Internet | Business Upturn

From Ayushmann Khurrana’s ‘Bala’ challenge to Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘AskSRK’ twitter session, top 7 times Bollywood celebrities took on internet trends

Siddharth Chavan — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 08:17:52 +0000

Bollywood celebs are more than simply performers in the ever-changing world of social media, they are trendsetters, influencers, and, on occasion, the driving force behind online sensations. Over the past year, our favorite celebrities have participated in a variety of online challenges, memes, and trends, creating a buzz that has spread over the digital landscape.

Let’s take an exciting voyage through 7 occasions in which Bollywood superstars not only embraced but dominated online trends, leaving us laughing, shocked, and unquestionably hooked!

1) Ayushmann Khurrana’s ‘Bala’ Challenge:

Bollywood star Ayushmann Khurrana kicked off the year with his analysis of the ‘Bala’ challenge, inspired by his blockbuster song from the film “Bala.” The strange dance moves went viral on social media, with fans and even celebrities joining in, making it the dancing craze of the season.

2) Ranveer Singh’s ‘Pawri Ho Rahi Hai’ Moment:

You know it will be great when Ranveer Singh latches onto a trend! The ‘Pawri Ho Rahi Hai’ meme went viral, and Ranveer Singh’s hilarious take on it, packed with his characteristic energy, had us all in stitches.

3) Kartik Aaryan’s ‘KOKO’ Challenge:

Fans imitated Kartik Aaryan’s contagious dancing steps in his ‘KOKO’ challenge, which took over Instagram reels and stories. The challenge not only highlighted Kartik’s fun side but also brought togetherness and joy to the online community.

4) Alia Bhatt’s ‘Prada’ Challenge:

Alia Bhatt wowed the internet with her ‘Prada’ challenge, in which she effortlessly moved to the iconic song’s beats. Her engaging performance forced fans and fellow celebrities to hop on the ‘Prada’ bandwagon, causing it to become a social media craze.

5) Shilpa Shetty Kundra Takes ‘Thumka Challenge’:

What is a weekend without tapping to the beats and grooving like no one’s watching? Bollywood sensation Shilpa Shetty Kundra did just that on Saturday. Shilpa stunned admirers with a video of her sexy dances, which had the Internet drooling.

6) Varun Dhawan’s ‘Suno Sasurjee’ Meme:

Netizens created amusing memes showing the actor’s expressive face in response to Varun Dhawan’s ‘Suno Sasurjee’ meme. Varun embraced the trend, uploading some of the most amusing memes on his profile, transforming it into a wonderful online spectacle.

7) Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘AskSRK’ Twitter Session:

With his ‘AskSRK’ Twitter session, the King of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, took on the internet in a new way. Fans bombarded the site with questions, and SRK’s funny and touching comments went viral and demonstrated the power of direct contact between celebrities and their fans.

Internet connectivity ushers in a new dawn in the country: PM Modi

Yakita Somani — Sun, 28 Aug 2022 11:05:29 +0000

New digital entrepreneurs are emerging in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday during his ‘Mann ki Baat’ address. Through Digital India, 4G services that were previously only available in major cities have now been extended to every village. “Internet connectivity has brought a new dawn,” Modi stated.

Modi said on the 92nd episode of ‘Mann ki Baat,’ “Like, earlier people used to be happy when electricity reached the village; now, in new India, the same happiness is felt when 4G reaches there.”

“There has been a new sunrise in the form of 4G in the remote areas of Arunachal and the North East; internet connectivity has brought a new dawn,” Modi added.

He claimed that Digital India has brought facilities that were previously only available in major cities to every village. As a result, the number of new digital entrepreneurs in the country is increasing.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister shed some light on the fight against malnutrition. “Millets have many benefits, not just one,” he said. They reduce the risk of diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease in addition to obesity. They are also beneficial in preventing stomach and liver problems.

PM Modi also spoke about the country’s 75th anniversary of independence. He stated in his address, “We have witnessed the country’s collective might on this special occasion of Amrit Mahotsav and Independence Day. There has been an epiphany. There were so many differences in such a large country, but when it came to hoisting the tricolour, everyone seemed to be in the same spirit. People came forwards, becoming the vanguard of the tricolour’s pride. The spirit of the country could also be seen in the cleanliness and vaccination campaigns.”

