ZEE5 Launches ‘ZEE5 CLUB’ @ ₹365/Year; Democratises Access To Premium Content For Every Indian

ZEE5, India’s Entertainment Super-app today announced the launch of ‘ZEE5 Club’, a unique proposition for every Indian @₹365/year. This is in line with its commitment to democratise access to bespoke content for diverse Indian audiences across genres, languages and a spectrum of devices.

ZEE5 Club, a complete OTT television entertainment pack is set to delight the consumers with exclusive access to most popular shows before telecast on TV,   apart from select ZEE5 and Alt Balaji shows, - 1000+ blockbuster movies, ZEE Zindagi shows and over 90+ Live TV channels. With ZEE5 Club, subscribers will be able to enjoy - engaging entertainment content without any intrusive ads and across devices.

Speaking about this new offering, Rahul Maroli, Senior Vice President and Head SVOD, ZEE5 India said, “We are a customer obsessed OTT platform and the launch of ZEE5 Club is a result of the feedback we received from our consumers. Furthermore, democratising access for all Indians to their favourite entertainment content, at a value price, was brewing as an idea for the longest time. With a strong consumer value proposition, ZEE5 Club will help us to board every Indian and provide them with a hyper-personalised and a seamless content viewing experience all at ₹365/year.”

The launch of ZEE5 Club would enable millions of Indians to sample their favourite TV shows and OTT exclusives at their convenience at an affordable price. The Club Pack has been created keeping in mind the platform’s diverse user behaviour, regional preferences and viewership patterns. 

Some of Zee’s popular TV shows like Kumum Bhagya and Kundali Bhagya in Hindi, Sembaruthi in Tamil, Jothe Jotheyali in Kannada and Mazya Navryachi Bayko in Marathi and many more would be now available on ZEE5 Club before telecast on Television, making anytime a new prime time for consumers to catch up on their favourite shows.

Airtel Thanks App Now Available in Kannada for Airtel Prepaid Customers

As part of its mission to simplify the customer journey through innovative digital interventions, Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) has announced the launch of Kannada language support on Airtel Thanks app for prepaid customers. The feature is LIVE on Android and will be available on iOS shortly. With increasing smartphone penetration, particularly in smaller towns and villages, customers are looking for vernacular online experience. This new feature on Airtel Thanks app will drive more adoption as well as make the user experience simpler and highly interactive for Airtel customers by removing language barriers. 

Airtel Thanks app allows Airtel smartphone customers to access Digital Self Care - make recharges, bill payments, checking real time data usage/balance details. Customers can also log service related issues through the app in a matter of few clicks. The app also offers access to digital payments and financial services along with preview of Airtel’s digital entertainment library.

Says Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Airtel: “At Airtel, we are obsessed with solving customer problems and making their experience better through digital technologies. As India transforms into a smartphone nation, close to 35% of Airtel Thanks app users now come from Tier 2/3 towns and rural markets. With deep vernacular support, Airtel Thanks app becomes even more relevant and accessible for these customers and enables them to unlock the full potential of Airtel’s exciting digital services.”

Airtel Thanks app has been fully designed and built by the in-house engineering team of Airtel.

Amazon Prime Video Launches the Trailer of Upcoming Kannada Legal Drama Law on July 17

Amazon Prime offers incredible value with unlimited streaming of the latest and exclusive movies, TV shows, stand-up comedy, Amazon Originals, ad-free music listening through Amazon Prime Music, free fast delivery on India’s largest selection of products, early access to top deals, unlimited reading with Prime Reading and mobile gaming content with Prime Gaming, all available only for Rs. 129 a month.

Amazon Prime Video today launched the trailer of their first Kannada direct-to-service film, Law, a criminal suspense drama that follows the life of Nandhini, a law student who demands justice for a gruesome crime. Law is produced by Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar, M Govinda and directed by Raghu Samarth. The legal Kannada drama is led by Ragini Prajwal who makes her debut as a lead actress and Mukhyamantri Chandru, Achyuth Kumar, Sudharani among others. Law is the fourth direct-to-service movie to premiere on Amazon Prime Video after the successful release of Ponmagal Vandhal (Tamil), Gulabo Sitabo (Hindi) and Penguin (Telugu and Tamil with Malayalam dubs). Prime members in India and in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide can watch the much-awaited movie in Kannada starting 17th July, 2020.

