Uber, AAI Partner to Provide Reliable Rides from Four Indian Airports

Uber, the world’s largest on-demand ridesharing company that has transformed the way people move around in cities, has today announced a partnership with Airports Authority of India to make it easier for riders to get a ride at the airports at the tap of a button. The service will be operational in the airports in Kolkata, Chennai, Bhubaneshwar and Pune in the next couple of weeks.

Through this partnership, Uber aims to make it even more convenient and reliable for riders to get an Uber at the airport, making travel seamless and hassle-free. Uber will set up booking zones at the airports, where even those who do not have the app will be able to book a ride. There will be a dedicated pick up zone outside arrival terminals, on-ground assistance and clear signages to guide travelers to their car for pick up.

The Uber app will also enable riders to get specific pick up instructions - like terminal and door number - to reach their Uber driver. This feature further helps optimize pick up experience for both riders and drivers partners.

Here’s what riders will find at these four airports:

·         Riders at the airports will be able to book an Uber from designated kiosks at the domestic and international arrival terminals, to avail a hassle-free ride

·         Clear and dedicated signage will direct riders to the pick-up location for their Ubers

·         On ground assistance to direct riders to the car pick-up zones

·         Uber driver-partners will have dedicated parking spaces to make pick-ups more convenient - this will also make ETAs shorter for riders

"Commenting on the partnership, Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Government of India said, “India’s public transport networks have evolved considerably over the last few years and innovative services have played an instrumental role. It is encouraging to see Airports Authority of India and Uber come together with another technology backed service that will enhance the airport travel experience in Indian cities. I strongly believe that such services, when smartly integrated through public-private partnerships, can fill in the gaps of last-mile connectivity. I congratulate both parties for this landmark move and am eager to see passengers benefit from this new service. "

"We are encouraged by the collaborative step from the Airports Authority of India, enabling Uber to offer these solutions that marry the strengths of public air transit with the convenience and reliability of Uber, getting riders to and from transit stops to reach their ultimate destination, thereby filling the gaps in transit efficiently and seamlessly. With a first of its kind partnership in India with mass air transit infrastructure, we expect to cater to visitors from over 70 countries that use Uber in India," said David Richter, Global Head of Business and Corporate Development, Uber. Today, Uber is available at over 20 airports in India, and at more than 200 airports globally, with presence at almost all major US and European Airports. 25% of our active riders in India in last 3 months have travelled across cities and used Uber to get to airport or for commute in the destination city. "For public transport to be encouraged, it is important that walking distances are reduced, public transit is predictable and it’s close to people’s homes or mass transit stops. Our experience across the world and Metro rail corporations in India has shown us that Uber and public transit modes share complementarities that can help in filling these gaps and consequently reduce the burden on the government for creating new roads and public transit routes. We have already executed several partnerships with public transit agencies in India and other markets and have been effective in becoming a reliable first and last mile connectivity solution." he further added.

Commenting on the alliance, Dr. Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman AAI said, "AAI has always kept passenger convenience at the centre of its functioning. We are committed to give best possible experience to users of our airports. Bringing in leading cab service aggregators like Ola and Uber is a step in the direction of ensuring minimum hassle and better services to air travellers in India."

Hitachi’s Ramesh Srinivasan to Join BankBazaar as New CFO

BankBazaar, India’s leading paperless financial marketplace, announced that Ramesh Srinivasan will be joining the company as its new CFO. Ramesh comes with 22 years of experience in the Banking & Financial Services Industry (BFSI) segment and was earlier the Financial Advisor at Hitachi Payment Services. Prior to his current role, Ramesh was Chief Financial Officer and was also in charge of business planning and strategy for BNA & CRM at Hitachi Payment Services.

A Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant by education, Ramesh has been a part of organizations such as AT&T‚ NCR, and Optimus. Ramesh would be based in Chennai and would be responsible for leading the company towards an IPO release. Speaking on the appointment, Adhil Shetty, CEO, BankBazaar, said: “This is a very exciting time for BankBazaar. Our technology and paperless platform have made BankBazaar the flag-bearer in helping customers access the right financial products online in the safest and simplest manner. Now we are looking to consolidate our successes and plan ahead with an eye on releasing our IPO in 2020-22. We are confident that Ramesh's expertise in developing financial processes will take us further on our path.”

