Latest Tech Trends Take Spotlight at India’s First Technology Radar Summit 2019

ThoughtWorks, a global software consultancy hosted India’s first chapter of the Technology Radar Summit 2019 in Bengaluru on 29 June. This Summit was on occasion of Vol. 20 of the Technology Radar’s global launch. The latest edition of the bi-annual report that provides nuanced advice around technologies, tools, techniques, platforms and languages highlights four themes - The Shifting Shape of Data, Terraforming an Ecosystem, Kotlin Klimbing and The Leaking Encapsulation Boundaries.

‘’What started off as an interesting experiment has now turned into a notable publication that receives a lot of client attention and interest from the global community of technologists,” said Martin Fowler, Chief Scientist at ThoughtWorks. ‘’The Radar is relevant to businesses facing disruptive competition who need to understand and apply the philosophy of Tech@core. Our Radar helps these progressive businesses be aware of developments in technology that support their role in enabling the success of their customers.’’

The Tech Radar Summit saw the enthusiastic participation of over 450 software developers, decision-makers and thought leaders from across India. The day was packed with interesting talks by thought leaders and breakout sessions spread across three tracks catering to the audience's varying tech interests. The Summit also featured an Experience Zone that mobilized Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality to design immersive gaming experiences for the assembled tech practitioners.

The exclusive talks curated for the event featured a keynote speech delivered by Chief Scientist at ThoughtWorks Martin Fowler, who is a co-author of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. His talk delved into the decade long evolution of the Radar and its pertinence to technologists. Especially in the current digital-first market, where technologists are at the center of more business decisions than ever before.

Other opinion leaders who took the stage included, Padmanabhan Balasubramanian, MD at Goldman Sachs who discussed the advancement of financial and technical aspects of platform business for engineers. Sauvik Banerjjee, Technology Leader at Tata Group Digital shared his journey of becoming the CTO and Ranjan Sakalley, CTO at GoPay explored the seven building blocks of reliable systems. Dr.Vivek Raghavan, Chief Project Manager, UIDAI paired with ThoughtWorker Samir Seth on a talk that explored the ways AI can improve the quality of governance.

Commenting on the first edition of India’s Tech Radar Summit, Sudhir Tiwari, Managing Director at ThoughtWorks for India said, “Indian businesses are going through a massive transformation as they embrace the digital-first approach. Technologists are now playing a key role in the way business are shaped and remain competitive in the market. Tech strategists are re-orienting their skill set for a new digital landscape - where emerging tech, agile at scale and product thinking define businesses.”

Shine.com Appoints Madhukar Kumar as Chief Analytics Officer

Shine.com, India’s 2nd largest job portal is set to further strengthen its top leadership ranks after it hired top talent for it’s Analytics division. To this end, the company has announced the appointment of Analytics veteran Madhukar Kumar as its Chief Analytics Officer. This hiring is in line with Shine.com’s current focus on ramping up its senior management team by hiring industry experts across technology, product, servicing and analytics domain. With over 13 years of experience across data sciences, predictive analytics, Artificial intelligence (AI), Machine learning (ML), deep learning and consulting domains, Madhukar plans to build a robust data science team to enhance Shine.com’s candidate and recruiter experience.

Madhukar has made a significant mark on the global business landscape as a Data Science Leader & AI Evangelist. Madhukar has been conferred the "Lifetime distinguished membership" of the Leaders Excellence at Harvard Square group and his “Drone Image Analytics solution” was awarded the Nasscom AI game changer award in 2018. He had also been rated as one of the Top 4 data scientists from India by Swami Associates, a leading Australian advisory firm in 2015.

With the rapid growth of its active candidate database of almost 40%, Shine has grown faster than the industry standards over the past two years. To continue to fuel this growth and further strengthen its product by leveraging its growing database, the company has been on a hiring spree and has been recruiting top industry talent over the past two years.

Commenting on Madhukar’s appointment, Zairus Master, CEO, Shine.com, said, “At Shine.com, we plan to lay greater focus on data analytics to augment our product in 2019-20. Strengthening our AI-led recruiter and candidate experience will be one of our major goals this year. To that end, we aim to build our data science team by bringing on skilled individuals from the industry. This will be the key focus area for our newly appointed CAO, Madhukar Kumar. Banking on his rich industry experience and expertise, we will definitely achieve our goals of enhancing our product and driving superior user experience. Needless to say, we are pleased to have an industry veteran such as Madhukar on our team as we continue to grow and innovate the next level of recruitment products.”

