Adani Group Set to Scale New Heights in Indian Defence & Aerospace Capabilities

In line with its vision of nation building, Adani Defence and Aerospace is proud to participate in Aero India 2019, Asia’s premier airshow to be held at the Yelahanka Air Force Station, in Bengaluru from 20th to 24th February 2019. The exhibits will be showcased in Hall B across the stalls 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 3.8a and 3.11b. Adani Defence & Aerospace has one of the largest presence amongst the Indian private sector organizations in Aero India 2019.

The Adani Group is committed to the national security agenda, and to help transform India into a destination for world-class defence manufacturing, aligned with the Make in India initiative. Efforts have been raised to enhance India’s defence and industrial capabilities by focusing on platforms and technologies of critical importance to meet emerging security challenges.

Ashish Rajvanshi, Head of Adani Defence & Aerospace commented.  “We have put our might behind the small and medium enterprises in the country and invested in their differentiated capabilities and future growth. All our initiatives have been driven by the belief that India needs to have an ecosystem of capabilities, to enable true indigenization and help achieve the ultimate goal of self-reliance in defence manufacturing. Today, with our Group companies, we have amalgamated world class skills and capabilities across carbon aero-structures, metal aero-structures, transmission gears, systems & avionics, engine components etc. which are being showcased at Aero India 2019. With these capabilities, Adani defence & aerospace is well positioned to transition to system integration of larger platforms including UAVs, Rotary-wing and Fixed-wing aircrafts.”

Key showcases

Adani, along with its Israeli partner Elbit Systems, will showcase the HERMES 900 MALE at stall 2.7. The MALE UAV is being produced in India and offered by Adani & Elbit’s joint venture company under IDDM category of DPP 2016 to the Indian Armed Forces. Adani has established India’s first Unmanned Aerial Systems manufacturing facility for HERMES 900 MALE at Adani Aerospace Park in Hyderabad, Telangana.

Adani, along with its Group companies Alpha Design & Comprotech, and US partner Rave Gears will showcase their rotary-wing capabilities at stall 3.8a. It also includes carbon aero-structures and aerospace components, transmission gearboxes and gears, systems and avionics currently supplied to global OEMs. 

SASTRA University Signs MoU with SV.CO to Bring Facebook School of Innovation’s Virtual Reality Course

In a move to bridge the gap between academia and industry, SASTRA, a deemed-to-be university in Thanjavur, has signed an MoU with SV.CO, India’s first digital incubator for college entrepreneurs, to bring the Facebook School of Innovation’s Virtual Reality Elective for its students.

Ranked as a Grade 1 Category Institute by the University Grants Commission, the highest classification for Universities in India, SASTRA is empowered with the autonomy to create courses in partnership with industry, in order to bolster the central government’s Skill India and Startup India programmes.

As part of the programme, Foundation for Innovation & Research at SASTRA TBI (FIRST), the new Technology Business Incubator (TBI) supported by the Department of Science and Technology, has setup a modern VR Lab comprising of devices such as Oculus Rift, Oculus GO, HTC Vive, and other ultra-modern gaming laptops for its students.

A group of 40 students, shortlisted out of 100 applications, has been selected for the inaugural batch of the Virtual Reality course, part of the university’s academic degree launched as an elective for sixth-semester students. Students from various disciplines such as computer science, electronics, mechatronics &biotech have opted for the VR elective, indicating a broad acceptance across multiple branches for the Facebook-supported course.

Satyajeet Singh, Head of Platform Partnerships for India and South Asia, Facebook, said: “The School of Innovation programme is committed to support the creation of a robust innovation ecosystem in emerging technologies at universities and the course integration with SASTRA University is our first major step in this direction.”

The School of Innovation programme, co-created by Facebook and Startup Village Collective (SV.CO), is designed to help students work with emerging technology, build world-class products, under the mentorship of industry experts.

Speaking about the partnership, Suma Sundararajan, Programme Head and Chief Operating Officer of SV.CO, said: “SASTRA is laying a strong foundation to systematically move up in the ARIIA innovation rankings as all the key parameters like launching new courses, setting up of new infrastructure and guidance for students to build prototypes are an integral part of the course design.”

Launched by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) ranks Indian academic institutions on their innovation rankings and catalyse the adoption of modern courses by academic institutions in the field of technology and entrepreneurship.

Elaborating on the VR elective’s USP, Sridharan Venkataramanan, CEO of Foundation for Innovation & Research at SASTRA TBI, said: “In this digital era, it is critical to develop young engineering workforce with emerging technologies such as VR, AR etc. This course is well designed with help of industry experts and makes SASTRA students ready to face the digital world as we embrace the Industry4.0 in manufacturing domain and overall Business4.0 across segments such as retail, banking, finance and so on. We are happy to collaborate with the School of Innovation. Our faculty team has been trained, and we have industry curriculum as well as support from industry professionals for course evaluations.”