At a time when most sectors and businesses are thinking of downsizing and cost-cutting, BankBazaar continues on an expansion mode. Previously, BankBazaar had announced that it would be recruiting approx. 400 new employees. As of August 2017, the company has welcomed more than 130 new employees, and is in the process of recruiting more. The company anticipates this expansion to drive its future vision and roadmap after a strong growth in 2016-17. Shetty explains: “We are working on building bigger and more diverse team that can take on the challenges thrown up by next stage of the business cycle. This new team will drive the next phase of growth and profitability for BankBazaar. The expectations are high and so is our enthusiasm.”

In the last financial year, BankBazaar has seen a remarkable growth. The company has made great strides in developing a paperless platform for a range of products, implementing the world’s first multi-brand platform for unsecured credit products such as personal loans and credit cards, along with paperless investment products. The number of unique visitors per month grew from 9M in March 2016 to 17M in March 2017. This is despite a 50% reduction in cost per customer acquisition. The company also announced positive unit economics on every transaction in the last financial year and is on track to achieve EBITDA profitability from December 2017. The year 2016 also saw BankBazaar’s expansion into the international market beginning with Singapore followed by Malaysia in 2017.

BankBazaar is funded by global investors such as Walden International, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Growth Partners, Mousse Partners and Amazon, and has received investment of US$80M till date.

EasyGov, Journee and Megdap Emerge Winners at the Pitch Finale of #BuildOnIndiaStack 2017

The pitch finale of #BuildOnIndiaStack, Venture Pitch Competition, organized by iSPIRT and Dalberg was close-fitting. With over 180 entries, the selected 12 finalists from diverse sectors such as e-governance, health care, education, fintech, environment and agriculture presented their ideas to a full-house audience.  EasyGov that bagged the first position was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 3 lakhs. EasyGov is a cloud solution to help billion people of India to discover the entitlement from thousands of welfare schemes from the Government. EasyGov solution will help in rolling out 10K+ schemes in local language to enable people check family entitlement from phone.

The runner-ups, Journee and Megdap received prize money of Rs. 2 lakhs and Rs 1.5 lakhs respectively. FreeSave and Krishiyog received consolation prize. The winners now look forward to interact with Nandan Nilekani, who has agreed to mentor them for shaping their ideas. The founders of the winning startup, EasyGov, Amit Shukla and Vineet Sharma said “IndiaStack has created enabling environment for democratizing the government welfare scheme delivery. Acceptance of eSign document at all government offices can make it really big. We thank #BuildOnIndiaStack to provide us a platform to showcase our efforts.”

Technology evangelist, Nandan Nilekani who has also been at the forefront of the digital agenda in India said, “IndiaStack was being used mainly for Fintech. It however has vaster potential. It needs to be extended to education, health care and skill development amongst others. India Stack provides access to features such as the Digi-Locker, eKYC, eSign, UPI that can re-invent these sectors and make them accessible to the common man. #BuildOnIndiaStack was organized to embark upon this journey and interact with entrepreneurs that would be keen to serve the unserved and underserved. India Stack can be source of massive inclusion for India’s population.”

The panel of jurors comprised of stalwarts from the impact and social entrepreneurship industry like Bindu Ananth, Chair of IFMR Trust and IFMR Holdings; Srikrishna Ramamoorthy, Partner, Unitus Seed Fund; CV Madhukar, Investment Partner, Omidyar Network; Varad Pande, Partner, Dalberg Global Development Advisors and Sanjay Jain, Chief Innovation Officer, CIIE. The jury had a deservably difficult time to shortlist 12 entries from the total 180+ entries that #BuildOnIndiaStack received.

 “IndiaStack has tremendous potential to encourage innovations for India's mass market. This eve put the spotlight on a number of such applications & entrepreneurs and will help create more focus on mass market business models.” said, Bindu Ananth, Chair of IFMR Trust and IFMR Holdings.

 Varad Pande, Partner at Dalberg who also was on the jury panel said,“Today’s pitch presentations demonstrate the passion of our young innovators and the potential of technology to serve India’s 1 billion underserved. This competition is the start of a journey to support innovative tech-enabled solutions that “Build for Bharat”. We at Dalberg are excited to be part of that journey.”

