News for 'digital access'

Tech intensity will help businesses improve productivity: Nadella

Tech intensity will help businesses improve productivity: Nadella

Rediff.com11 Jan 2022

Businesses of various scales can improve productivity and affordability of their products and services by building tech intensity, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said. Nadella noted that organisations globally are undergoing digital transformation amid the COVID pandemic, and that trends like hybrid work, hyperconnected business and multi-cloud environments require "a boundaryless digital ecosystem where trust between different parties needs to be established in real-time". "Digital technology is a powerful deflationary force in an inflationary economy. Businesses - small and large - can improve their productivity as well as the affordability of their products and services by building tech intensity," he said.

RBI Guv launches UPI service for 40 cr feature phone users

RBI Guv launches UPI service for 40 cr feature phone users

Rediff.com8 Mar 2022

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Tuesday launched a new service, which will enable over 40 crore feature phone users to undertake digital payments in a secure way. The service christened UPI (unified payments interface) '123PAY' is a three-step method to initiate and execute services for users which will work on simple phones which do not have an internet connection. Das said, as of now, the multifaceted features of UPI are mostly available only on smartphones, which excludes people from the lower rung of the society from an economic perspective, especially in the rural areas, from accessing the popular service, even though the smartphone prices are going down.

Farmer takes on cybercriminal, recovers lakhs lost in fraud

Farmer takes on cybercriminal, recovers lakhs lost in fraud

Rediff.com19 Feb 2023

Pawan Kumar Soni, a 55-year-old farmer based in Sri Ganganagar City in Rajasthan, became a victim of a cyber fraud when his 26-year-old son Harsh Vardhan opened a link from a phishing message that flashed on his mobile phone.

Key mantra for India's pharma sector in 2023

Key mantra for India's pharma sector in 2023

Rediff.com21 Dec 2022

Reinvent and innovate will be the key mantra for the Indian pharma industry in the New Year as the 'pharmacy of the world' looks to move from volume to value leadership, amid emerging challenges of inflation and pricing pressures in the global markets. While R&D investment, market competitiveness, regulatory scrutiny, and domestic price regulations are expected to shape the growth of generics and injectable products, concerns such as price control and customs duties on medical equipment will continue to bother the healthcare industry in 2023. The industry believes that in view of India's G20 Presidency, digital health innovation, achieving universal health coverage, improving healthcare infrastructure and delivery will continue to be the key driving factors in 2023.

Google's Pichai announces new initiatives to support Modi's digital India

Google's Pichai announces new initiatives to support Modi's digital India

Rediff.com16 Dec 2015

Pichai is in India along with eight Google vice-presidents, including those for Search, YouTube, Maps, and Android among others.

Byju's, Google team up to offer 'learning solution' for schools

Byju's, Google team up to offer 'learning solution' for schools

Rediff.com2 Jun 2021

Education technology firm Byju's on Wednesday announced a partnership with tech giant Google to offer a 'learning solution' for schools. With this, the simplicity, flexibility and security of Google Workspace for Education and Byju's content pedagogy come together on the 'Vidyartha' platform to aid effective learning at school, according to a statement. This integration of Google Workspace for Education with Byju's would offer a collaborative and personalised digital platform for classroom organisation, available for free to participating educational institutions, the statement added.

Modi launches 5G mobile services, calls it dawn of new era

Modi launches 5G mobile services, calls it dawn of new era

Rediff.com1 Oct 2022

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the 6th India Mobile Congress at Pragati Maidan in Delhi and launched 5G services. The 5G telecom services seek to provide seamless coverage, high data rate, low latency and highly reliable communications system. The three major telecom operators of the country demonstrated one use case each in front of the prime minister to show the potential of 5G technology in India.

This super app will offer a range of multi-brand services for passenger cars

This super app will offer a range of multi-brand services for passenger cars

Rediff.com18 Jul 2022

A single application and a plethora of services for passenger cars - that is what myTVS, a brand that operates under Ki Mobility Solutions and is part of the TVS family, is set to bring to customers, in a bid to disrupt the concept of "super apps" in India. Starting July 15, myTVS will launch its connected car platform or super app called myTVS Life360 for aftermarket passenger cars. Through it, customers will be able to avail themselves of a range of services like maintenance, diagnostics, roadside assistance, accessories, payments, insurance, and so on.

