Castrol Lubricants to Now be Available at Jio-BP Retail Sites

Castrol India Limited, India’s leading automotive lubricants company, has announced that Castrol lubricants will now be available at Jio-bp retail outlets across the country. This new channel offers Castrol enhanced visibility and reach for its products and solutions.

Castrol lubricants will be supplied to the joint venture’s fuel retailing network of 1,400 sites, which is expected to grow to 5,500 sites within five years.

Earlier this month, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and bp completed the formation of their new pan-India fuels and mobility joint venture – Reliance BP Mobility Limited (RBML). RIL’s existing sites will be rebranded to Jio-bp in due course.

The decision to make Castrol lubricants available across the network was taken in 2019, when the joint venture was first announced.

“Castrol India is delighted to be a part of the Jio-bp network. We will offer a premium experience to our consumers, bringing innovative value-added solutions as together we look to transform the Indian mobility sector,” said Sandeep Sangwan, Managing Director, Castrol India Limited.

Harish C Mehta, CEO, Reliance BP Mobility Limited added “Jio-bp puts consumers at the center of its universe and will offer them differentiated products and services to set new benchmarks in mobility solutions. I am confident that Castrol’s cutting-edge lubricants, together with our fuels and convenience offers, will deliver best in class experience for Indian consumers visiting our outlets.” 

Castrol products will be available at the RBML retail network in the coming weeks.

About Castrol India: Castrol, is one of the world’s leading lubricant brands and has a proud heritage of innovation and fuelling the dreams of pioneers. Castrol India Limited is one of India’s leading lubricants company and has established itself as a pioneer and innovator in the Indian lubricants industry. Its iconic brands such as Castrol CRB, Castrol GTX, and in more recent times power brands like Castrol Activ, Castrol MAGNATEC and Castrol VECTON, are used by millions of consumers and customers across the country. The company also has a presence in select segments like High Performance Lubricants and metalworking fluids in industries as varied as automotive manufacturing to mining to machinery and wind & energy.

Castrol India has a large manufacturing and distribution network in India with three manufacturing plants and a distribution network of 350 distributors who sell to consumers and customers through over 100,000 retail outlets. Castrol sub-distributors also reach additional outlets in rural markets whilst Castrol India also directly services over 3,000 key institutional accounts.

Along with providing world class products and services, Castrol India is focused on safety, compliance and quality as its number one priority.

Jio to Offer One Year of Amazon Prime Membership at No Additional Cost to its JioFiber Customers

Amazon has announced its collaboration with Jio, India’s largest and fastest growing digital service company, to provide JioFiber subscribers access to premium content on Amazon Prime Video app on its set-top box. In addition, Jio will offer one year of Prime membership worth INR 999 a year to JioFiber customers on Gold and above broadband plans, at no extra cost.  Through this deal, JioFiber customers can now seamlessly access the Amazon Prime Video app on their TV and enjoy Amazon’s latest and exclusive blockbuster Hollywood, Bollywood and Indian regional movies, top TV shows, stand-up comedies, kids programs, including critically acclaimed Indian and global Amazon Originals.

JioFiber customers, on Gold plans and above, can activate their Annual Amazon Prime Membership by signing in using their Amazon account or create a new Amazon account through their Jio Set-top box and by logging into MyJio app or Jio.com.  Customers who are not eligible can simply recharge with JioFiber Gold and above plan to avail the offer. Existing Amazon Prime Members can directly sign-in to the Amazon Prime Video app on their Jio Set-top-box and start watching Prime Video’s wide selection of content including critically acclaimed Indian Amazon Originals like Paatal Lok, Four More Shots Please! The Family Man, Mirzapur and much-loved global Originals like Jack Ryan, Marvelous Mrs Maisel, The Boys amongst many others.

