Ness Digital Engineering, a global provider of digital transformation and custom software engineering services, has appointed Anshul Verma to Chief Sales Officer for North America, a new role for the company created to facilitate sales synergies and knowledge sharing across Ness’ go-to-market teams in North America and Europe. Verma will also help scale Ness’ sales team to support the company’s growth.
“Ness has always believed that it’s important to bring new viewpoints and ideas to our clients in their drive to be the innovators in their markets,” said Paul Lombardo, CEO of Ness. “This role helps us further cultivate the exchange of market perspectives and collaboration among our growing, go-to-market teams, and Anshul has a strong track record in helping organizations bring together the best combination of solutions and capabilities to create long-term value for existing and new clients.”
I’m excited to join a company with such a strong product engineering heritage and commitment to using that expertise to help clients disrupt markets and grow their businesses,” said Verma. “I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues at Ness who support our clients worldwide, including from multiple locations in India, to build upon our trajectory of global growth and reputation for innovation.”
Verma, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, was formerly the Executive Vice President and Global Head of Services at Persistent Systems. Prior to that, he held various leadership roles at HCL, where he managed two of its key vertical business segments and large, enterprise accounts. Anshul has also held sales and marketing roles at Citicorp Overseas Software Ltd., Sony Electronics, and Lowe. He is based in Seattle, Washington and will report to Lombardo.
“We are very glad to have Anshul on our team,” said Vinay Rajadhyaksha, President & Global Chief Delivery Officer of Ness. “He has an excellent background in leveraging the great software engineering talent in India and worldwide to deliver solutions that expand business for clients and the teams that support them.”
The Weather Company, an IBM business, the leader in accurate weather forecasting and insights, hosted a first-of-its kind event, ‘The AgriTech Challenge 2018’ with the Agripreneurs Group, Smart Agripost and Graype.in.
Attended by ~200 agripreneurs, researchers, corporates and financiers, this event provided a unique platform to discuss and crowd-produce solutions to resolve issues affecting agripreneurs and farmers in India.
“This is The Weather Company’s humble attempt to involve the stakeholders, innovators and technologists to come together and address some of the challenges in the agritech ecosystem and contribute towards improving crop yield and output. We see ourselves as a facilitator providing hyper-local accurate weather insights to help deliver what farmers and others involved benefit from - to make the best decisions for their business.”, Himanshu Goyal, Sales & Alliances Leader, The Weather Company.
During the event, Himanshu Goyal addressed the audience on how crop production is becoming increasingly complex and the key role agronomists will continue to play in understanding the latest technology and interpreting those insights on the farm. Durjoy Mazumdar, Global Head of Enterprise Sales, IBM Watson Content & IoT, The Weather Company, also provided a bird’s eye view on why weather is such a difficult data-set to predict. Sriram Raghavan, Vice President, IBM Research & CTO, IBM India spoke about the steady progress the IBM company is making in transforming the agritech sector with new-age technologies including AI & Blockchain.
The panel discussions included various tracks of ideation jams to build a roadmap to a sustainable agritech economy. Dushyant Tyagi – Chief Business Officer, iKisan, Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited; Sagar Kaushik – COO, United Phosphorus Ltd; Ramesh Ramachandran, SVP, Strategy and Precision Farming, Mahindra and Mahindra; Rajesh Srivastava – Chairman & Managing Director, Rabo Equity Advisors (a subsidiary of Rabobank) were also present at the event and provided their expert views on crowd producing solutions to jointly set in motion a roadmap for a sustainable agritech economy in India.
Even as the country’s second largest IT services exporter Infosys celebrates 25 years of its listing on Indian exchanges, its shareholders, who bought shares in 1993 and still holding have turned crorepatis.
Anyone who invested Rs 100 in Infosys shares way back in 1993 when it was listed on bourses are now owning Rs 6,80,000 as on date, according to an analysis by DH.
When stock splits and the bonus issues are taken into consideration, for every share that the stockholder has bought in 1993, he would end up having 512 shares right now, according to the analysis.
Its shares were listed in stock exchanges in June 1993 with trading opening at ₹145 per share.
As per the calculations by various analysts, for every 100 shares in the company back in 1993, it would be worth over Rs 6.44 crore as on June 12, translating to an annual growth of 42.3%.
Undersubscribed IPO
Incidentally, the public offer of Infosys was undersubscribed at the time of initial public offering (IPO) and had to be bailed out by US investment bank Morgan Stanley which picked up 13% of equity at the offer price. The stock was split in 2000 to maintain liquidity. The company has offered 1:1 bonus shares in 10 out of 11 years when it declared a bonus issue. In 2005, it announced a 3:1 bonus issue.
