Government IT Spending in India to Total $7.8 Billion in 2017

The government in India is forecast to spend $7.8 billion US dollars (USD) on IT in 2017, 7.5 percent increase from 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. This is down from Gartner’s previous projection for 9.5 percent growth this year.

“The 2 percent revision in our outlook is primarily due to the effects of demonetization and a drop in industrial production,” said Moutusi Sau, principal research analyst at Gartner. “However, spending plans like affordable housing scheme, and increased loans to small and medium enterprises by the government are likely to have a positive effect on IT spending in the next few quarters.”

IT services (which includes consulting, software support, business process outsourcing, IT outsourcing, implementation, and hardware support) is expected to grow 10.8 percent in 2017 to reach $2 billion USD, making it the largest IT spending category.

The software segment includes enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), desktop, infrastructure, vertical specific software and other application tools. The software segment is expected to grow 10.8 percent in 2017 to reach $1.1 billion USD. ERP/SCM/CRM will be the fastest growing segment with 14.5 percent growth in this category.

Devices (which includes printers/copiers/MFPs, mobile devices, PCs and tablets) is expected to grow 10.4 percent in 2017 to reach $1.1 billion USD.

VLCC Acquires Wellscience Forays into Nutraceuticals and Direct Selling

VLCC, a globally renowned brand in beauty and wellness industry, today announced its foray into the fast growing nutraceuticals industry with the acquisition of the Direct Selling business of Wellscience, a Gurugram-based company that offers a comprehensive range of high quality nutraceutical supplements and personal care products catering to customer requirements across age groups.To be rebranded VLCC Wellscience, the company’s products are all Ayurvedic or herbal and address condition specific wellness needs of customers, using an innovative Active Identifiable Marker (AIM) technology.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mukesh Luthra, Chairman, VLCC Group, said, “Combining its strategy to enter new and emerging categories in the Beauty and Wellness domain at large with the strategy to enter new channels of distribution, to reach out to a larger set of consumers of Beauty and Wellness offerings, VLCC is now further extending its presence in the high-growth Fast Moving Healthcare Goods (FMHG) segment, with its foray into the nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals segment, and retailing these products through the Direct Selling channel, which is an emerging opportunity given that the Government of India has very recently clarified regulations governing this industry.”

“VLCC is already present in the FMHG segment with its VLCC Slimmer’s range of fortified/functional foods and expanding to nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals is a natural extension our products business”, Mr. Luthra further added.

Wellscience was established in 2009 by a team led by Lajinder Bawa. He will continue to lead the business as the CEO of VLCC Wellscience. A 20-year veteran of the Direct Selling Industry, he is credited with having brought it to the country when he became the founding CEO of Oriflame India in 1995. He has also been an advisor to leading Direct Selling players, including Modicare and Hindustan Lever Network.

Commenting on the synergy between the two businesses, Mr. Lajinder Bawa said, “This is a significant step forward for Wellscience. VLCC has been committed to transforming lives for close to three decades and ensures that its product lines and service offerings are of utmost efficacy and quality, at all times. We believe that the brand values of Wellscience are in sync with the values of VLCC and this partnership will provide us the necessary thrust required for our next level of growth.”

Within the overall FMCG domain in India, the FMHG segment is one of the fastest growing. According to a 2015 Assocham-RNCOS study, this segment is likely to touch US$ 6.1 billion by 2020 from the current level of US$ 2.8 billion, growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17 per cent.

More specifically with respect to the nutraceuticals market in India, it is expected to double to INR 267.64 billion by 2020 and grow at a CAGR of 16% over the next 5 years, as per a recent study by the Drug Marketing and ;Manufacturing Association (DMMA).

Furthermore, the Health and Wellness products market in India through Direct Selling is estimated at over Rs 35 billion, contributing 47 per cent share to the total Direct Selling market.

Uber Brings New App for Driver Compliments to 29 Cities Across India

Uber, the world’s largest ridesharing app that connects riders with drivers to provide convenient, reliable and affordable rides at the push of a button, today announced the launch of the ‘Driver Compliments’ feature. Through this feature Uber aims to make it possible for riders to positively reinforce good behaviour and in the process humanize the relationship between the riders and driver partners.

“Last month, we launched community guidelines with the objective of encouraging mutual respect, and we are now excited to introduce ‘Compliments’. Our driver partners deliver millions of safe rides everyday and in many instances go beyond their call of duty. We hope our riders take a moment to express their appreciation by using this feature. It will encourage our driver partners to do even better!,” said Pradeep Parameswaran, Head, Central Operation, Uber India.

Once a rider leaves a compliment, drivers will get a notification in app, taking them to the message and the compliments badge they’ve collected - whether that’s for expert navigation, great music choice or excellent service - because sometimes the little things make all the difference, and 5 stars are not enough.

Bharat Electronics Plans for ₹700-Crore Capex for FY17-18

Public sector defence major Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) plans a capex of ₹700 crore for 2017-18. 

