Now MSN Aims To Deliver World’s Popular Content In India

 Microsoft has unveiled a first look of the new MSN in India. Designed from the ground up for a mobile, cloud first world, the new MSN combines premium content from the world’s leading media outlets with personal productivity tools that help you do more.  Built around the insight that the knowledge and information that enriches your life should be accessible regardless of where you are or what device you are using, the new experience is available on the web and will soon be available across all major device platforms, including Windows, iOS and Android.

Starting today, Microsoft is inviting people to try out the new web experience at http://preview.msn.com/en-in. 

 The new MSN focuses on the primary digital daily habits in people’s lives, helping them complete tasks on the web and across all of their devices, roaming data and personalized settings to keep users in the know wherever they are.

 Most Popular and Complete Content

 MSN is partnering with some of the world’s best and most authoritative sources, including The New York Times in the U.S., Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun in Japan, The Guardian and the Telegraph in the U.K., Le Figaro and Le Monde in France, and Lance and Estadão in Brazil, and many more. 

 “Microsoft has re-written MSN from the ground up for a mobile-first, cloud first world. The new MSN brings together the world’s best media sources along with data and services to enable users to do more.” said Sanjay Trehan, Head, MSN India, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd. “Microsoft has partnered with top local content partners from India for the new MSN, including Hindustan Times, NDTV, India Today, Indian Express and Network 18.”

Spanning multiple sections including sports, news, health & fitness, money, travel and video, the new MSN provides a global perspective from thousands of publishers across the world. Information ranges from the latest statistics on over 200 global sports leagues, reviews of over 1.5 million bottles of wine, to over 300,000 gorgeously photographed recipes and more. MSN’s expert editors are able to draw from the over 1,000 sources to hand-curate content for individual markets and cultures.

 “With an audience of nearly 425 million people coming to over 57 markets around the world available across the three major device platforms, the new MSN presents an enormous opportunity for publishers” said Adam Anger, General Manager for Asia Pacific, Microsoft Advertising “With over 50% of people accessing content on dedicated apps, this release is in lockstep with where usage is happening.”

 Know More, Do More

The new MSN brings actionable information and the opportunity to act directly at the point where people are actively engaging, from personal productivity tools like shopping lists, flight status and savings calculators, to integrated access to popular sites like Outlook.com, Facebook, Twitter, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype. At the top of the page, there is a personal stripe allowing you one click access to top services so you can stay on top of what’s happening in your life.  

These integrated tools cover eight categories letting you explore, plan, do, and track the activities you care about. You can set up topics to follow about the news you care about.  You can track “Game of Thrones spoilers” or “Wolves in Yellowstone” and MSN will stay on top of relevant articles.  When you’re searching for recipes and find one that you want to prepare, in one click you can convert the ingredients into a shopping list which will roam from the web to the mobile apps so you have it when you need it in the grocery store not on the printer at work.

Personalized and Available Across Devices

 A clean, fresh design makes it easy to find and enjoy content that interests you.  You can organize categories and interests making the layout your own. 

The new MSN makes it simple to personalize what you want to see regardless of which device you use.  In the coming months, we will release a suite of MSN apps across Windows Phone, iOS and Android. You only need to set your preferences once, and your favorite stuff will always be there. In the finance section for instance, when you setup your stock watch list (e.g. DIS) it will show up the same way on the corresponding apps and website. If you prefer to get your content from a specific source, you can set that as a preference (e.g. more stories from The New York Times.)  

 And it works the same way if you set it up on your phone – so no matter where you start, you don’t have to set it up all over again, changes and updates work the same way. So setup your favorite cities for weather or pick your favorite sports teams and those things will be with you at your PC at work, on your Windows 8.1 tablet in the living room, or on your iPhone when you are on the go.   

 New Opportunities for Brands

 For brands, MSN will continue to offer its loyal audience with a personalized web experience with the added benefit of the best-of-the-web publishers and the engagement of applications across all mobile operating systems. The new MSN is an ideal environment for seamless brand storytelling across devices. 

Though the face of MSN has transformed, the process of buying ads is simple. Brands can still enjoy ease of purchasing through similar IAB standard units available on previous versions of MSN. 

 “With premium content and productivity tools, we’re thrilled to offer a new experience to both advertisers and consumers that help people do more,” said Ken Chang, Commercial Director for Asia Pacific, Microsoft Advertising. “Our daily lives have become increasingly busy and with that comes more screens to interact with to make our days make sense. MSN streamlines this experience to the benefit of all people and allows advertisers to be in more moments and to capture consumers at the right mindset during the day.”  

Micromax Launches Canvas Nitro – Now Everyone Can!

In its pursuit of democratizing technology by offering innovative solutions, Micromax Informatics Limited, India’s leading handset player, today announced the launch of Canvas Nitro A310 in India. The new smartphone offers the perfect blend of sleek looks, powerful performance and innovative user interface with a host of inbuilt apps to offer a superior mobile experience

Commenting on the launch Vineet Taneja, Chief Executive Officer, Micromax said, “It has been our constant endeavor to listen to Indian consumers for better understanding of their ever evolving needs. Inspired by specific needs of consumers, Canvas Nitro is yet another product from the Micromax stable to democratize technology with amalgamation of superior technology, great design and seamless usability. Our partnership with Snapdeal further simplifies the process for millions of new-age Indian consumers who prefer to shop online to get Canvas Nitro with just a few clicks.” 

