<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/41101086.cms" /> The government today launched a new domain <keyword id="2493756" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="-">.भारत</keyword> (<keyword id="2475679" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="dot-bharat">dot Bharat</keyword>) in Devanagari script. Initially, the domain will cover eight languages - <keyword id="6357660" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="hindi">Hindi</keyword>, Bodo, Dogri, Konkani, Maithili, Marathi, Nepali and Sindhi. All these languages are from the list of 22 languages registered in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. 

	The main purpose of .भारत domain is to connect people with social media and provide content in Indian languages. It will help provide information to the general public in their own regional languages.
 The domain was launched by Union Communication and Information Technology Minister <keyword id="6354886" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ravi-Shankar-Prasad">Ravi Shankar Prasad</keyword>. 

	The domain was developed by the joint efforts of National Internet Exchange of India and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing.
 

	The new domain would replace the commonly used domains like .com, .in, .net and others. This would also soon be followed by similar launches in regional languages like Tamil, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu, Telugu and Bangala.

.भारत Domain Name Launched

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/40168626.cms" /> Union Minister of Communications and IT <keyword id="6354886" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ravi-Shankar-Prasad">Ravi Shankar Prasad</keyword> will inaugurate the dot <keyword id="2470822" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bharat-Domain-Name">Bharat domain name</keyword> on August 21 in New Delhi, which would facilitate multi-lingual <keyword id="6357247" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Internet">Internet</keyword> access. 
 National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and the <keyword id="64489" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Centre-for-Development-of-Advanced-Computing">Centre for Development of Advanced Computing</keyword> (C-DAC) will enable dot Bharat ccTLD that can be registered in Devnagari script. 
 
C-DAC is also working together with NIXI and they have set up a committee on International Domain Names (IDNs) to introduce domain names in Indian languages. 
 
Internationalised Domain Name in Indian languages will be represented in the characters of the language concerned. Such domain names could contain letters or characters from non-ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) scripts. ASCII is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. 
 
In India, the IN Registry has been mandated for registering, operating and managing IDN in the Indian languages. 
 The number of Internet subscribers was 238.71 million in December 2013. Himachal Pradesh, with 2.04 million users, had the lowest number of Internet users, <keyword id="2470821" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Telecom-and-IT-Minister">Telecom and IT Minister</keyword> Ravi Shankar Prasad recently informed the Lok Sabha.

Telecom Minister To Inaugurate Dot Bharat Domain Name

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/53410996.cms" /><keyword id="3516500" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="indian-IT-ministry">Indian IT Ministry</keyword> is making all efforts to make domain name-‘.in’- popular among startups and other organisations by invoking nationalism. 
 
The ministry will be floating an advertising campaign, asking domain name seekers to ditch popular ‘.com’ and adopt ‘.in’. 
 
The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEIT) is planning a massive advertising campaign aimed at companies, individuals and startups. 
 
Rajiv Bansal, joint secretary in MEIT, told ET the campaign should be ready for rollout in a month or so and will play on the people's nationalist sentiments to nudge them to host their website on the ‘.in’ domain name. 
 The ‘.in’ domain name will also boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s <keyword id="1929810" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Digital-India">Digital India</keyword>, <keyword id="6354869" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="make-in-India">Make in India</keyword> and Start-up India campaigns. 
 
As per reports, the ministry has a target to increase the number of '.in' domain names to 3 million by March next year. Presently, the number is at 2 million. 
 Apart from the ad campaign, the ministry is also planning to tie up with the Corporate Affairs Ministry and MSME to offer discounts to startups or new businesses registering with them for <keyword id="3516498" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="-in-domain-name">.in domain name</keyword>. 
 
"The proposal includes offering some kind of a discount - perhaps a new domain registration for Rs 150 or Rs 200 - to attract new businesses," Bansal told ET. 
 
Meanwhile, the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is also mulling to get '.bharat' domain for Hindi website extension complementary with the .in domain to popularise its use. 
 
"As a promotional scheme, NIXI will be offering the '.bharat' domain name in Hindi complementary to select businesses or categories from this month," Bansal told ET. 
 
Last year, NIXI had run an advertisement campaign with 22-24 seconds advertisements targeted at small and medium businessmen and entrepreneurs.

