Rs 14.4 M Investment Committed to Young Startups at IoT Conclave

The IoT India Congress 2017 concluded its 2 days session today with an enthralling series of panel discussions, key note addresses, Healthcare Live exhibition session along with an addition of the uniquely designed Argonaut session. Deva P Seetharam, Founder, DataGlen, Mrinmoy Purkayastha, VP & Head, ALTEN Calsoft Labs and Bahubali Shete, Founder & CEO, IOT Pot India Private Limited were recognised for their excellence and leadership in IoT space. The start-ups Flutura Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Swajal Water Pvt. Ltd., TrakItNow Technologies Pvt Ltd were awarded for their exemplary work in the IoT domain.

As part of this year’s initiative, the IoT India Congress introduced the Argonaut session that provided a platform for startups to interface with angel investors. Twelve of India’s leading angel investors including Ajeet Khurana & VC Karthic committed Rs. 14.4 million of investment to Intelitaap and Swajal.

Elated about the session, Apurva Damani, Director, Artha India Ventures said, “The platform was very useful for the young and blooming entrepreneurs who are in need of grooming, mentoring and validation of their ideas. It is heartening for me to see the B2B space taking off”.

The two day conference was inaugurated by Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, and had keynote sessions by N Sivasailam, Additonal Secretary, Department of Telecommunication, Government of India among others. It witnessed engaging participation from over 320 delegates, IoT enthusiast and thought leaders across industries.

As part of her keynote address, Aruna highlighted the work done by the government to incentivise new investment in related sectors, which will be unveiled in the New Telecom Policy in 2018. She spoke about IoT generating 10-15 million jobs in India through adoption of IoT in the next few years and expressed government’s activeness on the issue of 5G.

N Sivasailam talked about the opportunities for gram panchayat outreach and pressed on the need to increase the number of Indian satellites to satisfy increasing demands. He said, India will cover 100,000 gram panchayats with broadband by later this year.

The Congress hosted multiple tracks on impact of IoT in Healthcare, Telecommunication, Standards, Digital Payments, Ganga Rejuvenation, Manufacturing, Smart Living and Emerging Technologies with participation from industry leaders like TV Ramachandran, President, Broadband India Forum, Dr. Gopichand Katragadda, CTO, TATA Group, Srinivas Prasad, CEO, Phillips Innovation Campus, Juergen Hase, CEO, Unlimit powered by Reliance to name a few.

The Congress witnessed launch of three whitepapers during the course of two days around adoption and growth of IoT in various sectors.

Speaking on the side lines of the Congress, Dr. Rishi Bhatnagar, Chairman of the IET India IoT Panel said, “The environment this year was brimming with excitement and the 2nd edition of the IoT India Congress was a great success witnessing more participation as compared to last year. With the palpable drive of the thought leaders and the insight in the innovative business models of the start-ups, it is evident that India is in the right path.  We are happy that the IoT India Congress is working to influence the future of IoT and is a platform to create future engagement and progress in an IoT enabled India.”

“The internet of things is going to change the way we interact and do business.  It is great to see the progress in the IoT space and we believe that such efforts, initiatives and talent is being acknowledged and encouraged. With more start-ups foraying into the IoT space, it is an opportunity to identify young companies and thought leaders with breakthrough innovation in IoT that are progressing the IoT movement in India.” said Shekhar Sanyal, Director and Country Head of the IET.

Business Leadership Award for “Excellence In Global Entrepreneurship” for Raghupati Singhania

Raghupati Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd, receiving the Business Leadership Award for “Excellence In Global Entrepreneurship” from Patrick O. Santillo, Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs, US Embassy, during the 13^th Indo-US Economic Summit organized by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce in New Delhi. As India’s first company to roll out 10 million truck/bus radial tyres, JK Tyre has grown its presence to over 100 countries under the leadership of Singhania.

Nestlé India Packs the New MILKYBAR with Goodness of Milk!

Continuing with its efforts to provide innovative offerings, Nestlé India is delighted to introduce the country’s favourite MILKYBAR, with increased milk and less sugar. Delivering on the journey of improving nutritional profile of our product, Milk is 1^st in the new recipe. The percentage of milk in the new MILKYBAR has been increased by close to 8% and reduce sugar by about 10%.

