Digital India Initiative

[Mikesingh]

Much ado about the government's 'DIGILOCKER' where one can store all documents on a mobile phone including car/mobike license, insurance papers, driving license etc etc. You can just show any document to the police on the move and thus no need to carry hard copies.

Anyone tried it? Does it work? It's available on Google Play for download. Some say it sucks!

 

[PD_Solo]

Much ado about the government's 'DIGILOCKER' where one can store all documents on a mobile phone including car/mobike license, insurance papers, driving license etc etc. You can just show any document to the police on the move and thus no need to carry hard copies.

Anyone tried it? Does it work? It's available on Google Play for download. Some say it sucks!

I wasn't able to sign up properly, think it may be in beta stage.

 

[PD_Solo]

I wasn't able to sign up properly, think it may be in beta stage.

Stucks here for infinity...

 

[Mikesingh]

Stucks here for infinity...

Spot on! That's what everyone says!

WTF? And we can't produce a decent program in spite of us being a so called 'IT power'? So much for 'digital India'! We've got a long long way to go.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

How education-technology startups are changing learning in India

Students get to decide what and how they want to learn, understand concepts better using digital aids, analyze their strengths and weaknesses, and have conversations with teachers.

Deepika Bhalla, a 22-year-old student in Lucknow, agonized over the neighbourhood coaching classes she attended to prepare for a bank examination. The tutor couldn't afford to give her personal attention or guidance.

Bhalla's solution was to go digital with a mobile app that allows her to get answers to specific questions whenever she wants. She's hooked. Personalized learning has become possible thanks to a handful of technology entrepreneurs who set out to design educational models that could make learning student-led, with teachers being facilitators.

Students get to decide what and how they want to learn, understand concepts better using digital aids, analyze their strengths and weaknesses, and have conversations with teachers. Content is engineered for each student. And it's the students who rate their teachers. This is as close you can get to the perfect bottom-up pyramid, if there was any. The millions of students flocking to education-technology startups such as

Byju's has drawn the attention of investors.

This is fuelling further development of data-driven education technologies, triggering fundamental changes in how school and college students as well as professionals seeking new skills are learning.

"When we were conceptualising (our Learning App) we realized it was easier to change the learning habit of students rather than the system itself. Basically, the product is made in such a way that they learn on their own," said Byju Raveendran, founder of Byju's.

The Bengaluru-based startup employs original content, graphics and videos to explain concepts, making learning contextual and visual. It leverages data to enable students understand what to learn, how to learn and how much to learn. The app has been downloaded by about 5.5 million students in more than 1,400 cities and towns. Byju's is India's most-funded

ed-tech startup with $125 million (nearly Rs 840 crore) raised since March.

Last week, the foundation started by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan co-led a $50-million investment in the company.

Data quotient

Data that ed-tech platforms have collected over the years are prompting constant improvements. Take

Vedantu, which connects students and tutors online. Data showed them that many students regarded the interactive teaching done over video as a distraction.

They preferred virtual whiteboards

and voice, which option students now have. "Even before launching we optimized a lot for video. But after launching, the data told us that people are really not looking forward to a video interaction... We wasted a little bit of time there. This was a classic case where we did more than what was required," said chief executive Vamsi Krishna.

Based on data, Vedantu also recently started an 'engagement quotient' for teachers to inform them where they should improve. Nearly all ed-tech entrepreneurs have gained from data insights. The three big learnings that have been inculcated into these platforms thanks to the data are: chat-based interactions, video presentations and personalization. Gradeup, a Quora-like platform that Bhalla switched over to for her bank exam preparations, leverages data to make learning more personalised.

Based on the questions students post and attempt to solve, Gradeup builds individual profiles. If a student is good at fractions, the app infers she must be good at ratio and proportions as well. So the app will present her with questions of higher difficulty when attempting ratio and proportions.

