BT is partnering with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), one of India’s leading research institutions, to launch a new collaborative research centre in Bangalore, it was announced today.
The new BT India Research Centre (BTIRC) will join BT’s network of collaborative research facilities around the globe, including centres in Northern Ireland, China, the US, and the UAE. These global locations support the company’s strategic research agenda, generate insight into emerging technologies and develop new generations of products and services for BT and its customers. This global innovation network is centred on the BT Labs at Adastral Park, Suffolk, UK, one of the world’s leading centres for telecommunications research.
The BTIRC will focus on the development of cutting-edge artificial intelligence, mobility and cyber-security technologies for use in BT’s strategic programmes, products and services. The centre’s structure and organisation will follow a well-established model used for the company’s other global research locations, combining academic, industry and government partnerships and BT’s own commercial and research expertise.
Howard Watson, Chief Technology and Information Officer, BT, said: “India is an IT and technology powerhouse. We’re proud of our long-standing presence there, which is second only to the UK in terms of our global footprint, with over 10,300 people in the technology, service and support areas serving our customers around the world. The BT India Research Centre will create an exciting new hub for communications innovation, in partnership with the Indian Institute of Science, building new collaborative links between the UK and India in this crucial technology sector that is so central to economic growth.”
Prof Anurag Kumar, Director IISc said: “Collaboration between academia and the industry is essential for making progress in the complex emerging telecommunications technologies. This will be a partnership between one of India’s premier research institutes, and a world leader in telecom technology and services. We at IISc are looking forward to exciting research results and new technologies emerging from this partnership.
In July 2018, BT opened a new Cyber Security Operations Centre (Cyber SOC) in Gurugram. Using a range of advanced cyber security tools, the Cyber SOC monitors threats against BT’s own assets and its customers’ networks on a 24/7 basis, and is able to detect, analyse and mitigate cyber threats in real-time. The Cyber SOC will initially employ around 100 cyber security specialists, in addition to the team of 250 security people based separately in Gurugram, and signifies BT’s commitment to investing in its security capabilities in the region.
BT has a long history of working with leading Indian universities on the development of new technologies and is a significant employer of highly-skilled IT and technology experts in Bangalore and other locations across India. The BTIRC will complement BT’s existing relationship with the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, which is focused on elastic optical networks and quantum key distribution technologies.
Axis Bank, the country’s third largest private bank, has launched ‘QuikPay Home Loan’, a first-of-its-kind home loan offering that will let home buyers save big on the interest amount component of the loan. Essentially, as against the industry norm, QuikPay Home Loan will offer an alternative repayment structure, wherein the customer repays an equal amount of principal every month along with interest on the outstanding balance. Thus an equated principal amount combined with reducing interest amount component will lead to reducing monthly instalments. As a result, there will be an overall reduction in total interest amount component paid over the entire tenure of the home loan, thereby benefitting the customer.
Instead of EMIs (equated monthly instalments), the customer will pay reducing monthly instalments. While the initial instalments will be higher (than the EMI on the same loan amount for the same tenure), the instalment amount keeps reducing throughout the loan tenure.
Speaking at the launch, Rajiv Anand, Executive Director (Retail Banking), Axis Bank, said, “For the benefit of our customers, we have launched QuikPay Home Loan, which is an innovative product that will reduce the overall interest burden on the borrower. We are confident that this unique concept of ‘reducing monthly instalments’, along with big savings on interest, will be an attractive proposition for home buyers.”
To illustrate the offering, let’s consider a typical home loan of Rs. 50 lacs for a 20 years at 9.00% pa. This loan will have a total interest outgo of Rs. 57.96 lacs over 20 years for the customer. However, with Axis Bank’s QuikPay Home Loans, for a loan of Rs. 50 lacs for the same tenure, even with a slightly higher annual rate of interest of 9.20%, the overall interest outgo will be only Rs 46.19 lacs, thereby resulting in an overall saving of Rs 11.77 lac for the customer.
Refer to the annexure for a detailed comparative break-up of the loan repayment schedule.
