Tata Motors announces new IMPACT design language for its upcoming passenger vehicles

Tata Motors is making appreciable progress in terms of design, something that’s very evident with the Zest, Bolt and more than ever with the new Zica. The company plans to transform its image of a maker of average, and sometimes boring looking cars to one that makes exciting cars. In that context, the company today announced its new IMPACT Design language for its upcoming passenger vehicles. The recently unveiled ZICA, that we test drove a few weeks back is the first new product under this design language. According to an official release by the company “the IMPACT design forms the over-arching design brand which stands for ‘Immediate IMPACT at first sight and lasting IMPACT over time.’

In case of most reputed international carmakers, the family look of the cars is expressed by a design philosophy which more or less defines how the cars from the stable will look like. For example, Hyundai has tasted immense success with its Fluidic Sculpture design philosophy; another example would be Ford’s Kinetic Design philosophy. According to the brand, the ZICA truly embodies the IMPACT Design. It distills the fine points of auto design with styling and lines that accentuate modern India and its global citizens.

Here’s what Tata Motors have to say about the definition of their new IMPACT design language.

It is after keeping the media-saturated customer in mind that a new design language had to be created. Something that could break the clutter and reinvent the wheel every time it was applied. And thus, the IMPACT design philosophy was created.

IMPACT Design further distills the design elements that can be expected from all Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles. It will be achieved through key design elements on the Exterior and Interior.

The Exteriors design will be defined through ‘EXciting’, ‘EXpressive’ and ‘EXtraordinary’ features:

1. Exciting architecture and pleasing proportions will be standard e.g. best in segment size & location of the wheels, perfectly proportioned cabin to body ratio and hood to cabin relationship
2. Expressive surfaces and graphics e.g. front face framed by the Humanity Line; dynamism amplified by the Slingshot line; movement created by the Diamond Window
3. Extraordinary: Details inspired by Indian Architecture

According to Mr. Pratap Bose, Head, Design, Tata Motors, “You can either win or lose a potential customer within the first 20 seconds of them seeing a car. However, the customer stays with you based on the long-term experience they have with the product or service. IMPACT DESIGN is exactly about an Immediate and a Lasting Impact, Design has in our lives, and environment. From ‘INtelligent’ use of space, ‘INviting’ interiors and ConnectNext features that make you feel ‘INtouch’ with the world inside to EXpressive, EXciting’, and EXtraordinary exterior features. With the ZICA we have started this journey.”

According to Mr. Mayank Pareek, President, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, “Today, the automakers are developing innovative technologies to cater to the needs of the new generation of customers. Design is among the key factors for car purchase decisions. Tata Motors recognizes this and presents IMPACT Design – as a key focus for the company’s passenger vehicle strategy.  The new, youthful, energetic and bold character of the passenger vehicles by Tata Motors is sure to make a lasting impact on our customers and on the Indian roads.”

While all of that sounds good and a tad optimistic in out opinion, the Zica does look like an evolved product in terms of design. Would you agree that the ZICA is a true embodiment of Tata Motors’ IMPACT design philosophy? Do share your views with us via comments or through one of our social channels.

Bike sales December 2015: Honda 2 wheelers sell 306,779 units; captures 25% market share

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) registered overall sales of 306,779 units for the month of December 2015, down from 3,48,737 units in December 2014. Out of the current numbers, scooter sales stood at 198,332 units while motorcycle sales stood at 92,380 units. Export sales came to 16.067 units for the same period. The market share claimed by Honda for December 2015 in the domestic market is 25%, while the domestic as well as export market combined market share stood 22%.

Till December 2015 of the current fiscal year, HMSI sold a total of 3,354,831 units. Of these, scooter sales stood at 2,079,833 units while motorcycle sales accounted for 1,125,678 units. Export sales stood at 149,320 units in the current fiscal during April to December, 2015. The market share claimed by Honda in the domestic market is 26% while the Domestic and export market share accounted for 24% of the overall market share.

Honda 2 wheelers brought in a street naked sports bike in the form of the CB Hornet 160R – one of the first mainstream bikes in India to meet BS-IV emission norms. The motorcycle will be available for sale in 2 variants with the price starting from Rs 79,900 (Ex-Showroom, New Delhi).

The company also came out with an exclusive booking app available on the android as well as the iOS platform known as the CB Hornet 160R. Honda advanced the CB Hornet 160R’s availability from the planned 21 cities to 53 cities as the number of downloads crossed 40,000 mark.