"We are able to give students feedback based on the 200 million questions that are attempted every month," said Shobhit Bhatnagar, cofounder of the year-old startup backed by Times Internet. Avagmah, an online distance learning platform, employs chat-based learning. "There are research assistants in the backend who are available to answer questions instantaneously," said CEO Karthik KS.

Since most of its students are working professionals, Avagmah offers customized study schedules. "This led to an increase in consumption because the student was given a day-today schedule, which made it easier for them to follow and study," said Karthik. Avagmah, co-promoted by startup factory Growth Story, was recently funded by Infosys cofounder Kris Gopalakrishnan and Atul Nishar, founder of Hexaware and Aptech.

Disrupting education

All said and done, the education-technology industry is still nascent but could be setting the stage to disrupt learning. "What we have understood is that when you understand the concept, marks will come, but there is a long way to go in changing the habits of a lot more students," said Byju. "There is a lot of scope before you can call ed-tech a revolution but we are on our way."

Some of that revolution is being channeled through young teachers, several still in college themselves. At Hashlearn, a Uber-like platform for booking teachers for specific sessions, a majority of the teachers are students or recent graduates of premier colleges such as the IITs and AIIMS. Essentially, students who have just cleared exams and, importantly, can be awake late to answer questions.

"I have answered doubts as early as 4 am," said Malay Krishna, a 22-year-old who recently graduated from IIT-Delhi. Similarly, all the teachers on Byju's videos are young so the students can relate to them.

"We believe that the first step is to like the teacher. The teacher presenting is very important, conversational style... very young teachers. Students will relate to them in a friendly manner," said Byju.

All these technology advancements have contributed to students getting bolder about what they want to learn, said Narayanan Ramaswamy, head-education at consultancy firm

KPMG India. "Knowledge was earlier confined to classrooms and teachers. (Ed-tech startups) have turned learning on the head from a teacher-centric model to a learner-centric model. I won't be surprised if they become full-blown online varsities," said Ramaswamy.

"I see a large role for these early entrepreneurs in the transformed ecosystem we are going to live in tomorrow. Clearly, they are onto something that is going to be fundamentally disruptive."

READ MORE:
Vedantu|Mobile app|KPMG India|Byju

 

[Indx TechStyle]

India on threshold of digital revolution, say experts

A world of frictionless cash transfer, smart factories and everyone connected on the cloud may not be too far away, going by the intense discussions which took place at the Digit Summit 2016 organised at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore on Saturday.

“Technology has accelerated the pace of change and we need to ensure that this change is inclusive," said Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt. Ltd., speaking at the event.

Ankur Dang, Director, Software Engineering, GE Digital, spoke on a fourth wave of industry was on the cars, after the arrival of the steam engine, mass production and lean automation. "This fourth wave, digital automation, will transform the industry," he said, describing GE's multi-modal facility at Chakan, Maharashtra, which can manufacture parts for four different industries under one roof using the same equipment. "You could be machining oil and gas parts today, and three days later, on the same machine, you could design healthcare parts," he explained.

The next speaker, Balendu Shrivastava, Head of Marketing Science, Facebook India, spoke about how it was important to put people at the core of a company's marketing strategy. "There are 65 million daily users on mobile browsing Facebook, this is a larger audience than most newspapers and channels in India have," he said.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

After IT boom, India's next big thing will be IoT: Jim Morrish, Machina Research

By 2020, the world will see more than 34 billion devices connected to the internet, of which, 24 billion will account for IoT-connected devices.This will herald the next industrial revolution. In an interview with ETtech's Aritra Sarkhel and Vikas SN, founder of Machina Research Jim Morrish talks about the opportunities with IoT in India, its security ramifications and how the concept of 'fog computing' will impact IoT.Edited excerpts:
Will IoT, like any other industry buzzword, fizzle out soon?

