Now Follow Superstar Rajinikanth On Twitter

One of India’s most prolific and influential superstars, the inimitable Rajinikanth, makes his much awaited debut on Twitter today. This also marks the superstar’s debut in the digital space. CA Media Digital’s first venture, Fluence - India’s leading celebrity digital network, will manage Rajinikanth’s digital interests, to further create and leverage the Thalaivar’s social presence. Twitter users around the world can follow and converse live with India’s original superhero, superstar Rajinikanth by visiting Twitter.com/SuperStarRajini or @SuperStarRajini on their Twitter app.

Fans can also follow the actor's Twitter account by simply dialling, or giving a missed call at 080 6700 6666 to access their idol’s Tweets, which is possible due to a global integration between Twitter India and ZipDial.

One of India’s most influential and bankable movie stars, Rajinikanth's mass popularity and appeal is largely drawn from his mannerisms and stylized dialogue delivery. He has received India's third highest honour, the Padma Bhushan, for his contribution to Indian cinema.

A cultural icon, the normally reticent superstar is looking forward to interacting with his fans on the platform. “I have always believed that my career graph is a miracle I owe my fans. I have been contemplating joining the social media platform for a while to connect with them, hear what they have to say and share my thoughts.  Unfortunately I never got around to it until now. By partnering with Fluence I am confident that I have the best team and the best guides who will help me connect with my audience” said the Superstar. "I decided to start with Twitter because I felt that the platform is abuzz with all the news and the trends that happen across the globe and I'm told that this is where all the best Rajini one liners are!” he added.

Excited about the association, Ashish Joshi, VP Digital & Business Head – Fluence said “We are thrilled to partner with the enigmatic Rajinikanth. The digital landscape is exploding and when you work with Thalaivar the possibilities are endless. Twitter is the first step in building and growing his online presence and getting all the fans out there to directly engage with the phenomenon that is Rajinikanth. We will work closely with him to broaden the horizons of the digital landscape to create interesting and entertaining consumer facing properties that will engage the fans in a way that only Rajini sir can.”

Said Twitter's India Market Director, Rishi Jaitly, "Twitter is the world's leading real-time information network where users discover and converse with the people, organizations and media that interest them. This is truly an "only-on-Twitter" moment as Superstar Rajinikanth’s debut on Twitter also marks his debut in the digital space more generally. We welcome Rajinikanth to Twitter, are happy to support his launch on the platform and look forward to watching him use our mobile service to engage in live, public conversations with fans and other icons around the world."

To make Superstar Rajinikanth’s debut on Twitter more exciting; fans from all over the world, who follow him on twitter @SuperStarRajini in the first week, will receive a ‘WelcomeGraph’, a personalized welcome picture from the icon.

‘Infrastructure Key Focus For The BJP Government’

A BJP-led government will take speedy decisions, focus on reviving economic growth, give priority to infrastructure and manufacturing, and protect the interest of farmers in land acquisition, the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has said.

In an e-mail interview with this agency, Modi outlined his economic vision and said a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government will seek to clear projects in fast-track mode, push for single-window clearance system, make procedures swift, ensure time-bound delivery and better coordination with the states for faster project clearances.

He said the "present state of policy paralysis" cannot be permitted to continue.

"We have to clear projects in a fast track mode. If there are environment related concerns, they need to be suitably addressed, but all decisions must be taken in a time frame. We cannot permit the present state of policy paralysis and indecisiveness to continue for long," said Modi.

"Whatever little growth we are having that can also be called as a jobless growth. This is because the UPA government has never given adequate emphasis on the manufacturing sector," Modi said.

The Gujarat chief minister said an NDA government will "focus on reviving the economy and growth".

"Our focus is going to be clearly on infrastructure and the manufacturing sector. It will not only encourage investment, but will also produce the required employment opportunities," he said.

He said there was a need to revive investor sentiment and the NDA government will move towards a policy of faster and time-bound project clearances to give a fillip to manufacturing.