IndiaStack is the largest application programming interface (API) in the world supported by an open API policy by the Government of India. The stack is a new technology paradigm that is scalable to handle massive data inflows, and is poised to enable entrepreneurs, citizens and governments to interact with each other transparently, creating an ecosystem to develop innovative ideas to serve the 1.1 billion people on the platform, specifically the BOP population.

Sanjay Jain, Chief Innovation Officer at CIIE and who has been associated with the IndiaStack initiative said, “The strong finalists, and the diversity of entries shows that entrepreneurs believe that they can make a business which meet the needs of the underserved.  This sends a strong signal, which is further strengthened by the interest from the VC community in this event.  I am confident that this will lead to more entrepreneurs and investors looking at the country well beyond the top tier of the economy.”

#BuildOnIndiaStack also created a platform for entreprenuers to interact with various partners of the eco-system.  Investment Partner at Omidyar Network, C V Madhukar said, "Today’s event brought to the fore the entrepreneurial energy in India that is attempting to solve important public problems. As entrepreneurs think about using the India Stack, investors have an opportunity to invest in companies that protect the privacy of individuals, especially in light of today’s judgement by the Supreme Court making privacy a fundamental right.”

The competition was open to all innovations that leverage the IndiaStack to unlock new business models and/or reach previously underserved, new customer segments across diverse sectors such as financial services, education, healthcare and others. Some core focus areas for the competition also included digital lending and supporting activities, such as alternative credit scoring; sector specific digital services such as health insurance or education loans, skilling and certification, property registration agreements, patient-centric healthcare management; and SaaS platforms “as a service” that support the development of other India Stack based innovations such as Digi-locker or e-sign providers.

Srikrishna Ramamoorthy, Partner at Unitus Seed Fund said, “Our priority at Unitus is to invest in startups that can disrupt the way financial services is delivered to the masses. This competition has facilitated that in a big way and we want ventures to keep building on India Stack”

Partners of this event were Bharat Innovations Fund, Omidyar Network, Unitus Seed Fund, CIIE (IIM-A). Start-up India and LetsVenture were the outreach partners for this inititative.The event was also supported by AwsActivate, 91Springboard and Rise Mumbai.

Innosential Launches a 5-Day Masterclass on Data Sciences in Collaboration with ITC Infotech

ITC Infotech, a global scale full service provider of technology solutions and a fully owned subsidiary of ITC Ltd, is collaborating with Innosential to present a five-day Masterclass program in Bengaluru from the August 25–29, 2017, to aid the IT industry’s need of reskilling.

Innosential’s Data Science Masterclass in collaboration with ITC Infotech presents an opportunity for the practicing data scientists to up skill themselves in the latest aspects of disruptive technologies. The initiative aims to provide theoretical and practical knowledge from leading researchers and practitioners in Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Text Analysis to name a few. The program will dwell on the most prominent elements of data sciences such as data stream mining, data science for digital commerce and building on AI/data science team. It will also provide hands-on experience to gain first hand insights and understanding of the data sciences ecosystem. With about 30 speakers, 150+ leading technologists and innovators group brainstorming sessions, the summit intends to discuss the technologies shaping the future of the industry.

Commenting on the collaboration, Sushma Rajagopalan, MD & CEO, ITC Infotech, said, “As the IT industry evolves, reskilling becomes crucial for the industry to be future-ready. We are happy to collaborate with Innosential to present a platform that will foster deeper understanding of Data Sciences. This initiative will encourage peer-to-peer learning, and sharing of insights by experts in this evolving field.”

Adding to this, Prof. Jaime Carbonell, University Professor, Allen Newell Professor, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Director, Language Technologies Institute, Carnegie Mellon University and founding advisor to Innosential said, “We are happy to partner with ITC Infotech to present the first ever Data Science Master Class delivered by leading lights in Data Science from India and across the globe. The summit will showcase disruptive AI technologies and their applications in business and society. The event will see numerous industry innovators share their best practices to advance data sciences’ impact and opportunities.”

ITC Infotech is focused on incubating technology innovation, and champions multi-dimensional initiatives, including the company’s annual technology innovation & co-creation platform – iTech. The company recently concluded the third edition of iTech - a platform to drive technology innovation and co-creation, which was themed around Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

VMware to Collaborate with ADLINK to Simplify IoT Implementations

VMware, Inc., a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility, announced a new collaboration with ADLINK Technology to provide mutual customers with a pre-integrated Internet of Things (IoT) solution that takes the guesswork out of selecting the hardware and software components of a typical IoT architecture. 

