NetApp Data Fabric Enables Businesses to Drive Competitive Advantage with AI

NetApp, the data authority for hybrid cloud, has announced ONTAP 9.5, MAX Data, StorageGRID SG6060, NetApp Solution Support for FlexPod, and Flash Performance Guarantee. These new data services and solutions further extend the NetApp Data Fabric across edge, core, and cloud and enable organizations to fully realize the promise of artificial intelligence.

Global business value derived from AI is projected to total $1.2 trillion in 2018, an increase of 70 percent from 2017, according to Gartner, Inc.1, and IDC predicts that nearly 75 percent of commercial enterprise applications will use AI by 20212. However, even though businesses plan to use AI to create new and innovative business opportunities fueled by diverse, distributed, and dynamic data, they often find that their most valuable data is trapped in siloes, hampered by complexity and too costly to harness for resource-intensive AI applications.

“With the speed and volume of data now generated and managed across IoT devices and sensors, on-premises data centers, and in hybrid cloud environments, having a Data Fabric that spans edge, core, and cloud is essential to AI success,” said Joel Reich, EVP, Storage Systems & Software, NetApp. “With today’s new data services and solutions, integrated through the NetApp Data Fabric, organizations can accelerate data pipelines across an entire enterprise to train deep learning models and power AI applications with the simplicity, choice, and scale necessary to achieve real impact.”

Modernize Storage to Enable Data Management for AI

NetApp ONTAP 9.5 software helps companies modernize their data services with solutions that deliver leading cloud integration, the highest all-flash performance, and greater efficiency and simplicity.

NetApp ONTAP 9.5 software:

Delivers unmatched versatility that offers high performance and consistent low latency, accelerating critical workloads with industry-leading end-to-end NVMe capabilities.
Unifies data management across storage environments — flash, disk, and cloud.
Automates tiering of petabyte-scale datasets to object stores in the cloud or on the premises.
Reduces deployment costs for multisite business continuity solutions.
Accelerates read performance with cached data sets within a cluster and at remote sites.
Increases storage efficiency savings by up to 15% for relational database applications.
Radically increases performance by auto-tiering data between AFF systems and NetApp MAX Data on servers.

MAX Data allows customers to turbo charge their application performance without rewrites to application code. MAX Data is the industry’s first solution to leverage persistent memory in servers to deliver memory-like ultra-low latency and flash-like capacity.

MAX Data:

Accelerates performance of application-level data, enabling faster processing of data for AI applications and real-time data analytics.
Speeds application data recovery with data protection services for persistent memory in servers.
Improves efficiency by using fewer servers to achieve similar or better performance.
Leverages all the data management capabilities of NetApp ONTAP.

Flash Performance Guarantee:

NetApp offers the industry’s first latency guarantee that allows customers to consume AI applications with the confidence of predictable low latency. Unparalleled in the industry, the performance guarantee offers consistent latency of .5 msor less and enables businesses to reduce cost and risk by deploying flash with confidence.

Build a Hybrid Cloud Architecture for IoT

NetApp provides industry-leading data management capabilities and solution support to tap into growing data sources with virtually unlimited scalability and performance to feed, train, and operate data-hungry AI, machine learning, and deep learning applications.

NetApp StorageGRID SG6060:

Flash-accelerated object storage addresses the needs of high-performance, high-concurrency workloads for IoT, big data analytics, and machine learning environments.
Combined with ONTAP FabricPool capabilities, customers now have best-in-class data management capabilities while harnessing the value of object storage economics.

NetApp Solution Support for FlexPod:

The single-point-of-contact support team has expertise across the key components of the entire solution — storage, storage network, compute, compute OS, LAN networking, and hypervisor.
NetApp Solution Support also includes NetApp Converged System Advisor (CSA) software, which simplifies the customer’s operations and lifecycle management of FlexPod. The CSA superior monitoring and management with a single-pane view of the system’s health helps reduce time to resolution for support incidents.

KaHa Leads Strategic Multipartite IoT Innovation Lab in Singapore

Internet of Things (IoT) and smart wearable company KaHa today announced plans to open a multipartite innovation and research lab in Singapore, modelled after the network philosophy of IoT and created in response to market demands for faster development and commercialization. Public and private partners across the IoT development value chain including A*STAR SIMTech, Bridgestone, Curtis Australia, MHA Manufacture de Haute Accessoirie Partners, Tex Line and Titan, will come together under-one-roof to streamline development resulting in faster prototyping, testing, and go-to-market.

Designed for efficient multi-party collaboration, the various development stations will be onsite and in close proximity – from business to project management, hardware to software, prototyping to testing, and from remodification up to delivery. Development time and costs will be greatly reduced, for instance speeding up schedules of weeks into just days. Whereas in conventional processing, work is done piecemeal and transported partially and gradually at intervals, and delays occur frequently and are exacerbated by minor changes.

The lab’s core infrastructure is the KaHa platform and its AI capabilities. KaHa has over the past 3 years developed an architecture which is unparalleled and optimised for consumer-centric experiences like health and wellness, fitness and sports, digital payment and safety. The company has big data architecture and tools for artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and recently its proof-of-concept on natural language processing (NLP). The company has also created a Network Operations Lab (NOC) that  facilitates the proof-of-concept process through real-time testing of available/simulated data with live demonstrations all within the same space. Regular reviews at the NOC will ensure data integrity and projects timeliness.

The lab is located at the vibrant one-north technology hub of Singapore and the launch is targeted for initial projects in healthcare and wellness, smart apparels, sensor hub and power consumption. The lab will also work with KaHa’s brand partners and co-plan their roadmap and play the role of bringing all stakeholders towards achieving these use case on smart wearables, as well as the building of a comprehensive healthcare IoT ecosystem capable of integrating medtech and public-private healthcare and related service providers. The pioneering partners are:

KaHa: Singapore-based and the region’s only end-to-end IoT and smart wearable platform company with patents in IoT platform architecture. KaHa possesses deep industry links, including being the strategic partner for A*STAR SIMTech and EAC flagship industry programmes.
A*STAR SIMTech: Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology develops high value manufacturing technology and human capital to contribute to the competitiveness of Singapore industry.
Bridgestone:  A Hong Kong-based watch manufacturer with International reach including its own production base in China.  The company specializes in creative design, production and sales of lifestyle and fashion watches.
Curtis Australia: With a heritage from the 1890’s, an international jewellery, watch and pen atelier known for its distinctive, handmade and desirable luxury products crafted in solid carat golds and precious gems.
MHA Manufacture de Haute Accessoirie Partners: A division of Niklaus LNI SA, established over 110 years ago on the foundation of swiss watch manufacturing, MHA is the premier Swiss designer and manufacturer of private label luxury accessories.
Tex Line: A one-stop apparel and sportswear sourcing supply chain and service provider, with reliable capability in overseeing sourcing to production and delivery.
Titan Company Limited: The fifth largest integrated own brand watch manufacturer in the world. Over the last three decades, Titan has expanded and explored into under penetrated markets and created leading brands across categories.