Honda also went on to win 3 awards in December 2015 namely the manufacturer of the year 2 wheeler, motorcycle of the year up to 160 cc, and the motorcycle of the Year up to 110 cc all under the NDTV Car & Bike awards 2016.

India’s mobile phone market reaches an important milestone of 1 billion subscribers

The mobile subscriber base in India has crossed a billion mark for the first time, and reached 1003.49 million subscribers. India is second only to China to cross this major milestone in world of mobile phones. However, number of active wireless subscribers was marked to be 902.26 million at end of October 2015.
In the month of October, a total of 6.83 million mobile subscribers were added by the telcos. Out of the 1003.19 million mobile subscribers, 578.11 million were urban subscribers, while 425.38 million were rural subscribers. Wireline subscriber base continued to decline, and dropped to 25.85 million. During the month of October, 2015, 5.11 million subscribers submitted their requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP).

Operator-wise subscriber base (in millions)

1. Airtel – 237.97
2. Vodafone – 189.47
3. Idea – 167.28
4. Reliance Communications – 111.41
5. Aircel – 84.60
6. BSNL – 80.42
7. TATA – 60.84
8. Telenor – 48.71
9. MTS – 8.26
10. Videocon – 7.84
11. MTNL – 3.60

During the month of October 2015, Bharti Airtel added the maximum number of new subscribers (2.76 million) followed by Vodafone (adding 1.3 million), and Reliance Communication (adding 1 million). Both, BSNL and Idea, added 0.72 million, while Telenor added 0.93 million subscribers in the October of 2015. On the contrary, Tata lost over 1.17 million subscribers during the month.

The overall tele-density in India increased from 80.98 at the end of Sep-15 to 81.44 at the end of Oct-15. While urban tele-density marginally declined from 152.76 at the end of September 2015 to 152.58 by the end of October 2015. The rural tele-density increased from 48.66 at the end of September 2015 to 49.37 by the end of October 2015.

The broadband subscriber base increased from 120.88 million at the end of September 2015 to 125.22 million at the end of October 2015. Out of these 125.22 million broadband subscribers, 108.48 million were wireless broadband users. Bharti Airtel (29.03 million), Vodafone (24.48 million), Idea Cellular(20.28 million), BSNL (19.43 million) and Reliance communications Group (11.47 million) were the top five broadband service providers in the country.

Sony extends Marshmallow Concept trial into New Year, releases 6.0.1

Sony had been planning to bring its Sony Concept Android Marshmallow beta to a close later this week. However, the company has decided to continue the program into the New Year, following a very positive experience with testers.

The additional time is certainly good news for the tens of thousands of program participants and also means that Sony will have some additional time to collect more feedback and tweak its Marshmallow experience. There is a drawback here though, as the company doesn’t seem to know exactly when it plans to release an official Marshmallow build to its broader consumers. An update for the Z5 range had been expected in January.

                                          

However, the final release may be based on the slightly newer Android 6.0.1 version, as Sony has also just begun rollout out this software to its Concept beta testers. The new MMB29M.Z1.3021-somc version includes the 200 new emojis and “do not disturb until” tweaks, and also seems to have removed app drawer customization from Sony’s build. The OTA update should be hitting those in the trial sometime this week.

Maximum subscriber growth from Category C circles not translating into revenues

With maximum growth being recorded by the circles of Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar, and Assam, category `C’ are recording the maximum subscriber growth. However, this subscriber growth is not translating into revenue growth

Jammu & Kashmir recorded a subscriber growth of 16% with the number of subscribers increasing from 8.25 million at the end of June 2014 to 9.6 million at the end of June 2015, as per data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. J&K circle is closely followed by Bihar where the subscriber base grew from 63.16 million at the end of June 2014 to 72.6 million at the end of June 2015. Bihar recorded a subscriber growth of 15% if one compares the total number of subscribers in June 2014 with subscriber number in June 2015.
On the other hand, Assam, which is also a category `C’ circle recorded a growth of 13% with subscribers increasing from 15.5 million at the end of June 2014 to 17.5 million at the end of June 2015.

However these three circles continue to record one of the lowest revenues for telcos. J&K recorded revenue of Rs 518.7 crore in AMJ 2015 while Bihar recorded revenue of Rs 2558.8 crore in the same time period. On the other hand, Assam recorded revenue of Rs 839 crore in AMJ 2015.

