Saina Nehwal Honoured with Hyundai’s Creta for her Contribution to Indian Sports

At the 1^st anniversary edition of the Hyundai Creta launch in India,  Hyundai Motors India Limited (HMIL) has presented Saina Nehwal, the ace Indian Badminton star, this special edition of the compact SUV comes in celebration of her ‘Unparallel Contribution to Indian Sports in India.

Saina Nehwal is amongst the most decorated athlete in the country having won Arjuna Award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan in 2016 besides winning a Bronze in the last Olympics in London.

Speaking on the occasion, Y.K. Koo, CEO and MD, HMIL said, “Saina is badminton icon of India. Her Consistent performance has elevated this sport’s enthusiasm to a great level of admiration among badminton lovers globally. Creta the perfect SUV and the Indian Car of the Year 2016, is an icon in SUV segment.”

On the occasion, Saina Nehwal said, “It’s a wonderful experience to celebrate my victories like this and would like to thank Hyundai for honoring me with 1^st Anniversary Edition of Creta. Its motivation for all athlete to receive the recognition for their hard work and achievements.”  

Creta anniversary edition features special design like the decals on the outside and also gets red wing mirrors and contrasting black roof on the outside. On the inside, the SUV is given new updates which features interesting and stylish leather upholstery, floor mats, door sills and aluminum pedals and leather steering inside the car. The vehicle is going to be priced with an additional cost of Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 over the earlier model.

India’s First IOT Focused Centre of Excellence Comes Up In Bengaluru

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has launched India’s first Centre of Excellence - Internet of Things (CoE- IoT) at the NASSCOM Startups Warehouse in Bengaluru. The centre was inaugurated by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Law, Government of India, in the presence of Priyank Kharge, Minister for Information and Broadcast Technology, Govt. of Karnataka, along with V Manjula, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology, e-Governance and Science and Technology, Govt. of Karnataka,  Ajay Kumar, IAS, Additional Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, (DeitY), Dr Neena Pahuja, Director General, Education and Research Network, (ERNET),  R Chandrashekhar,President, NASSCOM,  KS Vishwanathan, Vice President Industry Initiatives, NASSCOM. The CoE will focus on leveraging IT strengths and creating a new age industry with the support of IoT based ideas.

V Manjula, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology, e-Governance and Science & Technology, Govt. of Karnataka said, “We recognise the scope for growth and development in the IoT space and are very pleased on partnering with NASSCOM and the private sector to launch the CoE in Karnataka. We have always strived to create a conducive ecosystem for IT companies in the state, with this initiative we hope to give start-ups an opportunity to innovate in the field of IoT and take the IT sector into newer and greater heights.”

The CoE is a joint initiative between the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY), Education and Research Network (ERNET) and NASSCOM. The CoE is also supported by Accenture, CISCO, Cyient, EMC, Intel, HCL Technologies, Qualcomm, Tata Consultancy Services, LnT Technology Services, Robert Bosch and VM Ware as Strategic partners.  Amazon Web Services, Digital Ocean, IBM, Microsoft have signed up as Infrastructure partner to the initiative.

Ajay Kumar, IAS, Additional Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, (DeitY), said, “IoT is one of the high growth potential areas in the IT sector. With the growing number of IoT based SMEs/Startups in the Indian market, it becomes imperative to create an enabling ecosystem to help evolve this space, empowering companies to build technologies that provide global solutions.”

Neena Pahuja, Director General, Education and Research Network, (ERNET) said, “paradigm shift from IT to IOT, together with smooth shift of data & utilities using different electronic hardware structured with analytics, is going to enable a smart integrated & networked world. Starting from streamlining Airlines operations, Smart Cities to Disaster Management, IoT can play a major role in this connected world. With the growing number of IoT based SMEs/Startups in the Indian market, it becomes imperative to create an enabling ecosystem to help evolve this space, empowering companies to build technologies that provide Indian and Global solutions. We are happy to partner with NASSCOM, which is bringing-in Industry to help democratize innovation, by creating Centre of Excellence (COE) for start-ups in PPP mode.”

The CoE laboratory along with the NASSCOM 10,000 Startups Warehouse has the capacity to incubate up to 40 start ups and can accommodate around 10 emerging companies per shift for prototype/ design and usage of lab facilities. The CoE also provides a separate space for validation, verification and demonstration as well as concept labs for developing IoT solutions for application areas like Agriculture, Automobile, Telecom, Healthcare and Consumer IoT.

