Bharat Electronics Pays Tribute to Sir M Visvesvaraya Through CSR

Navaratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) is, as part of its CSR activities, paying tributes to Sir M Visvesvaraya by providing various facilities to two government schools in Kandavara and Chikkaballapur near Bangalore, Karnataka, where this eminent engineer and statesman had done his schooling.

BEL has constructed a Digital Library, gate and compound wall for the Government Model Higher Primary School, Kandavara, where Sir M Visvesvaraya had studied from Class I to V. The school has been painted and the classrooms renovated. BEL has also provided solar lighting for the school, apart from furniture for the Digital Library, at a total cost of Rs.32 lakhs. The Government High School at Chikkaballapur where Sir Visvesvaraya studied from Class VI to VIII has been provided with separate toilet blocks for boys and girls, at a cost of Rs.18 Lakhs.

The new facilities for the two schools will be formally handed over to the Deputy Director of Public Instructions, Chikkaballapur, Department of Public Instruction, Government of Karnataka, by Amol Newaskar, Director (Other Units), BEL, tomorrow (December 1, 2015). Senior officers from BEL including G Raghavendra Rao, Executive Director (HR)/BEL Corporate Office, Veeresh D Bevinamarad, General Manager (HR)/BEL-Bengaluru, and Arunachalam G, General Manager, (Engineering Services)/ BEL-Bengaluru, will be present.

BEL took up the two projects on the request of the then DDPI, Chikkaballapur, in February 2015. The schools at Kandavara and Chikkaballapur were selected as they were close to Muddenahalli, the birth place of Sir Visvesvaraya. The BEL team visited the two schools and found them lacking in infrastructure and sanitation. The entire work in the two schools was completed in time without compromising on quality.

BEL sets aside 2% of its net profits towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects and activities, for the benefit of the poor and the marginalised sections of the society. BEL’s CSR policy broadly covers areas such as health care, education and skill development, rural development, sanitation and potable drinking water, environment sustainability and conservation of natural resources.

RLE Eyes 20 Million Euros Revenue and 4X Jump in Headcount India by 2020

RLE International, a global development, technology and consultation services provider, today announced its aggressive business expansion plans for India and said it expects its revenue in the country to reach 20 million euros by 2020. Likewise, the company is also looking to scale up its employee strength in India from 250 to 1,000 by 2020.

"The company's current revenue in India stands at 5 million Euros and is expecting to reach 20 million Euros by 2020," newly-appointed RLE India Private Limited Managing Director Vijay Machigad told reporters here. 

RLE International is planning to make significant investments on skill development and to set up several Centers of Excellence in the next five years in India which would support the RLE Group's overall business across the geographies, Machigad said.

"RLE India is creating two focused growth engines in India - Product Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering and is also planning to invest 10 per cent of its revenues annually towards expansion of its business portfolio," he added.

The company's focus in India lies in building innovative solutions in Lean Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Automotive Electronics, Light Weight Materials and Vehicle Safety, Machigad stated.

"We aim for RLE India to become a leading player in 2-3 niche segments in India, to become one of the top 3 players in transportation segment and to broaden its footprint into Indian market, adding more Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and tier 1 customers in transportation segment," said Darren Gowland, Group Vice President International Operations, RLE International.

Over the past 10 years, the company has strengthened business relations with key Indian Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Suppliers and is now looking to scale up their business in the country with an expectation of 30 per cent YoY growth, he said.

RLE International MD and COO Robert P Rupa said the Indian market is challenging but the company has the right expertise, experience and investment strategy to grow further.

Speaking about the challenges in the Indian market, Machigad said there seems to be a lack of availability of high-end skill set and RLE plans to invest on skill development as well as leverage its global expertise to offer niche solutions in India.

Can LiFi Technology Really Offer 100 Times Faster Speed Than WiFi ?

A new technology, known as LiFi, could one day offer internet speeds one hundred times faster than the WiFi we use today. Scientists have achieved speeds in the lab of up to 224 GB per second. 

