K'taka IT Sector is India's Top Job Creator with 24% Share: Assocham

According to a study conducted by Assocham, Karnataka has been ranked as the India's top job creating state with over 24 per cent share during the fourth quarter of the last fiscal.

It is followed by Maharashtra (23 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (10.5 per cent), said the study.

Information technology (IT) sector created about 57 per cent of about nine lakh job openings recorded between January-March, 2016, followed by services (19 per cent) and manufacturing (11 per cent), according to the report.

Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector accounted for just over eight per cent share followed by construction and real estate (3.5 per cent share).

Within Karnataka, ITEs accounted for over 65 per cent share in job openings across the state followed by services (16 per cent), manufacturing (eight per cent), BFSI (six per cent) and construction and real estate sector (2.5 per cent).

The Assocham Economic Research Bureau (AERB) had analysed the data sourced primarily from vacancies posted by companies via various job portals together with advertisements offering employment opportunities published in national and regional dailies across India.

Karnataka had recorded 2.16 lakh job openings in the first quarter of the last fiscal followed by Maharashtra (two lakh), Tamil Nadu (93,000), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana region combined (82,000) and Haryana (72,000).

Sector-wise, Karnataka leads in terms of job openings in ITES sector with 28 per cent share in over five lakh jobs created by the sector followed by Maharashtra (20.5 per cent), Tamil Nadu (11 per cent), Andhra Pradesh-Telangana (10 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (eight per cent), it said.

Services sector recorded 1.69 lakh jobs in January-March quarter of 2015-16 with Maharashtra accounting for the "lion's share" of about 24 per cent followed by Karnataka (21 per cent), Haryana (8.4 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (8.2 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh-Telangana (8.1 per cent).

In manufacturing sector, Maharashtra has recorded highest share with 22.5 per cent in over 99,000 job openings, followed by Karnataka (19 per cent), Tamil Nadu (12 per cent), Andhra Pradesh-Telangana (nine per cent) and Gujarat (eight per cent).

Maharashtra also topped with highest share in job openings recorded in BFSI and construction and real estate with a share of about 31 per cent in both sectors each, while Karnataka followed with a share of 18 per cent and 17 per cent respectively, it added.

Agencies

EMC Opens Second Advanced R&D Centre in Pune; 2nd After COE in Bangalore

EMC Corporation has inaugurated a second RnD centre in Pune India. In addition to the current EMC Centre of Excellence (COE) in Bangalore, the new centre in Pune expands and strengthens EMC’s presence and innovation engine within India, including plans to increase its workforce.

The additional EMC COE in Pune will help EMC to further advance its mission to help customers transform their business by creating their digital future and modernize, automate and transform IT through cloud computing. The news comes at a time when India is accelerating its journey toward digital transformation with the government’s sterling initiatives like ‘Digital India’ and ‘Smart Cities.’

"India continues to be a key source for technology innovation, outstanding engineering talent and significant business potential,” said Howard Elias, President and Chief Operating Officer, Global Enterprise Services at EMC Corporation. “India is important tour strategic global growth plans. The EMC COE in Pune will play an important role in helping EMC deliver comprehensive, next-generation technology solutions for our customers.”

EMC’s first COE in Bangalore opened in 2003 to advance the company’s globalization goals, accelerate R and D efforts and expand services by leveraging India’s vast pool of highly skilled engineering talent. As EMC’s largest RnD centre outside of North America, the EMC COE in Bangalore hosts product, services and support groups across EMC’s offerings. The Pune centre will supplement the EMC COE in Bangalore with added capabilities to undertake additional R and D and Services work for cloud and storage technologies.

Congratulating EMC on inauguration on its second RnD center in Pune, R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, said,"India offers tremendous opportunities to technology companies both in terms of business potential, as well as quality talent. Indian talent is fast becoming synonymous with new technology expertise and high-end engineering. EMC's decision to open a second world-class RnD centre in India is testimony to this.”

"This is a significant step towards accelerating our innovation efforts. Pune is fast emerging as the next technology innovation hub in India and will complement the pioneering work done by our EMC COE in Bangalore. We are confident that the new campus in Pune will help attract quality talent to help us deliver increased value to customers and partners." said Sarv Saravanan, Senior Vice President and General Manager, EMC Centres of Excellence, Asia Pacific Japan.

The new EMC COE in Pune will have 137000 square feet of usable office space and includes a state-of-the-art Executive Briefing Centre.

Technology Service Providers Must Implement a Bimodal Road Map or Risk Being Left Behind

As digital business transforms buying behaviors, organizations are quickly adopting bimodal strategies and questioning whether service providers can rapidly adapt to their evolving needs, according to Gartner, Inc. Service provider executives and strategists must implement a bimodal roadmap to exploit this unprecedented differentiation opportunity.

