Pratap Hegde of telematics4u MD Conferred Business Excellence and Achievement award for Entrepreneurship- 2016

Telematics4U Services Private Limited (“T4U”), a Bangalore based company operating in the space of Internet of Things (“IoT"), providing customized analytics-rich solutions to its customers today shared that its Managing Director, Pratap Hegde was chosen and awarded the Future of India-Business Excellence and Achievement Award for Entrepreneurs - 2016 in “Technology Implementation and Deliverables”.

Pratap was chosen for leading telematics4u as CEO and MD, for demonstrated business excellence and achieving the highest standards of ethical conduct, integrity and civic and social responsibility.

The Future of India- Voice of Entrepreneurs edition was organised by 1000 Petals in association with CNBC TV 18. The event was held to recognize and honor entrepreneur’s who have scripted an inspiring success story in their respective fields and have revolutionized the way business is done in India. The event was held in the city’s Lalit Ashok hotel on April 30, 2016.

Sharing his experience on the win, Pratap said “I am honored to have been conferred this award in recognition of the innovative solutions my team at telematics4u has built in the IoT domain. The Internet of things holds enormous potential in effectively tackling the challenges that our country faces today. We are extremely proud to be playing a leadership role, shaping the “future of India” in sectors such as e-governance, automotive, distribution/e-commerce, people mobility, and also transportation and logistics sectors which form the backbone of the nation’s infrastructure.”

Pratap was chosen for the award in the category from a total of more than 12,000 applicants that Future of India had received from all across India.

A coffee table book titled “RISE” was also released with Pratap’s profile and a brief write-up on t4u at the event.  

IIT Bombay Technology Business Incubator SINE Completes 12 Years

SINE- Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship - the technology business incubator hosted by IIT Bombay, has just celebrated 12 years of its existence. What started as an IT incubation pilot project was formally set up as a non-profit society on April, 15^, 2004, to incubate start-ups in all technology domains to address the lack of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Today, IIT Bombay has a number of entrepreneurship -related initiatives, such as the DS Centre for Entrepreneurship, which offers formal academic courses; eCell- a student-led centre, and several RandD centres aimed at translational research. All these together with start-ups, entrepreneurs, investors, service experts outside the campus, rapidly are merging into what is being established as the “Powai Valley”. And SINE has today grown into a leading academic-linked incubator in India.

SINE has been the launch pad for over 80 product-based entrepreneurial ventures out of IIT-Bombay since its inception. More than half have graduated from incubation after becoming revenue-generating companies, several got acquired by larger companies, and some have also failed. Many have raised one or more round of funding, offering exit opportunity to SINE’s equity stakes in the companies. SINE currently incubates 27 start-ups, and more are in its pipeline. Current start-ups are in varied areas such as fin-tech, med-tech, clean-tech, big data, security, media.

Entrepreneurship environment for technology product based start-ups is still far from being mature in India. To address this gap, SINE has focused on product and intellectual property- based technology start-ups. Out of the total start-ups incubated so far, 25 companies are direct spin-offs of IIT Bombay technologies, and 6 are focused on social innovation via technology. 22 are founded or closely mentored by IIT-B faculty.  Nearly half of its companies have been able to raise multiple round of funding, several have crossed valuation in multiple of 100 cr., and few have achieved or close to achieving revenue of Rs.100 cr.

 Sharing her sentiments at the anniversary celebration, Poyni Bhatt, COO, SINE says, "the entrepreneurship initiative started in early 2000 with SINE at IIT Bombay, has now become mainstream not only within the campus, but also influenced the environment around in Powai, Mumbai. The entrepreneurial risk appetite amongst students and faculty-interest in technology commercialization via start-ups have exponentially increased over the years. "

SINE offers incubation support for up to 3 years. Incubated companies get workspace, seed support, easy access to IIT Bombay labs, technical and IP resources, business planning and mentoring, and expert services on softer terms. Association with the incubator also brings visibility and credibility for the startups, because of the due diligence and validation that happens prior to admission. SINE also offers prototype support to students in terms of money as also setting the first tinkerer’s lab at IIT Bombay.

The incubator is set to expand the depth and width of its activities. It aims to form partnerships with corporate entities as institutional mentors and financiers under their CSR initiatives. Plans are underway to enhance its capacity to house 50 plus start ups, and set up domain specific programmes in sectors such as bio/med tech and hardware products.

Le Is (Eco) Superphone Now Available for Only Rs 9999 as Introductory Offer in India

LeEco’s first Made for India phone, the Le 1s (Eco), has made waves in the industry by launching a device at remarkably attractive price of Rs. 9999. The global internet and technology conglomerate announced its Blockbuster Superphone yesterday at a grand launch event in Mumbai, showcasing its unique content integration model and features LeVidi and Live that will give users access to a plethora of entertainment content anytime anywhere!

