Category: eNews

Digital Media awards, best practice case studies at WAN-IFRA India

NEW DELHI: Over 35 distinguished speakers from prime news media companies from around the globe will converge and share ideas on the future of news business at the upcoming WAN-IFRA India 2016 next month.

This is the 24th Annual Conference organized by World Association of Newspapers and News publishers (WAN-IFRA) and will be held at Swissotel, Kolkata, on 21 and 22 September 2016.

The South Asian Digital Media Awards, jointly presented by WAN-IFRA and Google, to recognize best practices in digital media business in South Asia will culminate on 21 September with the ceremony to present the winners of the competition. Some of the winners will make a special presentation on their journey to the success.

WAN-IFRA India 2016 is the annual meeting point of news publishers in South Asia and includes three parallel conference tracks for editors, newspaper production managers, advertising and digital media managers.The event also comprises of learning workshops, the first South Asian Digital Media Awards, Best in Print 2016 Awards and supplier info-booths.

The conference on the theme ‘Driving the next wave of business’ will constitute presentations from leading editors and media executives on topics such as top newsroom priorities, virtual reality in story telling, successful social media strategies, advertising strategies and innovations, energy efficiency in newspaper printing plants, pro-active maintenance and optimized paper handling.

The list of speakers include:

> Ambi MG Parameshwaran, Founder, Brand-Building.com, India
> David Lü Shunjing, Executive Director, Division of International Relations, Guangzhou Daily Press Group, China
> Frederique Lancien, Consultant, Digital Transformation & New Business Strategies, France
> Jay Lauf, Publisher and President, Quartz, USA
> Josef Schießl, Technical Director, Süddeutscher Verlag Zeitungsdruck , Germany
> Justin Myers, News Automation Editor, The Associated Press, USA
> Kaustuv Chatterjee, Senior Vice President Brand – Languages & Mirror, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., India
> Rajiv C. Lochan, MD & CEO, Kasturi & Sons Ltd., India
> Supriyo Sinha, Vice President, Anandabazar Patrika and Ebela, ABP Pvt. Ltd., India
> Vinay Maheshwari, Senior Vice President – Sales & Market Development and Brand Marketing, DB Corp Ltd., India
> Vincent Peyrègne, CEO, WAN-IFRA, France

Registration to the conference is now open with an early bird offer, valid until 20-August. To block your seat at the early bird rate, register at www.wan-ifra.org/india2016 or call +91.44.4211 2893 or email infoindia@wan-ifra.org

August 19, 2016
Digital Media awards, best practice case studies at WAN-IFRA India

NEW DELHI: Over 35 distinguished speakers from prime news media companies from around the globe will converge and share ideas on the future of news business at the upcoming WAN-IFRA India 2016 next month.

This is the 24th Annual Conference organized by World Association of Newspapers and News publishers (WAN-IFRA) and will be held at Swissotel, Kolkata, on 21 and 22 September 2016.

The South Asian Digital Media Awards, jointly presented by WAN-IFRA and Google, to recognize best practices in digital media business in South Asia will culminate on 21 September with the ceremony to present the winners of the competition. Some of the winners will make a special presentation on their journey to the success.

WAN-IFRA India 2016 is the annual meeting point of news publishers in South Asia and includes three parallel conference tracks for editors, newspaper production managers, advertising and digital media managers.The event also comprises of learning workshops, the first South Asian Digital Media Awards, Best in Print 2016 Awards and supplier info-booths.

The conference on the theme ‘Driving the next wave of business’ will constitute presentations from leading editors and media executives on topics such as top newsroom priorities, virtual reality in story telling, successful social media strategies, advertising strategies and innovations, energy efficiency in newspaper printing plants, pro-active maintenance and optimized paper handling.

