Friday, May 19, 2017

Panasonic Sets Up India Innovation Centre With TCS at Whitefield




Consumer electronics maker Panasonic on Thursday announced setting up of its first India Innovation Centre (IIC) in Bengaluru, in association with TCS.

As part of this, the company inaugurated the Centre of Excellence (CoE) at the TCS facility in Whitefield.

The CoE will focus on open innovation in the consumer electronic space and leverage the technology already available with Panasonic India, and create geography-centric USPs to develop innovative solutions, according to the company.

As part of this collaboration, TCS will bring in industry know-how, innovation practices, and create an ecosystem for Panasonic to shape the future product strategy, and enable in digital transformation.

Agencies

Paytm Announces $1.4 B Raise Funding from SoftBank

Paytm, the second largest Internet company run by One97 Communications, on Thursday said that it has raised $1.4 billion from SoftBank Group in one of the largest funding rounds by a single investor in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Besides reducing the burden of Chinese investment by Alibaba, Paytm will find the Japanese conglomerate investment to expand its soon to be launched payments bank operations, expand the user-base and unveil more financial products.

Commenting on the development, Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said they the company is at an inflexion point in its journey. “This investment by Softbank and support of the incredible entrepreneur Masayoshi Son is a great endorsement of our team’s execution and vision. We believe that we have a great opportunity to bring financial inclusion to half-a-billion Indians.”

Paytm plans to invest about around Rs 10,000 crore over the next three to five years towards enabling half-a-billion Indians to join the mainstream economy. “As a part of this vision, the company will soon launch the Paytm Payments Bank,” it added.

Paytm, which has around 230 million wallet-users, plans to launch its payments bank on May 23, and will use the money to acquire new 500 million customers and launch a slew of financial service products such as wealth management, deposits, and money lending, among others.

Paytm has tied up with several financial institutions including banks such as ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda and startups such as Capital First and Capital Float to lend to customers on their behalf.

SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said that the company’s investment in Paytm is line with the Indian government's vision to promote digital inclusion. “We are committed to transforming the lives of hundreds of millions of Indian consumers and merchants by providing them digital access to a broad array of financial services, including mobile payments,” said Son.

SoftBank, which was an early investor in Alibaba, has committed investments of over $10 billion in India. It has pumped close to $2 billion into Indian startups like Snapdeal, Ola and Housing.com in last few years. The company had to write off a significant portion of that after the devaluation of those investments.

Agencies

Now Free Tool to Combat WannaCry from K7 Computing



K7 Computing is offering a free tool to scan and remove files affected by WannaCry ransomware, which has been causing widespread damage in the last few days.
No other ransomware has exploited a very recently-discovered Microsoft security flaw to spread this way. This makes WannaCry “the most deadly, successful ransomware attack in history,” said J Kesavardhanan, Founder & CEO, K7 Computing, which provides anti-virus solutions.
K7 scanner
It is important that clients know if the system is infected or not by WannaCry ransomware. K7’s scanner scans the system to identify any WannaCry files and removes them from the machine. The scanner also identifies and removes other dangerous ransomware and bots. The free scanning and removal tool can be utilised by individual users and companies, he told the Hindu group journalists.
WannaCry encrypts the data and offers the decrypt code for a price (a ransomware). It exploits an MS17-010 vulnerability to distribute itself. It is possible that WannaCry can arrive through email, either as a malware attachment or as a malicious link. Effect of WannaCry could be far more than what has been reported in the media, he said.
K7 Computing protects over 15 million customers globally against threats to their IT environment. So far, due to WannaCry, nearly 7,000 machines have been affected, he said.
International anti-virus fraternity, including K7 Computing, is working towards creating a decrypt code to retrieve data, which should be made available at the earliest. In the current scenario, users will have to opt for a diagnostic and preventive solution, he said.
WannaCry can spread to all Windows OS prior to Windows 10 without the users’ knowledge. Particularly vulnerable are those operating systems that have not been updated with the latest patch/update. If allowed to launch, from a malicious email attachment, WannaCry will encrypt files even on a fully-patched Windows OS, whether Windows 10 or earlier, he said.
Agencies

TCLL and XLRI Announce Programs for Working Professionals in India

Times Centre for Learning Ltd (TCLL)., and XLRI-Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur recently signed an MoU to collaborate for promoting quality Executive education in India.

This MOU marks the coming together of two potent forces for professional education:  the unmatched pedigree, history and reputation of XLRI management education practice and TCLL’s physical presence, prowess in delivering learning technology, strong corporate connections and commitment to bringing excellence in education in India.