That's the equivalent of downloading 18 movies in the blink of an eye. LiFi, or light fidelity, is now moving to trials in the real world, with office tests in Tallin, Estonia achieving speeds of 1 GB per second, 100 times the speed of traditional WiFi. 

The world's ever-growing desire for more data at faster rates is pushing WiFi's capacity to its limits. WiFi is achieved by transmitting data through radio waves, but can only transfer so much at a time. By 2019, it is estimated that the world will be exchanging roughly 35 quintillion bytes of information each month. Because radio frequencies are already in use and heavily regulated, that data is going to struggle to find a spot in line. WiFi is simply running out of space. 

Capacity is only part of the problem. WiFi is not a terribly efficient solution. The base stations responsible for transmitting radio waves only function at about 5 per cent efficiency, most of the energy being used to cool the stations. For those transmitting sensitive data, security is also a problem, as radio waves travel through solid objects such as walls and doors. 

Like radio waves, visible light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The difference is that viable light has a spectrum 10,000 times larger than radio waves. This means LiFi has the potential for enormous capacity. Instead of transmitting information via one data stream, visible light would make it possible to transmit the same information using thousands of data streams simultaneously. 

LiFi works by flashing LED lights on and off at incredibly fast speeds, sending data to a receiver in binary code. It's essentially an ultra-fast version of turning your flashlight on and off to create morse code. The flashes occur so fast that they are not seen by the naked eye. 

All one need to do is fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device and this would then combine two basic functionalities — illumination and wireless data transmission. In In other words, the infrastructure is already there. We can use the LED bulbs we already have, with some tweaking. 

Agencies

Eram Scientific Solutions Launches eToilet Mobile App

Eram Scientific Solutions, the only manufacturer of electronic toilets in the country, recently unveiled a new eToilet mobile app for such toilets a day before the World Toilet Day on November 19. 

The app can be downloaded for free by android users from Google Play Store by typing keyword 'etoilets'. 

Its unique features include locating the nearest eToilets, besides understanding mode of operation and access, information on facilities such as napkin vending machine, incinerator and sharing feedback on user experience of eToilet. 

Through the app public can also suggest new places for setting up eToilets. 

K Anwar Sadat, CEO of the Thiruvananthapuram-based company, said it has set up over 1,300 eToilets across 18 states in India, and won numerous national and international awards. 

The Chennai Municipal Corporation has the most - 150-plus - eToilets in the country. 

The company has sought feedback from users and administrators to better the app and plans to bring out the final version on January 1, 2016. 

Rajiv Bansal Takes Charge as New Chief Finance Officer of Ola Cabs

Ola, India’s leading mobile app for personal transportation has announced the appointment of Rajiv Bansal as its Chief Financial Officer. Rajiv brings close to 21 years of experience in finance with over 16 years at Infosys, where he was the CFO and recently transitioned to being an Advisor to the CEO. Rajiv will be part of Ola’s core leadership team and joins the company in January, 2016. Mitesh Shah, who is currently the CFO, will lead Strategic Finance Initiatives as part of Rajiv’s team, going forward.

Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO, Ola said, “We are thrilled to welcome Rajiv onboard. He brings with him a wealth of experience from his long tenure at Infosys. Rajiv’s understanding and expertise in the finance domain is extremely valuable for us at this juncture of growth. His experience of being at the helm of finance for one of India’s most respected companies will help us in adopting best practices and in realising our mission of building mobility for a billion people. I’m looking forward to working with Rajiv as we scale Ola to newer heights in the time to come!”

Speaking about his new role at Ola, Rajiv Bansal said, “Ola has been growing at an extraordinary pace and has created tremendous value in the process, to customers, partners and other stakeholders under Bhavish’s leadership. As one of India’s most valuable startups, it carries with it a mighty responsibility of setting an example on corporate governance and best practices in finance. I am thoroughly excited about coming onboard with this amazing team to co-create yet another globally admired company out of India.”

