Panasonic ELUGA 1 With Smart Swipe Function Now Available In India

In its endeavor to provide Indian consumers with latest technological innovation, Panasonic India today announced the launch of its new smartphone, ELUGA I for the Indian market. This is in continuity to the already existing ELUGA series; which has become one of the most sought after phones from Panasonic in India and it is these phones which have always been recognized for their design, superior build quality and unique user interface for single hand operation. Redefining technological innovation and software advancement, the company continues to introduce devices which are equipped with top of the line hardware.

The sleek design ELUGA I sports a 5 inch Raised Curve Display Panel for better viewing angles & for making longer viewing “Strain-Free” for eyes. Powered by Quad Core (1.3GHz) processor the new phone runs on the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system proving an immersive Android experience along with Panasonic’s Fit Home User Interface designed for Single Hand operation. It has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory which can be expanded upto 32GB. The company has also introduced an innovative Smart Swipe functionality with ELUGA I, where in, a combination of number of fingers & direction of swipe can help user perform various predefined functions providing ease of access. In addition to this, the smartphone comes with an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash and 1080p video recording capabilities. The 2 MP front camera adds a face to all your video chats & 3G video calling. On Battery capacity, with a 2000mAh Lithium Polymer unit one charge faster and safer along with longer battery durability.

The smartphone box packs an Interactive Flip cover with which the users can access the smartphone faster by easily locking/unlocking, attending calls and checking reminders & notifications with the smart Flip cover on. Also, it gives you ease of access with “Fit Home” user interface specifically designed for single hand operation introduced for ELUGA series along with some unique features like Gesture Play Infinite for accessing apps by drawing gestures on any screen, smart swipe for making the phone perform various functions by swipe of fingers & “Kwik Lock”, where the user can double tap the home screen to lock.

Expressing his pleasure on the launch, Manish Sharma, Managing Director, Panasonic India said “With the launch of Eluga I, Panasonic India is offering a new dimension to the company’s unique Eluga series culture; wherein the model has been introduced to reinforce our category strength with one of the most innovative phones in the Eluga series while meeting the needs and requirements of the customers.”

Sharing his thoughts on ELUGA I, Pankaj Rana, Business Head – Mobility Division, Panasonic India said “We are living in a 2.0 world today, where consumers’ requirements are moving and so is their demand for technology. Customers today prefer relevant innovation, so we focus on creating categories of products for various segment of people, rather than focusing on a specific genre. We will continue to launch more and more devices and continue to innovate for our customers.” 

Institute Partners To Fast-Track Entrepreneurship Among Women

The Anita Borg Institute (ABI), a non-profit organization focused on the advancement of women in computer science and engineering, is partnering with two Government bodies, the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem for women entrepreneurs in India. The ecosystem will be established through the Women Entrepreneurship Quest (WEQ) Program. This announcement was made during the WEQ 2014 contest finals, part of the 5^th Grace Hopper India Conference held on Friday, 21 November at the Lalit Ashok Hotel.

WEQ is an innovative technology business plan competition designed by the Anita Borg Institute to promote innovation and ensure support to aspiring Indian women entrepreneurs. WEQ is held annually during the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing India (GHCI). The winner of the contest is awarded Rs  5,00,000 along with a host of other special awards.

As per this partnership, 6 selected women entrepreneurs from the WEQ contest will be sent to the United States on a fully paid trip to get exposed to the entrepreneurial culture in Silicon Valley and will be provided with extensive mentoring, networking opportunities and access to capital, which is one of the biggest obstacles to growth for women entrepreneurs.The effort is to support networking amongst women entrepreneurs, including potential entrepreneurs, connect them with government agencies and other support organizations.  

WEQ 2014 Contest

Sreepriya Koppula, CEO of the Turnaround Systems Pvt Ltd won the WEQ 2014 Contest. She has developed technology solution Turnaround360 to make the online catalogs 3-dimensional and interactive. She impressed judges with her straightforward presentation and her thorough validations of her targeted market. She bagged cash prize INR 5 Lakhs along with host of other awards.

06 finalist selected from 107 entries received from across India, gave ten-minute venture pitch presentations to a panel of judges which included investors, technology experts, entrepreneurs and mentors.

Broadening the Base of Women Entrepreneurs

“We are extremely delighted to have partnered with NSTEDB, DST & IUSSTF to promote women entrepreneurship. Supporting women entrepreneurs is a key part of ABI’s mission, and over the years ABI has developed programs to support entrepreneurship among women”, said Geetha Kannan, India Managing Director, Anita Borg Institute.“Broadening the base of women entrepreneurs is extremely critical to India’s energetic economy. In the last few years, there has been a significant increase in women-led businesses which is truly encouraging and I am confident that this partnership will help identify and support women entrepreneurs to set up innovative companies that can lead to job creation and business opportunities in local and international markets.”

