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Tag: Computer

  • Mobile & computer prices may be affected with withdrawal of special additional duty

    Mobile & computer prices may be affected with withdrawal of special additional duty

    NEW DELHI: The Union Budget for 2016-17 is expected to result in raising the prices of mobile phones as well as personal computers.

    In his budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the exemption from basic customs duty, CV duty, Special Additional Duty on charger/adapter, battery and wired headsets/speakers for manufacture of mobile phone was being withdrawn and vary between four to 12.5 per cent.

    But inputs, parts and components, subparts for manufacture of charger / adapter, battery and wired headsets /speakers, of mobile phone, subject to actual user condition was being exempted.

    The exemption from Special Additional Duty (SAD) on populated PCBs for manufacture of personal computers (laptop or desktop) was being withdrawn and would go up to four per cent.

    The exemption from SAD on populated PCBs of mobile phone/tablet computer being withdrawn and the concessional SAD on populated PCBs for manufacture of mobile phone/tablet computer was being imposed at two per cent.

    The Excise duty structure on domestically manufactured charger/adapter, battery and wired headsets/speakers for supply to mobile phone manufacturers as original equipment manufacturer has been changed and will be between two to 12.5 per cent.

    At the same time, the excise duty on inputs, parts and components, subparts for manufacture of charger/adapter, battery and wired headsets/speakers of mobile phone, subject to actual user condition have being exempted from 12.5 per cent at present.

    Specified telecommunication equipment [Soft switches and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) equipment namely VoIP phones, media gateways, gateway Product/Switch (POTP/POTS), Optical controllers and session border controllers, Optical Transport equipment; combination of one / more of Packet Optical Transport Network(OTN) products, and IP Radios, Carrier Ethernet Switch, Packet Transport Node (PTN) products, Multiprotocol Label Switching- Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) products, Multiple Input / Multiple Output (MIMO) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) Products on which 10 per cent Basic Customs Duty was imposed in 2014-15 Budget has been excluded from the purview of the other exemptions also and goes up to 10 per cent.

    The Basic Customs Duty exemption on preform of silica for manufacture of telecom grade optical fibre /cables has been withdrawn and will be 10 per cent.

    The Minister said the assignment by the Government of the right to use the radio-frequency spectrum and its subsequent transfers being declared as a service so as to make it clear that assignment of right to use the spectrum is a service leviable to service tax and not sale of intangible goods, with effect from date of enforcement of Finance Bill, 2016. It will therefore be 14 per cent. 

  • Mobile & computer prices may be affected with withdrawal of special additional duty

    Mobile & computer prices may be affected with withdrawal of special additional duty

    NEW DELHI: The Union Budget for 2016-17 is expected to result in raising the prices of mobile phones as well as personal computers.

    In his budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the exemption from basic customs duty, CV duty, Special Additional Duty on charger/adapter, battery and wired headsets/speakers for manufacture of mobile phone was being withdrawn and vary between four to 12.5 per cent.

    But inputs, parts and components, subparts for manufacture of charger / adapter, battery and wired headsets /speakers, of mobile phone, subject to actual user condition was being exempted.

    The exemption from Special Additional Duty (SAD) on populated PCBs for manufacture of personal computers (laptop or desktop) was being withdrawn and would go up to four per cent.

    The exemption from SAD on populated PCBs of mobile phone/tablet computer being withdrawn and the concessional SAD on populated PCBs for manufacture of mobile phone/tablet computer was being imposed at two per cent.

    The Excise duty structure on domestically manufactured charger/adapter, battery and wired headsets/speakers for supply to mobile phone manufacturers as original equipment manufacturer has been changed and will be between two to 12.5 per cent.

    At the same time, the excise duty on inputs, parts and components, subparts for manufacture of charger/adapter, battery and wired headsets/speakers of mobile phone, subject to actual user condition have being exempted from 12.5 per cent at present.

    Specified telecommunication equipment [Soft switches and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) equipment namely VoIP phones, media gateways, gateway Product/Switch (POTP/POTS), Optical controllers and session border controllers, Optical Transport equipment; combination of one / more of Packet Optical Transport Network(OTN) products, and IP Radios, Carrier Ethernet Switch, Packet Transport Node (PTN) products, Multiprotocol Label Switching- Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) products, Multiple Input / Multiple Output (MIMO) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) Products on which 10 per cent Basic Customs Duty was imposed in 2014-15 Budget has been excluded from the purview of the other exemptions also and goes up to 10 per cent.

