Saturday, May 4

Author: Press Trust of India

Times Internet Looks to Join USD 1 Billion Club in next 5 years
News

Times Internet Looks to Join USD 1 Billion Club in next 5 years

Times Internet, the digital product company owned by media conglomerate BCCL, is looking to be a billion dollar firm in the next five years, riding on the back of greater reach and high growth of internet penetration. As part of the strategy, Times Internet will adopt an "aggressive" approach and pursue organic as well as inorganic growth and try to enhance and monetize its reach. "Times Internet would cross Rs 1,000 crore in terms of net revenue during this fiscal and is aiming to become a billion dollar company (revenues) by 2021," Times Internet CEO Gautam Sinha told Pixr8. "Times Internet has a current compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46 per cent and expects to increase it to 51 per cent, going forward." Times Internet, according to him, has evolved itself as the biggest...
Well Orchestrated Move to Destroy Personal Reputations: Tata
Entrepreneurs Talk

Well Orchestrated Move to Destroy Personal Reputations: Tata

As feud at India's biggest conglomerate continues, Tata Group's interim chairman Ratan Tata today said there has been a willful, well-orchestrated move to destroy his personal reputations through unsubstantiated allegations. Without naming anyone, he said the ethics and values of the group have been "challenged by people who are known not to practice what they often preach". Tata, 78, who came back from retirement to take over Tata Sons after his successor Cyrus P Mistry was unceremoniously ousted on October 24, asked employees to put the events behind and re-dedicate themselves to re-establishing the Tata Group's leadership. "The past three months have been turbulent and wasteful. There has been a willful, well-orchestrated endeavour to destroy the personal reputations of individ...
Apple to Make iPhones in Bengaluru
INDIA, News

Apple to Make iPhones in Bengaluru

Apple is all set to start manufacturing its iconic iPhones in India at Bengaluru, as part of efforts to cash in on the world's second largest smartphone market in a big way. Local manufacturing is expected to help Apple price its phones more competitively in India as it currently attracts 12.5 percent additional duty on imports. The phones would be manufactured by Wistron, a Taiwanese OEM maker for Apple, according to top government sources. "Wistron has plans for setting up iPhone manufacturing plant for domestic market in Peenya," top government sources familiar with the developments told Pixr8. Another senior government official said Bengaluru has the talent required for quality high technology products and that was the reason for selecting the city. The official added that Foxcon...
Rs 2000 Cr Cisco Scam: BSNL to Look Into Allegations of Irregularity in Tender
INDIA

Rs 2000 Cr Cisco Scam: BSNL to Look Into Allegations of Irregularity in Tender

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) today said it will look into allegations of irregularity in award of network equipment tender to US tech giant Cisco in 2014. Reports said BSNL tender norms for procuring IP-MPLS equipment for the Network for Spectrum (NFS) project were allegedly tweaked to so that the Rs 2,000 crore contract went to US giant. "Prima facie there is no substance to the allegations, but since the reports have come we will look into the matter once again. In the past also, these things have come up before I joined, and a proper reply on the subject has been given," BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava told. Cisco, in an emailed statement, said the company does not comment on customer relationships or internal processes. "Cisco strives to maintain high standards of et...
Internet Connectivity Still Out of Reach For 950 million Indians
INDIA, News

Internet Connectivity Still Out of Reach For 950 million Indians

India may have the world's second largest internet user base, but connectivity remains out of reach for nearly 950 million citizens, a report said today. "Even with the internet data plans in India being among the cheapest in the world and the average retail price of smartphones steadily declining, connectivity is still out of the reach of nearly 950 million Indians," according to the Assocham-Deloitte joint study India currently has about 350 million internet users, second only to China. Internet penetration is increasing in India and the access to affordable broadband, smart devices and monthly data packages are required to spread digital literacy to make their ends meet, the study titled 'Strategic national measures to combat cybercrime' said. Existing government infrastructure as...
Chinese Smartphone Maker Oppo Plans $216 million Industrial Park in Greater Noida
News

Chinese Smartphone Maker Oppo Plans $216 million Industrial Park in Greater Noida

Betting big on the booming Indian smartphone market, Chinese smartphone maker Oppo is planning an industrial park in Greater Noida which will house a manufacturing unit. "We already have a production unit in India and the SMT (surface-mount technology) centre is now undergoing the furnishment...it will be finished in February. Also, with regard to the industrial park, we will have the agreement signing press conference at the end of next month," Sky Li, vice president of Oppo and managing director of international mobile business and President of Oppo India. He said the industrial park is spread over 1,000 acres and entails investment of about 1.5 billion RMB (Renminbi) yuan or about USD 216 million. Oppo already has manufacturing operations in Noida. Exuding confidence on the co...
BHU Students Launch Drive to Make Campus Go Cashless
INDIA

