Ravi Shankar Prasad | Pixr8 News

WhatsApp to Appoint India Head by the End of 2018

1Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

WhatsApp to Appoint India Head by the End of 2018

Amid all the pressure to stop sinister and fake messages, WhatsApp said Wednesday it will appoint head of India operations by the end of this year. This decision was taken when WhatsApp Vice President Chris Daniels met IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to discuss the issue of fake messages that have in the past triggered mob killings. "Our new Head of WhatsApp India, who will be named by the end of the year, will build a local team that can serve our customers in India as well as work with partners and government leaders to help keep people safe," WhatsApp spokesperson said. Whatsapp is highly committed to serve the Indian audience and work closely with civil society and government leaders to help address abuse on the platform. The government has stood firm in its stance on traceability...

17Dec By PriyankaNo Comments

INDIA

Indian Government Will Bear Merchant Charges On Debit Cards To Promote Digital Transactions

Indian government is trying to encourage small shopkeepers to accept electronic payments, by bearing the merchant charges, that one needs to pay to the banks, on purchases of up to Rs 2,000 starting January 1, 2018. The subsidy will be provided to the small shop owners who now need to pay a fees to the banks for transactions through Debit cards, BHIM or Aadhaar. In India, where the average debit transaction value is just Rs 1,500, accepting debit cards for payments will become as cheap as accepting cards for small merchants. This news was announced by IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, saying that government is implementing measures to accelerate digital payments in the country. Also a committee of secretaries has been set-up to ensure that no misuse of subsidy occurs and that benefits...

25Sep By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

95 Mobile Companies Set Up Plants In India: IT Minister

Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that 95 mobile manufacturing companies have set up their plants under the new government. (more…)

16Jun By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA

Indian Government Will Launch Policies To Become USD 1 Trillion Digital Economy

The government will come out with three new policies, including electronics manufacturing and data protection, as part of its efforts to make India a USD 1 trillion digital economy in a few years. Speaking after a two-and-a-half hour meeting with Indian tech industry captains, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today exuded confidence that India is well-positioned to become a USD 1 trillion digital economy in next few years. "The industry has assured us that they are committed to support us in this mission... We will be shortly laying down the new electronics policy because between the old policy and now, India under Narendra Modi has changed completely," Prasad said. He added that the government will also come up with a new software product policy and a framework for data security a...

Sundar Pichai Announced Google Digital Unloack Initiatives For Small, Medium Business

4Jan By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Sundar Pichai Announced Google Digital Unloack Initiatives For Small, Medium Business

Technology giant Google today announced a slew of initiatives, including a new app Primer and training modules under its My Business offering, as it looks to further tap the 51-million strong small and medium businesses (SMB) market in India. Making the announcements, Google's India-born CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is working on products for India that can be expanded globally. "When we solve for a place like India, we solve for everyone around the world. That has led us to grow our team here and spend more time and ensure the products are useful for everyone," he said. Google's My Business will help small businesses set up website from their mobile devices and all they need is a smart phone and a few minutes, he said. The company has also launched Digital Unlocked, an educati...

Indian Govt Will Release Aadhaar Linked e-payments App Soon

17Dec By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA, News

Indian Govt Will Release Aadhaar Linked e-payments App Soon

Government will soon launch a mobile application to facilitate Aadhaar-linked digital payments and roll out a nation-wide programme to train over 1 crore people on e-payments. "We are going to promote Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AEPS) in coordination with Finance Ministry. About 40 crore bank accounts have been linked to Aadhaar," IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters today. He said that the government is working on a plan to connect rest of the accounts with Aadhaar numbers. He said that there are biometric devices which can be connected to smartphones and convert a smartphone into a Point of Sale (PoS) machine. "We are developing a UPI enabled mobile application. It will be available in 2-4 days. Customer feed Aadhaar number, scan finger on the biometric,...

