Who will fuel Facebook’s growth? India.
Facebook users in India could surpass US totals in three years as its Internet population is set to triple. The challenge for Facebook: average revenue per person is just $1.79 in Asia vs. $9.51 in North America.
Workers are seen at their workstations on the floor of an outsourcing centre in Bangalore, India, in February. India’s number of Internet users is expected to triple in the next three years, which means that India’s Facebook audience could leapfrog from No. 3 today, behind the US and Brazil, to No. 1 as early as 2015.
Vivek Prakash/Reuters/Fil
India is set to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest Facebook market by number of users as early as 2015, according to social media analysts, driven by growing internet penetration and high rates of growth in mobile connections.
As Facebook’s third largest market, India is home to over 45 million users, behind Brazil and the United States with 47 and 157 million users, respectively, according to the latest data from Facebook’s advertising platform.
RELATED: Five things to know before buying Facebook stock
With approximately 120 million internet users, India’s internet population is forecast to grow threefold to almost 400 million users by the end of 2015 to mid-2016, according to Suhale Kapoor, Executive Vice President at analytics and market research company AbsolutData. Kapoor says by that time, India will have surpassed the U.S. in terms of Facebook users.
With smartphone prices declining and data rates among the cheapest in the world, Kapoor believes the mobile platform will drive the growth… Continue reading
Anonymous Targets Indian Govt Websites Over Censorship
Anonymous has gone after and taken down Indian government websites over the country’s Internet censorship plan, which has resulted in the blocking of websites like The Pirate Bay and Vimeo.
“Namaste #India, your time has come to trash the current government and install a new one. Good luck,” the @Anon_Central Twitter feed tweeted earlier today.
Hackers have since targeted the websites of the Indian Supreme Court, the All India Congress Committee, Copyrightlabs.in, the country’s Department of Telecommunications, the Ministry of Information Technology, and the Jammu & Kashmir Police, according to @Anon_Central.
Anonymous is tagging its Twitter posts with calls to end censorship and save The Pirate Bay.
As the Electronic Frontier Foundation noted in February, “India has been known to censor online content, typically under the guise of national security or obscenity.” That same month, Google and Facebook were required to remove from their websites content the Indian government had deemed offensive. They were among 21 companies forced to take down photographs, videos, text, and other items officials consider anti-religious or anti-social.
The Anonymous attacks started amidst reports that Internet crackdowns were blocking sites like The Pirate Bay, Vimeo, Daily Motion, and Pastebin in India.
Leading the charge is @opindia_revenge, under the #OpIndia tag on Twitter. The feed encouraged Web users to “use tor or VPNs to access torrent sites. #DEFY #government. Tell them they cannot stop you.”
The @opindia_revenge feed promised continued attacks. “#India its a DDOS attack. We do not assure for how long we can keep down sites. But we are firing at them. They will face lags,” it said earlier in the day.
The move comes after The Pirate Bay was hit with a DDoS. It has not been revealed who carried out the attack, but The Pirate Bay said it was not Anonymous.
Wikileaks.org has also been under attack for several days.
Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404554,00.asp
China tops India as No. 1 gold consumer: WGC
LONDON -(MarketWatch)- China topped India as the world’s top consumer of gold in the first quarter of this year, cementing expectations that China will be the dominant buying force in the gold market in 2012, the World Gold Council said Thursday.
Indian gold demand dropped 19% on the year in the first three months of the year, to 207.6 metric tons. The domestic gold sector was rattled by strikes following the announcement of new taxes on the gold trade and weakness in the Indian rupee made dollar-denominated gold more expensive for Indian buyers.
In contrast Chinese gold demand rose 7% in the same period, to 255.2 tons, according to the WGC.
Between them, China and India accounted for 54% of global gold demand in the first quarter.
Although Chinese demand growth is starting to moderate and Indian gold demand is expected to pick up this quarter as the market adjusts to the new legislation and tax structure, China should remain the world’s top gold consumer for the balance of the year, said the WGC.
“We still expect China to exceed India this year in overall gold demand,” Marcus Grubb, WGC managing director of investment, told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.
Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-tops-india-as-no-1-gold-consumer-wgc-2012-05-17?reflink=MW_news_stmp
India Digest: Government Working on Private Sector Corruption Law
Here is a roundup of news from Indian newspapers, news wires and websites on Thursday, May 17, 2012. The Wall Street Journal has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
Government Working on Private Sector Corruption Law: In an attempt to bring the fight against bribery to the private sector, the home ministry is working on tough amendments to the anti-corruption law. (Source: Hindustan Times)
Imams’ Body to Iintrospect’ on Giving Muslim Women Their Due: The biggest group of imams in the country, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, is taking the first tentative steps towards addressing issues faced by Muslim women. (Source: The Indian Express)
Punjab May Switch to Non-Paddy Crops as Water Crisis Sparks Alarm: Punjab, the grain bowl of India, is in danger of losing the coveted tag as depleting groundwater levels force the state to seriously consider reducing the planting of water-intensive paddy crop in the medium-to-long term to avoid a disaster. (Source: The Financial Express)
Shah Rukh Faces MCA Ban From Entering Wankhede Stadium: Bollywood superstar and IPL franchise Team Kolkata’s co-owner Shah Rukh Khan could be banned by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) from entering the Wankhede Stadium after he got into a scuffle with security and officials of the association. (Source: The Times of India)
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/05/17/india-digest-government-working-on-private-sector-corruption-law/?mod=google_news_blog
Is Indian Education System ”Inherently Perverse”?
