PM Modi’s E-Mandi Drives Farmers to Sell Produce Online, Bypass Touts

PM Modi launched an electronic mandi to help farmers sell their produce online and do away with the problems many farmers face in agricultural markets. 21 mandies from 8 states connected with the platform.

Getting the right price for their hard work and produce has always been a challenge for farmers in the country. 

In order to deal with this long standing issue, PM Modi on Thursday, on the occasion of Babasaheb Ambedkar's birth anniversary, launched the National Agriculture Market for farmers. 

Connecting 21 Agriculture Mandis from 8 states on an e-platform, PM Modi termed it a very important step for the welfare of the farmers.

Through the e-trading portal farmers will be able to sell their produce at the right price.

That is to say, farmers will be able to sell their produce online. 

With the help of this initiative, 25 types of crops including wheat, rice, mustard and some vegetables could be sold online.

This will empower farmers to decide the price of their produce and traders across the country can buy them online.

In the first phase, this farmer-friendly initiative will kick-start in states like Haryana, UP, MP, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana.

PM Modi assured that soon mandis from across the country will be connected to e-platform. The government believes that with this initiative, farmers will be able to get the right price for their produce.

The cost and wastage involved in carrying the produce to the mandi will reduce.

The consumers will also get quality agriculture products at cheaper rates.

PM Modi also spoke with farmers from mandis of various states on the occasion. 

Modi government at the centre have made it clear from the beginning that welfare of farmers is their priority. 

They have taken a number of steps to improve the condition of the farmers. 

The online portal of National Agriculture Market is one giant step in the same direction.

Let us hope that the step not only changes the destiny of farmers in the country but also helps realize the govt's aim of doubling their salary.

Critical Need for Improved Trust to Advance Cloud Adoption: Intel Security Report

Intel Security today released Blue Skies Ahead? The State of Cloud Adoption, a global report advocating the need for technology vendors to help businesses, governments and consumers understand the implications surrounding the growing adoption of the cloud. With a majority (77 percent) of participants noting that their organizations trust cloud computing more than a year ago, just 13 percent completely trust public cloud providers to secure sensitive data. These findings highlight improved trust and security are critical to encouraging continued adoption of the cloud.

“This is a new era for cloud providers,” said Raj Samani, chief technology officer, Intel Security EMEA. “We are at the tipping point of investment and adoption, expanding rapidly as trust in cloud computing and cloud providers grows. As we enter a phase of wide-scale adoption of cloud computing to support critical applications and services, the question of trust within the cloud becomes imperative. This will become integral into realizing the benefits that cloud computing can truly offer.”

The cloud already has a strong impact in the daily lives of many people and businesses, with an ever-growing number of activities performed on digital devices leveraging cloud computing in some way. The increasing use of the cloud is underscored by our survey, which found that in the next 16 months, 80 percent of respondent IT budgets will be dedicated to cloud computing. 

Survey results also highlight: 

·         Cloud Investment Trends: A majority of organizations are planning on investing in infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) (81 percent), closely followed by security-as-a-service (79 percent), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) (69 percent), and lastly software-as-a-service (SaaS) (60 percent).

·         Security and Compliance: A majority of respondents (72 percent) list compliance as the primary concern across all types of cloud deployments, and only 13 percent of respondents noted knowing whether or not their organizations stored sensitive data in the cloud.

·         Security Risks and the Cloud: Perception and Reality: More than 1 in 5 respondents expressed their main concern around using SaaS is having a data security incident, and correspondingly, data breaches were a top concern for IaaS and private clouds. On the contrary, results found that less than a quarter (23 percent) of enterprises are aware of data breaches with their cloud service providers.

·         The C-Suite Blind Spot: High-profile data breaches with major financial and reputational consequences have made data security a top-of-mind concern for C-level executives, however many respondents feel there is still a need for more education and increased  awareness and understanding of risks associated with storing sensitive data in the cloud. Only one-third (34 percent) of respondents feel senior management in their organization fully understand the security implications of the cloud.

·         Shadow IT, Risk and Opportunity: Despite IT departments’ activity to cull shadow IT activity, 52 percent of the lines of business still expect IT to secure their unauthorized department-sourced cloud services. This lack of visibility into cloud usage due to shadow IT appears to be causing IT departments concern when it comes to security, with a majority (58 percent) of respondents surveyed in Orchestrating Security in the Cloud noting that shadow IT has a negative impact on their ability to keep cloud services secure.

·         Security Investment: Cloud security investment varies in priorities across the different types of cloud deployment, with the top security technologies leveraged by respondents being email protection (43 percent), Web protection (41 percent), anti-malware (38 percent), firewall (37 percent), encryption and key management (34 percent), and data loss prevention (31 percent).

