Google and Facebook play huge important role in every users life. Google started as a search company, but now provides more than 50 services, from e-mail and online document production to mobile phone and tablet apps. Strong financial results from Google reflected the rapid growth in general and in Google’s popularity. Some of this success was due to a shift in publicity spending to the Internet and away from conventional media such as journals, magazines and the television industry. Facebook is the most widely used social media platform in the world, with more than 700 million worldwide users. A small group of individuals were first and foremost associated with the same interests behind the construction of the site. It was not long before the website opened to people all over the country and then around the world, resulting in the expanded user base today.
Google and Facebook has threatened to stop its service in the Australian market if a new law governing its relationship with news publishers go ahead.
Reason why Google and Facebook are deciding to pull out of Australia
Google & Facebook faced a backlash from Australian business community
A new law is being passed down where major tech giants are to pay news that appears in search or shared on their platforms.
The proposed law would require Google and Facebook to have commercial agreements with every news organization or to enter a forced arbitration.
The regional director stated that if this version of the code became law, they would not have any real choice but to end Google Search in Australia. While Facebook sated it would block links to new articles in its popular news feed. Both companies have suggested optional alternatives rather than mandatory codes that the Federal Government has not approved.
The tech giants must have felt strong when they were backed up by the US authorities and called on Australia to cancel the legislation proposed.
But to this Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that they would not respond to threats.
In Australia, both businesses make immense profits, but condemn their limited amount of tax. Facebook Australia reported receiving nearly $674 million in 2019 from Australian advertisers, but paying less than $17 million. Google did well, $4.3 billion in 2019 and less than $100 million is paid.
If the services come to an end could it really affect people?
Experts and industry representor’s suggest that if tech giants would fulfill their threats the millions of consumers would face impact from irritation, to even more inaccurate details and to possible health risks.
Small companies depending on Google ad words promotions to locate people will also become unsure.
In 2018 a writer for wired magazine spent three months just using Bing exclusively and concluded it worked fine almost every time. But when it came to finding specific articles he struggled because the techniques he had learned for search using Google didn’t deliver.
Google also powers services like Gmail, google maps and YouTube among others. It wouldn’t just affect the ability for people to search but also other apps linked to Google as google is seen as an essential to many consumers.
Could this set a global precedent?
Australian Senator Rex Patrick asked Google that it’s going to worldwide and are they going to pull out from every market? But, including Facebook, Google and other impacted companies are headquartered in the United States. And the US government, at least its previous administration, urged Australia not to ‘stretch’ the new rule, warns that it has long lasting negative consequences.
Google has left the country before due to the local laws but in different scenario.
Since a 2010 row on suspected Chinese hacking in which it stopped censored search results for Chinese users, Google has been largely not available in mainland China.
In Europe, a controversial new EU rule on copyright says that search engines and news aggregators should pay news sites for links.
Google and France stuck an agreement
Editors in France agreed with Google this week on how it could work. But only a handful of such agreements with exceptional French newspapers have been signed – making them somewhat different from the much more rigorous Australian ventures.
Google & Facebook were asked to pay more tax by Australian Government
Alternatives of Google
Bing – The default Microsoft Edge search engine is the second biggest after Google, but in spite of being around 11 years old, it only has 3,74 percent of the web traffic in Australia.
DuckDuckGo – This search engine is known to be ‘anti google’ and does not collect personal data and claims to use 400 sources to return search results
Swisscows -Family friendly, 2014 launched search engine that filters pornographic and abusive search outcomes. Also, personal information is not kept
Ecosia – It notes that ‘every search with Ecosia literally removes 1 kg of CO2 from the air.’ Launched in2009, it provides 80 percent of income to NGOs.
Yelp – Australian search engine that deals with local companies including restaurants, doctors, beauty salons and bars
What does Australia want Google and Facebook to pay?
It is undecided just how much money is at stake. The proposed legislation includes consultation and arbitration, leaving the issue unresolved–if Google cannot negotiate with a news agency, a judge would determine what ‘fair’ means. Yet the government has said it needs “fair” fees to news organizations, which in the last 15 years saw a three-quarter decrease in print advertisement revenues. In comparison, digital advertising has increased significantly on major platforms including Google and Facebook.
Conclusion
The media titan Rupert Murdoch, who owns News Corp, was born there. Australia is an involved media industry. His networks, including public broadcasters like ABC News in Australia, will benefit from this new law. After 2014 the budget of ABC has been decreased by hundreds of millions of dollars and reduced programs. Local Newspapers have been hurt in the demise of advertising, there are more than 125 regional news outlets online earlier this year, leading to hundreds of job losses. And local newspapers have also lost coverage.
FAQs
1.What are the issues between Google and Facebook with Australia?
Google will disable its functions if Australia forces its new laws on Google and Facebook which requires them to pay local companies for sharing content.
2.What are the changes in laws did Australia make?
Australia is on its course to strike a deal with Google and Facebook where its required for them to pay local publishers and broadcasters for sharing content.
3.How many Google users does Australia have?
Australia has 83.6% traffic originating from Google. Around 20.23 million users use Google.
