Thursday, April 25

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Snapdeal Launches Its Own Cloud Platform Cirrus
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Snapdeal Launches Its Own Cloud Platform Cirrus

Online marketplace Snapdeal on Thursday announced the launch of its private cloud platform, Cirrus, to help the company offer a more frictionless, reliable experience to customers and help save costs. This move will enable Snapdeal to ensure that business growth is augmented with platform speed, security, and stability, it said. The private cloud solution has been built and operationalised in under a year and is timed to handle long-term growth in traffic, Snapdeal said in a statement. The launch follows a sustained increase in online traffic at Snapdeal and will also satiate fast growing demand for crunching big data "to build personalised and relevant experiences for consumers," it added. "Snapdeal was born in the cloud, but public clouds stopped being cost efficient af...
Droom Announces Budget of Rs. 100 Crore For Marketing
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Droom Announces Budget of Rs. 100 Crore For Marketing

India's pioneering online automobile transactional marketplace Droom is geared to launch a mega promotional campaign with a budget of Rs. 100 crore. The new campaign is being launched for television, YouTube, print, digital and social media and will also be seen outdoors on billboards and external installations. The entire campaign is designed to drive traffic and increase consumer awareness and to enhance the sense of pride amongst Indian consumers when it comes to buying a pre-owned vehicle. Droom, which has reported more than 700 percent year-on-year revenue, plans to adopt an aggressive performance-linked marketing approach which will see country-wide spread of the advertisements. Automobiles, being a big-ticket item, have a significant gestation period which may last from a mini...
Telecom War – Reliance Jio Announces Free Voice Calls, Cheaper Data Tariffs
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Telecom War – Reliance Jio Announces Free Voice Calls, Cheaper Data Tariffs

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani today announced free voice calling, zero roaming charges and cheaper data tariffs for Jio customers. The company also announced "super-affordable" handsets under the LYF brand starting Rs 2999. Shares of Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel plunged up to 9 per cent today after RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced free voice calling and cheaper data tariffs for Jio customers. Idea Cellular tanked 9 per cent to Rs 85, its 52-week low on BSE. Shares of Bharti Airtel dropped 8.99 per cent to Rs 302. Ambani further announced that no Jio customer will ever pay for voice calls to any network in India and there will be zero roaming charges. Taking ahead the agenda of enabling a ‘Digital Life for Digital India’, Ambani said that the company w...
Facebook to Help Jodhpurs Handicraft Artisans in Growing Business
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Facebook to Help Jodhpurs Handicraft Artisans in Growing Business

Social networking giant Facebook has come forward to help handicraft artisans of Jodhpur, which has a global imprint on handicraft manufacturing and exports. A business promotion team from Facebook will be in the city next week to hold seminars and one-to-one meetings with the artisans and train them to harness the social media platform for growing their business. In pursuance of an MoU between the Rajasthan government and Facebook, this team will help the artisans promote their products through a Facebook page and train them in the entire process, right from making a page to operating it effectively so as to maximise their reach. "Normally these artisans are engaged in completing the orders placed by the handicraft exporters and could never think of getting access to the glob...
Now Invest 25 Crore and Stay in India For 3-10 Years
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Now Invest 25 Crore and Stay in India For 3-10 Years

Emulating Singapore-model, India will offer residency permits of up to 20 years to foreigners willing to invest a minimum threshold in the country, under a new policy aimed at attracting more overseas investments. The Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved a proposal to allow foreigners get 10 year residency permits if they invest Rs 10 crore over 18 months or Rs 25 crore over three years. The residency status can be extended by another 10 years. Investors would also be allowed to buy one residential property and their spouses and children can work or study here. However, this scheme would not be available for Pakistani or Chinese citizen. "A certain threshold if you invest in India, then the availability of visa, the availability of the right to purchase...
LeEco Like Xiaomi Will Assemble smartphones in India, Invests $7 Million
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LeEco Like Xiaomi Will Assemble smartphones in India, Invests $7 Million

Joining peers such as Xiaomi, Vivo and Gionee, Chinese handset maker LeEco will assemble its smartphones in India, investing Rs 50 crore in the facility. Set up in partnership with Compal Electronics, the facility in Greater Noida will have an initial capacity of 60,000 units a month. This will be ramped up to 2,00,000 by the end of December. "We have partnered with Compal for the facility and will start with the assembly of Le2. We will invest Rs 35 crore to start with and have earmarked another Rs 12-15 crore for the ramp-up," LeEco COO Smart Electronics Business Atul Jain said. He added that the facility, spread over 2,00,000 sq ft, will provide jobs to nearly 200 people. "India will be a global export hub... We are already there in China, Hong Kong and will soon star...
Indian E-commerce Companies Demand Exemption From GST
INDIA, News

