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Nissan Motor is reportedly in talks with Panasonic and overseas companies including Chinese firms over the possible sale of its controlling stake in a car battery manufacturing venture. Two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Saturday that the Japanese automaker wants to sell its 51 percent stake in Automotive Energy Supply Corporation, which makes lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. The company is jointly owned by NEC. Quoting the unconfirmed report published in The Nikkei daily, Reuters reported that Nissan was looking to sell the company because it would be cheaper...

Taking a serious note of the call drop issue, telecom regulator Trai has proposed stricter quality norms for local areas and imposing financial disincentives for poor services. At present, the quality norms are at service area level but Trai feels such a calculation may give a “different picture” about the quality of customer experience. “There could be many areas or localities within the service area where the Quality of service (QoS) could be poor. One of the options for ensuring QoS could be through increased investments for infrastructure development by...

Power management company Eaton has introduced its new advanced range of rack power distribution units (PDUs), ePDU G3, in India. Featuring Eaton’s third-generation (G3) technology, the ePDUG3 platform combines innovative technologies such as the new Eaton patented grip feature for International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) connectors that make operations safer. Offering a variety of capabilities to fulfill IT requirements, the range of ePDU G3 models support a wide-array of applications ranging from small/medium businesses to enterprise data centers. In India, Eaton’s ePDU G3 range will initially be available in three different...

Social networking giant Facebook is reportedly in talks with Internet service providers (ISPs) to expand its Express WiFi program into a commercial launch in India. The company has completed a pilot rollout of 125 rural public Wi-Fi hotspots in a tie-up with state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam. Express WiFi is a Mark Zuckerberg headed Internet giant’s initiative aimed at taking affordable broadband to the rural areas of the country in partnerships with Internet service companies and small entrepreneurs. “We are testing Express WiFi program in India that allows customers to purchase...

GST Amendments Evoke Positive Reactions From IT Channel Channel partners have welcomed the historic GST Bill passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Channel partners said that the bill, which proposes uniform taxation across the states, will bring ease of doing business and resolve various challenges in the current indirect tax landscape. Read More Cyber War Is Real & We Are Preparing For It: Kiran Rijiju The government of India has taken a very serious note of the growing incidence of cyber-attacks on various institutions in recent months. Union Minister of...

In a constant effort to bring more value to its users and consumers, Zopper, India’s largest hyperlocal marketplace, has launched a three-day Lowest Price Challenge. During the campaign period, Zopper will list the lowest prices of consumer electronics on its mobile platform, sourced from local electronics stores. If users are able to find prices lower than those listed on Zopper, on top three e-commerce sites, they will be entitled to win double the difference of the amount in their wallets. The challenge is live from August 4th to August 6th...

India’s aerospace and defense electronics market is expected to be worth $70-72 billion by 2019 as the country rapidly modernizes its military by embracing new technologies. Nearly $58 billion of the electronics opportunity comes from platform — large systems that have electronic components built as a solution, according to the Defense Electronics and Systems Design Report released by Roland Berger in partnership with industry bodies Nasscom and India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA). “India’s electronics market has been witnessing huge market in Consumer Electronics, Industrial, Communication, Strategic Electronics. Today, the size of...

In a move to make its Pages feature valuable for small businesses online, Facebook on Thursday announced the launch of two new Page sections - Services and Shop - for emerging markets including in India where 57 percent of people utilize Facebook platform for their business. The Shop section provides businesses with a new way to prominently display the products they are selling on their Page. It allows people to easily discover, browse and make offers to purchase products through messaging from the businesses they care about, Facebook said in...

Chinese smartphone vendors are rapidly expanding their wings in the Indian smartphone market, making the way tough for the established brands such as Samsung, Micromax and Intex. Oppo, Vivo and Gionee, together gained significant market share in the April-June quarter at the cost of incumbents on back of an aggressive retail and marketing strategy, the Counterpoint Technology Market Research states. Apart from these three major brands, the Chinese smartphone brands, including Lenovo, expanded their share to 27 percent of the total smartphone market in the quarter ended June from 21 percent in...