Commenting on the alliance, Anish Srikrishna, President, Times Centre of Learning Limited, said, “We are delighted to be associated with XLRI, one of India’s top business schools. As TCLL continues to strive towards its vision of providing excellent professional education to learners across the age group, I am confident that this association will be a decisive milestone. We are committed to maintain and exceed the high academic standards that learners have automatically come to associate with XLRI and TCLL.”
Working professionals looking to upgrade their skill-set and move up the corporate ladder can choose from the newly launched and upcoming programs to be delivered in different modes that takes care of the busy life of today’s working executives. Executive Certificate Program on Building Leadership Competencies; focusing on creating space for learning around essential competencies and values for leaders to be successful. The classes would be in the form of live interactive lectures to be beamed directly to the participants’ desktop/laptop. The applications are open for this course.
The Post Graduate Certificate Course in Business Analytics for Management Decision (PGCBAMD) will be a 12 month programme focused on building foundation as well as advanced skills in the domain of business analytics. XLRI aims to create specialists in the field of business analytics with in depth knowledge in the various areas of analytics and who would be able to provide managerial insights by analyzing the data which enables decision making. The application for the course can be done from May 10, 2017.
The classes would be in the form of live interactive lectures to be attended from TCLL centres spread across the country in all major cities.
Father E. Abraham, S.J. Director, XLRI said, “We continually strive to build mutually beneficial partnership and look forward to this engagement with TCLL.  We hope that this alliance will provide great opportunities for both XLRI and TCLL.  We look forward to creating new educational programs and identifying ways for our faculty to interact with executives and other professionals in the region.  This partnership will provide terrific opportunities for sharing of ideas and developing solutions to many of the world's key business issues.”


Thursday, May 18, 2017

Samsung Electronics and VMware to Simplify IoT for Industrial and Enterprise Customers


At the Internet of Things World 2017, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd and VMware announced a new collaboration to help simplify Internet of Things (IoT) for both information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) teams by expanding end-to-end IoT solutions for industrial and enterprise customers. 

The companies will showcase the combination of the SAMSUNG ARTIK Smart IoT platform with VMware Pulse IoT Center, offering a secure, enterprise-grade, end-to-end IoT infrastructure solution that allows IT and OT teams to have complete control of their IoT use cases, from the edge to the cloud. In addition, the companies will showcase the integration of the SAMSUNG ARTIK 530 with Liota (Little IoT Agent), a vendor-neutral open source software development kit (SDK) developed by VMware, to help enterprise customers with the management, monitoring and securing of their IoT implementation.

Today, enterprises struggle to embrace IoT because of the sheer scale and complexity and security concerns. While SAMSUNG ARTIK Smart IoT platform provides customers with all the upfront IoT hardware and software they need to kick start their IoT developments, VMware will help manage IoT infrastructure from the edge all the way to the cloud. The combination will provide an end-to-end solution, including the hardware and software components, security, cloud connectivity, building services, and ability to monitor and manage the products over the product’s lifecycle.

“VMware and Samsung have a common goal to help enterprises speed their time to market with their IoT initiatives,” said Mimi Spier, vice president, IoT, VMware. “The SAMSUNG ARTIK Smart IOT platform delivers a state-of-the-art IoT platform, and we are collaborating with Samsung to help enterprises simplify their approach to deploying, managing, monitoring and securing their IoT infrastructure and connected devices.”

“Enterprises around the world are looking to develop and deploy IoT solutions to augment their product portfolio or expand into new markets. Being able to monitor and manage these solutions across devices at enterprise scale both on-premise and in the cloud is critical for successful rollouts,” said Curtis Sasaki, vice president of ecosystems, Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center. "We are developing a joint go-to-market plans to address global enterprises looking for at scale, enterprise IoT solutions.  With mutual customers in key industrial and vertical segments, we believe we can jointly address the growing development, deployment, and on going management these customers are looking for."