IoT and the smart wearables industry will touch the lives of over a billion people in the next 5 years with a market value of close to USD120B. With  KaHa’s proprietary platform coupled with the presence and expertise of local and international partners, the lab will be a driver of growth for the Singapore IoT and wearable ecosystem having a global impact. KaHa plans to hire and train locals talents and create a  strong local capability and know-how, and help strengthen the Singapore core and competitive edge for Industry 4.0.

Managed by a head of lab with end-to-end IoT experience, the lab will provide opportunities for jobs and upskilling The lab will also host hackathons and release software development kits (SDK), with the latest tools in areas including AI, Machine Learning, NLP, Big Data and health-oriented algorithms, digital payment, enabling participants to problem-solve real use cases and understand how their work contributes towards building the ecosystem.

CEO and founder of KaHa, Pawan Gandhi comments, “As a home-grown company committed to the development of the local IoT and wearable ecosystem, it’s important that we have core development capabilities here in Singapore that can capitalize on opportunities and respond to market demands quickly. We are also actively engaging ETPL, the commercialization arm of A*STAR to harness local industry expertise to boost the nation innovation engine. We have taken the philosophy of IoT and connectivity to heart, ensuring we have oversight and responsibility each step of the way, while becoming even more nimble and flexible to cater to manufacturers’ needs faster.”

Dr Lim Ser Yong, Executive Director of SIMTech added, “SIMTech has had a long history of collaborating with the industry. We have partnered KaHa in our emerging applications programmes over the past years, and I am happy to see that it has yielded innovative breakthroughs in IoT and smart wearable technology that will significantly contribute to the local ecosystem. We are pleased to take our partnership to the next level and work together with COVE R2C IoT Innovation Lab to speed up the development and commercialization of emerging technologies to drive Singapore’s advanced manufacturing industry.”

Vice President of Bridgestone Watch LTD, Ray Lin added “Providing the best quality products and services to our customers has always been our formula of success.  Therefore it is an honour to be able to join hands with so many industry leaders and together, and continue to innovate and create some of the best watches in the world.  We look forward to contributing our expertise and also bring these innovation to our customers and the market.

CEO of Curtis Australia, Glenn Curtis comments “The high-end luxury timepiece and jewelry market is seeing an evolution as even the most discerning ultra-high networth clientele develops interest in smart wearable technology functions simply because they have become ubiquitous and improve living habits. As a partner in the research center, Curtis will contribute design knowledge through years of handcrafting the finest timepieces and writing instruments and gain first-hand understanding of the most efficient ways of incorporating smart technology.”

CEO of MHA, Andy Ras-Wok added “With decades of private-label specialist manufacturing experience in luxury accessories from jewellery to writing instruments, we are keenly aware of the exciting opportunity IoT and smart wearables present to the international luxury market. This is a great opportunity to enhance our value network internationally and work with specialist partners. We are especially excited to represent the Swiss brand of manufacturing in this collaboration, and are already thinking of further bringing on fellow Swiss partners to the lab.”

CMO of Titan, Suparna Mitra comments “As the global wave of wearable and digital innovation continues to rise, Titan too is proactively creating new lifestyle products and experiences for everyone, especially today’s millennial consumers.  The success of many of our smart watches powered by KaHa IoT technology confirms our investment into smart wearables. Participation in the lab will further our partnership with KaHa as our technology collaborator and strengthen Titan as the leader in watches and accessories.”

Product Manager of Tex Line, Justin Tan added “Through our years of building up expertise and relationships in the apparel and sporting goods industry, we pride ourselves on our constant ability to offer our customers cost-competitiveness and quality. As the highly-competitive sports apparel market moves into smart wearables, we must stay ahead of the curve by re-thinking how we can accelerate product development and cut go-to-market time. COVE R2C IoT Innovation Lab will provide our industry an important advantage.”

Security-as-Code and Security Automation Key in Battling Cyberattacks in the Cloud Era: CLOUDSEC 2018

CLOUDSEC India 2018, hosted by Trend Micro Incorporated attracted more than 650 business and technology leaders this year, making it one of the most important cybersecurity conferences in India. During the event, Trend Micro highlighted security-as-code and security automation as two important trends defining the future of cybersecurity. These two trends are in line with application development in the cloud computing era. By moving security into the early stages of the development lifecycle – or implementing DevSecOps, bugs can be discovered and fixed quickly before they make it to production.

Trend Micro has seen tremendous growth in India this year, especially in its cloud security business, which now contributes to nearly 40% of its overall revenue in the country. The company observes strong uptake of private cloud from the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector; and that of public cloud from manufacturing, e-commerce, IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) sectors, and born-in-the-cloud businesses. New local customer acquisitions from 2017 to 2018 include the State Bank of India (SBI), the Syndicate Bank, Lupin Pharma, Bandhan Bank, PolicyBazaar, and Capillary Technologies, to name a few.

Addressing the crowd, Nilesh Jain, Vice President, Southeast Asia and India, Trend Micro said, “India presents a huge and strategic opportunity for our business, and we will continue to invest in the country. In fact, early next year, we will be launching a Certification Program in IT Security (CPITS) in India. The program aims to equip recent computer science graduates with hands-on experience and skills, helping them kickstart a career in the cybersecurity industry with Trend Micro. We have successfully run CPITS in Egypt and Brazil, and India will be the first Asian testbed for this exciting initiative.”

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this October, Trend Micro has always evolved with the industry and consistently expanded into new growth areas. Today, the company operates three major solution categories: hybrid cloud security, network defense, and endpoint security. At the same time, Trend Micro keeps a close pulse on emerging threats with the help of its threat research teams located across the world. For the next ten years, the company’s mission is to secure the connected world, giving enterprises the agility and freedom for adopting new technologies.

India’s Youngest IAS Officer and Author, Launches his Book, “Once Upon an Exam”

Young bureaucrat and author, Dr.K.Vijayakarthikeyan IAS, released his latest novel “Once Upon an Exam” in an event held at Sapna Book House in Bangalore. He currently serves as the corporation commissioner of Coimbatore and this is his fourth book.

The book,”Once upon an IAS exam” is the first fiction work of the author in English. The book talks about the journey of a young IAS aspirant who is struggling between his failure in the UPSC exam and his love life. The book deals with the confusions and dilemma which every youth would face in their career deciding phase. The humour and simple language makes the book a treat to every book reader.

