Indian Parliament to go Completely Paperless Starting Today #DigitalIndia

Indian Parliament to go Completely Paperless Starting Today #DigitalIndia

Today, winter session started in the Indian Parliament and for the first time, the corridors of the institution will not be filled with bundles of papers as the it is going completely paperless.  From this session onwards, all annual reports from various ministries, committee and panel reports, private member’s bills, unstarred questions and bulleting –1 will be uploaded on the Parliament website.

The Government is also carrying out a comprehensive training program for all the MPs on how to use Digital documents going forward. Once the training is over, all the ministers and MPs and expected to use the digital version.

The new move will not only cut down on the usage of paper significantly but also will usher a new age into the parliament, where all MPs will able to access any and every document at a touch or a click of a button making Parliament sessions more productive.

While initially, those MPs without much tech know-how may face some teething problems, proper training should help them get upto speed within no time.

In February of this month, it was also announced that Union Cabinet meetings will use Kindle and will go completely paperless. All notes of the meeting will be put up on Kindle devices for ministers reference. The ministers will be able to access those notes from their eBook readers at meetings and then return these devices to the Cabinet Secretariat immediately after.

While such plans and proposals have been around for quite a few years, it is heartening to see Modi led government’s intent in bringing about these changes. Sources have mentioned that personnel from National Informatics Centre (NIC) have been working overtime to make this digitization possible.

What is also good to see is that Government’s Digital India initiative has an holistic approach, where every Government function and activity is being digitized rather than being done in bits and pieces manner.

We are sure that this initiative may have met with a lot of opposition as most of our ministers (who are on the wrong side of seventies) are zero tech-savvy and they resist change. Even after all this, the Parliament has boldly gone paperless!

Cortesy of : trak.in

Indian Postal Department Will Now Convert Your Selfies Into Postage Stamp!

Indian Postal Department Will Now Convert Your Selfies Into Postage Stamp! Posted: 12 Nov 2015 09:51 PM PST Stamp department of India Post have introduced a unique program, wherein anyone can convert their selfies into a valid postage stamp. Christened as ‘My Stamp’, this innovative program can be seen as an interesting plot to revive the old tradition of hand written letters and snail mails. As per reports, India Post is already in the process to acquire high end printing devices, which can efficiently convert selfies into postage stamp. Prasar Bharti informed this via Tweet yesterday: Indian Postal department to launch a scheme ‘My Stamp’ in which people can convert their “Selfies” into a #PostageStamp. — Prasar Bharati (@prasarbharati) November 11, 2015 After some time, All India Radio also confirmed this development, by tweeting: “#Indian Postal department would soon launch a scheme ‘#MyStamp’ in which people can convert their “Selfies” into a postage stamp.” Charges for Selfie-Postage Stamp DNA India reported that India Post will charge a fee of Rs 300 to create a dozen worth of postage stamp from your selfie. As per the reports, one needs to visit the Head Post Office with a selfie and fill out a form detailing your identity. Soon, the selfie would be scanned, and converted into a legal postage stamp and provided to you instantly. In case you don’t have any camera to click to selfie, India Post will provide you one on the spot, and help you to click a selfie! The ‘My Stamp’ sheet will have 12 customized postage stamps, printed with the selfies of the person who is willing to shell out Rs 300. In Bhutan, this special program has been running for quite some time now; wherein tourists can convert any picture (or selfie) into a legal postage stamp. Introduction of this innovative program in India can certainly help India Post to generate a new level of interest among net-savvy generation. Meanwhile, India Post has launched a stamp design competition for Republic Day – 2016 celebrations. This competition will give a prizes of Rs 20,000. Details can be found here. Selfies: Driving Innovation The immense popularity of selfies is now driving innovation across various industries. For instance, Federal Bank is inviting new customers to open a new bank account using just a selfie and Aadhaar Card/Pan Card. Very soon, Master Card will allow payment authentication using selfies as your security credentials can now be verified from your images. Soon, selfies would hold the same importance as fingerprints. Selfie, along with Hashtag and Tweep have already found mention in the 2014 Merriam-Webster Dictionary. However, selfie clicked inside a polling booth during an election can also land you in jail. Will you convert your selfies into postage stamps? Do let us know by commenting right here! courtesy of : trak

Zomato Blacklisted By 6 IITs for Campus Placements; Students Warned Against Contacting Them

7 year old Zomato, which is the poster-child of food tech based startups in India, having expanded to 22 countries and generating 1.9 million views page traffic in a month; having a valuation of more than $1 billion have been blacklisted by IITs from campus placements.

Atleast 6 IITs – Delhi, Bombay, Kharagpur, Madras, Guwahati and Kanpur have confirmed this development.

