HIGHLIGHTS

• Airtel will provide Rs. 50 discount on seven recharges
• The discounts will be applied automatically on the next recharge
• Buyers will get the  only once a month

Airtel is offering prepaid customers 100 percent cashback on purchasing the Rs. 349 recharge pack. The offer is only applicable for purchases made via Airtel Payments Bank, a move to promote the adoption of the service by the operator. This offer is similar to the one announced by Reliance Jio two weeks ago, where customers received 100 percent cashback on purchasing the Rs. 399 plan. Airtel has not yet announced when the offer will end.

The new offer gives customers 100 percent cashback over seven months, in the form of a Rs. 50 discount  when they purchase the next recharge. The Rs. 50 cashback will be added in the Airtel Payments Bank account and applied automatically while buying a recharge, and will be provided only once in a month. You can use the sum for other transactions made via the Payments Bank account as well, not just the Airtel recharge. Notably, the cashback will be given only from the second month from the date of recharge. To avail the offer, the prepaid users need to purchase the Rs. 349 plan only from the MyAirtel app.

For those unaware, the Rs. 349 plan provides customers with 28GB of data, doled out at 1GB per day. Along with this, it comes with bundled local and STD calls, and has validity of 28 days. Customers will get 1,000 minutes of calls bundled per week without any charges; if they exhaust the limit, the calls will charged at 10 paisa per minute for calls to Airtel numbers, and 30 paisa per minute for calls to other networks. Similarly, the free calls are limited to 250 minutes per day, after which the same 10 paisa per minute, and 30 paisa per minute tariffs are levied for calls to Airtel and other networks, respectively.

Airtel and Jio are locked in a battle for supremacy of the telecom sector, which the latter upended with its free calls and data when it started operations in 2016. Over the past year, while incumbents started offering data and calls bundled in relatively affordable plans, Jio has steadily been making its plans more in line with industry requirements. In the latest tariff revision on Diwali, the company has raised the prices of its most popular prepaid plan, and reduced the validity of the postpaid plans; the post-FUP speed has also been cut in half.

TECHNO

iPhone X already out of stock on Flipkart, to be available for buying from Nov 3 starting at Rs 89,000

The iPhone X will be up for pre-orders for the first time in India on Friday. Interested customers can head on to Amazon or Flipkart to book iPhone X for themselves. The pre-orders are set to start at 12:31 PM. Apart from the online stores, Apple's tenth-anniversary edition phone - iPhone X will also be available on Apple resellers and other partner outlets for pre-booking.

Update: The iPhone X, Apple's tenth anniversary edition iPhone, is off to a great start it seems, at least in India. The iPhone X that went on pre-order for the first time in India on Friday is already out of stock on online retail websites like Flipkart. This is notably for both the variants. The iPhone X has been priced in India at Rs 89,000 for the 64GB variant. The top end version with 256GB RAM will meanwhile cost Rs 102,000. 

Apart from India, iPhone X will be up for pre-orders in 54 other countries. This is the first time that iPhone X can be pre-booked. The smartphone will go on sale -- for the first time on November 3. iPhone X was launched in two variants, one with the 64GB and 256GB of internal storage. Both the variants of the iPhone X will be available for pre-booking in India. iPhone X comes in silver and space grey colour.

Also Read: iPhone X: Rs 89,000 India price, key specs, top features & when can you buy

On the pricing point, iPhone X with 64GB storage will be available at Rs 89,000, while the 256GB model will cost customers more than 1 lakh, to be precise - Rs 1,02,000. Alongside the device, Apple will also be selling Apple-designed accessories like leather and silicone cases for iPhone X, for which the customers will have to pay Rs 3,500. On the other hand, all-new iPhone X leather folio and a Lightning Dock will be available at around Rs 8,600 and Rs 4,700 respectively.

Google's Pixel 2 XL is a direct rival to iPhone X which went up for pre-orders in India on Thursday. The Pixel 2 XL is available in India at a starting price of Rs 73,000. Meanwhile, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus went on sale last month and is available at a starting price of Rs 64,000 and Rs 73,000. These prices are for the 64GB variant of both the devices. The 256GB variant of the iPhone 8 comes at Rs 77,000, while the iPhone 8 Plus - 256GB costs Rs 86,000.

iPhone X specs

In terms of specifications, iPhone X comes with a 5.8-inch Super Retina display and comes coupled with features like -- Face ID - which enable the users to unlock their phone by scanning their face. iPhone X is an all glass and surgical-grade stainless steel body device and comes with water and dust resistance feature. In the imaging department, the iPhone X features two cameras of a 12-megapixel sensor coupled with dual optical image stabilization. While on the front, the device comes with a 7-megapixel front-facing camera. The phone is powered by the latest A11 Bionic processor which -- as Apple claims come with a neural engine -- that supports machine learning, augmented reality and 3D gaming ability. A11 Bionic processor is up to 25 per cent faster than the high-performance core in the A10, which powers the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus, says Apple.-TOI

health

Toxins in litchi kill children in Bihar: Lancet

 

Litchis from Bihar at the Azadpur market in New Delhi. File photo  

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Scientists from the U.S. and India have found that consumption of litchi fruit and skipping evening meal can result in very low blood glucose level and acute encephalopathy including seizures and coma, and causes death in many cases.

