Indian Roadshows for Dubai Parks and Resorts As It Opens For Public On October 31, 2016

Dubai Parks and Resorts, set to become the region’s largest integrated theme park destination when it opens on October 31st, has successfully concluded its first three-city trade road show in India. The last leg of the event in Mumbai was also personally attended by the Minister of Tourism of the state of Maharashtra, Jaykumar Jitendrasinh Rawal.  Dubai Parks and Resorts organized this road show with the objective of officially introducing the destination and highlighting its distinctive offerings.

The three-day road show targeted the top Indian trade agents in New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai, and focused on asserting Dubai Parks and Resorts’ position in the Indian tourist market as the next ultimate family entertainment destination that is only a three to four-hour flight away. The trade events were successful in educating the industry on the destination’s offer and highlighting what guests can expect to experience in the amazing world of Dubai Parks and Resorts when it opens on October 31st, 2016. Each city witnessed staggering attendance of over 200 travel and trade partners’ keen to understand Dubai Parks and Resorts’ offer for the Indian market.

Vinit Shah, Chief Destination Management Officer of Dubai Parks and Resorts said, “We’re extremely pleased to have introduced the region’s largest integrated entertainment destination to India.” He further added, “With the expertise of hundreds of professionals all over the world, Dubai Parks Resorts will be one of the region’s biggest entertainment destinations. And since India is one of the fastest growing outbound travel markets in the world and with a close proximity to UAE, we strongly believe that it is at forefront of other source markets for us.”

Nevil D’Souza, Head of Sales, Dubai Parks and Resorts said, “It has been an absolute pleasure to have opened up the world of Dubai Parks and Resorts to our potential partners in India. As Indians are keen to explore the world for unique travel experiences, the parks are all set to do exactly that. We look forward to welcoming our guests to the largest multi-themed leisure and entertainment destination in the region”

Dubai Parks and Resorts will feature MOTIONGATE Dubai – a movie based theme park showcasing some of Hollywood’s most beloved characters from DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures Studios and Lionsgate as well as the region’s first LEGOLAND Park and a LEGOLAND Water Park. Committed to bringing together the best of the East and West, Dubai Parks and Resorts will also feature Bollywood Parks Dubai, the first theme park based on the sights and sounds of Bollywood. The entire destination will be connected by Riverland Dubai – a uniquely themed retail and dining destination at the heart of Dubai Parks and Resorts, and guests can stay at the Lapita Hotel, a Polynesian-themed resort catering to families as part of the Autograph Collection of Marriott Hotels.

Job Opportunities to Over 40,000 IT Tech Engineering & Freshers Across the Country?

There is a big challenge  - Out of over 1,50,000 engineering students, who graduated in last year from colleges across India, 80 per cent of them were deemed 'unemployable' by India Inc. How does one ensure that engineering students and fresh engineers are able to showcase their capabilities in getting the job done? Some of them are lucky enough to get into a 'branded' college and get placed from campus… but most are not. TechGig Code Wizards  - India’s biggest recruitment drive for final year Engineering and MCA students is set to change this by providing job opportunities to over 40,000 freshers across the country.

CREDIBLE ASSESSMENT - THE SOLUTION TO THE EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE

The sustainable competitive advantage of any business is its people – their passion, dedication, ability and creativity in applying their knowledge to come up with innovative solutions. With a highly volatile environment, evolving technologies and challenging market conditions, hiring the right people with the correct capabilities is critical. And if companies need more out of a candidate, they need to look for more in a candidate. When it comes to hiring engineering talent today, evaluating his “tech quotient” is a must. Tech Quotient is possibly the largest, tangible and most robust benchmark of measuring the competency level of a candidate as on date and has been used by nearly 90% of the Indian IT Industry to assess the competencies of millions of Techies. 

INTRODUCING TECH QUOTIENT:

"Tech quotient measures the ability of a technology professional in the application of their knowledge in the work place rather than the knowledge itself. It also removes bias of institute, location and education grades," says Nilanjan Roy, Head of Strategy, Times Business Solutions.

Tech Quotient is a uniquely designed algorithm that allows coding competency evaluations across multiple languages. It is a highly credible measure that tests the capability, coding proficiency and knowledge application ability. Tech Quotient has been used by all IT Giants who work in India including Amadeus, Accenture, IBM, Microsoft, HCL, Sapient, Oracle, Intuit, Persistent, Cisco, Infosys, GE Digital, TCS, HP, Cognizant, Intel, Fiserv and Amazon just to name a few.

