Google rolls out features to strengthen online security

Internet users in India today are more conscious about their online safety, internet giant Google India said on Wednesday as it rolled out several new features and resources designed to protect users online.

Google India released some key interesting search trends of last year that point towards the demand of greater cyber security.

The trends showed that in the past year there have been 20 percent more searches for “change password” and 97 percent more searches for “two-step verification”.

Two-step verification requires more than just a password to sign into your Google account, such as a 6-digit code that is sent to your phone for more protection.

Google said that in the past year itself, there have been 591 percent more searches for “how to track a lost phone”.

So to ramp up the online security, Google is offering initiatives like simplifying security settings to making trustworthy messages easier to spot in Gmail. Google will also be driving multiple initiatives to drive awareness about online safety among Indian Internet users.

“With an increase in the number of users coming online and the rise in the penetration of smartphone users in India, we at Google are committed to offering users a safe Internet experience,” Sunita Mohanty director trust and safety, Google India said in a statement.

“We are adding five million new users a month taking the user base of a connected’ Indians to 500 million online by 2018-2019. It’s more important now than ever before to ensure the data and profiles of these users is safe online,” Mohanty added.

While supporting Safer Internet Day, Google is also offering its users 2 GB of extra Google Drive storage on completion of the security check-up by February 11.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

There are about 1.35 million small and micro enterprises that own websites: IAMAI

According to a report titled Tapping the MSME Potential, published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, the MSME sector in India is rapidly embracing online media to scale-up marketing efforts. The report finds that 61 percent of 10 million technology-ready MSMEs, give high importance to adoption of various online identities such as email, websites, social media etc.

Over 80 percent of these MSMEs prefer .com domain names as their online destination. Micro, small as well as medium sized businesses find online media relevant for their business. This is true   especially for MSMEs that engage in Travel/ Trade and Logistics, IT/ITES, BFSI and Education businesses.

The report further finds that amongst various online tools, micro and small enterprises rank websites highest in relevance. There are about 1.35 million small and micro enterprises that own websites and that number is likely to grow 3 times its size to about 4 million by 2020.

The key step towards creating a branded online presence is to register a domain name and the report describes the awareness and preference levels of various domains available in India. Clearly, .com domain not only has the highest top of mind recall (81 percent), but also, is the most preferred top-level domain (82 percent) for small, medium and micro enterprises in the country. The main reason for this is that .com domain names are universally used, trustworthy and easy to remember.

The report also highlights the adoption of social media, particularly amongst Micro (<10 employees) and medium sized (11-100 employees) organizations. However, as organization size increases (101 – 500 employee, 13 per cent), there seems to be lower relevance attached to social media.

This is probably because as an organization scales up, it becomes important to have a single branded destination such as a website to get discovered, which is integrated with various social media channels, which are useful for engagement.

The report elaborates on both current and future adoption rates across industry verticals for websites and online media. Retail vertical ranks lowest in adoption of online media. Of the 9 verticals, Retail, which comprises 20 per cent of the MSME universe, has only 4 percent adoption of website, whereas IT/ITES vertical which comprises 8 percent of the MSME universe tops the adoption of website with 36 percent.

MSMEs from retail and healthcare verticals, which show lower adoption of website in their business, cite several reasons like lack of tech savvy amongst their customers, their perception of relevance of websites only for larger organizations, the myth that their business does not need a website and lack of adoption by their peers. The table below provides interesting insight for non-adoption.

700,000 branded emails and this number is likely to grow by around 20% in a year’s time to 830,000 users. While IT/ITES, Education and Travel / Trade and Logistics lead the pack of corporate email id adopters, adoption in near future will be driven by Manufacturing, Healthcare and Retail verticals.

Manufacturing, BFSI and Retail are amongst the key verticals that will witness a faster adoption of websites by MSMEs in the near future. Website adoption rates in these verticals are lower as compared to other verticals. MSMEs engaged in IT/ITES, will see a relatively lower rate of adoption of website because there is high adoption there already.

