Weekly Wrap-up: Jio Free Offer Extension, Airtel Payments Bank, Service Charge Legality & More…

It’s Monday morning, and yet again time to do a quick wrap-up of the posts published on trak last week. If you were offline for any reason, this is a great way to catch up with all the tech buzz from last week.

Magicbricks, a leading real-estate portal in India, has launched a unique ‘Experience Center’, which is powered by advanced technologies and features which has been designed to make the process of home-buying as seamless and smooth as possible. Technology is the backbone of this concept, but the application of this technology is even more powerful.

Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched an app and a portal called ‘AirSewa’ to allow consumers to register any complaint related to their air travel. Flight passengers will not only take in your complaints, but also provide information related to your flight, schedules and airport information.

In the last couple of years, India has witnessed a series of mergers and acquisitions in the internet space. Jabong was bought by Flipkart owned Myntra, Titan picked up CaratLane, Mahindra acquired BabyOye, Future Group took over the online furniture and home furnishings store FabFurnish.com, Ola Cabs bought TaxiForSure, PayU acquired Citrus Pay and Paytm got consumer behaviour prediction and recommendation platform Shifu, among the prominent deals that took place this year.

In yet another indication of how the state-led telecom operator- BSNL is coping with the digitisation process, it will now provide connection to its prospective customers via e-KYC process.

In the middle of demonetisation chaos, there is a small village in Gujarat, called Akodara, which is unmoved by the demonetization move. Around 80 kms from Ahmedabad, located inside Sabarkantha district and Himmatnagar town, business is as usual here, as farmers are buying/selling their produces, people are easily purchasing their daily needs and there are absolutely no queues outside the only ATM present in the village.

National Green Tribunal or NGT has lost its patience when it comes to pollution control, and while hearing arguments regarding impounding of old diesel vehicles, passed this sudden order which is all set to unleash chaos on the streets of Delhi.

Now, State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank have partnered with Ola to allow customers to withdraw cash from POS machines, through debit cards, in Kolkata and Hyderabad only. These cabs will act as micro ATMs, and will have a bank officer along with the POS machine.

Xiaomi has created its own record of selling more than 2 million devices in a quarter, July to September 2016. This partly includes the Diwali rush, that saw 5 Lakh Xiaomi smartphones sold in 72 hours.

Without revealing the technicalities of the modus-operandi, the researchers at CheckPoint, an Israel based security firm has described how a dangerous ransomeware is spreading via social media networks.

Imagine a future where almost every job is done by artificial intelligence. Cars don’t have drivers. Planes don’t have pilots. Hospitals don’t have doctors. Architects have been replaced by intelligent software.

It took Airtel 12 years to reach 50 million subscribers mark, whereas Vodafone and Idea did it in 13 years each. On the other hand, Jio did it in just 83 days! Jio continues to be the fastest growing company in the world and has crossed 50 million subscribers in record 83 days

Reserve Bank of India informed the nation that ever since demonetization kicked in earlier this month, total of Rs 8.44 lakh crore has been received by various banks in the form of cash deposit and/or exchange. Out of this, Rs 33,948 crore has been exchange while Rs 8,11,033 crore were deposited in old notes.

91 Launcher Pro is an Android launcher app that lets you choose from an array of themes, and HD wallpapers to make your Android experience personalised and interesting. Let’s take a closer look at the main features and the user experience of the 91 Launcher Pro in this review to check if it is worth installing. [Sponsored]

Facebook’s is undeterred after the massive debacle of Free Basics. They are now back with another plan to offer Internet access to all Indian citizens: Express WiFi. However, there is a major change in their approach this time, which indicates that Facebook is in no mood to break the fundamentals of Net Neutrality.

In a path-breaking move, Govt. has declared inclusion of service charge as illegal, unfair trade practice if customer’s consent is missing regarding the service charge.

Goa, the land of magical beaches and relaxed ambiance will be soon leading the cashless mission of India. Effective December 31, 2016, Goa would become India’s first cashless state.

Bharti Airtel has grabbed the largest revenue market share amongst all telcos, at 33%, which is also a seven year highest for the company. In spite of a month overlap with Reliance Jio, the company realised a good market share over the last quarter.

The latest feature coming on facebook is called ‘Instant Games’ is a new HTML5 cross-platform gaming experience, on Messenger and Facebook News Feed for both mobile and web. This new games experience allows people to easily discover, share, and play games without having to install new apps.\

Netflix has introduced downloading of videos on its platform for offline viewing. You can download select TV shows and movies to watch without an Internet connection from the Netflix app on your iOS or Android device. This works particularly well in India because internet connectivity is intermittent.

Taking the spirit of entrepreneurship even further, another Noida based startup has taken the concept of ‘cash on delivery’ to a new level, altogether; because they are actually delivering cash to customers.

Apple Music has added a new subscription plans for college and school students, called the Student Membership plan. Students enrolled in degree-granting universities and colleges can join Apple Music at a discounted monthly rate. This plans has been rolled out to 25 countries, including India.

In a reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for IT and Electronics P P Chaudhary informed that Aadhaar Card is an optional identity for Indian citizens, and lack of it cannot be a basis for denying any benefits or subsidies for anyone.

At a time when the common man is struggling to get cash from banks or ATMs, FreeCharge, the leading mobile wallet provider has tied up with Mumbai Traffic Police for collecting challans digitally.

In an official announcement made today, Reliance Chairman, Mr. Mukesh Ambani announced that had been rumoured for last few weeks. Reliance Jio has extended their free unlimited voice and data offerings till March 31st, 2017. The new benefits will be available under Jio Happy New Year Offer!

Jio is launching Jio-Money Merchant solutions to provide an ecosystem for digital transactions. The platform is also aimed to promote small vendors who are not able to catch up with this cashless technology.

In a clear cut directive to all State Governments, Ministry of Consumer Affairs has categorically and bluntly stated that no one can sell any product at a price which is more than the MRP (Maximum Retail Price).

Indian Railways is in talks with SBI, ICICI, and other leading banks to provide it with 15,000 PoS (Point of sale) terminals at reservation counters with about a thousand of these terminals made available by Dec 31, pan India.

Ringing Bells has been summoned by the Delhi Court in a Rs. 2 crore cheque bounce case. The complaint has been filed by Aryan Infratech Pvt. Ltd.(AIPL) accusing the Managing Director of the company, Mohit Goel and its Directors Anmol Goel and Sumit Goel on non-payment despite cheque bounce.

Government of India will soon unleash a major drive to encourage, educate and promote Aadhaar based digital transactions, which are cashless and pinless. Using bio-metric technology and IRIS scans, people would soon be able to send and receive payments, in a closed eco-system which would include your smartphone, Aadhaar card and bank account.

Airtel’s payment bank is offering a Rupee of talktime for every rupee deposited in the bank account. Hence, if a Airtel Bank’s new customer deposits Rs 2000 into his bank account, then Rs 2000 worth of talktime would be provided in that person’s Airtel phone.

And, while you are at it, don’t forget to check out our Up-To-Date Indian Startup Funding & Investment Chart!