Gaming Is Not Just For India's Young

Gaming Is Not Just For India's Young

Rediff.com1 Jun 2023

Meet Nilima Kalra, 79, Manju Roy, 80, Sumita Maan, 79, and Gurpreet Kaur, 75.

45% growth in active internet users in rural India since 2019

45% growth in active internet users in rural India since 2019

Rediff.com6 May 2022

There has been a 45 per cent growth in 'active internet users' in rural India since 2019, according a study by Nielsen, a global company for audience measurement, data and analytics. The Bharat 2.0 Internet report said that female active internet users grew by 61 per cent since 2019. The report said that India has 646 million active Internet users aged 2 years and above as of December 2021. Rural India has 352 million internet users--almost 20 per cent higher than urban.

PB Fintech down 5% in 2 days on Bima Sugam worry; analysts say buy the dip

PB Fintech down 5% in 2 days on Bima Sugam worry; analysts say buy the dip

Rediff.com17 Aug 2023

The decline of over 5 per cent in PB Fintech's shares (the parent company of PolicyBazaar) in the past two days presents an opportunity for long-term investors to consider buying the stock, suggest analysts. By comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex has remained flat during the same period with a negligible gain of 40 points, or 0.06 per cent. Analysts believe that the recent selling is "overdone", as the company behind the online insurance portal remains committed to achieving profitability, and the potential threat from the government's online insurance portal, Bima Sugam, might be embellished.

2024 Polls And Rise Of YouTuber Mantris

2024 Polls And Rise Of YouTuber Mantris

Rediff.com9 Oct 2023

Like, Share, Subscribe, Vote: The 2024 polls may be dubbed 'YouTube election'.

G20 declaration echoes Modi, says 'this era must not be of war'

G20 declaration echoes Modi, says 'this era must not be of war'

Rediff.com16 Nov 2022

Leaders at the G20 summit on Wednesday called for an immediate end to the Ukraine conflict, holding that "today's era must not be of war", a formulation that echoed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's message to Russian President Vladimir Putin in September.

Read This Before Filing Your Tax Return

Read This Before Filing Your Tax Return

Rediff.com20 Jul 2023

It is important to have the necessary documents on hand to verify the information in the form.

India employees ready to delegate more work to AI: Microsoft report

India employees ready to delegate more work to AI: Microsoft report

Rediff.com2 Jun 2023

As artificial intelligence (AI) threatens to replace jobs, a new report from Microsoft has suggested that Indian employees are caught between a fear of losing jobs and an opportunity to reduce workload by delegating tasks to technology. Microsoft's Work Trend Index 2023 found that while 74 per cent of Indian employees are worried about AI replacing their jobs, 83 per cent would delegate as much work to it as possible, to help lessen their workloads. More than three in four Indian workers would be comfortable using AI not just for administrative tasks (86 per cent), but also for analytical work (88 per cent), and for the creative aspects of their role (87 per cent).

Walmart-owned PhonePe calls off deal to acquire fintech startup ZestMoney

Walmart-owned PhonePe calls off deal to acquire fintech startup ZestMoney

Rediff.com31 Mar 2023

Walmart-owned digital payments firm PhonePe has decided to halt its proposed acquisition of Goldman Sachs- and Xiaomi-backed ZestMoney, a Bengaluru-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform. The deal, which was poised to fetch anywhere between $150-200 million and $300 million, has hit a snag over lapses in due diligence, disagreements over valuation, sustainability of the business, and shareholding structure of ZestMoney, according to people familiar with the matter. The collapse of the deal is also being attributed to a slowdown in the financial technology (fintech) sector in the midst of a funding winter, difficult regulatory environment, and macroeconomic uncertainty, informed other sources.

I&B ministry may begin independent review of C-band allocation plans

I&B ministry may begin independent review of C-band allocation plans

Rediff.com3 May 2023

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B ministry) may launch its review of the government's plan to potentially reserve the crucial C-band of radio frequencies for 5G and 6G telecommunication (telecom) use, said officials. While the incumbent broadcasting operators have warned that the plan will leave "precious little spectrum" for broadcasting services, telecom service providers (TSPs) have pressed hard for getting access to the C-band. In multiple letters to the I&B ministry over the past month, the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) has said the industry would be left with precious little spectrum for broadcasting services if the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) further allocates the scant C-band for 5G.