The Blockbuster Superphone is a power-packed performer and the first device to showcase the integrated content one-stop experience coupled with breakthrough technology. The Le 1s Eco is the first “Made for India” Superphone by the company, showcasing its unique ecosystem and first of its kind in the Sub-10,000 category packed with powerful features. Bringing alive company’s content integration with partners Eros Now, Yupp TV and Hungama, Le1s Eco packs seamless interface through unique functions -Le Vidi and Live, which allows users to consume high quality content to user on-the-go!

“We are extremely overwhelmed with the response that we have received for our blockbuster Superphone – Le 1s Eco. We were confident that our “Made for India” Superphone will strike an instant chord with our Indian customers, given its great features coupled with the best-in-class content library. We understand that entertainment plays a critical role in the lives of people and therefore remain committed to bringing blockbuster content to them wherever they want, whenever they want. At LeEco, it is our constant endeavour to offer users breakthrough technology and innovative features such as our content integration at a sustainable price, ensuring users get a true value product”, said Mr. Atul Jain, COO, Le Ecosystem Technology India Pvt. Ltd.

Equipped with a 5.5” inch (403 ppi) screen of 1080x1920 resolution display, the device delivers an ideal balance of performance, battery life and graphics to users.  With slick dimensions, the device is easy to hold and light to carry. It runs on the latest Android 5.0 eUI and packs a powerful Helio X10 MediaTek Processor, 1.8 GHz with a 3 GB of RAM, enabling uninterrupted video streaming; offering powerful multitasking and a rich multi-media experience. The 13 MP rear camera and 5 MP front camera ensure quality pictures and great video capability. The device also sports a powerful 3000 mAh lithium polymer battery for on the go usage. Designed for both work and entertainment, the device is the optimal device for viewing videos, playing enhanced games, and reading e-books anytime, anywhere.

Supertainment package which is otherwise also priced at Rs 10,899, including Le 1s Eco for Rs 9,999 and a one-year membership fee of Rs 4,900, and a LeEco offer of Rs 4,000 is undoubtedly a killer deal any smartphone brand could have offered to its consumers. As a part of this blockbuster deal, not only the consumers get the Superphone with features like no other but also the wide range of entertainment content anytime anywhere.

The LeEco advantage for consumers with the company’s best- in- class after-sales set up is unparalleled. The company has already announced 555 service centres across prominent locations pan-India and 24*7 toll-free call centre support. 

LeEco entered the India market with the launch of its Superphones in early 2016 - the Le 1s and the Le Max. The devices which are exclusively available on Flipkart, have truly disrupted the market with their best in class specifications at democratized pricing.   

F1 Races to Sky Viewers Across Europe Using Tata Communication's Fibre Network

Tata Communications, the Official Connectivity Provider of Formula 1, announces that it has been selected by Sky to deliver the live broadcast feeds of all 21 Grands Prix starting with the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship season over its global superfast fibre network – the world’s only wholly-owned fibre network encircling the globe. The deal, which is part of Sky’s strategy to create Europe’s leading entertainment company following its acquisition of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, will ensure a seamless race experience for viewers in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy, regardless of Grand Prix location.

All video feeds of the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship  season will be distributed live in high-definition to Sky viewers using Tata Communications’ Video Connect service. Sky teams based in the UK, Germany and Italy will work in close collaboration with Tata Communications’ experts at race tracks and its remote operations teams, ensuring a seamless delivery of each race to people at home. Video Connect enables broadcasters to deliver live video feeds from anywhere in the world over Tata Communications’ IP network, with connectivity to over 240 countries and territories. Underpinned by the world’s largest wholly-owned subsea fibre network, it ensures the highest quality viewing experience for F1 fans.

“The integration of our operations in Europe is focused on accelerating innovation and serving our viewers better – and Tata Communications’ global fibre network will help us do just that,” says Keith Lane, Director of Operations at Sky. “It’s crucial that we’re able to bring our viewers action-packed, high-quality F1 racing experiences from Grands Prix around the world. And, as the way people experience F1 is constantly evolving thanks to technological advances that rely on superfast connectivity, there is scope for us to tap into Tata Communications’ global fibre network as we continue to drive innovation in F1 broadcasting.”