The list of speakers include:

> Ambi MG Parameshwaran, Founder, Brand-Building.com, India
> David Lü Shunjing, Executive Director, Division of International Relations, Guangzhou Daily Press Group, China
> Frederique Lancien, Consultant, Digital Transformation & New Business Strategies, France
> Jay Lauf, Publisher and President, Quartz, USA
> Josef Schießl, Technical Director, Süddeutscher Verlag Zeitungsdruck , Germany
> Justin Myers, News Automation Editor, The Associated Press, USA
> Kaustuv Chatterjee, Senior Vice President Brand – Languages & Mirror, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., India
> Rajiv C. Lochan, MD & CEO, Kasturi & Sons Ltd., India
> Supriyo Sinha, Vice President, Anandabazar Patrika and Ebela, ABP Pvt. Ltd., India
> Vinay Maheshwari, Senior Vice President – Sales & Market Development and Brand Marketing, DB Corp Ltd., India
> Vincent Peyrègne, CEO, WAN-IFRA, France

Registration to the conference is now open with an early bird offer, valid until 20-August. To block your seat at the early bird rate, register at www.wan-ifra.org/india2016 or call +91.44.4211 2893 or email infoindia@wan-ifra.org

August 19, 2016
Apollo Munich launches interactive online game ‘Kill the Killer’

MUMBAI: Swatting mosquitoes is a chore for anyone, especially during the monsoon season, but Apollo Munich Health Insurance makes it fun with an interactive online game – Kill the Killer, combined with a public interest message.

Kill the Killer game is an innovative customer engagement tool that aims to educate people – “Not all mosquitos can be killed, one needs to stay completely covered rather than just merely using devices to banish them.” Kill the Killer game can be played on Apollo Munich’s homepage (www.apollomunichinsurance.com)anytime, anywhere and as many times as you would like to. All you need to do is swat as many mosquitoes as you can in 20 seconds and check your score thereafter. You can share your score on Facebook and Twitter, and you can even invite your friends to play it.

Speaking about the idea behind the game, Apollo Munich CEO Antony Jacob said, “Gamification has undoubtedly become a very strong communication tool and the whole world talking about Pokémon Go corroborates it. The Internet offers a world of activities that people can indulge in and through this gamification means, we are hoping to raise awareness for dengue, educate consumers about the disease, and thereby infuse an interest in people to banish dengue fear from their lives. At Apollo Munich, we have always focused on innovation and this time around we are moving innovation from products to customer engagement.”

The much awaited monsoon season in India not only brings respite to the summer and farmlands, but it also brings with it a slew of healthcare frights, as stagnant water provides breeding grounds for many infection borne mosquitos. Dengue, leptospirosis, malaria, etc. all arrive within a month of the rains. Although these diseases can be treated, dengue has become the largest vector borne disease and sometimes proves fatal, if left untreated.

“Around 35% of the dengue cases in the world occur in India, and there were approximately a lakh cases reported in India in 2015. Apollo Munich’s Dengue Care, India’s first over the counter health insurance policy provides Indians with financial support in battling the dreaded dengue disease, with no underwriting. Available at a very affordable premium of Rs.1.2 per day, Dengue Care has found immense favour with people across the country who want to reduce the burden of medical expenses for themselves and their loved ones, especially during the monsoon season.”, he added.

Known for its innovative products, Apollo Munich has been active in its social media initiatives and with gamification, the company is taking its customer engagement initiatives to the next level. People can share the game through social media and hence effect a larger understanding amongst the population. The company is embracing the online medium to further uncomplicate insurance and make it easy to understand for people. Moreover, such initiatives also help solve purchase related concerns and complete the purchase, as well as the renewal processes.

August 17, 2016
Apollo Munich launches interactive online game ‘Kill the Killer’

MUMBAI: Swatting mosquitoes is a chore for anyone, especially during the monsoon season, but Apollo Munich Health Insurance makes it fun with an interactive online game – Kill the Killer, combined with a public interest message.

Kill the Killer game is an innovative customer engagement tool that aims to educate people – “Not all mosquitos can be killed, one needs to stay completely covered rather than just merely using devices to banish them.” Kill the Killer game can be played on Apollo Munich’s homepage (www.apollomunichinsurance.com)anytime, anywhere and as many times as you would like to. All you need to do is swat as many mosquitoes as you can in 20 seconds and check your score thereafter. You can share your score on Facebook and Twitter, and you can even invite your friends to play it.

