India's first cash giving app 'CASHe' launched

Tslc Pte Ltd., a fin-tech company promoted by serial entrepreneur and private equity investor V. Raman Kumar, today announced the launch of its all new mobile-only lending platform - CASHe, providing users a personalized experience to borrow cash anytime, anywhere within minutes. CASHe is Raman Kumar's most ambitious tech venture that redefines credit in a smart, social world.
CASHe was launched in Mumbai at a glittering ceremony today with Bollywood's rising star Arjun Kapoor unveiling the product. He was joined by CASHe's eminent Board of Advisors comprising Dr. Rakesh Mohan, Former Deputy Governor of RBI and Director IMF, Suhel Seth, well known marketing guru and media personality and Yezdi Lashkari, tech thought leader.
"CASHe is the ideal platform for consumers to take control of their short term finances", said V Raman Kumar, Chairman of TSLC PTE LTD. "Today's young professionals have different aspirations and needs not very well addressed by the present banking system. We are simplifying their borrowing experience with CASHe. With this new smart phone platform we will be providing immediate cash loans based on their social profile, merit and earning potential using our proprietary algorithms and machine learning. All loans through CASHe will be disbursed by One Capitall Ltd. An RBI - registered NBFC," he stated.
CASHe uses sophisticated proprietary technology that mines the borrowers' social network and requests basic documentation to arrive at a "Social Loan Quotient" (SLQ) and a loan eligibility amount.

Using multiple unique data points to arrive at a distinct credit profile for the customer, CASHe will transform traditional credit measurements, providing financial inclusion to underserved young professionals who are kept out by traditional credit rating and banking systems.
By providing basic information on a smart phone, professionals can avail of - within minutes - a convenient 15-day loan for a one-time processing fee with no other hidden costs, no painful paper work and no human interaction.
CASHe's target clients are young professionals between 20-35 years old. Upon confirming eligibility, these employed individuals can avail of a loan of up to 40 percent of their monthly income instantaneously at a rate of interest on par with credit cards.
Film star, Arjun Kapoor stated, "Today's generation believes in instant gratification. If I have to speak on behalf of the generation I represent then I'd say our fundamental belief in life is to work hard but party harder and at most instances we run out of resources to cater to our fast paced lifestyles. Saving money is more important to my parent's generation than it is to my generation.
CASHe will be the go-to app to raise immediate and efficient money. CASHe is a great way to ensure financial independence and responsibility at the same time. I am delighted to be associated with CASHe". (ANI-NewsVoir)

India gets its own GPS called NAVIC

Isro successfully launches the seventh and final satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System—IRNSS-1G

New Delhi: In a step that is expected to reduce India’s dependence on foreign navigation systems such as US Global Positioning System (GPS), India on Thursday successfully launched the seventh and final satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)—IRNSS-1G.
“India is now proudly among five nations in the world which have established their own satellite navigation system. Until today, we were reliant on GPS and systems from other nations, but today we are independent,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, naming the system NAVIC, or Navigation With Indian Constellation, dedicating it to India’s fishermen and navigators.
The four other countries/blocs that have their own navigation satellite systems are the US, Russia, China and the European Union.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) launched the satellite on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C33), the workhorse rocket of the space agency, at 12.50pm on Thursday.
IRNSS is an independent regional navigation satellite system developed by India that consists of a constellation of seven satellites. It is designed to provide accurate position information to users in India as well as those in a radius extending to 1,500km from its borders.

“This system has so much potential to be useful not only for the whole country, but also our neighbouring Saarc countries which are dependent on foreign systems and can now make use of this Indian system,” Modi added.

Saarc refers to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

IRNSS is expected to provide a positional accuracy of better than 20m in the primary service area. It involves placing three satellites in suitable slots in a geostationary orbit, 35,786km above the Equator, and the remaining four in geosynchronous, elliptical orbits designed to keep the satellites within view of ground stations.