The costliest and fastest-growing outcome of cybercrime is the theft of information. Millions of people’s personal and confidential data are stolen and a fast buck is substituted. To deter cybercriminals from building solutions against them, cybercriminals are continually evolving and discovering new ways to exploit online security. But hackers aren’t the product of all data violations. ‘loopholes’ and unprotected servers most frequently provide wrong actors with access without even breaking-in. The pandemic has shaken the nation, leaving private and government entities with trouble conducting their daily operations. With the unforeseen COVID 19 circumstances, corporations and organizations, including layoffs, pay cuts, and more, are among the most affected industries. The pandemic has forced companies and organizations, by using remote operations, digital platforms, etc., to transition their working formats, accelerating adoption of the technology. Sources say that 94% of organizations are currently using a cloud service, and 83% of businesses’ workloads will be in the cloud.
1. Big Basket user data for sale online
On October 2020 around 20 million users account information were leaked
In October 2020 around 20 million users’ account information was leaked. According to the Atlanta-based cyber intelligence company Cyble, consumer data from the online grocery platform Big Basket is for sale in the online cybercrime market. With a price tag of 3 million rupees ($40,000), part of a database containing personal details of nearly 20 million users was available, Cyble said on November 7. The data included names, email IDs, hashes for passwords, PINs, mobile numbers, addresses, birth dates, locations, and IP addresses. Cyble said it discovered the data on October 30 and disclosed the apparent violation to Big Basket on November 1 after comparing it with the details of Big Basket users to confirm it.
2. Twitter Breach
130 Twitter accounts were targeted due to the twitter breach
The attack on July 15, 2020, targeted a small number of employees through a phone spear-phishing attack. This attack relied on a significant and concerted attempt to mislead certain employees and exploit human vulnerabilities to gain access to their internal systems. Via a phone spear-phishing attack, the famous microblogging site came under cyberattack in July this year. 130 Twitter accounts were targeted, eventually Tweeting from45, accessing DM inbox 36, and downloading Twitter Data from 7. To access the internal systems and obtain knowledge about the processes, the attackers used special employee passwords. This information then allowed them to target additional staff who had access to the support resources for the Twitter account.
3.Whatsapp Breach
The new policy effectively takes away the discretion that users
The new policy effectively takes away the discretion that users had until now not to share their information with other apps owned by Facebook and third parties. While the revised privacy policy of Facebook-owned WhatsApp has stoked fears about privacy and data sharing with other apps, what is missing in the midst of the clamour is this: if India had a data protection law in place, WhatsApp would not have been able to go forward with this update in the first place. In reality, for two years now, India’s data protection law has been languishing.
4. Zoom Credential-Based Breach
More than 500,000 Zoom accounts were hacked in April
More than 500,000 Zoom accounts were hacked in April and then sold for either free or less than a penny each on the dark web and hacker forums. The compromised credentials are gathered through password stuffing attacks, according to reports, where threat actors attempt to login to Zoom using accounts leaked from older data breaches. The efficient logins are then collected into lists that are marketed to other hackers.
5. Unacademy Data Breach
Over 20 million user accounts were exposed and sold to the Dark Web
Unacademy, one of the prominent online educational platforms based in Bengaluru, suffered a data breach in January this year. Over 20 million user accounts, including usernames, SHA-256 hashed passwords, date entered, last login date, email addresses, first and last names, and whether the account is active, a staff member, or a superuser, were exposed to the breach and sold on the Dark Web. The big data breach was revealed by the US-based cybersecurity company Cyble, according to reports. There are also several accounts using corporate emails in the exposed database, including those of Wipro, Infosys, Cognizant, Google, and Facebook.
6. Tetrad Data Breach
Market research company Tetrad experienced a data breach on February 3 that included data from Tetrad customers, and it differs by the form of business and their data collection methods. The data included a spreadsheet detailing over 4,000 current and expected locations related to IBM Tririga deployments, according to reports. Other critical data, such as the sum of 130 million rows of data on US households, were compromised in addition to the data collected by retail companies.
7. Sina Weibo Data Breach
In March, the Chinese Weibo social network suffered a major breach of data containing 538 million Weibo users’ information. Personal details, such as real names, site usernames, gender, location, phone numbers, among others, were included in the data. The hacker was selling the Weibo data for just ¥1,799($250), according to reports.
8. Easyjet Data Breach
EasyJet also reported that 2,208 traveler’s credit card details were revealed
The British low-cost airline group EasyJet experienced a large-scale data breach on May 19 this year, compromising data from nine million customers. The data included email addresses, travel information, and, in certain cases, payment card information, according to reports. EasyJet also reported that 2,208 travelers’ credit card details were revealed.
9.MGM Grand Data Breach
MGM announced a data breach in February for about 10.6 million customers who stayed at MGM resorts. The data, which included personal information ranging from home addresses and contact details to driver’s licenses and passport numbers, appeared online.
10. Marriott Data Breach
In January this year, Marriott International faced a major data infringement. In January this year, Marriott International faced a major data infringement. Contact details such as name, mailing address, email address, and phone number were included in the information, as well as loyalty account information, and additional personal details such as business, gender, and birthday, day and month, relationships and affiliations, and so on.
11. Nintendo Data Breach
300,000 Nintendo Network ID accounts were compromised
Nintendo, the Japanese video gaming giant, reported in April this year that by using unauthorized logins, 300,000 Nintendo Network ID accounts were compromised. The additional Nintendo Network ID (NNID) accounts that were compromised had their passwords reset, according to reports and the related users were directly contacted.
