Indian auto makers Tata Motors Ltd and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd are closing plants for up to 6 days in December as demand for vehicles is hit by tight financing in a slowing economy.
The country's top vehicle maker Tata Motors plans to shut its heavy vehicle plant in east India for six days, a spokesman said. It said earlier this week it would to shut a commercial vehicle plant in west India for three days.
Tata Motors', India's top bus and truck maker, November vehicle sales dropped 30 percent to 32,696 units. The country's biggest utility vehicle and tractor maker Mahindra said most of its automotive plants will be shut for up to 6 days in December due to easing demand.
"Taking into account the slowdown in demand for the company's products it has been decided to align the company's production plan with the expected demand for the month of December," Mahindra said in a statement.
Mahindra, which also makes the Logan sedan in a venture with Renault, earlier this week said vehicle sales in November fell 39 percent to 11,273 units. Carmakers in India have cut prices and are offering freebies to woo back buyers as sales slide after nearly five years of rapid growth.
Source: Agencies
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Can a software predicts pollutants' path?
Researchers in Australia claim to have developed a software that can predict which way airborne odours and pollutants, from farms or factories, will actually blow.
According to them, the software package predicts local meteorology and assesses the likely pathway and concentration of pollutants as they disperse.
Lead researcher Dr Peter Hurley of CSIRO said: "The Air Pollution Model (TAPM) increases our ability to pinpoint pollutant behaviour in a wider range of atmospheric conditions.
"Over the coming years the new model will continue to fill a gap between simple air pollution dispersion models and the much more complex earth system models."
In fact, earlier versions of the software are widely used throughout Australia by researchers and consultants, as well as internationally by 190 customers in 25 countries.
From a one-dimensional model created by Dr Hurley's team in the mid-1990s, the software has now evolved into a complex environmental modelling tool with meteorological and air pollution components that will suit most local-scale environmental applications.
In Australia, the model has recently been used in Launceston where strong temperature inversions trap particulate emissions from wood fires, burning-off, vehicles and industry.
Some new research directions are also emerging, such as the use of TAPM coupled with CSIRO's complex chemistry model by CSIRO scientists Drs Martin Cope and Sunhee Lee. Applications include urban planning under future climate scenarios.
Source: Agencies
According to them, the software package predicts local meteorology and assesses the likely pathway and concentration of pollutants as they disperse.
Lead researcher Dr Peter Hurley of CSIRO said: "The Air Pollution Model (TAPM) increases our ability to pinpoint pollutant behaviour in a wider range of atmospheric conditions.
"Over the coming years the new model will continue to fill a gap between simple air pollution dispersion models and the much more complex earth system models."
In fact, earlier versions of the software are widely used throughout Australia by researchers and consultants, as well as internationally by 190 customers in 25 countries.
From a one-dimensional model created by Dr Hurley's team in the mid-1990s, the software has now evolved into a complex environmental modelling tool with meteorological and air pollution components that will suit most local-scale environmental applications.
In Australia, the model has recently been used in Launceston where strong temperature inversions trap particulate emissions from wood fires, burning-off, vehicles and industry.
Some new research directions are also emerging, such as the use of TAPM coupled with CSIRO's complex chemistry model by CSIRO scientists Drs Martin Cope and Sunhee Lee. Applications include urban planning under future climate scenarios.
Source: Agencies
Will the slowdown benefit BPO industry?
Indian industry will feel the real impact of the current meltdown in the US and other developed economies in the first quarter of 2009, with the business process industry likely to see job losses of up to a quarter of a million, said Samir Chopra, President, Business Process Industry Association of India (BPIAI).
Addressing delegates at a session on 'Surviving US Recession- Developing & Transforming Policies', Chopra, however, saw a silver lining in the ongoing recession for the BPO sector, saying that it would compel more companies in the US and Europe to look at outsourcing as a way cut their costs and improve efficiencies.