The system will provide two types of services—a Standard Positioning Service for all users and a Restricted Service, an encrypted service for authorized users only.
Some of the applications provided by IRNSS would be terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management, integration with mobile phones, precise timing, mapping and geodetic data capture, terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers, and visual and voice navigation for drivers.

Overdependence on any foreign system is not good, said Ajey Lele, a research fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. “It is unique as it is in the geostationary orbit, which will help it focus on India with a higher resolution,” said Lele. “Based on this successful launch, we can now think of expanding further as China did with BeiDou navigation system.”

Tech to Double Wi-Fi speed, Team led by Indian-origin Researcher

The team, led by Associate Professor Harish Krishnaswamy, developed the technology that needs only one antenna.

New York: Researchers, led by an Indian-origin engineer in US, have developed a novel technology that can double Wi-Fi speeds with a single antenna, a breakthrough that could revolutionise the field of telecommunications.
This is the first time researchers from Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science have integrated a non-reciprocal circulator and a full-duplex radio on a nanoscale silicon chip.
The team, led by Associate Professor Harish Krishnaswamy, developed the technology that needs only one antenna, thus enabling an even smaller overall system.
"This technology could revolutionise the field of telecommunications," said Krishnaswamy, director of the Columbia High-Speed and Mm-wave IC (CoSMIC) Lab.
"Our circulator is the first to be put on a silicon chip, and we get literally orders of magnitude better performance than prior work," said Krishnaswamy.
"Full-duplex communications, where the transmitter and the receiver operate at the same time and at the same frequency, has become a critical research area and now we have shown that WiFi capacity can be doubled on a nanoscale silicon chip with a single antenna. This has enormous implications for devices like smartphones and tablets," he said

Krishnaswamys group has been working on silicon radio chips for full duplex communications for several years and became particularly interested in the role of the circulator, a component that enables full-duplex communications where the transmitter and the receiver share the same antenna.
In order to do this, the circulator has to "break" Lorentz Reciprocity, a fundamental physical characteristic of most electronic structures that requires electromagnetic waves travel in the same manner in forward and reverse directions.
"We wanted to create a simple and efficient way, using conventional materials, to break Lorentz Reciprocity and build a low-cost nanoscale circulator that would fit on a chip," said PhD student Negar Reiskarimian, who developed the circulator.
The traditional way of breaking Lorentz Reciprocity and building radio-frequency circulators has been to use magnetic materials such as ferrites, which lose reciprocity when an external magnetic field is applied.
But these materials are not compatible with silicon chip technology, and ferrite circulators are bulky and expensive.
Krishnaswamy and his team were able to design a highly miniaturised circulator that uses switches to rotate the signal across a set of capacitors to emulate the non-reciprocal "twist" of the signal that is seen in ferrite materials.
Aside from the circulator, they also built a prototype of their full-duplex system - a silicon IC that included both their circulator and an echo-cancelling receiver.
The research was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Source: Deccanchronicle

Searching for Rare blood group? Login to this app.

The app will enable people to deposit blood on a regular basis by opening a Blood Banking Account at any Red Cross affiliated Blood Bank.

 A unique account number will be assigned to each individual to help monitor the account through the app. (Representational image)

Bengaluru: Indian Red Cross Society has launched a new app on blood banking that aims to address the issue of finding blood during emergencies and encourage more people to donate blood.

With the new app, launched in association with advertising agency J Walter Thompson, Red Cross Society hopes to reach out to digital savvy public. “The Indian Red Cross Society has already established blood banks across the country. With the digital blood banking concept and the launch of the app, the entire process of blood deposit, withdrawal and transfer will be extremely useful to today’s digital savvy public. We have come up with this public service initiative to offer a solution to finding blood donors at the time of emergency,” said S, Ashok Kumar Shetty, General Secretary, Indian Red Cross Society, Karnataka State Branch.
The app will enable people to deposit blood on a regular basis by opening a Blood Banking Account at any Red Cross affiliated Blood Bank. A unique account number will be assigned to each individual to help monitor the account through the app.

