PUBG gamers in India use talent to create money

What’s interesting is that players of the widely popular PUBG, backed by China’s Tencent, are mostly college goers who earn from Rs 100 to 5,000 a day, depending on their experience.

PUBG gamers in India are using their skills to earn money through wagers by placing bets on themselves.

Cybersecurity and legal experts say that's in violation of the ban on such activity, that has antecedently got India's favorite sport of cricket in bother many times. Indian video gamers are looking on mini Militia, Fortnite, Teenpatti, Dream11, MPL, Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Counter-Strike and Asphalt-8 however it's Tencent's PUBG that's top of the list.

Along with fake news, information and child pornography, WhatsApp and different social media channels have emerged as a platform for illegal activities like on-line betting, including the videogame variety, according to the consultants. whereas WhatsApp teams are used for looking on live sporting events like the Indian Premier League (IPL), the trend of looking on video games is claimed to be catching on.

What's attention-grabbing is that players of the wide standard PUBG, backed by China's Tencent, are principally faculty goers who earn from Rs a hundred to five,000 a day, reckoning on their experience. on-line card-playing would earlier involve the exchange of coins or incentives to proceed within the game however currently it's being done through real money with the employment of Google Payand Paytm, said the consultants.

"Access to such invite-based teams is quite easy. Once you are verified, a selected login and word would be shared, that helps you enter the chat rooms and discuss," said Gautam Kumawat, a cybersecurity professional who tracks the area.

PUBG or PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, an internet multi-player game, has topped  the charts each on Google and iOS. Up to 100 players are cellular against one another once being para-dropped onto the territory. every player features a virtual character or avatar that can play alone or group with others to create kills, the intent being to remain alive. Bettors group inside tiny teams to defeat different players so keep it up the battle among themselves.

"Over the last six months I even have won around Rs 2,000 each day taking part in PUBG," said a 24-year-old collegian from Gandhinagar on condition of namelessness. "If the player is new, he or she initial plays with none cash concerned. because the player understands the game higher, every kill will earn them a minimum of Rs 10, growing to Rs 200 per kill. If a player wins the game, they'll earn up to Rs 5,000." The pot might even be shared by the players.

Google Pay's policies stipulate that any sort of on-line or offline gambling, wherever cash or different things of import are paid in exchange to win real cash or prizes based on the result of a game, is not allowed and accounts are going to be suspended as social control. Google said the authorities have not flagged any such cases to them to date.

Tencent, WhatsApp and Paytm did not answer queries.

Although there's no specific law for on-line gambling, underneath the general public gambling Act of 1892, such activity is prohibited since looking on games isn't allowed, said Salman Waris, managing partner at firm TechLegis Advocates & Solicitors.

“This is actually a game wherever you can not predict and there's no special talent needed. Such games are strictly prohibited,” he said . bound games that need talent like rummy are allowed however not video games like PUBG. consultants said Indian authorities are looking at closely and such instances of betting might presumably result in a nationwide ban.

Videogame players can trouble the read that no talent is concerned. Globally, the videogame trade is bigger than the movie business and livestreaming of such matches has emerged as a key area for Amazon-backed Twitch and Google's recently launched Stadia among others. top videogame players are well paid and e-sports can reportedly be part of the 2024 olympics.

Google Pay starts railway ticket bookings in india

Google Pay users will browse for train options, book tickets and also cancel them through the app.

In what might become a major use case of Google Pay users in india, the digital payments app can permit railways ticket booking through its platform.

The service is being powered by Indian Railway catering and tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

In a statement the corporate said that the feature are created offered within the travel and transit section of the applying and might be used by smartphone users across Android and iOS.

Google Pay users can also browse for train options, book tickets and even cancel them through the app. in addition users may also check seat availability, journey period also compare travel time.

“Two out of every 3 transactions on Google Pay return from 3,00,000 of India’s cities and villages, well on the far side India’s largest metros. The train ticket booking feature addresses an important need for Indian users, right within the app and is another step to making the lives of our users easier and a lot of convenient with Google Pay,” aforementioned Ambarish Kenghe, Director, Product Management, Google Pay.

Leveraging the success with cab and bus bookings on the Google Pay app, the California headquartered search engine giant intends to scale up train bookings massively as well.

Google Pay looks to realize market share through kirana stores

Having emerged as one of the top 3 payment applications on UPI thanks to P2P and bill payments, Google’s offline strategy is designed to make an ecosystem of payment solutions for Indian customers.