“This book is for all people and does not target only IAS aspirants. The positive feedback that I have been receiving so far for the book in all online platforms ensures this fact once again. I am happy to have introduced this book to the book reading population of Bengaluru. Expecting positive response and encouragement from this beautiful city” says the young author

The book is available in all leading outlets in Bengaluru and also in online platforms like Thinkink.in, amazon.in, flipkart.com and sapnaonline.com 

Tata Motors ‘Ghar Lao Gold’ Contest Winners Felicitated by Actor Akshay Kumar

Encouraging self-employment and entrepreneurship in India, Tata Motors is excited to announce the winners of the ‘Ghar Lao Gold’ contest – a competition aimed to discover entrepreneurs with the most creative ideas, comprising the Tata Ace Gold. The five winners have each won a brand-new Tata Ace Gold worth Rs. 3.78 lakhs handed over by the superstar and brand ambassador of Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles, Akshay Kumar. The winners and the budding entrepreneurs, with the legendary Tata Ace Gold will look to implement their innovative ideas and turn it into a reality.

Congratulating the winners on their entrepreneurial outlook, UT Ramprasad, Head – Marketing and Brand Communications, Commercial Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors said, “A winner is someone who recognizes his talents, works towards developing them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals. Our Ghar Lao Gold campaign was aimed at fostering entrepreneurship, across the country. Through this campaign, we realized that India has a huge talent pool with unconventional ideas, but because of limited resources not everyone is able to showcase their creativity. We sincerely hope Tata Motors Ace Gold can catalyse their ideas into something brilliant for themselves and the society at large. We would like to congratulate the budding entrepreneurs for their creative ideas and look forward to assisting them in achieving their goals.”

The #GharLaoGoldContest received an overwhelming response with over 25,600 entries in just a span of two months. All the top 19 finalists were mentored by a group of esteemed judges and the top 5 winning business ideas were adjudged as the champions. Extending its sincere thanks to all the applicants, Tata Motors will be assisting each of them as they expand their creative ideas.

Here is a brief introduction of the 5 budding entrepreneurs, who participate and emerged victorious in the Ghar Lao Gold contest. Out of 25,600 participants, this outstanding bunch proved their mettle.

1. Anish Kumar – A well-qualified Mechanical Engineer who belongs to Patna, Bihar. He wants to pursue his dream while serving the society at large. His idea is to start a road repairing business where he aims to repair potholes. According to Anish, these potholes on the road cause numerous accidents every year. He envisions becoming India’s largest ‘quality’ road repairing contractor in the coming years.
2. Rahul Tak – He hails from Ajmer, Rajasthan and is an expert in servicing the heart of electrical transformers, which is called OLTC (On Load and No Load Tap Changer). The OLTC requires servicing and small quantity of transformer oil periodically. Rahul’s business idea is to install a small servicing unit in Tata Ace Gold and service transformers across the length and breadth of his district and expand it further over the years.
3. Roma Roy – The wife of an NTPC employee based in Korba, Chhatisgarh, and this homemaker’s dream is to start a mobile theme-based restaurant. Her business venture will be one of a kind in the remote are where she lives with over 300 other families.
4. Gurinder Singh – A 51 year old automobile spare parts marketing professional from Delhi, who left his job of 20 years to venture on his own. His idea with Tata Ace Gold is to establish his own automobile spare parts logistics business from scratch.
5. Aniketh Roy – A local boy from a small village in Silchar, Assam known as Saidpur. The area has poor infrastructure with almost non-existent roads. His great vision is to help all the farmers in his village by transporting their agricultural produce to the nearest town. They are currently managing this with great difficulty. A lot of produce gets wasted because it is not transported in time. He wishes to expand his venture to the farmers in nearby villages in the future.

On an average, in every 3 minutes, an Ace has created a new business, generated employment and inspired entrepreneurship opportunities, thus transforming lives in the remotest areas in India. Strategically designed to perform all tasks for the last mile movement, the Ace continues to remain the preferred choice of Indian entrepreneurs and small businesses in the country. Through the ‘Ghar Lao Gold’ contest, Tata Motors continues to inspire the new generation of up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

NetRack Hosted SI Partners Meet in Bengaluru; Organized Product Training Program for Partners

NetRack, a leading solution provider for data centers and end-to-end IT server racks, recently organized an exclusive partners meet for all its East India Partners at Windflower Prakruthi Resort, Bengaluru. The partner's meet cum training program was conducted for 2 days which included the visit to NetRack's 'State-of-the-art' production facility.

NetRack's partners associated with various verticals like government BFSI, IT/ITES, Hospitals & Hospitalities made their presence at the meet. The spirit of two days meet was to exchange thoughts, ideas, challenges and opportunities in the market. The sole agenda of the meet was to educate the partners on the latest trends in the datacenter space and how NetRack's products and solutions can make their way addressing the requirements of customers.

Partners grabbed the opportunity to interact directly with Ravi Raj, Brand Head, Director, Sales & Support at NetRack and shared the feedback/ concerns received from the customers. Interacting with the partners, Ravi Raj said, "It feels great to connect with the partners who help NetRack to penetrate into untapped regions in the Indian market. Indeed! This is an eminent opportunity created to catch up with people who drive us to journey of success." Thanking the partners at the event Mr Ravi added "We would like to thank all the SI partners who joined us for the meet. It's an honor to host a partner's meet for business associates. We are looking forward to many more successes in the business together, forever."

The meet also had the fun part organised for the partners at the resort with few games and delicious food.

Apollo Hospitals Selects Medvarsity Online Ltd. for Simulation Training for Resident Doctors

Medvarsity, a pioneer in online medical training has been chosen by Apollo Hospitals to support the online simulation training for resident doctors. The training aims to augment medical education for healthcare professionals through the utilization of state of art technology with the goal of improving overall clinical outcomes. This simulation environment would allow doctors to learn, practice and repeat procedures as often as necessary in order to correct mistakes, fine-tune their skills, and optimize clinical outcomes.

“With passing time we are observing critical challenges in healthcare, a dearth in skilled junior doctors and lack of access to simulation tools for training. With Medvarsity’s simulation training program for resident doctors we are looking at bridging the gap in skills and also use the training program as a capacity builder. This will be a great program for young doctors to acquire good clinical skills that will help them in managing their patients better"  said  Dr. K Hari Prasad, President Apollo Hospitals Division.

India, along with the rest of the world is seeing a scarcity of skilled doctors, according to a study by PwC, there are 1.7 doctors to 1,000 population. The state of Indian healthcare is worrisome on the whole and more so because of number of less skilled professionals. Owing to the situation, there is a great demand for upskilled healthcare practitioners who can understand the dynamics of growing challenges that the industry is facing, on the whole. With the outlook to provide better patient care and career opportunities for the doctors, a strategic approach is necessary. Medvarsity, with its varied range of clinical and non clinical courses have been specially designed by doctors, for the doctors.

“We are proud to support Apollo Hospitals in the key area of upskilling their residents on critical clinical skills. Apollo’s need to have the best talent is critical to their success and our simulation training tools are best suited to bridge the skill gap.” said Gerald Jaideep, CEO, Medvarsity Online Ltd. 

Even with information overload of today’s times, a busy doctor still struggles to be well versed with the latest developments in the industry and that is where Medvarsity aims to bridge the gap.

