Should Data Analysts Earn Much More Salaries than IT Engineers?

Difficult screening and a higher cut-off benchmark explain why data analysts earn more than software engineers at a fresher level, according to a report.

"Data analysts are earning more than software engineers, which indicates that demand-supply gap is higher in the case of the former. Compared to roles in IT services, companies evaluate candidates for analytical roles through assessments that have higher difficulty and cut-off benchmarks," says the report put together by CoCubes Technologies.

CoCubes Technologies analysed results of 43,000 assessments conducted for top analytic companies in the country over the last 12 months and collated the report titled 'Guidebook for Hiring Entry Level Analytics Talent'.

It shows that data analysts at the fresher level are drawing an average annual salary of Rs 7 lakh as against Rs 3.2 lakh for software engineers.

And this figure can go up to Rs 10 lakh, depending on the job profile and fringe benefits being offered.

As per the report, companies are side-stepping tier 1 colleges and approaching tier 2 and 3 institutes to hire data analysts to ensure the new recruits stay with them longer.

According to the report, there are jobs in data analysis which don't require high cognitive abilities and client interaction and have more to do with data management and data warehousing.

"This is resulting in a re-look at hiring strategy as such roles see high attrition if candidates are from tier 1 colleges. Multiple companies have, therefore, started looking at tier 2 and 3 colleges to map the right talent for jobs which don't require a high cognitive ability," it added.

As per the report, companies are also adopting up-skilling strategy for the existing talent to meet their work necessities instead of hiring people from outside.

"Over the last one year, a re-skilling approach has emerged in which firms are looking at internal resources and up-skilling them for client and skill requirement rather than finding new resources with the existing knowledge," it said.

The analytics industry in India is expected to double its turnover to USD 2.3 billion by 2017-18, CoCubes Technologies Co-Founder and CEO Harpreet Singh Grover said.

"One of the key challenges in harnessing this opportunity is creation, development and retention of analytics talent," he emphasised.

Agencies

Prime Minister Modi to Kick off Execution of 20 Smart Cities On June 25

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the execution of works in proposed 20 smart cities across the country in Pune on Saturday.

The PM will launch the “Smart Cities Mission” projects from Pune’s 5,000-capacity Shiv Chatrapati Sports Complex, said a release from the Urban Development Ministry. The works will start simultaneously in 20 cities across the country.

On the day of execution of the scheme, the Prime Minister will launch 14 projects under the Smart City Plan of Pune. Besides another 69 such projects will be launched the same day through video conference in the remaining 19 smart cities, entailing a total investment of about Rs.1,770 crore.

The projects to be launched in Pune and other cities include Solid Waste Management projects under Swachh Bharat Mission, water supply projects, sewage treatment plants and development of open and green spaces.

Of the proposed 100 smart cities, the Urban Development Ministry has decided to start constructing first set of 20 smart cities in this fiscal.

These 20 cities have proposed a total investment of Rs 48,000 crore in area development and pan-city solutions.

The prime minister will also inaugurate “Make Your City SMART” contest aimed at involving citizens in various activities, including designing roads, junctions and parks.

Suggestions and designs suggested by citizens will be duly incorporated by respective smart cities. Winners of this contest will be given rewards in the range of Rs.10,000 to Rs 1 lakh.

Modi will also inaugurate a Smart Net Portal, which enables the cities under different urban missions to share ideas.

Some of the projects to be launched include those in New Delhi Municipal Council area where mini-sewerage treatment plants, 444 smart classrooms, Wi-Fi, smart LED streetlights, city surveillance and command and control centre would be initiated.

In Belagavi (Karnataka), the prime minister will launch natural gas distribution network, rooftop solar plant, GSM-based monitoring of solid waste collection vehicles.

Agencies

Enterprise Spending on Mobile App Development Remains Very Low

Forty-two percent of organizations expect to increase spending on mobile app development by an average of 31 percent in 2016, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. Despite this, the average proportion of the overall application development budget allocated to mobile is only 10 percent, a 2 percent decrease from 2015.

The Gartner survey of IT and business leaders responsible for mobile strategy and/or custom mobile app development within their organizations was conducted in September 2015 across the United States, EMEA, Latin America and Asia/Pacific. The survey focused on understanding organizations' activities in mobile app development, covering both business-to-employee (B2E) and business-to-consumer (B2C) apps.