Jammu & Kashmir has a teledensity of 76.9% while Bihar and Assam have teledensity of 51.1% and 53.9% respectively, underlining a need of network expansion and addition of further subscribers from these circles.

Experts have been saying for long that the next wave of subscriber growth is going to come from the rural segment. The top three circles recording maximum revenue growth are predominantly rural. Telcos have largely ignored the country’s hinterland because Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) continues to remain low. The investment in rural expansion usually translates to long gestation period before a telecom operator is able to generate revenue or break even.

However it is a chicken and egg situation. Unless and until they expand more users will not come on board and revenue from existing subscribers is unlikely to increase if products specifically targeted at them are launched.

With 84.75 million (at the end of June 2015) subscribers, UP (E) has the largest subscriber base in India. UP (E) circle is closely followed by Tamil Nadu (79.96 million subscribers-June 2015) and Maharashtra (76.89 million, June 2015).

Mangaluru-based activist faces online abuse, rape threats, for complaining against Bajrang Dal

A Mangaluru-based activist is being targeted online with abuse and rape threats after she complained against Bajrang Dal activists who allegedly intimidated cinema halls into stopping the screening of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Dilwale.

On Monday, Mangaluru North police station registered an FIR against the state convenor of the Bajrang Dal Sharan Pumpwell and others for causing a ‘climate of fear’ among theatre owners and the public. Various sections of the IPC including causing criminal intimidation and criminal trespassing have been invoked.

In the two days since, numerous people targeted activist Vidya Dinker on Facebook with sexually coloured abuse including rape threats and other insults. Vidya says she will file a complaint against the abuse on Thursday.

Bajrang Dal activists in Mangaluru had protested against the screening of the film following Shah Rukh Khan’s comments on intolerance on November 2. They also asked for a ban on the screening of Aamir Khan’s films for the same reasons. 

“I heard a few people, who had booked tickets for Shah Rukh’s Dilwale, complain that when they went to the theatre on Sunday evening theatre owners offered a refund as the movie would not be screened,” Dinker said.

“I was told by a theatre owner that on Sunday right-wing activists came to the theatre asking that the 4 pm to 7 pm screening that was mid-way be stopped. However, the right-wing activists agreed let the ongoing  show get over and cancel screening thereafter,” Dinker said.

Having waited until Tuesday for screenings to resume, the dismayed activist went to speak to the head of a cinema chain at a mall in the city. She said that owners told her that they had been intimidated into giving up screening the film.

“The complete fear that they have managed to instil in everyone means that there is a parallel criminal justice system at work,” she said, adding that she and some others met the police commissioner urging action against such intimidation.

Dinker told The News Minute that the police were reluctant to take the complaint as they claimed that the theatre owners could have voluntarily not screened the film and the police cannot take action.

Vidya said that one franchisee of a multiplex had told her that Bajrang Dal activists had torn the poster on the ground floor of the mall and that they were worried that damage would follow if they went ahead with the screening.

Sharan Pumpwell, state president of Bajrang Dal told The News Minute that the activists only “requested” theatre owners not to screen Shah Rukh Khan’s film and that Dinker’s claims are baseless.

“We did not cause any physical damage as Vidya Dinker claims. The theatre owners themselves respected our sentiments and agreed to stop the screening,” said Pumpwell.

It is an open secret that some influential leaders of Hindutva groups have security contracts in more than one of the three malls in Mangaluru.

“The police also told me that they would take action if the theatre owners complain.  But owners are reluctant as they have long-term survival in mind,” she said.

“When a business is run with fear of these local goons in the back of their mind and when there is no confidence in the police that itself should be reason for the police to take a Suo motu action,” she added.

Microsoft Lumia 550 launched in India at Rs 9,399

New Delhi: Microsoft has launched the Lumia 550 in India at an attractive price of Rs 9,399.

The Windows 10 powered phone will be available in the country from December 23. The phone will come in the glossy white and matte black colours.

The Lumia 550 The phone features 4.7 inch HD display with Glance Screen.

The phone features the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor coupled with 1 GB RAM.

Key features of Microsoft Lumia 550

Windows 10 OS

4.7 inch Display

5 MP Main camera sensor

2 MP Front camera
    
LED flash

RAM: 1 GB

8 GB Mass memory

4G Network
    
Quad-core 1.1 GHz Processor

Battery capacity: 2100 mAh

Maximum talk time (3G): 14 hours

Maximum standby time: 28 days

Apple iPhone 6s and 6s Plus Continue to get Price Cuts in India

In a rather unprecedented move, Apple has (unofficially) slashed the prices for the iPhone 6s and the 6s Plus by 16% since its launch in October. This move seems to be propelled by the fact that the iPhone 6s sales had plunged into a valley right after the festive season of Diwali.