“Confronted by digital transformation IT leaders recognize the need to innovate more, manage uncertainty better and establish more agility,” said Claudio Da Rold, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “We anticipate that three out of four organizations will be at some level of bimodal maturity by 2017. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for providers' ability to aggressively transform into organizations that are able to respond to the needs of agile, bimodal enterprises.”

Many incumbent providers have found themselves challenged to make the necessary transition to embrace a bimodal work style, to deliver different product and services via new consumption models, to provide the basic sales model enhancements, and to focus on rapidly changing customer expectations across both Mode 1 and Mode 2 IT demands.

“The speed of digital business not only is dictating a new speed for IT, but a new pace for providers' own internal innovation if they want to remain relevant and competitive,” said Da Rold. “While a few service providers have begun to employ bimodal capabilities in some business units, they face substantial cultural and mind-set challenges in scaling this across the organisation.”

While not all providers need to contemplate building bimodal capabilities organically, if a provider is targeting a customer segment that is interested in building stronger digital and bimodal capabilities, it is in their best interest to identify how best to transform. CEOs and business unit leaders need to recognize the need for deep change and accelerate investment in digital services and its unprecedented opportunities.

“Realize that success will be built on culture change. Strong leadership is a must,” said Mr. Da Rold. “Start with small experiential steps but keep the momentum going by transferring a sense of urgency from top to bottom and from Mode 2 to Mode 1. Use small Mode 2 proof of concept (POC) projects to influence and sell the large Mode 1 projects that will follow.”

In the next two years, many organizations will reconsider existing provider relationships while implementing their roadmap to implement bimodal IT and adaptive sourcing. A layered approach to sourcing decisions is driving organizations to evolve: new models, including MnAs, industry associations or consortia, and crowdsourcing; new channel partners, including independent software vendors, IT, operational technology, the Internet of Things and industry-specific partners and new providers, including startups and smaller, nimbler and more focused providers.

In a similar way, service providers looking to differentiate themselves in the market and evolve rapidly toward a bimodal approach must create a practical roadmap of the many changes required for a successful bimodal transformation. When providers make the decision to embrace a bimodal work style and capabilities, they must also consider the overall go-to-market, sales and partnering strategy as well. Providers that fail to co-innovate with their customers will not realize the full potential of digital business.

Service Providers that demonstrate understanding, alignment and prioritization of both Mode 1 and Mode 2 initiatives will accelerate their relevance and exploit large opportunities. “Winning providers will co-innovate with customers, get linked into their POC and pilots, and ramp up in influence, volumes and large-scale Mode 1 transformation and modernization projects,” said Da Rold. “Providers that are unable to meet Mode 2 business buyers' expectations of speed, trust and credibility will face a market of cost-reduction-oriented services, frozen IT budgets and high competition for traditional spending.”

Bimal Dayal Appointed New CEO of Indus Towers; Succeeds B.S. Shantharaju

Indus Towers, the country’s largest telecom tower company has announced the formal takeover of Bimal Dayal as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with immediate effect. Bimal has been associated with Indus Towers since 2010 as the Chief Operating Officer (COO), and will now take up the full responsibilities of CEO. He succeeds B.S. Shantharaju who retired on March, 31 2016.

Bimal brings with him a unique blend of Indian and global industry experience of over 28 years, which spans majors like Ericsson, Qualcomm and Tata Telecom. In his capacity of Managing Director of Ericsson in Sri Lanka, he successfully steered the company to become the country’s number one player in telecom infrastructure.

Talking about his elevation, Bimal Dayal, Chief Executive Officer, Indus Towers said, “I am stepping into an exciting role and coming in at an exciting time. It would be my sincere effort to make Indus Towers an institution in its own league guided by our Core values and philosophy of ‘Putting India First’.”

Bimal holds a double Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering and Law. Further, he holds the alumni status for Harvard Business School.

KPMG Unveils Mobile App Cyber KARE in India to Help Assess Cyber Security Index

In response to the urgent need in the market for a mechanism to assess the level of exposure to cyber risk in organisations, KPMG in India has launched ‘Cyber KARE’, a tool, aimed at empowering senior management to self-asses cyber threats and gauge their current level of preparedness to combat them.

The ‘Cyber KARE’ toolkit is designed for assessment to be performed by senior management and CxOs, and provides a quantitative output depicting organisation’s current positioning with respect to cyber risk exposure (CEI – Cyber Exposure Index) and cyber security preparedness (CPI – Cyber Preparedness Index).