 "Demand for mobile apps in the enterprise is growing, but the urgency to scale up mobile app development doesn't yet appear to be a priority for most organizations," said Adrian Leow, principal research analyst at Gartner. "This must change, particularly given employees often have the autonomy to choose the devices, apps and even the processes to complete a task. This places an increasing amount of pressure on IT to develop a larger variety of mobile apps in shorter time frames."

The survey revealed that the majority of enterprises developing mobile apps are focused on custom mobile app development, rather than customizing configurable apps or building from off-the-shelf templates. Gartner believes that given most development teams use custom app development for all of their apps, extending this to mobile is a natural behavior. Additionally, many off-the-shelf mobile apps still require significant development activity to integrate the back-end databases and applications into the mobile app front ends.

 "If developers have to spend 70 percent of their time getting the integration right, they shouldn't have to make compromises on the front end by constraints inherent in prepackaged mobile apps," said Leow. "The selection of prepackaged mobile apps is also still quite limited from many providers."

According to Gartner, the range of mobile apps in use across the enterprise varies among user groups and lines of business in terms of the apps' adherence to corporate and security policies.

 "When you add in the public apps that users are adopting personally, such as Dropbox, to use for business, the management problem becomes clear," said Leow. "IT's ability to inventory and distribute these apps is fragmented at best, and more often it's incomplete."

Leow believes the solution to this issue of app management fragmentation and rogue apps is to pursue the development of an enterprise app store. The survey revealed that organizations have 26 mobile apps in their own enterprise app store on average, with a third of those mobile apps being custom-built, while the remainder are prepackaged apps (such as Box, Evernote and SAP Fiori).

JANUS Brandy Wins Accolade at International Sprits Challenge 2016

In 2015, Sula Vineyards, India's #1 wine company announced the launch of JANUS – India’s first 100% premium grape brandy. This is another milestone for the company who are proud to announce that JANUS has been awarded a Bronze Medal in the tasting category at the International Spirits Challenge (ISC) 2016. ISC is the most authoritative, respected and influential spirits competition in the world. In the blind tasting JANUS took home a bronze from an impressive line-up of spirits.

“We are thrilled to receive this prestigious recognition,” said Rajeev Samant, CEO, Sula Vineyards “This acknowledgement further validates JANUS’ groundbreaking project to create India’s first 100% premium grape brandy. Winners are determined in part by experts in the industry. We are pleased that they have recognized our efforts to lead the industry in terms of innovation and quality.”

JANUS is India’s first 100% grape brandy. Deriving its name from the ancient Roman deity with two faces, JANUS embodies the exceptional French Cognac making heritage and the expertise of Sula in selecting the best Indian grapes. JANUS is made from carefully selected grapes from the best Indian vineyards which are then double distilled in small batches using traditional French alembic pot stills, to produce a liquor of exceptional smoothness and character Award organiser Justin Smith said: “This year’s judging was tougher than ever before with consistent quality found across each category. It made for a series of fascinating blind tasting sessions, with our experts coming to their final conclusions led by the experience of the chairmen.”

 Winning an ISC award is an impressive achievement for any spirit that passes the scrupulous blind assessment from the experienced panel of specialist judges.

JANUS is currently available in 750 ml and 180 ml. A 750 ml in Karnataka is priced at Rs 1900, Andhra Pradesh Rs 2390, Telangana Rs 2265. In Goa, Pondicherry, Daman and Silvassa JANUS is retailed at Rs 1500 and available across leading outlets. It is manufactured by Artisan Spirits, 100% subsidiary of Sula Vineyards.

Sula Vineyards Pioneer’s in Wine Tourism:

Sula Vineyards is by far India’s first choice in wine. Their

award-winning wines are available nationwide at the finest hotels and restaurants, and are also exported throughout the world. Sula is on track to sell a million cases of wine in 2016.

Sula is also a pioneer in India’s wine tourism opening the country’s first winery Tasting Room in 2005 and first vineyard resort, Beyond by Sula, in 2007. With over 230,000 visitors last year, Sula is one of the most visited wineries in the world and the #1 spot where Indians first taste wine.

