WhatsApp Becomes A Crime Detection Tool For UP Govt. 3363 Challans Issued Till Now

Uttar Pradesh is notoriously famous for being the crime capital of India; criminals are having their free run as due to lack of evidence or witnesses, they use the loopholes in the law to create mayhem all over.

But not anymore, as WhatsApp has unleashed a new battle against crime and criminals in UP.

Few weeks back, Lucknow Traffic Police had launched a unique complaint tool based on popular messaging application WhatsApp, wherein general public were encouraged to share details of traffic offenders.

For example, if any person watches a car with all its glasses covered with dark film, or a vehicle not stopping on a red light, over-speeding etc, then they can report it using the WhatsApp complaint tool.

The results have been encouraging so far, as more than 3363 challans have been issued by the Lucknow Traffic Police based on the traffic complaints received via WhatsApp, using images and videos as evidence.

This novel scheme to stop crime using WhatsApp was launched by Lucknow’s deputy inspector general (DIG) Navneit Sikera, who said, “The response has been tremendous and within a few weeks we have been able to pinpoint those who break traffic rules and act against them.”

So huge is the outcome that Lucknow police has decided to combine this WhatsApp complaint tool with Women’s helpline number 1090 to stop eve-teasing, molestation and other crime against women. As per Sikera, all major 43 police stations in the state-capital have been informed to publicize this WhatsApp complaint tool so that more and more cases are reported.

The Ripple Effect

Buoyed by the response and the success, other Government departments have also started using WhatsApp to stop crime and criminals.

GRP: Government Railways Police or GRP has started using WhatsApp to nab ticket-less travelers, thieves and those anti-social elements who disturb and molest other passengers in the train or station premises. And, more importantly, it will be also used to monitor those railways staff which seek bribes and favors from passengers.

One GRP Official recently shared, “We have been flooded with complaints that TTEs (Travelling Ticket Examiners) seek bribes to confirm tickets and also adjust illegal passengers on board trains and sometimes even GRP constables are said to be indulging in extortion. WhatsApp has emerged as a major crime stopper for us,”

UP State Roadways Transport Corporation (UPSRTC): UPSRTC managing director Mukesh Meshram too has initiated a state wide campaign using WhatsApp to make buses and bus stations more clean and hygienic and to nab criminals who get away due to lack of evidence.

State wide advertising campaigns have been launched wherein travelers and passengers are encouraged to click images and shoot videos to showcase poor facilities, torn seats, ticketless travelers, lack of drinking water and more issues and share them with the WhatsApp number.

Is there any other way WhatsApp can be used to stop crime and nab criminals? Do share your views by commenting right here!

Office On Wheels: Indian Railways To Introduce Laptops, Printers & Internet On Premier Trains

Indian Railways is all set to provide the ‘office experience’ for its travelers as laptops, printers and Internet would now be offered during the journey. To start with, such services would be introduced on India’s premier trains: Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express. Based on the feedback and usability of the services, the same would be rolled out for other trains as well.

As per information coming in, Internet and Workstations powered with printers would be first implemented on long distance running Rajdhani Express from New Delhi to Southern India. As per the initial plan, a cabin would be carved in the pantry car of these trains, and Internet services would be offered on a per hour basis.

The fee structures haven’t been finalized yet as officials are conducting various feasibility studies to make the service affordable and within the reach of the common man.

A senior Railways Official said, “To begin with, work station will be made operational at the pantry car and depending upon the response we will work out a permanent place for it. Modalities are being worked out and the fee will be on hourly basis.”

What Is Office On Wheels Concept?

Last month Government had mentioned in the Rail Budget that a concept of‘Office of Wheel’ would be soon implemented and this is the first step in that direction. As per the plan mentioned during the budget, a separate coach would be added in the short-distance routes of premier trains wherein business travelers can pay a nominal fee and use work-stations, printers and Internet on the go.

As per the official, Indian Railways has decided to implement the Office on Wheels concept on the following routes on a test basis: Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Kanpur and Chennai-Bangalore besides popular Shatabdi Express routes of short distances.

Office on Wheels would be a specially designed coach with comfortable seating arrangement, personalized catering service on the seats, having an office like environment.

Indian Railways Needs to Lure Business Travelers

Business travelers form a big chunk of regular consumers of Indian Railways, especially on trains like Shatabdi and Rajdhani, and they need to be attracted if Indian Railways want them to stay with trains. With the introduction of low cost airlines in India, business travelers have been opting for flight instead of trains as the difference in fares is becoming less day by day and there is a huge saving in travel time as well.

For example, for the Delhi-Chennai travel for September 18^th, IndiGo is offering a seat for only Rs 5323, whereas AC 2 berth will cost Rs 2970. The difference of fares becomes less relevant as flight takes only 3 hours whereas 36 hours are required to travel by train.

