3.2 Billion Pound Clean Energy Deal Signed Between India-UK

India and United Kingdom signed commercial agreements worth over 3.2 billion pounds in renewable energy sector as the two countries struck  deals to fast -track investments in clean energy sector and stressed the need to foster innovation and research to make clean energy more affordable.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart David Cameron also emphasised the need of climate finance and of developed countries honouring their commitment to mobilise jointly 100 billion dollar by 2020 from a wide variety of sources, both public and private, in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation, said a statement from MEA.

Both leaders also committed themselves in tackling climate change. They stressed that it is one of the greatest global challenges of the century having adverse impacts at the national and international levels.

Modi, on his first day of visit, and Cameron pledged to work together for an ambitious and comprehensive agreement under the UNFCCC at the Paris Climate Conference in December 2015 that would be applicable to all.  The two Prime Ministers also welcomed a joint package of 10 million pounds for new joint renewable research centres bringing the total value of Indo-UK clean energy research programme to 60 million pounds.

Modi highlighted the need for large scale, low cost, long term finance to deliver India’s renewable energy ambitions, and noted the potential role that the city of London could play in leveraging international capital towards this end.

Cameron announced the UK Climate Investment venture with the Green Investment Bank, which will invest up to a total of 200 million pounds of UK climate finance in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in India and Africa.

The two Prime Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to taking action at the domestic level.  Cameron underlined the UK’s commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050, as set out in the 2008 Climate Change Act, meeting its carbon budgets in the most cost-effective manner.

Modi highlighted India’s commitment to reduce its emissions intensity by 33 35 per cent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels and put in place 40 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030 through nationally determined development measures and priorities.   

The two Prime Ministers in particular welcomed Lightsource’s plans to invest 2 billion pounds in India, building over 3 GW of solar electricity infrastructure including through a partnership with SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited.

Agencies

Students from NIIT University Hack their Way to Entrepreneurship

Who would have thought that tech giants Microsoft, Adobe or Yahoo would have security bugs in their websites? It took two teenagers from India to point out bugs that could potentially have led to a hacking attack and caused financial loss to these behemoths.

For their amazing intrusion detection abilities, Shikhil Sharma and Ananda Krishna, then 19, received a cheque for US$1000 from Yahoo, spurring them to burn the midnight oil and create an Intrusion Detection Software, Astra, while pursuing a 4-year residential program at NIIT University’s sprawling campus in the Aravali ranges, 90 kilometres from Delhi. The duo launched a startup Czar Securities www.czarsecurities.com to sell their product.

Astra secures websites of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and e-commerce portals from attacks by sneaky hackers who have the devious ability to override standard security software on websites. What started as a hobby for Shikhil Sharma and Ananda Krishna, who are both 21 now, was strengthened by technology grounding as part of their BTech Computer Science program at NIIT University (NU). Now in their final year of studies at NU, Shikhil and Ananda value the amazing support they got from their alma mater--a dedicated development area and mentoring by faculty and industry mentors.

“NU’s committed and well-networked faculty and industry counsellor helped us create a product that is used by dozens of paying SME users. We’ll further enhance Astra by leveraging advanced intelligent algorithms, machine learning concepts and web intelligence,” says Shikhil.

The crowning glory for Shikhil and Ananda was winning the Top Technology Innovation award at “6th All China University Software Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition, hosted at Wuxi, China” where students from over 300 universities from Asia demonstrated their Tech Innovations.

“After several rounds of evaluation with diverse industry judges over three months we were confident of winning the award when the organisers decided to underwrite our entire trip to China to make a presentation to a packed auditorium of over 2000,”says Shikhil adding that a handsome cash award was an icing on the cake for their fledgling start-up, Czar Securities.

Ananda Krishna’s scores at Delhi Public School RK Puram and continuing excellent academic performance at NU have earned him a scholarship for the entire duration of the program.

When questioned if they considered themselves as geniuses, Shikhil and Ananda look embarrassed before Shikhil says that two of their batch-mates were selected to the prestigious ‘Google Summer of Code’, and five of them presented research papers in Singapore and China. A similar number went on to pick up Inter University Sports medals in Football, Snooker and Cricket.

“Well, we are unique because we are the only ones to launch a start-up while studying at NU,” adds Ananda who is part of the 4th batch of the University that offers BTech programs in Computer Science & Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering, and Biotechnology.

The duo acknowledges the insights they got from their mentor Dr Kamlesh Bajaj who served as CEO of Data Security Council of India supported by NASSCOM and NU’s academic leaders and founders.

Vodafone to Invest Rs 13,000 crore for capacity addition in India

Telecom network operator Vodafone has committed investments of Rs 13,000 crore or £1.3 billion for enhancing capacity and new business initiatives in India.

This significant investment of $1.4 billion was committed to by Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao in his meeting with the India Prime Minister Narendra Modi in London earlier.

Since starting operations in India in 2007, Vodafone has already invested over Rs 111,000 crore and contributed over Rs 100,000 crore to the exchequer and is the largest FDI investor in India.

Vodafone India has 188 million subscribers. Out of this, it has 100 million mobile users in India’s rural markets. Vodafone’s India business is the largest data traffic market by volume and the third largest contributor to Vodafone Group’s service revenues.

“As the co-creator of the telecom ecosystem, a catalyst of the telecom revolution in India and being committed for the long term, we are ideally poised to partner the Government of India in fulfilling these important initiatives such as Digital India and Make in India,” Colao said.

Vodafone will be investing Rs 8,000 crore or £800 million to enhance, upgrade and expand network coverage as part of Digital India program.

In addition, Vodafone will be making an investment of Rs 4,000 crore or £400 million towards Make in India program.

The telecom network operator will also spending Rs 3,000 crore or £300 million to increase capacity and upgrade its technology centre and IT and customer experience centers in Pune and Ahmedabad. These centres service Vodafone companies globally.

Vodafone will invest Rs 1,000 crore or £100 million for setting up Tier-4 data center addressing the communications needs of businesses and enterprises.

Rs 1000 crore or £100 million will be invested towards the payment bank for which Vodafone M-Pesa Ltd. has received an in-principle license from RBI.

Vodafone will increase its staffing levels to 15,000 employees over the next two years. 

Agencies 

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