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BGMI wins ‘Best Game’ at Google Play Best of 2021 Awards

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Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), the popular online multiplayer battle royale game developed and published by the South Korean video game developer Krafton, Inc. has been awarded ‘Best Competitive’ and ‘Best Game’ at the Google Play Best of 2021 Awards organized by Google Play.

Wooyol Lim, Head of Battlegrounds Mobile Division at Krafton, Inc. said, “This recognition is a testament to BGMI’s commitment to create an immersive, enjoyable, and diverse gaming experience for players in India. We accept this award on behalf of our players and are grateful to them for their continued enthusiasm and endless support. Since BGMI’s launch, the feedback from our fans has been incredible, and that’s the pillar on which we are building India centric events, and contents. We have some really exciting things in store for our fans in the final month of the year.” He further added, “We are thrilled to kickstart iQOO Battlegrounds Mobile India Series in December and are confident many gaming enthusiasts are also looking forward to it.”

Also Read | Krafton launches ‘Game Responsibly’ drive to promote responsible gaming habits

Krafton has received an overwhelming response from gamers in India. Within the first week of the launch of Battlegrounds Mobile India this year, Krafton saw an overwhelming 40 million downloads in just over a month on release and 16 million daily active users. Notably BGMI players will also be able to represent the country in Asian Games next year in a medalled event. Running from September 10 to September 25, 2022, competitors will play on a special BGMI Asian Games Version for their chance at a gold medal.

Recently, Krafton, Inc. released a series of films to encourage gamers to take care of themselves and their squad mates’ mental health as they take on the Battlegrounds. The campaign- ‘Game Responsibly’ promotes safer and responsible gaming habits and builds awareness amongst players to cultivate safer and healthy gaming habits.

Also Read: Proctur launches an exclusive free app for teachers and tutors

Proctur launches an exclusive free app for teachers and tutors

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EdTech Company Proctur recently launched their app ‘Proctur – Live Teaching App for teachers, educators, and tutors in India. Currently available for free on App Store and Google Play, the app will help coaching institutes to manage and streamline their services like live classes, online exams and fee collection.

Proctur – Live Teaching App will also help individual educators and teachers monetize their coaching offerings with a platform developed for their needs. This staggering app is a multilingual app available in different languages for the users and also has a chat feature to communicate.

Redefining the digitization process of educational institutes in India, Proctur offers comprehensive learning management solutions for schools and coaching institutes. The company owns the credit of designing one of the most advanced LMS systems designed exclusively for educational institute. With a presence in over 125 cities across India, Proctur has helped thousands of coaching institutes and tutors in streamlining services.

Proctur – Live Teaching App promises an all-inclusive management platform for batches, attendance, timetables, student administration, and examinations. This App especially emphasis on small individual tutors, educators or coaching institutes to make the flow of education process smooth without any obstacles.

Also Read | mPowerO: An e-learning platform for teaching, engaging and communicating

Proctur – Live Teaching App brings a mix of exclusive features, which puts tutors and instructors in the driver’s seat. The app allows monetizing content, including courses, tests, live classes, and videos, with tools that promise to accelerate revenue generation through a planned system. Institutes can also consider zoom integration for live classes within the app. Teachers, educators, and tutors will have complete control over conducting live classes and online examinations.

“We have introduced ‘Proctur – Live Teaching App’ to help tutors in need of proper management of their class. From conducting exams and handling online classes to in-depth performance analysis, our app enables more than just a platform. Tutors and coaching centers will have the complete autonomy to conduct custom tests, mock exams and share files and resources with students. Tutors and educators can also create groups and offer personalized attention that students need. ‘Proctur – Live Teaching App’ also offers support for multiple languages, and we have ensured that video contents and study resources are protected against piracy on our platform”, said Nishant Agarwal, Director, Proctur.

“Proctur intends to make the app more accessible for tutors in every city in India. The UI has been designed to simplify online tutoring for educators who have limited exposure to such platforms. Proctur promises to offer unparalleled support for the app, which will eventually benefit students, teachers, and tutors alike,” – Charchit Agarwal, Director, Proctur.

