Indian Railways to Offer Free WiFi on Trains Starting Today
As announced in the rail budget this year, Indian Railways is starting its free WiFi service in trains starting today. The first train to offer this service to its passengers is the New Delhi – Howrah Rajdhani Express.
The train will have a 4 Mbps connection which will be shared amongst all the passengers on the train (which is very low in our opinion). Passengers will have to provide their mobile number or PNR number in order to get the password over SMS to access the free WiFi service.
Users will be able to browse, check emails, chat and even watch YouTube videos (if the speed allows) on the free wifi connection. However, the service will block access to all porn sites and illegal sites.
Indian Railways plans to offer the free WiFi service to 50 other trains by the end of this year which includes all the Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto Express in addition to other trains. We hope that they also plan to increase the speed as 4 Mbps will be too low, especially on Shatabdi trains which will have passengers sitting during the day (as opposed to sleeping on overnight trains).
[via BGR India]
Order Delicacies from All Over India and Get Them Delivered to Your Home via Exoticabazaar.com
Exoticabazaar.com is an online store where you can order famous delicacies (sweets or namkeen) from all over India. Once ordered, you get the mouth watering dishes delivered to your home in a few days. Exoticabazaar has tied up with a lot of famous vendors from all over India. Here are some of the most famous items:
- Thaggu ke laddo from Kanpur
- Panchi petha from Agra
- Ram Chandra Sahai’s Nankhatai from Meerut
- Bhakarwadi from Pune
- Mysore Pak from Mysore
- Brijwasi pede from Mathura
- Banarsi kalakand (milk cake) from Alwar
The prices are more than the actual prices of these items in their respective cities. This is primarily because they have included the average courier charges from the respective points of origin.
The site takes payment via ccavenue which is secure and convenient. Once ordered, you get a confirmation email from ccavenue and exoticabazaar indicating about your order. Sadly, that is the only information you can get about your order as there is no order history or details section on the website (probably because there is no central warehouse for inventory).
I have tried the service a couple of times and they have always successfully delivered the food items within a week’s time. The items are fresh at the time of delivery. Hop on to exoticabazaar.com to order your favorite delicacy now!
Government Allows Transponder Capacity Hiring from Foreign Satellite Operators to Meet the Growing Demand for HD Channels in India
In order to enable broadcasting companies offer more channels in India, the Government has decided to allow transponder capacity hiring from foreign satellite operator for broadcasters facing shortage of transponders on Indian satellites. TataSky is one such operator which is facing shortage of transponder capacity due to which they are unable to launch more HD channels on their platform.
DTH companies in India are not allowed to hire transponder space from foreign satellite operators without government’s approval. This is causing old players like TataSky to fall short of high capacity transponders capable of carrying HD channels thus making it difficult for them to compete with the new operators which have new transponders with much higher capacity and higher number of HD channels on their platform.
India is amidst a HD revolution and moves like this by the government are welcome by the consumers. This move should heat up the competition in the arena and offer much more choice to the consumers.
[via ET]
Indian Airports to Accept Mobile Boarding Passes for Domestic Flights Soon
TOI is reporting that the Ministry of Civil Aviation of India has asked the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security to enable airline companies to issue barcoded boarding passes on mobile phones. The ministry wants to implement this system in the coming weeks, so that the domestic airline companies in India will soon be able to send mobile boarding passes to travelers on their email.
This is a welcome move and will surely benefit a lot of travelers and save a lot or trees. This will also result in shorter lines at the check in counters at the airports. Most smartphone vendors offer apps for such purposes which were otherwise useless before in India. Apple has Passbook app on the iPhone and Samsung has the wallet app on its Android based smartphones. After this move, these apps should be of some real use to India consumers.
Exclusivelane.com Offers Handicrafts Products Online
Exclusivelane.com is a Noida based startup which offers authentic handicrafts for sale online. The site is one of a kind in India and aims to provide quality products with fantastic customer service.
