Karnataka Launches First Unified Mobile Governance Platform for citizens

 
Karnataka has become the first state in India to launch Unified Mobile Governance Platform for citizens. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the mobile governance platform.

Called Mobile One the e-governance project in Karnataka is being labelled as the first of its kind in the country and brings a whole range of government services that are currently spread across hundreds of government websites into one common easily accessible location. The Mobile One service will also bring under one virtual roof some 1000 private services.

A Mobile One app will be the gateway to the government services for mobile phone users while users of ordinary phones will be able access services through SMSes or calls to the toll free 161 number. Services like exam results, train, bus bookings and cab bookings, payments of bills for electricity, telephones, and tax payments will be accessible through the Mobile One service.

The Mobile One e-governance project is being positioned by the Congress government in Karnataka as a flagship achievement of its 18 month tenure. The efforts to provide time bound and online services for government departments called the Sakala scheme had originally been launched by the BJP government during its tenure from 2008-2013.

As many as 600 government services was made time bound under the Sakala scheme and officials were liable for failing to deliver services with the prescribed limit for each service.
 
Launched by Karnataka government's Centre for e-Governance has over 4,500 services.Services include G2C, B2C and G2B.

This anytime, anywhere, anyhow service will be available 24x7x365 days at any location in the State on any mobile device.

The service can be accessed even on simple low end phones through integrated voice response (IVR), SMS or Mobile web.

An ambitious project of the e-governance department of the government of Karnataka to bundle over 600 government services – like application and issuance of birth and death certificates, property registration etc – into one seamless web location, that is accessible over mobile phones is set to be launched here on Monday afternoon by President Pranab Mukherjee.

State Mobile One Service To Be Unveiled By Prez Mukherjee

The state government will facilitate governance at your fingertips from Monday . Around 4,000 services, public and private, can be accessed on your handheld phones with its initiative. Titled Karnataka Mobile One (M-One), the scheme is said to be the first of its kind in the country .

Here, citizens can access 632 government-tocitizen services and over 3,500 business-to-consumer services at their finger tips by downloading an app or dialing 161.The scheme is scheduled to be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday. 

Launched by the e-governance department, a portfolio held by chief minister Siddaramaiah himself, services offered include applying for passport and paying incometax and utility bills. 

Juniper Introduces Junos Powered Open Compute Project Switch

Juniper Networks, the industry leader in network innovation, today introduced Juniper Networks OCX1100, the first switch to combine Open Compute Project (OCP) hardware design with a carrier-class network operating system,Junos OS. The new switch, which will be available the first quarter of 2015, provides customers who build large and massive scale data centers with an open, cost-effective, disaggregated switching platform.

Large cloud builders, such as Web 2.0 and web-hosting companies, are seeking ways to more efficiently build data center networks at scale to support tens to hundreds of thousands of servers. While the largest, massive scale cloud operators have solved this need with solutions created internally, or white box switches, these options are challenging for many companies due to the level of resources required to develop, install and support custom solutions. Combining Junos OS with OCP submitted hardware delivers a unique solution that removes the burden of support, installation and maintenance from cloud providers while delivering on the promise of an open source hardware design.

Highlights:

Juniper Networks OCX1100 will provide large cloud providers with proven software and open source network hardware that is much easier to deploy, integrate and support.

OCX1100 runs an optimized version of Junos, based on Linux, which delivers the features required for deployment in L3 networks. Additionally, the OCX1100 includes a range of open software interfaces and automation capabilities such as: 

*  Open, standards-based programmatic interfaces, including Python, which allows custom scripts and applications to interact with Junos.

*  Support for native installation of tools in Junos, including Puppet and Chef, which enables automated programming and provisioning. 

* Real time ephemeral table programming to Junos software development kits (SDK).

* Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) that enables disaggregation and loading of third-party network operating systems, freeing customers from vendor lock in.

* Juniper is working with Alpha Networks, a leading original device manufacturer (ODM), on the hardware design, which has been submitted to the OCP for review. Approval of the design is expected by the time the switch is available for purchase. 

* The OCX1100 provides the added benefit of complete Juniper technical support services for the hardware and software, lowering risk and increasing reliability for customers.

* The new product will be available during the first quarter of 2015, and purchasing options will include volume-based pricing.

 Mike Marcellin, senior vice president, strategy and marketing, Juniper Networks says, "The introduction of the OCX1100 is an example of Juniper Networks not only embracing the disruption brought on by emerging cloud technologies, but also moving the industry forward by providing the largest cloud providers with a viable option to create cost-effective and reliable large scale data centers. We remain committed to constant innovation and building open products that provide our customers with the technology they need today and in the future.”

