ProductsMade.in - A Database of Indian Tech Companies by NASSCOM

Lately, ProductsMade.in - a database or directory of Indian technology companies has been launched today by NASSCOM-Zinnov collaborative initiative. In this directory, apart from searching Indian tech-companies one can add, edit about Indian companies, startups and technology products or service based firms in India only.

The directory has over 2000 products/companies listed in over 50 categories and different industry categories right from aerospace, banking, biotechnology, computers, electronics, pharma, software, telecom and more.

However the initiative is no different from other business directories that are online already, the only difference is ProductsMade.in only for technology companies are rest are more of mixed B2B directories. ProductsMade.in website is however not fully operative, blame it on its beta version,  much of the features are showing errors and non-existence such - videos, the only feature that will make ProductsMade.in different from other business directories.

Nevertheless Indian IT/ITES industry especially startup ecosystem lack such kind of resource which can be authoritative and credible on name of some reputed organization/association such as NASSCOM. The directory can provide tech-companies a nice tool to search for other  companies in their desired geographies, ger rated  and comments/ feedback, all this at one place.

In January this year NASSCOM has also started program called - 10,000 Start-ups, an initiative to incubate, funding and supporting 10,000 technology startups in India over the next ten years. NASSCOM seems to be in more rush for different startups initiative ever since iSpirt & ProductNation.in, which are platforms to nurture and grow the entrepreneurs, SMBs, companies and and product based startups respectively, iSpirt is an association better called as Indian Software Product Industry Round Table which will serve a think tank association for startups, SMBs, small entrepreneurs and especially software product industry in India.

NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) is India’s leading trade body with 1400 members consisting of domestic and global Information Technology companies present in the Indian market. 95% of the revenue generated by the Indian IT industry comes from NASSCOM affiliated member companies.

Facebook Gave $20,000 Award for Finding SMS Bug

Facebook has recently awarded a british security researcher amount of $20,000 for discovering a bug which will lead to a full takeover of any Facebook account, with no user interaction. Facebook has now acknowledged and responded to this bug and fixed the flaw within a day.

Its actually SMS feature provided by Facebook to receive updates via SMS.  This feature gives users the option of linking mobile number with FB account and also allows login using the mobile number rather the usual email address. Jack Whitton aged 22, a UK based Security Researcher found this serious loophole and the award of $22,000 tells the severity of the bug.

Facebook also listed Jack in its Hall of Fame, for finding this bug, anyone who find any security loophole can report facebook for fix and who knows might get awarded for same. Facebook runs this White Hat program to collaborate with external security researchers and help Facebook to ensure that highest security standards are being maintained for users.

Jack explained the bug in his blog, to exploit this bug, he first send the letter F to 32665, which is Facebook’s SMS short-code in the UK and received an 8 character verification code back, entered this code into the activation box modified the HTML values inside source code of 'Facebook Mobile' activation page, submit it to get user data via ajax (from facebook only), reset the user password to finally hack the account.

Facebook encouraged security researchers or even 'white-hat' hackers to report security flaws, bugs to Facebook Security team and get awarded provided you are the first one to report, rather than booking it as cyber-crime. The minimum award is $500 USD and no-maximum and as per facebook - depends on its severity and creativity.

According to Facebook - "..visit the Facebook Security Page for assistance. If you believe you have found a security vulnerability on Facebook, we encourage you to let us know right away. We will investigate all legitimate reports and do our best to quickly fix the problem."

This is something that is missing out in philosophy of Internet giants in India,recently this month only India's biggest gaming website's Zapak.com has been hacked. Although, no company can ensure 100% prevention of bugs but like Facebook, can minimize the risks of loss of information and hacks.

The incidences are common across the globe however, but the encouragement toward reporting incidence is not uniform across the globe, the same is not for just monetary awards and bounty but it act as a competitive behaviour in core-programmers/developers of apps and more carefulness. This also bring out sense of working out of the fences within core-programmers and part-time work opportunity for freelance programmers & collaboration with security researchers.

Facebook knows that what its employees can do is good but what extra it can get outside facebook office boundaries is vast and outside talents will do no harm but will give an extra edge to be stronger, this something to be learned from young company like Facebook.

NASA Launched Sun-Watching Satellite

On June 26, NASA launched satellite called - IRIS for a Small Explorer Mission to observe how solar material moves, gathers energy and heats up as it travels through a little-understood region in the sun's lower atmosphere. This interface region between the sun's photosphere and corona powers its dynamic million-degree atmosphere and drives the solar wind.

Unlike to normal satellite launch where a rocket is used to launch the satellite in outer space , here NASA used an airplane and a Pegasus rocket to launch a satellite over the Pacific Ocean on Thursday. The satellite will examine a little-studied area of the sun in hopes of improving space weather prediction.

Researchers hope NASA's latest solar observatory will answer a fundamental question of how the sun creates such intense energy. IRIS will show the solar chromosphere in more detail than has ever been observed before.

The video below shows the deployment of the Pegasus Rocket with the observatory from the Orbital L1011, different stages and how IRIS satellite is finally settled in outer space.

The Pegasus will ignite its solid-fueled first stage five seconds into its fall and arch skyward with the main wing giving it lift and the three fins in the back steering it through the thick layers of Earth's lower atmosphere.

The rocket will burn its load of fuel in 73 seconds and fall away. The second stage, which has no wings, will ignite 94 seconds into flight and push IRIS higher and faster into space. The third stage will take over after that, delivering IRIS into its orbit about 10 minutes after launch.

IRIS is a NASA Small Explorer Mission to observe the characteristics of solar material as it moves through the little-understood interface region between the sun's photosphere and corona that powers the sun's million-degree atmosphere and drives the solar wind.

NASA Television provided live launch, the video below that show coverage of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS mission on June 26, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The IRIS spacecraft will point a telescope at the interface region of the sun that lies between the surface and the million degree outer atmosphere called the corona. It will improve our understanding of how energy moves from the sun's surface to the glowing corona, heating up from 6,000 degrees to millions of degrees.

The IRIS mission (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) calls for the 7-foot-long spacecraft to point its ultraviolet telescope at the sun to discern features as small as 150 miles across. It will look at about 1 percent of the sun's surface.

