Social Media Profile Be Your New Credit Score

Do you have a number of friends or followers on Facebook, and other social media platforms? Do you get a good number of likes on your posts and professional updates? If you are answering in the affirmative, there may be good news for you, as some lenders may assess your credit worthiness based on your social media footprint in the not so very distant future, notwithstanding your CIBIL score.

Though it may sound a bit far fetched at this point of time, especially for us Indians, these methods of alternative scoring may be a reality for us, sooner than we can imagine. In technical parlance this kind of scoring method is reffered to as "big data scoring". And this is why is it may become popular soon.

Moving beyond the traditional

There is no denying the fact that it is a difficult task for lenders to assess the credit worthiness of an individual. So far, a traditional three digit credit score has been used as a metric for judging how much risk there would be in lending to person. In the Indian context, the CIBIL score that is available with India's premiere Indian credit bureau, CIBIL, is widely accessed by lenders. This is because it is easily available and inexpensive. In fact, the Reserve Bank of India has now made it mandatory for all banks to base their initial judgment based on the CIBIL score.

Lenders therefore are on an overdrive at the moment to educate the general public at large that in order to maintain a good CIBIL score, one must maintain good financial habits such as re-paying credit card outstanding amounts, keeping overall credit utilization under 30 per cent and re-paying loan installments on time. While there is no undermining the importance of maintaining these good financial habits, the fact remains that the current credit scoring system may "punish the guilty" with a "sentence that may be larger than one's crime".

In other words, there may be untoward circumstances in one's life like a job loss, an accident or a death in the family that may throw one's finances in a complete state of disarray. This in turn may lead to poor credit score because of his inability to repay his debt on time. On the other hand, these may the times, when he is likely to be in most need of credit. However, under such a situation of duress he will be unable to have any access to credit because of an unflattering CIBIL score.

Betting big on big data

But what if the lenders consider an alternative scoring method instead? In cases where the credit report of a person has a blotch, the bank may consider the person's personal data that may be found on social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to asses his credit risk in addition to his CIBIL score. A person's reputation online, his professional contacts and the value of his opinions can be a metric of his social standing and thus can be used to asses his credit risk. In today's world of increasing digital footprint, this does seem like a viable option, given the fact that big data assessment systems are sophisticated and have a large positive impact across industries.

In fact, this method of "open scoring" as it is now being termed, has already commenced in the west. The Fair Issac Corporation or FICO in the United States of America , that publishes a score based on the consumer credit files based on the data available with three credit bureaus (Exeperian, Equifax and Transunion) is in the process of unveiling a new "alternate scoring model" for proving the credit worthiness of those whose FICO scores are not upto the mark because of bad or non existent credit. This will give a chance to a number of consumers to improve their FICO score.

Future perfect

This new scoring model is likely to use data such as utility bill repayment history, cell phone bills and cable bills and may later extend to social media data as well. As a result, American lenders will get access to a huge untapped market (approximately 15 million people) whose FICO scores are not so flattering at the moment. These are the people who have bad credit because of the impact of a major financial event or those who do not have a credit history because they have not used credit in the past.

Once these methods of alternate scoring become a norm in the developed markets, it is only a matter of time before India adopts such practices. There is enough reason to believe that this may happen soon, given the historical evidence. In the late 90's when credit bureaus became big in the USA, India understood its merits and the retail banking system began using credit scoring models by mid 2000. And that was the time when social media had not been so rampant, and neither were hand held devices such as smartphones or tablets that popular. Today, the scenario is different. With the improvement in the economy, the aspirations of people are rising and so are the number of internet users.

According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India there are approximately 300 million internet users in India and this number is projected to go up to approximately 600 million by 2018. Out of these approximately 225 million (source: www.statista.com) , are projected to be users of social networking sites. Needless to say then, that the scope is huge especially in the Indian context. Indians traditionally have been wary of credit and thus do not have a good credit score for the lack of credit history. Besides, alternative scoring models may prove to be a disruptive when it comes to financial inclusion in India as well.

Long story short, those of you who have scant CIBIL scores and are dreading the fact that you may not get access to credit, there may be hope in the offing for you, if you are an active social media participant. However, this must not be used to have bad financial habits or not making an attempt to maintain a good CIBIL score. At the moment, one still has to maintain a score of 750 and above if one aspires to get a loan product or a credit card in India. And this norm will not change right away.

10 great new features in Windows 10

Microsoft just announced that the upcoming Windows 9 will, in fact, be called Windows 10. Crazy days. So let's pull out 10 of the very best new features from Microsoft's upcoming Windows XP killer.

