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Hans India
03-07-2025
- Business
- Hans India
Welfare, development two eyes for me: Naidu
Kuppam (Chittoor dist): Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday termed development and welfare as two eyes for him, saying he would continue both in equal measure. Speaking at a public meeting during his two-day visit to Kuppam, his longtime Assembly constituency in Chittoor district, on Wednesday, the CM spoke about his government's balanced approach to welfare and development. 'Development and welfare are two eyes for me. Revenue must be used for the benefit of the poor, but without neglecting development which will in turn enhance the state's revenues,' he said. Naidu strongly criticised the previous administration for what he described as severe financial mismanagement, claiming it had left the state burdened with Rs 10 lakh crore in debt and had misused central funds, disrupting important welfare schemes. He stated that his government was working to lead Andhra Pradesh from a state of ruin toward meaningful development. 'We are guiding the state, which was driven into ruin, towards development. I have come to you as part of the first step in good governance,' he added. The Chief Minister reaffirmed his commitment to transform Kuppam into a model constituency for the entire nation. He outlined key projects and developmental initiatives underway in the area. He pointed out at the completion of the Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi project, which was undertaken at a cost of Rs.3,890 crore, and assured the gathering that water would reach the last ayacut in Kuppam by the end of the year. The Chief Minister further said: 'In Kuppam alone, we are carrying out works worth Rs.1,292 crore, and projects worth Rs.125 crore have already been completed'. He also noted that ensuring pothole-free roads across the state remains a top priority. Naidu added that under the 'Swarna Kuppam' project, infrastructure in the constituency is being upgraded with the construction of concrete and bitumen roads. He highlighted efforts to boost local industry and market connectivity through the promotion of 'Brand Kuppam' and said that plans for a new airport, with Rs.850 crore allocated, were underway. Assuring the public that land acquisition would be fair and transparent, he promised generous compensation packages for those who part with their land. Pushing forward his green energy agenda, Naidu said rooftop solar panels would be installed on every house in Kuppam under the PM Suryaghar Yojana. 'I will stand by you until every household has solar power, which would drastically reduce electricity costs and improve energy independence', he said. Naidu urged the people to support leaders who truly stand by them, not those who engage in political violence. 'I don't believe in the politics of murder or death. I believe in politics of public good,' he said, defending himself against what he claimed were baseless allegations and politically motivated attacks. On this occasion, Naidu launched various development projects while four MoUs with Aditya Birla Group, eRoyce motors, ACE International Limited and SVF Soya Pvt Ltd were signed in his presence. Also, he distributed welfare payments to the beneficiaries. Chittoor MP D Prasada Rao, MLC K Srikanth, Collector Sumit Kumar, KADA Project Director Vikas Marmat were also present.
The Star
26-06-2025
- Business
- The Star
One of the best hackers in the US is an AI bot
A hacker named Xbow has topped a prestigious security industry US leaderboard that tracks who has found and reported the most vulnerabilities in software from large companies. Xbow isn't a person – it's an artificial intelligence tool developed by a company of the same name. This is the first time a company's AI product has topped HackerOne's US leaderboard by reputation, which measures how many vulnerabilities have been found and the importance of each one, according to HackerOne co-founder Michiel Prins. Now, the year-old startup has raised US$75mil (RM317.88mil) in a new funding round led by Altimeter Capital, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital and NFDG. It declined to share its valuation. Security researchers and hackers have long automated parts of their work and AI has shown up as a key tool in the past two years, Prins said. Nearly all human hackers now augment their efforts with AI and there are a handful of firms trying to do what Xbow does – Prins calls them hackbot companies. Xbow, founded in January 2024 by GitHub veteran Oege de Moor, automates penetration testing, where hackers try to find security flaws and break into corporate networks. Companies often hire or employ people to do that, called red teams, as a way of improving and protecting their network and software. But red teaming and penetration testing is costly – US$18,000 (RM76,292) on average and few weeks of work for a test on a single system, says de Moor – and so it often doesn't get done frequently enough. De Moor wants to sell his product to enable customers to go through the process continuously or at least more often, and before new products and systems go live. "By automating this we can completely change the equation,' said de Moor, who formerly oversaw Microsoft Corp-owned GitHub's Copilot for AI code-generation. The challenge is that well-financed hackers are also using AI algorithms to automate attacks and increase