Cisco Appoints New President for Asia Pacific & Japan to Lead Regional Growth Charge and Accelerate Digital Transformation

Cisco, the world’s leading IT and networking company, today announced the appointment of a new President for its Asia Pacific & Japan business.

After three years at the helm of Cisco Japan, Miyuki Suzuki has been promoted to president for Asia Pacific & Japan. Charged with regional revenue growth across 18 markets, and propelling customer digital transformation and cybersecurity efforts, Suzuki will report to Chris Dedicoat, executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations.

A seasoned executive with more than 35 years’ experience, prior to Cisco, Suzuki served in numerous leadership positions for organizations throughout Asia, spanning across technology, aviation, telecommunications and financial services. 

Suzuki assumes the leadership from Irving Tan, who last month took on the newly created role of senior vice president of Operations and Digital. Joining Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins’ executive leadership team, Tan will be responsible for driving Cisco’s digital transformation across the company in partnership with Sales, Engineering and other functions.

Commenting on her appointment, Miyuki Suzuki, President, Asia Pacific & Japan at Cisco said: “Asia boasts incredible diversity, with each country presenting new, and often untapped opportunities. With growing economies and increasing technological maturity, Cisco is positioning itself at the heart of regional innovation, enabling customers to collaborate and transform by taking the time to understand the needs of each individual market. I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead and developing new bridges.”

“Miyuki has been instrumental in driving Cisco’s breakthrough growth in Japan in recent years by securing a broad partner network, developing exemplary company initiatives and building customer trust,” added Chris Dedicoat, executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations at Cisco. “I’m confident Miyuki has the right experience, innovative thinking and leadership qualities to capture market opportunities across the wider region in her expanded role.”

Currently based in Tokyo, Suzuki will relocate to Cisco’s Asia Pacific & Japan headquarters in Singapore in the near future.  Recruitment is underway for her successor for President of Cisco Japan and will be announced in due course.

Milkbasket to Hire 2000 Employees Within Next 12-18 Months

Milkbasket, India’s first micro delivery platform, today announced the company’s plans to hire at least 2000 employees within the next 12-18 months. The company recently closed a $3M Pre-Series A round from Unilever Ventures, Blume Ventures and Lenovo Capital (LCIH). 

Anant Goel, Co-founder and CEO at Milkbasket said, “We aspire to serve over a million households by 2022 and this would be our first step to realize this mission. We will be strengthening our team with additional 2000 employees by next year to serve up to 50,000 daily orders in Gurgaon.”

The company will be hiring over 1500 full time and 500 part-time employees.  

“Part-time employment is a great way for students and micro-entrepreneurs to have a sustainable source of income, while they continue with their daily routine. We will hire at least 500 such employees in Gurgaon to support our morning deliveries” Anant added.

Microsoft Announces Wide Support for e-Mail Addresses in Indian Languages

On the occasion of International Mother Language Day, Microsoft has announced support for email addresses in 15 Indian languages across its email apps and services, including Office 365, Outlook 2016, Outlook.com, Exchange Online and Exchange Online Protection (EOP). For the first time, users will be able to use local language email addresses for Outlook accounts on PCs, e.g.,  व्यक्ति@संगठन.भारत. It will also allow users to now seamlessly send/receive mails to/from local language email addresses via Outlook client on PCs, outlook.com in addition to Outlook apps for Android and IOS. This initiative is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to support Email Address Internationalization (EAI) across its products and services eco-system and make technology accessible in local languages.

The languages being introduced are those that support Unicode, an international encoding standard for use with different languages and scripts. Local language email addresses are inseparably linked with Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and can currently be registered in these 15 languages according to .IN Registry, which is responsible for registering IDNs in India.Microsoft’s products will also support additional Indian languages as and when their IDNs and email addresses become available in the future, making this feature forward compatible.

Speaking of the announcement Meetul Patel, COO - Microsoft India said, "Ensuring that language is not a barrier to the adoption of technology is key for digital inclusion and growth. Making email addresses available in 15 languages is an exciting step to making modern communications and collaboration tools more accessible and easier to use for all – something we have been relentlessly working towards. We’re making technology use the language of people, and not requiring people to first learn the traditional language of technology.”

Users can register local language email addresses in India from third party EAI address providers such as XgenPlus through a simple online process. Microsoft, a member of Universal Acceptance Steering Group (USAG) along with international partners including XgenPlus, Coremail, CNNIC and SaudiNIC, is working to support email addresses in any Unicode script through its apps and services, including RTL (right to left) languages such as Urdu and Arabic.

