Online News Roundup: Indian Government To Investigate Monopoly Complaints On Google, Harvard To Launch Online Clinical Research Course From October

Indian Government to investigate alleged monopoly complaints on Google India

Indian Government is investigating whether online search engine giant Google has adopted anti-competitive and discriminatory practices in India, where its offerings are used by more than 100 million users. The investigation is being carried out by Competition Commission of India (CCI) based on the complaints triggered by Consumers Unity and Trust Society (CUTS), which claimed that Google was abusing its monopoly position. [source]

In addition to CUTS allegations for discrimination, in February matrimonial site Bharatmatrimony  had filed a complaint against Google alleging the online giant of abusing its dominance in the search-engine market by manipulating its AdWords platform. Citing an example of Google’s manipulation CUTS pointed out if anyone searches for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Google, the first five results appear on Google Plus pages. Zuckerberg’s Facebook page would be the 8th result on the search page.

Harvard to launch online clinical research course from October

 

 

Now Indian medical professionals (especially physicians) can study clinical research online offered by the prestigious Harvard School of Public Health from October this year. The course is an online adaptation of material from the Harvard School of Public Health’s classes in epidemiology and biostatistics. The initiative set to bridge the glaring gap of research curriculum in Indian medical training landscape and also has focus to overcome rigorous admission process. The online version of course is a result of recent collaboration between Harvard University and MIT called EdX.

 

 

Interpublic Group to buy Interactive Avenues

New York based Interpublic Group is close to buy Interactive Avenues, a digital marketing agency for an undisclosed amount. The deal aims to strengthen the presence of IPG in digital space in India.

Earlier, in 2010, Mediabrands the media holding company within Interpublic Group, made 51:49 JV with Interactive Avenues, named Reprise Media. Interactive Avenues’ acquisition is also slated to be a part of Mediabrands. According to the report Publicis and Dentsu were also interested in acquiring Interactive Avenues. Launched in 2006 Interactive Avenues is a digital marketing agency facilitating online media buying, planning, creative work, search analytics and mobile marketing.

Timex Group launches its online store helixwebstore.com

Watch manufacturer Timex Group has launched its online store helixwebstore.com, dedicated to its brand Helix watches. Currently, the website offers Helix watches for both sexes, and it can be further filtered by one’s preferred style and price range. Users can register on the website with their email id or via Facebook accounts.

The website claims to offer free shipping on all of its products and it supports plastic card based payment options such as credit/debit card and net banking, however, it does not support Cash on delivery (COD) as a payment option.

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Tencent’s OCR App Gets a Fresh Pair of Eyes, Now More Like Google Goggles

Last September I reviewed a new translation app from China’s Tencent (HKG:0700) that uses OCR technology to read words, via the phone’s camera, and automagically translate them. Now the app, Soso Huiyan, has been updated to version 2.0 on the iPhone [1] and has evolved to become more like Google Goggles, able to recognise logos, book covers, movie posters (and lots more) and give you search results from that image.

The refreshed app makes some use of Tencent’s own Soso.com search engine, which is a minor player in the China market with an approximate 5 percent market share. Though the updated Soso Huiyan app is clearly following the lead set by Google with its Goggles app, it sets Soso apart from the nations’s top search engine, Baidu, among smartphone-toting Chinese web users. The app could be especially useful for shoppers, as it not only scans and recognises logos and stuff, but can also process barcodes and QR codes to give you more detailed product information.

The app can now scan logo and products and give detailed descriptions from search results.

The free app is still geared towards Chinese users, not global ones – it works best, in terms of its language abilities, when translating English to Chinese text – but could be useful for overseas travelers to China who might find themselves wanting to scan a logo (if Google Goggles fails you). But the app does at least have an English localization. Version 2.0 also bundled in a business card scanner, but I’ve yet to test out how good that is.

For Chinese users, the Soso Huiyan app isn’t limited to Soso’s search facility, but uses a variety of familiar names to get information, such as the product search engine eTao, Amazon China, and the books- and music-oriented social network Douban.

Download Soso Huiyan from the iTunes App Store.

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1. But not yet updated to v2.0 for Android.  ↩

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Malaysians protest against Section 114A, a law that curtails Internet freedom

Malaysians held an ‘Internet Blackout Day‘ yesterday to push for a review of the controversial Section 114A, an amendment to the Evidence Act that critics say obstructs freedom on the Internet.

Section 114A is designed to enable law enforcement officials to more easily hold individuals accountable for harmful Internet content. The amendment presumes that individuals are guilty if defamatory content can be traced to their username, electronic device, or wifi network, according to the Stop144A website.

Critics charge that the law, which was passed earlier this year, may have some unintended effects. Innocent parties may be unfairly implicated and wrongly accused of publishing seditious content, while cyber criminals could get away scot-free by manipulating a person’s computer or user account to make it seem like their victim are responsible for the offending content.

Internet innovation in Malaysia could be affected as well, since startups may become liable for offensive user-generated content that is sometimes difficult to eliminate entirely.

