Worldmark Aerocity Re-Opens its Doors to Renewed Contactless Dining Experience Driven by Innovation

Contactless dining: 

* ‘The Walk’ opens its doors to fine dining with strict protocols for safety and introduction of contactless dining through QR code menus

* Innovation for safety: Keeping in tandem with the times, the requirements for sanitisation and hygiene has led them to develop innovative solutions to ensure a safe environment for all visitors

* Crowd management: The need for crowd management for their commercial spaces led them to venture into practices ahead of time to meet social distancing norms

As Delhi-NCR slowly unlocks itself in phases, Bharti Realty’s Worldmark  Aerocity is leading the commercial sector in innovative dinning-in experience by setting forth examples through its avant-garde solutions to COVID-19 challenges. They are leading the way in hygienic practices of retail food establishments to provide a contemporary, safe and hygienic environment to all diners.

Worldmark Aerocity’s ‘The Walk’, home to some of the top gourmet restaurants, cafes, and bars in Delhi-NCR, is following a strict repository of measures to ensure a comfortable and convenient dining experience for its customer. This is being done while maintaining its upscale dining standards of providing world class food through contactless dining. 

One of the crucial steps of contactless dining being followed by the restaurants is doing away with paper menus. They are instead offering QR codes that diners can scan using their smartphones at their respective tables and view the menu. They are also offering contactless digital payment options for both dining and takeaways. The restaurants are focusing on efficient crowd management through measures like reduced dining capacity, rearrangement of tables and pre-bookings. 

Tackling the challenges of COVID-19 with innovation, ‘The Walk’ has installed contactless kiosks at its entry points that will offer no-touch temperature screening and sanitizer dispersion. To ensure social distancing norms, escalators have been marked in three-step gaps. 

These innovations to the fine-dining experience are being maintained at both standalone restaurants and the food court of the curated food hub. These guidelines are part of a comprehensive SOP by ‘Bharti Care’, the facility management function of Bharti Realty, issued to all functioning establishments to operate responsibly. 

The video link for Worldmark Aerocity demonstrates the preparedness:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDQVi3XgI4t/?igshid=88ydtapub85f

Billionaire Buffett in India during March 2011

Multi-billionaire Warren Buffet will speak at a fund raising campaign in New Delhi next week. He will launch his firm's insurance selling portal and will meet policy holders at an event at the Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi, as per a report on the company's website.

Berkshire India, which will now sell its general insurance policies or products through its berkshireinsurance.com portal. It has invited all policy holders to register for the March 25 event at the Taj.

Buffet is ranked No 3 world's richest by Forbes in 2011 and is expected to attend a ground breaking ceremony in South Korea on March 21 before flying into India.

C-DOT plans rural projects on its 25th anniversary

The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the country's premier telecommunications research and development centre, turned 25 Tuesday.

"In all these years, C-DOT has been in the technology forefront and significantly contributed in the indigenisation of telecom technology, digitilisation, bridging the digital divide between urban and rural, establishing strong telecom manufacturing infrastructure and employment generation," said C-DOT executive director P.V. Acharya.

Added Sam Pitroda, National Knowledge Commission Chairman who founded C-DOT, "C-DOT was established as an independent society to help develop a series of digital switching products to meet Indian requirements. At that time, we had about two million phones for 750 million people."

Maintaining that C-DOT "planted the right seeds" for the an information and communication technology (ICT) revolution a quarter century ago, Pitroda told media, "The spirit of private enterprise helped it grow to a substantial industry."

C-DOT has today realigned efforts and defined its roadmap with a focus on developmental schemes for the 11th five Year Plan period.

The company plans to implement projects of national and strategic importance for rural India through the shared GSM Radio Access Network, which is currently under development and expected to give a definite fillip to business in the hinterland.

In the northeastern region, C-DOT aims to breathe fresh life into the fixed line infrastructure.

C-DOT's focus projects include the Gigabit Optical Passive Network that aims at bringing broadband and next generation network products and services to homes.

"Twenty-five years ago, the system was very resistant to new ideas. C-DOT experiment was seen with a great deal of suspicion and there were many multinational lobbying groups constantly trying to kill the initiative," Pitroda said.

"C-DOT was seen by multinational companies as a direct threat to their business interests in India. It survived due to the political will of the prime minister (the late Rajiv Gandhi) and it got accomplished simply due to the energy of the young."

According to Pitroda, the next big challenge is to benefit from the ICT revolution to improve education, health, agriculture, financial services and governance to bring growth and prosperity to the doorsteps of people at the bottom of the pyramid.