Expressing his thoughts on the launch of the CoE, R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, stated,“NASSCOM is pleased on launching the IoT Centre of Excellence, which takes forward our efforts towards establishing India as a global tech hub. This Centre of Excellence has been created to act as a catalyst for developing the IoT SME/Startup ecosystem of the country as well as an accelerator of IoT capabilities providing the concept and scale for industrial and societal needs. The CoE will also function as an enabler of Funding, Accelerating, Mentoring and Enterprise for the key emerging IoT startups who have been selected for incubation, after a rigorous process.”

The digital revolution accelerated by intelligent devices along with a booming startup environment has presented the need for a Centre of Excellence with a complete focus on the Internet of Things. With a presence of over 120 IoT focused IT companies and an expected market opportunity of USD 15 billion by 2020, India is set to gain a prominent position in the global IoT market. An increase in the adoption of IoT based technology in areas of home, retail and industrial automation, health & fitness monitoring and connected vehicles as well as the advent and growth of Smartcities, has resulted in a greater need of better solutions that lead to the evolution of a lifestyle dominated by technology. NASSCOM is focusing on systemically expanding the technology ecosystem and the IoT CoE will play the role of collaboratively addressing challenges such as the lack of understanding that leads to low adoption levels and security issues faced by the industry.

Multiple IoT based firms will be selected from over 250 entries to be incubated at the CoE, through a roadshow held across Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The first five companies out of the total entries are Wireless Controls, Uncanny Vision, LightMetrics, ThingsCloud and SAAR Microsystems.

World’s First mmWave Software Defined Radio to Help Speed 5G Research

NI, the provider of solutions that enable engineers and scientists to solve the world’s greatest engineering challenges, announcedtoday the world’s first software defined radio (SDR) for the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum. The new NI mmWave Transceiver System is a full transceiver that can transmit and/or receive wide-bandwidth signals at an unprecedented 2 GHz real-time bandwidth, covering the spectrum in the E-band, 71-76 GHz. Engineers and scientists have used SDRs ubiquitously in the spectrum below 6 GHz for years. However, with companies investing in mmWave as a potential core technology for 5G, researchers now have a full-featured SDR platform to drive initiatives based on this technology.

The mmWave transceiver system includes new PXI Express modules that collectively function as an mmWave access point for a user device. Because of the unprecedented flexibility, users can develop mmWave communication prototyping systems or perform channel measurements –necessary exercises for wireless researchers to understand the characteristics of a new spectrum – using the same system.

The mmWave baseband software delivers a complete mmWave physical layer including channel coding in LabVIEW virtual instrument (VI) source code to expedite system development while alleviating many of the system integration tasks. Researchers can also use the mmWave transceiver system baseband with the E-band mmWave heads or other third-party RF front ends to offer maximum flexibility for exploring other mmWave and microwave frequency bands.

As a key participant in NI’s RF/Communications Lead User program, Nokia has been working with early versions of the mmWave transceiver system in its 5G research initiatives for over a year.

“NI’s mmWave transceiver system has been a key research platform for our mmWave research,” said Tod Sizer, head of mobile radio research for Nokia Bell Labs. “The platform delivers the right combination of hardware and software necessary to expedite our research and has given us confidence that mmWave will indeed be a critical technology for 5G. At this year’s Brooklyn 5G Summit, we are demonstrating a high data rate mmWave system using phased array @ 60 GHz using NI’s platform, thus making 5G a commercial reality.”

“There’s no doubt that 5G will include frequencies above 6 GHz,” said Charles Schroeder, vice president of RF and wireless communications product marketing at NI. “The mmWave transceiver system is an essential platform for understanding the propagation models of higher frequency signals and for building real-world prototypes of these new generation 5G systems.”

Six New Fullfilment Centres by Amazon Across India for Upcoming Festive Season

Amazon.in has announced that it has invested in six new Fulfilment Centres (FCs) to meet the growing needs of its fast-growing seller base in the country. New FCs will be set up in Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai further expanding the company’s presence in India and in preparation for the upcoming festive season. With the launch of these new FCs, Amazon.in continues to have the largest storage space for an e-commerce company in India with its FCs operational across 10 states covering a total area of close to 2.5 million square feet with a 1.5X growth in storage capacity which is 7.5 million cubic feet of space. 

The FCs will allow Amazon.in to offer its Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) service to several thousand more small and medium businesses in these states and empower them to gain access to and service customers across the country at significantly low operating costs. Over 80% of sellers on Amazon.in currently use its fulfilment services.

