Feb 26
Update 27/02/2010:
Paypal resumes Local Bank Withdrawals to India
Paypal has been working on the issue with RBI and will resume bank withdrawals in India by March 3rd.
Details – Resuming local bank withdrawals to India
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Paypal had officially stopped personal payments to Indian accounts and cash withdrawals to Indian bank accounts 3-4 weeks back because of some issues regarding remittances to India. They are still work on the issue with the RBI regulators; but the issue is yet to be resolved.
Here are some details on the Paypal India situation –
Personal Payments and local bank transfers in India
Update on PayPal situation in India
The alternative to withdraw money from your Paypal account to your bank account in India was to use Xoom.
Starting today, even Xoom has stopped accepting Paypal as a funding source in Indian transactions.
Details on that -
Xoom – Paypal Funded Transactions to India Blocked
How to withdraw money via Paypal to your Indian Bank Account?
The only way to withdraw money from Paypal now is to request a check. The fee is $5.00 and it takes about 5-7 working days.
Feb 26
I have been trying to make sense of the Union Budget 2010-2011 and here are the points which I think should affect the technology sector. There hasn’t been much in this budget for us technophiles though.
Key Features of Indian Union Budget 2010 – 2011
Computers and Mobiles
The Special Additional Duty of Customs (SAD) of 4% on imported mobile handsets has been fully exempted. This should lead to a slight fall in mobile prices if the manufacturers decide to pass on the benefit to the consumers.
The budget has also proposed to remove the 24% import duty on components imported for manufacturing batteries, chargers and other mobile accessories.
On the other hand, the central excise on all non-petroleum products has been increased from 8 to 10%, which may end up eroding the tax savings on technology products due to the above mentioned points.
IT
There have been no specific announcements made which should affect the IT sector directly but the UIDAI (Unique ID Authority of India) project has been approved and Rs. 1900 crores have been allocated to it. The project will most likely be handled by Indian IT companies so this should be good.
Also, Rs. 31000 crores have been earmarked for school education reforms in 2010-2011; which will probably be a boost for the IT sector in the long term.
One of the best things about this budget seems to be that both the GST and the Direct Tax code will finally be applicable by April 2011.
I’m still browsing through the whole budget document. Will update this post if I find anything relevant.
Feb 16
Again!
Today – 16/02/2010, MTNL has upgraded the speeds of its unlimited broadband plans. It seems to be doubling broadband speeds every six months.
These are the new tariff rates for the new Broadband plans.
MTNL Triband Tariff Plans – 16/02/2010
Triband 512 KBPS Unlimited – Rs. 599
Triband 752 KBPS Unlimited – Rs. 749
Triband 1 MBPS Unlimited – Rs. 999
Triband 1.34 MBPS Unlimited – Rs. 1599
Triband 2 MBPS Unlimited – Rs. 3999
Triband 4 MBPS Unlimited – Rs. 9999
Awesome! Who said PSUs in India can’t be competitive. Suck on it, Airtel and Reliance. Muhahaha!
MTNL Triband Tariff Plans
Jan 27
Infibeam (Amazon’s Indian clone) has just started accepting pre-orders for its new eBook reader - Pi (which unironically seems to be a Kindle clone sans the keyboard).
It is priced at Rs. 9999. The hardware specs seem to be almost similar to the Kindle except that it does not have a physical keyboard. The display is exactly the same as the Kindle’s – a 6″ E Ink. The battery is just a 1000 mAh Li-Poly battery though, compared to the Kindle’s 1530 mAh. It is just as compact as the Kindle 2 and much lighter.
It is powered by a Samsung S3C2440 processor and has 64MB of RAM.
It has 512 MB internal memory which can be expanded using a 4 GB MicroSD card. It supports the following file formats – PDF, EPUB, HTML, TXT, MOBI, DOC, JPG, BMP, PNG and MP3.
Shipping starts from 22nd February 2010.
Detailed specs after the break.
Read the rest of this entry »
Jul 31
All the hype about the CrunchPad – a touchscreen tablet envisioned by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch was overshadowed by the rumors of the upcoming Apple Tablet in the last month. But it has made an appearance again in an article by Straits Times.
The CrunchPad, developed by Fusion Garage, a startup based in Singapore is rumored to release this November.
CrunchPad Specifications:
- Dimensions: 12.77 x 7.83 x 0.74 inches
- Weight: 1.2 KG
- Screen: 12 inch touchscreen display
- Processor: Intel Atom N270, 1.6 GHz
- RAM: 1 GB DDR2 RAM
- Software: Linux based OS, Webkit Browser
- Peripherals: 1 USB port (for keyboard or mouse)
- Connectivity: WiFi, 3G, Mobile Broadband
- Price: USD 399
It looks pretty stylish and has nice specs. However it has no usable internal memory; maybe only some form of persistent cache for the browser. All the applications it can run will be web based, in the cloud; you can’t use them without an internet connection. Hopefully they will add some more USB ports and some internal memory. Or atleast lower the price a bit. Otherwise, I don’t think it will stand a chance against the Apple Tablet.
More on the CrunchPad – Wiki – Engadget – TechCrunch
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