“Vernacular, Voice and Video will emerge as the game changers for the digital ecosystem over the next few years,” Biswapriya Bhattacharjee, Executive Vice President, Insights Division, Kantar said in a statement on the report.

The report suggests that even though the internet penetration in urban India is over two times than rural areas, the usership in rural areas has been growing at a faster rate on a year-on-year basis.

“While internet users grew by 4 per cent in urban India — reaching 323 million users (67 per cent of urban population) in 2020, digital adoption continues to be propelled by rural India – clocking a 13 per cent growth to 299 million internet users (31 per cent of rural population) over the past year,” the report said.

The study by internet companies body IAMAI with consulting company Kantar found that small towns account for almost two out of five active internet users (AIU) while the top 9 metros account for 33 per cent of the AIU in urban India.

According to the report, of the 1433 million (143.3 crore) population in India, 622 million individuals are AIU and this translates to about 43 per cent of the total population across urban and rural India.

However, with a sizable population not accessing the internet actively in rural India, there is huge headroom for growth in the next few years, the report said.

“This indicates that there’s a lot of headroom for growth in rural India and this would help in bridging the urban-rural digital divide,” the report said.

As per the finding, nine out of ten AIU access the internet every day.

On average, AIU spend around 107 minutes (1.8 hours) actively on the internet daily.

“Though the proportion of daily users is marginally higher in urban India as compared to rural India, AIU in urban India is spending 17 per cent more time as compared to rural India,” the report said.

Mobile continues to remain the device of choice for accessing the internet in both urban and rural areas.

“Given the affordability of mobile devices along with the availability of cheaper data plans, accessing the internet through a mobile device has clearly become the first choice,” the report said

In an unscheduled meeting, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday announced a slew of measures to help businesses, vulnerable borrowers and the financial services industry tide over for the impact of the new surge in Covid-19 cases. 

The special Rs 50,000 crore term liquidity facility for banks to create a Covid loan book will be three years tenor and available at the repo rate. This facility will be available to Banks up to March 31, 2022. 

Banks’ creating Covid loan book by lending to entities such as vaccine manufacturers, importers of life-saving equipment, hospitals and clinics will be incentivised by giving such lending the priority sector lending (PSL) tag.

Further, they will also be allowed to park an amount equivalent to the amount deployed in the aforementioned activities in the reverse repo window and earn 40 basis points higher interest rate than the current reverse repo rate of 3.35 per cent.

Small Finance Banks can tap a special Rs 10,000 crore long-term repo operation of three years tenor to on-lend to MSE up to Rs 10 lakh per MSE. This facility will be available up to October 31, 2021.

Further, SFBs loans to micro-finance institutions (with asset size of up to Rs 500 crroe) will be recognised as priority sector lending. This move is aimed at enhancing the flow of credit to MFIs.

RBI has brought in a resolution framework 2.0 for vulnerable borrowers — individuals, small businesses and MSMEs. Borrowers with exposure up to Rs 25 crore who didn’t avail earlier facilities and where loans are standard as on March 31, 2021 will be eligible for restructuring in the second round, Das said. The restructuring under the proposed framework can be invoked up to September 30, 2021 and banks have to implement it within 90 days of invocation.

Lenders can review the working capital limits of small businesses and MSMEs as a one-time measure. Those who availed earlier window of restructuring can be given additional two years of moratorium, he said.

In order to incentivise new credit flow to the micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) borrowers, Banks will be allowed to deduct credit disbursed to ‘New MSME borrowers’ from their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) for calculation of cash reserve ratio (CRR) up to December 31, 2021. This exemption will be available for exposures up to Rs 25 lakh per borrower.

The governor also announced that the second purchase of government securities through its new secondary market bond acquisition program will be conducted on May 20 for a total amount of Rs 35,000 crore. On the impact of the second covid wave, Das said that while lead indicators suggested that the damage to businesses was minimal, it would continue to monitor the on-ground developments.

Acer launches new Nitro 5 with latest AMD Ryzen 5600H series processor for PC gamers in India

The AMD Ryzen 5600H processor is paired with NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 3060 series or NVIDIA GTX 1650 graphics card that provides gamers a new level of gaming experience

Highlights:

•                    The latest Nitro 5 comes with AMD Ryzen™ 5600H Series high-performance gaming processor built on the 7nm architecture and personifies AMD’s relentless focus on performance and efficiency

•                    The latest Nitro 5 offering comes in 2 variants and equipped with NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 3060 graphics card and NVIDIA GTX 1650 graphics card for incredibly fast performance.

