In an announcement to the media, Jain (Deemed-to-be University) and Aptech Ltd. announced a strategic association to offer dual certification, wherein the students will be joining Jain (Deemed-to-be University)’s degree offerings as well as Arena Animation, Aptech Learning’s skill development certification programs. With this, the program aspirants will complete a University degree qualification, and acquire industry-relevant skills, which will enable them in obtaining lucrative employment. Aptech Ltd. will use its cutting edge competency evaluation application Creosouls to measure Arena students’ skills.
The competencies taught will be in ‘industry-ready’ sectors of employment such as:
· VFx, Graphic Design and Multimedia
· Digital Technologies
· Security and Forensic
· Networking and Infrastructure Management
· Game Design and Development
· Airport Terminal, Hospitality Management, Retail, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)
Commenting on the association, Anil Pant, CEO & MD, Aptech Ltd. said, “Indian Education and its stakeholders shall forever be enriched with associations that add value to students to create a richer environment for their professional exposure, subject understanding and opportunity to add value to their employment. I believe the coming together of two large players such as Aptech Ltd.-often referred to as the ‘enrolment to employment’ company and Jain (Deemed-to-be University), a devoted institution par excellence, will be very beneficial.”
Dr. Chenraj Roychand, President, Jain (Deemed-to-be University) said, “I appreciate Aptech Learning's dynamism, clarity, and their adaptability to changing times. Together we see that we need the skill, innovation and vocation in today’s world. I think that we, being at the forefront of providing education, has the responsibility to contribute to the future of the country and its development by impacting young minds. At Jain (Deemed-to-be University), we synergize to develop students’ ability, and convert them into ideas that the country needs.”
HARMAN International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. focused on connected technologies for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, today announced the launch of JBL GO 2 in India. JBL GO 2 is a portable, compact Bluetooth speaker with next-generation audio quality and a new, bolder design. JBL GO 2 is the second generation Bluetooth speaker of JBL GO, considered as one of the most popular portable Bluetooth speakers in this category. The new JBL GO 2 is priced at INR 2,999 and is available at various retail stores and chains, and at 350 key Samsung brand stores across the country.
“We are extremely delighted to introduce the all new JBL GO 2 - this ultra-portable, compact, palm-sized, brightly colored, waterproof speaker will impress music lovers with its richer and clearer audio output. JBL GO, the earlier version of GO 2, was an instant hit amongst Indian music lovers. Its portability and audio quality has made it to be the perfect companion for any music lover on-the-GO. With the IPX7 technology, we want Indian JBL GO fans to upgrade to the new waterproof version JBL GO2 and enjoy the upcoming monsoons with rejuvenating music,” said Sumit Chauhan, Vice President - Lifestyle Audio, HARMAN India.
JBL GO 2 comes in a thrilling combination of JBL Signature sound and waterproof IPX7 design coupled with increased audio quality and performance. Users can easily submerge it while playing, or carry it to the poolside, beach, the porch or patio. They can also wirelessly stream music via Bluetooth or with a wired connection from any smartphone or tablet. The built-in rechargeable Li-ion battery supports up to 5 hours of playtime. For consumers looking for more versatility in a portable speaker, the GO 2 also offers crystal-clear phone call experience with its built-in echo and noise cancelling speakerphone.
Crafted in a modern, block shaped design with soft, curved edges; this speaker comes with 12 eye-catching colors options. Of-the-moment shades like Ash Gray, Icecube Cyan, Seafoam Mint, Lemonade Yellow, Sunkissed Cinnamon, Pearl Champagne, Midnight Black, Deep Sea Blue, Moss Green, Coral Orange, Ruby Red, Slate Navy give a pop of color to your sound and instantly raises your style profile to all-new levels.
Brigade REAP, the first accelerator in Asia to focus on Real Estate, has now successfully on-boarded Cohort 4. With over 80 start-ups having applied to the program, 11 Start-ups were shortlisted out of which 5 were inducted into the program after a rigorous selection process.