Tech Quotient forms the backbone of the TechGig.com, India’s largest platform for IT professionals, and allows employers to assess a techie's individual merit and ability to apply his knowledge, irrespective of his work experience, designation, previous employers, degrees, qualifications or past institutions. 

LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD FOR FRESHERS:

Industry recognized Tech Quotient allows TechGig to successfully conduct several types of coding contests, skill tests, hackathons and other tech challenges, including India's Largest Coding Contest – TechGig Code Gladiators, bringing all techies on to a common benchmark. This technology is now being rolled out to assess final year students on campuses around India in the TechGig Code Wizards Campus Hunt.

TechGig.com helps employers identify and hire the best programmers straight from the colleges through this premium-coding contest Code Wizards. Before you think that Code Wizards is just another coding contest, where a bunch of geeks meet to code for pleasure, here’s more information for your consumption. Code Wizards acts as a serious hiring platform for some of the biggest IT players including BirlaSoft, Sapient, Amazon, Infosys and Iris Software. BirlaSoft shortlisted as many as 1,145 candidates from Code Wizards 2015, followed by Sapient (650) and Amazon (515).

THE CODE WIZARDS SOLUTION:

Explaining how Code Wizards acts as a hiring enabler for tech companies, Nilanjan Roy, Head of Strategy at Times Business Solutions, shares, "Code Wizards brings everyone, despite their geographic location or academy, onto an even platform and uses Tech Quotient to give a fair and unbiased judgment of their ability to apply their knowledge in real world situations as a technology professional. Over 25 top IT companies will be using this particular event to screen and shortlist high performance talent, who may have been overlooked if it were not for this all-India level event."

Going to campuses individually involves large investments in terms of time, manpower and money.  To avoid these challenges, many-a-times, companies focus on just a few 'branded' colleges in prime geographies. This definitely involves lesser effort, but takes them away from a bigger talent pool. On the other hand, candidates in remote parts of the country also loose on their chances of getting hired.

Being an online coding contest, the Code Wizards platform reaches out to the programmers in the remotest parts of the country, to ensure that hiring companies can reach out to the deepest regions and get the best talent from across India, irrespective of their geographic proximity to their future employers.

INDUSTRY ACCOLADES:

Companies like Amazon, who have used Code Wizards, think that it is a powerful platform that eases campus-hiring activity. Rajendra Prasad, Talent Acquisition Lead at Amazon, shares his experience of Code Wizards 2015. He says, “We have leveraged Code Wizards in few of our campus hiring activities. Code Wizards has immense database of colleges and students with associated rankings and ratings. This was helpful in prioritizing from a recruiting standpoint. The team from Times was extremely helpful in following up and updating the status to the campuses and students. The entire activity was well managed by them. We would continue our association with Code Wizards.”

Adding to it, Suhail Akhtar, Head of Development at IG Infotech, says, “TechGig.com provides a great platform for online assessment of programming talent. The Pan India reach of the Code Wizards contest helped us in hiring fresh graduates without having to visit individual campuses.”

The latest edition of the coding contest, TechGig’s Code Wizards 2016, is going to see over 25 top IT Companies screen and shortlist students from over 100 Campuses across India. Final year Engineering and MCA students can click here (http://www.techgig.com/codewizards) to get an opportunity to be hired by the biggest IT companies in the country.

Samsung R&D Institute Inaugurates Khronos Bangalore Chapter To Advance Technology Development & Evangelization in India

Samsung RnD Institute, Bangalore (SRIB) recently hosted the inaugural meeting of Khronos Bangalore chapter to bring visibility to India’s efforts and involvement in the standard APIs. The event was organised in collaboration with Khronos Group, a non-profit open global consortium of leading graphics hardware and software industries responsible for creating open standards.

Khronos Group, headquartered in California (USA), delivers royalty free APIs, to facilitate authoring and acceleration of applications in parallel computing, graphics, dynamic media, computer vision and sensor processing on many platforms. The specifications help companies accelerate the delivery of their cutting-edge 3D platforms and applications including conformance tests.