“The Government of India has initiated several measures to promote entrepreneurship among women as it realizes the critical role of women in national development. However, the government alone cannot sustain the movement of empowerment of women. There is need for organizations such as the Anita Borg Institute to act as catalysts and based on that belief we have entered into a partnership,” said Dr. Anita Gupta of the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

“While women are stepping forward and breaking the glass ceiling on their own, we believe that to accelerate this pace there is tremendous value in sharing best practices across our nations, there have to be many more such partnerships to create an ecosystem for women entrepreneurs which is one part of empowerment of women. This new initiative will encourage a large number of women entrepreneurs but also will generate significant employment, the cascading effect of such movement will only be positive growth of our countries,” said Dr. Smriti Trikha of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum. “The Indo-US Science and Technology Forum looks at tapping potential of entrepreneurs, specifically women who are emerging as leaders, business owners, employees, and key stakeholders.” 

“There has to be continued and sustained campaign and effort to unshackle barriers, legal or social, that have impinged on women’s development.”

Sandisk Co-founder Gets Honors for Scientific Achievement & Innovation

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced that Dr. Eli Harari, co-founder, and retired chairman and chief executive officer of SanDisk, was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by the National Science Foundation for his significant contributions towards the development and proliferation of flash memory.

The award represents the nation’s highest honor for advancing science and technology by recognizing those who have made lasting contributions that have created a greater understanding of the world and improved the lives of many. U.S. President Barack Obama conferred the medal at a ceremony held today at the White House, which was attended by leading dignitaries and other medal laureates.

Dr. Harari co-founded SanDisk more than 25 years ago with the vision of using flash memory to store data in mobile products. Flash memory – an ideal storage medium due to its small size, ruggedness and low power consumption – has since become ubiquitous in mobile devices, and is now found in digital cameras, smartphones, tablets, thin-and-light laptops and other portable products. Flash memory is also increasingly transforming datacenters, enabling them to accelerate the processing and analysis of vast and growing amounts of data, thereby helping to make social media, online media-streaming, real-time business analytics and other industries both possible and feasible.

“I am proud to congratulate my fellow SanDisk co-founder and friend, Eli, on this tremendous achievement,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of SanDisk. “The flash memory technologies he helped to pioneer have had a profound impact on the entire technology landscape, firmly establishing SanDisk as a global leader and connecting us in ways we never thought possible. His lifelong intellectual and technical achievements are well-deserving of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.”

“Dr. Harari’s pioneering work both as engineer and co-founder of SanDisk was fundamental to establishing the practicality, reliability, manufacturability and endurance of flash memory, which today is widely considered to be one of the most important core technologies in the technology industry,” said Tim Bajarin, founder and president, Creative Strategies. “Flash memory has enabled many companies such as Apple and others to offer breakthrough products that have changed the lives of people around the world. For many enterprise companies, their data is their business and flash memory can help companies such as Google, Facebook, Alibaba, Amazon and many others to access and analyze this massive amount of data.”

Throughout the years, SanDisk has garnered the reputation as one of the most trusted brands for its innovations such as:

• Shipping the world’s first flash-based SSD in 1991;
• Revolutionizing the flash memory market in 1997 with multi-level cell (MLC) technology, doubling the density of each memory die to dramatically reduce cost;
• Introducing the SD™ card format in 1998 in partnership with Toshiba and Panasonic; and
• Developing the world’s smallest NAND flash chip in 2012, which can store 128 billion individual bits of information on an area the size of a U.S. penny.

Fueled by the company’s vertical integration and strategic acquisitions of companies like FlashSoft, Schooner Information Technology, Pliant Technology, SMART Technologies, and Fusion-io, SanDisk has in recent years focused on transforming the enterprise market with flash memory technology. SanDisk, which today offers the broadest flash memory solution portfolio for the enterprise, is paving the way for faster data processing, enabling better business intelligence, reducing the datacenter footprint, and continuing to bring their customers high-quality reliable solutions. 

Philips's eCare Enables Patients for Home Telehealth Programs

The Bangalore-based Philips Innovation Centre, as part of its massive healthcare program has announced the availability of the connecting care from hospital to homes. Now Philips healthcare and consumer offerings span the health continuum, including healthy living, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, recovery and home care. 

Addressing the media, M R Srinivas Prasad, CEO of Philips Innovation Campus says, "Both eCare Coordinator and eCare Companion are part of the Philips Transition to Ambulatory Care (eTrAC) program, a clinical program whose goal is to help healthcare providers reduce readmissions and lower healthcare costs by focusing on effective chronic care management within the home. By connecting clinicians and patients transitioning from the hospital to ambulatory care, Philips enables clinicians to monitor patients remotely and prioritize them for intervention."

eCareCoordinator supports population health management by providing clinicians with a daily review of each of their patients, allowing them to prioritize patients and adjust care plans or intervene as needed. The application gives clinicians real-time access to both objective health data – like vital signs, blood pressure and weight – as well as subjective responses collected via health questionnaires and other communication with the care team about the patient’s status. 