Agencies

11.9 m new Indian subscribers added in June

India's telecom industry continued its robust growth story in June by adding 11.91 million new subscribers to take the total subscription base to 464.82 million, said a government statement.

The number of total subscribers in the country as on June 30, 2008 was 325.78 million.

The wireless (GSM and CDMA) segment added 12 million new subscribers, while the wireline segment witnessed a dip of 134,000 connections, the statement said.

The overall tele-density reached 39.86 percent in June 2009 as compared to 28.33 percent in the like period last year.

Broadband connections reached 6.4 million at the end of May and the total number of licences issued for Internet service providers (ISPs) is 375, the statement added.

Under the Bharat Nirman programme, public telephones were provided to 264 villages in May.

Agencies

IT, ITeS industry growth may fall to 5-year low, says IDC

Indian IT and IT-enabled services industry is expected to grow at 10.8 per cent in 2009, the lowest in the last five years, due to the global economic meltdown, a report said.

But in next four years, it would grow at 13.9 per cent to touch revenue of USD 110 billion, the report by analyst firm IDC India has said.

"In the backdrop of one of the worst ever global financial and economic meltdown, it is estimated that in 2009, the overall India IT/ITeS industry is expected to grow at 10.8 per cent, which is the lowest in the last five years.

"Going forward, the overall IT/ITeS industry is expected to grow at 13.9 per cent (CAGR 2008-2013) to touch over USD 110 billion in 2013," IDC India Country Manager Kapil Dev Singh said in the report.

The total revenue for the Indian IT industry in 2008 stood at over USD 57 billion in 2008.

"The ongoing global slowdown will definitely have its impact on the Indian IT sector. Despite that the industry is still expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.4 per cent by 2013," IDC India Country Manager Kapil Dev Singh said.

The domestic IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) revenue is slated to touch about Rs 2,06,398 crore by 2013 from Rs 99,254 crore in 2008, growing at a CAGR of Rs 15.8 per cent, the study said.

Agencies

$13 Billion by 2013; Can Indian mobile reach this milestone?

The Compound Annual growth rate (CAGR) of the Indian mobile market is projected to grow at 12.5 percent from 2009-2013 and will exceed by $30 billion. According to Gartner, the India mobile subscriber base will cross around 771 million connections by 2013 and will grow at a CAGR of 14.3 percent in the same period from 452 million in 2009. India is also expected to become 2nd largest mobile consumer market after China.

"The Indian mobile industry has now moved out of its hyper growth mode, but it will continue to grow at double-digit rates for next three years as operators focus on rural parts of the country, growth will also be triggered by increased adoption of value-added services, which are relevant to both rural and urban markets," said Madhusudan Gupta, Senior Research Analyst, Gartner.

The mobile market incursion is projected to increase from 38.7 percent in 2009 to 63. 5 percent in the year 2013.

This growth is primarily because of the operators increasing their focus on the rural market, local consumer durable and electronic companies entering the domestic mobile handset segment, and lower handset prices, Gartner said.

Prepaid subscribers continue to be dominating the Indian mobile connection market. They accounted for more than 93 percent of all mobile connections in 2008 and are expected to grow to more than 96 percent of the connection base by 2013, surpassing 741 million connections versus 312 million in 2008.

The postpaid subscriber base will exceed 29 million subscribers by 2013; grow at 2.5 percent from 23 million in 2008.

The churn rate in India is 53.2 percent in 2009, and despite a maturing market, the ratio is expected to increase to 59.6 percent in 2013.

The overall growth of mobile services in India will be significantly contributed by revenue from data services, with a CAGR of 16.8 percent from 2009 to 2013. Prepaid subscribers are expected to adopt data services faster and more than the post-paid segment. The bulk of revenue will continue to come from voice services.

With the increased growth in data services, the percentage of revenue coming from voice will reduce from 89 percent in 2008 to 86 percent in 2013.

Gartner predicts that a significant drop in Average Revenue per User (ARPU), as the bulk of new subscribers will come from rural areas that are dominated by prepaid subscribers.

With the new operators joining the market, the voice tariffs will decline substantially in 2009. Growth will be triggered by increased adoption of value-added services, which are relevant to both rural and urban markets.

Agencies

Has HP retained No 1 position in the Indian PC market?

Hewlett-Packard (HP) improved its market share in the first quarter to continue its lead in the India PC personal computer (PC) space, according to technology research firm IDC.