As organizations embrace IoT, they cite vendor selection and integration as a major challenge. According to Gartner, through 2018, 75 percent “of IoT projects will take up to twice as long as planned, with consequent cost implications.” (1) Due to the lack of a single point IoT solution, enterprises are forced to cobble together multiple, disparate offerings and then invest time and effort to maintain them in the longer run--which is a major inhibitor to IoT adoption.

VMware and ADLINK are testing and enabling their respective IoT solutions to work together to offer mutual customers a comprehensive, supported IoT offering featuring the requisite hardware, software and services to tackle their IoT initiatives. Additionally, the companies expect to conduct joint go-to-market activities.

 ADLINK is ‘Leading EDGE COMPUTING’ by delivering the network nodes that enable practical and scalable IoT systems. Building on its strong heritage in embedded computing, ADLINK provides the hardware and advanced Edge-aware software capabilities necessary for the multi-vendor, multi-standard connectivity required in end-to-end IT/OT business solutions. With its strategic partners VMware, OSIsoft and IBM, ADLINK reduces the complexity and helps speed the deployment of enterprise IoT systems that liberate data from vendor silos and other islands-of-automation, thus enabling business improvement in terms of operational excellence, enhanced customer service and support for new business models.

The recently announced VMware Pulse IoT Center will deliver the monitoring, managing and security needs of IoT infrastructure from the edge to the cloud. Additionally, VMware Pulse IoT Center will simplify IoT complexity by managing all ‘things’ as one, improve the reliability and security of IoT infrastructure through accurate and real-time visibility of ‘thing’ health, and accelerate the ROI of IoT use cases by streamlining how IoT projects are deployed and scaled. VMware Pulse IoT Center is expected to become available in calendar 2017.

 VMware’s IT expertise as a leader in IT infrastructure along with ADLINK’s deep knowledge about Operation Technology (OT) across various industries will benefit mutual customers as they implement IoT use cases throughout their organizations.

 “The world of IoT is exciting and daunting at the same time. OT and IT organizations approach very aligned goals from different points of view, and a common denominator is hard to find.  ADLINK and VMware’s collaboration shows what happens when we bridge the divide. Creating new disruptive industry solutions takes a lot more than any one vendor can provide – and our ecosystem approach is second to none in the industry in terms of practical experience.” – Rob Risany, Executive Vice President - IoT Strategy, Solutions & Technology, ADLINK

“VMware and ADLINK have a common goal of speeding up IoT adoption for organizations by enabling their solutions to reduce the time and effort required to setup an end-to-end IoT solution and improve the experience. VMware and ADLINK together will provide a comprehensive edge infrastructure solution to power IoT analytics platforms that deliver new business insights for mutual customers.” – Mimi Spier, vice president, Internet of Things, VMware.

Hybrid Cloud Deployment Could Result in 5%-30% Cost Savings for Enterprises: Microsoft – Zinnov Report

A Microsoft-Zinnov study has revealed that the Hybrid Cloud market in India is fast becoming a new standard for delivery of digital transformation. With the substantial cost as well as organizational benefits, Indian enterprises are increasingly intensifying their reliance on a hybrid cloud setup.

The report observed that hybrid cloud deployment at a steady rate could result in cost savings of anywhere between 5% and 30% for an enterprise (depending on the growth of virtual machines in an enterprise’s data centre and a proportion of workloads moving from private data centre to public cloud infrastructure), based on the output of its proprietary cost modeller. As per the modeller, the hybrid cloud solution offered by Microsoft Azure is the most economical.

As per the survey conducted as part of this study, over 40 percent of enterprises have planned or are planning to build a hybrid cloud infrastructure or transform their existing IT infrastructure. The primary reasons cited for adopting hybrid cloud solutions include, lowering total cost of ownership (54 percent), facilitating innovation (42 percent), enhancing operational efficiencies (42 percent), and enabling companies to respond to and meet customer expectations more readily (40 percent).

