The Central Electro Chemical Research Institute (CECRI), Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu under Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and RAASI Solar Power Pvt Ltd have signed a Memorandum of Agreement for transfer of technology for India’s first Lithium Ion (Li-ion) battery project.
The agreement was signed in Bengaluru recently by Dr Vijayamohan K. Pillai, Director, CECRI and C. Narasimhan, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of RAASI Group in the presence of Union minister for Science & Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan.
A group at CSIR-CECRI headed by Dr Gopu Kumar has developed an indigenous technology of Lithium-ion cells in partnership with CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL) New Delhi, CSIR- Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute (CSIR-CGCRI) Kolkata and Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT) Hyderabad. CSIR-CECRI has set up a demo facility in Chennai to manufacture prototype Lithium-Ion cells. It has secured global IPRs with potential to enable cost reduction, coupled with appropriate supply chain and manufacturing technology for mass production.
Currently, Indian manufacturers source Lithium Ion Battery from China, Japan and South Korea among some other countries. India is one of the largest importers and in 2017, it imported nearly 150 Million US Dollar worth Li-Ion batteries.
“Today’s development is a validation of the capabilities of CSIR and its laboratories to meet technology in critical areas to support our industry, besides other sectors,” said Dr Harsh Vardhan after the signing ceremony. “It will give tremendous boost to two flagship programmes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi – increasing the share of Clean Energy in the energy basket by generating 175 Giga Watts by 2022, of which 100 Giga Watts will be Solar and the second, National Electric Mobility Mission, to switch completely to electric vehicles by 2030.”
Dr Harsh Vardhan said, the project is in tune with Prime Minister’s vision of “Make in India”, to turn India into a manufacturing hub and to cut down outflow of foreign exchange.
Raasi Group will set up the manufacturing facility in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu close to Bangalore. “We want to bring down the cost of cell manufacturing below Rs. 15,000/- per KW to replace Lead Acid Battery,” said Narasimhan. “We also have plans to make Lithium Ion battery for solar roof top with life span of 25 years to make it affordable enough to drive the Photo Voltaic segment.”
Li-Ion batteries have applications in Energy Storage System – from hearing aid to container sized batteries to power a cluster of villages, Electric Vehicles (2-wheeler, 3-wheeler, 4-wheeler and Bus), portable electronic sector, Grid Storage, Telecom and Telecommunication Towers, Medical Devices, Household and Office Power Back (UPS), Powering Robots in Processing Industry. Lithium-ion batteries can power any electrical application without the need of physical wires-means wireless.
Dr Jitendra Yadav, Director, CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru, Dr Vidyadhar Mudkavi, Director, CSIR-4PI, Dr. M. Annadurai, Director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bengaluru were also present on the occasion. Dr Annadurai stressed, the Li-Ion cells developed by ISRO is primarily for space applications and there is room for convergence.
Hero Electronix, a Hero Group company, has announced its entry into the IoT space with the acquisition of Gurgaon-based Zenatix, an enterprise focused internet-of-things (IoT) solutions company. Hero Electronix believes that IOT can fundamentally enrich people’s lives and bring in tremendous efficiencies in business. As sensors proliferate (India projected to have an installed IoT device base of ~2.0 billion units by 2020 according to NASSCOM) and data connectivity becomes ubiquitous, vast amount of real-time data can transform business processes. Further, artificial intelligence deployed over this “ocean” of real time data can make help drive improvements in efficiency, improve velocity of operations and provide new consumer insights.
Ujjwal Munjal, Founder Director, Hero Electronix said: “At Hero Electronix our vision is to solve real-world challenges through innovative use of new technologies like IoT. If we examine the IoT space in India today, we only see the tip of the proverbial iceberg. As our team drives innovation, we are exploring acquisition and partnerships with start-ups like Zenatix, who are combining technology and data driven insights for sectoral disruption. While our IoT solutions are for enterprises to begin with, we are getting ready to venture into the consumer segment.”
With this acquisition, Hero Electronix has rapidly expanded into the IoT space, helping enterprises tackle business challenges through the deployment of connected-devices. Founded in 2013 by IIT-Delhi engineers, Zenatix has built its own proprietary IoT stack, which includes hardware, cloud-based software and big-data analytics. Zenatix’s current customers include banks, ATM management companies, retail chains and QSR outlets. They help improve efficiency and control in their operations and enhance customer experience. Leveraging its advanced Machine Learning (ML) based model, Zenatix analyses over 10 million data points every hour and deliver significant value in areas such as predictive maintenance and consumer experience analytics.