On land acquisition policy, he said the first priority has to be on protecting the interest of farmers whose land was being acquired.

"They have to be adequately compensated as per the market rates. As far as possible, we should go through the private purchase route rather than compulsory acquisition. Even where compulsory acquisition is resorted to, the compensation should be decided as consent between the farmer and the acquiring authority," Modi told this media agency.

He said a "win-win situation" was possible and farmers should benefit "from development that comes".

Answering a query about priorities in infrastructure, Modi said there was need to focus on areas such as highways, railways, ports and power. He said a BJP-led government will revive the National Highway Development programme.

"It is unfortunate that the very good beginning made by the (earlier) NDA government (of Atal Bihari Vajpayee) was not continued by the UPA in right earnest. We will bring back the focus by connecting the country through a network of good quality highways," he said.

Modi said the government will start work on a high speed rail network.

"The railways have been ignored by successive Congress governments. We plan to begin a journey of transformation to take the railways at par with the most modern rail networks in the world."

Affirming the party's opposition to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multibrand retail, Modi said the party was in favour of FDI which leads to growth, employment opportunities and sharing of new technology.

"I would reiterate our party's commitment to encouraging FDI in various sectors to boost economic growth and to create employment opportunities for our youth," said Modi.

Source: Agencies

Indian UC Market Down 2.3% In 2013: IDC

One of the key business priorities for most enterprises is to remove the communication bottle necks; Unified Communication (UC) solutions adoption would help with   this. However, there are few adoption challenges like cost, resistance to change, and lack of awareness on the benefits derived by UC adoption. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the overall Unified Communications market in India has seen a marginal decline of 2.3% in 1H13 as compared to 1H12. 10% decline in Enterprise Telephony market has pulled down the overall UC revenues in 1H13, whereas other markets like Enterprise Collaborations and Contact Center have seen a decent growth of 4-6% as compared to 1H12.

Enterprise Telephony market is suffering due to a combination of market factors: Firstly, IP-PBX solutions are eating into the TDM-PBX solutions revenues as the former gives better ROI for end customers. Secondly, all the major vendors have started offering Software-based IP-PBX solutions, which is cutting their hardware revenues. On top of these, IP-PBX solutions are no longer considered as business transformational tools. All these are driving the Enterprise telephony market down and pushing customers to adopt alternative solutions like Web Conferencing. 

IDC has seen a huge traction in Video Conferencing market as this generates a clear ROI by reducing the travel cost for organizations. However, economic downturn is limiting this market to grow further as organizations are taking a cautious approach towards overall IT spending. But IDC believes this impact is just cyclical and desktop-based VC solutions will witness a growing demand in the future. Web & Voice Conferencing, Team Collaboration and Enterprise Social Networking are the next high growth areas, as these solutions will help reduce the number of emails and lower the bandwidth requirement which in turn will reduce the cost and improve productivity.

Contact Center market is undergoing modernization and transformation with Multi-channel/platform solutions which integrates voice, IVR, social media, email, web chat, SMS, fax etc. It helped the India Contact Center market to achieve a 4% Year-on-Year (YoY) growth in 1H13, despite the continued threat from the Philippines which is famous for their low cost of resources as compared to India. In India, Outcome-based model, though still being nascent, is garnering interest. Some key vendors are proposing for a solution where they will only charge customers based on the outcomes achieved but not on the applications/technology deployed.

IDC India Forecasts:

Dileep Nadimpalli, Senior Market Analyst, Unified Communications, IDC India says,  “IDC expects a recovery for India’s Unified Communications market in 2H13 and it will close 2013 with a marginal growth. Growth will be majorly driven by Enterprise Collaboration applications like Team Collaboration, Social Networking, Unified Messaging, Video Conferencing, and Web & Voice Conferencing solutions. However, we expect Enterprise Telephony market to continue to go through a declining journey."  

