Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus smartphone launched at Rs.8, 499

New Delhi: Chinese multinational computer technology company Lenovo has unveiled its latest flagship, the Vibe K5 Plus smartphone in India.

The cost of the smartphone is Rs.8,499. The phone will be available for sales exclusively on Flipkart from March 23.

The Vibe K5 Plus was first unveiled at the recently concluded MWC(Mobile World Congress) 2016 in Barcelona, Spain.

The Vibe K5 Plus comes with a five-inch FullHD IPS display with a 1080×1920 pixels resolution which roughly translates to 441ppi pixel density.

The smartphone would be available in three different colour variants of Gold, Grey and Silver.

Vatican to approve sainthood for Mother Teresa

Vatican City (AFP) - Mother Teresa will be cleared to become a saint on Tuesday after a Vatican panel recognises a second miracle attributed to the late nun famed for her work with the poor of Kolkata.

The committee of senior clerics that approves elevations to sainthood is due to meet from around 0900 GMT with the long-awaited green light seen as a formality, less than two decades after her death.

Pope Francis will then sign a decree approving the canonisation of the 1979 Nobel peace prize winner and announce a date and venue for it to happen.

The Albanian nun and missionary will be one of five candidates for sainthood considered at Tuesday's session, but by far the most high-profile.

The canonisation is widely expected to take place on September 4, the eve of the anniversary of her 1997 death, for which a celebration of her memory had already been scheduled as part of the Church's Jubilee Year of Mercy.

Indian Catholics had hoped Francis would travel to India for the canonisation ceremony but, barring a last minute surprise, it is expected to take place in Rome with a thanksgiving ceremony scheduled for the following month in the Indian city.

Known across the world, Teresa was awarded the Nobel for her work with the poor, sick, old and lonely in the teeming slums of Kolkata, previously known as Calcutta.

She is revered by many Catholics but has also been attacked as a "religious imperialist" who attempted to foist her beliefs on an impoverished community in which they had no indigenous roots.

- From sister to sainthood -

Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents in 1910 in what is now Skopje in Macedonia, Teresa arrived in India in 1929, having first spent time with a missionary order in Ireland.

Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of …
She went on to found the Missionaries of Charity order in 1950 and was granted Indian citizenship a year later.

Last year she was credited by Vatican experts with inspiring the 2008 recovery of a Brazilian man suffering from multiple brain tumours, thus meeting the Church's standard requirement for sainthood of having been involved in two certifiable miracles.

She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003 following a fast-track process involving the recognition of a claim she had posthumously inspired the 1998 healing of a Bengali tribal women.

Francis met Teresa before he became pope, in 1994, and later joked that she had seemed so formidable he "would have been scared if she had been my mother superior".

Others were much harsher in their judgement with the likes of Germaine Greer and polemicist Christopher Hitchens accusing her of contributing to the misery of the poor with her strident opposition to contraception and abortion.

India granted Mother Teresa a state funeral …
In her Nobel acceptance speech she described terminations of pregnancies as "direct murder by the mother herself."

Questions have also been raised over the Missionaries of Charity's finances, as well as conditions in the order's hospices.

A series of her letters published in 2007 also caused some consternation among admirers, as it became clear that she had suffered crises of faith for most of her life.

India granted her a state funeral after her death and her grave in the order's headquarters has since become a pilgrimage site

Amazon applies for e-wallet licence, takes on Paytm, Flipkart Money

BENGALURU: In a move aimed at building its presence in the payments space, Amazon's India arm has applied for a semi-closed wallet licence with the RBI, sources directly aware of the development told TOI. A central bank committee is expected to review new applications next month. If its application goes through, sources said, Amazon would look to open up the wallet for third-party platforms as well.
A semi-closed wallet allows users to buy products/services from merchants which have a specific arrangement with the payments company. A closed wallet can only be used with one particular merchant. An open wallet allows payments and cash withdrawal, and does not require specific tie-ups with merchants.

When contacted by TOI, an Amazon India spokesperson said in an emailed response, "A trusted, easy, convenient and friction-free payment experience has always been one of Amazon's key pillars, globally and in India. We are driven by customer demands and seek every opportunity to do what it takes so that our customers benefit. We cannot comment specifically on what we may or may not do."

Amazon.com has launched a Kindle store for China, the company said, selling Chinese electronic books for the mobile Kindle application, in a move that could soon see the device launched in China.
BENGALURU: In a move aimed at building its presence in the payments space, Amazon's India arm has applied for a semi-closed wallet licence with the RBI, sources directly aware of the development told TOI. A central bank committee is expected to review new applications next month. If its application goes through, sources said, Amazon would look to open up the wallet for third-party platforms as well.
A semi-closed wallet allows users to buy products/services from merchants which have a specific arrangement with the payments company. A closed wallet can only be used with one particular merchant. An open wallet allows payments and cash withdrawal, and does not require specific tie-ups

Amazon plans to launch the digital wallet by mid-year but much will depend on RBI's nod, a person who familiar with the matter said. There have been media reports of Amazon looking to acquire payments companies to rev up this business. Former Citibanker Sriraman Jagannathan, who joined Amazon India earlier this year to head the e-tailer's payments business, is expected to helm the digital wallet vertical, a report in The Economic Times said last week.

Amazon has applied for the wallet licence under Amazon Online Distribution Services (AODS), a subsidiary of Amazon Asia Pacific Resources incorporated on July 4, 2011. In September last year, AODS had started offering payments logistics and services, allowing merchants to sell through their own websites using Pay With Amazon. At the end of the last financial year, the entity had a revenue of little over Rs 3 lakh while it recorded losses over Rs 2 crore owing to higher other expenses, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies. The Amazon India marketplace is run by Amazon Seller Services.
Amazon's move comes at a time when all major e-tailers have launched their own wallets to build a larger payments business. Amazon India's arch rival Flipkart recently launched Flipkart Money, while cab aggregator Ola offers Ola Money for its consumers. Alibaba-backed Paytm and Snapdeal-owned Freecharge have been offering their own wallets for a while now. Mobikwik, Citrus Pay and Oxigen are among the other independent wallets in the domestic market.
Last month, Amazon India acquired Noida-based payments gateway firm Emvantage to strengthen payments on its platform. Amazon is looking to first get the RBI nod before exploring options that could boost its tech for the payments business, sources added. Amazon India has been aggressive in the domestic market, having invested over Rs 6,700 crore since January 2015. Its revenue grew six times to Rs 1,022 crore in financial year ended March 2015, while it incurred losses of over Rs 1,723 crore during the period.