HP captured 18.2% of the India PC market in terms of unit shipments in the January-March period, an IDC India report said. The PC maker had a 15.6% share in the previous (October-December) quarter. HP has been numero uno in the India PC market consistently every quarter over the past four years. With a market share of 9.8% in overall PC shipments, HCL Infosystems regained the second spot, after losing out to Dell in the October-December quarter. Dell slipped back to the third spot with a share of 9.7% in the first quarter this year, IDC said in a release.

The India PC market witnessed a 7% quarter-on-quarter growth in shipments in Q1 of 2009. A total of 16.79 lakh units of desktops and laptops were shipped during the January-March quarter of 2009.

Desktop PC shipments of 12.13 lakh registered a sequential growth of 9%, while laptop shipments of 4.66 lakh units grew 3% QoQ.

The research firm said the market share, over the next two quarters, would depend on how well PC vendors capitalise on opportunities in the consumer, education and government segments in India.

In Q1 2009, fourth-placed Acer’s market share dipped marginally to 7.3%. Fifth-ranked Lenovo showed a more pronounced drop — its share came down to 4.7% in Q1 2009 from 6.6% in the previous quarter.

“Moving forward, hardware in general, and PC shipments in particular, will continue to remain under pressure. Winners would gain market share and improve profitability through the right price/volume mix and optimal exploitation of supply chain efficiencies,” IDC India country manager Kapil Dev Singh said.

Economictimes

World Bank Allots $1 billion for Indian Infrastructure Projects

The World Bank's lending arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC) has allocated $1 billion (Rs.5000 crore approx.) for India for the coming fiscal ending June 2010. "I think we would remain at the one billion dollar figure more or less for the next one or two years," Vipul Bhagat, South Asia Manager-Infrastructure Advisory, IFC said.

It is the infrastructure projects, which will benefit the most as about 50 percent of the total IFC investment in the country will be in this sector. "Infrastructure is a focus area for IFC especially because the Indian government has told IFC to do more in that sector," he added on the sidelines of a book release function organized by the CII and IFC.

The lending body also plans to invest in agriculture and rural development among others. IFC maintains that the economic slowdown has not impacted its investment plans and it faces no liquidity problem.

Agencies

Will Satyam lay off 8,000 non-IT staff from June?

Satyam Computer is likely to sack most of its non-billable staff of up to 8,000 working in marketing, HR and administration wings,after Tech Mahindra takes charge of the company from June 1.

A Satyam official said there is no doubt that there will be large-scale sacking mostly of the support and non-billable staff (other than hardcore software engineers) once Tech Mahindra (the new owner of the company) directors come on board from June 1.

The surplus staff is about 10,000-12,000 and the 'least painful' ways of sacking is asking the bench, non-billable and support staff to go.

The company spokesperson, when contacted, said that at the moment these are mere speculations.

Sources also said the outsourcer may opt for "virtual pool" sacking method whereby the company would ask some of the staff to take 75 per cent of its salary and take one-year off and look for a job elsewhere with the fragile assurance that they would be recalled, if required.

Tech Mahindra CEO Vineet Nayyar, who will also come on board of Satyam from June after it acquired fraud hit company last month, had said last week that Satyam has about 10,000 surplus staff and "we are looking at the least painful ways to tackle the problem."

Satyam has already called back most of its onsite staff to avoid further costs and most of them may be asked to quit, said the official.

About 3,000 people are on the bench and there is a surplus manpower even in the R&D and engineering units, sources said.

Dwindling revenues are the primary reasons for Tech Mahindra to opt for such a cost-cutting measure, Tech Mahindra official said.

Kiran Karnik, chairman of Government-appointed board of Satyam, said revenues are falling and cost-cutting measures have to be taken up. But he had ruled out lay-offs.

Agencies

DU set to conduct its first online exam

It is not just the Common Admission Test (CAT) that will go online this year. Delhi University (DU) will become one of the first central universities in the country to conduct an online examination next month for its undergraduate science students.

A.K. Bakshi, director of the Institute of Lifelong Learning (ILL) under DU which formulated the online examination paper, said that for the first time students of the B.Sc course will be taking their environmental science paper online.

"It's just a starter. Students of the B.Sc course will take one of their qualifying papers, of environmental science, online. If a success, it should set a trend for more university exams to go the same way," said Bakshi.

A total of 2,500 students from 27 colleges will take the exam, scheduled in the first week of June. The examination will however be held in just three centres and that too in three shifts.

"For logistical and other reasons, the exam will be held in three centres - in Miranda House, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Venkateswara colleges. Since it's for the first time that both students and teachers will be facing this kind of an exam, CDs and pamphlets have been distributed where the entire process is being explained.