The iPhone 6s 16GB now costs Rs 52,000- Rs 55,000 as opposed to the launch price of Rs 62,000 (Rs 49799 on Amazon at the time of writing). According to ET sources, the price cut seems to have been carried out across all the variants. The latest bout of price cut literally brings the iPhone 6s and the 6s Plus prices down by 16%. Apple had also slashed the price of its iPhone 5s recently bringing it to an all-time low of Rs 20,990 for the 16GB variant.

The iPhone 6s 64GB and iPhone 6s Plus 16GB will cost as less as Rs 61,000 (Rs 60k on Amazon), while the 64GB version of iPhone 6s Plus will start from Rs 69,000. Last month, there were reports of Apple offering discounts via buyback offers, again something which never happened with newly released iPhones.

Another reason for the price cut seems to be the large gulf of price gap between the iPhone 6 and the 6s, thus making the upgrades less attractive. This also seems to be the first time iPhone price has been slashed in the first two months of launch, something that inadvertently points at the initial pricing. Another report points out that Apple had initially imported 320,000 units of the iPhone 6s and the 6s Plus but the deficient demand seems to have hit the same and now the imports have slung to a lower 120,000 in November.

The reason price cuts come out as surprising is the way Apple usually manages its pricing strategy, they are among the few in the smartphone industry who stick by their initial prices. The series of price cuts across most of the iPhone models is a tell-tale sign that Apple wants to spike up the sales number even if it means a direct slash in the iPhone prices, this however will add up as a bonus for folks looking out to buy the iPhones this holiday season.

Kerala outgrows metro cities in telecom revenue growth

As per data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Kerala recorded the maximum revenue growth of 14 percent in the period between April and June of 2014 and AMJ 2015. The revenue of the state increased from Rs 1878.44 crore in the AMJ quarter of 2014 to 2135.4 crore in AMJ 2015.

Idea seems to be the biggest beneficiary of this growth in the Kerala circle with the company recording maximum growth of 20.6 percent. The company’s revenue increased from Rs 704.93 crore in AMJ 2014 to Rs 887.87 crore in AMJ 2015. Vodafone is at second spot in the circle with the company’s revenue increasing from Rs 450.77 crore in AMJ 2014 to Rs 513.14 crore in AMJ 2015. Kerala is a category `B’ circle and has a tele-density of around 95%.

Overall, the telcos recorded an increase of 6 percent with revenue increasing from Rs 44736.06 crore in AMJ 2014 to Rs 47627.39 crore in AMJ 2015. Significantly, the top three telcos outgrew the market during this time frame. While both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India recorded an increase of 7%, Idea Cellular recorded an increase of 17% in its revenue during this time period.

As per data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Kerala recorded the maximum revenue growth of 14 percent in the period between April and June of 2014 and AMJ 2015. The revenue of the state increased from Rs 1878.44 crore in the AMJ quarter of 2014 to 2135.4 crore in AMJ 2015.

Idea seems to be the biggest beneficiary of this growth in the Kerala circle with the company recording maximum growth of 20.6 percent. The company’s revenue increased from Rs 704.93 crore in AMJ 2014 to Rs 887.87 crore in AMJ 2015. Vodafone is at second spot in the circle with the company’s revenue increasing from Rs 450.77 crore in AMJ 2014 to Rs 513.14 crore in AMJ 2015. Kerala is a category `B’ circle and has a tele-density of around 95%.

Overall, the telcos recorded an increase of 6 percent with revenue increasing from Rs 44736.06 crore in AMJ 2014 to Rs 47627.39 crore in AMJ 2015. Significantly, the top three telcos outgrew the market during this time frame. While both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India recorded an increase of 7%, Idea Cellular recorded an increase of 17% in its revenue during this time period.

Sundar Pichai Says Mumbai Central to Get Free Wi-Fi by January; 100 Stations by 2016-End

At the Google for India event in New Delhi on Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai talked about the company's plans for supporting the Digital India initiative. Among the announcements, one of the highlights was the confirmation that Google will be working with Indian Railways to bring free Wi-Fi to 400 train stations. This had already been announced, but the specific deadlines had not been given. Today, Pichai said that 100 stations will get Wi-Fi by the end of 2016, which 10 million people will use every day. The project will first go live in Mumbai Central in January 2016, he added.