•                    The all-new Nitro 5 is available with 15.6-inch FHD IPS display with a fast 144Hz refresh rate for vivid ultra-smooth gaming

•                    The Nitro 5 models come with an RGB-backlit keyboard and advance cooling solution using the CoolBoost™ technology

Bengaluru: Acer India, today unveiled the Nitro 5 gaming laptop powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 5600H high performance processor that comes in 2 new graphics card options which includes the 2nd Generation Ray Tracing Cores & 3rd Generation Tensor Cores powered NVIDIA RTX 3060 graphics card along with NVIDIA GTX 1650 graphics card for power-packed gaming, multi-tasking and editing. The powerful processor and graphics capabilities combine to help gamers get the most of the 15.6” screen with a large screen-to-body ratio that boasts up to a 144Hz high refresh rate for a smooth gaming experience. Nitro 5 adds to the gaming experience with the outstanding audio using TrueHarmony™ technology, and with DTS: X® Ultra which features optimized bass, clarity, precision and 6 custom content modes with smart amplifier which supports Windows Spatial Sound for PC Gaming with DTS license integrated.

Both variants pack an RGB-backlit keyboard and can be upgraded upto 32GB RAM for an incredibly fast performance with state-of-the-art cooling using Acer CoolBoost™ technology with quad exhaust port design. It also supports a host of peripherals and accessories with full range of ports, including HDMI 2.0 and the newest USB 3.2 standard with Gen 2 support.

Speaking on the launch, Sudhir Goel, Chief Business Officer, Acer India said, “Our new Nitro 5 comes fully loaded with the latest technology and features to give gamers an edge and offer a whole new level of immersive gaming experience. We have pioneered advanced cooling solutions to boost gamers’ in-game experience and this helps the Nitro 5 to deliver all the power consistently. Our close collaboration with AMD has brought powerful computing experiences to consumers which is unmatched at this price point and we are thrilled to bring them to the Indian market.”

Dominating specs

Both the variant comes powered with AMD Ryzen^TM 5 5600H Hexa-core processor and NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3060 graphics card or the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650. Nitro 5 allows gamers to configure the laptop for maximum speed and massive storage with two slots for M.2 PCIe SSDs and up to 2TB HDD support, Memory upgradable up to 32GB of DDR4 3200 RAM.

Visual treat:

Acer’s latest Nitro 5 laptop allows users to enjoy their preferred games in extraordinary detail with the 15.6-inch FHD IPS display supporting a 144 Hz refresh rate which delivers blur-free gaming.

Cool Down under fire

Nitro 5 features Acer CoolBoost™ technology with quad exhaust port design that keeps the system temperature at an ideal level for reliable gaming performance. Gamers can monitor the Nitro 5 with one touch of the NitroSense hotkey, covering temperatures, fan speeds, and more.

Focus Gameplay with Killer™ Ethernet and Super Connectivity

Nitro 5 adopt Killer™ Ethernet E2600 that delivers incredible network experiences – low latency gaming, smooth HD streaming video, and interrupt-free voice and video chats. 

Breaking the Sound Barrier

Better audio delivers a viable advantage as well as a more immersive experience. With DTS: X® Ultra, adding precise sound sources in a 3D nature relative to the player and enhancing the user’s ability to hear and locate opponents and identify other key environmental sounds.

Pricing and Availability:

Nitro 5 featuring NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 3060 and NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX™ 1650 is available to buy now from Rs. 94990 and Rs. 71990 respectively on Acer Exclusive stores and Acer online store and on Flipkart from 9^th April onwards.

New Delhi: Millions of users worldwide, including in India, were left clueless on Friday night when Facebook and its family of apps including WhatsApp and photo-sharing platform Instagram entered a global outage.

People took to Twitter to share their experiences.

Independent tracking portal Downdetector showed a spike in the outage reported by users. There was no official word from the company on the reasons for the outage.

On Twitter, #whatsappdown was the top trending topic. 

Users faced specific problems rather than the entire app not working.

