Tech cos may be forced to sell users' public dataThe government may make it mandatory for companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon to sell public, or non-personal, data that they collect to anyone in the country seeking access to it, including the government and private entities. This follows an apparent change of view by MeitY, which now says that companies - and not a government repository - should hold and monetise public data.
Why does it matter?
India, like other countries, is grappling with how to break the value data chain held by big tech companies and wants them to share their data. The 'Seven Super' companies - Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook (all US based) and China's Tencent and Alibaba - account for two-thirds of the total data market by value, according to a recent report by UNCTAD on the digital economy.
The new guidelines will be aimed at ensuring competition in this space and universal access to the database generated from its citizens, the official said. Read more
What led to a 'derailed lunar mission'What's the news?
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has located the Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander on the lunar surface that it had lost contact during its descent on the moon’s south pole, chairman K Sivan confirmed on Sunday. Cameras onboard the orbiter has taken images of the lander on the moon’s surface.
What went wrong?
The orbiter, whose life has been extended to seven years from its intended lifespan of one year, was orbiting over the lander taking images during its descent. It has made subsequent visits over the location to take high resolution images, said an Isro scientist, who did not want to be named.
The communication equipment in the Vikram lander is likely to have been damaged when it tumbled during its “hard landing”, the scientist said. Read more
WestBridge to snap up Fogg-makerWest-Bridge Capital is in discussions to take majority control of Vini Cosmetics, valuing the maker of Fogg deodorants at about Rs 6,500 crore, two years after it first backed the Ahmedabad-based consumer goods company, people familiar with the matter said.
The India-focussed fund plans to pick up an additional 30% stake in the company from early investor Sequoia Capital and the promoter group for around ₹2,000 crore, the people briefed on the matter said.
Why is it important?
Fogg remains the market leader with an 18% share in a ₹3,047 crore deodorant segment nationally, followed by ITC’s Engage at 11%, as per recent data from Nielsen. For WestBridge, which last year bought Star Health Insurance as part of a consortium, taking majority control of Vini will be a big bet on the India consumer story, where new brands in the value segment have growth potential. Read more
ATM hacking tools on the dark webWhat's the news?
With latest tools and devices on sale in the dark web, an ATM machine can now easily be hacked in 15 minutes by any amateur.
Why should you know this?
While earlier in the dark corner of the World Wide Web, one needed to know the basics of it to buy such things, cybersecurity startup CloudSEK has discovered that sellers on the dark web sell latest ready-made tools like malware cards, USB ATM Malware and more to hack these machines which then dispenses money, making the job easy for any individual.
These malwares, mainly target the systems that are running on Windows XP. Also, most of these devices work on ATM machines globally and do not require modifications to work in different locations. Read more
Investopad founders' $25M early-stage fund What's the news?
The founders of seed-stage incubator Investopad have launched their maiden fund, the $25 million (about Rs 180 crore) sector-agnostic Good Capital - that will invest in the pre-seed to Series A funding rounds.
Why is it significant?
The development comes even as a number of marquee investors, such as Sequoia Capital, have launched their seed-stage investment vehicles, at a time when early-stage financing for India’s startup ecosystem has dipped.
The early-stage firm, which will invest between $100,000-$2 million in B2B and B2C ventures, has made two investments thus far -live commerce venture SimSim and augmented reality startup Spatial, which also counts Uber co-founder Garrett Camp, and Zynga founder Mark Pincus, as early investors.
"Conventionally, funds have targeted the top of the pyramid by exploring visible opportunities and replicated US companies and models. In contrast, Good Capital's first principles thinking applied to India's larger economy, which is coming online at scale with a supporting ecosystem for the first time, has been refreshing to see,” Dinesh Moorjani, managing director at Comcast Ventures and co-founder, Tinder, said. Read more