The app will record all the required information, track the account and provide timely reminders on when the next savings is due. The blood can also be transferred to others and the app will let users or the account holders know how much blood is available in the account. In addition, it will allow blood bank account holders to efficiently keep track of the entire blood deposit cycle on the digital platform.

Blood ‘saving’, not donation
The Chief Creative Officer of J. Walter Thompson, Senthil Kumar, said, “One of the biggest barriers to blood donation is the word ‘donation’. Most people have second thoughts when it comes to blood donation and nearly 90 per cent have never donated blood in their lives.”
Hence his team decided a unique way to break that barrier. “We decided to change the language and build in self-interest into this cause. We replaced the word ‘donation’ with ‘saving’ and ‘banking’ and created the app that helps you save blood into your own unique account.”
Source:- Deccanchronicle

WhatsApp could soon get banned in India: Report

WhatsApp’s newly-enabled encryption system could just make it illegal in the country.

WhatsApp recently enabled the end-to-end encryption to the online chat application that could face issues with the security norms here in India.

WhatsApp could have accidentally entered into troubled waters here in India by enabling its end-to-end encryption for all. The new security feature by WhatsApp is not what is required by the Indian telecom rules and WhatsApp could face a ban, if the rules are not adhered to. But not yet.
After Apple’s problems with the FBI over unlocking an iPhone for retrieving encrypted data splat all over the internet, tech giants such as Apple and Google backed Apple’s decision on refraining to help the FBI to unlock the device. The major reason for Apple not helping the FBI was user’s data privacy and security norms. But the FBI managed to crack open the phone without any help from Apple, which is not a big question if the user’s data is even secure and private anymore.
In India, companies need to follow the country’s rules and adhere to specific types of encryption, which WhatsApp does not currently use. WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption on its chat service means that WhatsApp or anyone else won’t be able to crack open its contents.  Only the sender and the recipient are able to read the encrypted data. WhatsApp uses a 256-bit key for encryption of all chat messages, which is only known to the sender and the recipient.

Why is it not possible for WhatsApp to help decrypt users’ messages? "No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us," WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton wrote on their blog.
However, as for the Indian rules, online services are only permitted to use up to 40-bit encryption. If they need to use higher encryption standards, they need to seek permission from the government, and the way WhatsApp is setup, it seems a bit too difficult to obtain the same. In order to get the required permissions and green flags from the Indian Government, WhatsApp needs to submit the keys, which sadly, they too actually don’t have.
Hence, indirectly, all those who are currently using the updated WhatsApp app in India are actually using it illegally, says the report.
A report by The Independent  that the Indian government has not yet decided whether they will take any action on the issue and deal with WhatsApp to come to a conclusion.
However, according to the Indian encryption rules, OTT services, such as WhatsApp, do not require encryption standards like telecom operators do. Telecom service providers and internet service providers in India require a license from the DoT to provide encrypted services in India. These include internet telephony and chat services and a usage of up to 40-bit encryptions, only after depositing the decryption keys to the Telecom Authority. Since WhatsApp, Skype, Viber and such services are (over-The-Top) OTT-based and not telecom operations, they are not yet regulated in the country as they do not come under the encryption requirement laws.
The TRAI had released an OTT consultation paper back in 2015, but are yet to issue any such regulations in the matter. In the absence of such regulations, OTT services with such encryptions are presently free to operate legally in the country. However, things could change, citing lack of decryption keys and possibility of illegal activity with terrorist groups and alike on such OTT services.

In other countries, such as France, Skype was made to register with a telecom service provider in order to operate with the encryption standards it holds in place. Similarly, many other countries, including China, Germany and a few others, have also put regulatory systems in place. OTT services are well regulated in countries overseas.