The research finds that most MSMEs feel that having an online presence can help in enhancing the professional image of their organization in front of their client. Hence, the next time new business cards are printed, they are likely to have a .com domain name.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Technology is the secret sauce for India’s transformation: Jayant Sinha

Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance reiterated the government’s firm commitment of transformation of India. Addressing valedictory session at IAMAI’s 10^th Digital India Summit, Sinha said, “There are 3 vectors for the transformation – Internet & Mobile; Green Technology and Transportation. All of them are inter-linked and technology is the secret sauce for India’s transformation.”

According to Sinha because of the Jan Dhan programme, every Indian can have a bank account. If you look at it, it is technology which is driving most of the programmes of the government. The Social Security Platform, which the government is working on is dependent on technology. Technology will be pivotal for Social Security, as it will enable a transparent system with digital audit trail. He also stressed that protecting and safeguarding privacy of the data was paramount and the government will ensure it is protected.

Sinha highlighted once the architecture of the Social Security Platform is ready, the government will be reaching to various stakeholders for inputs. Touching on start-ups and Net Neutrality, Sinha said, “India is going to be the entrepreneur engine catering to 6 billion people of the world. Access to high speed broadband should be available to every citizen, without any restrictions.”

Earlier during the day, addressing the India Digital Summit, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, M.P. – Rajya Sabha, said, “Net neutrality as an issue was there for a while. What the regulator has done is great but differential pricing has not been defined properly.”

According to Saurabh Garg, Jt. Secretary, Ministry of Finance, more than 95 percent consumer transactions is cash form. Non-cash payments still to penetrate rural areas.

“There are various benefits of cashless transactions as the printing cost will also go down which is a win-win situation for both. Infrastructure of being able to use cards. Point of Sale machine needs to be get on place. There are many issues related to Security like theft which we will have to look into going forward,” expressed Garg.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Things start-up aspirants should keep in mind: Experts

According to Nasscom, with more than 4, 200 new-age companies India ranks third among the global start-up ecosystems. There is no doubt that Start-up ecosystem in India growing at a higher pace and due to increase in the penetration of internet and smartphones, the opportunity in this space is getting bigger.

Every year many entrepreneur aspirants are trying their hands in start-ups and now it’s a trending in India, as we can see that we climbed from 4^th spot in 2014 to the 3^rdposition by end of 2015.

To understand the start-up ecosystem in India and what should be the do’s and don’ts for aspiring start-ups. IAMAI conducted a special session titled ‘Entrepreneurship in India’ at its 10^th Digital India Summit. The session was moderated by Jaspreet Bindra, SVP, Digital Innovation & E-commerce, Mahindra Group.

The experience

According to Amit Jain, Founder & CEO CarDekho, people start chasing investor at the initial stage instead of making strategy to earn profit, and that is something which is fundamentally wrong.

Speaking about the start-up ecosystem, Jain said, “Funding should not be the intent of doing business. We have to understand that funding is for scaling the business, not for running a business.”

However, we can’t deny the fact that all start-up can’t taste success. There are start-ups who performed really well and establish themselves as the leaders in this ecosystem, on the other side many start-ups couldn’t even stand on the ground properly.

Jain opined that failure is part of entrepreneur journey and it makes an entrepreneur stronger. He mentioned that he failed 9 times before tasting the success of CarDekho and thus one should learn to celebrate the failure as well.

Dippak Khurana, Founder & CEO Vserv believes that to start a business, first of all one should understand that whatever problem you are trying to solve there should be a market for it.

Sharing his thought Khurana said, “It is very important to understand that as I enrol a customer am I going to improve my platform or my product by at least 10X. Are there features that do not exist today, but over the next 2-3 years do I have the checklist ready with me of the gaps that exist today and can I start systematically. If my product and offering can improve by 10X, so would be the market penetration of the business.”