Ola Launches Progressive Web App in Indian Towns and Cities

Cab aggregator Ola today announced the launch of its 'Progressive Web App' (PWA), a lightweight mobile website that offers users, especially in smaller towns and cities, an app-like experience on simple smartphones.
The company claims that it requires a fraction of the data used by native apps.
Launched together with Google at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco today, PWA will enable the use of the Ola platform across hundreds of cities in India and addresses a significant market opportunity for customers and driver partners, the company said in a release.
It said Ola becomes the first ride hailing app in the APAC region to use PWA technology.
“As the first ride-hailing app in the APAC region that is using PWA technology, this represents an important development that will enable us to reach an ever greater number of customers and driver partners in rural India,” Ola Co-Founder and CTO Ankit Bhati said.
PWA will overcome technological barriers to enter key markets and make Ola the first ride-sharing platform in hundreds of cities across India, where there is limited connectivity and a prevailing use of low-end smartphones, the release added.
”... It’s exciting to see Ola create their PWA, which will ensure their users have an engaging experience from the very first moment,” Google VP Product Management, Chrome Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, said.
Agencies

IT Workers’ Union Against Cognizant Layoffs Shift to Bengaluru

After Chennai and Hyderabad, IT workers’ union FITE has now decided to approach the labour commission in Bengaluru to submit a petition to stop the alleged “illegal terminations” happening at Cognizant. 
Forum for IT Employees, or FITE, is a representative body of employees working in IT companies and call centres. The body has already approached labour commissions in Chennai and Hyderabad, alleging that the US-based firm is illegally terminating thousands of employees by forcing them to resign. “We are all set to approach the labour commission in Bengaluru to submit a petition to stop illegal terminations happening in Cognizant,” FITE Vice President Vasumathi told PTI.
FITE also plans to approach labour commissions in Kolkata and Pune.
Cognizant had rolled out a voluntary separation programme for directors, associate VPs and senior VPs, offering them 6-9 months of salary.
While Cognizant maintains that performance reviews are done to ensure that it has the right employee skill sets, FITE is alleging that the highly-paid experienced professionals are being replaced by those with lesser experience and lower pay.
Indian IT players including Infosys and Wipro have initiated performance reviews, a move that could see thousands of workers being shown the door.
While IT companies have been one of the largest recruiters in the country, increasing automation of processes is expected to lead to reduction in hiring in coming years.
Vasumathi said that depending on the outcome of conciliation meetings, a decision would be taken on whether or not to approach the court to solve the vexed issue.
She said FITE plans to hold a protest rally in Bengaluru, for which she is galvanising support from affected employees through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge had earlier asked the affected IT employees to lodge a complaint with the labour department.
In an interview with PTI recently, Kharge had said the government would look into the matter and provide legal assistance if the affected or laid off employees approached it like their counterparts had in Tamil Nadu.
The labour commissions approached so far, have promised to take action, Vasumathi claimed.
After the Hyderabad meeting on May 11, Cognizant had sought two weeks’ time from the Telangana labour department to come up with a reply on the said issue.
Vasumathi alleged that there is no transparency in the hiring and appraisal activities of the IT industry. “IT firms must be asked to submit white papers on these processes to the government and to the public periodically,” she said demanding that a tribunal be set up for knowledge-based industries.
Agencies

Paytm's Payments Bank to Operate from May 23 Across India




Paytm’s banking arm, Paytm Payment Bank, on Wednesday received formal clearance from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to commence operations of its payments bank from May 23, and it set a target of getting 200 million accounts by the end of this year.

In a statement, a Paytm spokesperson said the company is in the process of launching Paytm Payments Bank on May 23. “We recently received approval from RBI for Renu Satti to be the chief executive officer,” said the spokesperson.

One97 Communications Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma was among the 11 applicants to receive RBI’s in-principle nod for a payments bank licence in November 2015.

Sharma said that as per the directions of RBI, the company will be transferring wallet business to the newly incorporated payments bank entity Paytm Payments Bank.

Renu, who is vice president of business at Paytm, will take over as the chief executive officer of Paytm Payments Bank from Shinjini Kumar, a former director at consultancy firm PwC, who was hired in February to lead the payments bank.

Starting her career with One97 Communication, the holding company of Paytm, as human resources manager, Renu has been with Paytm for nearly a decade working on several projects, including Paytm marketplace and Paytm’s wallet business.

According to a company official, Paytm will allow its close to 218 million wallet-users through a written request. Among this, those accounts which are dormant for six months and having zero balance, will be made a part of it by the company when a user places a request.

The company has set a target of 200 million accounts within 12 months of the launch across current and savings accounts, and mobile wallets. Sharma has a vision of taking it to half a billion accounts by 2020.

In an earlier interaction with DH, a Paytm executive had said that the company is investing around Rs 350 crore to begin the journey in the payments business. “We would like to make it into the second largest revenue stream of the parent company. Our branches will have a maximum of two to three members, and it will be mainly in the rural hinterland,” said the official.