Madhukar said, “I am thrilled to be associated with Shine.com, which has been making waves in the recruitment sector on the back of constant innovation. Today, businesses sit on huge pools of data which, if leveraged in the right manner, can create a competitive advantage for them. With this idea, I will be working on building Shine.com’s data science team to leverage its rich repository of candidate and recruiter data (more than 30 million resumes). I believe that by using this data, we can accelerate the growth of Shine.com further and deliver a more enriching experience to all our stakeholders.”

While building Shine.com’s data science team, Madhukar will focus on AI, Deep learning, machine learning, Text Analytics & Speech Analytics. Currently, Shine.com is betting big on AI and ML, and it can gain massively by hiring candidates that are skilled in these domains. With a greater focus on hiring the right talent, Shine.com continues to close the gap with its competition rapidly.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Conducted An Activity Under ‘ICARE’

In its continuous endeavor to address Environment Protection and creating an Eco-Mindset, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today conducted an activity under ‘ICARE’, an employee voluntary initiative, to support Karnataka State Forest Department by restoring and maintaining the forest area of Bannerghatta National Park, in Bangalore. A group of enthusiastic Toyota employees came together to participate in a host of activities, highlighting the importance of conservation of the biodiversity of the nature for the benefit of the future generation.

The initiative was undertaken with the objective to create awareness about the importance of flora and fauna conservation to mark the Environment Month. Over 200 volunteers participated in the trail clean up drive, to help beautify the area by de-weeding and mulching, and create a cleaner forest trail for the nature enthusiasts. Volunteers also dedicated their time to build 50 bird homes, make 4000 sapling bags, and sow Bamboo plant seeds in an enormous three-acre land inside the forest, especially for elephants.

TKM’s key social values of sustained community development program aims at creating sustainability in every eco-activity they do. The drive actively involved its employees  to enhance the understanding on the increasing environmental challenges and to take necessary steps to counter it.

In addition to making ever better cars, Toyota is committed towards a greener tomorrow and establishing a future society in harmony with nature. Toyota being a leader in the environmental stewardship started its journey towards greening its energy source since 2015-16 and has made substantial step-up over the years. Guided by Toyota’s ‘Global Environmental Challenge’ 2050 in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, till January ‘19 [in FY 2018-19] - Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) successfully sourced 87% of electricity from renewable source of energy for its operations in Bidadi facility. Toyota has been recognized for its sustainable growth with its core belief “Ever-Better Cars with Ever-Better Technology for an Ever-Better Environment”.

Expressing his thoughts, Mr. Prashanth, Deputy Conservator of Forest said ‘’We would like to acknowledge the dedicated efforts by corporates like Toyota Kirloskar Motor who have come forward to spread the message on Environment Conservation. Global Warming is one of the biggest threat to the planet and it calls for unified action by communities to come forward and do their bit in protecting the environment. Such proactive efforts are significant in saving the nature and also ensuring a clean and green future for tomorrow. We would request more individuals, organizations and communities to step forward and implement necessary initiatives to address the alarming concern of Environment Conservation.”

Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Naveen Soni, Vice President - Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “ Impact of Climate change has reached alarming state globally, Extreme heat wave in several parts of the country, water scarcity, floods, melting glaciers have affected millions of lives already and we need to act fast. By 2020, pressure on India’s water, air, soil and forests is expected to become the highest in the world. We at TKM have always been conscious of the fact that we have a responsibility towards global environment.  The eco-consciousness is inbuilt in Toyota’s ecosystem -from our supply chain to our management and employees to the beneficiaries on the ground ensuring a sustainable impact.

It is very important to inculcate a behavior and attitude change towards the conservation of our environment, not only for us, but for the future generation as well.  We feel overwhelmed that all our employees have come together to be Green Ambassadors.

TKM has been able to prove its eco commitment with continuous improvements in Environmental Performance year-on-year. All our CSR programmes are crafted on the basis of innovation and sustainability. Likewise, this campaign echoes Toyota’s vision and values, where we work relentlessly to ensure protection of the environment as one of its top priority. Through activities like these, we empower our employees to be the change creators in the society and help them grow as a responsible citizen.” Added Mr Soni.

