Apple iPhone 8 launched, buyers to get 70% of price when selling it back to Jio

Akash Ambani said the buyback offer would be available for customers of iPhone8 or iPhone 8 Plus

Reliance Jio has a big surprise for those interested in buying Apple iPhone 8 in India. Jio will buy back Apple Inc's latest iPhone models from its customers within a year for 70 percent of the retail price of the smartphone, the company announced on Friday.

Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani's son Akash Ambani said the buyback offer would be available for customers of iPhone8 or iPhone 8 Plus through Reliance Digital, Jio.com or the Jio Store.

Under this scheme, users will receive 70 percent of the purchase price of the devices upon using it with a Jio SIM card and returning it after a year. In other ways, this buyback scheme allows iPhone users to get 70 per cent of their money back when they upgrade to next iPhone.The buyback offer is valid for one year.

Also Read : Apple CEO Tim Cook 'joins' Akash Ambani at iPhone 8's India launch

This partnership between Apple and Jio brings two companies that have revolutionised their respective industries, because we both think customer first," said the Ambani scion.

Chairman of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani and Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook addressed people through video messages.

Cook spoke about the partnership with India's newest telco and the customisation that the latest devices from stables of Apple have for India.

"We’ve added new keyboards for India so we now support 11 local languages, and iPhone now takes dictation in Hindi. We’re excited to be building so many new relationships in India, including tens of thousands of developers across the country now writing apps for iOS," the CEO added. (more)

IBPS PO 2017: Exam pattern, books and study materials

Eligible candidates who have applied online will now prepare, download their admit cards and then appear for preliminary and main examination

Bank Exam : IBPS Probationary Officer (PO) Examination is easily the largest and the most popular banking recruitment examination in India. IBPS which stands for Institute of Banking Personnel Selection provides recruitment solutions to many public sector banks, Cooperative banks, Insurance companies, Rural Banks, Government departments and private players as well. The primary objective of IBPS is to evaluate and select the right skilled personnel for different client organizations.

For the year 2017 IBPS has announced IBPS PO examination dates and other details. The online registration was open from 16th August 2017 and the last date for registration was September 10th 2017. Eligible candidates who have applied online will now prepare, download their admit cards and then appear for preliminary and main examination for recruitment of3, 562 probationary officers (PO) in various public sector banks.

Bank Exam Portal: E-learning and Online Test Series portal for Bank Exam, SBI PO, IBPS, Clerk

IBPS PO Examination Syllabus 

IBPS examination syllabus is similar to SBI PO examination syllabus. IBPS PO preliminary exam syllabus comprises of following subjects Reasoning Ability, Quantitative Analysis and English Language. Whereas the main examination includes detailed knowledge of Logical Reasoning, English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, General Knowledge and Computer Aptitude.

IBPS PO Preliminary Examination

The IBPS PO preliminary examination is of 100 marks, has a time duration of 60 minutes and is conducted online (computer-based). The exam consists of 3 sections, English language of 30 marks, Numerical ability and Reasoning ability of 35 marks each. Please note that there is negative marking and 0.25 marks for every wrong answer. It is must for a candidate to better the cut off marks in all the 3 sections in order to qualify for the IBPS PO Main examination.(more)

Rs 2500 JioPhone @ just Rs 1500! How RIL is planning to recover losses

Jio has amassed more than 128 million subscribers since its launch last year

Reliance Industries' telecom upstart Jio is footing at least 40 percent of the cost of its basic 4G phone, two sources familiar with the matter said, as it bets on recovering the investment by luring in millions of new customers.

The Jio Phone, rolling out this week for a refundable deposit of 1,500 rupees ($23.05), will cost at least 2,500 rupees ($39) to assemble, the sources told Reuters.

That means Jio will likely carry more than $150 million in costs for every 10 million JioPhones it sells.

And the company aims to build a subscriber base of between 250 million and 300 million users in the next two years, said one of the sources.

Reliance Industries did not respond to a request for comment.

Some Reliance investors may flinch at the cost of subsidies, but the scale of the outlay is a clear signal of the level of Jio's ambition, as it targets an audience of some 500 million who still cannot afford smartphones in India.

Also Read : Nokia 8 with dual rear camera launched in India at Rs 36,999

Jio's advanced voice over LTE (VoLTE) network only works with 4G enabled devices, inaccessible to many even at subsidised rates. The significantly cheaper JioPhone, however, will open the Internet to a less affluent segment of Indians for the very first time.

"The 3,000-rupee smartphone was not cutting it," the second source said. "Reliance is making a bold attempt with this phone and data will be the key driver for them."

