Shramona Chakraborty from Kolkata Winner of IET South Asia PAWT Competition 2016

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has announced Shramona Chakraborty from MCKV Institute of Engineering, Kolkata as the winner of the IET South Asia 'Present round the World (PATW) 2016 finals in a ceremony that took place at the Hotel Hindustan International, Kolkata today. PATW is a global presentation competition for students, graduates and young professionals aged 18-30 years and aims to provide a platform to showcase and explore their talent and innovative thinking.

Shramona Chakraborty’s winning presentation focused on the topic “Wheelchair on POWER: A revolutionary discover for the physically challenged.” She was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 36,000 and will now compete in the global finals to  be held in London in November this year for a cash prize of £1,000 (approx. Rs. 100,000/-). Vanky Kenny Kataria, student of KK Wagh Institute of Engineering Education and Research was declared runner up for his presentation on the topic “Football Science and Technology”was awarded with the cash prize of Rs. 27,000.

The competition encourages engineers to use their technical know how to solve a social problem, thereby inculcating a culture of application of their academic knowledge by developing their communication skills during the process. As part of the competition, the individual competitors give a presentation for 10 minutes on a subject related to engineering and technology and answer questions for a further five minutes.

This year, the competition witnessed participation from engineers across India and Sri Lanka vying for the top honors. The jury included Prof (Dr)Anish Deb, Professor, Department of Applied Physics, University College of Technology, University of Calcutta, Mr Sankar Nath Mukhopadhyay, DGM, Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Ltd and Prof (Dr) Amitava Chatterjee, Dept of electrical engineering, Jadhavpur University.

On the side lines of the event, Shekhar Sanyal, Country Head and Director, IET India said "Historically, academia, students and parents have largely focused on developing their technical skills, ignoring a critical component - soft skills. There are multiple surveys that mention engineering students have been increasingly rendered unemployed because of the lack of their communications skills. We at the IET believe that a competition like PATW helps provide a unique platform for students and young professionals to showcase their presentation skills and in turn contribute to their holistic development. It is integral to their rounded growth as professionals and we are thrilled to see the tremendous response from the student ecosystem for this competition series over the years and wish the winner all the best for the global final.”

NSIC Loan Applications for MSMEs to Ease with Rubique’s New Online Platform

Rubique, an online marketplace for financial products for micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), signed an MoU with the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) on Tuesday, for providing easy credit facilities. 

NSIC, a miniratna enterprise under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, will provide SMEs registered with them, easy credit access via the Rubique platform. "The tie-up between NSIC-Rubique will bring in the technology interface, by way of the online platform to strengthen NSIC's endeavour to give credit access and support MSMEs in their growth," said Ravindra Nath, NSIC.

He said that NSIC has already tied up arrangements with 33 public and private sector banks, and financial institutions. "Besides easy access to credit, this tie-up will help MSMEs save their time and without any additional cost. It would help us improve their competitiveness in the country," he adds.

Rubique CEO and Founder Manavjeet Singh said the company's matchmaking algorithm would bring more certainty in the process of getting financial help.

"We can check the qualification of the application by matching borrowers eligibility with financial institutions' lending criteria on the website itself. Rubique has tied up with 60-plus financial institutions," he said.

The Mumbai-based company offers a range of financial products and services including personal, car, home and business loan among other services.

Rs 400 Cr Spent By Gionee On Marketing & Branding Activities in India

Chinese handset maker Gionee will spend around Rs 400 crore on marketing and branding activities over the next few months to capitalise on the festive season demand.

The Chinese company, which plans to launch four new smartphones by mid-October, also aims to expand its market share in India to 7-10 per cent by next March.

"We had earmarked a budget of Rs 600 crore this year and we have utilised one-third of it till now. About Rs 200 crore will be pumped in the festive season and the remaining amount will be used in the latter part of the fiscal towards various marketing and branding efforts," Gionee India MD and CEO Arvind Vohra told this media.

