Wednesday, November 6

INDIA

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India’s Smartphone Shipments to Hit 160 Million Next Year
INDIA

India’s Smartphone Shipments to Hit 160 Million Next Year

Smartphone shipments in 2019 is expected to reach upto 160 million in India. India is expected to be the only major smartphone market to grow in 2019, following on from a strong 2018, compared with China. This compares with over an expected 150 million in 2018, compared with around 134 million in 2017. The Indian smartphone market is estimated to have grown 12% on year when global smartphone market is estimated to decline for the first time ever in a single year. Growth in the world’s fastest growing smartphone market revived in 2018 backed by a contraction in product replacement and upgradation cycles as a result of aggressive smartphone launches across price-points and an array of product financing schemes, discounts and buy-back offers, a trend which is likely to follow through ...
Know Why RBI Banned Paytm Payments Bank to Open New Accounts
INDIA

Know Why RBI Banned Paytm Payments Bank to Open New Accounts

It had been reported that RBI had banned Paytm’s payments bank from opening new accounts and e-wallets in August. Want to know why? We have the answer. RBI for the first time has disclosed the reasons behind the move. The four reasons! The apex financial authority of India said that the Noida-based company was in violation of know-your-customer (KYC) rules while on-boarding users. These precise violations are not clear. Secondly, it has also been stated that the RBI was also not contended with the close relations between Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s One97 Communications and the entity that runs Paytm Payments Bank (PPB). The bank is owned 51% by Paytm owner, while the rest is owned by One97 Communications and its subsidiaries. The a...
Indian Companies to Double Tech Hiring this New Year
INDIA

Indian Companies to Double Tech Hiring this New Year

The Indian companies are stepping up and hiring technology talent this New Year. This is basically because digital will play an important role for many of the businesses as they gear up for disruption. According to the reports, the hiring of digital and technology talent will double in the year ahead as businesses transform, customer needs change and newer technologies come into play. Sectors such as automobile, banking and financial services, consumer goods, manufacturing and pharmaceutical will contribute to the high demand for talent in the space of technology and digital. Automobile companies are at the forefront of industries that are witnessing an increased demand for talent in automation and digital space.  “M&M is actively looking at hiring talent wi...
Indian Government is Reportedly Ensuring Aadhaar linkage
INDIA

Indian Government is Reportedly Ensuring Aadhaar linkage

The Indian government is actively taking into consideration the amendments to the Telegraph Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to provide legal backing for mobile numbers and bank accounts to be linked to Aadhaar on a voluntary basis. The ministry of electronics & information technology has moved a proposal to this effect, which has gone through detailed legal scrutiny and is currently being examined by other stakeholder ministries, especially finance and telecom. Also, the proposal includes an amendment to the Aadhaar Act to recognise the virtual token that is used to prevent sharing of the actual Aadhaar number. The UIDAI has provided for this token through its rules, but stronger legal backing is now being sought. After several rounds of internal delibera...
Indian Govt Orders Ban on Online Sale of Medicines
INDIA

Indian Govt Orders Ban on Online Sale of Medicines

The Delhi high court has reportedly announced a ban on sale of online medicines by e-pharmacists across the country and directed the Centre and the AAP government to immediately implement the order.A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao passed the order. Delhi-based dermatologist Zaheer Ahmed complained that lakhs of medicines were being sold on the internet every day without much regulation, posing a huge risk to patients and doctors alike. Ahmed also pointed out that online sale of medicines is not permitted and is not legal under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Pharmacy Act, 1948.The petitioner highlighted that even though the Drug Controller General of India in 2015 clearly directed all state drug controllers to protect the in...
Amazon Launches Social Commerce Platform Spark in India
INDIA

Amazon Launches Social Commerce Platform Spark in India

Thee-commerce major Amazon has reportedly launched its socialcommerce platform Spark in India after about a month of betatesting.  Spark is part of the Amazon.in site and is a place to discover things from people who share yourinterests. In Spark, you will first be prompted to select a few interests.  This development comes at a time when Facebook and Instagram also plan to get a pie of the growing e-commerce market in India. Under this, Amazon will create a feed of personalised content from other Amazon customers with similar interests. And if you like a product in, say, a photo that you see, you can tap on the product link to buy it. You can even interact with people by commenting on their posts. This will enable the users to shop and also makes it ...
In a first, Indian Government is Planning To Regularize Online Travel Booking
INDIA

