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Google Neighbourly Rolls Out in Five More Indian Cities

13Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Google Neighbourly Rolls Out in Five More Indian Cities

The local information app Neighbourly which was launched by Google recently has reportedly expanded to five more Indian cities including Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Mysore, Vizag and Kota. The app, which helps users with local information like nearby shopping arcades, parks, fitness, food and tuition centres, was launched by Google in beta in May and is now available in seven cities. "With 'Neighbourly', we are able to address the local information needs of India's fast-growing internet users in their neighbourhood," said Josh Woodward, Group Product Manager, Next Billion Users team, Google. The improved version of the app has higher quality voice input, thus, enabling people to ask and respond to questions in their own languages and quicker replies. Also, it has "similar answers" feature ...

12Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Hotstar Launches in the UK with Two Subscription Plans

One of the most popular Indian video streaming platform Hotstar has launched its services in the United Kingdom. This has been done ahead of the Asia Cup cricket tournament that is starting on Saturday. With this move, Hotstar has now expanded its services in four markets including India, the United States, Canada and now the United Kingdom. The video streaming platform claims that it will offer more than 60,000 hours of television shows, and more than 2,000 Indian movies, along with live sports such as Cricket, Kabaddi, Badminton and Hockey to consumers in the United Kingdom. The service will be made available through two different plans - a monthly plan priced at £11.99 and a yearly plan priced at £59.99. The streaming platform will now have two business verticals - advertising-led...

8Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

INDIA

Narendra Modi Soon to Launch Policy to Boost E-mobility in India

With the emerging market of electric vehicles all across the world, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also taken a step forward for the promotion of electric vehicles in the country. The Prime Minister on Friday stated that the government is soon going to introduce a policy on electric vehicles and alternative fuel technology to give a boost to e-mobility in India. “The world is now in the middle of a new mobility revolution” and India has “inherent advantages” to leverage this opportunity, Narendra Modi said. Exhorting industrialists and global business leaders to create a “new mobility ecosystem” that is in “sync with nature.” Modi also claimed that India can be the best market for the rapidly evolving technology. This announcement was made by the PM at the first Global Mobili...

Google Launches Blog Compass App for Indian Bloggers

7Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

Google Launches Blog Compass App for Indian Bloggers

India is emerging as an important market for various businesses and with this, Google is also continuing with its focus on the Indian market with the launch of an app to serve the need of Indian bloggers with an app called “Blog Compass.” After launching apps like Tez for payments, Areo for food ordering, Neighbourly for communities, data-friendly versions of apps like Search and YouTube, and others, the company is all set to serve the needs of the Indian web users even more. The new mobile application is listed on the Google Play Store as 'exclusive to India'. It is compatible with WordPress and Blogger.com blogs. This app helps bloggers manage their sites and find topics to write about based on Google’s trending topics. Also, the app helps bloggers in man...

A US-based PE Firm to Acquire a 21 Percent Stake in RR Kabel

7Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

ACQUISITION

A US-based PE Firm to Acquire a 21 Percent Stake in RR Kabel

TPG Capital, a private equity firm announced that it has acquired a considerable minority stake in wires and low-voltage cables manufacturer RR Kabel Ltd. However, the financial details of the deal have not been disclosed yet. The PE firm is expected to acquire a 21 percent stake in RR Kabel Ltd and Ram Ratna Electricals Ltd, both part of the diversified Ram Ratna Group. “Within the building materials segment, we have witnessed a growing consumer preference for established and organised brands like RR Kabel,” said Puneet Bhatia, co-managing partner at TPG Capital Asia. “This, combined with India’s strong housing market, positions the company well for significant growth.” This acquisition might be a plus point for the company as TPG would help it to expand its product offerings and inc...

YouTube Originals is Coming to India with AR Rehman’s Show

6Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

YouTube Originals is Coming to India with AR Rehman’s Show

The most popular video streaming platform YouTube which is owned by Google is introducing its YouTube Originals to India in partnership with music maestro A.R. Rahman for its first such show in the country. After Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, YouTube is also bringing in 'Originals' for the Indian audience. Meanwhile, the India originals will be on the company’s ad-supported platform. But it will, gradually, launch an ad-free subscription service called YouTube Premium. "Affordable data costs are driving video consumption in India, data usage is about 8 GB a month per subscriber. This has pushed online video consumption as well, which is now about 75% of all mobile traffic as per industry reports," said YouTube India Head of Entertainment Satya Raghavan. Satya Raghavan also stated t...

6Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

ACQUISITION

China’s Alibaba Group Eyeing Valuable Acquisition in India

China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is eyeing considerable investments in India through valuable acquisitions. The company is looking to buy out content platforms across print, video and web to increase its reach within the country. The e-commerce major stated that it looks upon user data privacy and security with seriousness, and therefore stores most of the user information within servers in India. "India is one of the most important overseas markets for UCWeb. Of the 430 million users that we have on our browser globally, a large chunk of 130 million users come from India," Shunyan Zhu, president of the company said. A mobile browser and content platform called the UCWeb is operated by the Alibaba Group. Due to the expansion in the usage of online browsing platforms, it has now ...

NTPC Launches its First EV Charging Station in Vishakhapatnam

4Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

INDIA

NTPC Launches its First EV Charging Station in Vishakhapatnam

The excitement for electric vehicles these days is at its peak. Various companies are coming up to launch their electric vehicles and also the other related ventures are coming up to build up electric vehicle charging stations to give this a boost in the economy. The state-operated power firm NTPC on Monday announced that it has built its first electric vehicle charging station in Simhadri, Vishakhapatnam. This has been done in association with the government's plan to switch to clean mobility. "NTPC initiates its first Electric Vehicle Charging Station in Simhadri, Vishakhapatnam. NTPC is fully aligned for promoting clean energy transportation in the country, while further hiking the demand for electric vehicles and power generation," NTPC said in a statement. Talking about the stati...

2Sep By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Online Pharmacy Platform Netmeds.com Raises $35 Million Funding

India based online pharmacy platform Netmeds.com secures $35 million in Series C Funding from Daun Penh's investment holding and existing investors. The funding amount will use to increase awareness through marketing efforts as well as to enhance the customer experience. Pradeep Dadha, CEO and Founder Netmeds.com said, "the money would be used to ensure that the company "stayed the course" with regard to the extraordinary double-digit month-on-month growth it has enjoyed since inception." "Daun Penh was joined in the round by the existing investors Sistema Asia Fund, and Tanncam Investment. MAPE, the Indian investment bank which has been involved with Netmeds since inception teamed with co-arranger Cambodian Investment Management for this Series C funding round," added Dadha. He it...

Micromax to Make a Comeback in India with its Subsidary ‘YU’

1Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

Micromax to Make a Comeback in India with its Subsidary ‘YU’

The Indian smartphone maker Micromax which became dormant in the Indian smartphone market due to decreased demand, after the entry of Chinese players like Xiaomi, Oppo etc in the mid-range smartphone segment, is now attempting a comeback with a new lineup of devices under its 'YU' brand. The homegrown player is now looking to regain its hold in the hyper-competitive Indian smartphone market. Micromax co-founder Vikas Jain stated that the Indian smartphone market has witnessed an extensive modification in the last few quarters, especially after Reliance Jio launched its services in 2016. "From low connectivity, the country is now among the highest consumers of data globally. And with that, consumer preferences for devices have also evolved. So, over the past few quarters, we went back t...

How Avenue Growth is Creating Employment Opportunities in India?

30Aug By NitishNo Comments

Story

How Avenue Growth is Creating Employment Opportunities in India?

Whenever any venture takes its course of action, a medium of employment is created. And in a country like India where the population is soaring high, every opportunity is a ladder of success. And to strengthen the roots of sales platform in India, Avenue Growth brings in a concept of overall growth and opportunity to all rotatory platform. Being India’s largest Sales-as-a-Service platform, avenue growth is founded by a pair of marketing professionals with the vision of providing on-ground sales force solution to companies, which enables them to grow and explore new markets with a cost-effective approach. Many of us heard that how people overseas are extracting out their maximum sales by investing in sales outsourcing companies. To bring the same advantage in India, Avenue Growth launche...

Amazon Rebrands Offline Initiative in India

29Aug By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Amazon Rebrands Offline Initiative in India

The popular e-commerce player Amazon India has announced that it will be promoting all its 14,000 assisted online shopping points in 21 States across the country. And, this will be done under Amazon Easy brand, starting with 200 such facilities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. All the points will be branded Amazon Easy by mid 2019 as stated by Kishore Thota, director-customer experience and marketing, Amazon India. This will be done majorly for stores dealing in a host of items from groceries, medicines and mobiles besides some exclusive outlets. With Amazon Easy, the staff of offline stores in tier II and tier III markets are instructed to assit customers shop on Amazon.in and this in turn also helps them to earn commission. Thota stated that in the two States, where there are 1,...