IBM is opening up its Watson Assistant and Watson OpenScale to everyone for the first time, enabling businesses to take advantage of conversational AI and smart platform management, even if they’re not using IBM Cloud. Although the services have been available for IBM cloud customers to use in the past, the move means that enterprises […]
Archives for February 2019
View: India must respond to global tech giants’ threat to independent journalism
Yet another weighty report in yet another country – this time it is the Cairncross Review in the United Kingdom – has called out Google and Facebook. The review, tasked with finding ways to keep British journalism financially viable, makes the point that is both correct and well-understood by experts – internet’s giant global companies […]
Apple aims for April launch of streaming TV service, won’t include Netflix
Apple is targeting an April event to introduce a streaming television service that will likely include subscription TV services from CBS, Viacom and Lions Gate Entertainment’s Starz among others as well as its own original content, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. Apple has long hinted at a planned video service, spending […]
US firm sues Cognizant for breach of contract
Cognizant has been sued by Crawford & Company, the US-based independent providers of insurance claims-handling services, for alleged breach of contract. Cognizant had been mandated by Crawford to implement PeopleSoft Financials software as part of an ERP project called Project Atlas that was critical to Crawford’s operations. Project Atlas included components for both internal operations […]
Asia’s ‘gay Netflix’ to woo Indian audiences in 2019
Asia’s first LGBT+ video streaming platform that bills itself as the continent’s “gay Netflix” plans to expand this year into India, its founder said on Wednesday, following the 1.3 billion-strong country’s legalisation of gay sex. GagaOOLala – which combines two slang phrases used to describe gay people in Taiwan – is moving into India because […]
COAI opposes government plan to regulate internet platforms
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, represented by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), have opposed the government’s proposed amendments to the intermediary guidelines and to regulate internet platforms in order to curb fake news, terming them “vague” and ones which can violate the privacy of users. The stance of India’s two older telcos was in […]
Local sourcing rule may be eased for FDI in single-brand retail
The government is considering a relaxation in mandatory 30% local sourcing norm for foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand retail in a bid to draw companies such as Apple looking to set up their own stores in India. Depending on the amount of investment, the retailer can get up to 10 years over which it […]
Data protection to form core of ecommerce policy
Protection, localisation and cross-border flows of data and privacy will be at the core of the upcoming ecommerce policy that will also focus on India’s position in global trade negotiations, officials in the know said. With a group of 76 members including the US, European Union, China, Japan, Australia and Singapore working to develop trade […]
Oyo gets $100M from China’s Didi Chuxing
Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has invested $100 million in hospitality chain Oyo Hotels & Homes. The investment, which continues to value Oyo at about $5 billion, has been made from Didi-controlled entity Star Virtue Investment, people aware of developments told ET. This brings to a close Oyo’s $1 billion financing round led by existing […]
That VPN may not be as secure as you think
If you’re a VPN subscriber and have ever wondered just how secure the supposedly encrypted pipe that you’re using through the internet is — and whether the anonymity promise made by the VPN provider is indeed protecting your privacy— well, your hunches may be correct. It turns out several of these connections are not secure. Academics say […]