Analysts estimate a majority of Indian feature phone users have an average revenue per user (ARPU) of rupees 50 or lower. JioPhone's 153 rupees monthly plan for so-called pre-paid users aims to drive up this ARPU, the first source said.

Jio, backed by India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, has amassed more than 128 million subscribers since its launch last year, by offering free voice and cut-price data for months.(more)

IBPS Clerk 2017: Registration Ends In First Week of October

Registration for IBPS Clerk 2017 examination began on September 12, 2017 Tuesday and is open till October 03, 2017 (Tuesday).

Registration for IBPS Clerk 2017 examination began on September 12, 2017 Tuesday and is open till October 03, 2017 (Tuesday). The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) is set conduct the IBPS Clerk Exam 2017-18 at two levels; Preliminary and Main. The prelim exam will be conducted in the first week of December 2017 i.e. 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 10th and the Main on January 21, 2018. The IBPS conducts these exams every year to recruit the capable candidates for clerical posts in the banks (Participating Organizations) that participate in this recruitment program. Those students who score minimum qualifying marks in the prelim become eligible for the Main exam. Participating Organizations include Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank, Andhra Bank, Central Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, Punjab National Bank, United Bank of India, Bank of India, Dena Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Vijaya Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Indian Bank and Syndicate Bank.

Candidates who will qualify in Preliminary examination and shortlisted will have to appear for Main examination. Depending on the vacancies to be filled in during the financial year 2018-19 based on the business needs of the Participating Organizations and as reported to IBPS, candidates shortlisted will be provisionally allotted to one of the Participating Organizations keeping in view the spirit of Govt. Guidelines on reservation policy, administrative convenience, etc. The validity for CWE Clerks-VII will automatically expire at the close of business on 31.03.2019 with or without giving any notice.

Important Dates : Click Here

Following is the step-by-step procedure of applying online.

• Candidates are first required to go to the IBPS’s website www.ibps.in and click on the Home Page to open the link “CWE Clerks” and then click on the option “CLICK HERE TO APPLY ONLINE FOR CWE- Clerks (CWE-Clerks-VII)” to open the On-Line Application Form.
• Candidates will have to click on “CLICK HERE FOR NEW REGISTRATION” to register their application by entering their basic information in the online application form. After that a provisional registration number and password will be generated by the system and displayed on the screen. Candidate should note down the Provisional registration number and password. An Email & SMS indicating the Provisional Registration number and Password will also be sent. They can reopen the saved data using Provisional registration number and password and edit the particulars, if needed.
• Candidates are required to upload their photograph (4.5cm × 3.5cm) and signature. (more)

RBI Invites Applications For Medical Consultant (Part-time). Apply Now.

candidates can reach the Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, Human Resource Management Department (Recruitment Section), Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Kanpur - 208001 on or before October 09, 2

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is inviting applications from the eligible for Medical Consultant on contract basis, with fixed hourly remuneration for dispensary of Reserve Bank of India located at Reserve Bank Officers’ Quarters, 4/277, Tilak Nagar, Kanpur. Number of vacancy is one for unreserved category. Interested candidates can reach the Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, Human Resource Management Department (Recruitment Section), Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Kanpur - 208001 on or before October 09, 2017 till 05:15 P.M.

Eligibility Parameters:

• Applicant should possess MBBS degree of any recognized university by the Medical Council of India in the allopathic system of medicine.
• Applicants having post graduate degree in General Medicine can also apply.

Also Read : CAT 2017 UPDATE: Registration Date Extended, Admit Card & Exam Dates

Experience:

• The Applicant should have a minimum of 2 (two) years’ experience in any hospital or as Medical Practitioner. iv.
• The applicants having their own private dispensary or place of residence within a radius of 5 Kms. from the dispensary at the aforementioned Officers’ Quarters will be given preference

Pay: The pay (remuneration) will be on contract basis fixed with reference to the actual duty hours performed and will be all inclusive.

Applicants must keep in mind that the contract will be initially for a period of three years subject to review every year, which can be extended on such terms and conditions which are mutually agreeable to both the parties

Location: Reserve Bank Officers’ Quarters, 4 / 277, Tilak Nagar, Kanpur - 208002.

Working Hours: Monday to Friday: 05:30 P.M. to 06:30 P.M., Saturday: 12:15 P.M. to 01:15 P.M.