J&K’s internet connectivity remains active on independence day for first time in 3 years

Sneha Sengupta — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 14:59:19 +0000

The Jammu and Kashmir residents did not face any difficulty due to internet connectivity while marshalling the service network for the first time in the past three years on this Independence Day.

“There is neither internet shutdown nor #restrictions on the eve of the #IndependenceDay,” Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar mentioned in a tweet.

Earlier the internet services were pawned off on Independence Day and Republic Day in order to ascertain security drills. However, the services were not snapped in 2018 while governor N N Vohra’s tenure.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh averred: the situation long Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir remained under control in the last year due to the vigilance and indomitable valour of Indian Armed Forces.

While addressing the armed forces on Independence Day eve through a radio network, the Defence Minister asserted, “The situation along LoC in Jammu and Kashmir remained under control in the last one year due to our vigilance and indomitable valour. Ceasefire violations have also come down since Feb 2021. In Eastern Ladakh, efforts are being made to resolve the differences in the LAC through dialogue with China. The process of disengagement has been completed at some places.”

Singh added “continuous efforts being made to increase the participation of women in all branches of the Indian Army. The first batch of Women Military Police has been inducted into the Indian Army.”

Elon Musk’s blisteringly fast internet service is on its way: What we are aware of ?

Aryan Jakhar — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 14:19:47 +0000

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has confirmed that Starlink, his satellite-based broadband service, will be available worldwide beginning in August. Musk announced that, with the exception of the North and South Poles, Starlink internet connectivity will be available globally starting in August at a virtual event at the Mobile World Congress.

Where can I get Starlink right now?

According to Musk, Starlink’s broadband service is already in the test phase in around 12 nations, with more being added every month. There is no indication on when the service will be accessible in India, but Starlink’s broadband internet service is now available in the United States, Australia, and a few other countries.

What is the current user count for Starlink?

Starlink has around 69,000 active clients, according to Musk. “Within the next 12 months, we will have a few hundred thousand more users, probably over 500,000,” Musk stated.

What is Starlink and how does it work?

SpaceX, Musk’s space exploration enterprise, has launched around 1,800 low-orbit satellites because these satellites are in low orbit, they have lower latency, or the time it takes for messages to travel between the satellites and Earth. Starlink is a quicker internet service provider because of this. It also makes it easier for Starlink to deliver internet service in remote locations where it has previously been difficult to do so.

What method will Starlink use to get to your house?

By forming alliances, for a wider reach, SpaceX and Musk will collaborate with major telecom operators around the world. “We have two fairly important collaborations with major country carriers that I’d want to be able to announce now,” Musk said at the MWC event, “but obviously we defer to our partners to make any announcement.” He also stated that SpaceX is in talks with a number of other carriers about providing Starlink service.

India stands below average in Cybersecurity: National Privacy Test

Govindraj Muttepawar — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 12:42:46 +0000

Scoring with just 51.2 points out of 100, India has ranked 19th out of 21 countries in the National Privacy Test conducted recently by global VPN service provider namely NordVPN. India scored 14 points below global average.

Only Turkey in Japan featured below India in the study which surveyed 48,063 respondents from 192 countries on their digital habits privacy awareness and digital risk tolerance.

“51.8% of respondents said they would buy a Netflix or Spotify account if they found it offered on eBay at a lower price than the official one compared to only 11% who would do such a thing, such accounts are typically stolen accounts,” the study mentions.

“All of the countries pay little attention to the terms of services in apps and services they use. Black India is worst among them regarding this issue there is search finds as a result Indians scored just 37% in the section that evaluated digital habits Indian citizens should also reconsider their digital habits while many global corporations outsource tech-related roles to India the countries overall score is 14 points below the average,” the study says.

When it comes to theoretical knowledge of cybersecurity Indians scored 57.6 percent. Indians respondents particularly scored strong in knowing how to set strong passwords at 78% score but the countries flags in social media use the study nodes and Indians scored low 36% on awareness of information that should not be shared on social media platforms.

Elon Musk’s internet service ‘Starlink’ faces hurdles in India, says Report

Nitin Anand — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 06:35:21 +0000

The Broadband India Forum has written to the TRAI and the ISRO to block Elon Musk’s SpaceX Technologies from pre-selling the beta version of internet provider ‘Starlink’ in India.