Conclusion
While our hope is eternal, with the rise in data insecurity, from exposed databases to phishing attempts, from malware to data leaks from third parties, the odds do not look good. In the first quarter of2020, an increase of 273 percent over the previous year was reported. Data breaches aren’t going anywhere and we’re here to keep you up-to-date on the worst data breaches of the year putting you at risk of identity theft.
The Delhi High court has granted interim relief in the form of an injunction to WhiteHat Jr founder Karan Bajaj in a defamation case involving his vocal critic Pradeep Poonia.
Karan Bajaj, founder of Byju’s owned coding platform WhiteHat Jr had filed a defamation case against Pradeep Poonia, an engineer who has publicly criticized the startup for the controversial marketing tactics, the quality of the courses on the platform, and aggressive takedowns of such feedback.
According to reports, the court order will restrain Poonia, a software engineer, from accessing the company’s curriculum and internal communication channels. The court order remains valid until the next hearing which is scheduled to be held on January 6, 2021. Poonia will also be restrained from telecasting or transmitting information from company sources in public.
WhiteHat Jr Logo
The court further restrained Poonia from commenting on the quality of the personnel who teach coding to school students through WhiteHat Jr– the educational technology startup-platform and to take down a few tweets that had referred to the startup as a “pyramid scheme”.
During the hearing, Poonia said that he had not downloaded any curriculum from Whitehat Jr or hacked into its system.
Poonia had been accused of infringing trademarks and copyright of properties owned by WhiteHat Jr Karan Bajaj, defaming and spreading misleading information about the startup and its founder, and accessing the company’s private communications app.
Meanwhile, WhiteHat Jr has filed another defamation lawsuit against another critic, angel investor Aniruddha Malpani, seeking damages worth $1.9 million.
The education startup has been making headlines after few critics from within the organisation claimed that the company was peddling baseless claims regarding children, after learning to code, earned more than 20 crores, and were part of TEDx talks.
Last month, advertising regulatory body ASCI had asked WhiteHat Jr to withdraw five of its ads which claimed that knowledge of coding enabled children as young as six and seven to develop apps that will have investors lining up.
Critics of WhiteHat Jr platform, like Poonia and Malpani, have said that such campaigns are made to sell tall dreams to parents and that they eventually affect the mental health and psychology of children.
It is to be noted that in August, ed-tech leader Byju’s had acquired WhiteHat Jr for a whopping $300 million all-cash deal.
A city that never sleeps experienced a widespread power outage. While the whole city was experiencing an outage brands didn’t miss out to capture this moment marketing opportunity. Many of the digital marketing teams had their content marketing teams out to communicate in their own flavor.
Twitter and Instagram continues to gain moments during these times. Many people took to twitter to use humor to deal with the situation. Some of the brands found this opportunity as an excellent marketing strategy and handled the situation with a bit of humor.
Netflix is a player which has always been taking advantage of moment marketing. The OTT platform has been regularly using Twitter as a medium for reaching out to its audiences. In the most recent instance, the OTT platform tweeted about the power outage in Mumbai.
Moment marketing uses offline experience, particularly in TV shows and sporting events, to drive or trigger online interaction. It is also seen as the next big thing in the content marketing strategy.
Interestingly, if we analyze this space, Amul, a dairy brand, has always been the leader when it comes to ‘moment marketing’. The Amul girl has always been topical and spoken to the country on various political and non-political developments in real time. Till date, Amul Girl amuses the Indian audiences with its phenomenal one liners nearly every day.
The digital payments company Paytm has launched a mini app store in order to support Indian app developers and entrepreneurs. It has now become a direct competitor to the Google play store and its dominance in the market. Paytm has come up with Mini app store, following the temporary ban it faced from Google Play store on 18thSeptember for violating the developer guidelines on real money gaming.
Phonepe which is Paytm rival, had launched its own in app platform in June 2018, which was later rebranded as PhonePe Switch in October 2019. Instead of giving local apps and developers, Paytm is hosting links to Progressive Web Pages (PWAs) which are light apps that can run within a web browser without requiring any installation.
Mini apps are custom-built mobile websites that offer users an app-like experience without having to download them, thereby helping users save their data and memory. The mini app store only has a few apps listed, but’s plans to list out 300 services in the coming days. According to Paytm’s press release, the mini app store has been designed to help small developers and businesses in India to set up low cost and easy to build apps using HTML and Javascript.
More than 300 apps, including Decathlon, Ola, Rapido, Netmeds, 1MG, Domino’s Pizza, Fresh Menu, NoBroker have joined the Paytm app store. The startup founders such as Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Razorpay’s Harshil Mathur, along with 50 other founders discussed on the possibility of building an Indian app store to challenge Google.
The various apps that are included into the mini app store
Paytm said that the Mini app store has been in its beta testing phase with select users in the country for some time and has seen over 12 Million visits in the month of September. It also has apps like AQI monitor, EMI calculator, Mojo Pizza, Horoscope, Speedtest and Unit converter. While more apps are expected to join soon.
The companies move indicates a fallout from google as it is mandatory for the developers listed on its Play Store to use its billing service. Google charges a 30% commission on any transaction made for a digital product or service through its in app billing system. Paytm aims to help developers in reaching out their products to the masses.
