Read This If You Want to Upgrade to HDFC REGALIA GOLD CC

Recently HDFC Bank stopped offering direct airport(domestic) lounge access on Regalia Credit Cards - now it would be based on the spends on that card. For availing upto 2 complimentary lounge access you have to spend 1L or more in a calendar quarter (Jan-Mar/ Apr-Jun/ Jul-Sept/Oct-Dec) and it is not easy like before - i.e. go to the desk of the lounge and swipe the card and enter. You need to get lounge access voucher from Regalia SmartBuy page. 

Now the point is HDFC has given away a lot of Regalia cards - and many of the customers after spending like 1L in first 90 days, got the card as LTF (life time free). 

বর্ধমানের আউসগ্রামের দরিয়াপুর - ডোকরা শিল্পগ্রাম

বর্ধমানের রাজা কীর্তিচাঁদের বানানো জলটুঙ্গি ঘুরতে গিয়ে খোঁজ পাই বাংলার এই প্রাচীন শিল্পকলার। যদিও ডোকরার ইতিহাস ৪০০০-৪৫০০ বছরের পুরোনো এবং সেই অর্থে ডোকরা খাঁটি বাংলার শিল্পকলা নয়। জলটুঙ্গি থেকে মাত্র ৫ কিলোমিটার দূরে দরিয়াপুর। 

ডোকরা হল ভারতবর্ষের অন্যতম পুরোনো আদিবাসী শিল্পকলা যার ইতিহাস প্রায় ৪৫০০ বছরের। মনে করা হয় ‘হারানো মোম ঢালাই’ পদ্ধতির (Lost or vanishing wax casting method) এই শিল্পকর্মের বিকাশ ভারতে প্রথম ঘটেছিল মধ্যপ্রদেশের বস্তার অঞ্চলে ডোকরা-ডামার উপজাতি মানুষদের হাতে। তাঁদের নামেই এই শিল্পের নাম 'ডোকরা'। কথিত আছে প্রায় ৩০০০ বছর আগে বস্তারের রাজা তাঁর রাণীর জন্য ডোকরার গয়না তৈরি করিয়েছিলেন। তবে সিন্ধু সভ্যতার শহর মহেঞ্জদোড়োতে প্রাপ্ত "ড্যান্সিং গার্ল" বা "নৃত্যরত নারী মূর্তি" হল ডোকরা শিল্পের এক প্রাচীন নিদর্শন। কাজেই এই শিল্পের মূলধারা কোথায় সে বিষয়ে যথেষ্ট তর্কবিতর্ক আছে।  

Tareq Amin Lands on Aramco Digital to Continue His Dream for Open RAN

Back in 2020, O-RAN was just more than a concept, I covered its advantages and how Indian operators could be beneficial by embracing it. The post also covers the importance of 5Gi or Desi 5G for the operators as they were ditching Chinese vendors. This move to ditch Chinese vendors was also appreciated by American politicians. 

However more than 1 year after 5G launch in the country, none of the operators deployed Open RAN ecosystem. Though all three - Jio, Airtel and Vi had explored O-RAN based networks before the 5G launch. 

Brookfield Acquires ATC India's Assets

Brookfield has acquired 100% of American Tower Corp (ATC)'s Indian unit for $2.5-billion valuation as announced on January 4, 2024. ATC India is the one of the leading independent Passive Telecom Infrastructure Providers in India. The acquisition is expected to be completed by Q2 of 2024. 

ATC India started its journey in 2007 by erecting towers for mobile operators in Orissa and Bihar. After that ATC India continued its growth by acquisition of other companies - Xcel Telecom (May 2009), Transcend Infrastructure (November 2009), Essar Telecom Infrastructure (February 2010), Viom Networks (majority stake in April 2016; complete acquisition in April 2019), Vodafone Tower Holdings (April 2018) Idea Cellular Infrastructure Services Ltd (ICISL) (May 2018). 

EV in India - List of 2 Wheeler Makers

Electric Vehicles are seem to be the cars from the future. But already several home grown companies developed two-wheelers and cars for Indian populations. 

Tata Motors seems to be the king of EV car market - they have Tata Tiago EV, Tata Nexon EV, Tata Nexon EV Max, Tata Nexon EV Prime and upcoming Tata Altroz EV as 4 wheelers EV offerings. They also launched Punch.ev. 

Other mainstream EV cars available in India - MG ZS EV, Hyundai Kona Electric, Kia EV6 and upcoming Mahindra XUV400. 

There are some cars from premium car makers like Posche, Mercedes, BMW, Byd - all are priced more than 30 lakhs. 

The list of EV cars in India is definitely missing Maruti Suzuki, who are as of now investing in hybrid cars (Petrol/Diesel + CNG). We are also waiting to see Maruti to enter EV market. 

Presently available e-Bikes in India: 

• Bajaj Chetak EV - 3kW battery, range 85-95 KM, Charging time - 5 hr, top speed 78 kmph, battery warranty 3 yrs 

• Hero Electric - (https://heroelectric.in) - Optima series, Photon LP, Atria LX

• Ather Energy - 450X and 450X Plus - range 70-85km, Price 1.26-1.45L; Rizta

• TVS iQube electric - Range 75km, top speed 78 kmph, Price 1L 

• Odysse Evoqis - Looks like a sports bike. Max speed 80 kmph, Price 1.71L + taxes

Odysse has several e-Scooters offerings: HAWK +, HAWK LITE, RACER, LITE, E2GO LITE, V2, V2+, E2GO (Lead acid battery) 

• Ola Electric - S1 and S1 Pro 

• Okinawa Ridge Plus - Range 120km, top speed 55 kmphOkinawa also has iPraise+ 

• EPluto 7G

• Detel EV - costs just 20K !! 

