eSudhir blog » News

Withdraw or receive money without ATM card or bank account

Sudhir Upadhyay — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:03:01 +0000

ICICI Bank has introduced first of it’s kind service smsNcash. If you are an ICICI Bank customer, you can transfer the money to your friend through his mobile phone. Your friend need not to be any bank’s customer and he can withdraw money from ATM.
Here is how it would work, you will register the beneficiary mobile number and amount to be remitted, the benficiary will receive a 6 digit code and you will also recieve a 4 digit code.

The Beneficiary will have to visit any of the specified ICICI ATM branch and has to enter the following parameters.

The beneficiary’s mobile number
The 4-digit code (as received by the remitter / ICICI Bank customer)
The 6-digit code (as received by the beneficiary)
The amount remitted (in INR)

You will be charged Rs. 10 +taxes upto Rs. 5000 remittence and Rs.25 +taxes for above than Rs. 5000.
You can transfer maximum of Rs. 10000 transaction and not more than 25000 per day.

Read FAQ about smsNcash

Thanks India Inc.

Update: The smsNcash service has been discontinued by ICICI bank and you can no more withdraw money without ATM card.

The business sense of iPhone 3G in India

Sudhir Upadhyay — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:23:56 +0000

As the pre-registration of iPhone 3G is started in India by Vodafone and Airtel, people are anxiously waiting for iPhone, a better mobile phone + iPod and in a price less than Nokia N series.

But wait before you jump to conclusion that iPhone would be available to you in Rs. 8500/- (1 USD= 42 INR approx). Kiruba has this article in which he explains why the real cost of iPhone would not be under Rs. 9000 in India.

The truth be told, Apple really isn’t slashing its cost of handsets. It’s just passing on the slashed cost to the mobile operators. Apple sells the phone to Airtel and Vodafone for a little lower than the original cost of $399, maybe for about $350 (approx Rs 15,000). While Airtel or Vodafone may sell it to you for about Rs 9,950, they will recover the loss by a slightly higher monthly charge over a two year period.

Although, there are reports that an iPhone (8 GB) costs $173 to make.

Read the complete article by Kiruba.

Vodafone starts preregistration of iPhone in India

Sudhir Upadhyay — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:38:53 +0000

Want to be among first to flaunt iPhone in India. Now, existing Vodafone customers can book iPhone on Vodafone website. You can also pre-book your iPhone through SMS IPHONE to 56789. Although, site doesn’t give any information about price and plans of iPhone. Nonetheless, now you know that iPhone is coming very soon to India.
Thanks India Inc.

Firefox 3 Download Day- June 17th, 2008

Sudhir Upadhyay — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:41:29 +0000

Mozilla today announced the final release date of Firefox 3. The final version of Firefox 3 would be available for download on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008.
Your beloved browser has got just better. The new smart address bar, more secure and plenty of other new features. See the overview of new features in Firefox 3
Download Firefox on download day and help Mozilla create a world record for most download.

Online travel portals more prone to fraud

Sudhir Upadhyay — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:18:42 +0000

A recent report from MarkMonitor, a US based brand protection firm reveals that online travel portal are more prone to brandjacking. Brandjacking (brand+hijacking) is a relatively new term which includes cyber squatting, phishing, false brand associations, pay per click scams or domain kiting. via Livemint.
Read the complete report

Political compulsion- PM addresses Nation

Sudhir Upadhyay — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:31:06 +0000

Today Government hiked fuel prices. Fuel price hike have never been popular in India and fuel price are decided more by keeping elections in mind rather than International oil prices but today’s price hike created enough uproar and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to address the nation. I think this is the first time PM has to explain the nation that why this steep decision was taken. Although, PM speech also had government’s accomplishment and people friendly policies in addition to the explanation.
I must appreciate the courage shown by government in this price hike considering the fact general elections are due next year. As always left parties and opposition ( I think that’s why they are called opposition ) are against this hike. Coming weeks are going to be interesting and challenging as well for Government. The price hike will add fuel to inflation and it can push inflation to 9%, a 13 year high.

The inflation is going North and Sensex opposite it. That doesn’t seems a good situation for economy. I just hope the India story continues.

Salman Khan also jumps into blogging

Sudhir Upadhyay — Sat, 31 May 2008 10:03:08 +0000

After Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan now it’s Salman Khan who is bitten by blogging bug. Salman Khan now blogs on 10 ka dum. It’s a new game show to be aired on Sony Entertainment Television. Surprisingly, The blog is hosted on blogspot and not on SET India website. The blog is a more of marketing blog rather than a personal blog of Salman Khan but who knows if it will entice Salman to start blogging.

The celebrities are using their blog quite effectively to promote their films. The Amitabh blog now has Sarkar Raj image prominently as the the release of film is near and so did Aamir use his blog to promote Taare Zameen Par.

Let’s wait and watch how much controversy/publicity/criticism will this blog generate for show and Salman Khan. So, who can be the next celebrity blogger? Any guesses.

On second thought, these blogs are helping spreading the word about Blogs in general. These blogs are silent ambassador of Blogs and blogging. When Newspapers and TV channels talk about these blogs then an aam aadmi will think what the heck is blogging and blogs? and people will know more about blogs.

Google launches Orkut India

Sudhir Upadhyay — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:17:08 +0000

After recently launch of Myspace India, Google has launched India version of Orkut. But unlike Myspace India, that can be opened from anywhere, Orkut India can be opened in India only.

India is a key country for Orkut in terms of traffic as more than 38% of traffic of Orkut is from India, second only to Brazil which contributes more than 43% of Orkut traffic. Orkut India also has themes ( remember the Diwali theme )which are being rolled out in phased manner I think because I can not see themes in my account as of now.
It seems that Google is focusing more now on India centric sites and products. In last one month it’s third India specific product from Google after You tube India and Google Hindi Translation.

So, what’s next…. A Facebook India? It can not be denied considering Mark Zuckerberg was in India recently.

eSudhir blog is still alive

Sudhir Upadhyay — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:02:13 +0000

It has been ages this blog is updated. Just when you (if there is any!) thought this blog is dead, I am writing this post.

So where I have been?? was busy in work and some other personal stuff and most importantly I was thinking why do I write a blog but then I read Mani’s this post and I thought, I should give it a try and revive this blog.

Now, I am planning to get back into active blogging. Let’s see how things will turn out this time..

PS: Finally, I am also working on my website and hope this would be ready very soon…

Taj Mahal made it to New Seven Wonders

Sudhir Upadhyay — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 23:16:14 +0000

Finally, after so much of media hype and hoopla, New 7 wonders of the world list is out and our very own Taj Mahal also made it to the elite list. The New Seven Wonders were selected in a global poll, in which more than 100 million people participated through SMS, phone and web vote.

The new seven wonders of the world are:

Great Wall of China
Petra, Jordan
Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Machu Picchu, Perú
Chichen Itza, Mexico
Colosseum, Rome, Italy
Taj Mahal

However, UNESCO does not support this campaign and hence this list can not get official status.