TKM’s volunteering program “ICARE” has gone from strength to strength since its launch in November 2017. The volunteers have addressed various societal issues under thematic areas like Education, Environment and Road safety, thereby impacting lives.

So far, TKM CSR is proud to have enriched 14,37,632 lives through their multifold efforts.  Toyota will further continue its various CSR interventions from a long term development perspective of socio-economic stature of the society, touching many more people’s lives to make a difference in each one’s well-being.

Co-Living and Co-Working Segments Set to Increase Footprint in India: JLL-FICCI Report 2019

JLL-FICCI released two reports namely ‘Co-Living - Reshaping Rental Housing in India’ and ‘Co-Working - Reshaping Indian Workplaces’ in Bangaloreon Friday.

“The rising demand for shared renting will propel the market and offer a business opportunity of Rs 1 trillion by 2023 along with the capacity of 5.7 million beds from the previous levels of Rs 458 billion and 3.6 million beds in 2018,” revealed the Co-Living - Reshaping Rental Housing in India.

According to the second report, Co-Working - Reshaping Indian Workplaces, the demand from corporates, start-ups and entrepreneurs has resulted in a huge jump in the co-working space with regards to total office leasing. The share has risen to 12 per cent in the first quarter (January-March) of 2019 from eight per cent level seen in 2018, it added. 6.9 million square feet of cumulative space has been absorbed by co-working segment from 2017 to first quarter of 2019.

Sanjay Dutt, Chairman, FICCI Real Estate Committee & MD & CEO, Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd said, “Today millennials constitute a majority of India’s workforce. They are adaptive but expect a drastic change to occur in the way people work. Agile workplaces and a vibrant ambience helps the new workforce deliver better. While the concept has readily been accepted in the metros, Tier II cities are also opening up to this new concept, including Indore, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Kochi and Jaipur.”

Juggy Marwaha, Executive Managing Director, JLL India said, “Co-working segment has come a long way in the country and is now riding a maturity curve and getting more established. Operators within this mature market now offer multiple formats to occupiers. These range from entire buildings dedicated to co-working spaces to built-to-suit co-working offices within the conventional workplaces. With the benefits of cost reduction and shared amenities, the segment provides a tremendous business potential to all – developers and occupiers.”

Samantak Das, Chief Economist and Head of Research & REIS, JLL India, said, “The shift in perception amongst millennials to ‘sharing’ instead of ‘owning’ has made the co-living concept popular. For all groups - corporate occupiers, start-ups, entrepreneurs and millennials – renting offers flexibility and savings. Co-working offers cost savings of 20-25 per cent compared to traditional office space leasing. Co-living offers attractive returns; 2-4 times higher than traditional residential yield of 2-3 per cent.”

“With these two innovative segments, Indian office and residential real estate is sure to grow bigger and better. However, stakeholders need to address existing challenges such as issues related to data privacy, the conservative approach of property owners and relevant supply observed across co-working and co-living, respectively,” added Das.

Vijay Rajagopalan, Head – Alternatives Business, JLL India said, “ Factors such as affordability, convenience and community-led living will drive the segment’s growth. While supply is still a challenge, the demand has made the market fascinating for organised operators, owners/landlords and private equity investors.”

Indians Individuals and Enterprises Money in Swiss Banks on the Decline During 2019

Money parked by Indian individuals and enterprises in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches, fell by nearly 6% in 2018 to 955 million Swiss francs (about Rs 6,757 crore) to hit its second-lowest level in over two decades, Swiss National Bank data showed on Thursday.

Aggregate funds of all foreign clients of Swiss banks also fell by over 4% to CHF 1.4 trillion (nearly Rs 99 lakh crore) in 2018, as per the annual banking statistics released by the Zurich-based central banking authority of Switzerland.

However, the ‘locational banking statistics’ of the Bank for International Settlement (BIS), which the Indian and Swiss governments had said last year was a more reliable measure for deposits by Indian individuals in Swiss banks, showed a greater fall of 11% for 2018.

According to the SNB, its data for ‘total liabilities’ of Swiss banks towards Indian clients takes into account all kinds of funds of Indian customers at Swiss banks, including deposits from individuals, banks and enterprises. This includes data for branches of Swiss banks in India, as also non-deposit liabilities.

