Ministry of Power & Swiss Government Sign MoU for Joint Building Energy Efficiency Project

Dr. Andreas Baum, Ambassador of Switzerland to India, and Raj Pal, Economic Adviser, MoP, Government of India, have inked the pact to extend the Indo-Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) by five years, based on successes achieved by the project in its first phase. 

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been signed between the Governments of India and Switzerland for a joint project on energy efficiency of buildings in November 2011, for a duration of five years. The objective of the collaboration has been to reduce the overall energy consumed in buildings through sharing of best practices between the two countries in energy efficient design, construction and technologies. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) were designated as implementing agencies for the project. Based on the excellent results achieved by the partnership, both governments have jointly decided to extend the MoU to November 2021.

Speaking on this milestone, the Ambassador said, “We are delighted on the extension of the MoU with India’s Power Ministry for cooperation in energy efficiency of buildings. Switzerland and India have been steady partners in progress – in fact, SDC’s contribution in this partnership spans more than five decades. Since 2011, SDC’s India programme has focused specifically on the issue of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Towards this end, the extension of the MoU today renews our collective vision in achieving India’s energy efficiency goals.”

Shri Raj Pal affirmed the Ambassador’s statement, saying, “With rapid economic growth, the demand for energy services will only increase in India. The Government is promoting greater use of renewable energy and more efficient demand management through innovative policy measures. I am glad that the Ministry along with SDC has taken this initiative dedicated to delivering results in achieving energy efficiency goals. Based on the excellent results of the Indo-Swiss collaboration, we jointly decided to continue collaborating on this important matter for another five years.”

BEEP’s follow-up phase (2017 – 2021) will continue to hold integrated building design workshops with public and private builders; provide technical assistance in developing innovative building technologies; develop regulatory instruments, guidelines and tools for the design of energy efficient buildings; and disseminate knowledge products. The focus of the phase will be on outreach and mainstreaming the outputs of the previous phase in order to achieve a larger impact on the reduction in energy consumption in buildings. This will support BEE’s efforts in mainstreaming energy-efficient building design and in developing energy-efficient building technologies with a potential for mass applications.

The extended MoU will be exchanged between the two governments at the international conference – Energy Efficient Building Design: Experiences and Way Forward, on November 28, 2016. The three-day international conference that will showcase and discuss the results and experiences from BEEP’s first phase, will bring together 200 building energy experts from both India and overseas to exchange knowledge and experience on some of the key aspects of building energy efficiency.

Global Threat Index Shows Malware Attacks are on the Alarming Rise

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. has revealed the number of malware attacks increased in October, as the company released its monthly Global Threat Index, a ranking of the most prevalent malware families attacking organizations’ networks.

Check Point’s Threat Intelligence Research Team found that both the number of active malware families and number of attacks increased by 5% during the period, pushing the number of attacks on business networks to near peak levels, as seen earlier this year. Locky ransomware attacks continued to rise, moving it up from third to second place, while the Zeus banking Trojan moved up two spots, returning it to the top three. 

“Attackers want to be as stealthy as possible to reduce the chance they will be detected. Thus, business can no longer continue to operate a traditional security model. To fight these growing threats, enterprises needs intelligent next generation threat prevention solutions.” said Bhaskar Bakthavatsalu, Managing Director, Check Point, India & SAARC, “Business should look towards implementing prevention based security initiatives so as to provide a healthy cyber security system. A prevention based approach helps identify both known and unknown threats and stop them real time.” he added.

The reason for Locky’s continued growth is the constant variation and expansion of its distribution mechanism, which is primarily through spams emails. Its creators are continually changing the type of files used for downloading the ransomware, including doc, xls and wsffiles, as well as making significant structural changes to the spam emails. The actual ransomware itself is nothing exceptional, but cybercriminals are investing a lot of time into maximizing the number of machines that become infected by it. For the seventh consecutive month, HummingBad, an android malware that establishes a persistent root kit to carry out an array of malicious purposes, remained the most common malware used to attack mobile devices.

Once again Conficker retained its first place position as the world’s most prevalent malware, responsible for17% of recognized attacks. Both second placed Locky, which only started its distribution in February of this year, and third placed Zeus, were responsible for 5% of known attacks.