Proctur – Live Teaching App can be used within a minute of installing it, and the app is already available for free download for Android and iOS users.

Also Read: Tech NewsWrap: Moto G31 launched in India… and more

Tech NewsWrap: Moto G31 launched in India… and more

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Team My Mobile
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Moto G31 launched in India

Motorola launched a new smartphone – Moto G31 – with a triple camera unit at the back, MediaTek processor, and a 5,000mAh battery. Other key features include a 6.4-inch AMOLED display, support for 20W TurboPower fast charging, and more. It runs on Android 11 OS out of the box. The handset in India is priced, starting at Rs 12,999 for the 4GB RAM+64GB storage option and Rs 14,999 for the 6GB RAM+128GB storage variant.

Reliance Jio preparing a Jio TV, Tablet for Indian market

According to a report, the telecom giant is preparing its own TV and tablet which will be released as the Jio TV and Jio Tablet. The report also adds that these two products from Jio are expected to launch by next year and the company is also working on a Jio laptop as well. An exact launch timeline for both these products is not known yet, and neither have their specifications been leaked.

Also Read | JioBook laptop: Specifications, Price, Launch date in India leaked

Jack Dorsey steps down, Parag Agrawal is the new Twitter CEO

Jack Dorsey has resigned from Twitter as its CEO. He announced an immediate step down as CEO on his official Twitter account. The Board of Directors has unanimously appointed Parag Agrawal as CEO and a member of the Board, effective immediately. Dorsey will remain a member of the Board until his term expires at the 2022 meeting of stockholders. Agrawal has been with Twitter for more than a decade and has served as Chief Technology Officer since 2017.

Vivo may launch its first tablet next year

Vivo is all set to enter the tablet segment in the first half of 2022. The company had also trademarked “Vivo Pad” with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in June under Class 9, which covers, among many products, tablets and PDAs. As per the leak, Vivo tablet will pack Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SoC under the hood. To recall, the same chip powers up the likes of Xiaomi Pad 5, 5 Pro, Xiaoxin Pad Pro 12.6, and Lenovo Xiaoxin Pad Pro 2021.

Also Read: Brands having strong consumer pull prone to higher reputation risk in digital arena: Report

Brands having strong consumer pull prone to higher reputation risk in digital arena: Report

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Team My Mobile
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In its first Brand Reputation Index (BRIX) measuring the risk score of potential frauds and scams that can be done leveraging a Brand’s equity, Techarc in association with mFilterIt, today said that smartphone brands having strong consumer pull report most of the reputation issues caused by infringement of brands in the digital space.

The three main techniques of brand infringement identified are:

Fake Gratification

Instances where scammers infringe any brand’s identity by offering fake coupons, rewards, schemes, and discounts. This is the easiest trap for consumers who are searching for best deals when they decide about buying a smartphone of their interest. Since, covid-19 pandemic started, fake gratification has also surfaced in cases like offering dealerships and other similar business partnership offerings by the brands.

Fake Presence

Social-media is the easiest way for brands to let potential buyers discover them and engage throughout the customer lifecycle starting for presales to after sales engagement. Fraudsters create fake profiles on popular social networking applications and allure audiences which want to genuinely engage with the brand. In many instances, fake gratifications are routed through such accounts to entice people looking for smartphones deals. Social media has also become a key medium to run fake job rackets on behalf of leading smartphone brands. People looking for jobs take them as genuine as it could be coming from authorised agencies acting on behalf of their principals.

Also Read | mFilterIt releases Ad Fraud Myths on “International Fraud Awareness Week”

Fake Representation

This is the severest level of infringement where scammers create a fake website, app or a marketplace. Using typosquatting techniques, fraudsters create very similar websites, apps and marketplaces and then direct users on such sites to engage which could be used for data theft to financial frauds.

Faisal Kawoosa, Founder & Chief Analyst, Techarc said, “Brand Safety is Business Safety! As digital becomes mainstream and brands increase their D2C engagements, they need to proactively police the digital space to hunt for any infringement cases.”

Faisal added, “The first thing brands need to do is to come out of denial mode and create a common synergy between marketing, ecommerce, IT and digital teams. For instance, CISO primarily is mandated to secure the owned digital assets of an organisation. Now, they should also be looking at how the brand is secured wherever it gets referenced, even on news portals.”