The Khronos Bangalore chapter meeting focused on promoting regular technical deliberation and interactions amongst industries as well as academia working in graphics and computer vision domains. Given the presence of many leading MNCs and Indian companies in graphics, vision and gaming area, the Bangalore chapter is expected to play a crucial role in advanced technology development. The event was attended by 80 delegates from approximately 15 companies (Samsung, AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, TI, etc.) and academia (Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore; International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Bangalore and Hyderabad).

On the inauguration, Dr. Aloknath De, Corporate VP and CTO, Samsung RnD Institute India emphasized, “Samsung is a strong supporter of global standards to enable interoperability and wider eco-system of standards-based products and services, in upcoming revolutionary areas such as Advanced Graphics, Augmented Reality-Virtual Reality (AR-VR), Computer Vision & Machine Learning”. Also, he added, “Chapters such as these would strengthen the technical community through regular meet-ups and further helps Indian researchers to contribute actively in standards related to graphics applications / solutions”.

Key Note Speaker, Dr. P J Narayanan, Director of IIIT-Hyderabad who is a renowned expert in Graphics, Computer Vision and Parallel Computing, highlighted “Formation of such a chapter representing the Khronos global consortium, would surely go a long way in boosting the technical discussions and collaboration amongst the Indian industries and academia. Additionally, Khronos

Bangalore chapter has huge potential to contribute towards many initiatives from the Indian government such as Digital India, Smart Cities and Make-In-India.”

Technical talks on Khronos eco-system and upcoming next generation graphics APIs such as Vulkan delivered jointly by experts from SAMSUNG, AMD, NVIDIA, QUALCOMM; was very well received by the audience.

The kick-off event concluded with a panel discussion on “Way forward for Khronos Bangalore Chapter”, consisting of eminent panellists including Dr. Aloknath De (Samsung), Dr. P.J. Narayanan (IIIT, Hyderabad), Dr. Vijay Natarajan (IISc, Bangalore), Veera Manikandan (TI), and moderated by Prabindh Sundareson (NVIDIA).

The audience expressed keen interest to consider focus on Computer Vision (OpenVX) and facilitate larger involvement from local engineering institutes in the follow-up event which is expected to be organized within next three months. Balaji Holur (Senior VP, Samsung), presented vote of thanks and concluded the event.

Samsung RnD Institute Bangalore in collaboration with local industry and academia shall continue to work towards strengthening the India ecosystem in the domains of 3D Graphics, Computer Vision and Heterogeneous Computing; while bringing a key focus on Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technologies, benefiting from these Khronos Standards.

AcadGild & IL&FS Skills to Train Two Lakh Students in Technology and Business Skills by 2019

Technology education startup AcadGild, has entered into an exclusive, multi-year partnership with ILnFS Skills Development Corporation (ILnFS Skills) to offer technology and business-oriented courses to more than two lakh Indian students by 2019, with the aim of improving the employability of trainees. ILnFS Skills is promoted by ILnFS Education and Technology Services Limited (ILnFS Education), the social infrastructure arm of ILnFS Group, in partnership with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

The partnership will enable ILnFS Skills to expand beyond its current vocational and skill-based training programs, to technologically advanced, professional courses like Android Developer, Big Data & Digital Marketing conducted by AcadGild which will now be offered at more than 100 ILnFS centres across the country.

Vinod Dham, CEO and Co-Founder, AcadGild, said: “Our focus at AcadGild is on addressing the severe shortage of employable professionals in the country. Prime Minister Modi himself has consistently highlighted the importance of skilling the young and growing population in the country in preparation for the transformational changes India and the world needs.

“The skill-gap in the country has reached crisis proportions and our partnership with ILnFS Skills is aimed at addressing this. With our partner’s network, our reach has expanded exponentially enabling even those who do not have access to computers, the opportunity to benefit from the courses we conduct.”

“Skills was fairly new when we first launched the programme in textile sector in 2006. Industry was keen to hire, and young people (18-35 yrs) were looking for jobs but had no employability skills. Since then, we have invested in building the Skills portfolio by way of setting up institutes; what we call as ILnFS Institute of Skills, multi-media content, training of trainers academies, etc and brought in several innovations in the entire skills value chain with employability of the  youth and employment i.e industry requirement being the key focus. This partnership with AcadGild will help us expand our offerings beyond school drop outs to graduates/engineering students and enable us to deliver high-quality technology and business courses conducted by expert mentors to a large number of youth across the country” said RCM Reddy, Managing Director and CEO ILnFS Skills.