How a Kanpur-born Indian-origin CEO is a chip off the old block

How a Kanpur-born Indian-origin CEO is a chip off the old block

Rediff.com3 May 2023

In the technology (tech) world, especially storage, Sanjay Mehrotra is a well-known name. Co-founder of SanDisk, a flash memory storage company in 1988, it was eventually acquired by Western Digital in 2016 for a whopping $19 billion. For a boy from Kanpur, who went on to pursue higher studies in the US, becoming the chief executive officer of Micron Technology, Inc - one of America's largest memory chip makers - and now setting up the company's first plant in India, it has been quite a ride.

Major PSU banks to go live on account aggregator system by July-end

Major PSU banks to go live on account aggregator system by July-end

Rediff.com21 Jul 2022

After the finance minister directed public sector banks to join the account aggregator (AA) ecosystem, 5-6 major ones, including State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda are expected to go live by July-end. Sahmati, an industry alliance for the AA ecosystem, has been working with PSU banks to get them onboarded for quite some time now. So far, Union Bank of India and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have gone live on the AA ecosystem. While Union Bank has been live for a while, PNB went live earlier this month.

Govt plans bill to link birth, death data with electoral rolls: Amit Shah

Govt plans bill to link birth, death data with electoral rolls: Amit Shah

Rediff.com23 May 2023

Inaugurating the 'Janganana Bhawan', the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Shah said census is a process that may form the basis of development agenda.

Why You Should NOT Give Your Child Or Young Teen A Smartphone

Why You Should NOT Give Your Child Or Young Teen A Smartphone

Rediff.com26 Jul 2023

Screen time expert Emily Cherkin discusses the risks you must consider.

No internet in Manipur for 19 days now, normal life takes a hit

No internet in Manipur for 19 days now, normal life takes a hit

Rediff.com21 May 2023

Bimola Thounaojam, the mother of an 18-year-old youth, has been trying frantically trying to work out how to get her son admitted to a college outside Manipur without having to go through the usual net-based admission procedure.

At joint US Congress session, Modi's veiled attack on China, Pak

At joint US Congress session, Modi's veiled attack on China, Pak

Rediff.com23 Jun 2023

Prime Minister Modi also made a veiled reference to China, saying the global order is based on the respect for the principles of the UN Charter, peaceful resolution of disputes, and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Jio slams Airtel for 'maligning' its tariff policy

Jio slams Airtel for 'maligning' its tariff policy

Rediff.com20 Apr 2023

Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) has written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) stating that a recent complaint against it by Bharti Airtel is a deliberate, malicious attempt at defaming RJIL's consumer-friendly tariff. RJIL has also asked the regulator to warn Airtel against 'making such frivolous complaints in the future'. The move is in response to Airtel recently requesting Trai to bring content aired through broadband under the regulatory fold and keep a check against discriminatory bundling tactics.

Jay Shah provides updates on WPL, Asia Cup venue

Jay Shah provides updates on WPL, Asia Cup venue

Rediff.com14 Apr 2023

BCCI honourary secretary Jay Shah provived updates on the Asia Cup venue, WPL and India's preparations for the ODI World Cup.

Twitter blocks IT minister's account for one hour over 'violations'

Twitter blocks IT minister's account for one hour over 'violations'

Rediff.com26 Jun 2021

Twitter on Friday temporarily blocked IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's account for alleged violation of the US Copyright Act, a move that the minister slammed as being arbitrary and gross violation of IT rules.

How BAD Is The Job Market?

How BAD Is The Job Market?

Rediff.com2 Aug 2023

More people working in India's technology industry have lost their jobs in the first six months of 2023 than in the corresponding period in 2022.

TCS to drive next phase of Passport Seva Program

TCS to drive next phase of Passport Seva Program

Rediff.com7 Jan 2022

Tata Consultancy Services on Friday said it has been selected by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for the second phase of the Passport Seva Program. In the next phase of the programme, TCS will refresh existing facilities and systems, and develop innovative solutions to enable the issuance of e-passports and further enhance the citizen experience, using technologies, such as biometrics, artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics, chatbots, auto-response, natural language processing, and the cloud, a statement said. Launched in 2008, the Passport Seva Program saw TCS transforming the delivery of passport-related services, digitising the processes, and setting global benchmarks in timeliness, transparency, and reliability.

Govt mulls 'digital locker' to store citizens' info on cloud

Govt mulls 'digital locker' to store citizens' info on cloud

Rediff.com11 Sep 2014

The government is working on the concept of a digital locker of sorts - an online repository for all certificates and documents issued to the citizens of the country.