Indian IT Ministry is going to invoke nationalism which will make you ditch ‘.com’ and adopt ‘.in’ right now

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/52792876.cms" /> Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (<keyword id="50359" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="ICANN">ICANN</keyword>) has said that the <keyword id="1984591" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="future-of-internet">future of internet</keyword> depends on increased engagement of <keyword id="3424047" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="regional-language-users">regional language users</keyword>, even as setting standards for using languages online is a complex problem that needs assistance from different stakeholders in India. 
 <keyword id="682813" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Domain-name-system">Domain Name System</keyword> (<keyword id="108448" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="100" keywordseo="DNS">DNS</keyword>) for Indian languages is being evolved and a specialized panel has been set up for working on developing <keyword id="3424049" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="internationalised-domain-names">internationalised domain names</keyword> (<keyword id="489038" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="IDNs">IDNs</keyword>) and internet standards that would enable different scripts and languages in India for being used online. "IDNs will help to pave the way for a truly multilingual and accessible internet. In India, where we have 22 constitutional languages, IDNs will open up opportunities for the non-English speaking Indian communities to come online. The formation of the <keyword id="3424050" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Neo-Brahmi-Generation-Panel">Neo-Brahmi Generation Panel</keyword> is the first step towards a multilingual Internet for India," Professor Udaya Narayana Singh, chair of the Neo-Brahmi Generation Panel, told <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/future-of-internet-to-depend-on-bringing-more-regional-language-users-online/articleshow/52789079.cms">ET</a>. 
 
The panel, which started working in May 2015, consists of professionals from the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), private sector companies, linguists and policy experts. As of now, the dedicated panel is working on ways to develop IDNs, or domain names in local languages- such as ".bharat" in Hindi, following which users will be able to read and write ".bharat" in Assamese, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil or other Indian languages. 
 
This is not a cakewalk, since there are 122 languages with over 1,576 mother-tongues spoken in India, most of which are written in 13 different scripts, with 53 more minor writing systems, and all these are in addition to the languages constitutionally identified in India. 
 
The Indian IT industry is also facing issues because it lacks representation at internet governance forums such as ICANN, which helps organise the Internet with the allotment of domain names such as.com, .org and .net. 
 
"The critical part is the technology itself...The fact that India is such a large part of the (online) user base and the fact that we're not part of that conversation should worry us. There's opportunity for academics, IT companies, and companies which have digital R&amp;D on these subjects. It is imperative that Indian companies get engaged," Samiran Gupta, head of India, ICANN, told ET. 
 
<a href="http://www.tristar.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/connectivity-concept-with-tablet-620-1740x700.jpg">Image source</a>

Internet would flourish better by engaging more regional language users

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is headquartered in Mumbai and is taken care by Mukesh Ambani, the elder brother of Anil Ambani and the son of late Dhirubhai Ambani after the division of the family businesses among the two brothers. RIL is a conglomerate holding company in India that has a wide portfolio of businesses ranging over energy, petrochemicals, natural resources, textiles, telecommunications and retail. RIL is the highest taxpayer in the Indian private sector and accounts for over 5% of the Indian Government’s revenues and about 8% of the total merchandise exports from India. Here is a list of <keyword id="7780054" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="mukesh-ambani-companies">Mukesh Ambani companies</keyword> under the Reliance Industries Limited. Reliance Retail The retail business segment of the Reliance Industries Group, this is the largest retail store network in India comprising of a number of cutting edge brands including Reliance Fresh, Reliance Time Out, Reliance Wellness, Reliance Autozone, Reliance Footprint, Reliance Mart, Reliance Home Kitchens, Reliance Digital, Reliance Trends, Reliance Super, Reliance iStore, Reliance Market (Cash n Carry) and Reliance Jewel. Reliance Life Sciences This company has its operations around medical, industrial and plant biotechnology domains. The specialty areas of this segment include branding, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, bio-pharmaceuticals, biofuels, clinical research services, industrial and plant bio-technology, regenerative medicine, novel therapies and others. Reliance Logistics This is a single window company involved in the selling of products in the products related to distribution, warehousing, transportation, logistics, and supply chain. This is an asset based company owning its own infrastructure and fleet. This company offers logistics support to the Reliance Group of Companies and also other third party companies. Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) Earlier known as Infotel Broadband, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited is a broadband service provider that has obtained 4G licenses for operating across India. This is the sixth largest mobile network operator in the world today with more than 306 million subscribers. Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited This is an associate company of RIL that holds about 45.43 percent shares of the RIL. This company is mainly involved in establishing and operating industrial infrastructure. The company is also engaged in connected activities including leasing and providing services related to data processing and computer software. The company has set up a pipeline carrying petroleum products from the Bharat petroleum refinery at Mahul, Maharashtra to Reliance’s petrochemical complex located at Patalganga, Maharashtra. Network 18 Network 18 is a mass media company that has its diversified activities in digital platforms, television, films and mobile apps. This company has acquired the ETV network and has some joint ventures namely Viacom 18 and History TV18. Reliance Solar A subsidiary of Reliance, Reliance Solar produces and sells solar energy systems to remote and rural areas of the country. The company offers a wide portfolio of products including solar lanterns, home lighting solutions, street light systems, water purifying systems, solar air conditioners, refrigeration systems, and many others based on solar energy. Relicord This is a blood banking service under the Reliance Life Sciences. This body has been licensed by the Food and Drug Administration, Government of India.