Sharma — who along with his firm One97 Communications have together invested Rs 220 crore in Paytm Payments Bank to date — wants to make banking service simple, easy to handle, transparent and penalty-free. 

Initial Production of Apple iPhone SE in Bengaluru this May Onwards

US tech giant Apple Inc said it is beginning initial production of a “small number” of ‘iPhone SE’ in the city and start shipping to domestic customers this month. “We are beginning initial production of a small number of iPhone SE in Bengaluru. iPhone SE is the most popular and powerful phone with a four-inch display in the world and we’ll begin shipping to domestic customers this month,” Apple said here.

The Karnataka government had in February announced Apple Inc.’s proposal to commence initial manufacturing operations in Bengaluru. The phones will be manufactured by Wistron, a Taiwanese OEM for Apple at Peenya in the city.Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge had on March 30  said that Apple would be ready to start assembling high-end iPhones in the city in less than a month to boost its chances of gaining a foothold in the fast-growing Indian market. 

Local manufacturing is expected to help Apple price its phones more competitively in India as it currently attracts additional duty on imports. Apple had asked for several tax and other incentives to enter India in the manufacturing sector.

The company has been ramping up its efforts to expand its business in India, one of its fastest growing markets. Apple is also keen on setting up retail presence in India and has sought relaxation in local sourcing norms. 

The company has also announced the opening of ‘App  Accelerator’ in Bengaluru, an initiative that would provide support to Indian developers and enable them to transform the design and performance of their apps on its mobile operating system iOS.

NGDATA Acquires Eccella to Fuel International Growth and Expansion

NGDATA, the customer experience management solutions company, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Eccella, a data management and analytics consultancy based in New York City, with offices in London, UK and Mumbai, India. Eccella is a leader in the field of data-driven consulting and systems construction, and its team will join NGDATA as the company continues to execute its strategy for aggressive North American and global growth.

 Eccella works with organizations across the world to help them develop, deploy and execute data-driven strategies. The acquisition allows NGDATA to rapidly grow its presence in the UK and North America, and NGDATA and Eccella customers will benefit from access to top data-focused talent and expanded industry expertise. Partners of NGDATA will benefit from the combined global infrastructure of two leading data companies supporting their efforts to deliver solutions, and Eccella’s world-class partner ecosystem gives NGDATA the opportunity to further build out its strategic technology partnerships.

 “This is a strategic acquisition for NGDATA that will help us solidify the team, the resources and the company infrastructure to accelerate the pace of our growth. The addition of Eccella will greatly enhance the value we bring to our clients and partners through the powerful combination of the functionality of Lily Enterprise and Eccella’s deep domain knowledge, partnerships and global industry expertise,” said Luc Burgelman, CEO of NGDATA.

 “Expanding into the UK and bolstering its US presence is a smart move that will contribute to and accelerate NGDATA’s aggressive growth strategy worldwide,” said Michel Akkermans, Chairman of NGDATA. “Forward thinking organizations are looking for technology that can help them turn real-time insights into actionable intelligence, and this acquisition will make it easier for NGDATA to meet that increasing demand on a global scale.”

 The deal to acquire Eccella comes on the heels of the October 2016 acquisition of Rednun, a Netherlands-based company specializing in creating personalized and data-driven video to optimize customer engagement. Prior to that, NGDATA acquired ENQIO, a European consultancy focused on data management, business analytics and multi-channel campaign management. Overall, NGDATA achieved 75 percent year-over-year growth in 2016, a year in which the company grew its workforce by 50 percent.

 “Luc and his team at NGDATA have a vision for the company and its role in creating better data-driven customer experiences that is impressive, ambitious and highly aligned with Eccella’s mission of building data-driven companies. We are thrilled to join and play a key role in the execution of that strategy,” said Gil Rosen, founder and president of Eccella. “Making quick yet intelligent decisions based on real-time data is increasingly critical, and we are in lock step with NGDATA’s approach to helping organizations adapt by gaining actionable insights from data to drive their business.”

 “Eccella works with organizations across the world to help them develop, deploy and execute their data-driven strategies by implementing end-to-end, data-based solutions,” said Meitav Harpaz, CEO of Eccella. “For our customers, NGDATA’s advanced data platform and team of data specialists complete Eccella’s offering for the entire lifecycle of the data, from strategy, through data preparation, data integration, data quality, mastering, governance and visualization, all the way to advanced analytics and insights."