IoT is about opening ways of combining data from multiple sources. It's the next industrial revolution and depends significantly on devices. One of the drivers for IoT is the falling costs of devices. The cost of computing capabilities in end devices and the processing needed to analyse data -which comes from a sensor and mechanical probes -are becoming a lot cheaper. This will actually help in the rise of an interconnected environment.

Internet-of-things technology will give rise to a lot of automation. How is it likely to impact jobs?

IoT is a huge opportunity for India. According to our research done on American firms, 43% of the IT budgets will be spent on IoT projects and solutions by 2020. For example, in the BPO industry in India, some of the lower-skilled jobs will become automated in the coming days, but the trick for India is to remain at the forefront of it so that they can deliver those solutions. It's about upskilling because that is how economies progress.India Inc should look at retaining these people and training them.

This opens up the scope of personal progression within industries as people will move from lower to higher-skilled jobs that are more rewarding.

How is the industry looking at inter-operatability standard issues?

I think IoT needs to be conceived within the context of traditional societal boundaries and corporate governance. There will be some success in establishing those standards, but I think it will always be a game of catch-up. There is a long way to go before all levels of connected devices respect a single uniform standard.

The industry will get standardisations supporting a level of interconnectedness across industries.

There will be a level of de facto standards and beyond that, many levels of free fragmented standards across individual companies. But some of those standards will be definitely inconsistent at the same time.

Why open source matters to the IoT market?

A lot of the internet is based on the open source software, but customising it are supported by distributers, so it's not completely a naked code. It is pretty much synonymous with the emergence of standards. So, there is going to be that underlying core of open source code that will emerge in the same way it does in the internet today.

With the number of IoT devices increasing and a huge amount of data being collected, do you think privacy will be an issue?

It is an issue. There are various countries, which are establishing guidelines on privacy.

But it's a difficult concept to prescribe in regulations because it depends on the context of the information. The only way of effectively managing it is to bring in a trusted third party. We will need a more complex mechanism that pushes the concept of privacy into a commercial and competitive context than something regulated.

READ MORE:
World|Technology|Regulations|People|Market|Machina Research|Jobs

 

[Indx TechStyle]

India can save Rs 70,000 crore by reducing cash transactions: Visa
NEW DELHI: India can save up to Rs 70,000 crore in the next five years by taking measures to reduce cash handling by widening digital transactions base, global payments gateway Visa said today.

The Indian economy has a high cost of cash because of significant cost of time, effort and resources, operating and maintaining cash infrastructure, high cost of cash withdrawals, moving and managing cost, Visa said.

India would benefit by providing fiscal incentive to consumers and merchants, new regulations, digitisation of government payments, new technology adoption, open-loop systems for mass transit, inter-ministerial collaboration to transit to a less-cash society, it said.

"Our analysis suggests that implementation of the proposed measures by the government and banks would increase the numbers of acceptance points three-fold to about 4 million from 1.3 million today and add about 40.9 million households to the financial system.

"These actions would enable India to significantly increase the adoption of digital payments. Further it could result in savings of about Rs 70,000 crores (USD 10.4 billion) over the next five years," Visa study on 'Accelerating the Growth of Digital Payments in India: A five-year outlook' said.
According to a Visa estimate, net cost of cash borne by four stakeholders -- households, businesses, banks and central bank stood at 1.7 per cent of GDP in 2014-15.

Besides, foregone tax revenues from shadow economy, estimated to be 19 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), account for 3.2 per cent of the economy.
Micro enterprises bear the highest cost of cash at 1.4 per cent of GDP, business to consumer organisations 0.6 per cent, households 0.9 per cent, banks 0.4 per cent and the RBI 0.04 per cent, Visa said.

"Such a huge burden on the economy offers the Government a clear rationale for accelerating shift from cash to digital payments...However, India has the opportunity to reduce its cost of cash from 1.7 per cent of GDP to 1.3 per cent of GDP," it said.
India could save up to an additional Rs 4 lakh crore (USD 59.4 billion) by 2024-25 if it could sustain a reduced cost of cash of 1.3 per cent of GDP until 2025, as per the study.