The cloud is the future for businesses, governments and consumers,” said Jim Reavis, chief executive officer of the Cloud Security Alliance. “Security vendors and cloud providers must arm customers with education and tools, and cultivate strong relationships built on trust, in order to continue the adoption of cloud computing platforms. Only then can we completely benefit from the advantages of the cloud.”  

AMD Unveils Professional Workstation Graphics Card with Industry-Leading 32GB Memory

At the 2016 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show, AMD announced the new AMD FirePro W9100 32GB -- the world’s first workstation graphics card with industry leading 32GB memory support for large asset workflows with creative applications planned for availability in Q2 2016. AMD also introduced the AMD FireRender plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max®, which enables VR storytellers to bring ideas to life through enhanced 4K workflows, photorealistic rendering functionality, and powerful creation support.

“The imagination of the creator is limitless so much so that the professional creator consumes all available resources to produce new and never before seen designs and experiences. Some professional creative workflows demand very high bandwidth memory subsystems while others demand high memory size. AMD pioneered the era of High Bandwidth and Ultra Efficient Memory through the introduction of HBM technology in 2015 and will bring it to content creators with the introduction of Radeon Pro Duo graphics. With the new AMD FirePro W9100 32GB, AMD is unleashing the world’s largest memory size professional workstation graphics card,” said Raja Koduri, senior vice-president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group (RTG), AMD.  “Along with exceptional hardware, AMD is also delivering software tools to leverage our high bandwidth and large memory GPU configurations effectively.” 

At the 2016 NAB Show StudioXperience’s AMD FirePro GPU Zone (booth SL2425), attendees can experience powerful technologies showcased in industry-leading creation applications demonstrating how to efficiently balance content creation workloads with outstanding visual quality, application responsiveness and compute performance. The exhibit showcases solutions from Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Avid, Blackmagic Design, Dell, HP and Rhino offering attendees a range of hands-on workflow experiences powered by AMD FirePro professional graphics, including:

* An AMD product showcase demonstrating support for a VR production workflow featuring the new AMD FirePro W9100 32GB graphics card for speed and ultra-high-definition visual performance, and the Radeon Pro Duo graphics card – which forms the world's most powerful platform for virtual reality (VR) when combined with the AMD LiquidVR SDK, capable of both creation and consumption of VR content. The AMD FirePro W9100 32GB graphics card is also designed for Computer-Aided Engineering (Siemens NX Nastran, SIMULIA Abaqus) and Visualization tools (AutoDesk VRED 2016).

* An Autodesk demonstration featuring the AMD FireRender plug-in designed for Autodesk 3ds Max 2016 powered by an HP workstation with dual AMD FirePro W9100 professional graphics.

* An AMD FirePro graphics demonstration offering increased color accuracy and support for display resolutions up to 4k, as well as GPU-acceleration to empower content creation with the Adobe video tools, including Adobe® Premiere Pro CC and Adobe After Effects CC.

* A free interactive photorealistic ray trace renderer for the forthcoming Rhino version 6 that works inside the Rhino viewport for physically correct material with rendering technology based on the OpenCL-accelerated AMD FireRender plug-in.

Global Market Leaders Failed to Capitalize on PaaS Growth in 2015

Worldwide application infrastructure and middleware (AIM) software revenue totaled $23.9 billion in 2015, a 0.1 percent increase from 2014, according to Gartner, Inc. The considerable appreciation of the U.S. dollar in 2015 masked growth in the market. In constant currency terms the market grew 7.8 percent, driven by rapid growth in the platform as a service(PaaS) segment.

"The PaaS segment showed the most impressive growth, not just in the AIM market but across the entire enterprise software market," said Fabrizio Biscotti, research director at Gartner. "Integration PaaS (iPaaS) grew 55 percent in U.S dollars, while application PaaS (aPaaS) grew 40 percent, despite headwinds from the appreciating U.S. dollar."

While older technology remains the first choice for the most demanding application scenarios, the evolving maturity of cloud application infrastructure now offers greater agility, scalability and efficiency than traditional on-premises technologies. This ongoing transition to cloud services and the emerging wave of innovation surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT) further pushes application infrastructure spending away from older models toward event-driven analysis and processes.

"Market concentration among the largest vendors is diminishing under pressure from specialists, and open source and cloud providers," said Biscotti. "The growth of iPaaS and aPaaS has, largely, not worked out to the benefit of the market incumbents."

In 2015, the largest vendors retained their market positions, but market leader IBM suffered a revenue decline of nearly 13 percent, falling to 25 percent of the total AIM software market Oracle's revenue also dropped, by nearly 4 percent, capturing 13 percent of the total market. Microsoft's 5 percent revenue growth meant it was the only one of the top three players to grow its revenue. Salesforce retained the fourth spot, while Software AG dropped out of the top five — switching places with TIBCO Software.