Nadimpalli further adds, “Most organizations are using Unified Communication offerings stand-alone, without considering the whole picture of UC solutions. UC vendors need to go through the challenges of communication silos to increase the adoption of Unified communication solutions.”  

Are Indian Enterprises Target For Cybercriminals?

Symantec Corp's Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR) Volume 19, shows a significant shift in cybercriminal behavior, revealing the bad guys are plotting for months before pulling off huge heists – instead of executing quick hits with smaller rewards. Attackers are unrelenting in their focus on large enterprises with over 69 percent or more than 2/3rds of the targeted attacks in India carried out on them.

New Era of ‘Mega Breaches’

“One mega breach can be worth 50 smaller attacks,” said Tarun Kaura, Director, Technology Sales at Symantec India. “While the level of sophistication continues to grow among attackers, what was surprising last year was their willingness to be a lot more patient – waiting to strike until the reward is bigger and better.”

Globally, there was a 62 percent increase in the number of data breaches from the previous year, resulting in more than 552 million identities exposed – proving cybercrime remains a real and damaging threat to consumers and businesses alike. The size and scope of breaches is exploding, putting the trust and reputation of businesses at risk, and increasingly compromising consumers’ personal information – from credit card numbers and medical records to passwords and bank account details. Each of the eight top data breaches in 2013 resulted in the loss of tens of millions of data records. By comparison, 2012 only had a single data breach reach that threshold. 

“Nothing breeds success like success – especially if you’re a cybercriminal,” added Kaura. “The potential for huge paydays means large-scale attacks are here to stay. Companies of all sizes need to re-examine, re-think and possibly re-architect their security posture.”

Defense is Harder than Offense

Globally targeted attacks were up 91 percent and lasted an average of three times longer compared to 2012.  In India, cyber criminals are unrelenting in their focus on large enterprises with a staggering 69 percent targeted attacks carried out against them. Despite stepping up their information security measures, businesses in India continue to be an attractive target for cybercriminals. 

Furthermore, within organizations, support functions with access to critical data emerged as the strongest target for attackers globally. Personal assistants and those working in public relations were the two most targeted professions – cybercriminals use them as a stepping stone toward higher-profile targets like celebrities or business executives.

Small Businesses are Pawns in a Larger Plot 

Small and medium-sized businesses often have less adequate security practices and resources.  Attackers are increasingly targeting smaller businesses that have a relationship with a larger company.  Not surprisingly, in India, small businesses received the highest number of phishing and virus-bearing emails - almost three times as much as the larger targets.  

Newer Industries are Low-hanging Fruits for Cybercriminals

In India, nearly four in 10 attacks were carried out on non-traditional services industries like hospitality, business and personal services. This was followed by attacks on manufacturing, finance and insurance. 

On the other hand, globally, the top data targeted during a breach had moved from just financial information to basic information like names, addresses, email addresses and government ID proofs etc. Interestingly, while non-traditional, service- centric organizations handle such information in large numbers, they may often lack adequate security practices and infrastructure making them easy targets for such attacks.   

India: A Key Threat Frontier 

India emerged as a key threat frontier, ranking as the third highest source of overall malicious activity. While it continued to hold its position as the spam capital of the world with 9.8 percent of spam zombies; it was also the highest source of botnet spam, with 6.6 percent or close to 1.45 billion spams originating from its borders every day. India ranked especially high in the number of top botnets like Cutwail, Kelihos, GRUM and GHEG. Large botnets like Cutwail and Kelihos have made their presence felt in the threat landscape this year by sending out malicious attachments. According to the report, Cutwail which is the spam-sending botnet for the malware Pandex sends 8.06 billion spam messages every day, out of which the highest are sent from India (over 620 million).