On June 28 NASA's IRIS solar observatory separated from its Pegasus rocket and is in the proper orbit. Eight months out of the year, NASA will able to freely view the sun in that orbit. IRIS is in space with its solar panels unfolded to provide electricity and the telescope flipped open, scientists expect to see interesting  solar data pretty any time soon.

Source: NASA - Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS)

Digital Habits of Indian School Students - TCS Survey [Infographics]

In Smartphones usage Tier-II cities' youths overtake metros youths, says TCS GenY Survey 2012. TCS IT Wiz, India's biggest IT quiz for schools, started in 1999, for students of class 8-12 as an educational initiative. The TCS IT Wiz participation is around 17,000 students across India and is nationwide study that would capture the trends and pulse of the youth across this nation with a focus on technology. As per survey 7 out of 10 high school students said they own mobile phones, 92% said they use Facebook, about 20 per cent said they use mobile phones to get access to the internet (compared to just 12 per cent in 2009). About 62 per cent said they bought movie tickets online, while 47 per cent purchased books, DVDs and music.

Below figure depicts summary of top trends among 17,478 Indian school students of 12-18 years age group in 12 cities with time period of August 2012-December 2012. It is Largest Survey of Urban High School Student in India.

An exclusive study of this scale in 6 metro cities & 8 non-metro cities captured information access trends, social networking preferences, future education mindset, career interests and youth aspiration products.

Metro -  Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.

Non Metro - Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Cochin, Coimbatore, Indore, Lucknow, Nagpur and Pune.

Gadgets

On a surprise non-metro cities' youth population is one step ahead than youth of metro cities in many aspects such as - students in non-metro cities use home PCs more than metro students, around 51% of non-metro students have iPod/Mp3 players than  45% pf metro students.

Mobiles emerge as the first choice among students even ahead of the computers in 'Gadgets' section of this survey. Moreover Mini-metro children show greater usage of Gaming Consoles with around 18% of share than just 12.76 of usage among metro students, may be because of lack of time in metro-life and commutation problems which is more in metro than non-metro cities.


Android seems to be top-choice among youths of both metro & non-metro cities of India while smartphone usage is slightly more in non-metro students with 59% usage comparing to 58% of metro cities students. The Tablet device is emerging as a popular as MP3 players though the laptop is used more, the Tablet is more favourite among students than a Laptop as they wanted to own tablet than to have laptop. Samsung emerged as the most popular brand in gadgets with 48.28 per cent respondents agreeing they have at least one of this brand device, while Nokia and Apple followed with 46.46 per cent and 39.56 per cent respondents saying they owned electronics products of these brands.

Social Networking

There is hardly any difference between the Metro and Mini-metro cities on the top preferences and there is steep the rise of sites like Pinterest and LinkedIn, especially in the metros. Facebook, Twitter and to everyone's surprise Orkut (which is dead already) are among top social networking portal among India gen-youths with 83.38%, 29.43% and 27.85% usage respectively. 22.33% of Indian does not use social networking portals at all. Facebook, Twitter, Google and Twitter is among most preferred social networking sites among students of India and surprisingly students in non-metro cities use Twitter more than students in metro-cities.

Information Access

In terms of accessing internet, Internet access in metro schools is on the rise. With one in five children visiting cyber-cafes, it's still among most popular point to get access to internet in mini-metros. On the other hand Mobile Phone is popular internet access device in metros, 1 out of every 4 metro-city children browses on mobile-phones. Home is still the preferred place for access,although schools in metros are increasing access, students prefer browsing from Home for both metro & non-metro with 83.60% share for both accessing internet from home.

The device, access points and preference may vary between metro and mini-metro but time spent is more or less same for both. In survey its found that 1 out of every 4 children spends substantial - more than an hour on the Internet while 50% of the respondents spend more than 30 minutes.

As a reason for accessing internet project work and academic research for information is highest followed by social networking and accessing email. Interestingly 4 out of every 10 children are shopping online today.

This iPhone App Turn Text Articles into Video Summaries Automatically

A new free news app for the iPhone released today enables users to turn text-based web pages, such as articles and blog posts into video summaries automatically. The App - Wibbitz, is an alternative for reading long text content on your tiny mobile screen. Wibbitz creates beautiful video summaries out of text articles and can be seen as an alternative for reading long text content on your tiny mobile screen.

To stay updated on the latest news of your own subject you don't have to keep an eye on news article's textual words anymore especially when you are on the move, if you have iPhone or iPod Touch, Wibbitz lets you watch the news you love in the form of video summaries instead of having to read it word by word.

To 'watch & listen' articles choose news sources like world, business, technology, sports and around 50 different kind of sources you can choose from, swipe up anywhere to watch them, swipe down anywhere to go back, you can even arrange your feeds in the order you want. The resulting videos typically takes between 60-120 seconds to form, and include natural voice narration.



Using artificial intelligence, advanced text analysis and smart algorithms Wibbitz creates beautiful and short video summaries out of pure text to save you a lot of energy and time.

Wibbitz visualizes the story by taking full advantage of the iPhone’s beautiful screen and algorithmically generate video summaries out of text articles using large images, video clips, animated infographics and natural voice, the Wibbitz technology literally brings stories to life.

[cp_quote style="quote_right_dark"]
Wibbitz automate the process of creating short videos at high speed and volume by intelligently weaving together related images, videos-clips and animated infographics.[/cp_quote]

To get published in Wibbitz app, Publishers can contact Wiibitz to apply as one, turn their web-pages video avatar capabilities, moreover publishers can even monetize your videos summaries weaved together from your web-pages. Currently there are about 50 different publishers in Wibbitz app.

Wibbitz technology allows to automatically transform text-based web pages, such as articles and blog posts, into beautiful short video summaries by applying a variety of smart natural language processing algorithms and machine learning capabilities to fully capture the essence of a story.

Wibbitz is backed by top tier investors including Horizons Ventures (famous for investment in facebook), Li Ka-Shing's private investment fund, Initial Capital and young VC company Kima Ventures. Yotam Cohen, Co-founder of Wibbitz told us that - the company is planning to launch the app for Android OS as well, it will be released within coming few months.

India’s first SMS based Bus-ticket reservation Launched by MakeMyTrip

India’s first SMS-based bus-ticket booking service has been announced by Gurgaon based MakeMyTrip.com, a leading online travel company in India. Via this latest feature anyone with any sort of phone right from very simple mobile to smartphone can just send simple SMS to get their bus-tickets booked.