"In summary, the total savings by 2025 could be Rs 4.7 lakh crores (about USD 70 billion) with the appropriate policy initiatives in place and followed by effective execution," it added.

Various other studies have shown that countries could benefit by moving from cash to digital payments.
"An analysis shows that in the area of electronic payments India's performance lags behind Brazil, China, and Russia. India trails because of its limited progress on financial inclusion," said the Visa study.

http://m.economictimes.com/wealth/p...sh-transactions-visa/articleshow/54710201.cms

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Digital India | India's Booming Digital Economy - Japanese Media Report

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Indians are loving their “Made in India” phones

The craze. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Smartphone sales in India are on fire.

Asia’s third-largest economy saw a 23% year-on-year increase in smartphone sales in July-September 2016 (Q3), way higher than the global growth of just 5%,according to data from Counterpoint Research. The market intelligence firm did not specify the exact number of smartphones sold during the quarter.

Indians continued with their preference for locally-made devices over imported ones: three out of four smartphones sold during the quarter were manufactured in India, Counterpoint’s data revealed.

“The demand for smartphones (in India) is being fueled by the growing importance of being uber-connected, which is further catalyzed by the rollout of LTE (long-term evolution) networks,” Karn Chauhan, research analyst at Counterpoint Research, said. Usage of LTE has picked up over the recent months due to the launch of Reliance Jio, which introduced the the world’s cheapest LTE data rates.

India is currently the world’s second-largest smartphone market with over 220 million users. However, penetration of the device is still low, with just around 30% of the total 700 million mobile phone users owning smartphones.

Market share

The Indian smartphone market is dominated by South Korea’s Samsung, but domestic manufacturers have been catching up lately. Like in the previous quarter, local brands Micromax and Reliance Jio were among the top five smartphone sellers in India during Q3.

“A bulk of the first-time smartphone users were mostly using Indian or Samsung-branded smartphones but the aggressive entry and growth of Chinese brands have prompted most of these users to upgrade to affordable but better spec smartphones,” said Pavel Naiya, an analyst at Counterpoint Research.

Smartphone sales during the last quarter of the year may be even higher, as the festive season fuels demand.

Flipkart sold 2.5 million smartphones during its five-day Big Billion Day sale earlier this month, which means in less than a week, the company’s customers bought far more smartphones than the total number of mobile phone users in countries like Bhutan and Mauritius.

 

[Bharat Ek Khoj]

Reliance Jio at directly 6.9 ? Damn !!

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Indus, the startup building an Android OS for India, targets deals with Chinese OEMs

Indus OS, the startup developing a localized version of Android for India, is now going after international OEMs after it clinched a deal that will local giant Intex sell smartphones powered by its operating system.

Intex has around 10 percent of sales in India, according to data from Counterpoint Research, so landing the firm as a partner will boost Indus’ coverage of India’s mobile landscape. The partnership also means that Indus has now struck deals with nearly all of India’s top phone brands — including Micromax, Karbonn, Celkon and Swipe but not Lava — meaning it can now its attention to the many overseas firms vying for marketshare in India, one of the few regions to buck the global trend of slowing phone sales.

“Our goal is to get OEMs to sign up,” Rakesh Deshmukh, Indus OS co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch. “Now we want to go ahead and work with Chinese and international brands.”

India’s smartphone market reached a record high in the recent Q3 2017, according to Counterpoint, with shipments growing 23 percent year-on-year. Samsung, Lenovo and Xiaomi were among the top five smartphone brands based on marketshare, but plenty of other overseas brand are battling to take a slice of the nascent market.

Android accounts for 88 percent of all smartphones sold in India, which is where Indus OS sees its opportunity. The startup has retooled the Google-owned operating platform to give localized features — which include translation/keyboards for India’s numerous languages, a simpler user interface, free messaging, and localized apps — which it believes are key to developing smartphones that can be used by the next wave of less-savvy, first-time smartphone owners.

