2027.
The decision comes following new
advice produced by the National
Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on the
impact of US sanctions against the
telecommunications vendor.
The decision was taken in a meeting
of the National Security Council
(NSC) chaired by UK Prime Minister
Boris Johnson, in response to the new
US sanctions.
These were imposed on Huawei in
May, after the UK’s initial decision on
high risk vendors, and are the first of
their kind, removing the firm’s access
to products which have been built
based on US semiconductor technology.
Technical experts at the NCSC
reviewed the consequences of the
sanctions and concluded the company
will need to do a major reconfiguration
of its supply chain as it will no
longer have access to the technology
on which it currently relies and there
are no alternatives which it has sufficient
confidence in.
They found the new restrictions
make it impossible to continue to
guarantee the security of Huawei
equipment in the future.
As a result, ministers agreed that
UK operators should stop the purchase
of Huawei equipment affected by the
sanctions. “Following US sanctions
UK bans Huawei from
future 5G network
against Huawei and updated technical
advice from our cyber experts, the
government has decided it is necessary
to ban Huawei from our 5G networks,”
the UK’s Digital Secretary Oliver
Dowden said in a statement. “No new
kit is to be added from January 2021,
and UK 5G networks will be Huawei
free by the end of 2027. This decisive
move provides the industry with the
clarity and certainty it needs to get on
with delivering 5G across the UK.”
Huawei called the decision “bad news
for anyone in the UK with a mobile
phone”. “It threatens to move Britain
into the digital slow lane, push up bills
and deepen the digital divide. Instead
of ‘levelling up’, the government is
levelling down and we urge them to
reconsider. We remain confident that
the new US restrictions would not
have affected the resilience or security
of the products we supply to the UK,”
said Edward Brewster, spokesperson
of Huawei UK.
“Regrettably our future in the UK
has become politicised, this is about
US trade policy and not security. Over
the past 20 years, Huawei has focused
on building a better connected UK. As
a responsible business, we will continue
to support our customers as we
have always done.“We will conduct a
detailed review of what today’s
announcement means for our business
here and will work with the UK government
to explain how we can continue
to contribute to a better connected
Britain,” Brewster said. The UK
government will now seek to legislate
at the earliest opportunity with a new
Telecoms Security Bill to put in place
the powers necessary to implement
this tough new telecoms security
framework. It will give the government
the national security powers to
impose these new controls on high
risk vendors and create extensive
security duties on network operators
to drive up standards.
IIT-K develops UV
device to disinfect
room in 15 mins
Twitter, NDRF launch
dedicated search for
disaster relief in India
Kanpur : At a time when
the country is reeling under the
shadow of coronavirus infection,
the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K),
has developed an Ultraviolet
(UV) sanitising product named
‘Shudh’ that can disinfect a
room in 15 minutes.
The smartphone operated
Handy Ultraviolet Disinfection
Helper or Shudh has six UV
lights of 15 watts each that can
be individually monitored from
a distance.
It has been prepared jointly
by J. Ramkumar, Amandeep
Singh and Shivam Sachan.
Singh said that amid the
coronavirus pandemic, people
are scared to touch any object
with the fear of being contracted.
At the same time, liquid disinfection
has yielded quite negative
effects. In such a situation,
the institute has developed
a device to keep the infection at
bay. He said that the device can
be run with Bluetooth technology.
It has six lights and can be
rotated up to 360 degrees. One
can use the lights according to
the room. If the room is large,
then more lights can be used.
This will disinfect the room in
just 15 minutes. It can also be
used to prevent infection in
hospitals, hotels, malls, offices
and schools. Rajkumar stated
that by installing an Android
application, one can remotely
control the on-off, speed and
location of the product using
the available smartphone. The
net has six 15 watt UV lights
that can be individually controlled
remotely. Initial testing
has proved that in its complete
operation, the device can disinfect
a 10 sq ft room in about 15
minutes.
New Delhi : Twitter on
Wednesday announced a partnership
with the National
Disaster Response Force
(NDRF) in India to expand its
efforts towards handling disaster
situations, with launching a
dedicated search prompt to
help people stay updated with
the latest information around
disaster relief and preparedness
efforts.
Every time someone searches
for certain keywords associated
with disaster relief, a
prompt will direct them to the
relevant information and
sources of help available on
Twitter. This is an expansion of
Twitter's #ThereIsHelp prompt,
which was specifically put in
place for the public to find
clear, credible information
focusing on disaster preparedness
and emergencies
The search prompt will be
available on iOS, Android, and
on mobile.twitter.com in India,
in both English and Hindi languages.
"Through the launch of
this search prompt and our collaboration
with Twitter, we are
optimistic about bringing
authentic and credible information
to the fore to promote open
public communication, in times
when it is needed the most," SN
Pradhan, Director General,
NDRF, said in a statement.
The feature will be reviewed
at regular intervals by the
Twitter team to ensure that all
related keywords generate the
proactive search prompt.
"The dedicated search
prompt will ensure there is
uninterrupted access to relevant
and authoritative information,
such as important updates on
critical transit and utility outages,
efforts to oversee crowd
management and establish
direct access between the
affected areas and the rescue
teams," said Mahima Kaul,
Director, Public Policy, India
and South Asia, Twitter.
Some of the search keywords
include #cyclone,
#DisasterRelief, #earthquake,
#flood, #floods, #heavyrainfall,
#hurricane, #Landslides,
#NDMA, #NDRF, #rain, #rainfall,
#SDRF, #storm, #thunderstorm
and #tsunami. The search
prompt will also generate a list
of government agencies working
towards disaster response
and relief in India, so people
looking for support can identify
and establish contact with credible
authorities.