“Law is close to my heart, because not only does it mark my debut, but the movie also sheds light on an important message that often gets sidelined.” said Law Actress Ragini Prajwal, “Nandhini, is a strong and determined women who overcomes a difficult situation through sheer determination and perseverance. Law is sure to set a new bar in this genre and I am hoping it will be appreciated by critics and audiences alike. I have had the privilege of working with a dream team on Law and I am thrilled our film will be accessible to audiences not only from India but across 200 countries and territories, making the release even more impactful.”

Producer Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar said, “Amazon Prime Video is one of our most valued partners. After the phenomenal success of our films Kavaludaari and Maya Bazaar 2016 which released on the service shortly after its theatrical release, Law is our third collaboration and one of the two titles we would be premiering on Amazon Prime Video worldwide. With Law we not only want to entertain our audience, but also bring to light an issue of great importance. We look forward to customers across 200 countries and territories being able to enjoy the movie from the safety of their own homes.”

Watch the trailer here: https://amzn.to/LawTrailer

Synopsis:

There are umpteen stories that involve crime and investigations. Sometimes, the case even gets dismissed due to lack of evidence and the accused are set free. However, ‘Law’ is a paradigm shift from the rest in this genre. Nandhini, a law student who is caught in a precarious situation fights for justice for a gruesome crime that took place.

Law will join the thousands of TV shows and movies from Hollywood and Bollywood in the Prime Video catalogue. These include Indian-produced Amazon Original series like Paatal Lok, The Family Man, Mirzapur, Inside Edge and Made In Heaven, Four More Shots Please! S1 and S2 and award-winning and critically acclaimed global Amazon Original series, including Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Boys, Hunters, Fleabag and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, all on Prime Video, which is available at no extra cost for Amazon Prime members. The service includes titles available in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi and Bengali.

Prime members will be able to watch Law anywhere and anytime on the Prime Video app for smart TVs, mobile devices, Fire TV, Fire TV stick, Fire tablets, Apple TV, etc. In the Prime Video app, Prime members can download episodes on their mobile devices and tablets and watch anywhere offline at no additional cost. Prime Video is available in India at no extra cost with Prime membership for just ₹999 annually or ₹129 monthly, new customers can find out more at www.amazon.in/prime and subscribe to a free 30-day trial.

Swasth, a Tele-health Network, Launched to Provide Free Corona Care

Digital Healthcare Push 

* 100+ private and not-for-profit entities join hand to frame tech response to national crisis

* India’s first big push towards mass adoption of digital healthcare as a citizen empowering platform

* Swath platform facilitates seamless and remote interaction between registered medical practitioners and patients

* App-based consultation service in Hindi, English and Gujarati to begin with, and will be expanded to 25 Indian languages

A coalition of over 100 healthcare specialists have come together to launch Swasth, a nationwide telemedicine platform for Corona care, which digitally connects Indians to the best doctors and wellness providers. Swasth is a swift response promoted by the country’s health and technology leaders to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to leverage telemedicine as a national priority in the current stressed times. The mobile app-based service leverages India’s technology prowess to deliver equal and affordable healthcare to 1.3 billion people, cutting across geographical and income divides.

This indigenous digital healthcare system is being launched at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged traditional service providers.

Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, a part of the Swasth Governing Council, said, “Swasth has brought together the best of resources in the country to provide free healthcare to bring quick relief during the crisis. Swasth will work to further public health goals and work in coordination with the Medical Council, public health organizations, and the private sector to expand quality healthcare access to the masses. I firmly believe that this crisis is a great opportunity to re-invent healthcare delivery in India.”

Swasth facilitates seamless, remote interaction between registered medical practitioners and patients through multiple modes of video and telephony. Swasth deploys AI based triaging to determine the care required, culminating in a digitally signed prescription and treatment advice.