Pay or remuneration: ₹ 750/- per hour for the first three years of contractual service and ₹ 950/- per hour after completion of three years of contractual service. Out of total monthly remuneration a sum of ₹ 1000/- will be treated as conveyance expense. Reimbursement of mobile charges of ₹ 1,000/- per month will also be provided.(more)

NIT Goa Invites Applications For Faculty/Non-teaching Staff

The application process starts from 20th September 2017 and the last date to submit the application is 16th October 2017

National Insititute of Technology Goa has invited applications for the recruitment of various non-teaching staffs and teaching faculties. NIT invites candidates to apply for various faculty positions in following departments computer science engineering, electronics and communication engineering, mathematics, English chemistry, electrical and electronics engineering. Along with teaching staff NIT Goa has also invited application for various non-teaching positions such an accountant, technical staff, registar, superintendent, multitasking staff, nurse, junior engineer, lab assistant and more. Reservation policy as mandated by Govt. of India will be applicable for the recruitments.

Job Location: Ponda (Goa)

NIT Goa Recruitment - Important Dates

Application Process Starts - 20th September 2017

Last Date to Submit Application - 16th October 2017

NIT Recruitment Eligibility Criteria - Faculty Positions

Only M.E/M.Tech/M.Phil/Ph.D awarded candidates need to apply

NIT Recruitment Eligibility Criteria - Non-Teaching Positions

Registrar: The candidate must have a Master's Degree in any discipline with a minimum of 55 % marks from a recognized university in order to apply for the registrar’s post.

Executive Engineer: Aspiring candidates must have a civil engineering degree from a recognized university to apply for an executive engineer post.

Superintendent: Candidates applying for superintendent post must possess a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in commerce. Candidates with MBA in finance can also apply for this position.

Technical Assistant: Aspiring Technical Assistant must have a Bachelor's Degree in the relevant discipline. Candidates with Diploma in Engineering may also apply; PGDCA candidates would be given preference.(more)

'Bhoomi': Sanjay Dutt, Aditi Rao chemistry elevates the film (Movie Review, Rating ****)

Film: 'Bhoomi'; Director: Omung Kumar; Starring: Sanjay Dutt, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sharad Kelkar, Shekhar Suman; Rating: ****

"Jadd se ya dhadh se?" Sanjay Dutt plays a cruel KBC with his daughter's rapist, offering to either kill or castrate him.

The pleading begging rapist takes the knife and plunges it into his pants.

I squirmed , as I was meant to. Bhoomi a film about a father and daughter's revenge on her wrongdoers set in the seamier side of the city of the Taj Mahal, is not an easy film to view. Just because it stars Sanjay Dutt, don't expect him to rise Phoenix-like to the occasion. With remarkable disregard for his larger-than-strife image, Sanjay Dutt plays an aging caring doting father who is a helpless mute entity in the case to fight his daughter's violators.

The rape-revenge motif has been done so much to death I wondered why we need another film on the theme. But "Bhoomi" has plenty of surprises to offer. It never lets the very beautiful Aditi Rao play the victim-card eventhough she is violated humiliated and vilified repeatedly. Yet she stands tall and dignified. This could be because Aditi Rao in the film's titlular role is just so frigging ethereal. Her makeup-free scrubbed and honest face conveys hurt, suppressed anger and hastily dismissed bewilderment. She is a treat to watch.

Put her on screen with Dutt and you have magic. Scenes such as the one where she tells her broken dad it's time to rise above the tragedy, are pitch-perfect in their shrill yearnings, neither overstating nor trivializing the very grim issue of rape.

Sanjay Dutt though a little wheezy and out of rhythm, is heartrendingly avuncular.His breakdown in the courtroom is so raw and unrehearsed it washes away all cynicism. He seems so protective of his "Betu" and so shattered by her violation that we tend to forgive the film's absolute absence of novelty. A parent grieving over a daughter's rape is not just familiar territory it is also a territory that threatens to explode under the weight of overstatement in our cinema.

With rather unnecessary detailing Bhoomi charts out the daughter's rape. Shot in a ramshackle single theatre ironically named Bhagwan Talkies, the gangrape is filmed against a backdrop of a film being screened within the film. In this way we are reminded of how cinema is responsible for an increase in sex crimes. (more)

Apple iPhone 8 and 8 Plus India launch date hits grey market sellers hard

Apple has updated its marketing and sales strategy to make an impact in India

Apple's decision to start sales of its new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus smartphones in India just a week after their global launch may be welcome news for die-hard fans of the Cupertino-based tech giant's products but it has driven the cheer out of the country's grey markets, according to reports.