The Start-ups inducted into the program, will under-go thorough mentorship and training for a period of 4-5 months after which they will be handed over to the industry for consumption of their products or services.
Speaking on this occasion, Nirupa Shankar, Director, Brigade REAP said, “we are excited with the innovation and technology that emerging startups are bringing to the table. At REAP, we focus on mentoring these start-ups to make them industry ready so that it is easy for the industry to adopt their technology, be it a product or service. Our goal is to improve the efficiency of the real estate industry through technology.”
The startups inducted into the Program are:
Aerologiks - an automated, intelligent & stable drone services and data solutions company, operating to provide valuable insights about ongoing construction projects.
Clairco- a B2B SaaS company that does air quality monitoring and management for indoor spaces on a real-time basis.
R2 Promise- a technology company working towards changing the waste disposal process from Waste Management to Resource management.
Renewate- a tech tool which is first of its kind in India that focuses on renovations, refurbishment and remodeling of all residential renovation needs.
Smarter Dharma – a company that focuses on sustainable building design that provides holistic and technical solutions to help builders adopt holistic sustainability.
Brigade REAP is focused on technology startups whose end product / service is applicable to Real Estate be it Residential Commercial or Hospitality projects. The sectors range from IoT, Nano Technology, Cleantech and Renewable energy, Logistics and Visual Computing. The program is headed by John Kuruvilla, Chief Mentor for the program and Apul Nahata, Mentor-in-Residence.
Milkbasket, India’s first & largest daily grocery delivery service, has just announced the successful closure of $7 million in Series A funding led by Kalaari Capital with participation from Singapore based BeeNext and its existing investors, Unilever Ventures and Blume Ventures.
Started in early 2015, Milkbasket revolutionized the online grocery space by introducing an early morning, contactless, micro-delivery model akin to the prevalent newspaper and milk supply chain models in India. Starting with milk and breakfast products, Milkbasket today fulfills the entire grocery needs of a household with a reach of over 40,000 households in 180+ communities in Gurgaon.
Commenting on the investment, Vani Kola, MD at Kalaari Capital said, “Strong founding team, focus towards data-based decision making, operational rigor, and incessant focus on customer delight, backed by a large market opportunity in the grocery space culminated into us leading a $7M Series A round into Milkbasket.”
The company is going to use these funds for further innovations in supply chain efficiencies and last mile logistics, creation of unique customer propositions and delivering exceptional customer experience, and expand into other geographies while penetrating deeper in existing communities.
Teruhide Sato, founder of BeeNext, said, "Our investment in Milkbasket provides us with meaningful participation in one of the fastest growing e-grocery markets globally. We are excited to partner with one of India's best grocery delivery platforms and believe that this investment will accelerate their ability to build scale in India."
“Three unique attributes of Milkbasket that impressed us were; a great founder with a solid team and great execution; a user friendly service suitable for Indian local habits; and highly frequent consumer touch points. Milkbasket instigates a sense of community among users, and there is no doubt that they will become the daily habit of India in a few years.”
Founded by INSEAD alumnus Anant Goel with his co-founders Ashish Goel, Anurag Jain and Yatish Talvadia, Milkbasket operates with a full stack in-house supply chain model, achieved positive unit economics within first six months of inception and have introduced industry’s first flexi ordering till midnight, delivery by 7:00 am, no minimum order and free delivery model.
Speaking on the funding, Anant Goel, CEO at Milkbasket said, “We are very excited to have Kalaari and BeeNext join us in the journey to crack the online grocery space in a sustainable manner. This funding will help us to continue investing in the 3Ts that we hold close to our hearts - talent, technology and territory, and in achieving our vision to create the most convenient grocery fulfilment model for today’s busy households.”
Juniper Networks, an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks, today announced that Fujitsu Limited has deployed Juniper’s cloud management platform AppFormix in Japan, as a key part of ensuring the operational efficiency of the new region of its widely adopted enterprise cloud platform Cloud Service K5.
