India is all set to launch its first Mars mission today on November 5^th, 2013 at exactly 14:38 hours from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR located on Sriharikota Island off the coast of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

As it is launched up in the space, India will become Asia's first and world's 4^th country to do so, after US, Russia and Europe.

The launch would be broadcasted live on DD National channel from 1400 hours.

What Is Mangalyaan?

Designed and developed by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), MOM or Mars Orbiter Mission is a project which will demonstrate India's capabilities and expertise in space missions. The orbiter will reach Planet Mars' atmosphere, and collect data and information which is required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission.

Mars Orbiter Mission has been unofficially nicknamed as Mangalyaan, which in Sanskrit translates to Mars craft.

Mangalyaan would be launched using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV rocket at exactly 14.38 hours on November 5, whose countdown had started at 6.06 AM on November 3. Weighing 1337 Kgs which include the satellite as well as the rocket, Mangalyaan will take approximately 300 days (September 14, 2014) to reach Mars, and cover a distance of 780 million Kms.

It is estimated that the total cost of Mangalyaan mission is about $73 million or Rs 440 crore, which is about one-tenth of the total expenditure of US backed Mars orbiter mission, code named Maven, which is about to launch later in the year from Florida coast.

Here are some amazing pictures of the mission.

What It Will Achieve?

Mangalyaan is equipped with solar-powered devices, which will gather data regarding Mars atmosphere and environment.

It will help us understand what happened to the enormous quantity of water which was once present in that planet. Additionally, Mangalyaan will also try to locate methane gas in Mars environment. Methane is one of the most important chemical ingredient which supports formation of life on Earth.

If Mangalyaan is able to provide answers to these questions, then not only India but the whole world will benefit as the data and information would prove to be invaluable for space research programs of different countries.

Mangalyaan will have approximately 6 months to investigate and probe Mars environment. At its closest point, it will be 365 kilometers above Mars surface, and at its farthest, it will be around 80,000 Kms. Although there are no NASA instrument on board, ISRO will take technological and navigational assistance from NASA, including access to its Deep Space Network.

Chances of Failure

In the utopia of celebrations, we shouldn't forget one fact: Out of 51 missions till now, only 21 have succeeded.

Within Asia, both Japan and China have tried to launch their own Mars exploration missions, but both failed. In 1999, Japan's Nozomi Mars vehicle failed to orbit the planet after reaching very close. In 2011, China suffered a major humiliation when its first Mars satellite Yinghuo-1 was completely destroyed as its launch rocket Russia’s Phobos-Grunt failed to take off from Earth's surface.

Historically, Soviet Union (present day Russia) was the first country to start Mars exploration, when it attempted to launch its vehicle in 1960. USA started its Mars journey in 1964 and the The European Space Agency’s Mars Express initiated in 2003.

NASA's rover Curiosity which landed on Mars surface last year has so far not able to send back any substantial data regarding presence of life or materials which supports life.

Although the journey is full of risks and doubts, Mangalyaan will successfully achieve one thing: It will show to the world that we Indians are not afraid to take the giant leap when it comes to science and technology.

Success or failure, India has definitely created history.

The world is shifting: earlier from desktops to the laptops and now to the mobiles. Keeping in sync with this trend, the mobile operators are leaving no stone unturned to lure customers. What better opportunity than the festive season of Diwali to launch new offers and make a splash!

Vodafone makes the first move..

Just a fortnight after increasing rates, Vodafone has announced a massive 80% price cut in charges for its Mobile Internet customers across the country. This rate is applicable from November 1, 2013 for all pre-paid and post-paid customers on 2G on a 'Pay as you Go' basis.

Post the successful pilot launch in 3 circles – Karnataka, UP West and Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, in mid-June, this attractive and lowest mobile internet charge is now being rolled out Pan India.

The rate cut from 10p/10KB to 2p/10KB will make the Internet more affordable for customers who use mobile internet in a limited way. These new rates, which are the same for both 2G and 3G, are the lowest in market, making them extremely attractive for all customers across the country.

Additionally, when a Mobile Internet customer roams anywhere in India on Vodafone, he/she is charged like home rates for Mobile Internet.

As part of its strategy to democratize data, Vodafone has been hand holding customers to use mobile internet and educating current and potential users about how internet can add significant value to them. The company is also building content partnerships, simplifying pricing, educating retailers and offering choice to customer basis their interests and consumption patterns.

Mobile Internet Growth

There has been a remarkable 73% increase for Airtel, India's largest telecom operator, in MB/user as per its 2^nd quarter results, a detailed analysis which can be read here. And this is just the beginning.

With cheaper internet enabled handsets replacing the basic phone, mobile internet usage is expected to rise multifold in coming years. While other telcos like Airtel are giving packages like 25% discount for Rs 449 for 3G on 2GB and Idea offering internet at 10ps/KB, Vodafone's smart move has come at the right time.

This would literally force the first-timers to experiment with internet as they don't have to shell out a lump sum amount, but just pay in tit-bits as they use it. There would be a huge increase in the curve for them. For the first time, no differentiation has been done for 2G and 3G users!

The future

Telcos are known to revise rates at their own will. So don't be surprised if the plans change after couple of months. It could very well be a short term ploy to attract more users to mobile internet fold. Having said that, mobile internet growth is the next frontier and I would not be surprised other telcos also joining the tariff war, just like it happened with voice call rates over the years. Whatever happens, the consumer will benefit!