Several Malaysian websites, personalities, and organizations have participated in the online protest, which was coordinated by the Centre for Independent Journalism. According to The Star, news portals like Malaysiakini and Free Malaysia Today have displayed pop-ups on their sites. The Star columnists Marina Mahathir and Niki Cheong also took part with online banners denouncing the law. The Bar Council joined in too.

In response, Malaysian Prime Minister Mohd Najib Tun Razak has tweeted that the Cabinet will be giving the amendment a second look:

I have asked Cabinet to discuss section 114A of the Evidence Act 1950. Whatever we do we must put people first .

— Mohd Najib Tun Razak (@NajibRazak) August 14, 2012

By law, the next Malaysian General Election must be held by 27th June 2013, which means that the ruling UMNO party faces public pressure to appease to the demands of voters.

The protest echoes a similar initiative in the United States in protest of a proposed ‘SOPA’ bill, which aims to protect copyright owners but has been criticized as an attack on Internet freedom.

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App Annie Secures $6 Million to Set the New Standard for Global App Store Market Data

App Annie, the industry leader in app store analytics and market intelligence for the global app economy, today announced the company has closed $6 million in Series B financing. The round was led by Greycroft Partners, with participation from a global network of investors, including e.ventures, Infinity Venture Partners, Kii Capital, angel investor Jarl Mohn and Series A lead investor IDG Capital Partners.

App Annie’s app store data suite is ubiquitous among app publishers, journalists, VCs, media companies and platform owners alike. Eighty percent of the Top 100 Grossing iOS publishers worldwide rely on App Annie’s products for insights into downloads, revenues, in-app purchase and ranking data across categories and geographies, as well as trend analysis across the iOS, Mac and Google Play app stores. In addition, the company’s premium market data service, App Annie Intelligence, is used by major app distributors such as Nokia, as well as more than 50 percent of the Top 20 Grossing iOS publishers, including GREE and Storm8. Today’s announcement follows on the heels of the company’s entry into the Android marketplace with the launch of App Annie for Google Play.

“App stores are driving today’s digital economy,” said Dana Settle, partner, Greycroft Partners. “App Annie is an invaluable tool for any business that needs access to the highest quality app store analytics and market data. As the marketplace for mobile apps and digital goods continues to explode, App Annie is incredibly well positioned to become the de facto analytics and intelligence standard across all platforms.”

As the distribution of digital content has shifted away from the open web to digital superstores, a new standard for app store analytics and market data is required for publishers to inform their content distribution strategies. App Annie’s success to date is a result of the depth, breadth and quality of its data for the iOS, Mac and Google Play global app stores. The company will use the new funding to accelerate its product roadmap and expansion into new app stores worldwide. Within the next year, App Annie users can expect to see new analytics and intelligence services for different platforms and content areas. In addition, funds will be used to increase the company’s presence within the U.S., China and Japan, three key markets in the global app store economy. App Annie has more than 30 employees and plans to significantly increase that number within the next year, particularly in its San Francisco and Beijing offices.

“App Annie’s investors share our vision to establish a new global standard in app store market data, and collectively bring the expertise and networks required to accelerate our plans,” said Bertrand Schmitt, CEO, App Annie. “There is a clear need in the industry for high quality market data, and many businesses depend on our data to succeed in the global app store economy. Within the next year, our customers can expect to see a whole host of new feature and platform integrations for App Annie products.”

Related posts:

1. Hong Kong's Cyberport Creative Micro Fund Announces Winning Startups
2. UCWeb Stepping into India Market
3. NetEase Released First Ever Android Game

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Hello Learnemy, Kezaar is Your Competitor. Now Fight

What do you wanna learn? Guitar, a new language, or cooking? Kezaar.com probably has someone out there offering their skills. Well, maybe not now, but that’s certainly the goal moving forward for the young Singapore-based startup.

It’s what I would call a skills marketplace. Folks can offer lessons to teach what they are good at and anyone can pick up lessons which they find interesting. It’s not unheard of, for sure. Learnemy is another Singapore-based startup that is working on the same model. Kezaar’s founder argues that there’s a difference between the two – but to me, it is the same. Yup, same.

Now let me put it this way. For users, we love to see competition. It’s fun and more choice for us. Now that Kezaar is up, it probably makes Elisha Tan (founder of Learnemy) jump a little. That’s just competition. Common stuff, and there’s no point hiding that. So compete to grab users and money, folks. Would there be money? There could be since there are tons and tons of Singapore-focused online tuition websites matching tutors to students on the web. I contributed to one about eight years ago. This 2010 report says that the private tutoring market could surpass $152 billion by 2015 worldwide and specifically named countries like Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and China as “thriving markets.”

It’s a fairly lucrative market for tiny Singapore but probably not quite scalable since it is often a one-time commission deal with no recurring fee. A student will probably stick to the same teacher for years so it’s hard to see repeat customers unless they want to learn another skill. It is tough business, I must say.