Keeping in mind the practice of higher education syllabuses taking a long time to be updated, SASTRA has integrated the course in three weeks with the School of Innovation. According to Venkataramanan, an industry veteran, the elective will lead to a well-rounded industry learning experience and value for the students.

At the School of Innovation’s upcoming VR Day Programme, where 21 talented student developers will be showcasing their innovations in the field of virtual reality, SASTRA will also be sharing its learnings focusing on the new course.

The event, to be held on February 23 in Bengaluru, will offer the visiting academic institutes a glimpse of how the university integrated the emerging technologies course into its industry curriculum.

Academic institutions and students can access the details of the VR course at www.sv.co/sastra . 

Lenovo Delivers Strong Performance with Highest Quarterly Revenue in Four Years

Data Center Group enjoyed continued hyper growth in Hyperscale and Software Defined Infrastructure, and increased its lead as #1 in the world’s TOP500 supercomputer rankings

Lenovo Group has announced results for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2018. Lenovo posted its highest group revenue in four years of US$14 billion, up 8.5% YOY (12.8% YOY excluding currency impact).  The company reported strong pre-tax income of US$350 million (up 133% / +US$200 million over the previous year) - an all-time record for the company as all businesses continued to report profit improvements.

The Group recorded a net profit of US$233 million for the fiscal quarter, significantly improved from the net loss of US$289 million in the same quarter of last year. Basic earnings per share in the third fiscal quarter was 1.96 US cents or 15.35 HK cents.

“When we set out on our journey of Intelligent Transformation, our goal was to restore and then accelerate Lenovo’s business momentum, while providing our customers and partners with the best technologies in smart IoT, smart infrastructure and smart vertical solutions. We’ve done exactly that and more - our strength and position as the industry’s most prolific global technology organization is firmly established.  What I’m most pleased to see is how Lenovo is bucking the current industry trend – we’re strong, have delivered record-breaking results this quarter and are only getting stronger”, said Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo Chairman and CEO.

Business Group Overview:

The Intelligent Devices Group (IDG) posted record revenue and profit; powered by its third straight quarter since inception of revenue growth - up 6.2% YOY to US$12.4 billion.

During the quarter, the PC and Smart Devices (PCSD) business under IDG reported US$10.7 billion in revenue, up 11.6% YOY, and sequentially extending the Group’s momentum from the previous quarter. PC revenue grew 16% YOY, outperforming the market by more than 17 points with PTI margin also improving by 1 percentage point. Lenovo maintained its position as the world’s undisputed leader in PC sales with record market share of 24.6%. A focus on high-growth and premium segments saw Workstations, Thin and Light devices, and Visuals revenue outgrow the market by more than 30 points, Gaming by 16 points and Chromebook by over 220 points.

The Mobile Business Group (MBG) under IDG posted its first worldwide profit since the Motorola acquisition in October 2014. This notable achievement came from masterful execution on Lenovo’s strategy to reduce expenses, streamline the Group’s product portfolio and focus on core markets.  Notably North America saw a breakthrough quarter for the Group with volumes outgrowing the market by a staggering 40 points. Additionally, MBG’s focus on other specific geographies is also showing significant results: Lenovo retains the #2 position in Latin America, despite currency fluctuations and supply constraints.  In China, thanks to a range of new products under the Lenovo brand, the Group continued to build on the momentum quadrupling revenue and reporting strong growth in PTI margin.

Lenovo’s Data Center Group (DCG) reported its fifth consecutive quarter of profit growth (PTI margin up 3.6 percentage points YOY) on a 31% YOY increase in revenue to US$1.6 billion. In fact, DCG recorded YOY revenue growth in all geographies, highlighted by triple-digit growth in North America, and double-digit growth in Asia-Pacific, EMEA and Latin America.  The NetApp joint venture, which is now operational in China, will further strengthen the portfolio and expand business opportunities.  Hyperscale once again served as a significant contributor with triple-digit revenue growth and Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI) revenue grew almost 70% YOY. The Group not only remained #1 on the TOP500 list of supercomputers globally, but also increased its lead.

Boeing F/A-18 ‘Make in India’ to Transform Defense Industry

Boeing held discussions with its partners, Mahindra Defence Systems (MDS) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), on the proposed F/A-18 Super Hornet ‘Make in India’ plan at Aero India 2019.

The partners are developing comprehensive plans to set-up a new “factory of the future” to manufacture Super Hornet locally. The program is expected to work with several Indian suppliers to grow a thriving defense aerospace base which could accelerate other programs. The facility will create a world-class, highly trained aerospace workforce.