Google is tying up with PSU RailTel to implement the Wi-Fi facilities on stations, using RailTel's fibre optic network backbone that connects the stations themselves.

Aside from this, Pichai also announced that Google is exploring ways to bring Project Loon to India. The idea behind the program is to beam an Internet signal via hot air balloons. It's worth pointing out that the Telecom Minister raised concerns about the idea - in a written response to the Rajya Sabha, Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote, "The proposed frequency band to be used in the Loon Project of Google is being used for cellular operations in India and it will lead to interference with cellular transmissions."

The Google CEO also mentioned a partnership with the Tata Trust - the two are rolling out bicycles to 1,000 villages across three states, to teach women about the Internet. The bicycles will be equipped with Internet connected devices, and the people riding them will be trained by Google to educate women about how they can benefit from the Internet.

Pichai, who was born in India, has earlier blogged about how he believes the Internet can impact India, and says that despite the huge growth that has taken place in terms of the reach of the Internet, there are still a billion people who are completely offline, and this must be addressed. The railways Wi-Fi program will bring many of these people online, Pichai believes, and on the blog, he has also promised that the connections will be fast - "many times faster than what most people in India have access to today" - so it can be used for anything from downloading a book or a game for your journey, watching a video, or researching your destination.

Download the Gadgets 360 app for Android and iOS to stay up to date with the latest tech news, product reviews, and exclusive deals on the popular mobiles.

Reliance Jio to launch 4G in select areas on December 28: Report

Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm is likely to launch 4G services by the end of December in some select areas, including Mumbai, according to a note by Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoFA-ML). The firm however added that a pan-India commercial start could be delayed till April-June 2016, which would be a relief to incumbent telcos such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular.

“In a scenario Jio launches by December 28, we remain unsure 1) if it will be a commercial launch with the company disclosing price-points or 2) if it will be an extension of services which are currently being offered to employees to select user group/Jio partners,” the firm said in a note.

Reliance Jio is expected to position itself as an “aspirational brand” offering premium services (high-speed) and is unlikely to target average revenue per users (ARPUs) below Rs 300, the note said.

Jio’s Voice over LTE (VoLTE) calls were working well in Mumbai, even while travelling and inside buildings, BoFA-ML said. Similar findings were revealed by brokerage firm Credit Suisse.

BoFA-ML said that data speeds ranged from 18-30 Mbps while travelling/inside buildings to as high as 60-70 Mbps when outside. “We believe this is largely due to an empty network while Jio currently has. We remain unsure if Jio network is offering similar speeds outside Mumbai particularly in circles where they only have 2300 MHz,” BoFA-ML said.

Xiaomi’s 15.6” Notebook To Cost Less Due To Older CPU & GPU

Xiaomi is, first and foremost, a smartphone manufacturer. This company tends to dabble in pretty much anything tech-related, and they will release their first notebook soon. Inventec has already confirmed that they’re working on (one of) the company’s notebook, and that the device is expected to arrive in April next year. Well, Inventec is working on one of the company’s notebooks, but three different ones have been mentioned, the 12.5, 13.3 and 15.6-inch models. Inventec is working on the 12.5-inch model, while Compal is rumored to be working on the 13.3-inch variant. The 15.6-inch notebook is the most interesting one here, read on.


The specifications of the 15.6-inch Xiaomi notebook have surfaced a while back, and according to that report, the device will sport a 15.6-inch 1080p (1920 x 1080) display, 8GB of RAM and will be powered by Intel’s Core i7 4th-generation SoC. Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 760M GPU is said to be included in this package as well, and Linux will reportedly going to come pre-installed here. On top of all this, the notebook is rumored to cost 2,999 Yuan ($466), which doesn’t seem all that expensive for this notebook. In order to keep the price at bay, Xiaomi is going to use the Core i7 SoC from the fourth-gen Haswell series, while the current sixth-gen Skylake chips probably are not going to be included in any variant of Xiaomi’s notebook. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 760M GPU is also not the newest graphics card, this GPU was released back in 2013.

Now, this notebook will be quite capable despite somewhat older components, the 4th-gen Core i7 SoC is still plenty powerful, and same can be said about the aforementioned GPU. Xiaomi simply had to do this in order to keep the price of this notebook down, which is always one of their main priorities. It is also rumored that Linux will come pre-installed here because Xiaomi wanted to avoid Windows because of licensing fees which would increase the price of the product. That’s pretty much it, keep in mind that this info is based on rumors, only the 12.5-inch variant of the device has been confirmed this far.