How to Maintain Cyber Resiliency

While the increasing flow of data from smart devices, apps and other online services is tantalizing to cybercriminals, there are steps businesses and consumers can take to better protect themselves – whether it be from a mega data breach, targeted attack or common spam. Symantec recommends the following best practices:

For Businesses: 

Know your data: Protection must focus on the information – not the device or data center. Understand where your sensitive data resides and where it is flowing to help identify the best policies and procedures to protect it.  

Educate employees: Provide guidance on information protection, including company policies and procedures for protecting sensitive data on personal and corporate devices.

Implement a strong security posture: Strengthen your security infrastructure with data loss prevention, network security, endpoint security, encryption, strong authentication and defensive measures, including reputation-based technologies.

For Consumers: 

Be security savvy: Passwords are the keys to your kingdom. Use password management software to create strong, unique passwords for each site you visit and keep your devices – including smartphones – updated with the latest security software.

Be vigilant: Review bank and credit card statements for irregularities, be cautious when handling unsolicited or unexpected emails and be wary of online offers that seem too good to be true – they usually are.

Know who you work with: Familiarize yourself with policies from retailers and online services that may request your banking or personal information. As a best practice, visit the company’s official website directly (as opposed to clicking on an emailed link) if you must share sensitive information. 

Massive Changes To Data Center Ecosystem In 2025

Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson and a global leader in maximizing availability, capacity and efficiency of critical infrastructure, today released “Data Center 2025: Exploring the Possibilities” a forward-thinking report summarizing four months of global research designed to identify the industry’s vision of the data center in the year 2025. The results range from the expected—increased utilization of the cloud—to the ambitious—largely solar-powered data centers with power densities exceeding 50 kW per rack. One thing was clear: Most experts believe the data center as we know it will undergo massive changes over the next decade.

More than 800 data center professionals from around the world responded to the Data Center 2025 survey, with dozens of others contributing their thoughts via interviews, email and video. The feedback, viewed collectively, indicates most in the field remain bullish on the data center industry and on continued innovation in the IT space and beyond. For example, on average, experts predict density in 2025 will climb to 52 kW per rack. According to the Data Center Users’ Group sponsored by Emerson Network Power, average density has remained relatively flat since peaking around 6 kW nearly a decade ago, but experts are anticipating a dramatic upswing in density that could radically change the physical environment of the data center.

“We started the Data Center 2025 initiative with a sincere desire to discover what our customers, collaborators, colleagues and others in the data center community believe the future holds for this industry,” said Steve Hassell, president, data center solutions, Emerson Network Power. “We approached the research with an open mind, no expectations and no preconceived notions of what we would find. The results reflect a level of sophisticated understanding, visionary thinking and genuine optimism that I find inspiring. I believe the true impact of this report lies not only in its measurement of current opinion, but in its ability to spark future innovation .”

Other notable survey results and forecasts from the report :

*  Big changes in how data centers are powered: The experts believe a mix of sources will be used to provide electrical power to data centers. Solar will lead, followed by a nearly equal mix of nuclear, natural gas and wind. Sixty-five percent believe it is likely hyperscale facilities will be powered by private power generation.

*  Cloud forecasts are somewhat conservative: Industry experts predict two-thirds of data center computing will be done in the cloud in 2025. That’s actually a fairly conservative estimate. According to Cisco’s Global Cloud Index, cloud workloads represent around 46 percent of current total data center workloads, and will reach 63 percent by 2017.

* DCIM will play a prominent role: Twenty-nine percent of experts anticipate comprehensive visibility across all systems and layers, while 43 percent expect data centers to be self-healing and self optimizing. Taken together, that would indicate 72 percent of the experts believe some level of DCIM will be deployed in 2025—significantly higher than most current estimates of DCIM adoption.

*  Utilization rates will be higher: That increased visibility is expected to lead to more efficient performance overall, as 72 percent of industry experts expect IT resource utilization rates to be at least 60 percent in 2025. The average projection is 70 percent. That compares to estimated averages today as low as 6-12 percent, with best practices somewhere between 30-50 percent.

