IESA Likely to Set Up Fab Facility in Chandigarh: IESA Chairman Aggarwal

India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) said it is working hard to strengthen the electronics manufacturing capability of India by expanding the Chandigarh-based fab facility owned by government of India.

The association has already submitted a memorandum in this regard to the government, IESA Chairman Ashwini K Aggarwal said.

"Semi-Conductor Laboratory, located in Mohali and under the Department of Space, can help the country to enhance its chip manufacturing capability. IESA had proposed the expansion of the government owned foundry in 2012," he told DH on the sidelines of the two-day IoTNext 2017 summit, organised by IESA in association with The Indus Entrepreneurs, here.

Aggarwal said the Chandigrah facility's capability is confined to certain areas. "We want the government to make some framework policy so that its capacity expansion is expedited on war-footing and it will help India to meet its hardware requirement in the electronics and semiconductor area," he said.

Manufacturing
IESA is also planning to come up with a common manufacturing facility to help startups and other companies in their go to market strategy. "We have already acquired eight acre land in Noida for this project which will be funded by World Bank and Central government," he said.

The association chairman also said the detailed project report (DPR) for the facility has been prepared and the work is underway. "IESA believes that the facility will help in coming up with a comprehensive hardware ecosystem," Aggarwal added.

The event showcased a 100% growth in the 2nd edition of the Start-up IoT Directory, launched with IoTForum. The Directory includes 900 start-ups working in the field of Internet of Things (IoT) across the nation. It has been compiled with support from Nasscom, IoT CoE, IIT Mumbai, SINE, IKP EDEN, Revxx, IoTBLR,T-Hub, Forge and Excubator.

The Directory includes 900 start-ups, working in the field of Internet of Things (IoT) across the nation. It has been compiled with support from Nasscom, IoT CoE, IIT Mumbai, SINE, IKP EDEN, Revxx, IoTBLR,T-Hub, Forge and Excubator.

He also pointed out that the start-up ecosystem in India has already reached great heights and with the support of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and analytics the growth in this space has been exponential. "Last year, we had about 500 start-ups listed in our directory and now the number has reached to 1000 start-ups in the IoT field, in just one year," he said.

Fino Payments Bank Ties up with Mother Dairy and Gokul Dairy Sector to Digitize Payments in India

In line with the Government’s push for digital payments, Fino Payments Bank is focusing its efforts towards digitizing payments for rural masses, starting with those associated with the dairy sector. The newly launched payments bank announced that it has tied up with Mother Dairy and Gokul Dairy to digitize payments of milk pourers.

As the largest milk producing nation with over 160 million tonnes of output annually, India has over 15 million milk producers associated with more than 150,000 village dairy cooperatives. The milk producers or pourers, a key component of Fino’s target customer base, largely get paid in cash at the milk collection centres (MCC) where they deposit milk.

Stating digitizing payments for dairy sector as a step towards banking for all, Rishi Gupta, MD & CEO, Fino Payments Bank said, “As the torchbearers of White Revolution, the hard-working milk pourer segment across the country deserves to get the benefits of digital banking. While the segment plays a vital role in the nation’s growth story, it also needs to be financially secure. With this thought, we have focused on the dairy sector to enable digital payments and going forward we will explore other rural, agro-based and allied sectors that need digitized payments and banking services.”

To facilitate digital payments for milk pourers of Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board, Fino Payments Bank will open accounts and provide instant RuPay debit cards. The same will be done for milk pourers affiliated to Maharashtra-based Gokul dairy.

Post account opening, the payment due to milk pourers will be directly credited into their accounts. They can withdraw money from the MCCs or from any ATM using RuPay debit card. Further, customers can use Fino’s mobile banking app BPay to make digital payments and do other banking transactions.

“Through our simple and convenient banking model, we would encourage our customers to save money and make payments through bank accounts. As a digital bank, our branches and banking points deploy Aadhaar-based authentication and verification to facilitate secure, safe and paperless banking transactions. Customers also have the option to use BPay, our mobile banking app,” added Gupta.

With each dairy having thousands of MCCs, Fino will add these centres to its banking network thereby increasing its reach and providing enhanced customer convenience. This is bound to make life easier for milk pourers. Contrast this to the earlier situation where people had to travel quite a distance to the nearest bank to withdraw money at extra cost and loss of income.

Fino Payments Bank started operations in July 2017 with 410 branches and 25000 access points across 14 states.

