North East has Potential to Emerge as Largest Oil Palm Cultivator in the Country

Summary

* OPDPA, continues to request government to introduce structural and policy changes to fully leverage the potential of the crop for the benefit of farmers, employment generation, and reduced dependence on imports and economy at large 

* Region has the capacity to produce 1 billion dollars equivalent of Crude Oil Palm imports 

OPDPA (Oil Palm Developers And Processors Association), the Nodal Agency for Oil Palm Cultivation in India lauds the message by the PM Mr. Modi for recognising the need and importance of being self-reliant in edible oil, and asking Farmers and State Governments of North East to pursue Oil Palm cultivation. His message clearly underpins the benefits of Oil Palm cultivation to the overall Atmanirbhar Bharat agenda as well as its potential to help with the growth story of the region. 

The PM has recommended the State Governments of North East region to set up oil palm missions in their respective States to promote cultivation of the Oil Palm. The setting up of these missions will help boost the ecosystem as well increase focus for the adoption of the crop. Oil Palm cultivation in North East Regions can tremendously boost the economy of the region leading to large scale development and progress of the region. 

Commenting on the progressive step taken by the Government, Mr. Sanjay Goenka, President of OPDPA said, “The expanse of Oil Palm cultivation in the country is very negligible today as compared to the potential the crop possesses. We have seen the transformation this crop has brought about in the lives of farmer community in Andhra Pradesh and we hope to emulate the same in the Northeastern States as well. A strong and robust long term policy mechanism needs to be introduced to give this crop the required push across India. Given the Honorable Prime Minister’s Atmanirbharta vision, India can truly achieve its goal of self-sufficiency in Edible Oils by pushing for development in the Oil Palm Plantation sector 

In North East, the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have tremendous scope for undertaking and increasing area under Oil Palm. The Agro-Climatic conditions of the region are extremely suitable for Oil Palm cultivation and therefore, the region has the potential to cover over 2,00,000 Acres. Equivalent to 1 billion dollars of imports can be prevented. 

Members of the OPDPA, Including 3F Oil Palm, have already set up base and are working closely with the state governments of NE to create awareness on the benefits of the crop. 3F Oil Palm, a pioneer in Oil Palm cultivation in the country, currently operates in Arunachal Pradesh and has already covered over 5000acres of Area under Oil Palm in the Lower Debang Valley District of Arunachal Pradesh. Plans are in the pipeline to set up a state of the art Processing facility with a captive power plant.   

Oil Palm crop is a highly remunerative crop that has the potential to provide the highest return on investment per acre compared to other commercial crops. Farmers in Andhra Pradesh are a living testimony to the far-reaching benefits of this crop for their livelihoods and future. 

India is heavily dependent on imported edible oils, With nearly 15 million tonnes (or nearly 68 per cent) of edible oils getting imported to meet the country’s annual requirement of about 22 million tonnes. Of the total 15 million tonnes of import, about 9 million tonnes (or nearly 60 percent) is palm oils. 

“The  industry is in need of several reforms to maintain its viability and attract further investments in various states of India. OPDPA has been aggressively pursuing the agenda with the Government to bring in structural policy changes which will greatly propel the industry to new growth levels. With the policy changes proposed by us, we can truly achieve our Hon. PMs vision of Atmanirbharta in Edible Oils”, Mr. Sanjay Goenka added further. 

Some of the key asks by the association are: 

Stable pricing mechanism to be put in place for protecting the Indian Oil Palm farmer from fluctuations in price of the produce and continue to motivate him to grow the crop. A fixed MSP mechanism as suggested by the draft CACP report of 2018, will go a long way in this regard.  

A special package for the northeast will quickly help the country in bringing large areas under oil palm plantation (Including making available unutilized government land to Oil Palm companies for captive Oil Palm plantation). 

About OPDPA: 

The Oil Palm Developers and Processors Association (OPDPA) is a consortium of companies that include 3F Oil Palm Pvt. Ltd., Godrej Agrovet Ltd. Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd. etc, established to work towards the growth of the Oil Palm Industry. Despite a challenging policy and regulatory environment, over the last 2 decades the industry has grown from a ‘0’ hectares in oil palm then to a respectable 200,000 hectares across several states including the North East. The industry has a huge potential to help India bridge the country’s edible oil deficit, generate several thousand jobs and help in nation building. 

