The “world’s biggest untapped tech market” hasn’t been so fond of Apple’s efforts to break in, according to a new report. The Wall Street Journal has published a story on Tuesday that digs deep into Apple’s lackluster effort to jump into the Indian tech market, showing “little success so far” despite Apple’s internal focus on […]
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BALSOO, Kashmir — It was well past midnight in the village of Balsoo when Numan Ashraf Bhat’s phone lit up with an urgent WhatsApp message: “Umar surrounded by forces.” One of the area’s most wanted militants, Umar Majid Ganai had built a loyal youth following in Kashmir, a Himalayan region disputed between India and Pakistan […]
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According to the yearly report published by Stockholm-based phone number-identification service Truecaller, spam calls grew by 300 percent year-over-year in 2018. The report also found that telecom operators themselves are much to blame. Between January and October of this year, Truecaller said, users worldwide received about 17.7 billion spam calls. That’s up from some 5.5 […]
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On June 14, 2009, Asia Bibi, a poor Christian woman, was picking fruit in the field of Itan Wali village in Pakistan, about 30 miles from the city of Lahore. On the landowner’s order, Bibi fetched drinking water for her co-workers, but three Muslim women among them accused her of contaminating the water by touching […]
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Indian education startup Byju’s has raised $540 million in a funding round led by South Africa’s Naspers Ventures and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The funding round announced today roughly doubles the 10-year-old startup’s valuation to $3.6 billion, making it one of the biggest education startups in the world. The new valuation also helps Byju’s […]
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SINGAPORE — Across the British Empire, the laws banning gay sex in the colonies were often so similar that some even shared the same code number. In India, it was Section 377. In Singapore, 377A. So when the Indian Supreme Court struck down this fall the country’s colonial-era law criminalizing gay sex, Johnson Ong — […]
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KOLKATA, India — In the spring I found myself in the position of being my father’s potential liver donor. Although he had steadfastly refused a transplant, he had slipped into a sickness so severe that my mother and I feared we might lose him. I am his only child and our blood groups are compatible. […]
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In a bid to help the growing internet population in India shop online, Google has announced it’s bringing Google Shopping to the country from today. Google Shopping is designed to help users find the right product and the retailers that are selling it. It then compares prices to uncover the best deal, and users can […]
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MUMBAI, India — India’s top central banker resigned on Monday after tussling for months with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government over its desire to exert more control over the bank’s regulations and tap its reserves to increase government spending. The departure of the banker, Urjit Patel, came almost a year before his term was to […]
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Google has acquired Sigmoid Labs, the company behind popular Indian travel app “Where is my Train,” the companies announced today. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Acquisition of the app, which has millions of users in India, is further evidence of Google’s aggressive play for users in emerging markets. In a statement provided to […]
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Each day in India’s capital New Delhi, hundreds of thousands of people take the quiet subway across the widely crowded suburbs to reach their work. The quietness is interrupted every few minutes as the train reaches a station and an ever-growing population jostles to find a seat. Seconds later, everyone returns their attention to their smartphone […]
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NEW DELHI — Mastanamma got her big break at age 105. After she prepared an especially delicious eggplant curry, her great-grandson suggested that he film her cooking and then post the videos on YouTube. No matter that she was more than 100 years old, suffered from cataracts, wore dentures, cooked outside on an open fire […]
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As India inches closer to its general elections, Facebook announced today that it is bringing transparency to political ads on its platform in the country early next year. This would make India the fourth market — after the U.S., Brazil, and the U.K. — where Facebook offers users a disclaimer on political ads. Facebook began […]
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This article originally appeared on VICE India. Every time you see an ad for a hair product with Kareena Kapoor or Deepika Padukone or Priyanka Chopra (you get the picture), and the camera cuts to their hands running through their hair—it’s not actually the movie star’s hands. The same happens with beauty product ads when […]
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Last week, India introduced new regulations governing the use of drones by private citizens in the country, effectively overturning a ban from 2014 and allowing people to fly their unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) legally. That’s great, but there’s one hitch that might keep drones grounded for a bit. Let’s first take a look at the […]
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WhatsApp has faced a lot of criticism for the way it’s handled fake news in India. In its latest move to battle misinformation, the company has launched three TV commercials in India to spread awareness about the issue amongst its users in the country. The 60-second commercials, named “Share joy, not rumors,” will be aired starting […]
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On Nov. 13, Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter, met with several female journalists and activists in New Delhi to talk about online safety in India. Female journalists and activists from religious and cultural minorities face relentless harassment and abuse on Mr. Dorsey’s platform. The meeting with Mr. Dorsey and other Twitter executives was […]
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After numerous infamous cases of people in India and Brazil falling prey to fake news spread on WhatsApp, the problem is now spreading to Nigeria. The West African nation is hosting its national elections in February next year, and a report from The Poynter Institute says its citizens are at risk of being conned by […]
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Two weeks ago a young American made a doomed mission to North Sentinel Island, a speck in the Bay of Bengal and home to perhaps the most isolated people on earth — all 50 or so of them. Ever since he was a boy, John Chau, an evangelical missionary with an acute case of wanderlust, […]
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Back in July, Apple was faced with an impending iPhone ban in India if it did not comply with the region’s telecom regulator, TRAI. The telecom regulator had been waiting for Apple to implement an anti-spam feature within iOS, but without it, India was left little room to work with. As a result of lacking […]
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