“With half a billion viewers globally, F1  is the world’s most popular annual sporting series – but with races in locations as diverse as the streets of Singapore, the hills of São Paulo and the deserts of Abu Dhabi, it is also a hugely challenging environment for broadcasters,” says Mehul Kapadia, Managing Director of F1 Business at Tata Communications. “Bringing fans brilliant, glitch-free viewing experiences requires more than just reliable, superfast connectivity on a global scale. As fans increasingly want to be part of the action unfolding on the track, we look forward to exploring future game-changing technologies with Sky to drive innovation in F1 broadcasting.” 

The deal with Sky builds on Tata Communications’ expertise in F1 content delivery and highlights the company’s central role in the F1 ecosystem, working in close partnership with Formula One Management, The MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team, and many leading F1 broadcasters. Last year, the company was also chosen by Formula One Management to provide broadcast services globally for the GP2, GP3 and Porsche Supercup racing series.

“This deal cements Tata Communications’ position as a world-class media services provider,” says Rangu Salgame, Chief Executive Officer of Tata Communications’ Growth Ventures and Service Provider Group. “Our success lies in our razor-sharp focus on innovation, delivering cutting-edge services for live sports and entertainment, and harnessing our global superfast fibre network to usher in a new era in the media industry.”

.Tech Popularity Grows Among Tech Community; Touches 100,000 Domain Name Registrations

Radix, the domain name registry behind .TECH, announced today that its popular new domain extension .TECH has crossed over 100,000 domain name registrations. The domain extension has seen unparalleled demand from the global tech community with thousands of startups using the extension to brand their digital identity. Leading brands such as Microsoft, Viacom, CTA (Consumer Technology Association); the parent company of CES and many others have also used the domain extension, leading the way for others.

In addition to the plethora of startups, tech visionaries and enthusiasts have been using the extension. Tech influencers and popular YouTubers are using the extension to engage with their audience including Austin Evanswith www.austin.tech; American designer, and technologist, John Maeda with www.designin.tech; and Edgar Oganesyan with www.edgar.tech.

Radix announced that registrations were spread out over 169 countries with the United States accounting for 16.4% of the registrations. Demand was led by leading domain name registrars like Namecheap and GoDaddy inthe United States.

Radix has been running various marketing campaigns to increase the awareness and adoption of the .TECH domain name, including partnering with startup events like TechCrunch Disrupt, Collision, Web Summit, etc, working with hackathons at events like TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon being organised in New York on May 7th and university hackathons like HackIllinois (University of Illinois), HackPrinceton (Princeton University), HopHacks (John Hopkins University) and UofTHacks (University of Toronto) amongst others.

Suman Das, Category Head for .TECH said, "This is the first of many milestones for .TECH, we are excited about the demand we are seeing and the feedback received from our partners and clients is very encouraging. With new technologies and the startup era getting stronger every day, we expect to increase our growth rate in the coming future."

.TECH launched on August 5, 2015 and can be registered at 100+ registrars globally.

Sameer Aggarwal Appointed New CFO of Manipal Health

Manipal Health Enterprises Private Limited ( MHPEL) has announced the appointment of  Sameer Aggarwal as the new Chief Financial officer (CFO) .

In his new role, Aggarwal will head the finance team to ensure smooth and efficient functioning of the finance department by providing an array of services to the business right from financial planning and analysis, treasury, tax and other finance operations. Having over 19 years of rich experience in strategic and operation finance across pricing, taxation, corporate accounting, and treasury and investor relations he is all set to take on the role of CFO with great zeal . He will be donning several hats to drive major financial goals.

His key focus would be to align business and finance strategy, to ensure growth of the business by taking up new business initiatives like improved enterprises cost optimization, pricing execution and other fiscal process improvements and innovations that add value to the organization. Additionally, he would also focus on compliance with financial regulations with a clear purpose of ensuring positive and continuous growth curve.

Aggarwal has diverse experience across organizations like Marico, Coke, Ingersoll-Rand and Wipro. In his previous organization at 3M he was responsible for overall finance function and in order to drive governance and compliance. In view of the new appointment, Ramoji the current Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary will be moving to  Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) to head a senior role.

Dr.Ajay Bakshi, MD and CEO, Manipal Health Enterprises said, “We welcome Aggarwal to the Manipal family. With his diverse and rich experience, we are sure he will be an asset and would drive the organization to greater heights. I wish him   good luck for his new and challenging role.” 

SAP HANA is One Stop Solution for Real Time Huge Data Processing

By Manu Sharma

Companies are always trying to find the best way to store data in a meaningful format so that they can make better business decisions. Since the birth of data warehousing almost 30 years ago, numerous innovations in data management have been made - such as Hadoop and NoSQL. SAP has contributed High-Performance Analytic Appliance (HANA), a platform for processing high volumes of operational and transactional data in real time. According to experts, SAP HANA has established itself as a baseline for further innovation.

