I think I’ve seen the magic kingdom and it’s in India. The architecture, the animals, the colors, the life, the people, they all add up to create one of the most visually spectacular places in the entire world. Jacob and Katie Schwartz captured parts of northern India in this video and it’s a joy to watch.
Would you get paid to act as a third passenger in a vehicle so the car could drive into a congestion-restricted area? How about signing up to pack people into crowded subway cars? Dress up as a zebra and walk the streets, preventing cars from running red lights?
With nearly 814 million people set to vote over the next few weeks in India’s general elections, the biggest democratic exercise on the planet, political parties are scrambling to out-innovate each other. Amid all this, some technology startups are finding a killer app for their products, especially given the massive outreach programs required by political leaders for wooing their… Read More
If you are a politician, it isn’t easy to get votes these days. Everyone knows politicians are crooks. And if you aren’t, no one trusts you because of the other bad apples. I suppose you need to do whatever you can to get attention, like this guy who dresses up as Spider-Man.
That’s what 32-year old Gaurav Sharma did while running for Parliament in India. The former martial artist once worked for the Mumbai police and now he’s in politics. He hopes that climbing buildings dressed as Spidey get him some votes and win the election.
This is the right idea. I say make them work for those votes. Dressing up as superheroes and actually patrolling the streets wouldn’t hurt either. It might be nice to see a politician willing to risk his own neck for his people.
[via Kotaku via Fashionably Geek]
When it come to music streaming services, these services tend to be typically available in regions like the US and Europe. This isn’t because the companies providing the service don’t want to expand, but sometimes it might be due to copyright issues and getting local record labels and publishers to come on board.
Well it looks like Rdio is making some inroads when it comes to expanding their music offerings as the company has recently acquired a streaming service from India called Dhingana for an undisclosed sum of money. In a way their timing could not have been better as Dhingana recently shut down in February as the company’s music label partner, T-Series, did not renew their licensing agreement with them. (more…)
Rdio Breaks Into Indian Market With Local Acquisition original content from Ubergizmo. 
     |
Nokia’s transfer of its Indian manufacturing unit and other assets in the country to Microsoft is facing a legal hurdle that could force the Finnish phone maker to take some extreme steps including potential shutdown of the plant. If the Indian manufacturing plant is not transferred to Microsoft, it could mean less money for Nokia from the Microsoft deal. After India’s Supreme Court on… Read More
With the iPhone 5c, it was Apple’s attempt at releasing a more affordable iPhone handset. It wasn’t exactly that much cheaper, meaning that customers who wanted an iPhone would much rather pay a little more to get the latest hardware, rather than slightly less for older technology, which might explain why the phone is a flop.
However it seems that despite the apparent failure of the iPhone 5c, Apple still has its eye on emerging markets such as India, and according to a recent report from The Economic Times, it has been suggested that Apple is looking to open up more retail stores in India to help push the iPhone to customers living in the region. (more…)
Apple Reportedly Planning On Opening Neighborhood Retail Stores In India original content from Ubergizmo. 
| |
For anyone who has done their research on Apple and studied their history, you might recall John Sculley as being the company’s former CEO. In fact he was the one that Steve Jobs personally invited to join the company which eventually led to him playing a role in Steve Jobs’ unceremonious removal from the company he helped build.
However that is a story for another time, but it looks like John Sculley has been active and according to reports, it seems that Sculley is planning on heading over to India to launch a new smartphone brand. The brand has yet to be revealed but according to the reports, the company plans on releasing their own smartphones as early as next month. (more…)
Apple’s Ex-CEO John Sculley To Launch Smartphone Brand In India original content from Ubergizmo. 
| |
This is story about a man who created—and wore—a fake, bleeding uterus made out of a bladder and goat’s blood. This is also a story about an inventor breaking profound taboos to revolutionize the lives of women. Either way, how a school dropout in India came to invent a cheaper way to make sanitary pads is a tale at once weird and inspiring, as chronicled in a recent BBC article.
| |
There are almost 900 million active cell-phone users in India now, and from newer startups to some of the biggest companies in the world, everybody is chasing the next mobile disruption that could potentially result in a business model for all of the emerging markets.