“With the exponential growth of online shopping in India, we are glad to announce 6 new Fulfilment Centres in India. We remain committed to investing in our fulfilment and logistics capability to enable and empower sellers to serve customers nationally at lower costs. It stands testament to our larger commitment of making deep investments in the country and in turn creating opportunities for employment, growth and revenue generation for the Government” said Akhil Saxena, Vice President, India Customer Fulfilment, Amazon India.

Today, over 1.3 million products are available for immediate shipping through the network of Amazon’s FCs in India. This selection will only increase with the expanding FC footprint and benefit sellers and customers alike. Today, Amazon FCs are present in Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal.

Saxena added, “At the same time, Fulfilment Centres fulfil important needs of small and medium enterprises seeking markets and customers located all over India and lacking resources to create their captive distribution networks; local entrepreneurs seeking opportunities to provide goods and services; qualified and educated young workforce in remote and rural areas seeking employment and skill development. Apart from these benefits, the FC will also enable faster and quicker delivery of products to consumers across the region” he added.  

Amazon has created one of the most advanced fulfilment networks in the world and sellers in India have been benefitting from Amazon’s expertise in fulfillment, reliable nationwide delivery and customer service. When using Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA), sellers across India send their products to Amazon’s FCs and once an order is placed, Amazon picks, packs and ships the order to the customer, provides customer service and manages returns on behalf of the sellers. Orders fulfilled by Amazon are eligible for Cash on Delivery, Guaranteed Next-Day, Same Day, Release Day and Sunday delivery.

Sellers save money by replacing their upfront capital expense with low variable cost and pay only for the storage space they use and the orders that Amazon fulfils. Sellers always have the flexibility to choose the number of products they want to have fulfilled by Amazon and scale according to their business requirements.

Since its launch in June 2013, Amazon.in has been working extensively to launch services that meet different business requirements of sellers and help them grow their business profitably online. Over the past three years, Amazon.in has introduced the most comprehensive suite of offerings for sellers to sell online in India. From running an extensive education and skilling program for SMEs called Seller University, offeringFulfilment By Amazon, innovating Easy Ship (an assisted shipping service that makes it easy for sellers to ship products across India), launching Seller Flex (bringing Amazon’s flagship FBA experience to the seller’s doorstep by implementing the FBA technology at sellers’ warehouses), introducing Amazon Tatkal (a service-on-wheels to help SMBs get online within 60 minutes), to  building the largest storage capacity in ecommerce in India for sellers to the tune of 7.5 million cubic feet, Amazon.in has been helping sellers reach millions of customers across the country. Amazon launched its Global Selling Program for sellers in India in May last year and today over 8,000 sellers from India are selling their ‘Make in India’ products on Amazon’s nine global marketplaces to over 300 million active worldwide customers.

All Consumers on www.amazon.in and the Amazon mobile shopping app have an easy and convenient access to over 55 million products across hundreds of categories. They benefit from a safe and secure ordering experience, convenient electronic payments, Cash on Delivery, Amazon’s 24x7 customer service support, and a globally recognized and comprehensive 100% purchase protection provided by Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee. They can also enjoy Amazon.in’s guaranteed same day, next-day, two day delivery, release day and on products fulfilled by Amazon.

Worldwide IT Spending Will Be Flat in 2016, Says Gartner Report

Data center systems' spending is projected to reach $174 billion in 2016, a 2 percent increase from 2015. The market is driven by strong growth in the server markets in Greater China and Western Europe, and a strong refresh cycle in the North American enterprise network equipment market.

Global enterprise software spending is on pace to total $332 billion, a 5.8 percent increase from 2015. North America is the dominant regional driving force behind the growth. It is responsible for $11.6 billion of the $24 billion dollar increase in 2016. At a segment level, the fastest-growing market continues to be customer relationship management software.

Devices spending is projected to total $627 billion by the end of 2016. The lackluster economic issues surrounding Russia, Japan and Brazil will hold back demand and worldwide PC recovery in 2016. Additionally, Windows 10 upgrades have further led to PC buying being delayed — consumers are willing to use older PCs longer, once they are upgraded to Windows 10.

Spending in the IT services market is expected to increase 3.7 percent, totaling $898 billion. Japan is the fastest-growing region for IT services spending with 8.9 percent growth. With an increase in digital business projects, Japanese companies are starting to better understand that they need consulting support to transform their business and advice around new technologies from consultancy companies. Critically, they now see real value in those services and consequently are willing to pay for the services.