Speaking about the idea behind the game, Apollo Munich CEO Antony Jacob said, “Gamification has undoubtedly become a very strong communication tool and the whole world talking about Pokémon Go corroborates it. The Internet offers a world of activities that people can indulge in and through this gamification means, we are hoping to raise awareness for dengue, educate consumers about the disease, and thereby infuse an interest in people to banish dengue fear from their lives. At Apollo Munich, we have always focused on innovation and this time around we are moving innovation from products to customer engagement.”

The much awaited monsoon season in India not only brings respite to the summer and farmlands, but it also brings with it a slew of healthcare frights, as stagnant water provides breeding grounds for many infection borne mosquitos. Dengue, leptospirosis, malaria, etc. all arrive within a month of the rains. Although these diseases can be treated, dengue has become the largest vector borne disease and sometimes proves fatal, if left untreated.

“Around 35% of the dengue cases in the world occur in India, and there were approximately a lakh cases reported in India in 2015. Apollo Munich’s Dengue Care, India’s first over the counter health insurance policy provides Indians with financial support in battling the dreaded dengue disease, with no underwriting. Available at a very affordable premium of Rs.1.2 per day, Dengue Care has found immense favour with people across the country who want to reduce the burden of medical expenses for themselves and their loved ones, especially during the monsoon season.”, he added.

Known for its innovative products, Apollo Munich has been active in its social media initiatives and with gamification, the company is taking its customer engagement initiatives to the next level. People can share the game through social media and hence effect a larger understanding amongst the population. The company is embracing the online medium to further uncomplicate insurance and make it easy to understand for people. Moreover, such initiatives also help solve purchase related concerns and complete the purchase, as well as the renewal processes.

August 17, 2016
Global online content piracy on rise; US, France, UK in top 10 list

NEW DELHI: Online piracy is on the rise and could be outpacing regulatory and policing regimes as global piracy trends show a change indicating emerging threats.

MUSO, a leading content protection, data-analytics and piracy audience reconnection solutions provider, has said nearly three-quarter of all visits to film & TV specific piracy sites in 2015 used web streaming as their method of consuming illegal content, highlighting a clear piracy audience trend change away from content ‘ownership’ using P2P/Torrents or web downloads.

According to MUSO’s Global Film & TV Piracy Market Insight Report 2016, released late July 2016, out of a total 78.49 billion film and television piracy site visits, 73.69 per cent (57.84bn) were visits to streaming sites, with 72.07 per cent of visits via desktop devices, indicating consumption of infringing video content via mobile devices remains low.

With over 12 per cent (9.86bn visits) of that global piracy audience from the United States, and with France, Germany and the UK all present in the top 10 countries globally by visits, the report highlights a piracy industry in transition, with strongly varying audience trends across different countries highlighting key opportunities, as well as emerging threats. India too figures in the surveyed list.

The MUSO report data is available for over 226 countries and dependent regions, which saw the company analyse global traffic from 14,000 of the largest global piracy websites, comprising over 141 billion visits to these sites, and across 200m measured devices.

MUSO’s annual report found that the second most popular piracy delivery type was torrents, capturing 17.24 per cent of audience visits. Despite this high activity, torrents have seen an overall decrease by 18.98 per cent from the first 6 months visits to the last 6 months visits in 2015.

Torrent activity that has heavily relied on desktop users (77.1 per cent) has seen a trend change throughout 2015 of -18.96 per cent. Mobile activity has seen a similar decrease by 19.02 per cent.

The usage of downloads has been relatively low, compared to torrents and streaming traffic, accounting for 8.38 per cent of piracy visits. 2015 saw only a minor increase in download activity, with a growth of 0.21 per cent from the first six to last six months of the year, the report stated.

MUSO added that its Global Piracy Market Insights Reports published for both music and film & TV markets, and the specific country-level insight reports, are firmly established as the industry standard in global piracy audience trends.

It’s no wonder that the Indian content industry too has woken up to the online piracy threat and is attempting to put together an industry coalition, along with the government, to fight the menace. The proposed piracy measure has been tentatively titled Copyrights Force.

