NASSCOM & Autodesk Partner to Build Global Occupational Standards for Design & Engineering in India

With a focus on bridging employability gaps within the industry NASSCOM has partnered with Autodesk Inc., a world leader in 3D design technology, with a new standardized courseware ‘Product Design Engineer – Mechanical’, so as to enhance skilling in this field. This courseware will empower students in India with the required competencies at the entry level within the larger occupation of Product Engineering Design in the Engineering Research and Development (ERD) sub-sector of the industry. This courseware will help create a skilled talent pool, trained on global standards, with the ability to usher in a design-led future of making things.

To ensure the creation of an academic course that is both relevant and viable, NASSCOM partnered with key industry stakeholders, namely, ANSYS, Autodesk, Geometric, Imaginarium, JCB, LnT Technology Services, SQS, Tata Technologies and TCS. Their inputs have significantly enhanced the design of the curriculum and courseware, which also addresses the need for faculty support, and seeks to achieve this by acquainting trainers with the latest advancements in pedagogy.

Tim Scanlon, Global Engagement Lead, Autodesk Education Experiences (AEX), said, “India needs an evolved education ecosystem built on the foundations of design thinking. This will ensure that the skill-sets possessed by the workforce is relevant and in-sync with the changing requirements of the manufacturing sector. Autodesk has many global initiatives aimed at enabling design skills, right at the grass-root – the students, who eventually join the industry and fuel the growth of national economies. The partnership with NASSCOM will help us in empowering design and engineering professionals and students in India and make them ready for the Future of Making.”

Pradeep Nair, Managing Director Autodesk India and SAARC, said, “The manufacturing sector in India is evolving and making rapid strides towards the future. Students and professionals need to possess the relevant technology skills that can enable them to be industry-ready and capable of driving innovation in product design and engineering. Fusion 360 is a highly advanced design tool that combines industrial and mechanical design, collaboration, and machining in a single package. The courseware based on Fusion 360 will not only up-skill the students but also enable them to dovetail into the evolving requirements of the manufacturing sector in India. Through our collaboration with NASSCOM and IT-ITeS Sector Skill Council NASSCOM, we aim to contribute in upskilling the huge talent pool in India.”

R. Chandrashekhar, President NASSCOM, said “Through this tie-up we hope to provide Indian students an opportunity to upgrade their knowledge in the domain and be at par with global industry standards. NASSCOM is confident that this course will help enhance the skills of professionals in the industry making them market ready.”

India is one of the world’s largest population base of employable youth and is poised to become a sought-after destination for those seeking higher value add and specialized services. Per industry figures, the manufacturing industry contributes nearly 15.1% of India’s GDP and its contribution is expected to be around 25-30% by 2025. The sector is expected to reach US$ 1 trillion by 2025 in the process creating 90 million jobs. This initiative is a collaborative effort with NASSCOM, Autodesk and other industry members, is of great importance for all stakeholders concerned – the industry, academia, and the students. This initiative is expected to build new employability standards, bearing in mind the changing scenario of talent demand and supply in the industry.

Citrus Pay’s Sellfie to Enables Payments on Social Networks using Buy Buttons, Payment Links & Chat Bots

Sellfie, a contextual commerce startup, part of Citrus Payments -India’s fastest growing fintech company has announced the launch of a disruptive platform  that enables individuals and small businesses to sell and collect payments on social networks and instant messengers using buy buttons, payment links and chat bots.

Contextual commerce is the next wave of commerce where consumers share and discover shoppable products and buy the things they find, at the moment of discovery. The advent of new technologies like mobile, apps, and social media — have changed the way how merchants could accept and securely process customer payments.  Merchants looking to offer customers leading-edge payment options are now looking at new ways to enable customers the ability to make purchases and payments wherever they happen to be online, not just on a merchant’s website through contextual commerce.

The app, called Sellfie, allows anyone to take a picture of an item, price it, choose shipping options, and push a link to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram as well as other platforms like WhatsApp to sell and collect payments.Citrus managing director Amrish Rau said that even though Citrus has made it easier for businesses to collect payments seamlessly on web & mobile, it now wants to offer individuals and small businesses implement purchase opportunities into everyday activities and natural environments through contextual commerce.