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Facebook withdraws Free Basics from India

Facebook had cut off its Free Basics service for India three days after the country’s telecom watchdog said no to discriminatory pricing of data content.

“Free Basics is no longer available to people in India,” a Facebook spokesperson said in an e-mail statement to IANS. No further comment was offered.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in its February 8 order had disallowed service providers from offering or charging discriminatory tariffs for data services purely on the basis of content.

Free Basics, for which Facebook had tied up with Reliance Communications, is an app that promises free access to the Internet for a host of basic services on topics like news, health, travel, sports, jobs and communication.

As the watchdog was examining the issue of Net neutrality, Reliance Communications had kept the free basic service offering on hold.

“As directed by the TRAI, the commercial launch of Freebasics has been kept in abeyance till they consider all details and convey a specific approval,” a Reliance Communications spokesperson had said in a statement December.

Reacting to the TRAI order, Facebook said it was “disappointed with the outcome” but will continue its “efforts to eliminate barriers and give the unconnected an easier path to the Internet”.

Later, however, the developments after the watchdog order took a curious turn.

On Thursday, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had to disown a controversial statement from his colleague that Free Basics was like colonialism, alluding that the same was good for Indians.

“Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?” Facebook board member Marc Andreessen had tweeted that was later wihdrawn with an apology.

“I want to respond to Marc Andreessen’s comments about India yesterday. I found the comments deeply upsetting, and they do not represent the way Facebook or I think at all,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Facebook announces auto captioning, video updates for ads

Social media giant Facebook on Wednesday introduced new features for video ads on its website, including automated captioning for sound-off videos and other updates to help advertisers better use its platform.

“Creatively, mobile video draws on the craft skills and experience we have developed as an industry building for film, TV and the traditional web and compresses them into a new form designed to immediately connect with an audience,” Mark D’Arcy, chief creative officer, creative shop of Facebook, said in a statement.

The new tool generates captions for video ads and delivers them to the advertiser within the ad creation tool to review, edit and save to their video ad.

The other updates include reporting and buying options for video ads.

Advertisers will now be able to see the percentage of people who have viewed their videos with sound globally.

In a research, Facebook found that when feed-based mobile video ads play loudly when people aren’t expecting it, 80 percent react negatively towards the platform and the advertiser.

By including captions, advertisers can increase video view time by an average of 12 percent, the findings showed.

“Numerous studies and campaigns have made it clear that capturing people’s attention at the very beginning of a video is the most effective way to advertise in a mobile feed environment,” Matt Idema, vice president, monetization product marketing at Facebook, said.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Experience is the new brand & customer journeys are the new product: Umang Bedi

According to eMarketer, advertising via mobile phones and tablets went up by 200 percent. Digital Marketing industry is pegged at $68 billion. The digital media industry is booming high with 40 percent growth rate, but the most remarkable point is that will this growth rate going to be stagnant in the coming years?

According to Umang Bedi, Managing Director, Adobe, is the company that is immersed in changing the world into digital spheres by providing technologies to brands.

Speaking at the IAMAI’s 10^th Digital India Summit, Bedi said, “The world is moving at an extremely fast pace of creating these magical experiences that will change the way we think about content and data. We can go to places where we have never been before; we can see things we have never seen before, and we can actually imagine the unimagined.”

Being the second largest market in the world for smartphones, in India people are consuming content on multiple devices, but this the only one side of the story. Unfolding the other side of story Bedi mentioned that the new generation wants personalized experiences on their smartphones.

“When you think about the amount of data one can use on the cloud or the device, it is amazing. Today the provider knows everything about my likes, my dislikes, my purchases, and my profile among other things, so when you combine these two: connected consumer and data exposure, what we see is digital disruption happening”, opined Bedi.

Bedi believes that today experiences matter more than ever before. With the evolving technology, the powerful experiences have changed the way people interact, entertain and work along with the way we deal with the world around us.

