Microsoft Ventures launches hotline for startups

New Delhi: Microsoft Ventures in India today announced the launch of a hotline, Jump Start, for startups and entrepreneurs to ask business and technical questions.

Open during business hours on Monday to Friday (9 am to 5 pm IST), a team of dedicated professionals will be available to answer questions at a toll free number across India, Microsoft Ventures said in a release. Microsoft Ventures is a global initiative to help entrepreneurs build companies. Working with startups at every stage of maturity, the initiative provides the tools, resources, and expertise startups need.

Flipkart launches TV sales; enters large appliances segment: Leading e-commerce firm Flipkart today announced its entry into the large appliances segment with the launch of televisions. This category will initially be available to shoppers in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore and will be soon scaled up to other cities, Flipkart said in a release. Some of the key brands available at launch are Samsung, Sony, LG, Panasonic, Philips, Toshiba and Videocon, it added. Customers can avail of options like Cash-on-Delivery, 30 day replacement policy and In-a-Day delivery guarantee. Also, specific to this category are value-added services, to be made available over time like product exchange, scheduled delivery and exhaustive buying guide.

BT to provide more secure connectivity to Microsoft Azure: BT and Microsoft today announced a global agreement to provide customers with high performance and more secure connectivity to Microsoft Azure, the software giant's public cloud platform, with Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute. Customers will be able to take advantage of flexibility offered by cloud resources with a secure connection to their data and applications, BT said in a release. Azure ExpressRoute allows customers to bypass the public Internet when connecting to Azure through a private connection based on BT's IP Connect VPN service, it added. As a result, enterprise customers have a seamless, hybrid IT environment encompassing their corporate networks, data centres and the Azure cloud platform. BT's IP Connect VPN service, which is available in 198 countries and territories, integrates the Azure infrastructure directly with the wide area networks of customers.