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Education Industry needs Drastic Internal Changes before going Outbound!
2010-04-12 12:13:00
In a yet another instance of goof-up of setting question papers, the order of subjects on the question paper, and the sequence of the answer sheet, did not match creating loads of confusions in the mind of the students appearing for the exam. The exam papers carried a printing error as the subject-heads for mathematics and physics paper were interchanged.
More About: Education , Industry , Internal

ULIP holders get Sandwiched between SEBI and IRDA war
2010-04-12 05:57:00
On Friday, the SEBI passed a stunning order of banning 14 life insurance companies involved in serving ULIP products, on the ground that they were akin to mutual funds and may need to obtain registration from SEBI to proceed further with it.

Top 10 Popular Posts [Weekly Recap]
2010-04-11 12:17:00
We had slew of posts this week that were quite popular with our readers ? Here is a recap of best of the week.   Americans scientists have developed a new technology ? an electronic film filter called the ClearPlay system ? which can be integrated into the next generation of DVD players, to skip and ...
More About: Popular , Recap , Weekly , Posts

Finally Doordarshan goes for Digitalization !
2010-04-11 11:48:00
Doordarshan is finally entering the digital age – The Cabinet Committee on infrastructure has approved the digitalization program of Rs 1540 crore for Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR) in the Eleventh Plan in order to enable these state-owned broadcasters to compete effectively with dynamic private operators. And there is good reason for this move ...
More About: Finally , Broadcasting

Drastically Improve your site-speed or get your search rankings killed !
2010-04-10 14:50:00
Google is God when it comes to search ? more than 70% of traffic to majority of blogs / sites comes from Google. Most of you know than Google has around 200 parameters on which it ranks a particular webpage. It has now added one more parameter that will determine where your site is placed in ...
More About: Search , Site , Speed , Improve

Indian Logistics Sector Gearing up to higher IT Spending
2010-04-10 13:59:00
Logistics play an important role in any economy and the growth prospects of the sector are closely linked to the economic growth and to some extent even foreign trade of the country. Gradually, small and medium enterprises in the logistical industry are growing in stature. Even PE firms are eyeing stakes in some of the ...
More About: Indian , Spending

Startup Saturday: Experience Vs Risk!
2010-04-10 09:29:00
If you ask any successful person his/her reason for being successful, 99 out of 100 would answer experience as one of the most common reasons. Not many would say that risk taking capability has make them successful, though if asked no one would deny that. But there are some genius or super-lucky people like Mark ...
More About: Experience , Saturday , Risk , Startup

Indians still prefers Orkut over Facebook ? Why O Why ?
2010-04-09 12:46:00
Google?s social networking site Orkut is still popular in India even as Facebook seems to have over-powered it in 8 out of 12 Asia-Pacific countries, according to a recent study by Internet audience measurement firm comScore, Inc. In a report on social networking activity in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding China), about 50.8% of the total online ...
More About: Indians , Twitter

Finance Friday: Despite Global Rebound, Two-third of Shareholders still to
2010-04-09 11:40:00
Isn?t rebound equal to the recovery? Not really! Read on? The rebound in the market valuations in the global markets in 2009 has not turned out to be an all-inclusive recovery around the sphere. Despite impressive gains registered during 2009, the total shareholder returns (TSR) from two-third of the large-cap global companies are still reeling under ...
More About: Finance , Investment , Shareholders , Global , Friday

Low-cost and high Volumes ? Mantra for Rural Mobile Handset Market
2010-04-09 07:28:00
mobile handset makers are leaving no stones unturned to extract maximum product sales. In order to target a wide base of lower to middle class population, the handset manufacturers are rolling out low-cost products to satisfy the basic need of voice calls.
More About: Mobile , Market , Cost , High , Handset

India second to USA in Mobile Internet traffic ? Smartphones usage surge [R
2010-04-08 16:48:00
Admob recently released a report giving details on Mobile Internet Usage across the world. The report points out that over last 6 ? 12 months usage of Smartphones has surged and now accounts for maximum mobile usage compare to Feature phones and Internet enabled Mobile devices. In February 2010, Smartphone?s accounted for 48% of AdMob?s worldwide ...
More About: India , Mobile Internet