Talking about the new name, Terry Myerson - executive vice president of Microsoft's Operating Systems Group - said that the Windows 9 name "wouldn't be right" given the new One Microsoft internal strategy. Hence the move to Windows 10.

Of the new features in this latest build of the Windows 10 preview, one of the major ones is the introduction of the first bits of Microsoft's "Continuum," which helps convert the OS from desktop mode to tablet mode. When you go into tablet mode, all of your windows blow up into full-screen apps, and the Start Menu defaults to a full-size start screen. It'll trigger when you detach the keyboard from a Surface Pro 3 for instance, or you can trigger it manually, like this:

Then there's the long-awaited Cortana on desktop. She's pretty buggy right now, to the point of being practically unusable. But! A few things still work. You can get her attention by saying "Hey Cortana" at any time, if you turn it on in settings:

And even if you aren't using voice control, Bing-powered Cortana is the new face of internal (and web) search from the desktop, from finding your files to searching Wikipedia to launching applications:

The Charms bar—that thing you swipe in from the left—is still around, but now it's the notification center. Not unlike what you'll find on OS X Yosemite desktops, and analogous to the Notification Center that got introduced into Windows Phone 8.1:

And last but not least, Windows 10's tablet mode means that it plays nicer than ever with legacy desktop apps. Now when you're in tablet mode, older desktop-only apps will respond to the same gestures as tablet apps, so it's easier than ever to just use your fingers on the go:

Windows 10 is definitely coming along, but this is still a preview for sure. There are plenty of bugs—Cortana in particular is a shadow of what I hope she will one day be. But even just a little time with this new previews proves that Windows 10 really really has the potential to be the hybrid future operating system we deserved all along. It's impressive already. I can't wait to see it finished.

1. There's loads of stuff for touch, but it's different stuff

Designed to appeal to experts and novices alike, Microsoft was at pains to point out that it hasn't given up on touch with the new OS. The Charms bar remains for the moment although we expect it to die if you're using a non-touch PC (check out Continum below).

Microsoft says it wants to support touch users who have persevered with Windows 8 and "evolve" the touch UI. (Translated: That means it is changing quite a bit.) The task switching will no longer work on the left. So with that and the charms going, that's goodbye to most of the problem with Windows 8 - and a whole philosophy down the pan.

Microsoft's Joe Belfiore said at the preview: "We want Windows 7 users to feel like they upgraded from a [Toyota] Prius to a Tesla, but they don't need to learn a new way to drive."

2. It's BACK!

As we've covered before, the e most noticeable change is the new Start Menu, which looks somewhat like the old start menu. It brings some features from the Windows 8.1 Start Screen, such as live tiles, and can be resized.

3. Another new Task View (the Windows 8 flippy thing has gone)

Now the Windows 8 task switcher has been unceremoniously dumped, there's a new Task View in Windows 10, too, so users can switch between virtual desktops.That's because Microsoft now recognises that novice users use the taskbar rather than switching in other, cleverer, ways such as Alt+Tab (which also now switches between desktops).

4. Snap Assist helps you snap windows

A new Snap Assist feature also helps users work out which way is best to snap apps to. You can snap windows into new screens and tile Windows - just as you've been able to since Windows 2.0 or maybe 3.0.

5. The Command Prompt enters the 21st Century

Another quite amazing feature for those of us that use it is that the command prompt is now getting keyboard shortcuts! So you will be able to paste in your commands! Hardly groundbreaking, but actually pretty exciting.

6. Improvements to Windows Explorer

A new Home location is the new default view in Windows Explorer. There's also a Share button on the Windows Explorer taskbar (we really hope this is in the context menu, too).

7. Continum - the special one

This is the best new thing we found out today. Continum is an on-the-fly mode for 2 in 1 devices that can automatically change mode if it detects there is suddenly no keyboard attached. So, for example, a back button appears to help you navigate the Desktop with touch if the keyboard is removed. We reckon the charms will also disappear in non-touch mode, although we've heard conflicting news about that.

8. Windows 10 Universal apps

Windows 10 will also usher in a new app model - Universal Windows apps. Windows Universal apps are the new name for Metro apps/Modern apps/Windows Store apps. Take your pick on those old monikers, they've got a new one! Presumably (although we don't know as yet) that these will also work on Windows Phone. Windows 10 will be able to run on all devices from phones to servers and there will be a single app store across the lot.

All older Windows Store apps will work with Windows 10.

9. Modern (sorry, Universal) apps now float on the Desktop

The new Universal apps also work on the desktop and 'float' in their own Windows. Microsoft wants to banish the separation between the Modern UI and the Desktop.

