Subex Diversifies into New Verticals with the Launch of CrunchMetrics

Subex, a leading telecom analytics solution provider, has announced the launch of a new brand, CrunchMetrics, an advanced anomaly detection system designed to help organizations discover business opportunities and mitigate risks in real-time. It leverages the combined power of statistics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to sift through data and identify anomalies that are a representation of business impact. CrunchMetrics is vertical agnostic and has a wide range of use cases for Telecom, Retail and FinTech verticals at launch. CrunchMetrics is a division of Subex Digital LLP, a wholly owned subsidiary of Subex Limited.

Rapid digitalization across industries today has led to a massive explosion of data volumes where years’ worth of data in the last decade is now being generated in the matter of a few hours. While organizations are doing reasonably well to capture and store this data, the mechanisms to truly make use of such huge volumes of data are unable to match the current volumes and velocity of data being generated. Due to this challenge, organisations fall short of responding to significant changes which can improve business critical functions. Addressing this gap, CrunchMetrics brings to the table real-time anomaly detection helping organizations find the ‘needle in the haystack’, thereby facilitating low latency decision making. Through the launch of CrunchMetrics, Subex aims to address a huge market that is expected to reach USD 4.5 Billion by 2022 and will to cater to a variety of verticals.

Commenting on this launch, Vinod Kumar, CEO and MD, Subex said, “We are delighted to launch CrunchMetrics, a new brand within our overall portfolio. The addressable problem and the market size is huge, and with our focused efforts and investments, we are confident of creating an impact by delivering value to our customers. With over two decades of experience in handling large volumes of complex data, we thoroughly understand the art of handling the data and putting it to good use. We have already begun engaging our customers and the initial response has been very encouraging. From a business perspective CrunchMetrics marks our entry into areas beyond the telecom domain, such as the booming FinTech and Retail segments that are significant consumers of data”

Justin van der Lande, Principal Analyst, Analysys Mason said, “Businesses today are generating massive amounts of data. Discovering opportunities or insights using traditional BI systems or rules-based systems is becoming harder and more expensive, slowing the take-up data-driven automations. An AI-based anomaly detection solution can help in enabling smarter decision making and reducing time to discovery by removing much of the complexity needed to model data trends and to quickly spot any changes to them.”

CrunchMetrics is a completely automated solution that enables organizations to identify business incidents that are otherwise hard to detect. Through self-learning algorithms, it evolves continuously basis insights acquired from the latest incidents. Some of the benefits include focused attention on incidents that matter, reduction in decision-making latency, ability to uncover new opportunities, and diminishing losses due to hidden trends.

“CrunchMetrics adopts new-age technologies such as AI and ML to interpret data, making it a flexible channel that organizations can leverage to make business decisions in a timely manner. Further, it seamlessly integrates with existing systems through simple mechanisms such as web-services or Application Programming Interface (APIs) enabling organizations to uncover new opportunities that can further be leveraged by them,” said Shankar Roddam, Chief Operating Officer, Subex.

85% Believe they Should Get Health Insurance Before the Age of 30: Massive Demand for Health Insurance: GOQii IndiFit Report 2019

Healthcare issues have remained a challenge in India for a very long time. Overall trust in the healthcare system has deteriorated further with 96.5% of people not trusting the system. With 67.8% of Indians not trusting Hospitals. To add to this, the rising cost of healthcare has prompted Indians to focus more on health insurance. 62.8% of Indians believe having a health insurance policy is an absolute necessity and approximately 85% believe health insurance should be bought by the age of 30, indicates the GOQii-India Fit report 2019 titled ‘Insurance: An Investment in Health’.

GOQii, India’s leading preventive healthcare ecosystem today unveiled the fifth edition of ‘India Fit Report. India Fit Report 2019 is a result of a year-long study of more than 700,000 GOQii users – a first-of-its-kind report that presents a holistic overview on the health and lifestyle of Indians across different parameters such as steps taken, lifestyle diseases (Diabetes, Cardiac and Hypertension), BMI (Body Mass Index), nutrition, water, stress, sleep, gut health and immunity, smoking and alcohol consumption; all of which are classified according to gender and key cities. This year India Fit report has gone a step further to also look at what people think of Health Insurance and can it be looked at as Investment in health?