“A great experience has four qualities: It needs to be compelling: engaging and attracting the audience on all devices, it also needs to be personal: It needs to know its customer: it needs to be useful: It needs you to deliver things quickly; It needs to ubiquitous: it needs to be present everywhere,” added Bedi.

As far as the business is concern, Bedi pointed out that when you think about experience led businesses – they didn’t get here overnight, they got here over a period of time. Today with the proliferation of digital technology, we kind of moved to the experience led businesses. When you think about experience in products and commodities, it has become absolutely redundant.

According to Bedi, the real differentiator is the experience. He opined that as a business, it is important to start thinking about the entire customer journey, while thinking about that experience.

“How many of you can buy a hotel room anywhere? You can buy a travel air ticket anywhere. Why you would go to a certain provider is because of that experience. That’s where it’s just not been mere product to service, it’s been commoditized. Truly in my mind, experience is the new brand and interestingly customer journeys are the new product”, commented Bedi.

Over the years, consumer expectations are rationing up. Consumer want instant access to instant information with the ability to buy whatever product or service they want to consume, whenever, on whatever device, with all of it being a consistent and continuous experience.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

This is the right time for start-up says Kunal Shah

With more than 4, 200 new-age companies, India ranks third among the global start-up ecosystem. In the past few years, Indian technology start-ups landscape has seen a tremendous growth with the emergence of innovative start-ups and creative entrepreneurs.

According to Kunal Shah Founder & CEO of Freecharge & Chairman IAMAI, doing a start-up is not an easy task. Speaking at the IAMAI’s 10^th Digital India Summit, Shah said, “Ten years of Digital India Summit is quite fascinating. The world of start-ups is great, but the survival of a start-up is difficult and that is a reality.”

The total funding in Indian based start-ups was estimated to be nearly $5 billion for the year 2015. But Shah believes that chasing funds is not the key to success. Companies, who have not even started are talking about raising funds, which makes no sense.

Another major challenge that Shah mentioned was the trend of hiring excess people in companies. “We still have a fascination to hire thousands of people in the company. I don’t think anyone can become innovative with lot of human capital. Abundance is something which is against innovation. In such case 80 percent of the energy goes towards solving in-house issues related to human capital, instead of paying attention on competition or industry challenges.”

As the world is getting more and more connected the self-life of any business is now probably 4-5 years. If you’re not competent, somebody else will do it faster than you can. That is something most people are not prepared for.

Instead of chasing funds, Shah suggested that one should try to understand its TG. It is very important to spend time with actual customer to understand the demand in the market, which will eventually help in making strategy.

With 150 million smartphone users, Shah believes that now is the right time for start-ups, as actual internet revolution starts now.

“This is the perfect time for a start-up, but if you don’t understand the ecosystem your success rate will remain low. Business model needs to be much stronger and deeper to battle some of the things that exist today. I don’t see enough quality coming. I see very shallow approaches in the start-up ecosystem. It’s not enough to attend such events and read books hoping to create some magic with your start-up,” concluded Shah.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Internet should not be monopoly of few: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Lauding the telecom watchdog’s decision on discriminatory pricing, Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said internet is one of the finest creations of the human mind and it should not become the monopoly of a few.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in a much-awaited regulatory order on Monday had said that no service provider would be allowed to charge “discriminatory tariffs” for data services on the basis of content.

“We very much appreciate this decision of TRAI whereby differential tariff in case of data services has been rejected. The view of our government from the beginning has been very clear, which I have also articulated in the Parliament, that is, internet is one of the finest creations of human mind and it should not become the monopoly of few,” Prasad told reporters here.

“Differential pricing on data, whether it is Free Basics or any other mode, is plainly not acceptable,” the minister said adding that the internet “must be available without discrimination.”

The watchdog has also called for a fine of Rs.50,000 per day for each act of contravention, subject to a cap of Rs.50 lakh.

