Current spectrum winners must get benefit:Idea Cellular

Aditya Birla Group company Idea Cellular has filed an affidavit with the Supreme Court saying that any reduction in the reserve price for unsold spectrum should also be applicable to winners of the recently concluded auction. 

“In the event further quashed/unsold spectrum from current auction is made available/put up for auction in the 1,800 Mhz band and any decision is made which results in a reduction in the reserve price or the final winning price, the petitioner (Idea Cellular) should be entitled to the benefit of the same,” the affidavit filed by the mobile company said. 

Idea Cellular had won spectrum in seven circles by paying Rs 2,031 crore at the recently concluded auction. But the Government did not receive bids for all spectrum put on the block. This has prompted the Government to look at the possibility of holding another round of auction before March next. 

Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal recently said that the Government will review the base price after analysts and bidders complained that it was too high. Analysts had also criticised the Government’s decision to sell only a part of the spectrum freed up after cancelling 122 licences issued in 2008. 

Idea Cellular had earlier filed an appeal with the apex court that the Government was not following its (the court’s) orders by holding back spectrum. The company said that the additional affidavit was to ensure level playing field as it cannot be put to any commercial disadvantage in any manner due to the Government’s non-compliance of the court’s order.

Unsold spectrum

Meanwhile, the big three GSM operators — Airtel, Vodafone and Idea — plan to write to the Government saying that the unsold spectrum in the CDMA band should be combined with the 900 Mhz spectrum. The three companies will tell the Government that all spectrum available with the Government should be put for sale as that will allow the operators to decide which frequency band they want to buy and which one they want to give up. 

Combining CDMA spectrum (which is in the upper part of the 800 Mhz band) with the 900 Mhz band will enable the GSM players to get a larger chunk at the time of re-farming.

Apple, Samsung rule smartphone market in Q3: Gartner

Industry trackers crowned Apple and Samsung global smartphone market kings, saying they accounted for nearly half of handsets sold in the third quarter of the year.

Smartphone sales climbed 46.9 per cent to 169.2 million units from the same quarter last year as buyers increasingly opted for Internet-linked devices instead of “feature phones”.

The smartphone market was “dominated” by Samsung and Apple, “leaving a handful of vendors fighting over a distant third spot,” Gartner Principal Research Analyst Anshul Gupta said yesterday in written findings accompanying a report.

South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung sold 55 million smartphones in the recently-ended quarter and commanded 32.5 per cent of the global market, “widening the gap with Apple,” according to Gartner.

Apple sold 23.6 million iPhones in the third quarter in a 36.2 per cent increase from the same period last year, Gartner reported.

The Company was on track for strong iPhone sales in the holiday season with the newest version of the smartphone rolling out in China and other parts of the world, according to Gupta.

The Google-backed Android operating software used by Samsung and other smartphone makers continued to gain ground in the quarter, increasing its market share by 19.9 per cent to claim 72.4 per cent of the market.

California-based Apple’s mobile gadget software powered 13.9 per cent of the smartphones sold in the third quarter.

Overall mobile phone sales declined 3.1 per cent to slightly less than 428 million units in the quarter.

“After two consecutive quarter of decline in mobile phone sales, demand has improved in both mature and emerging markets as sales increased sequentially,” Gupta said.

“In mature markets, we finally saw replacement sales pick up with the launch of new devices in the quarter”.

While Gartner analysts expected mobile phone sales to be buoyed in the year-end holiday shopping season, they cautioned that the boost might be tempered by gift-buyers opting for tablet computers.

Twitter handle @India owned by a person in China

Sure some of the Indian politicians (including ministers), celebrities and businessmen are social media, particularly Twitter, savvy. 

But unlike Twitter accounts of the UK, Israel and Sweden, the Twitter handle @India is owned by an Indian living in Guangzhou in China. The account owner shares pictures from his daily life and has made it clear that his account or handle (as it is known in the global tweeting circles) “is not for sale”, a Burson-Marsteller survey said. 

The accounts of @GreatBritain, @Israel, and @Sweden are the examples of country promotion on Twitter. “Looking at the findings it becomes clear that few governments and tourism organisations have understood the power of country branding and marketing on Twitter,” said Matthias Lüfkens, head of he Burson-Marsteller EMEA Digital Practice. 

Incidentally, Incredible India, the official site for the Indian Government’s Ministry of Tourism does not sport any twitter account. 