One such startup is Ezetap, a mobile payment company backed by some of the biggest names in the VC industry, including Chamath Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive and founder of Social+Capital Partnership, and Angelprime, an Indian seed fund run by serial entrepreneurs.
Today, Ezetap is raising $8 million in Series B funding led by Helion Advisors, Social+Capital and Berggruen Holdings. This round takes the total fund raised by Ezetap to around $11.5 million (including $3.5 million it had raised in Series A funding in November 2012). The fresh capital will be used to expand Ezetap in Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa.
Ezetap is much like Square, at least in terms of the basic model. It uses a rectangular device that can turn any mobile phone into a point-of-sales terminal when plugged in. The device including a card reader and chip, costs around $50, and Ezetap has been able to sell around 12,000 of them to date. The startup is aiming to have over 100,000 such devices installed across Asia-Pacific, Africa and Middle East in a year.
“From day one, we wanted to go global and really felt that mobile payments in general is a great opportunity for emerging markets. There’s disparity in cash versus electronic payments leading to the challenges of financial inclusion,” Abhijit Bose, CEO of Ezetap, told TechCrunch.
Ezetap was incubated in 2011 by Angelprime, a $10 million seed fund backed by Mayfield Fund, Palihapitiya and several others in the Silicon Valley. It’s run by three veteran entrepreneurs — Sanjay Swamy, Shripati Acharya and Bala Parthasarathy. With the latest round, Ashish Gupta of Helion is joining the startup’s board. Helion is an India focused, $600 million fund.
Ezetap is the second attempt by Abhijit and Sanjay to build a mobile payment company in India. In 2006, Sanjay was the CEO of mChek which had raised around $10 million by 2009, and Abhijit worked with another venture-funded payment startup called Ngpay.
Back then, mChek and several others fizzled out because of several challenges.
“I believe there was nothing wrong with mobile payment back then, it was just the timing,” said Bose.
Indeed, the environment has changed dramatically. Back then, there were only 10 million credit cards. Today there are around 316 million credit and debit card holders in India. More importantly, the telecom infrastructure has improved tremendously, allowing users to do much more than just voice calls and texting.
“For us, Android and iOS are the game changers, too. Moreover, consumers are much more willing to use mobile payments for ease of use,” said Bose.
After building the product for one year, Ezetap officially launched with a Citibank mobile payment pilot in January 2013. Since then, the startup has signed up several banks and newer e-commerce companies, including Flipkart and online grocery retailer BigBasket. In Kenya, Ezetap partnered with Mastercard and Equity Bank to launch its services in March last year. Later in May 2013, Ezetap’s solution received global certification from EMVCo, an organization that specifies processes and gives approval for chip-based payment cards.
“Chip and pin is now the established global standard for mobile payment processing, and will soon take over the U.S. as well. Ezetap has created the only product that is certified globally, at a price point materially better than any other player – regional or otherwise,” said Palihapitiya.
Both Ezetap and Square are using similar models to enable mobile payments, but for completely different target markets, which is perhaps why Bose doesn’t like being called “the Square of India.” Ezetap’s merchants include India’s biggest e-commerce company Flipkart and even much smaller mom-and-pop shops.
“I always hate it when people call it that [Square of India]. Fundamentally, we are attacking underserved markets and are both similar in thinking about mobile payments. But we want to build a business that makes us number one mobile payment platform in emerging markets,” said Bose.
To be sure, Ezetap is not the only mobile payment startup that’s beginning to do well. With around 2 million customers using its mobile wallet, MobiKwik is aiming to reach the 100 million mark in two years. While MobiKwik and at least two dozen others are offering mobile wallets, startups such as Mswipe are more similar to Ezetap. Mswipe raised its Series B funding earlier this year from investors including Matrix Partners. All these startups are shaping an ecosystem of mobile payments in India that goes beyond just creating a non cash economy.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