ALSO READ:

Online pirates beware, Copyright Force on way

August 16, 2016
Global online content piracy on rise; US, France, UK in top 10 list

NEW DELHI: Online piracy is on the rise and could be outpacing regulatory and policing regimes as global piracy trends show a change indicating emerging threats.

MUSO, a leading content protection, data-analytics and piracy audience reconnection solutions provider, has said nearly three-quarter of all visits to film & TV specific piracy sites in 2015 used web streaming as their method of consuming illegal content, highlighting a clear piracy audience trend change away from content ‘ownership’ using P2P/Torrents or web downloads.

According to MUSO’s Global Film & TV Piracy Market Insight Report 2016, released late July 2016, out of a total 78.49 billion film and television piracy site visits, 73.69 per cent (57.84bn) were visits to streaming sites, with 72.07 per cent of visits via desktop devices, indicating consumption of infringing video content via mobile devices remains low.

With over 12 per cent (9.86bn visits) of that global piracy audience from the United States, and with France, Germany and the UK all present in the top 10 countries globally by visits, the report highlights a piracy industry in transition, with strongly varying audience trends across different countries highlighting key opportunities, as well as emerging threats. India too figures in the surveyed list.

The MUSO report data is available for over 226 countries and dependent regions, which saw the company analyse global traffic from 14,000 of the largest global piracy websites, comprising over 141 billion visits to these sites, and across 200m measured devices.

MUSO’s annual report found that the second most popular piracy delivery type was torrents, capturing 17.24 per cent of audience visits. Despite this high activity, torrents have seen an overall decrease by 18.98 per cent from the first 6 months visits to the last 6 months visits in 2015.

Torrent activity that has heavily relied on desktop users (77.1 per cent) has seen a trend change throughout 2015 of -18.96 per cent. Mobile activity has seen a similar decrease by 19.02 per cent.

The usage of downloads has been relatively low, compared to torrents and streaming traffic, accounting for 8.38 per cent of piracy visits. 2015 saw only a minor increase in download activity, with a growth of 0.21 per cent from the first six to last six months of the year, the report stated.

MUSO added that its Global Piracy Market Insights Reports published for both music and film & TV markets, and the specific country-level insight reports, are firmly established as the industry standard in global piracy audience trends.

It’s no wonder that the Indian content industry too has woken up to the online piracy threat and is attempting to put together an industry coalition, along with the government, to fight the menace. The proposed piracy measure has been tentatively titled Copyrights Force.

ALSO READ:

Online pirates beware, Copyright Force on way

August 16, 2016
Yatra.com launches ‘light weight app’ Yatra Mini

MUMBAI: Yatra.com has launched a new mobile application, Yatra Mini, targetting value seeking travellers featuring bus, train and budget hotel bookings. The key feature of the app is that it is extremely lightweight at only approx. 4.5 MB and is fast loading even in poor network areas.

The app is built to cater even to lower end android phones and is supported by Android 4 & above. The other features include multi-lingual travel app in Hindi & English with more regional languages such as Tamil, Bangla, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu being added very soon to cater to the non-English audiences across the country.

As per a recent report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), India has 402 million Internet users as of December 2015, thereby overtaking the US in total Internet users. A lot of this growth has come from rural India which has witnessed a 99 percent surge in mobile internet users and now has over 80 million users. the most exciting news in this rural India growth story is the demography: 75 percent of Internet users from rural India are in the age group of 18-30 years and Yatra.com is looking to catch them early in their journey of online travel bookings with the Yatra Mini application.

Yatra.com president Sharat Dhall said, “Yatra is very focused on the needs of the Indian traveller and in this case, we have identified a clear gap in the market with no one catering to a very large and rapidly growing segment of mobile users, who access the internet using their entry level smartphones, and are seeking an app that enables them to make their bookings speedily and does not occupy much memory space. By offering this app in regional languages, we are also tapping into the non-English traveller who is looking to shift to the convenience of online booking. We also researched the needs of this traveller and based on the findings, limited the product offerings to bus, train and budget hotel bookings so that the app is sharply focused on the needs of this segment.”