Taking on Google, FB, Apple: CCI seeks more teeth to tackle Big Tech

Taking on Google, FB, Apple: CCI seeks more teeth to tackle Big Tech

Rediff.com31 May 2022

Ashok Kumar Gupta, chairman of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), has never minced words while talking about the giant technology companies, referring to them on multiple occasions as "centres for entrenched and unchecked dominance". The anti-trust regulator has, in fact, been cracking down on big technology companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and others, after they were hauled up by regulators and lawmakers in Europe and Australia. However, in several instances, existing regulations have prevented the CCI from going all out against these companies for anti-competitive activities.

Why Formula One is targeting Indian market

Why Formula One is targeting Indian market

Rediff.com21 Feb 2023

Formula One launch F1 TV in India, target 'strong mobile market'

Ambani sets goals for children; cites Messi to explain leadership

Ambani sets goals for children; cites Messi to explain leadership

Rediff.com29 Dec 2022

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani has set targets for his three kids whom he has identified for takeover of telecom, retail and new energy business. Speaking at his father Dhirubhai's anniversary, celebrated as Reliance Family Day, he said the oil-to-telecom-to-retail conglomerate Reliance industries Ltd has embarked on a journey of comprehensive self-transformation. "The end of 2022 is when Reliance will have crossed the half-way mark of its Golden Decade.

BEWARE! Fraud Journals On The Rise

BEWARE! Fraud Journals On The Rise

Rediff.com27 Nov 2021

Cloned journals have become more rampant in the post-pandemic world.

Third Wave: Be Financially Prepared!

Third Wave: Be Financially Prepared!

Rediff.com28 Jul 2021

Postpone the purchase of big-ticket consumer durable items, recreational spending on holidays, and other such expenses unless your financial position is very secure, advises Sarbajeet K Sen.

Planning For Higher Pension Under EPS?

Planning For Higher Pension Under EPS?

Rediff.com26 May 2023

Remember, pension from EPS will be taxable at slab rate, reducing the post-tax income for people who remain in the higher tax brackets after retirement.

New Parliament will be paperless -- here's what to expect

New Parliament will be paperless -- here's what to expect

Rediff.com23 Nov 2022

In the new Parliament House, with a soft launch this Winter Session, paper is expected to disappear. For the guidance of ministers, secretaries can scribble notes on linked pads even from their offices to respond to queries from members.

Use tech to scale up COVID-19 vaccination: Nilekani

Use tech to scale up COVID-19 vaccination: Nilekani

Rediff.com20 Apr 2021

'We are the only country in the world where everybody gets a digital vaccination certificate immediately... Then as we open up, as they did yesterday, which I think is a welcome move, you will have lots and lots of points where people will come in'

Govt close to finalising e-commerce policy: DPIIT secy Rajesh Kumar Singh

Govt close to finalising e-commerce policy: DPIIT secy Rajesh Kumar Singh

Rediff.com12 May 2023

The government is at a "fairly advanced stage" of finalising a well-coordinated e-commerce policy and consumer protection rules, which will incorporate provisions of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said on Thursday. "E-commerce rules and e-commerce policy will be congruent with each other... That exercise is at a fairly advanced stage," Singh told reporters. The remarks come on a day the number of daily transactions on the platform has gone up 500 times since the beginning of this year with the number of retail merchants added to its roster growing 40-fold.

Google on Rs 936 cr fine slapped by CCI

Google on Rs 936 cr fine slapped by CCI

Rediff.com26 Oct 2022

Slapped with a second hefty fine for anti-competitive practices, Google India on Wednesday said it remains committed to users and developers and is reviewing the antitrust body's order to evaluate next steps. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Tuesday slapped a Rs 936 crore fine on Google for "abusing" its dominant position on its Android mobile app store and ordered it not to prevent app developers from using third-party billing or payment processing services in India. That penalty came just days after a Rs 1,337.76 crore fine was imposed on it for abusing the dominant position of its Android smartphone operating system. Commenting on Tuesday's CCI order, a Google India spokesperson said Indian app developers have benefited from the technology, security, consumer protection, choice and flexibility that Android and Google Play provide.

How Tech Is Reinventing Fashion Shopping

How Tech Is Reinventing Fashion Shopping

Rediff.com24 Nov 2022

With the fashion world blurring the lines between innovation, technology and reality, shopping is all set to be revolutionised.