• Kabira Mobility - KM3000, KM4000, Hermes 75, Intercity 300, Intercity 350

• EeVe India - Bhubaneshwar based startup 

https://eeveindia.com

eScooters: EeVe Soul

Price - Rs 1.4 L, ex-showroom
Battery - two advanced Lithium Ferrous Phosphate (LFP) batteries, swappable and detachable. Full charge in 3-4 hrs
Top speed - 60 km/h
Range - upto 120 km on single charge

Other features - Smart connectivity options such as IOT functions, anti-theft lock system, GPS navigation, USB port, reverse mode, geo-tagging, geo-fencing, etc

Warranty - 3 years

• eBikeGo - Mumbai based eBike rental service provider

eScooters: 

✏ Flash - Top speed 25km/h, Range 50-60km, Charging Time 3-4h
✏ Zeal Ex - Top speed 50km/h, Range 50-60km, Charging Time 3-4h
✏ Reo - Top speed 25km/h, Range 50km, Charging Time 3-4h

• Rugged-G1: Range - 160km, Battery - 1.9 kWh Li-Ion, swappable battery, Charging time - 4hrs

Coimbatore based Boom Motors' EV offering - Corbett 14 has similar features at similar price of eBikeGo's Rugged G1. 

Therefore the two companies have entered into a cross-badging agreement. Cross-badging or badge engineering is a strategy or an agreement used by automobile companies globally where partners share the same platform with minor engineering changes.

✏ Corbett 14 - price Rs 86,999, ex-showroom, Corbett 14-EX - price Rs 1,19,999, ex-showroom

• eBikeGo has acquired the rights to manufacture the Velocipedo electric trike in India from the Spanish EV maker Torrot in November 2021. eBikeGo has partnered with Log9 Materials for using later's advanced battery technology in Velocipedo e-vehicles. 

Velocipedo 

Variants - Personal vehicle, Trick Taxi and Cargo vehicle. 
Top Speed 95km/h
Battery - 10kWh lithium-ion battery
Range - 200km

In 2023 Velocipedo and Muvi had been put under Vajram Electric (vajramelectric.com), a sub-company of eBikeGo. 

eBikeGo is also bagged another Indian right to manufacture of Torrot Muvi, which is a basic e-scooter launched in 2017. 

• Liger Mobility - Liger X and Liger X+ - auto balancing e-bike. 
• Revolt Motors (https://www.revoltmotors.com) - RV400

• Oben Electric (obenelectric.com) - Rorr
• Ultraviolette Automotive (https://www.ultraviolette.com) - F77
• Kinetic Green - Pune based EV 2-wheeler company
• PURE EV (https://www.pureev.in) - EPluto 7G, ETrance
• Komaki Electric (https://komaki.in)
• Benling India (https://www.benlingindia.com) - Aura, Falcon 
• Avon - E-Scoot, E-Star, E-Mate
• Vida (https://www.vidaworld.com) - Vida E1
• Ampere EV of Greaves Electric Mobility (https://ampere.greaveselectricmobility.com) 
• Tork Motors - (torkmotors.com) - Kratos R (Rs 1.5L) 

www.allthingsev.io - HDFCErgo backed India's first EV ecosystem

Gurugram base BluSmart (www.blu-smart.com) is one of most ambitious start up in the ride hailing space. In India we have Ola and Uber as main ride hailing service and some come and go. InDriver is potentially good competition in the space. But what BluSmart wants to do - disrupt the market with EV offerings. They are presently (as of November 2022) operating in Bengaluru, Gurugram & South Delhi. Blu-Smart have excellent blog (https://www.blog.blu-smart.com) where you can get EV insights in simple languages. 

Kolkata also got its pie of EV cabs - Snap E Cabs (https://snapecabs.com) since October 2022. Though I did not see them initially on the road, but for last 3 months I often see these cabs on the roads. 

Snap-E is different from the likes of Uber and Ola, as aggregators do not own the cars. The company started with 100 EV cabs and has plans to operate with 5,000 such vehicles in next 2 years. To power up the fleet they will set up 150 DC and 700 AC charging stations in and around Kolkata. The company has also promised “zero surge pricing”. Mayank Bindal is the co-founder and CEO of Snap E cabs. 

Jio Adds SpaceFiber to Deliver Gigabits in Remote Areas, Partner SES in Trouble with O3b mPower Fleet

It's time to grace SATCOM as it goes masses. Country's largest telecom player Reliance Jio and Luxembourg-based satellite communications company SES backed 'Jio Space Technology Limited' (51:49) had demonstrated capabilities of JioSpaceFiber services at Mobile Congress India's conference on 27th October, 2023. Jio Satellite was formed in February 2022. 

As of now only Bharti backed OneWeb & Jio Space Technology holds the global mobile personal communications. 

Aviation India - June to August 2023 Updates

The civil aviation industry in India has seen remarkable growth after pandemic. As experts predict, Indian aviation will accommodate 430 million additional air passenger journeys by 2040 compared to 2019.

India's aviation market saw an extra ordinary in January 2022, as government sells Air India to Tata group. Once Tatas founded and owned this airlines and again it is in their hands. 

Post Covid era, aviation business is booming as travel is now easier and safer.