Arvind Kejriwal Says Rahul Gandhi 'Just a Kid', in Row Over Delhi Slum Demolition

Arvind Kejriwal today called Rahul Gandhi a "kid" in a political war of words over the controversial demolition at a Delhi slum on Saturday, in which a baby died.

The Chief Minister derided Mr Gandhi for blaming Delhi's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for the demolition at Shakur Basti by the railway police, which reports to the Centre.

"Why is AAP doing dharna? They are in power in Delhi," Mr Gandhi was quoted as saying, in response to AAP lawmakers protesting at Parliament.



The Chief Minister then tweeted in Hindi: "Rahul Gandhi ji is still a kid. His party has perhaps not told him that railway comes under the central government, not Delhi government."

Another AAP leader, Ashutosh, said Mr Gandhi's comments show why the Congress was routed in the national election last year. "Now I know y Congress is reduced to 44?(sic)," he tweeted.

The demolition has provoked a political war with Rahul Gandhi making a high profile visit to the slums today and AAP taking its protests against the Centre to Parliament.

AAP alleges that no warning was given before the demolition, which has left thousands without a home in deepening winter. A six-month-old died allegedly because a heap of clothes fell on her while her family was trying to pack up and hurry out of their home.

The homes were razed allegedly to make way for a railway terminal. Mr Kejriwal visited the area in the early hours of Sunday and said: "Those who did this are not humans, they are beasts. God will not forgive them."

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said in Parliament that several warnings were given to the slum residents. "Such encroachments are the main source of garbage and are a safety hazard," he said.

Micromax to invest Rs 300Cr for 3 manufacturing plants in India

Indian smartphone manufacturer Micromax will invest Rs 300 crore in India over the next few months to set up three new manufacturing units, reportsIBNLive. The new plants will be set up in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana, and will be operational by next year.

As of now, Micromax claims that it has allotted 20 acres of land in Telangana and 25 acres in Rajasthan for the manufacturing plants. The construction on both these plants will begin soon, while the location for the Andhra Pradesh will be decided soon. Overall, the company aims to have a capacity of 4 million units once these plants are fully functional. It will invest Rs 100 crore in each plant.

Micromax currently has an assembly unit in Rudrapur which produces around 1 million units, accounting for one third of the company’s requirements, with the rest of the units imported from China. The company had started manufacturing at this plant in April last year, where it also manufactures all the tablets sold in the country. Interestingly, Micromax mentions that by 2017, it will start to manufacture batteries and other components in India.

Manufacturing in India: The Indian government has been encouraging domestic companies to start manufacturing electronics goods within the country instead of importing them and had approved a National Policy on Electronics. Since then, various smartphone manufacturers have said they will start manufacturing in India or have already started doing so.

– Last month, Optiemus Infracom, the founder of the domestic mobile brand Zen Mobile, signed a joint venture with Wistron Corporation to set up a mobile manufacturing unit in Noida.

– Various manufacturers have tied up with Foxconn to manufacture phones in India. Earlier this month, Oppo started contract manufacturing in India in partnership with Foxconn while in September, Gionee tied up with Foxconn and Dixon to manufacture its phones in India. In June, the company started making Xiaomi phones in the country.

– The month before, Foxconn was in talks with Adani Enterprises to form a joint venture (JV), likely to make iPhones in India. The company had first reported in June that it could possibly set up base in India to manufacture iPhones, iPads and iPods for Indian and international sales.

– In August, Lenovo started the local production of smartphones with Flextronics under a contract manufacturing deal at its Sriperumbudur plant.

– Videocon Mobile Phones, Videocon Group’s mobile company, started manufacturing mobile phones in the country.

– In June, homegrown mobile phone maker Celkon opened its first manufacturing unit in the country in Telangana.

– In March, Samsung and Sony had announced plans for setting up manufacturing bases in India as a part of the Make in India initiative.

– Earlier this year, Spice Group said it would invest Rs 500 crores to set up a manufacturing unit in Uttar Pradesh.

Samsung Galaxy S7 leaked case renders reveal a larger display for the upcoming flagship

Last week, a couple of reports hinted that the Samsung’s forthcoming flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S7 may not bring major changes in terms of design. Interestingly, in the latest development, a case maker known as ITSkins, has revealed the case images of the upcoming flagship.