    The Basic Customs Duty exemption on preform of silica for manufacture of telecom grade optical fibre /cables has been withdrawn and will be 10 per cent.

    The Minister said the assignment by the Government of the right to use the radio-frequency spectrum and its subsequent transfers being declared as a service so as to make it clear that assignment of right to use the spectrum is a service leviable to service tax and not sale of intangible goods, with effect from date of enforcement of Finance Bill, 2016. It will therefore be 14 per cent. 

  • Will Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio do what Bill Gates’ Windows did?

    Will Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio do what Bill Gates’ Windows did?

    MUMBAI: Computer in its early days was only used by government organisations for various defence purposes. The size of the device kept getting smaller as generations passed by and now, deemed as a necessity, it is omnipresent in almost every house. But what opened the floodgates for computer in every house almost twenty years ago in 1995 was Bill Gates’ Windows 95.

    Cut to 2015 and the present scenario in India. The current fad, which might just be here to stay, are Over The Top (OTT) players. Media and entertainment content companies are bullish on the OTT scenario and multiple apps have mushroomed left, right and centre over the last few months. However, they haven’t yet managed to augment a revolution of sorts by their services, thanks to the poor infrastructure support in the country. The broadband or mobile internet bandwidth is, on the one hand, too slow to offer a good viewing experience and on the other, it is also very expensive.

    The country currently has more than 350 million internet users and the number is expected to reach 640 million by 2019, of which 528 millions are estimated to be wireless consumers as per a report by KPMG.

    The growth rate of smartphones and tablets is also very encouraging for the video on demand (VOD) ecosystem. The number of tablets in India is is expected to be more than 18 million by 2019, according to the US-based firm’s Visual Networking Index (VNI) global mobile data traffic forecast for 2014 to 2019.

    The report said that in India, the number of smartphones grew 54 per cent during 2014, reaching 140 million in number and the number of smartphones will grow 4.7-fold between 2014 and 2019, reaching 651 million in number.

     What Colors CEO Raj Nayak has to say is by far the most apt depiction of the Indian OTT ecosystem in the current scenario. “The only reason why digital has not yet taken off in  India is because of the bandwidth issue. If any service can resolve that issue, it will be a complete game changer. There will be a leapfrogging of content consumption in mobile devices be it smartphones or tablets,” he opines.

    		  

    And addressing that issue soon will be Mukesh Ambani’s ambitious project Reliance Jio.

    Reliance Jio is Ambani’s visionary mission of spreading internet to every nook and corner of the country. Industry watchers say that the organisation in entering the market with a ginormous corpus fund of approximately Rs 70,000 crore. Under the able leadership of cable industry veteran K Jayaraman as CEO of Reliance Jio, the company has now started to take the aerial route to fast forward proceedings. It is now connecting pole to pole through cable in order to spread deep and fast.

    Jio is also teaming up with multiple last mile owners (LMOs) to expedite execution. As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, Reliance is planning to carry out Jio’s soft launch on the occasion of Dhirubhai Ambani’s birth anniversary on 28 December this year. 

    Speculations are also rife that Reliance Jio is planning to unleash its services with affordable pricing, which will no doubt disrupt the market. “The focus with Jio is not money but the vision that we have. The pricing and speed will surprise many,” said a source close to the development.

    The question on every one’s lips is: Will Reliance Jio resolve bandwidth issues in the country? Moreover, will Mukesh Ambani’s Jio do what Bill Gates’ Windows did?

    Indiantelevision.com spoke to multiple industry stakeholders to ascertain their expectations. Here’s what they had to say: 

    Spuul Global CEO Subin Subaiah says, “Give a consumer higher speed at lower costs, and it gives him a huge incentive to consume more content – especially video – online. We  are watching Reliance Jio’s launch with keen interest, which should lead to other service providers following suit – creating a market where data costs and speeds are not an  impediment to consumption.”

    		  

     

    Reliance Industries’ latest AGM grabbed Eros Now COO Karan Bedi’s attention. “Mr Ambani in their AGM announced that they are rolling out Reliance Jio in December and that’s  a very positive move. The statement made Airtel roll out their 4G services immediately and the service is good. Other telcos are also planning to unleash their services soon. So  overall it’s certainly a move towards the positive side,” he says.  

     

    ”Bandwidth has been an issue for OTT services and we are looking forward to the new launch of Reliance Jio. Hope it turns out to be a consumer friendly proposition. Any improved internet service will certainly help the ecosystem,” asserts Zee Digital Convergence Limited CEO and India web portal CEO Debashish Ghosh.