From being a Rs 10,000 company, that NR Narayana Murthy started, Infosys has gone on to redefine India’s corporate culture.
The company has shown strong growth since its listing. From $5.1 million revenues in 1993, the company has seen its revenues compound annually by 36% to $10.94 billion by 2018. The net income on other hand has been compounded by equal numbers, from $1.23 million in 1993 to $2.49 billion by 2018.
In Rupee terms, revenues over last 25 years have grown at a CAGR of 40.5%, while net profits have grown by 40.1%, according to the internal calculations of the IT major.
Prior to its listing the company’s revenues grew from Rs 12 lakh in 1981 to Rs 8.66 crore in fiscal ended March 31, 1992, the year of economic reforms in India.
But then this growth hasn’t been as smooth as it may seem. For most of its years of existence, save the previous four, the company was managed by its promoter founders.
No company can function as an island and as our eco system broadens it typically deals with many entities like customers, partners, affiliates and others. When organized together these entities form what we term as the “extended enterprise” which is closer to the core of business than ever before. Organizations that step up to the challenge of developing programs to better manage this risk can elevate their position in the market by unleashing with confidence the reach, expertise and relationships that third parties can bring.
Third party risk management has to become a top-of-mind priority for organizations. In this respect, our recent (third) annual EERM (Extended Enterprise Risk Management) survey, based on 975 responses from a variety of organizations across 15 countries of Asia Pacific, Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa region ,has highlighted some interesting findings. 70% of organizations in India recognize an increase in risk but remain ill-equipped to deal with it because of inadequate or absolutely no knowledge of sub-contractors engaged by their third parties. In fact, 14% of the respondents in the survey stated that third party-outsourced relationships are not identified, monitored or reviewed at all.
Companies today have to rely on relationships that are multiple and third party in nature, and typically outsourced. These are like outliers on the risk periphery – even for organizations that place strong focus on risk. Our survey report highlights the below key areas where organizations could benefit from further effort:
Controlling heightened risk: Dependence on third parties continues to grow, with over 70 percent of Indian respondents stating that their dependence on extended enterprise has grown owing to business and macro- economic conditions. Impact of external events (42 percent) and increasing threat of their party related incidents and disruptions were the two most dominant factors contributing to the perception of heightened risk in the extended enterprise.
Enhanced board engagement: Board oversight and engagement with EERM programs continues to lag. At a global level, 78 percent of organizations suggest that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), CFO, Chief Procurement Officer (CPO), CRO, or a member of the Board is ultimately accountable for this topic. In India, this decision rests with the Chief procurement or the Risk Officer. Boards in India are making relatively slow progress on this matter whereby 57 percent of the respondents suggested that their boards merely have a moderate level of understanding and engagement on this subject.
Technology platforms: In keeping with the trend of increased centralized oversight of EERM activities, technology decisions are now being taken more centrally and standard tiered technology architecture is emerging. Less than ten percent of our global respondents in our survey are currently using bespoke systems for EERM, a sharp drop from just over 20 percent last year.
Sub-contractor risk: Organizations lack appropriate visibility of sub-contractors engaged by their third-parties as well as the discipline and rigor to frequently monitor such fourth/fifth parties. 57 percent of survey respondents feel they do not have adequate knowledge and appropriate visibility of sub-contractors engaged by their third-parties and a further 21 percent are unsure of their oversight practices.
Reliance Industries Limited has said it has completed acquisition of close to 73 per cent stake in artificial intelligence-based education technology provider Embibe.
"RIL, Embibe and the other stakeholders have completed all the closing conditions and have successfully completed the sale and purchase of the shareholding of the existing investors in Embibe to RIL. With this transaction, RIL will hold 72.69 per cent (on fully diluted basis) in Embibe," RIL said in a BSE filing.
RIL in April had announced that it has entered into agreements to acquire close to 73 per cent stake in education technology provider Individual Learning Private Ltd (Embibe) and plans to invest USD 180 million into the company over the next three years.
Embibe will use the capital over the next three years towards deepening its R&D on AI in education, as well as business growth and geographic expansion, catering to students across K-12, higher education, professional skilling, vernacular languages and all curriculum categories across India and internationally.
"The founder and CEO of Embibe, Aditi Avasthi, will continue in her leadership role and will drive the growth of the business," RIL said.
YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector bank, announced the launch of yet another successful edition of its flagship YES BANK Natural Capital Awards 2018 at Natural Capital Forum organized by Natural Capital Coalition (NCC), World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and YES BANK, on the occasion of World Environment Day. The awards recognize individuals, organisations and educational institutes dedicated to spearheading ecological conservation and environmental stewardship.
An eminent jury panel comprising of nature conservationists, photographers, and environmentalists will select the final winners after on-ground site visits and rigorous evaluation of the applications. The winners will be felicitated at a grand award ceremony in New Delhi during October 2018. Registrations of the awards opened from June 6, 2018 at yesbank.in/nca
The YES BANK Natural Capital Awards 2018 consists of the following 7 categories:
Individual Contributions
Pixel Perfect (Photography)
Trailblazer (Photo essay)
Capturing the Ganges (New Photography Category)
Nature Leader (Individual recognition)
Organizational Contributions:
Eco Corporate (Manufacturing/Services)
Small Scale Organizations (MSMEs/Non-Profits)
Eco Campus (Educational Institutes)
Speaking on the launch of the YES BANK Natural Capital Awards 2018, Rana Kapoor, MD & CEO, YES BANK, said, “Integrating natural capital assessment and valuation into our economic system is critical to usher in a truly sustainable future for India. The Natural Capital Awards is a strategic platform to encourage and recognise the efforts of individuals, environmentalists and industry towards natural capital conservation and environmental leadership.”
Speaking on the occasion, Namita Vikas, Group President and Global Head, Responsible Banking and Climate Strategy, YES BANK, said, “Serving as the bed rock for socio-economic development, integration of natural capital considerations is the next sustainability frontier for businesses and individuals alike. YES BANK Natural Capital Awards aims to mainstream natural capital dialogue in India by showcasing and recognizing best practices in natural capital consumption, accounting mechanisms and conservation, accomplished by industry and civil society. Over the years, Natural Capital Awards has transformed into a launch-pad for impactful collaborative actions in natural capital to achieve multi-dimensional growth”
The competition has gained a lot of popularity and saw a wide participation of more than 10,000 entries from Government, corporates, international diaspora, wildlife & natural history specialists, sustainability professionals, and multilateral agencies last year. Senior ministers including Dr. Harsh Vardhan Singh (Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment, Forests and Climate Change); Suresh Prabhu (Minister of Civil Aviation and Commerce & Industry); Prakash Javadekar (Minister of Human Resource Development); Jitendra Singh (Minister of State (I/C) for Development of North Eastern Region) amongst others have participated in previous editions of the YES BANK Natural Capital Awards, and shared their valuable insights.
Important Dates:
Registrations open from – June 08, 2018
Last date for Submissions – July 31, 2018
YES BANK Natural Capital Awards 2018 ceremony – October, 2018
Creating environments for data to thrive, Western Digital Corporation has disclosed that Dropbox Inc., a leading global collaboration platform, has qualified and is the first to deploy the Ultrastar Hs14 host-managed shingled magnetic recording (SMR) hard disk drive (HDD) at exabyte scale in its custom-built storage infrastructure, Magic Pocket. Staying on the leading-edge of data technology advancements, Dropbox completed qualification and is deploying SMR for its cloud storage environment. Leveraging the 14TB Ultrastar Hs14 HDDs and the company’s custom-built storage architecture, Dropbox is taking advantage of greater storage density and increased power efficiency, at the same level of reliability for primary storage in its cloud data centers.
“The launch of Magic Pocket was an industry-defining milestone for cloud infrastructure that provided Dropbox the foundation for delivering value to our customers and business through ongoing innovation and cost savings,” said Akhil Gupta, vice president of Cloud Engineering, Dropbox. “As we enter the next phase of Magic Pocket’s evolution, our strategic partnership with Western Digital is enabling us to scale effectively as more and more customers adopt our collaboration platform. Our deployment of SMR technology was supported by Western Digital’s service, collaboration and drive capabilities—and we’re excited to continue redefining what’s possible for cloud infrastructure together.”
“Dropbox’s Magic Pocket is an innovative deployment, and this is another proof point that our host-managed SMR HDDs deliver value in scale-out cloud environments,” said Mark Grace, senior vice president of Devices, Western Digital. “Our customers recognize the benefits of SMR HDDs and are adopting the technology to contend with the massive growth in data. When considering exabyte-scale needs, and associated capital and operating cost of the data center, the long-term value they receive in terms of lower cost-per-TB, higher density, low power and high reliability can help benefit the bottom line.”