Indian Apps Making a Clear Win Post Ban of Chinese Apps

This is the demonetisation moment for many Indian companies, with Prime Minister addressing to be ‘Atmanirbhar ‘ it has opened several opportunities for many young entrepreneurs, product specialists to enter the blooming ‘Vocal for Local’ market. Ban of 59 Chinese apps has given push and opportunities to many ‘Made in India’ companies. Many users of the Chinese apps have been looking for a good alternatives to start creating content again. If you are also looking for Indian alternatives, here is all you need.

1.      Mitron: Mitron a short video-making app platform Made in India. The app allows users to reimagine digital entertain and engagement which is designed for people to showcase their innovative videos online with the theme of light humour. You can create, edit and share your videos as well as browse through a library of top videos across the globe. Just over a day after the Government of India announced a ban on several Chinese apps, popular short-form social video app Mitron reported that its daily traffic jumped up by more than 11 times. Mitron has crossed 21 million downloads, Mitron app has been one of the most downloaded apps in India during the last two months with 40million video views per hour. Nearly 1 Million new videos created per day on the platform

2.      Trell: Popularly known as Video Pinterest for Bharat, Trell is the go-to platform for users to share their experiences, recommendations, and reviews across various categories including health and fitness, beauty and skincare, travel, movie reviews, cooking, home-décor and much more. The lifestyle vlogging platform allows users to create 3-5-minute videos in their native languages along with a ‘shop’ feature that lets them purchase the products featured in the vlogs. Additionally, the platform also allows users to earn rewards, goodies and vacations through its interface. Trell records a whopping 12+ million new downloads since the Chinese app ban. Trending #1 in Free Lifestyle Apps, the platform has received 500K original content uploads in a single day with 220K New content creators on board. With over 40 million downloads, 20 million monthly active users the lifestyle community commerce app witnesses a 25x surge in last 1 year

3.      Rooter:In Sports, Rooter is a very unique product and has built a strong moat for its business with fans and community-driven content. India’s only and biggest User Generated Content platform for Sports and Gaming. Rooter’s unique product positioning is in Live Content Technology that allows tools like Sports commentary, Live Quizzes, Mobile Game streaming etc. Rooter offers a personalized sports feed consisting of videos, images, polls etc & Scorecards in 10 Indian languages covering Cricket, Football, and multiple other sports. Rooter has witnessed 8x growth in daily users since the Chinese apps ban.

4.      Khabri: Khabri is a podcast application with more than a million downloads, is turning out to be a great platform for creators in Hindi-speaking markets across India. With around 40,000 influencers already on the platform, the company has got over 5,000 new influences onboard in the last two days. "Influencers can join 'Earn With Khabri' programme through Khabri Studio App and make their channel on which they can start creating content and publish it on Khabri App. There is an opportunity to earn from day one through 'Gigs' in addition to regular monthly earning basis content consumption"

5.      Sharechat: A social media startup, Sharechat is an Indian initiative to share daily WhatsApp messages, status across 15 Indian languages. What started out as a sharing only platform developed into enabling users to generate content to share posters, images, audios, GIFs and hashtags.

Esper Announces Free Pricing Tier to Support Android IoT Innovation

Esper announced they will provide free access to their Android DevOps tools for innovators and entrepreneurs worldwide. The startup hopes to create a healthier global ecosystem of Android innovation and lasting impact in healthcare, education, and other industries. The open-source Android platform is at the forefront of IoT innovation, and nearly unlimited potential for socially responsible innovation in the future.

“Smart, connected Android devices can create a brighter future for everyone,” says Esper Co- Founder and CEO, Yadhu Gopalan. “We believe that removing barriers to Android IoT innovation can result in technology for the greater good, like student tablets that equalize education access and remote healthcare monitoring devices that improve quality of life for patients with rare conditions.”