Such online services feels new but they actually aren’t. Matching teachers and students online has had a long history. It’s just that Learnemy, Kezaar, or Skillshare (in the U.S) have had a more unique approach to building a self-sustainable demand and supply of teachers and students. Online matching and taking a commission cut when a match is made is pretty common. Besides home tuition, there are other verticals like learning a new language for example. Learnemy and Kezaar are wider in their offerings as they could potentially offer anything like languages, dance classes, or even motivational lessons.

So talking about Kezaar and Learnemy’s competitors, there are many out there which range from language schools to a simple buy/sell forum thread. For teachers, they can post their lessons anywhere, probably both on Kezaar and Learnemy even. They seriously don’t give a damn since all they want is students. There’s little brand loyalty. The site that can continuously and consistently match up teachers and students will be the winner. So that’s the reality and I’m hoping to see a little competition between the two. While having NO competitor is ideal, it’s seriously not gonna happen because whenever there’s demand, there will be people wanting to supply. Live and fight, I guess.

The post Hello Learnemy, Kezaar is Your Competitor. Now Fight appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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LG Surpasses 5 Million LTE Handsets Sold

Korean manufacturer LG Electronics (066570:KS) announced today that it has surpassed the milestone of 5 million LTE smartphones sold last month, with more than 1 million smartphones sold in July alone. LG Mobile’s CEO Dr. Jong-seok Park noted that this pace is going to sharply increase in the near future:

Sales of global LTE smartphones are expected to increase ten-fold this year from last year […] With that in mind, we are planning to introduce an even more impressive LTE line-up in the next several months second to none.

The company currently offers ten LTE smartphones across regions where LTE is available, including South Korea and Japan where LTE adoption is progressing quickly. As for LTE adoption in the rest of the world, you can see a map of countries where LTE is commercially available below [1]. It will be interesting to see the mobile innovations that come out of markets which have a head start on LTE adoption.

According to figures just released by Gartner, LG’s current share of the worldwide mobile market is 3.4 percent, which is down from 5.7 percent on the previous year [2].

Source: Wikipedia

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1. Source Wikipedia.  ↩

2. Not to be confused with the smartphone market. LG is not in the top five vendors for smartphones according to recent Q2 figures from IDC.  ↩

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Geek Squad Drills: HTML and CSS introductory workshops for girls

Singapore Geek Girls is local initiative that serves as a platform for females to connect, share, contribute, mentor and learn from each other. We want to empower the next generation of women in technology through fun, informal and interactive activities!

Always wanted to dabble in some web design but never really got started? Wanna build a basic working website with a bunch of fun and like-minded girls? Join us the Singapore Geek Girls as we bring you our new study group, Geek Squad Drills: Introduction to HTML & CSS!

With just 10 minutes a day, you will have a working and running website by the end of 4 Saturdays!

So how does this study group work?

You watch the online videos at your own convenience and try the exercises, whenever and wherever you are comfortable and ready to learn. We will meet every Saturday where there will be awesome coaches around to give tips, to troubleshoot and answer your queries! Saturdays are also the time when we show each other what we’ve done so far!

If you are an enthusiastic soul and eager to learn, sign up below! (We only have limited spaces available, so please be considerate! If you sign up and are unable to attend the meetings, please email us at hello [at] sggeekgirls.com so we can free the slot for another person  )

Who should attend:
- Ladies only as space / resources are limited – sorry boys, materials will be put up on www.sggeekgirls.com :(
- Participants should have a keen interest in learning web design.
- Participants with proactive attitude towards learning.

Dates & Time:
Install fest/Networking party: Aug 24, Friday 7pm
Weekly Saturday meetings (10am – 1pm):
Aug 25, Sept 1, Sept 8, Sept 22

Venue:
Microsoft
One Marina Boulevard Singapore 018989

Cost:
$10 for 4 sessions, a tiny gesture to show appreciation for our wonderful coaches

REGISTER HERE.

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Boston-based Fiksu plans to open Asian office after being funded by Qualcomm Ventures

Fiksu, a Boston-based startup that helps developers find users cheaply, has plans to open an office in Asia after receiving USD10M in a Series B round led by Qualcomm Ventures, reported TechCrunch.

The company has 100 staff but aims to double its payroll in 2013. It will be opening another office in the United Kingdom.

The investment will also go towards scaling their real-time bidding system, which enables developers to find the most cost-effective way of acquiring new users across different channels.

“As both the iOS and Android app stores have filled up with north of 1 million apps, it’s becoming harder for developers to bring in new users. They fight over limited and increasingly expensive visibility at the top of the charts,” Craig Palli, the company’s VP for business development, told TechCrunch.

Founded in 2008, Fiksu has so far raised USD 16.7M in funding — a USD 1.25M seed round in 2010, followed by a USD 5.5M Series A in the same year, led by Charles River Ventures, which also invested in the latest round.