“The data center of 2025 certainly won’t be one data center. The analogy I like to use is to transport,” said Andy Lawrence, vice president of Datacenter Technologies and Eco-efficient IT at 451 Research. “On the road, we see sports cars and family cars; we see buses and we see trucks. They have different kinds of engines, different types of seating and different characteristics in terms of energy consumption and reliability. We are going to see something similar to that in the data center world. In fact that is already happening, and I expect it to continue.”

2015 Autodesk's Design Suites Unveiled In India

Autodesk, Inc. has announced the release of its Autodesk 2015 Design Suites in India, featuring tighter integration with Autodesk cloud services. – The 2015 Design Suites offer customers the ability to collaborate, simulate, analyze and more, with just one click from within the suite. 

Each Autodesk 2015 Design Suite includes AutoCAD 2015, the most advanced version of the software. AutoCAD 2015 comes with a new interface and enhanced productivity tools that will enable customers to experience a new standard in design and documentation.  Additionally, Autodesk Subscription offers customers even more convenient, flexible ways to access necessary tools as per their requirements, to help grow their business.  Autodesk subscription connects customers with software updates, services and support that help get the most out of their investment in Autodesk software now and in the future.

Pradeep Nair, Managing director, Autodesk, India and SAARC said, “The Autodesk portfolio now has something for everyone who is involved in the design and making of products and projects.  Users will notice a significant difference in how much easier it is to get their work done with the Autodesk 2015 Design Suites. And with Autodesk Subscription, users get flexible options to utilize cloud services for design.”

Productivity-Boosting Enhancements for All Suites

New features and functionality have been added to the 2015 family of Autodesk Design Suites:

·    Autodesk AutoCAD Design Suite offers a refined visual interface, better point cloud support to bring the real world into the AutoCAD canvas, and easier ways to work with online maps and other geographic location information.

·    Autodesk Building Design Suite delivers better integration with BIM 360 cloud services, enhanced point cloud capabilities, and numerous customer requested improvements for Autodesk Revit, including a new sketchy lines feature, ability to include imagery in schedules, enhanced hidden lines capability and more.

·    Autodesk Factory Design Suite introduces easier moves from 2D AutoCAD drawings to 3D factory layouts with streamlined transitions from legacy workflows; point cloud support for “as is” facility capture; extended use of Factory Design data; and enhancements to Factory Design Mobile app.

·     Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite includes major enhancements to AutoCAD Civil 3D software, including improved user interface, greater flexibility for corridor modeling, more efficient creation of profiles layouts, better production drafting, and simpler ways to create custom subassemblies.

·    Autodesk Plant Design Suite rolls out significant enhancements to AutoCAD Plant 3D software, including center of gravity, bill of materials (BOM), fixed length pipe modeling, piping and instrumentation drawing (P&ID), and isometric improvements.

·    Autodesk Product Design Suite launches with exceptional modeling capabilities, a new user experience, and workflow enhancements.

·   Autodesk Maya 2015 software adds new capabilities to the toolset such as the new Bifrost procedural effects platform; XGen Arbitrary Primitive Generator; Geodesic Voxel Binding method; ShaderFX, a new node-based visual interface; support for Pixar’s OpenSubdiv libraries; enhanced polygon modeling tools; and expanded UV options

Actual features and functionality vary by edition (Standard, Premium, Ultimate) of each suite.  Visit the In the Fold Autodesk blog for more in-depth details on the 2015 Design Suites for Autodesk manufacturing, architecture, engineering and construction, infrastructure and oil and gas industry customers.

Cloud Services Just a Click Away

Customers in the architecture, engineering, and construction, and infrastructure markets can expect to experience significant productivity improvements through one-click access to BIM 360, cloud-based building information modeling (BIM) software for collaboration and management of construction projects. Autodesk InfraWorks 360, which offers civil engineers additional cloud services for collaboration and analysis at the early stages of infrastructure design, includes an updated UI, support for more data formats, enhancements to Roadway Design for InfraWorks 360 and a new application Bridge Design for InfraWorks 360. The Design Suites for these fields also feature full integration of the Autodesk 360 Rendering service, which uses the virtually infinite computing power of the cloud to create high-resolution renderings efficiently.