He said that urgent government measures were needed to boost the domestic business process industry, specially the medium and small enterprises. These included both fiscal and administrative measures, like extending the tax relief for the IT sector for another 5-10 years and export promotion steps, including a market development fund. The session was organised here today by BPIAI in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
According to him, the current situation had been impacted further by the recent terrorist carnage in Mumbai, which had hit sentiments across the board. "It has led to widespread cancellations of visit and even forthcoming international events. The government must now take suitable remedial steps to boost homeland security and the emergency response system."
For Anand Pillai, the current meltdown was an opportunity for the Indian BPO sector to add value to its services. This, he said, was important if they were to retain and expand their client base. Taking an optimistic view of the current slowdown, he said that a positive response and attitude would help shorten the recession cycle. "For this, it was important workplaces should engender learning, preparing employees for the turnaround, when it happens.
Citing the example of his company, HCL Technologies Ltd, Pillai said that "the core asset in any IT industry were its staff and cost-cutting through retrenchments was not the right policy to follow. The savings resulting from such job cuts are miniscule when compared to the damage they cause in terms of employee satisfaction and service delivery."
Disagreeing with Chopra that the current slowdown was temporary, Praveen Sengar, Head-Software, Services & Industry (Vertical Reserach), IDC India Ltd, said recovery from the last slowdown in 2001 had taken six quarters when the sectors affected were much less. "This time, I see a recovery only around the first half or the third quarter of 2010."
According to Sengar, the current slowdown was likely to slowdown expansion in the BPO industry, with the time taken for signing up new clients taking a longer period of time. "It will also result in greater consolidation and promote diversification into areas hitherto considered as non-core activities."
On his part, S N Zindal, former Director-General, Software Technology Parks of India, said that "it was not true that the Indian IT industry was in recession, though he agreed that there could be substantial decline in its growth rate. This is a period when the Indian IT industry, specially the BPO units, should build on their advantage by improving manpower, developing suitable infrastructure and having the right government policies in place."
Agreeing that the SMEs were the most vulnerable to any downturn, Zindal said that the right policies could help such units move up the value chain. He said that even as the slowdown continued in the US and other developed countries; such units could help tide over the crisis by expanding the domestic market.
Emphasizing the need for more reforms, Kiron Prabhakar, Partner, PAV Law Offices, said that amendments had been proposed several times to the Information Technology Act 2000, "but these are yet to see the light of the day". According to her, the other areas needing reform were Incomes Tax Act and the Stamp Duty Act apart from changes in the immigration laws.
Prabhakar also advocated doing away with the cap on royalty and knowhow fees, saying that were impeding technology transfer to Indian companies.Industry has been seeking a change in the labour regulations for quite some time and the government must ensure that these promote outsourcing, she added.
Proposing the vote of thanks, Deepak Ohlyan, Managing Committee Member, BPIAI, and Director, Dell International Services BPO, said that the recent terrorist incidents in Mumbai were a matter of great concern to Indian industry. He said that it was time for the domestic BPO industry to consolidate on its recent growth and prepare for the turnaround by upgrading both staff and services.
A panel discussion on the impact of the recent terrorist attacks on the business process industry was also organized on occasion, with participants seeking stronger government action and greater political will to tackle the situation.
Some participants in the discussion like Col K C Goswami, Consultant, Special Projects, G4S Security Services; Sanjog Gupta of NDTV, and Arjun Wallia, Founder & Chairman, Managing Director, Walsons -- A Securitas Partner Company, felt that the attacks were a wake-up call for the Indian industry to take immediate steps to improve physical security of their establishments. There was no time for complacency, they added.
Other speakers like Srinivas Pingali, EVP, Quatrro BPO Solutions Pvt Ltd, said that the BPO industry had been directly impacted by the attacks and "any such attack in the future could severely dent the prospects of the domestic industry. The immediate business impact has also been minimized by the forthcoming Christmas and New Year holidays."