Five simple steps for SMS based Bus bookings:

1. Select Route & Date


2. Select Operator


3. Provide  Passenger Details


4. Provide Payment Details


5. SUCCESS!

To book a ticket via SMS one should send SMS as -  @mbus <From-City> <To-City> <Date-of-Travel> <No.of Passengers> to 9664896648, MakeMyTrip will then respond with choices for different operators on that day route.

Users will be required to select the operator of choice. MakeMyTrip will respond with template to provide the details and names of Travellers along with a template to make payments using IMPS. Customers then have to provide the IMPS Transaction Details (IMPS - Instant Mobile Money Transfer service).

On successful payment processing a success SMS will be sent along with an email. For several operators, the SMS itself can work as e-ticket.

IMPS Funds Transfer facility is mobile service which you can opt from you bank, you will need a 7 digit MMID (Mobile Money Identifier) number to transfer funds via IMPS. Example - for ICICI bank see here

MakemyTrip's SMS bus-ticket booking platform has been developed by txtWeb, an open platform for SMS applications, launched in India in 2011. It allows anyone with a simple mobile phone to discover and consume services on the Internet via SMS and is one of the fastest platforms to make content and services available to billions.

MakeMyTrip was also the first to develop mobile travel app for the iOS/ iPhone followed by an Android app.

Mr. Amit Somani, Chief Products Officer, MakeMyTrip said - "We targeted bus-ticket reservation for this platform since the ticket-value is lower for most first-time users to confidently experiment with the channel. Once they experience the convenience first-hand, we are confident they will continue to transact via mobile. We strongly believe that the future of e-Commerce and travel buying experience is on the ‘mobile’ and we will continue to build products with a mobile-first approach."

The MakeMyTrip website offers Bus tickets for 1300+ operators over 12,000 + routes across India including the inventory for Punbus/Punjab Roadways , GSRTC, Goa and Bihar Road Transport Corporation and Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation.

F.A.Q

How can I make a bus booking using SMS?

You need to follow below steps to make a bus booking using SMS:

1. SMS ‘@mbus’ along with details such as Origin City, Destination City, Date of Travel and Number of Passengers to 9664896648. < E.g. @mbus delhi Jaipur 01/07/2013 1 >


2. Once you send the above search details, you would receive an SMS showing top options for Bus Operators on the searched Route along with the fare details. You would need to reply with the selected Bus Operator option. < E.g. H A >


3. Once you send the selected Bus Operator option, you would be asked to confirm the booking and give the passenger name and email id. <E.g. J Rajnikant info@rajnikant.com>


4. Once you send the passenger name, you would be asked for the IMPS payment details such as Seven digit MMID number, Six digit OTP generated from Mobile Application and Mobile number registered with the Bank. <E.g. K 9453454 848529 9582495933>. You will receive a booking confirmation on your email id.

 

How do I make the payment?

Payment would be made using Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) powered by National Payment Commission of India (NPCI).

 

What is IMPS?

IMPS or Immediate Payment Service allows mobile banking users to make instant, 24 x 7, inter-bank payments to merchants using a mobile phone. IMPS enables registered users to access their bank accounts, make payments and get confirmation instantly.

 

How do I get started with IMPS?

Customer needs to be a mobile banking user of their respective bank. Following are the steps required to complete registration:

1. Register mobile number with the bank account in the respective bank. To get the list of participating banks please visit: http://www.npci.org.in/impsmerpay10.aspx

2. Get MMID: MMID or Mobile Money Identifier is 7-digit number provided by Bank to the customer. This number can uniquely identify customer’s Bank. The combination of mobile number and MMID is linked to the customer’s bank account. In case a user has multiple accounts with a bank, he can link the same mobile number with the multiple accounts and receive separate MMID for each of the accounts.

3. Get OTP: OTP or One Time Password is required for completing the transaction. This OTP can be generated from Mobile banking application provided by the Bank or through SMS/ IVR channel provided by your bank. For more details please visit: http://www.npci.org.in/impsmerpayotp.aspx

 

How can I cancel a bus booking made using SMS?

As of now, booking cancelation is available only via www.makemytrip.com.

 

Can I select the seat allotted to me?

At present, the system auto-allocates seats basis availability.

Microsoft Announced Venture Wing for Startups, Includes India in Accelerator Centres

Lately today Microsoft has announced - Microsoft Ventures, that offer startups community, technology, resources along with seedfunding and accelerator program to startups worldwide.

Microsoft Ventures will be a startup wing from Microsoft that will offer the tools, resources, expertise and routes to global startups and offer them help by providing mentorship, technology guidance, seed funding, joint selling opportunities and lot more.

Microsoft Ventures Accelerators:

Once startups & entrepreneurs realize the business potential of their ideas, they can apply to an immersive 3-6 month Microsoft-owned and operated accelerator program in 5 different location across globe -  Bangalore, Beijing, Paris, Seattle, Tel-Aviv and 3 more coming up soon in Berlin, Moscow and Rio de Janeiro.These immersive accelerator programs are aimed at early-stage startups and first-time entrepreneurs.

Seed Funding from Microsoft Ventures:

Startups can receive direct funding from Microsoft after achieving early business success. Microsoft is evolving the Bing Fund by adding additional funding to support even more startups. Once the startup ball is rolling, this global seed fund offers the opportunity to receive a strategic investment to propel your business to the next level.

Microsoft is also organizing an International Startups Festival from last 3 years, and this year it will be on 10-13 July' 2013  in Montreal. The International Startups Festival bringing together aspiring founders, groundbreaking innovators, and veteran entrepreneurs from around the world.

Microsoft has included Bangalore, India as one of the 5 destination for Microsoft Venture Accelerator program, which shows that India is Indeed emerging as leading startup ecosystem in the world.

 

Sony Xperia Z Ultra: World’s Slimmest and Largest Full HD Smartphone Launched in India

Sony has announced its 6.4 inches screen smartphone or better say 'Phablet'  - Xperia Z Ultra with world's most advanced Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.2 GHz considered as world's fastest smartphone processor till date. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with HD voice, that together with Sony´s audio Sony’s ClearAudio+ mode and Xloud loudness enhancement, delivers not just exceptional speed and performance, but also unsurpassed voice and audio quality.

