Google has launched an initiative called "Helping Women Get Online" in a quest to bring over 50 million Indian women online by end of 2014.

This initiative has been launched by Google India in partnership with Intel, HUL, Future Group & Axis Bank and aims to raise awareness about the benefits of Internet for women and empower them through digital literacy initiative.

Among the active internet population in India, only about 30 percent constitute women. The HWGO initiative aims to bring balance in Indian online space by educating and empowering them. For this purpose, a new website – http://www.hwgo.com – has been launched.

The website is essentially collation of relevant content which will serve as an important information source for these women. Google has also partnered with Johnson & Johnson, Indiatimes, Healthkart, Babyoye and others to create women centric content for the website.

Along with creation of website, an internet Toll Free Helpline number, 1800 41 999 77 has been allotted, where women can call to get guidance if they get stuck on the Internet. Google also plans to launch a mass media campaign through various online and offline channels to create awareness about the site and toll free number.

Currently, hwgo website features articles and how-to guides on Computer basics, Internet skills, chat & email etc. The site has information resources on childcare, cooking/recipe, financial and household activities. It also showcases videos on women who have been successful on the internet.

Our View

There is no doubt that India has far less percentage of women on internet than most of the other countries in the world. HWGO site can be of great help as long as awareness of site is spread through offline mediums like television and print ads.

Though the initiative is great, we think that the initiative might meet limited success – The reason being lack of proper internet infrastructure in India. Though HWGO site provides great information, getting on internet itself may be a major hassle for majority of women, especially housewives.

In past couple of years, Google has launched various initiative with the aim of bringing businesses and people online. They have been moderately successful in their quest as well. We will need to wait and see if HWGO initiative meets some kind of success too!

What is your opinion?

Devices are getting updated left right and center here. All those who have been waiting for Android Kit Kat on their Nexus 4 rejoice. The update has finally started umm… shipping. Besides Nexus 4, another phone in another country is getting the latest Android version.

Let me take each update:

1. Nexus 4:

It is being seen that the Android 4.4 (Kit kat) update has come to Nexus 4 finally. The update is OTA (Over the Air) and takes the device to Android 4.4 KRT16S build. The update is over 230 MB in size and will automatically be checked the phone.

If you want, you can manually check the phone as well by going to Settings>About Phone> System Updates. The upgrade will be in phases and thus it is possible that you might have to wait a few days to get the update. The important thing is that now the update is being sent everyone should sooner or later get it.

2. Moto X:

Moto X (Verizon) is getting Android 4.4 (Kit Kat). While this might seem meaningless to Indians it is actually quite significant. It shows Motorola's commitment to the device and brings another device in the market with quick updates.

Also, more importantly, this means that it is highly probable that when Moto G is launched in India, the device might be already on Android 4.4. Also, this indicates that any new updates of Android will find themselves in the new Moto devices. The impact of Google is visible on Motorola.

Besides these two, Nexus 7 (both 2012 and 2013) is also in line for the updates. While it is a little delayed one can expect to have the same in some time as well.

Devices With Android 4.4 Kitkat

1. Nexus 10
2. Nexus 7 (2012 and 2013)
3. Nexus 5
4. Nexus 4
5. Moto X
6. HTC One ( announced)
7. Samsung S4 (announced)
8. Sony Z series (unconfirmed reports)
9. Huawei Ascent P6 (announced)

Coming back to Nexus 4, the most important reason to update to Android 4.4 will be the fact that it is built keeping lower hardware requirements in mind. This means that powerful hardware like Nexus 4 will run even faster than before.

The time has come to keep a watch on your phone for the latest version of Android. For the rest of the people owning a Samsung or an HTC, please stare annoyingly at your phone manufacturer.

This is unbelievably creative and a genius of an idea, whoever thought about it!

Let me first give you a bit of a background: Dreamforce is an annual Salesforce event, attended by over 100 thousand people from all around the globe. It is one of the biggest cloud computing event where experts and Industry leaders in cloud computing get together to collaborate and connect.

This year's Dreamforce 2013 event is being currently held in San Francisco and is expected to have footfalls of over 135,000 people including very well know people like Sheryl Sandberg from Facebook, Marissa Mayer from Yahoo among many others.

Salesforce is probably the biggest competitor of Zoho and most of the attendees of the Dreamforce event are potentially Salesforce customers, which are Zoho's target customers as well. Given that it is a Salesforce event, obviously, Zoho has no chance of advertising or showcasing their products in a big way..

So what does Zoho do?