The report indicates despite the increasing awareness about the importance and need for an insurance policy, 20% of the respondents still don’t own insurance policy. The common notion that continues to prevail is that insurance is confusing to understand, a prime reason that discourages people from buying one. The high cost of insurance also deters them.

Approximately 90% of people believe healthier people should pay lesser premiums on their insurance policies. 70% are willing to share health data with insurance companies to get a discount on premiums.

The survey deep dives into insurance as that will be a critical aspect in the years to come for all individuals. Respondents strongly believed cashless hospitalization (87.9%) is the most sought-after health insurance benefit followed by medical bills reimbursement facility (67.7%) and better treatment in best hospitals (59.0%).

Most people decide to buy a particular policy due to the good quality hospital network it provides (42.3%). Further, people also buy a policy from a particular provider because of its easy claim procedures (41.9%) and an accessible hospital network (40.3%). Low cost, good coverage and benefits, simple terms and conditions are some of the other convincing factors for people to buy health insurance.

Further, the report indicates, 38.3% people between the age group of 20-45 suffer from at least one lifestyle disease ranging from Diabetes, BP, Cardiac issues to Thyroid, Acute GI and Acidity. In the last two years, lifestyle diseases have shown an increase. Cases of Cholesterol among people have increased from 10.1% to 14.1% this year, High blood pressure is on the rise, with an increase from 9% to 12%. This data signifies that a strong insurance system will be imperative for all individuals and GOQii is leading the efforts in this space, by being the first player to build a preventive healthcare model and showing the need and benefits of insurance, through this study.

Increase in lifestyle diseases and medical costs coupled with the lack of trust in healthcare has prompted people to get active and be healthy. This also arises from the fact that people are not wanting to spend their life being disease struck. GOQii India Fit Report 2019 indicates that as compared to 2017, in 2018, people are taking to running has increased from 22% to 33% among people wanting to be active. Cycling has increased from 10% to 15%. Conscious of being healthy has also led people to sleep and take rest more. The report reveals that Indians have slept more (6:51 hrs) from (6:32 hrs) last year.

When it comes to being healthy, Bangaloreans seem to be at the forefront. According to the report, Bengaluru has yet again topped the list of being the healthiest city in India beating Mumbai. However, the one aspect that is bothering Indians to a large extent is ‘Pollution’. Air pollution has been a killer in the last couple of years and the situation is only worsening. The India Fit report has studied 8 main cities on 3 basic parameters namely Air, water and food to find out how India has fared? The results have shown that Pune is the most livable city on air, water and food quality front and Delhi is most polluted in terms of its air quality. 

Commenting on the findings of the India Fit Report 2019, Vishal Gondal, Founder and CEO of GOQii said, “Trust in healthcare has further deteriorated and there is a dire need to reimagine health. We are aiming to change and get people to move away from a reactive and cure based healthcare to a preventive healthcare system,”.

Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation to Inaugurate Convergence India 2019 Expo

Emerging technologies, their application and ability to disrupt the way things function are highly deliberated subjects today. How these trends will evolve in the coming year and how businesses can best tap this potential is the theme of Convergence India 2019 expo’s 27th edition. The event will bring together the latest technology innovations and trends from telecom & mobile communication, internet of things, information technology & security, broadcast & digital media, mobile devices and accessories, as well as emerging technologies and enterprise solutions under one roof.

The three-day exhibition and conference, to be held in New Delhi from 29-31 January, 2019, will welcome 800+ exhibitors and 200+ speakers from 30+ countries. Over 25,000 trade visitors are expected, including key government officials, overseas representatives, and private players from the telecom and broadcast sectors, cable TV & satellite operators, system integrators, information and network security etc., resulting in tremendous business activity, negotiations, intellectual discussions and much more.

Co-located with the event will be the Internet of Things India 2019 expo and the Embedded Tech India 2019 expo, which will focus on technologies and developments in the space of cloud & big data, virtual & augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, application development, cloud services, M2M solutions, semiconductor manufacturing, energy & automation technology, smart cities etc. The three events together will provide a robust opportunity for professionals, digital innovators, international business gurus, telecom and broadcasting czars, leaders from IT, Internet and IoT industries, to interact and do business with each other.

Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce & Industry, commented, “I am happy to learn that Exhibitions India Group, along with India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) as co-organiser, is hosting the 27th edition of Convergence India 2019 expo, the 3rd edition of Internet of Things India 2019 expo, and Embedded Tech India 2019 expo in New Delhi. Also, it is a pleasure to know that the expos will focus on the convergence of technologies across telecom, IT, broadcast and digital media sectors, and the fast growing IoT infrastructure in India. This will be a great opportunity for industry leaders and influencers to discuss the latest trends and disruptions impacting various industry verticals. I would like to congratulate the organisers for hosting these events, which continue to provide a remarkable opportunity to various stakeholders to come up with innovative solutions for India’s growth in the future.”

“I am confident the expos will be immensely useful to further extend the impact of Digital India and Make in India campaigns globally, and also enhance India’s share of exports through trade in goods and services. The expos are bound to provide huge opportunities to exhibitors to promote Brand India, apart from exploring possibilities of entering into joint ventures and business collaborations,” said LC Goyal, CMD, ITPO.

“Digital and telecommunications technologies are inevitably set to become the new norm across industries and sectors on a global front. From AI and automation, which are transforming the nature of work and delivering unprecedented levels of productivity, to AR and VR emerging as an advanced interface between machines and humans, we are on the cusp of a massive revolution. Adopting these technologies on a wide scale in our country will be the key to promoting Brand India globally, and that is just what we aim to do through the Convergence India, Internet of Things India and Embedded Tech expos,” said Shri Prem Behl, Chairman, Exhibitions India Group.

Prem Behl further added, “As we get ready to host the 27th edition of Convergence India expo, we also aim to help bolster the collaboration between companies and governments in order to achieve long-term success. The event this year will emphasise on showcasing the innovations that will power the next generation of industry and our economy, along with providing a conducive platform to facilitate an exchange of ideas and technologies for various stakeholders.”

Amongst the key attractions of the expo will be the Mobile & Accessories Pavilion which will showcase the potential of mobile devices & accessories ecosystem. The SATCOM Pavilion, on the other hand, shall exhibit the latest technologies in satellite and telecommunications, transmission systems & equipment, cabling systems, home systems & broadband, post production & new media, audio & radio displays, telecine & film etc.

The Start-up Planet invites IoT start-ups to showcase future technology trends to be integrated into existing technologies that would result in a ‘smarter’ product or application. This will also be an open platform for entrepreneurs to interact with government representatives, corporate leaders, investors, and quality business visitors.

The Embedded Tech India 2019 expo will showcase leading-edge products and solutions that empower smart products, smart home, smart industry, and ultimately smart cities. The show will host a product line that uses microcontrollers, sensors, RF, motor-control, secure MCUs, and other solutions.

#SkillIndia Gets a Boost as The/Nudge Launches “Centre for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship”

The/Nudge Foundation, a non-profit focused on poverty alleviation, in partnership with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) recently announced the launch of “Centre for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship” (CSDE), India’s first institution dedicated to accelerating the impact and scale of India’s skill development and entrepreneurship initiatives. India is adding 1 million people into the workforce every month and this institutional approach to work on deeper issues affecting skilling ecosystem is critical and timely. The Centre aims to become an eminent, global institution that addresses the pressing problems of youth unemployability and unemployment.

Congratulating on the launch, Shri Rajesh Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship said, “Organizations such as The/Nudge Foundation are rooted in strong, on-ground action and are providing an institutional backbone to the government to help accelerate the scale of the Government’s initiatives. The gaps in the skilling ecosystem can be filled through new thinking, new insights and new ideas that they bring. We need to innovate across all levels to make Skill India the backbone for the New India of our dreams.”

Atul Satija, Founder & CEO, The/Nudge said, “Our Gurukul model has been scaled up to aid 3500 students to graduate annually, with 100% placements into top employers, which has helped us understand the deeper challenges and opportunities that skill development presents. With CSDE, we are expanding our mandate to support the skilling ecosystem at large, given the magnitude of the problem India is facing today, and dedicate this Centre to the youth of the nation.”

CSDE will focus on research, innovations, technology, consulting, and programs to support the skill development ecosystem and stakeholders including government, academia, industry and service providers. CSDE will also partner with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to jointly work on research, pilots and new innovative models in skilling.

Speaking about the collaboration, Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC said, “NSDC facilitate initiatives that create a multiplier effect on the skill ecosystem. The/Nudge Foundation has demonstrated success in running the Gurukul program which focuses on all-round development of an individual. The launch of Center for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship will support NSDC’s efforts in empowering youth with skills and enable innovation through action research.”