“There is a huge opportunity for countries to use Twitter as part of their communication to engage with a large and growing audience,” Lüfkens said. 

The survey used data collected this month at the Twitter handles of the 193 UN member countries. Burson-Marsteller used Twitonomy (http://twitonomy.com) to analyse tweeting patterns and the Twitter history of each account. 

It found that @GreatBritain is part of the ‘Britain is Great’ campaign launched in March 2012 to highlight everything that is great about the United Kingdom. 

@Israel is the country’s official Twitter channel, maintained by her Foreign Ministry's Digital Diplomacy team. The account is one of the most followed country accounts with more than 66,000 followers and serves as the focal point for Israel’s government Twitter activity. 

The Twitter accounts of @AntiguaBarbuda, @Barbados, @Lithuania, the @Maldives, @SouthAfrica, and @Spain are run by their respective official organisations for promotion of tourism in each country. 

More than 30 nations’ accounts tweet an automated news feed broadcasting news about the country.

Youngsters prefer mobile over TV: Ericsson

A large number of youngsters in the country are willing to give up watching TV in favour of browsing Internet on a mobile phone, according to a survey done by Ericsson.  

Around 30 million of 69 million urban Generation Z consumers own mobile phones, and 3 million of these use mobile broadband on their phones, according to the survey. A total of 58 per cent of Generation Z favour surfing Internet on a mobile phone than watch TV.

The study done across 16 cities in India reveals the digital lives of kids (9-11 years), tweens (12-15 years) and teens (16-18 years) in India, called Generation Z. 

Ericsson’s new ConsumerLab study shows that even the youngest age group (9-11 years) shows advanced technology adoption and mobile Internet usage similar to their older counterparts.

Fredrik Jejdling, Head of Region, Ericsson India, says: “This report captures the insights of a dynamic consumer group. These young people will shape the future mobile consumption for our industry.”

The key findings show that mobile ownership is catching on at an early age, with 30 million out of 69 million urban members of Generation Z owning mobile phones. 21 per cent of urban Indian kids and tweens mirror mobile Internet services usage as seen among their older counterparts. In fact, kids and tweens are more likely than teens to stream a video on YouTube once a week. They spend roughly seven hours daily with gadgets on mobile phones, watching TV and using gaming consoles. 

Social media is becoming more important for the Generation Z with 77% venting their frustration on poor service experience over social media which leads them to expect instant resolution of their issues and queries and constant feedback via social media itself.

Mobile broadband adoption within this segment is driven by family dynamics. Parents using mobile broadband were more likely to introduce their children to the technology as well. Today, 3 million mobile broadband users in urban India are aged under 18 – 35% of non-users with capable handsets are willing to take up mobile broadband in the next 3 months

Only one in three urban parents are able to keep track of their children’s communication activities and expect service providers to offer services to manage and monitor their children’s mobile and internet usage. A total of 76 per cent of the urban parents expect service providers to provide them with call and message log details of their kids – 63 per cent of parents are interested in an app to block unwarranted content. Interestingly, 30 per cent of 9-18 year olds use a privacy screen to prevent others from seeing their phone.

Ericsson ConsumerLab India conducted the study across 16 cities in India with 3,421 face-to-face interviews with 9-18-year-old mobile phone users and 1,000 parents across 7,785 urban households. 

Wipro inks deal with Splunk

Wipro Technologies today said it has inked a global reseller agreement with Splunk to deploy the software maker's real-time operational intelligence solutions. 

Under the new agreement, Wipro will resell Splunk software to its enterprise customers in industry sectors it serves including energy and utilities, financial services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and telecommunications. 

The alliance continues the efforts by Wipro and Splunk to bring operational intelligence to customers across the globe, Wipro said in a statement. 

Wipro has already implemented Splunk software at dozens of customer sites including several big data enterprise projects in North America, Europe and India, it added. 

"Splunk software is a cornerstone technology for Wipro customers who realise they need to effectively leverage their machine data to gain a competitive advantage," Wipro Technologies Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President Anurag Srivastava said.

Splunk Enterprise is the company's flagship software for collecting, indexing, monitoring and analysing machine data. 

Using Splunk software, users can analyse previously untapped data to quickly troubleshoot problems, investigate security incidents, monitor infrastructure and gain real-time operational intelligence. 