These 'modern' apps on the desktop have a ... icon for more options - replacing the commands that used to be in the charms on the right-hand side of the screen.

10. Windows 10 has lots for Business and Enterprise

Microsoft says it hopes to appeal to business with this release of Windows, more so than Windows 8 ever did. Belfiore said they were "starting the dialogue with businesses today".

To be honest, it needs to - Windows XP is now ancient and unsupported, while precious other businesses want to make the leap away from Windows 7. But part of the reason why Microsoft is demonstrating the OS without all the consumer features is to show enterprises what the OS is capable of at this stage.

This version of Windows will have plenty of other features for enterprise, including a customised store and protection for corporate data. Mobile Device Management will be able to be used for all devices.

Windows 10 will keep personal and corporate data separate.

Security in the age of Digital India

While both Smart Cities and Digital India will create new economic and social opportunities, they will also be creating an increasingly large attack surface for cyber criminals

When you talk to the visiting heads of the technology giants about the government’s ambitious Digital India and Smart Cities initiatives, usually the focus is around the scale of the project, the capacity to do it and eventually the conversation will move to the subject of cyber security. Nowadays,security breaches are a regular feature. So much so that the insurance giant Aetna recently announced that it was going to approach cyber security as one more business risk that needs to be managed and insured in the same way that a company manages fluctuating currency prices or the threats of lawsuits.

The integrated digital footprint created by Digital India and Smart Cities is likely to bring formidable and increasing demand on resources to defend against the multiplying threat levels and entry points. While both Smart Cities and Digital India will create new economic and social opportunities, they will also be creating an increasingly large attack surface for criminals to exploit as an initial foothold or vector into otherwise well-protected IT environments. The government initiative that seeks to transform the country into a connected economy can be successful only when the security of the connected devices is assured.

The increasing synchronization and interpretation of existing digital data and processes within government departments will require maximizing security posture while keeping critical data flowing in such a daunting threat environment.

Despite all the cyber security risks, the movement towards Digital India is inevitable. The government and enterprises realize this and efforts are on for developing better systems for maintaining security while also taking advantage of the plethora of technological applications that have exploded during the last few years. The challenge is that presently, the majority of government departments and e-governance projects are working in silos, but this cannot be the case with Digital India, an R1.13-lakh crore initiative that seeks to transform the country into a connected economy, attract investment in manufacturing, improve citizen service delivery and create millions of jobs and support business.

“As Digital India and the concept of Smart Cities takes shape, security needs to be considered as integral part rather than an afterthought. Securing data at all the times, the protection of citizen’s information at large and security of the critical infrastructure need to be ensured through strict compliance with the security policy and using modern techniques, tools and processes,” Tarun Kaura, director—Technology Sales, India, Symantec, told FE.

So far, Digital India and Smart Cities initiatives have put the spotlight back to India. Global CIOs and tech leaders are optimistic about the program, in a couple of years, they expect the country to embrace new generation technology. “There has been dramatic changes in India. The Indian government and enterprises’ willingness to look into the challenge of cyber security have substantially increased,” said Stephen DuBravac, executive vice-president, Security Weaver.

Generally, across the globe, government and businesses have been reluctant to invest in security because they have too many other projects to execute and security does not become the priority. But now there is shift; security is becoming more of a high priority task as the growing trend of digitization and using own devices is posing critical questions on how to manage security in the age of Digital India.

There is no clear answer, but it should not come as a surprise if we consider the views of someone like Bruce Schneier, the noted American cryptographer, who says, “Security is not a product, but a process.”

Self-Charging Phones Are on the Way, Finally

A handful of companies is coming up with ways to extend your phone’s battery life when you’re far from a power outlet.

The case that Will Zell slides onto his iPhone doesn’t look that unusual, but it’s doing something pretty out of the ordinary: capturing some of the radio waves that the phone transmits when connecting to cell-phone towers and Wi-Fi routers, converting them to electricity, and feeding that power back to the phone’s battery.

Zell is the CEO of Nikola Labs, a startup based in Columbus, Ohio, whose energy-harvesting technology was invented by Chi-Chih Chen, a research associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State University. Like battery pack cases, the company’s case plugs into the bottom of the iPhone; this way, Zell says, it can intermittently send power right to the battery.

Moore’s Law, which predicts that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every two years, has held steady since 1975. Yet battery technology hasn’t kept the same pace, probably because its evolution is dependent on advances in chemistry. So while smartphones have gotten increasingly capable, with faster processors, better displays, and higher-resolution cameras, it can still be a challenge to get the battery that’s powering all these features to last throughout the day.