The eCareCompanion application serves as the patient portal, driving patient engagement and self-management. The personalized application is accessed via a tablet, and allows patients to answer questions about their health and enter requested measurements to stay connected with their care teams. Its ability to connect with medical devices, such as a weight scale, oximeter, blood pressure meter and medicine dispenser, enables a deeper insight into patient health. The application also proactively reminds them of pre-assigned health tasks, like taking medications, to encourage adherence and better outcomes. 

Are APAC CIOs Facing a Glass Ceiling?

While technology has provided CIOs with plenty of opportunities to make their mark on their respective businesses, relatively few have moved on to become a CEO. According to a report by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), sponsored by Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), it may take more than technical expertise to convince senior management that today’s successful CIO will be a good choice for tomorrow’s CEO.

The report, entitled 'The Future for CIOs: Which Way Is UP?', surveyed 1,000 senior executives from 13 countries across Asia Pacific, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan and 6 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The findings reveal that the modern CIO has a strategic role that goes beyond just managing the IT function in nearly 9 out of 10 (89 per cent) organisations. In addition, the majority of respondents (84 per cent) agree that the CIO should be involved in all business-critical decisions at an early stage.

CIOs have won the respect of the business, but reaching the next level will be difficult

“This research shows that CIOs are well-respected by the business, particularly during the past year, when they helped firms cut costs by being more efficient. Looking forward, CIOs need to take the next step and contribute to business growth by developing new products or services and generating revenue,” said Neville Vincent, senior vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific, HDS. “66 per cent of respondents believe that the CIO should be a potential candidate for succeeding the CEO – so there are already noticeable cracks in the glass ceiling.”

CIOs and other IT executives seem to be aware of the areas where they will be required to deliver. However, they may underestimate the skills and experience needed to achieve this. According to CEOs, the top 3 areas where CIOs should develop their skills are: a greater understanding of the business (41 per cent), the ability to think strategically (26 per cent), and an awareness of broader industry developments (23 per cent). However, none of these feature at the top of the CIOs’ own development goals: demonstrating business case for IT investment (28 per cent), technical skills to integrate new technologies (24 per cent) and knowledge of emerging technologies (23 per cent). Maybe less surprisingly, executives in non-IT functions are more open (17 per cent) to a CIO having a non-IT background than counterparts in the IT function (9 per cent). So this blind focus on technology skills may be misplaced.

James Chambers, senior editor of The Economist Intelligence Unit, said:

“CIOs have earned the right to be considered a candidate for CEO, alongside their C-level counterparts, but it will take more to secure the top job. Ambitious candidates will need to take the initiative to develop their own knowledge and spend time in other parts of the business as they explore ways of creating a competitive edge for their organisations.” 

As per the survey undertaken by the Indian respondents, 80 per cent believe that a CIO could become tomorrow’s CEO and 93 per cent say that the CIO should have final decision-making authority on all IT expenditure. Indian organisations invest in IT mainly to improve customer satisfaction and organisational agility.

Innovation is a key driver of revenue growth, and it is the CIO’s role to drive it

Innovation has been a major driver of revenue growth is almost 3 in 5 companies surveyed. This relationship is expected to continue on an upward trend.

Over 4 of 5 executives across all functions (85 per cent) agree that the CIO should drive innovation across the business, even though IT is considered a driver of innovation at less than a third (28 per cent) of firms. Thus, technology may have thrust the CIO into the spotlight, but his or her career is not tied to IT.

“IT is a major driver of innovation at Indian companies and 76 per cent agree that innovation leads to current revenue growth,” said Vivekanand Venugopal, Vice President and General Manager, Hitachi Data Systems. “57 per cent of the respondents said that in 2015, the investment in IT will increase and the areas with the largest investment increase will be cloud computing and IT infrastructure. As business innovation continues to increase in importance, CIO’s will continue to act as a vital catalyst for innovation.”

“A healthy number of respondents (59 per cent) agree that innovation has been a major driver of revenues. However, there are obstacles, including a lack of IT budget and/or resources (18 per cent), a low standard of existing IT infrastructure (14 per cent), followed by a lack of skills and available talent (12 per cent),” explained Vincent.

Steps to stepping up to the CEO position

Until recently, it was believed that the rapidly changing IT environment would make the CIO irrelevant, or at least reduce his or her responsibilities to technology governance and information security. This survey shows that, in Asia Pacific at least, it is not the case.

