The arrival of e-tailers in India
Last week e-tailer Quikr received funding of $90 million (around Rs. 540 crore), which only strengthened the belief that the Indian e-commerce segment, although nascent, is here to stay and growing fast.
Estimated at about $13 billion, the e-commerce industry is dominated by the online travel segment, which, according to a KPMG in India report, accounted for 71 per cent of total transactions.
Growth of e-commerce depends on Internet penetration and literacy factors, which explain India’s slower trajectory.
Development of e-commerce is also predicated on the expectations of the middle class. “The main metros will grow but faster rates will come from Tier 2 cities where access remains the issue. On the supply side, companies have to sort out logistics like warehousing strategically,” he added.
Gyaan:
E-tailing (less frequently: etailing) is the selling of retail goods on the Internet. Short for "electronic retailing," and used in Internet discussions as early as 1995, the term seems an almost inevitable addition to e-mail, e-business, and e-commerce. E-tailing is synonymous with business-to-consumer (B2C) transaction.
E-tailing has resulted in the development of e-tailware -- software tools for creating online catalogs and managing the business connected with doing e-tailing. A new trend is the price comparison site that can quickly compare prices from a number of different e-tailers and link you to them.
Second indictment will impact ties: India
After a few weeks when the Indo-U.S. relationship appeared to be getting back on course, the second indictment in New York against diplomat Devyani Khobragade has caused it to slide with New Delhi warning that this action could “impact” bilateral ties.
The government has decided not to engage on this case in the U.S. legal system anymore for, as far as India is concerned, it has no merits.
U.S. defends snooping as ‘lawful’ and ‘valid’
The United States defended its controls on mass surveillance on Friday before a U.N. watchdog body, amid a sweeping review of Washington’s record on civil and political rights.
Arguments given:
- intelligence programmes in the spotlight were “lawful under the law of the United States.”
- “The intelligence collection in question is only for a valid purpose, and that is for foreign intelligence for counter-intelligence purposes,”
- “The collection does not intend to, or have the effect of, changing or challenging freedom of expression. Nor is it designed to or does it have the effect of disadvantaging people based on their ethnicity, on their race, on their gender, on their sexual orientation,”
- there was “rigorous oversight” by a host of authorities and the courts.
The United States will give up its role overseeing the system of Web addresses and domain names that form the basic plumbing of the Internet, turning it over in 2015 to an international group whose structure and administration will be determined during the next year, government officials said on Friday.
Since the dawn of the Internet, the United States has been responsible for assigning the numbers that form Internet addresses, the .com, .gov and .org labels that correspond to those numbers, and for the vast database that links the two and makes sure Internet traffic goes to the right place.
The function has been subcontracted since 1998 to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), an international non-profit organisation, with the expectation that the United States would eventually step back from its role.
But that transition has taken on a new urgency in the past year because of revelations that the U.S. intelligence community, particularly the National Security Agency (NSA), has been intercepting Internet traffic as part of its global spying efforts.
Many businesses, dependent on the smooth functioning of the Internet for their livelihood, have expressed concern about what form the new organisation will take.
United States will not accept a proposal that replaces it with a government-led or intergovernmental organisation.
The Commerce Department also laid out principles that must govern any new body, including
- maintaining the openness of the Internet and
- maintaining its security and stability.
The spying programs had nothing to do with the role of the United States or Icann in administering Internet addresses. But the perception that the United States was pulling all the strings led to a global uproar.
United States also made clear that the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations affiliate that oversees global telephone traffic, would not be allowed to take over Internet governance. That was an issue last year at an ITU conference in Dubai.
Gyaan
ICANN
Short for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit organization that has assumed the responsibility for IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management and root server system management functions previously performed under U.S. Government contract.
IP address
IP address is short for Internet Protocol (IP) address.
An IP address is an identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. Networks using the TCP/IP protocol route messages based on the IP address of the destination.
An IP address consists of 32 bits, often shown as 4 octets of numbers from 0-255 represented in decimal form instead of binary form. For example, the IP address: 168.212.226.204 in binary form is 10101000.11010100.11100010.11001100.
But it is easier for us to remember decimals than it is to remember binary numbers, so we use decimals to represent the IP addresses when describing them. However, the binary number is important because that will determine which class of network the IP address belongs to.
The Two Parts of an IP Address
An IP address consists of two parts, one identifying the network and one identifying the node, or host.
The Class of the address determines which part belongs to the network address and which part belongs to the node address. All nodes on a given network share the same network prefix but must have a unique host number.
Protocol
An agreed-upon format for transmitting data between two devices. The protocol determines the following:
1. the type of error checking to be used
2. data compression method, if any
3. how the sending device will indicate that it has finished sending a message
4. how the receiving device will indicate that it has received a message
Domain name
Domain names are used to identify one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html, the domain name is pcwebopedia.com.
Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain (TLD) it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains. For example:
International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), originally the International Telegraph Union, is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies. The ITU
1. coordinates the shared global use of the radio spectrum,
2. promotes international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits,
3. works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, and
4. assists in the development and coordination of worldwide technical standards.
ITU also organizes worldwide and regional exhibitions and forums, such as ITU TELECOM WORLD, bringing together representatives of government and the telecommunications and ICT industry to exchange ideas, knowledge and technology.
ITU, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a member of the United Nations Development Group.
IP address is short for Internet Protocol (IP) address.
An IP address is an identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. Networks using the TCP/IP protocol route messages based on the IP address of the destination.
An IP address consists of 32 bits, often shown as 4 octets of numbers from 0-255 represented in decimal form instead of binary form. For example, the IP address: 168.212.226.204 in binary form is 10101000.11010100.11100010.11001100.
But it is easier for us to remember decimals than it is to remember binary numbers, so we use decimals to represent the IP addresses when describing them. However, the binary number is important because that will determine which class of network the IP address belongs to.
The Two Parts of an IP Address
An IP address consists of two parts, one identifying the network and one identifying the node, or host.
The Class of the address determines which part belongs to the network address and which part belongs to the node address. All nodes on a given network share the same network prefix but must have a unique host number.
Protocol
An agreed-upon format for transmitting data between two devices. The protocol determines the following:
1. the type of error checking to be used
2. data compression method, if any
3. how the sending device will indicate that it has finished sending a message
4. how the receiving device will indicate that it has received a message
Domain name
Domain names are used to identify one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html, the domain name is pcwebopedia.com.
Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain (TLD) it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains. For example:
- gov - Government agencies
- edu - Educational institutions
- org - Organizations (nonprofit)
- mil - Military
- com - commercial business
- net - Network organizations
- ca - Canada
- th - Thailand
International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), originally the International Telegraph Union, is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies. The ITU
1. coordinates the shared global use of the radio spectrum,
2. promotes international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits,
3. works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, and
4. assists in the development and coordination of worldwide technical standards.
ITU also organizes worldwide and regional exhibitions and forums, such as ITU TELECOM WORLD, bringing together representatives of government and the telecommunications and ICT industry to exchange ideas, knowledge and technology.
ITU, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a member of the United Nations Development Group.
‘Include right to health in manifestos’
In a manifesto issued here, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, a conglomerate of health activists and individuals, has said the right to health is a fundamental and universal right of all citizens, and this would need to be respected and realised within a timeframe.
The right to health needs also to be located in the underlying determinants of health such as
1. access to safe water and sanitation,
2. adequate food and nutrition,
3. housing and secure livelihoods.
Above all, social inequities — based on disparities on the lines of gender, caste and class — have a profound impact on the health of the poorest and the most marginalised, the manifesto says.
The activists have demanded a right to health law to facilitate universal access to quality and comprehensive health care in the primary, secondary and tertiary services and to make denial or non-availability for reasons of access, affordability or quality a justifiable offence. They also want the public health expenditure increased to 3.6 per cent of the GDP. Effective, safe and non-exploitative health care must be provided in all health facilities with due dignity and respect to patient rights, comforts and satisfaction.
The civil society groups have said gender-based violence should be recognised as a public health issue and efforts should be made to give survivors access to comprehensive health care, including physical and psychosocial.
Gyaan
Health expenditure; public (% of GDP) in India was last measured at 1.20 in 2011, according to the World Bank. Public health expenditure consists of
1. recurrent and capital spending from government (central and local) budgets,
2. external borrowings and grants (including donations from international agencies and nongovernmental organizations), and
3. social (or compulsory) health insurance funds.
Health expenditure; total (% of GDP) in India was last measured at 3.87 in 2011, according to the World Bank. Total health expenditure is the sum of public and private health expenditure. It covers the provision of health services (preventive and curative), family planning activities, nutrition activities, and emergency aid designated for health but does not include provision of water and sanitation.
1.20 - Public health expenditure
3.87 - Public + Private
Extra Gyaan
National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India(NAFED)
National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) is an apex organization of marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce in India, under Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. It was founded in October 1958 to promote the trade of agricultural produce and forest resources across the nation. NAFED is now one of the largest procurement as well as marketing agencies for agricultural products in India. With its headquarters in New Delhi, NAFED as four regional offices at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, apart from 28 zonal offices in state capitals and important cities.
In 2008, it established, National Spot Exchange, a Commodities exchange as a joint venture of Financial Technologies (India) Ltd. (FTIL).
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National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) is an apex organization of marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce in India, under Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. It was founded in October 1958 to promote the trade of agricultural produce and forest resources across the nation. NAFED is now one of the largest procurement as well as marketing agencies for agricultural products in India. With its headquarters in New Delhi, NAFED as four regional offices at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, apart from 28 zonal offices in state capitals and important cities.
In 2008, it established, National Spot Exchange, a Commodities exchange as a joint venture of Financial Technologies (India) Ltd. (FTIL).
Why in news? - Click here
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