While India is witnessing a massive rise in smartphone user base, connectivity continues to be a serious limitation for easy usage of internet services. Keeping that in mind Yatra.com claims to have designed the Yatra Mini to work well in poor network and use very little data. It comprises of easy to configure components and can be changed/modified without an app release thus further reducing the data usage.

To make the app user friendly, Yatra Mini offers help to travellers to view their upcoming, completed and cancelled trips .All details of trips will be available like journey date, passenger details, bus operator details, boarding point details, cancellation policy, fare & payment details etc. The app provides flexible cancellation options for bus and train tickets. There are ooptions to resend e-tickets on email and SMS and options to contact the Yatra Helpdesk as well.

Apart from all the above features, Yatra is launching the app with lucrative loyalty offers like option to use earned eCash on trains and bus bookings.

 For Train Bookings eCash redemption is 10 percent of booking value

 For Bus Bookings eCash redemption is 5 percent of booking value

Also to enable users to share the app with their friends and motivate them to use the app, Yatra is offering ‘refer and earn’ options wherein users can refer their friends and earn 1000 eCash. The friend being referred will also earn 1500 eCash to use on their bookings.

August 11, 2016
Yatra.com launches ‘light weight app’ Yatra Mini

MUMBAI: Yatra.com has launched a new mobile application, Yatra Mini, targetting value seeking travellers featuring bus, train and budget hotel bookings. The key feature of the app is that it is extremely lightweight at only approx. 4.5 MB and is fast loading even in poor network areas.

The app is built to cater even to lower end android phones and is supported by Android 4 & above. The other features include multi-lingual travel app in Hindi & English with more regional languages such as Tamil, Bangla, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu being added very soon to cater to the non-English audiences across the country.

As per a recent report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), India has 402 million Internet users as of December 2015, thereby overtaking the US in total Internet users. A lot of this growth has come from rural India which has witnessed a 99 percent surge in mobile internet users and now has over 80 million users. the most exciting news in this rural India growth story is the demography: 75 percent of Internet users from rural India are in the age group of 18-30 years and Yatra.com is looking to catch them early in their journey of online travel bookings with the Yatra Mini application.

Yatra.com president Sharat Dhall said, “Yatra is very focused on the needs of the Indian traveller and in this case, we have identified a clear gap in the market with no one catering to a very large and rapidly growing segment of mobile users, who access the internet using their entry level smartphones, and are seeking an app that enables them to make their bookings speedily and does not occupy much memory space. By offering this app in regional languages, we are also tapping into the non-English traveller who is looking to shift to the convenience of online booking. We also researched the needs of this traveller and based on the findings, limited the product offerings to bus, train and budget hotel bookings so that the app is sharply focused on the needs of this segment.”

While India is witnessing a massive rise in smartphone user base, connectivity continues to be a serious limitation for easy usage of internet services. Keeping that in mind Yatra.com claims to have designed the Yatra Mini to work well in poor network and use very little data. It comprises of easy to configure components and can be changed/modified without an app release thus further reducing the data usage.

To make the app user friendly, Yatra Mini offers help to travellers to view their upcoming, completed and cancelled trips .All details of trips will be available like journey date, passenger details, bus operator details, boarding point details, cancellation policy, fare & payment details etc. The app provides flexible cancellation options for bus and train tickets. There are ooptions to resend e-tickets on email and SMS and options to contact the Yatra Helpdesk as well.

Apart from all the above features, Yatra is launching the app with lucrative loyalty offers like option to use earned eCash on trains and bus bookings.

 For Train Bookings eCash redemption is 10 percent of booking value

 For Bus Bookings eCash redemption is 5 percent of booking value

Also to enable users to share the app with their friends and motivate them to use the app, Yatra is offering ‘refer and earn’ options wherein users can refer their friends and earn 1000 eCash. The friend being referred will also earn 1500 eCash to use on their bookings.

August 11, 2016
Around 100,000 gram panchayats to be connected through Optic Fibre by March: Sinha

NEW DELHI: Around 100,000 Gram Panchayats (GPs) will be connected through Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) to set up a network infrastructure to serve the rural masses by March next year, Communications Minister Manoj Sinha said today.