“The sanctioned amount is more, but planned spend is around ₹700 crore on two new plants at Anantapur and Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh,” said BEL’s Chairman & Managing Director M Gowtama.

At Nimmaluru village, near Machilipatnam, the company is building new advanced night vision products factory and plans are afoot to expand night vision devices business. At Anantapur, a dedicated defence systems integration complex at Palasamudram is planned. In addition to these plants, the company is also creating dedicated business groups to address home land security and smart city business. On the sales outlook for 2017-18, Gowtama said “Our aim is to cross ₹10,000 crore. During 2016-17, we clocked ₹8,825 crore. Currently our turnover from indigenous technology is 87 per cent and sales from defence business is 88 per cent.”

To clock more sales, “we plan to continue indigenisation efforts in line with Make in India. We plan to enhance capacity and create new test facilities for defence business and are pursuing new opportunities in solar, energy, homeland security, smart cities, smart cards and telecom,” he added.

On electronic voting machines (EVMs), Gowtama said EVMs made by BEL are safe and the Election Commission (EC) has placed an order for 17 lakh machines with a budget of ₹3,100 crore. “The EC has placed order of 8.5 lakh each with us (BEL) and ECIL. We are committed to supply the order by September 2018. For us revenue with tax comes to ₹1,500 crore and without tax it will be ₹1,300 crore.”

The company’s exports dipped 23.52 per cent to $65 million in FY17 as compared with $85 million in FY16. Gowtama attributed the fall to Reliance Defence failing to raise LoI. 

“Otherwise we could have achieved the last fiscal sales’ level,” he said. The company’s order book as on April 1 is at $82 million. This includes offset order book $15 million. “This year our thrust is on exports and offsets. Focus is on build to print, build to spec and buyer-nominated equipment.”

The company has drawn a three-year (2017-2020) research and development (R&D) plan.

ISRO GSLV Mark-III Shall Put Mega Payloads of 4,000 Kg into the Orbit

After the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has established itself as a dependable workhorse, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is paying special attention to its next generation rocket — the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark-III which is capable of launching 4,000-kg satellites into space.
The GSLV version of the rocket was used to launch 2,000-kg satellites. The three-stag GSLV Mk-III adopts the flight-proven solid and liquid stages of the PSLV and a cryogenic upper stage.GSLV was developed to enable India to launch its heavier satellites without dependence on foreign rockets. If successful, the new rocket can project the country as a competitive player in the multi-million dollar commercial launch market.Isro scientists are optimistic over the success of the Mk-III mission in the backdrop of a series of tests carried out before going ahead with the launch arrangements.The cryogenic stage, designated as C25, was tested for a flight duration of 640 seconds at the propulsion complex at Mahendragiri in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu in February.The rocket will be carrying the GSAT-19 to space. It is likely to be launched in the next two months. The satellite is planned to carry Ka and Ku band payload along with a Geostationary Radiation Spectrometer (GRASP) payload to monitor and study the nature of the charged particles and influence of space radiation on spacecraft and electronic components.Isro working on three missions at same time For the first time, all the infrastructure at India’s spaceport — the Satish Dhawan Space Centre — is being put to use. Work related to the launch of rockets is progressing at a brisk pace.While integration of PSLV-C38 and GSLV-F09 are in progress at the buildings attached to first and second launch pads, work related to GSLV-MK 111 is going on at the solid stage assembly building. Isro officials said MK III would be shifted soon after the launch of GSLV-F09.The engineers of Isro said it is the first time that work of three launch missions is going on in full stream. The launch of the GSLV-F09 carrying the GSAT-9 satellite is planned probably on May 5. The PSLV-C3 will launch the Cartosat-2D and some foreign satellites on May 25. The bigger GSLV Mk III will carry the 4,000-kg GSAT-19 to space in June.
The GSLV version of the rocket was used to launch 2,000-kg satellites. The three-stag GSLV Mk-III adopts the flight-proven solid and liquid stages of the PSLV and a cryogenic upper stage.GSLV was developed to enable India to launch its heavier satellites without dependence on foreign rockets. If successful, the new rocket can project the country as a competitive player in the multi-million dollar commercial launch market.Isro scientists are optimistic over the success of the Mk-III mission in the backdrop of a series of tests carried out before going ahead with the launch arrangements.The cryogenic stage, designated as C25, was tested for a flight duration of 640 seconds at the propulsion complex at Mahendragiri in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu in February.The rocket will be carrying the GSAT-19 to space. It is likely to be launched in the next two months. The satellite is planned to carry Ka and Ku band payload along with a Geostationary Radiation Spectrometer (GRASP) payload to monitor and study the nature of the charged particles and influence of space radiation on spacecraft and electronic components.Isro working on three missions at same time For the first time, all the infrastructure at India’s spaceport — the Satish Dhawan Space Centre — is being put to use. Work related to the launch of rockets is progressing at a brisk pace.While integration of PSLV-C38 and GSLV-F09 are in progress at the buildings attached to first and second launch pads, work related to GSLV-MK 111 is going on at the solid stage assembly building. Isro officials said MK III would be shifted soon after the launch of GSLV-F09.The engineers of Isro said it is the first time that work of three launch missions is going on in full stream. The launch of the GSLV-F09 carrying the GSAT-9 satellite is planned probably on May 5. The PSLV-C3 will launch the Cartosat-2D and some foreign satellites on May 25. The bigger GSLV Mk III will carry the 4,000-kg GSAT-19 to space in June.