“The adoption of emerging technologies has exposed the institutions to the evolving and growing landscape of cyber threats and vulnerabilities. The number of cases being reported on cybercrimes are growing at a rapid pace. Motivation around cybercrime may range from pure financial gain, to raising the profile of an ideology, to espionage or terrorism. It is important for the senior management to know organization’s cyber exposure and strategies to prepare against the same accordingly. Cyber KARE is a great initiative by KPMG to enable organizations to self- assess their cyber risk exposure.” said Navdeep Singh Virk – Commissioner of Gurgaon Police.

“Boards of large organisations have started to pay more attention to cyber risk, but there is much more they can do. They need to make sure that they have the right skills and knowledge and treat it as a broader business risk that impacts the organization beyond IT in areas such as new product and service development, and MandA,” said Malcolm Marshall - Partner and Global Head, Cybersecurity, KPMG.

Prevention, detection and response to cyber-attacks requires the combined efforts of both the public and private sectors, working to develop new technologies and new approaches, for maintaining real-time protection of their individual networks. Keeping this in mind, KPMG in India in association with Haryana police organised a session on cyber security to provide a platform to discuss and understand the current issues and threats.

Cybercrime is a clear and present danger that organisations are faced with in India. KPMG in India’s Cyber Crime Survey 2015, highlights that 72 per cent of organisations in India were subjected to cyber security attacks and 65 per cent of these attackers were driven to make financial gains. The survey also highlights that 64 per cent of these attacks are targeted to directors and senior management.

“There is a significant spurt in cybercrimes across enterprises and it is of paramount importance for management to realise that these are no longer a one-time phenomenon. The ‘Cyber KARE’ application is aimed at providing current readiness index to help manage cyber risk and support in development of holistic cyber security framework.” said Mritunjay Kapur - Partner and Head, Risk Consulting, KPMG in India.

The application ‘Cyber KARE’, is agnostic to the sector and size of organisation. It can be used by organisations irrespective of their maturity levels on cyber security journey.  Assessment through the ‘Cyber KARE’ toolkit can enable the management to monitor cyber risk at strategic level and develop adequate approach towards effective cyber risk management. This also provides ability to management to benchmark their progress on cyber security journey.

Samsung Unveils Galaxy J3 with S Bike Mode for Two-Wheeler Riders

Samsung India Electronics has announced the launch of the Samsung Galaxy J3 featuring the S bike mode, an industry-first dedicated feature for two-wheeler riders that is designed to enable responsible and tension free riding.

Once activated at the beginning of a ride, any caller trying to reach the Samsung Galaxy J3 user will be notified through an automated answering machine that the user is riding and cannot take calls so that the ride remains uninterrupted.

All the user needs to do is to switch on the S bike mode of Galaxy J3 before setting off on the ride, and the smart phone will automatically inform the caller that the user is currently riding a bike and is unable to take the call. The caller may choose to press 1 to express urgency to talk with the biker for which the biker will have to bring his bike to a halt in order to take the call.

“Samsung is constantly in the pursuit of meaningful innovations that make people’s lives better. S bike mode is a result of that vision. While studying the consumers’ phone usage behaviour, we realised that incoming calls are a major distraction to bikers. We are very happy that we have come up with something that will benefit millions of two-wheeler users and promote responsible riding,” said Asim Warsi. Senior Vice President, Samsung India Electronics.

Galaxy J3 is an extension of Samsung’s vision to offer innovative and differentiated products across price segments. The J Series was launched with the Ultra Data Saving (UDS) mode in September 2015, a feature that has helped consumers save up to 50% of mobile data usage. Samsung has further enhanced this feature to include data savings on popular music streaming apps and over Wi-Fi after witnessing an adoption rate of over 50% among consumers. In order to carry the local innovation forward, Samsung is keen to establish the S bike mode as a responsible riding ritual where Samsung Galaxy J3 users will activate the mode before commencing their ride. Both UDS and the newly launched S bike mode have been developed in Samsung’s Indian RnD centres. S bike mode will be available across all 4G-enabled Galaxy J series devices over a period of time.

“Innovation at Samsung revolves around the consumer as we aspire to bring a complete hardware and software solution. Samsung Galaxy J3 is the first affordable segment device that has been equipped with NFC hardware to activate the S bike mode with a single tap of the device on  a S bike NFC tag that will be shipped with every unit. The revolutionary S bike mode has been designed in India by our engineers to not only propagate responsible riding which is a concern for both consumers and government authorities, but also ensure a tension free ride,”  Dipesh Shah, Senior Vice President, Samsung RnD Institute India.

How the S bike mode Works

S bike mode was developed and built into the Galaxy J3 following extensive market research aimed to create innovations that are really meaningful and useful to people. 