    		  

     

    #Fame CEO Saket Saurabh adds, “We are waiting for the launch. Let’s see how it goes. If the internet infrastructure develops, it will be good for the entire ecosystem.”  

     

     “From a consumer perspective, 4G would more be a network bandwidth problem solver and hence would immensely expand the experience of browsing and interacting with  mobile internet products. And from a digital and mobile player perspective, I expect 4G to significantly enhance the reach and innovation in the mobile video ecosystem. Today,  Indian online users watch approximately 40 per cent of YouTube videos on their mobile phones even when the experience is not the best and I am really looking forward  to Reliance Jio’s launch. Any new player disrupting the mobile ecosystem adds a new dimension to the environment. So from a consumer perspective, just as Monsoon Dhamaka  was a massive disruption to making mobile phone accessible to all, I expect 4G launch of Reliance to be also a dhamaka for the consumer and the mobile marketing,” opines Madhouse South Asia COO Milind Pathak.

    		  

     

    Ping Network CEO Rajashree Naik adds, “Even a marginal shift in internet speeds will have a significant impact in data consumption – for us in the video space, there is a relevant link between consumption and speeds. For everyone in the internet and content space, if the consumer experience is enhanced because of speeds much of our own    business metrics will change. So whether it is Jio or any other data options that will make it cheaper to consume and remove the buffering hurdle, will certainly be something to look forward to.”  

    Even as the stage is set for Reliance Jio’s disruptive entry into the Indian telecom market, rivals are gearing up to fire their respective salvos. While India is waking up to some interesting times ahead in the telecom space, what each one does to change the ecosystem, only time will tell.

  • Verizon Expands and Enhances Next-Generation Identity Platform to Enable Safer, More Trustworthy Internet

    Verizon Expands and Enhances Next-Generation Identity Platform to Enable Safer, More Trustworthy Internet

    Verizon Enterprise Solutions is expanding availability of its next-generation, cloud-based identity platform – Verizon Universal Identity Services – to Europe, effective immediately. The platform, previously available only in the U.S., also boasts new user-friendly features, including an updated mobile app, Quick Response code-enabled access, and a simplified end-user interface, making identities easy to manage and use.

    Verizon Universal Identity Servicesuses multifactor authentication to verify users are who they say they are by combining an individual’s username-password with a computing device that generates a one-time password or a biometric scan, such as fingerprint recognition. Once authenticated, users can securely access online content such as websites, corporate resources and even electronic medical records from their computer, smartphone or tablet. Verizon’s cloud-based identity services are an alternative to traditional solutions and provide an easier, faster, more flexibleand secure way for organizations to implement two-factor authentication.

    According to the “Verizon 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report,”weak or stolen passwords and credentials account for 76 percent of data breaches, underscoring the need for stronger online identities.

    “The bad guys are becoming increasingly more sophisticated as they continue to probe business and government networks to gain access and steal information,” said David Small, chief platform officer for Verizon Enterprise Solutions. “Verizon Universal Identity Services is transforming the business of validating online identities to provide a safer, more trustworthy Internet. Our platform will help achieve the vision of a single, trusted universal identity that individuals can use for all online activities, whether at home, at work or on the go.”

    The Verizon identity platform is available on the iOS Android, Windows and BlackBerry operating systems and can be used to validate the identities of employees, partners and customers. The platform also features legally binding digital signature capabilities, such as those required for electronic prescriptions, online tax filing and license renewals.

    In addition, anew,simplified end-user interfaceoffers administratorsan enhanced dashboard with expanded security and operations reportingthat help organizations address and demonstrate security compliance.

    “Verizon has invested in expanding the availability and enhancing the features of its next-generation, cloud-based identity platform,” said Amy DeCarlo, principal analyst for security and data center services, Current Analysis. “By focusing on the end-user experience to create an identity platform that is easy to deploy, manage and use, Verizon Universal Identity Services stands out from other identity solutions available on the market today.”

    Launched in the U.S. in 2010, Verizon Universal Identity Servicesis delivered from Verizon data centers to meet enterprise security, availability and reliability requirements.

    Said Small:“Verizon is investing today to meet the online identity requirements of tomorrow. By continuing our close collaboration with government and industry stakeholders around the globe, we are working to create a global identity ecosystem that will improve the privacy, security and convenience of sensitive online transactions.”