More about Rajiv Bansal:

Rajiv Bansal is currently an advisor to the CEO at Infosys. In his prior role as the CFO at Infosys, his areas of responsibility included corporate finance, business finance, operations planning and assurance, investor relations and taxation for the whole group. Rajiv has over 21 years of experience and joined Infosys as Manager of Finance in 1999. Prior to becoming the CFO, Rajiv was Vice President and Head of Finance. As the Head of Finance, his key priorities included supporting the company’s growth, managing critical finance functions and adhering to regulatory and compliance requirements.

Before joining Infosys, Rajiv worked in different capacities at Tata Technologies, Cable & Wireless, and ABB. Rajiv is a chartered accountant and cost accountant by profession. He holds a bachelor’s qualification in commerce from Calcutta University, India. He is a gold medalist and stood third in the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI).

DJI’s Fully Integrated, Stabilized Handheld 4K Camera Now Available at Rs 70K Across India

DJI, the world leader in creative imaging technology, today officially unveiled the DJI Osmo. Using DJI’s signature three-axis gimbal stabilization technology, the Osmo eliminates the shake of traditional handheld devices, creating cinematic shots in an easy-to-use, easy-to-set up form factor.   

Marking its entry into the handheld camera market, the Osmo will be available through retailers in 10 key cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, and also available to customers via direct shipping anywhere in India through DJI’s authorized distributor, SSTPL.

“DJI consistently refines the way cameras move in space – whether they are in the air or on the ground,” said Michael Perry, DJI’s Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Mumbai launch event. "With the Osmo, we have created a camera specifically designed to capture a smooth moving image regardless of filming conditions.”

The modular format of the Osmo makes it fully compatible with DJI’s Zenmuse camera series, but comes standard with a 4K, 12-megapixel camera with a 1/2.3” sensor and a 94° field-of-view lens. Intelligent controls built into the handle make changing between shooting angles, capturing photos or recording video effortless.

“Traditional handheld cameras are either shaky, or require bulky stabilizers that are difficult to set up,” Perry continued. “The Osmo moves the experience of handheld filmmaking from capturing what happened, to sharing expressive, smooth video that shows what an experience was like.”

Through the DJI GO mobile app, creators can view live images of what the camera captures, adjust camera settings and control smart filming functions including –

Panorama – Take a picture and the camera will automatically pan around 360°, taking and stitching overlapping photos to create a panorama.

Long Exposure – Make handheld long-exposures crisp using the camera’s stabilization technology

Slow Motion – Capture slow motion shots at 120 frames-per-second (fps) up to 1080p

Its onboard universal mount works together with an included smartphone holder in addition to other optional accessories including a tripod, a bike mount or an extension arm.

The Osmo handle comes equipped with an on-board stereo microphone, as well as a 3.5mm audio jack for recording professional-quality external sound.

The Osmo handle, which can be bought separately without a camera, is fully compatible with DJI’s existing Zenmuse series, making it the perfect accessory for everyone who already owns an Inspire 1 with a Zenmuse X3, a Zenmuse X5 Pro or a Zenmuse X5 Raw.

The Osmo is now available across India for Rs 69,990 (MRP) through DJI distributors and retail outlets.

Indian Online Shoppers Spend Estimated Rs.54,700 Cr by Shopping Online in 2015

PayPal and IPSOS have released the Global Cross Border Consumer Research 2015. The research maps the evolution of cross border online commerce to identify why consumers shop online across borders and how do they pay for these transactions. The research also shares insights on the growth prospects for the Indian ecommerce sectors in 2017.

 Key Highlights of the report:

·         Leading categories for which Indians shop online across the border include clothing/apparel, footwear, accessories (bought by 53% of cross border shoppers ), consumer electronics (51%) and digital entertainment and, education items (44%).

