Japan may act against bitcoin: Deputy PM

TOKYO: Taro Aso, Japan's deputy prime minister and finance minister, on Friday said he always thought bitcoin was suspect and said the country might take action following the apparent collapse of a Tokyo-based exchange for the virtual currency.

Taro Aso's comments came after chief US central banker Janet Yellen said the Federal Reserve had no powers to control the unit, which she said would be very difficult to regulate.

Aso said he had foreseen difficulties for the crypto-currency, which is generated by complex chains of interaction among a huge network of computers around the planet.

"I was thinking that this sort of thing won't last long," said Aso, 73. "I was thinking it would collapse sometime."

"Japan is overwhelmingly advanced in this field. In this sense, I was thinking since before that we might face a situation where Japan has to act, but I'd say it came earlier than I thought."

The global bitcoin community has been shaken this week by claims that hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of the unit have been syphoned from the digital vaults of the Mt. Gox exchange.

Withdrawals were frozen earlier this month because of what the firm said was a bug in the software underpinning bitcoin that allowed hackers to pilfer them.

Supporters rallied round, insisting that the bitcoin itself is sound and the problems lay with Mt. Gox, which they said was badly-managed and unable to cope with the burgeoning popularity of the young currency.

Aso said Friday that police and government ministries would work together to address the issues raised by the Mt. Gox episode.

"We will hurriedly work it out," he said, adding: "It is not a currency that all the people recognize."

His comments come after Yellen told a Senate hearing that banks under the Fed's regulatory purview were not involved with bitcoin, and so it had no powers in the matter.

"This is a payment innovation that is taking place entirely outside of the banking industry," she said.

"The Fed doesn't have authority with respect to bitcoin." Yellen pointed to other US regulators, including the Treasury, watching the bitcoin sector for potential money laundering and other criminal uses of the digital currency.

However, she stressed, "it's not so easy to regulate bitcoin" because it is used outside the banking system, and has no centralised authority behind, as do regular fiat currencies.

In Tokyo on Thursday night, investors were calling for a legal probe and possible criminal action against the chief executive of the embattled Mt. Gox, Mark Karpeles.

American IT engineer Aaron Gotman said he had 463 bitcoins at Mt. Gox, worth well over $200,000.

"What happened at Mt. Gox was first incompetence, but then it could have gone to fraud at the end if they were knowing they didn't have the bitcoins they were selling," he said.

"If that's true, Karpeles should face justice and go to jail." Bitcoin's rollercoaster week showed signs of settling down on Friday, trading around $567 at 0545 GMT, down approximately 1.3% for 24 hours, according to the Coindesk index.

While that kind of swing is large by the standards of many established currencies and generally indicates a sizeable news event, it is small bear for a unit that began life worth a few cents and frothed its way well above the $1,000 mark last year.

The Mt. Gox website which dramatically went blank on Tuesday, was still carrying a short message from Karpeles on Friday, his only public statement in recent days as the crisis has swirled around him.

"As there is a lot of speculation regarding Mt. Gox and its future, I would like to use this opportunity to reassure everyone that I am still in Japan, and working very hard with the support of different parties to find a solution to our recent issues," it said.

"Furthermore I would like to kindly ask that people refrain from asking questions to our staff: they have been instructed not to give any response or information. Please visit this page for further announcements and updates."

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Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy: Report

TOKYO: The troubled Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan after claims of a multi-million dollar theft from its digital vaults, media reports said.

The Tokyo District Court accepted the application from Mt. Gox, Jiji Press and public broadcaster NHK said.

The action was taken after US prosecutors reportedly served a subpoena on the company.

The website of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox went dark earlier this week, possibly heralding huge losses for investors, and sending ripples of alarm throughout the global community of digital currency adopters.

Mt. Gox froze withdrawals earlier this month, claiming there was a bug in the software that underpins bitcoin, making it vulnerable to thieves.

The value of the volatile unit plunged on the Tokyo exchange and was hovering around $130 on Tuesday, just quarter of what it was fetching on other platforms, until the site suddenly disappeared at lunchtime.

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'Airtel’s not looking for more acquisitions in India'

BARCELONA: Bharti Airtel, having won spectrum in the recent auction and in the process of taking over Loop Mobile, is not looking at any more purchases in the country, said Gopal Vittal, CEO of India's largest phone company. "We are not looking at any other acquisition in India," he told ET at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain.