SAP HANA is about 350 times faster than other conventional ERP technology. It is also known to provide the best user experience in the world. However, there are a few challenges while migrating /from other platforms to SAP HANA which are related to differences in file formats, structure, concept etc. In this regard, Arun Kumar VC, Senior General Manager - Enterprise Solutions, HTC Global Services shares insights on developments and challenges faced by companies while adopting SAP HANA. Excerpts of the interview.

How is HTC Involved with SAP HANA?

HTC is a successful SAP Partner currently providing strategic consulting, evaluation, implementation and on-going optimization of SAP solutions to organizations across the globe. HTC will help SAP customers design, implement and integrate solutions, optimize business processes, and provide strategic business consultation.

Many companies have been working with DBMS over the years, while ERP evolved later. What will companies do with the existing system? How is the migration going to take place?

Evolution of technology has always been embraced by organizations and has proved to be the most decisive factor in introducing innovations in businesses. SAP HANA is an innovative next generation business platform that combines the strengths of evolution in hardware and software technologies. The accumulation of massive amounts of data and the requirement to promptly process it in real-time makes SAP HANA the one stop solution. SAP HANA leverages in-memory platform, combines ACID compliant database with advanced data processing, application services, and flexible data integration services. SAP HANA has the ability to process structured and unstructured data in real-time and enables reporting without latency. SAP HANA delivers high volume transactional processing (OLTP) and high volume real-time analytical processes (OLAP) based on a unified data model without the redundant data layers typically required by traditional RDBMS based systems. Existing systems can be seamlessly migrated to SAP HANA with the help of multiple SAP migration tools.

What are some of the main challenges in migration of existing DBMS customers?

The key challenges in migration include:

·         Budgetary considerations

·         Developing strong, compelling, and convincing benefits

·         Streamlining the chores of migration

·         Getting the services of a trusted and dependable SAP authorized partner

·         Optimizing sizing and infrastructure

·         Finalizing Deployment option - on premise / cloud (private / public cloud) muddle for TCO Adopting the right migration strategy

·         Executing migration by managing downtime

·         Unicode and Dual Stack Split

·         Code Optimization

·         Cutover

Challenges can be overcome by fixing the budget, having a well-defined business case based on existing and new landscapes, proper planning for optimizing sizing and infrastructure with SAP authorized hardware vendors, resolving the on premise / cloud (private / public cloud) muddle based on security strategy, performance, accessibility factors,   migration strategy (old / new methods) depending on prerequisite check on the existing landscape, managing downtime for ensuring business continuity, custom code optimization to enhance performance, etc.

How is the migration going to take place in traditional companies and PSUs?

Size doesn’t matter – and an apt example to highlight would be that of the Indian Railways, which is one of the world’s largest rail network, is all set to be powered by SAP HANA - On an average Indian Railways sells close to 21 million tickets daily. The capabilities of SAP HANA will be utilized to make life simple and easy for the railway employees as well as passengers by bringing in reforms in the Ticketing System. HANA’s capability to process large volumes of data in real time, has made it to be the game changer for all organizations, irrespective of their size and type.

Saas in Cloud platforms are based on the concept of pay for the usage, how is Saas licensing going to impact the customers on the pricing side?

SAP has been traditionally an on premise based ERP. With the evolution of S/4 HANA, SAP has widened its reach into the cloud platforms with both private and public cloud offerings. The pricing model is subscription based and corresponds to the different versions such as – SAP S/4 HANA, public cloud enterprise edition – SAP S/4 HANA, public cloud professional services edition – SAP S/4 HANA public cloud marketing edition. Often, the pricing for SAP solutions (especially in the on premise world) is calculated on the basis of the number of named users. Pricing metrics for SAP’s cloud offerings have often been based on other factors, some of them being – customer’s corporate group’s revenue, number of expense reports processed per year by customer, etc. 

Companies are not open to sharing data with a third party organization, What is SAP HANA going to do to overcome this security challenge?

With the onset of SAP HANA, SAP ERP underwent innovations and transformed into SAP S/4 HANA. Customers can choose from various deployment options– On Premise, Cloud or Hybrid. This would be in line with the customers’ security compliance requirements. In addition to the security provisions in the SAP ERP, SAP HANA provides various security functions such as – User Management, Authentication and Single Sign-on, Authorization Framework, Audit Logging, Communication Channel Encryption, Data Encryption and so on. Also, S/4 HANA Private Cloud is designed for customers who are looking for increased security and privacy and who do not want to share a database container with other customers.