PayPal Unveils Global Indian Single Account for Domestic and Cross Border Transactions

Global technology platform and digital payments leader PayPal Holdings, Inc has announced the launch of its domestic operations in India. At launch, Indian consumers can use PayPal to shop online at some of India’s most popular businesses. Merchants offering PayPal will be able to process both local and global payments through PayPal, getting access to PayPal’s 218 million customers around the world and in India through a single integration. 

PayPal has been offering cross-border payments in India for close to a decade enabling SMEs and freelancers to leverage the global opportunity. PayPal brings to India two decades of digital payments experience from across 200 markets and a scalable two-sided platform and network which facilitates transactions in a secure manner. PayPal offers a compelling set of services designed to help consumers shop online with confidence and merchants to differentiate themselves in today’s increasingly digital world. Features including One Touch, Buyer and Seller Protection, Refunded Return and a 180-days dispute resolution window are just some of the benefits available at launch, setting the stage for a differentiated payments experience.

Rohan Mahadevan, CEO PayPal Private Limited & SVP, General Manager, APAC at PayPal said, “Today, is a landmark day for us at PayPal as we launch our domestic service in a market which has all the ingredients to become a true digital economy. Over two decades we have focused on products, services and strategic partnerships with a singular focus of becoming a champion for our customers, helping millions of people around the world participate in the digital economy. India’s digital payments journey is on a high growth trajectory and we are proud to be a part of it. We are excited about our prospects in a market that is highly inspirational and aspirational.”

Anupam Pahuja, Country Manager and Managing Director, PayPal India said: “Developing economies are strongly driven by aspirations and no opportunity is bigger for us than India. We will be targeting the Global Indian and have partnered with merchants catering to this segment giving them a truly global seamless payments experience. India is transitioning away from our biggest competitor – cash – and our digital platform and technology has immense scope to enable this at scale. For us, the marathon has just begun.”

With the launch of domestic services, PayPal has expanded its commitment to India. In order to service the local Indian customer, PayPal has set up a customer service centre in India with multi-lingual support capabilities and on ground sales team to drive customer engagement and education.

A key differentiator for PayPal lies in its two-decade track record of making payments secure online. Now with 218 million active accounts in more than 200 markets, PayPal connects a global network of buyers and sellers on it’s open payments platform. The company’s global reach and scale enable PayPal to have powerful insights into the online and mobile requirements of digital consumers and businesses around the globe and an advantage in leveraging data to keep its customers safer and more secure.

The Indian government’s recent push towards digital payments has also led PayPal to partner with Government and state-owned banks on number of initiatives including digital financial literacy programme and eTourist Visa (eTV).

AMD India Unveils Ryzen PRO Processors for Enterprise Workloads

Continuing the momentum of the global enthusiasm generated by the broad adoption of enterprise solutions featuring AMD Ryzen PRO desktop processors, AMD showcased its new product line-up in New Delhi today. The Ryzen PRO processors bring reliability, security, and performance to address the demands of today’s enterprise workloads. These commercially-focused new desktop solutions are currently available in India from the world’s largest commercial PC suppliers - Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo.

“There is a growing demand for high performance, secure commercial PC’s from government and private sector enterprises in India as they undertake their digital transformation journeys,” said Matthew Zielinski, Corporate Vice President, World Wide MNC Sales, AMD. “We are best positioned to meet this requirement with the Ryzen PRO powered systems. The processor has built-in security to protect organization data and unmatched performance to handle intensive workloads in data rich set-ups. It’s also system ready as businesses move to Windows 10 in the coming months.”  

Vinay Sinha, Director, Enterprise Business, Asia Pacific & Japan said, “India is AMD’s leading market in APAC. We have received strong support from our OEM partners and System Integrators to make available exciting designs that offer high performance productivity PC’s. We are also investing heavily to educate our channel partners so that they can take our value proposition to IT Pros who want to build future ready digital enterprises.” 

Availability

The world's largest suppliers of commercial client desktops have endorsed Ryzen PRO based PC’s and made them available in India. “Acer is proud to partner with AMD for the launch of their new Ryzen PRO commercial CPUs in India. Adding to the strong Acer line-up of AMD powered PCs, we are happy to introduce the Acer Veriton M200 with the latest Ryzen PRO processors in both tower and small form factor systems. We are excited to continue to grow the Acer/AMD business in India with AMD’s game changing Ryzen PRO CPUs,” said Sudhir Goel, Head of Commercial Business Group, Acer India.

“OptiPlex 5055, comes from a family of the world’s most secure and manageable desktop PCs. Ryzen PRO processors in OptiPlex 5055 makes for a winning combination for ITDMs to consider for their organizations,” said Indrajit Belgundi, Director & GM, Dell Client Solutions Group.

