India 68th on Network Readiness Index, progresses by one rank

The Global Information Technology Report 2013 has been released by the World Economic Forum. In the report India has progressed by one point and is now at 68 on the Network Readiness Index 2013.

India’s performance remains very mixed. The most worrisome aspects are the mediocre quality of the political, regulatory, and  business environment (85th), as well as its lack of digital infrastructure (111th).

Extensive red tape stands in the way of businesses, and corporate tax at 62 percent of profit is among the highest in the world.

Mobile broadband access has already become more widespread, with two subscriptions per 100 population.

Re-sale of digital goods is copyright infringement

The first-sale doctrine, which applies when consumers sell used books or CDs, does not govern sales of pre-owned digital goods, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan has ruled.

The decision is in a copyright-infringement case filed by Capitol Records against ReDigi, a website launched in 2011 to let consumers resell MP3 songs they had lawfully purchased. “The novel question presented in this action is whether a digital music file, lawfully made and purchased, may be resold by its owner through ReDigi under the first sale doctrine,” according to the ruling. “The court determines that it cannot.”

read more here http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/04/reselling-digital-goods/

App for women safety

Send Alert messages with location details just by a single tap on the mobile application and inform your family and friends with a mobile application-http://www.fightbackmobile.com/welcome

An environment friendly court

This is interesting, a greener court. According to a story in the GMA news the Supreme Court of Phillipines is going to go green, with less papers. The Court is set to take full advantage of Internet for transformation into environmental-friendly procedures.

After an assurance from Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno the high court has approved guidelines in the efficient use of paper in resolutions and pleadings. The high court said Administrative Memorandum 11-9-4-SC or the “Efficient Use of Paper Rule” aims to cut down the judiciary’s excessive use of paper in an effort to “save our forests, avoid landslides, and mitigate the worsening effects of climate change that the world is experiencing.”- said the news report.

According to the guidelines of the “Efficient Use of Paper Rule,” all pleadings, motions, and similar papers intended for the courts must:

• be written in single space with a one-and-a-half space between paragraphs;
• use an easily readable font style of the party’s choice;
• must use a 14-point font;
• must be on an 8.5-inch by 13-inch bond paper;
• must have the following margins – 1.5 inch (left), 1.0 in (right), 1.2 in (top), 1.0 in (bottom);
• be consecutively numbered.

more here

Android all the way

Happy news for Android lovers. While the global market for mobile devices is estimated to fast increase in the next year, Gartner predicts that Google’s Android mobile operating system will account for over 56% of the market for business Smartphones in the US and Europe by 2016 – which will be a massive leap from the 34%expected for 2012. Even the Digitimes Research has predicted that Android will become the biggest platform for the tablet devices next year. Globally 210 million tablets will be shipped and sold in 2013 and will surpass laptop shipment figures next year, according to a research report of Digitimes.

Telecom Subscription Data as on 30th September 2012

Particulars	Wireless	Wireline	Total Wireless + Wireline
Total Subscribers (Millions)	906.62	31.08	937.70
Total Net Monthly Addition (Millions)	-1.74	-0.13	-1.87
Monthly Growth (%)	-0.19%	-0.40%	-0.20%
Urban Subscribers (Millions)	571.70	23.99	595.69
Urban Subscribers Net Monthly Addition (Millions)	-3.44	-0.07	-3.51
Monthly Growth (%)	-0.60%	-0.31%	-0.59%
Rural Subscribers (Millions)	334.92	7.10	342.01
Rural Subscribers Net Monthly Addition (Millions)	1.70	-0.05	1.65
Monthly Growth (%)	0.51%	-0.72%	0.48%
Overall Teledensity*	74.49	2.55	77.04
Urban Teledensity*	154.64	6.49	161.13
Rural Teledensity*	39.52	0.84	40.36
Share of Urban Subscribers	63.06%	77.17%	63.53%
Share of Rural Subscribers	36.94%	22.83%	36.47%

Mobile Number Portability requests increased from 64.92 million subscribers at the end of August 2012 to 69.78 million at the end of September 2012. In the month of September 2012 alone, 4.86 million requests have been made for MNP.

Active wireless subscribers on the date of Peak VLR in September 2012 are 698.96 Million, 77.10% of the total subscribers.

Broadband subscription reached 15.08 million in September 2012 from 14.82 million in August 2012.

The number of telephone subscribers in India decreased to 937.70 million at the end of September, 2012 from 939.57 million at the end of August 2012, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of -0.20%. The share of urban subscribers has declined to 63.53% from 63.77% whereas share of rural subscribers has increased to 36.47% in the month of September 2012.  With this, the overall Teledensity in India reached 77.04 at the end of September 2012 from 77.28 of the previous month.

Subscription in the urban areas decreased from 599.20 million in August 2012 to 595.69 million at the end of September 2012. Subscription in rural areas increased from 340.37 million to 342.01 million during the same period. The monthly growth rate of urban and rural subscription is -0.59% and 0.48% respectively. The overall urban Teledensity has decreased from 162.35 to 161.13 and Rural Teledensity increased from 40.20 to 40.36.

Verizon Social responsibility

Read the Cnet report today. It says Verizon will not charge Sandy victims for voice and text usage. Everybody needs to do their little bit to help people. I will expect something like this from Indian players when a crisis comes unannounced.