If these renders are to be believed, the Galaxy S7 looks a lot more like its predecessor, the Galaxy S6. It measures 143.37 x 70.8 x 6.94 mm, which is almost the same size as the Galaxy S6 that measures 143.4 x 70.5 x 6.8 mm. Also, the rear camera bump that we have seen on the Galaxy S6 is also present on the Galaxy S7. Assuming that these renders are a real deal, then the Galaxy S7 might sport a 5.1-inch display.

Moreover, the latest rumors also suggest that Samsung is working on a bigger display variant of the Galaxy S7, dubbed as Galaxy S7 Plus. It will be more like the Galaxy S6 Edge+, except that it will be larger than it. The expected measurement for the Galaxy S7 Plus is 163.32 x 82.01 x 7.82 mm, which also means that it might sport a 6-inch display. That reminds us of Samsung Galaxy Mega 2, which was a tough to handle device due to its large display.

Having said that, we need to take these leaks with a pinch of salt. There is no valid proof that these leaks actually hold a solid base. Samsung is most likely to unleash the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Plus in February, at the MWC 2016.

Why Are Indian Telcos Focusing On Failed WiFi Strategy

A strange phenomenon is taking place in China. Contrary to the global trend, Chinese telcos are unwinding their WiFi deployments. The three service providers, China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile have decommissioned 87,000 WiFi access points this year. While WiFi is shrinking telcos added 680,000 2G, 3G or 4G base stations in the country.

On the other hand, there has been a marked increase in WiFi deployments in India. WiFi hotspots are emerging as an important and critical part of the mobile data revolution in the country. As of now India has a little more 30,000 WiFi hotspots in the country but this is likely to increase dramatically with both the telcos and the government focusing on it.

On the other hand, there has been a marked increase in WiFi deployments in India. WiFi hotspots are emerging as an important and critical part of the mobile data revolution in the country. As of now India has a little more 30,000 WiFi hotspots in the country but this is likely to increase dramatically with both the telcos and the government focusing on it.

While Vodafone and Bharti Airtel have together formed a company, Firefly to provide public WiFi focus on Government WiFi business, Reliance Jio is also setting up WiFi hotspots in all the major cities in the country. Firefly was in news recently for trying to raise foreign funding. BSNL has already installed more than 300 hotspots in 25 cities and hopes to increase this number to 1,000 by the end of the current financial year. Besides companies like Ozone are continuously adding newer WiFi hotspots.

Not just the telcos who are setting up their own WiFi networks in the country, the Government is also launching a number of initiatives to increase WiFi deployment in the country. A case in point is Indian Railways, which has recently announced that it would provide free WiFi to its passengers. Further, providing free WiFi was an important part of Delhi Government’s election campaign. The Central Government’s programs like Smart Cities and Digital India are also likely to push WiFi deployment in the country.

The situation in India now is somewhat similar to what was in China a few years back. The Chinese telcos started focusing on WiFi around 2011-12 to meet the increasing data demand. There was no 4G network at the time to meet the consumer needs for data services. Indian landscape is similar in the sense that the adoption of smartphone is growing in the country, which is fuelling the demand for mobile data. The telcos launched 3G about five years back and 4G about two years back but limited spectrum means that data offloading through WiFi is an important part of their network strategy. As networks become congested with growing data traffic, WiFi would be required to take some load.

However, could this be a case of flawed logic, especially if one considers the latest move of the Chinese telcos of decommissioning WiFi hotspots? Why is it that Indian telcos are investing in a technology, which is being abandoned by other countries?

A key reason for Chinese telcos to stop WiFi deployments is that they were unable to monetize it. While nearly 70% of data traffic was carried over WiFi, it was not even contributing 3% of the telco’s data revenues. This is the crux of the problem with WiFi and sooner or later Indian telcos would need to face the facts. WiFi is not a revenue generator and Indian telcos would ultimately need to for a dense 3G/4G network to garner maximum return of investment in mobile data.

The Chinese telcos have realized that WiFi needs to be used strategically for data offload but it is not a substitute for network expansion and modernization. It is time Indian service providers learn from their Chinese counterparts that WiFi is unlikely to lead to a substantial revenue enhancement.

How to Make Sure Important Emails Don’t End up in Spam

n the past few years, the Internet has developed in a rapid pace and almost half of the population of the Earth has an email account. The email is one of the cheapest and quickest ways in which you are able to send and receive messages, regardless of the place you are in. This service enables you to talk to your friends, family or colleagues at a lower price that you had to pay if you were using the cellphone. The only thing that you need in order to be able to use the email is an Internet connection.