The phablet has 6.4" of Full HD Triluminos display that runs on Android's 4.2 Jelly Bean latest version, 8 megapixel camera with HDR for videos and photos also has Sony's trademarked 'X-Reality' feature for mobile engine for the maximum viewing experience, the smartphone even have waterproof and dust resistant durable design.

Xperia Z Ultra, world's slimmest HD smartphone has ultra-thin 6.5 mm of width and will be available in three colors - black, white, and purple. The gigantic smartphone/Phablet will be sold with bluetooth "mini headset" which notably is a water-resistant as well, the company might want you to use bluetooth because at times it might be uncomfortable for you to use the gigantic phone every time you talk over phone.

Moreover, one of the most interesting feature is you can write and sketch with any normal pencil your kids use and with selected stylus or pen (with conductive tip).

The Price of Sony Xperia Z Ultra in India has not been revealed yet however the speculation is that it will be priced at around - Rs.45,000-50,000.



Technical Specifications -

Xperia Z Ultra specifications
Colours		BlackWhite Purple
Facts	Size	179.4 x 92.2 x 6.5 mm
	Weight	212 grams
	Operating System	Google™ Android™ 4.2 (Jelly Bean)
	Processor	Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 800 processor with 2.2 GHz quad-core CPUs
Camera		8 megapixel camera16x digital zoom Auto focus Continue burst mode HDR for both picture/movie Face detection Front-facing camera (2 MP 1080p) Geotagging HD video recording (1080p) Image stabiliser Object tracking Picture Effect Quick Launch Scene recognition Self-timer Send to web Smile shutter™ Sony “Exmor RS for mobile” Image sensor Superior Auto Sweep Panorama Touch capture Touch focus White balance
Music		3D Surround Sound (VPT)Album art Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP) ClearAudio+ Clear bass Clear Phase™ Clear stereo Dynamic normalizer Music tones (MP3/AAC) Music Unlimited PlayNow™ service* SensMe™ TrackID™ music recognition* “WALKMAN” application xLoud™ Experience
Internet		BookmarksGoogle Chrome™ Google Play™ Google™ search* Google Voice™ Search* Google Maps™ for Mobile with Street view and Latitude™* NeoReader™ barcode scanner* Pan & zoom
Communication		Call listFacebook™ application* Google Talk™ application* Noise suppression Polyphonic ringtones Speakerphone Twitter™ application*
Messaging		ConversationsEmail Google Mail™* Handwriting recognition Instant messaging Multimedia messaging (MMS) Predictive text input Sound recorder Text messaging (SMS) Voice input
Design		Auto rotationFace Unlock Gesture input IPX5/8 (Water-resistant) & IP5X (Dust-proof) On-screen QWERTY keyboard Input with any pencil and selected stylus or pen (capacitive stylus or metal pen with tip diameter over 1mm) Sensor-on-lens Battery STAMINA Mode Screenshot capturing Throw Sony X-Reality™ for mobile engine Touch screen Wallpaper
Entertainment		3D gamesMedia browser Motion gaming PlayMemories PlayStation® Certification pending Radio (FM radio with RDS) Sony Reader app SensMe™ slideshow Sony Entertainment Network* TV launcher Video streaming Video Unlimited YouTube™*
Organiser		Airplane modeAlarm clock Calculator Calendar Contacts Document readers eCompass™ Notes Setup guide Stopwatch Tasks Timer
Connectivity		3.5 mm audio jack (CTIA)aGPS* Bluetooth™ 4.0 wireless technology DLNA Certified® Media Transfer Protocol support Micro USB support Native USB tethering Media Go™* NFC PC Companion Play Anywhere Screen mirroring Smart Connect Synchronisation via Facebook™ Synchronisation via SyncML™ Synchronisation via Google™ Synchronisation with computer Synchronisation via Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync® USB High speed 2.0 support USB mass storage Xperia Link™ Wi-Fi® Wi-Fi® Hotspot functionality
Display		6.44 inches1920x1080 pixels 16,777,216 colour TFT TRILUMINOS™ display for mobile Touch panel cover glass with Super Hard Coat ASF
Memory	Internal phone storage	16 GB (up to 11 GB user-accessible memory)**
	Expansion slot	microSD™ card, up to 64 GB (SDXC supported)
Networks		UMTS HSPA+ 900 (Band VIII), 2100 (Band I) MHz, 850 (Band V), 1900 (Band II), 1700 (Band IV)GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
Battery life***	Battery (embedded)	3000 mAh
	Talk time GSM	Up to 11 hours
	Standby time GSM	Up to 550 hours
	Talk time UMTS	Up to 14 hours
	Standby time UMTS	Up to 530 hours
	Standby time LTE	Up to 510 hours
	Music listening time	Up to 120 hours (world’s longest audio playback)
	Video playback time	Up to 5.5 hours
In the kit		Xperia™ Z Ultra, charger, micro USB cable for charging, synchronisation and file transfer, and user documentation

Sony has also revealed it next version of Smartwatch - the SmartWatch 2 SW2, that helps you keep track of everything without taking your smartphone out of your pocket or bag. It is world’s first Android enabled SmartWatch with One-touch NFC.



The SmartWatch 2 is a truly multifunctional digital watch and phone remote that lets you receive notifications, control your music, and connect with one-touch NFC to your Bluetooth headset for easy call handling. The water-resistant design makes it more versatile to use than ever and can be personalised with any standard watch strap. Use it as a standalone watch or with your smartphone. There are over 200 apps available for our first generation and with an open API we expect new applications will be developed quickly and easily for SmartWatch 2.

Google Launches Person Finder for Missing Ones in Flood of Uttarakhand, India

Lately, Google India has launched Person Finder to give information on missing people and trace them in severe flood affected areas of Uttarakhand state of India, the web app is available for public in both Hindi and English versions.

Google Person Finder is a web application that allows individuals to post and search for the status of missing relatives or friends affected by a disaster as affected areas are so badly hit by flood that it became inaccessible and communication become very scarcely possible. All data entered into Google Person Finder is available to the public and searchable and accessible by anyone.

The program also lets press agencies, non-governmental agencies and others contribute to the database and receive updates by using the Person Finder API based on the PFIF open standard.