These apps open within a window inside the Paytm app itself and the listing will also be free. It will also provide developers with free payment avenues including Paytm Wallet, Paytm Payments Bank and UPI. However it should be noted that a 2% extra charge is levied for payments that use credit cards. Paytm is also providing the developers with a dashboard for analytics, payment collection and various marketing tools to better engage with users.
Accessibility to Mini App store
To access the Mini App Store, open your Paytm app. On the home page, click on Show More > Mini App Store from the pop-up menu. The portal allows direct access to users to explore, use, and make payments through the apps, without any additional downloads or installs.
Indian App makers want an alternatives to Google Play
When Google had recently accounted that it would enforce its 30% fee for apps, the Indian app developers and entrepreneurs to demand for a national app store alternatives to google play. Google play store then pushed back the 30% commission in India until March 31, 2022. The tech giant says that the delay has been so the Indian developers have enough time to implement the UPI for subscription option that will be made available on Google play.
When asked about the issue Vishwas Patel, The Chairman of Payments Council of India and a member of IAMAI said that, “Just because Google owns the gate and the gateway to the digital ecosystem of this country they should not act arbitrarily and enforce their rules and regulation that are contrary to our country laws”.
Paytm Takes On Google, Launches Mini Android App Store In India To Support Local Developershttps://t.co/nIEGyqyEIn
Google stand in courts is that is does not need RBI authorization as it is not a payment system operator but now it is mandatory that Indian apps use only Google proprietary billing and payments systems. “Google should not exercise its dominant position rather allow a level playing field for everyone” he added.
The Indian developers plan to lobby the government and come up with an alternative to Google. The business channel ET now also reported that the government is planning to ramp up its Mobile Seva app store, which has mostly catered to MSMEs, to act as an alternative to Google and Apple platform. On twitter, Razorpay founder Harshil Mathur added that, India needs a local app store long-term, as it will otherwise eat up most businesses and asked if anyone trying to build one.
On 29thSeptember google said that, “Play distributed apps must use Google Play billing and as the method of payment if they require or accept payment for access to features or services, including any app functionality, digital content or goods. This applies only to apps and has been purportedly done to prevent revenue leakages to Google Play from January 2021.”
The government is reportedly planning to make the Mobile Seva app store mandatory on all smartphones. Paytm recently listed on the store, which mostly has Government apps. In the absence of any legal means, the government will have its work cut out for making a viable alternative to Google and Apple, experts said.
India came another step closer to Atmanirbhar Bharat from a technological aspect as it plans a new alternative to reduce the dependency of consumers on the global tech giants. These have progressively undergone analysis for alleged unjust practices and focusing the cornering piece of the overall industry. The Play Store Alternative in India is soon to make a change in the global market.
As per recent news, Google said that while stages are permitted to utilize their own installment frameworks through the websites, or through different stores, they have to pay a 30% charge in case they decide to utilize Google Play. A few organizers and engineers named the choice unjustifiable, saying that it can hurt the market places in India.
The Start-up Founders Came Forward
Start-up founders came forward
Vijay Shekhar Sharma from Paytm, Deep Karla from MakeMyTrip, executives from PolicyBazaar, RazorPay and Sharechat are in the list of 150 entrepreneurs and start-up founders joining hands to initiate this new idea of Play Store alternative in India.
In a meeting that was held on Tuesday, the team came up with new approaches to set up a large-scale platform that will profoundly host local apps and break the duopoly market that is being played by both Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store, as recorded by a source from Economic Times. The developing records of founders expressed their grievances about Google’s “monopolistic” market in India home to one of the globally set up ecosystems, and discussed that whatever they have asserted was the unjustifiable and conflicting authorization of Play Store’s rules in the nation.
Their exertion comes days after a little gathering of firms which included Epic Games, Spotify, Basecamp, Match Group and ProtonMail shaped their own alliance to compel Apple and Google to make changes to their commercial center principles.
Their exertion comes days after a little gathering of firms including Epic Games, Spotify, Basecamp, Match Group, ProtonMail shaped their own alliance to compel Apple and Google to make changes to their commercial center principles.
Apps Violating Google Guideline
Violation of guidelines
This conflict started with Paytm being removed for a few hours from the Google Play Store. On this event, Google claimed that Paytm was accused of not following a few rules and regulations on its fantasy gaming promotions. Google had once already claimed that offering cash-back and vouchers alone does not violate any terms and conditions by Google.
It additionally let out a notice in its explanation that further violations will make for stricter activities. On the contrary, Vijay Shekhar Sharma has also complained that the problem lies in India’s app ecosystem. He has also added “In case that we accept this nation can assemble digital business; we should realize that it is at another person’s hand to lend a favor for the business and not this present nation’s standards and guidelines.”
Even the food apps like Zomato and Swiggy also got wrongly positioned by Google and got notified for their offer and cashback offered due to the IPL for promotional aspects of in-app games. Zomato has, however, assured that they are going to rearrange themselves according to the guidelines set up by Google and this time they are also planning to replace their latest strategy with strategy with a more exciting program within this week.
The entertainment apps too were not spared from Google’s eye. Several other firms including Hotstar have also been the victim of the guideline violation of Google Play Store.