This unique public-private partnership  is intended to bring Boeing, HAL and MDS’ global scale and supply chain, its best-in-industry precision manufacturing processes, as well as the unrivalled experience in designing and optimizing aerospace production facilities to expand India’s aerospace ecosystem and help realize the ‘Make in India’ vision.

Boeing’s Super Hornet is a proven platform that offers the fighter of the future for India – networked, survivable and reliable. Introduced in 2007, the F/A-18 Super Hornet is the world’s preeminent carrier capable aircraft and best suited for India’s naval fighter requirements – designed from day one for carrier operations. The Super Hornet is highly capable across the full mission spectrum for the Indian Air Force and is a true multi-role aircraft, able to perform virtually every mission in the tactical spectrum, including air superiority, day/night strike with precision guided weapons, fighter escort, close air support, suppression of enemy air defenses, maritime strike, reconnaissance, forward air control and tanker missions. This, coupled with designed-in stealth and the right payload capacity, makes the Super Hornet the ideal fit for India.

Ericsson and Juniper Networks Partnership Gains Momentum with Joint Transport Solutions

Since announcing a deepened partnership in September 2018, Ericsson and Juniper Networks have secured more than 20 new customers worldwide. The two companies are today unveiling further enhancements to their joint 5G transport network and security solutions to meet increasing demand.

Service providers who are looking to deploy 5G-ready networks are turning to the combined Ericsson and Juniper portfolios to deliver the required transport infrastructure, operations and service delivery solutions they need that remove complexity and ensure ease-of-use.

Per Narvinger, Head of Product Area Networks, Ericsson, says: “The positive market response to our expanded partnership with Juniper is a testimony to the strength of our joint end-to-end transport solutions. We hope to sustain this momentum by further enhancing our leading, high-performance transport portfolio to ensure that next-generation networks continue to benefit our customers.”

Manoj Leelanivas, Chief Product Officer, Juniper Networks, says: “By integrating complementary portfolios and technologies, Juniper Networks and Ericsson continue to partner and further develop end-to-end transport solutions for the 5G era – solutions that give service providers greater flexibility, performance, security and automation.”

With the evolution of Ericsson’s solution for network slicing, Juniper’s SDN controller, NorthStar, is interworking with Ericsson Dynamic Orchestration, providing seamless control from the cell site to the packet core network – including the data center gateway. This allows automation and integration of connectivity services in the transport domain into an end-to-end network slice. With this solution, Ericsson’s Wide Area Network Orchestrator (WANO) acts as a hierarchical SDN controller in charge of configuring connectivity services.

Transport orchestration added to Ericsson’s network slicing solution provides the network slice with guaranteed bandwidth and key performance indicators, such as latency. Slicing in the transport domain is also enhanced by combining soft network slicing through Ericsson Dynamic Orchestration and hard network slicing through Junos node slicing on Juniper’s MX Series portfolio. In combination with Ericsson Radio System, this joint solution will enable an end-to-end network slice on a shared infrastructure that can be secure, optimized and isolated.

Another enhancement is in the security area, where solutions from Juniper are being integrated into the Ericsson RAN offerings. In addition to the newly announced 5G High Layer vRAN, Ericsson security functionality has been complemented with Juniper SRX and vSRX gateway products as the IPSec security solution to elevate and extend the security framework across the network.

Juniper PTX, MX and SRX will be natively integrated into Ericsson Security Manager to reduce time-to-market by automating hardening and facilitating monitoring and compliance of security policies.

Khanungdej Triratupathum, Chief Technology Officer, TrueMove, says: “TrueMove is committed to providing a superior experience for our mobile users with a constant evolution of our services. We are working toward the virtualization of several components of the Mobile Core. The Ericsson and Juniper Networks partnership allows us to take advantage of an integrated best-of-breed solution by running Ericsson virtual network functions (VNFs) and Ericsson Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI) with the Juniper MX series platform as our data-center gateway.”

Mikko Kannisto, Director of Transmission Networks, DNA, says: “Finland is a unique market where most customers use mobile broadband as their primary broadband service, and with data traffic increasing 33 percent year-over-year. Strengthening our core network to not only meet the growing demands of our customers today – and allowing us the flexibility to prepare for 5G – has been a priority for DNA. Juniper Networks and Ericsson have implemented renewed DNA core network that supports 5G transport capacity, boosting our 5G readiness.”

According to mobile operator Jazz, as network demands increase, the company has to ensure that the network they build today will allow them to manage the end-user experience with excellence, especially as they move toward a 4G advanced era and beyond. The joint solutions from Ericsson and Juniper Networks provide seamless connectivity from radio cell site to internet gateway with best-in-class technology, while delivering a future-proof infrastructure to enable a great end-user experience.