Microsoft and Local Language computing: Starting with Project Basha in 1998, Microsoft has been consistently working to provide local language computing in Indian languages. Microsoft supports 22 constitutionally recognized Indian languagesoverall, including 11 Indian language scripts for Office and Windows. Moreover, Bing allows users to browse in nine Indian languages. With the help of its AI technologies and Deep Neural Networks, Microsoft is now making translation and speech recognition across several Indian languages, in addition to making Indic computing on the local cloud a reality by launching local cloud services from India data centers.

Unity Tech Among World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Virtual and Augmented Reality

Unity Technologies creator of the world’s most widely used real-time 3D development platform, today announced it has been named by Fast Company as a “World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Company.” Chosen as the #4 “Most Innovative Virtual and Augmented Reality Company,” Unity’s real-time development platform is at the center of the VR/AR ecosystem, powering more than 60 percent of all content. Whether it is VR, AR, or MR, Unity’s highly optimized rendering pipeline and the rapid iteration capabilities of the Editor make XR creative vision a reality. Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies Award honors leading enterprises and rising newcomers that exemplify the best in business and innovation.

“We're honored to be recognized by Fast Company as an innovator in this space,” said Tony Parisi, Global Head of VR/AR Strategy at Unity Technologies. “We’ve been a long-standing champion for the VR/AR industry, and it’s gratifying that our heavy commitment to this space is recognized and is bearing fruit. We believe the world is a better place with more creators in it, and the opportunities for virtual and augmented reality present limitless possibilities. The tech is here, the reach is here, and the time for incredible content is now.”

On the heels of this honor, Unity is announcing its South by Southwest (SXSW) presence, a line-up made of 80 percent women, that will share insights and best practices on virtual and augmented reality. The expertise and deep-seeded knowledge of virtual and augmented reality within Unity is unparalleled. Here are the sessions that Unity is participating in at SXSW 2018:

• March 5: Students Can Build the VR/AR Worlds of the Future | Jessica Lindl, Global Head of Education, Unity Technologies
• March 11: Future Proof Media: Engaging Tomorrow's Audience | Silvia Rasheva, Producer at Unity Technologies
• March 12: Setting the Visual Language of Storytelling | Timoni West, Director XR Authoring at Unity Technologies and Natalie Grant, Senior Product Marketing Manager, VR/AR and Film at Unity Technologies
• March 14: AR Update 2018: Evolution or Revolution?| Tony Parisi, GM, Head of VR/AR Strategy, Unity Technologies

Unity was also the platform of choice at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. 70 percent of New Frontier’s interactive content at Sundance was Made with Unity, and two unprecedented virtual reality film deals took place at Sundance, SPHERES and Zikr: A Sufi Revival, both of which were Made with Unity. These deals further solidify Unity’s position in virtual filmmaking and demonstrate that 360-degree immersive films carry clout and will become a staple for film festivals moving forward.

Games and experiences made with Unity have reached more than 3 billion devices worldwide in 2017 and were installed more than 20 billion times in the last 12 months.

3.16 Lakh Candidates Placed Under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana in Less than 2 Years of its Launch

In less than two years of its launch, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) (2016-20), the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has taken multi-fold strides. The scheme has achieved a landmark milestone of 3,16,671 placements (as on February 2018).  With nearly 55 per cent successful placements, the Short-Term Training Program (STT) under PMKVY (2016-20) is an effective, refined and demand-driven endeavour, with an over-riding focus on quality of training. 

Under the STT program, over 13 lakh candidates have been trained, of these over 9 lakhs have been certified till February 2018. Placements have been facilitated for 5.98 lakh candidates who were certified by the end of November 2017. Placements for the latter batches who were certified post November 2017 are currently underway. 

Placements under PMKVY (2016-2020) are categorized into wage and self-employment. Approximately 76 per cent of the candidates have been placed in wage employment and 24 per cent placed in self-employment/ entrepreneurship.  80 per cent of the candidates placed in wage employment across various sectors i.e. Electronics and Hardware, Apparel, Beauty and Wellness, Agriculture, Retail, Logistics, Leather, Telecom, Security, Textiles and Handlooms.

