UIDAI Announces Virtual ID & Limited KYC

The UIDAI has today announced that it will be introducing a way to generate Virtual IDs from their website.

The Virtual ID, which would be a random 16-digit number, together with biometrics of the user would give any authorised agency like a mobile company, limited details like name, address, and photograph, which are enough for any verification.

Officials said a user can generate as many Virtual IDs as he or she wants. The older ID gets automatically canceled once a fresh one is generated. UIDAI will start accepting these IDs from March 1, 2018.

In theory, this would work like Virtual Credit Card numbers do — use and throw. But practically, I think it’s still going to be a mess.

January 10, 2018 ✚ Permalink

Indian Government Approves 100% Foreign Direct Investment for Single-Brand Retail; Signaling a Major Win for Apple

The Union Cabinet today approved changes to the FDI norms for India. The government has eased norms across various key sectors at a meeting led by the PM Narendra Modi, such as construction, aviation, etc. However, the most notable and relevant change comes in the single-brand retail sector. The Indian Government has now approved 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for single-brand retail in India via the Automatic Route. Previously, it was possible to invest up to 49 percent via the automatic route — anything higher than 49 percent required a government approval.

The amendments announced today are “intended to liberalize and simplify the FDI policy so as to provide ease of doing business in the country”, said a release by the Press Information Bureau.

This change is a major win for Apple, who has been trying to setup their own stores in India for a while now. The company did get a step closer in their attempts in April of 2016, but the Indian government wasn’t ready to relax the local sourcing norms for Apple. However, in June that year, the government announced some radical changes to the FDI policy that raised our hopes yet again. Today’s announcements have hopefully brought Apple India a little closer to their goal.

The government has also decided to permit entities to “set off” the 30% local sourcing norms for the first five years, beginning 1st April of the year of opening the first store.

I have been waiting for a really long time to see company-run Apple Stores in India, not for the sales experience, but rather to experience Apple’s incredible support first-hand. It sure seems that the dream is closer to being a reality now.

January 10, 2018 ✚ Permalink

Airtel Removes 1,000 Retailers from Network for Flouting Norms

People familiar with the matter said the company levied a penalty of around 50 times the commission paid on several retailers who violated the guidelines for the first time, and removed repeat offenders from the network besides imposing a fine on them.

This is in response to the massive Aadhaar-related fraud that came to light a few weeks ago.

[…] UIDAI imposed a fine of Rs 2.5 crore on Airtel for allegedly opening payment bank accounts for its mobile subscribers without consent. The report also notes that Airtel routed the LPG subsidies of 31 lakh users (payments worth Rs 190 crore) to their Airtel payment bank accounts instead of the beneficiaries’ original bank accounts.

It still boggles my mind all the crazy shit that Aadhaar has enabled to happen, so easily.

January 8, 2018 ✚ Permalink

ISRO set to launch 31 Satellites on January 12

This first mission of 2018 will be launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh and the payaload includes a Cartosat-2 Series satellite, one micro and one nano satellite each from India, along with 28 foreign satellites from the US and other countries.

January 8, 2018 ✚ Permalink

WD My Passport Wireless Pro Review

Over on SharpShutter.co, I posted my review of the WD My Passport Wireless Pro — a stellar portable storage device from Western Digital.

I’ll go ahead and say it. The WD My Passport Wireless Pro Hard Disk Drive is not just an essential tool to carry around for photographers and cinematographers, it is also one of the best backup and storage options out there to have in your toolkit today. WD has knocked it out of the park with this product and having spent about a month reviewing this product, I can confidently say this is by far my favorite WD product ever.

The WD My Passport Wireless Pro is priced as follows in India:

1TB model: Rs. 11,000
2TB model: Rs. 14,500
4TB model: Rs. 18,500

October 27, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Official India Pricing for iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, Apple TV 4K and Apple Watch Series 3

Apple today announced a new generation of iPhone models at its annual keynote event in Cupertino. This year, the company held its iPhone launch event at the newly constructed Steve Jobs Theater in its swanky new HQ — the Apple Park. From what I’ve seen in the photos and heard from friends who were lucky enough to attend the event, the Steve Jobs Theater looks every bit as stunning as you’d imagine.

Unlike the keynote event WWDC 2017 which was jam-packed, today’s keynote event felt purposefully natural and deliberate. Tim Cook and other Apple executives seemed in no hurry to finish a demo or move on to the next slide. It was also quite a bit weird to see them stutter when delivering the lines, which leads me to believe that the keynote either wasn’t rehearsed that well or they just didn’t find the time to.

Apple announced the following products today:

  • iPhone X
  • iPhone 8
  • iPhone 8 Plus
  • Apple TV 4K
  • Apple Watch Series 3

I’m still going through the material made available after today’s announcements and will be posting my thoughts, comments, and observations here very soon. In the mean time, here is the official pricing of all the products announced today.

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September 13, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Apple AirPods Review — Intelligent Wireless Earbuds

Apple AirPods Review in India

AirPods were introduced by Apple on September 7th, 2016 at an event that also gave us the iPhone 7 and the Apple Watch Series 2. Unlike these devices though, the AirPods didn’t actually go on sale immediately and instead, Apple did not start accepting orders until December that year. It has been quite difficult to get your hands on the AirPods, and the product is still seeing long shipping estimates, as late as six weeks at times.

I had made up my mind not to buy the AirPods. There was no way I could manage to somehow get my hands on one, and I had already spent ₹25,000 on the incredible Bose QC20i noise-cancelling earphones [Buy Now on Amazon or Flipkart]. There was no way I could afford them. But more importantly, I just didn’t feel the need to spend ₹15,400 on another pair of earphones, just to get rid of the wires.

Then, over the last six months of 2017, I witnessed several people that I follow on Twitter slowly end up buying AirPods for themselves and tweeting about their experiences using them. Every single person who bought these AirPods had high praises to sing for them. It was great to hear about the experience of owning the AirPods from people I know and look up to. Six months ago, I had made up my mind to not buy them, and by the start of June 2017, I was torn. I wasn’t immediately looking to buy them since they weren’t officially available in India anyway, but a big part of me really wanted them. Badly.

Apple wasn’t sending me a review unit, so in the end, I decided to dive in on my own and by June 13th, I was holding a pair of AirPods in my hand.

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July 30, 2017 ✚ Permalink

My Journey Towards My First iPhone

It was exactly 10 years ago today, on June 29th, 2007, that the original iPhone went on sale. Although it was first introduced and demoed on stage by Steve Jobs back in January 2009, it didn’t actually go on sale till June that year. Today, irrespective of which mobile platform you primarily use, there’s no denying that the iPhone has completely revolutionized the mobile phone industry.

On its 10th anniversary, I decided to take a look back at some of my original tweets about the iPhone from 2007-2008.

I joined Twitter on 15th August, 2007, a couple of months after the iPhone went on sale in the US. Back then, I had just purchased a new Mac — the old white Mac mini, and was getting used to the joy and delight of using Max OS X Tiger. Coming from Windows, this was a fascinating new world for me, and I was hooked.

On the other hand, the iPhone didn’t catch my attention till the end of 2007. Sure, I had read about its launch and its featured, but back then, India as a country was nowhere on Apple’s radar and there was no chance that Apple would start selling the iPhone here (They didn’t).

My first tweet about the iPhone was congratulating someone on her purchase of an iPhone:

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June 29, 2017 ✚ Permalink