BRIX

Implications for brands

A lower BRIX score means that the brand is prone to higher risk of being hijacked for scams and frauds. Some of the key threats that could result due to lower BRIX score are:

  • Data theft as audiences filling up forms and sharing details would consider these digital assets to be from the brand or their authorised agencies.
  • Account Takeover (ATO) fraud where an existing subscription or user account is accessed to result in financial fraud and/or siphon off the loyalty points accrued. As the brands usher into strong community building initiatives and use of NFT (Non-Fungible Token) based reward systems, this can become a high-risk zone.
  • Selling of counterfeit products. Many such fraudsters roll out jaw-dropping offers for purchase smartphones, which are even lower than the price at which a brand is selling its smartphone on its own D2C platform. However, one of the reasons of selling such discounted products is either a counterfeit product or stolen inventory.
  • Financial frauds in terms of asking for a small token amount to confirm the order and balance COD. In such cases, fraudsters ask for 10-25% of a heavily discounted price of a smartphone as the confirmation money and go into hiding after scamming a few hundred users.
  • Fake apps and fake websites are also potential cyberthreats as they install malware and drop cookies which then steal data of the users who install such apps or click on such links.

Bogus business partnership / association offers that include offering dealership, service centres, retail outlets, etc., on behalf of reputed brands.

Fake job postings especially in regional offices / field areas which is again done for financial fraud or data stealing.

Adding further, Saloni Jain, Lead Analyst for DigiTech focus area at Techarc said, “In various surveys we have found that 70-80% of the users who originate their purchase from online sources do it looking for best deals and offers. This becomes a great incentive for fraudsters to run such ‘Ponzi’ schemes infringing a brand’s identity.”

“The only way for brands to stop this is proactive monitoring and taking up such issues with platforms like social networking apps, domain registries, etc.,” said Saloni.

About the study

Seven popular smartphone brands – Apple, OPPO, OnePlus, Realme, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi (Redmi and Mi) were monitored across digital ecosystem for 15 days and any infringement case was captured leveraging mFilterIt’s Brand Infringement reporting solution. The instances were then categorised and measured for BRIX score as per the defined methodology.

Also Read: itel A48 with HD+ IPS Waterdrop display is now available at Rs 1,399

itel A48 with HD+ IPS Waterdrop display is now available at Rs 1,399

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itel has announced an exclusive offer on its all-rounder smartphone – itel A48 in collaboration with Home Credit India. Under this affordable finance scheme, customers can buy itel A48 with a down payment of Rs 1,399 followed with a no cost EMI of Rs 625 for tenure 8 months, powered by Home Credit India.

Arijeet Talapatra, CEO, Transsion India said, “In India, there are more than 350 million feature phone users who are looking forward to upgrade to a smartphone. However, factors like affordability and value for money have been a bottleneck in tier 2 and below towns to drive the wave of digitalization. Since inception, itel by launching affordable yet technologically advanced smartphones has continued to bridge the digital divide, thereby driving socio-economic growth across the nation. With this partnership with Home Credit India, itel aims to make itel A48 ultra-accessible to the Indian masses by making it available with no cost EMI options. With the minimal spend of Rs 625 per month, any aspirer in India can own India’s all-rounder smartphone A48 to meet his/her digital requirements. We are optimistic that our latest offering will be well appreciated by consumers and will enable them to better realize their digital aspirations.”

Ankush Khosla, Chief Sales Officer, Home Credit India said, “Home Credit India, as a responsible consumer lender has always worked on enabling people’s lives and their way of living, aided by simple & safe financial solutions. This partnership with Itel is in the same spirit, enabling the vast feature phone consumers in the country to upgrade themselves as smartphone users, especially in the post-Covid time, when the whole world is moving to digitalization and e-everything.”

Priced at Rs 6,399, the reloaded itel A48 is an all-rounder smartphone as it can fulfill all the aspirations of a technology enthusiast, ranging from entertainment with a big waterdrop HD+ display, seamless experience, high-capacity power backup, advanced security features, photography with AI dual camera. Further, the new itel A48 comes equipped with the Android 10 Go edition. Additionally, it comes with an assurance of a One Time Screen Replacement offer where consumers can avail of free one-time screen replacement of a broken screen within 100 days of purchase.