Alternative App
Play Store alternative in India
Google says it will permit the developers to sell their services through other application stores, or websites, the businesses don’t consider this to be a viable alternative. Naidu proposed that unless the government and administration decide to interfere, there might be no other solution. According to Prasanto K. Roy, tech policy analyst, the administration’s Mobile Seva App store has over a thousand applications and 85 million downloads, yet it is uncertain among Indian clients.
Then again, having India’s own app store may not be an answer in any case. Many are giving it an eye as a kind of stop-gap. Roy also claimed that substitute app stores like Amazon App Store and Samsung’s Galaxy Store will essentially not have a similar grip as Google Play. He said it’s not simply their smaller numbers that will shield them from substituting the local stores, clients are additionally determined towards Google Play by their habit.
Google To Join With Jio
Google joining hands with Jio
Mukesh Ambani, the richest man of Asia, who runs oil-to-retails giant Reliance Industries and introduced the technology-oriented Jio Platforms has pulled in over $20 billion in speculation from Google, Facebook, and 11 other prominent investors this year.
Google has claimed that in the month of July, it will be joining hands with Jio Platforms on low-cost Android cell phones. Jio Platforms is intending to dispatch almost around 200 million cell phones in the following three years. Bloomberg previously detailed about Jio Platform’s cell phone creation plans.
Growth in the usage of Play store
A portion of the participating individuals is likewise cheerful that the administration, which has asked the residents in India to become independent to restore the declining economy, would support their development.
PUBG Corporation said in a statement on Tuesday that Tencent Games in India will no longer be authorized to publish the mobile version of its PUBG franchise. The South Korean gaming company said it will take on all publishing responsibilities itself within the country, where PUBG was the biggest grossing mobile game last month. India is PUBG Mobile’s largest market, accounting for nearly $34 billion of its value in two days.
The Indian government earlier this week had banned PUBG Mobile and 117 other Chinese apps including Apus Launcher Pro, AppLock, WeChat Work, Baidu among others. Soon after the ban was announced, PUBG was removed from Google Play Store and Apple App Store. However, it has not been blocked by the Internet service providers yet which means that the users who already have the app installed can still use.
In a statement, the company said, “PUBG Corporation has made the decision to no longer authorize the PUBG MOBILE franchise to Tencent Games in India. Moving forward, PUBG Corporation will take on all publishing responsibilities within the country. As the company explores ways to provide its own PUBG experience for India in the near future, it is committed to doing so by sustaining a localized and healthy gameplay environment for its fan.”
Why was PUBG banned in India?
PUBG Corporation is a South Korean Company and not a Chinese company. However, the mobile version of the PUBG game was developed by Tencent Games, which is a Chinese company. This was the reason why only the PUBG Mobile was banned and not the PC or console version of the app.
The government on 2nd September banned 118 applications- a majority of being Chinese, including popular ones such as PUBG, WeChat Work, CamCard, Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade and Alipay; stating that these were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, security of State and public order.” This is in addition to banned Chinese 59 apps including TikTok, Shareit, club Factory, Shein in June to ensure safe cyberspace in the country. These banned chinese apps had over billions of potential Indian users and these apps were successful in luring the users to download them in large numbers.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), said it was invoking its power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009, and in view of the emergent nature of threats has decided to block 118 mobile apps; engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.
PUBG has a massive fan base in India with every other teen that has it installed in his/her device. The recent ban came as a shock to everyone but PUBG Corporation has seen an overwhelming amount of support for the game from the country’s player base. It looks like PUBG is analyzing every move to make its comeback in India, As India is its largest market with more than 175 million downloads. PUBG is exploring ways to provide its own experience for India soon.
Vodafone idea merger has rebranded and has revealed its new integrated brand identity – Vi. The new branding has been updated on the website and app, and will make its way to all products including SIM cards, bills, billboards, and more. The telecom companies merged on 31 August 2018 and was renamed as Vodafone Idea Limited. The company said it will continue to invest in 4G wireless technology, which now reaches more than 1 billion people in India
The move comes days after the Supreme Court’s verdict on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues case and Vodafone Idea declared its intention to raise fresh capital of up to Rs 25,000 crore to pay off the hefty dues owed to the government. It plans to raise up to Rs 15,000 crore through debentures and an equal amount by issuing shares and warrants.
Ravinder Takkar, MD and CEO at Vodafone Idea Limited, said,
“Vodafone Idea came together as a merged entity two years ago. We have since then focuses on integrating two large networks, our people, and processes. And today I am delighted to present Vi, an brand that will bring important meaning to lives of our customers. Indians are optimistic and want to get ahead in life. They would love a credible partner to help them on this journey. Vi’s positioning is built around this promise and will focus on meeting the customer needs to help them thrive.”
Vodafone Idea, once the largest telecom operator in the country with over 400 million subscribers, has lost more than 100 million subscribers to new comer Jio in recent years. Vodafone Idea lost 4.7 million customers in May alone, while market leader Reliance Jio added 3.7 million. The Indian unit of Vodafone had a gross debt of 1.19 trillion Indian rupees as of June end. Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel had lost around 47 lakh wireless subscribers each in May 2020, according to the Telecom Authority of India data released in August.
