Way2online Fortifies its Position as Leading Multilingual News Sources in India

Way2Online, a ‘media on mobile’ company that caters to seekers of news & information both in English and regional Indian languages, registers phenomenal success with over 2 billion (200 crore) screen views within a month. With each user flipping an average of 90 articles/news, Way2online managed to accomplish this feat in May, 2017.

With this, the company, which first began operating back in 2015, has strengthened its position as one of the most prominent multilingual news sources in India. The company had previously reached 500 million views per month within just 3 months of its launch, and has been going strong since. It is also exemplifying mobile-first technology by building media within mobile screens.

Commenting on the accomplishment, Raju Vanapala, Founder and CEO, Way2Online said, “With Way2Online, we managed to tap this largely unexplored area of business by introducing short summarized news across 8 local languages in a magazine style format. We endeavor to make news selection comprehensive by shifting from the shadows of traditional sources, and include other channels like blogs and RSS feeds. For our latest achievement, we want to thank our loyal readers for helping us in retaining our position as India’s leading short news app. We are confident, that Way2Online will become a force to be reckoned with in the near future – providing attractive, succinct, and authentic content to people from all walks of life in multiple native languages.”

By pivoting the business towards short news in local languages, Way2Online is gaining significant traction, and is witnessing steady adoption by users across India. In addition, by tweaking technology, the app is also able to reach out to customers based in tier-2 & tier-3 cities, i.e. areas that usually suffer from challenges like bandwidth availability and smartphone penetration.

Way2Online has a pan India presence, and is popular across most tier-1, 2, and 3 cities. It has registered over 10 million downloads so far, and is adding over 8 lakh new users every month. It also hopes to become the go-to place for those readers, who wish to stay abreast of latest happenings without spending too much time on detail.

Freyr Energy Brings Mobile Application “FreyrSunPro” to Spur Entrepreneurship in Rooftop Solar Segment

Freyr Energy, a full service solar provider launches Freyr SunPro in Bangalore, which is a revolutionary ‘India first’ mobile application that will help customers run their rooftop solar businesses with ease. Freyr SunPro, which runs on both iOS and Android devices, uses complex algorithms and data analytics to streamline the entire process of fulfilling a customer’s solar requirements.

With Freyr Sunpro, a solar or electrical background is not needed anymore to start their business. The training time to use the SunPro is less than 1 hour. The initial investment required to start a rooftop solar business is zero. Any individual can easily download the application from Play Store and App Store.

The system created using SunPro is custom designed for each customer’s individual needs.  Automated site survey and system design show eliminates errors during the sales process as well as procurement and installation. The app’s all encompassing platform is equivalent to a 5-person team (Design engineer, pricing specialist, customer management, supply chain and project management) supporting you 24x7, 365 days to help close orders. The app reduces the sales cycle for users to 1-2 meetings with the customer. SunPro works both offline and online and gives detailed pricing recommendations.

Saurabh Marda, Co- Founder and Managing Director, Freyr Energy said, “By launching SunPro we want to enable individuals and micro to medium sized companies start and run their solar businesses with minimal investment. We have eliminated all the complexity involved in system design, pricing, proposal generation etc. and made it easier to sell a solar system, while ensuring the customer gets the best product possible. The Government’s ambitious target of achieving 40 GW of rooftop solar installations by 2022 will require tremendous grassroots participation especially on sales.  We believe SunPro can help fill the void which we would regard as a success.”

The user can start the business without having to hire any additional staff. This ensures that the business is profitable from Year 1 itself. If several people in the organization is using the tool, the performance of employees can also be automatically monitored and assessed. 

After the order is closed, Freyr Energy will work on the material supply and installation so the user can focus on closing more orders. With the help of SunPro, several of Freyr Energy’s channel partners are generating business of 1 crore annually.

Freyr Energy Brings Mobile Application “FreyrSunPro” to Spur Entrepreneurship in Rooftop Solar Segment

Freyr Energy, a full service solar provider launches Freyr SunPro in Bangalore, which is a revolutionary ‘India first’ mobile application that will help customers run their rooftop solar businesses with ease. Freyr SunPro, which runs on both iOS and Android devices, uses complex algorithms and data analytics to streamline the entire process of fulfilling a customer’s solar requirements.

With Freyr Sunpro, a solar or electrical background is not needed anymore to start their business. The training time to use the SunPro is less than 1 hour. The initial investment required to start a rooftop solar business is zero. Any individual can easily download the application from Play Store and App Store.

The system created using SunPro is custom designed for each customer’s individual needs.  Automated site survey and system design show eliminates errors during the sales process as well as procurement and installation. The app’s all encompassing platform is equivalent to a 5-person team (Design engineer, pricing specialist, customer management, supply chain and project management) supporting you 24x7, 365 days to help close orders. The app reduces the sales cycle for users to 1-2 meetings with the customer. SunPro works both offline and online and gives detailed pricing recommendations.