Revealing further details on the partnership, Vikalp Jain, President and Co-Founder, AcadGild noted that the courses will be conducted using a hybrid approach wherein students will get access to physical labs and classrooms at of ILnFS Skills’ vocational training centres. AcadGild will deliver live sessions using their state-of-the-art platform. In addition to this, students will also get access to a local mentor at the ILnFS Skills’ centres.

ILnFS Skills core focus areas are addressing the needs of the Industry and offering placement linked, market oriented, skills training programs to youth for a long-term and sustainable impact. ILnFS Skills has impacted 1.5 million youth (6 lac under placement linked skill development programmes and balance under skill upgradation) till date in various sectors in manufacturing, engineering, construction, services, health and IT/ITES.

All AcadGild courses are developed with the aim of increasing the skills and employability of students and working professionals by teaching them hands-on, job ready software programming and business skills. They are delivered online in small batches of 8-10 by expert mentors who are carefully handpicked from leading companies such as Accenture, Infosys, Cognizant, Oracle and BookMyShow.

Noodle.ai Sets Up R&D Centre in Bengaluru to Drive Artificial Intelligence in India

Former co-founders (CEO and COO) of Infosys Consulting announced the launch of Noodle Analytics Private Limited, the Bangalore headquartered subsidiary of Silicon Valley Based Noodle.ai.  The launch was welcomed by Nandan Nilekani, Former Chairman UIDAI, who cut the ribbon at the inauguration ceremony at the company’s headquarters and said, “I congratulate Noodle.ai on their launch in India and wish them much success.”

Noodle.ai is a leading provider of Enterprise Artificial Intelligence solutions.  The venture is funded by TPG, a leading private equity firm, and the founders of the company.

Noodle.ai’s Enterprise AI solutions combine world-class expertise in applied artificial intelligence technologies including machine learning, predictive data analytics, and data science, with human-centered design, business process engineering, and big data.

Speaking on this occasion Stephen Pratt, CEO Noodle.ai, said, “Over the next three to five years, artificial intelligence technologies fueled by big data will be the most significant competitive differentiator in business. We are excited to be a pioneer in Enterprise Artificial Intelligence, offering high value, rapid, and affordable solutions to clients. We have the right team, an optimized business model, and the right partners to create extraordinary value for our clients’ customers and shareholders,”

On the launch of its Bangalore office, Raj Joshi, COO, Noodle.ai said, “We are one of the few start-ups from Silicon Valley to launch operations in India’s start-up capital. There are many synergies between Silicon Valley in the USA and India, as they both encourage and support a high level of entrepreneurial spirit. We are building a high performance team in Bangalore and the US of highly qualified professionals in AI, data science, and machine learning who are capable of delivering on the complex requirements of our clients.”

Noodle.ai plans to hire approximately 500 people in the next 5 years and expects that 70% of their talent will hold Ph.D. and post-graduate qualifications in different disciplines such as data science, mathematics, software engineering, electronic engineering, and data visualization.  

Warren Buffett Owned Mouser Electronics Setsup Customer Centre Cum Back Office in Bengaluru

Warren Buffett-owned Mouser Electronics, a global distributor of semiconductors and electronic components, has opened a customer service and back office support centre in Bengaluru.

A subsidiary of TTI Inc., Mouser is part of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway family of companies, focused on distributing new products and technologies to electronic design engineers and buyers the world over. With sales in India growing at 20 per cent this year and its customer base growing at 45 per cent, Mouser is banking on superior customer support to penetrate the market further. The new centre in MG Road, Bengaluru can house 85 staff members and the company expects to outgrow it within three years.

"We are seeing an impressive gain in unique customers, which makes us a major player in the Indian market," said Mark Burr, SVP of APAC and EMEA businesses at Mouser. "Our sales success in India means that we need to increase the levels of local support we offer to our customers here,"

As a leading distributor of about 600 manufacturers, Mouser has 22 service centres worldwide to meet the semiconductor and electronic component needs of 500,000 customers globally. To strengthen its ties with the local industry, Mouser has joined the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association, the city-based apex body for electronic system design and manufacturing in the country.

“With its unique business proposition and focus on startups and engineering/ research students, we are hopeful that Mouser will remove complexities in procuring electronics components required for research and development, especially by small units,” said IESA President M.N. Vidyashankar on the occasion.   