Commenting on the progress of the scheme, Rajesh Agrawal, Joint Secretary & CVO, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) said, “PMKVY (2016-2020) scheme is closely aligned with the industry requirement of a job-ready workforce. Embarking on the Skill India Mission, our endeavour has been to provide superlative quality training in industry relevant job role. The Skill India Mission also promotes entrepreneurship, which is further supported by Mudra Loans and other financial provisions.”

“Self-employed candidates are encouraged and supported in availing Mudra Loans through the UdyamiMitra Portal. Currently more than 10,000 candidates have applied for these loans”, Mr. Agrawal further added.

Jayant Krishna, ED & COO, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)commented, “NSDC is working collaboratively with its training providers, sector skill councils and industry for creating and deploying good and quality trained resources, who could cater to the evolving demands of the organisations. Our initiatives such as integrations with organisations, syndication with portals such National Career Service, creation of Labour Market Information System, organizing job fairs (Rozgar Melas) and more, are intended to match demand with supply.”

NSDC is continuously working towards accomplishing the objectives laid down under Skill India Mission by training and facilitating employment for skilled manpower across leading organisations across the country, namely Tata Motors, Pay TM, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter, Accenture, PVR Cinemas, Bata India, G4S Secure Solutions, Lemon Tree Hotels, L&T, Tata Sky, Samsung, Volkswagen, SBI Life etc.

The PMKVY (2016-20), launched in November 2016 with an outlay of Rs. 12,000 crores, is the biggest training and certification program of the Government of India.  It aims to skill one crore youth by 2020. In nearly sixteen months of its launch, the scheme has certified over 13 lakh candidates under its two different programs - Short Term Trainings and Special Projects.  The scheme’s other component - Recognition of Prior Learning is a certification program that gives due importance to learning as an outcome rather than learning as process.

The Short-Term Training (STT) program of PMKVY (2016-20), imparted through NSDC’s approved training centres, is aimed at benefitting youth who are either school/college dropouts or unemployed.   Apart from skills training, the program comprises orientation in soft skills, entrepreneurship, financial and digital literacy. The program encompassing 200 – 1,000 hours of skill training, is designed according to varied job roles. 

The other component of PMKVY (2016-20), is Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) comprising 12 – 80 hours of training. It provides recognition to the informal learning or learning through work to get equal acceptance as the formal levels of education. Focusing on workforce in the unorganised sectors, RPL is designed for those who already have a job or are self- employed and require up-skilling and certification for better prospects. Till date, more than 4.5 lakh candidates have been certified under this component of PMKVY (2016-20).

Internet Users Projected To Cross 500 Million By June 2018: IAMAI

The number of Internet users in India was estimated to be 481 million in December 2017, a growth of 11.34% over December 2016 estimated figures. The number of internet users is expected to reach 500 million by June 2018, according to a report ‘Internet in India 2017’, published jointly by the Internet and Mobile Association of India & Kantar IMRB, today. According to the report, as on December 2017, the overall internet penetration is 35% of total population.

According to the findings of the report, Urban India witnessed a growth of 9.66% from December 2016 and is presently estimated to have around 295 million internet users as on December 2017. On the other hand, Rural India witnessed a growth of 14.11% from December 2016 and is presently estimated to have around 186 million Internet users as on December 2017.

Even though the growth rate of Rural India may seem higher, it is mainly due to the low base effect; given overall internet users in Rural India are still critically low. Internet penetration in Urban India was 64.84% in December 2017 as compared to 60.6% last December. In comparison, Rural Internet penetration has grown from 18% last December to 20.26% in December 2017. Given that total Urban Population is much lower than total rural population, the Urban-Rural Digital divide is actually more acute than what the penetration numbers portray.

The future growth policies therefore must focus on bridging the digital divide that exists between urban and rural India today. In terms of numbers, Urban India with an estimated population of 455 million already has 295 million using the internet. Rural India, with an estimated population of 918 million as per 2011 census, has only 186 million internet users. Thus, there are potential 732 million users still in rural India; if only they can be reached out properly.

Frequency:

The report also finds that an estimated 281 Million daily Internet users, out of which 182.9 million or 62% access internet daily in urban area, as compared to only 98 million users or 53%, in rural India. Almost double the proportion of Rural Users access internet less than once a month in rural India as compared to Urban India.

Gender:

Internet user market is still a male preserve in India. There are estimated 143 million Female internet users overall, which is approximately 30% of Total Internet users. While “Digital India” is paving its way in rural India, the underlining digital gender gap still persists. Digital literacy is therefore a key to ensure everyone stays informed, engaged and safe online.