Apart from enabling sellers to post and collect payments on multiple social networks using buy buttons and payment links, the app also lets sellers chat with buyers and complete the orders received from multiple channels all in one place. Further the app has a one click simple on-boarding process that enables anyone to start using Sellfie without any documentation.Addressing the need for both buyer and seller comfort, Sellfie is designed in a manner where sellers can collect payments anywhere by creating a unique payment link. Taking it a step further, Sellfie’s unique model of escrow payments or “Buyer Protection Guarantee” ensures that payments made by a buyer will be released into the seller’s account only when the buyer receives the product.

Commenting on the launch of Sellfie, Amrish Rau, Managing Director, Citrus Paysaid, “Contextual Commerce is a new frontier for commerce that is growing rapidly. With Sellfie, we will be able to offer a complete commerce solution to help individuals and small businessescan sell on social networks and instant messengers.We are trying to provide an avenue to these sellers to setup their business online in 30 seconds with zero documentation.

Anish Achuthan – Business Head, Sellfiesaid, “Sellfie provides a real time chat platform for sellers and buyers on social networks so that they can negotiate with each other.Sellfie will provide a platform to more than one million individuals and small business onto its platform in three years. We took our time bringing Sellfie into the market and have invested time and effort to ensure that from the user interface to the payment process, everything is simple, easy and organized – the idea is to help individuals capture the businesses within their niche with zero commissions.”

With Sellfie, the possibility of creating an online store presence for pretty much anyone becomes an instant reality, revolutionizing Indian e-commerce by helping small and micro businesses set up business online in 30 seconds with an e-payment facility, a free website, integrated shipping and a host of other services, all through a single platform.

Meenakshi Vajpai Takes Charge as Chief Technology Officer of VLCC

Leading wellness brand VLCC Health Care Limited announced the appointment of Meenakshi Vajpai as Chief Technology Officer.

Ms. Vajpai will be the principle architect of the company’s IT strategies and roadmap. She will lead technology alignment with the organisation's goals of delivering a consistent customer experience.

Welcoming Ms. Vajpai on her appointment on, Vandana Luthra, Founder & Vice Chairperson, VLCC, said, “Technology is what has always set VLCC apart. We have a strong commitment to enhance our information platforms to help us maximize customer experience. Meenakshi brings in extensive depth and experience that will be key in helping us drive our technology-based business management operations and processes.  Her expertise will be instrumental in helping us connect across 11 countries where we operate.”

Vajpai added, “I am delighted to be a part of VLCC. As a leader in the beauty and wellness industry in India, and as one of the early adopters of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in its line of business, VLCC is clearly the forerunner in leveraging technology for service delivery. As we grow in both size and breadth, we will approach the business and technology cross-leverage in a transformational manner. I look forward to further formulate our online business initiatives and ensure visible business differentiators through active use of technology.”

Meenakshi has over 25 years of diverse experience in the IT industry, having worked with organizations like Steel Authority of India, Sapient Corporation, Bharti Airtel Ltd and PVR Ltd.

Paytm’s O2O Reach with Same Day Delivery for an Unmatched user Experience

Taking its pioneering Online to Offline program steps ahead, Paytm, the largest mobile commerce and payment platform has announced to offer same day delivery on products in 20 cities. The company has begun with the deliveries with locally based commerce and will further add more categories to it. Currently, the same day delivery is available on large appliances, mobiles and is already active on the platform. Over Rs 20 crore worth of orders in a month are shipped the same day to the customers. 

Sellers themselves provide the delivery and installation service while Paytm enables them by training on how to manage online customer expectations and experience.

Paytm has over 1.2 lakh sellers on their platform out of which over 3000 are sellers who specialize in shipping large appliances locally. Paytm is aiming to add 10,000 more sellers in 50 top cities to spread the reach of O2O commerce further.

Sudhanshu Gupta, Vice President - Paytm, said, “Paytm is the pioneer of O2O and with same day delivery and installation managed by sellers being added to the arsenal we are able to cover a critical category of large appliances which cannot be shipped by traditional warehousing models.”