Prasad further said the government fully respected the freedom of expression and discourse on social media and interned adding that “Our government is committed towards digital inclusion.”

He said “that the government was expanding Digital India into every nook and corner of the country, and is taking extraordinary steps to empower the people through technology, to create a knowledge economy, the very concept is to bring about digital inclusion.”

The sector regulator’s move was seen as a setback to offerings such as Facebook’s Free Basics and Airtel Zero.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Can we use cable TV network to provide connectivity to people: RS Sharma

By issuing a new set of norms barring discriminatory prices for data services, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has become the first telecom regulator globally to ban zero rating plans like Facebook’s Free Basics and Airtel Zero.

TRAI is all set to use cable TV network in a bigger way to provide connectivity to people. Addressing a keynote at 10th India Digital Summit, R.S. Sharma, Chairman, TRAI mentioned about the necessity of augmenting telecom and digital infrastructure to meet growing demand of a truly digital India.

“With more spectrums to be released, connectivity will improve. Seamless connectivity is the essence of true digitization. With Digital Locker; e-Sign and Aadhar, India is the only country in the world to have such advanced technology. India is also the only country to have the technicality of checking identity of a person digitally through Aadhar,” said Sharma.

On Differential Pricing, Sharma informed that with the digital landscape changing constantly, TRAI will be reviewing it every 2 years. Drive tests are regularly done by TRAI. He also mentioned that all tests have been done very objectively. It was done in a transparent manner and if there are any more suggestions for transparency TRAI is certainly ready to look at it. The next test drive is likely to be in April 2016.

He further added that telecom companies have started raising objections pertaining to consulting on the roads TRAI is using. He wrapped up the point saying, “We have started that process also. So this time when we did the test, we have also taken their suggestions into account.”

According to Sharma, in India there are 100 million homes with cable televisions. If all these 100 million connections can be converted into cable TV pipes, they can deliver 10 megabit per second.

“Can we use cable TV network to provide connectivity to people? We have made recommendations to the government on that. We are working with the department of telecommunications,” he said, adding: Providing connectivity access to our people is extremely important,” concluded Sharma.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

TRAI Regulation on Differential Pricing Is A Welcome Move: IAMAI

TRAI’s regulation on Differential Pricing “Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016”, which has been published today, has been welcomed as a bold and fair move by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

In a very clear and transparent ruling, TRAI has explicitly said “no service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content” and “No Service provider shall enter into any agreement or contract, by whatever name called, with any person, natural or legal, that has the effect of discriminatory tariffs for data services being offered or charged to the consumer on the basis of content.” This move will ensure that the basic tenets of Net Neutrality are followed in India.

The association had taken a ‘no exception standpoint’ against differential pricing. This ruling vindicates the associations stand on the issue. The internet Start-up eco-system and the internet user community are delighted.

IAMAI has also welcomed the move that the TRAI will be the ultimate authority to decide the cases of violations of this ruling and that the decision of the authority is final and binding.

However, the association has a slight concern on the exception and the exception to the exception as to how this entire thing will pan out. The association hopes that the exceptions to the rule will not be misused by the TSPs. The exception states “…regulation shall not apply to tariffs for data services over closed electronic communications networks…”

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

TRAI says no to discriminatory pricing, kills Free Basics

In a move seen as an endorsement of net neutrality and a setback to offerings such as Facebook’s Free Basics and Airtel Zero, the telecom watchdog on Monday said no to discriminatory pricing of data content.

“No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content,” the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a much-awaited regulatory order.

“No service provider shall enter into any arrangement, agreement or contract, by whatever name called, with any person, natural or legal, that has the effect of discriminatory tariffs for data services being offered or charged to the consumer on the basis of content,” the watchdog said.

Addressing a news conference after calling for the order to be published in the official Gazette, the watchdog chairman R.S. Sharma said the basic premise based on which the new norm has been notified is to make the Internet available to a large number of people.

“We have also kept provision for exception in grave emergencies,” he said.