He added that the company will also launch 4 smartphones, priced between Rs 9,999 and Rs 24,999 by mid-October.

Gionee India has also signed up Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt as its brand ambassador.

"We are in discussions for signing up another brand ambassador but that is yet to be finalised," he said.

The company today launched its S6s, priced at Rs 17,999.

The 5.5-inch handset features 1.3 Ghz octacore processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal memory (expandable up to 128GB), 13MP rear and 8MP front camera and 3,150 mAh battery.

Asked about sales, he said Gionee India has now crossed half million units sales per month.

"All supply constraints have been sorted. About 60 per cent of our devices are now being manufactured here. We are expecting a robust growth this year in terms of revenues," he said.

Vohra added that Gionee India aims to expand its market share from around 5 per cent to 7-10 per cent by March next year.

In India, Gionee has partnerships with Foxconn and Dixon to assemble its smartphones.

He said the company plans to set up its own manufacturing unit in the next few years to enable 100 per cent local manufacturing. 

Largest Share of Technology Startup in Bengaluru, Says Assocham Report

Bengaluru is host to the largest share of technology-driven startups, followed by Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, while Hyderabad and Chennai are also quite popular among those techies who are budding entrepreneurs, according to a study by Assocham.

The study done in association with the ‘Thought Arbitrage’ found that in the technology-driven startups, India has moved up to the third position, with the US occupying the top position, with more than 47,000, and the UK with over 4,500 startups. India’s tech startups number around 4,200 up to 2015. 

In terms of total number of startups, comprising tech and non-tech areas, India again figured among the five largest hosts in the world along with China. The number of startups in both India and China was 10,000 each. The US is at the number one position among the overall list of 83,000 budding entrepreneurs. 

Of the Indian startups, riding on technology, IT hub Bengaluru was host of 26%, followed by NCR with 23%, and Mumbai with 17%.  In the ‘catching up’ category fell Hyderabad with 8%, and Chennai and Pune with 6% each.

Schneider Electric’s New Lithium-ion batteries Optimize Energy Storage for UPS’s in India

Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, has introduced a Lithium-ion battery solution for UPS operations. The new lithium-ion battery solution for three-phase uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs), brings compact, lightweight, long-lasting and sophisticated energy storage protection to data centers, industrial process, or critical infrastructure.

“It is important for companies to choose the right energy storage solution for their data centers, industrial processes, or critical infrastructure. The backup storage solution must maintain or even increase availability and manageability while reducing UPS footprint”, says Nikhil Pathak, Vice President and Country General Manager - IT Business India and SAARC, Schneider Electric India. In addition, there is a challenge to manage TCO (total cost of ownership), cooling costs, maintenance overheads and other operating expenses, in addition to minimizing the upfront capital cost.

“The traditional valve regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) batteries have been the mainstay of energy storage systems with advantages like low costs, mature technology and relatively stable performance. However, its shortcomings, which are sensitivity to elevated temperatures, large footprint, heavyweight and short lifespan has created a new set of customers shifting to Li-ion batteries (LIB)”, says Pathak. Reduced battery footprint, maintenance, weight, total cost of ownership (TCO) and cooling requirements, improved backup storage predictability and double the life cycle, is making LIBs the preferred energy storage solution.

The LIB system from Schneider comes as a complete package comprising a standard cabinet / rack which houses the battery modules, the SMPS which powers the BMS and the protection switchgear. This solution is currently supported by Schneider Electric’s Symmetra MW, Galaxy 7000, Galaxy VM, and Galaxy VX UPSs.

Digital Platform for UP State Legislature Proceedings, Based on Solution from Persistent Systems

Persistent Systems has announced a new, innovative Multilingual Intelligent Search and Analytics Solution - addressing the needs of India’s State legislatures. The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, inaugurated the solution at the Vidhaan Sabha Bhavan in Lucknow. 