The National Disaster Management Authority has listed the following helpline numbers for control rooms across rain affected areas in the state of Uttarakhand (please use India country code +91 as appropriate):

Uttarkashi:	(+91) 1374-226461,
Chamoli:	(+91) 1372-251437, 9411352136,
Rudraprayag:	(+91) 1364-233727,9412914875,
Tehri:	(+91) 1376-233433, 9411548090
Kedarnath:	(+91) 1364-233727
Control Room (Uttarakhand):	(+91) 135-2710334, 9557444486

Jayanth Mysore, Senior Product Manager on behalf of Google APAC and the Google Crisis Response team said - "We hope Person Finder helps people get the latest information about their near and dear ones in these flood affected areas."

Via - Google India Blog

India 2nd Country to Get Google's Android Nation Retail Stores

In order to promote Google's owned Android in emerging markets like India, Google has now chosen India to open retail store(s) in India by partnering with Spice Global, as Spice already have 850 retail stores across 172 cities/towns in India and Dubai called - 'Spice HotSpots' which offers mobile devices, airtime products ( Data Cards,new connections and mobile recharges) as well as mobile accessories. Google after partnering with Spice Global will turn chosen ones into AndroidNation retail outlets.

India’s first Android Nation store will likely to be opened in New Delhi and might open in more cities of India as companies have plans to convert around 50 Spice HotSpot retail outlets into AndroidNation stores that presently located in India and Dubai.

The AndroidNation store will be more than just a store for its customers and will act as an Android experience centre where customers can find out  latest info about Android apps, get help from experts, download software updates or check out the latest accessories for their devices.

India is now become 2nd country to get Android Nation retail outlet that will sell Android devices such as smartphones and tablets manufactured by brands including Samsung, Sony, HTC, LG, ASUS, and others. In a similar fashion Google has opened World's first AndroidNation outlets in association with mobile company EraFone in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Google is also planning to sell China's third largest smartphone brand 'CoolPad'  in India co-branded as 'Spice CoolPad'  through Android Nation outlets that will open in India.

Android penetration is relatively low in India for year 2012 but this year smartphones picked up the pace with a growth of over 500% in India over the last year. In a recent survey conducted by TCS on youth population in India which is  India’s largest survey of nearly 17,500 high school students across 14 Indian cities, it has been found that around 54% of  smarphones owned by youths are Android based smartphones.

Facebook Now Launched Photos in Comments

Picture speaks louder than words, thus Facebook has now rolled out new feature for adding photos or images when you post comments in your friend's status in facebook, the new feature will now enable you to attach a photo directly when posting a comment to make threads with friends more expressive and engaging, earlier one can post a photo in comments by posting a link/URL to photo.

Previous to this new feature, in order to post pictures in comments facebook users need to to take the time to upload an image through a hosting site such as Imgur, Photobucket etc.The new photos comment feature will be made available for user-to-user interactions from now on, and will be available to Facebook pages' posts or groups' posts as well very soon.

Bab Baldwin, engineer at Facebook announced the new feature today who has developed this feature at a recent hackathon organized by Faecbook, he build this feature with Eric Faller, Zizhuang Yang, Ashwin Bharambe, Brandon Souba, and Alex Madjar, he said -"I'm so happy to launch, as this is the most exciting photos feature I've shipped to date!"

Earlier last week Facebook introduced 'Hashtags' as well similar to services like Twitter, Tumblr or Instagram, where when you click on a hashtag in Facebook and you'll see than a feed of what other people and Pages are saying about that event or topic.

Tweet goes Viral of NDTV Faking Videos Using YouTube

A recent tweet made over a popular news channel NDTV become a news itself over social media channel - Twitter, the tweet says that NDTV is using forged/ doctored videos and used a Youtube video posted 2 years back to use in recent coverage of  flood aftermath in north India. Apparently as seen in the picture tweeted, it shows NDTV indeed doctored the whole video with fake one picked up from Youtube.

The tweet has been made by Anurag Paranjape today's morning and soon became talk of Indian Twitosphere.

@NDTV NDTV caught red-handed CHEATING!!!!! @BDUTT @vikramchandra @mediacrooks @sureshnakhua pic.twitter.com/iSvsq87FAl

— Anurag Paranjape (@unurag) June 19, 2013

This reminded me of a movie - 'Spiderman 3' where hero of the movie exposes his rivalry photographer Eddie Brock working for a newspaper Daily Bugle, who used to make doctored photographs showing Spider-Man as a criminal for later got fired.

The tweet has mentioned Barkha Dutt of NDTV as well, who was also went through controversy in year 2008 when she along with NDTV sued a blogger Chyetanya Kunte for criticizing NDTV and Barkha Dutt for playing irresponsible role as journalist in the Mumbai attack  and the way she reported terror attack had "tactical implications" and might have worked to the advantage of the terrorists. The blog by the blogger however is now no more after NDTV got public apologies from the blogger.

If all this is true then, there is underlying agony in the revelation of this tweet , that if reputed news channel like NDTV can doctored the YouTube videos for using in news coverages than it raise a question of credibility and authenticity of news channels.

Earlier even Times of India published on it news website where it exaggerated a relatively cheap website and call its maker as - Mark Zuckerberg of India which then criticized by Indian blogosphere.

The role of mainstream which has now gone 3 times, in number of news channels in India in last 5 years so has always been matter of tiff between blogosphere and mainstream media.

Picture Credit - https://twitter.com/unurag/status/347237078062473216/photo/1

CityShor.com - An Emerging New Startup from Ahmedabad

CityShor.com is an emerging new startup based out of Ahmedabad that aims to plug the gap of providing youth population by providing them what’s new, unexplored or interesting in their city, this city-specific content portal provides  information of unexplored, unusual or awesome stuff in the city.

[cp_quote style="quote_right_dark"]The startup business model+concept is indeed a subject of a case-study in itself as it has managed to turn the profits on positive side in short span of time (~5 months).[/cp_quote]

As mostly in beginning times most of the startup don't show much of positive profit margins infact no profits or even in negatives.The startup has created a case-study in itself as it has managed to turn the profits on positive side in short span of time (~5 months) and the business model+concept is indeed a subject of case study.

Notably, on a traditional basis one can only 'search' or better say 'google' about places that he or she knows, but how will you search places that you are not even aware of ?, than the portal of this kind comes into the picture such as - BuzzInTown and now a new one CityShor.com with crisper looks. CityShor explores curates and presents the most happening, unexplored or unheard stuff in Food, Fashion, Travel, Events and Entertainment through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Blog & Emails.



