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The End of Superpower: Internet Set to Cut Off US Oversight Role

14Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

USA

The End of Superpower: Internet Set to Cut Off US Oversight Role

A plan to end a key US government oversight role on the Internet is on track for completion this year, the head of the online address gatekeeper said, in a symbolic move towards asserting the independence of the web. While the transition will not change how the Internet works, it would help reassure users, businesses and governments about its integrity, according to Fadi Chehade, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Chehade told AFP the transition plan being prepared since early 2014 will be delivered to the US government in February, and that it could take place on September 30, a year later than originally planned. If the US government approves the plan, "then the contract between ICANN and the US government which is set ...

Start Up India to boost entrepreneurship, jobs: Narayana Murthy

14Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

Start Up India to boost entrepreneurship, jobs: Narayana Murthy

NEW DELHI: Appreciating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Start Up India initiative, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy today said it will encourage entrepreneurship and generate jobs. "At the end of the day... it is about the power of entrepreneurship, how it can create lots of jobs and how there is a need to encourage our youngsters to create even more jobs," he said while commenting on the Start Up India initiative. The Prime Minister during his Independence Day speech had announced that government would launch Start Up India programme to encourage innovation and young entrepreneurs. Modi is slated to unveil the action plan under the initiative on January 16. Recalling that Infosys itself was a start-up company, Murthy said it has generated 1.70 lakh "good jobs" for youngsters in the ...

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick to offer start-up tips at IIT-B on January 19

12Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick to offer start-up tips at IIT-B on January 19

Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick will be in Mumbai next week to address students of IIT-Bombay and share his own success story. Kalanick, on his maiden trip to India, is among other top executives who will be in town to take part in the government's Start-up India event scheduled for January 16. He will be sharing the stage with over 40 CEOs and founders of start-ups, including SoftBank's Masayoshi Son, at IIT-B, one of the country's premier centres for start-up incubation. Kalanick will be addressing the students on January 19. Uber is also partnering with 'Invest India', an initiative under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, and has already launched 'UberExchnage', a start-up mentorship programme. The five-year-old US taxi aggregator, which is valued at...

Overseas: OYO Rooms launches operations in Malaysia

12Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

Overseas: OYO Rooms launches operations in Malaysia

Budget-hotel aggregator OYO Rooms has forayed into the overseas market with the launch of its operations in Malaysia. Commenting on the development, OYO Rooms Founder & CEO Ritesh Agarwal said: "Taking the company international has always been on the cards but we wanted to achieve clear market leadership in India before heading overseas." OYO's model is suitable for markets with large share of unbranded budget supply such as South-East Asia, Africa and South America, he added. "Malaysia is our first port-of-call given the attractive characteristics of the market such as higher-than-average mobile penetration and a large internet population," Agarwal said. The company currently offers 40,000 rooms in its network in India, OYO Rooms said in a statement. OYO Rooms is cu...

First of Its Kind: Indian Oil Tie Up With Logistics Start-up Firm Fortigo

11Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

BUSINESS

First of Its Kind: Indian Oil Tie Up With Logistics Start-up Firm Fortigo

Chennai: Country's largest oil marketing company Indian Oil on January 11, announced its partnership with logistics start-up firm http://www.fortigo.com/Fortigo, aimed at providing technology based solutions to small truck owners. Fortigo is funded by various venture capitalists including Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilenkani. The partnership between Indian Oil and Fortigo, a first-of-its-kind in the industry, would help small truck owners to manage the inventories and plan operations effectively saving time and reduce transportation costs, a company statement said. Small truck owners with small fleets can manage logistics issues. The tie up with Fortigo would also help Indian Oil to tap fuel business from fleet operators covered under the Fortigo platform, it said. During the current ...

Will take structured view on net neutrality: Ravi Shankar Prasad

10Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

Will take structured view on net neutrality: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Asserting the government's stand on non-discriminatory access to internet, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday said the issue of net neutrality is being debated by Trai and its report is awaited, following which a final view will be taken. "The issue of net neutrality is being debated by the Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) and we have to await the Trai report. Thereafter, the government will take its structured view," Prasad told reporters here. Amid a raging debate on providing equal internet access to all, the government had last year set up an expert panel to look into the issues of net neutrality. Net neutrality implies that equal treatment be accorded to all internet traffic and no priority be given to an entity or company based on payment to content o...