Also, customers who enroll for JioExclusive offer would be entitled to instant price discount of Rs 512 and additional benefits worth Rs 4,000 on A48, thus making it one of the best buys for value seeking consumers.

Itel A48: An All-Rounder with Waterdrop and Dual Security Features

Fulfilling the aspirations of the millennials of tier 3 and below markets, itel A48 comes loaded with super trendy features that will provide all-round experience to the consumers at an affordable price. The smartphone is clad in 15.49 cm (6.1-inch) HD+ IPS Waterdrop display to give a theatre like experience and 2.5D TP lens providing a better screen design. It is further adorned, with 19:5:9 aspect ratio and 1560×720 pixels resolution for immersive and brighter video viewing.

Also Read | itel emerges as most popular brand in sub Rs 7k smartphone segment: CMR

Packed in a premium and sleek design, itel A48 runs on latest Android 10.0 (Go Edition) and powered with 1.4GHz quad-core processor for seamless multitasking functionality. In terms of memory configurations, the phone comes with 2GB RAM and 32GB ROM, expandable memory up to 128GB. On the battery front, A48 is powered by a 3,000mAh battery and smart power saving mode for unstoppable usage. The phone also comes with dual security features like fast face unlock and multi-feature fingerprint sensor.

The smartphone comes equipped with dual 5MP AF rear camera with LED flash and 5MP selfie camera—configured in the unique camera setup, adding to the premium look and feel of the phone. The front 5MP selfie camera with AI Beauty Mode ensures bright and clear selfie, even in low light areas. It comes equipped with multiple camera effects like smart recognition, portrait mode, beauty mode, etc. which helps in capturing professional photograph with greater details. The smartphone offers dual SIM slots with dedicated memory card. It also supports dual 4G VoLTE /ViLTE functionality.

The new itel A48 smartphone features a gradient glossy finish and is available in three colour options – Gradation Green, Gradation Purple and Gradation Black.

A sneak peek into the box

The phone comes with an adapter, USB cable, battery, back cover, user manual and a warranty card.

itel A48: Specifications

Display Resolution 15.49 cm (6.1 inch) HD+ IPS Waterdrop display
Screen to Body Ratio 85.27%
Memory 2GB RAM + 32GB ROM
Rear Camera 5MP/VGA + 5MP
Front Camera 5MP
Resolution 1560×720
Face Unlock Yes
Fingerprint sensor Yes
Battery 3000mAh
Processor 1.4 GHz Quad-Core
OS Version Android10 (Go Edition)
Network VoLTE/ViLTE
4G Bands B1/3/5/8/40/41
Colors (Gradation Color) Gradient Green, Gradation Purple and Gradation Black
Price INR 6399
Finance Down Payment – INR 1,399; EMI – INR 625 (8 months); Processing Fees – INR 501 (one time)

Also Read: Hipi announces short-form mobile video talent hunt ‘Hipi G.O.A.T’

“The speed of gaming growth is not restricted to hardware complexities”

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With a shift in gaming habits, game creators, publishers and distributors alike are seeking to cater to the serious gaming audience by leveraging the inventive benefits of the cloud. US-based Rackspace Technology is one such cloud computing company that offers an array of gaming solutions for everyone from the largest gaming companies to rising startups. It provides effective optimisation with fully managed application services handled by a team of experts. Ramesh Kumar Raja caught up with Sandeep Bhargava, Managing Director, Asia Pacific and Japan at Rackspace Technology, to discuss the growing phenomenon of cloud gaming and the services it provides to bring about a massive change in the gaming industry. Excerpts:

The gaming industry in India has significantly boomed during the pandemic. How has the cloud influenced the acceleration of gaming growth?

The requirement for people to mostly stay indoors during the pandemic acted as a catalyst for the growth phase of the gaming sector. According to a report by EY on India’s Media & Entertainment sector reboots in 2020, the gaming industry witnessed a boost as online gamers grew 20% from 300 million in 2019 to 360 million in 2020. The esports segment is expected to grow at a 46% CAGR over the next four years with most of the revenue mainly generated through popular streaming platforms.