As of now CityShor only caters  Ahmedabad city only but have plans to get into other cities as well, the portal is also associated with radio station 94.3 FM which covers CityShor’s content on a daily basis. The portal also claims for being able to divert significant amount of footfalls at retailers i.e. almost 70% of foot falls and 400% revenue increment and have even have case study to support it.

The startup is self-funded and just 5 month old with very small team of employees and already picked-up popularity among Ahmedabad youth, the startup is also planning to launch new discount section where it will provide discount coupons of retail outlets, cafes and restaurants.

India Biggest Gaming Website Zapak.com Hacked

Zapak.com, India's biggest gaming website's mobile version has been hacked by ZHC (ZCompany Hacking Crew) aka TeaMp0isoN is a group of computer hackers. The mobile website of Zapak.com - m.zapak.com shown with messages such as - 'Hacked by ZHC Milan Mil', 'free Kasmir', 'Go India Go Back' etc.

This group of hackers active since year 2008 are same ones who were involved in very high-profile hacking incidents in the past such as - hacking and unauthorized status updates of Mark Zuckerberg and French President Nicolas Sarkozy's accounts on facebook in 2011 and also involved in Tony Blair address book leak, hack of NASA administered domain, released more than 100 usernames and login details of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) etc. and many more.

No official announcement has been made from Zapak.com as yet and the mobile website is still not accessible and show hacked page only.

The leader of the hacking groups is so called, 26 year old - 'Don' and it is said that unlike to most of the hacking groups like Zeus malware group, ZHC do not use any tools or softwares they exploit servers day-by-day and intrude the websites via loopholes such as - errors or or bugs that exist already in the websites.

Via - AalaW

Housing.co.in Raises $2.5 Million Funding from Nexus Venture

Housing.co.in a Mumbai based startup has grabbed a good amount of $2.5 million funding from Nexus Venture Partners, the website allows its users to search, find or list properties and unlike to most of the real estate portal like in India where most of the (probably all) portal are simple listing based websites it has unique style of displaying search results and listings.

We have missed publishing anything about this startup on IndianWeb2, it's different to other portals of its niche and has very smooth, simple and intuitive interface comparing to other real estate portals in India. The portal currently allows its users to search or list properties for major real estate booming cities of India that is - Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderbad. The startup also provide Housing Android App for mobile and that is also very crisp and intuitive as well.

I must confess that after a long time I have seen a startup from India which have done out of ordinary effort in UX (User Experience) part and intuitive interface with minimalist approach of design given a call of tough competition to other established portal of real estate arena of India.

Users such as property agents or brokers can list their properties once they subscribe to the service for a small fee. Other users can search, find and filter properties both for buying or rentals/lease absolutely free of cost. User can also filter out results based on property size, (number of bedrooms), location and other amenities at property.

In a span of a year the startup has grown quite exponentially as the daily unique visitors grew from around 1000 visitors/month in June 2012 to around 18K unique visitors/month in May 2013. Even more the company size has grown from 12 people working for startup to 215 employees from now on.



The Portal has shown tremendous capabilities with much slick and simple real estate search and break the ice of traditional search that other real estate portals are carrying for almost a decade.

Suvir Sujan, Co-founder , Nexus Venture Partners, says, "The Housing team is disrupting online search for home buying and renting in India like never before. We were very impressed with the vision, passion and speed of execution of the founding team and we are excited to partner with them".

Get Free WiFi Access Anywhere Around the World

Now you can get free internet access anywhere around the world, find wifi access on the road, anywhere using wifi networks from nearby hotspots, cafe, restaurants, bars, finding their passwords from the tips left on foursquare (no foursquare account required however).

VenueSpot is new app with apps - 4sqwifi (iOS) and Venue Spot (Android), the app shows results of nearest wifi network in metres.



However, most of the time you can use wifi for only 15 minutes but that's enough if you want to check/send emails in urgency. Moreover, you can even save and search previous wifi spot findings so there is no internet required at all. The app also use - 'Radar' which helps to easily locate your wifi location, it actually a very small app (23KB for Android) which display a radar view by drawing a bearing between user location and wifi location.

The app releaser/developer are independent and have nothing to do with foursquare.com, according to developers, app comes handy as - "Browse venues from your home, around any place on earth you choose from an interactive map inside the app, automatically store them, so when you visit that place, you will have all the wifi passwords with you, no internet access required! 100% offline use! Ideal for places with low mobile signal, trips abroad, or when you just can't afford to pay for mobile data!"

FindYogi Lets You Intelligent Comparison for Online Product Buying

FindYogi is a consumer web product from Bangalore based startup Wowway Labs and lets you compare mobile & tablets across the Indian e-commerce portals so that you can make better buying decisions based on intelligent comparison.

Apart from just mobiles and tablets currently you can compare on FindYogi, its planning to add more standard product categories over the next couple of months.

Apart from other comparison websites that exist such as - NaapTol.com, FindYogi provide a 'Feature Score' - a score out of 100 to every product which is calculated taking into account all the specifications of the product as compared to maximum of that available in market. Quantify 'Value for Money' and 'FindYogi Index', a rating out of 5, that tells you if a product is worth buying at its current market price.

In a screenshot below you can see for mobile handset - Samsug Galaxy S4 FindYogi gave it index of 2.4 out of 5 thereby declaring it 'Bad Value for Money'  and feature score of 90 out of 100,  pros and cons of having it and the bottom line review of product. The site indeed display information quite interestingly in shortest way possible.



FindYogi claims that most e-commerce companies in India do not have so much detail and accuracy, but FindYogi provide complete set of features and prices from different sellers and moreover by completely manual processing.

FindYogi is a self-funded startup based out of Bangalore and being run by founders - Naman (ex from ZipDial & Freecharge) and
Anil Bhat (ex from Novell & Yahoo).

InterviewMaster gets Undisclosed Funding from VentureNursery Angel

InterviewMaster a Bangalore-based startup has nabbed undisclosed amount of funding from Mumbai based VentureNursery Angel which is India's first Angel-backed Start-up Accelerator. [Via - TOI]

InterviewMaster.in has also been selected by VentureNursery’s second batch of start-ups accelerator program and has been graduated in April's last week, the startups is a product of Emprenure Labs which is based out of Bangalore and have offices in Cochin and Australia as well.