Vodafone-Idea Merger new logo VI
Brand name Changes in the past
Voda-India’s Previous Brand Names
Max Touch
Orange
Hutch
Vodafone
Idea’s Previous Brand Names
Birla AT&T
Birla Tata and AT&T
Idea Cellular
Vodafone idea share price
Shares of the telecom company rose by over 4 per cent after the rebranding plan was made public.
Vodafone-idea are preparing themselves for telecom battle. Vodafone Idea’s AGR dues are pegged at Rs 50,399 crore, of which it has paid Rs 7,854 crore. Its dues are of a combination of two telecoms which are much higher than Bharti’s. The Telecom company is also planning to Increase tariffs which willhelp them to improve its average revenue per user, which is presently at Rs 114.
The government on 2nd September banned 118 applications- a majority of being Chinese, including popular ones such as PUBG, WeChat Work, CamCard, Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade and Alipay; stating that these were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, security of State and public order.” This is in addition to banned Chinese 59 apps including TikTok, Shareit, club Factory, Shein in June to ensure safe cyberspace in the country. These banned chinese apps had over billions of potential Indian users and these apps were successful in luring the users to download them in large numbers.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), said it was invoking its power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009, and in view of the emergent nature of threats has decided to block 118 mobile apps; engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.
It’s such a sheer loss to our country’s dignity and economy that all the while we are bragging and outraging against any service provided to us by China , we never lose to stay in their top 3 users.
The list of banned apps in India includes apps like PUBG, Baidu, AppLock, TikTok, ShareIt, WeChat, UC Browser and so on. A recent study reveals that India has been the world’s fastest-growing app-market over the past few years. Reports suggest that Chinese apps are ruling the Indian app market as users have downloaded them in significant numbers. However, Indian intelligence agencies asked government to block 118 mobile applications as being a threat to national security. India’s security agencies raised concerns that apps in the list of banned Chinese apps are safe.
Chinese apps banned in India released officially by Government on 29 June
As tensions at India and china border has to lead to another list of banned Chinese apps. India’s ministry of information and technology has issued 118 Chinese mobile apps to banned from the Indian market.
PUBG Banned In India
List Of Chinese Apps That Got Banned On 2nd September 2020
| 118 Chinese Apps That Got Banned on 2 September 2020 |
|— |— |— |—
| 1. Apus Launcher Pro-Theme, Live, Wallpapers, Smart |
|2. Apus Launcher-Theme, Call show, Wallpaper, Hide Apps |
|3. Apus Security-Antivirus, Phone Security, Cleaner |
|4. Apus Turbo Cleaner 2020-Junk Cleaner, Anti-virus|
|5. Apus Flashlights-Free & Bright|
|6. Cut Cut- Cut Out & Photo Background Editor|
|7. Baidu|
|8. Baidu Express Edition|
|9. FaceU- Inspire Your Beauty|
|10. ShareSave by Xiomi: Latest Gadgets, Amazing deals|
|11. Camcard- Business Card Reader|
|12. Camcard For SalesForce|
|13. Camcard Business|
|14. CamOCR|
|15. InNote|
|16. VooV Meeting- Tencent Video Conferencing|
|17. Super Clean- Master Of Cleaner, Phone Booster|
|18. WeChat Reading|
|19. Government WeChat|
|20. Small Q Brush|
|21. Tencent Weiyun|
|22. Pitu|
|23. WeChat Work|
|24. Cyber Hunter|
|25. Cyber Hunter Lite|
|26. Knives Out-No rules, Just Fight|
|27. Super Mecha Champions|
|28. LifeAfter|
|29. Dawn Of Isles|
|30. Ludo World-Ludo Superstar|
|31. Chess Rush|
|32. PUBG Mobile Nordic Map:Livik|
|33. PUBG Mobile Lite|
|34. Rise Of Kingdoms:Lost Crusade|
|35. Art Of Conquest: Dark Horizon|
|36. Dank Tanks|
|37. Warpath|
|38. Game Of Sultans|
|39. Gallery Vault: Hide Picture And Videos|
|40. Smart AppLock|
|41. Message Lock(SMS Lock)|
|42. Hide App-Hide Application Icon|
|43. AppLock|
|44. AppLock Lite|
|45. Dual Space- Multiple Accounts & App Cloner|
|46. ZAKZAK Pro- Live Chat & Video Chat Online|
|47. ZAKZAK LIVE: Live Chat & Video Chat|
|48. Music-Mp3 Player|
|49. Music Player- Audio Player & 10 Bands Equilizer|
|50. HD Camera Selfie Beauty Camera|
|51. Cleaner- Phone Booster|
|52. Web Browser & Fast Explorer|
|53. Video Player All Format For Android|
|54. Photo Gallery & Album|
|55. Photo Gallery HD & Editor|
|56. Music player- Bass Booster- free Download|
|57. HD Camera- Beauty Cam With Filters & Panorama|
|58.HD Camera Pro & Selfie Camera|
|59. Music Player- MP3 Player & 10 Bands Equilizer|
|60. Gallery HD|
|61. Web Browser- Fast, privacy & Light Web Explorer |
|62. Web Browser- Secure Explorer|
|63. Music Player- Audio Player|
|64. Video Player- All Format HD Video Player|
|65. Lamour Love All Over The World|
|66. Amour- Video Chat & Call All Over The World|
|67. MV Master- Make Your Status Video & Community|
|68. MV Master- Best Video Maker & Photo Video Editor|
|69. APUS Message Center-Intelligent Management|
|70. LivU Meet New People & Video Chat With Strangers|
|71. Carron Friends: Carrom Board & Pool Game|