Mobiliya, a QuEST Global Company, Launches ThirdEye, an AI-Based Vision-Analytics Platform

Mobiliya, a QuEST Global company has announced the launch of an innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven blueprint solution, Mobiliya ThirdEye. Powered by NVIDIA and Microsoft technology, ThirdEye is a robust vision-analytics platform that aims to improve operational intelligence and enhance the decision-making process.

ThirdEye uses a distributed camera infrastructure to capture image feeds that are analyzed by an AI engine to get actionable insights, presented through a unified admin dashboard. Embedded advanced intelligent video analytics enable this solution to derive specific patterns and actionable insights from the video feed. The solution can seamlessly complement and boost the existing infrastructure of CCTV and IP cameras.

The platform utilizes at its core NVIDIA Jetson edge computing and Microsoft’s Azure IoT Hub, Power BI and Azure Machine Learning services. It can be integrated with the machine vision systems and other data sources, especially in manufacturing plants. With the help of AI-driven validation, ThirdEye can then provide manufacturers with a complete view of all of the manufactured products’ specifications and its packaging. NVIDIA GPUs help to process images and videos from the data source to create dashboards, showcasing actionable business intelligence insights. With its self-learning and self-enriching capabilities, the platform helps manufacturers detect and track errors with great accuracy.

In addition to manufacturing plants, the ThirdEye platform can enable cross-industry applications like smart parking, smart lobbies, retail heat maps, smart meeting rooms, and intelligent customer counters. It can be extended to empower not just security personnel, but other functions across industries including retail, healthcare, real estate, transportation, smart cities, education, banking and law enforcement.

“We are thrilled that Mobiliya is powering their ThirdEye vision-analytics platform with Azure services and Power BI,” said Rodney Clark, Vice President, IoT Sales, Microsoft. “Businesses from manufacturing to retail can utilize ThirdEye with their existing “brown field” or with new CCTV and IP cameras to analyze visual data, gain new insights and take real time action to ensure that equipment and facilities are secure and functioning properly.”

Commenting on the successful launch of ThirdEye, Krish Kupathil, Head – Digital and Hi-Tech, QuEST Global said, “Mobiliya, a QuEST global Company, has always been ahead of the curve vis-à-vis leveraging futuristic technologies to develop cutting-edge solutions targeted to fulfill specific client objectives. With the ThirdEye platform, we are enabling customers to maximize the advantages offered by AI and deep learning. The solution offers multiple benefits in a single package – enhanced security, better customer experiences and higher business outcomes while leveraging existing COTS hardware.”

SPARSH Hospital’s Quality Services Now Available in Hassan

SPARSH Hospital recently acquired NDRK Hospital, in Hassan. The hospital in Hassan will now be under the umbrella of SPARSH Hospitals group led by philanthropist Dr Sharan Patil. This hospital is located in BM Road and shall cater to ISU care, Neurosurgery, Cardiology, Orthopaedic, Trauma, ICU, Accident and Emergency services. 

Dr Sharan Patil inaugurated the hospital after a small ceremony. The hospital which is 150 bedded, was taken over by SPARSH Hospitals recently after Dr Patil expressed his interests in reaching out to help the people in Tier 2 cities such as Hassan itself. 

Upon acquiring this hospital, the team at SPARSH hopes to give the people who are in need at Hassan, world-class treatment and facility at affordable rates. The hospital is currently fully functional and running, with the specialists on board. “Here at Hassan, people fail to get proper medical attention and quality services, in order to ease the pain, we have decided to help them by bringing what SPARSH values the most - Quality services at affordable cost.”  expressed Dr Sharan Patil. 

NDRK Hospital, in Hassan, will now be renamed to SPARSH Hospital. 

Aston Martin Mumbai Brings the V8 Vantage Tour Powered by Total Quartz Engine Oil to Bengaluru

Total has associated with Aston Martin Mumbai for the ‘Aston Martin Vantage Roadshow’ in India. This roadshow, featuring the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, is travelling across 8 cities in India over October and November 2018, to showcase the latest model of the brand, energized by the premium TOTAL QUARTZ engine oil range.

Total and Aston Martin share similar values, namely - innovation, expertise, performance and customer service. The partnership has enabled Aston Martin Racing to win multiple titles, along with a prestigious victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2017. TOTAL QUARTZ engine oil has played a decisive role in Aston Martin Racing’s success, improving performance and reliability.

Aston Martin and Total have now partnered to bring the V8 ‘Vantage’ Roadshow, a super luxury lounge tour travelling across 8 cities (Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Surat). The road show, the first of its kind in India, will give citizens a personalized look and feel of the recently launched Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

Loic Dereux, CEO - Lubricants, Total Oil India said, “Total and Aston Martin’s strong global partnership has been built on mutual trust and similar values, leading to proven synergy and success.  The trust between our two brands revolves around three essential pillars- Motorsport Partnership, Research and Development, First Fill and Service Fill in Fuel and Lubricants. Total’s expertise and R&D know-how has been dedicated to produce the finest engine oils perfectly suited to Aston Martin engines. With the Aston Martin ‘Vantage’ Roadshow powered by TOTAL QUARTZ, we bring to India the latest Aston Martin V8 Vantage through an innovative and complete brand experience that will engage and connect closely with a discerning audience of existing and potential users.”

Lalit Choudary, CMD – Aston Martin Mumbai, said, “It has been an absolute delight and a thrilling experience to be representing Aston Martin for over a decade now. At AMM, it is our duty to extend value service and experience to our customers and prospects. With the AM Vantage Tour, we are confident of the drivers testing and experiencing world class luxury in practical conditions.”

Acer Predator Gaming League 2019 India Finals to be Held in Mumbai

Acer the market leader in PC gaming in India brings the 1st ever mega e-Sports tournament Acer Predator League 2019 attracting millions of audience and thousands of gamers playing for hundreds of hours to decide the ultimate DOTA2 and PUGB champions of India. After the huge success of Acer Predator League last year this year it is back again with an even bigger stage and prize pool with the India finale scheduled to be hosted in Mumbai.  Acer Predator League is an Asia Pacific wide competition where multiple countries in the Asia Pacific region are hosting DOTA 2 and PUBG tournament to find their best team to represent their country in the Grand Finale at Bangkok to be held in the month of February 2019.

The mega nationwide eSports tournament will attract thousands of players from India to compete in DOTA 2 and PUBG competition with online knockout rounds to be held in the 1st week of November and across gaming cafes in multiple cities. The winning teams from the qualifiers round will compete in the India finale to get a chance to represent the country at the Asia Grand Finale in Bangkok for DOTA2 and PUBG gaming competition.