PayPal Unveils Third Edition of Girls in Technology Workshop

PayPal, the global leader in online payments, recently launched the third edition of Girls in Tech, a two-week workshop that teaches young girls tech craftsmanship by introducing them to the basics of programming. The girls, between 8 and 14 years of age, will learn coding from industry experts and senior leaders from PayPal from May 15 – 31, 2017 at the PayPal tech centers in Chennai and Bangalore. The program has seen participation from over 100 girls since its inception in 2015.

An initiative born out of PayPal’s long-term commitment to diversity, Girls in Tech is aimed at nurturing a sense of passion and craftsmanship in future talent, with a focus on inspiring tomorrow’s women in technology right from an early stage. During the workshop, participants will not only get the opportunity to learn programs such as Scratch, Python, App Inventor and Online Me, but will also shadow a PayPal engineer, work on solving real-world issues through coding as well as be a part of self and personality development workshops. These include theatre, photography, robotics, public speaking, innovation, First Aid and emergency awareness, among others.

“Among high school students, a lower percentage of girls are interested in pursuing a career in STEM compared to boys. Industry reports also state that women hold a disproportionately low share of most STEM undergraduate degrees, earning just 20% of engineering degrees in 2014. At PayPal, we strongly believe that initiatives such as Girls in Tech can change this trend by instilling a love for technology in girls from an early stage,” says Guru Bhat, GM Technology and Head of Engineering– PayPal. “We introduce the participants to coding in fun, artistic ways to help them understand that technology is full of surprises. After all, it is not mere coding or engineering that we need in the industry at the moment - we need technology craftsmen with the passion to strengthen the technology community in India.”

Manasa Vijayaraghavan, a 13-year-old participant said that she didn’t realize coding could be so much fun. “This is my third year at the workshop and it has been a fabulous experience. I am passionate about getting into robotics in the future and this program has helped me get my foundation in place by teaching me the basics of coding. I never thought I would be so interested in algorithms and flow charts, but now I also plan on taking some online lessons and explore website development. The sessions, games and activities here make it a very memorable experience for me and I cannot wait to come back.”

Girls in Tech will be held at the PayPal campus in Chennai between May 15 and 31, 2017 and at the PayPal tech center in Bangalore between May 22-26, 2017.

Virtualization and IoT: The Key to Service Providers’ Success in India



IoT has transformed the way communication service providers operate their business today. This is a result of the huge amount of opportunities that IoT brings along, not just in terms of the scale of investment for the businesses but also the global impact it creates. Companies have started to identify the potential of IoT and the data generated by it in reducing cost, improving supply chain efficiencies, enhance product design and allow predictive maintenance. Governments have also identified the transformational potential of this technology and are looking at opportunities to reshape the industrial policies in order to ensure that national industries maintain competitiveness and to understand the level to which regulations need to be modified or adjusted to address issues such as individual privacy and data security.

IoT emerged from combination of technologies that have been undergoing continuous development in the past decade. The combined effect of all these technologies fueled the growth of the IoT domain. The use of the word "domain" symbolizes the coming together of technologies and markets, which create exponential outcomes that can be referred to as the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" by some. Forecasts have suggested that the number of connected devices will be between 20 and 50 billion by the beginning of the next decade, with growth in business in trillions of dollars.

The impact of IoT will be felt across every aspect of life as we currently experience it. The continued development of smartphones, tablets and wearable technology would allow these devices to be the remote controls for the smart systems that will be found in workplaces, homes and smart cars. Apart from all this, security is also becoming more significant with the use of large number of unsecured IoT devices.

In the enterprise and industrial space, there is increased focus on the need for rapid localized decision-making for devices that rely on constant information feedback. Most of these decisions take place at the edge of the enterprise, which is also where business interacts with the edge of the wide-area network. However this comes with several challenges, in order to facilitate rapid decision-making, the enterprise has to be able to identify, address, authenticate, manage and secure a broad range of devices, many of which have differing address mechanisms as well as communications and operating protocols.

By 2018, IoT is expected to become mainstream for most cloud service providers (CSPs). This would coincide with the timeframe when fully commercial market introductions of 3GPP standardized low-power wireless technologies are likely to occur. These technologies cover a range of different use cases and can be deployed in several different ways, either standalone or in-band using existing LTE resource blocks that provide mobile operators with significant versatility to address emerging IoT opportunities.

Weighted Ranking – Tier 1 CSPs by Use Case
There are significant challenges that CSPs have to face while serving the emerging IoT markets. First, it is not a single market nor is it a static one which puts pressure on the CSP's network to be as cost-effective and efficient as possible. In the case of industrial and enterprise IoT, together with smart cities, the diversity of segments and applications means that very few "one size fits all" solutions can be developed and repeatedly deployed. In addition to this, MNCs expect specific solutions deployed across all of their global operations, requiring the solution to meet local requirements, and CSPs to handle all of the connectivity and service interoperability challenges.

