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Tata Nano Ends 2019 with Zero Production, Sold One Unit Only

7Jan By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Automobile

Tata Nano Ends 2019 with Zero Production, Sold One Unit Only

NEW DELHI: Tata Motors did not produce a single unit of its entry-level car Nano in 2019 although it sold just one unit in February even as the company is yet to officially retire Ratan Tata's “people's car”. According to a regulatory filing by the company, Tata Motors had zero production and sales of the Nano in December 2019 while it produced 82 units and sold 88 units in December 2018. Similarly, in November 2019 there was zero production and sales of the entry-level model, whereas in the year-ago period it produced 66 units and sold 77 units. In October 2019 also, according to the filing, it did not produce or sell any unit of the Nano while in the year-ago month it rolled out 71 units while selling 54 units. In the first nine months of 2019 also Tata Motors did not produc...

Masayoshi Son, Tech Visionary or Robber Baron?

23Dec By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Story

Masayoshi Son, Tech Visionary or Robber Baron?

This is the year that brought a $100 billion venture capitalist to his knees. In January, SoftBank Group Corp.’s Masayoshi Son was riding high, writing billion dollar checks to unicorns from office sharing startup WeWork to autonomous-delivery vehicle designer Nuro. But as 2019 winds down, the Japanese dealmaker is straining to finance a $9.5 billion bailout package for Adam Neumann’s troubled startup, whose valuation has evaporated from $47 billion to $8 billion or even zero, depending whom you ask. SoftBank’s bad year goes well beyond WeWork Investors are starting to get the feeling that whatever Son brings to the public is troubled. And you don’t need to look far for proof, Shares of Uber Technologies Inc. and Slack Technologies Inc., both backed by the Vision Fund, tumbled...

17Dec By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

FUNDING

Licious Raises $30 Mn in funding led by Singapore-based Vertex Growth Fund

Fresh meat and seafood brand Licious has raised USD 30 million in Series E funding round. The round was led by Singapore-based Vertex Growth Fund (“Vertex Growth”) along with existing investors 3one4 Capital, Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, and Sistema Asia Fund. The funds would be deployed towards expanding to a greater number of Indian cities, augmenting capabilities in the existing markets, strengthening omnichannel presence and powering new product launches, especially in the ready-to-eat category, Licious said in a press statement. The company said it would also focus on upgrading the Indian meat and seafood ecosystem by bolstering technological intervention, expanding its pool of employees and training them on niche skills that the i...

Microsoft unveils Xbox Series X Gaming Console

14Dec By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Tech

Microsoft unveils Xbox Series X Gaming Console

Microsoft has unveiled a name and look for its new gaming console, the Xbox Series X, promising a still-more immersive experience as it fends off threats from streaming and rival Sony. The US company in June pointed to the technical abilities of its next-generation console when it announced "Project Scarlett", saying the new machine would be four times more powerful than the current Xbox One X, which launched in 2013. In a presentation at The Game Awards 2019, Microsoft showed off the tower-like new console for the first time and also unveiled a new wireless controller. It said older titles would remain compatible with the Series X, while promising a new gaming experience "where worlds are even more lifelike, immersive, responsive and surprising". Pricing is yet to be announce...

Paytm Payments Bank issued 6 Lakh FASTags in November

11Dec By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

Paytm Payments Bank issued 6 Lakh FASTags in November

Paytm Payments Bank (PPB) issued 6 lakh FASTags in the month of November, according to the company statement. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had announced that toll payments on highways would be accepted through FASTags only from December 1. This was later extended to December 15. In a statement, PPB said it sold 6 lakh tags in the month of November and claimed that it has equipped over 1.85 million vehicles with FASTags. The National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) program, the flagship initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, has been implemented on a pan-India basis in order to remove bottlenecks and ensure seamless movement of traffic and collection of user fee as per the notified rates, using passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tec...

Security Flaw in Airtel app exposes Customers Data, Fixed Now

9Dec By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

Security Flaw in Airtel app exposes Customers Data, Fixed Now

An independent cyber security researcher found technical flaws in an application of Bharti Airtel that exposed "sensitive user information" which the company claims to have fixed now. According to the cyber security researcher Ehraz Ahmed the flaw existed in one of the Airtel app that allows "to fetch sensitive user information of any Airtel subscriber.""It revealed information like first and last name, gender, email, date of birth, address, subscription information, device capability information for 4G, 3G & GPRS, network information, activation date, user type (prepaid or postpaid) And current IMEI number," Ahmed said in his blog. The IMEI number is a unique number that can be used to identify the device of the user. "Every user that is on India's Airtel network was at risk...