Responding to a suggestion, Chopra agreed on the need for the association to come out with its own security standards for the BPO sector. This, he said, would reassure potential overseas investors and clients, even as they would enable domestic companies to be prepared for ongoing security audits and checks.
Source: Times of India
Addressing delegates at a session on 'Surviving US Recession- Developing & Transforming Policies', Chopra, however, saw a silver lining in the ongoing recession for the BPO sector, saying that it would compel more companies in the US and Europe to look at outsourcing as a way cut their costs and improve efficiencies.
He said that urgent government measures were needed to boost the domestic business process industry, specially the medium and small enterprises. These included both fiscal and administrative measures, like extending the tax relief for the IT sector for another 5-10 years and export promotion steps, including a market development fund. The session was organised here today by BPIAI in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
According to him, the current situation had been impacted further by the recent terrorist carnage in Mumbai, which had hit sentiments across the board. "It has led to widespread cancellations of visit and even forthcoming international events. The government must now take suitable remedial steps to boost homeland security and the emergency response system."
For Anand Pillai, the current meltdown was an opportunity for the Indian BPO sector to add value to its services. This, he said, was important if they were to retain and expand their client base. Taking an optimistic view of the current slowdown, he said that a positive response and attitude would help shorten the recession cycle. "For this, it was important workplaces should engender learning, preparing employees for the turnaround, when it happens.
Citing the example of his company, HCL Technologies Ltd, Pillai said that "the core asset in any IT industry were its staff and cost-cutting through retrenchments was not the right policy to follow. The savings resulting from such job cuts are miniscule when compared to the damage they cause in terms of employee satisfaction and service delivery."
Disagreeing with Chopra that the current slowdown was temporary, Praveen Sengar, Head-Software, Services & Industry (Vertical Reserach), IDC India Ltd, said recovery from the last slowdown in 2001 had taken six quarters when the sectors affected were much less. "This time, I see a recovery only around the first half or the third quarter of 2010."
According to Sengar, the current slowdown was likely to slowdown expansion in the BPO industry, with the time taken for signing up new clients taking a longer period of time. "It will also result in greater consolidation and promote diversification into areas hitherto considered as non-core activities."
On his part, S N Zindal, former Director-General, Software Technology Parks of India, said that "it was not true that the Indian IT industry was in recession, though he agreed that there could be substantial decline in its growth rate. This is a period when the Indian IT industry, specially the BPO units, should build on their advantage by improving manpower, developing suitable infrastructure and having the right government policies in place."
Agreeing that the SMEs were the most vulnerable to any downturn, Zindal said that the right policies could help such units move up the value chain. He said that even as the slowdown continued in the US and other developed countries; such units could help tide over the crisis by expanding the domestic market.
Emphasizing the need for more reforms, Kiron Prabhakar, Partner, PAV Law Offices, said that amendments had been proposed several times to the Information Technology Act 2000, "but these are yet to see the light of the day". According to her, the other areas needing reform were Incomes Tax Act and the Stamp Duty Act apart from changes in the immigration laws.
Prabhakar also advocated doing away with the cap on royalty and knowhow fees, saying that were impeding technology transfer to Indian companies.Industry has been seeking a change in the labour regulations for quite some time and the government must ensure that these promote outsourcing, she added.
Proposing the vote of thanks, Deepak Ohlyan, Managing Committee Member, BPIAI, and Director, Dell International Services BPO, said that the recent terrorist incidents in Mumbai were a matter of great concern to Indian industry. He said that it was time for the domestic BPO industry to consolidate on its recent growth and prepare for the turnaround by upgrading both staff and services.
A panel discussion on the impact of the recent terrorist attacks on the business process industry was also organized on occasion, with participants seeking stronger government action and greater political will to tackle the situation.
Some participants in the discussion like Col K C Goswami, Consultant, Special Projects, G4S Security Services; Sanjog Gupta of NDTV, and Arjun Wallia, Founder & Chairman, Managing Director, Walsons -- A Securitas Partner Company, felt that the attacks were a wake-up call for the Indian industry to take immediate steps to improve physical security of their establishments. There was no time for complacency, they added.
