SpiceJet Signs Big Deal for Upto 205 of Boeing New Airplanes in India

Boeing and SpiceJet announced a commitment for up to 205 airplanes during an event in New Delhi. Booked at the end of 2016, the announcement includes 100 new 737 MAX 8s, SpiceJet’s current order for 42 MAXs, 13 additional 737 MAXs which were previously attributed to an unidentified customer on Boeing's Orders and Deliveries website, as well as purchase rights for 50 additional airplanes.

“The Boeing 737 class of aircraft has been the backbone of our fleet since SpiceJet began, with its high reliability, low operation economies and comfort,” said Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet. “With the next generation of 737 and the 737 MAX we are sure that we can be competitive and grow profitably.”

SpiceJet, all-Boeing jet operator, placed its first order with Boeing in 2005 for Next-Generation (NG) 737s and currently operates 32 737 NGs in its fleet.

“We are honored to build upon more than a decade of partnership with SpiceJet with their commitment of up to 205 airplanes,” said Ray Conner, Vice Chairman, The Boeing Company. “The economics of the 737 MAXs will allow SpiceJet to profitably open new markets, expand connectively within India and beyond, and offer their customers a superior passenger experience.”

The 737 MAX incorporates the latest technology CFM International LEAP-1B engines, Advanced Technology winglets and other improvements to deliver the highest efficiency, reliability and passenger comfort in the single-aisle market.

The new airplane will deliver 20 percent lower fuel use than the first Next-Generation 737s and the lowest operating costs in its class – 8 percent per seat less than its nearest competitor.

Infosys Announces Internal Carbon Price at $10.5 Per Ton of CO2

Infosys, a global leader in consulting, technology, outsourcing and next-generation services, has announced its internal carbon price at $10.5 per ton of CO2e, at an event organized by the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) in Zurich. A significant milestone for Infosys, the price will be applicable for a period of two years and will represent the cost of decarbonizing 1 ton of CO2e.

Infosys has been working towards building a clean energy future and has been on track to meet its commitment of becoming carbon neutral in 2018. The company has implemented a three-pronged strategy to go carbon neutral: energy efficiency, renewable power, and emission offsets. In addition, Infosys has also committed to reduce its per-capita electricity consumption by 50% from the 2008 level and use 100% renewable power for electricity by 2018.

Infosys derived its internal carbon price based on its program to completely decarbonize under the carbon neutral commitment. The carbon price announced today is a weighted average of the prices of carbon under the energy efficiency, renewable energy, and emission offset levers. The price of carbon under each lever was estimated based on the company’s past and ongoing investments in the area.

Speaking at the event, Sandeep Dadlani, President and Head – Americas, Infosys said, “We recognize that global warming is the biggest threat the world is facing today. We understand the significance of the 2⁰C global warming limit under the Paris Agreement. For Infosys, by putting a price on carbon, we have further cemented our commitment to become carbon neutral. As a responsible company, we are very proud to be one among a handful of companies in the world to announce an internal carbon price. We hope that it becomes a global movement and helps save the planet by keeping global warming under 2⁰C.”

Putting a price on carbon is akin to the concept of ‘polluter pays’. Infosys now has the option of using the internal carbon price as a basis to internally raise funds from businesses or departments and use the funds for corporate emission reduction programs. The internal carbon pricing exercise itself gave us deeper insights into the various pathways to reduce emissions and their relative merits and effectiveness.

CPLC, launched during the COP21 in Paris, is working with corporates and governments to advance the concept of carbon pricing. The Paris Agreement reached at the COP21 commits to limit global warming to well below 2⁰C. That calls for an unprecedented and drastic cut in global greenhouse gas emissions, transitioning into a low carbon economy and moving toward a carbon neutral economy by the end of the century. Experts believe that the success of such a transition lies in putting a price on carbon. Infosys joined CPLC in 2016.

