It’s Monday morning and yet again time to do a quick wrap-up of the posts published last week. If you were offline for any reason, this is a great way to catch up with all the tech buzz!
Contents
Internet/Tech/E-Commerce
Burson-Marsteller is World’s leading public relations and communications firm based out of New York, and they operate 139 offices across 98 countries. Their study, titled: “World Leaders on Facebook 2017” says that PM Modi’s official page is world’s most followed public page with 40 million fans, whereas it is also the page with maximum interactions on Facebook, with 169 interactions as of February 1st, 2017
Using Microsoft’s Cognitive Services, Uber India has launched Real-Time ID Check for drivers, which uses selfies as a mode of authentication. This new layer of security has been launched in 5 Indian cities: New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
If you have used apps like Saavn and Gaana, you would want to know about recurring bill payment service run by Paytm. Users can now choose to pay through Paytm every time the subscription is required, making it convenient for both the customers and the business.
Here are 5 break through ideas in health Tech or Digital Health space that I believe have the potential to change how we view and deal with healthcare.
RBI (Reserve Bank of India) is now planning to open up the UPI (Unified Payment Interface) framework for these digital wallets. This will make the digital wallets interoperable with each other and will thus allow you to send payments to anyone irrespective to the mobile wallets of their choice.
The new invisible No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA means you don’t even have to type in anything or tick mark any box to confirm you’re a human. Through the power of artificial intelligence, the internet bots will be able to confirm your identity.
All social media platforms are targeting the USP of Snapchat – destructible messages. Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp all three have copied Snapchat’s 24-hour story feature, while some have copied Snapchat’s secret message feature.
Thrilled to receive that cute looking image of a cat on your WhatsApp? Felt aww when you received an innocent-looking image of a puppy on your WhatsApp? Beware! That could have hacked your WhatsApp account, and wreaked havoc on your phone.
In a major embarrassment to PM Modi’s Digital India mission, and his crusade against corruption, the very website which was meant to become the front-end for reporting corruption has crashed. And the worst thing: There is no backup of the crashed database, and this means that valuable data about all corrupt officials is now lost. For ever.
Business/Startups
As per latest Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, ICICI Bank and SBI has emerged as the banks which witnessed most number of frauds between April-December 2016 period. Incidentally, ICICI Bank is the largest private sector bank, while SBI is the largest public sector bank in India.
Hellen Keller has famously said that “Alone we can do so little; together, we can do so much.” And the same principle applies to startups, organisations as well. Here are 4 factors, which should be thoroughly examined and considered to induce greater bonding to create a more cohesive, productive teams
In order to provide better security and safety towards wallet based transactions, Govt. of India had initiated talks between mobile wallet companies and insurance companies. Govt. had aimed to create a framework wherein every e-wallet transaction is covered under insurance in case any unexpected thing happens.
As per insider reports coming in, Spicejet will soon start selling fashion products, electronic gadgets, FMCG products, food and even more; under their own brand name called ‘Spice’.
Just like a kaleidoscope, there exists several aspects, layers to entrepreneurship. Some are good, some are bad, and some are downright evil. One such extraordinary aspect was witnessed last week, when a co-founder of a failed startup was arrested for defaulting on payments.
Paytm has launched the Paytm Canada app for Canadians to pay for their cell phone, cable, internet, electricity and water bills. They can also use it to pay insurance and property taxes. It is similar to Paytm’s app in India, only specific to Canada.
Zomato, a restaurant listing website and app, is profitable in the United Arab Emirates(UAE) and India. The company has now launched Zomato Gold, a membership program for a premium nightlife experience, in the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi of UAE.
Telecom/Mobile/Gadgets
In one of the first such association, BSNL has decided to partner with local cable operators in Telangana state for expanding their broadband connectivity.
Reliance Jio is now planning to launch affordable 4G smartphones in collaboration with Google. The company has already started working with Google for developing a competitively priced 4G smartphone and software for smart TV services.
According to various reports and leaks, Samsung could unveil the prototype version of the foldable smartphone by the end of Q3 2017 or start of Q4 2017. The smartphone has been codenamed Galaxy X.
While people are still excited about the phone 8, many are baffled about the cost of the new iPhone as it is expected to range around $1000 (USD). A sudden surge in the handset’s price is predominantly due to the company’s radical decision of switching phone screens from Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) to Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED).
After much delay when almost all leading telecom operators have responded to the threat of Jio Prime with their own custom (segmented) offerings, BSNL is planning to counter Jio Prime. It will offer its subscribers 2 GB high-speed data/day along with unlimited voice calling at just Rs. 339.
The research team at Check Point Software Technologies has found the malware in the Android smartphones that could cause the most problems for the users. Since these malwares are in the backend, the user usually doesn’t even get to know.
Following in the footsteps of Reliance Jio, Gurgaon headquartered handset maker Micromax Informatics is working on cheap feature phones that supports 4G VoLTE calls. The move comes after an unexpected slump after Chinese smartphone makers took over the market.
Others
For the third time in row, Hyderabad has emerged as the best Indian city to live, based on quality of living, in India. Due to low crime rates, better educational facilities and low pollution, Hyderabad has once again beaten all Indian cities in the recent Mercer Quality Of Living Survey 2017.
In one of first such decision in a long time, anywhere in India, Karnataka Govt. has decided to abolish VAT on wine, beer, feni and hard liquor. Besides, excise duty will also be removed for all liquors.
After a recent meeting of GST Council, it was revealed that Finance Ministry is planning to impose cess of upto 290% on all tobacco products, and 139% on all Pan Masala products. This means that under GST, cess on tobacco products cannot be made more than 290% of the actual MRP and 139% on Pan Masala.
In a recent interview, World Bank chief economist Paul Romer lavished praise on India’s effort to provide a unique identification to all citizens via Aadhaar cards. He said, “The Aadhaar system is the most sophisticated identification programme in the world”.
It seems that Govt. of India is now determined to start printing and circulating plastic currency notes, pan-India. A recent statement from Finance Ministry has confirmed that trial for Rs 10 currency notes, printed on plastic would be soon launched across 5 locations.
Every week we also do ‘Trakin Tech Talks’ – a video show where we talk about buzziest topics of last week. Make sure you check it out and if you like, do subscribe as well
Also, while you are at it, do not forget to check out our Indian Startup Funding & Investment page which offers details of every funding deal that has been struck in last 2 years!