Other speakers like Srinivas Pingali, EVP, Quatrro BPO Solutions Pvt Ltd, said that the BPO industry had been directly impacted by the attacks and "any such attack in the future could severely dent the prospects of the domestic industry. The immediate business impact has also been minimized by the forthcoming Christmas and New Year holidays."
Responding to a suggestion, Chopra agreed on the need for the association to come out with its own security standards for the BPO sector. This, he said, would reassure potential overseas investors and clients, even as they would enable domestic companies to be prepared for ongoing security audits and checks.
Source: Times of India
Do Internet users want more languages?
Which is the one language that the people of India aspire to learn? Which is the one language that most Indians use while communicating on the Internet?
The answer is English. But you obviously knew that.
At the Internet Governance Forum being held in Hyderabad, Ajit Balakrishnan, CEO of Rediff.com, said that there is no evidence from the last ten years of the Internet business that users want Indian languages. Rediff has email in 11 languages, and 99% of the users prefer to use email in English, says a report.
Balakrishnan believes that a majority of Indians use the Internet for non- or little language skill associated activities like sending send messages, download music, view pictures or videos. These activities hardly require text input/usage.
Interesting comment from the Rediff CEO so is he trying to say that the investment he made to make those 11 languages available for its users was futile?
Not really; in fact, it could be called future-ready. In the coming years when Internet penetrates into large sections of rural India, that's when the regional languages will come handy, perhaps?
Source: Techtree
The answer is English. But you obviously knew that.
At the Internet Governance Forum being held in Hyderabad, Ajit Balakrishnan, CEO of Rediff.com, said that there is no evidence from the last ten years of the Internet business that users want Indian languages. Rediff has email in 11 languages, and 99% of the users prefer to use email in English, says a report.
Balakrishnan believes that a majority of Indians use the Internet for non- or little language skill associated activities like sending send messages, download music, view pictures or videos. These activities hardly require text input/usage.
Interesting comment from the Rediff CEO so is he trying to say that the investment he made to make those 11 languages available for its users was futile?
Not really; in fact, it could be called future-ready. In the coming years when Internet penetrates into large sections of rural India, that's when the regional languages will come handy, perhaps?
Source: Techtree
Oil could plummet down to $25 a barrel!
Oil prices are likely to keep falling until well into next year and could reach $25 a barrel before recovering, US bank Merrill Lynch. In a research report published on Thursday, it said oil prices should begin to rally in the second half of 2009.
Merrill Lynch recently cut its forecast for the average price of US crude oil futures and North Sea Brent crude oil to $50 a barrel from a previous estimate for both crudes of $90.
"With demand vanishing across all key oil consuming regions, benchmark crude oil prices continue to plummet," it said. "In the short-run, market participants will focus on both OPEC and perhaps even non-OPEC producer responses to balance the market."
"A temporary drop below $25 is possible if the global recession extends to China and significant non-OPEC production cuts are required," it said.
"In our view, oil prices could find a trough at the end of Q1 2009 or early Q2 2009 with the seasonal slowdown in demand. Then, as economic activity starts to strengthen, we see oil prices posting a modest recovery in the second half of 2009."
Oil prices hit a peak above $147 a barrel in July but have fallen more than $100 since then as the severity of the global economic downturn has become clear.
Merrill Lynch said a combination of high oil prices and high leverage had proven dangerous for the global economy.
"On October 1, we lowered our average crude oil price forecast in 2009 to $90 per barrel based on a global GDP growth forecast of 3 percent. Since then, our economists have revised their 2009 global GDP growth forecast down to 1.3 percent, a scenario consistent with a global recession.
"As a result, we are now lowering our average WTI and Brent crude oil price forecast to $50 per barrel for 2009."