After peer-to-peer (P2P) and bill payments, Google Pay is looking to win over customers of smaller offline retailers or kirana stores. whereas Google had declared plans to partner with location suppliers to aboard retail merchants, it's currently piloting transactions supported the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to be created by shoppers whereas creating offline purchases, consistent with 2 folks awake to the matter.

“It can bring the convenience of card payments onto the sensible phone--the solely factor needed here are, rather than the cardboard swipe, customers can have to share the mobile number at the billing counter,” said a top payment executive awake to the matter. consumers can get a ‘collect’ request on their Google Pay application and build the payment by inserting the UPI PIN.

Having emerged as one of the top 3 payment applications on UPI thanks to P2P and bill payments, Google’s offline strategy is designed to create an ecosystem of payment solutions for Indian consumers. For the technology large, that is reaching to connect the next Billion Users to the web, india may be a key market. By investment payments, the company is targeting a giant chunk of the consumer-retail interface.

“There ar small-scale pilots that ar being run across retail stores in the country. As of now there are no banner advertisements that ar being done, only early adopters will take a look at the merchandise,” same one among the persons cited higher than. “The rollout can happen over the next few months.”

Google has much of the backend in place for such an exercise.

“The set up is to also run localised promotional campaigns for consumers in this area,” same one among the persons. “They have geo-tagged shops and may simply identify consumers in the surrounding area furthermore thereby providing targeted promoting campaigns.”

Google’s plans ar like the offline strategy of PhonePe, that is exploitation MapMyIndia to focus on offline stores and promote UPI payments.

“Our vision is to alter quick, seamless, and secure payments for our users anyplace, at any time, whether they ar paying different users, buying products or services on-line, recharging mobile balance, paying for utilities or looking at a retail outlet,” same Ambarish Kenghe, director, product management, Google Pay. “The offline ecosystem forms an important a part of our objective to supply a seamless experience to users transacting with Google Pay.”

After ecommerce payments, the next battle is widely expected to be fought on the offline payments front. Paytm, with its expansive network of merchants exploitation Paytm QR, is expected to be challenged by Google Pay, Reliance Jio and PhonePe.

“All eyes ar on Reliance Jio, particularly once what happened in medium. What Jio needs to do in digital payments is being keenly determined by others,” said a payments business professional. “Offline is that the next big thing which can create the ultimate winner within the Indian payments system.”

With its own integrated billing and payments providing for little merchants, Jio might disrupt offline payments.

PhonePe chief officer Sameer Nigam has told ET that the corporate has partnered with MapMyIndia to trace retail merchants within the country and create an engagement platform for users with native kirana stores. like Google Pay, PhonePe is additionally listing native merchants on its application.

“The better part is for Google is that the india fintech strategy isn't outlined by revenues. it's more about making that experience for the consumers and enhance stickiness,” same the expert.

SBI Yono app currently allows you to withdraw money from ATMs without a card

SBI Yono app now allows you to withdraw money from ATMs without a card

SBI has introduced a facility that enables customers to withdraw money from ATMs without a card. YONO cash is used to withdraw cash at over 16,500 SBI ATMs across the country. SBI is that the first bank to offer this service in india. The ATMs enabled for this service will be termed as YONO cash point.

Customers will initiate the cash withdrawal method on the YONO app and set a six digit YONO cash pin for the transaction. they will also get a six digit reference variety for the transaction on their registered mobile number via SMS. The cash withdrawal must be completed inside the next 30 minutes at the nearest YONO cash point using both PIN and the reference number received.

YONO is accessed through android and iOS powered mobile phones, and on the web through a browser.

SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said, “YONO money will address the priority of using debit card at the ATMs for money withdrawals by eliminating possible risk related to it. This feature is designed to help users withdraw money without a physical debit card. Our endeavour is to create a digital universe by integrating the entire transactions scheme under one platform.”

India's digital media sector to see a transformative year in 2018

Cheap 4G handsets and falling data prices led to a surge in data consumption on mobile devices last year, resulting in high user acquisitions for digital media and entertainment start-ups.

With high-speed data connectivity finally becoming a reality in india, analysts are anticipating a transformation of sorts for India’s digital media and entertainment startup sector.

Their high predictions: a spate of consolidations among video-streaming platforms; more investments by international music apps here; and a pick-up in subscription-based and mobile advertising revenues.

Cheap 4G handsets and falling data prices led to a surge in data consumption on mobile devices last year, leading to high user acquisitions for digital media and entertainment startups including video-streaming platforms and music-streaming apps.

“(Over-the-top, or OTT) players like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Hotstar can solely get larger,” said Jehil Thakkar, a partner at Deloitte india.

