Increasing Capabilities of QuEST Global for Converging Mechanical, Electronics and Engineering Tech: Zinnov

QuEST Global, the pioneering engineering services provider, has announced that it has retained leadership position in the “Zinnov Zones 2018 - Engineering and R&D Services Rating”, for the fourth consecutive year. The report was published by Zinnov after evaluating more than 35 global engineering service providers in major industry segments. The key parameters for the study included product development capabilities, innovation, client relationships, eco system linkages, scalability etc.

According to Zinnov Zones 2018 report for ER&D Services, QuEST has been positioned in the leadership zone in automotive, transportation, medical devices, energy & utilities and aerospace verticals. The company has gained presence in artificial intelligence & machine learning, design and simulation engineering, and platform engineering where, Zinnov has placed QuEST in the expansive and established zone. Zinnov has also placed QuEST in the execution zone for consumer software, enterprise software, computer peripheral, consumer electronics and industrial automation sectors.

Commenting on this achievement, Ajit Prabhu, Chairman and CEO, QuEST Global said, “This recognition from Zinnov is a re-affirmation of our dedication to solve engineering problems of our customers by converging mechanical, electronics and software technologies. With the help of our proven expertise across the spectrum of advanced technologies, we are committed to enable OEMs and Tier1s across the world to launch new products and discover newer possibilities. Our integrated local-global solution delivery approach and more than two decades of in-depth engineering experience across industries enable us to address the increasing market demand for safety critical and reliable connected products that provide superior customer experience.”

As a pioneer in the engineering services and solutions industry, QuEST has been helping customers to identify problems, proactively create innovative solutions and make products safer and more reliable in today’s digital age. The company’s strong capabilities in areas such as artificial intelligence, connected engineering, augmented reality and software technologies is enabling OEMs and Tier1 suppliers cross the digital divide, while continuing  to provide a reliable backbone of support in the mechanical and electronics world.

India Will Not Miss 5G Opportunity, Says Minister Manoj Sinha

The economic impact of 5G is estimated to be over one trillion dollars for India, which is aggressively positioning itself to be at the forefront of the new age technologies, said Communications Minister Manoj Sinha.

Vowing that India will “not miss the 5G bus”, the minister outlined the country’s strides in telecom over the last five years, highlighting the spike in data consumption, broadband user base, and low tariffs, but added that ensuring safety and sovereignty of digital networks will be a priority for the government.

“While we are gearing up for the next wave of digital transformation, it is also important to ensure the safety, security and sovereignty of digital communications...It is important that we focus on security testing and establish appropriate security standards. We have recently started a state-of-the-art facility for preparation of security assurance standards, putting us at the forefront of technology,” Sinha said.

The facility will work on security requirements and also facilitate development of testing and certification ecosystem in the country, Sinha said while speaking at India Telecom 2019 expo organised by Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council (TEPC).

A gamechanger

Terming 5G as a “gamechanger”, the minister said that flagship government programmes like Digital India and smart cities will ride on 5G.

“The economic impact of 5G is expected to be over one trillion dollars for India, and the consequent multiplier effect is expected to be much more,” Sinha said.

He underscored the need for promoting investments to build underlying infrastructure that would make 5G a success, and added that a working group has been constituted to initiate implementation of recommendations of high level forum on 5G that had submitted its report in August 2018.

Sinha also said that the government is in favour of policies and regulations that will facilitate development of 5G based technologies and services. “To ensure that we are able to launch 5G services in India along with the world, we have established 5G test beds through industry-academia partnerships, and we expect trials to be conducted over the next 12 months,” he said.

India will position itself as a “globally syncronised participant” in manufacturing and development of 5G based technologies, products and applications, he added.

In her address, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan noted that connectivity needs of developing and developed markets were different.

“Our challenges are different...we need telecom networks to deliver inclusion, basic services, to connect the unconnected, and serve the under served,” she said, adding that India, with its technological prowess and manufacturing capabilities, is keen to partner other nations who are looking for affordable and robust digital communications solutions.