Staqu, the Gurgaon-based artificial intelligence start-up has joined hands with Tech Mahindra, UK. The association is focused on powering content distribution in the European market with relevant and contextual recommendations, whilst creating use-cases to usher in new monetisation opportunities. The association follows Staqu’s win at the Tech Rocketship Award, 2017-18, which exposed it to UK’s world-leading growth ecosystem of VCs, advisors, customers and support networks, thus begetting opportunities to springboard its business internationally.
Enterprises in the European market are required to ethically leverage data and respect the privacy of users, following the General Data Protection Regulation. With Staqu’s proven expertise in cross-content recommendations, video and image analysis, Tech Mahindra would be able to offer its users relevant and contextual content, while completely abiding by the GDPR.
Commenting on the association, Manish Upadhyay, Head of Entertainment and Media, Tech Mahindra for UK, Ireland, and South Europe Market said, “Staqu is a fast-growing AI start-up with proven expertise in contextual and relevant content recommendations. The alliance with Tech Mahindra will help to fuel co-innovation for Media and Entertainment customers in the UK. Tech Mahindra and Staqu are building some use cases jointly to create new monetisation models for media and Entertainment industry in the UK.”
Atul Rai, Co-Founder & CEO of Staqu further added, “It is a great opportunity for us to partner with Tech Mahindra and introduce our AI-based cross-content recommendation engine in the European market. Today’s users are extremely cautious about their data privacy and require content distribution to be relevant and contextual. With previously proven expertise in the domain, we are glad to partner with Tech Mahindra and power content distribution via content recommendations that are contextual and relevant to the users.”
The innovation being brought together by Tech Mahindra and Staqu would understand the content consumption patterns, without obscurely mining data. Furthermore, by understanding the individual behaviour of users, the AI-powered recommendation engine would aid relevant and contextual content distribution, completely removing any scope for blind recommendations.
The principal sponsors of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles Business Unit (CVBU) has set up the ‘Tata Motors Elite Wrestlers Development Program’ to promote, encourage and develop rising Indian wrestlers and prepare them for the Olympic Gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Games. The program will support the players with best possible training and coaching facilities, enabled by renowned foreign coaches, support staff and international exposure
To prepare the players for the Olympic glory @ Tokyo 2020 & Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Tata Motors Commercial Vehicle Business will help nurture an international standard eco system for athlete support to help India create a new success story at the greatest global platforms. The program will appoint top class foreign coaches for both men and women squads ,best possible support staff who will work both on the physical & mental development of the athletes and organize premium exposure trips for the elite Indian wrestlers so that they train and hone themselves according to the global training standards. The support staff will include experienced physiotherapists, biomechanics, mental trainers and nutritionists. In addition, Tata Motors will also provide insurance cover to the Indian Wrestlers.
Speaking on the occasion, Girish Wagh, President, CVBU, Tata Motors, said, “Tata Motors, in line with its Group’s heritage has constantly looked at encouraging sports and promoting sporting talent across India and overseas. Wrestling as a homegrown sport has definitely grown in popularity and needs further support in enhancing talent. We are strengthening our association with WFI by directing our efforts to promote, train and develop wrestling talent with advance coaching and international sporting experience. We hope these initiatives help the Indian team to perform better. Our best wishes to the team for the forthcoming Tokyo 2020 & Paris 2024 Olympic games."
Commenting on the partnership, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, President – Wrestling Federation of India said, " Tata Motors coming on board as Indian Wrestling’s development partner will go a long way in creating a strong sporting ecosystem and strengthening our elite program. These facilities will help wrestlers focus fully on themselves and prepare for the toughest tests before winning medals for the country. WFI is grateful for the trust shown in the Federation by Tata Motors and strongly believes that this binding and cooperation will eventually help make a strong beginning for wrestling in India ".
The event will also observe handing over of central contract to the wrestlers. For the first time in the history of Indian Sports, Tata Motors, along with WFI has announced central contracts to a sport other than Cricket, assuring guaranteed benefits to Indian Wrestlers. The central contracts are annual retainers that will be spread across 150 players as per grades and assure basic annual earnings for the players, through the sport.
Today, sports with the energy and dynamism is a major platform to connect with people across India – both masses as well as classes. Wrestling is a homegrown sport that reflects machismo, aggression and endurance that tests speed, agility and power, and are gaining popularity in India and overseas. These attributes blend perfectly with the rich heritage, longevity, durability and robust performance of our Commercial Vehicles. This association will provide Tata Motors the platform to reach out to various stakeholders and the public at large.