One way the consumer electronics industry is trying to fix this is by aligning with wireless charging technologies like Qi and Rezence. So far, though, only a handful of smartphones from companies like LG, Samsung, and, HTC use the Qi standard, while Rezence-supporting handsets are set to come out later this year.

With such wireless charging still far from the mainstream (and still requiring your phone to be on a charging mat or base that itself plugs into a wall), a few companies, including Nikola Labs, are trying to figure out other ways to make you less dependent on outlets so you can keep using your phone for battery-intensive things like looking at websites, navigating trips, and streaming videos.

They won’t make plugging your phone into a charger obsolete, but Zell says that Nikola’s phone case should be able to give users about 25 to 30 percent more battery life between charges. The company built its first working prototype of a smartphone case this spring and plans to start selling it in the first three months of next year for about $100 (a Kickstarter campaign for the company had raised about $74,000 of its $135,000 goal with eight days to go as of publication; Zell says Nikola Labs has separately raised private funding to bring its product to market).

Though Zell acknowledges that there’s plenty of skepticism surrounding the utility of harvesting energy from radio waves, he says Nikola Labs’ technology works because it’s doing the harvesting so close to the transmitting antenna in the phone, and that it’s capturing radio waves that aren’t needed for communication in order to avoid impacting call quality. Eventually, he hopes to fit the technology into the phone itself; early talks with phone makers have begun.

A French solar technology company called Sunpartner Technologies is already working on this with a thin, see-through overlay called WYSIPS Crystal (the acronym stands for “what you see is photovoltaic surface”) that sits between the glass and touch-screen layers on a smartphone or other mobile gadget. The WYSIPS layer is covered with small solar cells; when the phone is exposed to artificial or natural light, it captures the light and converts it to an electric current. A connection to the gadget’s battery would enable the layer to send power directly to it.

WYSIPS Crystal marketing director Matthieu de Broca says that Sunpartner is working with Kyocera, which makes a number of ruggedized handsets, to get WYSIPS Crystal into phones next year.

But while De Broca says the energy WYSIPS Crystal can produce depends on the kind of light it’s exposed to—intense natural light will work better than diffuse indoor lighting—in its current form it can boost battery life by only about 10 to 15 percent.

“It will never be able to produce enough to charge the phone from scratch,” he says.

Much clunkier but perhaps more suited to that job is a wearable charger fromAmpy, a startup based in Evanston, Illinois. The device contains a battery you fill up by moving around.

“We’re pretty active people,” says Ampy cofounder and CEO Tejas Shastry of himself and his cofounders. “So we thought, ‘Why can’t we harvest some of the energy from motion to power our phones?’”

The charger, which is the size of a deck of cards, contains inductors—essentially, magnets moving within a coil. Shastry says the inductors are activated as you move during activities like walking, running, or cycling, generating electricity that’s stored in an internal battery (users have to connect their phone to Ampy to siphon off its juice). The battery inside Ampy can store enough power to fully recharge a smartphone. It might take a while to get to that point, though, since an hour of exercise yields about an hour of “normal” smartphone usage, according to Ampy’s website.

The company raised $310,000 on Kickstarter last fall, which was more than three times its goal, and plans to ship out the first Ampy gadgets in the fall to crowdfunding backers and people who preorder it online.

To succeed on a wider scale, though, these companies must improve the ways the devices produce and use power and then convince mainstream consumers to buy them. And you’ll probably continue plugging in your phone at least occasionally for the foreseeable future.

But Nikola Labs’ Zell, at least, is optimistic that this could eventually change. “Ultimately what I’d love to create is where thinking about battery life is no longer something that’s in everyone’s minds,” he says. “What if you just didn’t have to consider it?”

A Biodegradable Computer Chip That Performs Surprisingly Well

Researchers show that devices based on a material derived from the woodwork as well as the communications chip in your smartphone.

Biodegradable, wood-based computer chips can perform just as well as chips commonly used for wireless communication, according to new research.

The inventors argue that the new chips could help address the global problem of rapidly accumulating electronic waste, some of which contains potentially toxic materials. The results also show that a transparent, wood-derived material called nanocellulose paper is an attractive alternative to plastic as a surface for flexible electronics.

In conventional chip manufacturing, electronic components like transistors are made on the surface of a rigid wafer made of a semiconductor material such as silicon. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, led byZhenqiang (Jack) Ma, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, made the electronic components in a similar way, but then used a rubber stamp to lift them from the wafer and transfer them to a new surface made of nanocellulose. This reduced the amount of semiconductor material used by a factor of up to 5,000, without sacrificing performance.

In two recent demonstrations, Ma and his colleagues showed they can use nanocellulose as the support layer for radio frequency circuits that perform comparably to those commonly used in smartphones and tablets. They also showed that these chips can be broken down by a common fungus.

The vast majority of the semiconductor material in today’s chips makes up the support layer, and the active electronic components represent only a very tiny fraction. This is an expensive waste, says Ma, and in the case of some materials it can lead to dangerous pollution when a device is thrown out.

In recent years, researchers have demonstrated that nanocellulose, which is made by breaking wood fibers down to the nanoscale, can be a viable support material for a variety of electronic devices, including solar cells. However, the recent demonstrations are the first to reveal properties that make the material promising for use in efficient, high-performing radio frequency circuits, says Ma.

Ma says chips like those his group made are ready for commercialization. But he thinks it’s likely to take heightened environmental pressure, or a spike in the price of rare semiconductor materials like gallium, in the mainstream electronics industry to change its current practices and consider making chips from wood.

Techniques for manufacturing devices like those Ma and his colleagues have made are becoming more established in the electronics industry, says John Rogers, a professor of materials science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Rogers originally developed the method Ma’s group used to transfer small amounts of semiconductor material from a large wafer to the nanocellulose surface.

The military is very interested in “transient electronics” that would degrade in some way to prevent sensitive electronics from falling into the hands of adversaries, says Rogers. But perhaps the most important aspect of Ma’s recent demonstrations is the potential environmental benefit, he says. Devices of all shapes and sizes that can communicate wirelessly are proliferating quickly, and this trend shows no signs of slowing. People upgrade their devices often, and outdated devices are commonly thrown out. “What’s happening to  waste all those streams? I think that’s a pretty legitimate question to ask,” he says.

Meet Micro Drone 3.0, the smallest drone to support live streaming and VR

If you’re looking to get into the wonderful world of drones without having to spend a month’s worth of groceries buying one, then you should seriously consider checking out the newly launched Indiegogo campaign from Micro Drone.

If the name doesn’t ring a bell, they’re the makers of the popular Micro Drone 2.0, a perfect introductory drone for beginners. I know, I owned one. That’s how I got my start.

Now with a whole new Micro Drone 3.0, which boasts new hardware and capabilities, you can get your start too for an early bird price of $125, which is a huge value when you consider all the features this bad boy can handle.

First off, here’s a quick breakdown of some of its features:

Not bad for $125, right? But wait, there’s more. Micro Drone 3.0 features a user-controlled gimbal that lets operators command the angle of the camera fixed underneath the drone. This is a first of its kind in a drone this size, which is amazing for the user.

Another first I haven’t seen out there that Micro Drone 3.0 is introducing is the ability to live stream to apps such as Periscope and Meerkat. If that doesn’t get you excited, then maybe their integration with Google Cardboard VR will. I know a lot of the bigger drone manufacturers that don’t even offer this.

Digital India: 15 key initiatives

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching the "Digital India Week" here Wednesday, following are the projects and products that have been launched, or are ready for deployment, as part of the initiative:

1. Digital locker system to minimize usage of physical documents and enable their e-sharing via registered repositories.
2. MyGov.in as an an online platform to engage citizens in governance through a "Discuss, Do and Disseminate" approach.
3. Swachh Bharat Mission Mobile app to achieve the goals set by this mission.
4. e-Sign framework to allow citizens to digitally sign documents online using Aadhaar.
5. e-Hospital system for important healthcare services such as online registration, fee payment, fixing doctors' appointments, online diagnostics and checking blood availability online.
6. National Scholarship Portal for beneficiaries from submission of application to verification, sanction and disbursal.
7. Digitize India Platform for large-scale digitization of records in the country to facilitate efficient delivery of services to the citizens.
8. Bharat Net programme as a high-speed digital highway to connect all 250,000 gram panchayats of country -- the world's largest rural broadband project using optical fibre.
9. BSNL's Next Generation Network to replace 30-year old telephone exchanges to manage all types of services like voice, data, multimedia and other types of communication services.
10. BSNL's large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country.
11. "Broadband Highways' as one of the pillars of Digital India to address the connectivity issue while enabling and providing technologies to facilitate delivery of services to citizens.
12. Outsourcing Policy to create such centres in different northeastern states and in smaller towns across the country.
13. Electronics Development Fund to promote innovation, research and product development to create a resource pool within the country as also a self-sustaining eco-system of venture funds.
14. National Centre for Flexible Electronics to promote research and innovation in the emerging area of flexible electronics.
15. Centre of Excellence on Internet on Things (IoT) as a joint initiative of the government agencies and private institutions such as Nasscom.