Rajiv Mehrotra, Chairman of VNL Ltd, highlighted the need to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban areas through connectivity solutions, and said that opportunities should be created for promoting indigenous telecom equipment manufacturing.

ToneTag Hires Industry Veteran Anil Kumar as its New CTO

ToneTag, India’s leading sound-based proximity communications and payment services provider, has recently announced the appointment of Anil Kumar as its Chief Technology Officer. Through this strategic hiring, ToneTag has added to its leadership team a domain leader holding over 20 years of rich experience in the fields of disruptive technology, especially in software development. At ToneTag, Anil aims to optimize the existing tech stack to make the leading-edge product more robust and scalable.

Anil moves to ToneTag after leading several high-performing technology teams and delivering optimum software solutions at leading organizations including Oracle and i2 Technologies. Through his previous roles, he has gained deep insights into the development of technological products for innovation-driven domain players. He is an alumnus of prestigious institutions including IIT-Delhi and IIM-Bangalore, where he forged the foundation of his prolific career in the technological realm.

Speaking on his appointment, Kumar Abhishek, CEO & co-founder, ToneTag, said, “At this juncture of exponential growth for ToneTag, we are fortunate to have on board an industry veteran such as Anil. ToneTag’s stellar growth thus far, has been a result of our constant focus on the uptake and development of leading technologies. As we look at major expansion over the next few years, we required an able leader with superlative industry experience to bolster our growth. We are looking forward to leveraging Anil’s unique expertise and insights to cause further disruption in the global digital payments space. Needless to say, we wish Anil the very best for his journey as CTO at ToneTag.”

Anil Kumar added, “I am thrilled to join this disruptive brand which is leading the ongoing revolution in the digital payments landscape of India and across the globe. While its existing product has already revolutionized the industry with its one-of-a-kind ‘data over sound’ approach, I aim to transform it into a more scalable and diverse product. I also plan to enhance the existing R&D center and instill best practices for software development. It is exhilarating to be a part of an organization that is working towards transforming India into a truly digital economy with a product that permeates across numerous geographies and socio-economic sectors.”

Bengaluru-based ToneTag has made massive headway in the global digital payments space. The company has filed 13 global patents while shipping its marquee product RetailPOD to the Middle East, South-East Asia, North America and some parts of Africa. Working closely with leading names of the financial industry including MasterCard, Finacle, ICICI Pockets, FreeCharge, Yes Pay, Bank of Baroda, and AirTel Money, the company is enabling payments & proximity customer engagement services globally. ToneTag is currently escalating its value proposition to a wider global audience, mandating the appointment of industry experts such as Anil to amplify technological deployment and spruce-up its leadership ranks.

Book your Tickets Now for 12th Edition of the Aero India from February 20-24, 2019

Experienced jitters when aircrafts flip thousands of feet up in the sky? Here’s your chance to witness these big birds from a close lens at Asia’s largest aerospace exhibition, Aero India 2019, in Bengaluru over a five day extravaganza. Showcasing the best from the aviation industry, you can visit the exhibition with fellow enthusiasts and family between February 20th-24th.

The 12th edition of Aero India will showcase the latest, state-of-the-art aircraft from across the world at air shows every day of the event. The biennial event brought over 1,60,000 business and general visitors to the city of Bengaluru in its previous edition. Scintillating stunts, impeccable co-ordination amongst pilots leaving behind a mesmerising trail, makes this a one-of-its-kind event that cannot be missed. Aero India 2019 provides both buyers and sellers a great platform to bolster business opportunities in the International aviation sector. With amazing aerobatic displays and insightful seminars, Aero India 2019 is a must visit whether you are an aviation junkie or not!

So what are you waiting for? Skip long queues at the venue and book your tickets on BookMyShow today!