Here's a look at all the companies that Mukesh Ambani owns

New Delhi, Mar 13 () The government from Monday will open booking of website names in nine Indian scripts including Sanskrit, Kashmiri, Kannada, Oriya, Sindhi and Malayalam. The autonomous body National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) , under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, has invited applications under the sunrise period starting March 16 to book the entire website name in nine Indian scripts with Bharat as the top level domain which can also be written in the same scripts. While this facility was already available for languages using Devanagari script, the booking has been opened for eight new languages. The other scripts are Assamese and Santhali in which the entire website name can be booked."The sunrise period will begin March 16 and ends on June 15. We will collect applications and check that there are no trademark or copyright issues. The allocation of dispute free domain will begin thereafter. Each domain applied during the sunrise period will have to be booked for a period of 5 years," a NIXI official, who did not wish to be named, told .The move to start website registration in regional languages is part of international internet body ICANN agenda to facilitate more people access internet by curbing language barrier. "This makes India a global leader in the internationalized domain name space to have maximum IDNs in different languages. We are getting ready to launch email addresses in all the remaining languages. People with the Datamail app will be able to get email addresses in all 22 Indian languages," Ajay Data, Founder &amp; CEO, Data Ingenious Global said. PRS MR

Govt to open booking of website name in nine Indian languages from Mar 16

NIFTY 50: What it means and the companies covered under this index

<ul><li>The Indian government has warned that over 2 million users may be targeted for phishing attacks.</li><li>Attackers are expected to use the Covid-19 pandemic to target users. </li></ul>The government has issued an advisory that ‘malicious actors’ are planning to attack over 2 million individuals as part of a large-scale <keyword id="6380860" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="phishing-attack">phishing attack</keyword> against Indian individuals and businesses. This comes at a time when India is embroiled in a border dispute with China. The advisory has been issued by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which is India’s nodal cybersecurity agency. "The phishing campaign is expected to use malicious emails under the pretext of local authorities in charge of dispensing government-funded Covid-19 support initiatives. Such emails are designed to drive recipients towards fake websites where they are deceived into downloading malicious files or entering personal and financial information.” said CERT-In a <a href="https://twitter.com/IndianCERT/status/1274396249517522945/photo/1">statement</a>. What is phishing? Phishing is a type of attack that is aimed at collecting usernames, passwords and other personal information of users. It is usually in the form of an email or a message that contains a link or an attachment, pretending to be a trustworthy entity such as a company or a bank. As per an <a href="https://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/state-of-the-internet/soti-security-phishing-baiting-the-hook-report-2019.pdf">Akamai report</a>, phishing plays a role in 32% of all breaches and 78% of all cyber-attacks. Examples of phishing attacks Ayushman Bharat phishing attack <div type="image" title="Ayushman Bharat phishing attack" msid="76546007" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;An example of Ayushman Bharat phishing attack.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The Ayushman Bharat phishing attack uses the Indian government’s free health coverage scheme to deceive users. In this, a message is shared with the message that ‘10-crore people between the age of 13 -70 years are being provided with free insurance worth ₹5,00,000 to cover the Covid-19 pandemic.’ It asks users to register themselves using the given link. However, this link is designed only to obtain the user’s personal information. Instagram phishing attack <div type="image" title="Instagram phishing attack" msid="76545949" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;An example of Instagram phishing attack.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> A popular Instagram phishing attack disguises itself as a two-factor authentication email. Along with the verification code, the email also includes a link using which users can sign into their account. If the user clicks on the link and enters their account details, they are recorded by the attacker. Netflix phishing attack <div type="image" title="Netflix Phishing attack" msid="76545964" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;An example of Netflix phishing attack.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Another popular phishing attack is the Netflix account on-hold trick. In this, an email is sent to users, supposedly from Netflix claiming that the company is having trouble accessing the user’s ‘current billing information’. A link is included asking users to update their account information. This is used to obtain the user’s payment information. How to protect yourself from phishing attacks? Here are some tips that will help you protect yourself from phishing attacks: <ul><li>Do not click on any email that you receive from ‘ncov2019@gov.in’ or similar email addresses.’ </li><li>Do not open any email with ‘Free Covid-19 testing’ or similar subjects. </li><li>Organizations have their own domain and do not use public domains to send emails to their customers. If you receive a email from a company with a public domain (@gmail.com at the end), avoid clicking on any links or attachments. </li><li>Check the email or message for spelling mistakes, unusual phrases and discrepancies in the domain name. </li><li>Check the integrity of the URL before clicking on the link or providing login credentials. </li><li>If the email contains unnecessary attachments or links, avoid clicking on them. </li><li>Avoid clicking on shortened links, especially on social media. </li><li>Avoid emails from suspicious senders that contain urgent deadlines and ask you to click on a link or visit a website urgently. </li><li>Do not enter personal information in pop-up screens. Companies generally do not use pop-up screens to ask for user information. </li></ul>SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/sbi-warns-2-million-users-may-be-at-risk-of-phishing-attacks-in-delhi-mumbai-and-other-major-cities/articleshow/76505433.cms">SBI warns 2 million users may be at risk of phishing attacks in Delhi, Mumbai and other major cities</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/cognizants-ransomware-attack-is-making-peers-like-tcs-and-infosys-nervous-and-they-are-beefing-up-security/articleshow/75271532.cms">Cognizant's ransomware attack is making peers like TCS and Infosys nervous — and they are beefing up security</a>

