Prime Minister Modi’s UK Visit to Bring in Deals Worth $12-18 Billion

Seeking to strengthen Indo-UK economic ties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today left for Britain to begin his first visit to the country during which he will have a hectic schedule that will start with talks with his British counterpart David Cameron.

"Leaving for UK. I am hopeful this visit will strengthen economic ties between India and UK & bring more investment to India. #makeinindia," he tweeted before starting his three-day visit.

After arriving in London this afternoon, he will have talks with Cameron at 10 Downing Street. He will address a joint press conference at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) after the bilateral talks.

A brief stop to pay tributes at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament Square will be followed by speeches at the Houses of Parliament and then at the Guildhall in the financial hub of London.

His talks with Cameron will carry on at the British Prime Minister's country residence of Chequers in Buckinghamshire, where he is being hosted overnight.

On Friday, Modi returns London for a CEOs round-table which is likely to include representatives from major British companies like Rolls-Royce and Vodafone.

India and Britain could announce deals worth 8-12 billion pounds ($12-$18 billion) during the visit, according to diplomats, with Modi keen to buy 20 more BAE Systems Hawk trainer aircraft to be made in Bengaluru.

The pomp and ceremony attached to the visit is expected to include a special tricolour flypast by the Red Arrows Royal Air Force (RAF) Aerobatic Teamover Buckingham Palace before the Prime Minister sits down for lunch with Queen Elizabeth II on Friday afternoon before making his way to Wembley Stadium in north London for the mega Diaspora reception.

He leaves for Ankara to attend the G20 summit on Saturday after inaugurating a new statue of 12th century philosopher Basaveshwara as well as a new Ambedkar memorial in London.

A visit to the Tata Motors' owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) factory in Solihull, in the West Midlands region of England, will be the last item on his UK agenda.

"My visit to UK is the first Prime Ministerial visit in almost a decade. I have had the opportunity to meet Prime Minister David Cameron at various international forums and our meetings have been productive. Prime Minister Cameron is a good friend of India's, and we in India have had the privilege of welcoming him thrice during his first term as Prime Minister," Modi had written in a Facebook post ahead of the visit.

Yet Modi’s popularity is being challenged at home, after the BJP lost an election badly in Bihar, home to 104 million people. Three party elders, including former deputy prime minister LK Advani, released a statement late on Tuesday questioning the direction of the BJP, which risks embarrassing Modi just ahead of his visit.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is seeking to revamp economic ties with fast-growing Asian nations, including India, as part of his push on business-focused diplomacy.

Modi’s trip marks a remarkable turnaround for a man who was banned from Britain for 10 years over his alleged role as chief minister of Gujarat in riots that killed about 1,000 people in 2002.

Several groups were planning demonstrations outside Wembley Stadium during the rally and near Cameron’s Downing Street office to coincide with Modi’s visit there.

About 45 British lawmakers, including opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, recently signed a parliamentary motion to debate India’s human rights record.

Agencies

Enterprise Driven Digital Formation Jointly from HCL & IBM

Information technology majors IBM and HCL have announced a strategic partnership to jointly build hybrid cloud solutions to help enterprises drive the digital transformations.

HCL will use Bluemix IBMs cloud platform to build applications and solutions in Unified Service Management and Internet of Things (IoT). The Unified Service Management offering will help clients manage the most complex service delivery environments, the company said in a statement.

The IoT solutions will enable clients to collect and excha nge data from a network of physical objects embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity. HCL will also use IBM Clouds Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), SoftLayer to offer cloud-based solutions to its clients. The 21st century enterprises are looking for highly flexible and scalable IT/technology solutions that enable them to compete amidst changing market dynamics and customer expectations.

IBMs cloud offerings are based on open platforms and provide enterprise grade security and reliability that are essential for our clients, said Sai Kalyan Kumar, Senior Vice-President and Chief Technologist. 

13th Generation Entry Level Dell PowerEdge Servers for SMBs

Enterprise IT vendor Dell launched entry-level servers under the Dell PowerEdge 13th generation server series for small and midsize businesses (SMBs).

IT decision makers say the top IT challenges for SMBs include performance, hardware capacity and IT complexity.

“Dell’s mainstream server portfolio is growing, and their new entry-level PowerEdge servers will be appealing to additional SMBs who are hoping to save time and money while reducing business risk,” said Jed Scaramella, research director, Enterprise Servers, IDC.