Speaking on the launch,  Nikhil Chand, General Manager, Chocolate & Confectionery, Nestlé India, said,“In our journey to improve the nutrition profile of our products, we are adding more milk and reducing sugar in MILKYBAR. Raising consumer awareness and with the intent of being more transparent, we have mentioned GDA on front of the pack. We have also made concerted efforts to promote portion guidance and all our chocolate & confectionery innovations have lighter treats as part of the portfolio several of which are less than 50 calories per serve.”  Chandadded “In line with this, we have used our strength in research and development as well as consumer understanding to develop a tastier recipe for MILKYBAR that is also lower in sugar. MILKYBAR has been amongst the most loved products in our chocolate & confectionery portfolio and is a clear leader in its category.”

The new packaging highlights the message that ‘Milk is 1^st in the recipe’ while indicating the improved taste. The healthier and tastier MILKYBAR will be available at all leading grocery stores across the country at Rs 5, Rs 10 and Rs 20.

CLOUDSEC 2017 India Shed Light on Multifaceted Internet Threats

CLOUDSEC, the leading internet security conference in Asia Pacific and Europe, today held its seventh annual event in Mumbai. Hosted by Trend Micro Incorporated, CLOUDSEC 2017 gathered more than 700 industry experts from across the globe to meet renowned industry thought-leaders who shared their insights to the business community. Over 20 eminent speakers provided next-generation solutions, and instructed the organizations to ‘Level-Up’ their fight against cybercriminals.

"Security can no longer be considered as an after-thought in the larger scheme of things, rather it should be a well-thought out investment by enterprises, looking to catapult themselves in a competitive and technology-driven environment. Companies need to adopt stringent measures to stay ahead of cyber criminals," said Dhanya Thakkar, Managing Director and Vice President, APAC, Trend Micro.

He further added, “CLOUDSEC is the best platform for attendees to build their threat intelligence and improvise their knowledge through the track sessions, panel discussion and other activities. It gives them the opportunity to know and be aware of the latest security strategies and the ways to protect against the attackers.”

Present at the event, Nilesh Jain, Country Manager (India and SAARC), Trend Micro said, “Targeted attacks, Ransomware and Business Email Compromise (BEC) are some of the newer and stealthier security challenges faced by enterprises of today. As the cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem become more interconnected, it is essential for organizations to reevaluate and redefine their understanding of threats, risks, and solutions in an ever-changing landscape.”

During the event, Bill McGee, Senior Vice President of Hybrid Cloud Security, Trend Micro, offered insights on the latest and upcoming trends in cloud computing, which may challenge current information security mindset and practices. Simon Piff, Vice President of Security Practice, IDC, explained the future of IT security technologies and focused on the structural changes organizations need to make to ensure that the depth of innovation can be best leveraged to create a holistic and robust enterprise security strategy and Sunil Varkey, Vice President and CISO, Wipro Technologies, elaborated on trust and assurance, in the digital world.

Also present at the event was, Christophe Durand, Police Senior Superintendent, Interpol Global Complex for innovation (IGCI) who explained how an enhanced attribution process could help in mitigating the cyber risk. Vishal Salvi, Chief Information Security Officer, Infosys, shared his perspective on Ransomware and how companies need to treat data protection proactively, getting the right solutions and processes in place to prepare for the inevitable attack.

The event concluded with a closing keynote on evolving era of cloud by Nilesh Jain, Country Manager (India and SAARC), Trend Micro; Mohit Pande, Country Manager – India, Google Cloud and Arun Kumar Parameswaran, Managing Director, VMware India, who were the panelists.

ITC Infotech and Chirp Announce Strategic Partnership In Data Over Sound Technology

ITC Infotech, a global scale full service provider of technology solutions and a fully owned subsidiary of ITC Ltd, and Chirp, the global leader in ‘data over sound’ technology today announced a strategic partnership which will enable the companies to collaboratively develop solutions  for clients across the globe.

“At ITC Infotech, we are committed to leveraging technology innovations for our clients. Chirp’s ‘data over sound’ solution lends itself efficiently to industries we work with.  This partnership brings in unique synergies, giving us at ITC Infotech an opportunity to offer a significant technology- advantage to our clients.  With Chirp, we are looking forward to accelerated development of client-specific, industry-specific solutions,” said Sushma Rajagopalan, MD & CEO, ITC Infotech.