Manufacturing industry customers will now have easy access to new offerings such as Process Analysis 360, a cloud-based service that shall help engineers and system designers in modelling, studying, and optimizing manufacturing processes. This accessibility – combined with other feature enhancements and refinements –obliterates the barriers to entry so that everyone can design and engineer great products.

Rajiv Bajaj, Head - Manufacturing, at Autodesk India said, “Autodesk 2015 Product Design Suite and Factory Design Suite provide designers and engineers with a complete set of tools and cloud services that allow them to simplify design, visualization and simulation workflows from product development through to delivery. By offering solutions that are scalable, cost effective and open, our customers have the opportunity to design, manufacture and sell great products.”

“We have integrated the strengths of superior Building Information Modeling (BIM) desktop software with new cloud, mobile software to dramatically improve the future of building,” said Sunil MK, Head - Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC), Autodesk India. “Autodesk 2015 Infrastructure Design Suite and Building Design Suite shall empower designers, architects and engineers with technology for greater productivity, improved collaboration, and more complete, better integrated BIM workflows to help them unleash their vision of a better, more sustainable world.”  

Alok Sharma, Head - Media & Entertainment at Autodesk India, said, “Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2015 and Flame Premium 2015 is one of our strongest releases, wherein the new versions put more creative power into the hands of artists. We have redesigned core parts of our applications focusing on performance, ease-of-use and innovative new tools like Bifrost that make it simpler to do complex tasks. Whether our users are creating visual effects for a blockbuster movie, a high-end game for one of the new consoles or developing a mobile app, the 2015 versions allow artists to focus on what they do best – storytelling.”

It’s Never Been Easier to Access Autodesk Software

Autodesk Subscription offers the most convenient, modern, and flexible way for customers to purchase and access the software and services that is required to grow their business. It also provides new purchasing options that enable customers to choose the plan that best fits their current project needs and budget. 

Autodesk Subscription customers gain access to the latest Autodesk software releases and cloud services, technical support, and flexible licensing rights from the following options:

Maintenance Subscription is the most cost effective way to maintain and maximize long-term investment in purchased Autodesk software and services.

Desktop Subscription offers pay-as-you-go plans. Customers can choose from monthly, quarterly, and annual options for using Autodesk Design and Creation Suites and select software products.

Cloud Service Subscription can have a dramatic effect on the way customers work. A broad selection of cloud-based services offer access to virtually infinite cloud computing power that significantly reduces visualization and simulation processing times and frees up desktop resources for greater productivity, mobility and collaboration.

1010 Innovations From Tata Companies In 2013-14

Tata Innovista 2014, a group-wide programme, held annually by the Tata Group Innovation Forum (TGIF) to encourage, recognise and showcase outstanding innovations done by Tata companies across the globe, received over 1700 entries, this year.

From a total of 56 Tata companies who submitted their entries in Tata Innovista 2014, 31Tata companies reached the regional rounds. The entries at the regional rounds, held in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Jamshedpur, London, Washington DC, and Singapore, were judged by eminent external experts. 83 teams from 25 Tata companies were shortlisted for the global round that took place in Mumbai on April 23, 2014.