Atal Ashutosh Agarwal, Vice-President, Technology Students’ Gymkhana at IIT-Kharagpur, said, “Any company which violates the procedural guidelines laid down by the AIPC may be blacklisted,”

Meanwhile, another placement official at one of the IITs have said, “No company should take the IIT system for granted,”

Back in July, Deepinder Goyal, founder of Zomato had lashed out against IIT Delhi, the place from where he had graduated. The issue was that Zomato was not provided day 1 slot for campus interviews, as the salary + ESOPs offered by them amounted to just Rs 26 lakh, a figure way too less for IIT Delhi’s standards.

He had said, “Campus placements in India are broken. Placement cells optimize only for money. Growth, esops, quality of work is secondary.”

Mohak Mehta, former placement manager at IIT Bombay says, “There are startups which get very egoistical about getting an early slot.”

At that time, IIT Delhi had responded by saying, “Any company which has to compete for a slot has to match the cash salary offer. Zomato did not match the salary offer,”

The issue didn’t end, it seems. Placement heads from 6 different IITs have now ganged up, and entirely stopped Zomato from entering their premises for any placement related activity.

As per Times of India, the main reason for Zomato’s blacklisting may be the recent layoffs, wherein their management had fired 10% of their employees in one single go. IITs do tend to give a warning in case of such unprecedented actions by recruiting companies; and blacklisted in case of severe actions.

Students Warned Against Contacting Them

An unverified circular from IIT Delhi is making rounds in the social media, which explicitly warns students from contacting Zomato in any form. As per the circular, Directi, a domain and web hosting company along with Zomato are blacklisted from campus placements, and if any student is found aiding them or contacting them, on or off campus, then strict disciplinary action would initiated against them.

This is most probably for the first time in history that IIT students are being warned from contacting a billion dollar startup!

source

We are still trying to verify the authenticity of this circular.

Meanwhile, blacklisting of Directi, which was implemented last year, may be revoked for 2015-16 placement season. They were blacklisted over placement interviews at IIT Kanpur last year. Placement heads at one of the IITs said, “Since IIT-Kanpur was the most aggrieved party, the decision to revoke the ban has now been left to them,”

Recently Deepinder Goyal came into news for sending out a hard hitting email to their sales team, detailing how they are missing the targets and more firing may become a necessity. The stern tone of this email surprised one and all.

We had earlier covered how Deepinder Goyal performed poorly at Reddit India AMA; and we had shared his 16 weird answers.

Is this recent blacklisting an issue of ego clash or a personal vendetta against Zomato? We will keep you updated as more details come in.

Courtesy of : Trak

Google With Digital India: Android Will Have 11 Regional Languages; WiFi Plan Across 400 Railway Stations Confirmed

During PM Modi’s recent visit to US where he met top notch CEOs and founders of technological companies, several new and exciting updates were announced, which were in sync with Digital India vision.

Here are two major updates from Google, which were shared by their CEO Sundar Pichai during his meeting with PM Modi:

Android Will Have 11 Regional Languages

In order to spread the usage of smartphone among non-English speaking population, it is very important to deliver them content and functionalities in their regional language.

Sensing this need, Google will now provide Android OS in 11 regional languages of India. Although details were not shared regarding which languages are included, but Sundar made sure to make PM Modi happy as Gujarati is included in this list.

This is certainly one of the biggest decisions from Google, to help the spread of Digital India vision. We had earlier shared that Hindi content consumption is growing at a rate of 94%; while 37% of Internet users want content in their regional language.

Internet Across 400 Railway Stations: Biggest Public WiFi Project In India

Sundar Pichai confirmed their promise of providing high speed WiFi across 400+ railway stations across India. We had already shared this news earlier in September, when we had published some exclusive images of this project.

Sundar Pichai, officially announced the WiFi project via blog, where he said that Google, along with RailTel will provide Internet access to 10 million passengers a day.

To start with, they will roll out high speed Internet via WiFi across 100 stations by the end of 2015; which would be later expanded to 400 railway station.

Interesting part is that, this WiFi won’t be free after first 30 minutes. However, by paying for a service, rail passengers would be able to access unrestricted Internet in train, and the speed would be fast enough to download a movie in 5 minutes!

Once executed, it would be the largest public WiFi project in India.

As we had shared earlier, collaboration with RailTel is the master stroke which Google has played, as they are now not dependent on traditional ISPs such as Reliance and Airtel to provide WiFi. Due to this restriction, their earlier project of Google Fiber was not executed in India.

RailTel already has coverage of 63,500 kms of rail track, across 5000 railway stations; They have already laid fiber network across 32,500 kms, and work is in progress for 29,500 kms now.

