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HTC to start manufacturing mobile handsets in India
Over a month after Samsung announced that it will soon start manufacturing its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge flagship smartphones in India, HTC is following suit.

gsmarena_001.jpg


According to an Economic Times report, the Taiwanese company has entered into an agreement with Global Devices Network, which has its own manufacturing and assembling unit in Noida (near capital New Delhi). It's worth mentioning that the latter already produces handsets for local brand Zen.

The report notes that trails have already started at the facility, and commercial-level production will begin by mid-next month. The Taiwanese company will manufacture handsets priced in the range of INR 10,000 ($160) to INR 25,000 ($390).

The news comes just days after there were reports that Sony is also considering manufacturing smartphones in India.


HTC to start manufacturing mobile handsets in India - GSMArena.com news
 

Happened due to oil prices


Exactly
HTC to start manufacturing mobile handsets in India
Over a month after Samsung announced that it will soon start manufacturing its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge flagship smartphones in India, HTC is following suit.

gsmarena_001.jpg


According to an Economic Times report, the Taiwanese company has entered into an agreement with Global Devices Network, which has its own manufacturing and assembling unit in Noida (near capital New Delhi). It's worth mentioning that the latter already produces handsets for local brand Zen.

The report notes that trails have already started at the facility, and commercial-level production will begin by mid-next month. The Taiwanese company will manufacture handsets priced in the range of INR 10,000 ($160) to INR 25,000 ($390).

The news comes just days after there were reports that Sony is also considering manufacturing smartphones in India.


HTC to start manufacturing mobile handsets in India - GSMArena.com news

Hope they do some actual manufacturing & it just assemblingassembling,Aldo this is happening due to oil prices
 
Digital India: 15 salient things to know about PM Narendra Modi's project
By ECONOMICTIMES.COM | 1 Jul, 2015, 01.21PM IST


digital-india-15-salient-things-to-know-about-pm-narendra-modis-project.jpg

The vision of Digital India programme also aims at inclusive growth in areas of electronic services, products, manufacturing and job opportunities etc.

NEW DELHI: Moving ahead on yet another pet project, Prime Minister Narendra Modiis set to launch the 'Digital India' campaign, aimed at creating a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

The programme comprises of various initiatives, each targeted to prepare India for becoming a knowledge economy and for bringing good governance to citizens through synchronized and co-ordinated engagement of the entire government.

PM Modi will launch the Digital India Week on Wednesday evening urging people to gain knowledge and to empower themselves through the Digital India Programme.

The vision of Digital India programme also aims at inclusive growth in areas of electronic services, products, manufacturing and job opportunities etc. The vision of Digital India is centred on three key areas -

(i) Digital Infrastructure as a utility to every citizen

(ii) Governance & services on demand

(iii) Digital Empowerment of citizens

The Digital India programme aims to provide broadband highways, universal access to mobile connectivity, public internet access programme, e-governance: Reforming government through technology, eKranti - Electronic delivery of services, Information for all, Electronics manufacturing: Target net zero imports, IT for jobs and early harvest programmes.

In line with these objectives, the government has launched some inititaives. Others are being readied for launch. We take a look at some of them:

1. Digital Locker System aims to minimize the usage of physical documents and enable sharing of e-documents across agencies. The sharing of the e-documents will be done through registered repositories thereby ensuring the authenticity of the documents online, says the government.

2. MyGov.in has been implemented as a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through a "Discuss", "Do" and "Disseminate" approach. The mobile app for MyGov would bring these features to users on a mobile phone.

3. Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app would be used by people and Government organizations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.

4. eSign framework would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar authentication.

5. The Online Registration System (ORS) under the eHospital application has been introduced. This application provides important services such as online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring availability of blood online etc, the government claims.

6. National Scholarships Portal is said to be a one stop solution for end to end scholarship process right from submission of student application, verification, sanction and disbursal to end beneficiary for all the scholarships provided by the Government of India.

7. DeitY has undertaken an initiative namely Digitize India Platform (DIP) for large scale digitization of records in the country that would facilitate efficient delivery of services to the citizens.

8. The Government of India has undertaken an initiative namely Bharat Net, a high speed digital highway to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of country. This would be the world's largest rural broadband connectivity project using optical fibre.

9. Policy initiatives have also been undertaken by DeitY in the e-Governance domain like e-Kranti Framework, Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software for Government of India, Framework for Adoption of Open Source Software in e-Governance Systems, Policy on Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for Government of India, E-mail Policy of Government of India, Policy on Use of IT Resources of Government of India, Policy on Collaborative Application Development by Opening the Source Code of Government Applications, Application Development & Re-Engineering Guidelines for Cloud Ready Applications

10. BSNL has introduced Next Generation Network (NGN), to replace 30 year old exchanges, which is an IP based technology to manage all types of services like voice, data, multimedia/ video and other types of packet switched communication services.