The Broadband India Forum, which is an representing the likes of Amazon, Hughes, Google, Microsoft and Facebook has written to the Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) asking them to stop SpaceX from pre-selling the beta version of its ‘Starlink’ internet services in India. Forum claimed that SpaceX didn’t have licence or authorisation from the government to offer such services in the country.

Forum wrote to authority stating, “We request you to urgently intervene to protect fair competition and adherence to existing policy and regulatory norms,” Broadband India Forum president TV Ramachandran said in the letters, as quoted by ANI.

The forum also added that Starlink didn’t have its own ground or earth stations in India nor satellite frequency authorisation from ISRO and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) required to offer beta services in the country, the report added.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has offered pre order of beta version internet services in India for a “fully refundable deposit” of $99 (Rs 7,000). The service competes with other satellite communication (satcom) services such as Bharti Group and the UK government-owned OneWeb (aiming for a mid-2022 launch) and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.

SpaceX’s beta programme is offering broadband connectivity even in urban areas, such as the Delhi-Noida Direct Flyway or Delhi-Jaipur Expressway, as per its website.

Google to pay $76 million to French Publishers for snippets in search

Devanshu Singla — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 06:08:23 +0000

Google has agreed to pay $76 million over three years to a group of 121 French news publishers to end a more than year-long copyright spat.

The agreement between Google and the Alliance de la presse d’information generale (APIG), a lobby group representing most major French publishers, was announced previously, but financial terms had not been disclosed.

The move infuriated many other French outlets, which deemed it unfair and opaque.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) and other French news providers that do not belong to the group are not part of the agreement and are pressing forward with various actions against Google.

The French documents include a framework agreement in which Google will pay $22 million annually for three years to a group of 121 national and local French news publications after signing individual licensing agreements with each.

The second document is a settlement agreement under which Google agrees to pay $10 million to the same group in exchange for the publishers’ commitment not to sue over copyright claims for three years.

Publishers would commit to an upcoming new product called Google News Showcase that would allow publishers to curate content and provide limited access to paywalled stories.

Google declined to comment on terms of the deal.

Pressure is mounting on Google globally to pay for news content, as the industry’s advertising and revenues have plummeted with the rise of digital platforms.

French publishers had little choice but to go along with the deal, three sources close to the matter, citing pressures from shareholders.

The same sources said some publishers were upset Google refused to provide access to data showing how much money it generates from news. These opaque agreements don’t ensure the fair treatment of all news publishers they said

E-commerce in India on a surge: Jio-WhatsApp collaboration could be a boost

Sanah Shah — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 06:00:41 +0000

India’s internet economy is ready to draw in large investments as various companies including food-delivery startup Zomato, courier service provider Delhivery, Walmart-owned Flipkart, and e-tailer Nykaa are anticipated to enter the public market in 2021.

“More than $60 billion has been invested in India’s internet startups in the past five years, with around $12 billion in 2020 alone. Many of these leaders, which operate businesses ranging from food delivery and e-commerce to online insurance, are now on the cusp of listing,” HSBC Global Research said in a February 2021 report.

Citi Research in January reported that it expects public market listings to hike in 2021, support by bettering profitability and scale in many verticals, over-the-top (OTT) content, music, video conferencing, and others.

Internet sub-segments such as e-commerce and edtech, integrated with numerous wireless subscribers and improved service quality by telecom operators are likely to increase growth, according to analysts. HSBC analysts calculate that the total value of the country’s internet economy could cross $180 billion by 2025, while analysts at Citi Research estimate the market to be worth $639 billion by 2030.

E-commerce is presumed to guide the growth in the internet economy. Analysts said while Amazon.com Inc and Flipkart control majority of the space with 80% market share, India’s e-commerce is still advancing. The entry of Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio Platforms Ltd, and its online retail business, could make competition harder and threaten existing players.

Jio Platforms hosts Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) telecom business Jio and multiple other digital services such as online grocery delivery, healthcare, payments, gaming, cloud.

On 18th January, it was reported that Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd plans to implant its e-commerce app JioMart into WhatsApp within six months, bringing access to the 400 million users of India’s most popular messaging service to order products without having to exit the app.