About a year into his stint as CEO, Vittal is happy with the way the company has been performing. Profits are growing, with the company focused on five areas: raising voice realisations ; premium data services; increasing the higher revenue generating subscriber base; cost controls at all levels; and employees. In the recent auction, the company retained bandwidth in Delhi and Kolkata where its licences were expiring, won key airwaves in Mumbai and announced the acquisition of Loop Mobile to emerge as a strong No 2 in the financial capital, and is also in a position to offer pan-India 4G services.

"We have national footprint. In Mumbai, we felt there was an opportunity , we went for it," he said. "We have a job to do, that's in our core business, and that's where our focus is." Bharti's push is now on execution and simplification, besides improving "weak" operations in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

It's not looking at any more acquisitions in India. "For me, personally, it's been a terrific 13 months. Lots of work to be done, but some good work has happened," Vittal said. "It is profoundly meaningful to transform the lives of people through this mobile device."

He relates a personal anecdote to illustrate how critical the device has become. "I mean I had a problem yesterday. Somebody bumped into me, and my device fell out of my hand and broke. I felt naked." Apart from a broken phone, he's had a hectic three days at MWC, rushing in and out of meetings, which is why he's looking a little tired and dishevelled.

But that hasn't dimmed his enthusiasm for the sector or his readiness to face challenges. With cash-rich Reliance Jio Infocomm likely to hit the market with its voice and data services later this year, Vittal will have a hard battle on his hands. But competition doesn't faze Bharti, he said.

"Reliance is a deeply-respected company, they have deep pockets. We have, however, grown and thrived in an industry and are children of competition. We have operated in a brutally competitive market. And we have gotten better," he said.

He added that even now, smaller operators offer 50% lower prices than Airtel, but that didn't stop the company from raising effective call rates in some circles by about 33% on Wednesday. And there is more room to reduce discounted offers, which will raise voice realisations even higher.

The unassuming 48-year-old alumnus of IIM-Kolkata has slipped into his role with ease, having moved back to Bharti after a stint at Hindustan Unilever."In many ways, I see some similarities of the old HLL (Hindustan Lever, as it used to be called) in Airtel.

It is as professional as Unilever, with one difference — it is quicker and faster in decision-making. I enjoy the space and speed in which decisions can be made, the empowerment," Vittal said.

He has sought to maintain this nimbleness, empowering circle CEOs, with headquarters in Delhi providing a support function. "We have got 13 circle CEOs. They are the heartbeat of the company, they make things happen. They get support from a central team which does designs around innovation."

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Vodafone eyes 2G, 3G for revenue growth

CHENNAI: Telecom service provider Vodafone would focus on growth in data revenue stream by attracting more customers to 2G and 3G platforms, besides foraying into mobile commerce facility enabling cashless transactions for users, a company official said.

"Our priority is that. We will continue to focus on growing our data as a revenue stream and getting more and more users both on 2G and 3G platform. We will also make a foray into mobile commerce through M-Pesa.," Vodafone South business head - Tamil Nadu, Apoorva Mehrotra told reporters.

The company, as part of tapping the 65% of users who access the internet through mobile phone has also launched the - internet bus initiative in Tier II and III cities, he said.

"Out of the 1.3 crore subscribers, 65% only right now have mobile internet enabled phone. Out of the 65%, only 40% are using data... so there is a large gap between people who can use data but are not using right now. That is where the internet bus and the exclusive retail foot print which we have help us," he said.

Noting that the company has been working on the theme - "educate, engage and experience" concept, he said the company has been witnessing 60,000 new people as first time data users.

"The touch points we have are becoming very effective as customers who are first time users of data, come and get any information on issues of data, whether email can be configured on a phone and things like that," he said.

To a query, Mehrotra declined to elaborate about the 'm-pesa' service that the company was expected to launch.

He said the company had been growing at 100% year- on-year (in terms of subscriber base) while the revenues were growing at 10%.

Vodafone Tamil Nadu has a subscriber base of 1.29 crore as of December 2013 in Tamil Nadu with a market share of 21.6%. It has 36 Vodafone stores, 163 mini stores.