In a first, Indian Government is Planning To Regularize Online Travel Booking

India government in a first its kind of move will setup certain guidelines for Online travel aggregators like Air B&B, Makemytrip, Yatra and Oyo to be recognised by the Tourism Ministry in order to operate, a senior official said. For the first time, the ministry has prepared a set of guidelines by which it will approve and classify online travel aggregators (OTAs) ensuring reliability of their services. The scheme for approval/re-approval of OTAs will be rolled out online by the end of this month and all applications and fee payment will have to be made on it, the ministry official said. "The scheme will set standards towards accreditation and add value to the dependability and reliability to the aggregators in the online space operating in the organised tourism sector," he a...
Indian govt & RBI may Allow use of QR code-based offline Aadhaar
INDIA

Indian govt & RBI may Allow use of QR code-based offline Aadhaar

The Indian government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are in talks to allow use of 'offline Aadhaar' that relies on QR codes. This would replace the biometric eKYC, for opening bank accounts, operating payment wallets and purchasing insurance covers. This particular move is significant as it will also benefit financial technology companies that have been prodding the government to amend the law to make Aadhaar mandatory. It's an option that the Centre has virtually ruled out for the moment. The SC has ruled that Aadhaar-based verification could not be done by private firms. Since the use of offline Aadhaar has to be facilitated by the RBI, the central bank needs to bring out a circular and has held two-three rounds of discussions with UIDAI. The court had ruled that Aadhaar could...
SAP to Set up Another R&D Campus in Bengaluru
INDIA

SAP to Set up Another R&D Campus in Bengaluru

Software and technology firm SAP is reportedly establishing a large new campus in Bengaluru near the international airport. This will significantly increase its R&D (research & development) presence in the city. The company’s executive board member Bernd Leukert, who is in charge of products & innovation, and who was in Bengaluru on Friday to mark the company’s 20th anniversary in India, said it would be a 40-acre campus, double the size of the existing one in Whitefield. “It’s a testimonial to the great talent and abilities here, and the extent to which people here have contributed to the overall success of SAP,” Leukert said.  SAP has 11,000 employees in India, of which 7,500 are in core R&D, making it the German enterprise software company’s second largest R&D c...
India to See Over 1 million Cloud Computing Job Roles by 2022
INDIA

India to See Over 1 million Cloud Computing Job Roles by 2022

India is expected to see more than a million cloud computing job roles by 2022 as more organisations are shifting their operations to the cloud infrastructure. As the Indian cloud computing market, currently at $2.2 billion, is expected to grow to $4 billion by 2020 with an annual growth rate of more than 30%; IDC estimated more than one million new jobs to be created in India. Skills in DevOps, software-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service, automation, agile and software-defined network are going to be critical for IT professionals to land these jobs. Keeping these skills in mind; the job profiles such as Cloud Architect, Cloud Software Engineer, Cloud Enterprise Architect and Cloud Infrastructure Engineer are in great demand, according to the report. Roles in cloud compu...
Digital Lending in India Expected to Grow to $100 Billion by 2023
INDIA

Digital Lending in India Expected to Grow to $100 Billion by 2023

A joint study by Omidyar Network and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has reported that digital lending to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in India can grow upto 7 lakh crore by 2023, a 15x increase in annual disbursements. “As of 2018, most of the credit demand for $600 billion is being met through informal sources,” said Roopa Kudva, partner and managing director, India at Omidyar Network. “Digital lending has the potential to propel the productivity of India’s MSMEs, disrupt the status quo in financial services, and offer a meaningful market opportunity for both innovative startups as well as traditional lenders,” he added. India’s 60 million MSMEs - businesses with annual revenue up to Rs. 250 crore (approximately $35 million) –make an enormous contribution both to India’s...
Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund to Open its India Office
INDIA

Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund to Open its India Office

Japan’s investment major Softbank investment Advisers, which invests through the SoftBank Vision Fund, is looking forward to deepening its play in India’s technology ecosystem, and thus, the company has announced plans to open an office in Mumbai in India. For this purpose, the company has even roped in Sumer Juneja to lead the same. Norwest Venture Partners’ Sumer Juneja would be joining SoftBank to lead its India investments. Juneja is joining the company after a 9-year stint at Norwest Venture Partners. He has also led and invested in deals like those in Swiggy, Komli Media and Quikr. “I’m delighted to welcome Sumer to the team; he will play a pivotal role in working with our existing portfolio companies as well as sourcing new opportunities on the ground. India represents an enor...