What is phishing attack and what are the examples of phishing attacks

<ul><li>Scammers on the internet use identical logos and website layouts of established e-commerce platforms to cheat people. </li><li>They ask for advance payment through Paytm. </li><li>Flipkart is aware and has been working on taking legal action against such websites. </li><li>Today, Snapdeal has secured a Delhi High Court order that has led to nearly fraudulent 1200 links being removed from Twitter. </li></ul>Tech expert Kartic Rakhra’s twenty something attendant came to him with a simple problem – Flipkart was insisting that he pays only through Paytm. Curious, Rakhra decided to look into it only to see that it was a fake site. The elaborate scam was using <keyword id="8602207" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="fake-flipkart-logos">fake Flipkart logos</keyword> to sell products like phones and electronics with deep discounts. And, they are demanding an advance via Paytm. Through ads on UC Browser, scammers were offering Samsung, Redmi and Oppo smartphones for as low as ₹1,599 calling them ‘deals of the day’. For India’s rural consumers, it might come across as an attractive deal – only that they are asked to pay the amount through Paytm in advance. <a href="https://twitter.com/karticrakhra/status/1218814433364865026?s=19">https://twitter.com/karticrakhra/status/1218814433364865026?s=19</a> Many victims of the scam Rakhra pointed out that while Paytm issues a warning against making any advance payments, it does so in English which many ‘Bharat’ users fail to understand. “These ads are targeted at people who are new to the internet economy. So these are the people who think that having an ad on television legitimises the brand. When I told my grandfather's attendant, he put it out as a WhatsApp status that this is a scam and several others replied too that they have been scammed like that,” said Rakhra, who works as the product head at Blockchain powered company Somish Labs. Discounts and deals have been the not-so-secret sauce for Indian e-commerce sites. That’s exactly what fake sites use to lure people. Flipkart initiates a takedown Flipkart too is aware of the problem and has been working on. It also published <a href="https://stories.flipkart.com/fake-offers-fraudulent-sites-2/">a blog</a> in July 2018 to spread awareness. “We have a stringent process to check for fake and phishing sites. At Flipkart, a large part of our efforts are directed towards ensuring our customers are educated and well-informed. We have a robust continuous process in place to monitor, identify and take legal action against fake/lookalike domains, phishing sites and fraudulent websites, apps and social media pages that attempt to bring disrepute to Flipkart by impersonating our brand and thereby cheating and defrauding our customers and the public at large,” said a Flipkart spokesperson. Within Flipkart, the company also has a Brand Protection Council which assesses, monitors, reports and takes legal action against such fraudulent websites. “In the past year, we have reported and taken down a number of such fraudulent online sites,” said the spokesperson. E-commerce sites in India have often been subject to fraudulent links and scams where people misuse their name. Today, India’s third largest e-commerce player Snapdeal has secured a Delhi High Court order that has led to nearly fraudulent 1200 links being removed from Twitter. These entities were faking Snapdeal. “These were in violation of the copyright and registered trademarks of Snapdeal and also sought to represent that they are the official twitter handles of Snapdeal. The court’s interim order came in a suit filed by Snapdeal. In the suit, Snapdeal has also impeded various unidentified defendants who are the owners of the aforesaid URLs/links,” said Snapdeal. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/xiaomi-warns-users-about-fake-headphones-heres-how-to-identify-fake-headphones/articleshow/73427037.cms">Xiaomi warns users about fake headphones – Here's how to identify when you're being duped</a>

