Latest news with #2.5
Indian Express
08-06-2025
- Science
- Indian Express
BMC to procure 5 handheld air quality monitoring devices
To monitor pollutants and the Air Quality Index (AQI) levels around construction sites in Mumbai, in a pilot project, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is set to procure five handheld ambient air quality monitoring devices at a cost of Rs. 5 lakh each. The mobile equipment will be earmarked solely for the use of BMC engineers to maintain data and facilitate real time monitoring of AQI, particulate matters as well as pollutant gases. 'While the court has called for all construction sites to install their own monitoring sensors, it is also necessary that our engineers have their own monitoring mechanisms to ensure that the air quality levels are not breaching the normals. At a time when we are trying to implement several projects to mitigate air pollution, maintaining data of harmful gases and pollutants is very crucial. Therefore, we are planning to obtain five handheld monitoring devices which will monitor the PM 2.5, PM 10 levels as well as other indicators and calculate the overall AQI in and around construction sites,' a senior official told The Indian Express. Currently, the city is home to nearly 25 monitoring stations of which 11 are operated by the MPCB, nine controlled by the SAFAR, while five are run by the BMC. Furthermore, the civic body has also rolled out plans to install five more new Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS). According to officials, the data from these hand-held monitoring devices will be used by civic engineers and officials in addition to the data from installed stations. 'Unlike the CAAQMS, which are quite big and require a lot of space, the new handheld devices are compact and can be transported easily wherever a need arises,' an official said, adding, 'Besides checking the pollution levels around construction sites, our engineers can also use these machines wherever a need is felt. For instance if the reading on the stations is quite high or if we receive complaints of foul smell etc.' Recently, BMC's environment and climate change department floated a tender for the procurement of outdoor mobile ambient air quality monitoring devices. Estimated a cost of Rs 5 lakh each, these units will be equipped to monitor parameters of PM 2.5, PM 10, Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Methane (CH4), Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC) as well as temperature, humidity and the moisture index. 'With the machines being expensive, we are planning to acquire only five machines in the pilot project. Once pressed into operations, we will observe their utility amongst our engineers and accuracy. If we observe positive trends, we will purchase more such hand-held monitoring devices in the future,' said an official. For the record, earlier this month, the civic body has also instructed the developers to install approved sensor-based AQI monitoring stations at the construction within a period of 30 days. The instructions have been issued in line with the technologies from 15 companies which were shortlisted by the civic body, after an Expression of Interest (EOI) inviting units for particulate matters was floated in February. 'Even though our 27-point guideline for air pollution mitigation maintains that all construction sites must install stations to monitor air quality levels at site, we found that presently, only 10 percent of the construction sites were following the directives. However, in these cases, it was observed that the readings from the machines were not reliable. Therefore, we had floated an EOI to streamline and standardise the type and quality of machines in a bid to ensure accurate AQI. Having now finalised technologies from 15 companies, we have informed all construction sites to install these monitoring stations,' said a senior civic official.