Sula Vineyards recently won the prestigious Drinks Business Award 2016 for the ‘Best Contribution to Wine and Spirits Tourism’! This is the first time an Indian company has won a Drinks Business Award.

Firmly committed to remaining at the forefront of Indian wines, Sula continues to experiment with new varietals, engage in sustainable agriculture and support the local rural economy. Sula is well on its way to becoming one of the world’s most sustainable wine producers. In addition, the company is also a leading wine and spirits importer, with Sula Selections, a portfolio of prestigious brands like Remy Cointreau, Hardys, Ruffino and Asahi.

Adobe Announces Creative Cloud Innovations in India & Stock Updates

Taking aim at the inefficiencies that slow down the creation process, Adobe has launched major updates to its flagship Creative Cloud tools and services in India and around the world. The release includes dramatic new features in Adobe’s flagship applications, performance enhancements across Creative Cloud (CC), and exciting updates to Adobe Stock -- including deeper integration within CC and the addition of an all-new premium collection of high quality stock content. Spanning across virtually all of the Creative Cloud portfolio, updates in this new release target many of the pain points that designers, photographers and filmmakers face every day.

“The industry is going through unprecedented changes driven by mobile explosion, and content velocity is becoming more critical in tying content and customer experience to business impact and success. However, we know only 16% of marketers and business leaders in Asia Pacific say they have the workflows in place to enable the alignment and collaboration needed to deal with the scale of content production they’re facing.,” said Mr. Paul Robson, President, Adobe Asia Pacific. “This release delivers the magic and improved workflow that unleashes creativity and helps organizations ultimately provide superb customer experience across channels.”

“Aimed at helping our customers save time and jump start their creative engines, Adobe is constantly focused on developing new product innovations that delight our customers. Today, we are excited to announce a host of advancements to our Creative Cloud portfolio, many of which have been built in our own RandD labs, such as Photoshop Match Font. We are confident that these powerful enhancements will deliver tremendous value for our customers in India and across the globe, and make an immediate impact on the way creative people work every day,” said Kulmeet Bawa, Managing Director (Designate), South Asia, Adobe. “We anticipate that new Creative Cloud capabilities like Content-Aware Crop in Photoshop and Character Animator Preview in After Effects CC, as well as Adobe Stock’s deeper integration with CC portfolio will provide a major boost to the productivity of creative workers and organizations in India.”

Today‘s updates mark another step forward in establishing Creative Cloud as the one-stop shop for creative people -- providing the bestin desktop tools, mobile applications, training and a vibrant marketplace featuring services like Adobe Stock, as well as access to theBehance community that’s now over 7 million strong.

“Digital Next realities continue to warrant creating and re-purposing of content, and Prime Focus Technologies has over the years emerged as an industry leading partner to content enterprises for delivering cutting edge technology solutions. Our recent launch at NAB 2016 was end-to-end business process orchestration for promo creation including automation of promo versioning using Adobe® Premiere® Pro CC. We look forward to leveraging the advancements, specifically the new Adobe Premiere Pro CC to deliver standout digital creative content for our customers.,” said Ramki Sankaranarayanan, Founder and CEO, Prime Focus Technologies.

“In view of technological impact on socio-cultural environment, the delivery platform is as critical as the curriculum. It is absolutely necessary to ensure that the delivery model appeals to students. At Extramarks, we create learning solutions that comprise of a unique blend of text, images, audio and videos that engages learners and makes learning easy and effective leading to lifelong retention. Over the years, Adobe Creative Cloud products have been the backbone for our learning solutions and helped us curate modules to suit the evolving trends. We congratulate Adobe on the new features in Creative Cloud and look forward to exploring these innovations to further build on our brand.,” said Atul Kulshrestha, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, Extramarks.

Highlights of Creative Cloud innovations announced by Adobe today include:

 Built Right into Creative Cloud: Adobe Stock Service Offers Best, Broadest Selection

Research from Pfeiffer Consulting confirms that integrating Adobe Stock with CC desktop applications delivers up to 10 times greater  efficiency than other stock services*.  The expanded Adobe Stock service includes over 55 million royalty-free, high-quality photos, videos, illustrations and graphics as well as the following new capabilities:

·         One-Click Workflow.  Deeper Adobe Stock integration with CC applications enables a new One-Click Workflow that lets users select an image or video on the Adobe Stock website and place it on their creative canvas with a single click.  Also an expanded In-app Purchase feature delivers an industry-first, one-click license capability, directly from Photoshop.