Nikhil Rajpal, CEO, Hero Electronix adds: “We spoke to over 100 companies in the IoT space over the last year and chose to partner with Zenatix as we believe they are uniquely positioned. They are one of the few companies in IoT who have a very strong proprietary solution and have demonstrated scale with over 1,500 deployments across the country. We believe we can meaningfully accelerate their growth by leveraging related solutions in the Hero Electronics ecosystem like AI driven video analytics, voice integrations and multiple product platforms that can be very relevant to their clients”
Zenatix was launched in 2013 by IIT-Delhi alumni, Amarjeet Singh, Rahul Bhalla and Vishal Bansal. According to Rahul Bhalla, CEO, Zenatix: “We started Zenatix with the aim to address a niche problem that was waiting to be discovered. While we use IoT and big data analytics to introduce automation for retail and BFSI customers, through our partnership with Hero Electronix, we aim to expand these solutions to new areas and segments. The Indian IoT market is still at a nascent stage and with Hero Electronix as our partner, we aim to scale up to the next level.”
Hero Electronix’s past investments include Tessolve, a leading semiconductor; Malaysia’s Spectrum Integrated Technologies Sdn Bhd and the test lab business of Singapore’s Lynxemi Pte Ltd. In 2015, Hero Electronix acquired MyBox Technologies, one of India’s largest multi-operator manufacturer of digital set-top boxes in the country.
Autodesk and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have joined hands to drive greater adoption of generative design technology by manufacturers. Autodesk generative design uses cloud computing and artificial intelligence to accelerate design exploration beyond what’s humanly possible. Subscribers of the new Autodesk Fusion 360 Ultimate, who want to get started with generative design will get 500 additional cloud credits from AWS. The program will officially commence on July 1st and will be available to new annual subscribers of Fusion 360 Ultimate.
Fusion 360 Ultimate subscribers can use cloud credits to perform generative design studies (25 cloud credits), explore options, and download their chosen design (100 cloud credits)
Customers who take part in this offer will be able to complete several design studies with their 1,500 credits
Designers and engineers in the manufacturing sector can use generative design to quickly generate a set of high-performance design options based on their specific constraints (like weight, materials, or manufacturing methods). The cloud allows for rapid exploration of dozens or even hundreds of possible solutions in the design space. Engineers can then consider and judge between the different options that best meet their needs.
Autodesk customers like General Motors, Airbus and Lightning Motorcycles have already invested in generative design to develop products that are higher-performing, lighter, or require fewer parts than their predecessors.
ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), a global body for professional accountants has over 750,000 members in India and is growing at 60 percent on a year-on-year basis. In fact, Karnataka and Kerala states alone amount to 21,158 students and affiliates. Now with India’s 29 states operating as a single economic market, there is a clear demand for finance professionals who possess international as well as national expertise.
In order to create forward-thinking professional accountants, ACCA has built its competency framework, a market-leading blend of technical, ethical and professional skills to provide a globally relevant professional qualification in accountancy and finance. This framework would be beneficial for students and enable them to gain a competitive advantage in the workplace, while also providing the skills needed by employers.
ACCA works in partnership with learning providers and employers in Karnataka and across India, while meeting aspirations of the youth and provide access to quality education so that they can embark on a financial career. ACCA’s research into the hopes and aspirations of Generation Next in India shows that a career in finance is one of the most sought after, with 86% of respondents between the ages of 18 to 35 agreeing that finance career experience is valuable to be a leader of an organsiation in the future.
ACCA’s Head of International Development, Md. Sajid Khan, said: ‘It’s our clear aim to foster business relevant skills in our students to help them fast-track their career growth. That’s why we work closely with colleges and employers in India to enrich careers, providing people with a qualification that is truly global ; correspondingly growing the talent pipeline of the state. ‘With trusted learning providers, we work to supplement academic degrees with the ACCA qualification, so that graduates can realise their true potential.
Adding to the thought ACCA’s Director – Emerging Markets, Lucia Real-Martin said, “Sought-after by employers here in India and the world over, the ACCA Qualification opens doors, letting people take their career in direction the direction that they want to spearhead. Employers know that ACCA qualified professionals are trained to the highest standards, while providing realistic business environment that incorporates local and global awareness, thus making the qualified job ready from day one.”
Along with the ACCA Qualification that prepares students to be work-ready, ACCA and its learning partners together host seminars, conferences, skills development projects, research and exchange programmes that students and members can access helping them not only at the entry levels but through their career span.