Basically, InterviewMaster is an innovative web application based on the concept of 'Automated Video Interview Solution' which allows you to create, administer, evaluate interviews online using pool of pre-recorded video questions and structured evaluation tool that screens job candidates.

InterviewMaster claims it can save firms up to 80% in time and cost, if HR departments are comfortable sacrificing intimacy for efficiency and no cases of fraud like telephonic Interviews.

Interview Master is founded by a group of entrepreneurs from IIT Bombay and NMIMS and former management/recruitment consultant from reputed companies.

How to attend Automated Video Interview using Interview Master

Google Launches Internet Balloons - Project Loon

Yesterday, Google tests giant balloons that beams Internet to earth below it and connect 50 test users of Canterbury area, New Zealand to the internet. It says the technology could bring web-surfing to remote corners of the world, underserved and places where cost of internet is high.

Google says, it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below. the company has built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today’s 3G networks or faster.

Project Loon is developed by Google[x] lab - a secret facility run by Google and is the same facility which is also behind launch of driverless car and much popular Google Glasses



Using loon project balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote, and underserved areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters. However, the critics also making speculations that it is another NSA (National Security Agency), USA backed program to keep an eye and steal data from other countries.

 

How Loon Works

Balloons sailing high uses wind and solar energy for sailing and powering up the device. Google launched around 30 balloons in a week to test pilot in New Zealand.

'Project Loon' balloons float in the stratosphere, twice as high as airplanes and the weather. They are carried around the Earth by winds and they can be steered by rising or descending to an altitude with winds moving in the desired direction. Currently Google use wind data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Thereafter, a custom-designed Internet antenna which is also like balloon shape attached to a user's house allows them to receive Internet service from Project Loon. The signal bounces from balloon to balloon, then to the global Internet back on Earth.

In future, Google will testing the internet balloons in other countries as well but with the same latitude as New Zealand.

Office Mobile for iPhone - First Run Experience

Today, Office Mobile for iPhone is available in the Apple App Store free of charge for Office 365 subscribers in the U.S. Office Mobile for iPhone will be available in international markets in the following week. Office Mobile for iPhone provides mobile viewing and editing experience across Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Android users have to wait for office app however as there is no official announcement  from Microsoft about same.

Microsoft Office Mobile is the official Office companion optimized for iPhone. You can use, view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from almost anywhere. With 'Cloud' connect support one can also access documents from anywhere with phone that are stored on SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro, or SharePoint or even documents that you have recently viewed on your computer can be readily available on your phone in the recent documents panel. It even has support for charts, animations, SmartArt Graphics, and shapes.



To get Office Mobile for iPhone simply install "Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers" from the App Store. If you have a Windows 8 Phone, you already have the latest version of Office Mobile pre-installed. An Office 365 subscription or trial account is required to use the Office Mobile for iPhone app. Office Mobile for Windows Phone does not need an Office 365 subscription.



As per office News blog - Office Mobile has been optimized for the small screen of your phone so you can get the important things done quickly. For instance, the Slide Navigator allows you to page through PowerPoint presentations fast while Speaker Notes help you practice presentations on the go. When reviewing Word documents on your phone, the Resume Reading feature takes you to the exact point in the document where you left off on your computer so you never miss a beat.

More in-depth first run experience on - Office 365 Tech blog

MappedIndia.com - All things Indian Startups Over Map

Few desperate entrepreneurs from IIT Chennai have launched a portal dedicated to map all things related to Indian startup community and ecosystem MappedIndia.com - the mission of this project is to put all Indian start-ups , Incubators and Vc's on one map , one place, connected.

If you see other startup community of other countries like US, Berlin and Israel they have dedicated portals that map all things related to startups over an interactive map that includes startups, accelerators, VCs, R&D centres and co-workings etc. For example - MapYourStartup.Co for US, Made In NY for New York only (US), Berlin has BerlinStartupMap.com and MappedInIsrael for Israel.

MappedInIndia fill this concept for Indian Startup ecosystem that will map Indian startups, accelerators, incubators, coworkings, investors, hackerspace as well as startup events in India. Within a week of its launched the portal managed to have about 80+ organisations across india registered on this mapping site. I believe this is very humble and very simple effort towards Indian startup ecosystem.

Unfortunately in India we don't have an extensive database of all stakeholders in start-up ecosystem even if it exist it's paid , it's a cumbersome task to find list of VCs, investors and startups nearby . I hope and wish this effort will result in extensive list of all things related to Indian startups and especially list of VCs and investors that will surely be a milestone as free resource for Indian startups ecosystem.

However if the portal also envisage an interactive list of VCs, angel investors and incubators where users can sort,search and filter by name, fundings, geographical location etc it will be another milestone in this area.

Beware of Zeus - A Facebook Virus That Can Drain your Bank Account

Zeus also known as Zbot is actually a facebook virus and technically a Trojan horse that can wash away your bank accounts by stealing your internet banking password, once your computer got infected with Zeus it stays dormant until a victim logs into a bank site, and then it steals the victim’s passwords and drains the victim’s accounts.

Zeaus aka Zbot has infected millions of computers mostly in US and in some cases, it can even replace a bank’s Web site with its own page, in order to get even more information. It's actually a six-year-old virus that shape up again in 2013, it was first detected in year 2007. Incidents of Zeus have risen steadily this year and peaked in May as reported by Trend Micro.

This Trojan horse can cause many hazardous activities once it get into your computer - it steals data submitted in HTTP forms, account credentials stored in the Windows Protected Storage, steals FTP and POP account credentials, modifies the HTML pages of target websites for information stealing purposes and many more dangerous activities.

Zeus gain popularity as choice among cyber-criminals in 2006 when they can buy Zeus aka Zbot malware toolkit from black market and it even allows non-programmers cyber-criminals to carry out cyber crimes. According to a 2010 report from Dell SecureWorks, the basic Zeus package starts at about $3,000 to $4000.

How to protect your computer & Facebook account

Besides keeping your antivirus, operating system and software patches up to date there are prevention tips to reduce threat to Zeus virus:

1. Be very careful about making online purchases from sketchy sites advertised on Facebook especially NFL fan page on facebook and other facebook groups/pages as reported by facecrooks.com.


2. Make your facebook profile more secure by enabling HTTPS on your profile.


3. Do not click on flashy links that says - Work at home or get rich quick etc.


4. Run your Facebook account through - Facebook Checkpoint (screenshot below).

How to know if Zeus Trojan is in your computer

Computers infected with this version of ZeuS will have the following files and folders installed. The location depends on whether the victim has Administrator rights. The files will most likely have the 'hidden' attribute set to hide them from casual inspection.