·         Premium Collection. Adobe’s first premium content offering sourced for Adobe Stock includes nearly 100,000 curated images that meet the standards of top advertising agencies, leading brands and digital and print publications.

·         Monetization Made Easier.  Coming soon, Adobe will expand on its vision to build out the world’s largest creative marketplace by offering opportunities for creative professionals to contribute and monetize their work.  They can contribute directly from desktop and mobile applications including Adobe Lightroom CC, Adobe Bridge CC, Photoshop Fix and Photoshop Mix, providing an easy on-ramp to showcasing and selling their work via Adobe Stock.  Also coming soon is Adobe’s new Stock Contributor Portal, which will feature intelligent auto-tagging capabilities saving hours of keywording.

Sales Associates Play Pivotal Role in the Shopper Purchase Journey: New Mindtree Study

A new study shatters the myth that, in retail stores, most shoppers do not like to be disturbed by sales associates. It also highlights the highly positive influence sales associates have on influencing shopper purchases. The cross-industry survey was released today by Mindtree, a leading digital transformation and technology services company.

Many shoppers rely on interaction with sales associates to make purchasing decisions, especially in more complex product categories like consumer electronics, home improvement and others. When helped, it leads to significant increase in the amount of the shopper’s transaction, as well as in repeat purchases. Too often, shoppers can’t find sales associates when they have a question. This is a negative experience which leads to shoppers moving to either a different store or to an online channel.

Sales associates are aware that their influence leads to more sales conversions. However, their efforts are spread thin – they assist both serious shoppers and casual browsers, reducing their efficiency and conversion ratio.

“Conventional thinking in the retail industry is that most shoppers want to be left alone, and that sales associates too often annoy shoppers by trying to offer assistance. The Mindtree survey paints a surprisingly different picture,” said Sunil Oberoi, Senior Vice President and Head, Retail, CPG and Manufacturing, Mindtree. “Shoppers respond positively when they receive helpful guidance from an associate. A timely assistance in store can lead to an 80% increase in transaction value.”

Gaurav Johri, Senior Vice President and Head, Platforms and Solutions Group, Mindtree said, “A key part of successful omnichannel retailing is all about delivering timely and helpful recommendations to shoppers that help them feel more confident in making a purchase. There is a huge untapped opportunity for retailers to increase conversions and enhance customer loyalty in the store.  Mindtree’s platforms, Flooresense and ShotClasses, are built to equip sales associates with real time capabilities to enhance in-store shopper experience and optimize sales time.”

The purpose of the survey, which is titled, “Impact of Sales associates on the Shopper’s Purchase Journey,” and conducted by independent market research firm Grail Research, was to understand the role that sales associates play in the consumer shopping journey. The consumer sample included 600 qualified shoppers that made purchases of $100 or higher in the last 3 months. The sales associate sample included 100 employees from companies spanning five retail segments: home improvement, electronics and consumer goods, department stores, fashion retail, and specialty retail.

Key findings from the survey include:

• Shoppers who interact with a sales associate are 43 percent more likely to purchase a product, and their transactions have 81 percent more value, compared to those who don’t interact with an associate. In addition, they are 12 percent more likely to revisit the store.
• Conversely, shoppers are less likely to make a purchase if they are not reached out to proactively by a sales associate. Forty percent of shoppers are unable to locate a store associate when they need help in a typical shopping trip.
• Ninety one percent of sales associates strongly agree that positive interactions with shoppers result in higher conversions, yet 94 percent feel this requires more advanced technology tools and training that they currently don’t have access to.

The survey identified a gap that exists in terms of assistance provided in the store. Associates would like to have access to technologies that help identify shoppers in need of assistance, improving their productivity. However, few brands have capitalized on this need.