“With AMD Ryzen PRO processors, our customers will be able to run demanding applications, including commercial VR seamlessly and take full advantage of high-end performance on HP devices,” said Sumeer Chandra, MD, HP Inc. India. “In addition, the ability to natively run security applications within the processor allows us to provide robust security features that work hand-in-hand with HP security software. Knowing we can provide a strong front against security threats gives our customers peace-of-mind and is part of the many aspects they’ve come to expect from HP,” said Sumeer Chandra, MD, HP Inc. India.

 “The customer experience is paramount to Lenovo and with AMD and we aim to develop and provide the most highly reliable, manageable, and secure products in the market. Joining the current ThinkPad A series powered by 7th Gen AMD PRO processors we are proud to expand our enterprise-class commercial portfolio to include the game changing AMD Ryzen PRO processors in our ThinkCentre M715 desktops. This addition helps us to further support our enterprise customers and their ever-evolving business requirements,” said Subraneel Bose, Head Products, Commercial Division, Lenovo India.

Performance

The Ryzen PRO desktop processor is the first-ever 8-core, 16-thread CPU for commercial-grade PCs. Delivering breakthrough responsiveness for the most demanding enterprise-class applications and multi-tasking workflows, the 'Zen' core in every Ryzen PRO processor provides up to 52 percent improvement in compute capability over the previous generation, and the Ryzen 7 PRO 1700 offers up to 62 percent more multi-threaded performance than select competing solutions.

Security

Targeted for enterprise and public sector implementations, Ryzen PRO processors offer state-of-the-art silicon-level security, providing hardware-based cryptographic and security technologies to help protect against an ever-growing number of threats. Security standards like secure boot, fTPM (firmware Trust Platform Module), AES, and Windows 10 Enterprise security features are fully supported across the entire Ryzen PRO processor family.

Dependability

Built upon exceptional AMD product dependability and sourced from wafers with the highest yields, Ryzen PRO processors provide commercial-grade quality and reliability to help ensure platform longevity for future-ready computing. Industry-leading, open-standard DASH manageability allows for CPU-agnostic administration and helps ensure businesses avoid getting locked into proprietary solutions.

PayPal Unveils Global Indian Single Account for Domestic and Cross Border Transactions

Global technology platform and digital payments leader PayPal Holdings, Inc has announced the launch of its domestic operations in India. At launch, Indian consumers can use PayPal to shop online at some of India’s most popular businesses. Merchants offering PayPal will be able to process both local and global payments through PayPal, getting access to PayPal’s 218 million customers around the world and in India through a single integration. 

PayPal has been offering cross-border payments in India for close to a decade enabling SMEs and freelancers to leverage the global opportunity. PayPal brings to India two decades of digital payments experience from across 200 markets and a scalable two-sided platform and network which facilitates transactions in a secure manner. PayPal offers a compelling set of services designed to help consumers shop online with confidence and merchants to differentiate themselves in today’s increasingly digital world. Features including One Touch, Buyer and Seller Protection, Refunded Return and a 180-days dispute resolution window are just some of the benefits available at launch, setting the stage for a differentiated payments experience.

Rohan Mahadevan, CEO PayPal Private Limited & SVP, General Manager, APAC at PayPal said, “Today, is a landmark day for us at PayPal as we launch our domestic service in a market which has all the ingredients to become a true digital economy. Over two decades we have focused on products, services and strategic partnerships with a singular focus of becoming a champion for our customers, helping millions of people around the world participate in the digital economy. India’s digital payments journey is on a high growth trajectory and we are proud to be a part of it. We are excited about our prospects in a market that is highly inspirational and aspirational.”

Anupam Pahuja, Country Manager and Managing Director, PayPal India said: “Developing economies are strongly driven by aspirations and no opportunity is bigger for us than India. We will be targeting the Global Indian and have partnered with merchants catering to this segment giving them a truly global seamless payments experience. India is transitioning away from our biggest competitor – cash – and our digital platform and technology has immense scope to enable this at scale. For us, the marathon has just begun.”

With the launch of domestic services, PayPal has expanded its commitment to India. In order to service the local Indian customer, PayPal has set up a customer service centre in India with multi-lingual support capabilities and on ground sales team to drive customer engagement and education.