From being purely local during the 2000s, console and mobile games have come a long way to become a connected commonplace for account sign-in, purchases, progress sync and dynamic game-world interaction. The forthcoming generation of conventional consoles may be the last, before the gaming future shifts to a ‘no specific hardware’ model, where devices act as terminals for streaming content. The cloud has been a key factor in this gaming evolution by allowing engines and analytics to function with enhanced efficiency, and enabling companies to keep players entertained with dynamic content inflow.

With a shift in gaming habits, game creators, publishers and distributors alike are seeking to cater to the serious gaming audience by leveraging the inventive benefits of the cloud. Earlier, a traditional data centre setup might have been sufficient, but with complex games created today and will continue to be the case in the near future, there is a need for increased scalability and reliability brought by hyperscale clouds and global content delivery networks.

“Earlier, a traditional data centre setup might have been sufficient, but with complex games created today and will continue to be the case in the near future, there is a need for increased scalability and reliability brought by hyperscale clouds and global content delivery networks”

Why is infinite scalability important for game creators and publishers?

Disruptive mobile innovation is at the doorstep of game developers, as the global advent of 5G promises greater connectivity and powerful video game streaming services, poised to change how people access console-quality content, for good. Recently, tech giants are redefining the Indian gaming landscape by hosting transformational cloud gaming demos over a hi-speed live 5G test network. This showcases the potential of enhanced connectivity and scalability for innovative gaming companies.

Limitless scalability can empower developers to expand intelligently with lean costs and resources. It gives them the freedom to connect dedicated servers to the public cloud of their choice, enabling on-demand, pay-as-you-go scalability without sacrificing performance or security. Gaming companies can branch out from local operations to establishing large ventures by accessing an international level playing field and infinite scalability of technology and analytics, paired with simple smartphone devices, to deliver record speeds and reduce response delays.

How can publishers rise up to the challenges of gaming in the cloud?

One of the core challenges of the gaming market is its volatile nature owing to the ‘low attention span’ of players. To navigate dynamic player demands with cloud, while effectively meeting business, regulatory and technical requirements simultaneously are the favourable outcomes publishers seek with the transition to serverless game computing. When leveraged effectively, the cloud can enable publishers to focus on what is crucial; the progression of game development. Reliable cloud computing services partners can empower them to be fully adept with the technicalities surrounding new tools, data and connectivity, improved sync, lower latency and complex legal conditions.

It is critical to monitor the various growth stages of game development right from the pre-launch complexity, to identifying the right tools and infrastructure for game-creator efficiency, and have continuous access to user preferences and trends. Only with a well-planned cloud-enabling strategy, publishers can accelerate the initial development of the game and ensure the game storyline is more relevant and responsive to industry trends. During the post-launch phase, smart analytics can outline rapid marketing iterations and ensure increased player engagement during the all-important monetisation window of increasing conversions.

With game development increasingly moving to the cloud, how will it empower creators to be more efficient and maximise income?

With the gaming industry exploring new highs, there is an inevitable need to innovate and monetise constantly. Having access to the tools is one thing; but game creators need to build the operational agility and flexibility within their business to roll out new, trending content and updates constantly with high speed to market, to consistently stay ahead of the competition.

Since the first eight weeks of game development are most critical with the highest number of game downloads occurring during this span, it mandates creators to develop strategic monetisation plans, ensuring the creation of reliable, customised and cutting edge content that guarantees stickiness and user-retention, thereby increasing revenue.

Although raw computing power is successfully enabling creators to deliver image-rich content to gamers globally, with new-generation servers and GPUs, and the rise in AI, machine learning, big data and analytics, creators can do more with existing data; decode their user base and convert insights into innovation faster. As devices become terminals, the speed of gaming growth is not restricted to hardware complexities and can unlock limitless scale with the cloud and the tools that cloud providers offer.

Collaborating with an experienced, fully-managed hosting environment provider enables creators to save significant costs on designing, building and operating a similar environment independently. They can effectively align business environments to address business demands, accelerate testing, optimise capacity planning and cloud spending to reduce downtime, affordably.