“Reliance Jio is set to emerge as a significant competitive threat, along with multiple vertical e-commerce players and hundreds of brands that are now delivering direct to consumers. We believe Reliance Jio, a relative newcomer, will become a stronger competitor, because of its offline retail presence (over 12,000 stores across 7,000 cities),” HSBC said.

As the telecom business holds 410.8 million customers, Jio Platforms can dominant market share by providing other internet services to these subscribers. According to Citi Research, WhatsApp may launch its mini-programme framework, or lite version, with Jio’s suite of apps including for e-commerce, entertainment and gaming, under the Jio Platforms-Facebook Inc deal signed in April 2020 for Rs 43,574 crore.

The e-commerce infiltration in India is just around 10% and only 30% of internet users transact online, JioMart-WhatsApp collaboration could lead to online grocery delivery services provider to upgrade coverage in unentered areas, according to Citi.

Mini programs can be understood as lightweight applications where users stay on the main app without being redirected out of the app for e-commerce transactions, booking lifestyle services, or playing online games. Mini apps have gained extreme popularity in China. Affordable smartphones will also boost growth for India’s internet economy. Jio’s intends to launch an entry-level and low-cost smartphone in a partnership with Google LLC will give stimulus to the country’s 4G internet usage.

Internet and Mobile Association of India announces ‘Tool-Kit’ for self-regulation

Sanah Shah — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 11:07:28 +0000

The Government of India has said it will issue a regulation code for OTT (over-the-top) platforms shortly. 17 streaming services have grouped up under the protection of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) to announce the adoption of an Implementation Toolkit which according to them, takes ahead the Universal Self-Regulation Code the body had launched in September and which was declined by the government.

The signatories are ZEE5, Viacom 18 (VOOT), Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, SonyLIV, MX Player, Jio Cinema, Eros Now, ALTBalaji, Arre, Hoichoi, Hungama, Shemaroo, Discovery Plus, Aha and Lionsgate Play.

The Tool Kit has been operative since Wednesday 10 February 2021. IAMAI declared that the primary purpose of the Tool Kit is not only to account for procedures to bring into effect several provisions of the Code but also attend to feedback received from the ministry of information and broadcasting, on the issues of conflict of interest and prohibited content.

Amit Goenka, chair, digital entertainment committee, IAMAI said in a statement, “The adoption of the ‘Implementation Toolkit’ strengthens our commitment to augment consumer empowerment and creative excellence for the Indian entertainment industry to grow multifold. This Tool Kit amplifies all the critical points that were addressed in the Code signed last year and aims to address feedback received from the ministry particularly on strengthening the grievance redressal mechanism.”

“It further sets out clear tentpoles that the OCCPs (Online Curated Content Providers) need to undertake to achieve a common goal of entertaining millions of Indians responsibly,” he added.

According to provisions of the Tool Kit, signatories have decided to put together a grievance redressal system that will endorse timelines for grievance redressal and the composition of the grievance redressal bodies. The signatories will also include internal committees comprising of members from their content or programming, S&P and legal teams apart from appointing independent members to guide, as required.

Each signatory shall form an advisory panel to resolve complaints when the complainant is unfulfilled with the decision of the internal committee or requests an intensification. Platforms may empanel independent members who must have expertise in diverse fields (such as counsels, jurists, experts in a child, general psychology, gender issues, civil rights or animal rights) on their advisory panels.

Signatories have accepted to adhere to all applicable laws of the land such as those dictated under The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986, Indian Penal Code, 1860 and others, and producing training material to educate their various teams and departments about how to execute the same. Apart from educating consumers about the safety measures available, services will furnish annually to the IAMAI Secretariat details to ensure that they are yielding to the code.

IAMAI said it will consist an ‘IAMAI Secretariat for the Code’ including representatives of the signatories to the Code and the body itself which will manage the implementation of the Code and the Toolkit. The Secretariat shall develop a process to seek periodic updates from signatories regarding their progress with respect to compliance with the provisions of the Code, provide a list of online content specific applicable laws to the signatories, and keep them informed about any legislative or judicial developments in relation to the same.