Indian E-commerce Companies Demand Exemption From GST

The rapidly expanding e-commerce companies today made a strong case for keeping them out of the proposed GST net but the state finance ministers appeared in no mood to oblige. At the first meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers held after the Parliament approved the GST Bill, online retailers said they only provide a platform to vendors and customers and do not make money out of sales made. According to representation made at the meeting, companies like Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal are only service providers to the vendors and as such are liable to pay GST only on service income. When panel chairman and West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra questioned the billion dollar valuations some of the so-called online platforms command, the e-retailers s...
Bala Girisaballa Appoint as CEO of Microsoft Accelerator
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Bala Girisaballa Appoint as CEO of Microsoft Accelerator

Microsoft today said Bala Girisaballa will be leading Microsoft Accelerator in India as CEO-in-Residence. Prior to this, Bala was with Globalisation and market expansion advisory Zinnov as Partner and Practice Head helping MNC R&D companies. He took charge of the Accelerators India operations, with effect from August 1. Microsoft also announced that Ravi Narayan, Director, will now assume the role of Global Director at Microsoft Accelerator. Girisaballa will lead the Accelerators efforts to help market-ready startups and entrepreneurs to scale up and become successful businesses through the technology enablement, global go-to-market efforts and deep business advisory in the form of Hi-Po and Scale-Up programs, Microsoft said in a statement here. Ravi Narayan, in his new ...
KartRocket Appoints Gaurav Gupta as Their Chief Technical Officer
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KartRocket Appoints Gaurav Gupta as Their Chief Technical Officer

KartRocket, which offers an end to end eCommerce solution to help SME’s setup their online presence, has announced the appointment of its Chief Technical Officer, Gaurav Gupta. Prior to this, he was with the Free Culture Apparels Pvt. Ltd, an online fashion platform with a unique idea which enables users to monetize their digital designs. Gaurav is a dedicated Technical professional with past tenures at some of the leading firms such as Free Culture, Rightster India, Yahoo!, Atrenta, and Sequence Design. In his current role, Gaurav is responsible for platform growth and stability. He will focus on search and discovery for Kraftly platform and seller enablement for brand building. Speaking on the appointment, Saahil Goel, Co-Founder & CEO, Kartrocket said, “We are happy to welcome...
Yes Bank Launches Digital Wallet ‘Yes Pay’ Across Android, iOS Platforms
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Yes Bank Launches Digital Wallet ‘Yes Pay’ Across Android, iOS Platforms

India's fifth largest private sector bank Yes Bank has announced the launch of 'Yes Pay', a digital wallet across Android and iOS mobile platforms. As a new development in the realm of digital payments, Yes Pay is also built as a Facebook app. The fact that the wallet can be accessed through Facebook without any additional registration, Yes Pay has now empowered all social media and Smartphone users to be money-wise. Apart from mobile recharge and bill payment which are the key offerings for most digital wallets in India, Yes Pay also features functionalities that allow both 'users' and 'non users' to send and receive money. "Our wallet does not require that both the transacting parties be registered on the wallet. That brings to fore immense possibilities. Think of a businessman wh...
Facebook CEO Says Group Will Not Become a Media Company
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Facebook CEO Says Group Will Not Become a Media Company

Facebook will not become a media company, its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday, telling students the firm would remain a technology platform. An increasing number of users are turning to social media networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, to find their news, but Zuckerberg said his firm had no ambitions to become a content provider. "No, we are a tech company, not a media company," said Zuckerberg, after a young Italian asked him whether Facebook intended to become a news editor. While acknowledging the role Facebook has in supplying users with news through their connections and stressing the advantages of obtaining information from different parts of the world, Zuckerberg said Facebook was "a technology company, we build the tools, we do not produce any content". ...
Taxi Aggregator Uber and Careem Suspend Services in UAE Capital
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Taxi Aggregator Uber and Careem Suspend Services in UAE Capital

Ride-hailing companies Uber and Careem have suspended services in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, since Saturday and do not know when they can resume operations, they said on Sunday. The National, a UAE newspaper, quoted unnamed sources as saying that as many as 50 drivers for Uber and Careem had been arrested. An Abu Dhabi source familiar with the situation told Reuters some drivers had been detained over violations of regulations but did not specify how many drivers or describe the violations. “This is a temporary suspension and we will let you know of any further updates,” an Uber spokesman in Dubai said via email. He did not respond to questions about the arrests or the reason for the suspension of services. Christian Eid, vice-president of marketing and com...