How will embracing the cloud encourage good governance in gaming?

As games grow in popularity, they become preferred ransomware targets for cybercriminals to steal data. It is important to safeguard user data on these gaming platforms as compromised consumer data privacy can cause companies to fall foul of governance and compliance legislation. To ensure that data infrastructures are secure, developers must have a complete understanding of the diverse data points and data sources handled by the company along with the inclusions and purpose of the data being stored and shared. In certain regions or states, regulators are insistent on having physical server and data infrastructure within highly specialised geo-locations.

Inventive cloud providers are geared up to fulfill these compliance requirements by allowing game developers to cascade public cloud infrastructure into private cloud infrastructure, that they can own, manage and deploy anywhere in the world. A cloud-based infrastructure with such flexibility can be managed with usual consoles and existing tools used on a day-to-day basis; therefore, complying with regulators without hindering one’s technical operating strategy.

“The growing engagement and interest in the gaming sector is here to stay with noteworthy growth in creation, deployment and consumption. Empowered by the cloud, creators can simplify gaming complexity considerably and offer enhanced gaming experience to players by bringing more convenience, engaging content and immediacy to game platforms over the long term”

What are the key solutions that Rackspace offers to help address gaming complexities such as latency issues, the player waiting times and cost savings?

The gaming industry is emerging as one of the most innovative and exciting sectors for entertainment in India and globally. To meet the growing needs of the gaming segment and consumers, companies need to build a sustainable gaming business model. With an array of gaming solutions for everyone from the largest gaming companies to rising startups, Rackspace offers effective optimisation with fully managed application services handled by a team of experts. An advanced monitoring and 24x7x365 eyes-on support system anticipate upcoming events that could impact the application’s performance, in advance. This plays an important role in enhancing player experience, minimising waiting times and reducing the risk of losing them to competitors.

The platform enables fast and seamless gaming delivery with new-generation servers and the Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, creating a globally distributed data centre presence and Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) for maximum performance. Delivering rich content and media experience requires transcoding, image rendering and other data visualizations that demand heavy GPU computing resources and high throughput local storage. Rackspace Technology improves time-to-delivery drastically with low latency by offering ingenious GPU computing, bare metal compute resources and blazing fast local storage capabilities for game developers.

This enables them to process large amounts of data quickly, as well as accelerate data analytics and visualisation. Empowered with a global data centre footprint and high-availability customer data network, gaming companies can deliver a seamless experience to their users and scale by reaching out to millions of viewers globally across desktop, mobile and connected TV.

The growing engagement and interest in the gaming sector is here to stay with noteworthy growth in creation, deployment and consumption. Empowered by the cloud, creators can simplify gaming complexity considerably and offer enhanced gaming experience to players by bringing more convenience, engaging content and immediacy to game platforms over the long term.

Hipi announces short-form mobile video talent hunt ‘Hipi G.O.A.T’

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Hipi announces a highly innovative short-form mobile video talent hunt to find the next singing sensation of the country.

The talent hunt – called the Hipi G.O.A.T (Hipi Greatest of All Time) – begins from November 29, 2021 and is hosted by Shakira of India, Rupali Jagga. The 8-week multi-round contest will allow talented digital-first singers around the country to participate and showcase their talent. Participating in Hipi G.O.A.T. is simple. To participate, talented singers upload a mobile video showcasing their craft using hashtag #hipiGOAT.

So far, the Indian entertainment industry has often shied away from providing a truly democratic platform to budding artists, making it difficult for them to scale their talents. Hipi understands the essence of it and paves the way for them by opening a window to their artistic process or singing acapella. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for creators to show and build on their singing talent.

Also Read | Hipi introduces its latest avatar offering world’s first AI based in-video discovery feature

During the competition, the contestants participate in three rounds. Singers with the highest weekly engagement will get weekly cash prize apart from a mentoring session with Rupali Jagga, and an opportunity to sing a duet with her. The final winner gets to sing a duet with the Grammy Award Nominee, Shilpa Rao during the grand finale episode of Zee Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, and a mega cash prize.

