Offering lucrative incentives, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday invited US technology companies to start manufacturing in India, for meeting domestic needs and exports, under the 'Make In India' initiative.
Among all the geographies where Amazon is fighting regulators, India is the only place where its lines are also tangled in a major corporate battle, this one with India's largest company by market capitalisation over the acquisition of Mumbai-based Future Group's retail chain, the country's second largest. No other corporate entity in any country offers a challenge to Amazon's hegemony in a way Reliance Industries does - and the final hearing of an arbitration case filed at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre between the two may decide at least some of these issues. This legal battle between one of the world's most powerful corporations and one of India's most powerful conglomerates could be complicated by a host of other developments.
Tech giant Apple has stopped accepting payments via debit and credit cards in India. Apple has stopped accepting cards for subscriptions, and purchases using credit cards issued by banks in India. Apple will also not accept payments for ad campaigns on Apple Search using credit cards issued by Indian banks. All campaigns will be put on hold from June 1.
E-commerce giant Amazon has refused to appear before the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Data Protection Bill on October 28 and this amounts to breach of privilege, panel chairperson and BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi said on Friday.
Twitter received 94 grievances and 'actioned' 133 URLs between May 26 and June 25, the microblogging platform said in its maiden monthly compliance report as mandated by the IT rules.
The CBI has sought help from authorities in the US in tracking two accused, C Prabhakar Reddy who is also known as "Punch" Prabhakar and Mani Annapureddy, believed to be staying in that country in connection with a case related to alleged derogatory social media posts against judges and the judiciary, officials said on Thursday.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said the entry of big tech firms into the financial sector poses systemic concerns like overleveraging at the borrowers' ends.
Digital canvassing is expected to benefit from political money looking for alternative blow horns.
A majority of respondents in a survey said they will not use WhatsApp payment features and may discontinue business chat if the app shares information with Facebook and third parties, according to a survey. The survey -- conducted around WhatsApp new proposed policy across the country covering over 17,000 respondents -- found that five per cent users have deleted the app, while 22 per cent claimed to have reduced using the mobile messaging platform.
The suit, filed in federal court in California, alleges that Basant Gajjar's company LeadCloak provided ad-cloaking software designed to sneak fake news and scams related to COVID-19, cryptocurrency, diet pills and more past Facebook and Instagram's automated advertising review process.
Tanvi Marupally from Conway, Arkansas was last seen in her neighbourhood on January 17 when she left for school on the bus, the Conway police department said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered authorities to unblock Wikipedia "with immediate effect", days after the country's telecommunications watchdog banned the online encyclopedia for its failure to remove offensive and blasphemous content.
WhatsApp has made the statement before Justice Yashwant Varma who was hearing a lawsuit by one of the aggrieved parties whose identity was earlier allowed to remain concealed by the court.
In a suit filed before a civil court in suburban Borivali last month, Wankhede and his wife, actor Kranti Redkar, have sought a permanent injunction against Google India, Facebook India online services and Twitter Communications India on allowing any 'defamatory' post against them on their platforms.
Amazon has reclaimed the top spot as the world's most valuable brand despite its brand value falling 15 per cent this year from $350.3 billion to $299.3 billion, said a new report. According to brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance's report, "Global 500 2023", while Amazon is back at No 1, its brand value has fallen by over $50 billion this year, with its rating slipping from AAA+ to AAA. This is as consumers evaluate it more harshly in the post-pandemic world. Brand Finance's research has found that perception of customer service at Amazon has fallen - at the same time as delivery times have lengthened.
Giving a further boost to his Digital India agenda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasised on the need to use information technology to set up smart cities.
Mukesh Ambani-owned RIL's JioMart is set to launch a slew of new products including financial services, electronics to airline tickets to take on the competition from upcoming rivals like the Tata Super app and other established players including PayTM, Amazon and Flipkart. This comes at a time when RIL's e-commerce revenues are set to grow by 35 per cent to $15 billion within four years and its core retail revenue is expected to grow at the same pace to $44 billion, as per a forecast by Goldman Sachs. "The Tata vs JioMart war will be the next big corporate battle to watch. "While Tata has an upper hand like in-house products and brands, RIL has the backing of global biggies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft," said head of a rating firm asking not to be quoted.