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Chinese iPhone Game Developer Goes Global, Leaves No Sheep Untapped

Earlier this week I looked at how Chinese startups are, slowly but steadily, deciding against Beijing and instead spreading across the country. It made me curious to find more startups outside of the capital. Here’s a good one: a young gaming development company called aBit Games, based in Xiamen on the southeastern coast, making globally-oriented and highly-addictive mobile games.

Well, one game so far: Super Sheep Tap, out now for iPhone, which is a cutesy puzzler with a rhythmic twist. The game has an English localization, but no other language yet – not even Chinese. Co-founder Wang Nan tells us that the three-person team at aBit Games is running part time right now as they’re working for some major game companies like Ubisoft. One other challenge is that Nan himself is based in Germany, while fellow co-founder Wu Jie (along with their chief artist) is based in China. Super Sheep Tap has had nigh on 200,000 downloads, allowing the startup to self-sustain as they prep their next game, to be called Money Witches. Nan explains:

Our focus was on the international market from day one. We haven’t created any game in Chinese yet. But we are giving the Chinese market more and more attention. We plan to release Money Witches with Sina [Weibo] social network API support so Chinese user can compare their high-scores with their friends on the Chinese SNS. Also, a localized version of Money Witches is planned.

Thinking globally is a good idea, since Chinese mobile gamers tend to be a very bad source of revenue for developers.

Nan admits that it’s “pretty exhausting” juggling the full-time job with the nascent startup and hopes that the team “can get some funding after the release of Money Witches.” By that time he hopes to be back in Xiamen to be closer to the aBit Games crew.

Money Witches (see the trailer video below) has been in development for almost a year already. “Our goal is to develop the best action puzzle game on iOS, with the most replay value,” Nan says. “We still don’t have a release date yet, but we are getting close on finishing the game.”

As for staying put in Xiamen, a smallish city in Fujian province with “only” 3.5 million people – equidistant but quite far from startup and investment hubs in Shanghai and Shenzhen – Nan muses:

I think if a startup team doesn’t need to recruit a lot of talent there’s no need to be in an international city like Beijing. The living cost and environment is not satisfying in Beijing. In my opinion, a startup team should choose a location with low living costs and a nice environment.

Super Sheep Tap is 99 cents in the iTunes App Store. You can also follow the studio’s progress on Twitter.

The post Chinese iPhone Game Developer Goes Global, Leaves No Sheep Untapped appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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Nike to Use Tencent’s WeChat to Connect With Chinese Consumers

According to Campaign China [1], Nike (NYSE:NKE) will be launching its official WeChat account later this month. Operated by Tencent (HKG:0700), WeChat (also known as Weixin in China) has over 100 million users and is expanding rapidly to regions beyond China.

As for Nike, the company has also recently jumped on board with TuDing, China’s biggest Instagram-like photo sharing site.

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1. Via The Next Web  ↩

The post Nike to Use Tencent’s WeChat to Connect With Chinese Consumers appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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Ladies, are you up for HTML & CSS study group sessions with the Singapore Geek Girls?

Ladies and geek girls, have you always wanted to dabble in some programming but never really got started? Do you want to build a working website with a bunch of fun and like-minded girls?

This upcoming series of study group might just be the right thing for you. Singapore Geek Girls is organizing their new study group called the Geek Squad Drills: Introduction to HTML & CSS.

Our good friend from the Geek Girls told us that with just 10 minutes a day, you will have a working and running website by the end of just four Saturdays. So how does this study group work? First of all, you watch the online videos at your own convenience and try the exercises, whenever and wherever you are comfortable and ready to learn. The participants will then meet every Saturday where there will be mentors and coaches around to give tips, to troubleshoot and answer any queries. During the Saturdays are also the time when everyone show each other what they have done so far.

So today if you are an enthusiastic soul and eager to learn, you can sign up for the study group at the official Singapore Geek Girls Geek Squad Drills page.

Study Group Details:

Dates & Time:

Install fest/Networking party: August 24, Friday 7pm
Weekly Saturday meetings (10am – 1pm): Aug 25, Sept 1, Sept 8, Sept 22

Venue:
Microsoft One Marina Boulevard Singapore 018989

Cost:
$10 for 4 sessions, a tiny gesture to show appreciation of our wonderful coaches

Who should attend:
- Ladies only.
- Participants should have a keen interest in learning web design.
- Participants with proactive attitude towards learning.

Note from the Singapore Geek Girls: 
We only have limited spaces available, so please be considerate! If you sign up and are unable to attend the meetings, please email us so we can free the slot for another person.

Link to full article

Read More

Ladies, are you up for HTML & CSS study group sessions with the Singapore Geek Girls?

Ladies and geek girls, have you always wanted to dabble in some programming but never really got started? Do you want to build a working website with a bunch of fun and like-minded girls?

This upcoming series of study group might just be the right thing for you. Singapore Geek Girls is organizing their new study group called the Geek Squad Drills: Introduction to HTML & CSS.