The virtual edge is a major focus for enterprise customers seeking to understand the implications of fog computing on their operational performance, network options and hardware requirements. In the same 2015 operator survey, discussed their opinion on where IoT intelligence and analytics will reside within the network (Figure 2), intelligence in the network definitely seems to be shifting away from the center.

Overall, there is a lot of optimism about the potential of IoT, but few CSPs have formed concrete plans, and still fewer have implemented them. Analytics and intelligence play a prime role going forward, both from a network operations perspective and as a service to customers. However, the way in which this is organized, serviced and delivered is still very fluid. 5G is very important from a service provider perspective, as it is about seamless management of heterogeneous networks across multiple frequencies, and obviously the efficient handling of huge amounts of data traffic and storage. Network slicing, which will be a key enabler of IoT, is in the early stages of implementation in LTE, and is a core component of the 5G vision, since it enables "the many services on one network" concept.

There is a degree of wishful thinking going on in the mobile industry, with laggard operators believing that they can go into IoT catch up mode at a later date, and still win. If they do this, they will almost definitely miss the IoT window of opportunity. One of the most significant requirements is for operators to have a virtual core as a mechanism to accelerate IoT services. Too many of them are still apprehensive about embracing this technology for IoT; consequently, this will prove to be a barrier to their success. Many are trying different approaches, including hybrid setup, and it appears now as if the two IoT industry leaders – Vodafone and AT&T – are the only ones with a clear line of sight.

If service providers embrace virtualization – including the virtual core and virtual edge – they will be able to move beyond connectivity and provide other services. Other services could include managing the portfolios of devices, applications and services going forward, or providing endpoint to cloud security, which most enterprises don't have the capacity to do. Operators could also deliver integrated analytics capability, and data management: where it is stored, how it is tiered and what portions are transmitted. Additionally, there is the possibility for end-to-end carrier-grade enhanced applications and tailored capability.

Kathrein Opens Regional Customer Experience Centre in Bengaluru

Kathrein, a leading international specialist for reliable, high-quality communication technologies, is expanding its activities in the Asia-Pacific region. A new regional customer experience center has been opened in Bengaluru, one of the biggest cities in India with an estimated population of more than 10 million, in the presence of business partners, customers and media representatives. The step is part of a strategy to strengthen Kathrein’s presence in India and the Asia-Pacific region and to expand the solution and service business worldwide.

“The location in Bengaluru is very important for our future growth in the significant APAC region,” says Anton Kathrein, CEO of the Kathrein Group. “At the new premises, we are showcasing our unique technology competence and our full range of specialist solutions and services.” In addition, the new center offers the opportunity to discuss trends and future topics such as 5G and autonomous driving with customers.

“APAC is one of the most dynamic and vibrant regions in the world regarding digital and mobile communication,” explains Ashwini Bakshi, who steers Kathrein’s regional business from Singapore. “Our regional customer experience center in Bengaluru offers expert support to our customers on topics such as Industry 4.0 and vehicle connectivity, as well as the Internet of Things, building digitalisation and smart cities.”

The location in central Bengaluru offers some 300 square metres of space including a showroom for technology demos and training courses, and a test and diagnostic lab. Special focus is put on developing software for regional solutions and customer requirements. “Our new customer centre in Bengaluru is a place where you can experience Kathrein’s quality and technology leadership,” summarises Bakshi.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

IET India’s Second Edition of IoT India Congress 2017 to Be Held in Bangalore from Sept 14-15

  

The IET India IoT Panel announced the second edition of the IoT India Congress 2017 - a two-day mega event on the Internet of Things that will be held on September 14 - 15, 2017 in Bengaluru. Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India unveiled the event in New Delhi. N.Sivasailam, IAS, Additional Secretary Department of Telecommunication also graced the ceremony.

The IoT India Congress is conceptualized and designed by the members of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (The IET) IoT Panel – an independent and neutral visionary think-tank led by select industry leaders. The panel envisions laying a solid foundation by supporting policy makers, industry in the next step of adoption of IoT. The conclave aims to help uncover new business opportunities, outcomes and revenue streams, help move research forward to create newer technologies, discuss governance and policies and thus create a roadmap for the evolving movement of IoT in India.