Revenue from 3G grow over 51% year-on-year of the growth in data browsing revenue and as on January 31, the company offers 3G services in 31 cities and towns, a company statement said.

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Google accused of making sexist, racist doodles

NEW DELHI: Google doodles have become a staple of the web, celebrating notable achievements, people and inventions, along with important days in history. But a women activist group, Spark Movement, has accused Google of making sexist doodles.

Spark Movement, which includes a 17-year-old student of Indian origin, has released a report that highlights the under-representation of women by Google in its doodles.

The group has compiled a report based on the data of over last four years (2010 to 2013), which shows that the internet giant created 445 doodles during the period. Out of these, only 73 were of women, whereas 357 were of men.

It has also drawn inference that the Google doodles are racist. Fifty-four of the doodles on or about females were for white women, while the remaining 19 were for 'women of colour', the report reveals. The disparity is even more stark among doodles for men, where white males got an "overwhelming" 275 doodles, only 82 were dedicated to men of colour.

The report says, "This makes 2013 the first year that celebrated a woman of colour with a Global Doodle (doodle seen across the world on all Google home pages), which is basically the highest honour that Google gives to historical figures". This is a reference to the doodle dedicated to Ella Fitzgerald.

Interestingly, Google has been accused of this when it may be on a course correction path. As about half of the 19 doodles for 'women of colour' came in 2013 itself. However, there still hasn't been a single Asian, Latina or indigenous woman featured in a Global Doodle until February 2014, according to the report.

Google is the information centre of the world and it's presenting a skewed and imbalanced vision of who creates knowledge, accused executive director of Spark Movement, Dana Edell.

The group has put up an online petition to Google on Change.org to "to be more diverse in its representation of the world's historical figures and commit to partnering with us as they go forward with that effort." As part of this initiative, Spark Movement has compiled a list of women who deserve doodles, so that "Google has to do less research."

Despite its plea, the group has acknowledged that Google has improved gender representation over the years.

"About half the doodles in January were dedicated to women — a few people that we had on our list of awesome historical heroes even got doodled. And by celebrating five women of colour in the first two months of this year, there have already been more women of colour in 2014 than there were in 2010, 2011 and 2012," admitted the report.

The group, however, attributes this change - at least in part - to people like Ann M Martin, a science educator who has been tracking gender in Google doodles dating back to 2001.

According to Fox News, Google's team lead for doodles, Ryan Germick, said that women have historically been under-represented in almost all fields: science, school curricula, business, politics and, sadly, doodles. However, he added that the company was already working to improve the doodle gender imbalance.

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Twitter account @N restored after high-profile hijack

WASHINGTON: The unusual single-letter Twitter handle '@N' has been reportedly given back to the original user after it was hijacked as part of an eye-opening social engineering scheme last month.

Naoki Hiroshima managed to own the handle once again after the high-profile theft and tweeted "Order has been restored," from his account on the microblogging site.

According to The Verge, in a post by Hiroshima last month, he recounted how both his PayPal and GoDaddy accounts were compromised through social engineering techniques, something that gave the attacker enough leverage to push for the Twitter login credentials.

Although, the details of how the account was returned were unclear, the debacle ultimately became a cautionary tale in the importance of personal security, and how online companies verify sensitive account information and deal with threats to user accounts, the report added.

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US senator calls on government to ban bitcoin

WASHINGTON: A US senator has called on the federal government to completely ban bitcoin.

Joe Manchin, a Democratic senator representing West Virginia, sent a letter to federal regulators, calling for a ban on the virtual currency.

In the letter, Manchin said bitcoin attracts and enables criminals even as its value to the US economy is 'suspect, if not outright detrimental,' the Verge reports.

According to the report, Manchin noted this week's collapse of the largest Bitcoin currency exchange, Mt. Gox.

Manchin said that he was most concerned that other countries such as Thailand, Russia, and China were cracking down on the bitcoin, but America was still holding the bag on a valueless currency.

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Twitter users, know which tweet type are you

NEW YORK: People take to Twitter to talk about everything from politics to breakfast to Justin Bieber in what feels like a chaotic stream of messages.

So it may come as a surprise that the conversations on the short messaging service fit into just six distinct patterns.