With a total prize pool of USD 400000 (INR 2,88,00,000.) for Asia finals this is one of the largest e-Sports tournaments in Asia

Commenting on this, Chandrahas Panigrahi, CMO and Consumer Business Head, Acer India says, “I am excited that Acer will host the very 1st ever mega PUBG PC gaming tournament in India along with DOTA2. India has become a hot bed for e-Sports competition with exponential rise in the popularity of many gaming titles. PC gaming is becoming mainstream and a career option for India’s youth. Professional tournaments like the Acer Predator Gaming League will add to the growth of PC gaming industry and provide a bigger and better platform for gamers to explore and have the best of gaming experience”

“eSports will become a key element of the country’s ecosystem, thereby laying groundwork for further growth of the digital economy” says Andrew Hou, President of Pan Asia Pacific, Acer Inc.

The rising number of eSports players and other related professions has been generating remarkable economic growth in related markets. Moreover, an increase in sales of eSports gears has also outpaced sales of other IT and gaming products.

Acer’s Predator gaming line has earned countless industry awards and accolades for design, innovation and performance and has become the machine of choice for professional gamers. Predator Gaming League reinforce the commitment of Predator brand in supporting the gaming industry in the world and in Asia Pacific region in particular. Acer is the No.1 PC gaming brand in India with the most complete gaming devices line ranging from laptop, desktop, monitor, gaming chairs and gaming headphones, mouse, keyboard, mouse pad and other accessories.

ACT Fibernet to Power the Startups Registered with Startup Cell of Government of Karnataka

ACT Fibernet (Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd.) India’s largest fiber-focused wired broadband ISP (Internet Service Provider)[i] has entered into an agreement with the Government of Karnataka to provide the startups registered with the start-up cell with high speed broadband connectivity.

ACT Fibernet, a home-grown start-up of Bengaluru, which has now grown into India’s largest Fiber broadband ISP, deeply understands the support and enablement startups need during their early growth phase. As a step to boost their growth and to support Karnataka government’s startup initiative, ACT Fibernet will extend its best fiber optic technology to all the registered startups of the government’s startup cell. Further, ACT Fibernet will provide complimentary broadband connectivity to government incubation center and GIGA speed (1000 Mbps) connections at a 60% discounted rate to all the registered startups.

Speaking on the partnership, K. J. George, Minister for IT and BT, Science and Technology, Govt. Of Karnataka added, “Bengaluru is the startup capital of India, and we have been strongly nurturing the startup ecosystem with policies and initiatives to help entrepreneurs and established industries flourish. I am extremely pleased that ACT Fibernet has come forward to extend their support and connect our startups with high speed broadband connectivity. This move will certainly help us build a more conducive environment for our startups to grow.”

“As a Bengaluru based company it is a moment of pride for us to collaborate with the Government of Karnataka. This is a one of a kind opportunity and we will work in conjunction with the government towards building and strengthening the start-up ecosystem in the city. It is our commitment to provide the best internet services to the startups and incubators and help them stay connected seamlessly.” said Mr. Bala Malladi, CEO, ACT Fibernet Ltd.

“When we speak about startups, Bengaluru holds the top position in the country, and to retain this momentum we make continuous effort to introduce policies and programs suiting their requirements. Our partnership with ACT Fibernet is yet another step to empower the startups and help them grow in our state.” said Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, IT, BT and S&T, Govt. of Karnataka.

Tourism Malaysia & MATTA Targets More Tourist Arrivals in 2018 from South India

Tourism Malaysia and Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) recently organised its Sales Mission to Bengaluru to increase the arrivals from South India.

In a show of support to promote Malaysia as a destination of choice, the South chapters of  TAAI, TAFI and SIGTOA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with  MATTA and Tourism Malaysia in Bengaluru today . This event was witnessed by His Excellency. Dato’ Hidayat Abdul Hamid, High Commissioner of Malaysia to India.

India features among the top 6 contributing markets to Malaysia Tourism with a significant number of tourists arriving from South India. The Sales Mission to South India comprises Malaysian delegation of 15 travel agents, 2 hotels, 3 theme parks and Tourism Malaysia officials. Malaysia Airlines, Air Asia and Malindo Air also extended their support by participating in this event and ensuring the flight routes to Malaysia are being offered in the local markets. The sales mission saw an enthusiastic exchange of ideas and information between the Malaysian delegation and the Indian counterparts.

Since the beginning of this year, MATTA has been looking into aggressive overseas promotion through sales missions, trade shows, hosting overseas travel agents and online marketing influencers to create awareness of local destinations in Malaysia and other business opportunities.

At present there are over 230 weekly flights offering more than 41,000 seats from India to Malaysia. The expected launch of flights by Indigo from Bengaluru and Delhi to Kuala Lumpur with 1260 seats per week will add to the connectivity to Malaysia.

As part of its efforts to ease travel to Malaysia, the Malaysian government has introduced  the e-visa facility (https://www.windowmalaysia.my) for Indians which is hassle free with no physical submission of documents and is valid for multiple & single journey to Malaysia for purposes of tourism trips for the maximum of 30 days. The country expects to welcome over a million Indian tourists by 2020.

About MATTA:The largest NGO for travel in Malaysia. Currently, it has a total number of 3,300 members, comprising local tour and travel agents as well as overseas affiliations. MATTA’s vision is to contribute significantly to the growth and development of the travel and tourism industry in Malaysia. It has the mission of ensuring members operate ethically and professionally and meets the needs of travellers by providing effective advocacy in industry and government affairs, training, education and communications initiatives as well as marketing opportunities. 

Canon India Demonstrates Groundbreaking Technology and Innovation at Broadcast India Show 2018

Canon India, one of the leaders in the digital imaging space, unveiled the Cinema EOS C700FF at a leading industry platform Broadcast India Show 2018. Organized at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon, Mumbai from October 25-27, 2018, Broadcast India Show is a must attend event for the Film and Infotainment industry in India.

Inaugurated by Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO, Canon India and Eddie Udagawa - Vice President - Consumer Imaging & Information Centre, the stall exhibited a prolific range of Cinema EOS range, professional video cameras and Cine lenses.

The attraction of the stall was Canon’s new Full Frame Cinema EOS camera C700FF ideal for motion picture, premium TV production and Web series. In the professional video cameras range it was XF 705 which is the newly launched model.

Speaking about Canon’s participation in Broadcast India Show 2018, Kazutada Kobayashi, President and CEO, Canon India Pvt. Ltd. said, “Innovation being an essential pillar for us at Canon India, we have always brought to forefront supreme imaging solutions for our customers. We are delighted to continue our association with the Broadcast India Show, an opportune platform to showcase some of our best technology in the Cinema EOS range and Professional Video cameras range to the customer community and further receiving first hand feedback from them. This will be a step further to fortify our foothold in the flourishing cinema business in the country. Encouraged by the overwhelming response received during the previous years, we are looking forward to engage, connect and collaborate with newer audiences at the show this year.”