Nasscom, Akamai & YourStory Bring Out The Future of Internet in India

The National Association of Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM) today launched “The Future of Internet in India” report in partnership with Akamai Technologies, Inc., a global leader in content delivery network (CDN) services. The study was researched and created by YourStory.com, a leading media platform for entrepreneurship, in collaboration with Nasscom and with supporting data from Akamai and other sources. The report, launched by R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM and om Leighton, Co-founder, CEO Akamai Technologies, aims to understand the impact of the Internet on the way we live, learn, work, shop and connect; and focuses on the future trends that will change the landscape of India by 2020.

Speaking at the launch, R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM stated that, “India’s Internet consumption has already exceeded USA to become No. 2 globally. Keeping into consideration the massive impact that the Internet is creating across sectors, it has become the greatest disruptor of our age by changing the way we work, interact socially and live life in general. By 2020, the Internet is expected to penetrate deeper in the hinterlands of the country, helping to create more opportunities for everyone.”

“The rapid growth of the Internet and its expansion into verticals including e-Commerce, Travel and Hospitality, Public Sector, Financial Technology and Media is a clear indication of the state of things to come,” said Chandrashekhar.

 According to the report, India’s Internet user base is the second largest after China. Globally, the number of Internet users is expected to touch 4170 million by 2020. The growth of the Internet has successfully created a strong ecosystem for new businesses to tap into growing markets and create solutions to address their demands.

 “The start-up ecosystem in India, coupled with the government’s initiatives make the Internet accessible to every citizen across the country, is helping India set the stage to enable large numbers of ‘netizens’ to reap the benefits of the Internet. With the rise of digital natives and the increased adoption of smartphones, Internet penetration in India will stretch beyond the large cities, as more services and devices come online. This is also a great opportunity for enterprises to harness the power of the Internet to innovate and scale operations,” said  Sidharth Malik, Vice President and Managing Director, India, Akamai Technologies.

Online shopping will account for two-thirds of the total e-Commerce market, edging out travel

According to the report, the overall e-Commerce market in India was valued $17 billion in FY 2016, and by 2020, India will have an estimated 702 million smart phones in use and mobile phones will emerge as the preferred device for shopping, accounting for 70% of total online shopping. The fashion and lifestyle segment will emerge as the largest e-tailing category with a 35% contribution to e-Commerce GMV by 2020, overtaking the consumer electronics segment which dominates the sales of Indian e-Commerce industry at present.

50% of travel transactions to be online by 2020

Travel across India, for social visits, leisure, shopping and holidays is all set to increase and more people will be booking online, taking advantage of competitive pricing offered by online travel agents (OTAs) and aggregators. An increasing amount of user-generated content online (views on social media, reviews on websites, etc.) is driving aspirational travel, tipping the scales in favour of trips that were once only contemplated, never undertaken.

Media and OTT –– All moving online, one app at a time

The availability of affordable smartphones and tablets has encouraged the second screen phenomenon. With the rapid adoption of smartphones and next generation networks, content consumption patterns and consumer engagement channels are rapidly evolving. Even in its nascent phase, the video-on-demand (VOD) market is highly competitive in India.

Financial technology –– Disrupting the way India pays online

Fintech is disrupting financial services and is likely to have far more widespread impact on society and the Indian economy, both directly and indirectly. The fintech software market within this was pegged at $1.2 billion (13-15%[2]). The remaining 87% focus on services, primarily in payments (60% of the market, including ATM/Point of Sale [PoS]) and core banking services. Overall, according to the report, India’s fintech market is expected to grow 1.7x between 2015 and 2020. While cash-on-delivery may remain the preferred mode of payment for newer users, keep in mind that use of mobile banking and e-wallets is surging.

In conclusion – The future is bright but there is a greater need to collaborate

In times to come, while mobile will be a key access device, larger devices will continue to be important in areas like education and business. Multiple stakeholders will need to work in tandem to bring the next generation of Internet users (rural based, mobile centric, local language focused) online in India. Further, with digital connectivity, the risk of cyber-crimes also increases. With multitudes of people using e-Commerce and transacting online, there is a huge need for technologies that can prevent data theft. India is witnessing a huge demand for security professionals (technologists and analysts, alike). In line with these growing demands, security has become one of the key focus areas for NASSCOM Sector Skills Council, working towards creating the right cybersecurity skill sets for Indian IT professionals.