It said the major downside risk to its price forecast would be a revision of economic growth assumptions for China, which are currently at 8.6 percent for next year.
"In the short-run, global oil demand growth will likely take a further beating as banks continue to cut credit to consumers and corporations," it said. "We now expect an outright contraction in global oil demand in 2009."
Source: Economic Times
Merrill Lynch recently cut its forecast for the average price of US crude oil futures and North Sea Brent crude oil to $50 a barrel from a previous estimate for both crudes of $90.
"With demand vanishing across all key oil consuming regions, benchmark crude oil prices continue to plummet," it said. "In the short-run, market participants will focus on both OPEC and perhaps even non-OPEC producer responses to balance the market."
"A temporary drop below $25 is possible if the global recession extends to China and significant non-OPEC production cuts are required," it said.
"In our view, oil prices could find a trough at the end of Q1 2009 or early Q2 2009 with the seasonal slowdown in demand. Then, as economic activity starts to strengthen, we see oil prices posting a modest recovery in the second half of 2009."
Oil prices hit a peak above $147 a barrel in July but have fallen more than $100 since then as the severity of the global economic downturn has become clear.
Merrill Lynch said a combination of high oil prices and high leverage had proven dangerous for the global economy.
"On October 1, we lowered our average crude oil price forecast in 2009 to $90 per barrel based on a global GDP growth forecast of 3 percent. Since then, our economists have revised their 2009 global GDP growth forecast down to 1.3 percent, a scenario consistent with a global recession.
"As a result, we are now lowering our average WTI and Brent crude oil price forecast to $50 per barrel for 2009."
It said the major downside risk to its price forecast would be a revision of economic growth assumptions for China, which are currently at 8.6 percent for next year.
"In the short-run, global oil demand growth will likely take a further beating as banks continue to cut credit to consumers and corporations," it said. "We now expect an outright contraction in global oil demand in 2009."
Source: Economic Times
Desi 'open source' software a big hit
Open source software is breeding entrepreneurships worldwide. Playing a key role in this blooming industry are several Indian developers. With their open source software solutions, these developers are taking computing to millions of people across the country and globally.
In fact, many of these have emerged as best with names like Hindawi, Zmanda and Dhvani or KDE Hindi. These products are helping an entire new generation of software developers.
Hindawi (hindawi.in) is a multilingual programming language tool that allows users to write computer programmes in languages other than English. In other words, Hindawi breaks the English language barrier and lets users do programming in their mother tongue.
These include equivalents of C, C++, lex, yacc, assembly, BASIC, LOGO etc in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Assamese and other Indian languages.
These languages are called Hindi C or Hindi assembly or Bangla C or Bangla assembly etc for common understanding. They even have different names; such as, the equivalent programming language of C in Indian languages is Shaili Guru, Indic C++ is Shaili Shraeni, Indic yacc is Shaili Vyaakaran and so on.
However, these languages are syntax-compatible with their traditional English counterparts and can, therefore, utilise the existing libraries such as glibc etc. In a manner similar to the way C++ is syntax compatible to C and hence can use most of the C libraries.
WANem
WANem is a Wide Area Network Emulator, meant to provide a real experience of a Wide Area Network/Internet, during application development/testing over a LAN environment.
Typically application developers develop applications on a LAN while the intended purpose for the same could be, clients accessing the same over the WAN or even the Internet.
WANem thus allows the application development team to setup a transparent application gateway which can be used to simulate WAN characteristics like Network delay, Packet loss, Packet corruption, Disconnections, Packet re-ordering, Jitter, etc.
WANem was developed by three software professionals Manoj Nambiar, Hemanta Kumar Kalita and Debadatta Mishra all from India's largest IT company TCS.
The software was built to provide WAN access to the entire team since other WAN emulators were hardware-based, expensive and available to only a select few in test labs.
