Trending: Mar 26- Apr 02 : Nasty humans teaching machines to do nasty stuff is the real reason why machines might become dangerous

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Sree Vijaykumar From the Editor's Desk Nasty humans teaching machines to do nasty stuff is the real reason why machines might become dangerous to humans. After all, they learn from us (training datasets). Trolls caused havoc with Microsoft's teen chat bot experiment a few days ago. The bot started spewing racist hatred and sexist comments when asked questions, putting Microsoft in an embarassing position. Are our algorithms good enough to detect and prevent the worst human behaviour from influencing our AI-powered friends? Update: Microsoft accidentally opened up Tay again and shut it down after it tweeted that it's smoking marijuana in front of the police! - Comment How external directors can support growth in family-owned SMEs Outside board members can be particularly effective at coaching and guiding owners to address mental barriers to grow Sree Vijaykumar From the Editor's Desk In April last year, 18,452 Indian villages did not have electricity. That number has now dropped to 12,100 as the government implements its electrification plan. The village of Hotasar in Rajasthan is one of the recent beneficiaries. A resident Akbar Pardeshi, has pooled money to buy a second-hand TV that the villagers plan to watch. They already have mobile phones and some are planning to buy refrigerators. Kids look forward to going back to school, as they can now read at night and perform better. Families of nomads who rotated between homes as the climate changed are now thinking of settling in one place, building brick and concrete homes for themselves. Such is the power of electrification! - Comment Sree Vijaykumar From the Editor's Desk Market downturns are the best times for well-run startups. They can work on their core business, without having to worry about getting outpriced by flash-in-the-pan heavily-funded competitors. Bigbasket stuck to its core mission of getting an expanding assortment of groceries to you as quickly as possible and investors now want a bigger piece of that action. The grocery business with its issues of high number of SKUs, stockouts, low shelf life and notoriously low margins is a tough space to operate in. Ola, Flipkart and Paytm, have all shut their grocery adventures. Grofers and Peppertap will struggle to eke out margins from pure delivery. Private label and control on inventory should give Bigbasket an edge. Will it emerge as a stand-out success story in the online grocery space? Time will tell - Comment Sree Vijaykumar From the Editor's Desk Helicopter money is a reference to an idea made popular by the American economist Milton Friedman in 1969. The basic principle is that if a central bank wants to raise inflation and output in an economy that is running substantially below potential, one of the most effective tools would be simply to give everyone direct money transfers. In other words, print more money and give it to the people. In theory, people would see this as a permanent one-off expansion of the amount of money in circulation and would then start to spend more freely, increasing broader economic activity and pushing inflation back up to the central bank's target. Direct transmission could be more effective than QE, which relies on trickle-down effects from financial markets and doesn't expand the overall money supply. Prolonged QE has probably set the foundation for the next asset bubble already. The challenge is that if helicopter money works, governments will be tempted to use this even in good times, leading to chances of hyperinflation - Comment Sree Vijaykumar From the Editor's Desk This article is titled 'Who is lying about its marketshare, Ola or Uber?' Ola continues to say it has 75% market share. Uber says its at close to 50% market share. Ola also says that 'Ola Micro' itself does 50% of the bookings of Uber. The key to the discrepancies may be in the details. Marketshare should be in revenues, not in number of bookings. Also, are Ola and Uber using the same total marketsize number? Thankfully, we don't have GMV or some other cooked up metric here to further complicate things. It reminds me of Wall Street, where every bank claims it is at the top of the league tables. Of course, every one chooses a different metric. Most number of deals done in companies ranging from $500m to $600m and whose CEO's name starts with an 'A', anyone? - Comment Reliance Jio 4G launch postponed to December due to technical challenges: Report Reliance Jio will take the extra time to patch any "blind spots" to ensure a stable commercial launch later this year. Wipro, Jubilant FoodWorks tie up for energy management services Wipro, Jubilant FoodWorks tie up for energy management services - The partnership is said to help reduce energy and operational costs. 