As part of the agreement, Splunk software will also be showcased in the solution center at Wipro's headquarters in Bangalore. Wipro Technologies is the global IT business of Wipro.

The 2012 edition of XAT

The CAT is over. Now it’s time to prepare for yet another prominent MBA entrance test.

 

 The MBA entrance examination season is truly on with the opening of the CAT testing window. Not wanting to put all the eggs in just one basket — to reap best benefit out of their several months’ preparation — many students who are appearing for CAT will also appear for several other entrance examinations. (By the time you read this, most of you would’ve already given the CAT 2012 exam). While the basics of the preparation for these tests remain the same, it is important to understand the subtle differences in the pattern of the other exams so that the fine-tuning of your preparation can be exam-specific in each instance. In this session, let us take a look at another prominent MBA entrance examination in India. 

The Xavier Aptitude Test, XAT is a popular admission test conducted by XLRI on behalf of Xavier Association of Management Institutes. 

The 2013 edition of XAT will be conducted on January 6, 2013. More than 100 institutes including 16 member institutes and 86 other participating institutes will accept the XAT 2013 score.

This time, the XAT will be conducted across 44 cities in India and three cities abroad. Candidates who wish to apply to the member and participating institutes, will have to apply for XAT first and then apply separately to the institutes of their choice. 

 

XAT will be administered over three hours and is divided into two parts. Part A (140 minutes) has areas like Quantitative Ability, English Language Ability and Logical Reasoning, and Decision-Making. Part B (40 minutes) consists of questions in General Awareness in Business, Economics and Politics and Essay Writing. Each institution that considers XAT as their selection test will have its own separate set of parameters for judging the students’ performance in the different test areas of XAT. 

Let’s now look at the pattern of XAT of three previous editions to get an understanding of the nature of expertise required to crack this examination. 

In 2010, XAT consisted of three sections with 30, 31 and 40 questions totalling 101 questions. The instructions advised the candidates to maximise the scores in each section. One fifth negative marking applied for the first five incorrect answers. If a candidate were to make more than five mistakes, the penalty would increase to one fourth of a mark for every subsequent wrong answer.

Analytical Reasoning and Decision-Making took up the 30 questions in the first section. Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning were the test areas covered in the second section. Data Interpretation and Quantitative Ability consumed the last 40 questions in the test. 

While the total number of questions remained at 101 in XAT 2011, there was a slight redistribution of the number of questions. Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation took up 43 questions in Section A. Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning in Section B comprised 34 questions. Analytical Reasoning and Decision-Making test areas of Section C had 24 questions. 

The 2012 edition of XAT consisted of 85 questions to be answered in 120 minutes. The test areas were Decision-Making, English Language Ability and Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Ability.

The Essay Writing Part was allotted 30 minutes. The break-up of the 85 questions — 25, 32 and 28 questions in that order of test areas mentioned above. 

What’s new?

 

So we find that General Awareness is a new test area introduced into XAT when we compare the pattern of the last three years. Regular reading of a good English daily should keep the aspirants in good stead to tackle the section. Nine to twelve months preceding the date of the examination would be a good timeframe to look at to tide over the current affairs, GK part and the Essay Writing area. The preparation done on this front also will help you for the further stages of selection of different institutes — and not just for XAT —linked institutes — such as Group Discussions and Personal Interviews. While preparing for the GK part, students should focus on issues relating to international and national events, organisations that influence global and national affairs, domestic and foreign trade related information, etc. 

For Essay Writing, the topics are likely to be general in nature. For example, one year, the topic given pertained to utilising the resources of our planet wisely to satisfy our needs. When a topic such as this is given, for example, the candidates can quote several examples of environmental pillage, world organisations like Greenpeace that are doing remarkable activity in this line, pertinent issues like global warming and the innovative manner in which the Government of Maldives decided to bring the world attention to this menace by holding a cabinet meeting under water, etc. The manner in which you tackle the essay will clearly communicate the spectrum of your general awareness and your opinion on several of these topical issues. 

Retain focus

 

One important skill that test-takers of XAT will need to upgrade to is to retain the focus while reading questions and the options. This becomes important as it has been observed in the past that the length of the questions has been more than the average compared to other MBA entrance examinations. For the uninitiated, it will become easy to lose track of the flow of the question midway, thereby necessitating a re-read from the start. This can be quite a drain on the available time. This will also necessitate retaining more information in your “RAM” or “short-term memory” while negotiating questions.