Here’s how scammers are using fake Flipkart websites and Paytm to dupe people

<ul><li><keyword id="1096883" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Villgro">Villgro</keyword>’s annual conference will witness the culmination of iPitch – Villgro’s annual deal discovery platform, with investments of over INR 4 Crores being announced</li><li>Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and Villgro to launch ‘Powering Livelihoods’, a multi-million dollar programme to support large-scale commercial deployment of clean energy-based livelihood solutions </li><li>‘Farming Futures: Emerging Social Enterprises in India’ to be released at the event </li></ul><keyword id="153607" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-entrepreneurship">Social entrepreneurship</keyword> is the need of the hour in India, where innovation needs to reach out to the depths of the country. Villgro, India's oldest and one of the world’s largest social enterprise incubators, enables these entrepreneurs and is back with its annual Unconvention conference. Slated to be held at Taj Yeshwantpur, Bangalore on 6th-7th December 2019, the event will witness the confluence of over 700 delegates comprising <keyword id="484405" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Social-entrepreneurs">social entrepreneurs</keyword>, CSR professionals, impact investors, policymakers, and academia, to discuss the present and future of social entrepreneurship in India and globally. Themed ‘Innovation for All’, this year’s event will highlight the power of low cost innovations and making them accessible to the next billion. The two day conference’s second day is focused on parallel sector tracks of Education &amp; Employability, Agribusiness, Healthcare, and Energy &amp; Cleantech and deep dive into innovations in technology, partnerships, financing and policy for start-ups across agribusiness, health, education and energy domains. It will provide the backdrop for the launch of the joint initiative of Villgro and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) – ‘Powering Livelihoods’. The multi-million dollar programme will focus on bridging the commercial valley of death by providing financial, capacity-building, and sectoral growth support to enterprises deploying clean energy-based livelihood solutions. . The unique, paradigm-shifting program will be launched by Arunabha Ghosh, Chief Executive Officer, Council on Energy, Environment and Water. Numerous innovative and interactive sessions including Investor Speed Dating, Mentoring Forum, Innovation Hallway, and masterclasses on Being Compliance Ready by SpiceRoute Business &amp; Data Protection Law by Gamechanger Law Advisors will make Unconvention a hard-to-miss opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to connect, network and grow. The conference will also mark the culmination of Villgro’s iPitch – a unique investment discovery platform that identifies and invests in for-profit social enterprises across sectors of medtech, edtech, employability, cleantech, and agritech. Upto 10 investments, to be announced at the event, will receive a total of over INR 4 crores in investment along with capacity-building support. Speaking on the event, Srinivas Ramanujam, COO, Villgro Innovations Foundation, said, “Villgro has been championing social innovations for 20 years now, and the theme of this year’s conference, therefore, came from our approach and will focuses on insightful conversations about the need for holistic innovation – technological, financial, value chain and policy – to help promising start-ups across sectors thrive in the competitive Indian and subsequent global markets.” Unconvention will also feature insightful keynote sessions by Dr. Devi Shetty, (Founder - Narayana Health), NK Chaudhary (Chairman &amp; MD, Jaipur Rugs), Bindu Ananth (Chairperson, Dvara Trust), Shobhini Mukerji (Executive Director, J-PAL), Varun Jhaveri (Officer on Special Duty to CEO, Ayushman Bharat - PMJAY, Government of India), Sridhar Venkat (CEO, The Akshaya Patra Foundation), Sharad Sharma (Co-Founder, iSPIRT), Reshma Anand (CEO, Hindustan Unilever Foundation) and Joe Madith (Chairman &amp; Founder, Gram Vikas), among 80+ other key names. It will also witness a book launch - Farming Futures: Emerging Social Enterprises in India – by Ajit Kanitkar and C. Shambu Prasad. The event will present a unique opportunity for new and established entrepreneurs to catalyse the ecosystem through exhibiting and networking with potential partners, investors, mentors or even customers. Note: Business Insider India is the media partner for the event