Date: Wednesday, 20th February - Sunday, 24th February, 2019
Venue: Air Force Station Yelahanka, Bengaluru
Book tickets exclusively on: https://in.bookmyshow.com/events/aero-india-show-2019/ET00095345 

Kerala Tourism Kicks Starts 2019 on an Ambitious Note in Bengaluru

 

With the inauguration of the Kannur International airport, Kerala is the only state in India to have four international airports. Flanked by the Arabian Sea and shielded by the Western Ghats, Kannur is now gearing up to become a favourite in tourist itineraries. Home to the piquant Moplah cuisine, land of forts and folklores, the new airport hopes to establish Malabar, which shares boundaries with Coorg, Coimbatore and Mysore, as the new tourism gateway to South India. The Kerala Tourism has kicked off the tourism drive with a roadshow at the Taj Vivanta, Bengaluru on February 12, 2019.

With the inauguration of the Kannur International Airport, the world can now wake up to the wonders of Malabar. Kerala Tourism will leverage upon established destinations in North Kerala like Bekal and Wayanad, whilst giving thrust to lesser known micro destinations in Kannur and Kasaragode districts, like Valiyaparamba Backwaters, Kuppam & Ranipuram, said Kadakampally Surendran, Minister for Tourism, Kerala.

Art from around the world
With the onset of the cultural fiestas like the Nishagandhi Dance Festival and the popular Kochi Muziris Biennale, Kerala is all set to welcome art aficionados. The 5th edition of the immensely popular Kochi Muziris Biennale is underway in Kochi. The state endorses the dreamy lanes of Fort Kochi and a pilgrimage to this biennial which has changed the landscape of contemporary Indian art today and has helped make Kochi, the art capital of India. The Kochi Muziris Biennale will run till 29th March, 2019.

Kerala has always promised to be an enriching experience for travellers, and art has been the crux of our tourism initiatives. It is our mission to peg Kerala as a soul stirring travel experience. We begin this year gracefully with a weeklong potpourri of dance forms at the Nishagandhi Dance Festival, which just concluded last weekend in the capital city, and have many other festivals planned for the rest of the year including the Nishagandhi Monsoon Festival” said Rani George, Secretary (Tourism), Govt. of Kerala.

Medley of talents
The Nishagandhi festival which is conducted every year in January, on the lush green premises of the Kanakakkunnu Palace in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram is marked by different genres of dance and is the best platform for art lovers to familiarise with the best and upcoming talents in India and to enjoy magical evenings in the company of Odissi, Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Manipuri, Mohiniyattam, Chhau and Kuchipudi.

New products and experiences tailor-made for the domestic traveller

Extending sustainability online
Earlier this year Kerala tourism had bagged 4 of the nine coveted national tourism awards, including the one for the Most Responsible Tourism Project/Initiative. The pioneer of Responsible Tourism initiatives in the country, Keralas RT Mission has rolled out many experiential packages that offers rustic travel escapades, and life as lived by a local. In a first, RT initiatives have been expanded online and a platform has been created where tourists can directly buy agricultural produce, handicrafts, traditional artefacts etc and get access to the contacts of skilled craftsmen and traditional artists.

World's biggest bird sculpture
Another example of sustainable and eco-friendly tourism, the Jatayu Earth Centre was inaugurated earlier in August and is spread across 65 acres. The giant statue of Jatayu is 200 feet long, 150 feet wide and 70 feet in height, making it the largest functional bird sculpture in the world. The destination is easily accessible as it is right at the epicentre of the south Kerala tourist spots.

India's first Biodiversity Museum
In the last few months, the state has produced several environmentally engaging and eco-friendly ventures to take pride in. India’s first biodiversity museum is tucked away on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram. This museum, that was once a boathouse, is now home to the state’s first-ever Science on Sphere (SOS) system.