Yesterday never dies

During the pre-credits action sequence in Skyfall, the new — and fitfully entertaining — James Bond movie, we witness in quick succession a car chase, a motorbike chase (on rooftops) that plays like the two-wheeler equivalent of the parkour stretch in Casino Royale, and just when we think nothing can top this, Bond and his quarry leap onto a train and undertake a series of manoeuvres that incorporates a bulldozer, which, as we all know, every speeding train just happens to be equipped with.

Faraway at her MI6 office, M (Judi Dench) demands an update. Eve (Naomie Harris), Bond’s colleague who’s racing alongside in a jeep, sighs, “It’s rather hard to explain, ma’am.” The audience is in complete agreement. Preposterousness at these levels cannot be explained — merely experienced. And from our experience of decades of Bond movies — the series turned 50 this year — we cluck contentedly and tighten our seatbelts. It’s time Daniel Craig’s Bond stopped brooding and trained his eyes on world-annihilating megalomaniacs.

But the director Sam Mendes has other ideas. This action sequence ends shockingly — so shockingly that no other words could open Adele’s title song. (The accompanying visuals are astonishingly beautiful.) “This is the end,” she sings, in a soaring ballad that manages to be at once exalting and elegiac — and that’s the tone Mendes is after. He wants us as lusty spectators in the Bond circus. He also wants us to mourn for Bond.

And Skyfall gets trapped in a limbo. Are we watching an action film laced with drama? Or a drama with occasional bursts of action? My guess is that Mendes was after the latter — his beats are those of a classical tragedy, whose flamboyantly melodramatic villain (Javier Bardem, playing up the mincing mannerisms so much that he forgets to be menacing) instructs M to “think on your sins,” and, by the end, pleads with her to “free” them both, as if they were mother and child with intertwined fates. Goldfinger, in comparison, had it easy. He just wanted to blow up Fort Knox.

Skyfall is very much of a piece with the other films of the Daniel Craig era. The superb Casino Royale birthed Bond as a “blunt instrument,” and proceeded to hone his surface as well as his soul. He fell in love, was betrayed, and learnt how to announce his name to the world. The somewhat underwhelming Quantum of Solace dug deeper in the quest to turn Bond from cartoon to character, exorcising him of romantic ghosts from the earlier film — and now, we see the rest of the Bond universe being created, with a convincing case being made for Bond’s essentiality in this modern world.

But please, no more. Steven Spielberg dispensed with the backstory of his whip-cracking archaeologist within the first half-hour of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Three entire movies in, we’re still getting to know this Bond. Just set a steel-toothed villain on him already.

But that doesn’t look likely, if Skyfall is anything to go by. Bond is assigned to track the men who’ve obtained a list of secret agents embedded in terrorist organisations worldwide, which instantly guarantees their death. The kicker comes later, when, in usual fashion, Q (Ben Whishaw) hands over Bond’s equipment — a Walther PPK and a radio transmitter; nothing more — and smirks, “Were you expecting an exploding pen?”

But more pertinently, Bond is already ageing. Ethan Hunt showed signs of greying only in the fourth Mission: Impossible movie, but Bond’s unshaven chin is already a thicket of silver. And then we have Mendes’ longueurs. The mid-section is especially bloated with “classy” considerations, like an ill-advised romance and a long walk-and-talk through which the villain introduces himself, speaking about his grandmother.

Sometimes, Mendes’ non-conformism is a plus. I enjoyed looking at a villain’s lair that isn’t a gleaming space-age fabrication but an expanse of deserted island resembling the site of the climactic battle in Saving Private Ryan. I also liked the throwaway shots, like the one where Bond, at a bar, entertains a rapt audience with a drinking game involving a scorpion. (What this has to do with anything is irrelevant. It beats sitting through another funereally paced dramatic scene.)

It’s towards the end that Mendes’ controlled pacing really pays off, as Bond and his cohorts await the villain and his henchmen. This is where Mendes attains a perfect balance between emotional grandeur and blockbuster mayhem — the slight slog we’ve been through to get to this point is all but forgotten. And the finish is extraordinarily satisfying. But where next? Now that we even know where Bond’s parents are buried, can the forthcoming film do nothing but get him cracking on a high-octane mission? The exploding pen is optional.