Another day, another government trying to figure out how to censor the internet. This time it’s India, where acting communications minister Kapil Sibal is meeting with officials from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook to pressure them to self-censor user content, the New York Times reports. The issue is that someone wrote something mean about a politician, Sonia Ghandi, on her Facebook… → Read More
Despite predictions to the contrary, Apple did not announce a cheaper, mass market version of the iPhone today. Instead, it announced an upgraded iPhone 4 called the iPhone 4S. It’s the same on the outside, but with all new insides.
However, there are more affordable iPhones now on the market: the old ones. Apple says it’s keeping the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 around. Not only that, it’s dropping… → Read More
In markets like China and India, which are showing explosive growth in the connectivity and tech sectors, there’s a bit of a gap between supply and demand. Not that the two are ever at parity even under the best of conditions — but the very thing that makes these markets volatile is what makes them harder to grow: the lack of infrastructure.
When it comes to mobile and broadband, you can… → Read More
So remember that one time when RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis kind of freaked out during a BBC interview. The fact that he flaked on the interview kind of overshadowed the reasons why he started freaking out in the first place — India. The Indian government has been tightening its control over social media and other forms of communication within the country amidst the rising threat of terrorism… → Read More
Innovative mobile banking platform Eko India Financial Services has raised $5.5 million from Creation Investments’ Social Venture fund, Promus Equity Partners and several unnamed angel investors. Mobile banking is one of the most exciting trends in the tech world outside Silicon Valley. And now that more people have mobile phones than toilets in the world, there’s a real chance at bridging the… → Read More
As I type this, a UPS beeps furiously behind me, and the growl of half-a-dozen diesel generators is audible down the street. I’m in Leh, a city nestled in a Himalayan valley surrounded by 6,000-metre / 20,000-foot peaks, the fast-growing capital of India’s northernmost territory Ladakh. It’s clearly outgrown its electrical capacity; power cuts hit several times a day.
Power generation is a … → Read More
I’m in India. It’s a glorious mess. The streets of Delhi remain a seething, endless vortex of chaos, as they were when I last visited eleven years ago, but nowadays, gleaming new highways, shopping malls, and five-star hotels rise above them. The sleek and efficient new metro system carries millions of people a day, but leaks in the monsoon rains. The suburb of Gurgaon looks completely First… → Read More
The Indian technology industry got its start running call centers and doing low-level IT work for western firms. Then, in the 2000s, it started taking on higher-level IT tasks, offering management consulting services, and performing sophisticated R&D. Now there is another transition happening, one far more significant: a transition to development of innovative technology products. Instead of… → Read More
Ah, the power of those emerging world eyeballs. According to commenters and tipsters, a big thing that could be crashing Facebook today is a new feature that allows people to link their Orkut profiles to Facebook via Facebook connect. (Screenshot on this post.) Jaimin Rajani of Tech.nolicio.us tells us it has only been live about an hour.
This is important for two reasons: Brazil and India. Orkut… → Read More
Fighting international cyber-terrorism isn’t easy, but it’s a mission on which we can all agree, right? Not so fast.
Russia has been pushing a proposal in The United Nations agency for information technology, which describes the greatest cyber-threat not as hacking or stealing but as using the Internet to spread ideas that might undermine a country. Russia wants any such use of the Internet… → Read More
Oh boy.. turns out that the much advertised $35 “Indian Tablet” isn’t actually from India. The reality is that the tablet is made by a Chinese manufacturer named Hivision, and sold as the Speedpad. It was originally seen at CeBIT this year, and Hivision said it would sell for around $100. → Read More
Only a few hours after RIM managed to avoid the Indian ban hammer, it now looks like Google and Skype could be the next target. India’s Home Ministry, the country’s interior ministry (think police force and other domestic policy matters), has told the BBC that “any company with a telecoms network should be accessible” to the country’s security services. India says it needs to be able to be… → Read More
Looks like RIM has dodged a bullet in India, at least for the time being. The BlackBerry maker has provided the Indian government with “proposals for local security agencies to monitor BlackBerry service” so that, when necessary, the Indian government can tap into BlackBerry users’ email. And while that may not sound too positive a development, it was either that or risk an outright ban. → Read More
A few trips to India ago, I wrote a piece on Deep Kalra of MakeMyTrip.com, an Indian online travel company that I guessed would be the first big Indian ecommerce IPO. Yesterday, the company made good on that—listing on Nasdaq and surging nearly 90%. It fell 5% today, but that’s not bad considering yesterday was the best one-day pop of any American IPO since 2007.