But “with over a dozen players within the area, one can expect consolidation and a few players exiting in 2018. Also, serious investments by the large players in original programming and regional content can take place as subscriptions grow.”

In an interaction with ET in October, Greg Greeley, vice-president of Amazon Prime, said india had a lot of folks observance Amazon Prime videos throughout the primary year of its launch here, as compared with the platform’s launch year in different countries. the company hiked its annual subscription price from ₹499 to ₹999 recently.

As for international music-streaming apps, analysts expect Apple Music and Spotify can invest a lot of in user acquisition in india this year. Last year, Apple Music employed former executive editor of Rolling Stone, Bobin James, because the editor of Apple Music, based mostly in delhi. Spotify employed Akshat Harbola as the head of its Republic of India operations.

“Apple Music created little investments within the Indian market and indie artists in 2017. Spotify and others will look a lot of closely at india as more users log on to music streamingapps from completely different components of the country,” said the co-founder of a digital content platform, declining to be identified.

Analysts and entrepreneurs attribute the spurt in users across digital platforms to the entry of Reliance Jio, that disrupted the telecom industry with cheaper access to high-speed data and forced other telecom firms to follow suit with similar offers.

Gaurav Gandhi, the chief in operation officer of Viacom 18 Digital Ventures, during an interaction last year said Jio and different telcos and also the introduction of 4G data contributed to the surge in users, together with for Viacom 18’s OTT platform Voot.

“We have over doubled our monthly active user base to over 25 million users within the past six months, with the highest forty cities contributory close to seventieth of the viewership,” said Gandhi. Also, more than 25th of digital media consumption came from regional language audiences, he said.

Similarly, according to music streaming app Gaana, the company saw a 3x growth in monthly active users during the half of 2017 and contributes the growth to Jio and cheaper data costs.

“We currently have regarding 50 million monthly active users that stream close to 1.3 billion songs on a monthly basis, we've seen an enormous growth last year and expect to see a growing quantity of traction from tier-II and tier-III cities this year,” said Prashan Agarwal, COO of Gaana to ET. Gaana is part of Times net, a subsidiary of bennett Coleman & Co (BCCL), the publisher of this newspaper.

Paytm Payments Bank launches its own mobile app

The app will enable customers to check balance, request for debit cards, access their digital debit cards and get 24/7 support from the bank.

Paytm Payments Bank has launched a separate mobile application for its mobile banking services. Through the app, the bank can provide seamless and secure access to its customers to all basic banking services.

In a note, Paytm Payments Bank said that the app can enable customers to check balance, request for debit cards, access their digital debit cards and find 24/7 support from the bank.

Launched in could 2017, the bank said that it's presently registered over forty three million saving bank customers and has already issued over two million physical debit cards. additionally, virtual debit card has been given to all or any forty three million saving bank customers.

PPBL debit card has intrinsic  security feature of enabling  or disabling it simply by one click within the app to secure against misuse of a debit card by any offender.

“The purpose of a new app is to segregate its operations from the present app that caters to customers of many cluster entities. However, PPBL can still serve its customers on its older app ought to they want thus. each apps can co-exist,” aforesaid Satish Kumar Gupta, chief officer, PPBL.

While the bank offers a forty five rate of interest on savings deposits until Rs one lakh that is permissible by the bank, on extraordinary the limit the surplus gets transferred automatically into a fixed deposit with a partner bank wherever a client will earn up to 8 percent.

How voice is becoming the fastest way to go online

Voice is the most basic means of communication. It’s also changing the way we interact with today’s devices

Did you know Sundar Pichai still has panipuri cravings?

Students of the Brihanmumbai municipal school in Andheri’s DN Nagar are currently aware about that savoury secret when the Google boss’ visit here last week.

And once a student asked Pichai what it takes to be an engineer, the boy next doorturned-Silicon valley lovely said, “Do you have a radio and television at home? once it gets previous, simply learn to interrupt that apart.”

It was the perfect photo-op. however Pichai used this opportunity to see however Bolo — a reader app hopped-up by Google AI for text-to-speech and speech recognition — works on the ground. He even tweeted, “Had the prospect to go to some students these days who are learning to read using Bolo, excited for all the good books they’ll discover.”

Far removed from that suburban mumbai school, Sid Chatterjee of Austin, Texas, too has a use for voice when he's on the road and has to agitate email. He dictates to his Samsung S8, that has a voice mode in English and different languages, as well as Bengali. “It’s my alternative and has ninety eight accuracy,” says Chatterjee, chief technology officer of Pune-headquartered Persistent Systems, an IT services company. “Talking to a device via voice interface is a very liberating feeling compared to determining a vernacular keyboard.”