'Allowing pre-owned iPhone imports will negate Make in India' Apple has sought permission from the govt to import second hand iPhones for sale in India, where its sales are doubling on-year. V-Mart to expand in eastern states, targets 150 stores in FY17 Multi-brand retail chain V-Mart plans to open stores in eastern states such as Jharkhand and Odisha next fiscal to take the number of its outlets to 150. This Lucknow-based startup makes your shoes the way you want them Ecommerce startup Purplehide lets customers design their shoes using an online 3D tool with their choice of style, colours, heel type, and heel height. Govt panel approves VoIP interconnection ahead of RJIO launch The move may allow users to make calls to landlines and mobiles through voice over internet protocol apps such as Whasapp, Viber and Skype. How CarDekho is planning to redefine car ownership business CarDekho.com is looking to create an ecosystem that will cater to tech needs of auto firms, dealers and consumers With greater rollout of 4G services in the country, consumer demand for online content will increase rapidly in the coming years, says Deloitte . IDFC fund in talks to buy out Gayatri Projects’ stake in two highways The discussions are at an early stage and a valuation for the annuity build, operate and transfer (BOT) projects has not been worked out Virtual boardroom meetings: Do they work? Early this month, when Times Internet Ltd announced the acquisition of US based cricket broadcaster Willow TV International Inc, it was made from San Francisco, where the company's chief executive Satyan Gajwani is currently based. Gajwani moved to the US last year and today travels frequent Private equity firm KKR to use $10 billion global pool for India assets Private equity firm KKR plans to use its global pool of nearly $10 billion to fund acquisition of stressed assets from Indian lenders. Food bill to turn costly, potato, chilli prices double Prices of several essential food items have risen over the past few weeks after staying still for almost a year, squeezing the budget of the common man. Milk Mantra in talks with Samara Capital to raise Rs200 crore The new investor will acquire a significant minority stake in Milk Mantra How many billionaires are self made? Data shows that 63% of the world’s billionaires are self made, and their wealth accounts for about 59% of the total wealth of billionaires worldwide UTI AMC continues to push for IPO, plans to offload 26% stake UTI sponsors PNB and BoB support listing; SBI and LIC want UTI AMC to merge with their own mutual fund business Tata Sons to buy out Arun Bhatia from AirAsia India Once the deal is complete, Tata Sons’s holding in AirAsia India will go up from 41.06% to 49% Investor rush to lock into high rates crashes computers at post offices Customers in various states, including Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, complained of computer downtime in post offices. Banks asked to price 3-year fixed rate loans based on MCLR Introduced by RBI on 17 December, MCLR takes effect from Friday, and the guidelines mandate that banks must price incremental loans using MCLR New Delhi: Bomb threat to six flights at Indira Gandhi International Airport of Air India and Jet Airways New Delhi: Bomb threat to six flights at Indira Gandhi International Airport - Some of the flights mentioned by the anonymous caller do not even exist. India is a home market for HSBC: Stuart P. Milne HSBC is looking at more investments in the digital space in India this year, says Stuart P. Milne One reason why equity investors prefer India over China: world-class companies In 2015, India emerged as the worlds fastest growing large economy with its 7.4 per cent GDP growth rate outstripping Chinas 6.9 per cent growth rate. Flipkart crosses the landmark of 75 million registered users, first online retail marketplace to reach this milestone in a single country after USA and China February 2016 report by Morgan Stanley puts the number of online shoppers in India at 50 million High interest rates will make Indian economy sluggish: Arun Jaitley "Where in the world you get 12.5 per cent return of interest? So if deposit rates become 12.5 per cent, then what should lending rates be, 14 to 15 per cent?" TradeBriefs Publications are read by over 10,00,000 Industry Executives About Us  |  Advertise Privacy Policy    Unsubscribe You are receiving this mail because of your subscription with TradeBriefs. Our mailing address is GF 25/39, West Patel Nagar, New Delhi 110008, India

Apr 1, 2016 - India's medical devices startups grabbing the world's attention with advanced and affordable technologies