On Facebook, users reported that specific posts or photos did not appear, but that the page was loading.

Millions of users had problems sending photos, videos and voice messages on WhatApp in India. Only the text messages were being shared on the mobile messaging service.

Services, however, were restored after a while. 

BENGALURU: Next time you post on Facebook or Instagram, or tweet a meme about a government policy, beware! For, even if a couple of your hundreds of contacts have signed up to be a volunteer for the Ministry for Home Affairs ‘Cyber Crime Volunteer Programme’, they can report any post that annoys or worries them.

These ordinary citizens are being asked to judge if a post threatens — anything from sovereignty of our nation and public order, to international relations and child rights — and alert the national-level agency.

The volunteer programme is supposed to act as a facilitative tool between ordinary citizens and the government for the prevention of cybercrime. Any citizen can register himself/herself under one of three categories: ‘Cyber Volunteer Unlawful Content Flagger’, ‘Cyber Awareness Promoter’, and ‘Cyber Expert’. Post-registration, the individual can directly report “unlawful content” being circulated over the Internet, which presumably includes social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, among others.

Maitreyi Krishnan, advocate, said, “This is a violation of the fundamental right to privacy. On what basis is the government asking people to spy on each other? This will lead to all kinds of vigilantism.”Vivek Sood, senior advocate, Supreme Court and Delhi High Court, said it was a violation of the right to privacy of the citizens. 

“These volunteers can be said to be the informers of the Big Brothers (George Orwell’s 1984) alias the law enforcement agencies,” Vivek Sood, senior advocate, Supreme Court and Delhi High Court, said.
Meanwhile, the Internet Freedom Foundation has written to the MHA, urging it to withdraw the programme immediately. The Foundation has stated that the offences included in the scope of this programme in the ‘National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal’ are already cognizable and can be reported to the police by any person. Therefore, there is confusion as to the necessity of this programme, it said.

“Under the programme, I4C (The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre) and the MHA have allowed a person to register as a ‘Cyber Volunteer Unlawful Content Flagger’ without fulfilling the requirement of any prior verification (KYC). Since no verification is required and the nature of the position itself is voluntary, it absolves the I4C and the MHA of any liability or guilt in cases of misuse,” the Foundation said.

NEW DELHI:  The Centre on Thursday announced sweeping regulations for social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, online streaming or over-the-top (OTT) services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, and messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram to protect users’ interest and curb fake news and other harmful content.

The rules make social media firms responsible for the content on their platforms. They will have to deploy automated tools to remove objectionable data. In the case of a government or court order, they must take down the flagged item within 36 hours.

The regulations require messaging platforms to enable the ‘traceability’ feature so that senders of mischievous messages could be identified. But this might compromise end-to-end encryption.  If a social media platform decides on its own to remove a user’s content, it must inform the customer in advance and state the reasons. 

Notably, digital news media publishers will now have to follow Press Council of India’s norms of journalistic conduct and adhere to the programme code under the Cable TV Networks Regulation Act. This, according to the government, will provide a level-playing field to all media platforms. 

The new laws, called Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, came into effect from Thursday.

However, social media platforms will be given an additional window of three months to come under the purview of the new regime. 

According to the government, these rules will establish a “soft-touch self-regulatory architecture and a Code of Ethics and three-tier grievance redressal mechanism” for news publishers, OTT platforms and digital media.

The grievance redressal mechanism stipulates that publishers must address complaints within 15 days. 
The self-regulating body will be led by a retired judge or an eminent person and have not more than six members. However, cyber experts are not impressed.

“The new rules can be interpreted to target websites/platforms. It may hamper right to free speech and expression,” said cyber lawyer Ankur Raheja.

• Social media platforms must remove content depicting nudity, sexual acts or morphed images of women within 24 hours of receipt of complaints
• A grievance officer should be appointed to deal with complaints
• If a social media platform removes any content on its own, it must explain the reason to the user, who will have the opportunity to contest it
• Social media intermediaries to publish a monthly compliance report on complaints received, action taken, and content removed proactively
• Code of Ethics for OTT platforms, online news and digital media entities
• OTT platforms to self-classify content into five age-based categories – U (Universal), U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A (Adult) 
• OTT platforms must deploy age verification mechanisms for A-rated content and implement parental locks for U/A 13+ or higher

The Economic Survey, which is presented on the opening day of the budget session, provides a summary of the annual economic development across the country during the financial year

NEW DELHI: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table the Economic Survey 2020-21 in Parliament on Friday, two days before the Union Budget is presented during the budget session of Parliament.

