Australian prime minister says Bing could replace Google

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had since spoken to Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella about its search engine Bing filling the space.

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As Google eyes Australia exit, Microsoft talks Bing with PM

Australia has introduced laws that would force internet giant Google and social media heavyweight Facebook Inc to negotiate payments to domestic media outlets whose content links drive traffic to their platforms.

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Here's a way to learn if facial recognition systems used your photos

Companies, universities and government labs have used millions of images collected from a hodgepodge of online sources to develop the technology.

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ETtech Morning Dispatch on 1 Feb. 2021: What Budget 2021 means for startups, tech

India's tech and startup industry will watch out for cues in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget 2021 that will give shape to their ecosystem's post-pandemic future.

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Snackmaker Happilo raises Rs 100 crore in first external funding round

The Bengaluru-based brand is eyeing a healthy chunk of the Rs 40,000 crore dried fruits and nuts market, estimated to be the largest in the world.

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Budget 2021: Is it now time for LIC, EPFO to invest in Indian startups?

The government has started deliberations on allowing domestic pension and insurance funds to invest in Indian startups. While the idea isn’t new, industry watchers believe now is the right time for Indian institutional investors to become stakeholders in India’s startup ecosystem.

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Budget 2021 Expectations: What India’s fintech industry wants

Industry experts said reforms to further the country’s financial inclusion mandate through effective use of technology could be expected from the budget.

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Automation impact: Tech Mahindra to reduce BPO staff by 5,000 in FY21 even as revenues grow robustly

It can be noted that the business process outsourcing (BPO) vertical, which has its genesis in the 'call centres' business of the past, is one of the biggest employment generators in the technology space, where Indian executives handle a slew of processes for overseas clients often across time zones.

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Asus ROG launches virtual incubation programme for gamers

Asus ROG will identify PC gamers through a screening process and prepare them for competitive tournaments on a national and a global level in a bid to strengthen the e-sports talent pool in the country.

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Padma Shri Sridhar Vembu on politics, working in a village and why atmanirbhar India makes sense

No fancy fleet of cars, private jets, or stories of employees becoming “crorepatis” after every funding round. In fact, Zoho, which launched in 1996, has no external investors.

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Myntra changes logo after complaint calls it offensive to women

The complaint had been lodged last month with the cyber cell in Mumbai.

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Google, Facebook sued by West Virginia newspaper publisher

The company, HD Media, owns several papers in the state, including the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington and the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

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Happiest Minds acquires Pimcore Global Services for $8.25 million

The acquisition will further strengthen Happiest Minds' offerings and leadership in the digital transformation space.

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Government to introduce bills to set up DFI, Digital Currency

“To set up a new DFI as a provider, enabler and catalyst for infrastructure financing,” the NaBFID Bill 2021 purpose of statement noted, adding that NaBFID will be the, “principal financial institution and development bank for building and sustaining a supportive ecosystem across the life cycle of infrastructure projects.”

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Autonomous driving to be cheaper than cost of a car: Softbank chief Son

Speaking at the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda Summit, he said the COVID-19 situation is a tragedy, but technology is evolving faster due to the pandemic.

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Facebook is hated — and rich

The company said Wednesday that its sales — nearly all of which come from the ads it sells on Facebook, on Instagram and its other apps — reached nearly $86 billion in 2020 and are growing rapidly.

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ETtech Weekly Recap: What startups want from Budget 2021, verification badge scam, & more

We tracked the Economic Survey 2020-21 and what it had to say about the country's startup ecosystem and how the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns helped make India one of the largest gig economy hubs in the world.

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Amazon battle is about ownership of the Indian customer at any cost, Kishore Biyani tells employees

"For reasons we never believed earlier but quite evident today, this battle is about ownership of the Indian customer at any cost. The stated and evident policy of vexatious litigation and harassment makes one wonder about the similarity in ruthless ambition to scorch the earth akin to the Greek Alexander - after all, they are inspired to name their product as Alexa," he wrote adding that Alexander conquered large parts of the world but failed in India.

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US lobby group urges India not to tighten foreign e-commerce rules

India is considering revising the rules after traders in the country accused Amazon's Indian division and Walmart's Flipkart of creating complex structures to bypass investment regulations.

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Fantastic blue ticks and where to buy them

Verified badges for social media accounts are being sold on private marketplaces, putting their credibility quotient at stake.

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What Economic Survey 2020-21 says about India's startup ecosystem

The government has recognised 41,061 startups so far, more than 39,000 of which have reported 4,70,000 jobs, according to the Economic Survey 2020-21.

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Indian IT-BPM sector saw recovery in revenue growth at 7.9% in FY20: Economic Survey 2020-21

The Survey noted that the IT-BPM sector (excluding Hardware and e-commerce) had seen growth rates of 8.2% in 2017-18, 8.1% (2016-17) and 9.1% (2015-16).

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Economic Survey 2020-21: India's gig economy now among largest in the world

The increasing role of the gig economy was evidenced in the significant e-commerce growth seen during the pandemic-induced lockdown, Economic Survey 2020-21 said.

