Thursday, March 28

News

India Opens The Door For Apple Stores in New FDI Rules
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India Opens The Door For Apple Stores in New FDI Rules

Apple Inc could open its first stores in India and might eventually start manufacturing in the country under new foreign investment rules for retailers outlined on Monday. The new rules exempt foreign retailers for three years from a requirement to source 30 percent of the goods sold in company-owned stores locally. That would allow Apple, which currently sells its iPhones, iMacs and iPads through resellers, to set up its own shops in India, ending months of uncertainty for the California-based company that had first applied for store licenses in January. India is the world's fastest growing large smartphone market with sales expected to rise over 25 percent this year. For Apple, which has less than a two percent share in the smartphone market in the country, gaining a bigger footp...
How Flipkart New CEO Binny Bansal Trying To Bring Back Its Old Team in Fight Against Amazon
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How Flipkart New CEO Binny Bansal Trying To Bring Back Its Old Team in Fight Against Amazon

The Proverb of Old is Gold seems true in the case of India's largest e-commerce company Flipkart. Under new CEO Binny Bansal, Flipkart re-appointed Mr. Kalyan Krishnamurthy as head of categories. Before explaining anything about Flipkart re-joining strategy kindly read our previous report to get more clarification. Kalyan Krishnamurthy an executive at Flipkart’s largest investor Tiger Global Management was first appointed as a interim chief financial officer (CFO) & Category Head of Flipkart in February 2014. He left the company and joined Tiger Global again in November 2014. In 2015, Flipkart replaced its entire senior management and hired professionals from Google, Amazon etc. In 2016, due to shortage of funding and poor performance Flipkart's three senior executives lost...
Legal Platform LawRato Launches LawBot, India’s First Legal Advice Chatbot
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Legal Platform LawRato Launches LawBot, India’s First Legal Advice Chatbot

LawRato, India's leading lawyer search and legal advice platform, launched the country's first self-help Facebook Messenger chatbot today nicknamed 'LawBot', the chatbot that lets users search for legal answers, ask a free legal question and find the best lawyer for their legal requirement. Users can also book a consultation with the lawyer recommended by the bot by paying a nominal consultation fee. The bot can be accessed through https://m.me/lawrato/ or by sending a message at LawRato's Facebook page. Available across India, LawBot allows users to enter their legal problem in the form of a question and throws up the most relevant answers and recommended lawyers for the particular problem using an AI algorithm developed in-house at LawRato.com. The users can then either continue by ...
What Industrialists Said After Raghuram Rajans Decision Over 2nd Term
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What Industrialists Said After Raghuram Rajans Decision Over 2nd Term

Top industry leaders today said RBI Governor Raghuram Rajans decision not to take a second term will be "nation's loss" as he brought economic stability and enhanced Indias credibility on the world stage. India Inc led by Anand Mahindra, Deepak Parekh, NR Narayana Murthy, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Mohandas Pai hoped that Rajan's successor will continue with the good work he did although industry chambers CII and FICCI declined to comment. Reacting to the development, Mahindra & Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra said he was "saddened" to hear about Rajan's decision to opt for academia at the end of his current term. "In my travels around the world and encounters with leading overseas businessmen, it became clear that during his tenure he greatly enhanced the credibility and bankabilit...
McDonalds May Shift Some Jobs to India in Cost-Cutting Move
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McDonalds May Shift Some Jobs to India in Cost-Cutting Move

Fast food giant McDonalds may be planning to outsource jobs to India as part of a USD 500 million cost reduction plan it announced last November, a media report said. A report said McDonalds is shedding jobs as part of a USD 500 million cost reduction spearheaded by Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook. "McDonald is also moving some functions to India in what could be a larger controversial push toward outsourcing," it quoted sources familiar with the company's plans as saying. A regional office in Columbus, Ohio is among the first casualties of the cost-cutting. McDonalds described the facility's closing as part of "plans to permanently restructure its operations and eliminate a number of roles," in a May 13 letter the company sent to city officials. The layoffs will begin in ...
Doubts Surrounding Over Investors Backing Both Uber and Didi in China
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Doubts Surrounding Over Investors Backing Both Uber and Didi in China

Ride-hailing companies Uber and Didi have brought many new dimensions to the startup industry, such as making billion-dollar-plus funding rounds routine. Now, they have added another to the list: sharing big investors who are backing both companies, even though they are fierce rivals. Uber, the leading ride service in the United States and much of the world, and Didi Chuxing, which claims 87 percent of the Chinese market for private vehicle ride-hailing, now share at least four investors: asset manager BlackRock, Chinese investment manager Hillhouse Capital Group, hedge fund Tiger Global and insurer China Life, according to investment records and sources familiar with the deals. "It's very unusual to allow the same parties to invest and get information rights of sworn mortal enemies. ...
Just Dial, UTI MF, IRCTC in Fortune India Next 500 List
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Just Dial, UTI MF, IRCTC in Fortune India Next 500 List