"How does one attempt a question, how do you skip a question, re-attempt a question, submit the paper but want to make some changes again - everything is being explained. There will also be a timer which will keep telling the student how much time and how many questions are left. There is also a sample online examination paper uploaded on our website," Bakshi said.

The one-hour exam will have 50 multiple choice type questions of one mark each.

"Like in competitive exams, students sitting adjacent to each other will get a different question paper. In all the three shifts the questions will be jumbled; so will the options, so that there is no chance of cheating. Teachers are quite happy with the initiative and have said that the online exam will save them a lot of time in checking the answers," Bakshi said.

The online exam is a part of DU's larger plan to go the e-learning way. ILL has been working on making the entire teaching process, and now even the assessment process, more tech-savvy for a number of subjects. This, Bakshi said, is an attempt to keep up with the changing times and be in sync with youth.

With videos, animation, simulation, online quizzes and virtual laboratory, the aim now is to make learning more fun in DU. It is expected that by the next academic session, the e-learning material for some courses like chemistry, physics, maths, life sciences and commerce will be uploaded in the ILL portal.

"There is something called blended learning. There are times when a teacher can't explain everything on the blackboard. With this initiative of using animation and visuals, the understanding of a subject will become clearer," Bakshi told the media.

Agencies

Is Yahoo on a hiring spree in India?

Internet major Yahoo is hiring for hundreds of job openings including nearly 150 vacancies in India, even as the company is set to bring down its global workforce by about 675 employees. "We are currently hiring for key positions and will continue to invest in strategically important areas," a Yahoo spokesperson based in the U.S. said.

Last week, while announcing its first quarter results on April 21, Yahoo had said that it would slash five percent of its global workforce of 13,500 employees. While the spokesperson did not elaborate on country-specific hiring plans, the career section of the internet major's website shows that Yahoo is looking for about 150 positions in India alone.

The openings are for its operations in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi, while most of them are for Bangalore. The India openings are for various departments including engineering, customer care, research and product management, among others. Further, the internet major has over 120 job vacancies for different offices in the US, the website shows.

The firm is resorting to job cuts in the wake of slackening advertisement revenues and a 78 percent drop in first quarter profit at $118 million. However, it is not clear whether India operations comprising of about 1,500 employees would be affected by the job cuts. The spokesperson noted that the majority of impacted employees are expected to be notified within the next two weeks.

Last October, Yahoo had announced that it would reduce its headcount by as much as 10 percent. "The goal is to reduce its current annualized cost run rate of approximately $3.9 billion by more than $400 million before the end of 2008," the Internet major had said in October.

Agencies

Will Cisco layoff 6,600 employees?

Is it pinkslips time at Cisco? Predicting a significant drop in revenue for the fourth quarter, a JP Morgan analyst has reported that Cisco Systems Inc "could" soon announce a workforce reduction of 10 percent (this could be equal to about 6,600 employees).

In his 49-page first-quarter 2009 preview of communications equipment and networking companies, analyst, Ehud Gelblum, of JP Morgan wrote, "We expect Cisco to guide fourth fiscal quarter revenue down 17-22%, year over year, as demand continues to deteriorate, in-line with our estimate for a 21 per cent year over year decline," "We believe Cisco could also announce a 10% headcount reduction, which we calculate could save $900M annually," he wrote.

The recent lowering of sales projections by two of Cisco's competitor's Juniper Network and F5 Network has led to a similar speculation about the company.

Cisco spokesman reportedly refused to comment on JP Morgan report directly. However, in a statement he said that on our fiscal second quarter 2009 earnings call in February we discussed a limited restructuring where we could in the near term see a total reduction of between 1500 and 2000 jobs company wide. This does not represent a broad-scale layoff in our workforce.

The spokesman added that this limited restructuring is part of our ongoing, targeted realignment of resources. While Cisco constantly manages its business priorities, resources and overall employee alignment as part of our overall business management process, we are sensitive to the impact these decisions have on employees during this challenging economic environment. We are doing everything possible to minimize the impact on employees affected by the limited restructuring.

Indiatimes

Will Common service centres generate 400,000 jobs in India?

The government's common service centre (CSS) initiative will generate around 400,000 direct employment opportunities and as many as indirect jobs in rural India, a top government official said here on Thursday.

"The scheme was likely to generate over 400,000 direct jobs opportunities as well as indirect employment avenues of a like number in rural India," Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar told reporters after inaugurating a conference on 'Common Service Centres: The Change Agents'.

The CSC is a government-run one-stop shop that offers web-enabled e-governance services in rural areas, including various application forms, certificates, and utility payments such as electricity, telephone and water bills.