Open, agile and legacy-compatible, Fujitsu’s K5 is the world’s largest open-source based platform and has seen strong adoption globally by organizations looking to drive digital business transformation, across the public, private and hybrid cloud.
However, the open-source software used previously for the management of the K5 platform did not provide Fujitsu with the automated real-time management and data visualization features it needed, which resulted in manual processes and increased OPEX.
As Fujitsu prepared for the launch of the new region of K5 which scales several times the previous version, they required a cloud operations management solution that could address these operational requirements, while also bringing significantly increased capabilities.
To combat these ongoing challenges, Juniper was selected to carefully develop and deploy AppFormix for Fujitsu’s K5 platform to address these growing operational needs, offering simplified cloud operations management and performance optimization capabilities through big data analysis and machine learning.
In addition to significantly reducing operational burden and complexity, AppFormix’s unique user-friendly GUI dashboard displaying real-time reporting and high level compatability with OpenStack has also allowed Fujitsu to better plan resource consumption and capacity expansion, which is crucial in light of potential continued service expansions of the K5 platform in the future.
Fujitsu deploys AppFormix for the Cloud Service K5 Platform
“AppFormix is a crucial component of our K5 platform, especially for the understanding of real-time cloud usage status through its intelligent dashboards and seamless integration with billing systems. We are excited to further develop our partnership with Juniper Networks, as we anticipate greater scope of applications for AppFormix going forward, particularly for advanced operations utilizing AI,” said Masahiro Ohta, SVP and Head of Cloud Service Business Unit, Fujitsu Limited.
He adds that AppFormix is delighted to be an integral part of Fujitsu’s K5 Cloud Service platform, an exciting partnership in our challenge against complexity. We look forward to the continued advancement of AppFormix solutions in support of Fujitsu’s operational needs going forward, especially for the potential global deployment of K5 as a continuation of our long-term, firm partnership.
Honeywell, American multinational conglomerate company is already playing a defining role in the growth of India’s 100 smart cities in India. In a interaction with the media, Akshay Bellare, VP and GM, Honeywell Technology Solutions, India along with Prasant Viswanathan, Director - Engineering, HTS-HBT, India showcased various technologies including the installation of closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs), emergency response solutions, automatic number plate reading system (ANPR), and intelligent traffic management technologies at work in 65 cities and towns across the country. Besides setting up the command and control platform to remotely monitor the progress.
Bellare says we are strategic partners with state governments and local authorities to implement Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled citywide security and surveillance systems, Our products and solutions are at work in millions of homes and buildings worldwide, giving customers the ability to capture more and better data faster and across the wireless landscape, improve productivity, safety, and security, drive better decision-making, and reduce costs.
Our sensors capture data, analyze it, and turn it into information that enables better situational awareness for decision makers, aiding their smart city and surveillance goals, mentioned Viswanathan adding that we are enabling cities like Ujjain, Bhubaneswar, and Aurangabad and many more with state of the art surveillance solutions to help build the foundation of a better life. We want to reach out to the farthest corners of the country, equipping them with smart solutions, and help them improve the overall quality of life.
Since the last few years, the team from Honeywell are implementing large-scale city Surveillance Projects in various smart cities and towns. Here is a look at some of the ongoing and completed projects.
Bhubaneswar Smart City Initiative: In February 2015, installed 114 closed-circuit television cameras at 28 strategic locations in the city to help boost security, prevent crime, and control traffic in Bhubaneswar.
Aurangabad City Surveillance Project: In the same year, Honeywell India installed 30 fixed cameras, 10 pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras, 180-degree directional cameras, a CCTV control room, and monitoring center across 30 locations in Aurangabad.
Madhya Pradesh 11-City Wide Surveillance: Later, Honeywell India secured its second largest integrated city surveillance project, spanning 823 locations across 11 cities in the state of Madhya Pradesh that entailed installation of 4,200 cameras, including ANPR cameras, and monitoring via a command and control room, supported by software and servers across 80 locations, and surveillance systems on public call response (PCR) vans.
