RCom, ICICI Bank tie up for money transfer over mobiles

Telecom company Reliance Communications and private financial institution ICICI Bank are close to offering money transfer services over mobile phones. The service, first of its kind in the country, is expected to be launched shortly, if not within a week.

The move is of importance as other cellular providers are likely to follow suit, ushering in an m-commerce (mobile commerce) revolution in the country.

The two companies have completed trial runs in metroes and leading circles across the country, according to sources close to the development.

The new service will enable ICICI Bank customers to transfer funds to other account holders registered with the financial institutions website.

A customer of the bank can transfer up to Rs 5,000 per transaction, using Reliance Communications’ pre- and post-paid services. The service will allow multiple transfers, enabling subscribers to transfer higher amounts to other accounts of ICICI Bank.

When contacted, a Reliance Communications spokesperson confirmed the development. He also added the company was looking at promoting mobile commerce as a value-added service (VAS).

At present, ICICI Bank has over 24 million customers and Reliance Communications has around 37 million subscribers. The Anil Ambani group company’s m-commerce services include bill payments, railway and airline ticketing, shopping, auctions, movie and event ticketing among others.

There are around 180 million cellular users in the country, but mobile commerce is still a nascent industry. This is because India is primarily a cash economy.

However, the segment is expected to post rapid growths with subscribers beginning to use SMSEs to buy, sell and book movie tickets.

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BCCI finally advertises for coach's post

The Indian cricket board on Monday advertised for the post of the national coach, but with stringent pre-requisites like familiarity with the country's "culture and ethos".

The contract will be for two years starting Oct 1, 2007, though the terms and conditions are "negotiable", Niranjan Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said in Mumbai.

The coach's post fell vacant following the completion of former Australia captain Greg Chappell's two-year term in March.

Initially, the board was against advertising for the post.

Only those who have a minimum of Level III coaching accreditation from Cricket Australia, England or India can apply. But, interestingly, there is no bar on Indian coaches.

Those interested can send their CVs to the board headquarters at the Wankhede Stadium by Sep 15.

"We have requested other cricket boards to post this on their website," said Shah in a statement.

The board has listed 11 conditions in the 'knowledge, skills and expertise' column and eight stipulations in the 'key responsibilities' that the applicant is supposed to bear.

The Indian team toured Bangladesh in May with stand-in cricket manager Ravi Shastri.

The BCCI then interviewed former England spinner John Emburey and Graham Ford, Kent county's director of cricket, in June. It selected Ford but he surprisingly declined the offer after initially agreeing to take up the job. Later, Emburey also turned down the offer.

Currently, the Indian side in England is being managed by 73-year-old Chandu Borde after BCCI's talks with Dav Whatmore, a former Sri Lanka and Bangladesh coach, also did not fructify.


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BCCI to reveal Twenty20 plans in 10-15 days, says Pawar

Turning the heat on the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL), BCCI President Sharad Pawar said the Board would announce its own Twenty20 plans in the next 10-15 days.

Pawar, who watched India beat England in the fifth one dayer here at Headingley on Sunday, derided ICL, calling it a 'purely commercial proposition' and said the Board would soon make its own Twenty20 plans public.

Turning the heat on the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL), BCCI President Sharad Pawar said the Board would announce its own Twenty20 plans in the next 10-15 days.

Pawar, who watched India beat England in the fifth one dayer here at Headingley on Sunday, derided ICL, calling it a 'purely commercial proposition' and said the Board would soon make its own Twenty20 plans public.

Google stitches license deals to host news on site

Google has begun hosting news items produced by The Associated Press and three other news services on its own web site.

In the past two years, the internet search giant negotiated licensing deals with the AP and Agence France Presse, The Press Association in the United Kingdom and The Canadian Press. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.


The news services had raised concerns about whether Google had been infringing on their copyrights, by sending readers to their destinations.

The move could, however, reduce internet traffic to other media sites where those stories and pictures are also found. Further, this could reduce the online advertising revenue of newspapers and broadcasters.

This means that now visitors on Google in reading an AP story will remain on Google's website unless they click on a link that enables them to read the same story elsewhere.

Previously, because wire services' Web sites typically feature either a small sample or none of their stories, the way to read their articles was go to the sites of their syndication clients, such as newspapers.


Google reasons that under this new approach, readers won't have to pore through search results listing the same story posted on different sites. That would make it easier to discover other news stories at other Web sites that might previously have been buried.

Google News Product manager Josh Cohen said, "This may result in certain publishers losing traffic for their news wire stories, but it will allow more room for original content."

Despite Google's dominance in search, its news section lags behind rival Yahoo. According to comScore Media Metrix data, in July, Google News attracted 9.6 million visitors compared to Yahoo News' 33.8 million.

Google has not made any immediate plans to run ads alongside the news hosted on its site.