Commercial Property Market ? Indian Cities record above 18% Vacancy Rates [
2010-04-08 15:50:00
There are 2 sides to Indian real estate story ? While the residential property market is seeing a surge ( in some cases at record rates), on the other hand, commercial property market (office spaces) are still reeling under pressure. Due to recessionary environment in last 18 ? 24 months, the industry saw a huge shift ...
More About: Commercial , Market , Property , Cities

Land Glider ? Half car, Half Scooter and electrically powered!
2010-04-08 12:24:00
There is good news for those 2-wheeler users who ride with the risk of carrying the whole family which includes a couple and its 1 or 2 small children, on the zooming bike. According to a media report, automobile engineers at car maker Nissan have designed a two-in-one sort of a vehicle, known as Land Glider, ...

Fully Made-in-India GSLV launch ? Another feather in ISRO?s cap!
2010-04-08 06:39:00
Last couple of years have been great for India n Space Research Programme. The role made-in-India Lunar probe vehicle ? Chandrayaan ? played a vital role in the discovery of finding water on Moon. Now, ISRO will be achieving another major milestone ? Launch ing of advanced communications satellite which will put into orbit for the ...
More About: Made in India , Made

Now, you can make a ?Digital will? for your online properties.
2010-04-07 13:01:00
Own a blog? If not, you must definitely be having a basic e-mail id? What about the online banking or credit card account? … Just imagine what happens to the secrecy of log-in and transaction passwords for all these digital assets after you? Yes, you can now make a ?Digital will?, like you may have done ...
More About: Online , Make

Do you want to be a Successful entrepreneur ?
2008-07-18 07:11:00
I just stumbled upon an excellent post by Neil Patel. He is all of 21, but is one of the most successful Internet entrepreneurs I know of. He has written an excellent article called ?10 Reasons You Are Not A Successful Entrepreneur ?. If you are serious about becoming an entrepreneur, this is a must read. All the ten points he has mentioned are extremely important, but the 1st point - You don?t know how to manage money and 2nd point - You don?t have multiple game plans are of paramount importance if you are taking a dive into entrepreneurship !

WiZiQ: Platform to teach and learn live, online | 50 passes worth $50 avail
2008-07-17 06:50:00
E-learning is fast gaining popularity in India . With Internet audience and broadband connections growing in India, e-learning is becoming a viable option to many. Number of Internet startups have come up in recent times to cater to this growth WiZiQ is one such startup that has come up with a free e-learning platform. With WiZiQ, teachers can create their own virtual classroom and impart knowledge to interested students. It could be a private or a public classroom and can be scheduled at a fixed time and date. WiZiQ does not limit itself to be just a e-learning center, it also serves as a collaboration tool where teachers and students can interact at various levels and even conduct tests online.
More About: Live , Online , Worth , Learn

After Passat, its time for Jetta
2008-07-17 02:13:00
Volkswagen, the German car manufacturer yesterday launched its ever popular compact sedan ? JETTA ? in India. The car will come between the range of 13 to 17 lakhs for various petrol and diesel variants. Jetta has been consistently ranked in top 10 best-selling compact sedans worldwide for last few years and there is a reason to it. Like most German cars, Jetta has very good built, strong on safety features and top-of-the-line engines. In US, Jetta?s are popular with select segment of people, especially those who want a solid car that will serve them for very long years. I think they are a perfect fit for tough Indian road conditions.
More About: Volkswagen , Time , Passat

Mergers and Acquisitions fall sharply, but PE activity grows
2008-07-15 07:40:00
2007 will go down in history as the year of Mergers & Acquisitions in India . However, 2008 has not kept pace with the momentum gained last year. This year has not been good for India overall, Stock Market today has come down to nearly 12,500 points - a 15 month low -, investors have lost thousands of crores of rupees, the rupee has lost the fight handsomely against the dollar - last 6 months have seen rupee plummet from high of nearly 38.5 to a low of 42.75 against the dollar, real estate which grew at astonishing pace last year has seen tremendous slowdown. Inflation, which was hovering at less than 4% last year has nearly tripled to 11.5%. The total number of Merger & Acquisition deals too have seen huge negative growth. During the first six months of 2008 total M&A deals stand at 265 with value at $18.54 billion as against 335 deals amounting to $ 43.97 billion in the corresponding period in 2007.
More About: Fall , Mergers and Acquisitions