India Today
06-06-2025
- Business
- India Today
Google updates Gemini 2.5 Pro, CEO Sundar Pichai says it is now more creative and smarter
Just two months after unveiling Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google has introduced an updated version of its most advanced AI model to date. Announced on Thursday, the latest iteration, labelled an 'updated preview', builds upon enhancements rolled out a month ago and brings improved performance in specific programming tasks. While the full release is expected in the coming weeks, developers can already access it through Google's AI platforms: AI Studio, Vertex AI, and the Gemini to a blog post from the company, '[Gemini 2.5 Pro] continues to excel at coding, leading on difficult coding benchmarks.' Google further added, 'It also shows top-tier performance [on] highly challenging benchmarks that evaluate a model's math, science, knowledge, and reasoning capabilities.'Additionally, Sundar Pichai, Google CEO took to X (formerly known as Twitter) that the updated Gemini 2.5 Pro is now better at coding, reasoning, and math. He added, "... shows improved performance across key benchmarks (AIDER Polygot, GPQA, HLE to name a few)." Among the refinements, Google says it has taken user feedback into account to polish the model's output. Pichai said, "We also heard your feedback and made improvements to style and the structure of responses." The company notes that the new version can now deliver answers that are 'more creative with better-formatted responses.' advertisementGemini 2.5 builds on the capabilities of its earlier versions, enhancing both performance and versatility. It offers native multimodal support and a significantly extended context window. The Pro variant is particularly notable, now accommodating up to 2 million tokens—doubling the already impressive 1 million-token window previously can take advantage of these features through the Gemini API, Google AI Studio, and Vertex AI. As for pricing, Google has set the cost at $1.25 (approximately Rs 108) per million input tokens without caching, and $10 (around Rs 860) per million output model in the Gemini 2.5 lineup—including future iterations—has been crafted as a 'thinking model,' designed to internally reason before generating a response. This approach, according to Google, leads to greater accuracy and stronger overall performance. The company emphasises that it is 'building these thinking capabilities directly into all of its models' to better equip them for tackling complex challenges and powering more intelligent, context-aware 2.5 represents a significant leap forward, delivering 'a new level of performance' by combining a vastly improved foundational model with refined post-training techniques. It stands as the most sophisticated version of Gemini to date.
Economic Times
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Economic Times
Marvel Rivals Season 2.5: Will Ultron join the roster? Here's release date and new map
Marvel Rivals Season 2.5 is expected to begin on May 30, 2025. This update brings Ultron as a new character, along with a new map set on Arakko island. Players can also expect changes to heroes, team-up abilities, events, skins and challenges during this mid-season update. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Season 2.5 Release Date Ultron to Join Roster? Ultron's Possible Kit Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads New Map Additional Features FAQs Marvel Rivals continues its seasonal updates with Season 2.5 set to release soon. Based on previous schedules, this mid-season update is likely to go live on May 30, 2.5 of Marvel Rivals is expected to start on Friday, May 30, 2025. This estimate is based on the regular three-month season cycle. Season 2 began on April 11, so the update lands at the midway point. A leak from a known source, Miller Ross, also supports this date. However, delays are still possible, and official confirmation is is expected to be the main addition in Season 2.5. He was teased in the Season 2 trailer, but Emma Frost was introduced first. Now, Ultron is set to debut mid-season. His abilities are not confirmed, but leaks provide some Encephalo-Ray – fires an energy beamPassive Ability: Algorithm Correction – slows falling when holding a buttonAbilities:Dynamic Flight – quick movement and full flight modeImperative: Patch – a drone follows and heals nearby alliesImperative: Firewall – summons drones that give extra healthUltimate: Ultron Drones – attack enemies or heal allies with Encephalo-RaysSeason 2.5 will also include a new map. It is set on the island of Arakko. This map was briefly shown in the Season 2 trailer. Leaks confirm it will be part of the Convoy map Marvel stories, Arakko is the sister island of Krakoa. The two islands were once one but were separated. Arakko was sealed away and became more hostile over time. The map design may reflect this part of the can look forward to more changes in this update. These include hero balance updates, tweaks to team-up abilities, special events, new character skins and fresh in-game Rivals Season 2.5 is expected to start on May 30, 2025, based on the typical season timeline and recent is the new character expected to join in Season 2.5. His abilities include flying, healing allies, and attacking with energy beams.
