Notion Press’s Scholarink.com Opens New Academic Publishing Platform

Notion Press launches Scholarink.com, India’s first open access academic publishing platform for academic authors to publish their work and make it available in over 100 countries. It is a launch pad for scholars, universities, researchers and research groups to publish their work, thereby providing them with an opportunity to reach wider audiences.

 “Being pioneers in the academic publishing field for over 40 years, we have been instrumental in presenting over 3000 authors to international markets. We realised the importance of publishing for people from the academic and scientific community. Apart from disseminating their findings and learning, publishing their work too plays a significant role in their careers,” says Jana Pillay, Co-Founder and Director of Scholarink.

Scholarink serves as a one-stop solution for all publishing needs. From running plagiarism checks and copy-editing and the overall creation of the book to worldwide distribution, Scholarink’s 150-member team ensures that authors receive the best academic publishing services under one roof.

“Publishing adds credibility to an academician’s profile, but authors are very sceptical about approaching traditional publishers. The reasons are many – exorbitant publishing charges, forgoing of their copyrights, nil or negligent royalty etc. At Scholarink, academicians collaborate with industry experts to bring out academic content of the highest standards. With our wide distribution network, publications are made available in more than 100 countries in both print and eBook formats. The best part is that our authors enjoy the highest royalty rates of 100% of the profits from the sale of their work and all this without letting go off their copyrights,” says Naveen Valsakumar, CEO and Co-Founder, Notion Press.

Scholarink does not stop with just publishing content. We also facilitate the creation of an author brand. “Our goal is to disseminate valuable scholarly works to academicians and laymen alike and at the same time, act as the linchpin that will propel the author’s career. We know what kind of career growth publishing offers to academicians. To address both our goals, we enable Open Access Publishing wherein research findings attain a wider reach, guaranteeing better citations, as well as indexing the content on platforms of repute such as CiteSeerX, Google Scholar and OpenAIRE.” says Gautham Gopakumar, Business Manager, Scholarink.

Notion Press believes in enhancing and making the knowledge available to all, without limitations on using this knowledge to make an impact within their community by providing free access to their published work. 

Global Smartphones Grew 9 Percent in First Quarter of 2017

Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 380 million units in the first quarter of 2017, a 9.1 percent increase over the first quarter of 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. Mobile phone buyers are spending more to get a better phone, resulting in the rise in average selling prices of types of phone.

The shift in buyer preference is positively affecting Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei, Oppo and Vivo in their strategy to build desirable features at affordable prices. Their combined market share in the first quarter of 2017 accounted for 24 percent, up 7 percentage points year on year.

"The top three Chinese smartphone manufacturers are driving sales with their competitively priced, high quality smartphones equipped with innovative features," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. "Furthermore, aggressive marketing and sales promotion have further helped these brands to take share from other brands in markets such as India, Indonesia and Thailand."

Samsung's smartphone sales declined 3.1 percent in the first quarter of 2017. "Although Samsung announced that preorders for the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are up 30 percent year over year, the absence of an alternative to Note 7 and the fierce competition in the basic smartphone segment are leading Samsung to continuously lose market share," said Gupta. "Sales of iPhones were flat, which led to a drop in market share year over year. Similar to Samsung, Apple is increasingly facing fierce competition from Chinese brands Oppo and Vivo, among others, and its performance in China is under attack."

Huawei edged closer to Apple with smartphone sales amounting to 34 million units in the first quarter of 2017. Despite its P9 and P9 Plus being available for more than a year now, both smartphones continued to sell well, positioning Huawei as a dominant brand in the consumer market. "Huawei has now steadily held the third spot in the worldwide ranking of smartphone vendors," said Gupta. "However, pressure is mounting as its counterparts in China are catching up."

Oppo is continuing to catch up with Huawei. With a 94.6 percent increase in worldwide smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2017, Oppo achieved the best performance of the quarter and retained the No. 1 position in China. "Oppo continued to rally sales through a large network of brick-and-mortar retailers, beating market incumbents such as Samsung and Huawei," said Gupta. Oppo's strategy — centered on the camera, fast charging and offline retail — has helped it grow smartphone sales in the international market.