Uttar Pradesh Vidhaan Sabha, India’s largest state assembly, is the first state legislature in the country to embrace the Persistent Systems solution and to embark on such a comprehensive digitization of the proceedings of the State Legislature. SemanticBits, a Hyderabad-based company, partnered with Persistent as part of a consortium for this initiative.

“The Legislature of the State of Uttar Pradesh is the first State Legislature to undertake this stupendous task. Persistent Systems with their partner SemanticBits have completed the task successfully and they deserve appreciation for that. The features of this software like its search engine and other aspects are the latest technology in the field,“ said Pradeep Dubey, Principal Secretary, Legislative Secretariat Uttar Pradesh. “I hope other state assemblies will follow suit.”

“Like every business is becoming software-driven, the opportunity is in front of every state to become software-driven in its functioning. It is a privilege and an honor for all of us at Persistent Systems to be able to impact and improve lives with such a solution. There is an urgent need in India today to make Governments more accessible, transparent, and efficient – both within its own departments and to the general public.” said Dr. Anand Deshpande, Persistent Systems founder and CEO.

More about Multilingual Intelligent Search and Analytics solution:

Legislative information, often dating back to when legislative bodies were first created, is comprised of books of proceedings, newspaper cuttings, orders, letters, as well as audio and video recordings. The Multilingual Intelligent Search and Analytics solution is an integrated solution to scan, annotate and indexed books of proceedings – stored in a secure and tamperproof digital vault, and available on the portal accessible from any device. The solution allows searches in English, Hindi and other official Indian languages, through a specialized search capability custom built for Indian languages.

Multilingual Intelligent Search and Analytics solution replaces the traditional and cumbersome practice of manual or physical searches and retrievals. Time to information is now reduced from days, weeks or even months to mere seconds. It also allows users to look for information and to collate the information, reducing the time and effort taken to compile research reports and improving the accuracy and thoroughness of information. This allows Research Officers to handle more requests with improved efficiency and more qualitative discussions happening in the legislative assembly. Multilingual Intelligent Search and Analytics solution extends access and reach within the Government departments of the State legislatures, and also to the general public.  

Kotak Mahindra Bank Offers Monsoon Bonanza Uphill September 10

To celebrate the long-awaited bountiful rains this year, Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) is presenting several tempting offers: Interest rates on home loans and business loans have been lowered; processing fees have been discounted, and foreclosure charges are being completely waived off, till September 10, 2016.

Customers can now avail home loans at a special interest rate of 9.35% p.a., and business loans/overdraft up to 1% lower interest rate with 25% waiver on processing fees. Additionally, Kotak Mahindra Prime, the 100% subsidiary of KMB, is also offering 50% waiver on processing fee and 100% waiver on foreclosure charges.

Further, on account opening, new customers will also receive gift vouchers from Club Mahindra, Pizza Hut, BookMyShow and Yatra.

Sumit Bali, Sr. EVP and Head – Personal Assets, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said, “In addition to offering 6% p.a. interest rate on savings account on balance of above Rs. 1 lakh, we have designed several loan offers for new and existing customers, for a limited period.”

“Good monsoons always translate into positive news for the country’s economy. We want customers to prosper more, through our special deals on home, business and car loans, in addition to the higher interest rate on savings account,” added Bali.

KMB’s latest campaign – Kona Kona 6% - is also celebrating the rains. After two years of drought, India is witnessing normal to excess rainfall in most parts. The national mood is upbeat, as a good monsoon promises prosperity and better agricultural output. The Kona Kona 6% TVC uses the backdrop of rains to narrate stories of prosperity from different corners of India.

Interest rates on small savings schemes such as postal savings, term and recurring deposits, National Savings Certificate (NSC), etc. saw deep rate cuts recently, and further cuts are on the anvil. The RBI too in recent times cut repo rate by 25 bps to 6.5%. In a falling interest rate scenario, KMB is committed to offer 6% interest rate on savings account balances above Rs. 1 lakh.