Patanjali to soon announce a 1600-Cr herbal food park in Noida

Patanjali to soon announce a 1600-Cr herbal food park in Noida

Yoga guru Ramdev Baba led Patanjali Ayurved, may soon announce an investment of Rs 1,600 crore shortly for setting up a herbal food park in Noida in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh to meet its domestic as well as global demand.

A senior UP government official privy to the development said, It is almost finalised now. You may see an announcement by Patanjali Ayurved for an investment of around Rs 1,600 crore in Noida for setting up a food processing plant around Diwali. As far as investments in the state are concerned, the Uttar Pradesh government is fair and transparent for promoting industrialisation which will create jobs.

There were speculations that Patanjali will announce its investment in Uttar Pradesh after the assembly polls in March next year. However, the company officials have also confirmed the development, saying the procedure for identification of the land is at an advanced stage and the unit can be near Yamuna expressway.

A Patanjali Ayurved official said, It would be an international food park, which would be for exports and domestic markets as well.

War between Relience and Airtel

Airtel hits back at Reliance Jio, offers free data for 90 days to 4G users

Bharti Airtel has made its move to combat Reliance Jio's free data offers, with a 90 days free data plan priced at Rs 1,494 specifically for 4G users.

The country's largest telecom services provider, said that the 90 days pack is available for Rs 1495 for existing users and new users will be able to avail it through first recharge of Rs 1494.

Ajai Puri, director, operations (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel said, "Customers with 4G handsets generally consume large amounts of data and this proposition is specifically aimed at them."

With this pack these customers can stay online round the clock without having to worry about exhausting their data limits or going for frequent recharges, the company added.

The pack, which will have fair use policy checks in place, is currently available in Delhi and will be launched across other circles over the next few days.

Reliance Jio has amassed a large number of consumers through its free data and free voice offer for 90 days, along with a free SIM.

The offerings have prompted competition including incumbent telcos to drop data rates by up to 67%. However, the new plan of free data is a fresh response by the market leader to the new entrant, with the intent of retaining its massive customer base.

Stay tuned for more Latest Web Technology News Updates.

Whatsapp and Facebook Updates

Indian court orders WhatsApp to not share user data with Facebook collected before Sept. 25

WhatsApp’s move to share some of users’ information with Facebook isn’t sitting well with India. The country’s Delhi High Court today directed WhatsApp to make two critical alterations to its forthcoming policy changes for Indian customers.

A bench of Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court ordered WhatsApp to delete data of users who choose to opt out of WhatsApp’s policy changes before Sept. 25. Furthermore, WhatsApp was asked to not share data collected before Sept. 25 with Facebook even for those users who are not opting out of WhatsApp’s new policy, which comes into effect on Sept. 25.

The Delhi High Court intervened on WhatsApp’s plans after two Indian students approached it last month. The students — Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi — expressed privacy concerns about changes in WhatsApp’s terms and privacy policy, accusing WhatsApp of “endangering” privacy of millions of users, and “severely compromising the rights of its users.”

WhatsApp announced last month that it will begin sharing some of its users’ account information — phone number, in particular — with its parent company Facebook. The company said that it will use this information to “improve experience across [...] services” and “fight spam and abuse.”

On its website, WhatsApp notes that "account information" of users include their mobile phone number as well as those of people who are in their "address book." The information also includes a user's "profile name, profile picture, and status message."

The popular instant messaging and voice calling service assured that “nothing you share on WhatsApp, including your messages, photos, and account information, will be shared onto Facebook or any of the Facebook family of apps for others to see.” A WhatsApp council appeared in front of Delhi High Court earlier this month and explained that WhatsApp wasn’t going to share users’ personal chat with Facebook.

“There is no question of messages, photographs or documents getting shared with Facebook. We have no access to the content. Using the messaging service is a voluntary decision, we have not forced anybody to use it. Users have an option of opting out of it,” he added.

"Having regard to the complete security and protection of privacy provided by Respondent 2 (WhatsApp) initially while launching Whatsapp and keeping in view that the issue relating to the existence of an individual's right of privacy as a distinct basis of a cause of action is yet to be decided by a larger bench of Supreme Court, we consider it appropriate to issue the following directions to protect interest of users of WhatsApp," the bench said according to news agency PTI. 

WhatsApp could approach the Supreme Court to challenge the Delhi High Court’s decision. Mashable India has reached out to Facebook for a statement. India is one of WhatsApp’s largest markets with over 100 million monthly active users.

Twitter moving closer to sale

Twitter moving closer to sale, possible suitors Salesforce, Google: Report

Twitter is moving closer to a sale and has received expressions of interest, CNBC reported on Friday, sending the microblogger shares up more than 19% in their biggest gain in over two years.

CNBC, citing unnamed sources, said possible suitors include Alphabet's Google and Salesforce.com. No sale is imminent.

Twitter, Salesforce and Alphabet could not be reached immediately for comment. Salesforce shares fell more than 3%, while Alphabet dipped around 0.25%.