Our good friend from the Geek Girls told us that with just 10 minutes a day, you will have a working and running website by the end of just four Saturdays. So how does this study group work? First of all, you watch the online videos at your own convenience and try the exercises, whenever and wherever you are comfortable and ready to learn. The participants will then meet every Saturday where there will be mentors and coaches around to give tips, to troubleshoot and answer any queries. During the Saturdays are also the time when everyone show each other what they have done so far.

So today if you are an enthusiastic soul and eager to learn, you can sign up for the study group at the official Singapore Geek Girls Geek Squad Drills page.

Study Group Details:

Dates & Time:

Install fest/Networking party: August 24, Friday 7pm
Weekly Saturday meetings (10am – 1pm): Aug 25, Sept 1, Sept 8, Sept 22

Venue:
Microsoft One Marina Boulevard Singapore 018989

Cost:
$10 for 4 sessions, a tiny gesture to show appreciation of our wonderful coaches

Who should attend:
- Ladies only.
- Participants should have a keen interest in learning web design.
- Participants with proactive attitude towards learning.

Note from the Singapore Geek Girls: 
We only have limited spaces available, so please be considerate! If you sign up and are unable to attend the meetings, please email us so we can free the slot for another person.

Link to full article

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Accel Partners invests US$480K in Mind Edutainment, a New Delhi based education company

Accel Partners, global venture and growth equity firm has announced its investment of INR 2.7 crores (USD$ 480,000) in Mind Edutainment Pvt. Ltd. (MEPL), a New Delhi based education company.

Aimed at assisting in the field of child development through cognitive thinking process, Mind Edutainment was created by a team in the year 2007. The concept of HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) was spearheaded by Sangeeta A. Khurana & Ashutosh Khurana by using physical Thinking Tool and Mind Games.

Ever since, this program has been used by many schools as a whole subject on thinking skills development. Being the first in India to create ‘THOTS Lab’, it has state of the art scientifically designed space in school aiming to prepare future generations with knowledge of structured “Thinking Skills and Thinking Processes”.

Mr. Anand Daniel from Accel Partners said, “This investment is part of our ongoing effort to invest in startups that aim to strengthen the education ecosystem in India. ‘THOTS Lab’ created by Mind Edutainment shall bring direct focus on Thinking Development within the school environment. The Lab cultivates originality of thought and promotes experiential learning to develop 250+ thinking and cognitive skills such as Problem Solving, Decision Making and Options Testing.”

“THOTS Lab initiative from Mind Edutainment is quite a revolutionary concept. Developing the thinking abilities amongst Primary and Middle years of education is indeed a radical need for the present day competitive environment. Thinking development coupled with the regular curriculum can make a potent combination for the best-of-breed education systems. And, with this investment, we are looking at providing a solution not to our country but to the other countries as well.” said Meena Ganesh, CEO and MD, Pearson Education Services India.

“The investment raised shall help the company to now scale the initial pilot project of THOTS Lab from 3 cities to 8 cities. With this funding, we shall be able to install THOTS Lab across Delhi, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi & Pune. We shall also be using a part of this funding to integrate ICT in our delivery process to create an ideal mix of ICT and Experiential Learning. We are designing and developing HOTS development games (in physical and digital formats) to establish ourselves as one of the leaders in learning based games” said Mr. Ashutosh Khurana Co-Founder & CEO, Mind Edutainment Pvt. Ltd

This program is the winner of ‘Power of Ideas’ in 2010 in the education space. The event was organized by the Department of Science and Technology and the Economic Times in association with Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s (IIM-A) Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).

Source: YourStory.in

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Accel Partners invests US$480K in Mind Edutainment, a New Delhi based education company

Accel Partners, global venture and growth equity firm has announced its investment of INR 2.7 crores (USD$ 480,000) in Mind Edutainment Pvt. Ltd. (MEPL), a New Delhi based education company.

Aimed at assisting in the field of child development through cognitive thinking process, Mind Edutainment was created by a team in the year 2007. The concept of HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) was spearheaded by Sangeeta A. Khurana & Ashutosh Khurana by using physical Thinking Tool and Mind Games.

Ever since, this program has been used by many schools as a whole subject on thinking skills development. Being the first in India to create ‘THOTS Lab’, it has state of the art scientifically designed space in school aiming to prepare future generations with knowledge of structured “Thinking Skills and Thinking Processes”.

Mr. Anand Daniel from Accel Partners said, “This investment is part of our ongoing effort to invest in startups that aim to strengthen the education ecosystem in India. ‘THOTS Lab’ created by Mind Edutainment shall bring direct focus on Thinking Development within the school environment. The Lab cultivates originality of thought and promotes experiential learning to develop 250+ thinking and cognitive skills such as Problem Solving, Decision Making and Options Testing.”

“THOTS Lab initiative from Mind Edutainment is quite a revolutionary concept. Developing the thinking abilities amongst Primary and Middle years of education is indeed a radical need for the present day competitive environment. Thinking development coupled with the regular curriculum can make a potent combination for the best-of-breed education systems. And, with this investment, we are looking at providing a solution not to our country but to the other countries as well.” said Meena Ganesh, CEO and MD, Pearson Education Services India.