They come up with a brilliant idea that will register Zoho in nearly every attendees mind!

For every Dreamforce attendee, Zoho has arranged for a free ride to take them from one session to another in customized vehicles plastered with big Zoho banners. And during their travel, the Zoho representatives provide attendees with more information on Zoho and their offerings.

And here the punch line which they put out!

Take a test Ride with Zoho

Salesforce doesn't have to know

Check out some of the photos which Zoho put up and you will have an idea of what I am talking about…

This is not the first time Zoho is using creative ways to reach out to potential customers. In 2009, they created a satire video, when corporate VP, Ron Markezich of Microsoft Online had called Zoho as Fake office. This video was covered by international media and gave Zoho lot of mileage!

Kudos to Zoho and the team who came up with this idea!

Azim Premji, founder and chairman of Wipro Limited, who is sitting on a corpus of $1 billion private equity fund PremjiInvest, is attempting to enter into ecommerce sector. He is India's fourth richest person with total assets worth $14 billion or Rs 84,000 crore.

Reportedly, Azim Premji is all set to buy a stake in Myntra.com for Rs 300 crore, as the valuation of this ecommerce portal has been calculated to the tune of $250 million or Rs 1500 crore. People close to this investment plan have revealed that along with Azim Premji, British investor CDC is also participant of this latest round of investment. Myntra.com is already funded by existing investors Accel Partners and Tiger Global which are US based investors.

Why Myntra.com?

Arguably, Myntra.com is India's largest stand alone fashion e-tailer, which has managed to stay ahead of Jabong.com in terms of gross merchandise revenues. Right now, Myntra.com witnesses annual revenues of Rs 800 crore or $120 million and by 2015, it is expected to cross Rs 2500 crore.

In-house private labels account for 15% of all sales inside Myntra, and plans have been already made to increase this share and bring in more fashion conscious people to buy clothes online. The latest round of investments is targeted to make its back-end operations strong and to expand its presence in small and medium sized cities inside India as well.

As of now, Myntra has secured a total of $75 million investment from its existing investors: Tiger Global and Accel Partners.

Debut for Azim Premji In Ecommerce Sector

Through PremjiInvest, Premji has already invested in various portfolios and companies such as ABG Shipyard,Dish TV, JM Financial, Marico, Shopper's Stop, Koutons and Today's Writing Products. He is a smart investor and knows when to quit a business. Last year, he gave up 20% of his investment in Manipal Global Education, for a raising more funds for its expansion.

If this latest round of talks with Myntra goes through, then it would mark Azim Premji's debut in eCommerce sector as an investor.

Indian eCommerce sector is right now on a roll, with a triple digit growth of 150% witnessed in last three years. In the year 2009, there was total online sales of $3.8 billion which has increased to $9.5 billion in 2012.

For an entrepreneur and investor, eCommerce segment is one of the hottest sectors right now, and to make a permanent name in this industry, this is the right time to invest and grow a business. And Azim Premji is doing exactly that. It would be interesting to watch, how much innovation and value-addition his presence can bring into eCommerce.

The wait is finally over – The much awaited Google Nexus 5 smartphone and Nexus 7 tablet is now available in India on Google Play store.

While many expected that only Nexus 5 will come only in 16GB version in India, that is not the case. Even the 32 GB version is available that too in both black and white colors.

The 16GB version has a price tag of Rs. 28,999, while the 32GB version has a price tag of Rs. 32,999. And shipping is quick as well – according to play store, Nexus 5 gets shipped in one or two days.

Even though there had been rumours of Nexus 5 launching in India, I had not expected it to come so early. yes, Snapdeal and few other sites did list Nexus 5 for pre-orders, but I was quite apprehensive about the launch, given the track record of Nexus devices in India.

Kudos to Google for making it available so soon in India.

Google Nexus 7 Tablet

And it is not only Nexus 5, even Nexus 7 tablet is also available in all its glory. All 3 variants of this powerful tablet are available.

The 16Gb version is available for Rs. 20,999 and 32GB version has been made available for Rs. 23,999. Surprisingly, even the 4G or the LTE version is available in 32 GB variant.

As for specs of both the devices, it is suffice to say that they are absolutely top of the line. With both of them featuring Snapdragon Quadcore processors and 2 gigs of ram, there will hardly be any app or game that will break sweat on these powerful beasts.

Being a Nexus 4 user for over a year, I can safely say that if you are looking for a top end smartphone or a tablet, there is no better choice than these devices. Go for it!

Just make sure that you have credit card as no other form of payment is accepted on Play Store!