Inside India’s online education boom !!

A year is a long time in business and, especially if it is marked by a “black swan” event. The coronavirus outbreak that continues unabated has devastated economies across all over the world, wrecking businesses as millions and millions of people are forced to stay in to curb the spread of the highly contagious virus. This staying in has pushed people deeper into the virtual world. They meet, learn, work, and even marry online. India is no exception and if numbers are anything to go by, it is in the…

Cloudflare service outage disrupts Internet, problem fixed !!

Cloudflare suffered an outage on Friday, disrupting some parts of the internet. The company said that it is identified the problem and fixed it. Cloudflare provides important services for the internet to function, such as load balancing, security, domain registration and video streaming. When the company experiences technical snafus, that can reverberate across the web. “This afternoon we saw an outage across some parts of our networks. It was not as a result of an attack,” the company said in a blog post. “This incident has been resolved.” The problems…

Google Meet shortcut is now available on the Gmail app in India !!

Google’s plan to integrate Gmail, Google Meet, Google Chat etc all together to boost the G Suite productivity tools has started to rolling out. We spotted that a shortcut for Google Meet has been added to the Gmail app and it is available for some users in India for now. A part of G Suite’s early adopter program, we spotted the feature on the Gmail app on iPhone, and not on Android yet. It looks like the rollout which is happening in phases so not everyone who is a part…

PM Narendra Modi pitches for UN reforms, says it should reflect today’s realities !!

New Delhi: Pitching strongly for India’s permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it is time that the United Nations reflects the ground realities of the contemporary world. In his address to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), PM Modi said while the path to sustainable existence is through multilateralism, but multilateralism “needs to reflect the reality of our contemporary world”. He said that only a reformed multilateralism with a reformed United Nations as it centre can meet the aspirations of humanity….

Apple iPhone Supplier Joins Wave of Tech Investment in India !!

New Delhi: Apple assembly partner Pegatron is making preparations for its first plant in India, adding to a large influx of foreign tech investments in the country this year. In June, the government set out a $6.6 billion plan to woo the world’s top smartphone manufacturers, offering the financial incentives and ready-to-use manufacturing clusters. Pegatron is now setting up a local subsidiary and joining fellow Taiwanese electronics assemblers Foxconn Technology Group and Wistron, who have already been making some iPhone handsets in southern India. With a number of factories in…

Twitter says hackers didn’t access user passwords !!

Twitter said users’ passwords weren’t stolen in a widespread digital attack Wednesday, despite the fact that hackers were able to send tweets from several high-profile accounts. “We have no evidence that attackers accessed passwords,” Twitter said in an update Thursday. “Currently, we don’t believe resetting your password is necessary.” Some people who changed their passwords in the past 30 days may still be blocked from accessing their accounts, the company said, but that doesn’t mean those accounts were compromised. The hack on Wednesday affected some of the world’s most recognisable…

Facebook Messenger now supports screen sharing on Android and iOS !!

Facebook announced it is expanding Messenger’s screen sharing to Android and iOS. This feature has been restricted to Messenger on the web. Screen sharing is rolling out on Messenger Rooms for Android and iOS as well. On theMessenger App, users will be able to share their screens during a video call. This can be during a one-on-one video call or with a group of up to eight people. With this feature, users will be able to share their phone’s screen for things like browsing through the photo gallery, shopping online,…

This new Android malware called BlackRock can steal passwords, card data from 337 apps including Gmail, Uber !!

A new strain of Android malware has emerged that can steal data from at least 337 Android apps. Called BlackRock, this malware was first spotted in May this year and discovered by a mobile security company called ThreatFabric. Researchers at ThreatFabric said that BlackRock is based on the leaked source code of another malware strain called Xerxes (Xerxes itself is based on other malware strains). BlackRock, however, has been beefed up with additional features, especially ones that help steal passwords and credit card information, according to a report by ZDNet. BlackRock works…

India’s Reliance seen emerging as bigger threat for U.S. firms like Amazon, Walmart !!

A $20 billion fund raising spree may take India’s Reliance closer to its dream of becoming a digital giant, further threatening the ambitious plans U.S. companies like Amazon, Walmart and Zoom have for India. Stake sales in Reliance’s digital unit Jio Platforms attracted is not just private equity and sovereign wealth funds but also Google and Facebook, a strong endorsement for an enterprise that until a few years ago focussed largely on oil refining. Some industry watchers equate Reliance’s digital plans – which extend from online shopping and cloud computing to…

Freecharge founder Sandeep Tandon sets aside Rs 100 crore for early-stage hardware bets !!

Sandeep Tandon, is the founder of online financial services player Freecharge, has allocated Rs 100 crore from his family office to invest in early-stage companies in the hardware, manufacturing, and Internet of Things (IOT) space. The investment arm will cut average cheque taht  sizes of between Rs 2 crore and Rs 6 crore, Tandon told ET in an exclusive interview. The Rs 100-crore allocation will be managed by Tandon’s venture capital arm, Whiteboard Capital, and will be supplemented by dedicated team members with prior experience in manufacturing technology. Tandon’s family office…