Saurabh Marda, Co- Founder and Managing Director, Freyr Energy said, “By launching SunPro we want to enable individuals and micro to medium sized companies start and run their solar businesses with minimal investment. We have eliminated all the complexity involved in system design, pricing, proposal generation etc. and made it easier to sell a solar system, while ensuring the customer gets the best product possible. The Government’s ambitious target of achieving 40 GW of rooftop solar installations by 2022 will require tremendous grassroots participation especially on sales.  We believe SunPro can help fill the void which we would regard as a success.”

The user can start the business without having to hire any additional staff. This ensures that the business is profitable from Year 1 itself. If several people in the organization is using the tool, the performance of employees can also be automatically monitored and assessed. 

After the order is closed, Freyr Energy will work on the material supply and installation so the user can focus on closing more orders. With the help of SunPro, several of Freyr Energy’s channel partners are generating business of 1 crore annually.

IRCTC’s Maharaja Express Set for a Luxury Coast to Coast Train Ride on July 1, 2017

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has chalked out an aggressive package on the luxury Maharajas' Express - Southern Jewels and priced at a whopping Rs 5 lakh to over Rs 17 lakh.

IRCTC's initiative comes amid a lukewarm response to the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation's 'Golden Chariot' where ticket fares range between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 7 lakh.

Ironically, IRCTC officials claimed that Southern Jewels is targeted at domestic travellers looking at cheaper options. The luxury train for five consecutive years, Southern Jewels will take travellers to destinations like Chettinad, Mahabalipuram, Mysuru, Hampi, Goa on the Konkan coast and Mumbai during its 8-day itinerary, said S.S. Jagannathan, general manager, IRCTC, South Zone.

"Though the fares are high, our focus this time is domestic travellers who want to take a royal journey. For the first time, we've introduced special break journey offers during this special monsoon itinerary. Willing domestic travellers can avail of the offer for two nights and three days on the train," said Jagannathan.

Asked about the costly fares, given that Golden Chariot, the other luxury train in the state, is struggling to survive, Jagannathan said, "Everything on this train will give you a royal feel. From the interiors to cutlery, each and every thing is designed to give a feel of how royals live in Indian palaces. There is a special focus to bring in the best brands for travellers. Infact, state government has been aggressively pushing for such packages and Palace on Wheels is one such example from the government of Rajasthan. "

Kishore Satya, manager, IRCTC Bengaluru said, "I can't comment on trains run by the state government tourism department. But we have been successfully running Maharajas' Express since 2010 and have a pan-India demand for southern tourist destinations. Our focus is both Indian as well as foreign travellers."

IDBI Bank to Focus on Raising Capital, Retail Lending and Recovery of Loans During FY 2017-18

IDBI Bank has crafted a comprehensive turnaround strategy, with a focus on augmenting the capital base and recovery from NPAs.  Its prime focus includes restricting corporate loan book growth, raising additional capital and non-core asset sales to reduce operational costs.

Aggressive recovery and prevention of further slippages is a priority area for IDBI Bank. Given the stress in the corporate sector, the bank will restrict growth in the corporate loan book and focus on increasing retail and priority sector asset base. This will help the bank to reduce risk weighted assets and improve CAR in the short term.

The bank is also planning to raise additional capital in the medium term. It has received a capital infusion of Rs 1900 crore through the Government of India’s subscription to its preferential share allotment earlier this year, which enhanced its Common Equity Tier 1 Capital. Furthermore, Life Insurance Corporation of India has also subscribed to the bank’s preferential equity issue. Additionally, CAR would be improved through sale of non-core assets, continued GoI support and churning of corporate loan book to reduce risk weight of the portfolio.

The bank will look at reducing its operational cost and sell non-core assets over a period of time. The exact schedule and quantum of such a sale will depend on market conditions and the Bank has already initiated the process.

“We are looking at all avenues to improve our capital position and bring the bank on the recovery track. We will look at aggressive recovery and cost cutting measures and plan on churning our corporate book and risk weighted assets which should also ease the pressure on capital. The Government of India, our Principal shareholder, continues to support the Bank,” said V. Narayanamurthy, Field Chief General Manager, IDBI Bank (Bengaluru Zone). 

Besides, the bank will reduce its exposure to corporate sector and instead focus aggressively on retail lending, adds Narayanamurthy.

