Home-grown e-commerce platform Flipkart’s annual festive season sale, Big Billion Days sale‘, started on September 29 and will go on until October 4. Under this, the company is offering several deals, discounts and offers on several products, including smartphones. As part of Flipkart Big Billion Days, you can get up to 10 per cent instant discount on smartphones using Axis Bank credit and debit cards and ICICI Bank credit cards. Besides, the online e-tailer is also offering exchange offers, subsidised complete mobile protection plan, interest-free equated monthly instalment scheme, and more.

Here are some of the best deals on smartphones available under the Flipkart Big Billion Days sale:

Samsung Galaxy S9+ (6GB/64GB)

Flipkart Big Billion sale: Deals on phones from Xiaomi, Realme, Vivo & more This 2018 flagship smartphone from the South Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung is on sale at a discounted price of Rs 34,999, which is 50 per cent lower than its prevailing retail price of Rs 70,000. The phone has a 6.2-inch QHD+ infinity super AMOLED screen with curved edges. It is powered by Exynos 9810 mobile processor, mated with 6GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. The phone has dual 12-megapixel cameras on the back, and an 8MP camera on the front. Powered by 3,500 mAh battery, the phone supports wireless charging, also. Read Complete Article

Tier-II and tier-III cities are driving big business for e-commerce firms — Flipkart and Amazon — for the ongoing festival season.

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Monday night said tier-II and tier-III cities ushered in the festive cheer for the firm during the second day of its flagship event ‘The Big Billion Days’ 2019. Electronics category witnessed growth of over 70 per cent from tier-II cities, with a 100 per cent increase in women shoppers from smaller towns. “We witnessed the growing appetite of tier II and III cities for mobiles, large appliances and consumer electronics,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart. “As consumers from these cities upgrade, they are coming at par with the metros showcasing unique needs and spending patterns across these categories,” added Krishnamurthy.

Affordability constructs were a big hit. There was over 2X adoption in the ‘product exchange’ construct for mobiles and laptops, according to Flipkart. Within laptops, key segments like gaming and thin and light laptops exceeded 2X as compared to last year, leading to the overall growth of more than 10 per cent in the average selling price of the products. Read Complete Article

Dispelling the fear that a slowing economy may affect consumer behaviour, e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon India have said they witnessed record transactions on their platforms on the first day of their annual festive sale, which started early on Sunday.

While home-grown Flipkart, which is now owned by American retail major Walmart, said it registered two times more sales on Day One of its flagship sale event Big Billion Days (BBD) over last year, rival Amazon claimed it witnessed the biggest opening day sale ever with a huge surge in participation in smaller towns.

According to Amit Agarwal, senior vice-president and country head, Amazon India, the company also saw the single-largest day of Prime sign-ups, with 66 per cent of Prime members shopping in 24 hours coming from tier II and tier III towns. The company added that 91 per cent of new customers were from smaller cities.

“Whether it is the Diwali festival season or any other shopping event, the primary objective for us is to add as many new customers as we can and convert the existing customer into Prime members. We are relevant to customers, no matter the macroeconomic conditions,” said Agarwal. Read complete Article

Samsung recently launched Galaxy A50s, the upgraded version of Samsung A50, with 6.4-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED screen and 48MP main shooter. The smartphone has a sleek profile that complements its overall look and design, but faces tough competition as there have been notable entries in the mid-range segment. Can the Galaxy A50s make a mark? Let’s have a look:

Design

Galaxy A50s impresses with its looks. The first thing you’d probably notice is the Prism-cut design on the solid glassy rear panel. We had the Prism Crush White variant and it can take on any rival in terms of looks. The metallic frame adds to the looks while the thin bezels highlights the screen.

The phone is sleek and very easy to hold despite the 6.4-inch screen size. The power and volume buttons are placed on the right side of the frame, while the left side has the tray for two SIM cards and a microSD card. The headphone, USB Type-C and speaker grille sit at the conventional bottom position. However, it’s a bit difficult to reach the sound and power buttons with single-handed use. Read Complete Article

South Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung is gearing up to launch the Galaxy Fold in India on October 1. The information came from the company’s official Twitter channel, where the company published a teaser video showcasing the Galaxy Fold, with the following message: “We changed the shape of the phone, and the shape of tomorrow. Future unfolds on October 1, 2019”.