By 2020 Over 20% Organizations Will Use Smartphones in Place of Traditional Physical Access Cards

In 2016, less than 5 percent of organizations used smartphones to enable access to offices and other premises. By 2020, Gartner, Inc. said that 20 percent of organizations will use smartphones in place of traditional physical access cards.

"A significant fraction of organizations use legacy physical access technologies that are proprietary, closed systems and have limited ability to integrate with IT infrastructure," said David Anthony Mahdi, research director at Gartner. "Today, the increasing availability of mobile and cloud technologies from many physical access control system (PACS*) vendors will have major impacts on how these systems can be implemented and managed."

PACS technology is widely deployed across multiple vertical industries and geographies to secure access to a wide range of facilities (buildings, individual offices, data centers, plant rooms, warehouses and so on), ensuring that only entitled people (employees, contractors, visitors, maintenance staff) get access to specific locations.

Mobile technology is already widely used for logical access control. Phone-as-a-token authentication methods continue to be the preferred choice in the majority of new and refreshed token deployments as an alternative to traditional one-time password (OTP) hardware tokens. Gartner projects that the same kinds of cost and user experience (UX) benefits will drive increasing use of smartphones in place of discrete physical access cards. Smartphones using technologies and protocols such as Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE, and Near Field Communication can work with a number of readers and PACS technology.

One of the easiest ways to use a smartphone's access credentials is to integrate them — via a data channel over the air or via Wi-Fi — into the access control system (ACS) and "unlock the door" remotely (just as an ACS administrator can). This approach requires no change to reader hardware.

Using smartphones can also simplify the integration of biometric technologies. "Rather than having to add biometric capture devices in or alongside readers, the phone itself can easily be used as a capture device for face or voice (or both), with comparison and matching done locally on the phone or centrally," said Mahdi. "This approach also mitigates the risks from an attacker who gains possession of a person's phone."

The technology's limitations remain a challenge. For example, there's significant disparity in functionality between smartphones, and some security and risk management leaders should be aware that their physical card readers and PACS might require a significant upgrade to use smartphones for physical access. "Nevertheless, replacing traditional physical access cards with smartphones enables widely sought-after cost reductions and UX benefits," said Mahdi. "We recommend that security and risk managers work closely with physical security teams to carefully evaluate the UX and total cost of ownership benefits of using access credentials on smartphones to replace existing physical cards."

N Chandrasekaran Named as New Chairman of Tata Sons; Rajesh Gopinathan to be New CEO of TCS

Tata Sons is likely to name a new chairman today; the board has called for a meeting, although it said no agenda for the meeting had been announced. Tata Sons had abruptly removed Cyrus Mistry as its Chairman on October 24 and sought his ouster from operating companies like Tata Motors and TCS. He had subsequently resigned from the board of six companies, but dragged Tata Sons and his interim successor Ratan Tata to the NCLT. CEO of TCS N Chandrasekaran has been widely speculated to be one of the leading contenders for the role. Sources said that the next chairman will be a well-known insider.

Rajesh Gopinathan New CEO of TCS

Rajesh Gopinathan is expected to be the new CEO of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), taking over from N Chandrasekaran who is likely to soon be announced the Tata Sons Chairman. Rajesh Gopinathan is currently the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of TCS. He will take over India’s largest IT firm and has big task at his hand to take forward the company.

So, who is Rajesh Gopinathan? He joined TCS in 2001 and was appointed the Chief Financial Officer in February 2013. Prior to becoming the CFO, Rajesh was the Vice President – Business Finance. According to TCS, in this role, he was responsible for the financial management of the company’s individual operating units. His responsibilities included financial planning and control as well as margin management and revenue assurance.

Agencies

MSMEs Skills Development Program By Boeing India, Jaivel Aerospace

Boeing in collaboration with Jaivel Aerospace has announced the launch of a skill development program to train front-line workers in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the aerospace industry. In line with the national ‘Skill India’ initiative, the program aims at accelerating the growth of India’s aerospace industry by establishing a larger pipeline of skilled aerospace workers.