After disappointments from Facebook, these new updates from Google are whole-heartedly welcomed because this is the true Digital India expansion: Fair and Quality Internet for all.

Courtesy of : Trak

Google Launches Online Courses and Scholarships in India with Udacity & Tata Trusts

Google Launches Online Courses and Scholarships in India with Udacity & Tata Trusts

Outside the US, India has the largest number of app developers. The community in India is growing widely, and taking a note of that, to empower these by giving quality education, Google is taking a leap to help these by training them massively.

The Internet giant along with Tata Trust have tied up with US based renowned online education platform Udacity to provide certification for the online courses.

Its an interesting course module, not like the existing ones we have lying all over the Internet. It is called Android Nanodegree. It will be of great help to developers who want to learn new skills but are out of resources. It is going to be of help to those who are working professionals as we have seen that it gets difficult to get out of your zone and take up a course when you need to ear for a living.

Another interesting facet to this story is that Google and Tata Trust will offer 500 scholarships each to candidates through the programme. This will again ease the burden of those who are not financially sound.

Here is an introductory video on Android Nanodegree

There has been a huge rise in number of smartphone users in the country since 2011, there are hence growing number of app developers coming up to cater to the growing needs of smartphone users, however, they haven’t reached the much needed mark of efficiency yet.

The course offered by Google will take about six to nine months and costs Rs 9,800 per month with Udacity refunding 50 per cent of the tuition fees upon completion. That’s a quite good deal.

Udacity is also trying its best to overcome the language barrier. “We are working on translations and captions for videos on YouTube. We have been already providing it in 12 languages across the world, but are yet to start working on Indian languages,” said Peter Lubbers, senior programme manager, developer relations at Google.

There couldn’t be a better online trainee for a country like ours which has a base of over 3 million software developers. At this pace, we are likely to overtake the US till 2018. However, these developers lack quality. Though they are plenty in numbers, not a single app from this Indian community is on the list of top 100 at the Google Playstore.

Google, hence wants to become the backbone of this workforce, strengthening them with pivotal knowledge, easily obtainable online, so that they are not just large in numbers but also good in quality of apps they create.

“With the launch of this programme, we want to bridge the gap by providing India’s developer community an easy access to learn and build high quality apps for the world. Today, only two per cent of apps built in India feature in the top 1,000 apps globally and our goal is to raise this to 10 per cent in the next three years,” said Rajan Anandan, vice-president and managing director, Google South East Asia and India.

Over a million of engineers graduate from India every year. Five percent of these train to become developers, and just one fourth of them become app developers. These figures clearly state how bad India needed this. Some rigorous training of international standards, and our developers would be well developed to aim at the stars!

courtesy of : Trak

BSNL Will Start Offering Competitively Priced 4G Services By March 2016

BSNL Will Start Offering Competitively Priced 4G Services By March 2016

The 4G mobile internet wars are heating up – while Bharti Airtel has taken a lead by launching their 4G services across 296 towns and cities in India, other telecom operators like Vodafone have announced that they will start offering 4G connectivity by end of the year. Reliance Jio Infocomm have also reiterated that their 4G services will be available by December of this year.

Now, state run telecom operator BSNL too plans to launch their services by March 2016 at competitive rates. BSNL Chairman and MD Anupam Shrivastava told ET, “We will launch competitive tariff plans to match Reliance Jio and other private telecom service providers’ pricing, be it 4G or 3G, by the end of this year”

BSNL has 20MHz spectrum in 2500 MHz band in 15 Licensed Service Areas (LSAs) where the 4G connectivity is expected to come up first. BSNL is also currently in talks with MTS to launch 4G services in 800 MHz, but no official announcement has been made as yet.

Most existing Indian telecom operators including BSNL are quite wary of Jio Infocomm’s aggressively priced 4G services. Jio’s 4G tariff are expected to be extremely cheap compared to other providers.

Shrivastava added, “We compete with each other and share infrastructure with Reliance Jio as well. In today’s scenario, it should not be seen as a competition as the objective is to serve consumers”. He also said that BSNL might take the Wi-Fi route to offer 4G services an are currently in talks with other telecom operators for Sharing of their spectrum.

Jio Infocomm has pan-India BWA spectrum in 2300 MHz band, and has also acquired airwaves in 800MHz and 1800MHz in the recently-concluded auctions.