“We are delighted to work with Jio to make Amazon Prime membership available to Jio Fiber customers” said Gaurav Gandhi, Director and Country General Manager, Amazon Prime Video India. “With the annual Prime membership consumers will have access to the full bouquet of Prime benefits - unlimited streaming of the latest and exclusive video content, free and fast shipping, access to exclusive deals, ad-free music on Amazon Music, unlimited reading through Prime Reading and mobile gaming content with Prime Gaming.  At Amazon, we constantly strive to offer customers, the best-in-class entertainment. With this launch, we will further extend the reach and access of Amazon Prime Video in India, giving more customers the experience of watching our broad selection of popular Amazon Originals, blockbuster movies, Indian as well as international shows, on their TV sets.”

“Our partnership with Amazon Prime Video opens up a new world of entertainment for JioFiber customers. Jio continues to provide an enriched experience to its customers and this tie-up enable JioFiber users avail one year of Amazon Prime membership at no extra cost” Anshuman Thakur, Head of Strategy, Jio,  said in a statement.

About Amazon Prime Video

Amazon Prime Video has the largest selection of latest & exclusive movies including Gulabo Sitabo, Thappad, Shubh Mangal Zyaada Savdhaan, Bharat, Dabangg 3, Good Newwz, Mardaani 2, Bhoot, Indian language titles including AB Aani CD, Hit (The First Case), Maharshi, Dharala Prabhu, Darbar, Madha, Sufna, Maya Bazaar 2016, Trance, Shylock, Love Mocktail, Luv Ni Love Storys, Saaho, Pattas, Professor Shanku O El Dorado, Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, Dia, Choricha Maamla, Jallikattu, Kumbalangi Nights, Dear Comrade, Virus, Cheel Zadap, Chal Mera Putt, Triple Seat  and TV shows, stand-up comedy, biggest Indian and Hollywood films, US TV series, most popular Indian & international kids’ shows, and critically acclaimed Amazon Originals including Paatal Lok, Four More Shots Please! – Season 1 and 2, The Forgotten Army – Azaadi Ke Liye, The Family Man, Made In Heaven, Mirzapur, Comicstaan, Inside Edge Season 1 and 2, global Originals like Upload, Hunters, The Boys, Good Omens, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, all available, ad-free, with a world-class customer experience. The service includes titles available in Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Telugu, Kannada, Punjabi and Bengali.

To watch the newest releases in Hollywood & Bollywood, the latest US TV shows, kids’ favorite toons and Amazon Originals, please visit www.PrimeVideo.com or download the Amazon Prime Video app today and sign-up for an Amazon Prime membership only at ₹999 annually or ₹129 monthly.

About Jio

Jio Platforms Limited (“Jio”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, has built a world-class all-IP data strong future proof network with latest 4G LTE technology (through its wholly owned subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited). It is the only network conceived and born as a Mobile Video Network from the ground up and supporting Voice over LTE technology. It is future ready and can be easily upgraded to support even more data, as technologies advance on to 5G, 6G and beyond.

Jio will bring transformational changes in the Indian digital services space to enable the vision of Digital India for 1.3 billion Indians and propel India into global leadership in the digital economy. It has created an eco-system comprising of network, devices, applications and content, platforms, service experience and affordable tariffs for everyone to live the Jio Digital Life. As part of its customer offers, Jio has revolutionised the Indian telecom landscape by making voice calls for Jio customers absolutely free, across India, to any network, and always. Jio makes India the highest quality, most affordable data market in the world so that every Indian can do Datagiri.

Will $1-b BSNL outsourcing deal impact 30,000 jobs?

Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is planning to outsource the management and maintenance of its towers and cable networks to compete more effectively with private players like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications, which dominate the booming industry and also unlock the value of its assets, reports the Economic Times.

The deal, which could be worth more than $1 billion (Rs. 5,000 crore) over the next five years, might receive stiff resistance from about three lakh employees as it will impact close to 30,000 jobs. "The company plans to train and redeploy a significant section of these employees to marketing roles," informed two executives requesting anonymity, as many employees are expected to be transferred to the IT firms that win the outsourcing deal.