“This is Boeing’s first skill development initiative for aerospace manufacturing in Gujarat to ensure that entrepreneurial Gujarat businesses are ready to compete at a global scale,” said Pratyush Kumar, president, Boeing India. “We welcome Jaivel Aerospace to our skills development program. The partnership represents the commencement of our effort to expand our skilling initiatives to catalyse the aerospace industry in the state and help realize the ‘Make in India’ vision.”

Jaivel, a micro, small and medium enterprise, has undertaken work packages as a sub-tier supplier for Boeing’s advanced commercial airplanes such as the 787, 777 and 737 as well as defense platforms such as the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. Through the new partnership, Jaivel’s role in the local and global aerospace sector will expand, as its helps to train future aerospace workers.

“As the world's largest aerospace company, Boeing offers the advantage of a tried and tested, unique curriculum and the knowhow to help an emerging aerospace enterprise like us to strengthen our global aerospace footprint,” said Vipul Vachhani, Founder and CEO – Jaivel Aerospace. “This is an important investment by Boeing, not only for us but also for Gujarat’s potential to become an aerospace manufacturing hub. This is testament to Jaivel’s aerospace team and we look forward to working with Boeing to create an excellent foundation for an aerospace sector in the state,” said Vipul Vachhani, founder and CEO, Jaivel Aerospace.

In addition, Boeing has been partnering with leading Indian vocational training institutes, Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and Indian partners, including MSMEs, to train workers in the aerospace industry. For example, Boeing-funded curricula and initiatives have already been launched with aerospace partners such as Rossell Techsys and Tata Advanced Materials Limited (TAML) to train workers on aerospace skills. Frontline workers have already been employed with Boeing’s suppliers after completion of training.

School Students Builds Multi-purpose Robot with NI System-Design Platform

Platform-based systems provider, National Instruments (NI) has mentored Anuj Verma and Shlok Jhawar, class VIII students of Delhi Public School, Bangalore in successfully creating a 4-wheeled, all-terrain, multi-purpose robot named, Recon Rover.

The Robot that can be used for surveillance during disasters and natural calamities incorporates data from various actuators and sensors in order to give the users the best control and accurate data from areas struck by natural calamities. The robot uses ultrasonic sensors to automatically avoid obstacles and prevent crash along with sensing the presence of humans stuck in disaster zones. It sends real time images and data from the disaster site while being controlled remotely.

Anuj and Shlok are 14 years-old and want to pursue robotics and electronics engineering later in their careers. They had earlier participated in NIYantra, NI’s annual Student Design contest, with a simple prototype of their product. They were successful in getting noticed by NI experts and since then have been closely working with the team in shaping up their final product using NI LabVIEW (system design software) and NI myRIO (embedded hardware device for students).

National Instruments provides hardware and software platform that not only helps professional scientists and engineers to solve complex applications, but also these budding engineers to envisage and build systems having great social impact.

“National Instruments has equipped scientists and engineers, with tools that accelerate the development of smart measurement systems and embedded control systems. This mission of ours extends into education, to serve budding scientists and engineers with access to the same advanced tools and technologies. These technologies help students to quickly realize and validate, solutions to real-world problems,” said Aditi Chauhan, Marketing Manager – India , National Instruments.

According to Anuj Verma, “Even with advanced technology into play, rescue operations are often slow resulting in mass panic. The biggest challenge which rescue teams face is that of accessibility. When disaster strikes a place which is remote and hard to access, getting any information can be challenging. To address this issue, we created the Recon Rover, with a highly-advanced user interface which can be controlled very easily. NI provided us access to various NI tools required to make this product flexible and scalable. With NI’s help, we were able to solve various challenges which we faced in the product development stage.”

As a part of its Academic program, NI organizes an annual student design competition, NIYANTRA, where it mentors hundreds of students, equips them with NI hardware, software and guidance that is required for their projects. Some of these students are really motivated to take their idea to prototype. NI further makes this possible through its various initiatives aimed at enabling SMEs and future entrepreneurs with technology access, startup assistance and ecosystem support.