It seems that BSNL also wants to play the price card, and may even launch 4G at rates below Jio Infocomm. According to BSNL sources, the rates for 4G connectivity will announced later in December this year.

courtesy of : Trak.in

Google Docs Adds Hindi Voice Dictation, Research Tool and More

Google Docs Adds Hindi Voice Dictation, Research Tool and More

This week has indeed been a busy one for those at Google. After having unveiled the new logo, Google has now introduced many new features, at the very right time when a new academic year for the Americans begins. The feature will now let users type an essay or assignment just by dictating.

The new feature is called “voice typing” and has been added to Google Docs. All you have to do to check it out is, just open a new document, click on the Tools menu and select “Voice typing.” Once done, you need to click on the microphone tab and get started. As per Google, this function will support 40 different languages. For the love of Indian users, it will even support Hindi.

To all up to all this, Google has even added some powerful new features to its cloud-based office suite. This step is certainly going to make some applications more appealing to those in the classroom. However, what we see as a negative here is that Google Docs word processor is not yet set in place for Android. The only way to access it is by desktop users who use Google Chrome’s browser.

Going ahead with the voice-typing feature, it will only type what you say. The drawback here is that it cannot tell you what punctuation marks are needed or where they are to be placed. As the user dictates the text in the content, he will even have to dictate where commas, periods and other punctuation marks are to be placed. This would probably be the ideal format for people who just take down running notes.

Google has also added some interesting updates to slides and sheets. The Android App of Google Docs will now allow you to pull in facts, quotes, images and more from Google search. Google Sheets also features innovative visualization tools for all of data display and the company has added pre-designed templates for Google Sheets, Docs and Slides.

The company states that the new feature is targeted towards classrooms. The ‘research’ feature will allow the user to surf the web, and while doing this, the user wouldn’t have to minimize the word processor application and switch to the browser.

This will indeed be a good add on to those students who do not use desktops or laptops, but tablets in classrooms. The population of such users is on a high currently because of the low budget tablets being widely available in markets. The SafeSearch would be on by default and only the images that are tagged as “licensed for reuse” will show up in search results. Now this one looks similar to the one that Microsoft employed for Bing search images from office suite.

“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information,” said Google Apps for Education product management director Jonathan Rochelle. “That is especially true for students and teachers.” The new benefits we believe will not only be of benefit to students, but a large audience who uses Google Docs as they can now give fingers a break!

courtesy; trak

Amazon Adds 7 New Fulfillment Centres Across India Taking Total Tally To 20

Amazon Adds 7 New Fulfillment Centres Across India Taking Total Tally To 20

Amazon India today announced that it has added seven new Fulfillment Centres (FCs) across India to meet the growing needs of its fast-growing seller base. The new New Fulfillment Centres have been opened in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Nagpur, Gurgaon, Pune  and Mumbai.

With the launch of these new FCs, Amazon now has a total of 20 FCs operational across 10 states in India covering a total area of over 1.6 mln sq ft with a storage capacity of nearly four million cubic feet.

More number of fulfillment centers means better and faster service for Amazon India customers. The new FCs will also enable thousands of small and medium businesses in these cities to gain access to and service customers across the country at significantly low operating costs.

If you are not aware, a Fulfillment Centre is a warehouse, where online retailers who use ‘Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)’ services, stock their inventory. When using FBA, sellers across India send their products to Amazon’s fulfilment centres and once an order is placed, Amazon picks, packs and ships the order to the customer, provides customer service and manages returns on behalf of the sellers. Orders fulfilled by Amazon are eligible for Cash on Delivery, Guaranteed Next-Day, Same Day, Release Day and Sunday delivery.

Customers will now see far more products that will have “Amazon FulFilled” batch while shopping on Amazon site!.

Amit Agarwal, Vice President and Country Manager, Amazon India said, Sellers on our marketplace have been witnessing exponential growth with overall volume growth exceeding 500% in the latest quarter and largely powered by our Fulfilled by Amazon service  contributing more than 75% of total units. We remain committed to investing in our fulfillment and logistics capability to enable and empower sellers to serve customers nationally at lower costs and increase sales”

With launch of 7 new fulfillment centers, Amazon India now has FCs in states of Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal. Amazon claims that they now have over one million products for immediate shipping through the network of Amazon’s FCs in India.

courtesy of :trak

Now Book New LPG Connection Online; or Simply Pick a 2kg One From The Local Kirana Store

Now Book New LPG Connection Online; or Simply Pick a 2kg One From The Local Kirana Store

Government’s Digital India initiative is flourishing more than we thought it would. It is leaving its prints in every sector of the society, not just sticking to e-governance and transparency, for what it was initially introduced. It has now introduced online bookings for new connections for subsidized cooking fuel. After having introduced a 5-kg cylinder back in 2013, it is now planning to launch 2-kg bottles at local kirana stores, for making things just more convenient.