Reddit raises $250 million, valuation hits $6 billion

Devanshu Singla — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 05:45:28 +0000

Reddit, the social media platform has now doubled its valuation to $6 billion after a recent round of funding. Reddit has raised $250 million in funding led by venture-capital firm Vy Capital, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. The company was valued at $3 billion when it last raised funds in February 2019, according to WSJ report.

“It’s a good market to fundraise, valuations are very high right now. It never hurts to raise money when there is an opportunity to do so and Reddit had a strong year” Reddit Chief Executive Steve Huffman told WSJ in an interview.

A Reddit thread, ‘r/wallstreetbets’, blew up after the users had decided to buy stocks of companies like GameStop that the Wall Street Hedge Funds were heavily short-selling. The price of these shares shot up in a matter of days leading to giant Hedge Funds incurring huge losses. Huffman also revealed that the advertising revenue of the company has increased by 90 per cent in the December quarter of 2020.

“We are also readying to double the number of Reddit employees this year,” Reddit said in a statement.

The company has further said that its recent developments include the acquisition of short-form video platform Dubsmash that offers ‘highly polished video creation tools’ to the platform and “encourages under-represented creators to find a home on Reddit.”

“We decided that now was the right opportunity to make strategic investments in Reddit including video, advertising, consumer products, and expanding into international markets,” the statement added.

4G Internet services restored in J&K after 18 months

Arnav Dogra — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 15:29:32 +0000

After a whole year and a half of suspension of high-speed internet, the Central Government today restored all 4G internet services in 18 districts of Jammu & Kashmir.

On August 5, 2019, Government of India had revoked the special status, or limited autonomy, granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu & Kashmir following which the state had been reorganized into two Union Territories (UTs) – Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The internet services in J&K, however, were then suspended by the Center as a security measure. Earlier this year, the UT administration extended the suspension of internet services saying it was important “in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state and for maintaining public order.”

Throughout 2020, broadband internet and slow mobile data were slowly restored step-by-step after the Supreme Court it was presented with cases that called the internet suspension as an assault on free speech and democratic rights.

The internet speed was, in an extension to the suspension, was restricted to 2G, except the districts of Ganderbal and Udhampur, where mobile internet connectivity was available without any speed restrictions.

Former Chief Minister of the state of Jammu & Kashmir tweeted congratulations to the people of the state.

4G Mubarak! For the first time since Aug 2019 all of J&K will have 4G mobile data. Better late than never.

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) February 5, 2021

Ludo King announces new features as it crosses 500 million downloads

Devanshu Singla — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 08:50:03 +0000

Ludo King has gained massive popularity over the last year and in December 2020 the app crossed 500 million downloads worldwide. Ludo King was developed by Indian studio Gametion Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Gametion said that, over the last nine months, Ludo King’s Daily Active Users (DAUs) increase from 15 million to 32 million daily, while its Monthly Average Users (MAUs) rose from 110 to 142 million.

Gametion Technologies has announced a range of new features for the game.

The company has come up with a new ‘Quick Ludo’ mode along with a five and six-player online feature. The six-player feature was initially available in the offline multiplayer mode only.

The Quick Ludo mode will allow the players to fast finish the game in a shorter time frame, around 5 minutes.

Vikash Jaiswal, the founder of Gametion Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and creator of Ludo King, said,” With these features, our players will have a thrilling gaming experience. The 6-player mode will help bond with family, friends, and their extended family group. In 2021, our aim is to widen our user base globally with our new in-app features and gameplay.”

Ludo King is currently played in 30 countries and is available in 14 languages, the company said.

Who is Jack Ma? Why is he talk of the internet?

Sanah Shah — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 17:05:11 +0000

Jack Ma is a Chinese business tycoon, investor and philanthropist who co-founded Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate and was the executive chairman of the same.

He began his journey as a billionaire when he became interested in the English language and worked as a tourist guide in his teens. According to a Forbes report, he rode his bicycle for 40 minutes to an international hotel in his hometown at 5 AM, to wait for tourists. He proposed a deal with the tourists that in return for showing them around, they would teach him English.

He applied for 30 jobs but got rejected every time. Later on, he took a job at a local university where he taught English and earned $15 per month. He began a translation company with a few of his friends.

Ma experienced the internet and its capability for the first time in 1995 when he travelled the US. After coming back to China, he decided to build something which would locate China on the world’s internet map.