The Pew Research Center, working with the Social Media Research Foundation and using a special software tool, analyzed and mapped millions of public tweets, retweets, hashtags and replies that form the backbone of Twitter chatter.

The resulting diagrams show how people, brands, news outlets and celebrities interact on Twitter, depending on the topic of conversation.

When it comes to politics, for example, Twitter's citizens tend to form two distinct groups that rarely interact with one another, divided along liberal and conservative lines, according to the report, which was published yesterday.

Liberals tend to post links to mainstream news sources, while conservatives link to sites with a conservative blend, according to the study, whose authors likened their methods to taking aerial photos of crowds gathered in public places.

The researchers are quick to note that not everyone uses Twitter, only 14% of the US population, and not all who do use it to talk about politics, for example.

Still, looking at how conversations flow on social media can provide new insights into how people communicate in a way that was not possible until very recently.

"You could never do that in the old days when you were running around with a pen and clipboard," said Marc A Smith, one of the study's authors and director of the Social Media Research Foundation.

What emerged in maps of political conversations that the liberal and conservative groups are not even arguing with one another. Rather, they are "ignoring one another while pointing to different web resources and using different hashtags," according to the study.

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Google to showcase Ara modular phone project

WASHINGTON: Google has reportedly announced that it would host its first Ara Developers' Conference this April, in which it would show developers what they could do with the company's modular phone project.

The first conference, in a series of three, would focus on the alpha release of the Ara Module Developers' Kit that would give developers all the information needed to make an 'Ara module'.

According to The Verge, the conference would be held online with a live webstream and interactive Q and A for those who wouldn't be able to attend the event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, and Google would walk through the existing and planned features for the Ara platform and reveal prize challenges for module developers.

This is the first word about Project Ara's future since Google announced plans to sell off Motorola for $2.91 billion to Lenovo in January.

The report said that Ara Project means that making phones that people could customize with individual parts is a priority for Google, akin to Glass in its early stages.

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Facebook-WhatsApp deal: Google sees no threat

HYDERABAD: Google is not unduly worried about Facebook's acquisition of Whatsapp as it does not compete with them in the small and medium business segment, a top company official said. Google's vice-president and global head of SMBs, Allan Thygesen said the search engine giant was working on innovating solutions in messaging, among others, to help the businesses effectively engage with customers.

"I think that WhatsApp is a terrific example of new messaging services. And they have done a fantastic job creating utility that was great for the businesses and consumers," he said.

However, "in terms of acquiring new customers, it is not really as obvious how Whatsapp is useful. So, I am not worried about WhatsApp as a competitor to destabilising our presence or competitor for Adwords."

Social media company Facebook agreed to buy WhatsApp, a mobile sharing platform provider, for $19 billion (nearly Rs 1.2 lakh crore) in cash and stock, earlier this month.

Google's Thygesen, who was in Hyderabad on Wednesday, said the internet search giant is spending a lot of resources to bring about innovation in messaging, including Google Hangout where businesses could do video conferencing with multiple entities from their phone, desktop or laptop.

"We are making it available to companies at low cost as a competitive solution," Thygesen said. Google India, which currently has a customer base of 3 lakh SMBs, is targeting at least half a million over the next year or so.

Against 47 million SMBs in the country, the search engine giant sees the potential of getting online advertising from at least eight million. Only 7% of the Indian ad market is currently digital and the balance is distributed among print and electronic segments, against 30% online in developed economies such as the US and Britain.
Google India head of SMBs, K Suryanarayana said the Indian e-tailing market is projected to touch $16 billion (Rs 99,000 crore) by 2017 from $2.5 billion (Rs 15,500 crore) now, signifying a sizeable opportunity for his company.

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Now, devices that can speed up your computers

NEW YORK: Led by an Indian-origin physicist, a team of researchers in the US has created novel devices that hold promise to make your computer work as the speed of light, literally.

The devices integrate both optical and electronic signals to perform the most elementary computational operations - processing billions of computational steps to produce even the simplest outputs.

"Imagine if every one of those steps could be made just a tiny bit more efficient with light. It would save precious nanoseconds," explained Swastik Kar, assistant professor of physics at Boston-based Northeastern University.

Since light is extremely fast, the new devices represent a critical breakthrough in making a faster dream computer - in which the processing is done using electrical signals and the signal transfer is done by optics - a reality.