The funds, described by the SNB as ‘liabilities’ of Swiss banks or ‘amounts due to’ their clients, are the official figures reported by the banks and do not indicate the quantum of the much-debated alleged black money held by Indians there.

The official SNB figures also do not include the money that Indians, NRIs or others might have in Swiss banks in the names of entities from different countries. The SNB data had shown the total liabilities of Swiss banks towards Indian clients rising by over 50% in 2017 to CHF 1.01 billion (Rs 7,000 crore), reversing a three-year downward trend.

However, the quantum of such funds has fallen again in 2018 to CHF 954.71 million, which includes about CHF 15 million held through fiduciaries or wealth managers. This is the second-lowest total since CHF 723 million recorded over two decades ago in 1995. The lowest ever amount of CHF 675 million was recorded in 2016. As per the latest figures, the total customer deposits of Indian clients rose to CHF 572 million in 2018, but funds held through banks fell to CHF 104 million, while money parked through securities and other instruments also declined.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor [TKM] Employees Step Up as Green Ambassadors

In its continuous endeavor to address Environment Protection and creating an Eco-Mindset, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today conducted an activity under ‘ICARE’, an employee voluntary initiative, to support Karnataka State Forest Department by restoring and maintaining the forest area of Bannerghatta National Park, in Bangalore. A group of enthusiastic Toyota employees came together to participate in a host of activities, highlighting the importance of conservation of the biodiversity of the nature for the benefit of the future generation. 

The initiative was undertaken with the objective to create awareness about the importance of flora and fauna conservation to mark the Environment Month. Over 200 volunteers participated in the trail clean up drive, to help beautify the area by de-weeding and mulching, and create a cleaner forest trail for the nature enthusiasts. Volunteers also dedicated their time to build 50 bird homes, make 4000 sapling bags, and sow Bamboo plant seeds in an enormous three-acre land inside the forest, especially for elephants.

TKM’s key social values of sustained community development program aims at creating sustainability in every eco-activity they do. The drive actively involved its employees  to enhance the understanding on the increasing environmental challenges and to take necessary steps to counter it.

In addition to making ever better cars, Toyota is committed towards a greener tomorrow and establishing a future society in harmony with nature. Toyota being a leader in the environmental stewardship started its journey towards greening its energy source since 2015-16 and has made substantial step-up over the years. Guided by Toyota’s ‘Global Environmental Challenge’ 2050 in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, till January ‘19 [in FY 2018-19] - Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) successfully sourced 87% of electricity from renewable source of energy for its operations in Bidadi facility. Toyota has been recognized for its sustainable growth with its core belief “Ever-Better Cars with Ever-Better Technology for an Ever-Better Environment”.

Expressing his thoughts, Mr. Prashanth, Deputy Conservator of Forest said ‘’We would like to acknowledge the dedicated efforts by corporates like Toyota Kirloskar Motor who have come forward to spread the message on Environment Conservation. Global Warming is one of the biggest threat to the planet and it calls for unified action by communities to come forward and do their bit in protecting the environment. Such proactive efforts are significant in saving the nature and also ensuring a clean and green future for tomorrow. We would request more individuals, organizations and communities to step forward and implement necessary initiatives to address the alarming concern of Environment Conservation.”

Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Naveen Soni, Vice President - Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “ Impact of Climate change has reached alarming state globally, Extreme heat wave in several parts of the country, water scarcity, floods, melting glaciers have affected millions of lives already and we need to act fast. By 2020, pressure on India’s water, air, soil and forests is expected to become the highest in the world. We at TKM have always been conscious of the fact that we have a responsibility towards global environment.  The eco-consciousness is inbuilt in Toyota’s ecosystem -from our supply chain to our management and employees to the beneficiaries on the ground ensuring a sustainable impact.

It is very important to inculcate a behavior and attitude change towards the conservation of our environment, not only for us, but for the future generation as well.  We feel overwhelmed that all our employees have come together to be Green Ambassadors.

TKM has been able to prove its eco commitment with continuous improvements in Environmental Performance year-on-year. All our CSR programmes are crafted on the basis of innovation and sustainability. Likewise, this campaign echoes Toyota’s vision and values, where we work relentlessly to ensure protection of the environment as one of its top priority. Through activities like these, we empower our employees to be the change creators in the society and help them grow as a responsible citizen.” Added Mr Soni.