“We are now planning to introduce a 2-kg cylinder that can be easily carried… this will be particularly beneficial for the rural people and poor who cannot afford to pay the price of a 14.2-kg or even 5-kg cylinder,” said Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

While speaking at the launch of online booking of LPG connections, Pradhan said, “Consumers can now book a new connection online. It will be verified within 48 hours and a person from the nearest LPG agency will deliver a new connection at the door-step in next 3-4 days,” he said.

The portal called Sahaj has been launched on MyLPG.in where citizens book an LPG connection and make payments for the connection online. This service will be available for citizens in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna and Pune for now, and will be launched across the country in the next few days.

The procedure of physical booking being taken online will make booking new connections a hassle free process now. Also, this will also help in better governance, as in physical bookings too, one has to fill pockets of officials to get their connections soon. Also, time-saving is a major plus point of this initiative.

In July, many initiatives were launched under the Digital India week, such as Digital Locker, Bharatnet, e-Sign and others. As fascinating as it may sound, over 20k villages are now connected by broadband. The government also has reached out to the education sector by launching eBasta.  Launch of online LPG bookings has just added up to its growing umbrella.

The portal interestingly states that it is maintained by the ‘respective oil marketing companies’.  It also has a link to the government’s Give it Up initiative where PM Modi had requested the well-off people who can afford to pay market price, to voluntarily give up their subsidy to help extend its reach to the most needy.

There is also a ticker stating that the scheme PAHAL has made it to the Guinness World Record. As we dig in for more, we see that the scheme to pay subsidy directly in bank accounts of customers, called the Direct Benefit Transfer on LPG, has been recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest cash transfer programme in the world. It has also eliminated middle-men and black marketers and ensured the fuel is delivered to right people.

The MyLPG portal is available on phones, tablets and computers. Users can book their cylinders, register for a new connection, track cylinder booking and delivery dates, choose the distributor, Aadhaar linking status, monitor LPG subsidy transferred to bank and surrender their connection online. It has been created by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas along with oil marketing companies like Indane, Bharat Gas and HP Gas.

A TOI report also states that after a new application for an LPG connection is received, the system will automatically detect a dealer best suited for the user and email or message them the customer ID number, within 48 hours of application. Once this number is received, the user can pay online, after which the system makes a duplication check. Post that, the dealer will deliver the regulator, cylinder and rubber pipe to a new user. Apparently, the whole process will take 6-7 days.

Airtel and Idea Increase 3G Data Charges For Post Paid Customers: 2 Possible Explanations

Airtel and Idea Increase 3G Data Charges For Post Paid Customers: 2 Possible Explanations

As per new updates, both Idea and Airtel has increased 3G data charges for their post-paid customers by 20%.

The new increased tariffs have been rolled out selected circles across India.

Airtel has implemented these increased charges in Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP East and UP West circles; while Idea’s new rates would be applicable in Delhi, Punjab and UP West.

In these circles, both Airtel and Idea post paid customers would now pay Rs 300 for 1 GB of 3G data, which was Rs 250 earlier.

As per Airtel, this new tariff would be only applicable for new customers; Idea refused to share more details.

Within 2 months, this is the second time telecom operators have increased data charges. In the month of June, Airtel, Idea and Vodafone had increased 3G and 2G data charges for their pre-paid customers by 11 to 47%.

However, Vodafone hasn’t issued any update for post-paid customers yet as they are still offering 3G data for post paid account at Rs 250 per 1 GB.

However, the question arises, why this sudden increase in rates, especially when 4G is about to be rolled out by Reliance Jio and Airtel?

2 Possible Reasons for Increased Data Rates

We are amidst a very intense battle for 4G roll-out across India, as Reliance Jio wants to acquire 50 lakh customers in the first 50 hours of it’s launch, whereas Airtel wants to capture 44 cities before Reliance Jio enters the arena.

We have heard rumors that Reliance Jio may offer 4G at lowest ever rates; as per some insider sources, it can touch Rs 60 per 1GB, which is 60-75% less than what telecom operators are currently offering.

Hence, there arise two possibilities which can be the reason why Idea, Airtel and Vodafone decided to hike their 3G charges:

a) Bait and Watch:

Old psychological theories in marketing says that if you increase the price of a product, and then offer discount and sales, then it clicks with the end user; and his mind is tricked into believing that the bargain is good.

Idea, Vodafone and Airtel must be aware of the cut throat prices which Reliance Jio can offer for 4G services, and to counter that, they may be increasing the price of 3G data right now, only to decrease it once Reliance Jio jumps into the market. Hence, it can be a perfect ‘bait and watch’ technique to get more customers.

b) Book Profits Before Its Too Late:

The other possibility, which is both short sighted and evil, is that Idea, Vodafone and Airtel are aware that they can’t compete against Reliance Jio when it comes pricing; hence book as much profits as it’s possible before the bigger fish enters the arena.

courtesy: trak.in

Now, Vodafone Offers Double Validity on Voice Calls. Ploy to Retain Customers Before 4G Launch?