Voyage through historic ties
For history buffs looking to transport themselves to another era, there is the Muziris Heritage Project. The remains of a once thriving port frequented by Arabs, Romans, Egyptians as early as the first century BC is today preserved across 25 museums as the largest heritage conservation project in India. Another offering in the historical space is the Spice Route Project that rekindled the 2000-year old ancient sea links and shared cultural and culinary legacies with 30 countries.

2017 was a landmark year for Kerala Tourism, in terms of both domestic and foreign footfalls. Domestic arrivals increased to 1,46,73,520, translating into an 11.39% Year on year growth while international arrivals during 2017 was 10,91,870 showing an increase of 5.15% over the previous years figure .

Apart from repeatedly being lauded by magazines like Conde Nast Traveller (Best Leisure Destination), Nat Geo Traveller, Kerala recently bagged 4 Awards for the year 2016 17 at the National Tourism Awards held on 27th Sep, 2018 at New Delhi.

To reach out to the domestic market, a string of Partnership Meets were organized in Bhubaneswar, Vijayawada, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Lucknow, Indore, Nagpur, Pune and Mumbai from July till October, 2018.

Kerala Tourism now embarks on another ambitious marketing campaign in 2019 with a series of Partnership Meets being organized in 10 cities across India. With remarkable participation in Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Jaipur, Kerala Tourism officials are delighted to be in Bengaluru and look forward to the Partnership meets being held in February at Hyderabad, Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, and Madurai.

A combination of a cultural feast of Keralas traditional art forms and its attractive tourism products, these Partnership Meets provide opportunities for the tourism Trade in the respective cities to interact with over 40 tourism industry players from Kerala. The Partnership Meet also showcases the presentation of a short 30 minute cultural program, a visual storytelling that showcases the various art forms of Kerala, to unveil the village life and folklore of Gods Own Country.

Further details can be found on the Kerala Tourism Website http://www.keralatourism.org
or please write to contact@keralatourismmarketing.org

Bentley Systems Announces Acquisition of SignCAD Systems, Leading Provider of Traffic Sign Design Software

Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, today announced the acquisition of leading provider of software for traffic sign design and manufacturing, SignCAD Systems, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. SignCAD provides sign design solutions to 43 state departments of transportation (DOTs) in the U.S., as well as many cities, counties, engineering firms, and manufacturers. SignCAD’s sign design capabilities complement Bentley’s OpenRoads civil design software offerings for roadway projects.

SignCAD’s offerings for traffic signs include sign design, sign manufacturing, and asset management software solutions. The acquisition builds upon Bentley’s ability to provide the most comprehensive set of solutions for design and construction of transportation assets. It will also allow Bentley to better serve roadway asset owners for the purposes of maintaining safer construction work zones while sustaining roadway performance criteria for the public.

Dustin Parkman, vice president, civil infrastructure design engineering for Bentley Systems, said, “For the past five years, we have been working diligently on increasing the level of detail that can be modeled and simulated within the OpenRoads environment. With the addition of SignCAD, 3D modeling of signs within the context of our roadway designs allows us to provide a higher fidelity representation of roadway assets, yielding benefits beyond design and construction workflows.

“In this new era of autonomous vehicles, the digital representation of roadway networks is quickly becoming just as vital as the physical roadway,” Parkman continued. “Faded or obscured signs and unusual intersections are commonplace throughout most of world’s roadway networks, presenting new and interesting challenges for roadway owners—challenges that often cannot be met by physical upgrades alone. To bridge that gap, we need a digital representation of roadway assets often referred to as a ‘digital twin.’ Roadway signs provide important information about the road network that can be leveraged far beyond conventional line of site machine learning methods, to provide additional depth of information and calibration. With the addition of SignCAD, Bentley’s digital twin for roadway assets will provide this valuable data to roadway asset owners.”

Judd Roby, president of SignCAD, said, “We are extremely excited about adding SignCAD into the realm of 3D modeling with OpenRoads. This acquisition supports our goals of continuing to meet the transportation owner/operators’ needs across the design, build, operate, and maintain lifecycle.”