Esper is a Madrona Ventures-backed startup for Android DevOps with rapidly growing global customer adoption among major brands, startups, and nonprofits across industries. The firm’s core product is advanced device and app management tools for single-purpose Android devices of any form factor, including kiosks, mobile point-of-sale (mPoS), and non-traditional IoT hardware. Esper is free for fleets of 100 or fewer devices, and priced very affordably for larger fleets.

“We are excited to announce this Freemium model, especially for our customer base in India. Nearly 97% of consumers in India use Android devices. Given the current circumstances more and more businesses are adopting a mobile first approach and Android is the preferred platform, given its cost effectiveness. This makes India a huge market for us and also presents a requirement for effective device and app management in the Android dedicated device segment. Esper’s product connects a secure connection between the cloud and Android IoT devices. Our ultimate goal is to have one million devices on Esper’s platform that improve quality-of-life for people worldwide.” says Shiv Sundar, Co-Founder and COO of Esper.

Sundar will be available to answer questions about socially responsible Android mobility during an upcoming open “AMA” session- or, Ask Me Anything -  at 11 am IST on 9 July, 2020 via video conference. Details are available on the Esper website.

Social responsibility is woven into Esper’s cultural fabric, and a value that influences every decision from new partnerships to hiring. In recent months, Esper has formed fundraising and technology support partnerships with non-profit groups across India, including HungerBox and iTeach Schools.

“By providing free or affordable infrastructure for Android IoT innovation, Esper is able to help other organizations dedicate resources to solving challenging problems instead of fleet operating costs,” says Sundar. “We believe removing barriers to innovation is a socially responsible business, and ideally, contributes to a more diverse ecosystem of global transformation.” 

About Esper

Esper is a cloud platform that automates application deployment and management for Android devices. Using Esper, enterprises can configure and monitor Android devices for various use cases, keep them secure to help their business function seamlessly. Esper also specializes in streamlining the process for building, deploying, and managing apps on devices for POS, restaurants, kiosks, logistics, and transportation at scale.

Esper operates out of Bengaluru and Seattle and specializes in meeting the requirements of markets in US, Canada, India, and SE Asia.

Coders Turn COVID-19 Fighters at the World’s Largest Coding Contest TechGig Code Gladiators 2020

Code Gladiators

* TechGig Code Gladiators has 15,617+ registrations at two hackathons focussed on limiting COVID-19 pandemic impact

* Guinness book record holder event, Code Gladiators is hosting its seventh edition this year with more than 2lakh+ registrations 

* Code Gladiators 2020 is hosting five hackathons in total, all focussed on new-age technologies like Machine Learning, RPA, Cloud 

Will a computer programme ease the COVID-19 crisis? Going by the heaps of ideas suggested at TechGig Code Gladiators 2020, the answer could very well be - a ‘yes’. 

With the world gripped in the COVID-19 crisis for more than 100 days now, it’s the right time for the coders to join hands with the frontline health staff and pharma researchers to keep the indomitable Coronavirus at bay. 

TechGig Code Gladiators 2020 has recorded more than 15,617+ registrations in two hackathons focussed on finding tech-based solutions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. They are IBM- 2020 Call for Code Global Challenge and Microsoft HackOnAzure. Microsoft HackOnAzure is solely focussed on finding COVID-19 solutions, while IBM- 2020 Call for Code Global Challenge has two tracks – COVID-19 & Climate Change. The other hackathons at Code Gladiators 2020 include UiPath RPA Hackathon, Automated Multi-Label Classification by Times Internet and the Open Coding Round where the participants can submit codes in any of the 50 programming languages offered.

Participation is free at https://www.techgig.com/codegladiators 

Code Gladiators - the Guinness world record holder programming event - is hosting its seventh edition this year. Code Gladiators 2020 edition kicked off on March 23, 2020, and has recorded 2,35,375+ registrations till now. This edition is particularly interesting because the COVID-19 lockdown has forced most professionals to work from home, giving them more time to participate in this globally acclaimed hackathon.  

TechGig surveyed to understand the participants’ experience at the present hackathon, where more than 68% coders affirmed that they could concentrate well on the hackathons owing to the lockdown. About 62% of participants also said that they were excited about the event’s upcoming online mega grand finale since this is the first time that the event will conclude with a virtual finale. 