Indus OS closed a $5 million Series A funding round earlier this year, and Deshmukh hinted that it could add to that soon.

“We’re not raising right now but are down the line having some discussions,” he said. “Let’s see how it goes [there’s] no immediate plan [but] investors are approaching us because the company is doing well.”

 

[Chinmoy]

Assam MLA starts website

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1161105/jsp/northeast/story_117488.jsp#.WB201vS8rfY

Guwahati, Nov. 4:

BJP legislator from Dhekiajuli Ashok Singhal today launched a website with a unique "intelligent voice-based system" which will enable the people of his constituency to lodge their complaints by making a phone call.

The web portal, www.ashoksinghal.in, was launched by Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Dispur this morning.

"A phone number was provided on the website, which can receive 30 calls simultaneously. The calls will be automatically recorded and converted into text. After verification with the booth committees, the text version of the complaint or suggestion will be forwarded to the government officials on my letterhead and also via email and text messages," Singhal said.

"An instant confirmation message will be sent to the complainant. After the complaint is resolved, the complainant will received a feedback message," he said.

All the complainant has to do is to provide his voter ID and polling booth number to register his complaint or suggestion. If he wishes, the complainant can give his mobile phone number and email id.

The database of the portal contains information about all voters of the constituency according to their voter IDs and polling booths numbers.

According to the MLA, the software which converts the voice call into text in Assamese language is the first of its kind.

He said the web portal was created by a team of developers led by Abhipsit Saikia, who is the CEO of Incredible Infosoft Solutions (I) Private Limited.

"All activities related to utilisation of the MLA funds will also be uploaded on the website. It will also make the public representative as well as the government officials accountable to the public," he said.

Sonowal lauded Singhal for launching this innovative web portal and said such steps would contribute towards making Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India campaign a grand success.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

India ahead in domain name registration

Photo: Shutterstock​

India is growing at a faster pace in registering new domains compared to other countries, revealed a study by management consulting firm Zinnov. At a compound annual growth rate of 11.9 per cent, compared to a global average of 8.7 per cent, during the period between 2013 and 2016, the study stated that India has about 4.9 million domains of the 335 million worldwide.

The study stated that more than 55 per cent of the domain names registered in India are on .com extension. The states with comparatively better internet penetration, including Maharashtra, Delhi/NCR and Karnataka, accounted for more than 38 per cent of the total market share.

About 40 per cent of the total registered domain names in India are used for creating a website, while 10-12 per cent of them are used for professional emails. Only about three to four per cent of the domains are utilized for creating mobile-enabled websites.

"The rapidly growing internet user base as well as the ever-increasing number of technology enabled SMBs has helped India witness significant growth in domain name adoption over the last few years.Increased awareness about various usage of domain names including websites, professional email, redirects to social media pages and trade portal etc. will further help drive the market," said Pari Natarajan, chief executive officer and co-founder, Zinnov.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Theres's a new space start up called Astrome Technologies from Rajasthan, funded by IISc, whose aim is to launch 150 satellites by 2020 to facilitate high speed internet at lower costs.
http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/threads/isro-news-and-updates.33401/page-110#post-1227090

 

[Indx TechStyle]

FIVE-HUNDRED RUPEE NOTES WILL SOON BE USELESS.
PHOTOGRAPHER: RAJKUMAR/MINT/GETTY IMAGES
India Goes Cashless

27
NOV 8, 2016 7:30 PM EST
Mihir Sharma

It certainly took everyone in India by surprise. But then, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a flair for the dramatic. In an unexpected primetime address on Tuesday, he announced that in a few hours, millions of high-denomination currency notes would no longer be legal tender. It was the only way, he insisted, to deal with “the disease” of unaccounted-for income -- or “black money,” as it’s called in India. “Your money will remain yours,” he assured a stunned citizenry -- as long as you get around to depositing it in post offices sometime over the next several weeks.