 He further added, “Micromax has always been the first to identify and address the gaps through its innovative offerings that provide best experience at an affordable cost. We will continue to simplify and enhance the consumer experience by introducing innovative products and services, taking the best smartphone experience to the last mile.”

 Delivering a combination of great aesthetics and superior features, the Canvas Nitro is power packed with a 1.7GHz Tru octa-core processor promising seamless multi-tasking and an improved application performance. Equipped with a 5-inch HD IPS display, the phone offers a dynamic contrast and color vibrancy with an immersive graphic quality. Running on latest Android 4.4 KitKat, users get access to a number of features including voice search, Google Drive, Hangouts for video calls, smart contact prioritization etc. Available in Mystic Blue and Pristine White colors with a premium leather finish back, Canvas Nitro comes with innovative software features like QuickLook, Smart Alerts, All-in-one camera widget and customized gestures.

Speaking about this, Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder & CEO, Snapdeal.com said, “We are excited to be partnering with Micromax to launch their latest product – the Canvas Nitro. The new product has most superior technology and we are sure that this will be well-received by our 25 million members. At Snapdeal.com, Mobile and Tablets is one of our fastest growing categories and this partnership is a strategic decision to add onto our offerings.”

Bengal Student Duo Win DuPont The Power of Shunya

DuPont has  announced that Vivek Pandey from IIT, Kharagpur and Rahul Sharma from IIFT, Kolkata have won the first prize in the national university competition, DuPont: The Power of Shunya: Challenge for Zero Season 2. Their winning innovation, Micro Cold Storage, is a farm-level solar cold storage system can address the issue of food wastage. The Runners up prize was given to Zeta Nano Purifier, a new water-purifying product developed by contestants Devlina Das and Pushkin Kasat from VIT, Vellore & Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay.

Speaking on the announcement, Balvinder Singh Kalsi, President, South Asia & ASEAN, DuPont said, “DuPont has identified three specific global challenges that have emerged with a growing population: feeding the world, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and protecting people and the environment. These winning innovations focused on ‘zero food waste’ and ‘zero water-borne diseases’ reflect our belief that science powered solutions can play a vital role in addressing these challenges. We feel that adoption of such innovations can help India become one of the world’s leading and sustainable economies.”

 The winning innovation beat 15 other path-breaking innovations from India’s premier science & technology institutes and B-schools. The winner has received a grand prize of Rs 1,000,000 (Rupees Ten Lakhs only) and a paid experience to the global DuPont headquarters and the Experimental Station at Wilmington, Delaware, USA. The winners were announced at the grand finale of the show that aired last weekend on ET Now and the prize money was given away by Balvinder Singh Kalsi, President – South Asia & Asean, DuPont. The nine part series showcased 16 effective and relevant innovations for India, shortlisted from 500 entries.

Every year India loses 30% of the food production due to food wastage and contamination*. The winning idea, Micro Cold Storage can help increase shelf life of agricultural produce using solar powered cold storage. It uses a uniquely designed thermal storage methodology that will control compartment cooling in tandem with regular cooling. The Zeta Nano Purifier is a zinc oxide nano particle that has been modified by amine. This new purifying technique is designed to treat large water masses plagued with a wide array of pollutants, including various types of metals, dyes and pesticides.

Jury member, Dr. Homi Bhedwar said, “I was delighted to witness the ‘power of science’ and the passion of young students in technology and business to achieve India’s pursuit of Shunya. The students developed innovative approaches to address malnutrition, pain, energy deficiency, disability and a host of other challenges facing the country today. The innovations are compelling and as a jury member seeing them close-up, I can say confidently that the future of India is in good hands.”

 The series, DuPont The Power of Shunya: Challenge for Zero Season 2 was aired on ET NOW. 

Spice & Flipkart Join To Launch Flagship Products

Spice Retail Limited, India’s leading mobile internet company, has joined hands with Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce marketplace, wherein select Flagship smartphones from Spice will be made exclusively available on the e-commerce major’s portal for launch. Some of the Flagship products will be available starting mid-September and Flipkart is looking forward to selling 100,000 smartphones in the initial few days.

Spice has identified key products that it intends to launch through Flipkart and is looking at an exclusive online store on Flipkart’s portal. This will include a dedicated store on flipkart for Spice products that will allow its customers to choose from a variety of offerings.

Spice aims to capture 10% market share of the overall online sales for smartphones. Flipkart has established itself as the leading e-commerce platform in the Indian market and enjoys major share of Mobile Category sales amongst all e-commerce portals and treats Spice as an invaluable global player & partner.

Both, Spice and Flipkart, through this association hope to give the customers a varied choice of products with best in class experience and after sales service.