A key differentiator for PayPal lies in its two-decade track record of making payments secure online. Now with 218 million active accounts in more than 200 markets, PayPal connects a global network of buyers and sellers on it’s open payments platform. The company’s global reach and scale enable PayPal to have powerful insights into the online and mobile requirements of digital consumers and businesses around the globe and an advantage in leveraging data to keep its customers safer and more secure.

The Indian government’s recent push towards digital payments has also led PayPal to partner with Government and state-owned banks on number of initiatives including digital financial literacy programme and eTourist Visa (eTV).

Ola, Microsoft to Jointly Build Connected Platform for Carmakers

Home-grown cab aggregator Ola is partnering with global technology giant Microsoft to build a new connected vehicle platform for car manufacturers worldwide.

As part of this strategic partnership, Ola on Tuesday announced that Microsoft will be a preferred cloud provider and will use Microsoft Azure to power Ola Play, the company's existing connected car platform. This will transform driver and passenger experiences with vehicle diagnostics, improved in-car productivity, advanced navigation, predictive maintenance of vehicles and more. Both companies will collaborate to take this platform to car manufacturers globally, to integrate with vehicle systems, the company said in a statement.

At the heart of this partnership is Ola Play, a connected car platform for ridesharing, that will leverage Microsoft AI and IoT to enhance driver experiences with telematics and navigation guidance; passenger experiences with cloud-based infotainment and productivity; and provide auto manufacturers with custom digital experiences for their customers.

Ola Play customers will be able to use productivity tools such as Office 365 and Skype for Business, as well as voice-assisted controls built using Microsoft Cognitive Services and Bot framework, in-car during their rides. The advanced telematics platform will transform the car into a high-performing, intelligent vehicle, capable of assessing fuel efficiency, engine performance, and driver performance. It will also enable smarter navigation and predict breakdowns, enhancing safety and security while creating new business models and opportunities.

"Today's car is quickly becoming the ultimate computing device and together with Ola, we're focused on providing more intelligent, connected and productive experiences to our customers," said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. "The combination of Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and our AI platform with Ola Play will deliver new customer experiences and business opportunities across the automotive ecosystem."

The platform is designed to continually collect, analyse, and learn from high volumes of data and user behaviour. This will allow for customised offerings to shape the nature of services and business models, such as usage-based insurance, amongst others. Microsoft and Ola also plan to build superior safety features and advanced driver assistance services, as well.

Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CEO of Ola said, "Globally, the auto industry is experiencing a seismic shift as the definition of automobiles is increasingly changing from gas-powered vehicles to technology-packed, connected devices. With Ola Play, we have already set the tone for connected vehicles in India; together with Microsoft, we can make the new platform available to a larger, global audience and unlock futuristic experiences for customers worldwide."

Launched in late 2016, Ola Play, in a short span of time has transformed the in-car experience for millions of Indians. With a range of connected experiences that the customers can seamlessly control through their smartphones as well as a tablet, Ola Play has made commutes more productive and enjoyable. With advanced telematics, productivity tools and intelligent cloud integrations as part of this partnership, Ola and Microsoft are together building the future of connected vehicles.

Astrum Unveils Smart Security Solutions: Smart Lock with Bluetooth, Priced for Rs 6690

Can safety and security get any better? The answer is here. Astrum, one of the leading ‘new technology’ brand known for its innovation and intelligent solutions announces the launch of its “Smart Security Solutions” category with ‘AL150 – Smart Security Bluetooth Lock’put control in the palm of your hand, so you can protect what matters most in your life.

Forget the age-old Keys or the combos for good – with the Bluetooth AL 150 Lock, your phone is now your smart key. AL 150 sports sturdy and heavy look and does exactly what its needed to do! It is perfect for indoor and outdoor purposes as it is crafted all round from top grade alloy zinc material giving it its tough and resilient looks. 

The Smart Security Lock has its own 128-bit enterprise level hacker proof encryption which leaves no room for fear of losing your valuables. Simply one touch pairing button to quickly pair to your gadgets which enables full security control of your homes and offices. With long lasting battery the smart lock comes with 2 CR2032 batteries i.e. 2 x 225mah battery making it convenient to use with upto 1 year life span.

Speaking on the launch of Smart Lock, Manoj Kumar Pansari, Director – Astrum says, “Astrum aims to bring intelligent technological solutions with the touch of innovation. The Smart Lock is the master of all the Locks that suits every door. With such creative ideas and “smart” technology, the future is here”

Smart Security Lock AL 150 is the ‘go to lock’ system in a world where everything is easy and electronic giving us the opportunity to enjoy technology at its best. The app can be downloaded from Google Play store/App Store. The product is available with leading retail stores across India.