Online training provider Simplilearn announced has its partnership with Lovely Professional University (LPU) to offer certification courses in a variety of high-demand digital technologies to their undergraduate and postgraduate Engineering and Science students as part of LPU’s online internship program.
With a joint focus to make students job-ready with the latest digital skills, the partnership will allow students to access a blend of online self-learning, live instructor-led classes and hands-on practical training. All students of LPU’s online internship program will be required to enroll in their choice of Simplilearn’s digital technology courses. Upon completion of the course, they will receive certifications from Simplilearn and relevant industry bodies.
Designed by industry experts who work in their fields of study, all courses are supported by 24/7 online teaching assistants and include assessments and hands-on capstone projects that will provide the students with the real-world experience that is sought after by employers.
“The next generation of talent needs to be armed with emerging digital skills before they enter the competitive workforce, and we are proud that this partnership with Lovely Professional University to make this possible,” said Simplilearn Founder & CEO, Krishna Kumar. “It's encouraging to see that universities are taking measures to prepare their students for the jobs of the future on their own rather than depending solely on hiring companies to train them.”
LPU Chancellor Ashok Mittal said, “LPU is a university which is closely working with industry. The present collaboration with ‘Simplilearn’ will definitely help our students to be job-ready as per the latest requirements of the industry. Thus, this initiative is to prepare students industry ready from day one of their career start and get absorbed on high pedestals even in the initial stages. I also want to share that LPU is already tied up with Google, SAP, Microsoft and more to work closely with industry so that innovative ideas of production be brought forth.”
In addition to training working professionals and enabling enterprises to build a digital-ready workforce, Simplilearn has partnered with leading universities and colleges in the United States to help students build industry-relevant skills and achieve their career goals in high-demand fields such as Big Data, AI & Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Digital Marketing, Cyber Security and other technologies.
Ravish S, Ratan Khanda and JP Rajakumar emerged on top in the closely contested Castrol Super Mechanic regional semi-final for bike mechanics held in Bangalore. The winning trio will be competing with 21 other champion mechanics representing seven other regional semi-final winners for the coveted title of Castrol Bike Super Mechanic. The three national winners will represent India at the Castrol Asia Pacific Bikes Super Mechanic contest to be held in Thailand in November 2018.
The Bangalore regional semi- final event witnessed keen contest by over 180 qualifying mechanics selected from the one lakh mechanics who had registered to participate from across the country. The regional qualifiers competed in theory and practical rounds, which tested their skills and knowledge about two-wheelers as well as lubricants. The participants also attended a training session on bike repair and maintenance. One of the highlights of this year’s event was the interaction between mechanics who had already participated in last year’s event, sharing their experience and tips with the first time participants.
Commenting on the event, Kedar Apte – Vice President Marketing, Castrol India said, “I would like thank the mechanics for their trust, support and overwhelming response to the Castrol Super Mechanic Contest this year. Compared to last year, we have seen an increase of 50% in the overall participation and this really encourages us to make this a bigger and better event. Through the Castrol Super Mechanic programme, we aim to provide a platform where mechanics can showcase their knowledge and skills and also support them in updating them on the latest trends and technologies emerging for bikes and lubricants.”
Celebrating his win, Ratan Khanda said, “I vowed to win this year after missing out last year & prepared hard this time. I have to thank my seniors & teachers for preparing me for this. I would like to thank my parents in this moment of happiness.”
The All India finals of the Castrol Super Mechanic Contest will be held in Mumbai with the national winners representing India at the Asia & Pacific Castrol Bike Super Mechanic contest.
At the 41st RIL Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Mumbai, it was a big day for Jio. RIL revealed the next big plans of Jio after the Jio SIM and JioPhone. The event also marked the company's foray into the broadband market.
The meeting was kicked off by company's chairman Mukesh Ambani who announced the launch of company's first-ever optical-based wireless connection called Jio GigaFiber. For a brief period, the stage was taken over by Isha Ambani, Akash Ambani and Kiran Thomas who talked about the JioPhone and its new capabilities. They also launched a high-end variant of JioPhone dubbed JioPhone 2.
Unlike the previous RIL AGM, this year's event was more about gadget-focussed launches. The company last year had announced new plans along with the JioPhone but this year was about only gadgets and software. No new recharge plans may be because the company in the past few months has already brought number of changes to its tariffs including a new postpaid recharge plan.
At he RIL AGM 41, there were several announcements that surprised us. The company announced its foray into the smart home gadgets and also highlighted the process of turning an ordinary house into a smart home using these gadgets.