No doubt, voice is reassuring in the continuous evolution of human-machine interactions, even for camp techies like Prasad Joshi, vice-president, rising technologies, Infosys. His natural language is Sanskrit however he has ne'er found it easy to use a marathi keyboard. “Now, I will see my device in marathi and send voice messages or write mails,” says Joshi, who is also based mostly within the us.

Apart from using voice in their personal lives, each these geeks have seen client demand for voice-activated products increase significantly in recent months.

Voice is that the most natural, intuitive suggests that of interaction. it's basic communication. Yet, it's been nearly the last to get there. using computers and digital devices continually meant a familiarity with QWERTY keyboards, basic commands, touchscreens, web interfaces then on. Besides, earlier generation voice accuracy left a lot to be desired, and users had no choice however to go for keyboards — virtual or physical —always a challenge for older users et al with low literacy levels.

As Umesh Sachdev, cofounder, Uniphore, a natural language process startup, says, “Voice is quicker compared to typing text—150 words spoken compared to forty words typed per minute.”

For those who frequently seek facilitate from random folks at post offices and ATMs to fill forms or withdraw cash, voice is becoming a game changer

Google had done intensive pilots before launching Bolo on March vi. The app, which is able to read out books to kids to enhance their Hindi and English skills, was tested in 200 villages around Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district before launch. throughout the period, sixty fourth village kids showed improvement in reading proficiency in mere 3 months, with Diya, the in-app interactive reading sidekick, telling stories and even correcting their pronunciation.

By 2021, Google expects 735 million web users in india. Of this, 563 million can access web in native languages. for several of them, voice are a simple thanks to go online.

In terms of comes, “voice counts beyond blockchain or cybersecurity,” says Joshi. Customers are seeking voice activation among apps. In last 12-15 months, voice interfaces are getting higher at understanding users, multiple languages and dialects and accuracy. according to Gartner, by 2020, nearly one-third of interactions are through conversations with good machines.

For the five hundred million folks already on-line, voice are an add on, the most natural way to move, whereas for those not yet on-line due to low literacy or challenge in using keyboards, voice can help leapfrog to that world. Subho Ray, president, internet and Mobile Association of india (IAMAI), says, “Voice as input can build a giant distinction for users who are not keyboard savvy.”

Reliance Jio Infocomm is already seeing a preference for voice interfaces among first-time data users. apart from playing music, helping in search, dimming lights or operating locks, Infosys’ Joshi sees even CXOs use voice commands to fetch market reports or get real time updates from their sales groups.

Banks, too, are experimenting with voice biometry. rather than users basic cognitive process multiple passwords, their voice may help complete transactions or a minimum of manifest users when they reach out to client service. for example, yes Bank has clocked five.7 million client interactions via its voice larva. Ritesh Pai, cluster president and chief digital officer, Yes Bank, says, “Besides serving as a means to input info, voice doubles up as a strong biometric authentication factor.”

For Standard hired Bank users, their voice is their password. “It’s a lifesaver,” says Subhasree Basu, a Mumbaibased bourgeois. “My husband may be a digital Luddite and honestly, these days, you wish a personal assistant just to recollect all your passwords.”

SoftBank-backed PolicyBazaar is functioning on models wherever folks will say, “Give Maine automobile insurance choices within this premium,” and find options.

Amazon’s Alexa will order products if you have enough Amazon Pay balance. In January, Alexa started voice bookings from PVR, KFC and Hungama Music.

“By 2022, 80th of our interaction with audio visual devices are non-touch,” predicts Sumit Chauhan, vice-president, way audio at Harman india, a manufacturer of speakers.

Bengaluru-based Uniphore believes retail shopper banking will be driven via voice-enabled apps for tasks as well as balance checking, funds transfers and bill payments. IndusInd Bank is on Alexa, that helps the bank’s customers complete straightforward tasks via voice commands.

Damon Xi, general manager, UCWeb india , Alibaba Digital Media cluster, says, “Voice input makes it convenient for users to urge info on the programme. UC has tied with Google to understand voice search on its platform. It’s a giant profit for users, particularly for heterogenous native language searches.”

Simple, not qwerty

Persistent’s Chatterjee cites the case of a colleague’s husband who is “writing” a book in Bengali using voice. Barbara Cartland, who determined almost one hundred of her 700-plus romance novels to a military of typists, would turn in her grave.

“Voice release a new market,” says PN Sudarshan, partner, technology, Deloitte india, a consultancy. for instance, farmers will get costs in native markets by asking their phones and artisans — who would possibly notice it challenging to use keyboards — will easily ask devices and find out about exhibitions and markets they will attend.