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Faces Flak Over Twitter To Rope in Pvt Cloud Firms

6Sep By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Faces Flak Over Twitter To Rope in Pvt Cloud Firms

IT Ministry reported plan to rope in private companies like Microsoft and IBM for providing cloud computing services to government departments has come under flak from cyber security experts. "I think by using cloud services of foreign companies like Microsoft and IBM, IT Ministry has decided to throw all Data and National Security concerns into a dustbin. What has happened to the National Cloud Project of government? We appeal the Prime Minister to intervene and stop this else this will send a wrong message," Indian Infosec Consortium (IIC) CEO Jiten Jain said. IIC is Indias cyber security group which has around 4,000 members. "If the worlds software super power (India) does not have the capacity to even build its own Indigenous cloud infrastructure then where is Make in India," Jain s...

50 Companies Keen on Associating With Postal Bank: Ravi Shankar Prasad

21Aug By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

50 Companies Keen on Associating With Postal Bank: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Around 50 companies including global banking institutions, like the World Bank, Deutsche Bank and Barclays, have expressed eagerness to be associated with the Centres postal payments bank initiative, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today. "We will begin postal payments banking service from September 16, wherein 1.3 lakh postmen will be given hand-held devices, a moving ATM to provide banking services, insurance, money-order, as well as third-party service," Information Technology Minister said after inaugurating an incubation centre at the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) here. "Some 50 companies, including World Bank, Deutsche Bank, Swiss Bank, Barclays, want to be associated with us," said the senior BJP leader. The Union Cabinet in June had cleared the ...

18Jun By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

Indian Govt Plans to Launch Postal Payments Bank By September

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said the Centre plans to launch Postal Payments Bank in September with the aim to make it the world's largest bank. "I had plans to launch the proposed Postal Payments Bank, which can be described as moving ATM, in next three years but when the proposal was taken up in the cabinet, I was asked to introduce it by September 17," the Union Telecommunication and IT Minister said at a Vikas Parv function here. The minister said the officials of the department have been directed to initiate necessary steps to launch it by September 16/17. The proposed bank will be introduced in 650 districts across the country, he said, "we have plans to introduce in 1.30 lakh post offices in the rural belts". The Postal Payments Bank will provide banking services...

India is Celebrating It’s Own Tech Innovation: Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO

30May By NitishNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

India is Celebrating It’s Own Tech Innovation: Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO

India-born CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella today said developers and entrepreneurs from India are playing a key role in driving innovation both in the country and outside and the company wants to be the platform for creators here. Nadella, on a one-day trip to India, today met Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad as well as student developers and entrepreneurs this morning. He is scheduled to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi later in the day. "Its so inspiring for me to come here to see this broad spectrum of student developers, entrepreneurs, artists and even some big brands, e-commerce companies who are all changing the landscape of India and thereby, the world," Nadella said while delivering keynote address at Microsofts Tech For Good, Ideas for India event. ...

13May By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

India Has Tools To Tackle iPhone Encryption: Ravi Shankar Prasad

As Apple slugs it out with FBI on privacy issues, Indian govt has said strong encryption technology to secure data and communications in smartphones, including those made by the US-based firm, is a challenge for law enforcement agencies. It said however that a tool for mobile forensics has been developed to handle smartphones including Apple. "Smartphones including phones by Apple employ strong encryption to secure the data stored and to protect the communication. Such Encryption technologies pose challenges to Law Enforcement Agencies throughout the world including India,"telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a reply to the Rajya Sabha. He said the government has taken note of media reports about the dispute between the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and App...

5May By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

India to cross 500 million Internet users this year: Ravi Shankar Prasad

The number of Internet users in the country is likely to reach 500 million this year, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today. "India has grown to around 400 million Internet users. If we take Trai numbers then it is somewhere close to 332 million. As per service providers, they were telling me that up to date it is 402 million. We were to have 500 million users by 2017, I feel it will happen this year itself," Prasad said while launching Digital Desh Drive 2. India has now over 100 crore mobile subscribers, he added. As per the official data shared by him in Lok Sabha today, the total mobile subscriber base at the end of February has 98.2 crore GSM mobile users and 4.45 crore subscribers on CDMA network. ALSO WATCH: Live Coverage of Digital Desh 2.0 – An Introducti...