Firstpost mentions Asheeta Regidi, an Indian cyber law specialist, stating, ‘WhatsApp, being an intermediary, is expected to comply with directions to intercept, monitor and decrypt information issued under Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Complying with such a direction will now be impossible for WhatsApp in view of its end-to-end encryption. Even before the introduction of this, since WhatsApp is not a company based in India, it may have been able to refuse to comply with such directions. In fact, compliance by such companies in regard to data requests from the Indian government has been reported to be very low.’
The Independent further reported that countries like India are currently looking to pass new policies on the new encryption standards. But it is presently unclear whether these new policies will bring new requirements on WhatsApp.
The big question now is that, will India allow WhatsApp to continue in India or will it enforce a new OTT regulation which will put encrypted services like WhatsApp, Skype, Viber and others into the grey zone?
Source: deccanchronicle

In India, Wi-Fi powered by taxis

Programs from Facebook and Google could make the crazy idea of getting internet access via a hot air balloon or lasers shot from a drone a reality, but how about going online via a network of Wi-Fi-connected taxis in your city. That latter option could become a possibility in the future thanks to a new program from Ola, the India-based ride on-demand service that is valued at $5 billion and fiercely rivaling Uber.
Ola today announced a new Wi-Fi feature for its high-end cars that will enable customers to automatically connect to a Wi-Fi network when they get into a vehicle — no hassle with registration, codes or hotspot connections. Ola’s “Auto-Connect Wi-Fi” requires one initial log-in, after which a user automatically rejoins the Wi-Fi network in any Ola Prime vehicle.
Ola and Uber both began offering in-car Wi-Fi last year, but both required a fresh log-in each time. The feature could soon become standard for high-end on-demand rides in India, where network connectivity isn’t always reliable, so automatic log-ins could become a convenient time saver.
“Ola Wi-Fi addresses the need for consumers to be connected to the internet while on the go, without the hassles of having to use unique credentials every single time. With over 40 minutes spent on an average cab ride in Indian cities, an auto-connect Wi-Fi experience can make every Ola, the ‘third place’ for consumers, beyond their home and workplace,” Raghuvesh Sarup, head of categories and chief marketing officer at Ola, said in a statement.

The feature is initially available with Ola Prime, the company’s UberBLACK-esque high-end category, and is limited to three cities at first. Sarup told TechCrunch that the company is “making plans” to expand the automatic Wi-Fi service to other cities and all other Ola vehicle types, including even its Tuktuk service, in a phased manner, but there’s no immediate timeframe for when that will happen. It isn’t also clear if the service, which is free with Prime, would be charged separately when added to lower end Ola cars like Tuktuks.
Ola is working with multiple providers — it declined to name names — to power the network. Each vehicle contains a Wi-Fi device which emits a network signal with a limited range. But, there’s a grand idea lurking. Further down the line, the company could extend the range in each vehicle and thus create a mesh-style Wi-Fi network that, if there are enough cards on the road, could provide a solid connection for anyone in a particular area. In other words: Ola’s cars could literally be beacons that power a metropolitan Wi-Fi network.
“We are trying to solve one use case first,” Ankit Bhati, Ola CTO and co-founder, said in an interview. “Potentially [we] can use the nodes [to create a network.] We definitely want to get to a future where that is possible. One step at a time, but the potential is huge.”
Ola’s news is line with recent measures that the Indian government is undertaking to improve connectivity in the country, which is already the world’s second largest internet market and counts over 140 million monthly active Facebook users. Google and the government launched a program to bring Wi-Fi coverage to India’s rail network in January, and there may be parallels here.
Ola didn’t work directly with the government on its Wi-Fi service, but it is open to doing so in the future Anand Subramanian, Ola’s head of communications, told us.
If Ola can create Wi-Fi networks in the future, and it is a huge ask, it wouldn’t represent the first time that its reach has extended beyond merely transportation services. The company’s payment service — payment wallets are mandatory for all on-demand services in India — was spun out into a standalone app that can be used to pay for items on a range of other services beyond Ola.