The new Dell PowerEdge servers include PowerEdge R330 and R230 rack servers and PowerEdge T330 and T130 tower servers.

Dell PowerEdge R330 targets small businesses, remote offices of large institutions, while Dell PowerEdge R230 server targets SMBs, OEMs and hosting companies.

KEY BENEFITS OF ENTRY-LEVEL SERVERS FROM DELL

# PowerEdge R330 offers up to 56% more internal storage capacity
# PowerEdge R230 server has 100% more memory capacity
# PowerEdge R230 server offers 3 times the maximum internal storage capacity
# PowerEdge R230 server offers 2 two times the I/O expansion
# PowerEdge T130 offers 2 times the memory capacity

“More than 125 million SOHO and SMB customers operate in challenging environments – with most not having the luxury of a dedicated IT department. These customers require IT solutions that help them prepare for future growth, drive application performance and improve operational efficiency,” said Ashley Gorakhpurwalla, vice president and general manager, Dell Server Solutions.

Dell’s entry-level server T130 features Dell’s OpenManage systems management portfolio. The main benefit is that SMBs can reduce deployment time by up to 40 percent.

The new servers will accelerate compute performance across a range of applications with a choice of Intel Xeon E3-1200 v5 processors.

SMBs can ensure faster response times with DDR4 delivering 33 percent faster memory performance compared to DDR3 memory.

SMBs can achieve two times the IOPS (input/output operations per second) performance with Dell’s PERC9 RAID controller.

Gebr. Heinemann, a distributor and retailer for the international travel retail market, serves more than 30 million customers. It will be deploying the PowerEdge R330 servers as the base of its NAS solution into our branch offices.

Matthias Bretag, system engineer at Gebr. Heinemann said: “We tested the Dell PowerEdge R330 and its performance and systems management capabilities along with its compact form factor made it a great fit for our environment.”

The entry-level PowerEdge servers feature up to four DDR4 memory slots and up to four or eight hard drives depending on the model.

PowerEdge R330 provides up to 56 percent more internal storage capacity than the previous generation server.

Dell PowerEdge R230 server has 100 percent more memory capacity, three times the maximum internal storage capacity and two times the I/O expansion compared to the previous generation server.

The company said Dell PowerEdge T130 provides two times the memory capacity compared to the previous generation server.

Agencies

Microsoft Azure & Office 365 Available from Local UK-based Data Centers BY 2016

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced plans to offer cloud services from the UK. Microsoft Azure and Office 365 will be available from local UK-based data centers in late 2016 with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online following shortly thereafter.

Microsoft also announced completion of the latest phase of expansion for its data center facilities in Ireland and the Netherlands.

Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, said: “By expanding data center regions in the UK, Netherlands and Ireland we aim to give local businesses and organizations of all sizes the transformative technology they need to seize new global growth.”

The new local Microsoft cloud regions will enable data residency for customers in the UK, allowing data to be replicated within the UK for backup and recovery, reduced network distance and lower latency. Services delivered from these UK data centers will create new opportunities for innovation and local economic growth for Microsoft UK’s 25,000-plus partners.

Availability of Microsoft Azure and Office 365 is anticipated in late 2016, with Dynamics CRM Online following shortly thereafter. Microsoft will also offer Azure ExpressRoute to provide customers with the option of a private connection to the cloud.

With a cloud adoption rate of 84 percent, the UK is a global leader in embracing the benefits of cloud-based solutions.

UK customers such as Confused.com, Glasgow City Council, Marks & Spencer, Natural Resources Wales, Pizza Hut Restaurants and Virgin Atlantic already use Microsoft cloud solutions like Azure, Office 365 or Dynamics CRM Online.

Some customers have already expressed desire to embrace Microsoft’s future trusted cloud services to be delivered from the UK.

Microsoft announced the completion of the most recent expansion of its Ireland site and that its data center facility in Middenmeer, the Netherlands, is now operational.

Both locations serve as hubs for Microsoft cloud services, including Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online, and will provide additional capacity for customers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Microsoft has invested more than $15 billion in building a cloud infrastructure and cloud services. The US-based software firm has 24 Azure regions around the world — more than any other major cloud provider to expand its cloud infrastructure.

Agencies

Five Popular Indian Entries at NASA Engineering Design Contest

Although no Indian could win the top prizes, five of the top 10 entries listed as the most popular contestants at the ‘Create the Future Design Contest 2015,’ organised by the publishers of NASA Tech Briefs magazine, were from India.