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Sree Vijaykumar From the Editor's Desk Nasty humans teaching machines to do nasty stuff is the real reason why machines might become dangerous to humans. After all, they learn from us (training datasets). Trolls caused havoc with Microsoft's teen chat bot experiment a few days ago. The bot started spewing racist hatred and sexist comments when asked questions, putting Microsoft in an embarassing position. Are our algorithms good enough to detect and prevent the worst human behaviour from influencing our AI-powered friends? Update: Microsoft accidentally opened up Tay again and shut it down after it tweeted that it's smoking marijuana in front of the police! - Comment India's medical devices startups grabbing the world's attention with advanced and affordable technologies In an industry dominated by global giants, medical devices startups are making inroads with technology thats advanced, affordable and more accessible. The Real Deal with Email and What TradeBriefs does right So, here’s the real deal with email. Yes, we all get too much email, but for those of us who check it, we do so over 15 times a day.   Indiabulls Housing announces merger of two subsidiaries Indiabulls Housing announces merger of two subsidiaries ICICI Bank puts on hold plans to sell home finance division Valuation mismatch between ICICI Bank and potential private equity buyers prevented a deal from being struck India's external debt went up to $480 billion at end-December: Finance Ministry Indias total external debt inched up marginally to $480.2 billion at December-end compared to March-end last year, finance ministry said in a report. SBI and Bank of Baroda take lead in lowering lending rates based on new formula The measure is estimated to move as much as Rs 1.2 lakh crore of demand for funds to banks from the debt markets, says India Ratings. SBI launches 'State Bank of India No Queue' Mobile App The bank has taken a step further in its digital journey in the form of this innovative virtual queuing mobile application. The $2.6 billion buying binge that felled SunEdison SunEdison’s fall is largely its own doing, the almost inevitable result of an ascent that was built on financial engineering and cheap debt Banks fear strategic takeover may be hit by companies’ PF, tax dues State Bank of Patiala has pointed out the risks that banks as promoters could be exposed to once SDR is invoked to takeover a company. UltraTech revises deal for Jaypee Group’s cement assets UltraTech cuts price for Jaypee’s cement assets by Rs600 crore; Karnataka assets have been dropped from the deal MCLR may shift Rs 1.2 trillion of corporate borrowing to banks: India Ratings India Ratings said implementation of the Marginal Cost of Funds-based Lending Rate has the potential to channelise the recent surge of volumes in the commercial paper market towards bank credit. Flipkart said to be in talks to buy payments start-up PhonePe If the deal valued at $10-20 million goes through, it will be Flipkart’s third major acquisition in payments How bankruptcy code will save lenders A key design focus in the proposed code is speed of resolution. Delay is disincentivized at various stages Mutual funds that everyone must have While each individual’s goals and risk profiles are different, some basics are needed in almost all portfolios Mahindra to buy 35% stake in Finnish firm Sampo Rosenlew Deal part of Mahindra’s larger strategy to reduce dependence on tractors, strengthen farm equipment business and enter newer markets Uttam Galva Steels hires SBI Caps to look for investor Lenders have asked Uttam Galva’s promoters to bring in a new investor to inject fresh equity into the company US investment in India has outpaced China since Narendra Modi government came to power Obama administration has said that the United States has stepped up investment in India since the advent of the Narendra Modi government. Vodafone in talks with Piramal group and HDFC Bank to offload 49% in payments bank Payments banks have to follow the foreign investment rules that cover commercial banks. This means, foreign holding, such as by Vodafone, cant be more than 74%. Worst loss in five years for Sensex Indian equities suffer in 2015-16 as foreign investors pull out of emerging markets in flight to safer havens Online discounts on smartphone may taper off for reasons of business sustainability Any discounts will need to be offered by brands directly, most of whom dont want price disparity between their online and brick-and-mortar channels. Legal teams of ecommerce companies look for a way to continue with the discounts The guidelines restricting online marketplaces from offering discounts could also have a