The government will "notify such countries or territories outside India to which a data fiduciary may transfer personal data", according to the draft unveiled on Friday for public feedback.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Monday laid bare the succession plan at India's most valuable company, identifying twins children Akash and Isha for telecom and retail leadership, and youngest son Anant for new energy unit. He, however, insisted he isn't retiring yet and will "continue to provide hands-on leadership as before". At the annual shareholders' meeting of Reliance Industries Ltd, he said the robust architecture that he has announced will ensure the firm remains "a unit, well-integrated and secure institution even as it develops existing businesses and adds new growth engines."
This is the second investment by General Atlantic in a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, following a Rs 6,598.38 crore investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year.
The govt withdrew the draft encryption policy which made it mandatory for storage of all messages, including social media, for 90 days.
A new law that defines how companies should process users' data came into force with the President giving assent to the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act passed by Parliament in the just-concluded monsoon session. The law arms individuals with greater control over their data while allowing companies to transfer users' data abroad for processing, except to nations and territories restricted by the Centre through notification. It also gives the government power to seek information from firms and issue directions to block content.
WhatsApp on Tuesday said its latest policy update does not affect the privacy of messages as the Facebook-owned company sought to address concerns around security of user data on the platform.
WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit in the Delhi high court challenging the government's new digital rules saying the requirement for the company to provide access to encrypted messages will break privacy protections.
Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has been granted permission to double its user base for the payments service to 40 million by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). WhatsApp has a total user base of 400 million and the development will help the platform compete better with entrenched rivals like Google Pay and Phone Pe. The US-based company had been eyeing the payments opportunity for long, but data localisation requirements had initially led to a delay.
Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt predicts that there will be more than a billion smartphones in use featuring its Android software within the next six to nine months.
In the quarter ending June 2022, the growth of Internet subscribers was less than one per cent of all of 2021.
India has demanded resumption of export benefits to certain domestic products under GSP, and greater market access for its products from sectors like agriculture, automobile, auto components and engineering. On the other hand, the US wants greater market access for its farm and manufacturing products, dairy items and medical devices, data localisation, and import duties cut on some ICT products.
Representatives of Facebook India have been asked to appear on Friday before the Joint Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, chaired by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Meenakshi Lekhi, while Twitter officials are required to appear before the panel on October 28, as per the notice issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea of Facebook Inc for transfer of cases related to demands for linking of social media profiles of users with Aadhaar number, pending before the high courts of Madras, Bombay and Madhya Pradesh to the apex court.
The court also said that if the terms and conditions of most mobile apps are read, "you would be surprised as to what all you are consenting to".
$47.6 bn capital invested across 921 deals in India in 2020, despite pandemic.
Koo, which works on similar lines as Twitter, was born with a focus on regional language, unlike Twitter and Facebook, which are very popular but primarily cater to an English-speaking audience, reports Neha Alawadhi.
From Twitter to Facebook to Spotify, everyone it seems is clambering aboard the social audio bandwagon. Neha Alawadhi reports.
Jack Ma who had five years ago said he was inspired and excited by "Make in India" possibly understood the essence of the signature campaign better than some others and decided to stay away from India other than as an investor, says Nivedita Mookerji.
Cos ask US treasury to discuss data localisation norms with Indian officials at all platforms the two countries would meet, including G-20, US-India Strategic Dialogue, and IMF Annual Meet.
Several of WhatsApp's early features were designed keeping Indian conditions in mind, given the choppy connectivity and existence of devices of different makes. In fact, India was the first country where WhatsApp rolled out in-app video calling services in 2016, ahead of its global launch, underlining the importance of the market for the company.
Intermediary platforms would take down content that violates the code of conduct in 'real time', once they receive a legal notice from the EC officers tasked with looking at content violations, reports Neha Alawadhi.
'Banning a game is not the solution, rather, there should be laws that restrict the number of hours spent a week playing a game.'
'They have all committed that during campaign period, they will not allow anything which is adversely effecting level playing field be allowed on their platforms'