Exclusivelane is also planning to start 24 hour delivery service within Delhi and will give you the products for free if they are not able to meet this deadline. This will also be first of a kind service by an ecommerce company in India.
The online store offers a good collection of handicrafts in various categories in all price ranges. One can argue that the same item can probably be bought at a cheaper price in the market, however, exclusivelane.com will offer convenience to those who cannot (or do not want to) go to such markets. Plus, you always have an option to return any defective product without any hassle.
The site is offering free shipping across India and flat 15% off if you sign up now.
Use Apnacourier.com to Get Your Couriers Picked Up From Your Home
Apnacourier.com is a new service which makes sending couriers super easy. All you need to do is log in to the website & book your courier. They will then request their courier partners to arrange for a pick up fro your door and deliver it to wherever it is supposed to go. Apnacourier has partnered with various courier agencies in India for this arrangement.
The best part is that you get to see the total courier charges on the website and pay the same in advance. You can use your credit card or net banking to pay for the courier charges. This ensures that the pick up is hassle free and you don’t have to worry about paying the courier guy.
We believe that Apnacourier has worked out bulk deals with various courier agencies which lets them offer reasonable rates to their customers. But the biggest advantage with the service is its simplicity and the convenience it offers.
I have tested the service and found it to be super smooth and totally hassle free. The payment process is simple and similar to most ecommerce sites in India. The only limitation I found was that you cannot send courier to many remote places in India. I believe this might be due to limited coverage area by their delivery partners.
The next time you have to send a courier, do give Apnacourier.com a try and let us know how it went for you.
Saavn to Go Pro, Offer Offline Playback and High Quality Streaming at $3.99 a Month
Online music streaming service Saavn.com is about to launch its Pro service at the price of $3.99 a month. Pro users will be able to cache songs they want in their mobile apps for offline playback later. Saavn will also offer high quality 320kbps songs in the future to pro users.
Features
- Offline Listening: Available on up to 5 devices per account.
- Ad-Free Listening
- Sync multiple devices over cellular or wi-fi data connection
- Pro Audio at 320 kbps (will be added later).
[via NextBigWhat]
TyreOnWheels.com Will Change Your Vehicle’s Tyres at Your Home
TyreOnWheels.com is a Delhi/NCR based startup which provides home delivery and installation of tyres for your vehicles. All you have to do is log on to the website and select your vehicle’s model, make & variant to select a set of tyros of your choice and they will be home delivered to you and installed by professional staff from the TyreOnWheels team.
The service is currently available only in Delhi/NCR and offers tyres for almost all 4-wheeler and 2-wheeler vehicles from all the brands in India.
So the next time you have to get your vehicle’s tyres replaced, do give this service a try.
[via NextBigWhat]
Google India Mapathon 2013
We all know that mapping the world is not easy. Google has done a great job in developed countries but collaborating with the authorities. However, for developing countries like India, where establishments and points of interests change as frequently as every 6 months, it is difficult to just rely on the government authorities to provide accurate up to date data.
In an effort to enhance the Google Maps data for India, Google India is running a Mapathon where anyone with a Google account can improve the Google maps data for their neighborhood or places they are familiar with. Google India is also offering attractive prizes for people like 10 Samsung Galaxy Note 800 Android Tablets, 40 Samsung Galaxy S II GT I9100 Android Phones, 50 Flipkart gift coupons worth Rs. 5000 each and 1000 Google Mapathon 2013 t-shirts and certificates (includes the top 100 above and another 900 people).
In order to participate in the effort, log on to Google India Mapathon 2013 microsite and enroll yourself. Thereafter, any improvements you make in Google Mapmaker will count towards the effort.
Google silently launches "See Inside" in India
I was browsing for restaurants earlier this week and saw that Google has started adding "See Inside" in India too. Despite setbacks to Google from providing a real Street View for Indian cities, Google has managed to innovate.
“See Inside” is a Street View for inside restaurants, shops and other establishments. There are already tons of places in Hyderabad for which you can check out the ambience in person.
