Netflix may face tough competition, but content volume holds key

The wait for Indian audiences is finally over as the American content producer and distributor, Netflix, announced its entry into India at the CES 2016 on Wednesday. The over-the-top (OTT) giant announced expansion to 130 countries simultaneously, including India. There are three tiers of pricing available per month — basic at Rs 500, standard at Rs 650 and premium at Rs 800.

Whispers about Netflix entering India had been growing over time and existing Indian players had been priming up for the event, weighing strengths and weaknesses on their part, and more importantly, for Netflix.

Pricing was going to be the main issue, felt industry players, since in India, paying for content online is still very rare.

Travelling Smart Application Demand Increases in Delhi after odd/even policy

Now that the Delhi government is considering the implementation of the “odd-even” plan, in which odd- and even-numbered vehicles will be allowed to ply on alternate days, sharing a ride is likely to become a hot new trend. Here are some of the Car Pool Delhi apps you could use.

ibibo Ryde

Developed by the ibibo group, Ryde is a free app available for both Android and iOS phones. You can register for an account on the app or log in on Facebook. Once signed in, the app lets you choose the source and destination of the ride and then displays the options available for carpool. You could also check the route, the seats available and the cost per seat. The app allows the user to rate the experience. For payments, you could link your bank accounts with the app. Ryde also has the option of inter-state carpooling.

Carpool India

The Carpool India app requires you to register for it; it doesn’t rely on the social media. Once you’ve registered, you could choose your destination and would be presented with carpool options. The app is not as extensive as Ryde, but it provides enough information to find a decent carpool. After picking the desired option, you would have to send a request to the user offering the ride. Transaction methods can be decided by the users. The app is secure since it doesn’t give out users’ personal information unless they want to share it. It is only available on Android and is free to download.

Orahi

Orahi is for people looking to travel daily to and from work. First, you need to sign up for an account by filling in your home and office addresses. After that, you could state your preferences - time and day - for the ride and will be matched with members travelling along the same route. Once you’ve selected the desired member, you would have to tap on “Ride with me” and an invitation would be sent across.

The app relies on online payment, so users can travel cashless. Users have the option of chatting with other members and can also view the top users based on the number of kilometres one has shared. It is available for both Android and iOS for free.

Blablacar

The app enables users to look up both inter- and intra-city carpools. Blablacar can be linked with the users’ Facebook account. It displays the cost per person, the seats available and also the time the carpool departs from the source. The payment has to be made in cash.

Blablacar doesn’t display contact details of users unless they make it visible. After the ride, users can rate one another, which, in turn, influences their experience level. The higher the level, the more likely they are to be offered or asked for a ride. Blablacar is available on both Android and iOS phones and is free to download. 

Anti-corruption crusader Subramanian Swamy risks wrecking tax reform

Subramanian Swamy, the anti-corruption crusader in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, has vowed to send opposition leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi to jail, denting already faint hopes of political compromise on the key Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.

Fresh developments in a three-year-old fraud case brought by Swamy have overshadowed attempts to bridge the political divide in search of an elusive deal that would create a tax union in Asia’s third-largest economy.

For Subramanian  Swamy, taking down a dynasty synonymous with the founding of modern India is a bigger immediate priority than passing the GST that has in any case been years in the making.

He says he has the tacit support of Modi, and powerful Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has also voiced his approval.

Swamy, who has said the mother and son deserve to go to jail, said in an interview that the GST would not help the economy. Fighting corruption, which he says has drained $1.5 trillion out of India, would.

“The cause I am fighting for is far greater because that’s where the cancer is,” said the 76-year-old Harvard-trained economist and ex-cabinet minister, whose strident Hindu identity politics has attracted a fanatical following.

Swamy met Modi on Thursday and said the prime minister voiced no objections to his case against the Gandhis. Senior aides to Modi say that he sympathised with the case.

“Modi-ji has always wanted to pursue legal cases against the Gandhi family,” said one. “This case could end the Gandhi supremacy, and that is good for us.”

Modi has tried to undermine the Gandhis since trouncing Congress at the ballot box last year. At the same time, he has pushed for economic reforms, including the GST, which the government says could add up to 2 percentage points to the size of the economy.

In his case, Swamy accuses the Gandhis of fraud, cheating, misappropriation and criminal breach of trust in acquiring the assets of a company that had published the National Herald, a newspaper founded by Rahul’s great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru.

He alleges that, through a series of debt and equity deals, a shell company that Sonia and Rahul controlled acquired property worth about $300 million after paying just $75,000.

The Gandhis deny wrongdoing and allies say the deals caused no financial harm to the Congress party.

SWAMY VS GANDHIS

Irked by Swamy, Congress lawmakers have accused Modi’s government of waging a “political vendetta” against the Gandhis. The Rajya Sabha, where Modi needs Congress support to pass the GST, has been disrupted all of this week.

While there are still a few days for GST to be passed and it has been listed for debate next week, the angry mood in Congress and daily protests mean chances of that happening are fading.

Congress national spokesman Sanjay Jha said the political wrangling had “neutralised” Modi’s meeting with Sonia Gandhi on Nov. 27, their first since he became prime minister in May 2014, to seek a way forward on the GST.

Swamy, who merged his small political party with Modi’s in 2013, is best known for successfully running a legal campaign against the last Congress government over a multi-billion-dollar spectrum-allocation scam.

In a blog post late on Thursday about the case, Jaitley backed Swamy and criticised Congress for disrupting parliamentary business because of it.

Smartphones would be outdated in five years

Smartphones will become obsolete within five years and would be replaced with artificial intelligence, according to a consumer survey by the Ericsson owned Consumer Lab.

Half of the study’s respondents said they thought mobile technology would be redundant by 2021 as the growth of artificial intelligence starts enabling interaction with objects without the need for a phone or tablet, Sydney Morning Herald reported.

“A smartphone in the hand, it’s really not that practical. For example, not when one is driving a car or cooking. And there are many situations where display screens are not so good. Therefore, one in two think that smartphones will belong to the past within five years,” Ericsson Consumer Lab’s Rebecka Cedering Angstrom was quoted as saying.

The research lab surveyed 100,000 people across Sweden and 39 other countries.

With around 1.9 billion smartphone users globally, this means Consumer Lab covered just 0.0052 per cent of active users for its study.

Nitish Kumar announces liquor ban in Bihar from April 2016

Bihar will will ban sales of alcohol starting April 1, 2016,Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced on Thursday.

The chief minister made the announcement at an official function to mark Prohibition Day here. The Bihar liquor ban was a key campaign promise Nitish Kumar had made in the run-up to the Bihar elections.

He said the poorest of the poor had been consuming liquor, badly hitting their families and their children's education.

Increasing liquor consumption was also a major cause for domestic violence, particularly against women, and had contributed to a rise in crimes.

"Women are suffering more than anyone else due to increasing liquor consumption," he said.

An official at the chief minister's office said Nitish Kumar took the decision after a high-level meeting with officials here In July, Nitish Kumar had declared that prohibition would be imposed if he retained power in the Assembly elections.

Bihar Excise and Prohibition Minister Abdul Jalil Mastan had earlier said that the state government would soon take steps to impose a liquor ban.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday vowed to support a liquor ban.

The decision is expected to derail the government's financial health.

The excise department went into an overdrive in 2007 following a new policy and started issuing licences for marketing liquor across the state.

The revenue collection of excise department registered a more than 10-fold jump, from Rs.319 crore in 2005-06 to Rs.3,650 crore in 2014-15.

Article Source: Business Standard.