Companies should identify an automated technology platform that has the ability to:

·         Notify sales associates to locate and target the right shopper once they have entered the store

·         Share recommendations on additional products based on product category

·         Provide timely training on new products and features

METRO Cash & Carry Opens its 21th Outlet in India; Fifth in Bengaluru to Strengthen Retail Presence

On the precipice of its 13th anniversary, the German major METRO Cash and Carry has opened its 21th outlet in India and its 5th in Bengaluru, where it began its journey in the country, the company has also announced plans to touch 50 stores by 2020. 

The new outlet in Whitefield boasts of superior product assortment and pricing relevant to the catchment area. The layout of the store has been redesigned to offer products of a similar category together, like detergents have been placed after apparel and cleaning agents have been placed alongside cleaning appliances. This will be the format for all stores, now onwards," said Arvind Mediratta, Managing Director, METRO Cash and Carry India.

The company has outlets in 13 cities across nine states. "We will strengthen our presence in those markets where we are present. In fact, Bengaluru itself has the potential to contain a total of 8-10 stores. We want to leverage such potential and improve market size," he said.

At an average investment of Rs 50 crore per store, the company takes pride in having fully researched its market. "We put in sufficient efforts in studying the markets we enter.

Moreover, having sorted the supply chain and back-end in such markets, we would like to exploit their full potential," he said, adding, "In most markets, we have a single store.

Before we venture out, we want to fortify these markets." Within the newly launched format, the company has also simplified pricing so as to communicate it better. For prices above Rs 50, the company has deleted decimal pricing altogether, and has retained single place after decimals for prices below Rs 50. 

New Engine Production Plant Comes Up in Bengaluru for Manufacture of Toyota’s Innova Crysta Diesel Engines

Toyota Industries Engine India (TIEI), a joint venture between Kirloskar Systems Ltd. (KSL) and Toyota Industries Corporation - Japan (TICO), in India, has announced the inauguration of a new engine production plant at Jigani Industrial Area, Bengaluru. The new plant will manufacture powerful and high performance Global Diesel (GD) Engine featuring Economy with Superior Thermal Efficiency Combustion (ESTEC) technology, which contributes to enhanced fuel efficiency. 

Spread across 22 acres with an investment of Rs. 1,100 crore, the engine manufacturing plant operates with a production capacity of 108,000 units/year and manufactures 1GD-FTV 2.8 litre and 2GD-FTV – 2.4 litre engines in compliance with BS 4 / Euro 4 emission standards with an additional provision to upgrade to BS 5 and 6 / Euro 5 and 6 with minimum investment and lead time in the future. Toyota Industries Engine India (TIEI) plant, the new state-of-the-art facility is the first GD Engine Plant of Toyota in India and third globally, after Japan and Thailand.

The new plant was inaugurated by the Chief Guests  Siddaramaiah, Chief Minister of Karnataka, Government of Karnataka, Anant G Geete, Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India, and graced by Guests of Honor  R.V Deshpande, Minister for Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development, Government of Karnataka, D.K. Shivakumar, Minister for Energy, Government of Karnataka, T.B. Jayachandra, Minister for Law and Parliamentary affairs, Government of Karnataka in the august presence of Toshiyuki Mizushima, Senior Managing Officer, Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan, Akira Onishi, President, Toyota Industries Corporation, Japan, Taku Yamamoto, Chairman, Toyota Industries Engine India, Kiyotsugu Kurimoto, Managing Director, Toyota Industries Engine India, Vikram S Kirloskar, Vice Chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Director, Toyota Industries Engine India. T R Parasuraman, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Industries Engine India, A. Tachibana, Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. and Shekar Viswananthan, Vice Chairman and Whole-time Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd.

Commenting on the occasion, Siddaramaiah, Honorable Chief Minister of Karnataka, Government of Karnataka, said “I am very much delighted to be a part of the Engine Plant Opening Ceremony of Toyota Industries Engine India. Toyota’s two decades presence in Karnataka has made it a household name. All Toyota employees are Karnataka’s Brand Ambassadors and we are proud of their achievements. We want Toyota to continue and make future investments in the state of Karnataka.”

Anant G Geete, who graced the event said “The Indian automobile industry is one of the biggest contributors to India’s GDP. The Government of India is equally concerned about increasing pollution. In this regard we will take a comprehensive view about the current diesel ban on vehicles above 2000cc, both on the development and environment front along with its impact on the investment climate.”