negative effect on the soaring valuations. Chinese smartphone makers LeEco, Vivo and Oppo displace ecommerce companies as top advertising spenders LeEcos spend was matched by Vivo, which will invest Rs 80 crore on marketing and advertising during the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season. Recent FDI norms to benefit offline retailers: Crisil With these new norms, e-retailers, like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal may now find it difficult to provide lucrative discounts to attract customers. Blood on the ecommerce floor? Forbes India (blog) Forbes India (blog)Whether the ecommerce sector in India is undergoing a valuation reality check or not, the latest clarification issued by the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) is bound to have major ramifications on the manner in which ecommerce is ...articles  FDI in e-commerce: no more fifty shades of grey At an impromptu fun-filled riddle competition among friends, family and single malts sometime ago, I was asked “What have you read recently that is suppose Why business tycoon Kishore Biyani encouraged daughters to pursue non-management fields While Ashni Biyani studied textile designing, younger daughter Avni pursued sociology at New York University. The curious case of the non-existent 'omni-channel' retail in India About three years back when e-commerce had started to show signs of creating a huge online market in India, a lot of brick-and-mortar brands started to take n.. Victorinox India to go solo with omni retail platform Gute Reise Plans to bring in apparel and watch range by next year FDI in e-commerce to boost demand for office, logistics spaces Demand for office, warehousing and logistic spaces will increase with 100 per cent FDI permitted in marketplace e-retailing. India launches pilot project for testing TV whitespace technology The project is aimed at improving mobile connectivity in every nook and corner of the country. Sachin Tendulkar wants to see Americans using mobile phones made in India Sachin Tendulkar said on Thursday that he wants to see Americans using mobile phones made in India. He was speaking at the launching function of a mobile phone made by Smartron, an Indian company, reported Rediff.com. Revolutionising mobile payments in India Relaxing two factor authentication for both card present and card-not present transactions below a certain specified amount is a major policy development Apple iPhone SE and iPad Pro released globally, India launch on April 8 Keeping up growth in its iPhone sales will probably see it look to find more buyers in developing markets like India and to bring over those buyers who tend to focus on cheaper Android handsets. India's smartphone sales to reach 29% in 2016: Gartner Countries such as India will help generate new mobile phone user growth. Sales of smartphones in India are on pace to reach 29% in 2016 and will conti.. 5 Best selfie phones in India that every selfie lover must check out atleast once! Doesn't matter what features these phones have or even how they perform. The only thing that people want, that excites them about the device is the presence of a great front-end camera, a camera that helps them take that perfect selfie! Mi 5: Xiaomi launches new flagship phone at Rs 24999 in India Xiaomi Mi 5, the 2016 flagship killer from Chinese smartphone maker has been officially launched in India. The smartphone is priced at Rs 24,999 for 3GB+32GB variant and will be available from Mi.com India added 5.57M active mobile connections in January'16 According to the Indian telecom regulator TRAI, India added 5.57 million “active” mobile connections during the month of January 2016. The Active connection data represents peak VLR (Visitor Location Register) data for the month. Some stats: – There were 917.59 million active connections i Samsung Galaxy J3 'Biker Phone' Launched In India; Priced At Rs… The device comes with a faux leather back panel and is available in black, white and gold colours. With RJio 4G, India's mobile Internet ranking to reach top 10 globally: Mukesh Ambani Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh said the roll-out of its 4G services will lift India from a mobile Internet ranking of 150th to the top 10 slot. Money is where mobile is: The future of mobile advertising in India A research says that by 2020, the number of Indians accessing the Internet over mobile devices is expected to touch a whopping 600 million. Ecommerce enables impoverished Indian artisans to become rupee millionaires From conflict zones to victims of human trafficking and master craftspeople exploited by middlemen, ecommerce in India is bringing livelihoods to artisans across the country. 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