NASA Tech Briefs design contest is organised every year to ‘stimulate and reward engineering innovation’.

While Puncture-Proof/Burst-Proof Tyre designed by Sameer Panda from Sambalpur, Orissa, was listed the most popular innovation, Areeb Yaqoob and Keshav Gupta from New Delhi were honoured for their CAP Exoskeleton design and Sukeerth Calastawad, Suhas V, Phaneesh M and Swaraj S from Maharaja Institute of Technology, Mysore, for their Self Chargeable Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV).

Others on the most popular list include the designs by Seshagiri Ramachandran, Vinod Vivian G, Vinod K R, and Anne Miriam Alexander from Chennai for their Bullet Proof Vest Using Non-Newtonian Fluid and Himanshu Vyas of Indore for his Anti-Collision Technology for Automobiles.

Sameer Panda’s puncture and burst-proof tyre is a Multi-chambered Tubeless tyre with sealant inside the chambers to take care of puncture and also act as a coolant which increases the life of the tyre and decreases the risk of bursts due to overheating.

Unlike conventional exoskeletons with expensive motion sensors and hydraulics, Yakoob and Gupta have designed a simple, inexpensive exoskeleton which is easy to manufacture and maintain and will allow the person using it to walk, squat and carry loads up to 55 kilograms ‘over considerable distances without reducing wearer’s agility’.

The researchers from Maharaja Institute of Technology, Mysore, have attempted to fabricate a self-charging battery electric vehicle which utilizes the rotational energy of wheels to charge the batteries, which makes the vehicle pollution free and without any external charging source.

The innovators from Chennai say that Non-Newtonian fluids (like corn flour + water mix, PEG + Silica mix) will absorb all the impact of a bullet more effectively than the heavy 14 kg metal-based vests used by security personnel.

The young innovators are working on prototypes of a light-weight bullet-proof vest which will provide full protection against high calibre weapons.

Saying that fast moving cars could be demons on the streets, Himashu Vyas proposes an anti-collision technology based on extended range proximity sensors and infrared (heat) sensors around automobiles to make driving safer.

Courtesy: Agencies

Apple Launches Watches in Indian Market; Price Start at Rs 36,999

 Apple Watch will be finally available in India on November 6, according to the official Apple India website. While Apple is yet to declare the price, it is expected to come at a starting price of Rs 36,999. In April, cross border e-commerce player Grabmore.in started taking pre-orders of the Apple Watch from Indian customers at a starting price of Rs 36,999.

Grabmore.in usually gets the right price information of Apple products before they are launched. So, we can expect the Apple Watch Sport to be priced around Rs 36,999 for the base model. 

But don’t be surprised if Apple pushed the price a bit lower to grab the fledgling wearables market in the country. It was launched in the US at a starting price of $349 which directly translates to about Rs 22,600.

Courtesy: Agencies

Indian Government Eases FDI Reforms Across 15 Major Sectors

The government is likely to announce major reforms across 15 sectors, including construction, defence, retail and plantation with an aim to ease foreign direct investment in the country.

The move comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit the UK and Turkey, where he is slated to attend meeting of G-20 leaders. Reforms push is also seen as an indication by the government that NDA's loss in Bihar Assembly election will not hamper its plans to take the country forward.

Allaying fears that Bihar results would slow down its economic agenda, the government is keen to push through the FDI reforms as it wants to give the Opposition a clear message that the government is committed on its development agenda. PM Modi had come under heavy criticism from the Opposition which claimed that he deviated from NDA's promised agenda of development and reforms during Bihar election campaigning.

Meanwhile, in another major development, the inter-ministerial body FIPB approved eight foreign investment proposals, including those of India Advantage Fund and L&T Finance Holdings, totaling Rs 5,200 crore.

The Foreign Investment Proposal Board (FIPB), headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, also rejected five proposals and deferred decision on four.
      
Proposal of India Advantage Fund, an AIF managed by ICICI Venture Fund, entails an investment worth Rs 2,950 crore, said Finance Ministry sources. Proposal of LnT Finance Holdings involves FDI inflow of Rs 700 crore.

In defence, the government has allowed foreign investment up to 49 per cent under the automatic route, earlier under the government approval route. Investments over 49 per cent will now be cleared by the FIPB instead of the Cabinet Committee on Security. Portfolio investors and foreign venture capital firms can also invest up to 49 per cent as against 24 per cent earlier. 

Courtesy: Agencies