This is how it works:

Step 1 – Quick Activation: Galaxy J3 has in-built NFC hardware and the device ships with an S bike mode NFC Tag. This tag can be affixed at a convenient place (eg. helmet or a fuel tank) and the user can gently tap the device on this tag to activate/deactivate the S bike mode. The user also has the option to use the quick panel to activate/deactivate this feature.

Step 2 – Urgent Call Alert System: All callers hear a pre-recorded message that informs callers that the Galaxy J3 user is riding a two-wheeler and is unable to take the call. The S bike mode user does not get any notification that there was an incoming call (to avoid distraction). In case the call is urgent, the caller may choose to press 1, which allows urgent calls to go through.

Step 3 – Motion Lock: This feature ensures that if the S bike mode user decides to take the urgent incoming call, he will need to bring his bike to a halt to be able to answer the call. The phone will not allow the incoming call to get answered owing to motion lock. This safety feature is designed to encourage responsible riding.

The S bike mode also sports an intuitive user interface where users can see a log of call notifications while the mode is enabled. It also has a Smart Reply feature where selected contacts will receive an auto-SMS with an estimate of when the user is likely to be available for a call basis a trip destination entered by the user. There is also a dashboard of time and distance travelled using the S bike mode where users stand a chance to win up to Rs 1,500 per month from Freecharge for being a responsible rider.

Vivid Display

Samsung Galaxy J3 provides an immersive experience with a large 5 inch HD super AMOLED screen. Whether you are browsing, watching videos or surfing the web at blazing fast 4G speeds; vibrant colours and the larger display brings life to the content and enhances the viewing pleasure. Excellent contrast ratio produces superior imagery with deeper blacks, brighter whites, and more vivid colours, while the large display facilitates better viewing of multimedia content.

Sophisticated Imaging Capabilities

Samsung Galaxy J3 comes with a camera that captures high quality, crisp and detailed photographs with its 8 megapixel rear camera with an f2.2 aperture. It also features a 5 mega-pixel front camera to provide great video calling and selfie experience. The new smart phone is a great shooter that takes detailed photos that look professional, in-focus, and well-lit.

Powerful Performance

Samsung Galaxy J3 is equipped with a 1.5 GHz Quad Core processor and 1.5 GB RAM for easy multi-tasking and fast speed.

Special Operator Offer

Samsung Galaxy J3 users on the Vodafone network get twice the data on select data packs for a period of 6 months in 4G circles and for 2 months in others

Price and Availability

Samsung Galaxy J3 is priced at Rs 8,990 and will be available in three colour options of gold, black and white exclusively on Snapdeal from March 31^, 2016.

30 Indian Trainees Complete Boeing’s Aerospace Interconnect Solutions Program

The first 30 trainees in the new Learn and Earn program – run by Nettur Technical Training Foundation (NTTF) – have completed their training for Aerospace Interconnect Solutions. The program is in partnership with Boeing and Rossell Techsys.

“We are really proud of all the students and congratulate all those who successfully completed the Learn and Earn program and earned gainful employment,” said Pratyush Kumar, president, Boeing India. “India contains immense untapped potential and unparalleled talent, and we need to utilize and foster this potential and talent to accelerate the development and growth of the Indian aerospace sector and Indian economy as a whole. The students who are already delivering 100 percent first-pass quality will be able to work toward the development and growth of the Indian aerospace ecosystem.”

On completion of their one-year training, the students were awarded a post diploma in Aerospace Interconnect Solutions (PDAIS). All were hired by Rossell Techsys.

The program is one of the initiatives launched by Boeing in support of the National Employability Enhancement Mission (NEEM), a skill development initiative rolled out by the Government of India. The program is supported by Boeing in partnership with NTTF, a partner of the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC).

“Consistent high performance and high quality is ingrained into the global aerospace and defense sector,” said Harsh Gupta, chairman, Rossell India Limited. “The skills development initiative aims to bridge the current gap of expectation versus availability in India. We will continue to invest in skills development to tap the immense potential of talent available and to make such skills available for the Aerospace and Defense sector in India. We support the government’s commitment to Skill India and the National Skill Development Mission.”

           

 “Such programs are aimed at providing trainees with the technical education needed for them to earn a livelihood in their relevant sectors,” said N. Reguraj, managing director, NTTF. “The Learn and Earn program is aimed at enhancing the employability of students and bridging the gap of skilled manpower in the aerospace sector.”

Boeing has been partnering with NTTF to provide vocational training to Indian students and industry, keeping in line with Boeing’s commitment to build a skilled aerospace talent pipeline. The initiative is an example of Boeing-funded curriculums that have been launched with relevant aerospace partners such as Rossell Techsys and Tata Advanced Materials Limited. These initiatives aim to fill the gap in industry training and helps increase the employability skills of prospective candidates, resulting in an All India Council of Technical Education accredited PDAIS.