In 2015, The/Nudge Foundation started the Gurukul program, a 90-day fully residential training program for underprivileged youth, aimed at job and life-readiness. The Gurukuls are located in Bangalore and Delhi, running at an annual student rate of 3500+, serving students from across more than 10 states specializing in livelihoods such as BPO, Retail, Plumbing, Electrician, Beauty and achieving 100% placements.

IBM Earns Record 9,100 Patents in 2018, Tops U.S. Patent List

IBM inventors received a record 9,100 patents in 2018, marking the company’s 26th consecutive year of U.S. patent leadership. IBM led the industry in the number of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, cybersecurity and quantum computing-related patent grants. 

“IBM is committed to leading the way on the technologies that change the way the world works – and solving problems many people have not even thought of yet,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and CEO. “Our clients and their customers are the beneficiaries of these innovations, particularly our leadership in AI, cloud, blockchain and security for business.”

Overall, nearly half of the 2018 patents relate to pioneering advancements in AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, blockchain and quantum computing.

The industry-leading 1,600 AI patents IBM inventors were granted in 2018 include new ways to use AI to help us converse and protect the earth’s lakes and waterways. AI also played a large role in the more than 1,400 cyber security patents IBM inventors were granted in 2018, including an AI-powered security approach to combat voice phishing.

Some IBM patents granted in 2018 include: 

Project Debater is a first-of-a-kind AI system from IBM Research that can debate humans on complex topics. IBM inventors patented an approach to use machine learning to identify evidence, such as relevant text segments in unstructured text data, which supports or opposes a claim or topic under consideration. This could help provide advancements in how machines and humans interact in conversation.
IBM inventors patented an intelligent system that could be used to identify, characterize, and monitor vertical temperature profiles and gradients, which affect marine life, in lakes and other aquatic ecosystems. Analytics combined with the IBM Cloudand Internet of Things (IoT) mapping has helped IBM along with collaborators to engineer the world’s smartest lake, Lake George. 
“Phishing” occurs when a person or computer system tries to obtain sensitive information from unknowing victims. Most recently, phishers have turned to voice phishing, or “vishing,” in which unsuspecting victims are called directly and “vishers” use a voice over IP (VoIP) system to mask their identity. IBM has patented an AI system that could, with permission from the primary user, analyze conversation patterns between two parties in order to identify attempts by one of the parties to deceive the other. The system could send an alert message in real-time to warn a potential vishing victim and help company IT experts better prevent and manage computer and mobile security threats. 

IBM inventors received more than 2,000 cloud computing patents in 2018, including a patent on a specialized monitor for unikernel-based virtual machines that takes a lightweight approach to improving isolation and security between a cloud application and its host, while also reducing provisioning times and improving performance. The approach is related to IBM’s research in container security and could enable organizations to more easily move data and applications securely across cloud and on-premises environments. 

IBM inventors also continue to break ground in the development of blockchain and its rapid pace of global adoption. IBM was granted a patent on an approach for encrypting data stored in a blockchain, where transactions are encrypted using an encryption key. IBM clients can put data on a blockchain that they would like to share with other blockchain participants. However, instead of storing the data openly for any of the blockchain participants to see, clients can encrypt their data beforehand and only other clients that have been given a decryption key can read the data from the blockchain. 

IBM researchers also patented significant inventions in quantum computing, including a new way of miniaturizing components to improve the performance of quantum computers. 

The new patents were granted to a diverse group of more than 8,500 IBM inventors in 47 different U.S. states and 48 countries. 

Manipal Hospitals Bengaluru Organizes ‘You can save life anywhere’ Campaign to Mark World Ambulance Day

Manipal Hospitals Bengaluru has organized ‘You can save life anywhere’ campaign in the city to mark World Ambulance Day. Aimed at creating awareness and training people with life saving techniques, the event witnessed around 200 people participating in the MARS ambulance rally and training of CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) and AED (Automated External Defibrillator).  The campaign was flagged off by P. Harishekaran, Inspector General of Police and Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) and Shwetha R. Prasad, Kannada Actress in the presence of Dr. H Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman- Manipal Hospitals.

