Archives for February 2019

With the general elections just months away in India, Facebook has added five new partners including the India Today Group to its third-party fact-checking programme aimed at reducing the spread of false news on its platform. With the addition of the new partners, Facebook has expanded the programme to three new languages. The new partners […]

Education technology startup Byju’s has said it plans to double its workforce this year by adding 3,000-3,500 employees, kicking off one of the largest such recruitment drives by a private internet company in the last few years. Unlike food delivery firms Swiggy or Zomato that largely do the bulk of their hiring for the delivery […]

ITC is set to become one of the first frontline FMCG companies to start its own e-commerce operation for premium and niche products as it seeks to expand market share in the fast growing online sales segment and ensure wider availability of products, executive director B Sumant said. A recent report by Nielsen says e-commerce […]

The parliamentary standing committee on information technology is exploring ways of expressing its frustration, including declaring breach of privilege, at being unable to get Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey or his secondin-command to attend its hearing on Monday, said people with knowledge of the matter. This may include sending a “strong” recommendation to the government seeking […]

By Dr Kamlesh Bajaj The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology recently unveiled draft rules under section 79 of the Information Technology Act to curb fake news and rumours on social media platforms. These platforms are intermediaries under Section 79. The rules clearly state that an intermediary must inform its users not to host, publish […]

Chinese apps are now providing an increasing share of business to content moderating firms locally, an industry which was driven largely by clients from the US and Europe. What is helping these platforms is that Chinese short-video streaming apps like TikTok, Vigo Video, and LIKE have been gaining market share not only in India but […]

Ola has signed a term sheet with Mirae Asset- Naver Asia Growth Investment, a fund jointly launched by the Korean financial services giant and one of the country’s top internet companies, for the latter to potentially invest in India’s largest ride-hailing platform. A possible investment in Ola is likely to be part of the Bengaluru-based […]

Sagar Gholap, 42, has been watching Rangoli, Doordarshan’s hour-long programme on Hindi film songs, ever since he was 12. It has been a constant on a weekend morning, a throwback to his childhood when Sunday was the only day he didn’t have to get out of bed at 6 am sharp. “I was allowed to […]

By Arvind Gupta, MyGov India missed the first and second Industrial Revolutions in the 19th and early 20th centuries as it was then fodder for colonial industrialisation. It also missed the third technology-driven one, since it came at a time when India’s economic policies were not conducive to technology. But India has been lucky to […]

SoftBank-backed Oyo Hotels and Homes is in talks with Los Angeles-based Berggruen Holdings, a $2-billion private equity and venture capital firm founded by billionaire investor Nicholas Berggruen, to acquire their company Keys Hotels in India, sources told ET. Berggruen Holdings is the owner of Berggruen Hotels in India, founded in September 2006 to build and […]