PlanetSpark, a Gurugram-based EdTech startup on a mission to make traditional tuitions obsolete through powerful and gamified learn-tech products and certified teachers in K8 segment, has been infused with funds worth Rs 1.6 crore by FIITJEE, India’s leading education company. PlanetSpark will use the funds to rapidly grow its existing 200+ home based tuition centers by close to 350% to 750+ home-based tuition centers across Delhi NCR and beyond. The funds will also be used to develop powerful, heuristic, gamified learn-tech products for an integrated instructional learning experience.
“At its core, PlanetSpark is a tech company aiming to organize the unorganized market of tuitions in India through scalable tech solutions. We firmly believe that the era of boring tuitions is over and the vast and unorganized tuitions market is ripe for getting organized through full stack tutoring model, following the trend in other markets like transportation, logistics, food delivery or ecommerce. Parents don’t want to send their children to unverified and uncertified tuition teachers any more and they are ready to prefer a professional brand which brings game-based learning models, instructional content, and technological backing and mobile apps," stated Kunal Malik, Co-founder, PlanetSpark.
With a 'Blended Learning' approach to teaching school subjects) to preteens, the startup combines Face to face Classroom learning and tech-based learning. The company develops gamified learning content such as mobile based learning games, educational cartoons, learning activity boxes, workbooks and board games and partners with qualified homemakers and helps them start their home based tech enabled tuition centers using PlanetSpark’s gamified teaching content, technology and training.
“We are clear that the future of early and primary education lies in a Blended Approach to learning where one combines face-to-face teaching with technology. It is a known fact that purely online “learning apps” don’t work as one cannot eliminate the human element of a teacher, especially for younger kids. At the same time, just face to face learning models are neither scalable nor make the learning process fun and gamified using Tech. Hence the sweet spot lies in Blended Learning,” said Maneesh Dhooper, Co-founder, PlanetSpark.
In order to create highly engaging games and learning cartoons for children, the company’s game development team has designed two product innovations that can create a learning game or a learning cartoon within a few hours. This would help the company exponentially scale its content offerings to more subjects and classes in the coming months.
Commenting on the development, D. K. Goel, Chairman Emeritus Fiitjee Group, said, "The home based blended learning model of Planet Spark is poised to empower teachers, students and parents in the learning process."
The team is now gearing-up for the release of its learning tablet which has been developed as a series of story-based learning adventures designed by Russian game design experts. The company plans to scale-up to 5 more cities in the next academic year to spread the joy of learning pan-India!
QuEST Global, the pioneering engineering services provider, has announced plans to strengthen its presence in Sharonville, Ohio. The company intends to add more than 60 new jobs in the State of Ohio with $3.9 million in new payroll at their engineering services center in Cincinnati. With this addition of engineering and aerospace professionals, the company will be better equipped to serve its customers and increase its competitiveness in the aerospace industry across the globe.
After evaluating several locations, QuEST Global selected Sharonville to augment its aerospace engineering workforce in the US. As part of this initiative, the City of Sharonville will provide QuEST a job creation incentive and the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved a 1.898 percent, seven-year Job Creation Tax Credit for this project.
“QuEST’s decision to reinvest and expand operations in our Northern Lights District is a testament to the District’s viability as a mixed-use area that blends office, cultural, hospitality and entertainment uses,” said Chris Xeil Lyons, Economic Development Director, City of Sharonville, Ohio.
“Regional Economic Development Initiative (REDI) Cincinnati is thrilled to partner with QuEST Global to help them grow their presence in Greater Cincinnati,” said Kimm Lauterbach, President & CEO, REDI Cincinnati. “We know that engineering services companies like QuEST Global can grow here because Greater Cincinnati has the right mix of affordability and skilled talent.”
"QuEST has been an integral part of the State of Ohio since 1994 and helping grow the community through investments in local talent and infrastructure. Our unique synergy with customers and the ability to expand in various global markets through our integrated local – global delivery approach has helped us bring valuable engineering jobs to the region. QuEST Global is committed to invest and create more jobs in the State of Ohio that will enable us to provide innovative solutions to our customers across the globe,” said Dr. Mani Subramanian, VP - Global Technology Solutions, QuEST Global.