|72. Ludo All Star- Play Online Ludo Game & Board Games|
|73. Bike Racing: Moto Traffic Rider Bike Racing Games|
|74. Rangers Of Oblivion: Online ACtion MMO RPG Game|
|75. GO SMS PRO- Messanger, Free Themes, Emoji|
|76. Z Camera- Photo Editor, Beauty Selfie, Collage|
|77. U-Dictionary: OXford Dictionary Freee Now Translate|
|78. Ulike- Define Your Selfie In Trendy Style|
|79. Tantan-Date For Real|
|80. MICO Chat: New Friends Banaen Aur Live Chat Karen|
|81. Kitty Live- Live Streaming & Video Live Chat|
|82. Malay Social Dating App to Date & Meet Singles|
|83. AliPay|
|84. AliPayHK|
|85. Mobile Taobao|
|86. Youku|
|87. Road Of Kings-Endless Glory|
|88. Sina News|
|89. Netease News|
|90. Penguin FM|
|91. Murderous Pursuits|
|92. Tencent Watchlist Tencent technology|
|93. Learn Chinese AI-Super Chinese|
|94. HUYA LIVE- Game Live Stream|
|95. Little Q Album|
|96. Fighting Landlors- Free and Happy Fighting Landlords|
|97. Hi Meitu|
|98. Mobile Legends: Pockets|
|99. VPN for TikTok|
|100. VPN For TikTok|
|101. penguin E-Sports Live Assistant|
|102. Buy cars- Offer Everything You Need, Special Offers And Low prices|
|103. iPick|
|104. Beauty Camera Plus- sweet Camera & Face Selfie|
|105. Parallel Space Lite- Dual App|
|106. Chief Almighty: First Thunder BC|
|107. MARVEL Super War NetEase Games|
|108. AFK Arena|
|109. Creative Destruction NetEase Games|
|110. Crusaders Of Light NetEase Games|
|111. Mafia City Yotta Games|
|112. Onmyojio NetEase Games|
|113. RideOut Heroes NetEase Games|
|114. Yimeng Jianghu-chu Liuxiang has been fully updated|
|115. Legend: Rising Empire NetEase Games|
|116. Arena Of Valor:5v5 Arena Games|
|117. Soul Hunnters|
|118. Rules Of Survival|
Chinese Apps banned in India
Most Popular Chinese Apps among the Top 100 in India
Social content platforms: Helo and SHARE it
Entertainment and short video apps: TikTok, LIKE, and Kwai
Web browser apps: UCBrowser and UCBrowserMini
Video and live streaming apps: LiveMe, Bigo Live, and VigoVideo
Utility applications: BeautyPlus, Xender and Cam Scanner
Gaming apps and software: PUBG, Clash of Kings, Mobile Legends
E-commerce applications: ClubFactory, Shein, and Romwe
Wednesday’s announcements comes amid renewed tensions between India and China owing to the stand-off on the disputed boundary in Ladakh that has beeen on since May 2020. In a statement, the government said this move would safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and Internet usera and teh decision was a targeted move to ensure safety, security and sovereignty of Indian Cyberspace.
By this, it’s crystal clear that China’s sole motive is to raise Beijing’s profile as a leading power of humanitarian assistance throughout the globe. China’s bilionaire diplomacy aims to achieve three immediate objectives:
shift the focus away from talking about the origin of corona virus in Wuhan
establish makeover
expanding their market in every possible way
become the biggest economy all over the world.
Chinese Banned Apps
For India, the pandemic presents an opportunity to demonstrate its willingness and capacity to shoulder more responsibility. It’s been a backlash that China is being criticised for their cheap winning tricks to conquer the world. It should be known that political impact of corona virus pandemic is yet to crystallize.
Since , the COVID-19 has been a great leveller across the world and we know that it’s effects stand to be devastating. Both countries , India and China , have sent their troops towards LAC (Line of Actual Control). The aggression seems to rise in it’s various form.
The Ministry said it had received many complaints about the misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers that have locations outside India. “The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of our country, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures,” it stated.
Additionally, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs, has sent an exhaustive recommendation for blocking these “malicious apps” and similar bipartisan concerns have been flagged by various public representatives, both outside and inside Indian Parliament.
Sonam Wangchuk Went #BOYCOTT-ing!
Sonam Wangchuk, whose works inspired “3 Idiots” , posted a video on You tube. It said that Indians should boycott everything which is from China to avenge the tensions between the two biggest economies.
Wangchuk believes that the only way to defeat China is by using “wallet power”. We all know that the Chinese products and goods that we buy have been funding their army since a very long time ago.It’s high time and we should boycott them and stop them there itself.
India Banned 118 Chinese Apps
Soon after Wangchuk’s video went viral, #BoycottChina, #BoycottMadeinChina, #BoycottChineseApps and #BoycottTiktok began trending on social media. Bollywood actor MilindSoman also joined the bandwagon and decided to uninstall Chinese app Tiktok from his phone.
Not just celebrities, but many Indians have taken the hatred all over the internet since the beginning of the pandemic. Several even wanted to take revenge against China for the same. In fact, many Indians have been searching on Google– “how to delete or remove Chinese apps” from their phones.