Sharma also sought to make a difference between the term “differential pricing” or “zero rating” that is normally used vis-a-vis “discriminatory pricing”. “We have used the term discriminatory pricing. Essentially we are saying that Internet pipe should be agnostic to packets,” he said.

“We have also kept provision for exception in grave emergencies. We have also made exception in case of closed networks, which are not Internet. Anything on Internet cannot be differentially priced. That is the broad point we have made.”

Crucial to the issue of Net neutrality, differential pricing or zero-rating is a practice where Internet service providers do not take into account the content downloaded by subscribers from some platforms while computing their usage tariff. These become free or differentially priced.

Those batting for Net neutrality want a uniformity in such tariff. But those on the other side of the debate feel this may be impossible because service providers have to invest huge amounts of money on infrastructure and different bandwidths call for different level of investments.

This appears to have been addressed by the watchdog.

“No service provider shall charge differential charges based on source, destination, application and content,” the TRAI chairman said.

The watchdog has also called for a fine of Rs.50,000 per day for each act of contravention, subject to a cap of Rs.50 lakh.

The watchdog’s stand was much awaited in the light of Free Basics service and Airtel Zero, which are apps promising access to the Internet by providing them a range of some basic services for free such as news, health, travel, jobs, sports, communication and other information.

The issue ran into a controversy as well when the major part of the responses to a TRAI paper calling for comments on Net neutrality only spoke about differential pricing and support for Free Basics.

The watchdog did not take kindly to it — saying most of the responses did not address the larger issue — and shot and stern letter to Facebook.

The watchdog tended to agree that differential pricing had the potential to expand and accelerate Internet access, and said as much in its order.

“On the other hand, differential tariffs result in classification of subscribers based on content they want to access,” it said, adding this could go against the non-discriminatory tariff, disadvantage small content providers, create entry barriers and stifle innovation.

The watchdog also said differential pricing violates the basic principles of the Internet, turn the service providers into gatekeepers, which, in turn, goes against the freedom of speech, expression and media pluralism.

Applauding TRAI’s move, Software Freedom Law Centre, India, said: “Differential pricing runs counter to this fundamental premise, which has had no small role to play in the Internet’s explosive growth. In this context, TRAI’s latest Regulations are a big step in the right direction, and secure India a position amongst the select few nations to have accorded legislative respect for the principle of network neutrality.”

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Indian telecom regulator declines discriminatory data pricing

The Indian telecom regulator on Monday said no service provider should offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data on the basis of content.

“No service provider shall enter into any arrangement, agreement or contract, by whatever name called, with any person, natural or legal, that has the effect of discriminatory tariffs for data services being offered or charged to the consumer on the basis of content,” the sector regulator said in the notification.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman R.S. Sharma said: “No service provider shall charge differential charges based on source, destination, application and content.”

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Twitter to soon get Facebook-like algorithmic timeline

In an attempt to bring tweets to more people across the globe, micro blogging site Twitter is planning to introduce an algorithmic timeline like Fabebook as soon as next week, a media report said.

The timeline will reorder tweets based on what Twitter’s algorithm thinks people most want to see, BuzzFeed reported on Saturday.

“Before today, you could see individual Tweets but it was hard to discover stories and conversations happening on Twitter without signing in. Now, you can check out a news story as it unfolds,” Paul Lambert product manager of Twitter, wrote on the micro blogging website’s blog on February 2.

The home timeline will be rolled out to people across 23 countries, including India, who visit the twitter.com homepage on their mobile devices.

However, it is unclear whether Twitter will force users to use the algorithmic feed, or it will merely be an option.

Twitter is also planning to expand a refreshed twitter.com homepage, which is already available in the US and Japan, to 23 other countries.

The micro blogging site has been looking for ways to elevate popular content for quite some time.

