Income tax department developing a mobile app to fill tax returns.

“We are developing a mobile app which can be used by users for filing their income tax returns. There are some security related issues, which we will resolve soon,” Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairperson Anita Kapoor said on Saturday after inaugurating ‘Taxpayers’ Lounge’ at the India International Trade Fair (IITF) here.

Filing tax returns via online mode has seen a sharp increase in recent years.

Talking about direct tax collections, Ms Kapoor said, “Collections are doing well and we are keeping our fingers crossed. The December collection of advance tax will actually give us a good idea.”

Rs. 7.98 lakh crore will be collected as direct tax in the current financial year.

The panel has clear terms of reference. They are expected to give their first report in January. They can give it earlier if they deem it proper. They have sufficient time,” she said.

Filling tax returns through mobile is an easy and a convenient way for the taxpayers.

HRD Minister Smriti Irani launched new mobile apps and web-based platforms for students to reduce burden of school bags and examination.

Parents and teachers can access study material online via mobile apps and through the website “E-Pathshala”.

“We are trying to leverage technology not only to bring more transparency in school education system but also to create new learning opportunities for the children,” Irani told reporters while speaking about the initiatives.

“Shala Siddhi”, another digital platform also revealed on Saturday, aims to improve schools.

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“Shaladarpan”, another initiative taken by HRD Minister also launched earlier in Kendriya Vidyalayas. Through this app, parents will be kept informed about the child’s attendance, mark-sheets and time table, etc.

“HRD Ministry now provides a window ‘I share for India’, in which digital initiatives aiming to spread learning can be shared”, said Smriti Irani.

‘Swacch Vidyalaya’ dream had been achieved and all government schools have toilets for girl school.

MUMBAI: Doctors of Tata Memorial Hospital in Parel developed a mobile app, “TNM” to make the Cancer Diagnosis, Treatment easier.

TNM stands for Tumour, node and metastasis, will help the doctors, mainly in interior areas and poor nations; diagnose the severity of cancer immediately.

According to Dr Rajendra Badwe, director of Tata Memorial Hospital, the app will help bring about standardization of cancer medicine practice across the country.

Every resident doctor who joins Tata Memorial Hospital is given a TNM Handbook to correctly identify the stage of cancer in the patient they are treating,” said Tata Memorial Hospital director Dr Rajendra Badwe.

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It is not possible for the doctors to remember various permutations and combinations among 65 types of cancers.

“Having the handbook helps young doctors. Now, the need to carry the handbook has been eliminated as most people carry smartphones,” said Dr Palak Popat, who was one of the developers.

 “The app, once downloaded, can be accessed offline. It is an interactive app where the doctor can feed the required information and within 30 seconds can get the stage of cancer,” Dr Meenakshi Thakur, one of the three radiologists who designed the app, added.

The app will soon get a feature which will be really useful for patients and their relatives.

NEW DELHI: A mobile app “CPGRAMS” was introduced for the people to register governance-related grievances by Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh.

“A Quick Response (QR) code has been provided on the portal which can be scanned on to the smart phone after which the grievance can be sent from the phone directly on to CPGRAMS”, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh said.

The app will be helpful for the people as almost everyone use mobile app as mobile phones are the easiest way of communication now-a-days.

“This is another step towards translating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘ART of Governance’ as spelt out by him, with A for Accountability, R – Responsibility and T- Transparency, forming the bedrock of the government,” the minister said.

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Through CPGRAMS, people are getting a platform for the redressal of their grievances.

Singh said the goal is that the administration should be citizen-centric, transparent and responsive. “More than six lakh public grievances have been settled since the NDA government assumed office,” he said.

“DARPG is also carrying out analysis of the grievances and a systematic response is being worked out on how best to address the grievances”, he said.

With this app, people can also track the grievance status.

A new app that uses sensors to monitor air quality launched in London to avoid air pollution.

The app makes use of hourly data from sensors all over London to monitor nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide level.

“The mobile app also offers advice to cyclists, runners, parents, and those wishing to eat outdoors, with a red warning signifying that activities attempted outdoors will damage your health,” ‘Sky News’ reported.

The Plume Air Report app is designed to make people “breathe better,” it was first introduced in France to beat high pollution levels.

This app is to help you breathe better by providing you information on how to avoid pollution.

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“What we’ve built is digital tools to help people breathe better, by informing them on what it is that they’re breathing,” said Romain Lacombe, founder of Plume Labs which developed the mobile app. “This means we can put a pollution forecast in the hands of everyone,” Lacombe said.

The app is available on Android, and for iOS.

Union Minister for Railway Suresh Prabhu to launch a new platform ‘JUMBO Bonanza of UTS on mobile’ under ‘Digital India’ programme.

People using Windows or Android Smartphone can use the Unreserved Ticketing system (UTS) app.

Passenger should maintain a Railway Wallet (R-Wallet) to avail the facility.