Does that mean a flood of… → Read More
China may overtake Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy this year. On its heels is India, and countries such as Brazil and Russia are not far behind. What does this mean for entrepreneurs? That, increasingly, the big opportunities lie outside the U.S. Most people aren’t aware of another advantage in emerging markets: you can freely leverage the wealth of proven intellectual… → Read More
In a speech at the American University last Thursday, President Obama highlighted the incredible economic rewards that America has gained from its immigrants. He spoke of new waves of immigrants—from places like Ireland, Italy, Poland, and China—challenging the generations before them, and consequently being subjected to “rank discrimination and ugly stereotypes”. Yet they kept coming to… → Read More
Meena wants to become a computer engineer. She believes that if she works hard enough, she can build her own “big business”—maybe a Google. So she is determined to complete her schooling and earn an engineering degree. Young girls like Meena, just 16 years old but with the ambition and confidence to enter the tech world, are a rare commodity even in Silicon Valley; but Meena lives in a slum… → Read More
On the eve of my last trip to Brazil, I was watching an episode of CSI: Miami where David Caruso was tracking a violent drug kingpin in Rio. Every time they mentioned the favelas—the infamous slums that crowd Rio’s hills—his partner said breathlessly, “The most dangerous part of the city.”
Sadly—unlike nearly everything else on the over-the-top CSI franchise—the depiction of the… → Read More
Ask any old-time IBMer, and you will hear stories of IBM’s legendary workforce-development practices. When a manager identified a manufacturing worker with promise, the company would teach him how to dress, how to speak to clients, and how to service products. These technicians would then be trained to be computer programmers, sales reps, or product managers. IBM president Thomas Watson, Sr. → Read More
You know how when you watch Fox News and CNN and whatnot there’s all these reports of evil Chinese (or North Korean or whoever our enemy is this week) hackers attacking poor, defenseless American servers? Well, if you believe what the Chinese government just said, then it turns out that, in fact, China is the biggest victim of cyberattacks each year. This all stems from an Indian complaint that… → Read More
BANGALORE, INDIA — It’s almost as if Russian cell phone carrier MTS has bought the naming rights to Bangalore. I half expected my immigration stamp to read “BANGALORE! ™ BROUGHT TO YOU BY MTS.” The carrier recently launched service in the uber-competitive Indian telecom market and has erected billboards every twenty feet or so. I have never seen so much advertising by one company in one… → Read More
When Americans think of the Indian technology sector, they still perceive a nation of call center workers and low-level computer programmers administering databases and updating websites. But while the West was sleeping, Indian IT morphed into a giant R&D machine. Indian companies that started out doing call center and low-level IT work have climbed the value chain to become outsourced… → Read More
Yesterday’s revelation that China blocks access to YouTube should not have come as any surprise, but did you know that other countries censor the Internet in their own special ways? (Happy families are all alike!) For example, did you know that India’s Computer Emergency Response Team’s has the power to block Web sites wily nilly? Ostensibly it was set up to help eliminate terrorist-realted sites… → Read More
The world’s least expensive car, India’s Tata Nano, was introduced a little more than a year ago, and it’s now available for purchase. That car, which starts at a mere 100,000 rupees (around $1,982), is supposed to help bring modern, automobile transportation to, initially, India’s less affluent. It’ll be released in other regions in the coming years. → Read More
Who cares about that stimulus package, right? Jobs, smobs, I say. No, what we’re concerned about is the nitty gritty of that so-called $10 Indian laptop. Is it even a laptop? What can it do? What’s can’t it do? Where’s Waldo? → Read More
When is a laptop not a laptop? That’s what we’re asking (not really, we’re actually reading Lost fanfic!) this morning upon learning that that $10 Indian laptop isn’t really a laptop at all, but merely a “computing device.” Let’s demand a Senate investigation. It’s not like they’re doing anything right now. → Read More
W2M, the first satellite to come out of a European/Indian joint venture signed in February 2006, was launched on December 20 for Paris-based Eutelsat. On the evening of January 22, a major malfunction occurred with the power system, prompting the Indian Space Research Organization to declare the satellite a failure. Engineers will continue to try to revive some portion of the satellite for… → Read More
While companies have been toiling away at breaking the sub-$100 notebook price point for ages now, an Indian company is ready to show off a notebook that costs – ready? – only $10. Actually, right now, it would cost $20 but mass production should drive it down they say. The notebook apparently still comes equipped with 2GB of memory, WiFi, Ethernet, and expendable memory. No word on anything else… → Read More
After November’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, blame was flying thick and fast and some of it landed on Google Maps. That was embarassing, but now the understandably jumpy residents are worrying about a new threat: open wi-fi networks. → Read More
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