Zmanda Recovery Manager
Zmanda is an open source backup and recovery solution. Zmanda Recovery Manager aims to simplify the life of a database administrator with a simple-to-use yet robust recovery manager for the MySQL Server. It is a perl-based utility.
With ZRM for MySQL, network adminstrators can schedule full and incremental backups of their MySQL database. And also start immediate backup or postpone scheduled backups based on defined thresholds.
Network administrators can choose to do more flexible, logical or faster raw backups of their database, backup remote MySQL database through a firewall, get email notification about the status of backups and receive MySQL backup reports via RSS feeds and monitor and browse backups.
They can even define retention policies and delete expired backups, recover a database easily to any point in time or to any particular transaction, eg just before a user made an error.
Zamanda was founded by Chander Kant who is the company's CEO. A Masters in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BS in Computer Science from the IIT, Kanpur, Kant was named one of the "Top 20 Linux Luminaries" by Linux World Magazine in 2004.
Dhvani
Dhvani is text-to-speech system for Indian languages. It is a framework to develop Indian Language text to speech system. It can serve as a backend for speech synthesisers in Indian Languages, in conjunction with a language-specific text-to-phonetics module.
The software uses images in conjunction with voice output in local languages to make the computing device accessible to a larger section of the Indian population.
Currently, Dhvani has a phonetics-to-speech engine which is capable of generating intelligible speech from a suitable phonetic description in any Indian language. In addition, it is capable of converting UTF-8 text in Hindi and Kannada to this phonetic description, and then speaking it out using the Phonetics-to-Speech engine.
Current C- GNU/Linux implementation supports Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Bengali, Telugu, Punjabi, Tamil and Oriya. The project was started by Simputer project head Dr Ramesh Hariharan, IISc, Bengaluru.
MayaVi2
MayaVi is an open source tool that allows easy and interactive three-dimensional visualisation of data. It is written in Python and uses the Visualization Toolkit (VTK) for the graphics.
In 2000, Prabhu Ramachandran, then an IIT Madras aerospace engineering student, started work on the MayaVi project with his colleagues to visualise computational fluid dynamics data.
"Popular tools available for the purpose at that time were proprietary and prohibitively expensive," noted the Linux For You magazine, published from Delhi, which has announced its FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) India Awards for those involved in a "saga of innovation".
MayaVi is a scientific data visualiser. It is written in Python and uses the Visualisation Toolkit (VTK) for visualisation.
MayaVi2, the next generation of MayaVi, is currently under development.
JTrac
JTrac is a customisable issue-tracking Web-application written in Java. JTrac can be installed in a few minutes without having to type any commands.
Designed to be generic, users can customise fields to track items (like bugs) and allocate tasks etc. It's a lightweight J2EE application built on the Spring Framework.
It has support for file-attachments and email integration. JTrac also offers customisation options, especially in the areas of workflow and field-level permissions and compares well to even commercial tools.
TuxType
Another from the Indian winners is TuxType which five students of the Government Engineering College at Thrissur built Unicode Malayalam support.
It is an educational typing tutor for children. It features several different types of gameplay, at a variety of difficulty levels.
TuxType (tuxtype.sourceforge.net) became the first FOSS typing tutor to bundle Unicode support for Indian languages at a time when Indian language solutions in computing were eagerly awaited.
TuxTyping is an educational typing tutorial game featuring Tux, the Linux Penguin. The player guides Tux to eat fish which are falling from the top of the screen. The game is intended for children learning to type. Also, it has higher difficulty levels which even experienced typists may find challenging.
DeepOfix
DeepOfix features claim to be one of the quickest and simplest operating system installers written for Dhvani. According to the software developer, users don't need to have any prior experience on GNU/Linux for this. A user can complete the server installation with just 15 simple questions and within 25 minutes.
DeepOfix is one of the few GNU/Linux operating systems to ship with built-in and pre-integrated support for LDAP.
LDAP support in DeepOfix goes beyond installation -- in DeepOfix LDAP is not just installed, but also configured as the default store for user account data and password information.