“On Friday, Prabhu will inaugurate the mobile app for passengers of the Central Railway division of Mumbai. It has already been launched in the Western Railway division of Mumbai from Churchgate to Dahanu. With add-on facilities for commuters, the new paperless mobile ticketing application UTS (Unreserved Ticketing System) will enable them to even renew their monthly passes on their mobiles,” said a CR official.

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Passengers can book their tickets via mobile phone and t can print the tickets at ATVMs installed at the source stations.

“The ticket can be d using debit or credit or R-wallet. The R-wallet can be loaded from any UTS counter online,” said Chief Public Officer of the WR Sharat Chandrayan.

‘ASCmeI.T.’, a free mobile app has been launched by the consortium of researchers from the Universities of Southampton and Sussex to help people facing autism.

They can share their ideas on what kind of new technology would help them best.

”If you have ever had a moment where you wished there was a useful technology out there to help you, or someone else, with something related to autism, this is the chance to get your idea heard,” said one of the researchers, Sarah Parsons from University of Southampton.

Users can upload a one-minute video with a brief description through this app. This will be shared with the researchers so that digital technologies for autism can be developed according to the needs of the users.

“This project is totally unique and encourages ‘citizen science’. ASCmeI.T is a simple yet highly effective way to enable people with autism to get their voices heard and to allow the creativity of a previously neglected group to be realised,” co-investigator on the project Mark Brosnan from the University of Bath pointed out.

This mobile app can be downloaded for both Apple and Android devices.

Market research agency iiMedia  released a report on Chinese mobile games market in Q3 2014. The report disclosed major reasons why China’s mobile games user growth slows vividly.

Slowdown of smartphone shipments in China can be a factor for this issue.

It is clear from the survey that 38.6% of the mobile gamers in China give up “playing it for a long period of time”, 28.7% of people find difficulty in operating the mode of game, 26.7% give up due to the need of high payment and 22.8% due to boring content.

“Despite this dip in growth, estimates suggest that the Chinese mobile gaming industry’s revenue is set to reach $5.5 billion in 2015. This means it will overtake the US as the largest mobile gaming industry”, states a press release by Niko Partners.

The report also disclosed that market of Chinese mobile gamers grown by 52.8% in Q2 2014 become 11.7% in Q3, lower as compared to previous four partners.

Search engine giant Google, and online education company Udacity, has launched IT courses in India to tap millions of software developers scrambling for jobs.

“The programme is for bridging the gap in creating world-class applications by the Indian developer community. Indian developers made only 2% of the top 1,000 apps on Google Play.,” said Google India managing director Rajan Anandan.

The program costs Rs. 9,800 per month and takes an average of 6 to 9 months, with Udacity refunding 50 percent of the tuition fee after the completion of course.

“Our aim is to democratize education for everyone to help the people to get their dream job. We are happy to launch the Android Nanodegree course in India in partnership with Tata Trusts and Google,” said Sebastian Thrun, Udacity founder and Chief Executive.

In addition to this, three companies have offered 1,000 free scholarships, out of which, Tata Trusts will offer 500 scholarships to the developers of Nano Degree programme.

In India, a large number of engineering and IT specialists have left the country to reach the top in the US corporate world.

During a casual talk one evening,
a friend who owns a teaching institute told me excitedly

“Man, we’re launching an app for our institute”
I was surprised. “Wow! Technology sure is growing”
“heavy competition, our mobile app development team just sent the app in”,
he said and showed me the app

I eagerly looked at the app,
only to be disappointed

Why?

What greeted me upon booting the app was a pathetically design. I didn’t know where to click or how to navigate. This should not happen to you.

Here are a few things from my experience that might help you.

The educational field is developing fast these days, and so is technology. Making interactive apps for education through eLearning has therefore become one of the latest trends. It is a great way to combine education with fun and excitement.

The only thing is that designing and developing an educational app requires a lot of patience and effort. It is not like any regular app, as the expectations are high. Here are a few checkpoints to keep in mind before developing an educational app:

Research

One needs to do a great deal of research before designing an app. For instance, you need to keep the target audience in mind and develop according to their tastes and interests. You need to incorporate a lot of things like cultural values, correct usage of words, and so on.

Proper design

Before finalising the design of the app, you need to contemplate various factors including the age of the targeted audience. For example, you can add cartoons and vibrant colours for young kids, and may be a professional look with subtle shades for corporate learners. This one factor done effectively can grab a lot of attention to your app; eventually making it a huge success.

Interactive learning

Learning should be interactive to make it interesting. The learners’ attention needs to be captured at each stage to make the full impact of eLearning course. You can use tools to make it more interactive.

Challenge the learners

You could include challenges like milestones, puzzles, quizzes, or even small games to test the knowledge of the learners and build healthy competition among the users. High scores can be tabulated and friends could even challenge each other to make learning more interesting. This sort of gamification does help the students learn with more zeal, encouraging them to perform better.

Making the most out of technology can make learning more exciting. It is an interesting concept that can help improve the educational system to a great extent. After all, people perform better if they love what they do!

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