Similarly, for Mumbai-Kolkata travel, you can get a seat in SpiceJet only for Rs 4031 and it takes less than 3 hours with ‘On time Guarantee’ whereas train takes 18 hours and for AC II berth, you need shell out Rs 2820.

By providing value added services like internet, workstations and printer in the trains, Indian Railways is certainly trying to lure those business travelers who don’t wish to waste time.

For the others, who love the slow chugging of trains and the experience of witnessing India from a closer range can also use such service for entertainment purpose.

Too old To Do a Startup? Worry Not, There Is No Age Limit On Becoming An Entrepreneur

Starting a business has never come with a age limit but with a lot of “buts”, “I wish”s and “do you really think”s. Mid-life crisis brings with it a dozen problems and you sure don’t want another problem called “starting anew”. The excuses to put off the plan are more likely to occur than starting a flame of entrepreneurship. Also research findings show, once you hit 30, change is unwelcome. You’d rather drink the same old filter coffee than explore where you can find a Java chip Frappuccino!

Pushing aside all the “buts”, if you believe cruising out to find that exotic Frappuccino is any day better than sitting around for the ever known taste of filter coffee-then entrepreneurship is your cup of tea! Really, starting a new venture has never had an expiry date. Thinking you’re too old for it has! For it has to stop now!

It’s hard for you to believe, especially when 20 something’s like Mark Zuckerberg have now taken over the start-up empire, even 30 seems old. There are 2 major questions that may haunt you:
“Don’t you think I’m too old for it now?” and “What if I fail?”. Fair enough. These 2 questions have already been answered for us by all those entrepreneurs who we worship now.

“Don’t you think I’m too old for it now?” Entrepreneurship is about inventing an idea and sticking to it like gum. If you have a life changing idea that will help public at large, you’ve the keys to The hall of fame. As they say, age is just a number.

What really matters how old your thinking is.

Col Harland Sanders was 65 when he started KFC. Ray Kroc was 52 when he founded Mc Donald’s and 60 before he actually started making money. Ray Kroc did blue collar jobs until he founded Mc Donald’s. Arianna Huffington gave her “not more than 40” peer publishers a run for their money by starting Huffington Post at 54.

Achievements don’t come with deadlines and life hacking ideas don’t stop till you’re dead. J K Rowling, a single mom, living on welfare, on a train to Manchester dreamt about a little wizard and a school called Hogwarts – made a fortune selling Harry Potter. She was rejected by the biggest publishing houses in London. They laughed at her foolishness in writing about this fantasy boy with a scar excelling in witchcraft. Daniel Radcliff and Emma Watson solely live on the movie’s success. Who’s laughing now?

So there’s never a bad time to start a good thing. All you need is the belief to keep you in the race and the persistency to endure big setbacks for a lifetime of achievement.

“What if I fail?”

When you toss a coin, there are 50:50 chances of getting heads or tails. The same way when you decide on something new – you have equal chances of it clicking and flopping. But our brain is trained in such a way that negative thoughts reach your mind faster than it’s positive counterparts.

“Provide for future unexpected losses and ignore future unexpected gains” is one core principle of accountancy, isn’t it! So that’s how it’s been for a long time. But there are a pack of new age entrepreneurs who defy these age old standards.

The praises of creating Facebook have drowned the losses Mark suffered in his maiden ventures like Coursematch and Facemash which bombed. Chad Hurley started Youtube, a famous venture which did not stop him from exploring his other options. He later started Zeen and MlxBit which were failures.

Richard Branson is a perfect example of “fearless”. In the dozen enterprises he started, he’s succeeded only countable times. Between Virgin Galactic, Virgin Airways and Virgin Records- there’s a spectrum of different industries he entered only to deplete his income by funding his loss making ventures!

Someone rightly said, “Do not let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game”

Entrepreneurship is a chance to create something of value from nothing. An idea and a fearless heart is a terrific combination for success. Money isn’t even a factor to drop a revolutionizing thought, because if your idea is “out-of-the box” and you are willing to forgo many luxuries – someone will somehow fund you.

Even a research conducted by Vivek Wadhwa, an academic and tech entrepreneur, and the Kauffman Foundation, the average age of successful start-up founders in Silicon Valley was 40. And high-growth start-ups are almost twice as likely to be launched by people over 55 as by people 20 to 34. [Source]

Quality is long remembered after the price is forgotten!

[source: Shutterstock]

Indian Smartphone Market: IDC Says Samsung Still On Top With 17% Market Share

[ Title Updated with Correct Figure]

Few days back, Counterpoint research had created lot of furore after declaring that Micromax had beaten Samsung when it came to overall smartphone market share. Many analyst had discounted that report given stating Counterpoint was new agency and did not have any previous track record.