T R Parasuraman, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Industries Engine India Pvt. Ltd., who was present at the ceremony, said "TIEI aims to become India's no. 1 engine manufacturing plant by contributing to the country’s manufacturing mandate. With the new state-of-art engine plant, we at TIEI remain committed to the growth of the country’s economy. We are strongly focused towards the “Make in India’ initiative of Government of India and believe that this new engine project will add to achieve global manufacturing standards in the country. This project has been implemented with big support from Government of Karnataka. We, TIEI, are proud to be in Karnataka.”

Commenting on the new initiative  Vikram S Kirloskar, Vice Chairman – Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd and Director, Toyota Industries Engine India Pvt. Ltd said “Today is indeed a proud day for all of us at Toyota Industries Engine India, as we unveil our first ever Diesel engine plant here at Bengaluru. The introduction of GD series engines not only equips superior technology but also meet the new fuel efficiency policies mandate in the country. We realize diesel engine technology will remain an integral part of every automaker with strict fuel efficiency norms being implemented in India, therefore this engine project will strengthen our diesel business in the country marking Toyota’s first diesel manufacturing plant in India.”

“We hope to grow together with the local community and ramp up the process of manufacturing cars in India with readily available diesel engines made from our new Bengaluru plant”, he further added.

The 2.4 litre and 2.8 litre engines equip Manual Transmission and Automatic Transmission of Innova Crysta respectively. The 2.4-litre 2GD-FTV engine is 47% more powerful and 13% more fuel efficient. And the 2.8-litre 1GD-FTV engine is 71% more powerful and 7% more fuel efficient, in comparison to the earlier used 2KD engine.

The Indian Automotive Market is the fifth largest in the world and 40% of the cars sold are diesel vehicles. The new diesel plant in Bengaluru will further boost the employment opportunities in Karnataka, generating need for skilled manpower in the industry. This will create a convivial environment for foreign investors to further invest in the State.

Cyber Security Awareness Program for SMBs in India from DSCI & Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin and the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) announced the launch of a new cybersecurity education program for small and mid-size businesses to help them minimize risk from online threats. DSCI promotes data protection among the Indian industry and is partnering with Lockheed Martin to heighten the cybersecurity awareness of businesses and their workforce. The endeavour will promote responsible online behaviour will provide guidance on designing secure IT systems and securely managing their online presence. The program will spread discreetly across the country through a comprehensive and interactive cyber awareness portal to facilitate the journey of digital transformation of SMBs.

The initiative includes development of an interactive Cyber Security Awareness Web Portal with resources for businesses to safely and securely manage their digital presence. It is also intended to drive engagement within the SMB community through materials for businesses to train their workforce using computer based training modules, video messages and computer games about online safety.

 The partnership also includes stakeholder engagement activities.  Under the program, DSCI will also forge alliances with relevant stakeholders including industry bodies, development centres, and technical education boards for reaching out to the target segments and ensuring impactful delivery of the program. These stakeholders will promote the program and key messages about online safety and security.

 Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) said “I am glad that DSCI along with Lockheed Martin is launching a Cyber Security Awareness Program for Small and Medium Businesses in the country. With nearly 50 million units with over 110 million employments, and contributing over one-third of the manufacturing output in the country, this sector has wide reach in large number of verticals. A program for this sector can have huge impact on a significant part of business community in the country and a step towards realizing the vision of Digital India.  I wish the effort all success”

““Digital technologies will play a key role in enhancing SMBs competitiveness and their growth agenda. As SMBs and their workforce embark on their digital journeys, they need to protect themselves against cyberattacks,” said Rama Vedashree, CEO, DSCI. “We are pleased to partner with Lockheed Martin to build Cyber Security Awareness among the SMB workforce in India. This would contribute to two strategic programmes of the country namely Make in India and Digital India

Phil Shaw, Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin India, stated, “Phil Shaw, Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin India, added, “Lockheed Martin is proud to partner with the Data Security Council of India given that the time is ripe for a national focused cyber awareness effort. Research indicates that only 23 percent of organizations are capable of responding effectively to a cyber incident yet the impact of a cyberattack could be wide-ranging and costly. With the increasingly interconnected nature of our critical infrastructure and data, organizations must approach cybersecurity more proactively than ever before in order to safeguard assets and data.”