"The scheme was structured to promote rural entrepreneurship. By creating appropriate support structures that enable demand-driven services as well as capacity building and training, entrepreneurs can be empowered as change agents for rapid socio-economic change in rural India," he said.

Earlier, while inaugurating the conference, Chandrasekhar said inclusive growth and rural empowerment were the major goals of the CSC initiative.

He added that the government would set up 100,000 CSCs across the country under the public-private partnership model by year-end.

Last month, Communications and IT Minister A. Raja had said that the government would invest Rs.57.42 billion (Rs.5,742 crore) for setting up CSCs.

Agencies

Sanjay Sharma Joins ACME Tele Power As VP

Sanjay Sharma has joined ACME Tele Power Limited as vice president and SBU Head for IT Solutions. In addition, Sharma will also be responsible for the sales and marketing function for the company's IT Solutions business globally.

Prior to this appointment, Sharma was vice president of the IT division at Samsung India.

Talking about his new assignment, Sharma said, "The ACME business is going through an exciting growth phase, where the company is looking at significantly enhancing its presence in India and overseas through Innovative energy solutions. I am happy to be associating with ACME at this time and look forward to an exciting and rewarding experience at ACME."

ACME Tele Power Ltd. (ATPL) provides comprehensive passive infrastructure solutions to wireless telecom players both in India as well as overseas. The company focuses on innovation and R&D. ATPL has developed a range of innovative products that help provide cost-effective, energy-efficient, integrated, passive infrastructure solutions to telecom companies.

Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, managing director, ATPL, said Sharma's appointment will give a fresh impetus and a new direction to the company's IT Solutions business. The company will benefit from his rich experience in India and overseas.

Sharma brings with him over 18 years of experience in the IT industry, of which the last three years were with Samsung and the pervious nine years have been with IBM Global Services. Within IBM he worked on various assignments in the solutions sales and marketing field, for the Indian and Asia-Pacific markets. Prior to his assignment at IBM, he worked with Multi Tech Computers, handling the channel sales function there.

Sharma holds a Bachelor's degree in telecommunications (1989), master of business administration (1991) and is an active member of IEEE and other computer societies. He has undergone professional training at Harvard Business School on strategy, sales and marketing methodologies.

CXOtoday

Obama names Indian American Kundra as infotech czar

US President Barack Obama Thursday named Vivek Kundra, a 34-year-old Indian American, as the federal chief information officer (CIO) at the White House to advance the administration's technology agenda.

"Vivek Kundra will bring a depth of experience in the technology arena and a commitment to lowering the cost of government operations to this position," Obama said.

"I have directed him to work to ensure that we are using the spirit of American innovation and the power of technology to improve performance and lower the cost of government operations," he said.

"As Chief Information Officer (CIO), he will play a key role in making sure our government is running in the most secure, open, and efficient way possible."

A White House announcement noted the CIO directs the policy and strategic planning of federal information technology investments and is responsible for oversight of federal technology spending.

The Federal CIO establishes and oversees enterprise architecture to ensure system interoperability and information sharing and ensure information security and privacy across the federal government.

The CIO will also work closely with the chief technology officer to advance the president's technology agenda, it said.

New Delhi-born Kundra formerly served in Washington DC Mayor Adrian Fenty's cabinet as the chief technology officer (CTO) for the capital city, responsible for technology operations and strategy for 86 agencies.

He has been recognised among the top 25 CTOs in the US and as the 2008 IT Executive of the Year for his pioneering work to drive transparency, engage citizens and lower the cost of government operations.

Kundra is also recognised for his leadership in public safety communications, cyber security and IT portfolio management.

Before Kundra came to the capital, Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine appointed him assistant secretary of commerce and technology, the first dual cabinet role in the state's history.

Kundra's diverse record also includes technology and public policy experience in private industry and academia. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia's Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership and holds an MS in information technology from the University of Maryland.

Agencies

No job cuts in India, says Microsoft

Starting with 1,400 job cuts, software giant Microsoft will slash 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months.The layoff, however, would not be impacting the Indian operations. "It's not going to impact us. No job cuts in India," a Microsoft India spokesperson said in New Delhi.

In light of further deterioration of global economic conditions, extra measures to manage costs are being taken, including the reduction of head-count-related expenses, vendors and contingent staff, facilities, capital expenditures and marketing, the company, which posted a 11 per cent decline in profit for the second quarter, added in the statement.

"Microsoft will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, HR, marketing, sales, finance, legal, and IT over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs today," the company said in a statement.