Transferring data over sound takes advantage of speaker and microphone-equipped devices of any kind, by using these devices as audio encoders and decoders. Any device embedded with the ‘data over sound’ technology can ‘hear’ and ‘share’ the data. The key advantage of this technology is the ability to broadcast small amounts of digital data to multiple devices without the need for pairing the devices or knowing the device ID of receiving devices. The technology also works without the necessity of any other form of connectivity, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, allowing ‘networking’ of multiple platforms and devices to be done offline in some cases.

Chirp has developed fully interoperable software development kits (SDKs) of their technology on a wide range of platforms (such as iOS, Android, JavaScript, Python and Linux, as well as numerous chipsets such as the full range of ARM Cortex MCUs) with which ITC Infotech will be building further solutions. These solutions will be specifically developed for clients in industries including Banking Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI), Consumer Packaged Goods, Manufacturing & Automotive, Retail, Airlines and Hospitality. Chirp’s technology has already been deployed globally on mass-scale, with hundreds of millions of devices currently connecting and  transmitting data with this technology.

Commenting on the partnership, Moran Lerner, Chief Executive Officer, Chirp, said, “At Chirp, we believe sound and data should be used together to share things. With our partnership with ITC Infotech, we are now looking forward to bringing the Internet of Sound to clients globally at a more rapid scale. The time and resources that ITC Infotech will be investing to integrate Chirp into their suite of services, and those of their clients’, means we now have the scale to deliver Chirp’s unique capabilities to  the leading businesses across multiple sectors and ultimately those businesses’ global consumers. We’re excited to see the first of many imminent deployments of Chirp’s technology through ITC Infotech.”

As part of the partnership, ITC Infotech will be building a team of specialist engineers and technical consultants to enable global sales, service and implementation of Chirp technologies. Chirp will provide further support in joint training, capability building and solution development to fast-track creation of industry specific proof-of-concepts (POCs) and real-world mass-scale projects. ITC Infotech is currently engaged with over 200 world leading businesses globally, with operations spanning North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, India and Asia Pac. 

Infosys Foundation Inks Rs 5.92 Crore MoU with Visakha Jilla Nava Nirman Samithi

Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Infosys, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Visakha Jilla Nava Nirman Samithi (VJNNS) to construct 100 gravity fed water supply systems in tribal villages of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The endowment of Rs 5.92 crore will be used to promote good sanitation practices and create efficient water management systems in all target villages.

               

VJNNS an NGO in Andhra Pradesh, aims at making potable drinking water available to remote tribal villages in the districts of Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam. Through this partnership, Infosys Foundation intends to provide an impetus to VJNNS’s objective of constructing a gravity fed water supply system that will help 100 tribal villages and 40,000 beneficiaries using pipelines. This will not only help enhance health but also aid in reducing water-borne diseases.

Speaking about the MoU, Sudha Murty, Chairperson of Infosys Foundation, said, “Drinking water supply and sanitation in India continue to be a key concern. The Foundation endeavors to promote good sanitation practices and aims to train local communities to effectively manage water supply systems through workshops. Under this project, local communities will also be taught to manage a village development fund.”

BookMyShow on a Tech Innovation Spree; Testing with WhatsApp

BookMyShow today announced that it has become the first Indian online ticketing brand to participate in the WhatsApp business pilot. As part of this test, BookMyShow has made WhatsApp a default ticket confirmation channel for all its users.

This means that users who book tickets on BookMyShow will now receive a message on WhatsApp with the confirmation text or an M-ticket (mobile ticket) QR Code, along with an email.

Ravdeep Chawla, Head of Product, BookMyShow said, “At BookMyShow, we are constantly taking measures to enhance our users’ experience on our platforms. Keeping up with their changing preferences and habits, we decided to integrate BookMyShow with WhatsApp for its pilot. WhatsApp has definitely become a preferred mode of communication for millions of people in our country and we could identify tremendous value in making it a default ticket confirmation channel. We have already started rolling out this feature and over the course of next few weeks, we aim to scale it to cover our entire user base.” 

BookMyShow had recently introduced ‘Plan-it’, the in-app messaging feature for friends and families to interact with each other in real time, suggesting movies, show times, venue options and eventually complete the movie tickets booking from within the chat window.