·         ↔ Conficker– Worm that allows remote operations and malware download. The infected machine is controlled by a bot-net, which contacts its Command & Control server to receive instructions.

·         ↑ Locky– Ransomware, which started its distribution in February 2016, and spreads mainly through spam emails containing a downloader disguised as a Word or Zip file attachment, which then downloads and installs the malware that encrypts the user files.

·         ↑ Zeus - Trojan that targets Windows platforms and is often used to steal banking information by man-in-the-browser keystroke logging and form grabbing.

Mobile malware families continued to pose a significant threat to businesses, with 15 of the top 200 malware families targeting mobile devices. The three most common mobile families were:

·         ↔ HummingBad– Android malware that establishes a persistent rootkit on the device, installs fraudulent applications and enables additional malicious activity such as installing a key-logger, stealing credentials and bypassing encrypted email containers used by enterprises.

·         ↔ Triada– Modular Backdoor for Android which grants super-user privileges to downloaded malware, as helps it to get embedded into system processes. Triada has also been seen spoofing URLs loaded in the browser.

·         ↑ XcodeGhost– A compromised version of the iOS developer platform, Xcode. This unofficial version of Xcode was altered so that it injects malicious code into any app that was developed and compiled using it. The injected code sends app information to a Command &Control server, allowing the infected app to read the device clipboard.

Nathan Shuchami, Head of Threat Prevention at Check Point explained, “With the number of attacks and malware families increasing, the scale of the challenge organizations face in ensuring their networks remain secure is tremendous. The fact the top ten malware remained virtually the same as September suggests that cybercriminals have enjoyed a considerable amount of success with these attack methods, signaling to organizations that they need to proactively respond to protect their critical business assets. It is particularly concerning that a malware family as established and well known as Conficker is so effective, suggesting that organizations aren’t using the latest, multi-layered defenses.”

“To protect themselves, organizations must take a comprehensive approach and have advanced threat prevention measures on networks, endpoints and mobile devices to stop malware at the pre-infection stage, such as Check Point’s SandBlast Zero-Day Protection and Mobile Threat Prevention solutions, to ensure that they are adequately safeguarded from the latest threats,” added Shuchami.

Check Point’s threat index is based on threat intelligence drawn from its Threat Cloud World Cyber Threat Map, which tracks how and where cyberattacks are taking place worldwide in real time. The Threat Map is powered by Check Point’s ThreatCloud intelligence, the largest collaborative network to fight cybercrime, which delivers threat data and attack trends from a global network of threat sensors. The ThreatCloud database holds over 250 million addresses analyzed for bot discovery, over 11 million malware signatures and over 5.5 million infected websites, and identifies millions of malware types daily.

Indian Companies are Investing 70% of CSR Funds on Education

Nasscom Foundation, in its yet-to-be-released report said that a substantial number of companies have spent more than 60-70% of their CSR spend in education initiatives.

"Education forms the major chunk of CSR spend: A substantial number of companies interviewed have spent more than 60-70% of their CSR spend in education initiatives, and the remaining half spend between 30-40% of their budget in education," the report, to be released shortly at a different event said the report.

Nasscom Foundation at its flagship event, The CSR Leadership Conference (CLC), also announced that the industry had widely accepted the 2% CSR rule with a trend of more and more companies coming out openly to declare 100% utilisation of their CSR money for 2015-16.

"The social landscape of the country is changing for good and the CSR is proving to be a much-needed catalyst. India Inc in its third year of the CSR mandate, has started to show signs of maturity towards its CSR spends, and larger number of companies are willing to work towards sustainable goals and create a more developed society around them," said Nasscom Foundation CEO Shrikant Sinha.

The Conference announced that the industry had widely accepted the 2% CSR rule with a trend of more and more companies coming out openly to declare 100% plus utilisation of their CSR money for 2015-16.

IIID Holds Design Yatra, Competitions, Motorcycle Rally in Bengaluru

The Institute of Indian Interior Designers (IIID), Bangalore Chapter organized a Design Yatra – Talking Design to the Masses at the Taj Westend in the city on November 19, 2016. As per the initiative, the institute organized Design Interventions at a slum in Vyalikaval and among other initiatives also flagged off a motorcycle rally to Nandi Hills.