DSCI and Lockheed announced this partnership at their flagship event, Best Practices Meet 2016, held at Bengaluru today.  The event was attended by over 300 professionals including policy makers, security experts, and decision makers from various verticals

Qlik’s Global Operations Hub in Bangalore Supports Marketing & Globally Delivery

Qlik, a leader in visual analytics, today announced the opening of its global operations and support delivery hub in Bangalore. The new facility will enable Qlik to meet increasing demand by partners and customers from around the world for its platform-based solutions. 

The state-of-the-art facility reflects the Qlik brand ethos with its open environment for collaboration. The opening of this hub is part of Qlik’s strategic growth plan to further sharpen the scope and quality of its marketing services, IT and sales operations, as well as customer support, to a rapidly growing network of customers and partners in India and other regions.

“We are incredibly excited about our new and bigger office in Bangalore,” said Souma Das, Managing Director, Qlik India. “This milestone is timely as we continue to expand our presence in India.’’

 ‘’Bangalore is a growing, vibrant city, with first-class infrastructure and talent pool, and other world-class public facilities that make it easy for companies to connect with markets globally. We look forward to growing from strength to strength with our partners and customers in India.”

 Qlik’s extensive networks of partners in India include Wipro and Tech Mahindra, and customers from a wide range of sectors such as Mahindra & Mahindra, McLeod Russel, and Bluestone.

HPE Delivers Industry First Converged System for IoT Now in India

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) unveiled the Edgeline EL1000 and Edgeline EL4000, the industry’s first converged systems for the Internet of Things (IoT). These systems integrate data capture, control, compute and storage to deliver heavy-duty analytics and insights at the edge to enable real-time decision making. In addition, HPE announced enhanced IoT security capabilities, new services and an industry leading partner ecosystem to advance the adoption and impact of the Internet of Things.

 With the proliferation of IoT devices, or “things” generating petabytes of data every day, organizations have an opportunity to quickly capture, process and analyze that data to enable real-time control and decision making. Oil and gas, manufacturing and telecommunications industries face specific IoT challenges – they need to harness data in remote environments, from windmills in the desert to smart energy grids and manufacturing plants, to drive timely business decisions. Until now, the remote data would have to be transported to a data center or cloud for analysis, which can be a slow, risky and inefficient process. HPE today introduced new IoT solutions that enable organizations to harness the power of their data by delivering real-time analytics and machine learning at the edge, where the “things” are. 

 “Organizations that take advantage of the vast amount of data and run deep analytics at the edge can become digital disrupters within their industries,” said Vikram K, Director, Servers, Hewlett Packard Enterprise India. “HPE has built machine learning and real time analytics into its IoT platforms, and provides services that help customers understand how data can best be leveraged, enabling them to optimize maintenance management, improve operations efficiency and ultimately, drive significant cost savings.” 

 HPE Edgeline IoT Systems: Deep Data Capture and Analytics at the Edge

 HPE is unveiling the Edgeline EL1000 and Edgeline EL4000, the industry’s first converged systems for the IoT, integrating compute, storage, data capture, control and enterprise-class systems and device management built to thrive in hardened environments and handle shock, vibration and extreme temperatures. The EL1000 and EL4000 are optimized to deliver heavy-duty data analytics and insights, graphically intense data visualization, and real time response at the edge.

In addition, HPE announced today that the HPE Vertica Analytics Platform runs on the Edgeline EL4000, delivering historical and predictive analytic insights from in-database machine learning algorithms across a broad range of IoT analytic use cases. Vertica on Edgeline brings applied machine learning to the edge to deliver closed-loop analytics that enable organizations to derive immediate insights from their IoT initiatives. In addition, to easily secure traffic back to the data center, the EL1000 and EL4000 support Aruba’s Virtual Intranet Access (VIA) VPN client. Aruba’s VIA^TM provides organizations an automated, zero-touch, secure VPN, and is available for both commercial and high-security government IoT applications.