BHU Students Launch Drive to Make Campus Go Cashless

Banaras Hindu University students have launched a new campaign to encourage people to adopt digital payment methods inside the campus, with the varsity administration installing PoS machines at its hospitals here. The Mera Mobile Mera Batua drive by the students was launched yesterday, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people here to shift toward electronic payment methods. BHU administration has initiated actions to install Point of Sale (PoS) machines at its 15 registration counters to receive money from patients. It has installed the machines at its medicine shops within the Sir Sunder Lal Hospital and Trauma Centre campus. Nearly 35 such machines have been provided by State Bank of India to the administration. Out of them, 20 have been installed at the hospital...
Social Media Ads to Touch $50 Billion By 2019: Zenith
ANALYSIS

Social Media Ads to Touch $50 Billion By 2019: Zenith

The amount of money spent on advertising on social media is set to catch up with newspaper ad revenues by 2020, a leading forecaster said on Monday. The rapid expansion of social media platforms on mobile devices, as well as faster internet connectivity and more sophisticated technology, has triggered a huge shift in the way many people get their news. Advertising agency Zenith Optimedia, owned by France's Publicis, predicts global advertising expenditure on social media will account for 20 percent of all internet advertising in 2019, hitting USD 50 billion and coming in just one percent smaller than newspaper ads. It expects social media to overtake newspapers comfortably by 2020. "Social media and online video are driving continued growth in global ad spend, despite political thr...
Indian PM Modi Wins Online Reader’s Poll For TIME Person of The Year
INDIA, News

Indian PM Modi Wins Online Reader’s Poll For TIME Person of The Year

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won the online reader's poll for TIME Person of the Year 2016, beating out other world leaders like US President-elect Donald Trump, incumbent US leader Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Modi won with 18 percent of the vote when the poll closed last night, getting significantly more votes than his closest contenders, including Obama, Trump and Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange, who all received 7 percent of the 'yes' vote. Modi was also placed far ahead of other prominent figures of this year, like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (2 percent) and US Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (4 percent), Time said. Time's editors will decide the final Person of the Year later this week, but the online poll results provide a look at how the world...
Will Surpass $10 Billion Investment Commitment For India: Masayoshi Son
Entrepreneurs Talk

Will Surpass $10 Billion Investment Commitment For India: Masayoshi Son

Positive on India's prospects, Japan's SoftBank today pledged that it will "surpass" the stated commitment of investing USD 10 billion in the country as it ramps up investments in solar power generation and Internet-led businesses. "We have already invested USD 2 billion in last few years... we will surpass my commitment of investing USD 10 billion," SoftBank Chairman and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said at the HT Leadership Summit here. He further said SoftBank is investing in areas like solar power generation and "lots of Internet-related companies". "We continue to expand on that," said the high-profile businessman, who made headlines earlier this year when he decided to continue as the head of SoftBank instead of handing over the baton to India-born Nikesh Arora. SoftBank in...
TeamIndus Inks Pact With ISRO; Aims to Raise $45 Million By October 2017
News

TeamIndus Inks Pact With ISRO; Aims to Raise $45 Million By October 2017

TeamIndus has inked a commercial launch contract with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for its mission to land a spacecraft on the moon as it attempts to win the USD 25 million Google Lunar XPRIZE. TeamIndus is the only Indian team competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE that requires privately funded teams to land their spacecraft on the surface of the moon, travel 500 metres and broadcast high definition video, images and data back to earth. The team, which has received support from industry veterans including Ratan Tata (Tata Group), Nandan Nilekani (Infosys), Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (Flipkart) and Venu Srinivasan (TVS Group) among others, also aims to raise about USD 45 million by October next year to fund the project. "The total expense of the project is abo...
CHINA

China FDI – $98 Billion in Ten Months, 600 Companies Invested Over $100 Million

FDI in China rose 4.2 percent year on year to reach around USD 98 billion in the first ten months of the year with service sector attracting massive investments, unlike manufacturing which suffered over capacity, official data said today. The growth rate is unchanged from the January-September period, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The service industry continued to attract massive foreign investment from January to October, said Tang Wenhong, head of the ministry's foreign investment division. The FDI rose 4.2 percent to reach 666.3 billion yuan during initial ten months. In the service sector, which accounted for 70.7 percent of all investment, FDI increased 9.1 percent year on year during the period. In particular, FDI in high-tech services skyrocketed 90.2 percent from a y...