Apple will launch the new iPhones in India on September 29 with pre-booking starting from September 22. According to the Economic Times, this means that die-hard fans who would rush to grey market sellers in places like Mumbai’s Heera Panna market and Delhi’s Gaffar Market to get their hands on the latest iPhone, that too at a high premium, ahead of others who would wait for its official launch can now get their gadget of choice pretty much at the same time as the rest of the world sans the premium price. Consequently, these grey markets have hardly seen any pre-bookings this time, according to the financial daily.

ALSO READ: Will iPhone X hurt iPhone 8 and 8 Plus sale? Here's what experts say

According to the financial daily, the date from when pre-booking starts is the same date on when Apple will be launching the new smartphones in countries like Singapore, China, the UAE, which are the places from where grey sellers mostly sourced these handsets in the past. The financial daily added that in the past, these grey sellers would command a premium as high as 50 per cent, making people shell out more than Rs 1 lakh in some cases for an iPhone.

As reported earlier, Apple has updated its marketing and sales strategy to make an impact in India, the world’s third-largest mobile phone market after China and the US.

ALSO READ: iPhone X: Apple makes a $999 gamble on its aspirational brand

The iPhones shipment used to reach Indian shores after a huge time gap and the actual sales of devices used to start even later. This time, the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will launch in India just a week after the US launch. The premium iPhone X will be rolled out in India along with the international rollout.

The new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will go on sale starting September 29 at 6 PM, unlike the previous iPhone launches that used to go on sale at midnight in India. Apart from online sales through e-commerce platforms, the new iPhones will be available for purchase through offline retail stores and the sale will commence at the same time through online and offline channels.

CEE Kerala publishes medical allied courses allotment list

The Commissioner of Entrance Examinations (CEE), Kerala has published the centralised allotment list for admission to medical courses - ayurveda, homoeopathy, siddha and unani - and allied courses - agriculture, forestry, veterinary and fisheries. Students can access the list on the official websites – cee.http://kerala.gov.in and cee-kerala.org. Kerala engineering architecture medical (KEAM) results were announced on August 23, 2017.

According to the official notice, only the candidates who had confirmed their options online within the stipulated time have been considered for this phase of allotment. Details including the name, roll number, allotted course, allotted college, category of allotment and fee etc. will be available on the home page of the candidate. The candidates should take a printout of the allotment memo for future reference.

KEAM results 2017

Candidates can download their allotment memo from the website. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to:

1. Go to the official website cee.kerala.gov.in
2. Click on the Medical (except MBBS/BDS) & Allied results link on the homepage
3. A new page displaying allotment list and rank list data will open
4. Download and save the list
5. Take a print out

Fee payment

Candidates who receive an allotment afresh or a change in allotment to Medical (except MBBS/BDS) and allied courses should remit the fee/balance fee, if any, to be paid to the CEE as specified in the allotment memo at any of the designated branches of State Bank of India (SBI) or by way of online payment. Last date to make the payment is September 22, 2017. Selected students also should join the course/college allotted before 5:00 PM on September 22, 2017.

Those candidates who do not remit the fee/balance fee and who do not join the college allotted within the stipulated time will lose their allotment as well as all the existing higher options in the stream to which the allotment belongs. (more)

Will iPhone X hurt iPhone 8 and 8 Plus sale? Here's what experts say

Apple unveiled both iPhone X and iPhone 8 models, with the "super-premium" iPhone X starting at $999

As Apple gets ready to ship iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus before it opens iPhone X for pre-orders, a top analyst with Taiwanese business group KGI Securities has warned that iPhone X will cannibalise iPhone 8 orders.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, the most famous analyst with KGI Securities when it comes to Apple, it is very likely that iPhone X demand will cannibalise iPhone 8 pre-orders.

"While it takes three to six weeks or more to ship new iPhone models after they are available for preorder, they see the iPhone 8 taking less than one to two weeks. This is due to the iPhone X cannibalisation," StreetInsider.com quoted the analyst as saying late on Monday.

Apple unveiled both iPhone X and iPhone 8 models, with the "super-premium" iPhone X starting at $999.

Ming, however, said the new Apple Watch Series 3's (GPS + Cellular version) could be a runaway hit.

"We estimate the preorder weighting of the GPS + Cellular version is 80-90 per cent. While not available in all countries, most users have pre-ordered the GPS + Cellular version because it offers phone and internet access functions without an iPhone and given the low premium of $70 over the GPS version," the analyst predicted.

According to the Verge, while Apple Watch shipments are well below iPhone shipments, investors should start keeping tabs on this new product, with shipments expected to surge much higher than previous generation models.

Apple would launch iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, starting Rs 64,000, in India on September 29 while pre-bookings will start on September 22.

The iPhone X will come to India on November 3, starting Rs 89,000. (more)