Guruji spreads its wings with music search
2008-07-15 06:42:00
India had been long missing a good music search engine (aka meta aggregator). I was always surprised that this niche had never been tapped very seriously. However, in a gap of a week, we seem to have 2 very good music search engines serving loads of Hindi songs for Indian Audience. Just couple of days back I wrote about Phulki, and was quite happy with their offering. Close to their heals, guruji, India's first homegrown search engine have launched a Music aggregation site. They too, like Phulki have done a great job of music aggregation. They claim to have aggregated songs and albums starting from 1932 till date.
More About: Search , Spreads , Guruji , Wings

Want to get home early from work? Spend some time on looking good !
2008-07-14 09:40:00
Yeah..that's what has been revealed in a recent Synovate survey on beauty. More than 55% of the people think that well groomed and good looking people can get away with less work at workplace than their peers. Now, I have my doubts if this holds true in India ? you can make your judgements :) I?d be more inclined to say that girls do have advantage of being just that ? girls. They do sometimes get away with lesser work at office, and its not only at workplace ! Think about any situation ? lets say you are in a long queue to get tickets. If a girls approaches you saying she is in hurry, most of the you may allow her to go ahead and feel good about it. But if guy approached you, it very unlikely that you will allow him to get ahead of you. Unfair advantage? you take a call !
More About: Business , Time , Home , Work , Early

Contentsutra parent company ContentNext gets acquired by The Guardian Media
2008-07-11 08:07:00
The parent company of ContentSutra, ContentNext Media , has been acquired by Guardian Media Group for $30 million plus. It was founded by Publisher and Editor Rafat Ali in 2002. ContentNext media has paidcontent.org, MocoNews, , PaidContent UK and ContentSutra under its wings.   Here is what Rafat has to say about it: Almost six years after our company started with paidContent.org, we have been acquired by Guardian News & Media (GNM), the news media division of UK-headquartered Guardian Media Group (GMG). Guardian itself is owned by the Scott Trust. GNM publishes UK national newspapers ? the Guardian and the Observer ? as well as the Guardian.co.uk and Media Guardian. We will be part of Guardian Professional group, which is the B2B media division for GNM, and runs targeted sites such the MediaGuardian, as well as online data businesses and conferences.
More About: Company , The Guardian , Acquisition

Phulki: A neat music search engine
2008-07-11 06:16:00
There are very few startups who stick to the K.I.S.S principal and Phulki is one of those startups that have followed it to the T ! What does Phulki do? Very simply, Phulki is a search engine that allows visitors to search and play any Hindi track or Hindi Album without leaving the website. Go ahead and search for a song by giving parameters like movie name, song, singer, star, year. On search results page just click on the ?add to player? and start enjoying your favorite music.
More About: Music , Search , Search Engine , Engine

inviziads: Monetizing solutions for flash game creators
2008-07-10 09:06:00
Online gaming is big, there is no question about it. Comscore recently reported that almost 1 out of every 2 users on the world wide web plays an online game. Even in India, last couple of years have seen emergence of gaming sites like Zapak , Game s2win, Indiagames and many more. However, one of the main drawback these flash game developers face is that, their games can be easily copied. As soon as a new game appears on one site, you can see them popping on other sites as well. So even if the game becomes popular and is played by hundreds and thousands of users, the developers of game don?t really get much benefit out of it. Inviziads addresses this pain-point of flash game developers very well ! It has launched an ad network network that will help flash game developers to monetize the game if it is being played on a different site other than its origin. Now the game developers will actually want their games to be copied !
More About: Flash , Monetizing , Solutions