With Administrator rights:

%systemroot%\system32\sdra64.exe (malware) 
%systemroot%\system32\lowsec
%systemroot%\system32\lowsec\user.ds (encrypted stolen data file) 
%systemroot%\system32\lowsec\user.ds.lll (temporary file for stolen data) 
%systemroot%\system32\lowsec\local.ds (encrypted configuration file)

Without Administrator rights:

%appdata%\sdra64.exe
%appdata%\lowsec
%appdata%\lowsec\user.ds
%appdata%\lowsec\user.ds.lll
%appdata%\lowsec\local.ds

ZeuS also makes registry changes to ensure that it starts up with Administrator privileges:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
From: "Userinit" = "C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe"
To:   "Userinit" = "C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,C:\WINDOWS\system32\sdra64.exe"

Without Administrator rights:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Add:  "Userinit" = "C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\sdra64.exe"

The sdra64.exe program uses process injection to hide its presence in the list of running processes. Upon startup, it will inject code into winlogon.exe (if Administrator rights available) or explorer.exe (for non-Administrators) and exit. The injected code infects other processes to perform its data theft capabilities.

Detection tip via - Secureworks

StartupDosti - An Indo-Pak Business Plan Tournament

Startup Dosti is a first and one of a kind platform for early age startups in India and Pakistan introduced by Indian Angel Network (IAN) - which is India's largest angel funding group in association with Karachi-London based SEED Ventures and the Washington DC based Atlantic Council. The program will help startups & entrepreneurs from both the countries to exchange markets, ideas, expertise and mentor-ship.

Each entrepreneurs/startups who take part in program will receive individually tailored, cross-border mentor-ship from experienced experts, successful entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders in both India and Pakistan, as well as the opportunity to earn seed funding, free incubation for 3 to 6 months in both countries, and access to a unique network of entrepreneurs to help execute their business idea.

[cp_quote style="quote_right_dark"]The business plan competition is open to early-stage startups based in India and Pakistan. Concept stage startups who are planning to start within 3-months of applying can also apply.[/cp_quote]

The applications for business plan competition will open from August 15, 2013 the day when India celebrates its Independence, the program will however kick-off from July onwards keeping in mind the complexities in getting visas and travelling to each others' countries especially when it comes to India-Pakistan.

The finale will than be organized in late 2013 in Thailand, again probably because of visa hurdles, the finals will invite top 8 to 10 business plan from each country and invite the respective entrepreneurs in person in Thailand and again possibly in Washington, DC for a dynamic follow-up dialogue and mentor-ship session in 2014.

The final round of the competition will feature business plan pitches to a panel of experienced investors from both countries and the diaspora. The pitches, mentoring, and follow–up sessions will all be produce a dynamic television series, in partnership with GEO TV in Pakistan and major media partners in India. The TV program will air in 2014 which GEO TV in Pakistan and Indian TV media partner is yet to be decided.

The supporting organization includes India's major accelerator and incubation centres such as - The Startup Centre (Chennai), Startup Village (Kochi), 91 Springboard (New Delhi) and Centre of Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship – IIM (Ahmedabad)

India's TableGrabber selected in Start-Up Chile program 2013 with 4 other Indian startups

TableGrabber, an Indian startup and first real-time online restaurant reservation system in India and currently offering  its services in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. The startup is also being incubated in our Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure (India) program, has been selected for the seventh batch of Start-Up Chile, an accelerator run by the Govt of Chile to attract world-class early stage entrepreneurs to start their businesses in country of Chile.

The other 4 Indian startups selected for StartupChile program 2013 are - Bitrockr (Decision Support System), FITH Media Pvt. Ltd MicroSolar (Low-cost Solar devices), and Motorpaneer (Car Buying Portal with twist).

 

TableGrabber is an Indian company among the 100 selected startups from 1570 applications received from more than 28 countries. The 24-week program Start-up Chile program from July, 2013 till 31st January, 2014 will provide TableGrabber with $40,000 (Rs 22 Lakh) of equity-free seed capital, a one-year resident visa to all its team members as well as a comfortable work-space that they would share with entrepreneurs from all over the world.

The online dining reservation system TableGrabber provides real time update of table availability to diners, which in turn cut the need to call or wait with your customers outside the restaurant and actually make restaurant reservation on the fly. To make this happen, TableGrabber provides restaurants with a cloud-based reservation system, which restaurants use to efficiently manage their reservations, guest lists, and optimize their revenues. The system is simple and easy to use and is designed to replace the existing pen & paper booking process that is currently used at most restaurants.

The system also provides the restaurant managers an easy to use tool to promote special events, deals, and any other offers that they would like to extend to their diners. The system is not only a boon for diners, but it’s also an effective tool for restaurants to fill empty tables, streamline costs, maximize revenues, and garner a loyal customer base.

The startup is founded by graduates from prestigious institutes like Cornell, Harvard and Le Roche College. The Co-founder of TableGrabber Pawan Marwaha said - "The process was quite stringent. All applications were evaluated by Silicon Valley experts and a Chilean Innovation board that focused on global mindsets and worldwide potential. Being part of the Microsoft Accelerator definitely helped us achieve both".

Coca-Cola Small World Machines is Really Interesting

Coca-Cola, a renowned soft-drink maker world-wide has come up with new marketing gimmick which is really interesting and beautifully give an effort to bring two nations together and when the nations are India & Pakistan it become much more interesting - two siblings tear apart in year 1947 and now used to live with conflicts.



Coca-Cola devised a high-tech vending machines installed in two popular shopping malls in Lahore city of Pakistan and New Delhi of India, two cities separated by only 325 miles. These machines are called - "Small World Machines" which provides a live communications portal (live streaming video) with 3D touchscreen technology to project a streaming video feed onto the vending machine screen while simultaneously filming through the unit to capture a live emotional exchange such as - wave, touch hands, draw a peace sign or dance along with of-course sharing Coca-Cola.



This Small World machines project a streaming video feed onto the vending machine screen while simultaneously filming through the unit to capture a live emotional exchange.

People from both the countries are liking it and sharing peace & love messages despite of their political conflicts.

Via - coca-colacompany.com