Looks like Analysts were right – leading research agency IDC have released their quarterly numbers which shows that Samsung is still firmly on the top of the heap. Infact, the difference between both the vendors is not that close. Samsung has 17 percent market share compared to Micromax’s 14 percent. Even at current growth, Micromax may take atleast couple of quarters to come close to Samsung.

While it is true that Micromax is growing much faster than Samsung, they still have lot of catching up to do.

According to IDC, overall India mobile phone market stood at 63.21 million units in Q2 2014, a 5% increase over Q1 2014. Smartphone market grew much faster at 11% in 2Q2014, compared to 1Q2014.

With tremendous influx of ultra-cheap smartphones (we now have smartphones that cost less than 3k), most consumers are moving towards smartphones rather than feature phones. The above graph clearly shows the shift – In second quarter last year smartphones accounted for 16 percent of all the mobile phones. The percentage is now nearly doubled to 29 percent.

According to IDC report, vendors shipped a total of 18.42 million Smartphonesin Q2 2014 compared to 10.02 million in the same period of 2013. The sub-$200 category of the smartphone market is increasing in terms of new shipment share as the contribution from this category stood at 81% in Q2 2014.

When it came to large screen phones (phablets) the market grew at 5.4 percent quarter on quarter in terms of volume.

Smartphone Vendor Market Share

While in terms of overall mobile market share, the difference between Samsung and Micromax is 3 percentage points, when it comes to smartphones, Samsung is far ahead of Micromax. Former has 29% market share compared to latters 18%.

It is true that Micromax is growing faster, and for Samsung to be in the position it is, they need to make sure that they address the low-end of the market aggressively. At one point Samsung brand was synonym with Smartphones, but given the rise of Chinese brands like Xiaomi and Indian brands like Micromax, Karbonn and others, they have now lost their momentum.

They surely need to come up with some blockbuster smartphones to regain that momentum back!

Govt Approves Rs 1L Crore For Digital India Project; E-Governance To Get Major Push

Indian Government has approved Digital India project, and allocated a budget of Rs 1 Lakh crore to implement it. PM Narendra Modi will spearhead the project, which is expected to be implemented before 2019.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “Today the Cabinet has approved the Digital India initiative of PM Narendra Modi. The PM had promised to bring everyone under the umbrella of ‘Digital India’. India’s talent plus information technology are India’s tomorrow,”

What Will Happen Now?

Under Digital India project, a specially empowered ‘Digital India Advisory Group’ would be formed, which will be headed by the Minister of IT and Communications, along with an ‘Apex Committee’ headed by a Cabinet Secretary and ‘Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) or Committee’ on Non Plan Expenditure (CNE).

These committees and government bodies will work on implementing the National E-governance policies and plans.

The nine most important growth areas where this new project of Digital India will work are:

1. Broadband highways to connect all villages and cities of India
2. Everywhere mobile connectivity; wherein mobile coverage will be provided to every nook and corner of India
3. Public Internet Access Program wherein internet accessibility to the web will be provided at subsidized rates (example public WiFis)
4. eGovernance in every government department, wherein 100% paper-less environment will be encouraged
5. e-Kranti, wherein government services would be electronically delivered
6. Information for All policy (which includes provisioning of Right to Information using the Internet as a medium)
7. Electronics manufacturing
8. IT for Jobs
9. Early harvest program

Action Plans for Digital India

Digital India project’s main aim is to “transform India into digital empowered society and knowledge economy”. All central government ministries and departments have been instructed to come up with unique and innovative plans and services which can be delivered directly to the public, using the digital medium. For example provision to provide health and medical details of all citizens online, education initiatives and plans and judiciary decisions.

National Informatics Center will provide the IT infrastructure to roll out digital initiatives, besides a special Chief Information Officer (CIO) will be appointed in atleast 10 major ministries to facilitate conceptualization, implementation and measurement of all Digital India plans.

Insiders are also stating that the government is keen to forge Public-Private partnership to spread the growth and usage of Digital medium everywhere possible.

This is certainly one of those ‘big news’ for the country as this project is expected to create thousands of new jobs and enterprises for implementing the Digital India plans. We will update you as more details are updated by the government regarding this new initiative.

[Image: Shutterstock]

5 Entrepreneurial Insights Shared By Robin Williams Unknowingly

August 12th  was a sad day for every movie lover across the world: Robin Williams, the enchanting comedian-actor died at the age of 63. The whole movie fraternity and creative world was in shock: How can a person who made the whole world laugh can die so suddenly?

The details are yet to be released, but it seems that he was suffering from depression since last few years, and he had even been admitted to be treated from alcoholism.