"Salesforce continues to disrupt the AIM market, with its revenue growing more than 36 percent to just over a billion dollars," said Biscotti. "Salesforce's strong performance, as well as steady growth in the ‘Others’ category, underlines the trend of cloud-only firms and smaller specialists picking up market share at the expense of traditional vendors in this space."

This trend is consistent with AIM buyers' pursuit of innovation — not necessarily from a technology perspective, but most of all from go-to-market, business model and delivery channel perspectives.

"2015 was the year that iPaaS became a serious alternative to traditional software-based integration approaches," said Keith Guttridge, research director at Gartner. "Buyers are choosing iPaaS due to its lower entry costs, reduced operational demands and improved productivity. Vendor interest in this space is also growing rapidly, with the number of offerings doubling in the past 12 months."

Finnish Firm Fortum to Invest Upto €400 Million in India's Solar Projects

Finnish utility firm Fortum said it will invest €200-400 million (around Rs 1,500- 3,000 crore) in solar power projects India.

India offers "one of the best solar resources and a sound government support for the development of solar sector. The country provides a good platform for Fortum to further develop its business in solar also elsewhere," the company said in a statement.

The government plans to jack up solar power generation capacity to 100 gigawatts by 2022, up from 5.25 gigawatts currently. India gets more than 300 days of sunshine a year across the seventh-largest land area in the world.

Fortum has 15 megawatts (mW) of solar capacity in India. In January this year, it won a reverse auction for a 70 mW project with a fixed tariff for 25 years.

In addition, Fortum on Tuesday "decided to bid for additional 100 mWs in India, with a fixed tariff for 25 years," the statement said. "Some large-scale greenfield development will be targeted to enable economies of scale."

In addition, the company will consider seeking "possible partnerships or other forms of cooperation, which would on long-term create a more asset-light structure."

"Fortum seeks to allocate of its planned growth capital in the range of 200-400 million euros in solar projects in India," said the statement.

Companies win solar projects if they offer to supply electricity at the lowest tariff in competitive auctions. The last auction in January saw rates reach an historic low of Rs 4.34 per kilowatt-hour (or unit).

Besides Fortum, other foreign firms investing in solar power projects in India include SunEdison Inc of US, Canada's SkyPower, Japan's SoftBank Group Corp and a local unit of France's Solairedirect SA.

Projects in India are to be selected from various central, state and public sectors undertaking (PSU) schemes, which would guarantee a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA), taking into account Fortum's Group financial targets.

The company said its solar strategy targets a wider geographic scope than its current business portfolio.

Rs 23,000 Crore Electronic Payments Likely Adopters are Young Generation of Micro Merchants

A new MasterCard study of micro merchants in India indicates that young merchants in the age group of 35-45 are most likely to adopt electronic payment systems, thus furthering the country’s vision for a less cash economy.

According to the MasterCard Micro Merchant Market Sizing & Profiling Report, young merchants owning large and medium sized businesses, primarily in auto accessories, building fittings, medical, private cabs, and food & beverage sectors form the high potential segment. 

The report identifies the number of merchants most inclined to trials of e-payments at 10 percent, that is, almost 5 million of the total 59.16 million known universe of micro merchants. Merchants cited potential increase in revenue (46 percent) as a strong driver for trials, followed by increased business efficiency (31 percent) and enhanced shop image (30 percent).

Unveiling the report findings, Porush Singh, Country Corporate Officer, India and Division President, South Asia, MasterCard, said, “At MasterCard, our vision is a world beyond cash as a less-cash financial system will benefit both merchants and customers by mitigating the costs and risks associated with cash while doing business, as well as enable merchants to target new customers and markets. As India moves towards digitization, we firmly believe that the country’s young population will be the drivers of technology adoption and transformation of the payments landscape, and the MasterCard study mirrors that belief.”

The MasterCard study interviewed micro merchants across India with a view to understand the market potential, key barriers to adoption of non-cash modes of payment and opportunities for enabling a less-cash society.

The study estimates the potential market size to be more than INR 23,000 crore weekly. Merchants acknowledged safety concerns and operational concerns related to a cash-driven business, with one-third (33 percent) admitting the need for presence of self or family member at the store to avoid pilferage. More than a quarter (29 percent) also agreed that they face operational efficiency issues related to cash such as time and effort to tally expenses and profits daily, and effort required to keep record of transactions. Close to a quarter of merchants (24 percent) admit to having lost customers due to inability to accept card payments.