Twitter has been a near-constant focus of takeover speculation amid persistently disappointing sales and user engagement. In its most recent quarterly report, it posted its slowest revenue growth since going public in 2013 and issued a lackluster outlook.

As rivals such as Facebook's Instagram and privately held Snapchat gain traction with advertisers and social media users, investors have questioned how long Twitter could persist as a stand-alone company.

Co-founder Jack Dorsey returned to the company as chief executive in 2015, but his plan for reviving Twitter is at best seen as unfinished.

The CNBC report sent Twitter shares to their highest since early January. It last traded around $22.30 a share.

Twitter's stock regularly jumps on rumors that a bid is afoot, none of which have so far developed into a deal.

Stay tuned for more Latest Web Technology News Updates.

Yahoo Hack is the world's biggest

Massive Yahoo hack is the world's biggest for now:

When Yahoo said on Thursday that data from at least 500 million user accounts had been hacked, it wasn't just admitting to a huge failing in data security -- it was admitting to the biggest hack the world has ever seen.

Until Thursday, the previous largest known hack was the 2008 breach that hit almost 360 million MySpace accounts, according to a ranking by the "Have I been pwned" website. Like the Yahoo breach, the hack was only publicly disclosed this year after data was offered on a hacker forum.

And only three breaches had ranked above the 100 million level:

LinkedIn reported a loss of 167 million email addresses and passwords. They were originally stolen in 2012 but not publicly disclosed until 2016, again after the data was offered on an underground "dark market" site.

A 2013 hack of Adobe saw 153 million account details lost. They included user names, email addresses, and encrypted passwords, but the encryption was poorly implemented and reversed on some accounts.

And there's been a reported but unverified hack of dating website Badoo. Data including email addresses, names, and passwords for about112 million members was found online.

Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal Updates

Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal prepare for a mega clash in October

India's largest online retailers Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal are primed for a mega clash as they each roll out their flagship annual sales in the first week of October and bid for larger shares of consumer spend in the festive season.

On Thursday, Amazon India announced that it would run its sale season from October 1 to 5, giving itself a head start as the two Indian companies launch their sales from October 2 to 6. All three companies will look to garner a significant portion of their annual sale value during this high-spending period.

In 2015, online retailers are estimated to have sold goods worth nearly Rs 9,000 crore in October, as shoppers splurge on gadgets, apparel, home furnishings and more.

"This year online retailers have tried to push the burden of discount on seller's wherever possible," said Mrigank Gutgutia, engagement manager at research firm RedSeer.

But with merchants not in the mood to come up with flashy discount offers on their own, online retailers may be in for a damp festive season.

Marketplace Shopclues will also hold its sale from October 1-10, while Alibaba-backed Paytm is yet to announce dates for its festive sales.

RedSeer estimates that overall value of goods sold on across all online marketplaces may not exceed Rs 10,000 crore in October this year.

Last year, industry estimates reckon that Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon India clocked up combined sales of between $500-$600 million during the festive day sales. Flipkart alone is estimated to have sold goods worth $300 million during its sale, termed the Big Billion Days (BBDs). Flipkart will be counting on a repeat performance to help maintain its lead over Amazon.

Preparations for sale days this year are being led by Kalyan Krishnamurthy, former MD at Flipkart's largest shareholder Tiger Global Management, who heads the key commerce and advertising units.

Krishnamurthy has already helped Flipkart regain its position in smartphone sales, which accounts for half of its sales. The firm has bagged exclusive rights from brands like Motorola, Xiaomi, Reliance and Apple over the last few months.

Flipkart is also betting big on sale of large appliances, besides extending its domination in the high-margin fashion and apparel segments. Snapdeal, which has recently rebranded and called its event "Unbox Diwali Sale", plans to offer up to 70% discounts, with offers on home appliances, electronics, mobiles, home furnishings, furniture and FMCG.

Amazon India is betting on the largest selection of products -80 million. It is also betting on improved customer experience with a pickup in its subscription service Amazon Prime.

Flipkart Updates

Flipkart becomes first e-commerce marketplace in India to reach 100,000,000 registered users.

This may not come as a surprise – the big daddy of Indian e-commerce, 10-year-old Flipkart, has become the first online marketplace to cross 100 million registered users. The feat, however, is impressive since its arch rival Amazon India has been catching up fast in market share. In fact, Flipkart claims to be the first company to reach this milestone in a single country outside the US and China.

In a statement, India’s most valuable startup has said that their registered customer base now stands at around 63 percent of the broadband connections in India. [The figures released by TRAI in September 2016 put the number of broadband connections in the country at under 160 million.]

Binny Bansal, Co-founder and CEO, said,

“We would like to thank our entire family of 100 million customers who have been a part of this wonderful journey. This is a small step in our efforts to build a platform that provides quality products accessible and affordable to millions of Indians shopping online. Since the time we sold the first book to our first customer in 2007 till today, our journey has always been about providing a superior shopping experience to our customers while continuously raising the quality of service and selection. This milestone has further energised us to ramp-up our efforts and build a world-class shopping destination.”