ASIA / PACIFIC
February 1, 2016
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Miss Universe winner says next
dream is to be a Bond girl
TRAIN LINE ONLINE. An Indian traveller uses free Wi-Fi service to browse the internet at the Mumbai
Central Train Station in Mumbai, India. Google Inc. has begun offering free Wi-Fi to Mumbai train passengers
in hopes of boosting its role in the Indian market, the first of 400 stations the company plans to eventually reach
with the service. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
Mumbai travellers log on as
Google starts train-station Wi-Fi
MUMBAI, India (AP) — Google Inc. has
begun offering free Wi-Fi to Mumbai train
passengers in hopes of boosting its role in
the Indian market.
Giggling groups of students, bored
commuters, and snack-shop vendors were
all logged on at the Mumbai Central Train
Station, the first of 400 stations the
company plans to eventually reach with
the service.
“If my train is leaving, and I need to
search, don’t know where to go, then im-
mediately I will get the answer,” student
Divya Patel said excitedly while waiting
for a train to her hometown of Ahmedabad
in the western state of Gujarat. “This is
very good, and good for everyone.”
Free Wi-Fi is rare across India. Most of
the country’s 300 million internet users
pay for personal access and often rely on
slow-loading smartphone connectivity.
With a massive 1.25 billion population
in India, including 6 million new internet
users every month, Silicon Valley tech
giants such as Google, Facebook, and
Microsoft have set sights on expanding in
the Indian market. Online retailers
Amazon and eBay have also launched
services in the country.
India also has homegrown online
commerce
companies,
but
small
businesses are still catching on. Fewer
than five percent of the 50 million or so
small businesses in India have a webpage.
With more than 23 million people riding
Indian railways every day, Google said
free internet in train stations will give
high-speed access that many cannot
afford. It also hopes to diversify India’s
user base, given that less than a third of
internet users in India are women, and has
been upgrading its services in Hindi and
other languages spoken across India.
“Most of India is still not online,” Google
CEO Sundar Pichai told reporters in New
Delhi. “We want to bring access to as many
people as possible,” he said.
For the project, Google teamed up with
Indian Railways as well as communica-
tions infrastructure provider RailTel.
Department of Consumer & Business Services
Not having an account at a bank
or credit union might be costing you
MANILA, The Philip-
pines (AP) — The reigning
Miss Universe has her eyes
set on her next big dream:
being a Bond girl.
Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach
returned home to the
Philippines for the first
time since her crowning —
and that awkward moment
when host Steve Harvey
mistakenly
announced
Miss Colombia as the
winner instead of her. She
said she’s using the intense
attention she received after
that controversy to focus on
her causes like fighting
HIV and AIDS.
“I’m using the attention
to talk about my causes.
Now, I have everybody’s
attention,” she said.
She told a news con-
ference that she plans to be
tested for HIV publicly in
New York to encourage
other people to be tested,
including in the Philip-
pines, where HIV cases
have risen alarmingly in
recent years.
Miss Colombia Ariadna
Gutierrez Arevalo was
briefly
crowned
Miss
Universe at the pageant in
Las Vegas before Harvey
returned to center stage to
apologize and announced
he misread the card, which
had Miss Philippines as the
winner and Colombia as
the first runner-up.
Asked about her plans
after her reign, Wurtzbach
said she would consider
possible job offers in the
United States, adding: “I
might be the next Bond
POST-PAGEANT PLANS. Newly crowned Miss Universe Pia
Alonzo Wurtzbach shows her crown during a news conference in subur-
ban Quezon City, northeast of Manila, the Philippines. Wurtzbach returned
home to the Philippines for the first time since her crowning — and that
awkward moment when host Steve Harvey mistakenly crowned Miss
Colombia instead of her. Wurtzbach said her next dream is to become
a Bond girl. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
girl, who knows? So, we’ll her before. She’ll receive a
see, that’s the next dream.”
citation from the senate for
Many international ac- her victory then join a
tresses have been cast motorcade around Manila
alongside actors playing that will end with a fire-
British agent James Bond works show.
and are popularly known
Wurtzbach told report-
as “Bond girls.”
ers she was so over-
Wurtzbach,
26,
has whelmed with her triumph
worked as an actress and that
she
constantly
model in the Philippines checked on her crown in
before winning the crown. the initial days and even
The Miss Universe pageant took a nap beside it but
is a big deal in the decided not to do that
Philippines, where two again because she might
other women have brought break it.
home the crown before her,
“God forbid that would
with the last one winning happen, the Filipinos are
gonna kill me. I haven’t
in 1973.
Wurtzbach met Presi- even done my homecoming
dent Benigno Aquino III, a yet,” she said, repeatedly
bachelor who is rumored to touching the diamond-
have gone on a date with studded crown.
THE CENTRAL CITY 2035
PLAN IS A 20–YEAR BLUEPRINT
FOR PORTLAND’S URBAN CORE.
Having a checking or a savings account could
open the doors to a safer financial future.
You can save hundreds of dollars and keep your money safe, if you open and maintain
an account in good standing in one of the Bank On Oregon program participating
banks or credit unions. The program also has a network of nonprofit financial education
providers who can guide about how to establish credit, understand about how
the U.S. financial system works, or about how to better administer your money.
LEARN MORE. GET INVOLVED.
Visit www.BankOnOregon.org and start taking advantage of the benefits of having an
account at one of our participating financial institutions or call us at (971) 673-2143.
www.dcbs.oregon.gov
Public events starting in February
Read the drat plan: www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/cc2035
WE’VE GROWN TO SERVE YOU BETTER!
Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center is now open.
Conveniently located in Hillsboro’s Tanasbourne area, our new emergency department
serves everyone in the community.
KAISER PERMANENTE
WESTSIDE MEDICAL CENTER
2875 NW Stucki Ave.
Hillsboro, OR 97124
All plans offered and underwritten by Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest.
500 NE Multnomah St., Suite 100, Portland, OR 97232.
©2013 Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest