Meet Indian national, who belongs to Kerala and a part-time Mathematics teacher – Clifin Francis. He is a 28 year old football fan who flew to Dubai from Kerala on Febraury 23, bought a cycle there for $700, took a ferry to the port city of Bandar Abbas, the capital of Hormozgan province on the southern coast of Iran. From there the Russian capital is still more than 4,200 km (2,600 miles) away by bike.

Francis has cycled over 4,200 km on his bicycle to make-true his life-long dream of attending a FIFA World Cup match. He began his journey from Sharjah, took a ferry to Bandar Abbas in Iran, and has been cycling to Moscow since early March.

He crossed Iran and Azerbaijan on cycle and was initially meant to cycle through Georgia as well; however, his visa was rejected at the border because he’d “lost a lot of weight from constant cycling”.

As per him “I didn’t look like my picture in the passport. The police took more than eight hours to verify my details, but they were nice to me.” reported BBC.

He said, “I have another five days, 450km more, to get to Moscow – and I am beyond excited.” The Aleppy-native flew down from Kochi to Dubai. “Initially, I wanted to make the entire journey from India, but I faced challenged getting visas to Pakistan and crossing the border. So, I decided to fly to Dubai,” he added.

“When I got stranded at the Azerbaijan- Georgia border, I was with a German cyclist friend. I was with him for five days, and we were supposed to go to Tbilisi together. When I got stranded, he gave me his sim card, and that helped me a lot with connectivity.”

This resulted in Francis having to return to Azerbaijan and cycle back to the Russia-Azerbaijan border. “I finally entered Russia on June 5. I made the best of the time though, I stayed in Baku for ten days, and I made more friends and experienced the local culture,” he explained.

An amateur cyclist, Francis only carried a tent, sleeping bag, a few things to repair his cycle, and a few changes of clothes.

In this journey, Indian Football Fan Francis cycles for five hours every day and would stay in a city or a village if he liked it. “All you need is a good place to pitch your tent and happiness,” he signed off.

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World’s most popular mobile payment service Samsung Pay by Samsung Electronics has been launched in Italy on March 22, 2018. With the addition of Italy, Samsung Pay now enables users in 21 countries to benefit from simple and secure payments almost anywhere including India.

In India, Samsung pay service was launched in March 22, 2017. The next country is France where Samsung Pay will be launched this year as per reports from Samsung .

Samsung’s commitment to transforming the mobile industry was recognized at the annual Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO Awards) during Mobile World Congress 2018, which awarded Samsung Pay ‘Best Mobile Innovation for Payment’. The service was praised not only for being innovative, but also for bringing consumers the world’s first integrated rewards program; each time users purchase with Samsung Pay, they can earn points to be exchanged for a variety of prizes.

Samsung Pay reward program is available in the U.S., Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brazil and Spain only.

“We strive to deliver the best experiences to our customers. The rapid growth of Samsung Pay has been made possible by Samsung’s commitment to an open model of collaboration around the world, resulting in over 1,700 partnerships, including payment providers Visa and Mastercard®,” said Yongje Kim, Executive Vice President of Service Business Office, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. “Its continued support for both MST and NFC payments has also enhanced adoption, enabling market access in countries that support either payment option.” added.

What Is Mobile Payment Service Samsung Pay?

Samsung Pay is a simple and secure mobile payment service that is available almost anywhere you can swipe or tap your eligible payment card. By combining Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and its proprietary Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology, Samsung Pay is the most widely accepted mobile payment solution on the market.

Mobile Payment Service Samsung Pay Security

Samsung Pay operates with three levels of security: fingerprint or iris authentication (available for Galaxy S9 and S9+, Galaxy Note8, Galaxy S8 and S8+), card tokenization and Samsung’s defense-grade mobile security platform, Samsung Knox. Additionally, Samsung Pay makes mobile payments easy – to launch, a user needs to swipe up on an eligible Samsung Galaxy smartphone, select the card, authenticate using a fingerprint, iris scanning or PIN and bring the phone near the point-of-sale terminal.

Countries and Samsung Pay Launch Date

Recently in Feb, 2018 Samsung India and Reliance Jio has tied up for the nation wide cellular IoT network.

Most recently in March, 2018 Samsung has acquired Kngine – an Egyptian AI search engine startup.

(With the inputs from Samsung and Wikipedia)

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If you are Indian citizen and want to file RTI applications online for all Ministries/Departments and Public Authorities of Central Government then you are at the right place. I’ve written the steps how to file RTI application/first appeal for the central government authorities. You should be noted that RTI applications should not be filed for other Public authorities under State Govt. through this portal. Citizens of India can now file RTI Applications Online (Right To Information) with 431 public authorities through a new government portal. Minister of state for personnel Jitendra Singh added in a written Lok Sabha reply that all the states have also been requested to explore the feasibility of implementing online RTI in their respective states.

How To File RTI Applications Online?

People of India can file RTIOnline at site (https://rtionline[dot]gov[dot]in/) and payments for the application can be made online through internet banking using debit/credit cards of Master/Visa and RuPay cards etc. As per the RTI portal, citizens can not file RTIOnline applications through this portal for the public authorities under the State Governments, including Government of NCT Delhi. If filed, the application would be returned and no refund of amount would be considered.

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The sign up form for the RTI site asks details of Individuals/NGO/Common Service Center such as email, mobile phone number and address. Indian Citizens can also search for the public authority or ministry they wish to submit an RTI to and it displays the newly added departments to the portal.

Text for RTI request application is confined to 3000 characters only. If the text of RTIOnline application is more than 3000 characters then RTI application can be uploaded in supporting document field as an attachment. After this user can send the prescribed amount online and also users can keep track of their RTI application on the portal which can be tracked by a unique registration number issued after submission of the application. Once the RTI application is submitted then it would reach electronically to the “Nodal Officer” of concerned Ministry/Department, who would transmit the RTIOnline application electronically to the concerned CPIOs. In case additional fee is required to fulfil cost for providing information, the CPIO would intimate the applicant through this portal. This intimation can be seen by the applicant through Status Report or through his/her e-mail alert or SMS.

If this is the first appeal by the individual then no fee has to be made as per RTI Act.

Steps To File RTI Applications Online

1. Go to RTI (Right to Information) site
2. Log in in this portal if already registered other register as a new user in this site
3. Once you are registered, click on “Submit Request” button on home page to start your application process.
4. Go through and understand the guidelines related to Right to Information Act and acknowledge it by digitally signing the form before starting your application.
5. Choose the department for which you are seeking RTI, fill in your personal details like email id and phone number, submit the subject line for your Right to Information Act application which must brief about the context for your RTI request you are raising.
6. Write your application not more than 3000 words in a clear and simple manner and mention what you are seeking from that department like dates and status.
7. Submit all the supporting documents online.
8. RTI fee of INR 10 to be submitted online through your debit or credit card, this transaction option is available on the website. State Bank and Repays cards holder enjoy even simpler way to process their payments.
9. Once you’re done with all the steps then you can submit your application. Soon after you will get a Registration ID which you must secure for future references like tracking application etc.

You can refer the RTI  Guidelines and once application is submitted, you’ll get the reply from the department you are seeking information within 30 days of application. If you don’t get the response within stipulated time then you can file complaint & second appeal to CIC.

How To Check Status of RTI Applications submitted online?

1. If you have submitted the RTIOnline then you can check the status of your RTIOnline application at View Status
2. Enter registration number, email and security code at the respective fields
3. Click on Submit button

Now you can check the status of your online submitted RTI from here. Still you have any doubts then you can refer FAQ in the RTI site.

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