Speaking to the media, Shymala Prabhu, Conveynor of IIID, Bangalore Chapter says, “We have been doing this initiative for the last few years. Our chapter also flagged off a Nano car rally to Goa covering the length and breadth of the country. Also as per the Design Intervention visited a slum in Vyalikaval to design a plot of 10x7 feet for the project. Besides also held several roadshows at colleges and the star attraction was the presentation by nationally-renowned architect A.R. Habeeb Khan.”

Infact, the Nano car rally was flagged off from Indore in February, the year-long yatra will cover 15,000 km and reached Bangalore from Kochi on November 19, 2016 as part of the celebration. The rally will again travel on to Mangalore and Manipal before reaching Goa for the next chapter to take forward.

Similarly, a bike ride was among the many events marking the 15-day social and design extravaganza which aims to take design to the masses. Other events included panel discussions with eminent architects and citizens, heritage walks across the city, and a series of student competitions for various social initiatives.

As per the schedule, IIID also held a motorcycle rally for its members on November 20 from Vidhana Soudha  to Nandi Hills. The bikers rode to a century-old heritage temple at the foothills of Nandi Hills on Sunday as part of the Bengaluru leg of Design Yatra, organized by the IIID.  Most of the bikers were architect members from IIID. 

Italian MV Augusta Unveils Limited Edition Superbikes in Bengaluru

The powerful engines from the high-end motorcycles on the roads has just made the roaring sound on the Indian roads louder. Over the years the number of luxury motorcycles being sold in India has witnessed a three-fold increase, as per SIAM data.  The arrival of new players like MV Augusta has added fillip to the Rs 13,000 crore market. The Italian manufacturer has unveiled four superbikes including the limited edition F3 800 RC AMG in Bengaluru.

Ajinkya Firodia, Managing Director of MV Agusta India says, "Bangalore figures among the top three Indian markets besides Delhi and Mumbai and have opened our third showroom here. The market for superbikes is growing at 18% per annum and looking at the trends have unveiled MV Agusta, the most premium motorcycle brand in the world and its motorcycles are designed by legends like Massimo Tamburini."

MV Agusta India has announced its official entry in South India via an exclusive showroom in Bangalore. MV Agusta unveiled F3 800 RC (Reparto Corse), priced at Rs 19.73 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune).

The company also displayed its range of superbikes − the F4, F3 and Brutale 1090 −which will now be available at its third ‘Motoroyale’ dealership in Bangalore after flourishing showrooms in Pune and Ahmedabad .

Motoroyale is Kinetic Group’s chain of high-end motorcycle stores with bikes sourced from some of the leading two-wheeler brands in the world. The showroom will operate as ‘MVAgusta Bangalore’ under the ‘Friendly Motorcycles’ chain.

Firodia says, "As we are aggressive on our targets, by the end of December, we are planning to sell 400 vehicles. Our eventual target is to reach 600-800 units for only MV Agusta in India.”

The company has sold 70 bikes in Pune and Ahmedabad since inception in May, Firodia said adding that our target for Bengaluru is about 60-70 vehicles every year.

Firodia says, “After receiving an overwhelming response for our Pune and Ahmedabad showrooms, we are excited to launch our third showroom in Bangalore and also unveil our limited edition model; F3 800 RC. MV Agusta is the most premium motorcycle brand in the country and its motorcycles are designed by legends like Massimo Tamburini. Owning a MV is a dream for all bike enthusiasts, and in that sense Bangalore becomes a highly important market for us – being one of the biggest super biking market in India.”

Firodia goes on to the add that this excitement we bring in the last 9 AMG branded F3 800 RC’s to India; The F3 800 RC is truly a collector’s edition; as it offers not only an unparalleled blend of power, performance and handling, but each motorcycle is autographed by Jules Cluzel and Lorenzo Zanetti; and comes with a co-branding with MV Agusta’s partners, AMG (the high performance brand of Mercedes Benz).  Apart from F3, we are proud to show the in line 4 cylinders, the Brutale 1090 & the F4, considered as the most beautiful bike in the world. 