Dynamic IoT Security

Securing enterprise networks for the onslaught of IoT devices is also a primary concern for IT professionals today. Networks need to automatically add, detect, profile and secure new and unknown IoT devices without manual intervention. With enhancements to Aruba ClearPass, IT can profile new IoT devices, enforce security policies, and exchange policy status with other security systems including mobile device management systems. ClearPass integrates with existing network infrastructures from any vendor enabling IT teams to easily automate and scale rather than become an inhibitor for new digital transformation initiatives. 

 IoT Expertise -Helping Customers Transform, Design and Run IoT

 HPE also introduced the HPE IoT Transformation workshop (TW), an interactive HPE facilitated workshop that helps customers to define their IoT vision and strategy and gain business technology alignment. This structured discussion takes a fact-based, analytical approach to help customers achieve alignment on their vision, identify current and future states, and determine a set of specific transformational IoT projects. The IoT TW is the first step in a full suite of services designed to help customers successfully implement IoT solutions based on business needs and industry parameters. In addition, HPE’s Analytic Consulting and Predictive Maintenance Services deliver advanced analytics to business processes to achieve objectives, reduce costs and improve efficiencies.

Partnerships

HPE is partnering with industrial IoT leaders like GE Digital, National Instruments and PTCas part of its go to market plan to deliver joint solutions to customers. These solutions address industrial use cases to combine the very best of Operational Technology (OT) and IT to support the aerospace, oil and gas, manufacturing, automotive and energy industries.

HPE also announced four IoT Innovation Labs and expertise across the globe. HPE and Intel operate these labs to help customers envision how IoT can be applied in their industry, build and test IoT applications, and access technical expertise. In addition, partners and customers are able to engage, interact, assess and collaborate on solutions development and their applications. The labs are now open and located at HPE facilities in Houston, Texas, Grenoble, France, Bangalore, India and Singapore.

Eight-Fold Jump to US$ 16 Billion for Indian Analytics Sector by 2025

With a focus on driving business outcomes and customer experience by way of leveraging analytical services and products, the National Association of Software and Services Companies has inaugurated the fourth edition of its Big Data and Analytics Summit 2016 in Hyderabad. Growing at 8 times the current levels, the analytics industry is expected to reach US$ 16 billion from the current level of US$ 2 billion.

Over 600+ analytical firms in India, out of which approximately 400 are start-ups, are positioning India as an emerging hub for analytics solutions for industries across the globe. The big data and analytics industry is witnessing a rapid growth driven by increased demand for cloud-based (SaaS) and predictive analytics solutions by industries such as BFSI, retail, telecom, and healthcare.

The transcension of Big Data has gone beyond disruptive, by now. Exponential growth of the number of devices, paired with the deluge of unstructured data - in the form of social media interactions, video or text - has ensured that. Being able to tap into this data and act on the insights, is a key differentiator between digital attackers and the laggards. The key to the future in leveraging big data technologies lies in the ability to harness its use in addressing complex problems. 

This rapid rise of analytics is reflecting in job creation across verticals and functions with skills from analytics, business and technology. With over 90,000 analytics professionals in India across HR, marketing, risk & security, healthcare, and verticals like retail and finance, the industry is witnessing the emergence of specialised roles like data architect, data strategist, data visualization analyst and change manager etc.

Speaking at the occasion, KS Viswanathan, Vice President, NASSCOM mentioned, “India is today amongst the top 10 destination for analytics and our aspiration is to be amongst the top 3 in the world by 2025. NASSCOM is partnering with its members to build a multi-pronged approach that encompasses – skill development, thought leadership, products and platforms to realise this vision”.

Artificial Intelligence and deep learning algorithms have advanced rapidly to enable the development of machines that can now do tasks that require deep expertise and skill. The best companies today are realizing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and investing in utilizing these algorithms in all aspects of their business. Industry will start exploring artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms for analytics and radically change product delivery to create new markets and engagement models.

BVR Mohan Reddy, Former Chairman, NASSCOM and Founder and Executive Chairman at Cyient, added, “Multiple opportunities are emerging across business verticals and are opening up large opportunities for companies in data, infrastructure, software and analytics. Of special importance is emergence of custom visualisation software, development of algorithms for predictive analytics, cloud based services and Machine to Machine Learning. The growth trajectory shows that India will soon emerge as big data and analytics hub of the world.”