Just Dial, UTI Asset Management Company and IRCTC are among the firms that have made it to the Fortune Next 500 list of Indian companies, which has been topped by Dynamatic Technologies. Companies featuring in the Next 500 list are mostly mid-sized and termed as the small wonders by the magazine. Dynamatic Technologies tops the list with an annual revenue of over Rs 1,693 crore followed by Nectar Lifescience (Rs 1,692 crore), Oswal Wollen Mills (Rs 1,689 crore), VRL Logistics (Rs 1,682.5 crore) and Hitachi Home & Life Solutions (Rs 1,682.18 crore). Nectar Lifescience is a new entry in the list, while other four companies have shown improvements in their respective rankings from last year. According to the magazine, together Next 500 companies have generated a revenue of Rs 5,...
Yahoo Shutting Down Yahoo Messenger
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Yahoo Shutting Down Yahoo Messenger

American multinational technology company Yahoo Inc. has announced the shutting down of its chat service Yahoo Messenger from August 5 this year. However, the company has asked all its users to move to the new version of the Messenger, introduced last year. "In December of 2015, we announced a brand new Yahoo Messenger for mobile, the Web and in Yahoo Mail on the desktop, built on a new modern platform. This complete revamp brings users an incredibly fast, beautiful and smart way to send - and unsend - messages, photos and animated GIFs in 1:1 and group conversations," Yahoo chief architect Amotz Maimon said while explaining the company's move.   "While today we provide basic interoperation between the legacy product and the new Messenger, we encourage all of our users to comple...
MobiKwik Launches Aadhaar ‘eKYC’, To Update e-Wallets in Real Time
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MobiKwik Launches Aadhaar ‘eKYC’, To Update e-Wallets in Real Time

MobiKwik, the largest independent mobile payments company in India has launched eKYC for its users. eKYC is RBI approved, paperless process for fulfilling KYC requirements that will allow MobiKwik users to upgrade their wallet with Aadhaar card in real time. Once a user requests eKYC on the app, a company representative will reach the user's location within 30 minutes and do real time wallet upgrade. "This launch further simplifies the wallet experience for our users and they can now avail benefits of a KYC account within half an hour," said Chief Operating Officer MobiKwik, Mrinal Sinha. UIDAI's e-KYC service enables KYC process to be performed electronically with explicit authorization by resident. As part of the e-KYC process, the resident authorizes UIDAI (through Aadhaar auth...
Push Notifications Have Higher Engagement Rates Than SMS or Emails
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Push Notifications Have Higher Engagement Rates Than SMS or Emails

E-commerce giants unanimously agree that more than 50% of their transactions happen on mobile devices and the figure is expected to reach more than 70% by 2019. Amid the advent of cheap data plans, increasing broadband connections and plummeting prices of mobile devices, the users' engagement like push notifications on mobile is higher than yesterday. Reflecting on this latest trend and the rapid growth in the mobile sector, WebEngage recently hosted a panel discussion on 'Mobile Growth'. The panelists included Avlesh Singh - CEO of WebEngage, Zishaan Hayath - CEO of Toppr, Nischal Shetty - CEO of Crowdfire and Sidharth Verma - CEO of Beewise among others. They stressed on the need to not stop relying on organic channels who give 100% authentic users rather than pricey channels who may ...
Gawker Media Asks For $22 Million Bankruptcy Loan Approval
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Gawker Media Asks For $22 Million Bankruptcy Loan Approval

Gawker Media LLC asked a U.S. bankruptcy court judge on Monday for permission to borrow up to $22 million from an affiliate of buyout firm Cerberus Capital Management LP to help it through its sale process, according to a court filing. The online publishing pioneer filed for bankruptcy last week after it failed to secure a postponement on paying $140 million to Hulk Hogan after it lost a lawsuit involving the publication of excerpts from a sex tape of the former pro wrestler. Media company Ziff Davis LLC has entered into an agreement to buy Gawker for $90 million, setting the floor for an opening bid in a court-supervised auction expected to take place at the end of July. The loan from Cerberus, which often invests in companies in financial distress, will help Gawker...
After Ban, Facebook, Microsoft, Google Agree to Work With Bangladesh Government
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After Ban, Facebook, Microsoft, Google Agree to Work With Bangladesh Government

Facebook, Microsoft and Google have agreed to work with Bangladesh government over "inappropriate contents" on the Internet, the Parliament was told today amidst a series of brutal killings by Islamists of secular bloggers and minorities. Speaking at a question-and-answer session, State Minister for Telecoms Tarana Halim said that not only social media giant Facebook, but Google and Microsoft have also agreed to respond to the governments request within two days. "After intense discussion with Facebook, Google and Microsoft, it has been agreed that they will respond to requests with 48 hours," she said. WHEN THE USE OF FACEBOOK WAS SUSPENDED IN BANGLADESH Last year, the Bangladesh government suspended the use of Facebook, its messenger app, and some other communication apps ...