11. BSNL has undertaken large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country. The user can latch on the BSNL Wi-Fi network through their mobile devices.

12. BPO Policy has been approved to create BPO centres in different North Eastern states and also in smaller / mofussil towns of other states.

13. Electronics Development Fund (EDF) Policy aims to promote Innovation, R&D, and Product Development and to create a resource pool of IP within the country to create a self-sustaining eco-system of Venture Funds.

14. National Centre for Flexible Electronics (NCFlexE) is an initiative of Government of India to promote research and innovation in the emerging area of Flexible Electronics.

15. Centre of Excellence on Internet on Things (IoT) is a joint initiative of Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), ERNET and NASSCOM.

"The estimated impact of Digital India by 2019 would be cross cutting, ranging from broadband connectivity in all Panchayats, Wi-fi in schools and universities and Public Wi-Fihotspots. The programme will generate huge number of IT, Telecom and Electronics jobs, both directly and indirectly. Success of this programme will make India Digitally empowered and the leader in usage of IT in delivery of services related to various domains such as health, education, agriculture, banking, etc," the government claims

India Inc Pledges Over $70 Billion for PM Modi's Digital India Push

Everything you wanted to know about PM’s Digital India programme
Alok Soni | July 01, 2015 at 6:20 pm

Right from the day of assuming power, Digital India and Make in India have been two big USPs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The first steps were taken with the launch of MyGov.in portal. Only a couple of weeks ago, Narendra Modi launched his mobile app to connect further with the netizens. Over the last one year, several initiatives have been taken for introduction of Information Technology to empower people in areas relating to health, education, labour and employment, commerce etc. Digital India Week has been launched with an aim to impart knowledge to people and to empower themselves through the Digital India Programme of Government of India.



The programme structure
Digital India comprises of various initiatives under the single programme each targeted to prepare India for becoming a knowledge economy and for bringing good governance to citizens through synchronized and co-ordinated engagement of the entire Government.

This programme has been envisaged and coordinated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) in collaboration with various Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments. The Prime Minister as the Chairman of Monitoring Committee on Digital India, activities under the Digital India initiative is being carefully monitored. All the existing and ongoing e-Governance initiatives have been revamped to align them with the principles of Digital India.



Vision of Digital India
The vision of Digital India programme aims at inclusive growth in areas of electronic services, products, manufacturing and job opportunities etc. It is centred on three key areas –

  • Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen
  • Governance & Services on Demand and
  • Digital Empowerment of Citizens
With the above vision, the Digital India programme aims to provide Broadband Highways, Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity, Public Internet Access Programme, E-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology, eKranti – Electronic Delivery of Services, Information for All, Electronics Manufacturing: Target Net Zero Imports, IT for Jobs and Early Harvest Programmes.



Key Projects of Digital India programme
Several projects/products have already launched or ready to be launched as indicated below:

  1. Digital Locker System aims to minimize the usage of physical documents and enable sharing of e-documents across agencies. The sharing of the e-documents will be done through registered repositories thereby ensuring the authenticity of the documents online.
  2. MyGov.in has been implemented as a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through a “Discuss”, “Do” and “Disseminate” approach. The mobile App for MyGov would bring these features to users on a mobile phone.
  3. Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app would be used by people and Government organizations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.
  4. eSign framework would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar authentication.
  5. The Online Registration System (ORS) under the eHospital application has been introduced. This application provides important services such as online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring availability of blood online etc.
  6. National Scholarships Portal is a one stop solution for end to end scholarship process right from submission of student application, verification, sanction and disbursal to end beneficiary for all the scholarships provided by the Government of India.
  7. DeitY has undertaken an initiative namely Digitize India Platform (DIP) for large scale digitization of records in the country that would facilitate efficient delivery of services to the citizens.
  8. The Government of India has undertaken an initiative namely Bharat Net, a high speed digital highway to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of country. This would be the world’s largest rural broadband connectivity project using optical fibre.
  9. BSNL has introduced Next Generation Network (NGN), to replace 30 year old exchanges, which is an IP based technology to manage all types of services like voice, data, multimedia/ video and other types of packet switched communication services.
  10. BSNL has undertaken large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country. The user can latch on the BSNL Wi-Fi network through their mobile devices.
  11. To deliver citizen services electronically and improve the way citizens and authorities transact with each other, it is imperative to have ubiquitous connectivity. The government also realises this need as reflected by including ‘broadband highways’ as one of the pillars of Digital India. While connectivity is one criterion, enabling and providing technologies to facilitate delivery of services to citizens forms the other.
Policy initiatives
Policy initiatives have also been undertaken (by DeitY) in the e- Governance domain like e-Kranti Framework, Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software for Government of India, Framework for Adoption of Open Source Software in e-Governance Systems, Policy on Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for Government of India, E-mail Policy of Government of India, Policy on Use of IT Resources of Government of India, Policy on Collaborative Application Development by Opening the Source Code of Government Applications, Application Development & Re-Engineering Guidelines for Cloud Ready Applications

  • BPO Policy has been approved to create BPO centres in different North Eastern states and also in smaller / mofussil towns of other states.
  • Electronics Development Fund (EDF) Policy aims to promote Innovation, R&D, and Product Development and to create a resource pool of IP within the country to create a self-sustaining eco-system of Venture Funds.
  • National Centre for Flexible Electronics (NCFlexE) is an initiative of Government of India to promote research and innovation in the emerging area of Flexible Electronics.
  • Centre of Excellence on Internet on Things (IoT) is a joint initiative of Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), ERNET and NASSCOM.