This conference wants to farm the future for India’s social entrepreneurs

<ul><li>From a sacrificing mother to a man being the bread-earner, the portrayal of women in ads has remained very shallow, stereotypical and limiting for years.</li><li>Industry body ASCI is now trying to expand its horizon by launching a gender report to understand the evolution of women representation in advertisements and offer a forward-looking perspective to help brands embrace positive narratives for women in advertising.</li><li>We also speak to a few women from the advertising industry to understand what are some of the concerns that they are expecting ASCI to address.</li></ul>Airbrushed faces, petite figures and fair skinned models in advertisements across the world have made women like me feel uncomfortable in our own skin. We look in the mirror only to notice our flaws and turn to beauty products to fix ourselves because they’ve been feeding on our insecurities and profiting on our vulnerabilities. The portrayal of women has remained very shallow for years. Until early 2020, fairness creams were used as a yardstick to determine a woman’s worth, personally or professionally. The man is usually portrayed as the breadwinner who buys an expensive gift for his wife -- he is smart and successful and the woman is depicted as someone’s wife or mother whose only life purpose is to take care of her kids and husband. While many beauty brands have finally woken up to realise that selling ‘fair skin’ is problematic, even today, we only see thin models, upper-caste and rich women in advertisements and minorities like muslim women, North East Indian women and transwomen aren’t included in mainstream campaigns. They are only given a little attention on Eid or during pride month. The <keyword id="382559" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Advertising-Standard-Council-of-India">Advertising Standard Council of India</keyword> is conducting a research study to understand the damage advertising has done over the years by perpetuating gender stereotypes. Titled ‘GenderNext,’ the report will look back at the representation of women and help Indian brands and advertising agencies shape gender narratives in advertising positively as we move forward. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="81701552" title="ASCI to launch a report to provide actionable insights to shape positive depiction of women in advertising" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> Telling us why ASCI decided to plan a report on gender discourse now, Manisha Kapoor, Secretary General of ASCI, said, “Women have been a matter of debate for many years. From time to time, these are issues which are of interest to both advertisers and society because advertising impacts the gender discourse, and gender discourse impacts advertising. They contribute to how the other develops but advertisers definitely have the responsibility through their brands of making sure that their own depictions are responsible, that they are fair, that they are progressive, and they're very positive.” She told us how it is easy to spot an advertisement that overtly crosses a line. However, there are ads which subtly perpetuate stereotypes and ASCI will concentrate on that. “In the spectrum of what is acceptable, there's so much and there are such subtle kinds of narratives, which are part of advertising. The effort is really to uncover those and create many new starting points for advertisers on how we can even within the broad spectrum of what is acceptable to understand what is better, what is more positive, what is accepted by consumers better, what is seen as less problematic. What is seen as aspirational, what is seen as relatable. If we're able to kind of identify those narratives, we believe this is going to be a study which has many actionable insights for advertisers. It may be useful for them in the long run in their brand messaging. Not to kind of find fault with what is happening or anything of that sort. But it is to create a platform for better with more engaging, more responsible, more positive depictions of gender in the future,” she explained. The study will be mainly divided into five parts: decoding of advertising, consumer immersion, ad agencies/people who create ads, gender policy makers and draw insights from Bharat Darshan, a proprietary study done by Futurebrands over a decade, and across more than 200 towns. Elaborating on the study's methodology, Kapoor said, “Firstly, we're looking at a cultural and semiotic decoding of advertising. We would look at how women are shown in ads, said and unsaid equation in that depiction, what are they wearing, are they a decision maker for that category? Is that a role that is expected of them in a more traditional way? We’ll do that across several regional and national ads across a period of time. Secondly, we are doing a consumer immersion study, where we will be talking to consumers about how their own lived reality of gender is. One is what they see on TV and how they respond to it and we'd compare that with their actual lived experience of gender.” She added, “Third is about people who are creating advertising: What is their framework? What are they getting influenced by? What are their reference points? What do they think when they start to create an ad? The fourth is looking at policymakers, gender specialists, experts who have been in the domain for many, many years and who work with real women across different strata of the population. How do they look at advertising and impact of advertising? How would they see life differently because they have decades of experience. They have worked closely with the legal process, with the legal framework of this country as it relates with depiction of women. Fifth part is Bharat Darshan.” The study will cover multiple categories like personal care, fashion and beauty; hearth, home and health; gadgets and wheels; and money and education. On whether ASCI is planning to include minorities like Muslim women, Dalit women or transwomen, Kapoor said, “We will definitely look at advertising of all sorts. While the focus is on