Gecko is most probably the first Indian born hardware device which is getting unprecedented global attention. There are three reasons for this:

• Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has backed this device and even placed an order for it
• It is immensely useful and versatile
• It has successfully achieved its crowd-sourcing target of $50,000 on Indiegogo. Infact, it has even breached it. Right now, this sleek hardware device has received more than $135,000.

3,731 people from all over the globe have placed pre-orders of 6000 units as of now. And this is just the beginning. Prominent technological publications have covered this development, and there is intense speculation all over the world.

Once the shipments start from mid-December, it is expected to pick up more steam.

What is Gecko?

Gecko is a low powered Bluetooth device which can "make your smartphone smarter". The size of a silver coin, this device has been created by Connovate Technologies, a tech startup based in Bangalore.

It was founded by four entrepreneurs: Bahubali Shete, Kiran Kumar, Rajeev M and S Varadarajan in January, 2013.

On Sept 11^th 2013, they started a campaign on crowd-funding platform Indiegogo, and sought $50,000 funds for its development and finishing. Within one month, that is by October 11, 2013, it had successfully achieved its goal of raising $50,000.

November 2, 2013 was the last day of participating in this campaign, and before it closed down, more than $135,000 was collected.

What it can do?

Costing only $20 or Rs 1200, Gecko's low-powered Bluetooth device can be attached to valuable items such as your wallet, your car, your suitcase etc. If any one these items go missing, it can be instantly tracked using Gecko.

Additionally, it has an accelerometer inside, which can track your sense motions as well, and perform the desired action even though you are not near the device. Some innovative usages of Gecko can be;

• Attach Gecko on the door. Everytime the door opens, your smartphone will receive a notification
• Attach Gecko with your DSLR camera. Now get into the frame, and just wave your hands. Gecko will catch the senses, and click the picture for you.
• On your mobile, you can set gestures and actions which will be stored on Gecko. For example, you set a shaking motion for reading SMS on your phone. Now, everytime you shake your mobile, you can read your SMS directly.
• You can sync your music system with Gecko and even when you are in bathroom, taking bath, you can control the songs and play your favorite music, seamlessly.

Here is an explainer video for Gecko:

India has primarily shown its expertise in creating software and offering services for western multinationals. In recent times, no hardware device has been born inside India, which has been able to create such a craze all over the world. And moreover, Gecko has been successfully crowd funded on Indiegogo, which is in itself a huge achievement.

What is your take on Gecko? Can it make a dent in the universe with its versatile usage and features? Do share your views by commenting right here!

Hope you are having a great Diwali. As is customary, lot of new product launch news come in during these days and last week was no different. Here is a quick wrap-up of all the buzz that was published on trak.in last week!

Speculations are rife that Youtube will be trying out a paid premium version for around USD 10 per month, where users will have features like offline viewing, Google glass integration, no advertisements and streaming of full albums.

Google is coming up with more iterations for reCAPTCHA that will make it even more tougher for bots to recognize them!

Google is planning to place huge banner advertisements on its homepage, for some specific branded queries. This is a complete U turn from what Marissa Mayer had promised back in 2005.

Here is the latest mobile subscriber addition data for month of August 2013, as per TRAI report. Total Mobile Portability requests have now crossed 100 million!

The Ericsson Consumer Lab study throws out some known and some unknown facts about what consumer expectations are from Indian Telecom Operators. Telecom industry also has one of the lowest levels of customer service satisfaction ratings.

In today’s world, money is not the only motivating factor for employee retention and motivation! Here are  5 Ways to Keep Your Employees Motivated Without Money.

Airtel & Wikimedia Foundation Join Hands To Provide Free Wikipedia Access via SMS & USSD. This service will currently be available to Airtel’s subscribers in African countries like Kenya and South Africa.

Infosys has paid a record fine to the tune of USD 34 million for the ongoing H1B VISA fraud case put against them by US Department of Homeland Security.

Airtel, India’s largest telecom operator announced their quarterly results and it once again affirms the fact that Indian have significantly increased their mobile internet usage. Airtel’s mobile internet revenue more than doubled in last 1 year.

Is quality control of products manufactured in India upto the mark? Is it because in western world, things are more automated and in India, due to cheap labour, quality of our products take a dip, as they tend to cut corners?

So, you want to convert this Diwali into even more happening one? Participate in our iPhone 5S Giveaway contest and stand a chance to win a brand new iPhone 5S!

According to the recently released survey by Vuclip, young Indians prefer watching movies and TV serials on mobiles rather than short clips. This is quite a change in consumer behavior from what was present earlier.

Sachin Tendulkar is not only the greatest cricketer, but he is a smart investor as well. Recently, he has acquired 7.5% stake in online travel business Musafir.com

Snapdeal has recently launched nifty feature that may help hordes of offline shoppers this festive season. They have come up with  ‘Product Price Search On Sms’, where shoppers need to just send an sms with product name and they get back price via SMS.

Govt of India will be launching India’s first Integrated Travel Portal BusIndia.com. It will aggregate bus ticket bookings from various State Transport Corporations making it largest Indian Bus ticket booking site. Does this pose a threat to private players like redBus?

Google Announced Nexus 5 today globally. Although, they have not officially announced their India launch date, their Google play store page is up and showing Nexus 5 priced at Rs. 28,999!

The above guide was prepared when I bought Google Nexus 4. However, the same guide can be used to buy Nexus 5 from US playstore. What’s more, it actually works out much cheaper than buying it here in India.

Reliance is now offering iPhone 5S and 5C in India on subsidy model, exactly the way it is in the US. For a monthly price of 2.5 to 3k they will offer unlimited voice, data and iPhone 5S on a 2 year contract.