Mukesh Ambani also unveiled the company's plan to enter into the country's thriving e-commerce sector to take on Amazon and Flipkart. "As Reliance transitions to become a technology platform company, we see our biggest growth opportunity in creating a hybrid, online-to-offline new commerce platform," said Ambani while addressing the meeting. " We shall create this by integrating and synergising the power of Reliance Retail's physical marketplace with the fabulous strength of Jio's digital infrastructure and services."
The company also announced that it has more than 215 million userbase now in just 22 months of the launch of Jio. There are more than 25 million JioPhone users in India now.
Now before you get all confused with what all was announced at the event and when can you expect to launch in India, here's a neat rundown of everything that Ambani and his team announced at RIL 41 AGM. Take a look:
* Jio GigaFiber broadband service: The star of the show-- Jio GigaFiber--is the company's optical-based broadband service that aims to connect 50 million homes in India. The beta trials for the service is already running in several cities and the registrations will start from August 15. The company said that the area with the highest number of registrations will be preferred first. Jio engineers will come to your doorstep to set up the connection. The connection will include and router and a Jio GigaTV set-top-box. The Jio router will provide ultra-fast wireless connection and offer wall to wall WiFi coverage.
* Jio GigaTV set-top box: Your Jio GigaFiber connection will also include a GigaTV set-top box that will offer more than 600 HD channels, 1000s of movies and songs. The set-top-box will also take voice commands in most of the Indian languages and also offer the multi-party video-conferencing facility.
* JioGigaTV calling: This is one unique feature launched by the company at its 41RIL AGM. With JioGigaTV feature, you can make voice and video calls from TVs connected to Jio GigaFiber and GigaTV set-top box. The feature will also allow you to call from TV to phones or tablets connected to some other network.
* YouTube, Facebook, and WhatsApp for JioPhone: The company announced new capabilities for JioPhone. Starting August 15, both JioPhone and the new model of JioPhone will support Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube.
* JioPhone 2: The company announced a new model of JioPhone with horizontal screen and QWERTY keypad called JioPhone 2. It supports voice commands in 15 Indian languages and has a dedicated button for the voice assistant. The JioPhone 2 runs on KAI OS. It features a 2.4-inch QVGA display and supports dual-SIM slots (Nano). The phone will retail at Rs 2999 and will be available for buying from August 15.
* Smart home gadgets: Jio also wants to try its hands on smart home gadgets. The company announced a range of products under its umbrella of Smart Home solutions. The company will sell products like audio dongles, video dongles, smart speaker, smart plug, surveillance cameras, video doorbells, smoke sensor, water leak sensor, gas leak sensor, and likewise. These devices can be managed remotely also with the help of Jio SmartHome app.
* E-commerce platform plan: Last but certainly not the least, Ambani also unveiled the company's plan to enter into the commerce platform. The company will do it by collaborating company's offline Reliance Retails stores with Jio's digital infrastructure.
Nasscom along with the Government of Karnataka on Thursday launched the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for data science and artificial Intelligence (CoE – DSAI), in Bengaluru.
Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries, IT & BT, Science & Technology K J George, who inaugurated the centre, said the government of Karnataka aims to transform the state economy through innovation.
"It can be possible through technology, productivity, healthy enterprises and better citizen services. Building robust and versatile technology capabilities, the state can spearhead the way to new business opportunities," he said.
Nasscom also signed an MoU with Niti Aayog to collaboratively foster applied research, accelerating adoption and ethics, privacy and security.
The opening of CoE comes at a time when NITI Aayog is coming up with draft policy on AI, realising its disruption across all sectors. Nasscom will facilitate collaboration between NITI Aayog and CoEs and will include NITI Aayog as a knowledge partner.
Nasscom has partnered with Intel and IBM as its founding members and technology advisors for augmenting and accelerating the data science and AI ecosystem in the country.
Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh said Karnataka has led the IT revolution in India and has always been at the forefront of science and technology.
"The Centre is the next logical step required to provide the right fillip to areas of data sciences and AI and give a head start to, not just the state, but India as a destination to develop global product solutions," she said.
She said the vision behind the CoE is to act as a catalyst for developing the emerging technology startup ecosystem of the country.
The Indian film industry has the potential to emerge as a global content exporter for Netflix, a top company executive said.
India churns out more than 1,000 films a year. Netflix thinks content made in India will be a good addition to the streaming service’s varied global offering.
“There are great stories everywhere, but there are really four or five centers of TV and film (globally). Mumbai (Bollywood) is certainly one of them, and it is important for us, because we are going to be actively invested in India,” Erik Barmack, VP for International Originals at Netflix, told Reuters in an interview. The first of its original series in India is “Sacred Games”, based on author Vikram Chandra’s eponymous book, which streams on Netflix this Friday.