9Dec By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

Indian Market Regulator Sebi Scans Matrimonial Website to Catch Manipulators

To catch manipulators, Indian market regulator Sebi has started looking at matrimonial profiles of suspected persons to establish the link with family members in front running cases. The markets watchdog has been scanning Facebook accounts of suspected persons in cases related to insider trading cases. In the case of front running of several funds of Fidelity Group entities, Sebi has checked the profile of a trader Vaibhav Dhadda (who was using the alias Avi) at the matrimonial website www.jainshubhbandhan.com in order to establish his link with family members. The matrimonial website has mentioned Vaibhav as the son of Alka Dhadda, Sebi said in an interim order dated December 5. In addition, his passport details also showed Alka Dhadda as his mother. After gathering eviden...

Bharti Airtel Board approves raising up to USD 4 billion

5Dec By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

FUNDING

Bharti Airtel Board approves raising up to USD 4 billion

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel's board approved raising USD 4 billion through equity dilution and debt funding. The board, for now, has given its go-ahead to raise up to USD 3 billion and has also approved raising an additional USD 1 billion, an official said. The board has given its approval to raise USD 2 billion through "one or more qualified institutional placement, public and/or private offerings of equity shares, compulsory convertible debentures/other convertible securities/warrants/ADR/GDR or a combination thereof", according to a regulatory filing. The company has received an approval to raise USD 1 billion through foreign debt instrument and another USD 1 billion through issuance of "unsecured and/or secured, listed and/or unlisted, redeemable non-convertible debentures...

OYO elevates India & South Asia CEO Aditya Ghosh to Board of Directors

2Dec By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

OYO elevates India & South Asia CEO Aditya Ghosh to Board of Directors

Indian Hospitality firm OYO has elevated Aditya Ghosh, currently chief executive officer (India & South Asia) for the hotels and homes business, as a member of its board of directors. Rohit Kapoor, currently CEO of the new real estate businesses of the company, has been appointed as CEO (India & South Asia) for OYO Hotels & Homes, it added. Ghosh will join OYO Hotels & Homes founder & Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal, Baja Corporation founder & CEO Betsy Atkins and other industry experts like Munish Varma, Bejul Somaia and Mohit Bhatnagar, among others, on the company’s board, OYO Hotels & Homes said in a statement. In his role on the board, Ghosh will focus on five key areas namely, safety and security, customer experience, corporate governance, revenue manag...

6Nov By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

India continues to be 3rd in Startup Ecosystem, adds over 1100 start-ups in 2019

Adding over 1,100 start-ups in 2019, India continues to reinforce its position as the third largest start-up ecosystem across the world, taking the total number of tech start-ups to 8900-9300 in the last five years, NASSCOM said here on Tuesday. The IT industry body also said that Indian startup ecosystem is geared up for "10X" growth trajectory by 2025. "From 2014-2025 the 10 year period that we will see, the Indian startup ecosystem is geared up for 10X growth trajectory over these ten yerars, which is pretty phenomenal. We are expecting by 2025 the total number of unicorns to go up anywhere between 95-105 in India," National Association of Software and Services Companies President Debjani Ghosh said. Speaking to reporters here, she said NASSCOM expected the cumulative valua...

4Nov By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

Whatsapp Says Alerted Indian Govt of Spyware Attack in Sept Too

4th Nov, 2019: WhatsApp had informed the Indian government in September that 121 Indian users were targeted by the Israeli spyware Pegasus, but IT ministry has contended that the information received from the messaging app earlier was inadequate and incomplete, according to sources. Sources at WhatsApp said the messaging platform has now responded to the government’s last week’s query seeking an explanation on the Pegasus spyware incident that allegedly snooped on journalists and human rights activists across the world, including India. The IT ministry sources said they have received a reply from WhatsApp and are studying it, and that a view on it will be taken soon. While declining to comment on the details of the fresh response sent last week, sources in WhatsApp said the compa...

Pentagon awards Microsoft $10 Bn ‘War Cloud’ Deal

29Oct By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

USA

Pentagon awards Microsoft $10 Bn ‘War Cloud’ Deal

The Pentagon has awarded Microsoft a USD 10 billion cloud computing contract called JEDI. The contentious bidding process for the contract pitted Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle, among others, against one another. Bidding for the huge government contract has attracted more attention than usual, sparked by speculation early in the process that Amazon would be awarded the deal. Tech giants Oracle and IBM pushed back with their own bids. Oracle also challenged the bid process in federal court but lost. The resulting system will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the US military to use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities. The Department of Defence emphasized in an announcement that the process was fair and followed ...