 

Elaborating on the Code Gladiators 2020 hackathons, Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “Every year TechGig Code Gladiators resolves to find solutions to the real-world business problems posed by the participating IT companies. This year, we found an opportunity amid the despair. Presently when most countries are battling the COVID-19 outbreak, Code Gladiators presents a unique opportunity to coders to find a tech-based solution to limit the virus impact. The other hackathons at the contest are equally interesting where coders are challenged to solve complex business problems using a trending technology such as RPA (Robotic Process Automation).”

Citing some of the solutions as ‘very promising’, Sanjay Goyal added that TechGig’s team and the entire IT industry is keenly waiting for some of these solutions to take shape. The first round of registrations at Code Gladiators 2020 is presently on and will conclude on June 22, 2020.

Oracle won't divest Sun's hardware business, assures Ellison

Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison said he won't sell off Sun Microsystems Inc's hardware business, dispelling speculation that he only wanted the company for its software units.

Ellison shook up Silicon Valley last month by sealing a more than $7 billion deal to buy Sun, the world's No 4 maker of server computers and also the developer of Java and Solaris software. Oracle unexpectedly swooped in after Sun's talks with International Business Machines Corp broke apart.

"We are definitely not going to exit the hardware business," Ellison said in an email interview with Reuters. "If a company designs both hardware and software, it can build much better systems than if they only design the software. That's why Apple's iPhone is so much better than Microsoft phones."

His comments fly in the face of the belief of some analysts that Oracle, the world's largest database software maker, may divest Sun's server business and retain just its software assets, such as Java and Solaris.

Oracle's steadily rising profit margins have impressed Wall Street in recent years, and analysts say it is a risky move for it to buy Sun, which has lost $2 billion in the first three quarters of its current fiscal year.

Ellison declined to respond to a question on what he would do if efforts to turn around Sun's computer server business run into trouble. Sun's losses have piled up after losing market share to IBM as well as Hewlett-Packard Co.

His comments may reassure businesses that were hesitant to buy Sun hardware due to uncertainty over its future, said Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT Research.

"There has been some speculation that Oracle is going to auction off Sun by bits and pieces to the highest bidder," King said. "You end up with customers, many of whom own millions or tens of millions of dollars of Sun hardware, looking for another vendor to deal with."

INVESTING IN SPARC CHIPS

Ellison said he plans to boost investment in Sun's SPARC microprocessors, which serve as the brains in its line of high-end Unix computers. The biggest buyers of these servers are large corporations and government agencies.

He believes that by jointly developing Oracle's existing arsenal of software with Sun's computers and SPARC chips, they can build machines designed for specific purposes that work better than ones pulled together from separate components.

Oracle has sought to do this in the past through partnerships with hardware makers, including HP.

"Once we own Sun, we'll be able to plan and synchronize new features from silicon to software, just like IBM and the other big system suppliers," Ellison said in the interview.

Oracle plans to work with Japan's Fujitsu Ltd, which helps Sun design its SPARC microprocessors, to add new features that will improve the performance of Oracle's database software when used on Sun's servers. That will make Sun hardware more competitive versus rival products from IBM than it is today, the CEO added.

The acquisition makes Oracle the world's fourth-largest maker of servers, and puts the software maker into the No. 2 slot in the high end of the server market, which was worth about $17 billion last year.

STORAGE

Ellison also said he intends to hold on to Sun's data storage business and its tape backup unit, which compete with EMC Corp and IBM.

"Sun was very successful for a very long time selling computer systems based on the SPARC chip and the Solaris operating system," he said. "Now, with the added power of integrated Oracle software, we think they can be again."

Sun rose to prominence in the 1990s but never fully recovered from the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s, when demand for its high-end servers cratered.

Laura DiDio, an analyst with ITIC, said Oracle may be able to help Sun recapture the cache it once claimed as one of the world's most-respected technology companies.

"Sun has three decades and billions of dollars in investment in superlative hardware. They have some brilliant engineers," she said. "But Sun's marketing has not matched its technology. Larry Ellison is brilliant at marketing."

Agencies