Sharing his thoughts, Eddie Udagawa, Vice President, Consumer Imaging and Information Centre, Canon India said, “At Canon India, we have always strived to delight our customers with the latest innovations and marvels in the imaging space. As a premium platform for the broadcasting and cinema industry, Broadcast India Show has always enabled us the opportunity to garner market insights and showcase our technology advancements.”

He further added, “This year we will be showcasing our new Full Frame Cinema EOS Camera C700FF ideal for motion pictures, premium TV production and Web series. The camera’s full frame sensor provides higher resolution, produces footage with shallower depth of field with 35mm sized sensors and is capable of 5.9K RAW recording up to 50/60 frames per second. We would also showcase our new launched Professional Video camera XF 705 with cutting edge XF-HEVC recording format and advanced 12G-SDI interface for 4K UHD HDR production. Through our expansive product portfolio, we endeavour to empower filmmakers to accomplish higher levels of quality and detail to their stories.“

IndiGo to Launch Flights from Bangalore and New Delhi to Kuala Lumpur from November 15

Indian low-cost carrier Go IndiGo in November 2018 is launching service to Malaysia, as the airline this week announced service to Kuala Lumpur. The airline’s A320 aircraft will serve from Bangalore and Delhi.

Bangalore – Kuala Lumpur eff 15NOV18 7 weekly
6E1813 BLR1435 – 2110KUL 320 x2
6E1813 BLR1705 – 2340KUL 320 2

6E1814 KUL1140 – 1320BLR 320 x2
6E1814 KUL1430 – 1610BLR 320 2

Delhi – Kuala Lumpur eff 15NOV18 7 weekly
6E1821 DEL0255 – 1040KUL 320 x2
6E1821 DEL0545 – 1330KUL 320 2

6E1823 KUL0040 – 0330DEL 320 3
6E1822 KUL2205 – 0055+1DEL 320 x2

IndiGo will face stiff competition from AirAsia, Malindo Air and Malaysia Airlines. New Delhi is already connected with 25 weekly flights and Bengaluru by 18 weekly flights. Malaysia Airlines is an FSC but at times the fares are comparable to that of LCCs. AirAsia operates 4x weekly flights to Kuala Lumpur with New Delhi service on an Airbus A330 and 4x Bengaluru flights with an Airbus A320 aircraft. The majority of passengers use Kuala Lumpur as a transit. These airlines have an extensive Asia-Pacific network which passengers access through Kuala Lumpur. IndiGo will have O&D traffic but will it be enough to support daily operations?

William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo said, “We are pleased to announce Kuala Lumpur as our 12th international destination effective November 2018. Malaysia provides a complete package for business travellers, holidaymakers, the meeting and conference segment. We see great potential on the India- Malaysia route due to the extensive cultural, business and tourism links between the two countries.” 

So what is IndiGo trying to do? IndiGo might be trying to use up available bilateral seat allocations on this route to dampen international expansion of AirAsia India on this route when they are ready to go international. It might be doing the same on other routes for the new entrants in Indian Aviation.

Streamcast Partners with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited for Digital Education Platform

Streamcast Group, an international technology company today announced its partnership with BSNL Maharashtra  - India’s state-owned telecommunications company.

Using Streamcast’s proprietary technology, the partnership enables delivery at ultra low bandwidth of a spectrum of high end triple-play digital services via the BSNL network (wired & wireless) to every part of Maharashtra thus, providing digital inclusion for everyone.

In line with Streamcast’s business philosophy of enriching human lives, the first service being launched in this partnership is EDMISSION - Education with a Mission. The philosophy and vision of Edmission is to deliver education and learning for all age-groups to all sections of the society, especially the rural areas. Leveraging Streamcast’s high compute planned data centre investment of over INR 5,500 crore at the recently announced data centre in Banda, Sawantwadi, Edmission will deliver varied learning content in multiple vernacular languages as well as English.

While Edmission will be made available to anyone using a BSNL SIM Card, Streamcast has further mooted the partnership by committing to distribute 500,000 free set top boxes (STBs) across Maharashtra in the launch phase. Powered by the BSNL SIM in it, users/students will be able to access Edmission content at their homes using rich graphics and video as well as interact with educators with no other connectivity requirement other than the SIM card. The first 100,000 STBs will be distributed in the district of Sindhudurg and the process of selecting the homes for the STB will be designed and managed by the Maharashtra Government led by Hon. Minister Kesarkar, the Guardian Minister of Sindhudurg district and his office. As the ambit of the partnership expands to other geographies, the process will be replicated across other districts.

To announce this unique partnership, Udhav Thackeray graced the event as Chief Guest, along with Subhashji Desai, Minister of Industries, Vinodji Tawde, Minister of Education, Deepakji Sawant, Minister of Health, Deepakji Kesarkar, Minister of State for Home (Rural), Planning and Finance and Guardian Minister of Sindhudurg, Bhushanji Gagrani, Principle Secretary to Chief Minister of Maharashtra along with representation from senior members of BSNL and Streamcast including Peeyush Khare, CGM-BSNL, Maharashtra, Nimish Pandya, Chairperson of Streamcast Group and Ashima B Chhalill, Head of Education, Streamcast Group.

The event also saw Uddhavji Thackeray, Chief Guest unveil the name of the Sawantwadi Human Resource Development (HRD) Centre in Sawantwadi as ‘Bal Saheb Thackeray Gyaan Prabodhini’. The Centre marks the region’s first physical infrastructure supported and managed by Streamcast which will serve as a training centre for students to appear for various civil/ skilled exams thus, combining online content with offline facilities. 

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Deepak Kesarkar, Minister of State for Home (rural) Planning, Finance and Guardian minister of Sindhudurg said, “India is a young nation with over 50% of the population being less than 25 years of age. It is important to provide this young populace with quality education and infrastructural facilities which will nurture their vocational skills as well as enhance their employability. With the first STBs being distributed in Sindhudurg, education and entertainment will be available to people in the comfort of their homes. Further, the HRD centre will offer a solid landmark centre for interested students to prepare and train for entrance exams of civil services, banking and insurance. In line with this, I would like to thank Streamcast for taking this initiative as well as investing heavily in technology to open doors for the youth of Sindhudurg.”

Commenting on the launch of Edmission, Ashima B Chhalill, Head for Education said, “At Streamcast, we are committed to delivering high quality digital services to low bandwidth regions to aid under-served populations across the world. With an investment of over INR 35 crores in only the STBS, we aim to reach every BSNL SIM holder in Maharashtra with quality education. We thank the Government of Maharashtra for their continued support and we couldn’t have asked for a better partner than BSNL that shares a common philosophy of serving the nation.

Commenting on the partnership, Peeyush Khare, CGM-BSNL said, ‘Éducation for All’ is a national priority as laid down by the Government to bridge the gap to quality education. With the power of digitization, quality education is not restricted just to the classrooms, but can also be delivered to people at the comfort of their homes. We are delighted to partner with Streamcast Technologies to take education to India’s rural markets backed with state of the art and low-cost Set Top Boxes/technologies.”