It’s funny how every hatred towards anyone is actually thrown away very casually by using a simple terminology boycott.We are left with only one solution. To boycott it. Boycott movies. Boycott apps. Why, even boycott human beings!
Every time, when something against national interest happens, we witness such outrages against some app and services.
The only reasons of bans and protests are:
origin
privacy concerns
Since 2018, TikTok happens to be one of the most popular apps in India even today, even after countless calls for bans. As a matter of fact, TikTok is a legit source of income for several Indians. I don’t know how embarrassing it is, but the employment sector of India is made fun of because so called ‘Youth of India‘ is busy making TikTok. We have taken a mere fight all over the internet which was TikTok vs. YouTube. Can anyone believe this !
If you were to scour through and delete all Chinese apps, your phone (assuming it isn’t made in China) would probably be left with only a handful of apps. but that’s how we can work more, and this can also genrate a source of income for youngsters who hav keen interest in this field. PM Modi asked out all the youngsters to create gaming applications in his recent ‘Mann Ki Baat’. Who would know that this was for banning majority of gaming Applications in the country.
Based on information collected by Indian intelligence agencies, the Indian government fears Following security risks and cyber espionage attempts. Chinese spies could collect critical information through malware and spyware in Android and iOS apps. The information is then sent to servers in China and could be used to get details on army location. Army troops, especially, border troops from the Indian Armed Force and Central Armed Police Personnel (CAPF) are asked to urgently uninstall them from their smart phones.
Also, devices made in China, such as Huawei and ZTE have already been banned from use by international border troops in the LAC region (Line of Actual Control). Its been noted that the ban does not apply in whole country due to obvious reasons.
Many Indian developers have been working to compete with the Chinese market of apps. App developers One Touch AppLabs launched an application – ‘Remove China Apps’ on May 17. As the name suggests, it’s work is same. When you download the app, you can run a scan through your phone. It will detect the Chinese apps on your phone and give you an option to delete them. If you click on the red bin icon next to the concerned app, it will uninstall the app from your phone. Several people have also shared screenshots on social media to show that they’ve used the app.
The app was at the top spot of Google Play’s top free apps list and it has been downloaded by over 5 million Indian users since its launch. This development came at a time when anti-China sentiment is high in the country, sparked by the novel corona virus pandemic, India-China border dispute, and more. But later the app was taken down from Google Play store a few weeks ago.
Another app playing on similar sentiments – Mitron – has also gained traction over the last several days and is being touted as an alternate to TikTok.
Since there is no immediate replacement of certain Chinese apps, one of the top leading industries of India, JIO has offered a wide range of apps too. Even if there are many alternatives , then also we are left with the only one to reply such aggression in a polite way.
Entrepreneurship is growing at a very rapid pace in India and to boost entrepreneurship, the Government has created an entire ministry dedicated to helping new businesses. The government has also taken initiatives by introducing many schemes to promote entrepreneurship. To provide financial assistance to entrepreneurs the Indian government has set up several different startup schemes to help boost the startup mission in India.
Govt has Launched ‘CHUNAUTI'(Challenge Hunt Under NGIS for Advanced Uninhibited Technology Intervention) to invite Startups to develop solutions for problems amid pandemic.
Who can Apply:
The challenge invites the proposals/applications from Indian Start-ups who are working in domain related to software product development.
Start-ups registered with DPIIT under start-up India programme are encouraged to participate in this programme.
Individual Academicians, Researchers, Educators, Entrepreneurs, partnership firms, LLPsmay also participate, however, if they are selected then they will have to register as a private limited company in stipulated time (preferably within 3 months).
Startup Ecosystem facilitated through various government departments & programs
4100+ Startups have benefited in the last year through various programs of the Central Govt.
960 crore of funding has been enabled to Startups through various schemes
828 Cr sanctioned funds for infrastructure
Launching the competition, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said,
“I urge the young, talented innovators of India to come forward and avail benefits of ‘Chunauti’ challenge of government and create new software products and app. This launch is a bold initiative under the clarion call for Aatmanirbhar Bharat given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
Key Domains:
Participants in the challenge will be encouraged to develop products and technologies in five key domains
Edu-Tech, Agri-Tech & Fin-Tech Solutions for masses
The government has chosen a budget of over 95 crores over a period of 3 years for this program. This programme aims to identify around 300 startups working in identified areas.
Financial Incentives/Funding Support:
The startups selected through the challenge would be provided incubation support, mentorship, all relevant facilities, as well as funding support such as cloud credits from leading third-party service providers, seed funding of up to INR 25 lakhs, as well as INR 10,000 in monthly monetary support to each intern (startup in pre-incubation) for a period of six months to help them evolve their business plan and solution around the proposed idea.
Timelines & Duration:
Application submission– Start Date- 10th August 2020
Application submission– End Date- 07th September 2020
Evaluation of Application- 21st September 2020
Announcement of the result- 28th September 2020
With the objective to build a strong Eco-system for nurturing innovation and Startups in the country, these initiatives are introduced. The government is also taking steps to reduce the hurdles in the path of the startups. India seems to be going towards the era of entrepreneurship, as India ranks 63 in ease of doing business around the world.
Parnas Ghosh