Raghu Chaitanya Nayak, Dealer, MV Agusta Bangalore said, “We are very happy to open the first Motoroyale dealership In South India.  Our group has immense expertise in automobiles and luxury automobiles, and MV Agusta is the most exotic motorcycle manufacturer in the world.  Coupled with Kinetic’s experience, we are all set to make automobile history here and I invite all of you at our world class facility on Lavelle road.”

Following Bangalore, Motoroyale dealerships will soon be inaugurated in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. Motoroyale showrooms will focus on sales, service, spares and after sales support for MV Agusta customers in India. MV Agusta India Pvt. Ltd. has the exclusive distribution rights for all MV Agusta motorcycles in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. 

Indian Students Accepting ACCA Membership to Work in Leading Global Markets

By Manu Sharma
When it comes to education, Indian youngsters are still holding on to what’s traditional option for them and choosing something that seems familiar to them, like choosing CA to ACCA. However, today’s youth are looking for better prospects in their career and what’s better than a lucrative career in leading markets across the globe.

ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), which has been responsible is shaping many youth’s career has suddenly looking up in India. Today over 10,000 student in the commerce stream are taking to ACCA fundamental courses to raise in their career. What’s more is that 400-500 students are adding each year.

Talking to the media, Sajid Khan, Head of International Development. ACCA says, “Over the last two or three years have become active in India and investing through our Approved Learning Partner (ALP). Interestingly for us southern states like Kerala, Tamilnadu and Karnataka amount to 50% of the ACCA students doing fundamental courses in India.”

ACCA has also announced a major step forward in shaping the future of accountancy by unveiling major innovations to its Master’s level qualification. The new, ground-breaking design of the qualification draws on an extensive, two-year review and consultation with members, employers and learning providers.

On the professional front, according to Khan, 7,400 approved ACCA members are presently employed in leading organisations and banks globally. India has over 1,100 qualified ACCA members and the numbers are slowing gaining number by adding about 100 over the last two years.

ACCA membership is not accepted not just in the United Kingdom but also in Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia, China etc.

In April 2016, India chose the path of IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) convergence and introduced Ind-AS (Indian Accounting Standards). Ind-AS is modelled along the lines of IFRS, which is internationally accepted accounting standards, and it upgrades India’s accounting standards to an international level. This has created the necessity for a new, modern day accountant who can understand the dynamic nature of Ind-AS and can successfully implement it.

“The ACCA qualification combines local relevance with international best practice. We are excited to bring these developments to India, as it now stands at the cusp of financial transformation, in order to plug existing skill gaps by providing a truly global qualification,” said Sajid Khan. “By supplementing the accountancy profession with skill sets that have been devised keeping in mind the dynamic nature of the profession and drivers of change like automation and globalisation, we are creating finance professionals who are capable of supporting and driving India’s economic growth.”

Raymond Jack, Executive Director, Finance and Operations added that the new emphasis for the qualification is a major step forward for the future of accountancy. “Today accountants are increasingly being called upon to demonstrate that they are strategic forward-thinkers as they play senior executive roles in business. ACCA has responded accordingly with a qualification that offers the complete and essential blend of technical and ethical accounting competencies mixed with strategic leadership and professional skills required to turn students into the confident, inspiring and trusted business partners that employers need.”

“We’re delivering a qualification that meets the demands of professional accountants in the 21st century, while maintaining the rigorous standards of technical, ethical and professional skills that has established ACCA as the international benchmark for accountancy qualifications,” said Judith Bennett, FEDS (Flexible Exam Delivery Programme) Programme Director, ACCA, at the event.

New developments

ACCA’s latest innovations to the top level of its qualification are new Strategic Professional level exams which will replace the existing Professional level exams in September 2018 and a new Ethics and Professional Skills module, which will be introduced in October 2017.

The redesign enhances the breadth and depth of the qualification, with greater focus on employability and the practical application of core skills in the contemporary workplace and includes:

·         Strategic Business Leader – an innovative case study exam, based on a realistic business scenario. This gives students the skills and technical expertise required by modern business where decisions need to be made, measured and effectively communicated to the wider organisation.