Earlier this year, Streamcast had launched its high compute date centre in Sawantwadi, Maharashtra, through its cloud computing business, Streamcloud. Spread across 12 acres of land, Streamcloud’s new Data Centre marked the company’s first data centre in India with an investment of over INR 2200+ crore over the next four-five years.

Jaguar Ultimate XE SV Project 8 Becomes the Latest Jaguar Race Taxi in Nürburgring Nordschleife, Germany

Visitors to the Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany can now experience the thrill of the fastest production four-door car to lap the legendary circuit as the ultimate XE SV Project 8 with Track Pack becomes the latest Jaguar Race Taxi.

Project 8 is the most extreme performance road-legal Jaguar ever, designed, engineered and hand-assembled by Special Vehicle Operations. In November 2017, the 441 kW 5.0 l supercharged V8 sedan beat some of the world’s fastest two-door coupes and supercars to set a record lap time of  7 min 21.23 s.

Thrill-seekers will get a full demonstration of Project 8’s exceptional performance and handling as Jaguar’s professional drivers take them on a lap of ‘The Green Hell’ at speeds in excess of 250 km/h. Passengers will also experience g-forces of more than 1.3 g around the  20.8 km, 73-turn circuit – up to 1.8 g in the banked Karussell corner.

Phil Talboys, Jaguar Land Rover European Engineering Operations Manager, said: “The XE SV Project 8 demonstrated its incredible mix of raw speed and dynamic precision by setting a Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record last year. Now, visitors to this sensational circuit – which played a pivotal role in the development of the ultimate Jaguar XE – will get the chance to experience the full track capability of the world’s fastest four-door sedan.”

The Nürburgring Nordschleife was an essential part of the XE SV Project 8’s development process, with Jaguar’s team of engineers and drivers at the SV Development Centre, located at the circuit, honing the most track-focused car Special Vehicle Operations has ever produced.

The Jaguar XE, with its dynamic design and aluminium-intensive monocoque, forms the perfect foundation for the enhanced performance of Project 8. Taking the already agile and responsive handling of the XE, extensive performance enhancements enable Project 8 to sprint from 0-100 km/h in 3.7 s and reach a top speed of 322 km/h.

With world-class motorsport technology throughout, Project 8 has carbon fibre panels, adjustable aerodynamics, a unique suspension setup with adjustable ride height and camber and is the first road car with F1-style ceramic wheel bearings. It’s also the first Jaguar with a dedicated Track Mode, which activates electronic calibration settings tailored to circuit use.

The two-seat Track Pack-equipped Project 8 Race Taxi joins the 423 kW four-seat XJR575 Race Taxi – the fastest and most powerful XJ in the luxury saloon’s 50-year history.

Jaguar Race Taxi experiences are available until the circuit closes in mid-November, and will be offered throughout the open season in 2019. Book for € 199 per lap online at www.jaguar-experience.de. Gift vouchers are available.

Atos, Bentley Systems Announce Strategic Partnership to Create Digital Twins for Owner-Operators of Industrial and Infrastructure Assets

The Year in Infrastructure 2018 Conference – Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, and Bentley Systems, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, today announced a strategic partnership through which they will offer a complete solution to create and operate Digital Twins on behalf of industry and infrastructure asset owners.

Atos’ global experience and expertise in digital transformation together with Bentley’s infrastructure, engineering, reality modeling and asset performance software portfolio will enable businesses to take advantage of fully-integrated and managed Digital Twins as a cloud-based service.

This new offering will support owner-operators meet their business KPIs through the following features and benefits:

Full immersive visibility of assets – with up-to-date 3D models of assets via drone-enabled scans

Real-time monitoring – to predict asset performance and avoid failures

Performance analysis – to maximize asset availability, increase productivity, ensure optimum performance and ultimately extend life of asset in field

Remote operation of assets – in the case of dangerous or inaccessible assets

Operational training (for immersive VR environments)

Supports decision-making on asset operational strategies

Markus Schaffhauser, Atos Global Business and Platform Solutions CTO, said, “We have been impressed at the capabilities of Bentley’s software and how well it meshes with our expertise in digital transformation, to now deliver innovative services for industrial and infrastructure asset owners. The Atos-Bentley partnership has gotten off to a faststart, and I am convinced that our digital twin services will be of tremendous value to owners.”

CEO of Bentley Systems, Greg Bentley, said, “I believe that our collaboration with Atos can help owner-operators to really jump-start their ‘going digital’ ambitions, enabling and taking advantage of both immersive visualization and analytical visibility. Atos’ vast expertise in digital data integration, along with their global reach, make them the ideal partner for digital twin cloud services.”

Bentley and Atos have previously worked together on several manufacturing client projects, which brought together Atos’ expertise in system integration and data capture and analytics with Bentley’s reality modelling software.

This partnership was initiated through the Atos and Siemens Global Strategic Alliance, which maximizes the combined strength of Siemens’ products and solutions with Atos’ experience and expertise in enabling IT services to support their digital transformation, notably in the field of IoT services, Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity. In 2016, Bentley Systems also entered into a Strategic Alliance with Siemens to enlarge their respective offerings for infrastructure and industry to the benefit of the end-customers. Since that time, Bentley and Siemens have jointly invested in the development of new solutions including for digitalization of discrete and process manufacturing, power transmission and distribution, railway engineering, and power generation.

IIM Bangalore Expands Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women in India

The NSRCEL at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), which focuses on developing entrepreneurship throughout the country, announced today that it has become an academic partner of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women in India and will expand this proven program to reach more women entrepreneurs.

10,000 Women is a global initiative that fosters economic growth by providing women entrepreneurs around the world with a business and management education, mentoring and networking, and access to capital. Founded on the understanding that investing in women entrepreneurs leads to economic growth and stronger communities, 10,000 Women the initiative has already reached more than 10,000 women from 56 countries to date, partnering with more than 30 leading business schools and 100 academic and non-profit partners. Since 2008, over 1,300 women entrepreneurs have graduated from Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women throughout 13 cities in India.

The NSRCEL of IIM Bangalore has a rich history of focusing on solving entrepreneurial challenges, both economical and societal. The institution has offered a range of educational and capacity building programs, incubation services, and mentorship support, both for startups and early stage ventures, including specialised programs for women entrepreneurs. Over the last decade, the NSRCEL has trained over 9,000 women through their diverse entrepreneurship programs.

10,000 Women is a one-of-its-kind program that provides women entrepreneurs with a holistic approach to grow and scale their businesses. The program addresses the day-to-day obstacles that women entrepreneurs face in the course of running a business and imparts effective ways of dealing with them. Participants of the program will work on strategy, finance and accounting, and business development, amongst other topics. Continuous feedback from mentors and professors will help them design efficient and executable business growth plans. Globally, 70 percent of graduates have reported higher revenues and nearly 60 percent have created new jobs.