Onmobile introduces audio ads on mobile platform: IS it too intrusive?
2008-07-10 02:58:00
Mobile VAS company OnMobile launched an audio advertising platform for mobile operators. Called AdRBT (ad ringback tones), the service will play audio ads to callers when they dial a mobile number. To put it simply, when a caller calls a particular mobile phone, he/she will hear ads while the phone is ringing. In return mobile operator will offer incentives to the mobile user who subscribes to this services. Offcourse, the mobile operator will require a permission from subscriber to activate the service on his or her mobile phone. The ads can be targeted based on the location and VAS usage of the caller. The VAS usage data gives information such as what handset the caller is using, whether he uses the roaming service, how often he travels abroad, the types of ringtones he downloads and the services he uses. OnMobile will also play ads in regional languages. Apart from choosing the profile of the customer, advertisers will also be able to specify the number of times they want t...
More About: Mobile , Audio , Platform , Onmobile , Mobile Platform

Microsoft bullying Yahoo : Ready to talk only with new board
2008-07-08 07:54:00
Did you think Microsoft - Yahoo deal was over? Far from it. It is now looking like a bollywood drama. Microsoft now says that if the current yahoo bosses go away and the new board comes in, it is ready to re-enter the negotiations ! Michael Arrington of Techcrunch has written about it in detail and is not too happy with the way Microsoft is bullying Yahoo ? just because it is now in a position to do that. Yesterday Microsoft released a statement clearly mentioning that it is not interested in talking with the current management and do not trust that they can take this forward.
More About: Board , Bullying , Talk

Indian Internet Audience Growth highest in Asia-Pacific region
2008-07-07 08:21:00
Comscore recently published the growth in Internet audience for Asia Pacific region, with India registering highest growth for the first time. According to the figures, India stands 3rd after China and Japan in the total number of Internet Audience. Internet Audience Growth in the Asia-Pacific Region April 2008 vs. April 2007 Total Asia-Pacific - Age 15+, Home and Work Locations* Source: comScore World Metrix   Total Unique Visitors (000) Apr-07 Apr-08 % Change Asia Pacific 280,418 318,623 14 China 90,274 102,848 14 Japan 53,685 ...
More About: Indian

3g Iphone to cost 16000 to 18000 in India
2008-07-07 08:06:00
The much talked about 3g Iphone is going to cost you between Rs. 16000 to Rs. 18000 as per the report published in Business Standard today. This is probably the first official news for 3g Iphone pricing. I had expected it to be in that range, as neither Vodafone or Airtel could subsidize the cost of the handset as AT&T has done it in US. The US carriers can afford to subsidize the handset cost by tying up users with a 2 year contract costing $50 upwards per month. Here is what BS reports:
More About: India , Cost

7 grand challenges facing IT
2008-07-04 09:13:00
I came across this report by Gartner while writing my previous post. It talks about major challenges faced by IT Industry that have not been resolved as yet. I am reproducing that report here for readers benefit. Here are the seven IT Grand Challenges as identified by Gartner. Never having to manually recharge devices: Today, the ubiquity of portable computing and communications devices powered by battery means that many people would find it highly desirable to either have their batteries charged remotely or their devices powered by a remote source, bypassing the use of batteries altogether.  Despite more than 100 years of research since the invention of the Tesla Coil in the late nineteenth century, the most notable progress to date was achieved by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in July 2007 in their experiment to transfer non-radiative power. By this measure, any commercial application of wireless powering still seems a long way off. Parallel Progra...
More About: Business , Information Technology , Facing

alabot: Enabling human interaction with applications
2008-07-04 04:01:00
Now this is a startup which I think really makes life easier for users. Pune based startup alabot aims to bring the power of natural language processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to our regularly used applications like Instant Messengers and Mobile phones. According to Gartner, there are 7 grand challenges facing the IT Industry for which we need solutions. One of them is Non Tactile, Natural Computing Interface. Here is what Gartner has to say: Non Tactile, Natural Computing Interface: The idea of interacting with computers without any mechanical interface has long been a desirable goal in computing. Some of the many challenges that remain in this area include the ability to detect gestures, developing a gesture dictionary and the need for real-time processing. Another set of challenges relate to natural language processing, which include speech synthesis, speech recognition, natural language understanding, natural language generation, machine translation and transl...
More About: Applications , Human , Interaction