Source: Times of India
In fact, many of these have emerged as best with names like Hindawi, Zmanda and Dhvani or KDE Hindi. These products are helping an entire new generation of software developers.
Hindawi (hindawi.in) is a multilingual programming language tool that allows users to write computer programmes in languages other than English. In other words, Hindawi breaks the English language barrier and lets users do programming in their mother tongue.
These include equivalents of C, C++, lex, yacc, assembly, BASIC, LOGO etc in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Assamese and other Indian languages.
These languages are called Hindi C or Hindi assembly or Bangla C or Bangla assembly etc for common understanding. They even have different names; such as, the equivalent programming language of C in Indian languages is Shaili Guru, Indic C++ is Shaili Shraeni, Indic yacc is Shaili Vyaakaran and so on.
However, these languages are syntax-compatible with their traditional English counterparts and can, therefore, utilise the existing libraries such as glibc etc. In a manner similar to the way C++ is syntax compatible to C and hence can use most of the C libraries.
WANem
WANem is a Wide Area Network Emulator, meant to provide a real experience of a Wide Area Network/Internet, during application development/testing over a LAN environment.
Typically application developers develop applications on a LAN while the intended purpose for the same could be, clients accessing the same over the WAN or even the Internet.
WANem thus allows the application development team to setup a transparent application gateway which can be used to simulate WAN characteristics like Network delay, Packet loss, Packet corruption, Disconnections, Packet re-ordering, Jitter, etc.
WANem was developed by three software professionals Manoj Nambiar, Hemanta Kumar Kalita and Debadatta Mishra all from India's largest IT company TCS.
The software was built to provide WAN access to the entire team since other WAN emulators were hardware-based, expensive and available to only a select few in test labs.
Zmanda Recovery Manager
Zmanda is an open source backup and recovery solution. Zmanda Recovery Manager aims to simplify the life of a database administrator with a simple-to-use yet robust recovery manager for the MySQL Server. It is a perl-based utility.
With ZRM for MySQL, network adminstrators can schedule full and incremental backups of their MySQL database. And also start immediate backup or postpone scheduled backups based on defined thresholds.
Network administrators can choose to do more flexible, logical or faster raw backups of their database, backup remote MySQL database through a firewall, get email notification about the status of backups and receive MySQL backup reports via RSS feeds and monitor and browse backups.
They can even define retention policies and delete expired backups, recover a database easily to any point in time or to any particular transaction, eg just before a user made an error.
Zamanda was founded by Chander Kant who is the company's CEO. A Masters in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BS in Computer Science from the IIT, Kanpur, Kant was named one of the "Top 20 Linux Luminaries" by Linux World Magazine in 2004.
Dhvani
Dhvani is text-to-speech system for Indian languages. It is a framework to develop Indian Language text to speech system. It can serve as a backend for speech synthesisers in Indian Languages, in conjunction with a language-specific text-to-phonetics module.
The software uses images in conjunction with voice output in local languages to make the computing device accessible to a larger section of the Indian population.
Currently, Dhvani has a phonetics-to-speech engine which is capable of generating intelligible speech from a suitable phonetic description in any Indian language. In addition, it is capable of converting UTF-8 text in Hindi and Kannada to this phonetic description, and then speaking it out using the Phonetics-to-Speech engine.
Current C- GNU/Linux implementation supports Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Bengali, Telugu, Punjabi, Tamil and Oriya. The project was started by Simputer project head Dr Ramesh Hariharan, IISc, Bengaluru.
MayaVi2
MayaVi is an open source tool that allows easy and interactive three-dimensional visualisation of data. It is written in Python and uses the Visualization Toolkit (VTK) for the graphics.
In 2000, Prabhu Ramachandran, then an IIT Madras aerospace engineering student, started work on the MayaVi project with his colleagues to visualise computational fluid dynamics data.