·         Strategic Business Reporting – a new exam exposing students to the wider context of finance and business reporting, giving them the vital skills needed to explain and communicate to stakeholders the implications of transactions and reporting.

·         An Ethics and Professional Skills module - making modifications to the existing ethics module, which ACCA was the first professional body to offer to students in 2008. This new module will equip them with the professional skills that are needed in the modern workplace.

Indian Students Accepting ACCA Membership to Work in Leading Global Markets

When it comes to education, Indian youngsters are still holding on to what’s traditional option for them and choosing something that seems familiar to them, like choosing CA or ACCA. However, today’s youth are looking for better prospects in their career and what’s better than a global career in leading markets across the globe.

ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), which has been responsible is shaping many youth’s career has suddenly looking up in India. Today over 10,000 student in the commerce stream are taking to ACCA fundamental courses to raise in their career. What’s more is that 400-500 students are adding each year.

Talking to the media, Sajid Khan, Head of International Development. ACCA says, “Over the last two or three years have become active in India and investing through our Approved Learning Partner (ALP). Interestingly for us southern states like Kerala, Tamilnadu and Karnataka amount to 50% of the ACCA students doing fundamental courses in India.”

ACCA has also announced a major step forward in shaping the future of accountancy by unveiling major innovations to its Master’s level qualification. The new, ground-breaking design of the qualification draws on an extensive, two-year review and consultation with members, employers and learning providers.

On the professional front, according to Khan, 7,400 approved ACCA members are presently employed in leading organisations and banks globally. India has over 1,100 qualified ACCA members and the numbers are slowing gaining number by adding about 100 over the last two years.

ACCA membership is not accepted not just in the United Kingdom but also in Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia, China etc.

In April 2016, India chose the path of IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) convergence and introduced Ind-AS (Indian Accounting Standards). Ind-AS is modelled along the lines of IFRS, which is internationally accepted accounting standards, and it upgrades India’s accounting standards to an international level. This has created the necessity for a new, modern day accountant who can understand the dynamic nature of Ind-AS and can successfully implement it.

“The ACCA qualification combines local relevance with international best practice. We are excited to bring these developments to India, as it now stands at the cusp of financial transformation, in order to plug existing skill gaps by providing a truly global qualification,” said Sajid Khan. “By supplementing the accountancy profession with skill sets that have been devised keeping in mind the dynamic nature of the profession and drivers of change like automation and globalisation, we are creating finance professionals who are capable of supporting and driving India’s economic growth.”

Raymond Jack, Executive Director, Finance and Operations added that the new emphasis for the qualification is a major step forward for the future of accountancy. “Today accountants are increasingly being called upon to demonstrate that they are strategic forward-thinkers as they play senior executive roles in business. ACCA has responded accordingly with a qualification that offers the complete and essential blend of technical and ethical accounting competencies mixed with strategic leadership and professional skills required to turn students into the confident, inspiring and trusted business partners that employers need.”

“We’re delivering a qualification that meets the demands of professional accountants in the 21st century, while maintaining the rigorous standards of technical, ethical and professional skills that has established ACCA as the international benchmark for accountancy qualifications,” said Judith Bennett, FEDS (Flexible Exam Delivery Programme) Programme Director, ACCA, at the event.

New developments

ACCA’s latest innovations to the top level of its qualification are new Strategic Professional level exams which will replace the existing Professional level exams in September 2018 and a new Ethics and Professional Skills module, which will be introduced in October 2017.

The redesign enhances the breadth and depth of the qualification, with greater focus on employability and the practical application of core skills in the contemporary workplace and includes:

·         Strategic Business Leader – an innovative case study exam, based on a realistic business scenario. This gives students the skills and technical expertise required by modern business where decisions need to be made, measured and effectively communicated to the wider organisation.

·         Strategic Business Reporting – a new exam exposing students to the wider context of finance and business reporting, giving them the vital skills needed to explain and communicate to stakeholders the implications of transactions and reporting.

·         An Ethics and Professional Skills module - making modifications to the existing ethics module, which ACCA was the first professional body to offer to students in 2008. This new module will equip them with the professional skills that are needed in the modern workplace.