Through this deal, BSNL will outsource more than 50,000 towers and over one lakh kilometers of optic fibre cable. "The telecom company is in process of finalizing tender conditions for inviting bids for the contract," said these executives.

"The move will help BSNL unlock the value from its towers and passive infrastructure as the once monopoly tries to play catch up with private rivals," said BK Syngal, Senior Principal, Dua Consulting.

"Successful bidders for this contract can share company's networks with private players for a fee and this could result in a revenue boost for BSNL," added Syngal, who is also a former Chairman of VSNL (now Tata Communications).

Reliance Communications had formed a joint venture with Franco American networks major Alcatel-Lucent last year and outsourced the management of its GSM and CDMA networks and infrastructure such as optic fibre cable in a deal worth $500 million over a five year period. The deal had crossed $750 million mark in July 2009.

Bharti Airtel also entered into a $500 million joint venture with Alcatel-Lucent to manage its landline and broadband business in April 2009. Around 4,000 Airtel employees were transferred to this new venture, which is a front runner to bag another $500 million contract from Airtel to manage and maintain its 80,000 kilometers intercity optic fibre cable network.

BSNL had recently postponed plans to hive off its towers and other related infrastructure into a separate company. The company felt it would be difficult to unlock value by merely hiving off its infrastructure and listing it due to falling valuations for the tower sector, said the executives.

Agencies/Economic Times

Reliance now allows to play antakshari on mobiles

Anil Ambani led Reliance Mobile has launched antakshari game on its R-World platform for both- GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) users. Now, Reliance Mobile subscribers can play this game with a selected community or their friends on the move.

Reliance is also creating a special marketing portal, where a subscriber will be able to throw a challenge to others and recipients will be able to respond. While playing, users will get three lifelines to continue the game. These lifelines are library, 50-50 and ask a friend.

On the launch of this service, Krishna Durbha, Head - VAS, Reliance Communications said, "Antakshari is one of the oldest music based games that Indians have known and played for generations. We have conceptualized the same for our subscribers, who can now play this game with any other Reliance subscriber in the country."

The antakshari service will come at a monthly subscription of Rs.30 with 30 minutes of free usage. Users will also have the right to block other users at any point in time as well as decide whom they want to play with.

Agencies

Ten Indian companies make it to FT Top 500

Ten Indian companies are listed among Financial Time's top 500 global companies for 2009, in terms of market capitalization. The list was led by American energy giant ExxonMobil, followed by the oil major PetroChina and U.S. retailer Wal-Mart at the second and third positions respectively.


Reliance Industries is the only Indian company which has been listed among the top 100, taking the 75th place with a market capitalization of $47.25 billion. Last year, the company occupied the 80th position in the list. The companies were ranked by market capitalization, the greater the stock market value of a company, the higher it's ranking. Market capitalization is the share price as on March 31, 2009 multiplied by the number of shares issued.

Other Indian firms featuring in the list are Oil & Natural Gas (ONGC) (120th rank), National Thermal Power (NTPC) (138), Bharti Airtel (188), Infosys (330), Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) (345), ITC (362), State Bank of India (372), Tata Consultancy Services (483) and Hindustan Unilever (495).

Now Send SMS In Any Local Languages

By Manu Sharma

Since local language is always preferred to communicate with close ones, Tachyon Technologies, the Bangalore-based company initially rolled out Quillpad for the online players. It has recently introduced the solution for mobile players for their SMS service.

Talking to CXOtoday, Ram Prakash H., founder and CEO of Tachyon Technologies said, "We innovated a core less compression technology for the mobile version that has been compressed from eight mbps to less than 400 kbps. It has enabled easier usage for the end-user."

LG has rolled out four models that has inbuilt Quillpad in them and these included: KM 380T, KG 195, KP 199 and KP 220 models. Following the success with LG, Tachyon is talking to other manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung among others. "We want to initially target the mobile manufacturers who will bundle the features in the handsets and later approach the mobile service providers like Airtel, Reliance and Vodafone who can provide more value added services to the end users," said Prakash.