The campaign kicked off with MARS ambulance rally, which started from Manipal Hospitals in order to spread the message of ‘Give Way Save a Life’ to public, followed by inauguration of the poster exhibition on life saving techniques and training session. The training programs included CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) which is used to help people having sudden cardiac arrest and AED (Automated External Defibrillator) which is used to restore oxygenated blood flow to the vital organs.

People can further avail these training programs by booking via the hospital’s website across all the hospitals of Manipal. Further, every second Saturday of the month have been dedicated to this training. The Hospital aims to train people in batches starting with admin staff of metro and malls in Bangalore, police, students, general public and gym instructors this year.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr.  H Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman, Manipal Hospitals said, “In today’s fast paced era where lot of people are injured or lose their lives in road traffic accidents, ambulances play an important role in saving their lives. However, ambulances are not given their due importance by the citizens and many a time they do not make way for them. It is extremely important to sensitize people on how critical it is to give way to an ambulance and if people understand this, then half the battle is won. In order for the same, Manipal Hospitals through this campaign, aims to educate and train general public the usage of handy life saving techniques like CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) and AED (Automated External Defibrillator).”

Manipal Ambulance Response Service (MARS) was launched in 2015 and since its inception, it has been ensuring the best outcomes in terms of saving lives and bringing smiles back on the faces of its patients and their loved ones. Enabled with GPS based live vehicle tracking system and equipped with critical lifesaving equipment’s, Manipal’s fleet of ambulance have saved 23984 lives until date. It is also equipped with Central Monitoring System, which relays images of patient condition direct to Emergency Response Centre. The state-of-the technology enables the ambulance to deal with any kind of crucial emergencies.

Speaking on the occasion P. Harishekaran, Inspector General of Police and Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Bengaluru city said, “It is essential for each and every one of us to know the importance of ambulances and the role they play in saving lives. It is not only the traffic police’s responsibility to make way for ambulances but all the general public’s. They need to feel empathetic and be responsive. I feel privileged to be part of this noble and unique initiative of Manipal Hospitals and congratulate each and every one behind this.”

Supporting the initiative Shwetha R Prasad, Kannada Actress said, “I am extremely delighted to be part of this great cause and appreciate each and every one of you. Manipal Hospitals’ ‘You can save life anywhere’ campaign is truly remarkable and I hope the message ‘Give Way Save a Life’ spreads to all the public.

Ask Amazon Alexa for real estate news, powered by Housing.com, PropTiger.com & Makaan.com

Elara Technologies Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based digital real estate company and owner of Housing.com, PropTiger.com, and Makaan.com, has announced yet another industry-first initiative by offering latest news of the Indian real estate sector on Alexa-compatible smart home devices. With this latest development,content available on the respective news and blog sections of Housing.com, PropTiger.com, and Makaan.com which is Housing News, PropGuide and MakaanIQ respectively, will be available for consumption on Amazon Alexa.

With traction of over one million sessions each month, the exclusive news and blog sections - Housing News, PropGuide and MakaanIQ have successfully brought in many home-seekers, sellers, agents and enthusiasts within its fold. To listen to daily updates, users need to add Housing News, MakaanIQ or PropGuide to the Alexa skill set, and it will read the latest news in real estate along with other news from sources that one may have added. The cloud-based voice service from Amazon Alexa will present a compact brief of the news that can be consumed efficiently by a user. 

Commenting on the developmentRavi Bhushan, Group CPTO, Housing.com, PropTiger.com and Makaan.com said,“With almost 28% of queries, voice-enabled searches are the new frontier and they are expected to contribute 50% of all global searches. We are always at the forefront of adopting technology and transforming customer experience by providing instant solutions. Getting our news content in the voice format is another step towards offering our customers the utmost convenience. We see immense potential in serving informational queries such as latest news, property rates, how to guides and more such content in the voice format.”

“With emerging technologies shaping our lifestyle and dependencies, the recent development demonstrates our single-minded focus and commitment towards consumers, helping them experience property in a way never envisaged before. Most forward-thinking companies have pioneered change; in our field, we are delighted to have done it again,” added Bhushan.

Given that real estate is the most preferred asset class for Indians, this development was a need waiting to be fulfilled. Recent technological advancements such as seamless integration with voice and artificial intelligence all set to take centre stage, Housing News, MakaanIQ and PropGuide have already taken the plunge. Consuming content through voice command is an important step as consumers now want every information to be bundled in a fun, informative and hassle-free way.