A panel discussion featuring senior leaders from the industry was organized as part of the event. The discussion was moderated by Shekhar Sanyal, Director and Country Head of the IET and the panelists discussed the theme ‘Is IoT the platform India has been waiting for’.

The IoT India Congress 2017 will bring together the key stakeholders across the value chain and industry vertical to discuss the impact and potential of Internet of Things in various sectors like Healthcare, Manufacturing, Smart Living and the New Technologies in IoT. The Congress will have exhibition space, experience zone, award series and mentoring and advisory sessions facilitated by veteran technologists.

Speaking about the launch of the event, Dr. Rishi Bhatnagar, Chairman IET IoT Panel and and Chairman, Organizing Committee – IoT India Congress 2017 and President, Aeris Communications said, “The success of last year’s IoT India Congress has set the threshold in bringing industry leaders together and spreading awareness on the impact of IoT in their businesses.

As per Gartner report, 8.4 million devices will be connected in 2017, which is 31% more than last year. This is a phenomenal pace of growth of IoT devices and the current need is for industries to be technologically equipped to ride on this wave to be able to gain maximum out of it. This year at the IoT India Congress, individuals across industries will share experiences and discuss how IoT is impacting various technology and allied sectors."

Adding on,  Shekhar Sanyal, Director and Country head of the IET said, "As we move towards Digital India, it is great to see industries coming together to enable each other in developing the digital economy. We at the IET India IoT panel understand the need to create sentience and increase participation from the stakeholders in the IoT value chain. Led by the volunteers, the IET India IoT Panel is working to influence the future of IoT, which will change the way we interact and do business. The IoT India Congress, one of a kind as well as the largest platform for IoT in India aims to bring together players from across the IoT ecosystem. We look forward to seeing the industry leaders partnering with the IoT India Congress to showcase how they are working towards the future of IoT”

AMD Unveils EPYC Processor Brand for the Datacenter in India

AMD has ushered in a new era for high-performance server processors and the datacenter with EPYC. With its high core count, superior memory bandwidth, and unparalleled support for high-speed input/output channels in a single chip, EPYC aims to revolutionize the dual-socket server market while simultaneously reshaping expectations for single-socket servers. 

Previously codenamed “Naples,” this new family of high-performance products for cloud-based and traditional on-premise datacenters will deliver the highly successful “Zen” x86 processing engine scaling up to 32 physical cores2. The first EPYC-based servers will launch in June with widespread support from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and channel partners.

“With the new EPYC processor, AMD takes the next step on our journey in high-performance computing,” said Forrest Norrod, senior vice president and general manager of Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Products. “AMD EPYC processors will set a new standard for two-socket performance and scalability. As we demonstrated today, we see further opportunity with the industry’s first no-compromise one-socket solutions. We believe that this new product line-up has the potential to reshape significant portions of the datacenter market with its unique combination of performance, design flexibility, and disruptive TCO.”

Today, at the 2017 AMD Financial Analyst Day, a single EPYC processor was shown exceeding the performance of a competitive mid-range, two-socket / two-processor platform in a head-to-head comparison. EPYC exceeds today's top competitive offering on critical parameters, with 45% more cores, 60% more input/output capacity (I/O)2, and 122% more memory bandwidth.

 “Dropbox is currently evaluating AMD EPYC CPUs in-house, and we are impressed with the initial performance we see across workloads in single-socket configurations,” said Akhil Gupta, vice president of infrastructure at Dropbox. “The combination of core performance, memory bandwidth, and I/O support make EPYC a unique offering. We look forward to continuing to evaluate EPYC as an option for our infrastructure.”

EPYC Features

·         A highly scalable, 32-core System-on-a-chip (SoC) design, with support for two high-performance threads per core

·         Industry-leading memory bandwidth, with 8 channels of memory per EPYC device3. In a dual-socket server, support for up to 32 DIMMS of DDR4 on 16 memory channels, delivering up to 4 terabytes of total memory capacity

·         Complete SoC with fully integrated, high-speed I/O supporting 128 lanes of PCIe® 3, negating the need for a separate chip-set

·         Highly-optimized cache structure for high-performance, energy-efficient computing

·         Infinity Fabric coherent interconnect for two EPYC CPUs in a dual-socket system

·         Dedicated security hardware

“Today’s single-socket server offerings push buyers toward purchasing a more expensive two-socket server just to get the memory bandwidth and I/O they need to support the compute performance of the cores,” said Matthew Eastwood, senior vice president, IDC.  “There are no fully-featured, high-performance server processors available today in a single-socket configuration. EPYC changes that dynamic by offering a single-processor solution that delivers the right-sized number of high-performance cores, memory, and I/O for today’s workloads.”

