India’s Minister of Communication and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad has in a written reply to Lok Sabha said that several Indian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are finding it difficult to block websites that contain sensitive content. He claimed that ISPs have difficulties in blocking access to sites that use “https” and secure protocols. An Indian court had recently asked Indian ISP’s to block access to over 200 websites following a complaint.
Tribune Digital Ventures, the recently created technology arm of the media company Tribune, has acquired Indian electronic program guide provider What’s On for $27 million to help it expand in developing markets like India and the Middle East. The acquisition will also help Tribune bring more data about foreign programming to its existing markets. India is the third-largest market for cable services behind the U.S. and China, and it’s growing fast. LINK
French ride sharing startup BlaBlaCar which raised $100M investment recently plans to enter India, founder Nicolas Brusson told NYT recently. Having tried out BlaBlaCar in France with a friend, I believe it works great for a country where towns / cities are within 4-5hrs of distance. In India, where major cities are more than 12 hrs away, I’m not too sure how successful it will be. Link
According to some documents released by a Danish publication, India is among the 33 countries who are part of Rampart-A, the global mass surveillance program. There is reason to believe that India and the countries have been providing NSA various kinds of data. Further, it was learnt that the telecom licenses issued by DoT contains a requirement to make provision for legal interception of communication across formats (voice, video, data…). Seven intelligence agencies have access to it, but with warrants. LINK
Obi Mobiles, a company birthed by former Apple CEO John Sculley’s company – Inflexionpoint, aims to achieve some big targets through smartphone sale in India in financial year 2015. Obi Mobiles aims to earn about Rs 1,000 crores from Indian market by selling 1.6 million to 1.7 million devices. Quite a bold claim throwing company is yet to release a device in India but aims to introduce smartphones in Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 price range. Company also aims to introduce 4G network supporting mid-range smartphones early next year. LINK
YouTube has introduced paid subscription in India. Currently has 26 channels listed. Content partners need to fulfill the following criteria to get an approved paid subscriptions channel:
Apple has launched the iPhone 5C 8GB in India for INR 37,500. Might also offer an inaugural discount of INR 3,000 and throw in a case worth INR 2,300. The pricing isn’t very exciting at the moment as one can buy the iPhone 5C 16GB for Rs 34,400 with a buyback scheme worth Rs 7,500. The official price of the iPhone 5C 16GB is Rs 41,900. Link
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Flipkart now stocks Sony PlayStation 4 for INR 39,990. PS4 was launched in Dec 13 & was made available in Jan. Sony has sold 7M consoles by April. Microsoft is scheduled to launch the Xbox One in India in September. Link
Finally it has happened – Indiaplaza.com appears to have gone offline. MediaNama visited its office only to discover that the office had shut down 7 months ago. Link
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Amazon lobbied US government agencies for the second quarter in a row, on issues related to foreign direct investment in India, international data flows and free trade agreements. It spent $830k on lobbying this quarter on issues such as net neutrality, patent laws, taxation, cloud security, online wine sales, big data, unmanned aerial vehicles, mobile payments, and FDI laws in India. So far in India, Amazon remains a marketplace and the only item it sells directly are Kindle e-books readers. Link
WhatsApp claims to cross 500M monthly active users worldwide. India is among the largest market for the mobile messaging app with 48M MAUs, up from 40M MAUs reported in Feb 2014. Although India is not a significant revenue market, because it has chosen not to push subscriptions on Android due to lack of carrier billing. Claims that users are sharing more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos on a daily basis. Link
Apple has increased prices of apps in its App Store in India. Before the price hike, Apple used to charge Rs 55 for every US Dollar but it is now charging Rs 60. Claims it’s being done to account for changes in currency exchange rates. It’s quite weird that it’s being done when the Rupee has come below Rs 60. Link
Techknots 