Along with the free consultations, Swasth will also provide services like home quarantine assistance, diagnostics, pharmacies, hospital bed discovery and booking assistance at a subsidized cost.

All doctors on the Swasth platform are duly verified and undergo specially designed training programs on tele-consultation and COVID-19 clinical protocols.  Swasth is in full compliance with the industry-accepted cybersecurity norms for healthcare platforms. It uses a defense-in-depth approach to ensure that data is securely transmitted, stored, managed and accessed. Currently, the app supports consultation in Hindi, English and Gujarati and will be expanded to 25 Indian languages.

Swasth is the country’s first big push towards mass adoption of digital healthcare as a citizen empowering platform.

Dr Nachiket Mor, a member of the Governing Council, added, “Swasth is a unique non-profit coalition of members from multiple sections of the Indian healthcare ecosystem, including individual doctors, small and large hospitals, diagnostic labs, pharmacies, telemedicine platforms, insurance companies, and healthcare-technology companies, who have joined hands with the goal of creating affordable healthcare for all Indians in every nook and corner of the country, so that they can immediately get the care that they need for this crisis, as well as for all their other healthcare needs. Swasth will do this by making it easy for patients to smoothly access the services they need from its members, and will also enable each of its members to provide a wide range of high quality services to their patients, by giving them access to protocols, technologies, and platforms that are best in class, completely interoperable, and fully compliant with the latest guidelines.”

Dr NK Jairam, a key member of the project team, said, “As we move on with the current Corona pandemic and with social distancing being one of the key remedies to eradicate it, telemedicine is going to be an integral part of the healthcare system. Tele- consultation has been offered by doctors since the early 2000s, however, it has gained rapid momentum because of the current situation. With Swasth, telemedicine will gain a boost which will empower patients to make quick decisions and also teach them self-care.”

Abheek Singhi, Senior Partner at BCG, and member of the project team for this initiative, said,  "Swasth is a consortium of 70+ organizations and 200+ volunteers with a common goal of building a comprehensive COVID care platform in the short term and of leveraging technology to transform primary healthcare delivery in the medium term. This is the first time such a coalition like this has come together. BCG is privileged to be partnering with this alliance"

Swasth is created by a not-for-profit consortium of different players across healthcare providers, telehealth platforms, entrepreneurs, technology experts and doctors. Swasth received a grant of INR 10 crore ($1.3 million) from the ACT Grants, an umbrella platform of entrepreneurs and investors backing start-ups fighting the pandemic.

About Swasth

Swasth is a Not-for-Profit initiative that aims to leverage India’s proven clinical capabilities and technology capabilities to democratize access to quality primary care – for any citizen anywhere in India. Swasth will ensure access is affordable by leveraging digital technology to optimally use available provider capacity, and promote a system that fully adopts national health standards. A coalition of like-minded, relevant and successful physicians, professionals, technocrats and entrepreneurs from the healthcare ecosystem have voluntarily come together to pool in their time, intellect, IP and financial resources to help India leapfrog and provide quality healthcare using best in class digital technologies.

Coders Turn COVID-19 Fighters at the World’s Largest Coding Contest TechGig Code Gladiators 2020

Code Gladiators

* TechGig Code Gladiators has 15,617+ registrations at two hackathons focussed on limiting COVID-19 pandemic impact

* Guinness book record holder event, Code Gladiators is hosting its seventh edition this year with more than 2lakh+ registrations 

* Code Gladiators 2020 is hosting five hackathons in total, all focussed on new-age technologies like Machine Learning, RPA, Cloud 

Will a computer programme ease the COVID-19 crisis? Going by the heaps of ideas suggested at TechGig Code Gladiators 2020, the answer could very well be - a ‘yes’. 

With the world gripped in the COVID-19 crisis for more than 100 days now, it’s the right time for the coders to join hands with the frontline health staff and pharma researchers to keep the indomitable Coronavirus at bay. 