Using graphene, a carbon-based material known for its strength and conductivity, and mechanics of carbon nanotubes, Kar and his colleague Yung Joon Jung discovered that light-induced electrical currents rise much more sharply at the intersection of carbon nanotubes and silicon - compared to the intersection of silicon and a metal as in traditional devices.

"That sharp rise helps us design devices that can be turned on and off using light," Kar said.

This finding has major implications for performing computations, which, in simple terms, also rely on a series of on-off switches.

The first device, called AND-gate, requires both an electronic and an optical input to generate an output. This switch only triggers if both elements are engaged.

The second device, an OR-gate, can generate an output if either of two optical sensors is engaged.

The third device works like the front-end of a camera sensor. It consists of 250,000 miniature devices assembled over a centimetre-by-centimetre surface, said the research published in the journal Nature Photonics.

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US house passes bill on mobile phone unlocking

WASHINGTON: The US house of representatives has passed a bill that would give mobile phone users the right to unlock their devices and use them on competitors' wireless networks, although Senate action was uncertain.

The house approved the bill easily, by a 295-114 vote, although some Democrats had pushed back against what they said was a last-minute Republican maneuver to change the legislation.

It is not known whether the Senate will consider the bill.

US wireless carriers often tether, or lock, smartphones to their networks to encourage consumers to renew their mobile contracts. Consumers, for their part, can often buy new devices at a heavily subsidized price in return for committing to long-term contracts with a single carrier.

Major carriers, including Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile US and US Cellular, in December made a voluntary pledge to make it easier for consumers to unlock their cellphones, under pressure from consumer groups and the Federal Communications Commission.

Under current law, those unlocking their phones without permission could face legal ramifications, including jail.

The notion of undoing that law has had wide support from Republicans and Democrats since the bill's introduction in the House in 2013.

But the bill's author, Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, added language after the bill had been approved by a partisan majority of the House Judiciary Committee, banning "bulk unlocking."

Consumer advocates have argued that customers should be allowed to sell their old devices to third parties that could unlock phones in bulk, something the wireless industry opposes.

Four Democrats, led by California Representatives Zoe Lofgren and Anna Eshoo, wrote to their colleagues on Tuesday to protest the bulk unlocking exclusion.

The new provision "could undercut an important court decision that protects consumer choice and prevents monopolistic practices. We cannot in good conscience support a bill that risks giving up so much for so little gain," the Democrats said.

A consumer rights group, Public Knowledge, last week suspended its support of the bill.

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IBM researchers set new record for data-transfer speeds

NEW YORK: Researchers have set a new record for data transmission over a multimode optical fibre - sending data at a rate of 64 gigabits per second.

Researchers at the International Business Machines (IBM) sent data at a rate of 64 gigabits per second (GB/s) over a cable 57-metres-long using a type of laser called a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL).

The achieved rate was about 14% faster than the previous record and about 2.5 times faster than the capabilities of today's typical commercial technology, researchers said.

The achievement demonstrated that the standard, existing technology for sending data over short distances should be able to meet the growing needs of servers, data centers and supercomputers through the end of this decade, they said.

To achieve such high speeds, the researchers used the VCSEL lasers developed at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and custom silicon-germanium chips developed at IBM Research.

"The receiver chip is a unique design that simultaneously achieves speeds and sensitivities well beyond today's commercial offerings," said researcher Dan Kuchta of the IBM TJ Watson Research Center in New York.

"The driver chip incorporates transmit equalisation, which widens the bandwidth of the optical link. While this method has been widely used in electrical communication, it hasn't yet caught on in optical communication," he said.

"Researchers typically rely on a rule of thumb that says the usable data-transfer rate is about 1.7 times the bandwidth," Kuchta explained.

"That means that with the VCSEL laser, which has a bandwidth of about 26GHz, the rate would be only about 44GB/s," he added.

The fast speeds only worked for a distance of 57 metres, so this technology is not designed for sending data across continents. Instead, it's most suitable for transmitting data within a building, Kuchta said.

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Nokia, BlackBerry, Motorola: In search for lost glory

BARCELONA: Once the mobile world's pioneers, Nokia, Motorola and BlackBerry are now the industry's sorry laggards, searching for lost glory.