Such was the stature of the person that even US President Barack Obama had to issue a statement, “He arrived in our lives as an alien — but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit. He made us laugh. He made us cry,”

Robin Williams was not an entrepreneur, he was an artist, an entertainer and a solid actor. Critics acclaimed him to be a genius, and the best part about being a genius is that they can touch lives. During his shows and movies and interviews, he knowingly or unknowingly infused tons of inspiration and motivation which can be so aptly used by every entrepreneur to create a legacy and a great story.

Here is a collection of 5 Entrepreneurial Insights, which were shared by Robin Williams:

(Dialogue from his movie : Dead Poets Society)

Entrepreneurial Insight: Most would-be-entrepreneurs delay the launch of their venture, fearing the outcome. What if their friends and family make fun of them, what if they fail, what if it becomes a huge success. The core message within these lines beautifully explains the need for action, which is so very important for the entrepreneur. One of his best performances ever!

(one of his most popular quotes from World’s Greatest Dad)

Entrepreneurial Insight: When success strikes the entrepreneur, he can feel that the circle of advisors and ‘well-wishers’ have suddenly increased. Everyone is offering his or her own viewpoint with an intension to mark their presence before the entrepreneur. Often he believes everything which is being shared with him, and sometimes this can be a costly mistake.

Human being is a social animal, and the fear of being ‘lonely’ sometimes overpower his logical thinking, and he accepts those into their lives who have no role to play in their professional lives. More than anyone else, the entrepreneur should choose his circle of influencers very wisely. Instead of choosing wrong people and repent later, its better to cruise alone.

(quote from his movie ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’)

Entrepreneurial Insight: Creativity is the most under-used tool by the businessmen; and the number 1 reason is that people assume that creativity is only applicable for artists. Creativity, when combined with business acumen can become so powerful that it can solve any problem, without any hassle. Besides several definitions of creativity, one of them of them is being surprising, unexpected, and totally insane.

Have you observed how every child is creative when he is provided with crayons and colors to play with? Then something happens in-between and that madness, surprises and creativity vanishes. This quote is so relevant and so useful for the entrepreneur that I can’t stress it enough. This quote perfectly complements Steve Jobs, when he said “Stay Hungry Stay Foolish”.

(popular quote from one of his interviews)

Entrepreneurial Insight: There are no overnight success stories; you need to slog for it. Overnight success stories are promoted by those who sell lotteries, and the entrepreneur never buys any lottery. He creates his own destiny and makes a dent in the universe by using his strengths and his ideas. And failure is one very important factor to achieve the success.

Unless you don’t know what the ways an idea can fail; how can you actually work your way up? In this quote, Robin Williams has shared one of the most crucial insights any entrepreneur can get: Fail, fail more. It’s the failure which becomes the ultimate stepping stone of success.

(Another famous quote from the movie Dead Poets Society)

Entrepreneurial Insight: The biggest sin which any entrepreneur can commit is self-doubt. Even if a fraction of doubt gets inside the mind of the entrepreneur regarding his idea or a big decision, it can play havoc with the future course of action. Doubt makes the man weak, and cripples his decision making ability. Via this awesome quote, Robin Williams has actually stated that one should always ‘believe’ and ‘trust’ his own instincts, when no one other does.

Yes, ideas and words can change the world.

R.I.P Robin Williams, and thank you for all the laughs and the inspiration. We will always be indebted to you. You were a noble soul..

Gmail’s Spam Filter Will Now Weed Out Identical Letter Exploits

Earlier last week, Gmail had announced support for multi-lingual email where even email addresses in non-english language could send and receive emails.  So, now non-Latin characters are also supported in Gmail.

However, this change has inadvertently opened a new gateway for spammers, where they can use identical looking letters from non-english languages and include parts of it in english text and fool users. The reason why they need to use these letters – Gmail would generally mark such mails as spam if used in plain english language. Gmail’s spam filters do a great job of identifying spam mails based on words. So, any email that has lets say a word “bank” or any other high-risk words will be scrutinized closely.

But what spammers do is, replace certain identical letters from non-english language in normal english text to fool the spam filters. I am sure once in a while you may have come across such mails that has certain letters looking slightly skewed – more often than not, these are spam.

Here are some examples of similar looking letters that are used by spammers in their emails to fool spam filters.

However, going forward Gmail will be blocking all such similar looking letters. Gmail wants to stay one step ahead of spammers and they have identified suspicious combinations of letters that could be misleading, and Gmail will now begin rejecting email with such combinations. To achieve this, Gmail is an open standard—the Unicode Consortium’s “Highly Restricted” designation—which strikes a healthy balance between legitimate uses of these new domains and those likely to be abused.

It is a always a tug-of-war between spammers and email providers, where former keep finding ways to efficiently beat the filters and latter wants to ensure that they are secure gate-keepers. Gmail has shown till now that they are doing a good job of it, and with this new inclusion, they are getting even better!