Heartfulness Hosts Wellness Enthusiasts from Russia, Europe, North & South America

It is no more only IT, Pharma or Tourism that attract foreigners to Telangana, rather Wellness is yet another reason which is enticing people across the world towards the newest state of the country. Heartfulness Institute (www.heartfulness.org) hosted a group of over 1,000 people from over 16 countries including USA, Canada, Sweden, England, France, Latin America and 11 CIS countries. The main objective of these wellness enthusiasts coming all the way to Kanha Shanti Vanam (the global headquarters of Heartfulness) near Hyderabad was to learn Heartfulness Meditation which is offered free across the globe.

The group members who are visiting Kanha on a 7-day trip varied from all walks of life that included CEO & business owners, economists, managers, teachers, professors, PhDs, psychologists, engineers, students, artists, designers, IT specialists, business consultants and coaches, journalist, chef, yoga & fitness coaches, marketologs, actress, musicians, physicians, nurses and retired people. A seminar was also conducted for a large group from Russian speaking CIS countries which comprised of 98 families, 210 sisters, 90 brothers and 9 children. The seminar hosted sessions by experts on Astanga Yoga, Being an intense Abhyasi (practitioners of Heartfulness), Nonviolent Communication, Spiritual Journey and the Ashram life at Kanha.

Mr. Rishab Kothari, Joint Secretary of Heartfulness said, “Each month we have more than 1,000 Heartfulness practitioners from different countries coming to Kanha to attend the heartfulness meditation training. Our world class facility ensures that we are able to cater to the training and residential needs of the visitors.”

Feedback from Visitors

Alla Revenko, 57 Years, Life coach and a business owner, Russia - Heartfulness practice is magic, when you are focused and meditate as it makes big difference to the inner and outer conditions. Meditation sessions and lots of interactions with people who came from different countries to Kanha Ashwam has given us a new boost to practice Heartfulness sincerely. We have discussed many issues and made plans how to reach out with Heartfulness to the rest of the world. We experienced real brotherhood and I feel more love in my heart. I am amazed about the atmosphere of Kanha Shanti Vanam Ashram and beautiful hearts that join here as one world family.

Elena Chikisheva, 44 years, Financial Manager, Russia – “As a first-time visitor for Kanha Shanti Vanam Ashram, I experienced a totally new world. Being here, helped me to dive deep within, to meet with my inner self and simply enjoy moment of silence. It made me to change my perception of the world around. Now I appreciate the Life the way it is”.

Lubov Manulik, 64 Years, France – “I am so happy to share success of this visit here in Kanha Ashram. We came here for amazing Heartfulness practice, Ashram’s positive vibration and brotherhood. It is life-long experience. I am 64 years old and for me it is so important to feel happiness with people now and here!

Nadia Kniga, 47 years, Canada – “I am mother of 4 children and I learn a lot from the Heartfulness training programs that will help me to become better mother, wife and human being. I feel love, brotherhood and unity, it makes me happy and I hope for a better & peaceful life on Earth. When we all unite with meditation, we have real chance to make life better and meaningful. We can become good example for children and have a chance to live happy life in balance and peace.”

Igor Onchtchenko, 51 years, Belarus – “I was surprised to see the tremendous work done at Kanha Shanti Vanam Ashram and I highly appreciate it. I am thankful for the humble care from the people here and training on Heartfulness. I expect it will bring light and happiness in my life. The group enjoyed the visit and working together at Kanha Shanti Vanam.”

Heartfulness is an approach to the Raja Yoga system of meditation called Sahaj Marg or the Natural Path, founded at the turn of the twentieth century and formalized into the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in 1945 in India. Over 2 Million professionals are practising Heartfulness Meditation in corporations, non-governmental and government bodies, schools and educational institutes, etc. in 130 countries. More than 5,000 Heartfulness Centres, known as HeartSpots, are supported by many thousands of certified volunteer trainers worldwide.