Now, Vodafone Offers Double Validity on Voice Calls. Ploy to Retain Customers Before 4G Launch

Earlier this month, Vodafone had effectively halved their mobile internet data prices by offering double data on pre-paid recharge packs. Now, in a surprise move they have announced double validity on their rate cutter packs for voice calls. For a price of Rs. 7, Vodafone will offer double validity for their customer on pre-paid rate cutters packs in Mumbai circle.

Elaborating on the Vodafone Double Validity offer, Ishmeet Singh, Business Head- Mumbai, Vodafone India, said, “Mobile telecom services in Mumbai are still largely voice dominated. Over 60% of the Vodafone Mumbai revenues are contributed by Voice plans. Double Validity is yet another customer centric initiative from Vodafone, conceptualized with the objective of ensuring our customers have control on how they utilize their plan and get full value for money. It is a refreshing offering that blends affordability with customer empowerment.”

Why these rate cuts?

In India, voice call rates have been stabilized for a long time now. No telecom operator wants to reduce the rates further and trigger a price-war, especially because they are operating on a wafer thin margin when it comes to voice calls. Hence, this move by Vodafone is surprising. In a span of a month, Vodafone has effectively halved their prices on Data and voice.

These double validity schemes have come immediately after Airtel launched their 4G services across 296 towns in India including Mumbai.

One cannot help but think that this move by Vodafone is a ploy to retain customers and avoid them from moving to Airtel network for want of 4G connectivity.

With mobile number portability, users can quickly move to any other operator while retaining their number, so it has become very easy for users to shift between operators. By offering goodies like Double validity, Vodafone is trying to retain the customers on their network till such time that they launch their own 4G services.

Mumbai is a lucrative circle for Vodafone where they have over 6 million subscribers. Additionally, Mumbai users have some of the highest ARPU’s (Average Revenue per user) across the country, so losing these customers will have major effect on their bottom-line.

When is Vodafone 4G coming?

Airtel’s launch has now pressurized other operators to launch their 4G services in a hurry. In the 4G auctions held earlier in the year, Vodafone bagged nearly 5 MHz of spectrum in the 1,800 MHz band for Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Karnataka and Kerala. Singh had earlier confirmed that Vodafone will be launching 4G services by the end of the year. Vodafone is currently conducting 4G trials in all these 5 circles.

With Reliance Jio approaching the market aggressively in 4G services arena, both in terms of offerings and as well as price, it is going to be tough for the incumbents to hold on to their mobile data market share. We are surely in for some intense competition between various telco’s in India.

courtesy : trakin

ICICI Bank Smart Vault, India’s First Robotic Locker Combines ‘Make in India’ & ‘Digital India’ Vision Into One

ICICI Bank Smart Vault, India’s First Robotic Locker Combines ‘Make in India’ & ‘Digital India’ Vision Into One

ICICI Bank has launched India’s first locker facility powered by robotic technology. Christened as ‘Smart Vault’, this new service was formally inaugurated by Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank at their Defense Colony branch in New Delhi.

To start with, this new, futuristic locker facility has been offered only at Defense Colony branch, which also provides Wealth Management services. As of now, there are 500 such lockers installed in the branch, and depending on the usage, more branches would be enabled to have this service.

ICICI Bank refused to share pricing details of this unique locker service, but as per Chanda, there would be 3 different plans according to the size of the locker; and compared to traditional locker facilities, the service charges are a bit more.

Salient Features of ‘Smart Vault’

• Customers can access their lockers 24*7, 7 days a week.
• Smart Vault uses robotic technology to empower the customer to access their lockers, without any human interface.
• Instead of customer visiting an enclosed hall or large room to access their lockers via keys, Smart Vault lets the customer access their locker from a secured lounge, while comfortably providing their access details. Using robotic technology, the locker comes to the customer after authentication.
• Hence, the customer can access their locker in total privacy, without any intervention of bank employees
• Smart Vault is powered with multi-layered security which has been described as ‘state of the art’.
• The system includes biometric authentication and debit card & PIN check before providing access
• Smart Vault has the new dimple key technique, which makes replication almost impossible
• Besides ICICI Bank’s unbreakable lock-system, the customer can choose their own lock as well
• To ensure safety of the system, Smart Vault will have a biometric alert facility, wherein a direct call line to a central security team is provided to thwart any attempt to open the lock without permission
• Every time the locker is accessed, customers will get alert SMS
• 24*7 video patrolling of the premises and CCTV surveillance

Check out this introductory video that shows how ‘Smart Vault’ will function

Digital India & Make in India Into One

The usage of modern robotics mechanism to offer locker facility is a direct alignment with PM Modi’s Digital India mission, wherein technology and digital platform are used to serve the society in a better way.