He started China Pages, a yellow pages website that fell through but in June 1999 he founded Alibaba Group along with his wife and group of friends. In just one year, Alibaba raised $25 million from investors including Goldman Sachs and SoftBank.

After an exemplary trajectory of growth, Alibaba Group grew into other businesses such as movie production, healthcare, sports, retail and news media.

But what has happened that the internet world cannot stop talking about him?

According to a New York Times report, Jack Ma was labelled as a “villain”, an “evil capitalist” and a “bloodsucking ghost” as Chinese officials opened an antitrust investigation into Alibaba Group, contrary to their previous good relations.

The Alibaba founder has ‘disappeared’ which propelled conspiracy theories by netizens, in the spotlight due to his absence from social media, his last post is 10th October 2020.

Also, the Alibaba founder has been reported missing for over two months after he came in conflict with President Xi Jinping-led Central Communist Party government.

The tech giant was set to appear as a judge in the final episode of his own talent show, ‘Africa’s Business Heroes’ but mysteriously did not turn up for it. As a consequence of this, his photographs were removed from the show’s website.

Theories ranging from his arrest to impending policy threats have left the internet in a frenzy.

TikTok gets sued by 12 year-old girl from London for breaching privacy norms

Devanshu Singla — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 07:00:02 +0000

A 12-year old girl from London is suing Social media and short video platform TikTok, regarding the use of her personal data. The London child “intends to go to a court asserting — rightly or wrongly — that her privacy rights and those of others like her have been infringed in ways that call for a remedy,”

A London court has granted the girl anonymity so that she can take TikTok to court. Judge Mark Warby said in a decision on Wednesday, “Not granting her anonymity could “have a chilling effect on the bringing of claims by children to vindicate their data-protection rights.”.

Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, will be taking the case to court on behalf of the girl. The European Union’s data protection rules are very strict with regards to how apps, websites and platforms can collect, store and use any user’s data.

It was in June last year that the EU had said they will investigate TikTok’s processing and practices. “Privacy and safety are top priorities for TikTok, and we have robust policies, processes and technologies in place to protect all users, and our younger users in particular,” says TikTok in a statement, reported by Bloomberg.

Amazon Web Services inactivity affects the internet, recovery will take hours

Shlok Arya — Thu, 26 Nov 2020 06:26:19 +0000

Amazon Web Services, the company’s internet infrastructure services experienced a shut down for multiple hours, which affected a big chunk of the internet.

AWS is famous for cloud computing services and serves as a backbone of many website and apps on the internet. This outage is far from recovery and due to this several websites have announced, been affected adversely.

AWS Service Health Dashboard, in a statement, said that there is an issue on its Kinesis Data Streams API in the US-EAST-1 region and the issue is recovering.

Amazon said, “We also continue to see an improvement in error rates for Kinesis and several affected services, but expect full recovery to still take up to a few hours.”

The company has been observing potential signs of recovery of the problem affecting the Kinesis Data Streams API in the US-EAST-1 region. The issues affect 23 geographic AWS regions.

Some of the affected internet service or apps are 1Password, Acorns, Adobe Spark, Anchor, iRobot, Anchor, Autodesk, Capital Gazette, Coinbase, DataCamp, Getaround, Glassdoor, Flickr, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pocket, RadioLab, Roku, RSS Podcasting, Tampa Bay Times, Vonage, The Washington Post, and WNYC.

AWS is one of the widely used cloud computing services in the world and given its scale, it is bound to have an effect on the larger internet in case of any outages.

Rural India’s internet usage drastically increased amid COVID-19 lockdown, surpassing urban areas

Divya Joyce — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 09:04:37 +0000

Rural India surpassed urban areas in mobile data usage amid the COVID-19 lockdown which caused a shift in consumption pattern as migrant workers returned to their villages and used their data allowances, senior industry executives, an analyst said.

The rural areas mobile data consumption increased 30% sequentially in the April-September period as 60-70% of the migrants returned to the working cities after the lockdown was lifted and eased in the second quarter, contributing strongly to overall data usage levels. Overall rural wireless broadband availability has widened too. As a result, rural consumption now accounts for roughly 45% of overall mobile data usage, and urban usage makes up 55%, compared with a 40:60 ratio before the COVID-19 outbreak.