Agencies

Market Sees 3.7% Decline of Worldwide PC Shipment in 2016

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 72.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, a 3.7 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2015, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. For the year, 2016 PC shipments totaled 269.7 million units, a 6.2 percent decline from 2015. PC shipments have declined annually since 2012.

"Stagnation in the PC market continued into the fourth quarter of 2016 as holiday sales were generally weak due to the fundamental change in PC buying behavior," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "The broad PC market has been static as technology improvements have not been sufficient to drive real market growth. There have been innovative form factors like 2-in-1s and thin and light notebooks, as well as technology improvements, such as longer battery life. This end of the market has grown fast, led by engaged PC users who put high priority on PCs. However, the market driven by PC enthusiasts is not big enough to drive overall market growth."

"There is the other side of the PC market, where PCs are infrequently used. Consumers in this segment have high dependency on smartphones, so they stretch PC life cycles longer. This side of the market is much bigger than the PC enthusiast segment; thus, steep declines in the infrequent PC user market offset the fast growth of the PC enthusiast market."

Kitagawa said that although the overall PC market will see stagnation, there are growth opportunities within the market, such as the engaged PC user market, the business market and gaming. However, these growth areas will not prevent the overall decline of the PC market, at least in the next year.

Four of the top six vendors experienced an increase in worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2016. The top three vendors all increased their global market share in the fourth quarter. Lenovo maintained the No. 1 position, as the company experienced shipment increases in North America and EMEA, while Asia/Pacific and Japan continued to be challenging markets.

HP remained in the second position, and it has recorded three consecutive quarters of shipment growth. HP secured the top position in PC shipments in the U.S. and EMEA, growing faster than the regional averages.

Dell also registered three consecutive quarters of shipment growth in 4Q16. Dell continued to place PCs as a strategic business segment in commercial and consumer markets during 2016. Asus suffered the steepest decline among the top six vendors in the fourth quarter of 2016. Asus has been shifting its PC strategy more toward the high-end market, which will allow it to maintain better profit margins. Gartner analysts said the falling shipment volume could be the cause of this strategy shift.

In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 16.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, a 1.3 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2015. Five of the top six vendors in the U.S. PC market experienced a shipment increase in the fourth quarter of 2016. However, this was offset by a 20.9 percent decline in the Others category, and a 48.3 percent decline in shipments by Asus.

"Similar to low-key back to school sales in 3Q16, big sales events, such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and holiday sales are no longer effective marketing opportunities for PCs since PC purchases are generally driven by a 'need,' rather than 'want,' motivation," Kitagawa said. "PCs are not a preferred gift item any longer, as consumers gravitate toward other consumer electronics, such as virtual personal assistant (VPA) speakers, virtual reality (VR) head-mounted devices, and wearables. Vendors and channels did not have high expectations for the holiday PC sales, so the marketing campaigns remained relatively quiet."

PC shipments in EMEA surpassed 21.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, a 3.4 percent decline year over year. PC shipments to the consumer market were driven by good Black Friday sales in Western European countries, such as the U.K. and France, especially on traditional notebooks, ultramobile clamshells, the hybrid form factor and gaming PCs. Gartner's early estimates also show PC shipment growth in the business segment, led by Windows 10 deployments during the fourth quarter.

The Asia/Pacific PC market totaled 24.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, a 3.9 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2015. The PC market was affected by two major events. First, the demonetization of the Indian currency in India led to weaker-than-expected consumer PC demand. Second, the success of China's 11.11 (Singles Day on 11 November) online shopping event gave a boost to consumer notebook sales.

For the year, worldwide PC shipments totaled 269.7 million units in 2016 The shipment totals were at the same levels as shipments in 2007. Market consolidation escalated in 2016 as the top three vendors (Lenovo, HP and Dell) accounted for 54.7 percent of worldwide PC shipments in 2016, up from 51.5 percent in 2015.