their frequency at a lower cost. Xbow has "something that works now and it's exciting, but also somewhat terrifying because we are now in the era of machines hacking machines,' said Nat Friedman of NFDG, and a former GitHub chief executive officer. De Moor, who also spent two decades as a computer science professor at Oxford University, expects the balance of power to eventually favor defenders, using tools like Xbow. "There might be a period of chaos where not everybody gets ready for these AI-powered attacks,' he said. Now, "we can, for the first time, have a good hope that defenders can find and fix all the vulnerabilities before a system goes out.' De Moor founded Semmle, a startup for finding security flaws in code that was acquired by GitHub in 2019. Microsoft had bought GitHub the previous year and named Friedman CEO. He wanted to make a series of acquisitions to add new products and entrepreneurial talent. Friedman and Altimeter Capital partner Apoorv Agrawal said they were looking at ways AI could boost cybersecurity when de Moor began Xbow. "Cybersecurity is going through a credibility crisis. There are a lot of alerts,' Agrawal said. What chief information security officers "want is less, not more, they want simplicity and less alerts,' he added. "How do you make this work? AI can help.' HackerOne offers a security platform where companies who want their software vetted can offer bounties for finding bugs. There are open programs and ones that are invitation-only. Xbow is active in both. When an AI like Xbow's finds a vulnerability, HackerOne requires a human at the company to vet it to filter out AI hallucinations. Then Xbow goes to the company whose product contains the supposed flaw. If it confirms the issue, Xbow earns reputation points – hackers get more points the more severe the issue. As part of that work, the Xbow product successfully found and reported security bugs to more than a dozen well-known companies, according to de Moor. The list includes Inc, Walt Disney Co, PayPal Holdings Inc and Sony Group Corp. De Moor declined to name Xbow's current customers except to say they are large financial services and technology companies. Xbow's team includes GitHub veterans like Nico Waisman, who served as chief information security officer at Lyft Inc, and is now Xbow head of security, and Albert Ziegler, Xbow's head of AI, who worked at GitHub and Semmle. While Xbow's algorithm does well in finding things like common coding errors and security issues, it does poorly at realising when a flaw results from product design logic. For example, it needs to be explicitly told when looking at a medical web site that prescriptions should be kept private, de Moor said. And it won't understand that while a doctor or a pharmacist needs to be able to access the prescriptions of multiple patients, it's a security problem if one patient can see another's meds. In the future, Xbow also wants to add the ability to tell customers how to correct the security flaws and make coding suggestions for those fixes. Widespread adoption will also require getting customers to change how they work, Altimeter's Agrawal said. "Whenever there's a sufficiently advanced technology, the last-mile adoption requires a change of workflows,' Agrawal said. "It requires a change of people's behaviors that they've been doing for years, sometimes decades." – Bloomberg
The Sun
01-06-2025
- General
- The Sun
SG woman shares why she chooses to stay child-free
A heartfelt post by a Singapore-based woman in her late 30s has gone viral after she opened up about why she and her husband of eight years have chosen not to have children — despite constant pressure from family, friends, and society. In the now widely shared post on Facebook, the woman shares how she and her husband are part of a growing number of couples opting out of parenthood — not because they don't want kids, but because they simply can't afford to raise them in today's economy. 'We're a dual-income household. On paper, it looks okay. But after paying off the mortgage, bills, groceries, elderly parents' medical needs and daily expenses—what's left?' ALSO READ: More married couples opting to go child-free She highlighted that childcare fees can easily exceed SGD1,000 (RM3,292) a month, hiring a domestic helper comes with added responsibilities and costs, and asking one parent to stay home means sacrificing years of career growth—often with no return. 'We don't want to raise a child only to work ourselves to exhaustion every night just to stay afloat. We don't want to live on instant noodles by the 20th of every month.' She also raised concerns about the future children would face: academic stress, screen addiction, mental health struggles, and the pressures of a hyper-competitive society. 'We're still in survival mode ourselves—how can we promise them a complete and safe world? READ MORE: Child-free trend among couples a concern - Noraini Ahmad She confessed that she has a deep respect for anyone who chooses to be parents but hopes society stops using the 'traditional family template' to define happiness. 'You can't keep complaining about low birth rates while making it impossible for us to breathe. 'It's not that we don't want children—it's that the reality we live in doesn't allow us to bring them into this pressure-cooker of a city. 'Please stop asking us, 'So, when are you having kids?' We're already doing our best—just to live well.'