“The investment raised shall help the company to now scale the initial pilot project of THOTS Lab from 3 cities to 8 cities. With this funding, we shall be able to install THOTS Lab across Delhi, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi & Pune. We shall also be using a part of this funding to integrate ICT in our delivery process to create an ideal mix of ICT and Experiential Learning. We are designing and developing HOTS development games (in physical and digital formats) to establish ourselves as one of the leaders in learning based games” said Mr. Ashutosh Khurana Co-Founder & CEO, Mind Edutainment Pvt. Ltd

This program is the winner of ‘Power of Ideas’ in 2010 in the education space. The event was organized by the Department of Science and Technology and the Economic Times in association with Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s (IIM-A) Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).

Source: YourStory.in

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Wal-Mart Now Owns a Controlling Share of Yihaodian

Fans of Wal-Mart or Chinese e-commerce site Yihaodian may recall that back in February, Wal-Mart announced its intentions to up its stake in Yihaodian up to a controlling 51 percent of shares. That buy, however, wasn’t official until the company got approval for it from China’s Ministry of Commerce, which it did on Tuesday, according to information posted on the Ministry’s official website.

The deal is not being allowed to go through unrestricted, though, and Wal-Mart and Yihaodian have had to agree to some conditions. Among other things, Yihaodian must continue to use its current platform for sales, and Wal-Mart is banned from using VIE structures to operate any of the telecom services Yihaodian runs.

Still, the fact that the deal wasn’t canned altogether as monopolistic is good news for the two companies, and especially for Wal-Mart, whose stock is up slightly today following news of China’s approval.

It will be interesting to see what Wal-Mart does now that it owns a controlling stake in Yihaodian, but don’t expect to see any massive changes. In fact, what my colleague Steven wrote back in February is probably still the best explanation of what Wal-mart really wants to do with Yihaodian:

It’s not just online clout that has attracted the US retailer to the Chinese online store. Yihaodian, since its inception in July 2008, has built a sophisticated warehouse and distribution network covering much of the country so as to offer same-day or next-day delivery. Walmart, as one of China’s leading bricks-and-mortar supermarket chains – along with France’s Carrefour (EPA:CA) – will integrate some of its own logistics with Yihaodian’s.

[Reuters via TechWeb]

The post Wal-Mart Now Owns a Controlling Share of Yihaodian appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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The Bloody Price War Starts At 9am Today, 360Buy Vs. Suning/Gome/DangDang/51Buy

This post is about the B2C eCommerce market in China, but nothing technical and I don’t even feel I am writing a tech-related post… well, you may take it as a drama.

Believe or not, starting at 9am today (15th August, 2012), several major B2C sites will cut down the price of all home appliance, and everyone promises they will offer the cheapest price. In the bloody price ware, one side is 360buy, and the other is the union of Suning, Gome, DangDang and 51buy.

 

 

360buy – Starting from 9am, we promise all home appliance sold on 360buy will be cheaper than Suning. If Suning dares to set the price of any product to RMB1.00, we will sell it for FREE;

Suning – 9am, 15th August 2012, we promise any product sold by Suning including home appliance will be cheaper than 360buy. If you find out the price of any product is higher than the one on 360buy, we can change it at once. And if you have bought that product at the higher price, you can get refund with twice of the price.

Gome – Starting at 9am, we promise the price of any product sold on Gome online shop will be 5% cheaper than 360buy.

DangDang – Today, we will fight together with Gome, against 360buy.

51buy – All price will be cut down from 9am. Starting from September, we promise any product sold on 51buy will be cheaper than 360buy.

So it seems that 360buy has pissed off everyone. But don’t ask me why, it just happens…

You never know eCommerce can be so entertaining, don’t you? Anyway, make sure your wallet is ready and check out these sites at 9am. Hopefully you can even get something for FREE.

Related posts:

1. Gome Teaming up with Dangdang to Rival 360buy
2. Price War: 360buy Vs. Dangdang
3. Dianping Launches App With New Check-in Feature; Dangdang Launched Price War Against 360buy

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The Bloody Price War Starts At 9am Today, 360Buy Vs. Suning/Gome/DangDang/51Buy

This post is about the B2C eCommerce market in China, but nothing technical and I don’t even feel I am writing a tech-related post… well, you may take it as a drama.

Believe or not, starting at 9am today (15th August, 2012), several major B2C sites will cut down the price of all home appliance, and everyone promises they will offer the cheapest price. In the bloody price ware, one side is 360buy, and the other is the union of Suning, Gome, DangDang and 51buy.

 

 

360buy – Starting from 9am, we promise all home appliance sold on 360buy will be cheaper than Suning. If Suning dares to set the price of any product to RMB1.00, we will sell it for FREE;

Suning – 9am, 15th August 2012, we promise any product sold by Suning including home appliance will be cheaper than 360buy. If you find out the price of any product is higher than the one on 360buy, we can change it at once. And if you have bought that product at the higher price, you can get refund with twice of the price.