As they struggle to get back in a game now lorded over by Samsung and Apple, however, analysts hold out little hope for them.

"All those historic handset makers like Nokia, Motorola and BlackBerry completely missed the boat when the smartphone arrived," said Bengt Nordstrom, head of the Swedish consultancy Northstream.

"They missed the touch screen step."

Finland's Nokia, Canada's BlackBerry and the United States' Motorola; they all lost a lot of money in 2013.

Nokia's handset business, in the process of being taken over by Microsoft, reported losses of 780 million euros ($1.07 billion) last year.

Motorola posted a loss of $1.03 billion in the same period.

This month, Motorola's owner, Google, shed the business, selling it to rising Chinese smartphone manufacturer Lenovo for $2.91 million.

BlackBerry, bought by Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings, racked up a loss of $5.4 billion in just the nine months to November 30.

"We are definitely here to compete and to win back some lost ground before the end of the year," BlackBerry's recently appointed chief executive John Chen told reporters at the February 24-27 World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

BlackBerry's budget Z2
BlackBerry showed off two devices - the Q20 with its trademark physical keyboard and the budget-priced Z2 with a touchscreen aimed at the Indonesian market - to help it try to claw back market share.

The two BlackBerry smartphones were the first to be produced under a five-year partnership with Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer that is also a key supplier to a major rival, Apple.

BlackBerry aims to target corporate customers.

"Our turnaround strategy is to focus on enterprise," Chen said. "We are always known as the number one in security."

Analysts were pessimistic about his chances.

"BlackBerry; that is a lost cause, I think," said Nordstrom.

Lawrence Lundy, analyst at Frost & Sullivan, agreed.

"They have tried so many things in past years and nothing has worked. I can't see BlackBerry maintaining a device presence much longer," Lundy added.

"They missed the touch input, they really believed in the keyboard even seeing the success of iPhone."

Nokia remains the world's second-largest handset manufacturer with 13.9% of the market in 2013, but that share is dwindling and it relies largely on traditional mobiles.

In the smartphone market, Nokia did not even rank among the top five last year.

At the industry fair this week, Nokia showed off a new range of Nokia X smartphones powered by a version of Google's Android operating system.

It was a surprise move because Android competes directly with Windows Phone, owned by Microsoft, which is wrapping up its Nokia takeover during this quarter.

Nokia France managing director Thierry Amarger said the manufacturer used the cheaper Android operating system because it aims to sell the devices for less than 150 euros, targeting a fast-growing entry-level market for smartphones.

But Microsoft will determine the next move for Nokia's handsets.

"Nokia are in a fairly good position with Microsoft as their backer," said Nordstrom.

Microsoft rebranding
"For Microsoft, there will be a rebranding exercise and they will spend a lot of money on it but there is no evidence they will catch up with Apple and Samsung," he cautioned.

"When Nokia was a dominant player, it was twice as big as the third player. Today Samsung is eight-10 times bigger than the third player."

Nokia will be hampered, too, he said, by being tied to Microsoft's Windows Phone system, which is dwarfed by Android and Apple's iOS.

Motorola, however, may have a slightly brighter outlook after its takeover by China's Lenovo, said Julian Jest, analyst at research group Informa.

"That will change the dynamics of how Motorola operates," Jest said.

However, Motorola could struggle to innovate, he said, because Google had retained most of its patents and creative staff.

Motorola was the only one of the three strugglers not to launch a new product during the world's largest mobile fair.

Motorola is "pretty strong" in Latin America and in North America, where it remains the number-three manufacturer, said its product management director, Rick Osterloh.

Lenovo's scale and position in the PC business would give Motorola unprecedented access to technology, he said in Barcelona.

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Spice launches Smart Flo Poise Mi 451 at Rs 5,499

NEW DELHI: Spice has launched a budget smartphone under its Smart Flo, named Poise Mi 451, in India. The device has a 4.5-inch screen, 1.3GHz dual-core processor and Android 4.2, comes with a flip cover in the box and has been priced at Rs 5,499.

The other hardware specifications of Smart Flo Poise Mi 451 include 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, 32GB microSD support, 3.2MP camera with LED flash on the back and 1.3MP front camera. It has also a 1,450mAh battery, Bluetooth and dual-sim functionality. It can access the internet over 2G and Wi-Fi networks.