Meanwhile, Vivo sold almost 26 million smartphones and achieved a market share of 6.8 percent, which helped it achieve growth of 84.6 percent in the first quarter of 2017. "Vivo saw growing demand of its smartphones from the emerging markets in Asia/Pacific, including India, where sales grew over 220 percent thanks to its increased brand appeal and high-quality smartphones," said Gupta.

In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, the battle is now clearly between Android and iOS. With other OSs struggling for momentum, Android grew its share by 2 percent. Growing acceptance of Chinese brands in the global markets, led by high-quality smartphones, is driving Android OS dominance. Moreover, with Google's announcement of Android Go — targeted at the entry-level smartphone market — the OS is heading for continued growth.

OYO to Unveil 250 Townhouses Cross India By End of 2017

OYO, a leading hospitality technology major in India has expressed plans to open 250 properties — under its mid-market hotel brand OYO Townhouse — across the country, by the end of 2017.

The company opened its first OYO Townhouse in Bengaluru (at Indiranagar) on Monday, which boasts of 22 rooms. With this launch, OYO Townhouse operates seven hotels across Gurugram, Delhi, Hyderabad, and now, Bengaluru, and plans to expand to 12 major cities in India, including Chennai, Kochi, and leisure destinations like Mysuru, among others.

Priced from Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,500 a night, Townhouse provides hospitality experience in the heart of popular neighbourhoods. By the end of this year, in Bengaluru alone, OYO aims to establish 25 Townhouse properties, in areas such as Koramangala, MG Road, Trinity Circle, and Marathahalli.

According to OYO Chief Operating Officer Abhinav Sinha, the unique Townhouse concept is a combination of hotel, store, home, and workplace.

“OYO Townhouse utilises our technology and patented processes to deliver a unique hospitality experience. Townhouse’s ‘neighbourhood’ connect is a result of understanding that millennials like to switch seamlessly from work to play,” he said. 

As part of this venture, the company has invested in staff training and transformation of the infrastructure to suit OYO’s core quality values. All properties under the OYO Townhouse chain, which are brownfield buildings, will be leased. Also, the hotel concept offers smarter rooms and spaces, a 24X7 kitchen, and so on.

He added, “It gives me great pride to share today that we are also entering into a partnership with KTDC to operate a few of the Jungle Lodge Resort (JLR) properties. Now a reliable OYO experience awaits you at JLR!”

Panasonic Sets Up India Innovation Centre With TCS at Whitefield

Consumer electronics maker Panasonic on Thursday announced setting up of its first India Innovation Centre (IIC) in Bengaluru, in association with TCS.

As part of this, the company inaugurated the Centre of Excellence (CoE) at the TCS facility in Whitefield.

The CoE will focus on open innovation in the consumer electronic space and leverage the technology already available with Panasonic India, and create geography-centric USPs to develop innovative solutions, according to the company.

As part of this collaboration, TCS will bring in industry know-how, innovation practices, and create an ecosystem for Panasonic to shape the future product strategy, and enable in digital transformation.

Agencies

Paytm Announces $1.4 B Raise Funding from SoftBank

Paytm, the second largest Internet company run by One97 Communications, on Thursday said that it has raised $1.4 billion from SoftBank Group in one of the largest funding rounds by a single investor in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Besides reducing the burden of Chinese investment by Alibaba, Paytm will find the Japanese conglomerate investment to expand its soon to be launched payments bank operations, expand the user-base and unveil more financial products.

Commenting on the development, Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said they the company is at an inflexion point in its journey. “This investment by Softbank and support of the incredible entrepreneur Masayoshi Son is a great endorsement of our team’s execution and vision. We believe that we have a great opportunity to bring financial inclusion to half-a-billion Indians.”

Paytm plans to invest about around Rs 10,000 crore over the next three to five years towards enabling half-a-billion Indians to join the mainstream economy. “As a part of this vision, the company will soon launch the Paytm Payments Bank,” it added.

Paytm, which has around 230 million wallet-users, plans to launch its payments bank on May 23, and will use the money to acquire new 500 million customers and launch a slew of financial service products such as wealth management, deposits, and money lending, among others.

Paytm has tied up with several financial institutions including banks such as ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda and startups such as Capital First and Capital Float to lend to customers on their behalf.

SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said that the company’s investment in Paytm is line with the Indian government's vision to promote digital inclusion. “We are committed to transforming the lives of hundreds of millions of Indian consumers and merchants by providing them digital access to a broad array of financial services, including mobile payments,” said Son.

SoftBank, which was an early investor in Alibaba, has committed investments of over $10 billion in India. It has pumped close to $2 billion into Indian startups like Snapdeal, Ola and Housing.com in last few years. The company had to write off a significant portion of that after the devaluation of those investments.

Agencies

Now Free Tool to Combat WannaCry from K7 Computing

K7 Computing is offering a free tool to scan and remove files affected by WannaCry ransomware, which has been causing widespread damage in the last few days.

No other ransomware has exploited a very recently-discovered Microsoft security flaw to spread this way. This makes WannaCry “the most deadly, successful ransomware attack in history,” said J Kesavardhanan, Founder & CEO, K7 Computing, which provides anti-virus solutions.

K7 scanner

It is important that clients know if the system is infected or not by WannaCry ransomware. K7’s scanner scans the system to identify any WannaCry files and removes them from the machine. The scanner also identifies and removes other dangerous ransomware and bots. The free scanning and removal tool can be utilised by individual users and companies, he told the Hindu group journalists.

WannaCry encrypts the data and offers the decrypt code for a price (a ransomware). It exploits an MS17-010 vulnerability to distribute itself. It is possible that WannaCry can arrive through email, either as a malware attachment or as a malicious link. Effect of WannaCry could be far more than what has been reported in the media, he said.

K7 Computing protects over 15 million customers globally against threats to their IT environment. So far, due to WannaCry, nearly 7,000 machines have been affected, he said.

International anti-virus fraternity, including K7 Computing, is working towards creating a decrypt code to retrieve data, which should be made available at the earliest. In the current scenario, users will have to opt for a diagnostic and preventive solution, he said.

WannaCry can spread to all Windows OS prior to Windows 10 without the users’ knowledge. Particularly vulnerable are those operating systems that have not been updated with the latest patch/update. If allowed to launch, from a malicious email attachment, WannaCry will encrypt files even on a fully-patched Windows OS, whether Windows 10 or earlier, he said.

Agencies

TCLL and XLRI Announce Programs for Working Professionals in India

Times Centre for Learning Ltd (TCLL)., and XLRI-Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur recently signed an MoU to collaborate for promoting quality Executive education in India.

This MOU marks the coming together of two potent forces for professional education:  the unmatched pedigree, history and reputation of XLRI management education practice and TCLL’s physical presence, prowess in delivering learning technology, strong corporate connections and commitment to bringing excellence in education in India.

Commenting on the alliance, Anish Srikrishna, President, Times Centre of Learning Limited, said, “We are delighted to be associated with XLRI, one of India’s top business schools. As TCLL continues to strive towards its vision of providing excellent professional education to learners across the age group, I am confident that this association will be a decisive milestone. We are committed to maintain and exceed the high academic standards that learners have automatically come to associate with XLRI and TCLL.”

Working professionals looking to upgrade their skill-set and move up the corporate ladder can choose from the newly launched and upcoming programs to be delivered in different modes that takes care of the busy life of today’s working executives. Executive Certificate Program on Building Leadership Competencies; focusing on creating space for learning around essential competencies and values for leaders to be successful. The classes would be in the form of live interactive lectures to be beamed directly to the participants’ desktop/laptop. The applications are open for this course.

The Post Graduate Certificate Course in Business Analytics for Management Decision (PGCBAMD) will be a 12 month programme focused on building foundation as well as advanced skills in the domain of business analytics. XLRI aims to create specialists in the field of business analytics with in depth knowledge in the various areas of analytics and who would be able to provide managerial insights by analyzing the data which enables decision making. The application for the course can be done from May 10, 2017.

The classes would be in the form of live interactive lectures to be attended from TCLL centres spread across the country in all major cities.

Father E. Abraham, S.J. Director, XLRI said, “We continually strive to build mutually beneficial partnership and look forward to this engagement with TCLL.  We hope that this alliance will provide great opportunities for both XLRI and TCLL.  We look forward to creating new educational programs and identifying ways for our faculty to interact with executives and other professionals in the region.  This partnership will provide terrific opportunities for sharing of ideas and developing solutions to many of the world's key business issues.”