Time of India
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Everything revealed regarding the new Ultron themed game mode Marvel Rivals
It's been a flurry of content in Marvel Rivals after the arrival of Season 2.5. The mid-season refresh update has already brought Ultron as a playable character in the game for the first time. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Now, the developers have even unveiled a dedicated Ultron-themed game mode as well. Season 2.5 has already brought the likes of new features like the Combat Chest, along with a variety of free and paid skins, new events, hero balance changes, new hero team-up abilities, and a lot of things. However, a whole new game mode revolving around the new character is the most exciting addition for sure. The all new Ultron's Battle Matrix Protocol game mode in Marvel Rivals Ultron's Battle Matrix Protocol is purely going to be a strategy-based game mode. | Image via NetEase Games. The newly unveiled game mode in Marvel Rivals is Ultron's Battle Matrix Protocol. This is a limited -time game mode as it will run from June 6 to June 23, 2025. Now, this new game mode comes with a twist. Unlike any other game mode in this hero shooting title where players are running around the battlefield for frags and proper usage of their particular abilities, Ultron's Battle Matrix Protocol is a lot different. This new game mode is now called by the fans as an auto-battler, where players will be put in a proper tactical grid against their enemies. Yes, it's true that the other game modes in Marvel Rivals seek strategy as well, but Battle Matrix Protocol is all about pure strategy, nothing else. In this single player game mode, a player has to analyse his team and assemble in a strategic formation to battle against the rival. That means, you don't have to be on the field, you need to set your team on the field in an auto-simulated battle. The rewards in this mode are going to be a bit different because once this game mode expires, those rewards are also going to leave from your inventories as well. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now However, it's still unclear if players will get Chrono Tokens, Lattice or Units via this game mode. In this mode, players have to pick each character for a six-person team, where they have to purchase Modules to modify the team before facing their rivals. Now, after the teams are modified, each character has to be placed strategically on a 6x4 battle grid to face their opponents. So, choosing the right characters and making a suitable team combination, picking up proper Modules, and appropriate strategic placement are the keys to dominate in this game mode. Read More:
Time of India
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
All competitive rank rewards in Marvel Rivals Season 2.5
Image via NetEase Games. Marvel Rivals Season 2.5 is about to be launched at any time now. After a lackluster Season 2, fans have been anticipating this mid-season refresh eagerly. However, the wait is finally over as Season 2.5 is almost released with some huge in-game contents. This new update will bring Ultron as a playable character, along with new features like Combat Chest, and many more. Fans are going to get treated with huge treats like an array of new skins. However, another exciting aspect of Season 2.5 is Competitive Rewards. Marvel Rivals Competitive Rewards in Season 2.5 These are all the competitive rewards for Season 2.5 in Marvel Rivals. | Image via NetEase Games. NetEase Games has introduced a new set of incentives for the fans in Competitive Play called Competitive Rewards. These rewards include a skin for each Season and Half-Season along with exclusive profile decorations aka crests which are for specific ranks. Now, players might wonder what skins and rewards they will be getting on reaching particular ranks in the game. In Season 2.5, there will be two skins for the players to get as Competitive Rewards in Marvel Rivals. For the Bronze and Silver ranks, unfortunately there are no skins as Competitive Rewards, but the Chrono Shield Card is there. The real fun begins with Gold 3. Upon reaching this rank, players will get the Gold Diamond Emma Frost Skin. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với mức chênh lệch giá thấp nhất IC Markets Đăng ký Undo Not only that, along with this, players will also be treated with a Golden Ultron skin as well. If you have already Gold 3 even before Season 2.5 began, all you need to do is to play 10 Competitive matches to make those two skins yours, as there will be no rank reset in Season 2.5. Now coming to the crests, players who manage to reach the Grandmaster rank, will be rewarded with a default Crest of Honor. However, if they push beyond that and reach Celestial, they will get the Silver crest. On the other hand, reaching Eternity and One Above All grants an exclusive Golden crest. Last but not the least, whoever touches the top 500 mark in the leaderboard for rankings, will be rewarded with a special Orange Crest of Honor. Players need to keep in mind that in order to flex these skins and crests, they have to wait until July 11, 2025 because that's when Season 3 starts. Once you complete all these criteria, rest assured that these rewards will be added to your account when the next season begins. Read More: Marvel Rivals Season 2.5 update release date timings for all region