TechGig Code Gladiators 2020 has recorded more than 15,617+ registrations in two hackathons focussed on finding tech-based solutions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. They are IBM- 2020 Call for Code Global Challenge and Microsoft HackOnAzure. Microsoft HackOnAzure is solely focussed on finding COVID-19 solutions, while IBM- 2020 Call for Code Global Challenge has two tracks – COVID-19 & Climate Change. The other hackathons at Code Gladiators 2020 include UiPath RPA Hackathon, Automated Multi-Label Classification by Times Internet and the Open Coding Round where the participants can submit codes in any of the 50 programming languages offered.

Participation is free at https://www.techgig.com/codegladiators 

Code Gladiators - the Guinness world record holder programming event - is hosting its seventh edition this year. Code Gladiators 2020 edition kicked off on March 23, 2020, and has recorded 2,35,375+ registrations till now. This edition is particularly interesting because the COVID-19 lockdown has forced most professionals to work from home, giving them more time to participate in this globally acclaimed hackathon.  

TechGig surveyed to understand the participants’ experience at the present hackathon, where more than 68% coders affirmed that they could concentrate well on the hackathons owing to the lockdown. About 62% of participants also said that they were excited about the event’s upcoming online mega grand finale since this is the first time that the event will conclude with a virtual finale. 

 

Elaborating on the Code Gladiators 2020 hackathons, Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “Every year TechGig Code Gladiators resolves to find solutions to the real-world business problems posed by the participating IT companies. This year, we found an opportunity amid the despair. Presently when most countries are battling the COVID-19 outbreak, Code Gladiators presents a unique opportunity to coders to find a tech-based solution to limit the virus impact. The other hackathons at the contest are equally interesting where coders are challenged to solve complex business problems using a trending technology such as RPA (Robotic Process Automation).”

Citing some of the solutions as ‘very promising’, Sanjay Goyal added that TechGig’s team and the entire IT industry is keenly waiting for some of these solutions to take shape. The first round of registrations at Code Gladiators 2020 is presently on and will conclude on June 22, 2020.

New Web site for US imigration agency

The Obama administration launched a new Web site on Tuesday that U.S. officials hope will make citizenship and other immigration services more accessible.

The new Citizenship and Immigration Services Web site was unveiled Tuesday at an event with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, as well as White House and Homeland Security staff.

Napolitano said USCIS' Web site gets 230,000 visits a day, therefore it is important that it be easy to use and provides ``the kind of information that people seek.''

The site was revised in 90 days using in-house resources, officials said. CIS officials could not immediately provide a total cost for the revisions. Parts of the service, including its Spanish-language sections, were still under construction.

Citizenship and Immigration Services is responsible for processing millions of applications for citizenship, immigration to the U.S. and legal residency as well as claims for asylum and refugee status.

One of the highlights of the new site is a tool allowing users to get e-mail updates or text alerts about the status of their cases, as well as to check them online with their case number.

www.ImmigrationDirect.com/USCIS

Agencies

Will Larry Ellison foray into netbook market?

Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison is considering getting into the business of selling low-cost laptop computers, one of the fastest-growing sectors of the technology business.

Ellison said on Tuesday that he is looking at entering the market for so-called netbook computers after his software company completes its planned $7 billion purchase of computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc.

Sun also controls the Java computer language, which Ellison told programmers at a Java users' conference could be employed to run netbooks.

"I don't see why some of those devices shouldn't come from Sun," said Ellison, who runs the world's third-largest software maker. "There will be computers that are fundamentally based on Java."

That would put Oracle in competition with companies like Google Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc and Acer Inc, which either make netbooks or develop software for them.

The netbook phenomenon took off in 2008 to the tune of 11.7 million units, led by companies such as Acer and Asustek Computer Inc that were quick into the market. Nearly every PC vendor offers them these days.

Analysts forecast 20 million to 30 million netbooks will be sold this year, making up an ever larger part of overall laptop sales and marking one of few tech sectors still experiencing robust revenue growth.

Ellison made the comments during his first public speech since Oracle announced plans to buy Sun.

Although netbooks are relatively new, Ellison deserves some credit for their rise.

More then a decade ago he introduced a lightweight alternative to the PC known as the Network Computer, which was built primarily to connect to the Internet. The machines, which competed with ones running on Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system, failed to take off after their launch in 1996.

Agencies