INDIA | Pixr8 News

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...

15Oct By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA

Huawei deploys first AI based Pre-5G tech in India

Controversial Chinese telecom giant Huawei has deployed India's first artificial intelligence (AI) based pre-5G technology on the Vodafone Idea network. The telecom gear maker claimed that the deployment of AI-based massive MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) network will enhance the user experience by three-fold within the same set of the spectrum. "We are consistently deploying futuristic, next generation technologies to enhance the capacity and efficiency of our network. Adding AI capabilities to India's largest deployment of massive MIMO for enhancing user experience is a further testament of our commitment to creating a future-proof network for the digital era," Vodafone Idea Ltd Chief Technology Officer Vishant Vora said in a statement. Massive MIMO leverages 5G techn...

15Oct By PriyankaNo Comments

INDIA

Indian economy ‘doing very badly’: Nobelist Abhijit Banerjee

Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee, who jointly won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize with his wife Esther Duflo and Harvard's Michael Kremer, said the Indian economy is "doing very badly" even as the government is increasingly recognizing that there is a problem. "The economy is doing very badly in my view," he told a press conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after winning the prize. When asked about his opinion on the state of the economy in India and its future, he said, "that's a statement not about what will work in the future but about what's going on now. That I'm entitled to have an opinion about."Referring to the numbers put out by the National Sample Survey, that come out every 1.5 years that give estimates about the average consumption in urban and rural ar...

Jio’s Plan to Charge an Undue Haste, says Voda Idea

10Oct By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA

Jio’s Plan to Charge an Undue Haste, says Voda Idea

Telecom operator Vodafone Idea termed Reliance Jio's plan to start charging 6 paise per minute for outgoing calls to rival network as "an act of undue haste" and an attempt to distract attention from the need for urgent action to address financial stress in the sector. Without naming Jio directly in the statement, Vodafone Idea said that a new announcement from the Mukesh Ambani led firm comes closely to the action taken recently to potentially hurt revenues of other operators with its recent unilateral action of reducing ringing time. "The announcement by one of the telecom service providers today to charge for calls made to other service providers to cover the termination charge of IUC is not only an action of undue haste but it also does not bring out the fact that interconnect i...

8Oct By NitishNo Comments

INDIA

Samsung Leadership soon to make Investment announcement in India

South Korean firm Samsung Electronics Vice-Chairman Lee Jae-yong is in India, who may announce investment plans for business expansion in the country during ongoing festive season, according to reports. Jee-yong, the only son of Samsung Group chief Lee Kun-hee, arrived in India and was briefed by Samsung officials in Mumbai over the company's mobile business here. "... the South Korean tech giant may make further investment to expand its presence in the world's second-largest smartphone market," according to a report. Samsung is one of the key supplier to the country's largest telecom operator Reliance Jio and is very keen to get involved in 5G business. Samsung is the second largest smartphone seller in India. According to Counterpoint Research, the Korean firm's smartphon...

30Sep By PriyankaNo Comments

INDIA

Saudi Arabia to Invest $100 Bn in India; Identifies 40+ Investment Opportunities

Saudi Arabia is looking to invest $100 billion in India in areas of petrochemicals, infrastructure and mining among others. Considering future growth potential of India Saudi Ambassador Dr Saud bin Mohammed Al Sati has said, “The future belongs to India and Saudi Arabia is looking to tap this opportunity and making investments in India potentially worth $100 billion in the areas of energy, refining, petrochemicals, infrastructure, agriculture, minerals and mining,”. In this month, Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil company Aramco acquired 20% stake in India's biggest oil refinery Reliance Industries Ltd reflected the strategic nature of the growing energy ties between the two countries. The envoy said investing in India’s value chain from oil supply, marketing, refining to petrochemical...

14Sep By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA

Indian Government Set up 20,000 Crore Realty fund, Sector Welcomes the Move

The Indian government decided to set up a Rs 20,000 crore stressed assets fund for those residential projects that are non-NPA and not under NCLT will provide relief to lakhs of homebuyers. Realty firm welcomes this move but said the government should have done more to boost housing demand, property developers and consultants. To provide relief to aggrieved homebuyers, the government will set up a special window to provide last mile funding for housing projects which are non-NPA and non-NCLT in the affordable and middle income category. In the fund, Rs 10,000 crore will be contributed by the central government and roughly the same amount will come from outside investors. NAREDCO President Niranjan Hiranandani said the announcement of Rs 20,000 crore fund is a welcome step as it ...

9Sep By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA

Demand for Teaching Jobs Grows in India

BENGALURU: Growth in searches for teaching jobs has jumped 40 percent in 2018-19, a job site said. The impressive increase could be attributed to the development of digital media which has opened avenues to new roles such as online tutors and e-educators, the site Indeed said in a statement. The data revealed a 41 percent increase in job searches for teaching jobs from July 2016 to July 2019. Growth in searches for teacher jobs has been the highest in 2018-19 witnessing a 40 percent increase. There was an increase of 14 percent in job-seeker interest for these roles during 2017-18, while three years ago (2016-17) there was a dip of 11 percent in job seeker interest towards teaching roles. "The advancement of technology and e-learning has led to the rise of online tutor and ...

25Aug By AnkitaNo Comments

INDIA

DPIIT Registered Startups Exempt from Angel Tax: Indian Finance Minister

The Indian government exempted all startups that are registered with the DPIIT from the so-called 'angel tax', which will help resolve difficulties faced by the fledgling businesses and their investors. "To mitigate genuine difficulties of startups and their investors, it has been decided that Section 56(2)(viib) of the IT Act shall not be applicable to a startup registered under DPIIT," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Pixr8 News. She added that while the said section will continue to be part of the Income Tax Act, it will not be applicable to the startups registered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). Besides, a dedicated cell, headed by a member of the Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT), will be set up to address concerns faced ...

29Jul By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA

Flipkart CEO Predicts this Indian State could be the first trillion-dollar state economy

Lucknow: Projects that formed part of the second Ground Breaking Ceremony will help in Uttar Pradesh's quest to be first trillion-dollar state economy in India, Flipkart Group Chief Executive Officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy said to Pixr8 News. "The groundbreaking ceremony will play a key role in propelling Uttar Pradesh as an industrial and innovation hub in the country and help in the state's quest to be India's first trillion-dollar state economy," he said on the sidelines of the event for groundbreaking of industrial projects worth around₹65,000 crore, for which memoranda of understanding were signed during the UP Investors' Summit last year. "UP is an important state for us at Flipkart. We not only have many sellers and local MSME (micro, small and medium enterprise) manufacturers ...

25Jul By PriyankaNo Comments

INDIA

WhatsApp to roll out payments service in India later this year

WhatsApp, which has over 400 million users of its messaging service in India, plans to roll out its much-awaited payments service in the country later this year, more than a year after it began testing the offering here. The Facebook-owned company has been testing its payments service in the country since last year with about a million users, but could not launch full-fledged services as it has been awaiting regulatory approvals. Speaking at an event here on Thursday, WhatsApp Global Head Will Cathcart said the company's vision is to make sending money as easy as sending messages on the platform. "We built payments based on the UPI standard, partnered with banks here in India... We believe that if we did this right, it will accelerate financial inclusion and bring more people in ...