The report finds that merchants who are familiar with and personally own e-payment formats showed a higher willingness to consider adopting them for business (70 percent), compared to merchants who are unaware of e-payment methods (8 percent) or are aware but have never used it (14 percent). This reflects a direct co-relation between knowledge and familiarity of e-payments with willingness to adopt them, thus indicating a need to educate merchants about the benefits of adopting non-cash methods of payment.

Praveen Khandewal, Secretary General, CAIT said, "India is on the cusp of a payments revolution as this has been pursued as a key policy objective by the Modi Government. A less cash economy will benefit our constituency of around 6 crore small merchants and traders in reaching out to newer markets and as outlined in the study. Digital technologies will provide opportunities for the young generation of merchants to further grow their businesses. Through our partnership with MasterCard we have successfully been able to reach out to more than 50,000 traders and smaller businesses across eight States and intend to cover many more this year, through our joint Master Your Card trainings.”

He further added, “Along with addressing traders directly, we are also training champions promoting this cause of less cash in each of the States and are proud of the fact that these champions continue to promote this message further actively in their constituency. This is one of the key resolutions we passed at the National Traders Conclave which was held in New Delhi from April 4^th -6^th with more than 5000 traders in attendance.”

The study identifies young merchants (age 35-45 years), owning medium sized businesses (6 to 10 employees) and large sized businesses (11 to 20 employees), based across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bareilly as high potential segments for adopting new technology and moving to a non-cash payment system.

To promote financial awareness and literacy amongst traders, MasterCard, CAIT and HDFC joined hands last year to launch a training program ‘Master Your Card’ organising educational training sessions for Indian traders across the country. Since its inception in 2015, more than 50,000 traders have participated in trainings conducted in cities including New Delhi, Pune, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and many others. Additionally, e-Lala has been launched to support brick & mortar shops to embrace e-commerce as an additional platform to generate more business.

Report Methodology and Sample Size

The MasterCard Micro Merchant Market Sizing & Profiling Report is a study of 1653 merchants across nine cities – Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Bareilly, Ranchi, Nasik and Vijaywada, through face to face interactions.

The study examines micro merchants in India across verticals like kirana stores, medical stores, F&B stores, mobile phone & accessories, watches and accessories, garments, consumer Electronics, Building fittings, Automobile accessories and spare parts, Private Cab Services and Beauty Parlours/ Men's Salons/ Barber shops.

Tally Solutions Makes Deeper Inroads in Kenya with Over 3000 Customers

Tally Solutions Pvt. Limited (TSPL), a premier Indian software product company, has announced that it is seeing growing customer traction in Kenya, with a total installed customer base of over 3,000 customers in Kenya. The company recently rolled out the latest release of its flagship product Tally. ERP 9 for the Kenya market, and has been focusing on growth in Africa.

Since the last 16 years, Tally has been enabling large, medium and small enterprises in Africa to manage accounting, streamline operations, and achieve higher business efficiency, while remaining iTax compliant. There are over 10,000 enterprises in Africa who are currently using Tally software for a variety of accounting & business management functions. In Kenya, Tally Solutions caters to customers across industry verticals, including Manufacturing, Retail Trading and Construction. The company set up its overseas office at Nairobi in August 2014 supporting a robust network of 74 authorised Tally Partners in the region.

As a testimony of its deepening presence in the African market, Tally Solutions signed on another happy and proud customer in the Jotun Group, a global Norwegian chemicals major dealing mainly with paints and coatings. The company recently implemented Tally.ERP 9, for its regional operations in Kenya and reaped significant benefits in terms for greater business efficiency. Jotun has adorned several famous landmarks around the world, including the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Burj Khalifa in Dubai and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

“Our experience of implementing Tally.ERP 9 in Kenya has been fantastic. Tally.ERP 9 easily fitted our needs; it was an extremely easy-to-operate software and an economically viable solution,” said  K.R. Rao, Regional IT Manager (MEIA), Jotun UAE Limited. “Tally.ERP9 gave us the flexibility to adapt to the local and legal needs of the region. Also some of the existing employees in Jotun’s finance team were already aware of the product’s functionalities. This proved to be an additional asset to the company. Even the roll-out was extremely seamless and became operational as per plan,” he added further.

Jotun, with its presence in more than 90 countries and with 9500 employees, anticipated several business challenges when it made inroads into the African market. To address its local needs, Jotun was looking for a flexible ERP partner with a qualified solution that was flexible, easy to operate, and had minimal dependencies. The company adopted Tally.ERP 9 to manage the finance, logistics and supply chain operations of Jotun’s Kenya office, which was set up with the prompt help of Tally’s regional team at Dubai, and Infobit Computer Solutions, a Tally Partner in Dubai. Further to implementing Tally.ERP 9, Jotun could easily run both the Kenya and in-future Morocco sites remotely with their main server at Dubai.