Spice is offering access to its cloud storage service with the smartphone and has thickness of 8.7mm. According to the manufacturer, its IML (In-Mould Labelling) technology imparts greater wear and fades resistance to the device, hence making it sturdier.

Commenting on the launch, TM Ramakrishnan, CEO, devices, Spice Retail, said, "Smart Flo Poise is the perfect mix of the two with its premium looks and a slim body. The new smartphone features ultra bright IPS display which makes it stand out and builds on our promise to constantly empower our users with superior technology."

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IT companies in Karnataka to remain exempt from labour laws

BANGALORE: Information Technology (IT) firms and other knowledge-based industries across Karnataka will be exempted from state labour laws for an additional five years, state IT, BT and Science & Technology minister SR Patil said.

"The knowledge-based sector will be considered essential services and barred from strikes and shutdowns from April. They will also be exempted from complying with working hours regulations as stipulated in the Karnataka Industrial Employment Rules, 1946 for another five years," Patil told reporters here.

The clause for protection of women employees and prevention of sexual harassment at workplace in the order will, however, be applicable.

The state government is setting up the first Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) brown field cluster in the electronics city here at a cost of Rs 85.15 crore.

"The department of electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has approved the ESDM cluster development project, which will be located in 1.2 acres of land in the electronics city to accelerate the growth of the ESDM-based industry in the state," Patil said.

As the fastest growing segment of the (ICT) sector, ESDM is projected to touch $400 billion by 2020 and generate 28 million jobs, according to the National Electronics Policy 2012. The central government has announced a modified special incentive package scheme to provide incentives to ESDM firms.

"We have come up with an ESDM policy with additional incentives to encourage the growth of the sector," Patil noted.

The state government has also granted Rs 5 lakh each to nine engineering colleges across the state for setting up incubation centres to foster entrepreneurship among their students.

The nine engineering colleges are located at Bagalkot, Belgaum, Bijapur Dharwad, Gulbarga, Mysore, Shimoga and Tumkur.

"The centres will be networked to exchange experiences and learn from each other's domain expertise. The incubation centres will tie up with local industry leaders who will mentor the startups," Patil said.

Startups will be eligible for plug-and-play space with internet at concessional rates of Rs 5-15 per square feet, depending on location. They will be given space in government owned or leased or privately-leased location.

An apex committee comprising government and IT industry's representatives will select the startups.

The Karnataka Information and Communication Technology (ICT) group, set up by the state government, to retain the state's pre-eminent position in the country as the preferred investment destination in the knowledge sector, has proposed to build Karnataka New Age Incubation Network for creating opportunities and jobs.

"The incubation centres will encourage entrepreneurs to give preference to students, research scholars and alumni of the nine colleges. They will take up projects to solve local problems and find solutions to local needs," Patil added.

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Delhi HC slams Centre over delay in email policy

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has come down heavily on the Centre for not framing the e-mail policy for government employees in consonance with the Public Records Act, so that official data is not transferred to a server outside India.

A bench of justices BD Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul also warned the government of "coercive action" if they keep on delaying the framing of e-mail policy despite its order.

"You don't want us to take any coercive action. Do you?," the bench asked.

The Central government, which was asked by the court on October 30 last year to frame the policy within four weeks, was at the receiving end during the proceedings today for not being able to do it.

"I do not know what are you (Centre) doing? I think no one is concerned over this issue. We blame politicians, but look at the bureaucrats, what are they doing?

"Even four weeks time was set up for the government to frame the policy, but, till date, no e-mail policy is finalized," Justice BD Ahmed said, adding "we have to only see government's response."

The bench, also comprising Justice Siddharth Mridul, directed that a senior official from concerned department be remain present before it to explain the stand of the Union of India on February 24, the next date of hearing.

Besides framing of e-mail policy, the PIL, filed by former BJP leader K N Govindacharya, also seeks various directions including the issuance of necessary notification mandating electronic signatures for authentication of correspondences through e-mails.

The court's observations came when the counsel for Centre showed inability in doing the needful within a fixed time frame.

"How much you want to test our patience?" it said. Govindacharya, in the PIL, said, the government officials usually use Gmail accounts, whose servers are outside India, and transfer the official data through them which is violative of the Public Records Act.