Indian Companies Transform HR with SAP Cloud

Successful companies recognize that attracting and engaging today’s talent — and ensuring access to tomorrow’s talent — requires robust, fluid, end-to-end human capital management (HCM) solutions. And an increasing number are turning to SuccessFactors, an SAP SE company, to do it. Leveraging the company’s market-leading cloud-based HCM solutions, innovative organizations in India are developing and executing workforce strategies that enable them to drive their business today and gain advantages tomorrow.

United Breweries Limited is India’s largest producer of beer and has been associated with brewing for over 90 years. With UBL employees performing a wide range of job functions in locations around the country, the company’s primary requirement was to standardize processes and data handling across the organization. The company needed a technology platform that was easy to use and able to engage employees beyond the transaction with intelligent analytics. To address these needs, the company moved onto the cloud with SuccessFactors. “With SuccessFactors’ Goals and Performance , we have been able to improve goal-setting in the organization with clear content, metrics and timelines. We now have improved visibility to performance trends at different levels of the organization and across functions” said Suvro Raychaudhuri, General Manager – Human Resources, United Breweries Ltd.

Additionally, many companies such Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Relaxo Footwear, Cipla Limited, Godrej and Tata Communications from across various industries have  recently opted for SAP cloud HCM solutions to achieve process efficiency and better workforce management. With SuccessFactors, SAP offers the most comprehensive, end-to-end HCM portfolio both on premise and in the cloud — from core HR and employee administration to talent management, strategic planning and workforce analytics. With these solutions, companies in India are now empowered to strengthen their people policies to assist in their quest to attract the best industry talent, achieve organizational alignment and improve overall productivity.

“Today, Indian enterprises are increasingly shifting their focus to Cloud to seize unlimited opportunities.  The speed with which Cloud is transforming workforce management in organizations seems to have accelerated over the past few years.” said Rajamani Srinivasan, Head of Cloud, SAP India “With our comprehensive portfolio of cloud solutions, we enable our customers in India to better manage their critical assets, simplify IT architecture and adapt business processes faster than ever before.”

ICC & SAP Team Up for Analytics of the ICC Cricket Worldcup 2015

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has today announced an innovative new partnership with SAP SE, a worldwide leader in enterprise application software services, as its exclusive Analytics and Cloud Partner for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

The partnership, which starts immediately and runs through to the end of the tournament, will see SAP utilize its HANA platform to power numerous live match experiences across the ICC’s network of websites, to enhance the experience for   fans and media with real-time data, statistics and performance analysis that will help them get closer to the action and tell more insightful and informed stories.

In addition, SAP will provision cloud-based services to host the ICC’s historical ICC Cricket World Cup statistics database, incorporating match data for its flagship ODI event. This data will be made publically available over the coming months, offering fans a multitude of ways to analyse previous team and player performances.

Commenting on the announcement, ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said: “SAP is changing the way sports fans interact with data and information. In a sport such as cricket where there is a healthy appetite for information and statistics, especially across digital platforms, the ICC is delighted that SAP’s powerful technology will bring the fans closer to the game.”

Robert  Enslin, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE and President of SAP Global Customer Operations said:  “With one of the largest  fan bases  around  the world, SAP is excited to enhance the real-time  analytics and stats to  cricket  fans during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Finals.

“Our partnership with the ICC  will allow SAP to  continuously develop technology  that  can be adapted for infinite use cases. In this instance, our technology provides the ICC the ability to  engage fans with insightful  and user-friendly  solutions, bring  them closer to the action on the field and keep them informed about their favorite matches. This partnership is another example of how all organizations, including sports leagues, teams, players and events, can run more efficiently and simply in their pursuit of success.”

Disaster Recovery Helps Preserve Critical Agrochemical Data

NetApp has announced that PI Industries, ranked amongst the top five Indian agrochemical manufacturers, marketers and exporters, has deployed NetApp to help preserve its critical data.  PIIndustries, a leading Agri Input and Custom Synthesis & Manufacturing company, chose NetApp’s industry leading storage solution to protect its storage investment and scale with its growing business needs.

PI Industries has more than five decades of experience in working with farmers, and marketing and distributors companies across India. In addition, PI Industries currently operates three formulation, two manufacturing facilities and five multi-product plants under its three business units across  Gujarat (Panoli and Jambusar) and Jammu. To help manage its multiple storage solutions, PI Industries needed an affordable, easy-to-deploy, scalable storage and data recovery solution to help manage its disaster recovery solutions at PI’s remote site in Gujarat.