“We are excited about QuEST’s decision to invest and add 60 new aerospace engineering jobs in Sharonville,” said Glenn Richardson, Managing Director for Aerospace and Aviation, JobsOhio. “QuEST’s expansion will grow engineering talent in Southwest Ohio and it will play a critical role in helping the company meet growing demand for its engineering services worldwide.”
By AV Antao, Chief Operating Officer, Synergy Property Development Services
Technology plays a pivotal role in shaping Indian construction industry. One new-gen technology that is gaining interest in the construction industry is the usage of drones. It is poised to serve as an effective medium towards building smart cities in a cost-effective, faster and safer manner with optimum utilisation of skills and efforts. It is expected that in the next 10 years, the use of drones in construction will register a manifold growth and will play a leading role in futuristic buildings.
According to a recent industry report, India is one of the fastest growing markets for UAVs and by 2021, the Indian UAV market is expected to reach USD 885.7 million. The usage of drones in the construction industry, has seen a 239% growth year-over-year globally, higher than any other commercial sector. In India too, the growth is set to increase manifold.
In the present scenario, it is very crucial for India to realise the aerial revolution that can be brought about by the proper utilisation of drones which have emerged as a highly viable commercial tool globally. As a matter of fact, the most notable sector of economy being benefitted by drones is construction. There’s no denying on the fact that there is an unstoppable rise of commercial drones; a market set to be worth billions over the coming years.
There are numerous safety and legal implications that one should be aware of, as well as the differences between the commercial and personal use of drones. Despite increasing adoption and regulation, there is still tremendous growth in the use of drones in construction. Drones can add significant value to a project throughout its lifecycle.
The areas where drone technology will benefit the construction process:
Improvised quality and thermal imaging
The quality of the scans and aerial imagery provided by the cameras mounted on top of the drones are undeniably superior. Drones equipped with high-resolution thermal cameras serve as an excellent investigative tool for a host of building-specific applications and energy efficiency audits, including roof insulation inspection. They can also graphically depict energy inefficiencies and identify wet insulations in the roof or elsewhere by displaying temperature variations within the building.
Drones integration with BIM
Drones have proved themselves to be an asset for data-driven approach and thus can effectively undertake numerous tasks to aid the BIM (Building Information Modeling) workflow. Giving an aerial perspective in the creation of the initial BIM, drones also provide scalable point cloud scanning and photography at different stages of construction.
Highly cost-effective in topographical surveys
A drone carrying out standard survey and inspection activities is undoubtedly a significant cost-effective approach, as it removes the need for any kind of monetary or physical efforts put in for the surveys. As an example, for a typical topographic survey, the use of a drone can help to reduce costs by approximately 50%.
Ensuring completion of projects
The use of drones completely eradicates the need of shutting down active work sites for the concerns of maintaining and inspecting work like pipeline or flare stacks, which can be carried out safely under UAV supervision. Drones also monitor site activity and provide a comprehensive overview of the site through land surveying. Therefore, it is highly efficient in reducing the timeframe for the process of construction leading to a speedy delivery of the projects.
Reducing risk and keeping people safe
Drones help in minimising the possibility of risk by being monitored to perform a task. The UAV technology thus helps in supporting the drive towards zero incidents onsite as it takes away some of the risks from the construction activities like the need for labourers to work at heights when inspecting assets like bridges. UAVs and drones are effective in conducting safer, faster and more accurate inspections instead of safety managers, who physically conduct the site walk-throughs to identify potential hazards.
Compact and intelligent results
Acute 3D software can dramatically enhance productivity by turning a simple series of digital photos taken with a smart camera. When these cameras are mounted on drones they give a 360-degree overview of the project into a 3D reality mesh model. The result is a compact, intelligent representation of the asset in its current operating context. This also eases out the task for engineers and designers allowing them to work on an up-to-date 3D model for their enhancement and maintenance plans.
Drones are tools that will play a fundamental role in ensuring that the construction industry can deliver huge and complex projects with a better finishing and on-time results.