Paytm enables consumers to check whether products are available to from nearby sellers who can ship and service the orders. The consumers have to pay a nominal amount to avail the same day shipping and installation services.

iScholar Partners with Anand Kumar of Super30; Targets High Percentage Into IITs by 2017

iScholar, a start-up that provides online courses, has partnered with Anand Kumar of Super30 fame, in an effort to bring down costs of IIT-JEE entrance exam coaching by 90 per cent. Now the start up is hoping to get about 30 per cent of the students into various IITs in 2017 academic year.

Anand Kumar, who became well known in the media and academic circle is the brain behind Bihar-based Super30, which yearly selects 30 meritorious students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds aspiring to get into IITs.

“We know that students coached by Kumar have a 100 per cent success rate when it comes to IIT entrance. We want to replicate this for more students who are unable to afford coaching,” said Rajendra Prasad Nadella, Chief Managing Director, iScholar.

A typical IIT-JEE preparation course runs for a whole year and costs ₹80,000 to Rs 1 lakh and upwards. The annual fees for the iScholar courses works out to ₹6,000, which includes features such as access to content, computer-based training coaching in real-time and interaction with faculty.

Reports indicate that each year over 2.5 lakh students appear for IIT JEE entrance exams and about 1.5 lakh take the test but only 10,000 students or so get in while another 10,000 odd students opt for the Regional Engineering Colleges spread all over the country. What's interesting is that, 80 per cent of these students are from urban India . Now we attempt to get more students from the rural areas into these esteemed university, says Nadella.

For students who do not have access to internet, the start-up will provide downloadable courses. “The courseware will help more aspiring students to get into IIT,” said Kumar. iScholar students will get access to professors such as Aniruddh Sinha, Ravi Ahlawat, Kashish Mathur and Akhil Narayan.

Further, to avoid instances of course material being illegally shared, the start-up has encrypted the courseware, which can be accessed only through its learning management software.

The website has been created by professionals from top IT companies using C++, Java and open source platforms for live streaming and along with video tagging to enable to watch particular videos. The content can be accessed even on a 256 kbps dongle. "Today we have over 450 hours of video and since every one should get access to high quality education, we have developed it as a low-cost two way audio, video and interactive platform targeting the BPL families in India," adds Nadella.

Liquid Telecom & RBH Neotel Acquisition will Create the First Pan-African Fibre Player

Today, Liquid Telecom, a privately owned, pan-African telecoms group, majority owned by Econet Wireless Global, announces that it has entered into an agreement to acquire South African communications network operator Neotel. The shareholders of Neotel – Tata Communications of India and minority shareholders led by Nexus Connexion – have agreed for Liquid Telecom to acquire Neotel for ZAR6.55 billion. Liquid Telecom is partnering with Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH), a South African empowerment investment group, which has committed to take a 30% equity stake in Neotel.

The transaction, which is subject to obtaining all affirmative approvals and other corporate approvals that may be required by the shareholders of Neotel and other regulatory approvals, is transformative and will create the largest pan-African broadband network and B2B telecoms provider. Through a single access point, businesses across Africa will be able to access Liquid Africa’s 24,000km of cross-border, metro and access fibre networks. These currently span 12 countries from South Africa to Kenya, with further expansion planned.

Commenting on the transaction, Nic Rudnick, Liquid Telecom CEO, said, “We are excited about this transaction. Leveraging the strengths of RBH, Neotel and Liquid Telecom will offer an unprecedented fibre network with a unique set of services and international connectivity for telecom operators and enterprises across sub-Saharan Africa. For the first time, African companies will be able to connect with each other in a cost effective and reliable way, all on a single fibre network. We will also be increasing investments into Neotel to cater for rapidly accelerating mobile and enterprise traffic, enabling us to launch exciting new products and services.”

Albertinah Kekana, Royal Bafokeng Holdings CEO, said, “This transaction is part of our divestment strategy and in line with objectives to invest in high growth infrastructure sectors. As a long term investor, we are pleased to be partnering with Liquid Telecom who has a very credible track record in rolling out fibre in challenging and diverse markets. This deal represents our long-term investment approach and our commitment to the African growth story.”

Speaking on behalf of Tata Communications, Neotel’s majority shareholder, Vinod Kumar, Managing Director and CEO, said,“Liquid Telecom is the right partner for the next phase of Neotel’s evolution. Convergence of technologies and services will be the key driver of growth across the globe and this transaction will encourage inclusion and support the growth aspirations of the African continent. We believe that Liquid Telecom will deliver on the vision of a well-connected Africa, which will augur well for the South African telecom industry and Neotel’s customers.”