He called for holistic planning rather than piecemeal approach to achieve the vision of Digital India.

Inaugurating a seminar organized by National Institute of Communication Finance on “ICT emerging technologies & USOF for Digital India” here, the Minister said there was need for innovation in this sector as India cannot afford to emulate the Developed economies due to limited resources.

He said if India will lag in catching up with emerging technologies in the coming 15 to 20 years, the very existence of the country will be at stake. He exhorted officials and other stakeholders to “Walk the Talk” for achieving the Prime Minister’s vision of Transforming India through Digital Revolution. He said it is a bounden duty to digitally empower the huge chunk of population particularly in rural areas who are still deprived of the IT revolution and said the Government alone cannot do this.

He said there is need for finding appropriate technologies for the deprived sections of society, whether it is by way network infrastructure or digital highway.

Telecom Secretary J S Deepak said the Finance Ministry is very conservative in allocation of funds under USOF (Universal Service Obligation Fund). He said despite Rs 70,000 crore being available under USOF, allocation of work is less than 40 per cent.

However, he admitted that the execution of digital infrastructure projects particularly in rural areas needs to be speeded up. Deepak also announced that Rs 10,000 Crore will be spent in 2016-17, which is the highest in the history of USOF.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman R S Sharma said Public-Private Partnership is definitely the best mode for transforming India into Digitally Empowered Society and Knowledge Economy.

He said when mobile telephony made its foray into India, there were twenty million fixed telephone lines and the number remains the same even today even though the mobile subscribers have crossed the 1000 million mark.

He cautioned that the era of voice has been replaced by data and if India will lag behind in building the Digital Highway in a time bound manner, there will be problems of traffic Jam.

The two-day long seminar will deliberate on the topics like changing role of USOF, regulatory issues and its future perspective, challenges of consolidation in digital Indian initiatives, Bharat Net and road ahead, broadband proliferation by telecom service providers, unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi etc.

August 10, 2016
Around 100,000 gram panchayats to be connected through Optic Fibre by March: Sinha

NEW DELHI: Around 100,000 Gram Panchayats (GPs) will be connected through Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) to set up a network infrastructure to serve the rural masses by March next year, Communications Minister Manoj Sinha said today.

He called for holistic planning rather than piecemeal approach to achieve the vision of Digital India.

Inaugurating a seminar organized by National Institute of Communication Finance on “ICT emerging technologies & USOF for Digital India” here, the Minister said there was need for innovation in this sector as India cannot afford to emulate the Developed economies due to limited resources.

He said if India will lag in catching up with emerging technologies in the coming 15 to 20 years, the very existence of the country will be at stake. He exhorted officials and other stakeholders to “Walk the Talk” for achieving the Prime Minister’s vision of Transforming India through Digital Revolution. He said it is a bounden duty to digitally empower the huge chunk of population particularly in rural areas who are still deprived of the IT revolution and said the Government alone cannot do this.

He said there is need for finding appropriate technologies for the deprived sections of society, whether it is by way network infrastructure or digital highway.

Telecom Secretary J S Deepak said the Finance Ministry is very conservative in allocation of funds under USOF (Universal Service Obligation Fund). He said despite Rs 70,000 crore being available under USOF, allocation of work is less than 40 per cent.

However, he admitted that the execution of digital infrastructure projects particularly in rural areas needs to be speeded up. Deepak also announced that Rs 10,000 Crore will be spent in 2016-17, which is the highest in the history of USOF.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman R S Sharma said Public-Private Partnership is definitely the best mode for transforming India into Digitally Empowered Society and Knowledge Economy.

He said when mobile telephony made its foray into India, there were twenty million fixed telephone lines and the number remains the same even today even though the mobile subscribers have crossed the 1000 million mark.

He cautioned that the era of voice has been replaced by data and if India will lag behind in building the Digital Highway in a time bound manner, there will be problems of traffic Jam.

The two-day long seminar will deliberate on the topics like changing role of USOF, regulatory issues and its future perspective, challenges of consolidation in digital Indian initiatives, Bharat Net and road ahead, broadband proliferation by telecom service providers, unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi etc.

August 10, 2016