As with everything the Indian government does, there’s a complex system of exemptions and exceptions to this demonetization. If you’re in an accident, for example, you can still pay the emergency room in 1,000-rupee notes. Also, for some reason, if you want to buy milk. Meanwhile, withdrawals from ATMs have been limited to 2,000 rupees a day for the next few days; returning bills to banks will require some form of government ID; and so on and so forth. Typically for India, a simple enough policy -- indeed, one perhaps too simplistic in conception -- somehow had enough fine print to confuse people.

Still, once India endures what could be a pretty chaotic transition, will Modi’s big idea work? There are certainly big advantages to going cashless. And black money in India is certainly a huge problem. The Indian economy is as much “informal” as it is formal -- meaning that most enterprises operate under the regulatory and legal radar. They don’t have to depend on bank accounts; cash payments are the norm. An unknown -- but certainly significantly large -- proportion of Indian national income is thus unaccounted for. It’s perhaps as much as a fifth of India’s GDP, or more than $450 billion.

Some of Modi’s more eccentric ideological fellow-travelers have long argued for a measure like this one, to force the informal economy toward formal finance and into the tax net. The yoga teacher-turned-tycoon Baba Ramdev, for example, has been agitating against high-denomination currency notes for years. And the idea of cash as the villain has percolated into the mainstream. The ex-CEO of Standard Chartered Plc. wrote a paper this February urging the G-20 to ban 500-euro, $100, and 50-pound notes, an idea backed by Larry Summers. Across Asia, countries are moving away from high-denomination notes: Korea plans to go cashless by 2020. Even a group of retired judges that the Indian government put in charge of examining the black money problem recommended cutting down on cash transactions.

But nobody expected Modi to act quite so decisively or quite as fast. His famed organizational skills were certainly on display: His cabinet decided, the prime minister addressed the nation and the governor of the Reserve Bank of India -- whose signature is on the notes, after all -- followed him on TV with a message of calm. And all this, without even a hint of the plan leaking out in advance.

In some ways, Modi’s hand was forced. One of his most potent promises when on the campaign trail in 2014 was to “bring back black money” from foreign tax havens. In spite of any number of press releases and a much-hyped amnesty scheme, he couldn’t live up to that promise. The amnesty in particular was a conspicuous failure, bringing in a tiny fraction of the money that Indonesia and Argentina have repatriated using similar amnesty windows.

With this announcement, Modi’s turned a political liability into a political success; there isn’t a voter in India who won’t know that their government’s taken a big step against tax evasion. Within seconds of the speech, I got a message on WhatsApp from my personal banker, calling the move a “surgical strike” against black money; the phrase drew a parallel with a widely popular attack by Indian soldiers last month on terrorist staging camps across the Line of Control in Kashmir.

Yet while a shortage of currency -- and remember, 500 rupees is only $7.50 -- might well make it harder to hide from the taxman, it will also make things much tougher for small businesses and for the poor. India’s a far-flung economy that lives in many centuries at once, and ATM cards or mobile payments may not have percolated far enough. There will probably be a price to be paid in efficiency -- and the poor will pay a disproportionate share of that price.

So while, in the end, a demonetization of this kind may have been necessary, it’s likely that Modi pushed it through a few years too soon. I’ve argued before that India has what it takes to become the world’s first cashless economy. But that will need the private sector to create the cheap and easy mechanisms for cash transfers using smartphones that would make cash redundant. And while that process is ongoing, and swift, it’s far from complete. India is closer to becoming a cashless economy, but the route there hasn’t been made any easier.

 

[Batfan]

Stucks here for infinity...

I did it on PC. After entering details it will say "don't refresh the page or go back" but after some time refresh the page if it's stuck. The login and adharcard connection will be done.
Though I still have problem with adding my driving liscence to it.