Nexus Connection, Neotel’s minority shareholder, also welcomed the transaction.  Speaking on behalf of Nexus, Kennedy Memani, said, “We welcome this transaction with Liquid Telecom. It will see the sale of Neotel to new shareholders who have the vision, expertise and funding to continue to grow the company and to allow it to reach its full potential in South Africa and across the African Continent. We are confident that customers and employees will benefit from the transaction and from the resulting stability and business expansion.”

The transaction is subject to approval by South African regulatory authorities and is expected to be completed later this financial year.

Corporate Data Theft & Malware Infections Among Biggest Threat to Digital Business in 2016

Insider data theft and malware attacks top the list of the most significant concerns for enterprise security executives, a new report from Accenture and HfS Research reveals. Of those surveyed, a majority (69 percent) of respondents experienced an attempted or successful theft or corruption of data by insiders during the prior 12 months, with media and technology organizations reporting the highest rate (77 percent). This insider risk will continue to be an issue, with security professionals’ concerns over insider theft of corporate information alone rising by nearly two-thirds over the coming 12 to 18 months. Additionally, the research shows that a budget shortage for hiring cybersecurity talent and well-trained employees is hindering the ability of organizations to properly defend themselves against these attacks.
 
The survey, “The State of Cybersecurity and Digital Trust 2016’”, was conducted by HfS Research on behalf of Accenture. More than 200 C-level security executives and other IT professionals were polled across a range of geographies and vertical industry sectors. The survey examined the current and future state of cybersecurity within the enterprise and the recommended steps to enable digital trust throughout the extended ecosystem. The findings indicate that there are significant gaps between talent supply and demand, a disconnect between security teams and management expectations, and considerable disparity between budget needs and actual budget realities.
 
“Our research paints a sobering picture. Security leaders believe threats are not going away, in fact they expect them to increase and hinder their ability to safeguard critical data and establish digital trust,” said Kelly Bissell, senior managing director, Accenture Security. “At the same time, while organizations want to invest in advanced cyber technologies, they simply don’t have enough budget to recruit or train skilled people to use that technology effectively. To better manage this security problem, businesses will need to work in tandem with the extended enterprise ecosystem – business units, partners, providers and end users – to create an environment of digital trust.”
 
Despite having advanced technology solutions, nearly half of all respondents (48 percent) indicate they are either strongly or critically concerned about insider data theft and malware infections (42 percent) in the next 12 to 18 months. When asked about current funding and staffing levels some 42 percent of respondents said they need more budget for hiring cybersecurity professionals and for training. More than half (54 percent) of respondents also indicated that their current employees are underprepared to prevent security breaches and the numbers are only slightly better when it comes to detecting (47 percent) and responding (45 percent) to incidents.
 

The report identified five significant gaps disrupting the ability of enterprises to effectively prevent or mitigate well-organized and targeted cyber-attacks, including:

• Talent: Thirty-one percent list either lack of training or staffing budget as their single biggest inhibitor to combating attacks
• Technology: Firewalls and encryption top the list of the most important technologies to combat cyber threats, but the largest increase in deployments anticipated in the next 12 to 18 months are in the areas of cognitive computing and AI (31 percent) and data anonymization (25)
• Parity: An enterprise is only as secure as its least secure partner, yet only 35-57 percent of all enterprises said they assess ecosystem partners for cyber integrity and preparedness, with BPO partners being the least vetted and credit partners being the most vetted
• Budget: Seventy percent cite a lack of, or inadequate, funding for either cybersecurity technology or security talent, including training
• Management: While 54 percent of respondents agree or strongly agree that cybersecurity is an enabler of digital trust for consumers, 36 percent believe that their executive management considers cybersecurity an unnecessary cost

 “While the gaps we identified can be overcome, they do collectively underscore the need for an inherently different approach, one that includes more robust risk management measures and the development of digital trust,” said Fred McClimans, research vice president, Digital Trust and Cybersecurity, HfS Research. “There is an important opportunity to address these gaps by rethinking how digital trust and security can be holistically woven into the enterprise fabric through the integration of automation and AI solutions as well as through business partnerships and processes.”