The robotic system for lockers has been designed by Pune based Precision Automation and Robotics, a startup which was provided with seed-fund by ICICI Bank in early 1990s. The ‘Make in India’ vision is being implemented by choosing an Indian company for such advanced, futuristic system, which has never been introduced before in India.

In a press release, Chanda said, “We are especially proud of the Smart Vault since it has been both designed and manufactured by Indian partners, and is an example of Make in India.”

We had reported earlier about India’s first Digital village: Akodara, which has been adopted by ICICI Bank, and powered with unique digital initiatives. ICICI Bank were the first to introduced Internet Banking in India, and recently their new mobile banking app ‘Pockets’ have crossed 1 million downloads.

With their new robotics powered locker facility, ICICI Bank has increased the gap between their competitors, and introduced a new paradigm of banking services.

courtesy of : trak.in

Soon You May be Able to Buy Medicines Online, Govt to Consider Revising Drugs Act

Soon You May be Able to Buy Medicines Online, Govt to Consider Revising Drugs Act

Many ecommerce companies were lately under scanner of the regulatory board for selling medicines online. Now suddenly diverging from that, the government is looking forth to ‘modifying the Drugs and Cosmetics Act’, so that the ecommerce companies will be allowed to sell medicines online. The move followed representations made by organised retail chains such as Apollo Pharmacy, Medplus and Hetero.

Buying or selling drugs online has always been a controversial issue in India and abroad. Whether the drugs are being used or misused is difficult to judge. In May this year Maharashtra FDA raided Snapdeal for selling drugs online without prescriptions.

“The committee is yet to firm up its recommendations but drug controllers of many states have submitted their proposals to the government. Majority members of the sub-committee are in favour of considering the pleas of trade bodies, pharmacy chains and e-tailers to allow online sale of medicines with adequate safeguards taking into account the global practices.” said a member of the DCGI panel.

The government’s moves are sometimes strange. Earlier this year we spoke of the Telangana government having banned sites selling sexual wellness products, however, Flipkart’s sexual wellness section is still up and running (though some products have been removed).

If the act is amended and the online market sells drugs, there are a few things you need to keep a check on, the government will ofcourse lay a blanket of safety measures, but for self awareness,

Check the website you’re buying medicines from as it could be unsafe if:

• It sends you drugs with unknown quality or origin.
• It gives you the wrong drug for your illness.
• It doesn’t provide a way to contact the website by phone.
• It offers prices that are dramatically lower than the competition.
• It may offer to sell prescription drugs without a prescription this is against the law!
• It may not protect your personal information.

Also, each time you’re buying medicines online, keep a check on the following:

• Check the physical appearance of the medicine (color, texture, shape, and packaging)
• Check to see if it smells and tastes the same when you use it (incase you’ve used similar medicines before)
• Alert your pharmacist or whoever is providing treatment to anything that is different.

The domestic medicine market is growing at around 10-15% a year and is estimated at around Rs. 90,000 crore. Akun Sabharwal, director of Telangana’s Drugs Control Administration, said he has recommended to the government that the Drugs and Cosmetics Act be amended to enable the online sale of medicines. “Online pharmacy, once legal sanction is given, can be operated by anyone who will meet the standards desired by the revised Drug and Cosmetics Act,” he told the ET. Sabharwal, a doctor turned administrator who has studied the US model of dispensing medicines online, said, “There should be an equal opportunity for all people to be part of the process if they follow the statute.”

The modifications in the act will be great news for e-tailers, besides the pharmacists who will be going online, as they will just have more doors open for revenue to flow in!

Android 6.0 Marshmallow: 10 new features

After months of waiting, Google has finally announced that the next version of its mobile OS Android will be called Marshmallow. Also, it the next update of the OS will be numbered Android 6.0, instead of Android 5.2 as previously speculated.

Announced at Google I/O 2015, Android Marshmallow brings with it a number of new features to spruce up your smartphones and tablets (provided they get the update). 

Google Now on Tap

One of the key Android Marshmallow features is Google Now on Tap, a more advanced version of the company's digital assistant. While Google Now is presently available, on most phones, only via the Search app, Android 6.0 will make it all-pervasive.