To succeed, CIOs need an accurate idea of how existing IT assets can increase their organisation’s revenue, and not just focus on making better business cases for yet more technology. As the report suggests, CIOs can further drive revenue generation and business growth by following these 5 steps:

1. Take ownership of information: CEOs are looking to better data management and analytics to drive sales growth. Providing greater insights should be an easy win for CIOs, placing them at the centre of strategic discussions.

2. Better align IT with business needs: CIOs should be looking beyond their department, focussing on discovering new ways of harnessing technology to increase their organisation’s competitive offering.

3. Deliver return on IT investment: A CIO’s future prospects are likely to be determined by money made more than money saved. The vast majority of executives now expect CIOs to generate revenue – particularly among CIOs themselves.

4. Demonstrate leadership: Ambitious CIOs need to acquire additional knowledge and experience beyond their traditional IT skillset. This requires taking the initiative, such as immersing themselves in other parts of the business.

5. Drive the innovation instead of just contributing to it: Technology can facilitate or obstruct innovation, but it is no cure for all problems. CIOs need to invest in understanding the business and working closely with C-level colleagues to drive innovation and be involved in business-critical decisions at an early stage.

“Ultimately, for a CIO to follow in a CEO’s footsteps, they will need to take ownership of information, better align with business needs and focus on driving innovation forward. This is where we can help – our solutions and services help CIOs to increase an organisation’s competitive offering and generate revenue,” concluded Vincent.

Softline Group Appoints Atul Ahuja as Head of Operations India

Softline Group, a USD 1 billion Global IT services and Solutions Company based in Russia, announced that it has appointed Atul Ahuja as Managing Director of its operations in India. Atul was formerly with Citrix, as Director Desktop and Apps, Microsoft Alliance, India Subcontinent.

An extremely successful business professional, Atul comes with more than 20 years of rich work experience in organizations as Citrix, Tata InfoTech and Microsoft.  At Microsoft, where he worked for 10 years, he rose through the ranks from being a Regional Sales leader to Director Sales – BFSI (ATU Manager for BFSI vertical). Atul spent his last 4 years at Citrix India and managed the country business for Desktop and Application virtualization, working closely with internal and external stakeholders (Microsoft, Cisco, DaaS partners) and led the business successfully competing with large global companies in the Indian Sub-Continent.

“We are extremely excited to have a brilliant business leader like Atul who understands the complexity of our business model at scale,” said Igor Petlyakov, VP - International Business, Softline. According to Igor, India offers a huge market with enormous potential with a set of very dynamic buyer audiences. “We at Softline utilize our global experience to serve clients across the world. We can bring in a very distinctive, personal service experience for our Indian clients”, he added.

Successful businesses not only respond to their current customer or organizational needs, but often anticipate future trends and develop an idea, product or service that allows them to meet this future demand rapidly and effectively. Softline takes this approach seriously and therefore services, investments and Venture Capital unit focuses on innovation as the central theme.

“Mr. Ahuja’s proven track record as an innovation agent in the Indian Market made him a natural candidate to lead the Indian Subsidiary. Both Atul and Softline are all about finding innovative ways to help our customers grow their businesses by leveraging IT Solutions. We are positive that Atul will enable Softline to make a difference in the community, with our customers, and in the Indian Market”, said Sergio Klarreich, CTO – Softline International.

Reinventing Retention the Next Big Thing!

Until now retention strategies were based on instinct rather than any research or guiding principle. But, today, when the entire work culture has witnessed a paradigm shift, organisations are forced to think differently. Increasingly, organisations are acknowledging this change and thinking of innovative ways to retain employees.

Of the 54 per cent organisations who have tried creative ways to retain talent, 32 per cent said their retention rates improved by up to 10 per cent. About 60 per cent believe that application of innovative retention techniques will increase in times ahead, revealed the TimesJobs.com study. 

One size does not fit all 

While inventive retention methods are gaining acceptance across most organisations, employers need to understand that it will not appeal to every employee. According to the TimesJobs.com study, such techniques have high recognition with Gen Y (44%) and baby boomers have least acceptability for such initiatives, with only 19 per cent giving it a thumbs-up. Consequently, organisations need to tailor their retention strategies to suit different sections of employees. 

No tech intervention 

For over 70 per cent of the surveyed organisations such initiatives do not have any technology intervention. They have a more human-touch and are designed to connect with the employee on a more personal level, where their needs are presumed as that of the organisation’s. Interestingly, these low-tech hi-touch strategies seem to engage the IT staff more effectively, said 71 per cent of the organisations in the TimesJobs.com study.

Struggling to succeed 

“Employee turnover is costly; it leads to instability, inefficiency, ineffectiveness and a negative impact on the bottom line.” explains Vivek Madhukar, COO, TimesJobs.com, “Most organisations see attrition as a significant challenge citing budget constraints and lack of support as hurdles. However, as revealed by our latest study, an increasing number of employers are finding effective yet efficient ways, to hold the interest of their employees.”