Sent from my XT1068 using Tapatalk

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Reliance Jio’s next big offering could hit DTH and broadband services
Reliance Jio is expected to roll out its direct to home services, which will affect established broadband and DTH players.
Written by Nandagopal Rajan |
Published on:November 12, 2016 10:54 AM

Reliance’s upcoming high-speed optical fibre will be pushing speeds up to 1 Gbps (Jio headquarters outside Mumbai)

Reliance Jio has already shaken up the telecom industry in India with its Reliance Jio 4G service offerings. However, the company has more up its sleeve. In fact, in a few months the conglomerate will roll out its direct to home services, which have the potential to make life hard for existing broadband players as well as DTH operators.

The service will come in the form of a high-speed optical fibre – pushing speeds up to 1 Gbps. The cables are already laid for most of India and some pilot services are being offered in part of Mumbai. There is no clarity yet on the final hardware offering or the date of full rollout. As far as pricing goes, the company has suggested that it will offer value for the customer like with all its Jio services.

Customers of the service will get access to high-speed internet, as well as a host of Jio services. The hardware will include a set-top-box, as well as an Android smartbox or Apple TV that will help them control the content and also play games.

The speeds will be unprecedented for the Indian home segment where 16Mbps is considered a luxury. With the Jio fibre offering — if everything goes well — customers will be able to stream and play high-definition games with multiple players. Also, 4K videos will become much more easier to access without any buffer.

However, where Jio could bring in big impact is with JioTV which will offer more than 360 channels, at least 50 of which will be in HD. The offering is differentiated by existing players because of the seven-day catch up option. This content is not saved locally, but on Jio servers and pulled in as per demand. Users will be able to use a voice enabled remote to search by channel, show, category or even by the names of actors.

It is not new for broadband services to offer television channels. MTNL tried IPTV many years ago while Airtel too has a similar service. However, none have been really successful. For households with multiple televisions, a single router will work but with individual set-top-boxes.

Then there is Jio MediaShare, with which the company is promising the ability to locally play content across all your devices from your PC or hard-drive – using the Home Gateway. Jio is also working on solutions to make legacy music systems and televisions smart.

Plus, the service wants to push internet-of-things (IOT) as well. It will use smart plugs (already available in the market) to control appliances in a home. The home gateway will also enable better security of home through surveillance with real-time monitoring via cameras, connected doorbells and motion sensors.

Despite the ambitious plans, it might take a few months for the services to be rolled out as Jio wants to go pan-India with whatever services they have. Also at the moment getting the necessary permissions to install the Jio Fibre into residential societies and other private compounds is proving to be the bigger hurdle. However, Jio certainly stands out for being the first to offer, or at least think of, a whole bouquet of services that are linked to the web.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Reliance Jio Fiber FTTH 1Gbps broadband tariff plans to start at Rs 500: Report
Reliance Jio has reportedly started public testing of its fiber optics broadband service that will offer speeds up to 1Gbps. Currently offered for free under ‘Welcome Offer’, the plans for the broadband internet service are likely to start at Rs 500 a month.
By Ritesh Bendre | Updated: September 13, 2016 04:40 PM IST
Tags: Reliance Jio

After a long wait, Reliance Jio finally launched its commercial operations from September 5. The company promises to offer free unlimited HD voice calling, high speed internet compared to other telecom operators and access to its range of content services such as live TV, on-demand movies, music streaming, cloud backup and more. Reliance Jio is also offering high-speed data download at Rs 50 per GB, which is the cheapest in the world. But, Reliance Jio is not just about 4G. At the Annual General Meeting (AGM), chairman Mukesh Ambani also talked about the company’s efforts on fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service, that promises to offer broadband speeds up to 1Gbps. Now, more details about Reliance Jio Fiber FTTH have surfaced, along with rumored tariff plans, which could start as low as Rs 500.