Bollywood has rarely moved beyond its comfort zone, content in making films that suit its home audience, but Netflix is hoping that the mix of kitsch and melodrama will appeal to its global audience too.
“The potential is huge. The simple one is just the diaspora, which is if you added up all the users in our global markets outside India, it would be bigger than many European countries. But there is craft and skill in the film market here, and we strongly believe that what is happening in places like Spain, where that content is traveling, will happen in India too,” Barmack said. Netflix has commissioned several more shows in India, including an adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker-winning novel, “The White Tiger”, as well as Prayaag Akbar’s “Leila”.
Subscriber base
In February, CEO Reed Hastings said Netflix’s next 100 million subscribers would come from India, citing rising mobile penetration and falling data costs.
Since launching in 2016, Netflix has been slower in India than rival Amazon, which has already aired much more local content. But Barmack says the company is scaling up faster in India.
American aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing is taking over the commercial jet business of Brazil’s Embraer, valued at $4.75 billion in a move that will allow it to compete more effectively in the medium-range aircraft market.
It follows a similar strategic partnership by arch-rival Airbus with Canada’s Bombardier last October.
Boeing to hold 80%
Under the terms of the deal, Boeing will hold an 80% stake valued at $3.8 billion, the companies said in a release on Thursday, while Embraer will hold the remaining 20%.
The proposed partnership is expected to be accretive to Boeing’s earnings per share beginning in 2020 and to generate estimated annual pre-tax cost synergies of approximately $150 million by the third year.
“By forging this strategic partnership, we will be ideally positioned to generate significant value for both companies’ customers, employees and shareholders - and for Brazil and the United States,” said Dennis Muilenburg Boeing Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Embraer Chief Executive Officer and President Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva added that the tie-up would create a “virtuous cycle” for Brazilian aerospace, increasing sales potential and production and consequently adding value for shareholders and employees.
The statement gave no indication of any payment Boeing was making under the deal.
The statement said that financial and operational details were still being finalised, a process which would continue over several months, after which the deal would be subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, including by the government of Brazil.
In addition, both companies will create another joint venture to promote and develop new markets and applications for defense products and services, especially the KC-390 multi-mission aircraft, based on jointly-identified opportunities, they said.
Close of transaction
The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2019.
Embraer, the third largest aircraft manufacturer in the world, was founded as a state group in 1969 before being privatised in 1994, although the Brazilian government retained the right to make strategic decisions for the company.
Shares in Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer crashed seven percent on the Sao Paulo stock market on Thursday, following the announcement of an agreement with US giant Boeing.
Agencies
The country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), plans to add another 7.5 lakh units manufacturing capacity from three production lines in its Gujarat plant by 2020, taking the total capacity to over 22.5 lakh units a year.
The company, which already has a market share of over 50% in the domestic passenger vehicle segment, is also initiating process to study ways to further expand production capacity beyond 22.5 lakh units per annum after 2020.
The first assembly line of Suzuki-owned Hansalpur (Gujarat) plant has already started rolling out products. It has a production capacity of 2.5 lakh units per annum.
The second production line with similar 2.5 lakh production capacity, is expected to be complete by this year-end, MSI Managing Director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa told reporters here.
After that we are planning a third factory. Maybe, it is coming around 2020, he added.
Ayukawa said the company plans to have around 5,000-6,000 workforce at three units.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the passing out of the first batch of Japan-India Institute for Manufacturing (JIM) at Ganpat Vidyanagar, Mehsana.
MSI already has a production capacity of 15 lakh units per annum across its two plants at Gurugram and Manesar.
"First, we will try 20 lakh total sales, including exports. After that we will target 20 lakh unit sales in the domestic market only," Ayukawa said, elaborating on the 2020 sales plan.
On capacity expansion beyond 2020, he added, "I believe that 22.5 lakh capacity could be enough, but after 2020 and 2021, how are we going to manage our business expansion; that we have to start a study for a long-term plan."
Over 250 students passed out of Japan-India Institute for Manufacturing (JIM) at Ganpat Vidyanagar, Mehsana, on Wednesday.
The institute is part of Maruti Suzuki’s corporate social responsibility initiatives for skill development.
JIM is a result of the collaboration between India and Japan to create a pool of 30,000 skilled manpower for manufacturing in India.
MSI has invested over Rs 6 crore in setting up and running the JIM.
"Blessed by the Prime Ministers of India and Japan, JIM at Mehsana is a step to equip youngsters in Gujarat with skills that are directly connected with the growing manufacturing industry," Ayukawa said.