As per the agreement signed with LG (global), the license covers all languages. However, the company has initially rolled out models that can support only Hindi. "Quillpad in mobile makes it easy to type in local languages. It is as easy as we type test messages in English in dictionary mode," said Prakash.

On compatibility with other formats, he said Quillpad is Unicode-compliant and would support any application that supports Unicode. Quillpad was developed as an AI technology, which learns the rules and language patterns and can transliterate any language without help of any linguistic expert," said Prakash.

There is a two-fold advantage - since there is no dependence on a linguistic expert, it can be used for any language and one does not have to depend on the dictionary. Prakash said that this learning was just one-time, after which the trained set of patterns could be deployed by all users of Quillpad technology. The newly developed technology then enables predictive transliteration.

"When you are typing a word, the technology will put together the rules and come up with the right word. It is very similar to the way the T9 dictionary on mobile phones supports typing English words," he said. Another feature that is unique is that the technology is not dependent on one Indian language or its structure. It supports any language that can be written phonetically.

"This gives Quillpad an edge over other technologies. As the artificial intelligence technology can learn the pattern of new languages in just three to four hours, one can add new languages overnight," he said.

CXOtoday.com

RCom plans to invest Rs 4,000 crore on 3G network

Reliance Communications is looking forward to participate in the 3G auction slated for next year, company chairman Anil Ambani said Tuesday.

The company has planned an investment of Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 4,000 crore on 3G services, he said.

Ambani also said the company would participate in the auction for spectrum on a nationwide basis and not restrict to a few circles.

Web 2.0 a hit with handset makers

Cell phone makers are increasingly pre-loading their handsets with social networking applications to woo Internet-savvy consumers.

LG Mobile has tied up with Mobile 2.0 service provider RockeTalk which will upload a social networking application on its phones. Similarly, Samsung Mobile has a tie-up with ShoZu, provider of mobile social media services, which has pre-loaded social networking software on select Samsung phones.

Says Samsung Mobile country head Sanjay Dutt: “Early next year, we plan to launch our own proprietary software for enabling social networking through mobiles. This will be preloaded on most Samsung multimedia phones. The idea is to enable users to stay connected while on the move.”

LG GSM business head Anil Arora: “Social networking is the next thing on mobile phones. In future, we plan to preload more mobile phone models with social networking application without any extra charge.”

The company currently pre-loads the application only on LG KT 610 and KF 750 cell phones.

According to handset marketers, social networking on mobiles is a hightraction feature in the urban market where youths form a big consumer group for handsets. Says Motorola India and South-West Asia senior director (sales) Lloyd Mathias: “Social networking is an important feature, especially in the urban market and can define the purchase decision. Today’s Internet savvy youths seek access to social networking sites on mobile phones.”

Motorola has social networking application pre-loaded on seven of its handset models, including all phones in the Moto Rokr and Moto Ming series.

Some handset makers are eagerly seeking a tie-up in the space. Says Meridian Mobile CEO Rajiv Khanna: “We see potential in this feature and are planning to make even our low-end phones internet-ready. Early next year, we will tie up with a local web 2.0 service provider and upload this feature in our phones at the shop-floor level.”

Service providers are spoilt for choice as manufacturers queue up seeking collaborations for pre-loading phones with social networking applications.

Says RockeTalk marketing director Sameer Agarwal: “Our application makes it easier for mobile users to send voice messages, pictures and videos. Social networking on mobiles is set to grow exponentially as mobile internet penetration increases.”

The US-based service provider claims to be in advanced stages of talks with handset makers--Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Spice Mobile--for pre-loading web 2.0 applications.

Almost 10 million new handsets are sold in India every month, making it one of the biggest markets globally. No wonder, handset marketers like LG and Samsung are quick to adopt novel features to fuel sales.

Source: Agencies