·         Top three countries where Indians shop: USA (27% of online shoppers have shopped in USA in past 12 months) , China (11%) and United Kingdom (10%)

·         Key drivers making online shoppers more likely to shop cross border include Free shipping (selected by 54% of online shoppers), safe way to pay (54%), proof of product authenticity (51%) , possibility of payments in local currency (48%) along with faster delivery (47%)

·         Top 3 Countries for cross-border P2P transactions: USA (54% of those who have sent money to friends and families to another country said they sent money to USA), UK (22%) and Singapore (15%)

 By 2017 mobile spend (including smartphones and tablets) for all online shopping within India and cross border is predicted to reach Rs.3,18,600 crore by 2017 from the current estimated Rs.1,26,500 crore in 2015

The research evaluates the online and cross-border shopping habits of over 23,000 internet users across 29 countries including 808 interviews in India. 

“Cross border spends by Indians is estimated to grow at 78.5% from 2015 to 2016. PayPal is used as a cross-border payment option by 84% of the cross border shoppers. PayPal’s unique offerings like Buyer Protection and Refunded Returns have helped address some of the barriers like safety and security and return shipping faced by shoppers while transacting cross border, said Vikram Narayan, Country Manager and Managing Director, PayPal India.

He further added, “The Indian e-commerce space is experiencing an exciting time where innovation is the key. Our research reveals that the advent of technology is slowly diminishing borders for online shopping. With the number of online shoppers set to grow exponentially, it will lead to increase in the numbers shoppers who shop from global retailers with online presence.”

The research further highlights that desktops account for the highest proportion (53%) of purchases made by cross border shoppers from websites in another country in the last 12 months, however the future belongs to mobile for cross border shopping: 41% of the purchases made by cross border shoppers from websites in another country in the last 12 months were made using a smartphone (30%) or tablet (11%).

 Although cross border trade is forecasted to grow in India by 78.5% from 2015 to 2016, high customs duty and high delivery shipping costs are key deterrents: 52% of online shoppers who have not shopped cross border state delivery shipping costs as preventing them from shopping cross-border, and 43% say having to pay customs/fees and or taxes is a barrier. Other key barriers also include difficult process for returning products (selected by 48% of online shoppers who don’t shop cross-border), having to make payments in foreign currency (44%), return shipping costs (41%) and concerns about identity theft and fraud (41%).

 ‘Cart abandonment’ is also a key issue on cross border shopping, where consumers abandon their online shopping carts after having chosen their products for purchase. Reasons for cart abandonment –include amongst others preferred payment option not available (selected by 30% of online shoppers who have abandoned an online purchase from a website in another country) , lack of clarity about how much duty, tax, or custom fees would have to be paid (27% ) and concerns about website security (25%) .

PayPal has emerged as the most popular payment method for making cross-border transactions by the Indian cross-border shoppers, with 84% of cross border shoppers claiming to have used Paypal for a cross border purchase in the past 12 months followed by Visa Debit (used by 58%) and Visa credit card (42%). Cross border shoppers who prefer to use PayPal as a cross border payment method select quick processing of payment (selected by 56%), safer way to pay (54%) and well known/trusted brand (50%) as reasons for preferring to use PayPal.

Online spends on the rise

The research estimates overall online spends inclusive of cross border shopping to touch Rs.7,02,900 crore by 2017

Consumer electronics and entertainment are estimated to be the highest growth categories for online spends in 2016

Total online spend in the consumer electronics category is forecast to grow 48% by 2016 while the total online spend in groceries, food and alcohol category is forecast to grow by 43% in 2016. Health & Beauty (41% growth predicted) as well as travel & transport (40% growth predicted) are also expected to be high growth categories for overall online sales,

 Average online spends among Indians

Average spend on cross-border transactions by the estimated 3.8 million cross border shoppers was estimated to be ~Rs.1.42 lakh per cross-border shopper in 2015.

More on Global Cross Border Consumer Research 2015 by PayPal and IPSOS

In addition to these India findings, more focused data is available for all 29 countries included in the research in addition to the global data.

On Behalf of PayPal, Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of c.800 (23,354 in total) adults (aged 18 or over) who own and/or use an internet enabled device* in each of 29 countries (UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Turkey, Russia, Israel, UAE, USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, India,China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt). Interviews were conducted online between 17th September and 28th October 2015. India fieldwork was conducted 17th Sept – 6th October, among a sample of 800.