A combination of a growing rural user base and greater wireless internet availability along with low-cost data have supported the increasing data usage levels in rural India. This was encouraged by the country’s top two telecoms – Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel by expanding their rural mobile user bases in recent months.

“Post-lockdowns, rural mobile data usage for the 3 big telecoms grew by 30-35% sequentially in the June quarter, which was much sharper than the estimated 15-20% rise in urban data usage,” a top telecom executive said. He added that the data usage pattern was similar in the July-September quarter.

In contrast, rural voice minutes usage fell 5% sequentially in the June quarter as the volume of urban-to-rural voice calls dropped as migrant workers went home, according to estimates by Rajiv Sharma, research head at SBI Cap Securities.

The latest data put out by the telecom regulator shows Jio and Airtel added 2.76 million and 1.47 million rural mobile users, respectively, between June and August, and a clear majority are reckoned to have gone 4G. Vodafone Idea (Vi), despite losing customers, retains a sizeable rural mobile user base that makes up about 54% of its total customer base.

“Growth in rural mobile data consumption is reflected in the 400 basis points (bps) jump in rural wireless internet penetration to 33% between end-December 2019 and end-June 2020,” said Isha Chowdhary, director and telecoms expert at Crisil.

Robust rural data usage boosted overall data consumption, which recorded the highest-ever growth of over 41% on year in the June quarter to 25,369 billion MB, said ICICI Securities. It added that overall data usage grew 11% against low single-digit growth in the preceding quarters.

Crisil estimated overall data usage growth will continue at 30-40% throughout FY21.

Adopting these 5 practices will ensure you’re always focused and never distracted while working from home online

News Desk — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 05:39:31 +0000

It all starts with a pop-up notification and once you pick-up your phone to check out that notification, it usually sticks to your hand for 10-15 minutes and thus begins a repetitive process. So, how to always stay focused with these numerous distractions?

Here are 5 ways to ensure you’re always focused and never distracted while working from home online: –

Think, plan and execute

Know before you start

Jot down the points and outline your work before getting started with it. Starting without planning can lead to a wastage of time as one can keep looking for ideas, jumping from one site to another just to end up with nothing. So, follow the golden rule “think, plan and execute” in order. Think it out properly, then plan it out, at least have a rough idea and when you know what you need, you can start working by just joining the dots. This way you will be more efficient and get less distracted since you have will have a path to follow.

Turn on Do Not Disturb

Turn off notifications

If the golden rule does not help, you can turn off your phone’s notifications to avoid unnecessary notifications because it gets difficult to focus again once you get distracted. You can even prioritize your notifications to avoid missing any important message.

Avoid music containing any lyrics

Turn on Music

Studies have shown that soft instrumental music can improve concentration. So, you can listen to some soft instrumental music to help stay focused. You can download various apps available online which can help you to have a calm mind as the music uses soothing sounds of the sound of rain, wind, etc.

Separate work from social life

Just like you have a separate mail for work and personal use, you can try separating other aspects too. For instance, you can make a separate account on your laptop for all the official purposes. If that is too much, then you can use different browsers for different purposes. For instance, you can use Chrome for browsing work-related sites and Microsoft Edge for personal use.

Either love what you do, or do what you love!

Enjoy your work!

It is important to enjoy your work. If you won’t enjoy it you will be distracted no matter what you do. So, it is extremely important to learn to enjoy the work you are doing.

Donald Trump steps on China’s Apps as they could build new ‘Firewall’

Pravin Suryawanshi — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 06:21:38 +0000

A ban by President Donald Trump administration on Chinese mobile apps such as TikTok and We Chat risks fragmenting an already fragile global internet and creating an American version of China’s “Great Firewall.”

Fears about the global internet ecosystem intensified this week with Trump’s executive orders banning the popular video app TikTok and Chinese social network WeChat, following a US government directive to prohibit the use of other “untrusted” applications and services from China.

The restrictions announced on the basis of what Trump called national security threats move further away from the long-promoted American ideal of global, open internet and could invite other countries to follow suit, analysts said.

“It’s really an attempt to fragment the internet and the global information society along US and Chinese lines, and shut China out of the information economy,” said Milton Mueller, a Georgia Tech University professor and founder of the Internet Governance Project.