Gome – Starting at 9am, we promise the price of any product sold on Gome online shop will be 5% cheaper than 360buy.

DangDang – Today, we will fight together with Gome, against 360buy.

51buy – All price will be cut down from 9am. Starting from September, we promise any product sold on 51buy will be cheaper than 360buy.

So it seems that 360buy has pissed off everyone. But don’t ask me why, it just happens…

You never know eCommerce can be so entertaining, don’t you? Anyway, make sure your wallet is ready and check out these sites at 9am. Hopefully you can even get something for FREE.

Related posts:

1. Gome Teaming up with Dangdang to Rival 360buy
2. Price War: 360buy Vs. Dangdang
3. Dianping Launches App With New Check-in Feature; Dangdang Launched Price War Against 360buy

Link to full article

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Social app developers, Facebook Developer World HACK 2012 calls for you

Keen social app developers, take note. Facebook has announced the Facebook Developer World HACK 2012 event designed to foster new and experienced platform developers from around the world.

The technical hack event spanning four continents and twelve city series is a day-long competition aimed at helping developers create new social application with Facebook. Open to coders of all kind, this event features an eight-hour long competition with hands-on help from Facebook engineers. Best team from each continent wins a trip to San Francisco to visit the Facebook campus as well as meeting the Facebook team.

For Asian developers, be sure to mark down the place and date for this event. In Asia, this event takes place in :

•   Taipei, Taiwan – September 11

•   Jakarta, Indonesia – September 13

•   Bangalore, India – September 17

About Facebook

Facebook is a social networking site which enables friends and family to stay connected. Founded in 2004, it has been widely used to make the world more open and connected aside from letting people share and express ideas.

Read the full press release below.

 

****

Singapore, 13 August 2012 – Facebook has announced the onset of the Facebook Developer World HACK 2012 which is a four continent, twelve city series of technical hack events, designed to engage new and experienced platform developers around the world.

The World HACK event is a day-long competition where developers build new social application with Facebook. The events are open to coders of all kinds, whether they have developed with Facebook before, have an existing app that they would like to distribute on Facebook, or simply have a great idea for a social app that they hope to bring to life.

The World HACK event will feature an eight-hour long competition where developers get to demonstrate their newfound skills, with hands-on help from Facebook engineers. The event will conclude with team demos and awards for the best apps and projects worked on throughout the day.

This year, to recognize those talented developer communities that Facebook has met around the globe, the best team from each continent will also win a trip to San Francisco to visit the Facebook campus and meet the Facebook team.

The World HACK events are each one-day long, and will take place in 12 cities on the following dates, with three events to be held in Asia:

 

•   Austin, USA – August 23

•   Mexico City, Mexico – August 27

•   Buenos Aires, Argentina – August 29

•   São Paulo, Brazil – August 31

•   Berlin, Germany – September 11

•   Taipei, Taiwan – September 11

•   Jakarta, Indonesia – September 13

•   Bangalore, India – September 17

•   Barcelona, Spain – September 18

•   Vancouver, Canada – September 20

•   Warsaw, Poland — September 28

•   Moscow, Russia – October 1

 

For additional information please refer to:

https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2012/08/08/facebook-developer-world-hack-2012/

 

About Facebook

Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.

****

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Social app developers, Facebook Developer World HACK 2012 calls for you

Keen social app developers, take note. Facebook has announced the Facebook Developer World HACK 2012 event designed to foster new and experienced platform developers from around the world.

The technical hack event spanning four continents and twelve city series is a day-long competition aimed at helping developers create new social application with Facebook. Open to coders of all kind, this event features an eight-hour long competition with hands-on help from Facebook engineers. Best team from each continent wins a trip to San Francisco to visit the Facebook campus as well as meeting the Facebook team.

For Asian developers, be sure to mark down the place and date for this event. In Asia, this event takes place in :

•   Taipei, Taiwan – September 11

•   Jakarta, Indonesia – September 13

•   Bangalore, India – September 17

About Facebook

Facebook is a social networking site which enables friends and family to stay connected. Founded in 2004, it has been widely used to make the world more open and connected aside from letting people share and express ideas.

Read the full press release below.

 

****

Singapore, 13 August 2012 – Facebook has announced the onset of the Facebook Developer World HACK 2012 which is a four continent, twelve city series of technical hack events, designed to engage new and experienced platform developers around the world.

The World HACK event is a day-long competition where developers build new social application with Facebook. The events are open to coders of all kinds, whether they have developed with Facebook before, have an existing app that they would like to distribute on Facebook, or simply have a great idea for a social app that they hope to bring to life.

The World HACK event will feature an eight-hour long competition where developers get to demonstrate their newfound skills, with hands-on help from Facebook engineers. The event will conclude with team demos and awards for the best apps and projects worked on throughout the day.

This year, to recognize those talented developer communities that Facebook has met around the globe, the best team from each continent will also win a trip to San Francisco to visit the Facebook campus and meet the Facebook team.