"Popular tools available for the purpose at that time were proprietary and prohibitively expensive," noted the Linux For You magazine, published from Delhi, which has announced its FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) India Awards for those involved in a "saga of innovation".
MayaVi is a scientific data visualiser. It is written in Python and uses the Visualisation Toolkit (VTK) for visualisation.
MayaVi2, the next generation of MayaVi, is currently under development.
JTrac
JTrac is a customisable issue-tracking Web-application written in Java. JTrac can be installed in a few minutes without having to type any commands.
Designed to be generic, users can customise fields to track items (like bugs) and allocate tasks etc. It's a lightweight J2EE application built on the Spring Framework.
It has support for file-attachments and email integration. JTrac also offers customisation options, especially in the areas of workflow and field-level permissions and compares well to even commercial tools.
TuxType
Another from the Indian winners is TuxType which five students of the Government Engineering College at Thrissur built Unicode Malayalam support.
It is an educational typing tutor for children. It features several different types of gameplay, at a variety of difficulty levels.
TuxType (tuxtype.sourceforge.net) became the first FOSS typing tutor to bundle Unicode support for Indian languages at a time when Indian language solutions in computing were eagerly awaited.
TuxTyping is an educational typing tutorial game featuring Tux, the Linux Penguin. The player guides Tux to eat fish which are falling from the top of the screen. The game is intended for children learning to type. Also, it has higher difficulty levels which even experienced typists may find challenging.
DeepOfix
DeepOfix features claim to be one of the quickest and simplest operating system installers written for Dhvani. According to the software developer, users don't need to have any prior experience on GNU/Linux for this. A user can complete the server installation with just 15 simple questions and within 25 minutes.
DeepOfix is one of the few GNU/Linux operating systems to ship with built-in and pre-integrated support for LDAP.
LDAP support in DeepOfix goes beyond installation -- in DeepOfix LDAP is not just installed, but also configured as the default store for user account data and password information.
Source: Times of India
2.5 lakh may lose jobs in BPO sector
Business Process Outsourcing firms are likely to see 2.5 lakh job losses by the first quarter of 2009 in the wake of downturn in the US and other developed economies, BPO industry association said.
Though the industry is likely to see thousands of job losses, the silver lining is that the recession would compel more companies in the US and Europe to look at outsourcing as a way to cut costs and improve efficiencies, the Business Process Industry Association of India (BPIAI) President Samir Chopra said.
Praveen Sengar, Head-Software, Services & Industry (Vertical Reserach), IDC India Ltd saidthe slowdown is likely to impact expansion plans of the industry, as the time taken for signing up new clients is taking longer time.
"It will also result in greater consolidation and promote diversification into areas hitherto considered as non-core activities," Sengar said.
Chopra said that urgent government measures are required to boost the industry, specially for the medium and small enterprises.
Both fiscal and administrative measures like extending tax relief for another 5-10 years and export promotion steps, including market development fund is need of the hour, Chopra said.
He further said the terrorist attacks in Mumbai has led to the widespread cancellations of visits and forthcoming international events.
Source: Times of India
Though the industry is likely to see thousands of job losses, the silver lining is that the recession would compel more companies in the US and Europe to look at outsourcing as a way to cut costs and improve efficiencies, the Business Process Industry Association of India (BPIAI) President Samir Chopra said.
Praveen Sengar, Head-Software, Services & Industry (Vertical Reserach), IDC India Ltd saidthe slowdown is likely to impact expansion plans of the industry, as the time taken for signing up new clients is taking longer time.
"It will also result in greater consolidation and promote diversification into areas hitherto considered as non-core activities," Sengar said.
Chopra said that urgent government measures are required to boost the industry, specially for the medium and small enterprises.
Both fiscal and administrative measures like extending tax relief for another 5-10 years and export promotion steps, including market development fund is need of the hour, Chopra said.
He further said the terrorist attacks in Mumbai has led to the widespread cancellations of visits and forthcoming international events.
Source: Times of India
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