Facebook has blocked some of our ads: Hike Messenger

10Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

Facebook has blocked some of our ads: Hike Messenger

New Delhi, Jan 10: Home-grown Hike Messenger has accused Facebook of blocking an option in its advertisements which lets people visit the chatting application’s website. Run by Kavin Mittal, son of Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Mittal, Hike competes with Facebook-owned WhatsApp. Hike is owned by a joint venture of Bharti and Japan’s Softbank.”Advertisers have, among other options, the option to ‘Send people to your website’. A few weeks back we were suddenly blocked from using this option, while we were able to use other non action-led options,” a Hike spokesperson told. The spokesperson further added that initially, they assumed it was a technical glitch, but when the team wrote to Facebook, the social networking giant said Hike will not be able to run the ads. “There are specific ...

Netflix India Expansion is Evolutionary not Revolutionary

9Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

Netflix India Expansion is Evolutionary not Revolutionary

The entry of streaming pioneer Netflix in India is evolutionary in nature though its inaugural price is a bit on the higher side for what it offers, a leading US expert has said. "I would say that the current price is a bit on the high side for what Netflix offers currently and it will have to keep increasing content quantity and quality over time to justify the price point," said Puneet Manchanda, a professor of marketing at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. His areas of expertise are business in emerging markets, business in India and strategy and marketing issues. Netflix's global expansion is driven by three forces, he said. First, Netflix needs to convince investors that it can keep growing. With the broadband market size outside the US about...

9Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

CHINA

China’s country code domain “.cn” becomes world’s largest

Beijing, Jan 9 (PTI) - China's country code domain '.cn' has become the world's most commonly used in the internet with 16.36 million users, surpassing Germany's '.de' domain. According to the data released yesterday by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), which manages the domain, '.cn' had 16.36 million users by the end of 2015. The '.cn' domain is also world leading in domain resolution service, security and the ratio of benign uses, said CNNIC head Li Xiaodong. As China began to require real-name registration in 2009, the '.cn' domain is able to protect users' interests and reduce online theft, phishing and fraud, Li said. In the past, Germany's '.de' domain had the largest number of registered websites. The domain is not only widely used by Chinese institu...

DIPP secretary Amitabh Kant to take over as Niti Aayog CEO

8Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

DIPP secretary Amitabh Kant to take over as Niti Aayog CEO

Amitabh Kant, secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, was on Thursday appointed as the chief executive officer of Niti Aayog. He will take over the new job after his retirement, next month-end. The competent authority has approved the appointment of Kant, a 1980 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, as CEO of Niti Aayog, after his superannuation in February-end, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said. “The terms and conditions of his appointment as CEO, Niti Aayog will be conveyed in due course,” it said. 59-year-old Kant has been appointed in place of former IAS officer Sindhushree Khullar, who was appointed as the first CEO of the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog, a body that has replaced Planning Commission, ...

Google coming back in china after 5 years

7Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

Google coming back in china after 5 years

Internet giant Google is mulling a comeback in China five years after it moved to Hong Kong following the fallout with the Chinese government, according to a media report. The buzz that Google Inc may move back to the Chinese mainland became louder this week after the Internet giant's numerous job postings appeared on social media. On professionals' online network Linkedin alone, Google advertised as many as 60 jobs in Beijing and Shanghai, state- run China Daily reported today. What started as a trickle of job postings in December gained momentum around the year-end and acquired dimensions of a vacancy deluge this week, as if to reinforce that whatever Google does tends to be on an epic scale, it said. Google has not officially announced a return to the Chinese mainland yet. ...

Uber Announces Start-up Mentorship Programme ‘UberEXCHANGE’

6Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA, News

Uber Announces Start-up Mentorship Programme ‘UberEXCHANGE’

Taxi-hailing app Uber on Monday announced a new start-up mentorship programme in the country in partnership with Invest India called 'uberEXCHANGE'. Over the next years, Uber will host a series of six leadership talks by senior Uber executives, including from their headquarters in San Francisco, the company said in a statement. The programme will address issues that entrepreneurs face, like fund-raising, product design, engineering and how to scale up a business. At the end of the programme, the top 10 start-ups will travel to San Francisco, where they will be introduced to global investors, fellow entrepreneurs and the team at Uber, it said. This public-private initiative will enable students, entrepreneurs and industry leaders to learn from each other, helping to create a culture t...