Bangalore: The well-intentioned Right to Education legislation has become marred with controversies. It is hardly the remedy its advocates claim it to be. Rajeev Srinivasan in his report to Rediff news says there are at least two reasons why the legislation is not right: One, it hands public funds over to private hands; two, it does not address the causes for the rot in the Indian education system.
The system has succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, not even Thomas Babington Macaulay’s. His infamous ‘’Minute on Indian Education’’ wanted to create little ‘brown sepoys’ and make them the cannon-fodder of Empire, metaphorically speaking. You can still see these Brown Sahibs strutting about flaunting their awful ‘convent accents’ and an utter lack of understanding of what the world is all about.He calls the current system of education as ‘’inherently perverse.’’ The system was imposed upon India by the British imperialists, with the sole purpose of creating coolies and clerks to help them run the country. The System’s intention of perpetuating colonialism is demonstrated by Columbia’s Gauri Vishwanathan in her book, ‘’Masks of Conquest.’’ English language itself was forced upon conquered nations: First India, then Ireland.
These people have internalized ideas about distribution without worrying about production, quality, or excellence. This is reason why Indian education, post independence, has not produced anything- absolutely anything of global caliber. Not one great discovery, invention or even a theoretical insight!
What’s more shameful is that this is worse than under the imperialists. At least, in their days, there were world-class discoveries from India, by C V Raman, J C Bose and Srinivasa Ramanujan to name a few.
The second structural problem is that the middle classes take up most of the State’s spending on education. All of East Asia, however, has invested the majority of its… Continue reading
FirstRand Bank will partner local entities to deepen its India reach
The latest entrant in retail and commercial banking, FirstRand Bank, has identified opportunities where it can build a competitive advantage. In a candid interview, Sizwe Nxasana, CEO of FirstRand Group, tells Neelasri Barman what the bank is lining up in days ahead. Excerpts:
FirstRand Bank has been in India for the last three years and now you commenced retail and commercial banking operations in India. What new services are you planning to offer?
We have built a very strong track record in India over the last three years with our corporate and investment banking business where we largely focussed on opportunities presented by trade and investment flows between India and Africa. We have now identified some opportunities in retail and commercial banking markets where we believe we can build a competitive advantage. We will start with a comprehensive product suite in commercial banking which will focus largely on Indian companies doing business in the Africa/India trade corridor and African companies investing in India. On the retail side, we will start with a limited product suite of deposit products, safe deposit lockers and wealth management solutions.
Why is FirstRand Bank not launching its retail business with a huge bang? Is this part of your strategy?
FirstRand’s strategic preference while entering new markets is to build a business organically.
According to you what are the challenges and opportunities in India for a new entrant in retail and commercial banking?
One of the major challenges to starting a retail and commercial franchise in India is having appropriate brand and distribution.
The bank is also looking at introducing technology-based products in the country, going forward. Can you throw some light on that?
Africa as a continent has been a leader in several breakthrough technologies in banking, particularly mobile banking. Our retail business in Africa,… Continue reading
Indian growth story is intact: Pranab Mukherjee
New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday assured Parliament that India’s growth story remained intact despite Euro zone crisis and Greece turmoil. Pranab attributed the downward trend in the share markets to the global economic crisis. He said that the government is going to take some austerity steps to convey that it is responding to the situation. On retrospective amendments to tax laws, the Finance Minister said Parliament is omnipotent and there was no confrontation with judiciary on it. Pranab also said that the government wants FDI but decisions are time consuming because of coalition compulsions.
Pranab’s comments came after the rupee hit a record low against the dollar as risk aversion in global markets added pressure on a currency already under fire from fiscal and current account deficits that are weighing on growth. The Sensex as well as the Nifty extended falls to over 2 per cent.
“I am not pressing panic button. We are concerned over slowdown in economic growth. Government is taking steps to address it. It’s a difficult world. Every country is facing economic crisis. We are concerned about our dip in GDP growth,” Pranab said in the Lok Sabha. “Indian growth story will not come to an end. It may have hurdles but it will regain. Fuel prices are rising, we will have to take collective measures. If we do not take corrective measures, it will have disastrous impact,” he added.
Recent Comments