The Economic Survey, which is presented on the opening day of the budget session, provides a summary of the annual economic development across the country during the financial year.

The annual survey analyses the trends in infrastructure, agricultural and industrial production, employment, prices, exports, imports, money supply, foreign exchange reserves and other factors having an impact on the Indian economy and the budget.

The survey also puts out economic growth forecasts, provides justification and detailed reasons why it believes the economy will expand faster or decelerate. Sometimes, it also argues for some specific reform measures.

The Union Budget 2021 will be telecast live on Lok Sabha TV. Chief Economic Adviser KV Subramanian will address a press conference at 2.30 pm today in New Delhi after the presentation of Economic Survey 2020-21 by the Finance Minister in Parliament.

The Budget Session will begin today with an address by President Ram Nath Kovind to the joint sitting of two houses of Parliament.

The first part of the session will continue till February 15. The second part of the session will be held from March 8 to April 8.

Rajya Sabha will function from 9 am to 2 pm and Lok Sabha from 4 pm to 9 pm with Zero Hour and Question Hour.

Members of Parliament have been requested to undergo an RT-PCR test against COVID-19 before the start of the Budget session.

New Delhi: Petrol price on Saturday breached the Rs 83 per litre-mark in Delhi for the first time in more than two years after a rally in international oil prices forced the 13th increase in rates in the last fortnight.

Petrol price on Saturday was raised by 27 paise per litre and diesel by 25 paise, according to a price notification of oil marketing companies.

Petrol price in Delhi rose to Rs 83.13 per litre from Rs 82.86. Diesel rates went up from Rs 73.07 to Rs 73.32 per litre.

This is the highest rate for petrol and diesel since September 2018 and followed the 13th increase in rates since November 20 when oil companies resumed daily price revision after nearly a two-month hiatus.

In 16 days, the petrol price has gone up by Rs 2.07 per litre and diesel rate has risen by Rs 2.86.

ICICI Securities said vaccine hopes are driving oil prices up.

Brent crude oil is up 34 percent from lows in end-October 2020 driven by the hope that COVID-19 vaccines would lead to demand recovery.

“The oil price surge is despite a second wave of Covid in Europe and US (which has led to demand recovery reversal), and surge in Libyan oil output from 0.1 million barrels per day (BPD) to 1.25 million BPD,” it said.

Oil cartel OPEC plus its allies like Russia, (called OPEC+), deciding to raise output from January 2021 more modestly than earlier agreed is likely to ensure global supply deficit even in the first quarter of 2021. “Thus, OPEC+ has done its part to prevent supply surplus until the vaccine boosts demand,” it added.

Brent has risen from USD 36.9 per barrel on October 30 to USD 49.5 on December 4.

IEA estimates the global oil supply deficit at 2.1-2.8 million BPD in Q3-Q4 calendar year 2020. However, a surplus of 0.4 million was likely in Q1 2021 if OPEC+, as agreed in April 2020, was to prune output cuts from 7.7 million BPD to 5.8 million BPD from January.

“However, we now estimate supply deficit of 0.5 million BPD in Q1 2021 and 0.2-2.8 million BPD in Q2-Q4 as OPEC+ has decided to raise output by just 0.5 million BPD in January 2021 and by not more than 0.5 million BPD in later months and only after deliberations,” ICICI Securities said.

Prior to the November 20 hike in rates in India, petrol prices had been static since September 22, and diesel rates hadn’t changed since October 2.

Public sector oil marketing companies – Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) – revise rates of petrol and diesel daily based on benchmark international oil price and foreign exchange rate.

They had, however, resorted to calibrating the rates since the pandemic broke out with a view to avoiding volatility in retail prices.

The 58-day hiatus in petrol price revision and 48-day status quo on diesel rates were preceded by no change in rates between June 30 and August 15 and an 85-day status quo between March 17 and June 6.

In Mumbai, the petrol price on Friday was raised to Rs 89.78 per litre from Rs 89.52, while diesel rates went up from Rs 79.66 to Rs 79.93.

Rates vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.