Citing sources, PhoneRadar reports that Reliance Jio is piloting its FTTH services in Mumbai and Delhi with speeds up to 100Mbps. Called ‘Jio Fiber Broadband’ the report also states that the service is now open for public testing under ‘Welcome Offer’ for 90 days. After the trial period ends, data plans are likely to start for as low as Rs 500 per month. Let’s look at what the Reliance Jio Fiber service is all about.

What is Jio Fiber broadband?

Jio Fiber broadband is basically fiber to the home (FTTH) service. It’s quite similar to your existing wireline broadband service, except for the fact that Jio Fiber uses fiber optic technology for establishing high-speed connection. It can offer speeds up to 1Gbps (or 125MBps). Do note, here its MBps (megabytes per second) and not Mbps (megabits per second). What it means is that the network is capable of downloading 125MB per second. Theoretically, if you want to download a video of 500MB, it would roughly take four seconds, when at full speed. Yes, it’s that insanely fast. Mukesh Ambani did mention during his speech that the service will be offered to both home and business subscribers.

What about the setup?

To begin with, your home or office should fall in the feasible area where Reliance Jio can install the required wiring. The company is also offering LYF branded fiber router and LAN connection free to preview users. Currently, there is no word on the pricing of the router, or if it supports Wi-Fi connectivity. However, the router is expected to be priced somewhere around Rs 6,000.

ALSO READ: Reliance Jio Welcome Offer on Samsung Z2, here’s everything you need to know
Reliance Jio Fibre plans

While Reliance Jio hasn’t officially disclosed about the charges or launch, reports suggest that there will be three types of plans: Silver, Gold and Platinum. With prices starting at Rs 500 per month, plans will be speed and volume based. Currently, under the Welcome Offer, Reliance Jio is officially offering 100GB data but reportedly it continues working even after exhausting that data limit. Users also get free access to Jio premium apps including JioTV, JioCinema and JioMusic. The Welcome Offer is valid for 90 days after activation. According to details obtained by the publication, there could be speed based tariff plan, volume based tariff plan and special offer tariff plan.

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Speed based tariffs: There are five plans, each having a validity of 30 days. The first plan offers 50Mbps speed with data cap of 2,000GB (or 2TB). The other plans offer – 100Mbps speed with data cap of 1,000GB (or 1TB), 200Mbps with data cap of 750GB, 400Mbps with data cap of 500GB and 600Mbps with data cap of 300GB. As you can see, as speed increases, the amount of data you can download decreases. However, the pricing for these plans is unknown. All plans also include free app usage between Rs 1,500 to Rs 5,500, which differs from one plan to the other.

Volume based tariff: There are five plans in here, each having validity of 30 days. While the pricing and speed isn’t mentioned, you get data of 5GB per day, to 60GB per day. It also includes free app usage between Rs 1,500 to Rs 5,500 for different plans.

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Special offer tariff: Here, too there are six plans. Out of these there is one plan with just one day validity, and rest of them have 30 days validity. The one day validity plan is priced at Rs 400 with unlimited data download, but the speed isn’t mentioned. There are three plans priced at Rs 500 – one offers 600GB data at 15Mbps speed, other offers 3.5GB data per day at unknown speed, and the last one offers 60Mbps speed, with no mention of data benefits. Then there is a Rs 800 plan with unlimited download at 10Mbps speed, and another at Rs 1,000 with 500GB download at 25Mbps speed.

Clearly, if these plans turn out to be true, Reliance Jio Fibre can change the entire landscape of broadband in India. It is one of the things that will take India a step closer from being a developing nation to a developed nation. However, we cannot vouch for the veracity of these plans as these have not been officially announced by Reliance Jio.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

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ATM & Card Statistics for July 2016

India had issued 25.9 million credit cards and 697.2 million debit cards as of July-end. These were net figures after adjusting withdrawn and cancelled cards. A month earlier, this figures for credit and debit cards had been 25.4 million and 691.1 million, respectively.