Announced earlier this year, the Galaxy Fold is a new category of smartphones with foldable screens. The phone has two displays — a 7.3-inch dynamic AMOLED foldable display that bends inwards and a conventional 4.6-inch secondary super AMOLED display on the back that becomes primary display when the device is folded. The phone’s primary display supports HDR10+ and has 1536 x 2152 resolution. The secondary display has an HD+ resolution (1680 x 720), stretched in a 21:9 aspect ratio.

The device supports the app continuity feature, which allows easy transition between both displays. For example, you can open an app on a secondary display and continue using it on the primary after you unfold the device. The primary screen also supports three-window multitasking, allowing you to utilise a bigger screen estate to open three different supported apps. Read Complete Article

The country’s premier engineering colleges, the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs), are mulling an early exit option for academically weak students in undergraduate courses who will be allowed to opt out after three years — instead of the full four years — with a B.Sc. degree in engineering.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the proposal is on the agenda of the IIT council– the highest decision-making body of all the 23 institutes — for its meeting on Friday.

Currently, students enrolled in undergraduate programmes in IITs need to complete eight semesters (four years) to receive a B.Tech degree. But according to the HRD proposal, academically weak students can choose B.Sc. (Engineering) after the second semester and leave after three years, provided they have met the minimum academic standards.

If approved, the IITs will implement the suggestion from the current academic year, the report said. Read Complete Article

The government will set up design centres to help khadi institutions develop trendy designs in line with the market demand.

The National Design and Product Development Centre for khadi products will be established by the Khadi and Village Industries Corporation (KVIC) under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. On Wednesday, MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari outlined the broad plan which includes a concerted push to maximize the production and sale of khadi and make it a global brand.

“There is a need to make khadi designs more trendy and modern, without compromising with tradition. We need to make khadi attractive for the youth of the country. The product designs should be aligned to customer choices and demand, and take into account the local and regional preferences and requirements like weather condition and local designs,” Gadkari said. Read Complete Article

Xiaomi today extended the Redmi A series with the Redmi 8A smartphone with 5000mAh battery and 12MP Sony IMX363 sensor among other features.

The new offering comes with USB Type-C 18W fast charging support, a 6.22-inch Dot Notch HD+ display, and 19:9 aspect ratio.

Redmi 8A is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 octa-core chipset and available in two variants — 2GB/32GB and 3GB/32GB, featuring a 2+1 dual SIM slot with dedicated microSD card support to extend storage to 512GB.

The phone features a 12MP Sony IMX363 sensor with an aperture of f/1.8 and Dual Pixel Autofocus.

On the front, it has an 8MP selfie camera, capable of taking AI Portrait mode shots.

For protesction, the phone has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and nano-coating that makes the smartphone splash resistant. Read Complete Article

In a global unveiling event from India, Chinese smartphone brand OnePlus is set to launch the OnePlus 7T and the OnePlus TV on Thursday at 7 PM (IST). This is the first time the company is launching a product in India before any other of the global markets where it is present, including home country China. Before the launch, the company has revealed some key features and specifications of the upcoming products.

Here is a look:

OnePlus 7T

Successor to the OnePlus 7, launched earlier this year, the OnePlus 7T would get major all-round upgrades, including a new frost mist matte glass build, a triple-camera set-up on the back, AMOLED screen of a higher 90Hz refresh rate, and maybe a bigger capacity battery with 30W fast-charge (Warp charger) support. On the basis of the features revealed by the company, the phone seems to be inspired by its on-going premium flagship OnePlus 7 Pro. However, it might get a lower price tag, which would make it an affordable offering in the midrange segment. Read Complete Article

Director Zoya Akhtar’s “Gully Boy“, featuring Ranveer Singh in the lead, has been selected as India’s official entry in the International Feature Film category at the 92nd Academy Awards, the Film Federation of India announced on Saturday.

The movie, which released commercially across the country in February this year, also features Alia Bhatt, Vijay Raaz, Kalki Koechlin, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Vijay Varma and Amruta Subhash.

“India’s official entry for Oscars this year is ‘Gully Boy’. There were 27 films in the running this year but it was an unanimous decision to select ‘Gully Boy’,” FFI secretary general Supran Sen told PTI.

Celebrated actor-filmmaker Aparna Sen was the head of the jury for this year’s selection committee.

“Gully Boy”, produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar, featured Ranveer as an up-and-coming rapper who sets out to achieve his dream by rhyming about his life on the Mumbai streets. Read Complete Article