As part of the partnership, Juniper will continue to use Ericsson’s go-to-market capabilities for mobile opportunities and Ericsson will include Juniper’s solutions for edge, core, security and network slicing as part of its end-to-end 5G transport portfolio.

Juniper and Ericsson will demonstrate their enhanced solutions at the Juniper booth in Hall 2, stand 2I60/2J61, and at the Ericsson booth in Hall 2, stand 2O60 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona starting February 25, 2019.

Atos Installed its First Supercomputer in India at IIT-BHU as Part of HPC Agreement with Indian Government

Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, has announces the installation of its first supercomputer in India.

The BullSequana, which is the first supercomputer to be installed as part of the Indian Government’s National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), was officially inaugurated at IIT-BHU in Varanasi by the Prime Minister of India the Honorable Narendra Modi.

Named ‘Param Shivav’, this supercomputer is the first of several to be installed across India as part of a major 3-year agreement between C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing), an organization within the MeitY (Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, India) and Atos. It is part of the NSM (National Supercomputing Mission) - a 7-year plan of INR 4500 crores (~650M$) led by the Government of India which aims to create a network of over 70 high-performance supercomputing facilities for various academic and research institutions across India.

The supercomputer is equipped with the latest processors and accelerators on the market, to provide optimal performance and improved energy efficiency. It will be used for academic projects and research.

“We are proud that our BullSequana supercomputer is empowering researchers at the IIT-BHU to accelerate their digital simulation projects. This installation marks the start of a strategic relationship and partnership between France and India and cements our position as the leading supercomputing provider in India for HPC.” said Pierre Barnabé, Chief Operating Officer, Big Data & Security at Atos.

Coding Legends Face-Off in a Tense 5-Hour Programming Battle in India’s IT Hub

Dozens of competitive programmers from all over the world descended on Bengaluru this past weekend for India’s biggest programming event: SnackDown 2019 - a global programming tournament organized by CodeChef. The fierce competition lasted five hours and invited contestants to try their hands at 10 complex algorithmic problems. Borys Minaiev from Ukraine and Gennady Korotkevich from Belarus came together to take home the coveted title of SnackDown Champions as well as a cash prize of $10,000.

The 1st runners up were Oleg Merkurev and Aleksei Daniliuk from Russia while the 2nd runner-up slot was claimed by Ji Ruyi and Yuhao Du from China. This victory did not come easily for Borys and Gennady (who now live in Russia). It was a tense battle right down to the finish with the winning team making a successful problem submission during the last 30 seconds of the contest. The final twenty seconds completely changed the fate of the contest. This was a second SnackDown win for Borys and Gennady who had previously lifted the SnackDown cup in 2016. In the current edition, they beat out SnackDown defending champions Aleksei and Oleg to earn the top spot.

SnackDown also rewarded the best School team: Shih-Yu Wang from National Experimental High School, Taiwan and Yeoh Zi Song from Chung Ling High School, Malaysia, as well as the best women’s team, had Xiaoou Zhou and Jiayi Mao from China. This year, SnackDown opened to registrations from over 27,000 teams comprising of more than 40,000 programmers from different parts of the globe participating in different rounds of the contest. The finale saw 26 international teams comprising of 51 individuals from 13 different countries who competed against one another under one roof. Additionally, the top 10 Indian teams and 3 school teams from India were invited to the on-site finals to meet and interact with the best programmers, adding another facet to this event, making it the only event of this scale to give exposure to the young programming talent from India. The best Indian team this year stood at 25th position comprising of Ginuga Saketh and Yash Chandnani, both from IIT Kanpur.

For those who don’t know, SnackDown is the only programming competition of its size and scale that is conducted in India and it attracts the very best programming talent from India and overseas. As there is practically no eligibility criteria to enter, SnackDown attracts a varied mix of entrants, from school and university students to working professionals, who all put their life on hold for three days to attend this exciting event. This year 839 school teams registered to participate in SnackDown alongside 3438 female teams registered. The event saw registrations from 115 different countries.

Speaking at the event, Bhavin Turakhia, CEO and Co-Founder of Directi, said, “Year after year, participants at SnackDown continue to fascinate and thrill us with their talent and dedication to programming. SnackDown represents the best talent in the programming community and it’s a great feeling knowing that they enjoy our competitions. I hope that this competition and CodeChef’s other efforts continue to inspire programmers of all ages and skill levels to continually improve their own abilities and in turn, improve the standard of programming in India and overseas too.”

“We are humbled with the response we have received for this edition. We are always amazed by the talent and passion of the teams which only seems to grow every year. In particular, we want SnackDown to be a platform where the best Indian programmers can meet and interact with their overseas counterparts and judging by our successful activities and interactive sessions, it makes me happy to see that happening!” said Anup Kalbalia, BU Head, CodeChef.