Ujjain Simhastha Mahakumbh: At the Simhastha Mahakumbh in Ujjain, a gathering of 70 million devotees, Honeywell helped the Madhya Pradesh police department in city surveillance and emergency response technology. 667 video cameras were installed across 134 locations in the city to help the authorities in traffic and crowd management at checking bays, ghats, temples, and ashrams.
Rajkot Smart City and Surveillance Initiative: Recently, Honeywell deployed more than 450 integrated closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) and Wi-Fi at 13 key public places, supported by software and servers across 107 strategic locations in the city. The surveillance system was formally launched by Vijaybhai R. Rupani, Chief Minister, Gujarat, in the presence of Banchhanidhi Pani (IAS), Municipal Commissioner, Rajkot, and Anupam Singh Gehlot, Police Commissioner, Rajkot.
New solutions planned for smart cities shortly
Honeywell continues to invest in advanced technologies such as integrated digital video manager which integrates closed-circuit televisions, automatic number plate recognition cameras, red-light violation detection systems and advanced video analytics, and a unified command and control center, which integrates the emergency response and traffic management systems, and is uniquely positioned to support India’s 100 smart cities mission.
Honeywell Command and Control Platform
Honeywell Command and Control Platform (CCP) optimizes the safety and security management of a city through Incident Management, Analytics, Geographic Information System, and Enterprise Dashboards. With rapid access to information, enhanced contextual awareness, and ease of use, CCP helps regulate city surveillance operations. It is a flexible system open for future growth and expansions.
When critical incidents occur, it’s crucial to make the right decisions in a predictable and traceable way. CCP guides users through emergency situations, to help reduce risk and promote continuity of city-wide surveillance systems. It also helps to manage, contain, and reduce risk by employing advanced user-experience design and collaborative workflows across multiple devices.
Cities are growing and getting enabled with connected devices – making it difficult to keep a pulse on the workings of the integrated safety and security systems. Interactive dashboards give insight into the efficiency and energy performance of city surveillance systems in real-time. Customizable, user-friendly dashboards give intelligent visualizations of operating parameters, historical trends, and performance data.
The Board of Directors of Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL) will add 100 hundred electric buses to the streets of Gurugram soon. By virtue of their hub and spoke modus operandi, electric buses seem to be the only immediately implementable electric vehicle technology in India.
Despite the fact that they cost almost 3-4 times more than a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) buses, their impact on the environment has urged the government to issue a large number of incentive schemes to encourage manufacturers and local governors to make and sell buses cheaply to government authorities in India. Thus far, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Manali, Kolkata and Bangalore have gone the electric transport way under the government’s FAME (Faster Adoption of Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles). As a part of the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan, FAME has a corpus of about US$ 123 million (Rs 800 crore) to invest in electric mobility based initiatives. This fund was allocated for the duration of two years. However, an extension is being requested. DHI is considering all proposals on priority.
Gurugram is the latest to get on the electric bus brigade adding 100 buses to the streets with deliberation, setting a target of another 300 by mid-next year, bringing the grand total to 400 buses in Gurugram by mid-2019. Gurugram ’s booming cyber city is home to thousands of young-urban professionals in need of reliable and comfortable last mile connectivity, a task that these 100 electric buses will set out to complete. Of the first lot of buses to be added for 100 electric AC buses and 100 non-AC low floor buses have been made in the requisite. GMCBL intend to bring the total to 400 Electric buses that will ply the streets of Gurugram by next year. And while the tenders have not been awarded yet, expect the usual list of contenders the likes of, BYD-Goldstone, Tata, Mahindra and Ashok Leyland to compete for the manufacture and these Electric buses.
The Government of India unveiled National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 to accelerate the growth of the electric and hybrid components of the automotive sector. It focuses primarily on fast-tracking the manufacturing and introduction of EVs in India. The Department of Heavy Industries (DHI) had launched FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles) in April 2015 to promote manufacturing of electric and hybrid vehicles in India. Both schemes in conjecture should, in theory, see us meet our target of 30% Electrification by 2030.