GBS Bindra, Chief Business Officer of Hipi said, “At Hipi, creativity is our heartbeat and music is an integral part of self-expression that we see on Hipi. There is no denying that music has the power to connect people. Therefore it’s important that we leverage modern consumer technology to unearth singing talent in a manner never seen before.”

Hipi G.O.A.T. goes live with Round 1 on November 29, 2021.

Also Read: After Airtel and VI, Reliance Jio hikes prepaid tariffs by 20 percent

Bounce, Park+ to scale battery swapping infrastructure across 3,500+ locations in India

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Bounce, India’s first smart mobility solution and Park+, a super app for car users, have entered into a strategic partnership to strengthen the EV ecosystem across the country by setting up 3,500+ battery swapping stations across 10 cities in India. This smart framework will be available at locations like residential societies, key parking spaces, malls, corporate offices, etc. for customers to find the nearest swapping station on their Bounce app or Park+ app.

Bounce is set to launch its first consumer electric scooter, Bounce Infinity, on December 2, with ‘Battery as a service’ option – the first-of-its-kind in the Indian market. The swapping stations would work on similar principles to a fuel station. Similarly, Bounce battery swapping stations will have charged and ready-to-go batteries that customers can easily swap with their near-empty batteries in under a minute. With this infrastructure in place, customers wouldn’t have to wait for the scooter to charge, be anxious about the range or remember to charge it.

Vivekananda Hallakere, Co-founder and CEO, Bounce, said, “Our objective is to have our battery swapping stations to be within one kilometre of wherever you are and to enable this we have partnered with Park+. This partnership is in line with our effort to build a battery swapping infrastructure for a million+ scooters in the next 24 months.”

Amit Lakhotia, Founder and CEO, Park+, said, “Park+ is on a mission to revolutionise automotive users’ experience through a technology-enabled ecosystem of solutions. Tomorrow’s automotive scene will be driven by EVs because of their advantages across the board. Absence of charging infrastructure is the biggest roadblock holding back widespread EV proliferation. We are committed to scaling up charging infrastructure at a rapid pace through our network of solutions across corporate parks, shopping malls and residential apartments.”

After Airtel and VI, Reliance Jio hikes prepaid tariffs by 20 percent

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Reliance Jio announced a hike in prepaid tariff rates by 20 percent, which will be effective from December 1, 2021. The announcement comes after Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea hiked their rates earlier this month. With this, Jio has become the third telecom operator to increase its tariffs.

The Jio said that the tariff rates have been increased due to its commitment to further strengthen a sustainable telecom industry. “These plans will provide the best value in the industry. Upholding the Jio promise of providing the best-quality service at the lowest price globally, Jio customers will continue to be the biggest beneficiaries,” the company said in its press release.

With its announcement, the prepaid plans of Jio will cost 20 percent higher. The cheapest Rs 75 plan is now priced at Rs 91 per month, while the most expensive Rs 2,399 plan will be available at Rs 2,879.

From December 1, JioPhone subscribers’ entry-level plan of Rs 75 plan will now cost Rs 91, about 21% higher than previously. For its non-feature phone subscribers, the Rs 129 base plan will be raised to Rs 155. Also, eleven other tariff plans have seen increased rates. Besides, the telco has also included four add-on data packs.

Here’s a look at the revised plans:

Also Read: PlayGo N37 Review: Good for its price

“Hirect is a chat-based job search app specialised for startup hiring”

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Keeping in mind the ever-growing startup ecosystem in India, Hirect came into being in 2020. It connects job aspirants with the startup leaders without any middleman, and vice-versa. The Hirect app matches job preference with job descriptions and enables the recruiters and job seekers to chat directly and schedule interviews instantly. Voice and video calling features are synchronized within the app, so users don’t have to switch platforms. Raj Das, Global Co-founder and India CEO of Hirect, talks to Ramesh Kumar Raja, to share more about this platform and its technicalities. Excerpts:

At a time when there are a number of job portals in the market, how did the idea strike you to come up with Hirect?