This means that you will be able to pull up Google Now to make a quick search across any app while using the smartphone. All you need to do is to select any section on the screen, for example any particular text, and Google Now on Tap will pull up relevant information, including context-based definitions.

Chrome Custom Tabs

Many a times, you click a link in an app and it either takes you to the default browser (like Chrome, Opera etc) or opens the link on the in-app browser. With Android 6.0, app makers will be able to integrate Chrome tabs into their apps, but retain the app’s customized look. The toolbar colour, enter & exit animations, and custom actions as well as overflow menu can be picked by the app makers even if the link is of an external website.

One of the key uses for the app makers is that the user stays within the app and gets a seamless experience. For the users, Custom Chrome Tabs saves them the trouble of logging into websites they are already connected to or authenticate permissions more than once. Moreover, this feature has provision to pre-fetch content, so autofill data and passwords can be entered with just a tap.

Chrome Custom Tabs

Many a times, you click a link in an app and it either takes you to the default browser (like Chrome, Opera etc) or opens the link on the in-app browser. With Android 6.0, app makers will be able to integrate Chrome tabs into their apps, but retain the app’s customized look. The toolbar colour, enter & exit animations, and custom actions as well as overflow menu can be picked by the app makers even if the link is of an external website.

One of the key uses for the app makers is that the user stays within the app and gets a seamless experience. For the users, Custom Chrome Tabs saves them the trouble of logging into websites they are already connected to or authenticate permissions more than once. Moreover, this feature has provision to pre-fetch content, so autofill data and passwords can be entered with just a tap.

Battery life enhancements

While Android Lollipop’s Project Volta did not bring as much battery life improvement as was promised by Google, the company claims to have brought a fix with Android Marshmallow’s Doze feature. Basically, this feature is said to bring your smartphone to a near-off state when it has been idle for a long time. 

In Google’s tests, Android 6.0’s Doze resulted in two times the battery life compared to Android 5.0 on the same device with the same apps.

Though Doze allows important notifications and alarms to pass, it does not let apps refresh in the background, so you won’t be able to get key updates as soon as you pick up your phone after a while.

Fingerprint support goes native

While many manufacturers, like Samsung, HTC, OnePlus, Oppo etc, have been using fingerprint sensors in their smartphones for quite some time, Google is making fingerprint sensor support native with Android 6.0.

This will not only add a new security layer to all smartphones (if manufacturers want to add this feature, that is) but also allow payment authentication via Android Pay.

Moreover, fingerprint support can be added to other apps as password for logins.

USB Type C and faster charging

Google is doing away with microUSB as the standard for the Android smartphones with the Android Marshmallow update, replacing it with USB Type C.

This relatively new USB type is backwards-compatible, which means that (like Apple’s Lightning adapter) the charging cable can be inserted in the port either way, making it a convenience for all users.

USB Type C has two other advantages: It allows for faster data transfer rates and charges devices faster. In fact, Google says USB Type C can charge products up to 3-5 times faster than the current crop of microUSB chargers.

App permissions

Google has rebooted app permissions with Android 6.0. Marshmallow will allow users to accept or deny permissions to apps as when they are updated; for example, if an app you download wants to access your camera, you can choose to deny to that requirement while approving the others.

This is different from the current setup, where you must accept all permissions if you want to download an app.

If an app adds new features and wants to access more of your phone’s hardware, you can choose to accept to deny those changes while downloading the update.

Android 6.0 Marshmallow also allows you to revisit app permissions; for example, you denied any particular permission initially, you can go in settings and accept it later.

Android Pay

Android 6.0 Marshmallow will bring in Android Pay, an NFC-based payment system that will rival Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Though it will be launched with Android Marshmallow, it will still be available for devices running on Android 4.4 and above.

Based on Google Wallet, this feature allows you to save your credit cards and loyalty cards in one place. When you want to make a transaction, you will be able to authenticate the transaction via your fingerprint or via your virtual card number (given by Android Pay while registering).

Direct Share

Sharing on Android is already pretty convenient, but Google is trying to make it easier with Android 6.0 Marshmallow with it a new feature called Direct Share.

Though a lot is not known about this feature yet, we know that Direct Share will enable apps to share content (for example images) to specific contacts with just one click.

So, if you share stuff with particular contacts frequently, the software will recognize this behaviour and show those contacts on top. It is expected that the APIs will allow for more features, but it will eventually depend on the app makers to integrate them.

New boot animation

Google is bringing in a little change to the boot animation with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which will now show four colourful circles moving about and morphing into various shapes before settling into the Android logo.

This replaces the Android 5.0 Lollipop boot animation, which had four colourful spheres bouncing about for a few seconds before turning into the Android logo.

COURTESY OF: Times of India