Acer has announced the new Altos R880 F4 GPU server, which was launched at the GTC Taiwan 2018. It can host up to eight NVIDIA Tesla V100 32GB SXM2 GPU accelerators, where every GPU pair includes one PCIe slot for high-speed interconnect.
The Acer Altos R880 F4 is a member of the HGX-T1 class of NVIDIA GPU-Accelerated Server Platforms. It can significantly enhance performance by using parallel computing power for various applications, including oil and gas, defense, financial services, research, manufacturing, media and entertainment, 3D rendering, deep learning, and mission-critical applications.
“The balanced architecture of the Altos R880 F4 enables eight V100 32GB SXM2s to interlock at their maximum speed,” said Evis Lin, General Manager of Server Business, Acer Inc. “For real-time inference, we also have the Altos R480 F4 servers to host 16 NVIDIA Tesla P4 GPUs. Both Altos R880 F4 and R480 F4 are exceptional products for deep learning training and inference.”
The Altos R880 and R480 F4 processors deliver exceptional workload-optimized performance and hardware-enhanced security. Designed for trusted data service delivery, the processors are fueled by significant leaps in I/O, memory, storage and network technologies. Acer will demonstrate both the R880 F4 and the R480 F4, as well as successful AI applications in deep learning at GTC Taiwan 2018.
Bentley Systems, Incorporated, a leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing infrastructure, announced the acquisition of Synchro Software, headquartered in London, leader (and the market creator) in 4D construction modeling software, for scheduling and project management. Synchro, “construction’s time machine,” has been globally adopted, in particular, for building and civil infrastructure projects. The acquisition broadens Bentley’s ProjectWise construction offerings—which already include ConstructSim, the leader for 4D construction modeling in project delivery of industrial plants. With construction project management in 4D, benefits of BIM can extend throughout infrastructure project delivery and asset lifecycles, as traditionally disconnected workflows become digital workflows.
Synchro’s strong growth, since the introduction of Synchro PRO in 2007, has coincided with the burgeoning adoption of BIM for design workflows—which, however, stop short of considering construction planning, scheduling, and project management strategies. For London’s Crossrail, Synchro digital construction innovatively applied Bentley Systems’ iModel work packaging to complete the reach of its BIM application portfolio and its CDE. Crossrail, the largest European construction project over this period, is now being completed on time and on budget. Synchro has increasingly become the standard for major constructors leveraging BIM through project delivery. Synchro’s 2018 4D Digital Construction Conference in Amsterdam brought together infrastructure construction thought leaders from 18 countries, including presentations by Royal BAM Group, Mortenson Construction, Robins & Morton, Shanghai Construction No. 4 Group, Skanska UK, and Larsen & Toubro, who shared their benefits achieved through innovatively applying 4D construction modeling with Synchro.
In industrial project delivery, characterized by EPC (engineer-procure-construct) contracting,
integrated processes are already the norm—leading to ConstructSim’s digital workflows for advanced work packaging. However, in vertical buildings and civil infrastructure projects, notwithstanding the advancement of BIM for design and engineering, prevalent design/bid/build contracting has institutionalized disconnected workflows isolating construction planning from BIM data and geometry.
· Constructors have been constrained by the limitations of stand-alone planning and scheduling programs, without digital visibility into the engineering information coalesced within the separate 3D BIM environment;
· Construction planning typically lacks the workface-level granularity and depth of detail, and exploration of sequencing alternatives, to sufficiently minimize risk and schedule variance; and
· constructors characteristically need to create their own independent 3D models to serve construction only, in the process orphaning the BIM deliverables which can then never, despite their engineering intelligence, accurately represent the as-built asset for operations and maintenance.
Within Synchro, 3D BIM deliverables are linked with the 4D time dimension to intrinsically and immersively synchronize, through digital workflows, the construction strategy, work breakdown structure, schedule, costs, resources, supply chain logistics, and progress. Synchro’s 4D construction modeling appropriately incorporates other construction variables (human, materials, equipment, falseworks, and space) for safe, reliable, and predictable project delivery performance. Synchro includes intrinsic CPM scheduling, or users can maintain external project schedules.
By synchronizing changes from BIM, schedule and/or field conditions, Synchro provides clear visibility into both the project data and the design, making it quick and easy to communicate and analyze the impact of changes on the entire project delivery process. This also enables Synchro users to compare construction strategy alternatives—even in early stages of design and bid processes—and to evaluate the feasibility and efficiency of different scenarios, deriving insights toward the best possible construction outcomes.