Ramesh Subramanian, chief technology officer, Infogain, a mid-tier technical school services company, points out that voice may be a boon for, say, a mechanic repairing associate automobile. “A voice-based application used on the mobile can build it straightforward for him to supply elements, see the automobile owner and even update insurance while not holdup in typewriting out info.” equally, surgeons, radiologists, nurses, managers, among a number of others, may gain advantage via voice interfaces.

Pitch perfect

Interacting with devices has ne'er been as easy or correct as currently. a lot of of this has been caused by the power of machines to understand the human voice.

Mountain read, California-based Vladimir Vuskovic, product manager, Google, points out that in 2013, machines could recognise 5 of twenty words. Now, they are ready to correctly understand nineteen. The intent of the user would possibly still be difficult to comprehend however technology is rising by using machine learning and natural language process capabilities.

Basically, the ability of machines to process data is improving. Joshi explains it as a confluence of technology — AI, ML, advanced networks. Voice interfaces can more improve with 5G networks of speeds over 20x of 4G networks and really low latency (from fifty milliseconds in 4G to one ms in 5G).

AI-powered voice assistants (such as Google Home, Alexa, and Siri) interpret natural language to finish an electronic task. Core parts of voice devices embody the automated speech recognition (ASR) engine and tongue process (NLP) engine. ASR converts speech signals into text, that is then provided as input to the natural language processing engine. This, in turn, uses tongue understanding to urge a purposeful representation of the spoken word. The response from the application is converted to speech using text-to-speech convertors.

“Algorithms and engines that power speech recognition have improved significantly,” feels Mahesh Makhija, leader, rising technologies, EY India. “Machines will work with giant data sets and the range of voice queries are of the order of hundreds of millions per month.”

Makhija is referring to queries on assistants like Siri, voice bots and devices like Alexa, Google Home and others. Alongside, noise reduction and cancellation techniques have supplemental to clarity of communications with machines. “Till now, humans were changing their behaviour to adjust to computers (by learning to kind, etc). Now, it’s the other means round,” adds Dilip RS, country manager, India, Alexa Skills (ASK), Amazon.

Alexa claims quite forty,000 developers in india developing voice skills (term for voice apps). Voice assistants are priced at Rs two,500-18,000 however Sudarshan of Deloitte sees a minimum of a five hundredth call in costs in a very year, as volumes increase and a lot of brands — as well as native makers —offer low-priced assistants.

Voice computing can do what Indic language keyboards failed to do. The latter required some accomplishment level to use and even folks aware of Indic languages ne'er found them snug. Voice command is way quicker and easier to input.

Daan van Esch, technical program manager, Google, explains, “Indian languages are hard to input in a very phone as most have a complicated script. the most natural way for anyone to interact with a device is to speak to it (like with a human). That’s why voice searches square measure increasing.”

Your English or mine?

Voice additionally release areas of informal commerce — although ab initio solely in routine room consumables or normal domestic use merchandise like razor blades, instead of attire, wherever patrons would need to check a wider choice.

“The informal facet of voice still has to be developed more to support more advanced questions or ongoing/flowing interactions,” says Annette Jump, senior director, Gartner.

The lack of ability of voice assistants to follow a line of thought, though, is a limitation but one which will be overcome with time. Jump points out 3 areas of development to improve user expertise — quick internet property to method queries, support for languages and specific dialects and convenience of relatively cheap VPA-enabled speakers. “One different hindrance to beat is individual ‘shyness’ to speak loudly to a tool and learning that some info a virtual assistant delivers may not be 100 percent correct,” adds Jump.

Indians typically combine languages in language, that may confuse voice assistants. Google, Alexa, Microsoft et al are acting on overcoming these challenges. Also, tons of users who square measure already on-line tend to use less of the voice assistants over time. Van Esch says, “People aware of keyboards won’t switch entirely to voice, although whereas interacting on mobile devices, folks can move to voice inputs in camera things.”

Anku Jain, manager, MediaTek india (a maker of chips), believes voice ushers in associate era of “calm technology. Gadgets can quieten down technical and nevertheless a lot of intelligent. easy voice assistants can become a lot of interactive, similar to a friend/assistant. this is often not solely sensible for folks on the move however also for those with accessibility or readability issues.”

Of course, like any unquiet technology, there'll be issues, particularly security problems (fears that somebody will record my voice and transfer cash out of my bank account). except for the net have-nots, the couch potatoes and also the folks that love chatting, it’s a convincing “yes” for voice input.