A very annoying glitch of the system is represented by the apparition of spam, which are unwanted emails from advertisers that are sent indiscriminately. Nowadays, it got to the point where your spam filter slips some spam emails into your inbox because it is not clever enough. Furthermore, another problem may appear: what happens when the spam filter does the mistake of trashing messages from your acquaintances and sends them right in the spam bin? Well, lots of ignored contacts and an almost filled inbox, we might say.

In the first case, you can simply delete the spam message from the inbox or create a filter for that domain that sent it, but in the other case? It is not so easy to check dozens of spam emails that are received every day.

Protect Important Emails and keep them out of Spam

Today, you will learn how to tweak the settings of any email address and even use a couple of applications that manage email accounts so that you will not lose any important notification to the spam folder. This is a small step by step tutorial for the most well-known emailing services, Google and Yahoo, and can be applied to most intelligent browsers out there.

Yahoo

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A small trick which every Yahoo! Mail user can enjoy is to create a simple filtering rule. With this rule, people have the possibility of marking certain messages as important or send them directly to SPAM.

1. Log into your account and click on the “Settings” button and then on “Mail Options”.
2. Go to the “Filters” category that is placed on the left side of the page and press the “Create or edit filters” link.
3. Choose a name for the filter and then the criteria desired. You can choose to filter messages by “Sender”, “Recipient”, “Subject” and “Body”. When you finish you will have to save it.
4. After selecting on which bases an email should be filtered, choose what happens when a message is detected by the filter. You have the option of automatically moving that messages inside the Inbox, Spam, Trash or a new folder at all.

Gmail

The same tactic may also be applied on Google Mail, where we are going to create a filter for multiple purposes. This is just to make sure we do receive email from a specific contact, because Gmail already comes with an almost bullet-proof system of categorizing messages. This system learns what kind of emails are important for the user and which one should be ignored. Well, if you’re having troubles with that, here’s what you can do:

1. Navigate to Google Mail and click on the “Gear Icon” button. The button is placed on the top-right side of the page.
2. Further select “Settings” from the drop down menu.
3. Choose “Filters” and then “Create a new filter”. This is the most important step you will have to make. In the field “From” you have to put the friend’s email address. If you do not know it, it is not a problem, because Gmail has thought at this too. You can put his name or even his nickname. You can also enter multiple addresses, but only if they are separated by the word “OR” or by the sign “|”.
4. After you managed to add all you addresses you will press on the “Create filter with this Search” button. After that pop-up menu will appear, where you can choose a lot of options like: “Mark as read”, “Star it”, “Forward it” and lastly, the one that interests us: “Never send it to Spam”. After that press “Create filter” and that is it. You can be sure from now that the emails are not sent to the spam folder.

For those that are using special applications for checking and sending emails, like Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird, these are some things you need to know.

Microsoft Outlook

Developed by Microsoft, Outlook can be used online or locally, through the Microsoft Office suite. This application is very handy because it is realized like a Microsoft Word document, so it is very easy to use it. Even filtering.

You will only have to right-click on the email in question and select the “Junk” option. A menu will pop up and you will have to choose “Never Block Sender” or “Never Block Sender’s Domain”. After following these quick actions, Outlook will treat the sender or the domain kingly, by making sure it will never end up in Spam without user approval.

Of course the system isn’t flawless, but you are able to create your own filters to improve general experience. To do this, simply browse to “Rules and Alerts” from the “Tools” menu and define the rule by selecting specific addresses, domains and so on. Outlook also gives users a couple of interesting options, like selecting when to check messages with pre-defined filters (at departure or when the arrive) and, in which folders should detected messages be sent.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Free to use, the main advantage of Mozilla Thunderbird, an email client in essence, is that you can manage multiple emails and news feed accounts on the same interface. This is very useful and you can also add a lot of plugins to a program that can actually be used even as a browser. But, let’s return to our problem.

The filtering problem exists here, too. To create a filter in Thunderbird, you need to open a message and click on the sender’s name or email address. After that choose from the newly appeared menu “Create filter from” and select your desired rule, action. You can redirect the message to your favorite folder and choose as a filter even the date of the emails.

In my opinion, Mozilla Thunderbird is the best option you have. I use it and it is very fast. The big advantage is that I can manage my email accounts, the one from Yahoo and the one from Gmail, at the same time, and from the same interface.