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Globalization needs to be shown as job creator: Nandan Nilekani

The Infosys co-founder said companies have to be active local players wherever they operate, while they need to have a localisation strategy and “articulation of partnership with the country”.

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Still early days of AI, real potential to come in place in 10-20 years: Sundar Pichai

"AI will laying a foundation to tackle future problems and it can play a much bigger role in tackling future pandemics," Pichai said.

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50% Indian IT leaders see permanent rise in value of data: Druva report

The ‘Value of Data’ report also found rising concerns among Indian businesses about data protection and the growing role data agility plays in enabling organisational operations and connecting with customers.

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Your data for cash: Indian lending apps force tough choice

Unsecured loan apps in India are facing regulatory action for their methods, including collection and misuse of borrower's data, underlining the risks to driving financial inclusion with newer technologies.

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Social media, video apps flooded with CVs, job requests post ByteDance layoffs

MX Player's TakaTak, ShareChat, Trell, Chingari, Bolo Indya, Mitron and Roposo are among the many companies likely to pick up some of the impacted employees.

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Housing.com plans Rs 40 crore media blitzkrieg over 15 months

The online real estate portal has signed Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao for the new campaign.

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How do I look? SoftBank's Zozo offers tech specs to help buyers get skin tone right

Augmented reality functionality in the online retailer's app will allow consumers to see how the make-up will look.

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Govt notifies Rs 945 crore seed fund scheme for startups

The funds will be disbursed through selected incubators across India from 2021-25, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said in a notification.

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Robinhood raises $1 billion from its investors: Report

Venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Ribbit Capital came together to offer emergency funding to the trading platform

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Saveo Healthtech gets $4 million led by Matrix Partners, RTP Global

The company said it would utilise the capital to expand deeper into geographies where it is already present and into newer regions within the country.

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More focus on mathematics essential to drive AI research in India: Simputer co-inventor

Among other challenges for research in India, Vinay pointed out the huge disparity budget for IISc compared with the global institutions.

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InfoBeans net profit up 85.4%

The company added four new clients during the quarter, including the $2.2 million contract from a financial services firm.

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OYO Hotels & Homes strengthens its global leadership team

Among those who have been promoted and hired are Ayush Mathur who is now the chief supply officer (Global), Ankit Mathuria as Chief Technology Officer, OYO, Abhinav Sinha as Global COO & Chief Product Officer (Interim), Kavikrut as Chief Growth Officer, Gautam Swaroop as CEO, OYO International.

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Investors should believe in the long-term nature of the markets: Scripbox CEO

Atul Shinghal discusses personal investment strategies, expectations from the Budget, use of technology in investing and more.

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Bengaluru's Balan Engineering launches six variants of electric vehicles

The company is currently engaged in the manufacture, assembly and sale of electric vehicles from a production facility in Bengaluru and will shift to a larger facility in Bagalkot in North Karnataka.

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Facebook, Apple chiefs unleash barbs as App Store feud heats up

The suit accuses Apple of abusing control of its App Store by requiring outside app developers, such as Facebook, to abide by rules not applied to its own apps, tech publication The Information reported.

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Ula raises $20 million in funding led by Quona Capital, B Capital Group

The company is focused on digitising their supply chain, inventory and also helps them manage their working capital.

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TO THE NEW Appoints Amit Gupta as CFO

Gupta is an alumnus of IIT Roorkee with an MBA in Finance & Strategy from the University of Texas at Austin.

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TikTok ban puts brake on parent ByteDance's India office space expansion plan

The Beijing-headquartered company had entered into a flexible office space deal for 1,250 seats at WeWork India’s Nesco property in Mumbai’s Goregaon suburb last year.

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TikTok, Tik.... The clock's run out on Bytedance’s India dream

TikTok always had a rocky relationship with India. Now, as the most valued startup in the world exits its biggest international market, a look at the key events that underscored the tumultuous run.

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H-1B Visa rejection rates dropped drastically in July-September 2020

H-1B visa rejection rate fell to 1.5% in the July-September period compared to 21% in the previous nine months, an analysis of US immigration data shows.

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NMIMS Hyderabad signs MoU with T-Hub for startup outreach

The NMIMS-T-Hub partnership is designed to facilitate exchange of knowledge and provide outreach for the management institute's development programs.

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India Inc.’s success in 2021 hinges on Customer Experience: Zendesk

Zendesk has found that 90% of Indian companies are likely to prioritise Customer Experience in 2021, compared to 53% for countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

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Google easing Play Store rules for games-based loyalty programs

The policy clarification is based on several discussions Google has had with startup leaders along with feedback they have received from app developers globally.

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Microsoft working on creating right Cloud infrastructure for India

This comes after the US-based technology behemoth saw a sharp increase in demand for its Cloud-based services at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.

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Indian consumers feel AI drives better consumer experiences: Pega survey

Indian consumers were more trusting of new technologies like AI if they see the potential to improve their productivity and make things simpler.

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WhatsApp adds more security features for web and desktop versions

WhatsApp said the move builds on its existing security measures, which pop up a notice in users' phone whenever a Web/Desktop login occurs, and the ability to unlink devices from their phone at any time.

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