India: Its size, its people, its coming of age.
Swati Prasad is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist who spent much of the mid-1990s and 2000s covering brick-and-mortar industries for some of India's leading publications. Seven years back when she took to freelancing, India was at the peak of its "outsourcing hub" glory and the world of Indian IT, telecom and Internet fascinated her. A self-proclaimed technophobic, Swati loves to report on anything that's remotely alien to her--be it cloud computing, telecom, BPOs, social media, e-government or software and hardware, and also how high-tech sectors impact the Indian economy.
The Indian government has finally announced its ambitious direct cash transfer scheme, but both banks and the regulator have a lot of work to do before the benefits start trickling down to the rural poor.
A recent report highlights new avenues for revenue generation for telecom companies in India, like mobile VAS, cloud and data center services. These will also provide opportunities to IT companies.
It's ironic how "powerful" Indians can tolerate poverty, corruption, and female foeticide, but not a post on Facebook and an accompanying "Like".
Tepid response to 2G spectrum auction holds several lessons, the foremost of which is selling spectrum shouldn't be a means to bridge the fiscal deficit. Instead, focus should be on growing India's telecom market.
A recent survey claims nearly 56 percent of smartphone users in India find their smartphones more entertaining than their TV sets.
Aakash-II will be officially launched next week, but over a dozen tablets priced in the sub-US$100 range are already available in the market. And India's education sector seems ready to lap them up.
Smartphones are poised to get only smarter and new apps are significant for markets like India, such as a software and smartphone accessory developed at MIT that can perform eye tests.
A reverse sting by industrialist Naveen Jindal on a television channel is probably a blessing for the dying concept of free media. Hopefully, it will raise both news quality and ethical standards in the Indian media.
For smaller organizations, a change in the way they look at IT security is critical to bringing about more robust systems.
A report points out that regulatory changes relating to financial inclusion, increasing penetration and white-label ATMs will be the main drivers for future growth for India's ATM industry.