CSS Corp’s Unveils ‘Earn As You Learn Program’ in Association with BITS Pilani

CSS Corp, a leading IT Services and Technology Support company, today announced the launch of its ‘Earn As You Learn’ program - a specialized M.Tech Work Integrated Learning Program, in association with BITS Pilani. The program is 100% sponsored by CSS Corp, and will help its employees in India to acquire knowledge and skills required for excelling in their careers with the added advantage of gaining a top-notch M.Tech. degree in Software Engineering from one of India’s most prestigious universities.

The M.Tech Work Integrated Learning Program will be open to all CSS Corp employees, who meet the qualifying criteria, and have completed a minimum tenure of 6 months with the organization. The program offers a unique opportunity to employees to enhance their academic qualifications while gaining significant professional experience. The 4-year Integrated Learning Program is designed to create a pool of industry-ready technology professionals.

Speaking about the association, Manish Tandon, Chief Executive Officer, CSS Corp said, “CSS Corp believes in investing in its people, their learning and their development. Our M.Tech Work Integrated Learning Program for B.Sc. / BCA Graduates from BITS Pilani is testimony to this. As a new-age company, we are strongly focused on innovation. Our clients are among the world’s top technology companies and there are interesting shifts happening in their ecosystem. Through this initiative, we see a great opportunity to bring our employees up to speed with the latest technologies. This would have a positive cascading effect on the services we can deliver to our clients.”

“With our rich legacy of expert innovation and employee development track record, we are committed to provide challenging career opportunities for high performing employees in the technology space. We are confident that this program in association with BITS Pilani, will set new precedents in learning and development in the Indian technology space.” saidDavid Raj, EVP and Chief HR Officer at CSS Corp.

“Work integrated learning has been a core element of the educational philosophy at BITS Pilani, and it is our firm belief that life-long learning is key to achieving professional success and organizational development. We believe that organizations such as CSS Corp, which provide opportunities to their employees to enhance their academic qualifications and technical skills while gaining significant professional experience, will remain prepared to tackle business challenges of the future.” said  Prof. G. Sundar (Director - Off Campus Programmes and Industry Engagement, BITS Pilani)

As a part of the program, the first set of B.Sc. and BCA graduates will be joining in May 2017. Initially, candidates will undergo 60 days of CSS Corp’s intensive New Hire Training. On successful completion of the course, successful candidates will get deployed in various projects. At the end of 6 months, all employees who have qualified from this lot, will join the BITS M.Tech program which will commence in Jan/Feb 2018.  Once these candidates meet the relevant performance criteria, both in CSS Corp and in the M. Tech program, they will earn their final degree from BITS Pilani.

TCS to Add 3.75 L Sqft Office Space for 4k IT Professionals in Bengaluru


At a time when Indian IT companies are going ahead with layoffs, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is expanding its presence in the tech hub. The company is adding 3.75 lakh sq feet office space to seat 4,000 IT professionals by signing a deal with city-based Brigade Enterprises.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, Brigade Enterprises CMD M R Jaishankar stated that the company is pleased to start a strategic relationship with TCS and look forward to growing Brigade business to new heights in the years to come.

“Brigade Bhuwalka Icon, located on Whitefield main road, is another jewel in our crown of quality commercial developments. We have entered into agreement with TCS to offer 3.75 lakh sq feet area,” he said.

Brigade has a large strategic portfolio in corporate real estate of developing 10 million sq feet in addition to its operating portfolio of 6 million sq feet. Its under development projects include a 3.3 million sq feet of IT/ ITeS SEZ Tech Park called Brigade Tech Gardens in Brookfields.

Brigade Group has licences to develop World Trade Centres in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. World Trade Centres are already operational in Bengaluru and Kochi.

Only 5-6 Global Cyber Attacks So Far; No Reports of Any Major Disruption in India

The Centre on Tuesday said that the impact of global cyber attack has been limited to five or six isolated instances so far and there are no reports of any substantial disruption to India’s IT backbone. 
“A multi-agency monitoring team is continuously assessing the situation round the clock”, IT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told reporters here. 
CERT-In, the government’s cyber security arm, has maintained that apart from five or six isolated instances, there are no reports of a substantial scale to indicate that Indian systems have been hit.

Few computers in Andhra Pradesh Police, some panchayats in Kerala and West Bengal Electricity Board and two more places, a few systems were affected due to cyber attack, she said.
Agencies

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