Startup culture is booming in India and in the last several years, we have noticed that youngsters prefer to join a startup rather than a corporate. On the other hand, hiring for a startup is challenging even if it’s critical for its success. Our vision is to connect those best talents to startups for jobs without any middleman which lead to minimal investments, and a speedier pace.

This is the only reason we are different from others and our concept is different.

What it’s all about and how Hirect is different from others in the market? What is your USP?

Hirect is a mobile-first hiring/job search app whose AI matches a job description with job preferences precisely. It further enables matching talents and recruiters to chat directly, without the involvement of any middleman or third-party hiring agencies.

We allow only the decision-makers of the startup to become a recruiter. We don’t allow any third-party consultant to hire talent. We are the only platform that does it effectively with our voice and video calling feature, so users don’t have to switch platforms to communicate. This has significantly shortened the hiring window for startups, enabling them to focus on other strategic matters. Hence, all jobs are 100% verified, with no middleman, no spam and no scam. And that’s the USP of Hirect.

“We allow only the decision-makers of the startup to become a recruiter. We don’t allow any third-party consultant to hire talent. We are the only platform that does it effectively with our voice and video calling feature, so users don’t have to switch platforms to communicate. This has significantly shortened the hiring window for startups, enabling them to focus on other strategic matters”

How has been the response so far on both Google Play and Apple App Store? How many downloads Hirect has amassed to date?

To date, the response from the Indian user base has been really motivating for us. Hirect has amassed close to 2 million downloads, combined on Google Play Store and Apple App Store, so far. We have more than 30K startups on the application who are hiring.

What is your revenue model? Please tell us about the funds you have raised and the partnerships that you have entered into?

We don’t charge any job seekers. We also allow recruiters to post the first 3 jobs for free. However, we charge for each additional job post. We have raised dozens of millions of dollars in Series A funding from Silicon Valley investors so far.

What are you doing to popularize it among the masses and classes in India?

We are a customer-obsessed company. We make our customers satisfied and they will bring more customers to us for free. More than that, we run social media events and campaigns with the help of influencers to popularise it. We believe in organic promotion rather than pushing excessive funds on promotions and delivering less to the end-users.

The COVID-19 pandemic might have been a blessing in disguise for you. What has been your experience of solving the job crisis in one of the worst phases of mankind?

Remote jobs market (e.g. Programmers, Digital Sales & Marketing) was still doing well despite the pandemic situation across the nation. As per our research, this pandemic activated more scammers as many were looking for jobs desperately. At this tough time, we assured a safe and free job search platform for millions of job seekers across the country. We managed to onboard 30K+ companies offering 150K+ jobs despite this pandemic.

How do you look at your role in the post-COVID era?

During the COVID, the hiring industry was more supply-constrained. It was a tough time for the industry as many people lost their job during the pandemic, which has affected the Indian economy. Now, the economy is recovering, employers are gradually resuming their work from the office. We witnessed a 35% increase in job posts in September as compared to August. The blue-collar jobs market (e.g. driver, security guard, delivery boy) may be our new focus post-COVID era.

What are the features that you are planning to add in days to come, in order to make it more exciting?

Ideally, we want to hear it from our customers because their feedback is the most essential component for the company. We believe in building customer-centric services. Our major plan is to utilize AI to further improve the response rate by assessing their behaviours and preferences to the best level possible.

Is your server capable of handling a sudden upsurge in traffic and what efforts are you putting in to maintain data security on your platform?

Our server is always ready to handle the predictable upsurge in traffic. Our data security team is full of expert professionals who are well-versed in best practices in data security. This team is especially dedicated to such upsurges and maintaining the stability of the platform.

Since Hirect has an early-mover advantage to be a leader in this segment, what is your growth trajectory to deal with competition, which is very common in today’s digital world?

As we have already mentioned, we are a customer-obsessed company. In the end, it’s the company that serves the customer’s best win in the market. We will stick to our principle of customer obsession over competitive obsession to deal with any competition. Our main motive is to help customers to get their desired jobs and employees.

How is the Indian market different from other countries where you operate in and what are your expansion plans?

Indian jobs market is more supply-constrained. Also, there are multiple regional languages in India compared to other countries. We want to serve in India and USA first and gradually expand globally based on our resources and learnings.

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