Communications services spending is projected to total $1.38 trillion in 2016, down 1.4 percent from 2015. Japan leads the growth in communications services, with 8.3 percent growth, while Greater China adds the most dollars to spend with just more than $8.3 billion. Eastern Europe, Western Europe and North America all are forecast to decrease as price wars and declining usage affect virtually all communications services markets.

T-Hub & Aeries Technology Inks Partnership to Help Startups in India

Enabling an empowered and innovative startup ecosystem, T-Hub, India’s largest incubator, has signed an important Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Aeries Technology Group. 

In a time and age, where smooth functioning of applications without downtime is an important requirement for most technology intensive startups, Aeries will be providing cutting edge, world class fault tolerant server and software technology for startups to host and test their applications to be enterprise and industry grade right.

Aeries Technology will be offering its Stratus branded fault tolerant, “always on” software and server technology platform that enables the highest level of availability, virtualization and easy maintenance for all web and enterprise grade applications.
 
By this technology, startups located in T-Hub will not only achieve unmatched business continuity and data integrity by preventing downtime, it will also help them manage their operations seamlessly with their customers. This allows for startups to build solutions that are industry ready, minimising risk of application failure due to lack of proper hardware and software availability. All in all, it will promote long term value with system longevity and integrity by minimizing the need for frequent technical refreshes.
 
With this partnership, T-Hub will provide all of its startups secure networks, users, content and applications.
 
Raman Kumar, Chairman of Aeries Technology Group opined that, “This is a major milestone for Aeries to partner with T-Hub to provide Stratus’ state of the art and cutting edge server and software technology in an experiential setting “and went on to add that “T-Hub is a premier partner to showcase such products with its ecosystem of startups, technology providers and marquee investors and Aeries is so proud to be associated with T-Hub.”
 
Jay Krishnan, T-Hub CEO, said, “It is challenging for organisations, especially start-ups to maintain their IT applications and service capabilities round-the-clock. We are very excited about our partnership with Aeries and the unique opportunity it provides to companies within T-Hub by offering Stratus solutions that prevents downtime before it occurs and ensures uninterrupted performance of mission-critical business operations. Aeries’ Stratus-branded fault tolerant, “always on” software and server technology platforms are easy to deploy and manage, and can be installed directly into start-ups’existing IT infrastructures without any changes to their existing applications there by solving their business continuity issues and create new added value,” he concluded.

Agencies

Seventeen US$40 Million M&As Deals by Singapore Firms in India

As many as 17 merger and acquisition (MnA) deals with a combined investment of US$ 940 million have been made by Singapore companies with the Indian enterprises in the first half of this year, a global valuation services firm has said.

"Almost all of them were transactions where the acquirer is from Singapore and the target from India," said Duff & Phelps Managing Director Srividya Gopalakrishnan.

The 17 deals saw a combined investment of US$ 940 million.

The big deals included Government Investment Corporation s (GIC) acquisition of stakes in Viviana Mall, Greenko Energy and Bandhan Bank; as well as Singapore Technologies Telemedia s acquisition of controlling stake in Tata Communications Data Centre business.

There were four MnA deals of US$ 95 million between Malaysian and Indonesian companies and Indian enterprises, the consultancy said in its report "Transaction Trail" released this week, on mergers, acquisitions, private equity deals and initial public offerings in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The four M&As included Malaysia's Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) 30 per cent stake in GMR Energy Ltd Energy US$ 300 million.

"Some of the above stake acquisitions are by investment funds. As any other investors, their drive is to make good return on their investments," said Gopalakrishnan.

"India has been a key destination for inbound MnAs (foreign companies acquiring Indian businesses) over the years across different segments," she noted.

India offers a huge domestic markets for local consumption. It also offers several capabilities and benefits for export-oriented units including but not limited to technology and manufacturing set ups, Gopalakrishnan highlighted.

"International companies have managed to successfully make acquisitions or enter into joint ventures in India. M&A has been one of the ways in which they have expanded their India footprint," she said.

"Many companies have realised that MnA is not something exotic, but it is a strategy relevant for their day-to-day business," elaborated Gopalakrishnan.

"As we see a slow-down in growth rates in developing countries and modest growth rates in mature markets, inorganic opportunities become critical for sustenance.

"This also helps companies internationalise their businesses, add on service offerings, leverage on global capabilities and mitigate their own shortcomings," she said.

Agencies