Cisco VNI Forecasts Internet Users in India to Double to 829 Million Users in 2021, Up from 373 Million in 2016

Digital transformation will continue to drive IP traffic in India with the projected increase in Internet users from 373 million in 2016 to 829 million or 59 percent of the Indian population in 2021. In addition, there will be 2.0 billion networked devices in 2021, up from 1.4 billion in 2016 and the overall IP traffic is expected to grow 4-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 30% and reach 6.5 Exabytes of data per month in 2021, up from 1.7 Exabytes per month in 2016, according to today’s release of the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Complete Forecast.

According to the report, M2M connections will represent 22 percent of the total 2 billion devices and connections and will account for five percent of IP traffic by 2021.  Advancements in IoT applications such as smart meters, package tracking, digital health monitors and a host of other next-generation M2M services is driving this incremental growth—nearly 21 percent increase in the next five years.

Video will continue to dominate IP traffic and overall Internet traffic growth—representing 76 percent of all Internet traffic in 2021, up from 57 percent in 2016. India will reach 84 billion Internet video minutes per month by 2021, which is one hundred and sixty thousand years of video per month, or about thirty two thousand video minutes every second.

“Mobile networks, devices and connections in India are not only getting smarter in their computing capabilities but are also evolving from lower-generation network connectivity (2G) to higher-generation network connectivity (3G, 3.5G, and 4G or LTE). Combining device capabilities with faster, higher bandwidth and more intelligent networks is leading to wide adoption of high bandwidth data, video and advanced multimedia applications that contribute to increased mobile and Wi-Fi traffic” said Sanjay Kaul, Managing Director, Service Provider Business, Cisco India and SAARC. 

He added “We are witnessing a burgeoning rise in usage of mobile applications and connectivity by end users.  The need for optimized bandwidth management, network automation, e2e security and ultimately network monetization through cost efficient data production is fuelling the growth of network automation, mass market 4G deployments and adoption, soon to be followed with 4.5G and 5G. Service providers around the world are busy architecting their networks to be more autonomous and capable of handling high bandwidth to help them meet the growing end-users demand for more bandwidth, higher security, and faster connectivity on the move. Many providers have also started field trials for 5G and are gearing towards rolling out 5G deployments towards the end of the VNI forecast period.”

India Internet Growth and Trends:

1.     Increase in  Internet Users, devices and connection

·         In India, there will be 829 million total Internet users (59% of population) in 2021, up from 373 million (28% of population) in 2016

·         In India, there will be 2.0 billion networked devices in 2021, up from 1.4 billion in 2016

2.     Increase in IP Traffic and Internet Traffic

·         In India, Consumer Internet video traffic will reach 3.0 Exabytes per month in 2021, the equivalent of 756 million DVDs per month, or 1 million DVDs per hour

·         In India, Consumer Internet video traffic was 535 Petabytes per month in 2016, the equivalent of 134 million DVDs per month, or 183,261 DVDs per hour

·         In India, Internet video traffic will be 77% of all consumer Internet traffic in 2021, up from 58% in 2016

·         In India, Internet traffic will grow 4.0-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 32%

·         In 2021, the gigabyte equivalent of all movies ever made will cross the Internet every 54 minutes

·         Indian Internet traffic in 2021 will be equivalent to 291x the volume of the entire Indian Internet in 2005

3.     Increase in Per capita Usage

·         In India, IP traffic will reach 5 Gigabytes per capita in 2021, up from 1 Gigabytes in 2016

4.     Internet users & Faster Broadband Speed

·         In India, there will be 829 million total Internet users (59% of population) in 2021, up from 373 million (28% of population) in 2016

·         In India, the average fixed broadband speed will grow 2.8-fold from 2016 to 2021, from 6.6 Mbps to 18.2 Mbps

5.     Increase in Mobile, Internet Video

·         In India, mobile data traffic will grow 7-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 49%

·         In India, mobile data traffic in 2021 will be equivalent to 88x the volume of the entire Indian Internet in 2005

·         In India, IP video will be 83% of all IP traffic in 2021, up from 69% in 2016

·         In India, Internet video traffic will grow 5-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 40%

·          In India, total Internet video traffic (business and consumer, combined) will be 76% of all Internet traffic in 2021, up from 57% in 2016

·          In India, HD will be 51.4% of Internet video traffic in 2021, up from 12.0% in 2016 (87.9% CAGR)

·          In India, 84 billion minutes (159,201 years) of video content will cross the Internet each month in 2021. That's 31,840 minutes of video streamed or downloaded every second

·         In India, Internet video traffic will grow 5-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 40%

6.     Increase in Networked Devices

·         In India, there will be 2.0 billion networked devices in 2021, from 1.4 billion networked devices in 2016, and 1.3 billion in 2015

·         In India, 67% of all networked devices will be mobile-connected in 2021

7.     Growth in Internet video & gaming traffic

·         In India, Internet video traffic will be 77% of all consumer Internet traffic in 2021, up from 58% in 2016

·         In India, gaming traffic will grow 7-fold from 2016 to 2021, a compound annual growth rate of 49%

Key Findings & Milestones from Global Traffic Projections and Service Adoption Trends

1.     Strong Growth in IP & Internet Traffic

·         Global IP traffic is expected to reach 278 exabytes per month by 2021, up from 96 exabytes per month in 2016. Global IP traffic is expected to reach an annual run rate of 3.3 zettabytes by 2021.