Automation Anywhere Launches IQ Bot, Software Bots Capable of Learning

Automation Anywhere, the global leader in enterprise Robotic Process Automation (RPA), today announced the availability of IQ Bot, software bots capable of studying, learning and mimicking human behavior for intelligent process automation. By combining cognitive abilities with practical, rule-based RPA capabilities, organizations can quickly scale and up level their Digital Workforces to fully automate processes end-to-end and run them independently with minimal human intervention. The product was launched at Automation Anywhere’s Imagine, the company’s premier customer experience event taking place in New York City.

IQ Bot is skilled at applying human logic to document patterns and extracting values in the same way that a human would, but with instantaneous speed, the accuracy of a machine and with a near-zero error rate. Fully integrated with the Automation Anywhere Enterprise platform, IQ Bot delivers organizations enormous gains in productivity because it is capable of processing and automating business tasks involving complex documents with unstructured data. With Automation Anywhere’s comprehensive Digital Workforce platform, comprised of RPA, cognitive and analytic capabilities, organizations can automate up to 80 percent of business processes, compared to the 30 percent automation capability by using RPA alone.

“IQ Bot is the next evolution of cognitive capabilities that significantly extends the proficiency of RPA beyond anything we’ve yet experienced. It enables companies to leverage what humans do best and what machines do best, delivering the first intelligent automation platform,” said Mihir Shukla, CEO and Co-founder, Automation Anywhere. “We strongly believe the full potential of enterprise automation is only realized when RPA and cognitive computing work together. With the release of IQ Bot, we are delivering critical functionality, which can be truly transformational.”

IQ Bot has a built-in, intuitive dashboard that makes it easy to setup and manage. IQ Bot relies on supervised learning, meaning that every human interaction makes IQ Bot smarter. In addition to English, IQ Bot can extract data in Spanish, French, Italian and German.

Metso and CDE Collaborate to Provide Comprehensive Solutions for Manufactured Sand Market in India

Metso (India) Pvt. Ltd. and CDE Asia Limited have agreed on marketing cooperation in order to provide comprehensive manufactured sand solutions to customers in India. Metso's scope covers the crushing and screening technology, and CDE Asia will provide the wet classification equipment required in the manufactured sand production process.

The agreement is in line with Metso's strategy to strengthen its capabilities by extending its portfolio in cooperation with strong partners around the world, CDE in this case, and offer comprehensive high-quality end-to-end solutions for an important segment like manufactured sand.

"As a leading provider of equipment and services for the mining and aggregates industries, we always aim to provide the best solutions to our customers that are not only qualitative and efficient in terms of profitability, but also environmentally sustainable. This new marketing cooperation agreement allows the customers to acquire the whole process easily, and at the same time forms a good platform for future growth for both Metso and CDE Asia in India," states Kamal Pahuja, Vice President, Mining and Aggregates, Metso India.

"The cooperation agreement with Metso presents new opportunities for both organizations and has been well received by our customers. The combination of Metso's and CDE Asia's sustainable technologies produces well shaped, washed and graded manufactured sand, helping to replace natural sand, which is fast becoming scarce and expensive. This collaboration will benefit the sand manufacturers by providing best-in-quality graded sand and sustainable operations by reusing up to 95% of water used. By utilizing normally low-value crusher fines for sand production, we can extend the life of natural resources and also add huge commercial value to our customer's enterprise," shares Manish Bhartia, Managing Director, CDE Asia.

The cooperation agreement between Metso and CDE Asia is restricted to marketing and development of common offerings for the manufactured sand market by pooling the companies' expertise and knowledge. Both parties negotiate and sign the terms of contracts independently with the end customers, representing their respective companies only.

CDE is the leading provider of washing equipment for quarries, mines and recycling operations on the global market. The CDE equipment range has applications across a wide range of materials and is delivering significant efficiencies in the construction and recycling, mining, specialist industrial sands and environmental sectors. Working across 5 sectors and 8 regions, CDE has been co-creating with customers for over 20 years to deliver collaborative, imaginative and unique processing systems.  

The CDE Global Design Headquarters are located in Northern Ireland and the company also has bases in Kolkata, India to serve the Asian market, São Paulo, Brazil to serve the Latin American market, Ormeau, Australia for Australasian market and North Carolina, USA, to serve the North American market.  CDE also has representatives based in North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.