In the finals, awards were given under four categories:

Promising Innovations

This category recognises innovations that have been successfully implemented during the year and have accrued benefits. It has four sub-categories, New Product innovations, New Service innovations, Core Process innovations and Support Process innovations. Tata companies from across the world have introduced 1010 such innovations in the year 2013-14. Out of these 1010 entries received, 43 innovations reached the final round of Tata Innovista 2014. The estimated combined economic benefitof these 43 finalist innovations isUSD 1 billion on an annual basis.  This is the first time when this benefit has been was tracked and measured. The Promising Innovations awards went to:

*  New Product innovations: Jaguar Land Rover

*  New Service innovations: Two teams from Tata Consultancy Services and one team from Tata Steel won in this category

*  Core Process innovations: Tata Steel Europe and Tata Consulting Engineers

*  Support Process innovations: Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited

The Core process and Support Process innovations category received most entries, 345 and 376 respectively. This signifies that the concept of innovation is getting embedded at Tata companies moving beyond product innovations to processes like HR, finance, supply chain, IT, brand, marketing and logistics, among others. New Product and New Service categories saw 164 and 128 entries respectively, indicating that Tata companies are increasingly looking at market driven innovations. 

The Leading Edge – Proven Technologies

The participation received under another defining category, The Leading Edge – Proven Technologies, indicates a healthy pipeline of promising business ideas that Tata companies are looking at putting out in the future. 354 entries were received under this category which recognises and rewards the most innovative technology that is being developed and piloted, but is yet to be commercialised. This year the Leading Edge awards went to:

*    Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Steel and Jaguar Land Rover

Dare To Try

Showcasing a growing culture of risk-taking and perseverance across Tata companies, the Dare To TRY category at Tata Innovista saw 176 entries. The Dare To Try category recognises and rewards most novel, daring and seriously attempted ideas that did not achieve the desired results. The awards went to:

*  Tata Steel, Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Chemicals

Design Honour

To increase the focus of Tata companies on DESIGN THINKING, a new category called Design Honour was introduced this year. This category was further divided into two subcategories: Touch Design and Feel Design. More than 200 entries were received in this category in the very first year. The awards went to:

*    Jaguar Land Rover and Titan Company

According to Dr. Mukund Rajan, Member – Group Executive Council and Brand Custodian, Tata Sons, “Tata Innovista has become a very good indicator of the success of the innovation drive in the Tata group — and of the inherent capabilities of its people. The trends observed in the 2014 edition signify a growing culture of innovation in the group with elements of Frugality, Customer delight, Service innovation and Collaboration. We have observed that almost 70% of the participants are in the age brackets of 20-30 and 30-40 years, indicating that the innovation eco-system in the group is encouraging and empowering young managers to think out of the ordinary. Interestingly, a significant number of projects were collaborative projects, signifying that Tata companies are increasingly able to come together to leverage the synergies a diverse group like ours offers.”

The finalists were judged by a panel of internal and external jurists, comprising of distinguished personalities of the likes of Mr. Ravi Kirpalani, Managing Director, Castrol India Ltd., Ms. Vinita Bali, Managing Director, Britannia Industries, Mr. Ashok Gupta, Executive Director & CEO, Indo Rama Synthetics, Ms. Ireena Vittal, Independent Strategic Advisor, Blufin Advisors, Mr. Michael Foley, Managing Director, Foley Designs Pvt. Ltd, Mr. Sudhir Jain, Director, IIT Gandhinagar, Mr. Tony Harper, Head – Research & Advanced Systems, JLR, Mr. Ananth Krishnan, Chief Technology Officer, TCS and Mr. Debashish Bhattacharjee, Group Director, Research Development and Technology, Tata Steel,    among others.

In 2006, the Tata group started the process of capturing and celebrating innovations of Tata companies through Tata Innovista. The objective of this programme is to capture innovations in Tata companies, encourage innovators and innovations in Tata companies, share the levers used by them to identify and execute innovation projects, and create a culture of risk-taking. In order to support Tata companies in their journey of innovation, TQMS, a division of Tata Sons, formed the Tata Group Innovation Forum (TGIF) in 2007. The objective of TGIF is to encourage, inspire and help create a culture that promotes innovation in Tata companies. Over the past six years, TQMS, under the guidance of TGIF, has been connecting Tata companies all over the world, stimulating innovative thinking and encouraging collaborative research.