The plea, filed through counsel Virag Gupta, has also sought a direction to ensure safety of the data of 50 million Indian users which was transferred "to the US and is being used for commercial gains in violation of the right to privacy."

Earlier, US-based Google, in its reply, said it is not liable to pay any taxes in India for its internet activities, as it is not providing any taxable services or earning income from here nor does it have a permanent establishment in the country.

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Delhi HC slams Centre over employee email policy

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has come down heavily on the Centre for not framing the e-mail policy for government employees in consonance with the Public Records Act, so that official data is not transferred to a server outside India.

A bench of justices BD Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul also warned the government of "coercive action" if they keep on delaying the framing of e-mail policy despite its order.

"You don't want us to take any coercive action. Do you?," the bench asked.

The Central government, which was asked by the court on October 30 last year to frame the policy within four weeks, was at the receiving end during the proceedings today for not being able to do it.

"I do not know what are you (Centre) doing? I think no one is concerned over this issue. We blame politicians, but look at the bureaucrats, what are they doing?

"Even four weeks time was set up for the government to frame the policy, but, till date, no e-mail policy is finalized," Justice BD Ahmed said, adding "we have to only see government's response."

The bench, also comprising Justice Siddharth Mridul, directed that a senior official from concerned department be remain present before it to explain the stand of the Union of India on February 24, the next date of hearing.

Besides framing of e-mail policy, the PIL, filed by former BJP leader K N Govindacharya, also seeks various directions including the issuance of necessary notification mandating electronic signatures for authentication of correspondences through e-mails.

The court's observations came when the counsel for Centre showed inability in doing the needful within a fixed time frame.

"How much you want to test our patience?" it said. Govindacharya, in the PIL, said, the government officials usually use Gmail accounts, whose servers are outside India, and transfer the official data through them which is violative of the Public Records Act.

The plea, filed through counsel Virag Gupta, has also sought a direction to ensure safety of the data of 50 million Indian users which was transferred "to the US and is being used for commercial gains in violation of the right to privacy."

Earlier, US-based Google, in its reply, said it is not liable to pay any taxes in India for its internet activities, as it is not providing any taxable services or earning income from here nor does it have a permanent establishment in the country.

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Yahoo going back to basics to reboot search

WASHINGTON: Yahoo is reportedly directing its focus back on algorithmic search and search advertising, tech site Re/code has revealed.

The internet giant is said to have ordered up two new search-related initiatives, codenamed Fast Break and Curveball.

According to CNET, the projects are reportedly priorities for Yahoo; both with three-to-four month time frames, and involving search chief Laurie Mann, mobile head Adam Cahan, and senior VP of platforms Jay Rossiter.

Re/code's report speculates that Cahan's involvement in the project is indicative of a strong mobile bent, in tune with CEO Marissa Mayer's focus on mobile platform.

The search projects also point to the possibilities of Yahoo planning a Bing exit strategy for 2015 and look to partner with another web engine like Google or rebuilding its own core search capabilities, the report added.

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Kashmiri girls develop app for Android

CHANDIGARH: A group of four Kashmiri girls, studying engineering in a Punjab college, claim to have developed an Android application (app) that will help their institution become a paper-free campus.

The girls, pursuing an engineering degree course in Aryans College of Engineering near here, said official notices and other communication meant for students can be accessed by students of the institution from the app instead of checking the paper notices.

The students -- Rumaisa, Zeenat, Sadiya and Yusra, all Bachelor of Technology students at Aryans -- are from the Kashmir Valley. They developed the app under the guidance of their teachers, especially head of department, projects, Manpreet Mann.

"Notices intended for students belonging to the college will be uploaded in students' login. This has eliminated the need of notice boards in the college. All the official notices for the staff will be uploaded in the staff login.

"The outsiders will be able to see all the necessary information about Aryans Group of Colleges and the updates about the events happening in the college," the girls told media here.

Called the 'Aryans Android App', it can be downloaded on mobiles having Android version 2.3 and above.

Complimenting the students for developing the app, Aryans Group of Colleges chairman Anshu Kataria said the students would be encouraged further for technological development.

Kataria announced that the college has decided to sanction an amount of Rs.1 lakh to the students for any other joint project.

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