  

PI Industries faced the challenge of a siloed environment, running different applications on multiple platforms with limited efficiency and no optimization, which created management issues and higher operational costs. With NetApp’s unified technology, PI Industries consolidated its multiple applications (SAP, Oracle, VDI and files) on a single storage platform to reduce complexity and leverage storage efficiency capabilities such as deduplication, data compression, thin provisioning, snapshots and RAID-DP to save storage capacity, thus lower costs. Additionally,  PI Industries has cut operational costs by 20 percent by integrating with virtualized environments using NetApp’s storage efficiency capabilities.

With the NetApp’s FAS storage systems, PI Industries  consolidated a unified architecture that enables the flexibly and efficiently to manage and control the company’s data through a single storage and data management platform.  The robust technology offered by NetApp is specifically designed for small to medium-sized businesses.

With NetApp, PI Industries created a disaster recovery site keeping its business process solutions (on SAP/Oracle for Manufacturing) always-on by leveraging NetApp SnapMirror, SnapManager for SAP and Flexclone to create a reliable disaster recovery architecture that ensures maximum availability for its applications.   PI Industries has put its disaster recovery site to use by hosting test & development, and quality assurance  from the site without impacting disaster recovery operations. By leveraging NetApp’s capabilities, PI Industries has achieved faster response time up to 20 percent.

  

“PI Industries chose to work with an industry leader like NetApp because of the business benefits we saw the company could bring to us at our inflection point of rapid growth,” said Vineet Kumar Chawla (Head IT) from PI Industries. “The advantages of using NetApp’s disaster recovery and storage solutions were obvious. We now have a storage and data management solution that delivers outstanding cost efficiency and extends value to our customers through high performance and lower response time.”

Anil Valluri, President NetApp India & SAARC says, “We are glad to be a part of one of the most premier agricultural manufacturing company in India. We are committed to providing the best technology solutions in all sectors for our customers and help them improve their business efficiency and provide them with a convenient disaster recovery solution.”

11 Tech Startups Graduate From the Accelerator Program

Microsoft Ventures announced the graduation of 11 technology startups from the fifth batch of its Accelerato Program. At a Demo Day organized here today, an audience of 900 plus industry influencers, venture capitalists and angel investors witnessed the accelerated progress made by CryptoPhoto, DabKick, Fairket, FlatPebble, Nifty Window, Playblazer, Appknox, DeltaX, ProHance, Tallenge and Trutech during the last four months at the Accelerator Program. Demo Day was part of day-long proceedings which included a new set of Think Next initiatives being announced as well.

Congratulating the graduating companies, Ravi Narayan, Director, Microsoft Ventures in India, said: “This batch has made considerable progress during the four months with us, with seven of the 11 closing deals with clients outside India. Overseas VCs and investors are showing keen interest in our startups.  It’s really heartening to see how our efforts are paying off in helping our startups get recognized at a global level. We are now gearing up to welcome our sixth batch, due to start early next year. Applications are coming in, and many are from international startups.

Tzahi (Zack) Weisfeld, Head of Microsoft Ventures Global Accelerators, who was present at the event, said: “Microsoft Ventures is committed to catapult startups from a napkin sketch stage to becoming international sensations. Over the course of the last two years, we have set up Accelerator programs in seven countries and forged more than 200 partnerships with local accelerators, incubators and other players in the ecosystem.  My interactions with our startups and industry partners have given me some firsthand learning’s and comparative insights into the global startup ecosystem.”

Elaborating further, Zack said: “Every startup ecosystem is unique—in opportunities, challenges, culture and therefore in its level of maturity. While India still has a way to go before it catches up with either Silicon Valley or Israel on the startup ladder, I can see a lot of very positive changes happening here. Some very interesting ideas are emerging from India, which startups in US or Israel would never have perceived as a business worth pursuing. Innovative startups, backed by experienced as well as new founders are emerging in new technology areas, focusing on deep domain solutions. Some of them are right here in this batch, which graduates today. I have been tracking their progress over the course of the program, and am pleased at what they have achieved so far. I wish them all the very best in their journey ahead.”

Sharing his experience, Venkatesan Seshadri, CEO, FlatPebble, said: “Our four months in the Accelerator Program was a period of intense focus which helped us grow demand for our services 700 per cent and expand our offerings, thanks to the mentorship, enabling infrastructure and helpful peers. We are really happy we got this opportunity to accelerate our dreams.

The 11 startups which graduated will join the 63 strong alumni network of Microsoft Ventures in India. While their four month stay at the Accelerator Program ended today, it also marked the beginning  of another life-long association. As alumni, they will continue to be supported by the Microsoft Ventures team, both in India and abroad, as they work on customer connect and technology advancement.