By incorporating Synchro 4D construction modeling through the ProjectWise CDE, infrastructure project delivery can now benefit from unprecedented digital workflow advancements. For the first time, change synchronization can assure that BIM deliverables are updated for changes which occur during construction, aligning the as-designed, as-constructed, and as-operated digital engineering models to improve both project performance and asset performance. And, in particular for civil infrastructure projects, constructioneering digital workflows can automate direct relationships between the project’s digital engineering models, the continuously-surveyed digital context of site conditions before and during construction, and positioning devices controlling construction equipment and feeding back as-built conditions.
“I’m very excited about what Synchro brings to Bentley’s capabilities for comprehensive project delivery, not only in terms of technology, but also by virtue of the proven construction expertise of the Synchro team, led by the vision and advocacy of Tom Dengenis,” said Stephen Jolley, vice president of construction for Bentley. “In construction modeling for industrial projects, the market is already converging around ConstructSim’s advanced work packaging and workface planning. In the advancement of going digital for civil and building construction, the needed impetus for these ‘industrialized’ advantages is precisely what we are now announcing. For infrastructure projects, integrating Synchro’s 4D construction modeling completes the reach of our ProjectWise CDE.”
Tom Dengenis, CEO of Synchro Software, said, “This combination reflects my conviction about what’s imperative for finally driving infrastructure construction substantially forward. At Synchro, we accomplished the breakthrough of 4D construction modeling software many years ago, but we have wanted to advance the market faster than our own continuous growth. With my 40+ Synchro colleagues in the UK, Boston, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Moscow, I look forward to working more directly with our new Bentley colleagues, thanks to our now so much greater combined power and commitment, to accelerate the global industry in going digital.”
Malcolm Taylor, head of technical information, Crossrail, said, “Using specialist software from Bentley Systems and Synchro, our project schedule could be linked to the 3D information to produce 4D models that could show the progress of design and installation at any particular point in time. Using 4D models to plan helped speed up the project teams’ understanding of what we needed to do and when. They could also tease out conflicts that were not normally apparent from regular Gantt charts and drawings. Using the 4D model for construction progress also manages payment expectations as it allows teams to readily agree on what’s completed and accepted—as well as producing an excellent as-built record for the future maintainer. For me, the news of Bentley Systems’ acquisition of Synchro Software is excellent, and will help reinforce how 4D can be used to improve construction management.”
Bentley Systems’ CEO Greg Bentley said, “Synchro has already inflected upward the construction productivity curve, by leading the adoption of 4D construction modeling for significant projects worldwide. The opportunity to extend digital workflows from BIM to institutionalize 4D construction modeling across infrastructure project delivery, superseding disconnected planning and scheduling, is enormous and immediate; its magnitude is confirmed by the clamor of new startups. Tom Dengenis’ informed enthusiasm and business foresight in anticipating and advancing the market’s potential—reflected in Synchro’s sustained and increasing growth from critical mass to escape velocity—assures me that we now, uniquely, have the right combined team and converged technologies. Every constructor and every infrastructure project can gain from going digital through our 4D construction modeling!”
Western Digital unveiled the SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1, a low-profile USB flash drive ideal for people who want to add more photos, videos, games and audio files to their notebooks, tablets, TVs, gaming consoles and car audio systems. The drive, available in capacity up to 256GB, gives customers the flexibility to keep more content at their fingertips – approximately, 14,000 photos, 10 hours of full HD video and 16,000 songs.
The new SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 high speed flash drive is compact in design allowing users to plug and leave it in, making it simpler to add extra, high-speed storage to their device! Just by plugging it in the user can instant storage for their devices. SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive enables write speeds up to 15x faster than a standard USB 2.0 drives.
With this flash drive, a full-length movie can be moved in less than 30 seconds2 plus it includes SanDisk SecureAccess software for password protection and 128-bit AES encryption software making it easy to password-protect critical files. The user just needs to drag and drop files into the vault, and they'll be encrypted to keep the private files private.
The drive comes with a RescuePRO Deluxe data recovery software download offer4. This software allows recovery of files that have been accidentally deleted (download required). It is also backward-compatible, so it can be plugged into any USB 3.0 or 2.0 port.
Perfect companion for people who need an always available extra storage on their devices for media and more, SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive features a five-year limited warranty and comes in 16GB/32GB/ 64GB/ 128GB/ 256GB capacities with up to 130MB/s1 read speed.
Pricing and Availability
SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive will be available exclusively on Amazon.in until July 20, 2018 and across all retail outlets post that. The price points are as follows:
16 GB - INR 800
32 GB - INR 899
64 GB - INR 1649
128 GB - INR 3099
256 GB - INR 7590