Among the Rural Internet users, the ratio between male to female Internet users is 64:36. The proportion of Internet users by gender in Rural India has seen much change over last year with Internet users among rural females growing steadily. The increasing gender parity in internet usage is a welcome development.

Demographics:

In terms of other parameters of demography, according to the report, internet is the preserve for youngsters, with Students and youngsters accounting for around 60% of all internet users in India. The demographic profile and the purpose of usage are interlinked. Popularity of entertainment, social networking etc makes internet more attractive for youngsters presently. Unless digitalisation of important civic and social services as envisioned under e-governance programmes really take-off, the internet will remain to be perceived as a medium of entertainment for youngsters.

FORME Mobiles to Expand Reach in India to Target 10% Market Share by FY19

Gurugram, 20 February, 2018: FORME Mobiles was launched in India in 2009 and experienced 200% y-o-y growth in FY10 and will close FY18 with more than 30% y-o-y growth. FORME Mobiles is backed by FORME Technology, an international company specializing in the R&D, manufacturing and marketing of digital electronics and mobile communications products. Based in China, FORME operates in India, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe and other countries and regions.

“India contributes significantly to FORME’s global sales and FORME internet enabled feature phones are very well embraced by India” said  Victor Su, Director, FORME Mobiles India. He further added that“We aim to deepen our relation with India in 2018 as we will double our mobile phone production from March onwards. We witnessed a steep rise in demand for our internet enabled feature phones, especially from Tier 2 and 3 cities, which motivated us to increase our production capacity. We will also offer an extensive portfolio of smartphones in affordable segment in 2018.”

The growing popularity of feature phones

As per IDC report 2018, India market has experienced an increase in shipment of feature phones in 2017 by 17%, which is 3% higher than annual shipment growth rate of smartphones in the same time period. The trend is also similar to other countries like Africa. FORME Mobiles has been able to successfully align with various needs and demands of feature phone users in India. Factors such as unique design, built quality, features and a strong after sales service has led FORME to experience expansion in India so far.

Ajay Solomon, Head – Business Operations, FORME Mobiles said, “India’s feature phone users are becoming more aware and conscious of the quality, durability of phones, aesthetic appeal, and expects to experience services beyond basic functionality and support.” He further added that, “With strong R&D in place, FORME is set to expand its reach in India with refreshed supply chain strategy and partnering with e-commerce players to tap the tech savvy youth of India. Our after-sales support service will continue to be our sharp focus.”

Aligning with India’s demands further

-       The e-Commerce way! FORME Mobiles plans to strengthen their presence on e-commerce platforms to reach out to existing, potential consumers and expects to sell 30% of their mobile phones through e-commerce in FY19. With growth in e-shopping in tier 2, 3 cities, where FORME has a strong hold, the company expects to fulfill significant amount of orders from tier 2, 3 cities. As per various reports, the next leg of growth for e-commerce as well mobile companies is expected to come from tier 2 and 3 cities. Until now the company was majorly focusing on offline channels for sale that contributed to 95% of their revenues.

-       Sturdy and styled feature phones for smart India: FORME has been at the forefront to deliver the desired. For instance, basis its market research and demand for durable as well as stylish phones FORMEdesigned and launched FORME N5+ Selfie Phone in June 2017. The brand successfully sold more than 2 lac units within 3 months of the launch of product. Similarly, the brand has various mobile designs in pipeline to be launched during 2018, with special focus on India.

-       Make in India: FORME’s Gurugram based factory carefully builds each and every mobile unit to be further sold across India. The process also involves domestic value addition to mobiles units. With aim to double its mobile phone sale in India, FORME is also looking to increase its workforce. Currently, FORMEfactory employees more than 500 workers and has more than 50% women workers associated with the brand.

With objective of “Quality first, customer first” FORME Mobiles began its journey in 2009 and over the period has evolved as one of the world's leading and fastest growing Mobiles & Accessories Brand. FORMEMobiles started its operations in India in 2009.  FORME Mobiles established its own factory in Gurugram in 2015 and has more than 200 service centers pan India. The company offers a wide range of easy-to-use internet enabled feature phones and smartphones with 100+ days replacement and 1 year warranty.

FORME aims to provide most innovative and reliable products & services at an affordable price. In this fast pace changing trend in design and technology FORME heavily invests its time and effort in R&D to understand and fulfill the needs of current and upcoming generation. FORME’s dedication to excellence has always been rewarded by the kind of loyalty the brand has received from across the globe.