women but I think gender dynamics become a part of the query even if you were to look at just women. So where on the gender spectrum you will fall when we look at advertising which may have shown those kinds of depictions, those are certainly the points that we’ll pick up and analyse. We will try and understand how that contributes and how that moves the narrative ahead. So, those kinds of ads will also be on our radar.” As per ASCI’s press statement, it will provide insights to navigate and embrace positive narratives for women in advertising content. Excitedly, we asked if that would include talking about body positivity and encourage advertisers to show real women in ads and much to our relief, Kapoor agreed that it would be a part of the study. She said, “We are looking at health and fitness as one of the sectors that we will study. What you mentioned (body positivity), that gets covered in the whole decoding of advertising: what are the kind of women we are showing in advertising. And when we show different kinds of women, whether be body shape, skin color, age -- we'll do research on what are they falling back on stereotypes: are older women shown in different ways than younger women and all of those dynamics. This is why it's such a complex, but very fascinating study. But yes, absolutely. We will cover health, fitness and women and their bodies.” We reached out to women in advertising agencies to find out what are some of the concerns that they are hoping this report would address. They seem very excited to know that an industry body has taken upon itself to change the gender narrative and make strides towards inclusivity and have high hopes. <keyword id="652941" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ashwini-Deshpande">Ashwini Deshpande</keyword>, Co-founder &amp; Director, Elephant Design is also a Co-founder of the initiative ‘The Collective’ that started after #MeToo. Deshpande and her team has been helping women in the advertising fraternity feel safer at their workplace, talking about equal pay and rights for women. Sharing a list of concerns she expects ASCI to address, she mentioned, “Narrations or humour based on gender, caste, racial features, regional accents: any stereotyping that leads to trivializing or offending specific sections of society - Sexualization/ objectification in a completely unrelated or unnecessary context: products or services that have no connection with display of seduction or women in revealing attires - Stereotyping relationships: especially women being shown as people who "serve" others - What is being directed towards children and whether it is being done responsibly - What is being pushed in the name of festivals - Clarity of message while offering discounts or schemes - Claims being made by remedial/ medicinal products” Ronita Mitra, Founder and Chief Strategist, Brand Eagle Consulting said, "Women are already visible achievers in many fields today be it academics, professional/ career achievements, art and culture and many more. In fact, mindset across generations is evolving among all genders towards the traditional classification of roles and expectations. This includes all stereotypical lenses which create divisive and archaic boundaries, be it caste, gender, colourism, etc. If brands and advertisements are to truly reflect consumer trends, this evolving consumer psyche should in any case be reflected in the narratives and storytelling. While some categories and brands have begun the process of reflecting the evolving realities, certain categories continue to be steeped in the stereotypical role definitions and boundaries. Brands, through their advertisements and storytelling are a powerful influencer in engendering shifts in consumer attitudes and thereby, behaviour at societal level." She added, "ASCI's move to develop a report focusing on the depiction of women in advertising, ought to be lauded as it will provide momentum to the need to shift the archaic and stereotypical depiction of women's role in communication in the yesteryears and in fact, showcase women's roles as is already experienced in many facets of our lives today and in the years to come. In fact, many consumers are already living lives guided by gender neutrality rather than traditional gender-based lives. The Guidelines based on consumer insights from a self-regulated, robust institution such as ASCI will lend a lot of credibility and support to the discussions that marketers will have within their organisations to accomplish organisation-wide buy into progressive brand and creative ideas. However, it would be important to ensure that the guidelines are future-ready and not confined to merely reflect the realities of changes in women's role as of today. In a fast-evolving world, the pace of change of role definitions will also keep changing and the guidelines need to be mindful of the same. To that end, while the first report is a great beginning, hopefully, the insights and the resultant guidelines should ideally be refreshed every few years to ensure that it's continuing relevance for the environment that would take shape in the future as well." Nisha Singhania, Founding Partner, Infectious Advertising said, “There definitely has been a gender stereotyping when it comes to the portrayal of women in advertising. I’m hoping this study will identify some of these biases and help project women in a more progressive and equal manner. Guidelines on depiction which are offensive or regressive will definitely help advertisers have a more responsible portrayal of genders in ads.” Rajni Daswani, Director at SoCheers said, “Social stigmas like skin colour, size of a woman, her rights and roles in a household or at a workplace should be some of the things the guidelines should definitely cover. We’ve seen a lot of stereotypical ads whenever there are any women protagonists promoting a product/service. What we portray about women through these ads are what future women are going to see and grow into and it's crucial that we get it right and move towards being a more gender-agnostic progressive society who is ready for the world of tomorrow.”