The World HACK events are each one-day long, and will take place in 12 cities on the following dates, with three events to be held in Asia:

 

•   Austin, USA – August 23

•   Mexico City, Mexico – August 27

•   Buenos Aires, Argentina – August 29

•   São Paulo, Brazil – August 31

•   Berlin, Germany – September 11

•   Taipei, Taiwan – September 11

•   Jakarta, Indonesia – September 13

•   Bangalore, India – September 17

•   Barcelona, Spain – September 18

•   Vancouver, Canada – September 20

•   Warsaw, Poland — September 28

•   Moscow, Russia – October 1

 

For additional information please refer to:

https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2012/08/08/facebook-developer-world-hack-2012/

 

About Facebook

Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.

****

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Nearly 3,000 Chinese Group Buy Sites Have Closed So Far in 2012

A couple weeks ago we looked at some data from Tuan 800 that suggested things were pretty bad for China’s group buy industry, with more than 2,000 sites closing in the past nine months. But this morning, the Chinese E-Commerce Research Center has released a report with numbers that are even more grim: 2,859 sites have closed in just the past six months. That leaves just over 3,200 still in operation; apparently, the numbers haven’t been that low since 2010.

The report also says that the group buy industry did 14.6 billion RMB ($2.3 billion) in business over the first half of this year; that’s up 126 percent over the first half last year. But most of that money is going to the top players; other sites are dying off. In fact, the industry as a whole hit a death rate of more than 48 percent, according to the report. Yup, that means that in the past six months, basically half of China’s group buy industry died. (Hey, we told you that winter was coming a year ago, people. Apparently Chinese group buy startup CEOs don’t pay enough attention to our blog.)

The report also says that surviving group buy sites seem to be shifting away from foods and services to offering deals on luxury items, where profits are higher.

What’s a little amazing is that people are still founding new group buy sites in China. For example, the report says that two new group buy companies were created in the last ten days of June, and in the second quarter of the year more than 50 previously-defunct group buy sites were resurrected (although that number is less than half what it was in Q1, so this may not be good news).

Let’s just be frank about this, people: stop starting new group buy companies in China. At more than 48 percent failure, your chances of success in the group buy industry are only slightly better than your chances of survival would have been if you had bought a ticket for the Lusitania on the trip during which it sunk or had been living in Hiroshima in 1945. So stop doing it! Your chances of success have got to be better with some other kind of of company!

[via Sina Tech, Image Source]

The post Nearly 3,000 Chinese Group Buy Sites Have Closed So Far in 2012 appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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Dear Entrepreneurs: Solve meaningful problems as a startup

[Notes from Ashish: The day Instagram got acquired, I wrote a post : Sorry Indian Entrepreneurs, Instagram is a Silicon Valley story (and will remain one). The post resulted in a lot of hate-mails and quite a few Indian entrepreneurs emailed saying that anybody can do any Internet startup and ‘get acquired’. Fundamentally yes, but otherwise – you are missing an important point here. That is of not solving a meaningful problem in the market you have access to. Read Mukund’s thought that resonates with my belief that India is still far far away from Instagram apps.]

Back in the 90?s and better part of last decade, most of the smartest folks from the top colleges would go and work at Wall Street. Lured by high salaries and fat bonus checks, they used their wizardry to create CDO’s, asset backed securities and derivatives to create billions for hedge funds, investment banks and trading desks of large financial organizations.

We all know where that ended up – the subprime mortgage crisis.

We thought there was a turn of events when one of them started to build a meaningful startup.

That prompted Bill Gates to say

“I’d say we’ve moved about 160 IQ points from the hedge fund category to the teaching-many-people-in-a-leveraged-way category. It was a good day his wife let him quit his job”

I get a sense that, “founding an Internet startup” is the new “joining a hedge fund” in the 90?s.

We are getting an amazing number of very smart people who are joining these startups in droves and applying for incubators, accelerators, hackathons and startup weekends.

There is a massive movement of high level IQ points from old-school consulting and “IT services backend for a large Indian outsourcer” to startups. That’s awesome news.

I have attended and judged 3 startup hackathons and prototype creation sessions over the last 1 month. I am absolutely thrilled that there are so many people turning out for these events in India. Over 650 attended theYahoo Open Hack day. It was amazing to see such a diverse group of young talented developers and programmers solve some very interesting problems.

The part we have to work on is why the brightest minds are solving the most trivial of problems.

I think the problem with Indian startups is they think we are in the US.

There are rich people problems (The pictures from my mobile phone dont look good, can we build a “pimp my photo” app”) and there are real world problems (how can I make sure new grads from college learn to develope real apps, so they can get a job and reduce the jobless rate).

My humble request to Indian entrepreneurs is ‘Please dont build any more “I’m bored” apps’.

I am not trivializing the need for “fun” apps.

All I am requesting is that the highest IQ folks should be working on the highest impact problem areas to aid most humankind.

[Adds Ashish: And most of these highest impact problems are outside the realms of one’s AC office. So go and hit the market.]

The article has been reproduced from Mukund’s blog.

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