The Sun
01-06-2025
- General
- The Sun
'We're not being selfish. We're just painfully realistic' - SG woman shares why she chooses to stay child-free
A heartfelt post by a Singapore-based woman in her late 30s has gone viral after she opened up about why she and her husband of eight years have chosen not to have children — despite constant pressure from family, friends, and society. In the now widely shared post on Facebook, the woman shares how she and her husband are part of a growing number of couples opting out of parenthood — not because they don't want kids, but because they simply can't afford to raise them in today's economy. 'We're a dual-income household. On paper, it looks okay. But after paying off the mortgage, bills, groceries, elderly parents' medical needs and daily expenses—what's left?' She highlighted that childcare fees can easily exceed SGD1,000 (RM3,292) a month, hiring a domestic helper comes with added responsibilities and costs, and asking one parent to stay home means sacrificing years of career growth—often with no return. 'We don't want to raise a child only to work ourselves to exhaustion every night just to stay afloat. We don't want to live on instant noodles by the 20th of every month.' She also raised concerns about the future children would face: academic stress, screen addiction, mental health struggles, and the pressures of a hyper-competitive society. 'We're still in survival mode ourselves—how can we promise them a complete and safe world? She confessed that she has a deep respect for anyone who chooses to be parents but hopes society stops using the 'traditional family template' to define happiness. 'You can't keep complaining about low birth rates while making it impossible for us to breathe. 'It's not that we don't want children—it's that the reality we live in doesn't allow us to bring them into this pressure-cooker of a city. 'Please stop asking us, 'So, when are you having kids?' We're already doing our best—just to live well.'
Zawya
14-03-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Qatar: Real estate trading volume hits $354mln in February 2025
Doha: The volume of real estate trading in sale contracts registered with the Real Estate Registration Department at the Ministry of Justice in February 2025 amounted to QR1,292,500,196. Data from the real estate analytical bulletin issued by the Ministry of Justice revealed that 365 real estate transactions were recorded during the month. The municipalities of Doha, Al Rayyan, and Al Dhaayen topped the list for the most active transactions in terms of financial value, according to the real estate market index, followed by Al Wakrah, Umm Salal, Al Khor and Al Dhakira, and Al Shamal. The real estate market index for February 2025 showed that the financial value of transactions in Doha municipality amounted to QR478,470,312. In Al Rayyan, the financial values of transactions was QR 316,994,510 , while in Al Dhaayen, it was QR232,149,925. Transactions in Al Wakrah amounted to QR101,259,540, and Umm Slal recorded QR79,988,096. Al Khor and Al Dhakira recorded QR52,057,857, while transactions in Al Shamal totaled QR31,099,956. In terms of the traded space index, indicators revealed that Al Rayyan, Doha, and Al Dhaayen municipalities recorded the most active municipalities, in terms of traded real estate spaces during February 2025: Al Rayyan (29%), followed by Doha (26%), and Al Dhaayen (18%). Al Wakrah recorded 10%, and Umm Salal recorded 7%, while the municipalities of Al Shamal and Al Khor and Al Dhakira recorded 5% of the total traded spaces. Concerning the index of the number of real estate transactions (sold properties), trading indices revealed that the most active municipalities during February were Doha with 32%, followed by Al Rayyan with 23%, then Al Dhaayen with 13%, and Al Wakrah with 11%. Umm Salal recorded traded transactions of 10%, Al Khor and Al Dhakira with 6%, and Al Shamal with 5% of the total real estate transactions. An average per square foot prices for February ranged between (394-767) in Doha, (259-493) in Al Wakrah, (319-448) in Al Rayyan, (284-496) in Umm Salal, (327-514) in Al Dhaayen, and (321 -323) in Al Khor and Al Dhakira. © Dar Al Sharq Press, Printing and Distribution. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. ( The Peninsula Newspaper