In November, the company killed off the traditional term favourites and replaced it with likes. An algorithmic feed would be, to date, the boldest change so far under Jack Dorsey, who took the reins of Twitter as permanent CEO in October last year.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Myntra’s new campaign for its brand Roadster

Myntra’s brand Roadster launched a brand campaign to enhance its position as the trusted outdoor companion for the young and restless. Tailored for both Digital and TV, the brand film captures the spirit of Roadsters as they follow their own unique reasons to be on the road.

Sharing his views on the campaign, Abhishek Verma, Head, Myntra Fashion Brands said, “Roadster has always believed in helping people discover new grounds and create lasting experiences. This new campaign further strengthens brand’s identity as consumers’ trusted outdoor companion. We’re delighted with the way Roadster has performed, having received immense popularity & love and today is the top-selling brand on Myntra.”

The online version of the film was released a week ago and has already received tremendous response by brand enthusiasts, quickly crossing 2.5 million views and counting.

The film reveals three instances of Roadsters pursuing unusual passions on the road less travelled. A non-linear narrative stitches together three unique instances: a free spirit collecting his own brand of experiences along rocky coastlines, a ranger on a tiger census making her own trail through the forest, and an intrepid duo braving a desert storm to deliver relief supplies.

The underlying message is a simple one –the road is both a journey and destination for those in search of unique experiences.

Roadster is known for its innovative campaigns from the past such as the GTFO (Get The F*** Out) campaign with actor Ranveer Singh and the ‘Pocketman’ campaign – a live human experiment to interactively demonstrate how a person could live entirely out of their jeans for 48 hours.

It’s good to note that Pocketman’s innovative campaign also won Bronze at the Effies 2015 in Mumbai last weekin the coveted ‘Experiential Marketing’ category. Today Roadster has established itself as the bestselling brand on Myntra through a product range (including denims, trousers, shirts, tees, footwear and more for men & women) that is rapidly growing in popularity among its young audience.

Myntra has partnered with over 2,000 leading fashion and lifestyle brands in the country such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, Lee, Levi’s, Arrow, Mango, Jealous 21, Diesel, CAT, Harley Davidson, Ferrari, US Polo, FabIndia, Biba and many more to offer a wide range in latest branded fashion and lifestyle wear. The App services close to 20,000 pin codes across the country.

With the largest in-season product catalogue, 100% authentic products, Cash on Delivery and 30-day Exchange/Return policy, today Myntra is the preferred shopping destination in India.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

2.5 lakh e-commerce jobs likely in 2016: Assocham

E-commerce is likely to generate during 2016 nearly 2.5 lakh jobs in India’s online retail, including temporary employees, supply chain, logistics and ancillary units, an apex trade association has said.

According to estimates, released on Friday by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), 2.5 million people will be required to work within the e-commerce industry by 2016.

Assocham said in a research paper that India’s e-commerce market was worth about $3.8 billion in 2009, it went up to $17 billion in 2014 and to $23 billion in 2015 and was expected to touch a whopping $38 billion-mark by 2016.

The paper shows that majority of e-commerce departments and businesses have increased their turnover since last year and present a huge opportunity for the industry to develop further.

According to Assocham, e-commerce industry will be looking over the next 12 months for more people to add to about 3,50,000 who work for it currently. Increasing smartphone ownership and investment from retailers are fuelling the rapid growth of m-commerce in India.

“The hiring activities are expected to grow by over 60-65 percent in this sector and may help create between 5-8 lakh employment opportunities in two to three years,” Assocham secretary general D.S. Rawat said.

The paper further stated that a considerable amount of staff also work in areas supporting the e-commerce industry, including distribution and delivery, customer support and website development.

“Increasing internet and mobile penetration, growing acceptability of online payments and favourable demographics have provided the e-commerce sector in India the unique opportunity to connect with their customers,” the paper said.

“India is successful in becoming the largest e-commerce market in the world. The rapid transformation in logistics, innovation, consumerism and productivity prove to be an interesting case study for other emerging economies,” Rawat added.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital