An Indian phone-maker has started shipping what it said was the world’s cheapest smartphone after months of criticism that the offer was a scam.

Ringing Bells had announced it would sell the phone for 251 rupees (S$5) five months ago but quickly ran into trouble. The unknown company, run by former dried fruit businessman Mohit Goel, 29, was overwhelmed by some 75 million orders and its online payment gateway crashed.

Various Indian agencies then launched investigations, including one by the police for cheating. The company was even accused of being a “fly-by-night operation”.

But yesterday, Ringing Bells finally started shipping the first batch of 5,000 phones on a cash-on-delivery basis. The company, which was launched last year, has since refunded all online payments and selected, through a computerised draw, the 5,000 customers from millions of people who had registered for the phone.

“We have started delivery and have sent out around 2,200 phones. Out of these, 800 have been sent to Uttar Pradesh where we got the most number of registrations at 28 million,” said Mr Goel, following criticism of delays in shipment and doubts about the phone’s quality.

The phone, called the Freedom 251, has a 4-inch touchscreen, a quad core processor, front and back cameras, and seven applications. It is being assembled in Haridwar, near Delhi.

“If we are not able to deliver (the phones)… we will face it. But I am not going to run away,” said Mr Goel. He said 65 per cent of the parts are made in India and the rest include Taiwan-made chipsets.

India is the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market. There are more than 220 million estimated users in a population of 1.25 billion and the market is increasing by around 23 per cent annually.

More than 150 phone-makers, including Apple, China’s Xiaomi and Gionee and India’s Micromax, are looking to increase their share of a market where the average price of a smartphone is around 8,000 rupees but smartphones are also available for less than 3,000 rupees. So scepticism remains high over the viability of the 251-rupee phone.

Ringing Bells, which also launched an LED television and six other phones (starting at 699 rupees) on Thursday, has remained at a loss to explain its plans to complete millions of orders, which at the current rate of delivery would take well over 10 years. Mr Goel has placed orders for another 200,000 phones, which will be shipped out in the coming months.

Ringing Bells says the Freedom 251 smartphone costs around 1,250 rupees to 1,400 rupees to make, so the company is losing around 180 rupees to 250 rupees on each unit after cutting revenue from app-makers and distributors.

“We need the government’s support,” said Mr Goel, who hopes for financing from the government.

Experts said the phone would have little impact on the market. “There is a need for a smartphone (in the Indian market) at an affordable price. At the end of the day, quality needs to be good. It must have high resolution and good battery power. To maintain sustained performance over a period of time is going to be difficult,” said Mr Romal Shetty, partner and head of telecom at KPMG.

This article was first published on July 9, 2016.
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SHANGHAI – A storm bringing heavy rain to disrupt rail travel in southeast China was all that remained on Saturday of super typhoon Nepartak, which had weakened rapidly after causing several deaths in Taiwan and damage of more than US$20 million (S$26.9 million).

The storm hit land in Fujian province just before 2 p.m., lashing Shishi city with winds of around 100 kph (62 mph), state news agency Xinhua said.

More than 100 trains had to be cancelled after 250 mm (10 inches) of rain fell in about four hours in the nearby city of Putian, where nearly 23,000 people have fanned out to check the overstrained waterworks, it added.

Tropical Storm Risk had rated the typhoon as category 5, at the top of its scale, but it weakened after crossing Taiwan and hit China’s Fujian province as a tropical storm.

Taiwan braces for Super Typhoon Nepartak

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AFP PHOTO / CNA PHOTO / Taiwan Military, AFP, Reuters, AFP PHOTO / CNA PHOTO / Water Resources Agency

In Taiwan the storm caused at least three deaths and more than 300 injuries.

The storm is expected to worsen already severe flooding in parts of central and eastern China, particularly in the major city of Wuhan.

Typhoons are common at this time of year in the South China Sea, picking up strength over warm waters and dissipating over land.

Typhoons used to kill many people in China but the government now enforces evacuations and takes precautions well in advance, which has helped save many lives.

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot cut a wide swathe of destruction through southern Taiwan, killing about 700 people and causing damages of up to US$3 billion (S$4.04 billion).

SHANGHAI – China is kicking off a year-long campaign this month to stamp out persistent violence in its overcrowded hospitals by angry patients targeting medical staff, state news agency Xinhua said on Saturday.

Healthcare is a flashpoint for many people in China, who have long faced issues from ticket touts illegally trading appointment tickets, snarling queues to see top doctors and rampant corruption that can push up the cost of receiving care.

Since 2013, campaigns to discourage abuse of hospital personnel have reined in much of the violence, but as many as 71,000 instances of conflict have still required mediation by authorities, it added.

Xinhua gave no details of what new action is planned.

Even though the government has increased spending on health care, hospitals in China are frequently swamped with patients.

Low salaries for doctors feed corruption and people’s suspicions that staff are keener to earn money by prescribing unnecessary drugs and treatment than tending the sick.

In one notable incident in 2015, in the eastern province of Henan, a doctor and an injured patient fell to their deaths in an elevator shaft during a quarrel over treatment for the patient, who was intoxicated at the time.

Nine agencies, from the Ministry of Public Security to the National Health and Family Planning Commission are to participate in the new campaign, Xinhua said.

DHAKA – A Bangladeshi teenager who police say was a suspect in last week’s deadly attack on a Dhaka cafe has died in custody, with his family insisting he was a hostage and alleging torture by security forces.

Zakir Hossain Shawon, 18, a kitchen assistant at the Holey Artisan Bakery, was arrested after last week’s deadly siege by suspected Islamists in which 22 people, including 18 foreigners, died.

Police killed five attackers and arrested Shawon together with another man over “suspicious activities”, treating him as a suspect – a claim vehemently rejected by his family, who claim he was taken hostage like other victims.

He died in the intensive care unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital late Friday after five days in the clinic, police and his family said.

Shawon’s father Abdus Sattar demanded an investigation into his death, saying his “innocent son and the main breadwinner of his family” died due to torture.

“His whole body had marks of torture. There were marks of curdled blood in many places. One of his eyes and two knees were blackened. His wrists were blackened. It seems he was hanged by ropes tied to his wrists,” Sattar told AFP.

Gunmen take hostages in Dhaka cafe

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Reuters, AFP

Nur Khan Liton, the head of Ain o Salish Kendra, a leading human rights group, said there were doubts about Shawon’s involvement in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group.

“IS has named five attackers and police have identified all five. And he was not among the five,” he said.

“If he was treated as an associate or helper of the attacker, police must present evidence or information.” Police and military representatives denied that Shawon had been tortured in custody.

“He was held because of suspicious activities. We did not have any opportunity to interrogate him since he was injured and hospitalised,” Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP.

The teenager’s father said he spoke with his son hours before the July 1 carnage when Shawon called to say he had received a bonus payment for Eid al-Fitr, the largest Muslim festival.

He had planned to travel home to celebrate the occasion with the family in Dhaka’s suburb.

Instead his family saw him in hospital.

“He could not recognise me or his mother and thought we were his brother,” the father said.

“He would cry out in his sleep, pleading with someone, “Please don’t hit me. Let me go,” he added.