All about ASCI’s latest Gender Next report and what women of the ad world are expecting the industry body to address

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/53487662.cms" />You may be able to create an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=email+id&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">email ID</a> in your language soon as tech giants have been asked to develop an option to have email addresses in regional languages too. 
 
During a recent meeting with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=google&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Google</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=microsoft&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Microsoft</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=rediff&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Rediff</a>, etc, the Indian government asked the email service providers to enable users to sign up for addresses in local languages, starting with Hindi. 
 
This move will ensure more reach into the semi-urban and rural areas. 
 
"The Bharat Net project will connect 250,000 gram panchayats through high-speed Internet in the next few years, and people should be able to utilise it when it reaches them," Rajiv Bansal, joint secretary in the ministry of electronics and IT, told ET. 
 
Meanwhile, the tech giants feel the leaders should lead by example. 
 "What is stopping our Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> and other officers in government from sending out emails to the public from a Hindi email address?" Venki Nishtala, chief technology officer of <keyword id="251975" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rediff">Rediff</keyword>, told ET. 
 
“Microsoft is committed to developing solutions that help create economic opportunities and build IT skills by facilitating the use of local languages,” a spokesperson told ET. 
 "The current versions of Internet Explorer 11, <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword> Edge and MS Outlook 2016 all support Indian language including in Hindi (eg. domain names such as and internationalised email addresses such as)," the person told ET.

Creating an email ID in your mother tongue to become a reality soon

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/47897889.cms" /> 
PM Modi’s inclination for tech is once again in limelight. And this time, it’s a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. If this sounded too philosophical to your ears, Digital India is aimed at synchronizing and co-ordinating engagement of the entire government digitally to yield good governance. 
 
Digital India Week, which will be launched this evening are focussed on three keys, as per a news <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/digital-india-15-salient-things-to-know-about-pm-narendra-modis-project/articleshow/47893380.cms">report</a> by The Economic Times. These are: 
 
(i) Digital Infrastructure as a utility to every citizen 
 
(ii) Governance &amp; services on demand 
 
(iii) Digital Empowerment of citizens 
 
Prime Minister’s visionary idea will be providing broadband highways, universal access to mobile connectivity, public internet access programme, e-governance: Reforming government through technology, eKranti - Electronic delivery of services, Information for all, Electronics manufacturing: Target net zero imports, IT for jobs and early harvest programmes, confirms the news report. 
 
 
The financial daily has selected 15 salient features of Digital India project: 
 
1. Digital Locker System would lessen the usage of physical documents. This will enable sharing of e-documents across agencies. The sharing of the e-documents will be done through registered repositories thereby ensuring the authenticity of the documents online. 
 
2. MyGov.in has been implemented as a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through a "Discuss", "Do" and "Disseminate" approach, as per the ET report. MyGov mobile app helps the same through mobile interface. 
 
3. Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app would be used by people and Government organizations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission. 
 
4. eSign framework would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar authentication. 
 
5. The Online Registration System (ORS) under the eHospital application has been introduced. This application provides important services such as online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring availability of blood online etc, the government claims. 
 
6. National Scholarships Portal is said to be a one stop solution for end to end scholarship process right from submission of student application, verification, sanction and disbursal to end beneficiary for all the scholarships provided by the Government of India. 
 
7. DeitY has undertaken an initiative namely Digitize India Platform (DIP) for large scale digitization of records in the country that would facilitate efficient delivery of services to the citizens. 
 
8. Bharat Net, a high speed digital highway to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of country. This would be the world's largest rural broadband connectivity project using optical fibre. 
 
9. Policy initiatives have also been undertaken by DeitY in the e-Governance domain like e-Kranti Framework, Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software for Government of India, Framework for Adoption of Open Source Software in e-Governance Systems, Policy on Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for Government of India, E-mail Policy of Government of India, Policy on Use of IT Resources of Government of India, Policy on Collaborative Application Development by Opening the Source Code of Government Applications, Application Development &amp; Re-Engineering Guidelines for Cloud Ready Applications, confirmed the news report by the ET. 
 
10. BSNL has introduced Next Generation Network (NGN), to replace 30 year old exchanges, which is an IP based technology to manage all types of services like voice, data, multimedia/ video and other types of packet switched communication services. 
 
11. BSNL has undertaken large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country. The user can latch on the BSNL Wi-Fi network through their mobile devices. 
 
12. BPO Policy has been approved to create BPO centres in different North Eastern states and also in smaller / mofussil towns of other states. 
 
13. Electronics Development Fund (EDF) Policy aims to promote Innovation, R&amp;D, and Product Development and to create a resource pool of IP within the country to create a self-sustaining eco-system of Venture Funds. 
 
14. National Centre for Flexible Electronics (NCFlexE) is an initiative of Government of India to promote research and innovation in the emerging area of Flexible Electronics. 
 
15. Centre of Excellence on Internet on Things (IoT) is a joint initiative of Department of Electronics &amp; Information Technology (DeitY), ERNET and NASSCOM, informs the news report by The Economic Times. 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

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