Impact

The estimated impact of Digital India by 2019 would be cross cutting, ranging from broadband connectivity in all Panchayats, Wi-fi in schools and universities and Public Wi-Fihotspots. The programme will generate huge number of IT, Telecom and Electronics jobs, both directly and indirectly. Success of this programme will make India Digitally empowered and the leader in usage of IT in delivery of services related to various domains such as health, education, agriculture, banking, etc.
 
Implementation of projects rises 8.4% in first quarter, stalled projects decline

NEW DELHI: A day after Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said there were signs of a pickup in economic activities, more evidence emerged to back this thesis as reports pointed to a rise in projects under implementation as well as a decline in the number of stalled projects.

Data released by independent economy tracker CMIE showed an 8.4% rise in projects under implementation in the quarter ended June 30, fastest since the September 2012 quarter.

Private sector projects under implementation rose 0.8% in the June quarter, the first expansion in eight quarters, providing boost to the Narendra Modi government that has faced criticism of late for a slackening of reforms.

"Bottom line from this quarter's release is that the data looks encouraging with projects under implementation improving for the fourth quarter," Morgan Stanley noted in a report analysing the CMIE data.

Another report said the stock of stalled projects has declined for the fifth successive quarter.

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From a peak of 8.4% of GDP in the quarter ended March 31, 2014, stalled projects' stock declined to 6.6% in June 2015 quarter, helped by the government's emphasis on capital spending at the start of the new fiscal.

Since March 2014, projects worth about 2% of GDP have been unstalled. Progressing steadily, they have now reached a critical mass and can potentially start impacting domestic activity notably," HSBC noted in a report, which however also noted that new projects were conspicuous by their absence. This view is consistent with a rise in production of capital goods as per IIP data.

Investments worth Rs 1.15 lakh crore were announced during the June quarter, a 33% rise from a year ago but on a weak base, CMIE had said on July 1.

Also, the first quarter of fiscal 2015-16 saw around 165 projects getting scrapped, which is up from 106 projects stalled in June 2014 quarter.

A heavily indebted private sector has largely been unable to step up investment in the face of weak demand while banks, struggling with bad loans, are finding it difficult to cut rates or lend more to stimulate consumption.Further, bank credit growth fell to lowest in more than two decades in FY15.

"Broad-based recovery seems far off. There might be green shoots here but both domestic and external demand remains extremely weak. There are noisy signals in the economy. Private investments will still take time to pick up. We should see action in the infra sector, which should push investment, but the financial institutions data does not reflect that. Who would lend to the infra sector at this juncture," said DK Joshi, chief economist, Crisil

Morgan Stanley says recent government action should sustain the revival in capital expenditure.

"We believe that recent government action to accelerate the pace of medium term reforms (addressing issues related to land, labour and taxation) will help sustain the recovery in capex..." the report, authored by Chetan Ahya, Upasana Chachra and Nupur Gupta, noted.

It sees the economy growing at 6.5% in FY16 as per the old GDP series, by which measure growth in FY14 was 4.9%. Under the new GDP methodology Indian economy expanded by a perkier 7.3% in FY15 and is expected to accelerate to near 8% in the current year.


HSBC said that unstalling projects would provide momentum for some time in the absence of new factories and mines.

"True, new projects are not showing any increase, but they may not really be the right indicator to track turning points. Right now, resolving a substantial number of stuck projects could in itself trigger notable investment spending," said Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist, urging government to get state-run companies to step up investments.

Much of the improvement is visible in the roads and railways sector where higher spending and policy initiative has resulted in investment picking up.

In the April-May period, the government has managed to spend 14.8% of its budgeted spending for the year. Within that, 13% of plan funds for the entire year have been spent in the first two months, a fast start to the year.

Many economists caution that investment activity remains weak. "While macro numbers, right from inflation to current account look under control, the domestic private investment remains weak.

The credit growth does not show that manufacturing pickup is on way. It will take a while to gather momentum. As far as project implementation numbers go, they are coming from a very low base. Government's planned capital expenditure slowed down in May versus April," said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economic adviser, SBI.

Read more at:
Implementation of projects rises 8.4% in first quarter, stalled projects decline - The Economic Times
 

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