·         Busy hour Internet traffic is increasing faster than average Internet traffic. Busy hour Internet traffic will grow 4.6-fold (35% CAGR) from 2016 to 2021, reaching 4.3 Pbps by 2021, compared to average Internet traffic that will grow 3.2-fold (26% CAGR) over the same period reaching 717 Tbps by 2021.

·         Content delivery networks (CDNs), will carry 71 percent of all Internet video traffic by 2021 (up from 52 percent in 2016).

2.     Average DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks size increasing steadily and approaching 1.2 Gpbs— enough to take most organizations completely offline

·         DDoS incidents can paralyze networks by flooding servers and network devices with traffic from multiple IP sources.

·         The peak attack size increased 60% Y/Y and represents up to 18 percent of a country’s total Internet traffic while they are occurring.

·         Average DDoS attack size increased to 22 percent which is relatively the same rate as Internet traffic at 29 percent Y/Y.

·         The DDoS attacks grew 172% in 2016 and will increase 2.5-fold to 3.1 million by 2021 globally.

3.     Globally, total public W-Fi hotspots (including homespots) will grow 6-fold from 2016 to 2021 from 94 million in 2016 to 541.6 million by 2021.

·         Globally, total Wi-Fi homespots will grow from 85 million in 2016 to 526.2 million by 2021.

·         Globally there were 91 percent of public Wi-Fi hotspots in 2016 and by 2021 it is projected to reach 97 percent.

·         Leading hotspot countries: China (170M by 2021), US (86M by 2021), Japan (33M by 2021), and France (30M by 2021).

4.     By 2021, more than half (56 percent) of connected flat panel TV sets will be 4K up from 15% in 2016

·         Installed/In-service 4K TV sets will increase from 85M in 2016 to 663M by 2021.

5.     Cord-Cutting household traffic is 86 percent higher

·         A global cord-cutting household generates 117 GB per month in 2017, compared to 63 GB per month for an average household.

6.     Global Enterprise SD-WAN Traffic

·         SD-WAN traffic will grow at a CAGR of 44% compared to 5% for traditional WAN SD-WAN will increase 6x and will be 25% of WAN traffic by 2021

·         End-User Internet traffic is moving closer to the Edge. Nearly half of traffic will bypass core completely by 2021.

Regional IP Traffic Growth Details

·         APAC: 107.7 exabytes/month by 2021, 26% CAGR, 3.2-fold growth

·         North America: 85 exabytes/month by 2021, 20% CAGR, 2.5-fold growth

·         Western Europe: 37.4 exabytes/month 2021, 22% CAGR, 2.7-fold growth

·         Central Europe: 17.1 exabytes/month by 2021, 22% CAGR, 2.75-fold growth

·         Latin America: 12.9 exabytes/month by 2021, 21% CAGR, 2.6-fold growth

·         Middle East and Africa: 15.5 exabytes/month by 2021, 42% CAGR, 5.8-fold growth

GST to Help India Achieve 9 Percent Growth Rate: Amitabh Kant

The Goods and Services Tax, to be rolled out next month as the biggest tax reform since independence, will help India achieve 9% growth rate, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Tuesday. He said GST will simplify India's taxation system and help deal with tax evasion.

“GST is India's biggest tax reform since 1947...GST will help India in achieving 9% growth rate,” Kant said at an event here. Noting that the implementation of GST is a dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NITI Aayog CEO said it will bring a big revolution in India's taxation structure.

Several experts have also said that GST is estimated to boost GDP by 1% to 2% and bring down inflation by over 2% in the long term.

Kant’s comments come against the backdrop of India losing the fastest growing economy tag to China for the March quarter with the GDP growth slipping to 6.1%. China recorded a growth rate of 6.9% during the January-March quarter.

However, on an annual basis, India grew by 7.1% in 2016-17.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday reviewed the preparedness for the new indirect tax regime, slated to be rolled out from July 1. The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and senior officers from the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).

This was the first review by the PM after the GST Council finalised the rates, and the second since May 2.

The GST Council, chaired by Jaitley and comprising his state counterparts, has already finalised tax rates on almost all goods and services. It will meet again on June 11 to review some of the rates and discuss other pending issues.

All goods and services have been put in slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28%, with the exception of gold and precious metals, which will attract 3% GST, and rough diamond at 0.25% GST.