“10,000 Women is a tremendous opportunity for women who run their own small businesses to dive deeper into their subject knowledge, develop and implement a growth strategy, and build a professional network that will support each entrepreneur on her path to continued growth,” said Professor Suresh Bhagavatula, Chair, NSRCEL, and faculty in the Entrepreneurship area at IIMB. “We are proud to work with Goldman Sachs to further expand this proven programme in India.”

“Today, through this partnership with IIMB, Goldman Sachs is expanding on our commitment to India's economic growth by continuing to invest in the potential of women-owned business,” said Sonjoy Chatterjee, Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs in India. “This initiative will empower female entrepreneurs, who will create jobs and in turn strengthen the foundations of our local communities.”

Today’s NSRCEL Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women program is for current women entrepreneurs of businesses that have been in operation for at least one year with minimum annual revenue of INR 35 lakhs and at least three employees. The program will include approximately 15 days of classroom sessions (spread over three months) at the IIM Bangalore campus, in addition to mentoring support, business growth plan preparation, and post-program alumni activities. The first cohort of the program at IIMB is scheduled to start in January 2019 and end in March 2019.

Interested candidates may access the NSRCEL Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women program website for further details and application forms. https://www.nsrcel.org/10000-women/ 

Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women also offers its full curriculum online through the Coursera platform as an alternative for those entrepreneurs who prefer online education or those that cannot attend a residential program.

Acer Announces Aspire 5s Laptop with the Latest Intel Whiskey Lake Processors

Acer India, one of the largest technology brands in the world, today unveiled the new thin and light laptops- Aspire 5s and Swift 3 14” and 15.6” 2019 edition in India. Featuring narrow bezel display for full cinematic experience and metallic built, the sleek laptops are designed for users who want outstanding portability, solid performance, and a touch of style. With the latest Intel Whiskey Lake processor Aspire 5s delivers next generation performance with great efficiency and style.

“We are thrilled to introduce our new range of thin and light laptops in India. We have been receiving an overwhelming response for our Aspire and Swift series notebooks, and we are now pushing the limits by introducing the notebooks in the Aspire and Swift series that are thinner, lighter and more powerful with true cinematic screens”, Said Chandrahas Panigrahi, CMO and Consumer Business Head, Acer India. “Aspire 5s is one of India’s first ultrathin notebook that features Intel’s Whiskey Lake Processor and offers astonishing performance. While Swift 3’s both 14 inch and 15.6-inch editions aim to offer outstanding performance and all-day battery life to the users”

Aspire 5s– A Workhorse that Stands out From the Crowd

The Aspire 5 line has been updated to include new model with Intel Whiskey Lake Processor, 15.6-inch display surrounded by slimmer bezels, sleek and light aluminum designs that open 180-degrees to lay-flat, and the latest technologies for performance and connectivity.

Ideal for families and users who need a powerful, function-rich notebook for media consumption, the Acer Aspire 5S offers both looks and mobility. Measuring in at 18.8 mm in height and weighing 1.8 kg the Aspire 5s’ svelte and lightweight design features a sturdy brushed-aluminum body that offers a robust feel and beautiful tactile touch. It features the latest Intel Whiskey lake 8th Gen Core i3 and i5 processor, one of the fastest U series Processors. With the Intel Optane memory and NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics, Acer Aspire 5s ensures that complex the task is completed within seconds.

Aspire 5s 15.6” FHD IPS display features ultra-narrow bezels create an immersive cinematic viewing experience. The wide viewing angles make it easy to enjoy streaming video with friends and colleagues. Acer BluelightShield reduces blue-light emissions to protect your eyes, while Acer Color Intelligence technology dynamically adjusts gamma and saturation in real-time for optimum screen-color and brightness. Plus, Acer TrueHarmony technology and optimized Dolby Audio deliver high-quality sound via the dual stereo speakers.

Priced at Rs. 40,999/-, the perfect amalgamation of design and features, Acer Aspire 5s comes with Precision Touchpad which provides smooth navigation when browsing the web and using apps. Customers can make the most of the system’s performance and long battery life even into evening hours with the LED backlit keyboard. Aspire 5s includes ultra-fast 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac wireless technology, providing seamless connectivity.

Swift 3 with 14 inch display - An epitome of style and performance!

The Swift 3 line has been updated with host of new features including a vibrant Full HD 14-inch display with ultra slim bezels, and an all-day battery back-up of 12 hrs* for great mobility and freedom.

The elegant chassis on the Swift 3 weighs only 1.45kg grams and measures only 18.7 mm thin, making it the right device for people on the go. Featuring, Acer Color Intelligence™ technology, the Swift 3 dynamically adjusts gamma and saturation in real-time for optimum screen-color and brightness. Plus, Acer TrueHarmony technology and optimized Dolby Audio deliver high-quality sound via the dual stereo speakers.

The laptop is powered by the latest 8th Gen Intel Core i5 CPUs 8130 U/8250U processors, up to 8GB of DDR4 RAM and up to 256/512GB PCIe SSDs. The configuration lets Swift 3 deliver fluid performance right across applications while also delivering 12 hours of battery life. Supporting Windows Hello through fingerprint readers for fast and secure logins, while Skype for Business certification ensures crisp and lag-free communication and a great Cortana with Voice experience. On the connectivity front, it offers ultra-fast 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac wireless technology, providing seamless connectivity.

Swift 3 with 15.6-inch display – Big screen in small package!

Stepping up the capabilities and design to match more demanding user requirements, the Swift 3 15.6-inch edition has been upgraded with bigger cinematic display, slimmer bezels, Intel Optane Memory and Nvidia graphic card that offer seamless performance and immersive viewing experience.

Designed with utmost finesse and sophistication, Swift 3 features hairline brushed pattern that provides an exquisite, tactile finish accenting the premium feel.

Bringing uncompromised viewing experience and performance, the laptop comes with 15.6-inch full HD display in a 14 inch chassis and weights 1.45 kg making it ultra-light and portable. With Acer Color Intelligence™ technology, the Swift 3 dynamically adjusts gamma and saturation in real-time for optimum screen-color and brightness. Plus, Acer TrueHarmony technology and optimized Dolby Audio deliver high-quality sound via the dual stereo speakers. Powered with 8th Gen Intel® Core i5 CPU (8250U), NVIDIA® GeForce® MX150/MX130x graphics card, the device offers up to 4X faster performance over integrated graphics cards while Intel Optane memory increases responsiveness and load times.

Adding to the user experience, the laptop supports Windows Hello through fingerprint readers for fast and secure logins, while Skype for Business certification ensures crisp and lag-free communication and a great Cortana with Voice experience. It also offers ultra-fast 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac wireless technology, providing seamless connectivity.

Pricing and availability

Aspire 5s will be available from November at a starting price of Rs 40999 while Swift 3 will retail from Rs 64999. They will be available in Acer Exclusive Stores, leading electronic retail stores and multi brand outlets