Weekly Wrap-Up: Airtel Free 4G Data Plan, Paytm Payments Bank, Flipkart iPhone Offer & More…

This is Monday morning, and as is customary, it’s time to do our weekly 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 Tech buzz from last week.

Paytm has announced their key achievements in 2016, and to say they are impressive is an understatement. Starting with the best one, the company started from 122 million wallet users in January 2016, and went up to 147 million in December 2016, almost a 45% jump in 12 months.

For Rs 144, BSNL users of both prepaid and postpaid connection can now get unlimited voice calling to any network in India, along with bundled Internet package of 300 MB, for a period of one month. This special offer of Rs 144 shall be valid for the next 6 months

Some sections of the media and Opposition parties have been slamming Modi Govt due to the side-effects of demonetization move. However, the positive effects of this massive economical gamble is now slowly but gradually becoming visible, thereby silencing the critics of this move.

Patanjali, the home grown Ayurved based FMCG conglomerate has been declared as India’s most disruptive FMCG company in 2016. And this declaration has come straight from Assocham, as it conducted it research in association with TechSci.

HDFC Bank has also now launched a chatbot service called ‘OnChat’ that will allow you to make bill payments and do mobile recharges with ease. Built into the Facebook Messenger, OnChat is available to non-HDFC bank users as well.

The plans for 10 Metro Stations to go Cashless with Paytm have been spoiled by Arvind Kejriwal, who feels that this has been a forced decision without any logical decision making. Kejriwal has ordered an inquiry into this decision to see if Paytm was the only one taken up by DMRC.

Finally, Government of India had to issue a press release issuing directives for service charge, which is currently being forcefully charged by restaurant owners.

on one side, Govt. of India is pushing for digital economy, and cashless transactions, and on the other side, there is an additional charge (or punishment) for being cashless? Has Govt. forgotten to rollback these absolutely unnecessary charges, or it is plain hypocrisy from Govt.?

Alibaba is opening their new office in the business district of Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai. Spread over 3221 square feet, Alibaba will pay a little more than Rs 1 crore as monthly rent for this office space.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma personally announced the big news via blog post: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given its final approval for the launch of their much-awaited Payments Bank.

Airtel is now offering Free 4G Internet for a year. But wait; there is a catch here: This offer is only available for those, who decide to ditch their telecom operator, and choose Airtel.

Extending its service to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), MobiKwik has partnered with one of India’s largest hospitals to make all transactions at the medical facility completely cashless.

The Snapdragon 835 will be the first chipset to be made on the 10nm FinFET process node, and has been developed with the help of Samsung. This processor is expected to be rolled out into production by the first half of 2017.

As soon as I opened Flipkart iPhone 6 offer page, I realised that the final price of Rs. 10,000 approximately, would be offered only after I exchange my old smartphone for the iPhone 6. This was expected, wasn’t it? But I still had some hopes.

Now making a small dent in the cab sharing industry, Ola has introduced ‘Share Express’ that aims to reduce the costs on the most common routes by 30%. There are over 100 such routes in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Jaipur Delhi and NCR that will come under Share Express.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on 4th January announced two initiatives ‘Digital Unlocked’ and ‘My Business Website’ to give a technological push to small and medium business in India. Google has invested in an open ecosystem, and follow a similar trend while developing technologies for entrepreneurs in India.

The Gionee S6 Pro is a phone that excels in the department of ergonomics and outshines its rivals in terms of looks. So, even if the phone doesn’t offer the top of the line hardware and features, it just works and that too without a hiccup.

In order to introduce a much-needed clarity on the issue of net neutrality, and to provide a broader definition, protocols and regulations for the same, TRAI has just floated a fresh consultation paper on Net Neutrality (dated January 4th, 2017).

MagicBricks have decided to do something noble, for the homeless: they are straight away converting their marketing activities into CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities, and spreading the warmth for the homeless.

Reliance Jio has now launched ISD, International roaming, SMS, and internet booster recharge packs for the users on its Happy New Year offer which came into effect from 1 January.

India’s largest competitor in terms of economic growth, China, has it taking over the smartphone market. The Chinese smartphone makers started gaining momentum with the likes of Xiaomi, Gionee, OnePlus,

The Consumer Electronics Show(CES) is the world’s largest tech show, and is celebrating its 50th annual event this year at Las Vegas, Nevada. The show sees all large electronic manufacturers showing off their high-end smartphones, cameras, televisions, home appliances, drones and even smart electronics like watches and glasses etc.

Just like last two years, we are back with top digital marketing predictions for 2017. However, along with predictions, we are also sharing two anti-predictions.

A recent survey by Bank of America Merrill Lynch has got some good news for Jio management, as they have found that 85% of Jio users will retain their services, even after the March 31st.

In a shocking revelation, Amazon India has been reported to be using children for delivering goods to its customers. The e-commerce giant has been issued a notice by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) regarding the same.

The ongoing legal confusion over Aadhaar Card, its validity and the methods of data collection for the same has once again come under scrutiny by the Supreme Court. While hearing a case on its legal status, the Court condemned the practice of Aadhaar data collection by private companies.

Named as ‘The Protect and Grow American Jobs Act Bill’, which has been put forward by US lawmakers Darrell Issa and Scott Peters in the US Congress, the very purpose of this bill is clear: stop immigrants from coming to US, and stop them from stealing US jobs.

Also, Check out our Indian Startup Funding & Investment page which now has details of over 2000 Startup Funding Deals.