Highlighting the need for hybrid cloud, Meetul Patel, General Manager, Marketing & Operations, Microsoft said, “Many organizations have existing investments in IT infrastructure and business-specific needs to keep parts of it on their own premises. At the same time, the cloud presents an incredible opportunity to improve RoI, develop innovative solutions, and respond rapidly to changing business demands. The hybrid model is a ‘best of all worlds’ option that allows customers to benefit from the cloud on their own terms”.

According to Pari Natarajan, CEO, Zinnov, “Hybrid cloud is becoming the preferred deployment model across sectors. Industries where the impact of digital transformation is the highest are the ones that are adopting hybrid cloud at an accelerated pace. However, enterprises need to select a hybrid cloud providerthat can provide them with the right migration tools to enable seamless relocation of existing services - between dedicated private cloud and public cloud infrastructures - without lengthy or unplanned disruption to live service.”

According to the report, adopting a hybrid cloud model requires transformational change in the way companies interact with their IT and business. There is a need to enable employees with competence in contract management, as hybrid cloud deployment models involve interaction with third party cloud providers. Members within the organization need to be skilled to handle any exigency involving the cloud service provider. Therefore, training is needed to facilitate employees within the organization to familiarize themselves with the new business processes and governance structures, said the study.

Zinnov analysed more than 50 global cloud channel partners and found that hybrid cloud deployments constituted 45-50% of their overall cloud business. These channel partners are distributed across large-tier IT service providers, mid-tier IT service providers, Hosters and Telcos, Digital Marketing, and Platform BPO companies.

The growth of the cloud industry has been spurred by the funding and investments in cloud tech startups, which have increased exponentially. In 2016, the cloud market saw an estimated 370+ deals with the average investments growing at CAGR 15% between 2012-2016. The hybrid cloud deals accounted for 45-50% of the total cloud deals that happened from 2012 to 2016, and these primarily focused on storage, automation as well as hybrid cloud management solutions.

In addition, there has also been an increase in the cloud-specific acquisitions, growing at 35% CAGR from 2012 to 2016 with an average investment jump of 81.25%. In 2016 alone, there have been 115 cloud-specific acquisitions with the likes of CenturyLink shelling out US$34 billion for Level 3 Communication, a provider of Data Center Connectivity and Cloud.

Rapid growth in internet adoption – fueled by government initiatives like demonetization and GST, growth of mobile data (the number of mobile developers is estimated to double from the current 300,000 by 2020), and digital transformation, led by the emergence of disruptive start-ups, especially in areas such as fintech, e-commerce, SaaS, are stated to be the key reasons for this development.

Infosys Turmoil Unfortunate: Remarks Karnataka Minister Deshpande

Karnataka Industries Minister R V Deshpande termed the recent developments at IT major Infosys following sudden resignation of Vishal Sikka as "unfortunate".

"Very unfortunate developments, this should not have happened at Infosys," Deshpande said when asked about the recent events at the city headquartered company.

"I can understand transparency is very important. If there is no transparency there are ways to find out the truth, but unfortunately, according to me, investors' confidence and shareholders' confidence have been shaken," he told reporters.

"Infosys is the pride of the country, it is known to the entire world. We are all proud of Infosys. I can only say such developments are unfortunate," he added.

Last Friday, Sikka, the first non-founder CEO of Infosys, resigned from the company following months of acrimony with high-profile founders, led by N R Narayana Murthy, citing "malicious" and "personal attacks" on him.

While Sikka did not name Murthy for his exit, the board of the US$10 billion firm blamed the founder for "continuous assault" through "factually inaccurate" and "already-disproved rumours" for the resignation of the CEO.

Murthy, however, maintained that his only concerns were the lapses in corporate governance standards, something that Infosys was admired for at one point.

Sharp decline in Infosys share prices following the developments has wiped out Rs 34,000 crore of investors' wealth in the last two days.

When asked about reports that Nandan Nilekani is likely to return to Infosys, Deshpande said he would not like to comment on it, and it is left to the decision of the board, founders and shareholders of the company.

Nilekani, one of the co-founders of the company had joined the Congress party ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He had also contested and lost the election from Bengaluru South constituency.

Noting that the developments at the company were not healthy, Deshpande said, "founders have struggled for the company, at the same time shareholders have fully cooperated. Vishal Sikka also has good reputation. These things should have been sorted out in-house".

"I think, still time is there. I am confident that they are all people with rich experience, good people. The board, founders and shareholders will come under one roof to resolve this issue," he said.