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The wall street journal blog which has a section devoted to India has an interesting analysis of how social media is being used by the political parties across India in the buildup to the regional state elections.

It is very interesting to note that websites, email, social media including youtube has become a tool to propagate agendas by political parties and interact with the voters directly. While the blog rightly observes that the use of social media is minimal as compared to the last US elections which Barak Obama won -It is widely believed that Barrak Obama won because of the optimal use of digital media to reach out the voters. The good news is that we are getting there as Indians. I’m very surprised that the national parties like Congress and the BJP do not have mobile apps considering the penetration of mobile phones specially in the states that are going to elections these days.

It is heartening to see that BJP has launched its IPTV Channel which is used to connect to them masses. See the IPTV launch announcement below

One of the comforting and exciting feeling is that I’m part of era which is seeing the emerging and adoption of new technologies. While the implementation of the new technologies might be different from the developed countries it is exciting to see how the technologies are adapted to suit the Indian conditions.

Professional Wrestling Entertainment has finally hit India with TNA launching “Ring Ka King”

Wrestling has a huge fan base in India with WWE and TNA being available to the Indian viewers through the cable sports channel Ten Sports and ESPN Star Sports. Will the Indian audience lap up “Ring Ka King” ? The answer is not easy but what I can say is that if done right it can be a huge success specially if Ring Ka King starts touring the various cities in India as the Indian population is dying for entertainment other than the bollywood films.

Why is the Iphone 4S expensive in India as compared to other countries? Can someone help me understand this?

California based BitGravity acquired by Tata Communications

By Manan Kakkar | January 11, 2011, 8:12pm PST

Summary: Tata Communications has acquired content delivery network provider BitGravity. Being unable to generate revenues BitGravity needed to make a move and Tata Communications was presented with a good business opportunity.

In 2008, Tata Communications made an $11.5 Million strategic investment in California based Content Deliver Network (CDN) BitGravity. This enabled Tata to step into the space and provide solutions to Indian based companies like Quick Heal Technologies, Nimbus Communications, NDTV etc.

It has now been confirmed that Tata Communications has acquired BitGravity for an undisclosed amount. According to industry expert, Dan Rayburn, BitGravity wasn’t able to generate revenue and grow their customer base due to two reasons:

• Focused on being low cost solution provider
• Lack of marketing

BitGravity was one of the first to bring HD live video streaming over the Internet. The company also provides on-demand video and interactive applications. Talking about the acquisition, Bitgrvity co-founder Perry Wu said, “Tata Communications bet on BitGravity’s vision and people to provide innovative video services. As a combined entity, we can propel our position in the market, and the opportunity to accelerate our vision on a significantly larger scale was one we couldn’t pass up.”

Tata Communications is expected to benefit from the deal given it is at the right price and BitGravity was running out of options. Tata Communications, senior VP said, “Two years ago, we made an investment in BitGravity to provide content delivery services for Tata Communications. With the success we have seen in the marketplace and our ownership of BitGravity, we can now fully invest in the potential that exists around the globe and accelerate the delivery of new features and services to our customers.”

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Content Delivery, On-demand, California, Vision, BitGravity, Managed Hosting, Corporate Communications, Cloud Computing, Marketing, Manan Kakkar

Telecommunication engineer with a keen interest in end-user technology and a News junkie, I share my thoughts while preparing for my Master’s in Information Management.

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Manan Kakkar

Manan Kakkar’s affiliations: A Microsoft MVP for Windows Desktop Experience (2009 to August 2011); Was the founding editor for The Next Web’s Microsoft channel; Writes about technology news and computing software on Techie Buzz.

Biography

Manan Kakkar

I completed a diploma in Electronics before finishing a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics and Telecommunications. End-user technologies interest me a lot. Being a news-junkie, following and writing about what’s current and interesting is something I enjoy.

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Though it happened a long time ago (at the start of 2011) but I did not realise that Tata Communications bought BitGravity

BitGravity is a CDN (Content Delivery System) based out of California and is a popular destination that is used a lot for delivering live video streams. I happened to be looking for the Lakme Fashion Week TV and since they are one of the customers of BitGravity I realised that BitGravity has been taken over by Tata Communications.

As a Indian I’m proud and I suppose that would be the case with other fellow Indians. I hope there are some interesting things to come due to this take over for the audience in India. Go India Go!