TKM’s volunteering program “ICARE” has gone from strength to strength since its launch in November 2017. The volunteers have addressed various societal issues under thematic areas like Education, Environment and Road safety, thereby impacting lives.

So far, TKM CSR is proud to have enriched 14,37,632 lives through their multifold efforts.  Toyota will further continue its various CSR interventions from a long term development perspective of socio-economic stature of the society, touching many more people’s lives to make a difference in each one’s well-being.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor [TKM] Employees Step Up as Green Ambassadors

In its continuous endeavor to address Environment Protection and creating an Eco-Mindset, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today conducted an activity under ‘ICARE’, an employee voluntary initiative, to support Karnataka State Forest Department by restoring and maintaining the forest area of Bannerghatta National Park, in Bangalore. A group of enthusiastic Toyota employees came together to participate in a host of activities, highlighting the importance of conservation of the biodiversity of the nature for the benefit of the future generation. 

The initiative was undertaken with the objective to create awareness about the importance of flora and fauna conservation to mark the Environment Month. Over 200 volunteers participated in the trail clean up drive, to help beautify the area by de-weeding and mulching, and create a cleaner forest trail for the nature enthusiasts. Volunteers also dedicated their time to build 50 bird homes, make 4000 sapling bags, and sow Bamboo plant seeds in an enormous three-acre land inside the forest, especially for elephants.

TKM’s key social values of sustained community development program aims at creating sustainability in every eco-activity they do. The drive actively involved its employees  to enhance the understanding on the increasing environmental challenges and to take necessary steps to counter it.

In addition to making ever better cars, Toyota is committed towards a greener tomorrow and establishing a future society in harmony with nature. Toyota being a leader in the environmental stewardship started its journey towards greening its energy source since 2015-16 and has made substantial step-up over the years. Guided by Toyota’s ‘Global Environmental Challenge’ 2050 in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, till January ‘19 [in FY 2018-19] - Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) successfully sourced 87% of electricity from renewable source of energy for its operations in Bidadi facility. Toyota has been recognized for its sustainable growth with its core belief “Ever-Better Cars with Ever-Better Technology for an Ever-Better Environment”.

Expressing his thoughts, Mr. Prashanth, Deputy Conservator of Forest said ‘’We would like to acknowledge the dedicated efforts by corporates like Toyota Kirloskar Motor who have come forward to spread the message on Environment Conservation. Global Warming is one of the biggest threat to the planet and it calls for unified action by communities to come forward and do their bit in protecting the environment. Such proactive efforts are significant in saving the nature and also ensuring a clean and green future for tomorrow. We would request more individuals, organizations and communities to step forward and implement necessary initiatives to address the alarming concern of Environment Conservation.”

Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Naveen Soni, Vice President - Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “ Impact of Climate change has reached alarming state globally, Extreme heat wave in several parts of the country, water scarcity, floods, melting glaciers have affected millions of lives already and we need to act fast. By 2020, pressure on India’s water, air, soil and forests is expected to become the highest in the world. We at TKM have always been conscious of the fact that we have a responsibility towards global environment.  The eco-consciousness is inbuilt in Toyota’s ecosystem -from our supply chain to our management and employees to the beneficiaries on the ground ensuring a sustainable impact.

It is very important to inculcate a behavior and attitude change towards the conservation of our environment, not only for us, but for the future generation as well.  We feel overwhelmed that all our employees have come together to be Green Ambassadors.

TKM has been able to prove its eco commitment with continuous improvements in Environmental Performance year-on-year. All our CSR programmes are crafted on the basis of innovation and sustainability. Likewise, this campaign echoes Toyota’s vision and values, where we work relentlessly to ensure protection of the environment as one of its top priority. Through activities like these, we empower our employees to be the change creators in the society and help them grow as a responsible citizen.” Added Mr Soni.

TKM’s volunteering program “ICARE” has gone from strength to strength since its launch in November 2017. The volunteers have addressed various societal issues under thematic areas like Education, Environment and Road safety, thereby impacting lives.

So far, TKM CSR is proud to have enriched 14,37,632 lives through their multifold efforts.  Toyota will further continue its various CSR interventions from a long term development perspective of socio-economic stature of the society, touching many more people’s lives to make a difference in each one’s well-being.