Unexplained illness in children aged 15 years and younger in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, which claims many lives during an outbreak that occurs in May-June, has been solved. Scientists from the U.S. and India have found that consumption of litchi fruit and skipping evening meal can result in very low blood glucose level (less than 70 mg/dL) and acute encephalopathy including seizures and coma, and causes death in many cases. The results were published in the journal Lancet Global Health.
Children in Muzaffarpur frequently spend the day eating litchis and some skip the evening meal. Skipping evening meal, by itself results in low blood sugar levels during the night. This is particularly so in the case of young children as they have limited hepatic glycogen reserves. Hypoglycin A and methylenecyclopropylglycine (MCPG), which are naturally present in litchi fruit, make the condition worse. The toxins block enzymes involved in normal glucose metabolism and this results in an inability to synthesis glucose leading to acutely low level of blood sugar. The build-up of other metabolic by-products could also have an adverse effect (encephalopathy) on the child. These two cause death in many children.
The study shows the modifying effect of skipping the evening meal on the impact of these toxins.
In 2013, scientists from Delhi’s National Centre for Disease Control, India (NCDC) and the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started an investigation. The first focus of the team was to evaluate if the mysterious condition was due to an infectious cause or not. “Most of the children did not have fever. And on testing the spinal fluid we did not find elevated white blood cell count. These two indicated that it was less likely to be to an infectious cause. It gave us a clue that we should look at non-infectious causes,” recalls Dr. Padmini Srikantiah, Global Disease Detection Programme-India, CDC, Atlanta and the corresponding author of the paper.
With infectious causes ruled out and most sick children presenting with low blood glucose levels the team started investigating the role of toxins — exposure to pesticide, insecticide and heavy metals to name a few.
“In late 2013, CDC colleagues in Atlanta brought to our attention the well reported case of toxic hypoglycaemic syndrome in West Indies caused by hypoglycin A, a toxin found in ackee fruit, which is in the same family as litchi,” she says. “MCPG, which is a homologue had been detected in the seed of litchis, and was reported to cause low blood glucose in rats. So we started with a hypothesis.”
The 2014 outbreak allowed the scientists to investigate the role of pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, besides hypoglycin A and MCPG in litchi fruits. “We heard over and over again from parents that their children were healthy and running around the day before, but presented with seizures and loss of consciousness in the early morning. Some people also said their children had skipped the evening meal the previous day [to illness],” says Dr. Srikantiah.
Over 62% sick children had blood glucose level less than 70 mg/dL. The median was 48 mg/dL and it was as low as 8 mg/dL.
Researchers compared 104 children with illness with similar number of controls. They found metabolites of hypoglycin A and MCPG in 66% (48 of 73 cases) of urine samples but none from the 15 controls. About 90% of children with illness showed severe disruption of fatty acid metabolism. In 36 litchi samples tested, hypoglycin A ranged from 12.4-152 microgram per gram and MCPG ranged from 45-220 microgram per gram. The level of hypoglycin A and MCPG was twice in unripe compared with ripe fruits.
“After our field investigation in July2013, we didn’t know the cause but we recommended dextrose therapy to children who were sick. The mortality fell from 44% in 2013 to 31% in 2014. So administration of dextrose to sick children is very important,” she says. Whether malnourishment and other factors also play a role merits further investigation.
“Our data supports a public health recommendation — minimising litchi consumption, eating evening meal throughout the outbreak period and implementing rapid glucose correction for suspected illness. These recommendations are specific to children in Muzaffarpur. ” she says.

health

Consuming multiple pills can lead to side effects that may worsen in old age

 Polypharmacy made lead to frailty among people which weakens the body and slows the curing process. (Photo: Pixabay)

Washington D.C.: You can avoid being frail and weak at the ripe age of 90, but only if you stop flooding your system with a string of medications.
In a study published in the American Geriatrics Society journal, scientists have found out that as one ages, one tends to develop a number of chronic health conditions and concerns. Often, managing health problems can mean that older adults may take many different medications. When older adults take five or more medicines (a scenario called "polypharmacy" by health experts), it can increase the risk for harmful side effects.
Interestingly, taking more than five medications is linked to frailty, perhaps because the medications interact to affect our ability to function well as we age. Frailty is a problem associated with aging. Someone who is frail can be weak, have less endurance, and be less able to function well. Frailty increases the risk for falls, disability, and even death.
Recently, a team of researchers examined information from a large German study of older adults called ESTHER (Epidemiological Study on Chances for Prevention, Early Detection, and Optimized Therapy of Chronic Diseases at Old Age) to learn how taking more than five medicines might affect frailty in older adults.
The researchers looked at information from nearly 2,000 participants in the ESTHER study, which began in 2000 with nearly 10,000 participants. Follow-ups on participants were conducted after two, five, eight, and 11 years. People in the study were between 50- and 75-years-old when the study began.
At the eight-year follow-up, study physicians visited the participants at home for a geriatric assessment. During the visit, participants were asked to bring all the medications they took--both prescription and over-the-counter (OTC)--to assess the kinds and number of medications participants were taking. The researchers then separated participants into three groups:
1. People who took from 0 to 4 medicines (non-polypharmacy)
2. People who took 5 to 9 medicines (polypharmacy)
3. People who took 10 or more medicines (hyper-polypharmacy)
Two pharmacists individually reviewed all medications taken and excluded medicines and supplements that were not known to cause side effects. After adjusting for differences in patient characteristics including illnesses, the researchers learned that people who were at risk for frailty, as well as people who were frail, were more likely to be in the polypharmacy or hyper-polypharmacy groups compared with people who were not frail.
Researchers also discovered that people who took between 5 to 9 medicines were 1.5 times more likely to become frail within 3 years compared with people who took fewer than 5 medications. People who took more than 10 medicines were twice as likely to become frail within three years as people who took less than five.
The researchers concluded that reducing multiple avoidable prescriptions for older adults could be a promising approach for lessening the risks for frailty.
If you're an older adult, or if you're caring someone who is older, it's important to understand that taking multiple medicines can cause interactions. The medicines can interact with each other and with the human body in harmful ways (by increasing negative side effects or decreasing desired effects, for example). As a result, the risk for falls, delirium, and frailty also increases.